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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.

Rejoin Party Press Statement

In the wake of Rishi Sunak’s admission that Brexit was a mistake and we should Rejoin the EU, here is a helpful statement from the Rejoin Party:

February 28, 2023

The government’s much-hyped Northern Ireland protocol deal shows the whole of the UK can and must return to the EU’s single market and customs union as soon as possible, the Rejoin EU Party says.

Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, who supported Brexit, is now incredibly claiming the agreement has put Northern Ireland in a “privileged position” by having access not only to the UK home market, but to the EU’s single market as well – apparently forgetting that the whole UK had exactly that privilege before Brexit.

The comments have sparked a storm of criticism on social media, with many people demanding to know why – if having such single-market access is so desirable – he and his fellow Brexiters backed leaving it in the first place.

One tweet read: “Sunak claims that because NI is in the single market, it’s an attractive location for businesses. So why are Scotland, Wales and England outside it?”

Another said: “Does Sunak realise what he’s saying? What about the thousands of GB businesses suffering because we have all sorts of obstacles between us and our biggest market?”

The Rejoin EU Party says the massive hype surrounding this deal is merely a desperate attempt by Sunak and this Brexit government to cover up the fact that they created this mess in the first place.

It believes the only real solution to the problems Brexit has caused – the latest of which is the chronic shortage of fruit and veg in our supermarkets – is for the entire UK to return to the single market, customs union and EU.

Former Conservative MEP and Rejoin EU Party supporter John Stevens said: “Sunak said this morning this deal will unlock an enormous amount of investment because Northern Ireland has this very special position where it has access to both the UK and EU markets, making it an incredibly attractive place to invest for business.

“This should be entered as a contender for the most grotesquely shameless and hypocritical remark of contemporary politics. We need to end this farce and re-join the EU now.”

Rejoin EU Party leader Richard Hewison said: “This shows what happens when Brexit dogma meets cold harsh reality and will be seen by many as the first step back to re-joining the EU.

“As for the detail of the agreement, the green channel will swiftly turn into a smuggler’s paradise, whilst the so-called ‘Stormont brake’ is virtually impossible to activate and liable to collapse the whole deal if it’s ever triggered.”

Please sign the Rejoin EU Party’s petition to re-join the single market at: https://actionstorm.org/petitions/rejoin-the-single-market-now

The Rejoin EU party is campaigning to re-join the EU because we believe re-joining is the only way to solve the problems Brexit has created. Brexit is broken and it’s breaking our country too. All the promises on which Brexit was sold to the electorate in 2016 were nonsense. Far from reducing red tape and providing £350m a week for the NHS, Brexit makes trading with the crucial European market more complex, difficult and expensive and threatens to reduce funding for public services. If you agree Brexit is making our country poorer, less tolerant and less united, join us and send a message to Westminster that you want your EU membership back, with all its freedoms and benefits.

Find the Rejoin Party website at www.therejoineuparty.com. Please support us via the Rejoin EU Party Campaign Fund – www.crowdfunder.co.uk/p/rejoin-eu-party-campaign-fund. You can also follow the party on Twitter at @rejoinp

Brexit is not a complete disaster, it is an incomplete disaster

From Don Adamson in Yorkshire. Brexorcist First Class, campaigner, writer and impressario:

This week’s quotes: “ Brexit re-enactment society: historical re-enactments are popular in Britain … fans of the genre should go the House of Lords … scrutinising the Retained EU Law (Revocation and Reform) bill … lawmakers know the bill is dangerous, wasteful and one of the silliest pieces of legislation ever to come before Parliament … Parliament is again galloping towards an avoidable blunder … it is like lighting a fire in a library and handing the librarians a photocopier and a marker pen to save what they can … ministers do not know how many laws are in scope … hands the executive broad powers to make laws with no idea as to how the power might be used …

Treasury fears it could lose billions in tax challenges … an almighty time sink … for the vanity of those for whom the battle to leave the EU was the highlight of their careers … parliament is imprisoned by the shrill politics of Brexit … some of the most damaging features of the Brexit process … a sane country would never allow itself to be put in this vice … familiar mix of terror and irresponsibility … blithe optimism smothers debate …

Labour is wary of opposing Brexit … terrible mistake …  a clear majority of Brits believe that to Leave the EU was a mistake … Brexit causes politicians to lose their judgement …  The Old Bailey focuses mainly on murder, rape and terrorism cases … the majority of terrorism cases involved people on the far right of British politics. A minority involves Islamic terrorist cases …

Thick Lizzie addressed a reception at the Japanese Embassy … the feet shuffling mood hovered between embarrassment and cringe coated pain … Thick Lizzie assumes publishers would flock to offer her big bucks for her memoirs … interest varied between minimal and zero … must be hurtful … Johnson is clocking up millions for his memoirs and after dinner speeches … while persuading Richy Scumbag to fund lawyers to help Johnson pretend that he did not lie to Parliament over Partygate …

Brexit is choking the arts and the government is doing nothing about it … touring orchestras and music sales – British culture and arts are a huge success story … Brexit means struggling with tough opposition from abroad … rivals get better tax breaks … children’s TV is suffering … movies of all kinds, music, live theatre, dance, audio books and video games … the world loves British cultural exports but Brexit makes it far harder to sell them … games firms give £7B a year to the economy … music exports are worth £3.5B … creative industries contribute £116B to the economy … yet is one of the worst hit by Brexit … government is totally indifferent … British government promised to make up any shortfall but has not done so … huge problem for the industry … harder and more expensive … a ruinously expensive waste of time … hurt an industry where Britain has huge advantages … You have to be something of a strange breed to want to be an MP in the first place …

Daily Telegraph runs pieces overtly critical of Brexit and Johnson …  Johnson can only count on Daily Mail and Sunday Mail for blind loyalty … Michael Gove admitted ‘I ask myself if Brexit was the right thing to do ‘ … Gove’s loyalty lasts only so long as it suits his interests … wants to distance himself from the Brexit recriminations after the next election … frankly hilarious death spiral the governments poll numbers have been taking for months …

Thick Lizzie continues to peddle her ‘it was all the fault of communist currency traders’ … ‘le grande illusion’ encapsulates Brexit … Johnson’s audacity … ‘that is what Louis XVI did and he got the guillotine …  Redevelopment at Teesside Freeport is Europe’s largest and most risky Brownfield project… highly toxic land and riverbed is churned up at breakneck speed …

Environment Secretary Therese Coffey has little interest in protecting the environment … toxic waste is taken from remediated areas and piles driven into contaminated land … ‘business partners’ make tens of millions … Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy … it was in the days of Nigel Lawson and Peter Walker that this vital industry last enjoyed civil servants with genuine energy expertise … the timing of these disruptions could not be worse … a new defence export advocate to promote arms sales … given the job to a Tory peer … under investigation by the Serious Fraud Office  … there are more health professionals of Ghanaian origin working for the NHS than in Ghana … Brexit is not a complete disaster, it is an incomplete disaster … Brexit does not need fixing stormed Lord Frost to the Daily Mail …

Brexit is not a complete disaster, it is an incomplete disaster

Brexit damages our industry

By Adrian Ekins-Daukes

These include machinery, construction materials, electric and gas appliances, cosmetics and toys to name but a few. The CE mark indicates that the product concerned conforms with specified EU safety, health and environmental protection requirements. This is  assessed beforehand, normally by the manufacturer who is also responsible for applying the CE mark and drawing up supporting documents. The product is then acceptable across the EU as proof of compliance with all requirements, without need for further delays or inspections. Our Brexiteer government could have negotiated an agreement guaranteeing equivalence on the CE marking requirements; this would have enabled to enable UK/EU trade to continue to flow as freely as before. However, either through ignorance or ideological bigotry our negotiators rejected equivalence and chose to create a copycat system of our own, UKCA. This involves additional bureaucracy, lays heavy costs on our industry to no advantage to anyone.

Far from being, as Brexiteers claim, that we are finally free of EU red tape, they have  doubled red tape for any company that manufactures products for both the UK and the EU markets.

Adrian Ekins-Daukes – Former Tory Councillor and Brexorcist (1st Class)

Anti-social Brexit

In the wake of Suella Braverman’s “sorry not sorry” apology to asylum seekers, in this film, we look at the social impacts of Brexit, including things like immigration, social care, the cost of living, freedom and various other things, lest they be forgotten by the sheer pace of Government gaslighting and dead cattery.

This follows our economic stock take film:

Write to your MP to tell them that enough is enough !!

Michel Barnier

I was delighted to attend a superb event hosted by Professor Anand Menon of UK in a Changing Europe. Even more delighted to meet Michel Barnier and present him with copies of the books Reboot Britain and Private Eyelines.

Here are my takeaways from the event. It was necessary to attend in person to gain the full value of the conversation between these two giants. Just click the link to Twitter below or go direct to the the full article on Linkedin.

Merci beaucoup pour tout ce que vous avez fait pour essayer de sauver notre pays de lui-même. Le Brexit est perdant. Nous allons nous réveiller doucement.

Whilst we are here, do check out my riotous conversation with James O’Brien on LBC re Rishi Sunak’s motivational strategy.

Talking bollocks about Rishi Sunakered – Please download the album and subscribe to our Bandcamp page for updates

We are failing

Life long Tory voter Rod Stewart has just declared that the country is a mess and the Tories need to hand over power to someone more competent. This prompted me to think of the song he covered on his Atlantic Crossing album. Apologies for the lyrical changes which are occasionally grating !! 🙂

Brexit Britain 2023

Some will know that, in 2016, Britain voted to become an isolated country via the Brexit vote.  The marginal 52:48 popular vote was pumped up by:

  • Outlandish promises that we would fund our healthcare system with the proceeds of Brexit.
  • Brexit ‘freedoms’ from EU laws, 98% of which Britain helped to make.
  • The weaponisation of migrants ‘swarming’ into the UK, using the very same language used by the Nazis to justify the Holocaust.

It then took five years to leave our membership of the club we call the European Union, mostly because nobody in our Government could agree what Brexit meant.  Some wanted total isolation with free market capitalism on steroids, a kind of ‘Singapore on Thames’.  Others wished to retain all the benefits of trade and co-operation from Europe without any of the responsibilities of club membership.  The battle raged on between the various factions, consuming four Prime Ministers in the process, with our fifth currently sitting in the departure lounge.  Ultimately, it seems that Brexit consumes all its offspring.

Two years on from our departure, it is possible to see the beginnings of the realities of Brexit.  In this film, I have taken what could be described as a ‘Brexit Stock Take’.  This piece deals with the economic realities of Brexit.  Others in the series will deal with Social effects, Political futures, Legal outcomes, Environmental impacts and Technological effects.

Please take a look at the film and subscribe to our EU TUBE channel.  The film is 17 minutes long but well worth your time as a case study in populism which is sweeping Brazil, the USA, India, Russia and several other places.  Paradoxically, the world needs collaborative leadership and joined up thinking to face climate change and the many other global issues we must address if we are to survive.  Instead, many think that ‘strong men’ are the answers to such problems.  We shall see who prevails.

Lee Anderson

Write to Lee Anderson MP (e-mail lee.anderson.mp@parliament.uk) to help him understand his failings. Here is a sample letter from a good friend:

Dear Mr. Anderson,

Just in case you missed it all – I think you’ve decided to take a break from Twitter after your last car crash pronouncements – you’ve really thrown Katy under the bus and are now trending like no other MP since Matt Hancock was filmed grabbing his assistant’s bum in his office.

In particular, you may wish to find the clips from James O’Brien’s radio show on LBC this morning. It’s a corker.

MP Dawn Butler has a bit to say about you on Twitter as well, as does Mike Galsworthy. You should make an effort to read these, if no others.

#PoorKaty is trending on Twitter as well, due to your poor judgement.

You have made a huge mistake by doubling down on your original ‘30p’ message, first with ‘own brand’ Weetabix, and now by using Katy. Did you not think that she would come under the microscope? The whole country knows about her background now.

You should feel ashamed of yourself. You have once again showed the country, in fact the World, what an ignorant fool you are.

Keep digging

Reboot Britain

The last angry Brexiteers


Michael and Alan are angry about Brexit. So they have decided to turn their fire on me in their own version of the ‘Daily Mail v Prince Harry’ moment. I had published a post about my books on Rebooting Britain in response to a facebook post by Led By Donkeys. Alan immediately tries to ‘look for a motive for my crime’ and assumes incorrectly that writing books on Brexit is a money spinner. That’s the only reason he can come up with, based on zero knowledge of how publishing works:



Later on, Alan runs away when asked about the benefits of Brexit. Again this is typical in an online exchange and is one of the reasons why I don’t bother with online Brexorcisms, except when I need some entertainment.

End of communication
Get copies of the books by clicking the page above


Michael is made of stronger stuff. He wants free copies of my books, but he is not a reviewer, a media person or anyone with reach and influence. He finds it hard to understand why I refuse to give 6 months of work away for free to someone with no track record or profile. This trait is not just reserved for Brexiteers. I know plenty of Remainers that refuse to learn the skills needed to change the game. On the one hand they are happy to buy badges and tat and pay Andrew Adonis et al for their writing, they are affronted when I ask that they value my efforts. Oh well. So much for not being an elitist. No wonder we lost three times.

Michael pleads for the book whilst simultaneously pointing out that he already knows what’s in it. Some of our chat on facebook is out of chronological order in what follows below, but I think you will get the gist of Michael’s beef.

It was emotional Michael. Learn the skills of Brexorcism here.

Brexit-Psyche

The Brexocist

From Don Adamson, Brexorcist in Chief from Yorkshire.

This week’s quotes: “excess deaths have shown a marked increase in the UK … difficulty accessing emergency care is adding to avoidable deaths in the UK … Murdoch’s TalkTV is regularly recording zero audience … Murdoch has spent millions … £50M for barely viewed presenter Piers Moron alone … Johnson inherited the longest ever waiting lists and social care vacancies ever … Brexit making vacancies harder to fill … worrying reductions in the life expectancies of women … Johnson made bold promises that were never likely to succeed … no chance of delivering the 2019 Mandate and they know it … a massive lie … Scumbag has two years to deliver on Johnson’s health fantasies … Scumbag banking his future on delivering the impossible … clinical staff silenced on issues that could save lives … we will see avoidable deaths mount this winter … delay and obfuscation … staff shortages … morale rock bottom … a horrible winter awaits … Johnson’s serial dishonesty … Thick Lizzie’s fiscal recklessness … disastrous … the sense of respite is overdone … Scumbag has some qualities but many flaws … the relief is damning. Competence ought to be a given not an ambition … stability is nowhere near enough … Britain is still below pre Pandemic levels of output … the taboo that Tories are unlikely to think rationally about Brexit is unlikely to end … quickly bounced into making promises … tin ear .. tax status of his wife … talk of Tory unity is wildly premature … reappointment of Sue Ellen Braverman … is a victory of expediency over ability … this is before the real pain bites … a grim saga of high inflation and rising interest rates … his personal wealth is a lightning rod for voter discontent … tragedy … expectations so reduced that not imploding  is the sign of a grown up …  dysfunction … slow growth … inability to talk honestly about Brexit … economic indicators flashing red … cartoon radicalism … primary qualification is loyalty not ability … billions need to be found to balance the books … Tories have devolved a taste for sacrifice … defensive move by a PM whose party is ungovernable, may backfire … by promoting Braverman Scumbag damages his own reputation … politically naive … Scumbag’s ascendancy was more rapid than it should have been … Scumbag is a cause of the problem … tidy up a mess that he helped create … when the Tories erred in recent years Scumbag … always in favour of the mistake … supported Brexit … supported an extraordinary solution to the problem (Johnson) … can be put down to cynicism … support for Quixotic policy is the norm for Scumbag … governs in party interest rather than national interest … little evidence that Scumbag will challenge vested interests … inexperience, even with copious intelligence, is always a problem … Tories had nowhere else to turn … Scumbag does not mark a change from failed policies, he personifies them … The rot in Tory Party did not begin with Thick Lizzie … Brexit, which Scumbag supports, is the handbrake on country’s economic prospects …Johnson’s chaotic reign … more ruin … Tory failure to challenge its supporters does so much damage to the country … Richy Scumbag’s career in exploitative finance makes him unfit to be PM … will soon deploy the logic that made him rich to justify making millions of people poorer … 90% of schools face bankruptcy … catastrophic NHS failure … Scumbag has made money out of manipulating money, profited from the bankruptcy of others, ruthlessly exploited the leniency of regulators … the great Tory failed experiment in populism made the richest politician in Britain PM. Enriching the rich was ultimately what Brexit was about… British manufacturing is reeling from Brexit idiocy …  the way successive administrations have gone about implementing Brexit has made things worse… manufacturing is particularly vulnerable to Brexit … cost of red tape at borders is £7B per year (government figures) … Germany now attracts more Japanese firms than the UK … decline of the car industry in the last six years … it has collapsed … new models are all going to be built abroad … Brexit problems made worse by government incompetence … it gets worse … Brigit industry is having to spend billions more … ever more ridiculous deadlines … Brexiter fantasy … Rees Mogg’s absurd law … grim picture … Brexit has done absolutely nothing to help … huge amount of damage … no sign that government recognises the problem … even 2016 Leave Voters know this is a bare faced lie … Chaos … scandal upon scandal … shutting down rather than answering legitimate problems … Richy Scumbag …. thick streak of selfishness … integrity holed below the waterline on day one … barely answers a single question … preferring bluster and evasion … no parliamentary accountability … total contempt for it …  Scumbag is in the Johnson – Trump camp for standards … years of chaos and uncertainty … UK needs stability and competence … PM’s choice is save the economy or save Brexit … the absence of agreed plans hangs over government … an appallingly irresponsible  fiscal event … it is not possible to make Brexit work … businesses are moving from Britain … not Project Fear, Project Reality … by far the biggest destructor is the fallout from Brexit …  Scumbag’s cabinet … very few have real ability … clueless and frankly dangerous … sanity is off the menu … Brexit has poisoned our whole economic discourse … outbreak of reality seems a long way off …  Cabinet  should be chosen on merit not loyalty … next few years will be tough … disruptive … symptoms are bloating and egomania … vanity projects … Thick Lizzie represented the culmination of 12 years of Tory policies … income inequality, low productivity and poor public services … freaking social contract …. Sluggish economy … add Brexit to the toxic mix and you have the makings of long term decline…. those attracted to the leadership of such a party are intellectually wanting driven by hunger for personal wealth … Britain’s fiasco … this was, to put it mildly, misleading …  nursing shortage of 46,828 … nearly 12% of nursing jobs unfilled …  winter of discontent would pose hard questions for both parties … Thick Lizzie’s phone had been hacked … a year’s worth of messages … a similar attack on a government issue phone would have been difficult …  Sue Ellen used her personal e-mail to handle classified messages … she is now back in the same job … the outlook for Britain is grim … madness in Westminster …86 profit warnings … more than in any year since 2008 … everything is getting more expensive … 3 way squeeze on households … Consumer confidence has crashed … UK is heading into a grim winter … the economic damage caused by Brexit gets ever clearer … Sue Ellen talks of ‘invasion’ … such talk is inflammatory and immoral … miserable tale of incompetence, cruelty and complacency … Sue Ellen repeatedly pledged stronger borders, lower immigration and more sovereignty … They have achieved the opposite … harebrained … paying Rwanda to take asylum seekers … slapstick version of geo-politics … rather than being a sovereign Britain is a supplicant … incompetence and cruelty of the right … every solution is impractical … the result is paralysis, misery and death … Nobody celebrates Brexit anymore … failure to deliver … we were sold a pup … we were tricked. We were deceived, they conned us, there is no way Brexit benefited us … If Johnson were to walk past I would spit on him … we were all hoodwinked … he did not deliver … shown how incompetent this government is … they should not have promised what they could not deliver … complete and utter lies … acute labour shortage … ideological stuff rushed through without considering the consequences … we have had to accept a lower work ethic … daily reminders of government failure … Chief Twit Elon Musk is determined to make the sewer even more vile …  Britain needs strong economic growth … not going to happen … Richy Scumbag confronts a bleak economic landscape … biggest danger of Brexit is not the decline in trade but the hit to financial services … City of London did very well out of being in the EU … a victory that Brexit threw away … Brexit has hurt financial services in many ways …£900B has transferred from the city to the EU … City has lost 7,400 highly paid jobs … playing into your competitor’s hands is always a bad idea … there was a point when Gavin Williamson thought he could be PM … hilarity is not confined to Elon Musk tanking the already tarnished reputation of his $44B purchase … after declaring that Toilet Kwarteng’s budget ‘was the best I heard a Chancellor deliver’ … Telegraph has succumbed to deep depression … Rees Mogg is no mood to apologise for backing a succession of losers … ‘it is the dominant left wing ideology that is to blame for UK going pear shaped … Johnson clearly invoked a faux past … myth that Britain singlehandedly won WW2 … nonsense … Churchill himself advocated what he called a ‘United States of Europe’ … people who should be chastised are seen as heroes of incivility … why is Nigel Garbage not appear on Question Time now that the true reality of his lies are becoming apparent? … Trussonomics, a policy dreamed up by the extreme right of the Tory Party … who is brave enough to tell the truth: stay outside the EU and become increasingly poor or get back in and regain prosperity? … 

Pip Pip             Don Adamson Medway Delta (Retired)                       Brexorcist and Saboteur First Class

Learn the skills of Brexorcism here.

Reboot Britain : Rejoin EU
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