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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.

The Barnsley Brexit Butcher

Updated on date by author

Don Adamson writes in his unique style from his Brexit bunker in Barnsley just before the day of the march to Rejoin the EU.


This week’s homework

One – In the 1960s young people all over the world protested (sometimes violently) at the mess the older generation made of everything they touched. Barbara Cartland (the Romantic Novelist) was rarely thought of as a young radical. She was quoted as saying that in the 1920s young people of her generation absolutely hated the older generation that had sleepwalked into a terrible and unnecessary war. How long will it be before British youngsters develop an incandescent hatred of the scoundrels, liars and charlatans who inflicted this Brexit FUBAR on us? 

Two – Russell Brand is an unrepentant Gammon. Does that explain his moral turpitude? It comes as no surprise to me that Brand is facing Nonce charges. Unrepentant Gammons do not remotely resemble the required standard in matters of moral fibre. Nigel Garbage meanwhile continues to complain that Coutts Bank declined to let him use their banking services. This just goes to show that perhaps they do have some standards at Coutts. Then there is the question of libel. I would say that somebody like Nigel Garbage does not have a reputation to lose so there will be no case to answer if Garbage brings a suit for defamation of character. 

Farage Garage
Now who’s laughing Nigel?

Three – The Tories have proved themselves unfit to govern. Labour has been AWOL since 2010 and flatly refuses to return to work. Keith Starmer is determined to be part of the problem and no part of the solution. Can it really be true that these useless and disgusting creeps are the best that either Labour or Tories can find to stand for election? 

This week’s quotes: 

Our water is full of crud. Does this remind you of anybody? 

…  Brexit is doing damage, thanks to supply chain difficulties getting the chemicals to we need to treat water … more fears that that more pollution will come thanks to Michael Gove’s plan to Brexit freedoms to duck out of EU nutrient neutrality rules…. all of the facts have been known to the industry and ministers for years. There is no excuse for either Gove or Coffey for allowing things to get so bad…. unlike the Titanic’s iceberg the Brexit poonami was visible far; far ahead … all we get when ministers are called to account is the verbal equivalent of the effluent that is flooding the waters….

SS Brexit
The SS Brexit, nearly 2/3 now lies underwater and most people have abandoned ship. Click to view Brexit Freedoms.

Read Gina Miller on Rejoining the EU

Jerry-built schools, prisons

… a crumbling understaffed and vermin ridden mess…. if you mess about for years imposing austerity the catastrophic consequences will be visited on you all at once …. Osborne claimed that the Tories fixed the roof while the sun was shining. The RAAC concrete scandal shows they literally did the opposite…. the whole country will pay the price…. the total liability will run into hundreds of billions … money that the stagnant economy can neither generate nor borrow… 

We need a huge injection of emotional intelligence and a commitment to the facts with courage and humility 

… we must as a matter of urgency acknowledge and tackle the problems that Brexit has created…. Tory leadership was too often preoccupied with incomprehensible political manoeuvring to engage sensibly with the business community … business community is let down by government … business leaders are not stupid … want to know how we will sort out irritations, skill shortages and myriad other problems created by Brexit ….  The business community is dealing with fundamental problems …

Thank EU for the music

… a group of musicians angry about how Brexit has hurt the music industry… 

Albert Hall
Last night at the Proms.

Richy Scumbag the richest PM we have ever had has to pass round the begging bowl every time he travels

… £15,026 for a helicopter ride set back Tory donor Richard Harping £38,5000 from the mysterious Akhil Tripathi in April …. Taxpayer stumped up £871, 000 on Scumbag’s overseas trips 

Campaigning in Cumbria I noticed that if a house was filled with books the occupant would not be voting Tory 

… Tories are not open to talent, people with strengths in running departments…. incurious, uncritical, inept…

Join us on the streets of Mid Bedfordshire

Theresa May is trying to portray herself as a sensible moderate who tried to secure a less damaging Brexit

…. May could have stopped Brexit … as much to blame for Brexit as those from whom she is now trying to dissociate herself … Tory Brexiters are Blackadders in search of a Baldrick … Check her interview with Brexit apologist Nick Robinson out.

Once rapid progress on decarbonisation is at risk of slowing 

… one problem is studied lack of leadership on the environment from Richy Scumbag…..excessive nutrients in rivers were causing mats of green algae that damage protected areas and birds…. 

150 schools reported to have reinforced autoclaved aerated concrete or RAAC that make them unsafe 

… the longer the PM is forced to suffer an embarrassing attack of metaphor made reality – fears over falling roofs that reinforce the idea that Britain is generally crumb ling … the crisis was the result of b botched job s and sticking plaster politics …. The language of the debate has been the kind that would get you sent to the head teacher…. a Scottish Nationalist bluntly accused Tories and Labour of being two cheeks of the same arse.

Red Brexit Blue Brexit
Red Brexit Blue Brexit

A British Parliamentary Researcher arrested in March on suspicion of spying for the Chinese

Richy Scumbag, British PM, said that attempts to undermine British democracy were ‘completely unacceptable,’ (Comment: that is hilarious from a Tory government that has been doing a FUBAR on Britain since 2010). 

Far right parties full of zealous ideologues are prone to schisms marred by scandals

… their positions can be hazy…. the disconnect between genuine problems and farfetched solutions … policies tend to be illusory … incoherent or unachievable … they tend to be associated with misogyny and bigotry and to undermine the rule of law … populist right wing blocs impede countries from getting to grips with pressing problems … 

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Grubby politics destroyed moderate Conservatism 

… amateurism, obstinacy, arse covering by superiors and underlings … despairs at how Brexit was handled. Loathes Johnson who rose to power by half truths, full lies and low cunning … cynical politics is at the heart of Britain’s problems … divisive politics of Brexit … rubs against the stable politics that conservatism stands for … such stability was absent in the 1980s when Thatcher launched her war on One Nation Toryism. Johnson’s divisive politics was a return rather than an aberration … 

Disasters made worse by dreadful governance … 

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

Buy us a coffee

Posted in Brexit, Brexorcism, Britain, Britastrophe, Democracy, Economics, Keir Starmer, Labour, Leadership, Politics, Populism, Rejoin EU, Sunak | Tagged , , , | Leave a reply

My Brexit Story

Updated on date by author

Brexit has damaged my mental health

By Sam Haung.

I would like to tell a bit about myself at the time when we are in the midst of the cost-of-living crisis, Ukraine-Russia conflict, post-pandemic, and the low-morale amongst humans across all age categories.  My name is Sam.  I was originally from Taiwan 45 years ago. I have lived in 4 different countries in my life time: Taiwan, US, UK and Denmark. The UK has particularly shaped me for who I am now. I came to the UK because I felt the education system was much better than in my own country. 

My mother died some 31 years ago in Taiwan. It was not a good start to my teenage life.

I started my new life in the UK by attending a boarding school in Cambridge back in September 1995. It was not an easy start, as my spoken English contained a heavy North American accent. But, I really made many British friends at school in the first year. I had managed to get the “gist” of the various aspects of “Britishness”: Fish-and-Chips, Snooker, Football, Rugby, Tennis, TV programmes (They Think It Is All Over is one,  Absolutely Fabulous etc.), the “posh” accents, jokes etc. I gradually acquired more British friends as the years went on. 

After Cambridge, I went to three different British universities to study undergraduate and postgraduate degrees (Staffordshire, Bradford and Leeds). I had also been through a broken engagement, changing jobs, and the acceptance of this country for me being a new British citizen 15 years ago. 

I must admit, I did not know very much about the European Union until after I used my UK passport travelling freely in the first 4-6 years. That was why I ended up living in Denmark for 11 months. I met my ex-wife back in 2012 and she was from Denmark. We met online first and then for real at Leeds Train Station. I miss 2012. That year, Britain was hosting the Olympics and Paralympics. Despite the state of the country’s politics was divisive back then (more divisive now!), Britain was still enjoying an important and a respectable status in European and global politics. We had two children together. However, the 2016 Referendum result had changed all that for the worst. On top of that, my two children were diagnosed with slow learning developments in Denmark. I got depressed. I thought I could have a family of my own on both sides of the North Sea. Now, I have to worry about everything. And, I have lost almost everything, including the future with my family, either here in the UK, or in Denmark, or both. I thought that Britain could provide me a stable life. I was wrong.

Now I have to worry about the future of Europe, as well as the tensions between Taiwan and China, as well as worrying about the future of my two children.  

To sum up, due to the result of the 2016 EU referendum, Brexit has taken away the opportunity to establish a stable family in both the UK and Denmark as my freedom of movement is under threat and I find that I am a ‘Citizen of Nowhere’ to quote Theresa May.

All my hopes and dreams are gone now. We must rejoin our European neighbours.   

Brexit has damaged my mental health. I am still suffering from it.  

Sam Haung

Posted in Brexit, Education, Immigration, Mental Health | Tagged , , , | Leave a reply
Red Brexit Blue Brexit

Red Brexit, Blue Brexit

Updated on date by author

No doubt this will make me unpopular, but I cannot and will not vote for a Labour party who wish to maintain the illusion that Brexit can be made to work as Keir Starmer declared yesterday. By turning their backs on the greatest socio-economic, political, legal, ethical and environmental catastrophe of our age Labour are mortgaging our children’s futures, the very opposite of what Keir Starmer claims he wants:

From The Guardian – click the extract to read the article.

My Labour chums tell me “shh, Keir has a secret plan to rejoin in 2032“. I’m sorry, but this lacks any sense of pragmatism for three major reasons:

1. By 2032, nobody will know what Brexit was. Micro Pay as EU go deals by Sunak et al will mean that the number of people caring about Brexit will get smaller and smaller. The end losers will be 68 million people without rights to live and work in the EU.

2. The economic and social damage to UK will be deep and mostly irreversible like an irreversible chemical reaction. For example, the bleed of financial services away from UK. The final destruction of the UK car industry. Fishing. Farming. Scotland and Northern Ireland’s departure from UK. and so on.

3. Our divergence from EU standards will be so great as to make it much more difficult to join anew.

Other optimistic Labour colleagues tell me that “Keir is simply saying what people want to hear. Once he gets into power he will change his mind“. They cannot explain how the Mail, Express and Sun will not eat him for breakfast for being no better than Boris Johnson as a liar. None can explain the difference between a red and blue Brexit.

Brexit's compared
The only good Brexit is a dead Brexit.

Starmer’s proposal appears to be based on a fear of facing down a few red wall racists and maybe some of the remaining hard left in his party. He ignores the vast majority of his membership and of course 63% of the nation who say that Brexit has Failed. This is a morally and pragmatically bankrupt position and must not be rewarded by voting Labour in a General Election.

Labour ignores its membership. Click image to compare.

Granted, the Tories are awful, but one cannot put a cigarette paper between Starmer’s position on Brexit and Sunak’s. Politics is so often the choice between the lesser of two evils rather than something aspirational and pragmatic. This is why I shall be supporting Gina Miller’s True and Fair party and hoping that we reach a hung parliament, given that the Tories have already destroyed themselves. A hung Parliament with a rainbow coalition offers the best chance to end the Brexit nightmare and all of its products as represented by our Brexit iceberg:

The Brexit Iceberg
The Brexit Iceberg. Keir Starmer says that he wishes to work on root causes. All of the issues and more above the water line have their roots partially or wholly in Brexit.

Putting power before the people.

Write to your Labour MP or prospective candidate with this article. You may also wish to mention the Bylines piece Hard Labour and anything else you can muster. Demand a EU turn on Starmer’s position in exchange for your vote.

Help us make a stand in the Mid Beds by-election by giving Gina Miller’s True and Fair party a decent share of the vote. It’s only a by-election and it will make Labour (and the Lib Dems) think really hard about their position on Brexit. We need help on the ground with canvassing and social media amplification.

Please support our work

The Disney Longstocking prison ship
Although the Tories are truly awful, it does not do to preserve the binary tryst that delivered Brexit.

Posted in Angela Rayner, Brexit, Brexorcism, Britain, Britastrophe, Keir Starmer, Labour, Leadership, Liz Truss, Northern Ireland, Politics, Populism, Rejoin EU, Scotland, Sunak | Tagged , , , | 10 Replies
Proms

Last night at the Proms

Updated on date by author

I was delighted to give my last performance at The Last Night of the Proms last Saturday for the EU Flag Mafia. The organiser of the event had his car broken into after the event and his laptop stolen. I myself had a laptop stolen by Vote Leave after a march a few years back. It is utterly sickening. Sadly the Met Police could not be bothered to investigate, which, of course, is typical. I’m even slightly prepared to believe that it may have been an ‘inside job’, given the Met’s credentials.

Met Police response
The Police response to the crime was typically poor.

To help him recover his losses, I am selling this multi guitar rack and a PA system plus two Peavey speakers. Sensible offers please. I will also be making a donation. If you wish to do so, please e-mail me reboot@brexitrage.com and I will give you his direct details for cheques and direct transfers. The Flag Mafia leader wishes to remain anonymous as he fears media attention which could jeopardise his employment.

RAAC and Ruin
Guitars not included
POD amp
Hardly gigged – in good order
Peavey EuroSys 2 speaker
Two Peavey EuroSys 2 speakers

Please support this cause. Every year, the Flag Mafia organise this monumental project. I stepped in at short notice after all the classical musicians cancelled at less than 24 hour’s notice, gaining social disapproval from a couple of Prosecco swilling Brexiteers and some of “Steve Bray’s angels” who attempted to stop politically motivated musical protest.

Last Night at the Proms. Click image to hear the music.

Join us in Mid Bedfordshire to support Gina Miller

Read Brexit has failed

Posted in Brexit, Britain, Culture, Europe, Music | Tagged , , | 1 Reply
Brexit has failed

News from the Brexit Bunker

Updated on date by author

Don Adamson reports the news that the Brexit media refuse to print from his Brexit bunker in Barnsley.

This week’s homework

One Tories have decided to rejoin the Horizon project – an EU wide scheme to fund scientific research all over Europe. Does this mean that the Tories are waking up to reality about the absurdity of Brexit before Keith Starmer and his Labour Party? 

Read Horizon

Two Discuss the following statement – When Richy Scumbag and Keith Starmer talk about their fancy ideas ‘to make Brexit work’ they most closely resemble two mutineers discussing how to blow a hole in the hull of a ship that is already sinking.

This week’s quotes

Hospitality is worth £93Bn to the UK economy, employs 3.5M people

… pays £54Bn in tax … until recently Tory party was considered to be the party of business … ties companies in red tape then lectures companies in not taking advantage of the opportunities offered … real people lose jobs, money, their businesses … Brexit has put a huge spanner in the works …. Massive hurdles for the industry…. government is hoist by its own petard … margins are squeezed … profits are down…

Brexit and rail fails have made Britain a laughing stock  

… Madras Courier … with Brexit Britain has closed its doors on global trade and commerce … rationale for divorcing a free trade bloc is baffling in an age of globalisation … India is interested in trading with the rest of the world … why would it want to forge links with a country that has turned its back on global trade … UK figures show that the mooted trade deal with India could boost UK GDP by 0.12% compared to the loss of around 5% which is the cost of Brexit … the contrast between the view of the Daily Express and the Madras Courier could not be more pronounced … the latter view is now prevailing internationally … other countries, both in and out of the EU do things better that UK … UK has become poorer as other nations have thrived … skilled workers can choose where they want to go … foreign skilled workers are not only needed but really welcome …

How paranoid nationalism corrupts it makes governments not just nastier but more corrupt

… dismantling checks and bank balances that promote good, clean governance … abuses are easier when institutions are weak … men in power have invented or exaggerated threats to the nation … paranoid nationalism is a backlash against good governance …leaders create acclimate where loyalty comes before truth … there is nothing racist or disloyal about wishing for a better life … unscrupulous leaders vow to defend people against confected threats … politics based on bigotry open the door to misrule and corruption … nationalism can foster the abuse of power … politicians grant their cronies influence … if leaders use nationalism to erode checks and balances it becomes easier for his cronies to plunder … 

GB News is a threat to its rivals and a trap for the Tories 

… offers plenty to mock … adverts filled with promotions for gold dealers and erectile dysfunction drugs … cast includes several fruitcakes … opinion driven coverage … Fox News is a clear inspiration … modest audience 600,000 a day … its loyal core is just 10% of the audience for the hours viewed … will have a greater impact on the Tory party if, as seems likely … the Tories lose the next election…. will proselytise in the struggle for control of the rump party … greatest threat to opposition parties is when they make themselves irrelevant 

Nadine Dorries has a notoriously elastic relationship with the truth …

Squabbling over spoils from Covid pandemic contracts has reached the rats in a sack stage … Medicaid owned by a Gloucester based Tory  accumulated profits of more than £12M.

Support our campaign for the True and Fair Party in Mid Beds

What is the difference between RAAC and RAAB  

… one is dense, full of hot air, dangerous and past its sell by date. The other is a type of concrete…

Sarah Vain putting the me in mediocre

… ‘government has been in office 13 years and has run the country into the ground; possibly because it contains my useless ex husband …;’

London once had a claim to be at the heart of musical Europe…

No peerage for Paul Dacre 

… state looks after Daily Mail grandee in other ways … his estate (Ullapool) granted £240,000 in rural subsidies…

Richy Scumbag’s approval rate sinks to minus 25%

… everyone around Scumbag, maybe even Scumbag himself is in a post Scumbag mode… Britain feels like an absolute shambles….  almost nothing works…. social and physical infrastructure is collapsing around us…. this is exactly the kind of epic unpatriotic Remoaning that Sarah Vine the Daily Mail’s High Priestess of Brexit used to decry as ‘unpatriotic’ … these are Vine’s own words … can hardly have endeared her to Rothermere who wants his paper to ‘accentuate the positive ahead of the election’ … 

A crumbling land of perpetual slums and a moribund PM with no plan 

… political panic, headless chickens … and an already acrimonious blame game … RAAC is also likely to expose dangerous asbestos … Johnson’s promises seek a distant memory and a sick joke … a government beset by fiasco and scandal … as despairing Tory MP put it ‘an in your face scandal’ … Gillian Keegan, Education Secretary, is writing cheques that she cannot possibly cash….  Scumbag is presiding over turmoil that inescapably triggers memories of Covid and school closures … hard to speak with a straight face of a government that delivers ‘value for money’ … tax burden at its highest for 70 years … Treasury says that ‘the money to pay for repairs and timetable disruption will have to be found from existing budget. Not a serious way to govern …  a deeply embedded rottenness in public life…. Brexit is the archetype of this tendency … sporadic warnings about time bomb of RAAC…. this is much more than an educational scandal … buckling and groaning of the social contract … what sort of country do we want to live in? …. How run down, decrepit jerry rigged and dilapidated are we ready for our post Brexit country to be? …. wretchedly buried under cheap concrete rubble …everything this gover4nment touches turns to rot … former Tory leader Ian Duncan Snot says he is happy for his constituents to damang3 measures in London without a squeak of outrage … 

RAAC and Roll
RAAC and Roll

Men with no shame

… their Brexit is a disaster … now fighting to stop the rest of us from putting it right … want to defend Brexit at any cost … according to Nigel Garb age ‘sell-out of Brexit is under way … Tories never believed in it … regardless of all the warnings in the economic data the Brexiters last argument is that the revolution would surely succeed if it was pursued more zealously … seven years after Brexit there is a haziness about what Brexit benefits might be … the numbers are not encouraging … Brexiters continue to promise a crock of gold … Brexit delivered a 10% hit to the economy … UK opinion shifted 60-40 in favour of Rejoin … 

Brexit is dead
Brexit is dead

Latest polls put Rejoining the EU at 63% …

It is immoral to force the insufferable consequences of Brexit on voters who were lied to.

Brexicide a neologism that aptly captures the toxicity of the event… 

Over 80% of under 25s and over 60% of the country want to Rejoin the EU. 

Read Helpful Facts

As the worm of public opinion turns there should be less reason for Keith Starmer to maintain a deathly hush over Brexit

… Red Wall manufacturing heartlands face the biggest downsides from Brexit … it is time to think again about Brexit by taking an approach based on facts and not fallacy and fantasy … both Labour and Tories airily promise that Brexit disadvantages will be massaged away … UK diplomatic and trading relationships will not survive another seven years of disengagement. The time for a Brexit reboot is now….

The negative impact of Brexit … The fact that no political party will speak the truth about this…

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

Posted in Brexit, Brexorcism, Britain, Britastrophe | Tagged , , , , , | Leave a reply
Reform

Reformation shuffle

Updated on date by author

Do we need to reform the civil service? By Paul Higgins.

We have heard quite often lately that the civil service needs to be reformed. Whilst this is true, the reform needed should go in the opposite direction to the one we so often hear about. Most problems in the civil service come from contagion from politicians, especially ministers and secretaries of state.

If we look at current ministers and compare them with those 30 or 40 years ago, we see that today ministers in any department have little or no expertise or knowledge of their areas. 40 years ago, the Secretary of, say, Defence, used to be a military or an expert with an idea of where he wanted our armed forces to be in 10 years and what steps were needed for that journey to happen. Similarly, the Secretary of Agriculture was a farmer, an academic, a veterinarian or someone with experience or expertise in farming. Because of this expertise they tended to stay longer in the post, which enabled them to build a strong corporate memory to address the various issues affecting the department or the field, to see future problems and to prevent them before they happened.

Things have changed dramatically. Ministers now move fast from one department to another and they rarely have any knowledge of the areas they manage, whether it is farming, defence or international relations. Because of this, politics are now quite shortsighted. Nothing after the next general election matters and public services show a sharp decline in efficiency and quality. This is because the building stones for this quality will deliver tangible results only after some decades after being laid instead of some months. Another factor behind the increasingly poorer quality of public decisions is its politicisation. It is quite common to see a minister arguing with the engineers about whether a road should be built passing through this or that constituency, and, as you can imagine, the arguments rest on how voters in the constituency would react to a new road instead of on how to make the road safe, cheaper, environmentally friendly or how it will improve the capacity and time of journeys.

The civil service is suffering a similar trend. This is very clear when we look at recruitment or promotions where technical expertise has disappeared and instead the so-called behaviours are now the only criteria. These behaviours are valid everywhere, in every post, but leadership, influence or communicating will not make you capable of designing the best road but to argue in a powerpoint that it wasn’t your fault that the road was of a substandard quality. Putting even more effort in promoting these behaviours will improve relations between ministers and civil servants in the short term but will result in even worse and more expensive public services. As problems and tensions accumulate the blame game will intensify and we will see even more and louder calls to reform the civil service and get rid of unelected bureaucrats and experts. Since civil servants are not allowed to respond and publish their side of the story, this trend is quite difficult to reverse.

Finally, it is worth noticing that while most governments in western democracies suffer this problem, it is the UK Government where it is most exacerbated and, hence, more difficult to reverse.

Paul Higgins

Books
Reform, Renew, Reboot Britain
Posted in Britain, Culture, Education | Tagged , | Leave a reply
Brexit bunker

Don’s musings

Updated on date by author

This week’s homework

The BBC motto is ‘Nation shall speak peace unto Nation.’ Would it be appropriate for Fox News to adopt the motto: ‘Idiots shall speak balderdash unto idiots?’

This week’s quotes 

Putain/Ptomaine will carry on spying 

… troll campaigns, democratic interference … all of these deployed in Brexit … successive UK governments welcomed vast amounts of dubious Russian money … bought a degree of Russian accesses that the KGB could only dream of … Russian money bought access to the top of British political power … state backed inciters of chaos …

Brexit and Russia
Brexit and Russia.

Lee Anderson ignorant and proud of it

… represents everything most of the world despises UK for 

Brexit is killing off the school trip 

… costing millions and hurting children … youngsters are being denied opportunities … they did not vote for Brexit but are paying the price in many ways…. effects entirely predictable and immediately apparent … harming UK interests … time to think again … damage goes beyond detriment to education … financial costs top £3B … seaside towns that had English teaching businesses … decimated … ludicrous … if the economy can benefit while the children have fun so much the better …

Please support True and Fair party

Baroness, dodgy PPE, slow death of trust 

… Michelle Mone’s companies received more than £200M for defective equipment … Mone made a vast profit … legitimacy is frayed significantly …  no offer of clarity, no explanation, no accountability … grubby profiteering … insincerity running through politics from all factions … utterly corrosive to the trust on which politics is based … ministers line their own pockets …  this government has truly failed…

Sad Times for Britain’s most ridiculous person

… Mad Halfcock … eight complaints he made against Daily and Sunday Mirrors rejected by press watchdog … shameful record of blunders … guilty of breaching ministerial code about financial interests …. corrupt, lying, incompetent, philandering, disgraced ex minister … ‘Britain has the chance to lead the world’ enthused Mad Halfcock five years ago … soon Halfcock’s techno-fetish was looking less sexy as complaints grew … Halfcock admitted his department was badly prepared for the pandemic … perhaps if he had not been seduced by overhyped tech, things might have been slightly different … 

People think leaving has been bad for the economy, exacerbating cost of living crisis … the evidence is on their side … post financial crisis recovery in business investment snuffed out by the referendumb … hut exporters … Brexit divisive, had a disastrous effect on politics, trust in ministers and competence in government … 

Startling resemblance between Nigel Garbage and Jar Jar Binks 

… one is a hapless, risible figure and the other is a character from Star Wars…

*ucker Carlson … absolutely bananas

… a real bullshitter … not combined with trenchant insight … opinionated, cocky, loud and ill informed … genuinely does not care what other people think … if you start off with a conspiratorial, paranoid outlook there is only one way to go; down … ever more delusional rants … a sense of gaping emptiness … never really had anything of substance to say … 

The UK government wants to maintain the doctor’s strike as an excuse for missing its promises and does not mind consequences

… (widespread avoidable harm to patients)…  as of June 7.6 ‘patient referrals’ in England still awaiting treatment in England up 100,000 from May … last year more than 23,000 excess deaths were associated with long waits in emergency departments .. A lack of available hospital beds a contributing cause… 

Non payment of tax on egregious profits made by pandemic profiteers 

… Excalibur Healthcare  … £135M contract to provide 2,700 ventilators… company made multi million pound profits … a financial ruse to extract profits ‘tax-efficiently’ … company has gone bust owing £3.3M … including £2.1 M corporation tax … Evans was said to be worth around £200M – hundred times the unpaid bill.

Please support our work

Choking off immigration to make low-wage sectors more productive was never going to work

Johnson as PM described a future that was ‘high wage, high skill, high productivity’ … since 2010 Britain has suffered a dramatic slowdown in productivity … Brexiter argued that Britain had become a laggard in using technology … most economists disputed Brexiter promises … Brexit experiment has not worked … real output fallen … little sign of more investment or raising wages to attract domestic workers … Brexit politicians were not serious …  firms have struggled … Brexiters wanted fewer but more high skilled immigrants. The opposite happened … Lack of commitment was not the only reason the Brexiter experiment failed. The thinking behind it was always faulty … significant factor is the poor quality of British managers … weak investment is also to blame … workers with technical skills are hard to find … firms cannot plan … deterring investment … Britain timed its Brexit experiment very badly… 

Brits are not all in it together … taxation share of GDP highest since the 1940s … disposable incomes will not recover before 2028 …  nightmare mortgage stories … people are surviving but not thriving … cost of living crisis has a radically different effect on, say, a family with £600,000 mortgage on a house in Battersea compared with a family on benefits in Wigan … both families have reason not to vote Tory in the next election … the promise was that things would improve … people are worse off than they thought they would be … Britain was becoming poorer before prices spiralled … the political consequences have just begun … 

The horrible irony of this is that Don the Con has no time for either working class white, Southerners, or people of colour

… people down south ‘Hicks’ and crackers’ … his casino, the one that went bust, ‘how can you lose money on a casino?’) Left a lot of white working men stiffed – like the ones who built the place. 

Howard Barclay 

… Telegraph media owner … admits the publishing empire is a ‘distressed asset that will not be easy to sell’ … Lloyd’s Bank reluctant owner since a £1B loan to the Barclay group went bad … not worth anything near the  £660M price tag originally placed on it … Barclay family trying to regain control … with backing from unidentified investors based in Dubai … Rothermere meanwhile mulling over closing … Mail on Sunday … does not see a future for print journalism … 

Telegraph
Click to read Private Eyelines.

Theresa May accuses John Bercow of thwarting her Brexit deal 

… she is living in Walter Mitty land… 

Debate whether Johnson’s Daily Mail column is more boring than Anne Widdecombe’s in the Daily Express 

… Widdecombe’s lame anecdotes about difficult parking … Johnson gives his best stories to other papers… 

Brexit is not working 

… it is doing long term damage … Brexit benefits do not exist … government resorts to subterfuge … in the three years to March 2023, 13,793 hospitality venues have shut down … double the number of closures in the previous three years … a succession of polls show that British people think Brexit was a mistake. This is now turning into a willingness to Rejoin the EU … Keith Starmer will turn somersaults to avoid any discussion of Brexit … any suggestion of Rejoin has on him the same effect as garlic on a vampire … conflict between Keith Starmer’s position and his determination to look economically responsible … Brexit was economically illiterate and reversing it would have obvious benefits for the economy … Brexit hit to GDP is around 5.5%. Trade figures constantly demonstrate that putting up trade barriers with your biggest market is a sure way to lower exports…. International Monetary Fund  predicts that the UK will be the only major economy to shrink this year … we are in the most prolonged period of lost economic growth since the financial crisis of 2008 … government understands the problem but no minister will acknowledge it … quietly pushback deadline for erecting more barriers … government tries to put off the worst of Brexit … Labour fail to call out the hypocrisy by stating the obvious: UK would be better off in the EU … UK tarnished its credentials … UK behaviour over Horizon project has been crass as well as self defeating … UK scientists are desperate … if ‘sovereignty’ has been regained there is little to show for it … UK is poorer … All politicians seem to believe that Sue Ellen Braverman’s rhetoric about ‘securing borders’ is what voters want to hear … research tells a different story … empty gesture of throwing money at Rwanda… any sensible politician would be campaigning for re-entry as quickly as possible … Brexit is not working . Government must undo the harm Brexit has done.

Read Pay as EU go Rejoin

If MPs do not act swiftly they could lose voters’ trust forever 

… 15 MPs have lost their party whip for misconduct … five MPs stood down after being named in scandal or criminality … Tory MP accuses of rape who still has the whip … worst scandals disgust the public … voters bemused and outraged by partisan reaction by MPs when wrongdoing clearly proven … flagrant abuses … Parliament has a particularly unhealthy mix of people … parliament just does not seem to be doing its job very well … 

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

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Brexit Broke Britain

Britons

Updated on date by author

Paolo Bolzoni, an Italian in The Netherlands, set this poem to music to explain the condition of Brexitosis which still infects some Britons. We are gradually awakening from our slumbers and will soon get to a point of Rejoining the EU.

Please subscribe to Paolo’s You Tube channel.

BRITONS


Transposition of “Italiani”, by Cochi e Renato, 2007
Cochi e Renato are a legend of Milanese cabaret.
© Paolo Bolzoni, 3 September 2023

Ce n’est qu’un début, continuons le combat!
Nous voulons réintégrer l’Union Européenne!

There is a window to Britain
Where you can listen to gossips
Where you can watch the tears
Where you can hear the curses

There is a window to Britain
And if you open it
You’ll see the despair
Can’t you understand why?

It’s the Britons who shout
It’s the Britons who cry
It’s the Britons who curse
This Cabinet of Fools

It’s the Britons who leave
And who’ll never come back
It’s the Britons who are angry
Don’t you get it?

They have a Cabinet who lie
And people who listen to them
While they laugh at the poor chaps
Who believe in their crap

It’s the Britons who suffer
It’s the Britons who fight
To rejoin the EU
And they’ll never give up

Oh, Jesus, look down here
Bless whoever you want
But, we’re all Britons
Don’t bless only the Conservatives
Oh Jesus, oh Jesus
Forgive me if I call for you
Oh, Jesus, come down here
We can’t take it any more

It’s the Britons who boo
It’s the Britons who sink
Their trials and tribulations
In a bitter pool of ale

It’s the Britons who watch
The small boats sinking in the Channel
It’s the Cabinet who know 
And still don’t give a damn

It’s Rishi who loves
Talking cricket with Modi
It’s Cruella who hates
And has one obsession

It’s the Britons who are sick
It’s the Britons who are disabled
It’s the nurses who strike
It’s the teachers who are lost

It’s the Britons who watch
The news that report all this
And those who present it
And those who comment on it

Those who can’t stand it
Those who fall asleep
And those who get angry
And smash the TV

“Excuse me, Sir Larry, please?”
“What’s up?”
“Is Rishi there?”
“No, he’s in a meeting”
“Meeting with whom?”
“Alone, in the toilette”
“Will he have it for long?”
“Eh … he is on a conference call”
“Um… I’ll be back later”
“No! Rishi has two more meetings later
And two more conference calls”
“Excuse me, but… does Rishi …. all day?”

It’s the Britons who cherish
The good times long gone
Those who get married
To get a cheap council flat

Those who have nothing
And who lost their job
Those who can’t understand
When they see Londongrad

“Look, Rishi, excuse me…”
“Stop bothering me! Stop!
Go to hell, commoner!”

DEDICATED TO BRITAIN
III – IX – MMXXIII

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Brighton

Brighton Rock

Updated on date by author

I am speaking at a panel event with the BBC’s Jonty Bloom on September 7th in Brighton from 7 – 9.30 pm with a cast of star people. We will be discussing the impact of Brexit on musicians. Organised by Helen Gibbons, Chair of European Movement Sussex. We will also be making stops with the Bollocks to Brexit Mini Cooper en route at the Millennium Clocktower and Seaford (venue tbc) 2 – 4 pm with our UK Brexorcism Tour. See Facebook for up to date details of the tour schedule.

UNLOCK THE MUSIC
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UNLOCK THE MUAIC
Click to reserve your place.

Unlock the Music

The careers and livelihoods of UK musicians are being damaged by the loss of the right to work across borders in Europe. European Movement Sussex presents Unlock the Music, a panel event focused on the impact of Brexit on the music industry.

Experienced industry professionals and working musicians will each present their evidence and tell of the issues that have damaged the careers and prospects of many of those involved in music in the UK. They will also offer achievable solutions that the UK government should pursue.

Panel members include:

Dave Webster – Head of International at the Musicians’ Union

Will Page – Author, podcaster and former Chief Economist at Spotify

Tom Kiehl – Deputy CEO and Director of Public Affairs at UK Music

Heather Bird – Double bassist and founder of Classical Evolution

Peter Cook – Author of three books on Brexit and six albums of protest songs

Hanna Madalska-Gayer – Head of Policy & Communications, Association of British Orchestras

Jonty Bloom  – Freelance journalist ex BBC and New European contributor (Moderator)

Date: Thursday, 7 September. Time: 7pm – 9.30pm

Venue: Brighton Unitarian Church, New Road, Brighton, BN1 1UG.

Tickets from TicketSource.

This is the first of a series of three Rebuild with Europe events addressing Brexit impacts on specific sectors. Future events will focus on agriculture and education.

Read our article on musicians and Brexit at The Federal Trust.

Musicians and Brexit
Musicians and Brexit.

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Join us in Swindon Wed 30 August

Posted in Brexit, Britain, Education, Music, Rejoin EU | Tagged , , | 4 Replies
Brexit bunker

Concrete and May

Updated on date by author

Don Adamson is s stalwart campaigner for better government and a better Britain free of Brexit BS. He reports on the week’s news from his Brexit bunker in Barnsley. In a bumper week of Tory chaos, now we face the collapse of concrete schools, the release of Theresa May’s book, Suella Braverman’s war on lefty policemen and the selling of £2500 NHS Nightingale Beds on ebay for £6.00 a go. Concrete and May indeed!!

This week’s homework 

One – List in order of importance the following reasons to detest Gammons and Flagshaggers. Give reasons for your answers: a) Gammons and Flagshaggers are despicable, lying scoundrels of the worst description; b) Brexit has done a FUBAR on Britain beyond the wildest dreams of Stalin, Hitler, Kaiser Bill and Napoleon combined c) Brexit has unleashed English nationalism which means that the English forfeit the right to despise nationalists of other descriptions

Two – Wetherspoon’s pubs cannot make a profit and the company is selling off premises for conversion to apartments. Are these economic problems attributable to Dim Tim Martin’s support for Brexit? 

Three – Gammons and Flagshaggers have a lot to say about their heroism in wars that ended before they were born. Television broadcasts a lot of material to encourage them in that belief: both documentaries and feature films. You sometimes see images of refugees in that period being shelled by badly aimed artillery and being bombed by air forces that define accuracy as hitting the right county. What do Gammons and Flagshaggers see when they view images of refugees; do they see ordinary people fleeing to avoid horrors that never needed to happen in the first place; or do Gammons and Flagshaggers see a sinister Woke Libtard conspiracy to betray the Brexit earthly paradise? 

Four – Discuss the following statement. Prince Andrew demands that his team of Scotland Yard bullet catchers should be re-instated. He has nothing to fear from our enemies but what about our friends (if we have any left)? 

Please support our campaign in Mid Beds

This week’s quotes 

Litigation case against immigration lawyer Jacqueline McKenzie 

… stupid that the party that sent out this dossier by email and unbelievably stupid that two journalists took it upon themselves to send the dossier to the person it was attacking … a shocking hit job laced with untruths … any case McKenzie brings is likely  to result in heads rolling at Tory HQ … 

Lloyds naturally want shot of Telegraph papers 

…  noticeable shift in tone … extraordinary piece saying tens of thousands of Tories want to leave the party … papers are not worth anything near the £600M that Lloyds had originally been hoping for …paper is pleading for a buyer … Rothermere has been courting financial investors in the Middle East to support a bid … 

Organisers of the Rejoin March in London may well have performed a public service 

… a poll of Lib Dem members showed only 3% would not be attending the march as it clashed with their conference … 32% say they will definitely be marching and another 58% say they may march …will at least force the party to confront the disaster of Brexit …

Brexit has dragged Britain back by 70 years 

… Dean Acheson (1962) ‘Britain has lost an empire but not found a role … that role was found and it worked … UK became a useful partner to the USA, an important part of NATO, and, most importantly, an influential leader within the EU …. First EU talks 1955 … we suffered 20 years of angst  … it became increasingly that Britain had missed the bus … no choice but to get on board … benefits of EU membership were almost immediate. Forget the miracle of Thatcherism; the single market was a huge boost for the UK after it began to catch up after 30 years of decline…. We threw it all away in a spasm of nostalgia and stupidity … small band of ultras who dream of a return to empire … think we are a superpower … dragged us back to the 1950s … ‘Anyone stupid enough to want to go back to the 1950s did not live through the 1950s’ … pretensions of grandeur that stifled any appreciation of Britain’s rightful place in the world … once gifted with political giants … Attlee, Churchill, Bevan, Bevin, Macmillan, Heath, Healey, Wilson and a dozen others  – we now have political minnows in charge … no serious people with real experience … mainstream media is now owned and run by self-aggrandising tycoons who only care about how much power they have over the government … post Brexit decline of UK becomes clearer … Why are the French wealthier? Why are the poorest 20% of the British population poorer than the poorest Poles? Where has our trade gone? Why does USA think we are unimportant? Why is the NHS on its knees? … Small minded, insular, climate change denying little Englanders … the road back to common sense will be long and hard … but the tide is turning against the Gammons and Flagshaggers and their media friends …  economic damage is too large, pettiness too blatant, the economy in permanent doldrums, tax burden rising for no apparent reason, the lies ever more pathetic … those who are trying to drag us back to the past must be defeated… 

Tory MP Tobias Ellwood says both Tories and Labour are being dishonest over the disaster of Brexit 

… Europe is stronger with Britain – a huge economy, fifth largest in the world being part of it. There is huge regret from the EU side that we have gone … there is an omerta about Brexit, even more so about mitigating its damage … experience proves that UK needs to be back inside the Single Market … ineptness of the referendum … construction was so poor … if something has been bodged so badly then it should be reconsidered entirely … Brexit is not worth the candle … we would be a richer country if we Rejoined the single market that Thatcher created … internationally people are baffled that we left the EU …  this artificial world of both parties  avoiding the subject because it so toxic and not working … damaging the UK economy … 

Read Michel Barnier

Britain is a rickety union blown apart by the rancour that followed Brexit  

…  Brexit has triggered disputes over devolution…. 

What happens to British comedy when British politics becomes a joke….?

It is hard to say anything funny about Thick Lizzie’s 49 days in office …  politics often trumps sound policy … nation state is seen as inadequate in the face of global challenges that only a united continent can tackle.

Read Private Eyelines

Theresa May is making Tory whips perspire 

… publication of her book ‘Abuse of power’ … describes how trust in politicians and public institutions has been eroded … government hardly in strongest position … eruption from May is last thing her party needs…. the whole issue of Russian interference in our politics … Johnson’s relationship with Lebedev …. May criticising Johnson, Thick Lizzie and Richy Scumbag … she chose Headline, a publisher not within the Murdoch stable … with a reputation for holding the powerful to account … 

Theresa May Cat
The stench of Brexit is unbearable – Theresa May

The only purpose in inviting Thick Lizzie to speak at public events is to laugh at her expense

… images of a lettuce in a blonde wig …

Martin Ivens, editor of Sunday Times in 2016

… assured executives that paper would be on the side of common sense in EU referendum … something happened … Ivens informed same executives that paper would back Brexit … last weekend David Smith … economic outlook, chose not to mention he worked for a pro Brexit paper … described the decision to leave as ‘daft’ … long depressing review of what happened … 60% of population believe to leave was daft … Brexit has had a disastrous effect on politics, trust in politicians … competence in government … 

Difference between a nationalist and a patriot 

… a nationalist wastes a week of government time obsessing on small boats … and on transferring refugees to a barge infected with Legionella … national pride has been horribly poisoned by Brexit … this nation is held hostage by a gang of liars, cheats and has beens 

Much of the best journalism nowadays is done by non journalists 

… several of our newspapers do not do journalism they do Tory propaganda … chaotic incompetence of the last few years … print whatever is served up by Tory spin machine … Tory Peer picked up £200M … for providing 25 million medical gowns  that did not meet the required standard … National Crime agency is taking an absolute age investigating potential fraud … sums of money involved are mind blowing … a disgrace … a country run by and for the Tories … any decent lawyer attached to the government should be ashamed (COMMENT: does he mean Dominic Raas?) … shows how far we have fallen as a country … under this populist rabble …. Something you would expect in Russia or Zimbabwe… 

Please support our independent journalism

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

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