It seems that Leave voters elected to “take back control” of the UK for the following reasons:
So an unelected technocrat could run the country (Dominic Cummings)?
So Russian oligarchs could infiltrate our institutions and spread communism through the country?
So that our NHS could be sold off? Yesterday Parliament voted against protecting the NHS from foreign control in case you missed this amidst stories of a 3 year old baby in a 3 month old baby’s skin.
Answers on a postcard please.
Today we take to Parliament to ask for Brexit to be suspended in the wake of Russian interference in elections and other matters. Be there, or write to your MP to ask them to do the same.
Some translations of recent populist oratory aka mutterings from the Dominic Cummings’ car boot camp of catchphrases. They fit neatly into the vernacular of the dodgy used Brexit car salesman. Whilst we are here:
“There was no suggestion of Russian interference in the Brexit referendum”
We did not look for any interference so none was found
“We’re taking back control of our borders, laws and money”
We are spending £20 billion per year on red tape
“Security is not political”
We have handed over our national security to Russia
A bright new future
“The NHS is not for sale”
We just passed a law that allows us to sell the NHS
“We’ll pursue an Australian Brexit deal”
There is no such thing as an Australia deal
“Good British common sense”
Mob rule
“Strong and Stable”
Dogmatic and insipid
Build, Build, Build
“Let me be clear”
Stand by for mendacity and obfuscation
“Let’s move on”
I don’t have an answer that won’t embarrass me.
“Brexit means Brexit”
We still don’t know what the fuck Brexit is …
“We’re all in this together”
We’re in this for ourselves and fuck the rest of you
“We’re committed and determined to do whatever”
We’ve no intention of doing anything
Banged up by unscrupulous police man
“Stay at home, Control the virus”
Go on a road trip with a baby and spread the virus to Geordies
“There will be adequate food” (Michael Gove)
We are prepared to let the poor starve
“Tough choices”
Easy victims
“Get Brexit done”
Sit on our hands and pretend to negotiate, but in reality do sod all
“People I speak to on the doorstep tell me”
I don’t speak to those plebs but they voted us in and this is what we’re going to do so fuck off
Would you buy a used car from these people?
“What the Great British public wants”
I don’t feel I can argue this point, but we’re in power and we’ll do what we please – fuck off!
“Let us be clear”
Let me fill the space with some meaningless drivel
“No deal is better than a bad deal”
We have messed up completely, totally lost out, can’t give in so we quit
“World-beating”
No one else counts
“We are not lowering British Food standards”
We just passed a law that we are lowering British Food standards
Thanks to Chris J. Stafford, Tony Vail, Charlotte Beyer, Finn Jackson, Don Adamson, Dominique Boulliez, Bill Sylvester, Edward Holmes, Nicola Tipton, Andrew Wallace, Jane Berry, Paul Anders, Stephen Corsham, Andy Janes, Sue Banting, Richard Henson, Nikki Fothergill, Jeremy Clarke, Arno Elout
Our Tunbridge Wells correspondent, formerly a staunch Tory supporter, reports from the G7 summit in Biarritz, France this time last year where Boris Johnson began his career as British prime minister on the international stage with a lie which was massive even by his standards. On 26 July 2019 he said:
“We asked the people to vote on whether to stay in or out of the EU. They voted overwhelmingly, they voted substantially to leave by a big majority”
WRONG
Only a minority of UK registered voters voted for leave – just 37%. 17.4 million Leave voters are NOT a majority in a country with 46.5 million registered voters, or a country with a population of 67 million. The margin for Leave’s win was wafer thin, just 3.8%
That’s NOT substantial, overwhelming or big.
By comparison the amount to remain in the 1975 referendum was 34.5%. That was substantial, overwhelming and big.
Moreover
Many people directly affected by the referendum results were denied a vote.
Two of the four members of the United Kingdom – Scotland and Northern Ireland – voted against Brexit
Leave won by lying cheating and breaking the law. The Prime Minister’s own Counsel agreed, in a case before the Supreme Court concerning the referendum’s validity, that it was ’notorious’.
A Prime Minister who lies to the world is a liability to the British People … all 67 million of us
Write to your MP to demand honesty in politics and the removal of liars. Use Adrian’s article to help you.
Johnson further discredited our country’s reputation for honesty and reliability when, having reached an agreement with the EU on fundamental principles for our future trading relationship, he went back on his word after the 2019 election on the key issue of a level playing field As matters stand today, this issue may well result in “No Deal” with the EU which, combined with coronavirus, can only result in total “Britastrophe“.
I’m really sick of Brexit. I’m even more sick of Remainers! Well, not all of them of course. Just the ones that waste their and my time telling me we cannot stop Brexit or that we must have a Brexit deal, even if it is shit. My angst extends to some of the key culture carriers of Remain, such as Femi Oluwole, Mike Galsworthy, People’s Vote rebadged and the self-appointed Byline Times leaders, who are merely gold-plating the reasons why we lost three elections and behave like an outreach group of the Labour Party rather than an apolitical coalition devoted to saving the UK from itself.
However, we are all on the same train in one respect, but these people have satisficed themselves with a longer term unicorn of some vague renaissance of a United Kingdom in a reformed EU at some point between 2024 and 2029. This MAY happen, but the probability is low, especially if we get a Brexit deal, as Brexit will be settled for a generation, with no-one wishing to re-open the toxic issue.
See also our article that explains why rejoining is probably a unicorn at Fool Britannia
There is a short-term imperative that these people are not addressing. That of Suspending Brexit altogether. I was gutted to listen to Femi “drinking the Johnson Kool Aid” last week, laying out options for future resistance but not listing the goal of suspending Brexit as one of them. Sadly, 500 Remainers listened to this and because we are largely a law abiding lot, most of them probably believed it. Here I set out the rationale as to why Suspending Brexit in the next 2-3 months remains a viable strategy.
Ball of Confusion OCT – DEC 2020
We can foresee a veritable shitshow in the next few months, an Autumn of Discontent. Here’s just a few of the things coming over the hill in terms of psycho-socio-economic and political factors:
Will Johnson do another U-Turn on Brexit? It’s possible if we act upon moderate MPs and embolden the opposition to grow backbones. He is possibly one of the few people who could do this AND get away with it.
I broke the law
When Remainers tell me that we passed a law to get Brexit done, they seem to forget that our Government break the law on a daily basis. They have just withdrawn the withdrawal agreement, the very law that would “Get Brexit Done”. And just recall all the other laws they have broken of late:
No Deal was ruled illegal. We are still pursing it.
Gina Miller won a case in the Supreme Court. It was ignored.
The Government have just voted down the findings from the Grenfell inquiry in a shameful reversal of their promise – in effect they are saying “Burn, Baby, Burn”.
We have an alleged rapist in the House of Commons, yet nothing has been done about it.
Breaking international law is the most recent example of the plain fact that politicians consider themselves above the law.
Since our Government break the law and do U-Turns on a daily basis, they can also suspend Brexit or do a U-Turn on it. There are plenty of good “excuses”, with COVID at the top of the charts.
How would it be done?
In simple terms, all that is needed is a phone call from Boris Johnson to Ursula Von Der Leyen. The EU have always left the door ajar for this. This opportunity will not prevail forever, but it is still possible at this time via whatever excuse Johnson can create and whatever mechanism the legal profession can manufacture.
Of course the phone call is not enough. But lawyers would make millions providing the “legal theatre” necessary to “christen” the decision by writing hundreds of documents to validate the decision and make it look difficult. More work for the legal profession.
Paradoxically the removal of a Brexit deal from the mix of negotiations would actually help create the chasm between No Deal + Corona i.e. a Britastrophe:
We went out to the quaint town of Deal in Kent yesterday. I heaved a sigh on the morning as I wondered whether it was worth writing a press release for local media. I remembered one of the maxims I took, not from my MBA, but from George Michael and Wham “If you’re gonna do it, do it right”. So I dashed off a press release and mailed local media outlets.
Cats and Dogs against Brexit
A couple of hours later the press release was picked up by a fantastic journalist. I got straight on to her by phone as we were on our way to the event, managing to lose our way due to multi-tasking on the way! A few more hours later and we had coverage across all Kent with our message that Corona Crisis + Brexit disaster = A Britastrophe. The journalist even included our video, which was quite surprising as it is fairly biased against Brexit. Of course, a note to Byline Times, controversy sells newspapers …
Find the article Kent Online – The comments from a few remaining Brexiteers are quite something to behold. There is far less push back than one year ago but still some of the usual diehards are claiming that they are taking back control just when Boris Johnson is removing all of our rights and the rule of law. These few keyboard warriors are not representative of the vast majority of people, who actually agreed with our proposition, even in Brexity Deal. Brexit realities are at last beginning to sink in with the toxic combination of Corona + Brexit worth a whopping 12% + 9% GDP loss on our economy if we continue with Brexit on 31.12.20. I’d cancel Christmas for the kids right now.
In other news, our latest blog post “Snitch on your MP“ has been extremely well received. In this article, we ask people to report MPs for breaking international law. Feel free to share and snitch on the MPs – it’s the morally right thing to do.
We will soon reach the eye of the COVID-Brexit storm. This offers an opportunity for suspension of Brexit. Our song “Britastrophe” will be launched soon, to be sent to MPs as well as enjoyed in its own right.
We continue to face various threats from trolls and local lunatics. Please support our campaign to protect my family against these people.
I deplore NIMBY-ism (Not In My Back Yard). It typifies the English condition. It is an underlying cause of our Brexit vote (fear of foreigners, “my home is my castle”, Rule Britannia and so on). We experienced a small dose of NIMBY-sim in conversation with the good ladies of Deal on Sunday. We took the seaside town by storm with some candyfloss and cockles. Although the women we spoke to voted for Brexit, they demonstrated typical English parochial self-interest:
“If it does not affect me, I don’t care”
Yet, even these fine women had changed their mind about Brexit. They realised that their quaint town will be filled with lorries from Dover shortly, under any Brexit deal.
Operation Truss – protecting our borders with cheesy stories about Japanese trade deals
So, I cannot help reflect on the looming case of NIMBY-ism about to befall my fellow men of Kent and Kentish women. It was announced on the BBC that 7000 lorries would soon be blocking the roads in Kent and the South East. This represents a single lane queue of some 72 miles, stretching approximately from Dover to Greenwich, Gatwick or Guildford. Of course. it won’t be a single lane queue though …
No, it will be worse than this. About 18 months ago, I spoke with some Councillors at Kent County Council who had undertook some serious road planning for Brexit. Their studies indicated that, in the age of SatNavs, people would attempt to use villages and B roads to beat the jams. Just a few people doing this will effectively block most villages in East Kent. They concluded that big towns like Folkestone, Dover, Ashford, Canterbury, Whitstable, Thanet Maidstone and The Medway Towns would be gridlocked.
Does it get worse? Of course it does. Once minor roads and villages are gridlocked, teachers, carers, nurses, business people etc. will be unable to get to work. Their children will have to stay at home. Contagion dictates that the impact of Brexit is very much in your back garden (and everyone else’s). Today it was reported that Kent will have an internal border something like the island of Ireland, with fines and police enforcement for lorries without the correct papers. Yet, we don’t have enough permits or customs agents to provide the said papers! Michael Gove says it is business leaders that are to blame for this. I rather think it is Michael Gove for not building capacity and capability.
You may well say, we knew that Brexit would make things worse. Well, consider these further facts of life from my experience as a pharmaceutical scientist and business person. 90% of our food supply comes from Europe, especially in winter. Much of it relies on cold storage (cook-chill, fresh food and so on). So that means that much of our food will stand rotting on the M20 and M2, if Kent County Council’s scenarios come to pass. The leaked Government report predicts up to two days delay per lorry in Kent and the South East.
“No problem, I don’t eat” you may say. Well the problem extends to people who need healthcare, as many drugs are imported and some also crucially rely on carefully controlled temperature conditions. Others have limited shelf lives anyway. Radioisotopes literally rely on limited half-lives, especially technetium generators, which are the mainstay of UK nuclear medicine scans. This means that babies and vulnerable people will die for Brexit. Still happy with half a life? Will your child settle for death, in order to deliver a windfall to Jacob Rees-Mogg?
Boris Johnson has just announced extreme measures for social control to suppress resistance to Brexit chaos. Are you still happy about this? If you voted to Remain, are you simply going to lay down and pretend to be dead, based on the notion that spaffer Johnson popped Brexit in the Microwave, Gas Mark 4 on Halloween, then again on December 12 2019 and finally on 31.01.20? if you voted for Brexit are you now beginning to think that Johnny Rotten was right:
“Ever had the feeling you’ve been conned?”
Project fear I hear you say? No, I’m afraid this is project fact. Whether you voted for Brexit or not, my guess is that you did not vote for lorries in your back yard.
It is necessary to suspend Brexit in such drastic circumstances. Corona has contributed a 12% decline in GDP with Brexit predicted to add between 5-11% more. We have to endure Corona as a natural phenomenon, but we don’t need to add Brexit to create a “Britastrophe”, as Brexit is a man-made phenomenon. The economics don’t just add together to produce approximately 20% loss of GDP by the way. In any case, it only took 3.5% GDP loss to produce the 2008 crash. Do you really want this for your kids?
No Brexit is the only good Brexit. Suspension is the next best option, followed by No Deal and then a Brexit deal. Read why by clicking the image.
It is fine to challenge the government to deliver the Brexit they promised and point out the failings when they don’t. It is not fine to pretend that any Brexit is going to be better than what we have thrown away. It is fine to say we want the government to get a good deal that does not compromise the Good Friday Agreement. It is not fine to pretend that a good deal that does not compromise the Good Friday Agreement is actually possible.
When Johnson fails abysmally to get anything like the deal he was promising or indeed any deal, what are you going to be saying ? You cannot in all honesty support a government that has put the peace in Ireland at risk. Nor can you support a government that wilfully gets to the end of the year with only WTO tariffs to trade on. You are quite right to say that the PM should be focussing all his attention on COVID and getting the virus under control, so tell him to suspend Brexit and come back to it when the threat of COVID has passed. Corona Crisis + Brexit Disaster = A Britastrophe
Conservatives pride themselves on being the Party of law and order. Why are they advocating to break the law. Managing Brexit on top of the disaster they have had in controlling the virus is going to cost them dear come the local elections in May. Surely they would be better calling for a suspension of Brexit to concentrate on getting the virus under control.
Buy British is trending on Twitter. Since I consider myself a patriot, as someone who wishes to keep the Great in Britain by remaining in the EU, I wondered, what can we buy that is British?
Food, Glorious Food
When people tell me that Britain is full, they need to realise that we congregate on approximately 5% of the land mass. 70% of our land is agricultural with 36% arable. The rest grassland, rough grazing, or woodland. From the land, we mostly produce grains; wheat, oats and barley; root vegetables, chiefly potatoes and sugar beet; pulses such as beans or peas; forage crops such as cabbages, rape and kale; fruit, particularly apples and pears; and hay. We produce about 6.5 million tonnes of barley. 1.5 million tonnes are exported, 2 million tonnes used in brewing and distilling activities and the remainder fed to livestock. After Brexit, Michael Gove has admitted that we will see tariffs applied to meat of up to 40%. The Grocer reported that exports outside the EU may not be accepted at all. Lamb farmers are especially vulnerable, as 98% of their production is exported and their business runs on narrow margins.
UK self sufficiency has dropped from 75% to 61%
Apart from the economics, estimates suggest that 90% of the 75,000 seasonal workers in edible horticulture in the UK are migrants from the EU. They will no longer be eligible to come here to pick the fruit and evidence suggests that Britons do not wish to do the work. Read our article on traffic contagion in Kent for more insights.
So, what foods will we not see on our shelves so much after Brexit? Here’s a short list:
“Still, the turnip is quite versatile”
“How about a good British Curry” I hear you say? Well the sauces are made in Patak’s factory in Poland. I understand that people are stockpiling Christmas Puddings, presumably informed by the instruction from Wizzard Johnson that “I wish it could be Christmas every day”. Sadly many of the ingredients are not indigenous to Britain.
Highway Star
“We make cars” I hear you say. Quite correct. Our most popular cars are made by Nissan (Japanese), Land Rover (Indian), Mini (German), Honda (Japanese) and Toyota (Japanese). Tariffs will make cars made in Britain more expensive to buy domestically or uncompetitive to export. We have already seen industry making tough choices on where to locate production and this will continue under Brexit.
Chris Barnett points out that if you want to buy a British car you can buy a Morgan. The engine is German though.
Fad Gadgets
Then there are the rest of the things we consume. Electronics, toys, computers. Most of them are imports which are therefore subject to whatever trade deals and relationships we chose to strike with the rest of the world if we continue with Brexit. Our level of trusthworthiness will largely dictate how these go.
Read our article on Trust by clicking the picture
The Drugs Don’t Work
And it’s not just food. See our article on medicine shortages. People will die for Brexit. Are you prepared to accept this on behalf of friends and loved ones? It’s all on you if you continue to want any kind of Brexit. Ask Wendy Novak about health and medicines after Brexit.
But we have lots of tanning booths, nail bars and hair salons, so that’s alright then …
Dang, most of our cosmetic products are imported
Read our article on how to suspend Brexit by clicking the picture
Read our article on why Rejoining is a unicorn in the mid-long term by clicking the picture
Don’t just sit there:
Gift Britastrophe to MPs to prick their consciences on the toxic mixture of Corona + Brexit
Join us at Futurama – an arts festival to change the world
There is no future in England’s dreaming
“We won the war. We won the World Cup. We won Brexit. I’ve not idea what it’s for but I’ll look a bit of a twat down the pub with my mates if I say so”
Still, the Brexiteers can drown in Watneys’ Red Barrel whilst Jacob Rees-Mogg laughs all the way to his tax haven
Today, Boris Johnson will promise to power the UK with wind by 2030. In particular he promises £160 million in ports and factories across the country to manufacture the next generation of turbines. Malcolm Miller helpfully points out that this is about “half a footballer”.
It’s an ideal time for Boris to harness the winds of change. While he hasn’t quite blown it with the electorate, some of his back benchers have really got the wind up recently: at his inability to provide leadership, to offer a strategy or fulfil the simplest 3-word pledge. Now, perhaps it’s time to “Make Britain Whirl-beating”.
Since he was a cub reporter in Brussels, Johnson has always been a fan of hot air: from the supposed ban on prawn-flavoured crisps, to a fabrication on euro-coffins, he’s always known the power of a good wind-up. As a man capable of fabricating ‘an inverted pyramid of piffle’ on a whim, we’ve seen his promises on a checkless border for Northern Ireland, an oven-ready Brexit deal and 40 new hospitals for the NHS. Ireland is an unsolvable conundrum, the oven-ready deal’s in the bin, and 40 has shrunk to 6. So, how many times can a man talk up an empty pledge, before he can die in a ditch? Perhaps the answer, my friend, is blowing in the wind.
Whilst a blow-by-blow account of Boris’s lies has inflated more blogs than your average gas-bag, let’s look at few choice outbursts:
Let’s spend £350 million per week on the NHS.
Let’s take back control of our fish.
There will be no checks on goods coming and going to Northern Ireland.
We’ll build 40 new hospitals. Six were built.
If I don’t get Brexit done by Halloween, I will die in a ditch.
“How many times can a man talk up an empty pledge, before he can die in a ditch? Perhaps the answer, my friend, is blowing in the wind” – Jane Berry
“Wind power couldn’t take the skin off a rice pudding” – Boris Johnson
We’ll get 50 000 more nurses in the NHS.
Pop Brexit in the microwave, gas mark 4.
I’ve had to give drinking up until Brexit is done.
When we leave the EU we can ban shark fin soup.
“Operation Moonshot” (millions of Corona tests with results within minutes) will see mass Corona testing by November. He did not say how many minutes or which year.
When we leave the EU we can have straight bananas.
We’ll get 20 000 more police officers on the street. They sacked 20 000 police offers in 2010.
EU regulations stop us lowering lorry windows to help cyclists.
“I didn’t make any remarks about Turkey” in the referendum”, after indicating that Turkey (population 76 million) is joining the EU.
With thanks to Catherine Reynolds
I will lie (sic) down in front of the bulldozers at Heathrow to stop them building the runway. Instead he was AWOL at the vote.
There may be bumps in the road with no deal.
“I have not had an affair with Petronella. It is complete balderdash”.
Of the tests conducted at the 199 testing centres, as well as the mobile centres, they’re all done within 24 hours.
We will havea world-beating “test and trace” system by 1 June. Johnson did not say which year …
If you have lived overseas for 15 years Britons, unlike other foreign nationals, get no vote. Boris promised to abolish this law / rule when he came to power.
[20 000 people died unnecessarily in care homes] because too many care homes didn’t really follow the procedures in the way that they could have.
We will beat the virus by Christmas. He did not say which year …
We’ll help everyone cycle via the fix my bike scheme. The website broke on launch and then they said the scheme had closed.
And some surprises we did not expect:
A hard border in Kent and a “passport” scheme for people driving to Europe.
“Black people are piccaninnies with watermelon smiles”.
On Muslim face veils, Johnson said it is “absolutely ridiculous that people should choose to go around looking like letterboxes”.
Johnson backed a failed plan for a “floating paradise” across the River Thames wasting £43 million of your taxes. A mere trifle in comparison with the £200 billion blown on Brexit so far.
Boris has always favoured breezing through life with no responsibility. But with 15,000 test results lost, 70 mile lorry queues predicted for Kent, and power cuts predicted for next year, perhaps the time is coming when he might reap the whirlwind after all.
Don’t just sit there:
Gift Britastrophe to MPs to prick their consciences on the toxic mixture of Corona + Brexit
