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.
Today marks the fourth anniversary of Brexit and we’ve nothing to show for it. The last remaining Brexiteers tell me that ‘it’s too soon to say’ – of course that’s rubbish, four years is plenty of time for some formative evaluation across the STEEPLE factors. They also say that people like me have thwarted Brexit … I never realised I had so much power !!… In case of amnesia, we were sold Brexit in 2016 with a brochure that promised ONLY sunny uplands and NO downsides. Neither have materialised. Meanwhile the dead cats are out in force : Vaping, Conscription, Rwanda, Cheese, Hanging … the list goes on in the Daily Excess, the Daily Maul and The Son. Brexit has failed. The only good Brexit is a dead Brexit. We can and must join EU anew as a priority.
Click to read Gina Miller’s piece in the New European today.
The comments below come from Linkedin in response to a post by The Crocodile Club. They are ‘one of a kind’ as the sum up the sheer desperation of the last remaining Brexiteers. They also bear testimony to the poverty of what I call ‘online Brexorcisms’. By definition these people are the extremists and I’m always more interested in the silent majority. Matthew deserves the chance to read what he wrote again. I pity his employer. He has become trapped by the quasi religion of Brexit.
When you lose the argument, attack the crocodile …
When you cannot answer the question, gaslight away from the question …
When you have REALLY lost the argument, just insult the messenger …
These below are some of the reasons why online Brexorcisms are often ineffective taken from my book Reboot Britain. It is a social process, not a social media process. We are fast approaching the point where a super majority believe that Brexit has failed. Once that happens, politicians have to listen or lose their seats. Labour are complicit in the radio silence on the matter, as are the Lib Dems who have copped out by saying that we’ll rejoin ‘at some time in the future. Simply dodging the question.
I watched Nick Ferrari melt when challenged by Gina Miller with astonishment on Sophy Ridge’s Politics Hub last week 18 January 2024. So should you ….
Click to view the whole programme.
Ridge did a brilliant job of roasting Tory MP Brendan Clarke Smith, the coward to stood down to object to the Rwanda bill and then came back to vote for fear of losing his seat in the House of Commons.
What was even more surprising was how Nick Ferrari melted under the force of arguments employed by Gina Miller. In the first round, Ferrari teased Miller on her powers of prediction (Mystic Miller). Yet she is right and Nick accepted her points. The Rwanda bill will eventually fail on morality, legality or practicality. As the programme went on, Ferrari found himself in the unusual position of agreeing with Miller on nearly every point she made. This was hugely generous of Nick and a measure of a man who knows the difference between right and wrong rather than left or right. Nick listens well, did not adopt the usual technique of Tory politicians by shouting Gina down and made a whole load of very valid points. It was a constructive dialogue between giants and a good example of what Parliament could be like. It was plain to see that Sophy Ridge really enjoyed the combination of the dynamic duo and she did not need to resort to the usual crowd control techniques that are the norm of our toxic politics these days.
Thank you for your candour Mr Ferrari
Imagine how much better politics could be with Gina as your MP?
If you would like Gina Miller to be your MP and build a better system of politics, join the True and Fair party today or drop me a line to reboot@brexitrage.com. If you don’t have time to watch the full programme (you should) check a few snippets out below:
Don Adamson is a seasoned anti-Brexit activist with a unique style that takes no prisoners. Read his work carefully – it has many facts sometimes hidden beneath his rants. As a senior citizen I feel no urge to edit him or apologise for the acidic manner of his posts that come straight from the heart of Barnsley.
This week’s homework
One – People all over the country are angry about the way that the Post Office treated its employees in the matter of the Horizon/Fujitsu computer system. What is interesting is that trashy Murdoch and Rothermere newspapers are blaming Ed Davey (Liberal Democrats) and Keith Starmer (Labour Party) for everything. It may well be that Davey and Starmer have some questions to answer. Is there a reason why Trashy Murdoch and Rothermere newspapers have completely failed to ask the questions that Tory Cabinet Ministers need to answer: for instance – Richy Scumbag’s wife is a big shareholder in Fujitsu? It must be obvious to the meanest intelligence that Fujitsu’ behaviour is unpardonable.
Two – The Foreign and Commonwealth Office has reported that diplomats posted overseas do not return to this country because Britain is in such a post Brexit mess. Diplomats posted overseas get jobs locally and settle down. Is this something we should encourage because of big reductions in the FCO travel budget; FCO only needs to buy one way fares?
Three – In the late 1960s Harold Wilson had a lot to say about the ’13 years of Tory misrule’ that preceded his government. After a while this was counterproductive because it was too easy an excuse. Is it fair to say that Tory Cabinet Ministers in period 1951 to 1964 were infinitely superior in every way to the Cabinet Ministers we have had since 2010?
Four – John Kenneth Galbraith was quoted as saying that economic forecasts existed to make astrology look reliable. Has this statement ever been truer than in the case of economic forecasts to the effect that Brexit can be made to work?
This week’s quotes
Thick Lizzie being allowed an honours list was a joke
… peerages to Tory donors no laughing matter … Tories cannot even get the simple stuff right, Scumbag could never resist an opportunity to be too clever by half …not appointments that will encourage greater trust in British political system … shameless abuse that lays bare the ridiculousness of how UK appoints peers … obvious that Tories will shameless abuse the system for as long as they can … cringe worthy … having honours with ‘Empire’ in the title in 2024 … problem with the honours system heightened by the low calibre of people in office …
Liz Truss – Songs of the Siren.
Four failed PMs in four years
… ‘alternative facts’ … lies go unchallenged … Tories have forgotten which party has been in office since 2010 … untrue statements unchallenged, there is no hope …
Daily Mail leader column
… looking back on 13 years in power it is difficult to pinpoint any Tory achievements … people are deeply dissatisfied with this government…
Click to read Private Eyelines.
War in the Ukraine poses an increasingly awkward dilemma for Richy Scumbag
… father in law prizes relationship with Indian PM Narendra Modi … Modi professes to be neutral on Ukraine … is chummy with Putain … British spooks nervous about UK cooperation with India not least intelligence and intellectual property … could well end up in Russian hands …
Israeli Supreme Court has the power to strike down changes
… where the Knesset has clearly overstepped the mark…. Stern rebuke to Netanyahu…. amid widespread protest … coalition government had succeeded in forcing through only its abolition of the reasonableness standard. Now the court has put an end to that initiative too…
Rachel Reeves, shadow chancellor, is heir to a long history of ambivalence towards Europe
… was asked ‘when would Britain Rejoin EU … ‘No! No! No! You don’t get it. … The constitutional question is closed … Many Labour voters would cheer reintegration with EU. 78% of them think Brexit was a mistake. Brexit is a drag on growth … Ms Reeves represents the dominant strain of thinking in Labour Party: not Europhilia but Europhobia … In Ms Reeve’s telling Leave voters had a point … Labour is Euro-agnostic on economics … long history of Labour Europhobia … Can a party that has promised the fastest growth in the G7 afford to be ambivalent about Britain’s largest trading partner? … Europhobia breeds naivety about European Leader’s appetite for a new deal with Britain. It would require of Labour hard diplomatic graft, a willingness to spend political capital and a vision that is currently lacking … A first Labour government is likely to yield a few worthwhile improvements in the relationship with the EU. … The day may come when Labour sees no alternative … to serious integration … price to be paid, reluctantly … for a higher standard of living…
Tories are addicted to lies
… On 1 January thousands of people woke up to finding an email attempting to con them out of their cash … recipients, drawn from a list of supposed Tory supporters … to send£10 to help fund the Tory Party …. Reasoning would embarrass the most thick skinned confidence tricksters…. Brexit done, Corbyn defeated, 20,000 extra police officers taxes down, inflation down, investment up, economy up … Outrageous falsehoods … Brexit is about as done as an oven ready turkey with a cook who forgot to turn on the oven. Ardent Gammons are in revolt over perceived failure … injuries, injustices confusion that continue to escalate … in 2019 inflation was 1.3% … now 3.9% … extraordinarily damage Thick Lizzie premiership inflation rocketed to 11.1 % … hundreds of thousands of people have seen their mortgages soar… higher borrowing costs by 2026 … Disease that is endemic in Tory Party, lying …. PM recent claims on asylum breached the line so egregiously that Office for Statistics felt obliged to investigate … Richy Scumbag has endeavoured to distance himself from Johnson, whose relationship with the truth was never in doubt: Johnson does not believe in truth…. clear that Scumbag is intent on misleading the country…
Scumbag’s government lacks democratic legitimacy
Majority was won on Johnson’s manifesto whose credibility evaporated…. Thick Lizzie’s disastrous 49 days in office … flat lining economy … meaningless pledges, manic rants, rancid attacks on ‘wokeness’ …global economy adrift … worsening geopolitical crisis … we have a powerless government … £17B black hole in defence equipment budget, … no long term investment for business … Brexit means that all Britain’s chokes are hard. Investment flat lining, growth stagnant … there is a malaise, a despondency, routine cynicism, nastiness. … Only once Labour wins will we know how bad things are … We deserve better than the games Richy Scumbag is playing…
Demonic Shortcummings
… income exceeded £140,000 in glory days with Johnson … fallen dramatically … his consultancy firm racked up £84,287 since he founded it two years ago … Shortcummings owes the firm £79,431 … Lee Cain, Shortcummings former partner … has £689,086 …
Cummings and Goings
Lib Dem panic after ITV drama ‘Mr Bates versus the Post Office’
… brought Ed Davey’s inertia over the scandal into focus … a poll on X social media site asked if Davey should lead the Lib Dems into the election … 84.% of people who voted said no ….
Madness of Brexit
… crooks, charlatans brought the madness into being by lying convincingly enough to… persuade people to vote against their own interests … never ending expanding downsides of Brexit … press, especially the right wing majority … has been a significant contributor to the mess the country is in … dumbed down political debate … normalisation of lying and corruption in public life …nationalism masquerading as patriotism … newspapers that exist to help the powerful to maintain and develop their wealth … rather than speak the truth … Johnson style lying …, Thick Lizzie style vandalism … Mone style profiteering … Brexit cheerleaders continue to erode their credibility by endless telling readers that it is not going so badly as the facts indicate … They know it but they just cannot bring themselves to say it … that would be to tell the truth and they have lost that habit … Richy Scumbag is closer to Johnson than to Cameron …
Labour must keep green pledges
… unlikely as it may seem there is one person in this country who seems to believe that Richy Scumbag is popular … unfortunately that man is leader of the opposition … Starmer is determined to import the worst traits of Richy Scumbagism … idiocy and self harm on a scale that could easily undermine Labour’s commanding position.
Pip Pip Don Adamson Medway Delta (Retired) Brexorcist and Saboteur First Class
A landmark judgement was made recently that allows British Citizens in Europe (EU Britizens) a vote in elections. Some 3.8 million people are affected by this decision which could have easily swung the Brexit referendum away from the tragedy of Brexit. Grateful thanks to Julien Fouchet, Grazia Valentino-Boschi and Alice Boulliez who have pursued this case relentlessly over an extended period. This from Gina Miller explains what you need to do about the opportunity.
The 2024 general election represents a real opportunity to create a movement that gives people a positive political choice including all Brits abroad.
If you are living abroad, irrespective of length of time, you are now able to register to vote in the 2024 General Election. It is more important than ever that you use this opportunity to vote, make your voice heard and ensure your interests, values and beliefs are represented.
If you’ve got all the information needed to hand, you can register in under 10 minutes! Read on:
Eligibility
In order to be eligible to register as an overseas voter for the general election you will need to:
Be a British, Irish or qualifying Commonwealth citizen.
Have been previously registered to vote in the UK and/or previously resident in the UK.
More information about eligibility can be found here.
What you need to register
To register you will need:
Proof of ID: you will need your date of birth and your National Insurance number, you may also need to give details of a current or expired British passport. If you have lost your NI number, you can search for it here.
The last UK address where you were registered to vote, or the last UK address at which you resided (if you were not registered to vote in the UK before you left). STOP PRESS : Grazia tells me that there is no need for proof of address from those who’ve already registered so it’s even easier!!
You may need to provide additional evidence to support your application if your identity/address cannot be verified. Your registration will last for 3 years before needing to be renewed.
How to register
You can register online on the GOV.UK website. If you have all the information to hand this should take under 10 minutes. You can also apply by post.
Art imitates nature in all its beauty and ugliness. Gordon Coldwell’s fine work shows us the grim realities of Brexit. Find Gordon’s work at Gordon Coldwell. Here’s just a small sample of his work which includes a satirical book. The only benefit of Brexit is the level of satire that it has produced. See also Gutterpress, aimed at our populist media.
An uncool £74 billion blown in just 49 days of Brexonomics.
Gordon’s piece on The Truss perfectly encapsulates her own view of herself versus the chaos that surrounds her. The epitome of naked populism with zero substance.
Talking Heads.
Gordon says of himself and his satirical book:
When I was 16, in 1970, my secondary school art teacher took me to see an exhibition of work by the German anti-war artist, John Heartfield, at Newcastle University’s Hatton Gallery, in the NE of England. The exhibition left a lifelong impact on my thinking about the importance of art as a means of communicating concerns about political developments that have the potential to lead to conflict and social unrest.
Approximately 50 years on from seeing that exhibition, it is still fresh in my memory – Heartfield’s works appeared as profound, apocalyptic and poster-like compositions.
During my career, I spent 30 years working in colleges: 20 years as a Lecturer and Head of Art, Design & Media and 10 years as a Marketing Manager. I left the education sector to start my own Branding & Marketing business – after 10 years, I closed the company due to being diagnosed with Parkinson’s Disease.
Since turning 60, I have been making artworks every day. My preoccupation is always concerned with the message/meaning of each image and the ongoing development of my own pictorial language.
Since 2016, the political landscape in the USA (re Trump), UK (re BREXIT) and elsewhere, seems to me to have undergone a significant shift to the right. Populist politicians strategically presenting contrived, accusative, provocative and distorted bite-sized phrases that are essentially emotive and manipulating. These messages are the essence of today’s ‘climate of political ideas’ and pander to a Nationalist appeal.
My response has and continues to be one of making artworks, often remaking and re-populating ‘Old Master’ compositions to present oblique and, at times, humorous or ambiguous comment on, for example, President Trump’s extremely odd, self-caricatured appearance and behaviour. His use of language, his spitefulness (…etc) all point to the potential for extreme outcomes… AND… the politicians responsible for the disharmony and fracture that is self-evident in the UK because of the whole BREXIT process, which could ultimately have a seriously damaging impact on the UK’s economy and social cohesion.
The parable of populism …
Naked populism
Find all Gordon’s work at www.coldwellandcoldwell.co.uk
Don Adamson reports from the Brexit Bunker in Barnsley.
This week’s homework
One – There is a nasty war happening in Western Congo that involves Rwanda. Is this what the Tories mean when they say that Rwanda is a safe place?
Two – There has been a strike in Hollywood caused by Artificial Intelligence being used to write scripts and to replace actors. In the Novel ‘1984’ George Orwell predicted a future where pornography would be written by robots. Did Orwell write ‘1984’ as a dire warning or as a training manual for dubious politicians and robber baron capitalists?
Three – In Britain we get a tiny fraction of the refugees and asylum seekers that go to other countries. Why do we get so hot and bothered by such a non problem?
Brexit Migration Algorithm
Four – Discuss the following statement – Ordure is a biological necessity. Gammons are an expensive disaster.
Five – This New Year is different. We have two honours’ list instead of just one. In addition to the standard list we have Thick Lizzie’s resignation honours. I have heard of rewarding failure but that is ridiculous. Neither list refers to the knighthood that Nigel Garbage craves nor his bootlickers demand. There is a persistent rumour that there is some deep dark secret in Nigel Garbage’s past that renders him unfit for an honour. That is incredible. These Tories have scattered medals and other decorations on the most utterly deplorable people. What on each did Nigel Garbage do that disqualifies him from receiving some kind of decoration from these Tories – cannibalism? Human sacrifice?
Six – Discuss the following statement. It is a pretty state of affairs when our best hope is to vote Labour in the expectation that Keith Starmer is telling lies about Rejoin.
Seven – Is there any truth in the rumour that Kim Il Sung of North Korea refused the peerage that Johnson offered him? They say that even Kim has some standard.
Eight – Netanyahu is furious because the Israeli Supreme Court is making efforts to obstruct illegality by Netanyahu’s thugs. Do you think there will ever be lawyers in Britain with the brains, courage and decency to obstruct illegality by Richy Scumbag and his criminals?
Nine – Rupert Murdoch assures us that Brexit is a supercalifragilisticexpialidocious success. Everybody in this country is rejoicing in the sunlit uplands that we all expected. Why then do the heroes of Brexit, notably Nigel Garbage, go everywhere accompanied by Thuggish minders when it simply cannot be possible that the heroes of Brexit have anything to fear?
… that BBC would get an independent chair … Samir Shah looks unlikely to impress … what a creep Samir was … he was a goon …
Dirty Media
… riddled with foreign ownership … Telegraph and Spectator back in hands of Barclay family … debt to Lloyds bank paid by US investment fund … bank is happy … nobody else … financed by Abu Dhabi … given assurances there will be no interference … government and press unconvinced … journalists in open revolt … nice to have a British owner … Brits with huge amounts to squander on dying industry thin on the ground … Press ownership in serious need of scrutiny … never happen under Tories … unlikely under Labour … remember all those assurances when Murdoch bought Times? … Telegraph has form on suppressing news … UAE involvement will pollute media … threaten society and freedom of expression … News Group … hacking and illegal information gathering … aim was to interfere with business of government … spying on ministers for commercial gain … knowingly repeating lies … unacceptable … yet stock in trade in Murdoch companies …
Government’s migration plans … cruel mess that will harm British business…
Nigel Garbage
… unflushable turd of British politics … no talents except self publicity and exacerbating ethnic tensions …
Farage’s Garage on the M20.
PPE Scandal
… Michael Gove did insist that all procurement decisions went through a ‘painstaking process by teams of civil servants’ … that is not how the Commons public accounts committee saw it … ‘perhaps the most shameful episode in government response to pandemic … splurged huge amounts of money … obscenely inflated prices … chaotic .. Chucked out even the most cursory due diligence’…
Westminster’s second favourite blonde truth dodger
… Nadine Dorries has been plugging her memoir ‘The Plot’ … critics have dubbed it ‘Lost the Plot’ … tawdry world of Westminster power broking … factual errors … errors of interpretation … omissions that undermine the credibility of the main thesis … eye poppingly extraordinary book … fails to ring true … by repeatedly adding two and two and getting 666 Dorries reinforces every paranoid fantasy … surreal document … tired regime fading away like the gas released by a dead body …
Nigel Garbage not proving a winner for his Fortune and Freedom financial newsletter
… Southbank part of the Agora Group … targeted by US regulators … prey on consumers … misleading deceptive claims … fake miracle cures … get rich quick schemes … Garbage backed Bitcoin as an investment … it was then $18,000 … later hit a record $64,000 then nosedived … they are coming for your money … certainly true of Nigel Garbage’s friends at Southbank Investment …
Tory Party has changed Britain
… the absence of chaos seems like competence … the unthinkable seems acceptable … A PM should not be a relief because he did not blow up the financial markets in a month… not normal for a British government to suspend human rights legislation, ignore international law … Britain needs stability … neither Tories nor Richy Scumbag can deliver it … Rwanda policy is impractical and unprincipled … Britain has paid Rwanda £240M without sending a single migrant to Rwanda … scheme is unusually mean … unsafe, shameful … a sensible PM in a sensible party would long ago have retreated on Rwanda … Scumbag has a technocratic manner that disguises two truths … he has a weakness for silly ideas, true believer in Brexit, was a supporter of Johnson … fond of gimmicks … second truth is that he is not very good at politics … set himself up as an agent of change but brought back David Cameron … pointless row with the Greeks over the Elgin Marbles … sacked a Home Secretary he should never have appointed … Rwanda started out as a whim … Scumbag turned it into a totem … opposition to the European Court of Human Rights has become a test of purity … even though Russia was the last to leave … Scumbag is using a deeply flawed bill to force through a bad policy … giving the Labour Party an easier ride than it deserves … humiliation for Scumbag … different set of Tory values … authoritarian … disdain for checks and balances … Whimsy became policy … concern from officials overruled … evidence of deterrent effect uncertain … factionalism, self absorbed back benchers and enormous payments to foreign governments …. Careerists sense opportunity in rallying to the right … hope of getting flights airborne forlorn … magical thinking … not grounded in reality … reads like a line from a fairy tale … means nothing good…
If Labour wins the next election it will inherit a mess
… easy for Keith Starmer to forge close links with Brussels … 8 out 10 Labour voters want to Rejoin … Britain has been chaotic for ten years… yet to have an agenda … Labour putting a lot of effort into looking ready for government … increasing doubts … is it real substance or just spin … many in the party feel Labour has no real idea of what it will actually do … Starmer needs a battle plan … best response to Starmer’s ‘clever stance’ on Brexit … we are asked to vote for somebody saying the opposite of what we believe based on the assumption that this person is lying … horrific state for politics to be in …
… accused the government of legislation so divorced from reality that it might as well claim dogs are cats … belief that saying something instantly makes it a fact is a dangerous tendency … seems to be a common affliction in politicians … looks like an attempt to hoodwink the public … this government’s appalling record of telling whoppers…. would reduce the Advertising Standards Authority to apoplexy … ministers hope the public will not notice … we are told the Rwanda scheme is worth the escalating millions of pounds … Scumbag has cast a shadow over his integrity … Brexit has seen the politicians peddling the greatest fairy stories … all a mirage … fairytale ..
Rwanda Scheme
… remains Richy Scumbag’s obsession … dreadful strategy … by any means necessary … ludicrous … disgrace … Tories know full well … it is performative cruelty and a flagrant betrayal of the Tory Party’s ancestral commitment to the rule of law … Scumbag’s appeared at Atreju Festival in Rome – Glastonbury of the international hard right … For a Tory once described as a centre ground technocrat … Scumbag has cultivated a taste for the hard right … Britain is in terrible shape … yet nothing seems more important than ‘stopping the boats’ … the true Brexit dividend : an exhausted, morally bankrupt government that is … fight for survival with a populist gimmick that is ethically repugnant, pointlessly costly and almost certain to fail in the courts … restorative nostalgia for monoculture Britain that never truly existed …
Don Adamson Pip Pip Medway Delta (Retired) Brexorcist and Saboteur First Class
Niall Ó Conghaile reviews the bizarre outcomes of the post-Brexit metric review. Talking Pints was originally published by East Anglia Bylines. Historically Britain has led the way in setting international standards. So will the pint bottle of champagne return in a post Brexit world?
Following Brexit there was a lot of excitement in the UK about the possible return of the pint bottle of champagne. Apparently, this size of bottle was much beloved of Winston Churchill, and so for reasons to do with winning the War (?) it was important that the pint bottle return.
The claim had become widespread before Brexit that the pint bottle had been banned by metrification and the diabolical Brussels bureaucrats. Of course, it was all nonsense. Pint bottles of cider, for example, are widely available under European law.
So why can’t you get pint bottles of champagne?
It’s because of regulation and standardisation. Just not in the way that you might think.
The 750 ml bottle is now almost the global standard. However, in the past in France (and indeed Europe) non-standard bottle sizes were common.
Over time the variations reduced to the few that remain today in your local Auchan, Lidl or Kaufland. But why are Britons forced to drink the continental 750 ml and not a true British pint of champers?
Actually, the 750 ml is British, or at least “for Britain”. Dealing with all those irregular wine bottle sizes, and an irregular number of bottles to the case, was an irritant to the wine merchants and wholesalers of London in centuries gone by.
750 ml was the standard set in France to facilitate exports to … Britain.
Why? The six bottles amounted to… one imperial gallon.
Why would a château in Bordeaux care?
The UK for much of the 19th century was the richest country in the world and had the richest middle class with the most disposable income. The UK was the largest importer of wine – other big consuming countries drank their own.
Moreover, the wholesalers in London were also often suppliers to British colonies and much of the rest of the world – in both the actual Empire, and the informal Empire. In places like Argentina, Britain was often the centre of the world. Hence the standards set in London became international standards.
Incidentally this British influence can also be seen in other ways in the world of wine, including the taste and types of fortified wines exported.
Standardisation meant that the pint bottle, for most wines, was effectively the Betamax of vessels: something to be nostalgic about, sure; but too costly to continue producing separately.
So who is the dominant force now?
The UK remains an important market for wine, of course. But it is very far from dominant.
Nowadays wine producers and the “Place de Bordeaux” market tend to have prices (especially at the top end) set by the United States and increasingly East Asian markets. This is even starting to change how the wine is produced and how it tastes.
The old wine markets of Europe, like London, that used to set the prices, have gone by the wayside. Now they just remain tram-stop names, and squares in old towns.
Post Brexit Britain is somewhat in the same position
Policymakers in the UK have to adjust to the reality of no longer setting international standards. The UK no longer offers markets of bulk. Nor does it have recognised high standards that others are keen to adopt.
Such realisation is painful, for sure. But isn’t it healthier than trying to keep up with the European and America behemoths. After all, Australia and Switzerland don’t try to have their own “world-leading standards”.
Yet many Brexiteers, and some in the Labour Party, seem to have difficulty in adjusting to the UK’s new place in the world.
Why are they finding their new role vis-à-vis standard-setting and regulation so hard to understand?
Once you accept that it’s inevitable that you will accept European standards, then the point becomes, why not get the full benefit of common standards by being inside a single market?
We leave you with a punk rock song about the difficulty of ordering two pints of lager and a packet of crisps – based on Max Spodge’s difficulty in being heard at the Tramshed in Woolwich – it was impossible to procure said 568 ml of light ale in the 1980’s … Splodgenessabounds were an oi band which the editor played with in days of yore … I doubt Max had foreseen the problems of Brexit, but just as a soft landing for this article …
Rishi Sunak’s plans to stop the boats are illegal, immoral, indecent and impractical. Sunak recently lied about the reductions of migrants coming to Britain in 2023. He presumably feels he has to do that in order to pray at the altar of Brexit for his right wing factions in the Tory / UKIP / Brexit party and especially the voices of Suella Braverman, Kemi Badenoch, Nigel Farage, Richard Tice, Lee Anderson, Steve Baker, Esther McVey, Jacob Rees-Mogg, Priti Patel et al., who have poisoned the Tory party with 1930 Nazi Germany styled strategies of racism and xenophobia.
Sleepwalking into fascism
This film contains challenging images about Brexit Britain’s slide into a fascist state. We make no apology about this. Art and satire must reflect reality. The professional images in this video are by James Rowland, with the ‘garage / steampunk’ style graphics made by me on PowerPoint. How many more must die before decency is restored to our politics?
The 1950’s Sci Fi film ‘Village of the Damned’ provided a form of sad inspiration for this piece, in so far as the idea that the Tory party now sees itself as a master race who must survive at all costs. History repeats itself too often if we let it …. don’t.
Yesterday, James Cleverly lied through his teeth about immigration numbers. In June 2023 Sunak promised to abolish the backlog. Yesterday Cleverly said that there was a ‘process’ for clearing the backlog, and some new language was introduced i.e. ‘legacy claims’. Basically he was talking bollocks. Nigel Farage then complained that the review had found more than 50 000 asylum seekers were legally entitled to be here. Clearly this is the system working rather than Farage’s pound shop fascist view of things. Cleverly ‘forgot’ to mention that the Home Office had ‘lost’ 17 000 asylum seekers from the system. Careless you might say? Additionally, he forgot to mention that 100 000 asylum seekers have joined the queue in the interim. All in all, a total pack of lies. Here is a good analysis of Cleverly’s lying. Check Georgina’s Channel 4 fact check article in full.
Click the excerpt to read the whole report from Channel 4.
Some selected tweets amplify the BS of James “Shithole” Cleverly.
Despite what James Cleverly said this morning, the government has *not* cleared the legacy asylum backlog.
Channel 4 News, "The asylum backlog has been rebranded. New cases after June 2022 are now called the flow backlog. Add them and 98,599 claims remain unopened"
From 100 000 to 99 000 – that equals ZERO in Cleverly speak.
We've now got the actual Home Secretary arguing at length with a journalist, in public, about whether he said shit or shit-hole about someone in the House of Commons, so 2024 has started much as you'd expect under this circus of absolute cretins. https://t.co/REzhz9K3UA
One of the few remaining arguments of the last Brexiters on planet earth is that it’s too soon to review the benefits of Brexit in 2023. It isn’t. We have had nearly eight years of intention / formulation of Brexit strategy and nearly four years of Brexecution / implementation. Formative evaluation is therefore both possible and necessary. Let’s not forget that we were told that there would be no downsides to Brexit and we would have instant wins from our independence, in terms of ‘taking back control’ of our money, borders and laws. So, how is it all going? What does it mean to the man and woman on the street? Take a look back to my Linkedin article of July 2023 for a bit of nostalgia – Hard Facts about Hard Brexit. It gets worse every month. Header image by the genius Cold War Steve.
Money
On a simple basis, Brexit did not solve our abilities to take back control of our money. Brexit inflicted the Government’s own predictions – a 4.5% resilience shock to GDP or £100 BILLION per year. This is the equivalent to trying to swim the English Channel with a 4.5 kg block of concrete round your neck. Liz Truss’ experiment in Brexonomics added a whopping £74 BILLION in just 49 days, ruining young people’s dreams of home ownership for a generation. Read the Bloomberg report on decline in foreign investment in Brexit Britain. Whilst it is clear that nobody wants to talk about Brexit in 2023 due to radio silence by politicians on all sides, the ‘offspring’ of Brexit are all around us with the cost of living, food inflation and so on. All is depicted by our Brexit iceberg below. Government gaslighting continues with ‘pints of wine’ and other bollocks. Nobody of any intelligence is fooled by this shit. Are you?
The Brexit Iceberg – what’s visible and what’s hidden.
At a more parochial level and as an example of ‘taking back control of our money’, British energy prices in 2023 are 53% more than in France. Yet Gina Miller demonstrated that we have always had our sovereignty without needing to leave the EU. French energy companies are owned by the state and still make a profit at half the prices of British energy companies. When Boris Johnson said ‘take back control’ he forgot to mention WHO would be taking back that control. Clearly it was NOT the taxpayer or the great unwashed.
Longer term, we have only just begun to see the unfolding of a return to slavery in terms of minimum wages and an unwinding of employment standards in Brexit Britain. The drive towards the return to a feudal system continues with no opposition in sight. Read Red Brexit, Blue Brexit for insights into Labour’s failed Brexit strategy. Take a look at this You Tube video below, made earlier this year for insights into Brexonomics and numbers in general.
Clearly Brexit worked from the viewpoint that it discouraged Europeans from wanting to come to Britain. We could have achieved this quite simply by having a Government sponsored campaign of racial hatred in Britain, without needing to break the economy and destroy our reputation in the world as a standard bearer. Oh, wait a minute, we did that! You will notice from the graph below that migration figures from Europe are now in negative numbers. Yet migration from Africa, India and the Far East has increased dramatically.
As well as that, Brexit did not magic away our responsibilities to take in migrants from Hong Kong, Ukraine, Afghanistan and so on. Brexit has worked in exactly the opposite way to that predicted by the Brexiters. This is the perverse law of unintended consequences that arises from shoddy strategy. In short, fail to plan, plan to fail.
For clarity, Non-EU means people OUTSIDE the EU.
Inside the non-EU figures in the graph are people who came from Ukraine, the Hong Kong refugees and other effects, so the figure is temporarily high. Nonetheless, Brexit did not solve migration, nor will it. Britain also relies on foreign students as a source of income, many of who then return to their own countries, so it is all too simple to say that we must ban students. Our Government needs to maintain the illusion of ‘the enemy outside’ in order to win the votes of xenophobic Brits, racists and general shits in elections. Watch our You Tube video on how to address immigration.
Show this to anyone who voted for Brexit to reduce legal migration to the UK.
The red section is Freedom of Movement when the UK was inside the EU.
The yellow section, shows net migration to the UK since we left the EU, where have full control of our borders, where Boris… pic.twitter.com/bk3UI3vIEN
Before Brexit, small boats were not a thing really. The weaponisation of small boats was an invention by a Tory government desperate to distract people from thinking about the real issues facing an island nation with an increasing elderly population with food, skills and other resource insecurities. It is the triumph of marketing via right wing media to feed feeble minds and fill their minds with fury. Nearly every headline in the Mail and the Express has the word FURY in it. This is exactly why I wrote Private Eyelines to highlight how we are being taken for furious fools. In a parallel universe, in 2014 nobody gave a stuff about Europe or the EU. Again, EU fury was steadily manufactured to win a referendum based on lies.
Were you sold a pup when you were told that Brexit would allow us to take back control of our borders?
Laws
In the 14th century it may have been feasible to operate your own laws in your town, fiefdom, region or country as, generally speaking, world trade and travel were not a thing. In 2023, we live in a globally connected world and it becomes increasingly difficult to become a rogue state, unless you are Belarus or North Korea. if we wish to exploit people’s lives and livelihoods we are set on a course to become international pariahs rather than guardians of law and order. People still moan at me about the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) as if it is part of the EU. It is not.
When people talk to me about taking back control of our laws, they often fail to mention which ones are troubling them. We don’t have to drive on the left hand side of the road as part of the EU, nor drink litres of beer. We are still free to conduct barbaric acts such as fox hunting as the Spanish have their bull fighting. We have pounds and the Queen on our money. Just what laws do the Brexiters mean when they claim that they want them back? The law exists to protect people from exploitation. We now see the bizarre spectacle of our Government arguing with the rule of law in order to exploit people or behave unethically.
This is not the high water mark of British justice and not my Brexit. Is it yours?
The boiling frog problem
I’m sure you know the story of the boiling frog. People tell me that “Brexit was done”. “It happened”. Sorry, Brexit was not an event, a newspaper headline or a project with an end point. It was a process. Michael Vail, a ‘farmer’ living in Brisbane, typifies the view that Brexit was an event on his Linkedin ravings. Sure there can be some winners and losers in all changes, such as in the field of disaster capitalism (Michael is a disaster capitalist cum estate agent) but, of course, Brexit was supposed to offer benefits for all not just for people who can play the financial system in the wake of a boom or bust.
Brexit hasn’t delivered the promised benefits except in the case of people who have exploited other people’s misery. I am not in a stage of grief. When someone points to the many benefits of Brexit, I will join the cause. It’s just that Michael and his few remaining Brexiters have nothing to show me socially, economically, politically, environmentally and so on for the positive impacts of Brexit nor any problems that Brexit solves. Read Brexit Freedoms.
Michael resorts to yin and yang rather than a lie on a bus to explain Brexit. I guess it’s a new take on “Que sera sera” which my Brexity sister favours. He also lies about the Cuty (city) who are quietly moving people out of London. It’s easy to say all this when you live in Australia.
In case you are still under any illusions that “Brexit is done”, please see this very long list of Brexit impacts still to come in 2024 – 2027 and beyond. from Edwin Hayward.
Here are just a few of the joys Brexit has in store for us in 2024 and beyond.
(Long tweet. Please expand. Sorry.)
== 1 January 2024 ==
Certain temporary aspects of the UK's trade deal with Canada fall away, such as the tariff-free quotas on cheese. Result? UK exporters face…
In Europe, they have agreed to use one charger to rule all our electronic devices. It means 🔌The same charger for all phones, tablets and cameras ⚡ Harmonised fast-charging technology 🔄Reduced e-waste
In Britain, we’re still talking pints. Soon, we will be introducing bakelite plugs. This brilliant video sums up the fact that Brexit and satire are now indistinguishable.
Don Adamson spreads some Brexit Christmas cheer from his bunker in Barnsley.
This week’s homework
One – Discuss the following statement: The controversy over the Elgin Marbles could have been resolved easily enough if the curators of the British Museum had been allowed to discuss it with their opposite numbers in Athens. Instead Richy Scumbag decided to turn it in an international p*****g to impress Gammons and Flagshaggers.
Two – Did George Orwell write ‘1984’ as a dire warning or as a training manual for Johnsonite Tories?
Three – Princess Nut Nuts (sometimes known as Carrie Johnson) was described in the Covid Inquiry as behaving like Lady Macbeth. Is this a fair comment or was Lady Macbeth a much nicer person?
Four – Recent edition of Question Time was held in Kelso; on the Scottish side of the border. BBC goes to a lot of trouble to ensure that the QT audiences are predominantly pro Brexit and pro Tory. How did they manage that in Scotland?
Five – Johnson has been described as ‘a useless tosser.’ Is that on a good day?
Six – Should Gammons and Tories bog off back to Russia where they belong?
Seven – Gammons and Flagshaggers insist that the world owes them a living for their heroism in wars that ended before they were born. Which bit of that does Biden not get?
Eight – WW2 has been a regular fixture on British television for many years. This explains why lowlifes like Johnson and Nigel Garbage are the misapprehension that they have received multiple awards of the Victoria Cross for their heroism in wars that ended before they were born. The more I see of Brexit the better I understand what happened in pre WW2 Germany. For some reason we do not see many 1950s vintage movies of Churchill roaring defiance at the bad guys. What we do see are TV documentaries that explain in great detail how Nazis nobbled a great country. Why is this happening on a BBC that is strictly under the control of Johnsonite Tories? You would expect this BBC to pander to Johnson’s misapprehension that he is Churchill reincarnated.
This week’s quotes
Thatcher may have come late to Euro scepticism but she certainly threw herself into it
… in thrall to her supposed economic success… Tory Regimes have carried on with this disastrous course … the cupboard is empty and bills are due … Thatcher set in course the destruction of this country …
I wonder how many people who voted for Brexit saw the spike in migration coming
… we are allowing in more non EU migrants … we are also allowing in more overseas students to prop up underfunded university sector … this will increase … How richly ironic. Brexit has opened the door to more immigration, not closed it…
Brexit Migration Algorithm
Covid inquiry has shone a light on government’s pandemic response
… now it is time for a scrutiny of Brexit … same reckless fools were in charge … even Titans would have struggled … dark chaos of Johnson … was frighteningly obvious … casual, complacent, determinedly ignorant and jingoistic leadership … hopeless … bewildered ministers … Brexit deal was being negotiated at the same time … incompetent government … Brexit deal that is as calamitous as response to pandemic … nightmarish … determined by shallow ‘British exceptionalism’ … Johnson struggled to take Covid seriously … at same time did not bother to contemplate the tortuous details of Brexit … Johnson’s erratic attention span taken up wholly with demands of Covid … Lord Frost made Mad Halfcock look like Bismarck and Churchill combined … Cummings encourage out of depth Frost to be aggressive … when EU proposed a deal mutually beneficial … Frost would loftily reject it … Cummings gone by November 2020 leaving bewildered Frost to please Johnson alone … Johnson was indifferent to detail … seeking a fantasy Brexit where Britain would recover past glories … disgracefully doting media elevated Johnson to status of war hero … no discussions in Cabinet … Keith Starmer did not ask a single question about Brexit … serious consequences for UK in many ways for years to come … doubt that Johnson read the deal passed to him on Christmas Eve … was he playing a poker game … bluffing … probably did not know himself … Frost … politically naive … unworkable protocol for Northern Ireland … Johnson ran away from scrutiny all his life … briefly ran a government where he was omnipotent … deeply damaging … sought the hardest of Brexits without knowing what that meant …
A Britastrophe
‘Fearless’ Tory press meekly ducked criticism of Johnson and Richy Scumbag
… ‘let people die’ … ‘They’ve had a good innings’ … Downing St was a hive of tragic chaos … dystopian nightmare … incompetent ministers lied … claimed the authority to play God … orgy of narcissism … toxic culture of misogyny … Johnson incapable of making a decision … bamboozled by statistics and numbers …. hiding behind science which he did not understand … Covid still a factor in 300 deaths a week … sensational and scandalous material … editors spoiled for choice … Johnson did not think old people’s lives mattered … language shocking but not shocking enough to make the Tory Press … possibly because they agreed with the sentiments … Tory Press … did not shine much light on accusations of ministerial dithering … shy away from anything that shows Tories in a less than brilliant light … not one mentioned Johnson wanting to leave old people to die .. Chaos and incompetence…
November 8, the day that Georgia was recommended for EU candidacy status
… obtaining EU candidacy status is not only a significant step towards realising the European aspirations of Georgian but also a vital means of diminishing Russia’s influence in Georgia … support for membership across civil society has always been some of the strongest in the region … after Russia launched its full-scale war in Ukraine, it immediately became clear how much of a threat the Kremlin truly posed … for Georgians joining the EU will have deep consequences. November 8 was a huge day for the people of Georgia, a historic day when my country made a step towards the EU and away from Moscow. It is what we have wanted for decades…
Alastair Darling
… If there is one lesson from his life and times it is this: politics needs good, honest, principled, hard working, serious people more than it has ever needed them…..
Mad Halfcock, as Health Secretary
… assured Dominic Cummings that full pandemic contingency plans were in place – but they claimed under cross examination that they were not up to scratch. This is why Cummings, in June 2021 said no plans had been in place … an assertion that mystified staff at Porton Down … that is the whole reason why we have Porton Down, where they have long recognised that that a pandemic is the number one threat on the risk register … they war gamed pandemics and shared their ideas with Europe, Singapore, the Gulf States etc, … ironically some of them put Porton Down’s ideas into practice and looked back at us mystified why we were not doing what we had advised … Theories abound why the plans were never used … by the time Johnson and co. Took an interest there was little that was still salvageable so they denied they existed …
Breaking the law
Richy Scumbag .. unable to corral the warring factions in the Tory Party
… Keith Starmer has been effective in keeping the outlying far left of the Labour Party in check, Tory factions openly in dispute … Scumbag completely devoid of the power to bring performers into line … Cruella Braverman supporters cannot contain their anger … Cleverly (sic) attempt to reduce the perceived but deeply misplaced believe that Rwanda could solve the small boats problem … ‘Let Markets Rip’ Brigade bemoan the ousting of Thick Lizzie … relics of a bygone era (Deadwood) call for yet more of her disastrous economic enemas … right wing think tanks that begot Thick Lizzie are still in residence in Tufton Street … despair over current divisions … while the damage done by Brexit continues to mount the recriminations seem destined to sour relations for years … Richy Scumbag is desperately trying to appease as many warring tendencies as possible … succeeding only in looking devoid of principles … latest attempt to exert the authority of his office … pathetic, petulant, cause for laughter … turning the Tory Party into a joke is a sacking matter … Tories united by one thing: hunger for power … polls indicate that the challenge is insurmountable …
Sunakered
Peevish toddler in Downing St
… cancelling meeting with Greek PM … Anybody who believes in the rightness of the position is never afraid of confronting arguments … a perfectly routine government meeting became a full scale diplomatic row … clusterf**k … nothing the Greek PM said new or surprising … Elgin Marbles a controversy since 1816 … nothing Mitsotakis could have said should have taken Scumbag by surprise … Instead Scumbag … in a whole of his own digging decided to keep at it …. failed desperately with an ill-focussed attempt to start a culture war … there are artefacts and works of art about which the British feel strongly … The Parthenon Sculptures are not among them, … Scumbag is not a Churchillian defender of the nation … instead a complete fool … King Charles wore a tie with a Greek flag … uncodified constitution prevents the monarch from calling the PM a prat but this is the next best thing…
Pip Pip Don Adamson Medway Delta (Retired) Brexorcist and Saboteur First Class
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