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
As COVIDIOTS break lockdown, we sum up Brexit and other world news. Using the medium of “The Sunday Sun” …. Yesterday’s news tomorrow.
Here’s a few facts to ground the populist satire:
Boris Johnson actually used M People’s “Search for the Hero inside yourself” in his party conference speech last week. This marked his complete transition to the “David Brent” of politics. He also quoted himself when talking about windpower. He suggested that “someone else” said that windpower could not blow the skin off a rice pudding. That someone else was in fact Boris Johnson.
Matt Hancock broke lockdown rules by drinking in The House of Commons after 10 pm. Stanley Johnson has also broken lockdown rules on several occasions recently. As COVIDIOTS break lockdown, we ask how reasonable is it for Police to fine members of the public or insist on lockdown rules. As they say in Leadership “The fish rots from the head”.
MP’s have been awarded a £3300 pay rise. Just for comparison, Brexit has cost each and every one of us £3000 so far. Is this what they mean by “levelling up”?
Stockpiling has begun again in earnest, with restrictions on the purchase of some goods. The COVID food crisis was more or less caused by panic buying. However the looming Brexit disaster will be based on real supply shortages over the medium – long term. Here’s a list of foods that will likely be in short supply after Brexit, if we allow this “Britastrophe” to continue.
With thanks to Helga Perry, Susanna Leissle, Irina Fridman and Judith Spencer for the inspiration for our “Sun” page.
During heated exchanges with Sir Keir Starmer in the Commons this week about remaining in the EU Medicines Agency, Boris Johnson claimed that this would have slowed our vaccination programme. Afterwards, Starmer is said to have accused Johnson of lying as they spoke at the entrance to the “Aye” lobby but later apologised.
Leadership in all fields relies on trust
If that was all that took place, there was no need whatsoever for an apology. Johnson was lying as usual. If we were still in the EU, we would have been entitled under the Agency’s rules, to carry out our vaccination program precisely as we did . This is yet another case of our prime minister making lying propaganda at every possible opportunity.
Click the image to support our work to Re-Boot Britain
Britain can be rightly proud of its achievement with the vaccine rollout. This, however, was due to the expertise, efficient planning and hard work of the scientists and administrators involved, and no thanks whatsoever to the politicians. For weeks since the need was identified to tighten up the quarantine system and tracing of entrants to the UK, Johnson has dithered. Meanwhile entrants potentially infected by new virus strains are circulating more or less unchecked whilst hotels waiting to receive them lie empty. A junior minister is left to blather helplessly in defence oft his master’s incompetence. More than an apology will be required from Johnson if because of his dithering the lockdown has to be extended and lives are lost as in the past.
This latest piece of music portrays Boris Johnson as others see him. Set in the mode of a Kraftwerk song “Boris Johnson ist ein clown” tells the terrible story of Johnson’s record on COVID, Brexit and his personal life. Download the album on Bandcamp to help us continue our work. Please don’t just steal the music, it takes a long time to produce. The video is free and needs sharing widely with this post. Here is just a small segment of Johnson’s record to ponder:
150 000 unnecessary COVID deaths due to Johnson’s “too little too late policy”.
£37 BILLION spaffed away to his mates for non-existent or non-functional PPE. Some of the companies hired to make PPE had no experience in the field.
Breaking lockdowns with lavish parties whilst others saw loved ones die alone in care homes and hospitals.
Killing 27 migrants at sea with a policy that has been judged by HMG as “dangerous”.
Still waiting for the £350 million every week for the NHS.
Left his wife for another women whilst she had cancer.
Lied to the Queen.
Watch the video, share and download the songs to support our work
Worst record on COVID in Europe.
Failed to sack Cummings and Hancock whilst he allowed junior ministers to resign for less serious offences.
“Frictionless” trade killing businesses despite promises that Brexit would be “oven ready”.
£840 per roll for wallpaper for the flatat 10 Downing Street on the whim of Carrie.
“Bonfire” on red tape has produced intolerable levels of … Brexit red tape – who knew?
Changed the rules on sleaze to protect Owen Patterson.
Illegally shut down Parliament because he could not get his way.
Failing to wear masks at hospital visits.
Stripped people of their human rights and threats to reintroduce English concentration camps for migrants. In case of doubt, it was England that introduced the idea of concentration camps during the Boer War.
Promised 50 000 more nurses for the NHS, but failed to deliver.
Blames the EU for our self-imposed Brexitwhen it is his decision alone.
Lied about the Northern Ireland protocol. Continues to threaten peace in Northern Ireland by breaking international law.
Counts hospital refurbishments as “new hospitals”. Counts a pair of gloves as two items of PPE.
Bungled projects : The Garden Bridge. The Scotland-Ireland Bridge. The Isle of Man Bridge. Boris Island. The Festival of Brexit.
Stopping food aid to most vulnerable children in a pandemic.
Allowing water companies to dump shit in our rivers.
Far from Boris Johnson ist ein clown, Boris Johnson is a very dangerous clown. Check more of his lies out at Boris Johnson Lies.
Please click the boot to support our work
With thanks to Colin Taylor, Irina Fridman, Susanna Leissle, Richard Hewison and Ambasuthan J. for their help with this.
Brexit is broken. We are just about to notice now that the mask of COVID has come off. Here is our latest parody issue of the Telegraph with a fact checker attached, just in case you cannot tell the difference between Brexit fact and fiction:
FACT : Brexit border controls begin today. The EU has allowed us a full years grace on our desire to become a third country. The delays and tariffs are all on our own Government. early indications suggest that there will be significant impacts. See The Independent, The FT,The Mirror for more details.
FACT : So concerned are our Government to “mask Brexit” that they have instructed civil servants not to mention the word. Sadly we are unable to comply. If Brexit is so great why are they not instead publishing the benefits of our departure? The best that Johnson can mention is the reintroduction of pints in pubs. I may have amnesia but I thought we had pints before?
The Telegraph asks civil servants not to mention #Brexit
— Re-Boot Britain – Rage Against The Brexit Machine (@BrexitRage) December 30, 2021
FACT : Dr Liam Fox went on BBC to lie about Brexit yesterday. We decoded his response to the question. You have to be really good to lie and Liam is just not very good at anything. Liam said that the main point of Brexit was to reclaim sovereignty. If that’s true how come nobody wants to buy my bargain bag o’ sovrinty?
— Re-Boot Britain – Rage Against The Brexit Machine (@BrexitRage) December 31, 2021
FACT : Boris Johnson has not built any of the promised hospitals. It seems that pop up tents in car parks are now being classified as “hospitals”. We lead the world in COVID infections once again although Johnson feels unable to make the tough decisions that are needed, as he has not got the support of his own party to make decisions in the best interests of the people.
FICTION : The Queen is not prosecuting Prince Andrew even though she ought to, ma’am.
FACT : Boris Johnson is still a fu…king cu…t entered the UK charts at No 5, confirming the nation’s view on his premiership.
FICTION : Peppa Pig is not taking up a post as a doctor in the NHS, even though he has “most admired” status by Boris Johnson.
FICTION : Lenny the lion has not eaten Liz Truss as yet. We hear that Lenny is unlikely to do so as he favours eating brains.
FACT : Britain drowned 27 migrants in the channel due to their Brexit policy, which has been demonstrated to be completely unsuitable and dangerous method of addressing the issue. The United Nations reported the story as the worst disaster on record. Kent residents laughed about the deaths of women and children. This is what Brexit has brought us. Do you really support drowning women and children who are fleeing terror?
FICTION : Geoff Boycott has not written a book on cricket and racism. Maybe he should?
I have taken a break over the last few months to reconsider my pro-EU and anti-Brexit activities. I have concluded that, whilst my full-time commitment to this cause is unsustainable, it remains valuable, important and impossible to escape from. What would I tell my children if I did not continue to face up to the greatest disaster for Britain across several centuries? However, things need to change and I propose the following improvements for 2022:
We need a proper organisation rather than another Remain hobby group. I have managed most of the functions of Re-Boot Britain entirely on my own up till now and this has damaged my ability deal with other priorities. To this end, I will only continue once we have appointed a board with most of the functions needed to sustain a professional organisation, in other words finance, administration, outreach, social media and so on.
To this end, I propose that we hold a meeting to discuss this on Monday January 31st at 8:00 PM via ZOOM, where we can discuss the formation have a professional organisation, so that we can deliver on the priorities we set ourselves when I formed Re-Boot Britain in 2020. We have four principal objectives and these are listed below:
Four goals : Change MP’s Minds, Change Media output, Change Social Media narrative, Change individual minds
The different objectives lend themselves to some of the capabilities that we have developed over the last few years with the circle of around 100 people and a wider outer circle:
Our Lobbying objective requires people with high level advocacy skills delivered via a variety of media : Face to face discussions, letters, petitions and other means of moving opinions with movers and shakers on all sides of the political spectrum.
Media activity requires people who are skilled at securing newsworthy inputs across the different platforms. Getting pictures in the Guardian as a backdrop is not sufficient in order to get the message out. Nor frankly is citizen journalism unless it is amplified to levels that cut through and reach outside the bubble.
Our social media amplification team is something that all can contribute towards, as it is home based, can fit the time that people have and so on. We have been quite successful already in this area with our ABV (Anti-Brexit Virus) amplifier groups but can do more, especially outside the Remain / Rejoin bubble.
The solid work to change individual minds requires time, patience and considerable skill. This is why I wrote a book to help people practice the art of difficult conversations about Brexit and the European Union. Read the book and join me in a masterclass.
At the same time, high level discussions continue with other pro-European groups that feel the need to come together to offer something much better than what we currently have. If a better organisation for our collective efforts emerges then I will be prepared to merge with that, rather than persisting with more and more silos in our movement. It is time that we join forces in pursuit of a better Britain in a better Europe for a better World.
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