In this Irish special we focus on the U2 question posed by Liz Truss “With or Without EU”. It becomes clear that she still hasn’t found what she’s looking for with Brexit.
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As things continue to become more bizarre by the day in Brexit Britain, we focus on the Irish question in this fake version of The Mail on Sunday.
FACT: Liz Truss is prepared to risk the breakdown of the Good Friday Agreement and 30 years of peace on the island of Ireland to improve her chances of becoming PM. In 2019 the Conservatives said that peace in Northern Ireland and independence for Scotland were prices worth paying to “Get Brexit Done”. One of the few truths they told.
FACT : It was the BRITISH government that signed the Brexit deal which required the border in the sea between Britain and the island of Ireland. Blaming the EU is simply gaslighting. We are a third country and, to quote the Brexiteers we should “Get over it”
FACT : ‘Sir’ David Frost read the deal and then ignored it in order to “Get Brexit Done”. This problem is ENTIRELY of our own Government’s making and Frost’s squirming is pathetic. He’s not even elected.
FACT : Boris Johnson said that a border between Ireland and Britain would only happen over his dead body. We note that he is still alive.
FACT : The majority of people and politicians in Northern Ireland want to keep the Northern Ireland Protocol. Some 70% of people voted for parties that support peace on the island or Ireland.
FACT : ‘Sir’ David Frost is now pretending he was railroaded into signing the deal. The word scum is not bad enough for someone who refuses to own his Brexshit.
FACT : Johnson needs this distraction to ensure people don’t think about unnecessary COVID deaths, Leadership failures via Partygate, the cost of living crisis, Brexit carnage, Levelling down, NI rises, Pension unlocking, killing bees, killing kids by encouraging them to eat more junk food, the list goes on.
FICTION : Whereas Coleen Rooney has not shagged Johnson, Arlene would do anything to restore the troubles to Northern Ireland, including a performance with Dolly Parton if one could be arranged.
Whilst the EU are the adults in the room, they should respond to this childish behaviour by our adapted children in Government.
Rejoin EU and Brexorcism masterclass 10.30 – 12.00 Saturday 28 May Brighton followed by lunch – Friends Meeting House, BN1 1AF – contact us to book your space
Guest article from Jean-Pierre Feyaerts on electoral reform. In the wake of some seismic changes to the political landscape in Britain it is time to consider this. I’m especially delighted that Reboot Britain contributed to the loss of 10 Tory councillors in Royal Tunbridge Wells and this demonstrates that we can still achieve impact with a faulty electoral system. TEN !!!
We contributed to this result at Reboot Britain along with others
An alternative to the British ‘First-Past-the-Post’ system – A Belgian perspective
People, even in England, are finally starting to see the limitation of the old fashion FPTS electoral system.
In principle that system, especially at the end of the Middle Age and Renaissance made sense when it was very important to safeguard local interests, with a special interest to the financing of wars and more generally the public finances.
With time, the system was regarded as safeguarding rather stable majorities in Parliament, at least for the duration of a legislature and avoid the need to have repeated elections before the end of the said legislature.
One (if not the major) shortcoming of the system is that it provides an over representation of a part of the population. Furthermore, the culture of compromise was replaced by the law of the strongest (with derivation to the spoiling system, like in the USA).
For the British citizen however (and probably more for the English citizen) it remains difficult to accept a proportional system and even more difficult to find an agreement on a type of proportionality (for example as used for the former election of the British members of the European Parliament).
In theory, the elected members of the Parliament (of the House of Commons), are there to represent the citizen of their constituency, not only those who voted for them but any citizen of the constituency, regardless of its preferred party. In practice, they are just the local representative of a doctrine (which use to differ from the manifesto of the party). If this is the case, the approach of one single representative has no more sense.
At least, for an interim period, it does not seem possible to move to the current political system to a political system adapted to the XXIst century (rather than the end of the XIXth – beginning of the XXth) in one stage. UK need at least to adopt a phased approach.
A rather simple one, but not used elsewhere, to my best knowledge, would be to divide the number of constituencies by two and to elect two representatives instead of one. As such, it is easy to understand, does not require too much changes (except grouping the current constituencies by groups of 2[1]).
The difference with the current system is that rather the first past the post, here it would be the two first past the post[2].
This is simple, but it changes a lot for the strategy of the parties and may give more importance to local interests.
British (in particular English) have no tradition and expertise on how to find agreements and compromises and it will take surely more than one legislature to can be accustomed to it, and the same is even more true for the voters! The experience with the Eastern European countries for returning to democracy proves that both categories needs to learn how to behave in such new environment but it cold be easier than the reform proposed in 2011. Britain needs electoral reform. It will be difficult all the while both sides of our binary politics believe they can win, but Thursday’s local elections have disrupted the cosy arrangement.
[1] In real exceptional cases, a constituency with one single representative could be envisaged or a constituency grouping three former ones with eventually, for one legislature, 3 representatives as a transitional measure)
[2] Possibly, this is the case for one or another State of the USA for the Senate election.
It’s Europe Day … a brief reminder, lest we forget.
It cost each of us 37 pence a day (or half a Mars bar) to belong to the World’s greatest peace project. I can think of nothing one could buy with 37 pence that would amount to what we got by being part of the EU, faults and all.
Now we left via Brexit, Putin’s plan to create war in Europe continues and our Government plan to restart the troubles in Northern Ireland.
What did we leave for? I’m still waiting for answers beyond mythical notions of freedom. Answers on a postcard.
Footnote : I watched The Killing Fields yesterday afternoon for a reminder of how far we have travelled and just how easy it is to return to a world of violence inspired by ideology.
In the last few days I have been practising the gentle art of “brexorcism” on the street whilst campaigning to get the Tories out. These brief encounter stories are examples of what you can expect in my latest book on the subject in the story section. A brexorcism takes time, patience and skill, but these examples demonstrate how such things can be quite brief in some circumstances.
Brief Encounter I
I was late to catch a train from Strood and deposited my bicycle at the barrier to buy a ticket. The staff member had studied my bike which I use to trigger conversations about Brexit. On my return I found I had a few spare minutes as the train was late. Sam began the conversation:
SAM: “I take it you are against Brexit?”
ME: “Er, yes”.
SAM : “I’m afraid I voted for it”.
ME: “Well, people had many reasons”.
SAM: “I doubt you will be able to guess mine”.
ME: Well, let me see, was it the £350 million for the NHS? Maybe the idea of sticking it to Cameron? Or taking back control of our borders? or something else?”
SAM: “None of these – my wife is from the Philippines – she works in the NHS and had to pay £11 000 to get her into the UK. I feel sick as a dog as I now realise that Brexit has not solved this problem”.
ME: Well, I am so impressed that you told me, that is brave”.
SAM: “If I ever get the chance to go back on this decision I will”.
ME: “Thank you so much. I’m working on the case”.
We shook hands and I went on my way. I sense that he wanted to test my reaction to his ‘confessional’ and he was pleased with the result. In the book I show the methodologies behind the conversation. Key to my conversation was the bike which acts as the conversation starter and, of course, what I call UPR or unconditional positive regard in the book.
Conversation starter
Brief Encounter II
On this occasion I was with a group of young people at an open mic jam session (my son’s friends). One of their circle opened up (he knows my views on Brexit but I’d never met him before):
“I’m from Italy but I’ve lived here for about 10 years. I’ll be brutally honest. I don’t give a fuck about anyone else. Why should I? I’m 23 and all I care about is earning a big pile of cash and having a life”.
I decided to offer lots of UPR by saying that I understood why he would think like that at his age. He admitted that he might think differently if he had kids (his girlfriend was with him – from her body language, I detected that she did not fully agree with him about his self centred view of life).
ME: “I completely understand your viewpoint. We adults have ruined the planet but I personally have not given up on planet earth”.
I then showed them this video below, explaining that this was why I continue to give a fuck about my fellow citizens, regardless of their viewpoints. It made a deep impact, especially on his girlfriend. I considered that this was enough as our first brief encounter and left them to consider what I’d said. Sometimes Brexorcisms needed to be left unfinished to allow for a period of reflection … The other important factor in this interaction was the social nature of the dialogue. He had 3 of his peer group sitting at the table. Peer pressure is more important than hierarchy in social herds.
It seems that some Tory MPs were caught watching porn on “Tory Hub” whilst working. To those who find politics boring, I agree that it is and watching almost anything would be better than being a politician. I also don’t much care whether they were watching Neighbours or porn. The point of the matter is that they are paid to do a job and that should be the object of their work. If any people reading this were caught watching The Waltons, Eastenders, Naked Attraction or Porn Hub whilst at work, it would be a sacking offence. So it should for them.
Can you seriously vote Tory at next week’s local elections given that they prefer to watch porn on “Tory Hub” rather than do their work? Seriously? Neil Parish must resign without delay.
The meeting came amid reports that dozens of MPs, including three Cabinet ministers, are facing allegations of sexual misconduct referred to the Independent Complaints and Grievances Scheme (ICGS).
Asked about the newspaper’s original report at Prime Minister’s Questions, Boris Johnsonagreed that sexual misconduct would be “grounds for dismissal” for ministers. How about corporate manslaughter of 20 000 ++ people in care homes by the Prime Minister and his Cabinet?
Join us Thursday 05 May 7 pm for a masterclass on Brexorcism via ZOOM
Whilst we are on the subject, here’s a few choice videos – they are not pornographic by the way but You Tube deemed them PG rated:
Jacob Rees Moog – THE BREX-KIP FAR-RIGHT FAR-AGE DOMINATRIX MIX
Priti Patel plans to send asylum seekers to Rwanda. A modern form of concentration. In case you are unsure as to what is fact and faction in this edition of The Maul, here’s some help:
FACT: Priti Patel’s concentration arrangement is a one-way ticket to Rwanda. So all asylum seekers are sent to Rwanda, regardless of their status. If they are found to be legitimate, they cannot return.
FACT: The concentration scheme will cost far more than housing migrants in The Ritz hotel in London.
FACT: The Home Office objected to the scheme but Patel forced the process through using a special order.
FACT: Priti Patel has united several religions of the world. God has found her bang out of order as have the Sikhs.
FACT: There are better alternatives identified by Yvette Cooper and others. Cooper pointed out that Australian Refugee Council offshoring figuress show 3127 people were sent to Papua New Guinea/ Nauru since 2013 at cost to Australian taxpayer of AUS$10bn. That’s £1.7m per person. We can expect a similar order of costs here.
FACT: Israel introduced a similar system. All those expelled fled the country and re-entered the countries they left. There is no sense in which the British system will lead to a different outcome.
FICTION: There is no proof that Larry the cat deliberately attended lockdown parties. After all, cats retain freedom of movement, unlike human beings after Brexit.
FICTION: Butlins are not hosting refugees in Rwanda, nor are they hoping to host holiday homes there. Instead they prefer to host true Brits at Clacton, Greet Yarmouth, Bridlington and Camber. Book your staycation and avoid 5 hour airport queues or even longer at the Brexit ports.
FACT: Priti Patel is subhuman scum in the Harry Enfield / Reginald Perrin sense of the word. An immigrant who has forgotten how she came to be here.
Companies continue to leave these shores for Europe. At the outset, the government’s standard response was to deny this had anything to do with Brexit – it was just a coincidence that so many had taken the same decision. Over time, even by their own standards of truth and accuracy, that argument was becoming difficult to defend. In April 2022, a company in the seat represented by former government housing minister Robert ‘It was pure chance that a change I made benefitted a Tory donor’ Jenrick joined the throng an upped sticks for the continent. Brexit-supporting Newark in shock as largest employer shuts up shop and heads for mainland Europe (cityam.com)
Join us TONITE Thursday 21 April for a masterclass on Brexorcism at 7 pm via ZOOM
Face with a problem that the public were noticing ‘levelling up’ was just a slogan and that Brexit was turning out to be the disaster predicted, a government minister had a flash of inspiration:
A senior minister has highlighted that the UK is well on its way to overcoming the shortage of fruit and vegetable pickers that has been such a problem since the UK left the EU.
Highlighting specifically the freeing up of 110 potential labourers from the Goodlife factory in Newark, the minister for Brexit Excuses Jackie Dix-Sprogs said:
“Whingeing Remainers said that after Brexit there would be a shortage of people to harvest our food. This proves they were wrong – there was no shortage, the workers were just in the wrong place. We simply needed a way to level up and allow our highly-skilled workforce to get out there and do some back-breaking work. Now, thanks to Brexit, firms like Goodlife are moving their operations to Europe and freeing up workers to pick crops. This certainly doesn’t bode well for Europe as if more companies relocate, they will likely end up with a shortage of workers themselves. Leave means Leave.”
It’s Party Party Party in the Telegravda. Come on down and celebrate death by Brexit. Taken from a forthcoming book on the Kafka-esque political world in which we now operate.
FACT: Drivers stuck on the M20 [1]are not allowed to leave their cabins to urinate or defecate by Kent Police, so that traffic can continue its slow grind towards Dover. It’s not Party Party Party if you are stuck in your cab with a bottle of urine and a pile of Brexshit on the floor.
FICTION: The M20 has not been turned into a rave venue and the drivers are not drinking their own urine during ‘Operation Pisspot’[2].
FICTION: Sue Gray has not shown up in Ibiza. On the other hand, her report on leadership failures has disappeared without trace.
Chilled – Sue Gray
FACT: Johnson needs the Russian war to deflect attention from Brexit carnage, now that he has cancelled COVID, his leadership, gas, oil, petrol and food prices, national insurance, NHS backlogs, COVID … the list goes on.
Brexorcism masterclass 7 pm Thursday 21 April via ZOOM
FACT: Johnson’s leadership is disliked by 72% of the population with the most frequent word mentioned about him being LIAR.
Liar in Chief
FACT: Let’s play the party game of ‘closets and skeletons’ whilst the drinking continue into the night:
Rishi Sunak defended Mrs S of her absolute right to legally pay as little tax as possible to the country that supplies her with the house she lives in. She was part owner of Lava Mayfair Club Ltd[3] (a private membership gym), which collapsed last year, owing almost £44 million to creditors, including £374,000 to HMRC.
Another of Mrs S’s ventures, education firm ‘Mrs Wordsmith[4]‘, went into administration last year owing £16.3 million … after receiving a £1.3 million loan from the Government’s Future Fund.
Digme Fitness, of which Mrs Rishi owns, received up to £635,000 of furlough money before it closed its eight studios in London and Oxford still owing HMRC £415,000. In case of doubt, 635 is more than 415.
So, Sunak introduces the furlough scheme … and the woman he’s sleeping with benefits by up to £635,000.
Sunak oversees the UK rules regarding non-Dom status[5] … and the woman he’s sleeping with benefits by over £20 million.
Sunak is supposed to be in charge of ensuring that the UK maximises its tax take…yet the woman he’s sleeping with has overseen companies going bust owing £789,000 to HMRC.
Sunak says his wife’s tax affairs are none of our business! Never mind, let’s party like it’s 1999!
P&O is one of the finest names in British maritime history, dating back to 1837 when the name was chosen to mean Peninsula & Orient; where Peninsula refers to the Iberian Peninsula, and Orient refers to the Eastern Mediterranean. Not much is written about the early years including its service to supply troop ships during WWII, but its current structure dates back to 2002 when P&O Ferries was formed as a Company in its own right, followed by its purchase by DP World in 2019.
In common with the Maritime Industry in general, it has always faced challenges and opportunities (none more so than at present); as it is forced to adapt to a changing world. Firstly, the very concept of a RORO ferry, was thought up when the cost of capital was high, meaning the turn-around time at port, and travel time was at a premium; and Carbon (and Sulfur) emissions where hardly on the agenda. Now, fuel costs and environmental legislation (e.g. the Sulfur Cap of 2020) are of prime importance, while the cost of capital is rock-bottom. Sea travel can however still be the cheapest and most environmentally friendly, but only if the ships can enjoy economies of scale, are packed to capacity, and can travel at a speed (sometimes as low as 2 knots) to optimize engine efficiency, tide, and berthing time table. This suits the container ship but is an anathema to the sea passenger. The RORO ferry however still has the edge for perishable goods.
Ferry services on the Dover Calais route have faced other competitive challenges, firstly from the over-priced but even speedier Channel Tunnel, secondly from Irish Ferries being allowed to ply the same route from March 2021, using third country contract seafarers. Brexit and Coronavirus must certainly have had their impact on ticket sales, staff shortages, and boarding delays. All together, these have cost the company £100 Million per year. One response has been in restructuring; another could be outsourcing ship’s construction to the Far East.
P&O Ferries is a British Company, owned by Dubai based DP World. The ships are flagged in Malta, and the staff paid out of Jersey. It is important to note that at sea, the Captain is the Sovereign Authority under the jurisdiction of the flag, and nobody pays tax anywhere. This may change once the ship enters territorial waters, and certainly will change once a crew member steps ashore. Tax arrangements are exceedingly complicated, as they depend on how much time one spends in each zone; with each jurisdiction measuring time differently! A seafarer can find that just one short delay, a change in shift patterns, or an extended shore leave can change his tax liability completely. Jersey is outside the UK and outside the EU. It is therefore an ideal jurisdiction for withholding tax till the year’s returns are completed (it’s very easy to forget or miss a rule). – In the light of seafarers working arrangements, I don’t think it was unreasonable for the CEO of P&O Ferries, Peter Hebblethwaite, to announce the mass sacking of staff by recoded video message. It was the only way to reach everyone fairly and simultaneously.
Malta is an EU Member State, well known as an off-shore tax-haven and easy centre for ships registration. As a new Member State, I have found them very lax in converging to EU Legislation. Because of their special sacrifices in supporting the allies during WWII, Britain is disinclined to find fault with them. And because of their smallness within the big EU picture, Brussels is hardly likely to take notice. But they will converge, eventually.
Dubai, as an Arab State probably has access to the best deals in bunker fuel. But more ominously, DP World has been advising the government on free-ports. DP World also has a majority stake in the container port of Yuzhny about 20 miles East of Odessa in Ukraine (acquired in 2020). Ukraine is the prosperous breadbasket of Europe and the World, and this is likely to be a very profitable asset once the war is over.
Now, what about the new outsourced third party crew, and what is life going to be like for them? Most young men take to sea to see the world, with full board and lodgings paid, and a little bit of pocket-money to boot; but when they come to the UK, they’re going to be very sorry indeed. They’ll be forced to stay on-board without a proper Visa, like any other tourist. (Or will they need the very expensive UK working visa, if they’re deemed to be employed in the UK?) – The EU has been working on this problem for years, trying to ensure that any legitimate seafarer can have shore leave based on his ship’s papers. This is now fairly well harmonized, including the right of transit from airport to duty ship, or between duty ships. The latest EU legislation however, restricts the rights of seafarers taking shore leave to cross Sovereign State boundaries. It is not a Schengen Visa. The UK is no longer party to this agreement, and as a result, third party seafarers may suffer. – The UK Government does have the right to detain a ship once it is in port, and prevent it leaving again; for instance, if debts have not been paid, if the ship has been found to be unseaworthy, or if the crew do not live up to the necessary standard of competence. This is very much the limit of the UK’s authority. Even the right to run a service can only be granted in agreement with the EU counter-party. Parochial British Trade Unions have very little purchase on the problem.
How could this sorry state of affairs have been avoided? In the USA, they have something called the Jones Act, which says that any service run between USA ports must be on ships that have been constructed, owned, and crewed by Americans. A federal Europe could do something similar; sure it is protectionism, but I think we need a bit of protectionism. And if we consider: wages, shipbuilding, and financing skills across Europe, I think there is plenty of scope for reasonable competition. In reviewing the above, it strikes me that we spend too much time and effort on: gaming the system, the tax system, and the shipping regulations. – It would surely be far better if those in the business where given a level playing field so that they could concentrate on what they know best: running a ferry service, or a shipping line. There are plenty of changes that are still needed in the industry.
