In case you are unaware occasionally we parody the immense stupidity and lies from populist newspapers. Here is today’s edition as we get ready for the Brexit wars. This includes some fact checking below, just in case you are unable to separate Brexit fact from fiction.
Click on the Maul to read our political satire Private Eyelines.
Boris Johnson has suggested that Parliament will not have time to approve a Brexit deal. So, when he said “Take Back Control”, he meant for himself rather than Parliament or the People. In the words of Johnny Rotten:
Ever got the feeling you’ve been cheated?
Farmers fear that the turkeys they are rearing will be too big for Christmas. Some (turkeys, not farmers) have in fact been put on diets.
Johnson has summoned up more jingoistic rhetoric about war with his announcement of more money for our military. This amounts to more distraction from COVID and Brexit. And like most of Johnson’s announcements, it’s not quite what it seems …
Common sense reflection.
Minister for the 18th Century, Jacob Rees-Mogg did quote Caractacus on Parliament the other day, but did not make an explicit connection between Rolf Harris and his song The Court of King Caractacus. Unfortunately many other people did. Jake deleted his tweet so you cannot reply to him.
In the ultimate irony, it seems that “forins” will be manning the border posts if Brexit proceeds. They very thing that Brexiteers wanted will not come to pass and they will have their blue passports inspected by Romanians and Indians. Oh, the joy on their faces!
A book on Brexit has been released. Entitled “The Benefits of Brexit“. The book contains 234 BLANK pages. Some Brexiteers are outraged, having bought the book to find it devoid of inspiration. Here’s my review:
Click image to read our books on Brexit. They have words and pictures.
If you want a good book on how to have difficult conversations about Brexit around the Slimfast Christmas Turkey, please find our books on Brexorcism on Amazon.
Written by a former Conservative Councillor from Tunbridge Wells.
“I didn’t leave the party. The party left me”
In last week’s article on negotiations with the EU we showed that it was Johnson’s regime which had acted in bad faith up to now. One aspect of the level playing field, state aid, needs to be looked at further. Here, negotiator Frost enlarges on his usual mantra about Britain being an independent country by insisting that it is therefore entitled to spend its own money as it wishes. But there are limits to this seemingly reasonable argument.
As individuals, we all have the right to spend our money as we wish. However, if we do so in a way that gives us unfair advantages over our neighbours and damages them, we should not expect favours from them in return and may face retaliation.
In the case of state aid, Frost is actually demanding a more favourable position for Britain than we had as an EU member.
This is not reasonable.
It does not represent the spirit of Britain in terms of fair play. It is more like Trump’s spoilt child approach.
Click on the image to view last week’s post.
As a member of the EU, we had freedom from tariffs and quotas and had access to the single market. In kind we were expected to comply with EU state aid rules. These ban state aid to attract investment (except in development areas). Now we are demanding these advantages plus the right to offer state aid without limit. This is a benefit which even member states are not allowed to grant to their firms.
It is hardly surprising that this unreasonable demand is a sticking-point for the EU.
Report MP’s for breaking international law using the letters and contact links at Stop Boris’ Junta.
Particularly, since the UK was the top recipient in the EU of overseas investment until very recently. This is no longer so, thanks to Brexit. It could be retrieved if negotiations were not blocked by the inept negotiation skills and the hubris of Frost and the rest of Johnson’s regime.
Instead, however, the Government proceeds with the Internal Market Bill. This contains clauses contrary to the EU Withdrawal Agreement, Johnson’s General Election promises on Brexit. The bill also breaks international law.
Well worth your time.
Tory MPs have deflected the issue by referring to a vague EU threat to block the sale of British agricultural products within the EU. They claim:
“This would prevent the transfer of animal products from Great Britain to Northern Ireland under the Northern Ireland Protocol.”
However, no information has been given as to who made this threat, whether it has formal status and the forum in which it was made. Without such details, it is doubtful if this threat was ever made at all, given this government’s record of lies.
The lies, falsehoods and misrepresentations of Boris Johnson and his government https://t.co/VRLlGjnTKt
The Johnson regime also lists scenarios in which the Bill’s illegal provisions would be used. These assume bad faith or unreasonable actions by the EU, and are highly provocative and self-defeating. This game of chicken has provoked the expected reaction from any organisation who is threatened by criminals. In other words, the initiation of legal action against the UK for breaking international law.
Ursula von der Leyen speaks the truth
It is Britain, not the EU, which has acted in bad faith. We continue to do so, notably by the mere act of passing an illegal Bill through Parliament.
Write to your MP. Ask them to suspend Brexit on Monday 5th October via Halt Brexit.
Adrian Ekins-Daukes plans to lead Re-Boot Britain in order to boot Tories out of Local Government in the 2021 elections.
Please support our ongoing journalism and other activism.
In case of doubt, Boris Johnson’s statement about bananas was a big fat LIE.
As negotiations reach another hiatus, it’s a good idea to remind people that Brexit is not inevitable now that less than 37% of people still think that Brexit is a good idea. Here are the Brexit Choices for a Better Britain open to us at the moment.
By the way “probability” is perhaps better expressed as “betting odds” – the numbers do not add up to 100% of course
In case people don’t understand why the EU cannot just give the UK what they want, consider the EU as a golf club with 28 members. One does not want to pay the subscriptions but still wants to use the club for gala dinners, special events and demands a free set of golf clubs every year without paying. The head of the golf club must decline. If he says yes, he will face a backlash from the other 27 paying members who will also want a rebate or more services for less money. The primary job of an enterprise is to protect its members and, regardless of our belligerence in the talks, The EU must set this aside and protect the greater good of the union.
We also have an unlikely ally on our side in the form of Theresa May at the moment, who has rebelled on several occasions taking others with her:
“I might have thought the government would have abandoned algorithms by now.”
Remember, the withdrawal agreement was a 2019 ELECTION PROMISE. It’s not even a year on and Johnson has broken his marriage vows, his election promises and caused at least 30 000 unnecessary deaths. Are you still happy about this?
Write to your MP and demand that Boris admits that he lied to win the election. Ask them to oppose Johnson’s reckless Brexit.
In this post, Wendy Nowak outlines the real issues facing those of you on medication if we allow Brexit to happen.
The Facts of Life … and Death
Believe it or not many of you will be affected by medicine shortages if Brexit happens come 31st December 2020. Here I explain why I’ve been extremely worried for the past two years.
As soon as I heard rumours about shortages of medicines, alarm bells started ringing in my head. They are ringing even louder these days. I’m Type 2 diabetic and am prescribed insulin to control it, which is sometimes the case with Type 2s. Without insulin the complications of uncontrolled diabetes are dire
Blindness
Kidney failure
Cardio vascular disease
Amputation
By the way, Type 1 diabetics are totally dependent on insulin for survival. Only about 0.5% of the insulin used in the UK is manufactured here. It is also animal insulin which not many diabetics can take. The rest comes mainly from Denmark or Germany, from the big manufacturers Novo Nordisk and Sanofi Deutschland. The other issue with insulin is that, being temperature sensitive, it is not easy to stockpile. Before the last Brexit deadline the government promised they would buy loads of extra fridges and engage a wonderful ferry company to ship over our meds. Remember Seabourne? They didn’t actually have any ferries. Another government scam, which made me fear for my life even more.
Editor’s note: This has been the case for many years. In my early years I worked at Wellcome who used to make much of the supply of beef insulin. I worked on the breakthrough treatment of human insulin with Novo Nordisk. A proud moment in my life, only to be thrown away by a government that only understands money rather than quality of lifeand lies systematically to make us forget the meaning of life.
A group small group of us, one of whom is a retired medic, got together online to organise demos and die-ins, along with FB posts and tweets, to raise awareness of this issue. Considering the fact that this is a life or death issue the response from the British media and public has been appalling, which also worries me. Despite numerous requests, the British media have more or less ignored us, up until fairly recently anyway. Comments from the public ranged from brexiteers who basically don’t care if they or their relatives die as long as they get their blue passport (which isn’t actually blue!) to those who don’t quite understand the extent of the chaos we are facing. That could be down to lack of coverage in the media. There was also disbelief when faced with the hard facts which we laid before them, ie. The repeated warnings to the government from the medics and the pharma industry about shortages.
Are you prepared to see loved ones die for a blue passport?
Why we should all be worried?
Three quarters of our med supplies come from Europe. That figure is quoted in the government Yellowhammer report. It’s not just about me and it’s not just about diabetes. It affects thousands of patients, including those suffering from cancer, those on dialysis, asthma, epilepsy, glaucoma, rheumatoid arthritis, many immune deficiencies and many more. Anybody could be diagnosed with any of these conditions at any time.
The UK is pulling out of EURATOM, which guarantees our supply and ensures the safety of nuclear materials. The radioisotopes necessary for cancer treatment and diagnostic scans are at risk. They are also imported from Europe, are extremely time sensitive and cannot be stockpiled. Cancer patients are already being told that they will not be prioritised for treatment because they are over a certain age. Are you OK with that?
Who cares about Brexit?
Uncool for Cats
Many veterinary medicines are also imported. These face the same issues as our own. Brexit has also caused a shortage of EU vets (as indeed it has among our NHS staff) who have had enough of the hostile environment which now exists in the UK. Not only are our pets at risk, but these vets also monitor our farm animals and help to uphold our food standards. Once again the warning went out a couple of years ago when we staged the Wooferendum marches. Once again, not enough people listened.
We had a stockpile of medicines (well, at least of those which can be stockpiled) as a no-deal contingency. The pandemic has eroded these away, which leaves us in a dire situation in the event of no-deal. This is before any second COVID wave hits us.
What am doing about this?
I have a bit of a dilemma. As a diabetic I have to ensure I don’t catch the virus, but if I sit back and do nothing I face severe illness or death from med shortages. My risk assessment is that I can take precautions against COVID, such as wearing a mask, social distancing, hand-washing, but there’s nothing I can do if my meds run out. I go out protesting, socially distanced of course! As I’ve been told many times ‘the government doesn’t care about you’. To everyone who thinks it’s okay to say that and then do nothing I say, ‘get out there’. We the oppressed people of the UK need to show the government that WE care and we are willing to do hammer home that message. We are not willing to endure medicine, and indeed food shortages (I and many others need a healthy diet), enabled by their deception and corruption.
What can you do about this?
Write to your MP using this as a basis for your arguments. Ask for Brexit to be suspended.
Get out on the streets as Wendy suggests. It’s not too late to stop Brexit. Join us at Rage Against Brexit.
Yesterday Boris Johnson withdrew the withdrawal agreement. Let’s remember that he won an election primarily on the idea of getting Brexit done. He also then persuaded his party to vote for the Withdrawal Agreement. Today Theresa May has just cut Boris Johnson into tiny pieces over the WA.
Theresa May – The government is now changing the operation of that agreement. So how can the government reassure future international partners that the UK can be trusted to abide by the legal obligations of the agreements it signs? 🔥 pic.twitter.com/urVCEY6iH3
It occurred to me that, although, I don’t want Brexit, Theresa May’s Withdrawal Agreement could be considered to be the high water mark of Brexit deals. All subsequent deals have been a considerable watering down of Theresa May’s achievement. No wonder she is angry about the wilful destruction of one nation Conservatism by Dominic Cummings.
Take the example of a plumber or builder. There are only two circumstances when you would have to not pay your dues or not deliver your work to the required standard. The first would be if you were fixing to die the following day. The second would be if you were planning to retire and live on a remote desert island so that nobody could call you to account. In the case of the UK, we are not fixing to die or live in splendid isolation (or are we?). We need the trust of other nations in order to secure future trading relationships.
In the modern world we have systems such as Trust Pilot to rate businesses for delivery and trustworthiness. If the UK plc were a plumber or builder, its Trust Pilot score would now be at minus 3000. Any future post-Brexit trading partners will doubtless include North Korea, Syria and Venezuela to name a few.
Write to your MP to say that you agree with Theresa. Point out that the party voted for the WA and that it was a pivotal election pledge.
Our Government have resorted to putting lots of dead cats in the way of the real news about Brexit, COVID and so on. So this week, we have resorted to providing a whole front page dedicated to dead cats and the other to news.
The Daily Maul – To read more like this click on the image
Soaraway Sun – Click for more
If you MP voted for the Enabling Act and is a barrister, report them to the bar via Report your MP
If your MP voted for the Enabling Act, write to them via Write to Them. Explain the consequences of breaking international law.
Today Boris Johnson begins the next stage of his march towards the 4th Reich, by installing what I’m calling “People Versus People”. In other words, asking people to snitch on their neighbours for breaking lockdown rules in a move taken straight from the Stasi playbook. Of course it matters to limit the spread of COVID, but there are better ways to do this and this move is yet another piece of classic deflection and gaslighting by Johnson’s Junta.
So, instead of snitching on your neighbour, snitch on your Tory MP. It’s the noble and morally right thing to do. The UK Internal Markets Bill is the modern day equivalent of The 1933 Enabling Act in Nazi Germany. We must stop the sleepwalk into a dictatorship. If your MP voted for the UK Internal Markets Bill, here’s what you can do for your country and your community:
Check to see if your MP is a barrister or solicitor via They Work for You.
The forms are fairly easy to use. I recommend just using their name and MP as the title. Use their local MP office as their address which you can easily find via their personal website. Use the letter below as the basis of your complaint. Emphasise the legal consequences of their decision to back the bill. Ask for their removal as a barrister or solicitor.
If they are not a barrister or solicitor, simply write directly to your MP via write to them using your own version of the letter below. Please also ask others to do the same using a different version of the letter. Template letters are often rejected so please use this letter as a basis for your own.
There is a list of Solicitors and Barrister MP’s below. Don’t just limit yourself to these people. Go forth and snitch!
LETTER TO SRA or Bar Standards Board
Dear xxx,
I write to you to ask that you withdraw [MP name] from the register for voting for the UK Internal Markets Bill, currently passing through Parliament. The bill breaks international and domestic law and represents a new low point in our reputation as a great nation.
You will be aware that great figures such as Theresa May, Lord Howard, Sajid Javid, Lord Lamont, former Attorney General Geoffrey Cox QC have raised serious objections to the bill as well as six former Prime Ministers on all sides of our politics from Sir John Major to David Cameron. It has also gained international condemnation from world leaders across the globe, for its similarity with the 1933 Enabling Act.
I request that you remove [MPs name] from the register as a member of your profession for breaking the law. This move threatens the credibility of the justice system and therefore your institution and the UK’s reputation as a standard bearer.
Yours sincerely
etc. etc.
LETTER TO MP’s
Dear xxx,
I write to you, to ask you to vote against the UK Internal Markets Bill, currently passing through Parliament. The bill breaks international and domestic law and represents a new low point in our reputation as a great nation. Of course, your own reputation as an MP and that of your party goes hand in hand with this.
You will be aware that great figures such as Theresa May, Lord Howard, Sajid Javid, Lord Lamont, former Attorney General Geoffrey Cox QC have raised serious objections to the bill as well as six former Prime Ministers on all sides of our politics from Sir John Major to David Cameron. It has also gained international condemnation from world leaders across the globe, for its similarity with the 1933 Enabling Act.
I ask you to restore trust and decency in politics and pull back from the brink of this Cummings inspired initiative. Dominic’s end game is the destruction of democratic politics in the UK. Is that what you really want on your Wikipedia page as a legacy?
Yours sincerely
etc. etc.
Click the image to give us a tip
The Stasi
Solicitors
Steve Barclay Siobhan Baillie Jake Berry James Brokenshire Fiona Bruce William Cash Simon Clarke Alberto Costa James Daly Jonathan Djanogly Natalie Elphicke Kevin Foster Peter Gibson Helen Grant Robert Jenrick Gareth Johnson David Jones Greg Knight John Lamont (Scotland) Brandon Lewis Alan Mak Anne Marie Morris David Mundell (Scotland) Will Quince Dominic Raab Tom Randall Shailesh Vara
Barristers
Victoria Atkins Suella Braverman Robert Buckland Alex Chalk Robert Courts Sarah Dines Michael Ellis Natalie Elphicke Laura Farris Lucy Frazer Jerome Mayhew Huw Merriman Guy Opperman Victoria Prentis Edward Timpson Michael Tomlinson Theresa Villiers Gavin Robinson (Northern Ireland)
Some exceptions
If he is a barrister in Northern Ireland, go to Northern Ireland
If s/he is a solicitor or barrister in Scotland, go to Scotland
You know what really troubles me about our Government? It’s the fact that nobody gives a damn about being lied to on a daily basis. My own brother typifies the condition known as learned helplessness, when he points out that he was lied to in 1996 about his pension by the Government and so he now expects to be lied to on a daily basis. Although he voted to Remain, he has swallowed the lie that we must not interfere with the “will of the people”, nor does he understand how he might go about this if he did.
Click on the image to read Reboot Britain
Mike Cashman devised an interesting way to test the nation’s agreeableness to being lied to with his “acceptometer”. It asks you to decide whereabouts on a Likert scale you are prepared to accept being lied to on a daily basis by politicians. Test yourself on this simple example:
Where do you draw the line?
It occurred to me that this very dark piece of music I wrote a while back sums up the essential value conflict that Mike speaks of. In the piece Nigel Farage reflects on the poverty of his existence in a kind of confessional, set against a very dark backdrop of synths and saxes in a retro futurist jazz mashup. This is not pop music!
We are donkeys
We will be taking the Bollocks to Brexit Mini Cooper out again soon with your support. We are looking at Hampshire, Yorkshire, Kent, Essex and London but are open to offers from feisty campaigners. Please provide your support via Bollocks. We take no prisoners.
Some Remainers hold the view that Britain rules the waves and that we can rejoin the EU at some point in the future. The assumptions on which they base their predictions are that nothing changes in Britain or in the EU after Brexit. Yet this is fundamentally unlikely to be true and our chance to reverse Brexit is therefore time limited. Consider the effects of change over the next 5-10 years in socio-economic and cultural terms:
INFERNAL COMBUSTION
Scotland will have a legitimate case to leave the UK if Brexit happens. This will be followed by movements towards re-unification of Ireland, then the separation of Wales and so on. It is not too fanciful to suggest that England will gravitate towards The People’s Republic of Thurrock over the long term, as atomisation becomes fashionable. After all, Brexit is really about the creation of Singapore on Thames for a few people, the realignment of Britain with the worst of what the US has to offer and a narrow islander’s outlook on world affairs and racism.
In terms of economics, we have had a first wave of companies leaving the UK in 2017 – 2018 then another after it became clear that tariffs and a customs union will be a Brexit reality. The third wave will follow if Brexit happens, once companies understand that Brexit means No deal, No trade and No hope. The Russian experiment to destabilise Europe will be complete.
These economic and social changes will be accompanied by a consequential brain drain by people with portable skills in the 4th industrial age and a transition to a low skills / low wage culture. Brexit is Jacob Rees-Mogg’s wet dream of a return to an upstairs downstairs society of servants, serfdom and the workhouse. Quite why working class people voted for Brexit, apart from as a protest, still escapes me as someone who began life in a working class family but who now works globally as a knowledge worker. Brexit will make little impact on me personally, but I cannot understand why those who will lose most still seem to want it just because they “won”. Read what the University of Oxford has to say about our brain drain, which has increased by some 30% in recent times with Brexit being the dominant driver of “cerebral migration“.
“According to the study, the numbers of UK citizens obtaining EU member state passports provides evidence that an increasing number of UK immigrants are making long-term migration decisions to protect themselves from some of the negative effects of Brexit“
The net effects of these socio-economic and cultural changes will be deep and long lasting. They may result in the UK being unfit to re-join the EU as “Little Britain” may not even be able to meet the joining criteria. In any case, Britain may find itself in a queue behind Albania. Queuing is at least something that British people understand!
Say no to Britastrophe
EXTERNAL CHANGES
At the same time, the EU will not remain static across a 5-10 year period . Some of the likely effects on the EU side of things include:
The EU experience of our continuing desire to “have our cake and eat it too” may well persuade Brussels that Charles De Gaulle was right about Britain. De Gualle warned his five EEC partners that Britain had a “deep-seated hostility” to European integration that could bring about the end of what was then referred to as the “common market.” He also worried that in crunch times, Britain would always side with the United States over its continental neighbours. Britain has attempted to do just that by trading hormone fed beef and chlorinated chicken against our food supply from Europe and even our own farmer’s livelihoods. A nation that puts food before wellbeing needs to have a word with itself.
Over the last four years, as well as Britain’s decline as a nation, the EU has had time to mitigate the worst effects of Brexit for themselves. For example they have struck trade deals which will allow industries and countries to make up any losses from Britain’s involvement in the EU. This will lower their need to deal with us, especially if our trajectory is towards lower standards and US domination of our trade.
Given the atrocious way in which the UK has handled negotiations with Brussels, using table thumping techniques and inept negotiators such as David Frost, any such re-entry would likely be accompanied with a “terms and conditions” apply clause. For example Schengen, the Euro and so on. Europe will also learn from Brexit and not wish to have a repeat performance of the petulance and adapted child behaviour that has bedevilled Brexit.
Britain may even fail the criteria for being a democracy in 5-10 years, which is a pre-requisite of joining the EU. Important signifiers of our decline into a banana republic include:
Stuffing the legislature with cronies
Directing hundreds of millions to other cronies
Removing checks and balances from Parliament
Putting Civil Service departments under political control
The EU is no longer interested in wasting their time on Britain and this has consequences for any future relationship with Europe. Donald Trump will not rescue Britain, apart from asset stripping the NHS and killing our farmers.
The current migrant fiasco is a current example of our appalling behaviour towards others. Priti Patel attempts to suggest that people voted to kill migrant children by voting Brexit in 2016. She also argues that our inability to handle migration is France’s fault. This is a potent example “arrested development”. Three year olds in a playground arguing about who should have a piece of chocolate may actually demonstrate more advanced behaviours that our present political masters.
Shame on you
I did not vote in 2016 to kill refugee children
Did you?
— Peter Cook – Leadership for a Better World (@academyofrock) August 8, 2020
We cannot therefore rely on the idea of re-joining the EU. We must push for a suspension of Brexit in the wake of Corona, or just because Brexit is one of the most stupid and dangerous ideas of all time.
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