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Author Archives: Peter Cook

About Peter Cook

When I was five years old, I wanted to be in The Beatles, but all the jobs were taken … By the age of 12, I wanted to be a scientist and I became one. At the age of 18 I took a job with a philanthropic pharmaceutical company, working around the world and developing the first human insulin, novel medicines for herpes and to bring the first HIV / AIDS treatment to the world in record time. This means that I bring a scientific mind, curiosity and rigour to your enterprise. By the age of 30 I had developed an interest in business leadership and began teaching MBA programmes, having completed 3.5 degrees myself. At 34, I took myself out of a paid job and, for the last 28 years, I have worked independently as a consultant, author and speaker with people at all levels all over the world, helping them to transform their enterprises. My clients seek to balance their passions, purposes and profit for a more responsible and sustainable form of capitalism in the 4th industrial age. I also help leaders digest what we call "wicked problems and opportunities", in other words, the issues that keep them awake at night, using a unique mixture of divergent and convergent thinking skills. My 28 years of consultancy experience bring a wealth of expertise and wisdom to you, in enterprises as diverse as Unilever to the United Nations. Along the way, I have written 12 books on leadership, innovation and creativity, gaining a prize for my work from Sir Richard Branson and various accolades from Professors Charles Handy, Adrian Furnham, Tom Peters et al. Over some 50 years, I have gradually combined my three passions of science, business and music into a potent mixture which reaches the head, heart and soul of your enterprise. In combination, your enterprise benefits from rigour, analytics and curiosity due to my science and business background, plus the emotional intelligence, creativity and improvisation skills that come from my life as a music composer and producer. As a musician I have been privileged to interview world class musicians such as Roberta Flack, John Mayall, AC / DC, members of Prince’s ensembles, Queen's production team and Meatloaf's singing partners for their insights into leadership, innovation and success. I am a passionate advocate for better politics and better business for a better world, fighting populist politicians and short-termism in our global affairs. I am an "HR" person, i.e. a "Hippy Realist": green by ideals, but pragmatic by actions to change the world towards more sustainable behaviour.
Angela Rayner

Why does it always Rayner on me?

Full Disclosure : I’m no fan of Keir Starmer’s Labour Government, but the far right and their media hoods just hounded out the best person to lead the Labour party. I’m sure there is a parallel in Nazi Germany … answers on a postcard please.

Angela Rayner’s departure was voluntary, but I’d be sure that Starmer would have pushed her to save his skin in the end, due to media pressure, and cat calls from Farage’s fascist followers. It is a testament to Starmer’s weakness as a leader, running in FOF (Fear of Farage). Morgan McSweeney’s name (The Dominic Cummings of Labour) also turns up again in the frame.

Meanwhile, Jeremy Hunt ‘forgot’ that he owned 7 homes. Matt Hancock forgot the £37 Bn COVID Ponzi scheme, Boris Johnson ‘forgot’ that he killed 30 000 people unnecessarily, The Truss gambled £70 Bn of OUR money on fantasy economics, Zahawi experienceed £4.8 million in “tax amnesia” whilst heating his horses. NF’s accountancy skills seem rather dodgy … Dido Harding, Michelle Mone, the list goes on ….. These are willful crimes, yet none were held to account.

Angela Rayner’s case is different on two counts (a) Proportionality and (b) Willfulness. I’m sure lots of people would think that £40 000 is a lot, but go compare with the eye watering sums trousered by the Tories. Secondly, unlike the Tories, Angela admitted the mistake and apologised. She was hung out to dry based on her open-ness, misogyny and because she came from a council house ‘oop north’, disguised as a gap between standards expected by leaders and the rest of us. And nobody mentions Rayner’s disabled son, who she set up a trust fund for to care for him after her death. Shameful behaviour by all who have hounded her.

Many of the Reform pack hounds probably contribute to the estimated UK tax gap for 2021-2022 of £36 billion, an increase from £32 billion in 2019-2020. Pure hypocrisy, but that is the operating system of Reform UK 2.0.

Meanwhile Keir pivots further to the far right by appointing Shabama Mahmood as Home Secretary. And Farage says prepare for an election in 2027 as yet another magic spell to fool his followers. Do remember that Governments don’t step down just because things go badly. Theresa May, Liz Tuss, Rishi Sunak were not elected by the public. I assume that Nigel thinks his followers will find him out (or possibly die in some cases) by 2029, hence his call for a 2027 election.

This is a failure of Keir Starmer and his cabal. I have to say that they deserve to get Reform UK. The need for a national conversation about A Better Britain has never been greater. I started this in North Somerset, but it need to be mainstreamed. I think it may now be too late …

Oh, yes, and just apply to Rejoin the EU. £140 bn pa would go a long way to dealing with Britain’s problems.

Economic impact
Social impact
Dead Brexit
Party of Cunts

Paul Higgins (London for Europe) disagrees with me and in the spirit of diversity, I have published his reply below.

Paul Higgins

And just for some bizarre context, a Blue Sky person who identifies as a Marmousette eviscerated me online for quoting a Travis song as the title of this article (without reading it), stating that my title was misogynistic. I asked him / her to explain but the ran off claiming that I was bullying them … oh well.

Angela Rayner

Angela Rayner

I like Angela Rayner. See our latest article on her demise. As some who started life in a council house, who pulled myself up by my bootstraps, with a wife from Manchester, I identify with Angela’s straight talk on many things. I was therefore even more dismayed to hear her spinning myths and lies on LBC this week about Brexit. Angela came up with many of the Brexiteer arguments in this interview. Here are some of her ‘whoppers’.

The will of the people must be respected

Horseshit. We are fast approaching the point where 70% of people in Britain believe that Brexit has failed. Angela appears not understand that democracy is NOT a project. It is a process. She would not even be an MP if democracy were a project as women would not have a vote or be able to participate in society. We would be more like Saudi Arabia under Angela’s view of democracy.

We can’t just rejoin

Bollocks. Whilst it’s true that all takes time, the only thing preventing us from starting the process is a backbone in politics. Read our article on the matter at Byline Times.

I met with four Labour Councillors campaigning in my area on Sunday. All said they fundamentally disagreed with the exec. Are they prepared to do anything about it? Of course not. We need ‘different’ and not more of the same. What matters is the beginning of the journey, not the end point.

We can’t rejoin on the same terms

This was perhaps Angela’s cleverest deception. By not being specific, she allowed people to fill in the dots by themselves … for example “oh we’ll lose the pound, Shengen, pints”, and many other myths put forward by the Brexiteers. These feed the Labour project fear narrative and Angela should really know better.

It is true that Old Albion will need to learn some appropriate humility as part of the joining process, instead of the English exceptionalism which characterised the Brexit vote. However, it is unwise to place more constraints in the way of success than is necessary before negotiations begin. When I reflect on the conversation I observed with Barnier, I know that rejoining is possible. Yes, it will be difficult and everything will be on the table. If Britain decided that it must keep the pound for example, I’m sure it would be considered. Since all is a trade, the EU may come with some other things we may have to move on to keep the pound, perhaps in the finance domain, perhaps an asymmetric trade-off. For example, we have just seen concessions on Northern Ireland traded with changes to the Erasmus scheme. Nonetheless, what we must do is establish the principle of rejoining and political will to do so. Once that is secured, we must then leave the negotiators to do the work, as we did in the Brexit negotiations. See our book on Rejoining the EU.

Dodging the Brexit bullets.

HARD FACTS – click to read more

Only 18% of people believe Brexit is a success

Joining anew is both possible and desirable

The terms come down to skilful negotiation

Remainers must demand better of Labour

Labour run the risk of losing if they ignore Brexit

Find all our stuff.
Brexit Begat Boats and Racism

Multicultural Britain 15 : Racists 1

I travel quite a bit on a bus. Upon boarding on Friday I was confronted by a man about 60 who was on his phone, swearing and shouting loudly at the front of the bus in the doorwell the driver. I sat down a few metres away and quickly noticed another man of similar age with his young grandchildren. The other man continued swearing and cursing foreigners. I spoke softly to him:

“Language Timothy, there are children present”.

He replied “Fucking muslamics and foriengers, fuck off c…nts – stop listening to my phone calls you fucking w…nker”. It was hard not to hear him for all the passengers on the bus as he was making sure everyone knew what he was saying! He moved towards me but then backed off.

There were about 15 people on the bus of all ages and races. I initially ignored his provocation and dropped eye contact, but he continued the abuse so I repeated my request. He raised his voice adding further racial abuse. Then the grandfather spoke to him saying that he had young children who were physically afraid by this time. He continued. A young nurse sitting opposite him behind the driver then asked him to be quiet. He moved towards her spewing more abuse and telling her to shut her mouth.

I decided this was enough and told him to stop abusing women and get off the bus. I was about to take further action when he decided to get off, still shouting foul abuse.

This is what Nigel Farage, Boris Johnson and Brexit has brought to Britain. I had not been quick enough to record his shouting but felt the need to make a public apology on his behalf to all the other passengers on the bus. The response was quite remarkable from people of all colours and ages. It seemed that nobody wanted his racism in the community. I made a recording of this below:

If only he realised that Brexit Begat Boats and so on. but he was too thick to know anything, let alone the Dublin Agreement.

Inspired by this bizarre incident I formulated the Gammon English DNA test !! Provocative, but we must work inside their belief systems to reach them.

This is not an isolated incident where I live in Kent. Last week, I encountered an OAB (Old Age Brexiteer) on my bicycle with a union jack skirt caught shouting “F off Paki” to an Indian Sikh in Chatham. I intervened and later apologised to the Indian gentleman who said that the OAB couldn’t help himself and it was a problem of humanity. I replied that this did not make it agreeable or acceptable. Paradoxically, the OAB voted to make himself poorer via Brexit. Nigel and Boris “forgot” to mention this in the “sales pitch”. Let’s keep this in context. It was ONE old age man out of 67 million who claims to speak for all of us!!!! He does not

Even more disgusting is this example of a Chinese Restaurant in York:

Once again, the true spirit of Britain has come to counterbalance the knuckle dragging racists:

https://twitter.com/Taj_Ali1/status/1961790338047070449

Brexit racists make a lot of noise (literally) but are a very small number. If this were a football match, the score on the bus would have been Multicultural Britain 15 : Racists 1. We must not be swayed by these thugs.

The Farage Riots in 2024 cost £32 million. The 2025 ones probably a lot more. All money that will not be directed towards improving Britain. But the lowlifes who protest don’t understand that. Perhaps the rioters should be made to pay the bill? They certainly should not want to be receiving healthcare from forins ….
We need a better Britain in a better Europe for a better World. Read our article on the subject. If you found this article useful, please support our work.

In a late entry after this was posted, please watch Zoe Gardner providing bucket loads of common sense on the subject of hotels, asylum seekers and disinformation:

And our original immigration algorithm from 2023:

Deep Brexit Water

Mass Debates about Brexit

For many years now, I have offered people an online leaders’ debate about Brexit and the notion of a better Britain as a means of helping them climb down from the Brexit mountain (all part of the Brexorcism process!). Whilst 1:1 personal encounters are largely positive and we even managed to broker a town hall meeting with a Labour MP from our activism, there is always more to do, so I offer the facility of an online debate to anyone who wishes to conduct a reasoned debate on what sort of country we wish to become.

Jools was captivated by the idea after he had started moaning about “illegals” on Rupert Lowe’s LinkedIn page. I asked him to write to me. He did. After a brief encounter below on e-mail, he admitted that he did not know much about politics and Brexit to proceed. This was a great shame, but I congratulated him for his candour and he went away reasonably happy that he had avoided the encounter …

Mass Debate
Mass Debate
Mass Debate

Jools did not call and I considered the matter closed at that point … until, a few weeks later, he started spounting the same disinformation on LinkedIn again. Without realising it was the same person, I corrected him. The atmosphere changed and he started writing endless mails of personal abuse … here are a few … I especially like the fact that Jools entitled all of the mailings with the header SCUM 🙂 Reminded me of the man who called LBC just to shout at the interviewer recently. They are still angry about winning.

Mass Debate

The death threat is funny. And the fact that Jools decided to buy my book just so he can add a bad review on Amazon is even funnier and just a bit sad … Quite literally, Brexit is an act of self harm. Jools is buying my book just so he can place a bad review on Amazon. It’s pure Alan Partridge !!

“Trade Spray” then felt he needed to enter the debate … 🙂 I am compelled to accept the title “big fanny” 🙂 He’s doing his best as they say.

As I have demonstrated many times, online Brexorcisms are largely ineffective. See below for an extract from the book of Brexorcism on the problems of trying to change minds online.

A Brexorcism is a social process, NOT a social media process for the most part. The only things that work on social media are devices such as satire, comedic exaggeration, direct challenge, referral to the person’s networks and public humiliation as I sometimes practice on Linkedin. There is a consequential risk of emboldening the victim as they love nothing more than the ‘salty tears of Remoaners’ so each case must be judged on its merits. Too many people do this sort of thing to ‘win’ which is the wrong outcome.

Some people can only understand complex issues as being binary in nature i.e. left or right. For the record and Jools’ sanity, I’m not a lefty, communist, Starmer lover, homophobe, Putin lover, I don’t live in Dubai etc. 🙂

Jools seemed eventually to be frightened of being exposed. A little strange as he took the first step by contacting me and admitting some foibles and lack of knowledge.

We still need a national conversation about a better Britain.

Don’t be like Jools …

Oh well …. keep working on them. I had a much better encounter on the street yesterday with an elderly woman who is worried about who might move into the street, claims to be a Christian, loves Trump, hates Trans, Woke people, wants freedom and the rule of law but wants judges jailed and international courts shut, and believes that there was a good Brexit out there somewhere but nobody could quite identify what it was ….

RBB Brexit Online Brexorcisms
The poverty of online Brexorcisms.
Mass Debate
Psycho Killer.
ADHD Society

The ADHD Society

If you are busy, browsing or multitasking, I’m afraid this will take you at least ONE minute to read, possibly longer to reflect on …

I’m often told by Rejoiners that people no longer read articles and they want instant gratification. Over the years I’ve made everything from 30 second EU TUBE films, TV and Radio packages, original songs to high potency memes, long and short articles, organised national tours, given keynotes, even properly (and improperly) researched books. Still I’m told that they are not “quite right”. The people telling me these things usually do nothing themselves but are quick to judge others’ efforts. Armchair criticism is easy. Ho hum.

Watch my six minute keynote, given for a Labour MP in North Somerset. I dare anyone to produce something of equivalent value in less time. you may call me “slowhand” like Eric Clapton if you wish …

Meanwhile, the zeitgeist is towards longer, deeper interventions into the minds and souls of our target communities. Emily Maitlis, Alastair Campbell, John Stewart, Stephen Colbert, Michael Lambert, Robespierre, Brian Cox (both of them), Zoe Gardner, Rob Groves, A Different Bias, Rory Stewart, Marina Purkiss, Andrew Marr, Jon Sopel, Lewis Goodall, Gavin Esler et al. understand the notion that “complex problems do not have simple answers”. Thinking takes time, particularly for those who don’t use that muscle often …. Sitting back and watching a man in a hat shout at the wind, or whingeing on social media is not enough.

If we really want to work on Brexit and Rejoining the EU, we must get past the idea of just consuming an “all you can eat social media diet” and work more deeply and completely on issues and people whose minds we seek to change. The book “Reboot Britain” articulates the therapeutic basis and various psychological interventions needed to reach hardened minds. It’s a long read, but worth it and I’ve broken it up with images and summaries for our ADHD society !! 🙂

If you can only stand a minute or two on politics, check out the 40 + radio appearances I have made on LBC and BBC. Or the TV appearances via stuff. Get in touch if you would like some coaching and / or mentoring on dealing with the media and journalists.

And just for instant gratification, feel free to use or adapt our latest graphic which satirises Nigel Farage and Reform UK. I hestitate to give them any oxygen and when I do it is not to express outrage as their followers love the salty tears of remainers. Instead I show them for what they are, using this to confront Rupert Lowe, Nigel and their blind followers on Linkedin etc. More Brexit satire at Gutterpress.

Labour

Labour one year on

In the run up to the 2024 general election, I was told by numerous Labour voters and activists “Look, just vote Labour. It’s going to be alright. As soon as they get elected, they will end Brexit”. Although I did not believe them (and have been proved to be right), I agreed that the Tories needed to go. So I made sure that my election campaign did not harm Labour and then waited. I’m still waiting. In this article, I take a dispassionate view of Labour’s first year in power.

Labour got off to a good start, facing down “The Farage Riots” to great effect. It is to Labour’s actual decisions that I have the greatest issues. Decisions which barely touch the sides of our problems in Rebooting Britain, but which have generated so much heat and given the far right media so many easy wins. For example : The pensioners heating allowance last winter. Worth a measly £1.2 billion (Yes, I’d like to have £1.2 bn but it’s petty cash in the grand scheme of things). This generated so much heat for so little financial gain … in fact if the heat generated by public and media reaction had been stored we could have heated the whole country for several winters!! Worse still, Labour have now backtracked on it, long after the damage to the Labour brand has been done.

Labour claim to have kept their Brexit red lines but in fact broken them in several areas. See Labour’s Red Lines. This has not gone unnoticed by Farage and the Alt Right Wing press. Even though Labour’s strategy on Europe amounts to “death by 1000 Brexit ameliorations” rather than more fundamental fixes, they have gained just as much damage to the Labour brand as if they had applied to Rejoin the EU. Brexit costs us £140 Billion every year in lost opportunity and taxes. This dwarfs the pensioners’ heating costs, PIP, social care etc.

The PIP fiasco was yet another disastrous decision, presumably informed by the triumph of ideology over pragmatism and an adherence to the doctrines of Morgan McSweeney. On this subject, I find it hard to tell the difference between Starmer’s government and the Tories. I could go on about rollback on climate commitments, social care, toadying to Trump due to our Brexit weakness and Labour’s point blank refusal to provide safe routes for migrants, instead preferring to up the ante about undocumented migration, in order to pray at Nigel Farage’s fascist altar.

Yes, we have had 14 years of managed decline via austerity on steroids amplified by Brexit, and most people do not understand how long it takes to turn the economic cycle round, so it’s slightly unfair to expect Labour to be able to waive magic wands on all the issues competing for their attention. However, there was no need for Labour to prey upon our most vulnerable citizens in order to look tough for a few knuckle dragging gammons in the so called red wall. There are plenty of other good choices to be made. There is no way Labour can discuss growth without confronting the Brexit elephant in the room. See our work in Somerset for the Labour MP there. Labour are also shamefully complicit in the genocide in Gaza and for trying to criminalise old age pensioners who use the word Palestine as part of civil protests.

We were asked to give an interview for Dubai TV in Arabic regarding the Kensington Treaty. This is an agreement between Chancellor Merz and Keir Starmer on defence and security, climate, economics, trade and STEM co-operation. Starmer chose to highlight the rather thin issue of some basic co-operation on migration control to appease Farage. Here is the raw interview. We simply need to apply to rejoin EU fully to overcome the problems facing Brexit Britain. Death by 1000 Brexit ameliorations is still death, albeit a slow one.

To support our continuing work in mainstream media, provision of independent journalism via articles for various platforms, the upkeep of website and all running costs, please go to support us.

Free Scotland

Free Scotland

I wrote this song as a campaigning device to raise the issue of Scottish Independence on the agenda. Scotland did not vote for Brexit and therefore has a legitimate right to ask the question about independence again. The song (and film) are currently in draft form.

We need:
A poem spoken across the introduction, with a female voice.

Male and female vocalists to sing the main lyrics.

A larger number of male and female vocalists to sing the refrains.

A bagpipe player.

A film maker to make some better promotional films.

A team of people to share the song when it is released so that we can reach far and wide.

Financial support to ensure that the song and film reach a wide audience.

We also need some people to develop our webpage on Scottish Independence.

If you can help, get in touch via reboot@brexitrage.com

Labour Red Lines

Parking on Red Lines

This is a short story about the power of networking and connectivity. It took place over several weeks and involved at least 8 people from Swindon to Italy, Florida, Tunbridge Wells and Northern Ireland … It shows how “Parking on Red Lines” can sometimes be of value …

I was talking with Steve Rouse, leader of Swindon for Europe and instigator of “Dance Europa”. He explained how he had a difficult conversation with his Labour MP about their Brexit “red lines”. He pointed out that Labour can drop red lines on pretty much everything from Climate Change, but apparently not on Brexit. I popped that thought in my incubator … and shared it on our WhatsApp group.

Fast forward to our meeting at Reboot Britain. I was explaining Steve’s challenge to the team. Then Paul Cawthorne produced one of his famous lists on reasons why Labour’s red lines are seriously flawed … a little later and we get to the point that Labour have already broken its Brexit red lines on Gibraltar. If it can do this, it can apply to Rejoin the EU.

Although I am giving up on collaboration, I remain open to honouring great ideas when they come. I was compelled to make this one page summary (and Paul’s other meme) on red lines.

Labour Red Lines
Send a letter with these graphics to MPs and share with influencers on social media.
Labour Red Lines
Send a letter with these graphics to MPs and share with influencers on social media.

This story demonstrates the power of collaboration, joining the dots and why “Parking on red lines” matters. Thank you to the team for this. It’s a pity we cannot unify around the idea of Rejoining the EU. We still have as many formulations of what the problems are, what the obstacles are and what the end game is. Multiple perspectives on ends and means. These are typical characteristics of what I call “Wicked Problems“. Divergence on ends and means is at the heart of why we lose. The only good Brexit is a dead Brexit and the only good answer is to drop the red lines and apply to Rejoin.

Write to your MP using these points above, the graphic and a copy of our book on Rejoining the EU. Having spent 32 years leveraging creativity, good ideas come from diverse connections and not from linear planning. Parking on red lines matters !!

I’m talking to Reform Watch today to see if we can join some more dots with our book on Brexorcism and our group “Fact Check Fash”. I recently had a letter from the Labour MP in Portishead explaining that they are holding a town hall meeting on Brexit following the lines of our suggestion for a national conversation on the matter in “A Better Britain“.

I’m also planning to stand for Council here in Medway to ensure Reform UK do not take hold in my area. Please support the campaign via Remove Reform UK.

Farage and Beer
Click on Nige’s fag or beer to support us.
A Better Britain

A Better Britain

I have long advocated the need for “Mass Brexorcisms” on an individual level, to heal the divides brought about by Brexit disinformation. I developed the proven methodology in our book Reboot Britain – Changing tired minds on Brexit. Sadly, my advice largely fell on deaf ears. Admittedly a “Brexorcism” requires vast supplies of skill, patience, empathy / UPR and time, lots of it, spread out over time, to be effective. But we must gradually talk people down from “Farage’s fictional mountains” of myths, mythinformation and downright lies. Brexorcism is therefore very effective but also very inefficient, as a way to change the minds of the masses.

Brexorcism
Brexorcism summed up.

So, we must move from individuals to groups and whole communities. Although I have dealt with social groups, operating at scale for whole communities is not within our capacity. However, it IS within reach of political parties seeking to restore trust, truth and confidence in our politics. This will deflate the “dogwhistle” variant favoured by the populists and fantasists.

To this end, I propose a nationwide series of town hall type events and a sustained campaign to restore truth and trust to politics. Better Britain events will combine notable speakers and experts with the crucial element of actually listening to the lived experience of those who would normally not get involved in politics via expertly facilitated small group sessions. In doing so, we will tease out a common vision of what would constitute a Better Britain. I’m under no illusions as to just how important it will be for this to be designed properly. I am available to help political parties do the necessary groundwork from my other side of life as a management / organisation and change consultant.

I favour a coalition of progressive parties, such as the Lib Dems and Greens to engage communities. However, it it is clearly Labour and The Conservatives who have the most skin in the game to deal with people who believe that Reform UK is the only answer to our problems in Britain. We offer the idea to anyone who wishes to put an end to the populist rot that is infesting our nation.

If people wish to support a pilot scale event, to show the political parties what it looks like, I am happy to mount such an event with funding. Please go to Support Us, if you would like to see a better Britain.

Reboot Britain : Rejoin EU
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