After World War II there was a necessary focus on food security in Britain, informed by ration books and virtual bankruptcy of the country. But we forget quite quickly and the National Farmers Union reported that self-sufficiency levels in fruit & vegetables fell steadily since the mid-1980s, from 78% to 64%. Britain imports 46% of its food and this may explain why our Government has delayed Brexit border checks five times since 2020 for fear of food shortages and, ultimately, food fighters. Our lack of resilience is not a sustainable position, particularly for a nation that is now isolated from the safety of belonging to the biggest trading bloc in the world. We also operate in a world where food and water will become precious assets into the 21st Century due to global warming.
Don Adamson reports from the Brexit bunker in Barnsley.
This week’s homework:
One – Discuss the following statement: a so called ‘Independent’ firm of lawyers was called in to investigate the allegations that NatWest Bank treated Nigel Garbage badly. Unsurprisingly the so called ‘independent’ law firm found that Nat West’s treatment of Nigel Garbage was not to the required standard. What more proof does anybody need that the legal system in this country has been nobbled by neo Nazis? Perhaps decent people in this country should close their bank accounts and bank with Nat West instead.
Two – Crispin Blunt MP says he is confident that no charges will be brought against him in the matter of sex crime allegations. Is this because a) sex crimes have been punishment free in this country since 2010 b) the legal profession in this country has been nobbled by neo Nazis or c) both?
Rhymes with Crispin Blunt …
Three – Johnson has a new job: his own programme on GB News. No doubt some people will watch it. The Tories have wrecked the economy for the benefit of tax dodgers and other criminals. The newspapers in this country are owned by unscrupulous billionaires who have convinced the suckers that poverty is in their best interests. Keith Starmer’s one and only response is to have us believe that Labour can make Brexit and Tory austerity work. How much are Murdoch and Rothermere paying Starmer to say this?
Four – Some fascinating stuff is coming out of the inquiry in to the Covid pandemic. One Tory MP has been quoted as saying that Johnson was the wrong PM for Covid. In which unlikely parallel dimension would Johnson remotely resemble any kind of right PM?
Five – Discuss the following: In Harold MacMillan we had a Tory Prime Minister who was horrified when John Profumo told lies in Parliament. Why do we now have politicians who would be horrified if anybody spoke the truth in Parliament? When Profumo’s political career ended he redeemed himself by working for Toynbee Hall, a charity that exists to alleviate poverty in the East End of London. What is the possibility of 21st century politicians making any effort to redeem themselves?
… one example is defence … Brexit has seriously damaged that … Big projects were always a motor for positive Anglo-French relations.
Richy Scumbag’s plans to revitalise Euston
… of the thousands of dwellings built in Docklands only a handful were affordable by local residents … Regeneration of Battersea Power Station, Nine Elms and King’s Cross … have been characterised by inordinate delays and skyscrapers of apartments … sold to offshore investors … an odd template for a ‘levelling up’ project …
Bernie Ecclestone is the only high profile prosecution for hiding assets offshore
… Cameron government made it a criminal offence for tax evasion… not been deployed …
Boris Johnson took an undeclared £800,000
… loan facilitated by Richard Sharp before making Sharpe chairman of the BBC…
… drastically cutting back sports desk … not all cuts … recently advertised for a ‘sports betting correspondent … Never mind boring writing about sports when you can tell readers how to lose money betting on it … Maths clearly not the strong suit … ‘Poll stated PM trusted to protect rights of women … in fact the poll stated the exact opposite … poll also indicated that Mail readers blamed Johnson for the nation’s woes.
Job cuts at the Mail on Sunday
Big Pharma was a big presence at Labour conference , perhaps hoping a change of government may sweeten relationships and deals with NHS … if the NHS does not pay more it will force Pharma to reduce … R& D and manufacturing investment in UK …
Richy Scumbag’s wife, Akshata Murty vouched for her husband’s love for the UK
… without mentioning any such commitment on her own part … may have been down to her tax advisers … acknowledging the UK as her home may jeopardise any future ‘non dom’ claim … she gave up that status in 2022 but there was no promise not to use it again …
Starting on 29 October GB News will give viewers a break
… cranks conspiracists and Tory politicians … John Cleese’s 10 part … Dinosaur hour… I want to discuss ‘Woke issues’ but we could not get people on …
The Barclay Dynasty – a story of secrecy, survival and succession
…like a high end episode of East Enders … one side of the family bugs the conversations of the other … Fred’s wife divorces him … he pleads poverty and refused to hand over the cash ordered by the courts, daring the judge to send him to prison … avowedly impecunious … sunk £7.5 into suing his nephews over the bugging incident … for a measly return of £800,000 settlement … book reads as a history of the dodgier corners of the financial world over the last eight decades … emerged unscathed from the ensuing scandal with debts happily unpaid … Byzantine business structure .. Pay no tax … obsessive persecution of the people of Sark…
Pandemic Deaths
… England and Wales excess mortality of +26% …third highest Western Europe … 12 highest globally … BMA criticised government for … failure to provide an official, strong, independent public health presence … slowness to introduce proper PPE … Eat out to help out …drove up infections by between 8-17% … chopping and changing of ever more complex and confusing restrictions … clear by February 2020 that NHS would be overwhelmed.. Civil Servants and ministers aware of this … rising deaths in care homes … as patients were discharged from hospitals without testing … no testing or PPE for staff … basic infection control was so poor in hospitals and care homes that they had their own epidemics … Staff died alongside patients and still have long Covid …Cabinet turmoil was a key reason for dismal UK response to Covid … breaches of Covid rules by those in power destroyed public trust … government does not have the credibility needed … we look like a terrible, tragic joke ..Carrie Johnson appeared to be the real person in charge … Lee Cain, Johnson’s director of communications until November 2020 said ‘Carrie ‘does not know wtf she is talking about … don’t worry about Demonic Shortcummings Carrie is the real person in charge … Met police issued a further 24 referrals for Partygate fines after illegal party at Tory HQ on 14 December 2020 … bringing total fines to 150 … terrible mistake to open pubs while keeping schools shut … mental illness eating disorders, self harm and suicide all rose ..still high rates of absence from school and attainment gap widening … excess deaths remained high in 2023 … bodes ill for the coming winter … poor public health and long waiting times for treatment … increased alcohol consumption, worsening mental health …
I made this in March 2020 – we knew all this at the time.
Good news from Warsaw
… Poles turned out in record numbers to vote down populist- nationalists Law and Justice (PiS) Party … the result is a relief … PiS has installed handpicked judges … turned state broadcasters into megaphones for PiS propaganda … deployed its people to run state-run industries … building a patronage system … Poland won … Democracy won … PiS deployed state media and state owned companies stuffed with cronies to blitz the country with propaganda …
Brexit Referendumb begat four years of uncertainty followed by a trade deal that introduced friction to formerly frictionless borders
…. ruptured global supply chains … decision to leave … EU … presented serious difficulties … Bosses still grumble about uncertainty … the real risk was not that manufacturers would shut up shop but that future investment would go elsewhere … there is more to grumble about … policy stability is essential, yet the government has followed six different industrial strategies in the last decade … making even short term planning arduous …
Prisons are overcrowded because Tories demanded longer sentences without building more prisons
… most absurd example of a tactic increasingly deployed by… not willing to increase taxes to cover the cost of services voters demand … results are shortages, queues unpredictable rationing … Richy Scumbag cancelled the Manchester leg of HS2 railway … painted it as redistribution … money saved could be spent elsewhere .. it is fair to assume that few other schemes will materialise … most pernicious in housing … shortages have reached new highs … NHS waiting lists stand at 8m cases in a country of 56m people … Tories are allergic to high taxes but do not have the cojones to support market based solutions … miserable compromise … no way to run a country …
Tory Party Conference
… Northern delegates angry at Richy Scumbag … only Sue Ellen Braverman is less popular … every time she speaks a Tory seat loses 2,000 votes … makes me think of a cross between ‘Carry on up the Khyber’ and the Titanic … all of them know they are doomed … hard-line Tories don’t appeal to anybody any more, even their own children … Nigel Garbage at Disco with Priti Patel … there is a match made in Hades … Labour Party conference … Trying to be more British … Union flags … Tory should have next conference in Torquay at Fawlty Towers because there will be so few of them as MPs …
Don Adamson Pip Pip Medway Delta (Retired) Brexorcist and Saboteur (First Class)
Some of you will have seen the famous film “12 angry men”. If you have not here is the plot in a few words from the official film description. Following the closing arguments in a murder trial, 12 members of the jury must deliberate. A guilty verdict would mean death for the accused, an inner-city teen. As the dozen men try to reach a unanimous decision while sequestered in a room, one juror (Henry Fonda) casts considerable doubt on elements of the case. Personal issues soon rise to the surface, and conflict threatens to derail the delicate process that will decide one boy’s fate. Through the process of dialogue and analysis Fonda convinces his fellow jurors to acquit the teenager against all the odds. The parallel questions here must be:
“Why are the Tories so angry?”
and
“Can anyone heal their regrets?”
Who will heal their collective anger?
From far right to right :
1. Steve Baker
Self-confessed hardman of Brexit who went soft as his dream melted away and under pressure from the many people who said he was delusional. Baker said he hadn’t felt happy since the Brexit vote, never mind the people who had to suffer from its death wave. Baker recently said that the 2016 referendum should have had a mandatory 60% majority for it to be a settled matter. This is polite parlance for the fact that Brexit has failed and we can and must join the EU anew.
2. Nadine Dorries
Monkey testicle eating Dorries now falls into the category of a woman scorned, after falling in love with Boris Johnson and having that love denied. This coincided with Johnson giving an honour to a 29 year old woman who bears an uncanny resemblance to Bojo rather than ‘Lady’ Dorries. Nadine more or less went on strike, failing to attend Parliament or do her constituency work for an extended period. She is no more, having been voted out of her Mid Bedfordshire constituency. Anger is too polite a word to describe Ms Dorries. Even local dad and police commissioner could not save her solid Tory constituency from falling in the recent by-election.
3. Penny Morduant
PM (Penny Morduant not Prime Minister) in waiting, Penny is angry because she was overlooked in the search for a Prime Minister in 2022, having been passed over for Liz Truss. Penny decided it was best to hold a sword for an hour to demonstrate the relevant competences for being PM (Penny Morduant not Prime Minister). PM has the unusual accolade of claiming military credentials in the Royal Navy, although it seems that all her experience with seamen was acquired on dry land. Another angry Brexiteer with several grudges, a sword and a desire to stand up and fight …
4. Douglas Ross
Scottish Conservatives leader. Yes it’s hard being a Conservative in Scotland as virtually everyone swears at you but Douggie has other reasons to be angry as well. Boris Johnson swore at him when Doug voted for Johnson to resign in 2022. Doug shouted Deputy First Minister of Scotland Shona Ross down when she called on Rishi Sunak to meet his commitments for net zero instead of watering them down. This is one of his regular behaviours in the Scottish Parliament. Don’t be like Doug.
5. Priti Patel
Priit Patel was once hailed as the most extreme Home Secretary of all time. Priti is angry because Suella Braverman has made her look like a member of the Cats’ Protection League when compared with Suella’s full fat Nazi style celebration of children drowning in small boats. One of the most vicious ‘immigrants turned racist’ in the Tory party, Priti remains popular due to her loyalty to Boris Johnson. Known for shouting and bullying staff, Priti waits in the wings ready to pounce on Rishi when the time is right. Check our remake of “Priti Woman” which satirises some of her most famous quotes. PG rated due to Matt Hancock in leg irons.
6. Liz Truss
What can one say? The woman who broke Britain with her version of hard Brexit economics in just 49 days with her partner in grime Kwasi Kwarteng. The cost of ‘Trussonomics‘ was an eye watering £60 billion, only eclipsed by the ongoing cost of Brexit which stands at £100 billion EVERY year. As if all this was not bad enough, Liz is undeterred and plans a comeback, saying that her wilful destruction of the country was “not understood by the markets”. The Truss has had some public speaking training recently. Since people are easily fooled by a slick presentation over content (see also Johnson for style over substance), we should be very afraid. Although The Truss started life as an anti-monarchist woke lefty liberal, she has now ‘manned up’ in support of cheese, Norfolk turkeys and the British apple. A stint on ‘Bakeoff’ seems more appropriate. Our song “more than enough” sums up The Truss well. Watch the video and buy the albums to support our independent journalism.
Download the albums via https://academy-of-rock.bandcamp.com/
7. Boris Johnson
There are not enough column inches or time at the COVID enquiry to describe this man’s impact and catastrophic demise from his imposter position as PM. He said that Brexit could be microwaved when it was already burned. Brexit has given us a 4.5% hit to UK resilience. This is the equivalent of trying to swim the English Channel with a block of concrete around your neck. Johnson killed up to 40 000 vulnerable people through dither and delay and making decisions that were against the science. He allowed his mates to profit from COVID, even encouraged it. Eventually his party chums turned against him and he more or less had to be forcibly removed from No 10 Downing Street. Johnson’s attempted comeback was resisted by his party colleagues. He has now reversed into GB News so that he can snipe at Rishi Sunak from the sidelines.
8. Jacob Rees-Mogg
Having lined his pockets from Brexit, lied to the Queen and then reversed into being a paid hack for GB News, Jacob resigned from his position. This was probably because he regretted the reverse takeover of the British Empire by the Indians. Mogg is one of the few politicians who continues to stand by Brexit which he claims will offer immense opportunities sometime into the 23rdCentury. Privately I suspect he is much less happy about the lack of divergence from EU laws 98% of which we helped to make. He will also be spooked by the paltry returns on our trade deals which are effectively ‘fire sales’ in our desperation to point to something positive about Brexit (See also Kemi Badenoch and CPTPP). This film is from 2018 when we ambushed Jake at BBC Question Time.
9. Suella Braverman
As stated previously, Suella has made Priti Patel look like Mother Theresa with her full fat fascist agenda to feed a few remaining gammon voters with live immigrant children. Braverman has recently tried to put thought crime on the statute book, by suggesting that anyone who uses the word Jihad on the street is a terrorist. Even Tory peer Baroness Warsi was moved to criticise Suella by pointing out that divide and rule tactics are themselves the tools of hate. Not content with trying to kill migrants on dangerous disease ridden prison ships and breaking international law, I imagine that Suella must have said “thank you God” when the Israeli – Palestinian conflict started. She has been quick to use the war to weaponise her own domestic agendas. It’s even more surprising as Braverman is herself a barrister at No 5 Silk Chambers (better suited to being a barrista). As most observers have stated, Suella’s bizarrely disturbed outlook on foreigners is probably rooted in some very dark experiences in childhood.
I had trouble deciding if Robert Jenrick or Lee Anderson ought to be part of our 12 angry Tories.
10. Richard Tice
Of course Tice is not a Tory, just a pound shop racist. Tice recently turned his hatred on Sadiq Kkan and ULEZ in a desperate move to find a new issue to enrage people with feeble minds. Nigel Farage is also searching for things to trigger his remaining following from Gammon Brexit (GB) News. Tice remains angry that he has not got the Brexit he wanted. But he still cannot describe the one he was looking for … No wonder Steve Baker is effectively saying that the referendum should be declared null and void. Tice is angry with the Tory party for being more fascist than his Brexit party aka Reframe UK.
11. Kemi Badenoch
Another PM hopeful, Badenoch has the dubious credentials of having done some of the most worthless Brexit trade deals on the planet via the CPTPP deal (worth 1/50th of what we had in the EU over 10 years at best and pushed through Parliament without a referendum). Although she was appointed by Truss, I suspect that this was Liz acting ‘to keep one’s enemies close’, as Badenoch is also popular with the Tory membership. Rishi has also kept her close, possibly because her nuclear levels of incompetence make Sunak look good. Incidentally, Badenoch stated that the CPTPP deal will only produce any benefit if we use it. So she’s already getting ready to say that the people thwarted her pathetic CPTPP deal.
No 12?
By this time, you may have worked out that there were only 11 angry people in the picture. So who is no 12? – Lee Anderson, Jonathan Gullis, Gove, Iain Duncan-Smith, Mark Francois, Esther McVey, Dehenna Davison, Liam Fox, Keegan, Coffey, Harper, Steve Barclay, the Tory rapists? There are so many to choose from. Usually a threat from outside is the stimulus for unity. Can Keir Starmer provide that threat? I think not since I find it increasingly difficult to find differences on policy between Labour and The Tories in many areas.
You are cordially invited to Gina Miller’s True and Fair party launch event on Economy, Education, Environment, Tuesday November 7th at 9.00 am online via ZOOM. This is the 2nd part of the True and Fair party’s policy release in the build up to a general election.
In the 4th industrial age, education is the key to so many things. Our Government has run down education over 13 years of managed decline to the point that our schools are literally crumbling, mentally and physically. They are also in denial of climate change and environmental stewardship, the very antithesis of what the idea of conservatism was supposed to mean. And we hardly need to mention the economy after 13 years of austerity which powered Brexit. This has led to a 4.5% knock in our resilience to face other global shocks such as Russia’s war, COVID and so on. Only Gina Miller’s party has a clear strategy for rejoining the EU.
If you want different rather than a continuation of the same old same old, join Gina Miller’s party today. True and Fair are standing a small number of candidates across England and some more plurality in our politics will enable us to lever significant change in Westmonster. Check out their Chapters for Change policy document on the reforms needed in politics. If you can help the candidates in any way in Derbyshire Dales, East Wiltshire, Epsom, Ewell, Leatherhead, Fareham, Waterlooville, Mid Bedfordshire, Monmouthshire or the Wirral, please get in touch via reboot@brexitrage.com
Conviction candidates rather that Convicted Conservative candidates.
Yet another Brexit freedom has emerged. We are to be free to dump more shit in our rivers. Previously, we were tethered to those pesky EU standards for clean beaches and rivers. Read The Guardian article for more details. Rather than levelling up after Brexit, we are quite literally shitting on our own doorstep. Are you still happy about Brexit and its false promises? Planning to swim with your kids in a river of Brexshit with Therese Coffey who points out that “it’s just a bit of poo”. Granted there are many more things to think about at the moment but (a) our Government has turned a blind eye to these and (b) urgency is not a reason to let important standards drop.
Brexshit Broke Britain
I wrote a song which foreshadowed the problem a year ago called Tory Brexit Scum. Check the PG rated video out below.
Tory Brexit Scum – Country and Western Punk Rock : PG rated.
Somewhat coincidentally, Crispin Blunt and Jeremy Hunt feature in the song along with some other rhymes. Jeremy Hunt is rumoured to be about to leave the Tory party before having to face losing his seat. As for Crispin Blunt, time will tell …
We are Sunakered on the anniversary of Rishi Sunak’s unelected reign. Don Adamson reports from his Brexit bunker in Barnsley.
This week’s homework
Discuss the following statement: David Frost has been described as the most over promoted person in the country. This was true of Frost when the Foreign Office appointed him ambassador.
This week’s quotes:
They look around them and despair …
every country in the world except UK can see that the future is green … Brexit has been as much help as a hole in the head … this government has been in office for 13 years … made things worse for wealth makers … UK manufacturers think tax and regulatory system is worse than France Italy or Germany … UK’s system is worse than Communist China … EU regulations were to be abolished, now being retained … not a fanciful list of impossible, costly demands … just a matter of having a reliable, simple and consistent set of rules … not asking for much … infrastructure worse than ten years ago … quite an achievement but Tories managed it … want better roads, better internet, better national grid … start connecting to wind farms, solar panels and other green projects … better access to skilled labour … the shambles the government has made … that the government cannot to six months without fiddling the tax system is ridiculous … British industry is already beating a path to the Labour Party …
Britain is locked in a cycle that costs a lot and delivers little …
Britain takes only the tiniest fraction of the world’s asylum seekers … sending to Rwanda … now planning to send British prisoners overseas … desperation of government … systematic crisis in justice system … nothing in criminal justice works any more … police catch and charge half as many culprits as seven years ago … serious cases take years to come to trial …sometimes causing cases to collapse … probation service still on its knees after a botched privatisation and renationalisation … prisons worse than all the rest … only one out of 37 men’s prisons found to be good with all the rest failing … hopelessly overcrowded … prison is falling on all fronts … costs £45,000 to imprison somebody, when they come out they return to crime and create more victims of crime … a huge failure of the political and media class … benefits nobody …
Labour has got itself into a mess over Brexit
Labour was the original Eurosceptic party … opposing entry in 1970 ,,, holding a referendum on EU membership in 1976 … grotesque fusion of anti –EU sentiment on the Labour left with all the newly emboldened Eurosceptics on the Tory right … Nigel Garbage and Johnson mendaciously exploited … Labour’s embrace of Thatcherism under Blair and Brown meant that short term city interests were prioritised over an effective long term strategy … inevitable consequence was the North-South divide … Labour under Keith Starmer has committed itself to a notably hard Brexit … : no customs union, no single market and no freedom of movement … comes at a very considerable cost … If Labour wins the 2014 election its Brexit policy will accelerate UK decline … Britain’s international standing will be further undermined … this is what Labour is asking us to vote for …
Keith Starmer’s success will be ‘measured by the enthusiasm he can generate and the activism he can mobilise’
… good luck with that: you cannot achieve either of those things from inside a bunker designed to keep out ideas, enthusiasm and creative agency …
As they push further right Tories are finished
Scant regard for truth or accuracy, constant blame shifting despite 13 years in office … invoking of scapegoats and fictitious bogeymen … Tories no longer even pretend to embody the virtues it once attributed to itself …such as fiscal probity, accountability to taxpayers or a business friendly environment… looks increasingly like a bear pit of extremists, cranks and mediocrities … incapable of exercising its duty to the nation or taking the slightest responsibility for the damage it has done … it needs to go …
India provides a happier example … a continent sized country, its boom is fuelled by internal migration … many travel from the poor north to the more prosperous south and west, to seize new opportunities and, increasingly to take those vacated by the south’s aging workforce … an illustration of what an unfettered work force can do … a lesson for governments everywhere …
The problem with conference speeches is that they have two audiences
… one is the party the other is the wider public … those in the hall are often an odd lot … Tory members turn up dressed like extras from an Evelyn Hall adaptation, brogues, bow ties and signet rings … Labour delegates have pink hair, tote bags, tattoos …
Demography
… the struggle with aging…. successful countries have stabilised their birth rate, brought in immigrants to enrich their economies, encouraged workers to stay on in their 60s and got men to do their share of care work at home so women can tap their economic potential … Making deals with unsavoury partners and non democracies is an ugly but necessary part of foreign policy. It is an entirely different matter when it does not even work.
Brexit was basically a pack of lies
… horrendous … made a mess of everything … return to EU now inevitable … sticking plasters on Brexit not enough …
… Labour Party demanding to know if Tories were aware of HMRC investigations in Bamford’s tax affairs as they trousered £10M in donations from him … Since Scumbag became PM Bamford has not put a penny the way of the national party. ‘Anthony was incandescent when Scumbag knifed his mate Johnson ‘… Scumbag is said to regard Bamford as ‘pompous and self important’ … Bamford paid the bill for Johnson’s wedding party … subsidised the newlywed’s accommodation …
Rachel Reeves
… Fiscal responsibility is not negotiable … the ‘big if’ is whether Labour can make that work … Brexit has flat lined growth. Global instability means all governments face permanently high borrowing costs. Britain’s economic model means taxes are at their highest level ever just to keep dysfunctional public services afloat … we cannot borrow and spend our way out … Truss fiasco has added credibility to Britain’s borrowing costs … Will it work? Labour needs to be honest about the potential obstacles…British Construction Industry … zero raised their hands to the question ‘Who thinks Brexit is going well for British industry’ … the need for economic and political stability … the total lack of it under the 5 PM, 13 year ABC shambles of Austerity, Brexit and Cock-ups …
… lunacy, delusion, poisonous, culture war ranting… some of the very worst people in British public life … not only vile but dangerous…
Tory Party
… witless use of power and determination to keep their hands on the chainsaw … … held power for 13 years … chains awed UK membership of EU … rare example of a country placing long term economic sanctions on itself … xenophobia … proud but useless independence … based around unthinking hatred for foreigners … country is fed up with a government that has no social, moral or environmental agenda … politicians are involved in a nastiness competition to see who can be the most beastly … who needs clean air .. who cares if children can walk safely to school … do voters want their neighbourhoods organised for the benefit of people passing though it … who cares about evidence … voters want to hear that everything is splendid so let’s pretend it is …
Don Adamson Pip Pip Medway Delta Retired Brexorcist and Saboteur First Class
Professor Anand Menon recently published a paper for UK in a Changing Europe (UKICE) stating that there was no political advantage for Labour or Conservatives in focusing on Brexit as an election issue. I know Anand, having met and spoken with him at events on quite a few occasions. As a fellow academic, this gives me the right to challenge him. I’m sorry mate, but you have confused political expediency with political leadership. Let me explain:
UK in a changing Europe’s research states that neither the Conservatives nor Labour stand to gain much from focusing on Brexit. We know that the word Brexit has gone out of circulation, primarily because (a) hardly any of the political parties want to talk about Brexit and many have demonised party members from even uttering the word (b) the media has a virtual blackout on the word Brexit, preferring ‘global factors’ as a euphemism for the lived experience of the British Brexit people (c) many familiesandfriendcircles do not wish to reopen the toxic conversations that characterised the Brexit referendum. It’s a particularly English condition to sweep difficult conversations under the carpet. But, and it’s a very BIG BUT …
Not talking about Brexit does not make Brexit go away
Leaving the Brexit conversation undone is what therapists call ‘unfinished business’ or ‘closure’, rather like an angry boil that is left to fester. Unless the Brexit boil is popped, it will continue to haunt families with its puss for a generation. UKICE have of course published many fine articles and studies that point out that Brexit is far from done, with many further ‘bumps in the road’ to come. This is why a new conversation about Brexit and Europe is needed. Also why I advocate an active rather than a passive approach to difficult conversations about Europe and Brexit (a passive approach is simply waiting for granny and grandad Brexit to die). This is what I call ‘Brexorcism‘.
Whilst mentioning the B word may not be a vote winner according to Menon, all the ‘offspring’ of Brexit are being talked about as voter priorities. Like it or loathe it, all of the issues on our Brexit iceberg have their roots, fully or partly in Brexit.
All of these electoral issues have their roots wholly or partly in Brexit. Menon is wrong in his analysis.
Menon concludes ‘meh’. I conclude that this is sloppy analysis by UKICE.
Political expediency versus political leadership
Menon is right from UKICE polling data that it may not be politically expedient to mention Brexit. Expediency is not importance however. Two things occur to me:
Firstly and most importantly, political leadership is not about constantly responding to polls about the here and now. This is in effect driving through the rear view mirror. Leadership is about synthesising long-term decisions and short term actions to lead people towards better futures. OK, of course I realise that UKICE is not OK Magazine, but I feel that Menon has conflated expediency with leadership. As a leader, Keir Starmer et al. should be in the business of explaining the connections between our ‘Brexitberg’ elements (NHS collapse, cost of living, migration, UK stagnation, business collapse, lost trade, friction, food shortages, sector specific staff shortages, brain drain etc.) with Brexit. Starmer has stated that he wants to deal with root causes and not symptoms of our problems. Brexit is at the heart of Britain’s decline.
Secondly, snapshots are just that. A snapshot in time. I recall that Menon was first talking about this research at a UKICE event way back in 2022. The focus groups were conducted in Brendan Clarke-Smith’s constituency of Brexity Bassetlaw, Thurrock and Lee Anderson’s constituency of Ashfield !!! This knocks the qualitative findings out of the park in terms of validity. What possessed Public First aka Britain First in choosing these areas and not a mixed sample? And why did UKICE decide to use them for this research? The quantitative poll of 4005 people is now nearly 6 months out of date, so the dataset is also of dubious value. We are nearly at the point where 2/3 of the population accept that Brexit has failed and within striking distance of 70%
Bassetlaw, Thurrock and Ashfield are not representative !!!
Leaders synthesise long-term decisions and short term actions for better futures
Yes, people in Bassetlaw and Thurrock can argue that Brexit realities are the fault of the Tories not being Brexity enough (although I’m at a loss to understand how much more Brexity Johnson, Truss and Sunak’s puppet cabinet could have been), or that Remainers have ‘thwarted’ a true Brexit (I never knew I had so much power, having been ignored by MPs on all sides etc.). Nobody knows or agrees on what a true Brexit would have been and certainly an immediate exit via WTO would have left us with a 10-12% GDP deficit compared with the 4.5% we currently have. This would have been catastrophic. I predict that we will soon reach a point where 70% of people accept that Brexit has failed, even if the B word has been airbrushed out of public discourse. People are not stupid and, like it or not, Brexit and the offspring of Brexit will remain on or under the table as election issues, especially if people keep the conversation going about Brexit. Learn how to do it here:
Learn the skills of Brexorcism here.
Why this matters
In my humble opinion, Menon is feeding Remainers and Rejoiners a false narrative. Having met Anand quite a few times, I sense he is at best a fence sitter on the subject of Brexit in order to keep in with his politicos on both sides of the debate such as David Frost and others. Some tell me that he is a closet Brexiteer, which would explain his misleading conclusions from the research.
The not so secret Labour ‘promise’ to look at Brexit again in 2032 is also another unicorn designed to put Remainers and Rejoiners to sleep. See Faulty Towers for more on Labour’s disingenuous Brexit strategy. Sorry Anand, I expect better from a professor who should know the difference between political expediency and political leadership. I look forward to a conversation about the matter.
I’ll keep this simple. Labour insiders tell me that Keir Starmer will ‘get round’ to rejoining the EU in 2032 when nobody’s looking. Here’s why this is a unicorn to placate Labour ideologues and silence debate. It is 2023 now. Cast your mind forward 9 years ….
By 2032, few will remember what Brexit was, let alone care to do anything about it
Even in 2023 Brexit has disappeared from the news cycle and from public discourse. The poor attendance of around 5000 at the Rejoin march is an indicator of ‘Learned Helplessness’ and ‘Brexit fatigue’ amongst the general public, who either believe that Brexit is done or that we can’t do anything about it. Climate denial, bully dogs, ULEZ, mythical meat taxes, Holly Willoughby, potholes, HS2 and a stream of Tory gaslighting has effectively clogged the media channels and occupied the minds of people who are attracted to the next shiny bright object in the news. We fall for it every time.
By 2032, Horizon type deals and other ‘mini pay as EU go’ deals will reduce the pool of people who still think that Brexit is an issue
See our article Pay as EU go for more on Rishi Sunak’s strategy to pick single issues off one at a time and thus dilute the community of people interested in the underlying issue of Brexit.
By 2032, the damage of Brexit will be complete, much of it irreversible, thus little point in rejoining
For example, once the car industry leaves Britain due to rules of origin issues, they will not rush back just because a rejoin strategy is in place. Business relocations are big decisions etc. By 2027 our premier position in financial services will have declined as companies relocate or take key staff out of Brexit Britain. And so on. Like a chemical reaction, some are irreversible. Labour know all of this but fail to act. Even Prof Anand Menon is making excuses for Keir Starmer based on ‘here and now’ research. The word Brexit may have been silenced by all the political parties, media and people not wishing to re-open family wounds but all the products of Brexit are being talked about per our Brexit iceberg. Importantly, Brexit won’t go away if we keep not talking about it. It will remain a festering sore in many families for a generation until ‘gran and grandad Brexit’ have spun off this mortal coil.
The Brexit Iceberg.
By 2032 the EU may well have worked around us
This is not an insignificant point. Although there is value on both sides from rejoining at this time, there will be precious little socio-economic capital in the EU accepting us back in 2032. Just the much larger asset of political capital for the EU … they would be able to day that “the prodigal son returned”. However, the EU may well have speeded up accession of other nations seeking to join and may feel that Brexit Britain are just not worth the trouble. As a business person I fully understand that sometimes people choose the easier paths rather than the more difficult ones.
By 2032, our divergence from EU standards will make it technically more difficult to rejoin
Although this is perhaps the smallest issue, it makes the whole matter less tractable and politicians prefer to do easy things rather than difficult things.
The Tufton Street gang have decided to genetically reformat Rishi Sunak to help him win an election. The ‘battleship grey’ Rishi 1.0 was at least built on the solid foundations of Sunak’s dull technocratic self to calm down politics. Rishi 1.0 had to deal with two crises:
Boris Johnson’s negligent killings of old people via his herd immunity fallacy, his “oven ready Brexit” deal which is burnt to a crisp, gross spaffing of our money on failed vanity projects, a tsunami of cronyism, gross lies and excuses and, of course, the Partygate scandals whilst people were forced to let their loved ones die alone, including the Queen.
Liz Truss’ wilful destruction of the economy in one weekend, adding thousands of pounds per year irreversibly to mortgages, billions to our national debt and a total loss of confidence in the UK plc on the world stage.
Cue Rishi 2.0, the radical reinvention from bland to ‘exciting’. Sunak’s ‘mum’ aka Akshata Murty launched Rishi’s reformatting at the Tory party conference, in order to curry favour from Tory faithful. With support from the warmup act Penny Morduant aka Alana Partridge, who managed the dubious accolade of saying “stand up and fight” 12 times in 80 seconds, although nobody was sure why, who with, when, where or with what.
Rishi 2.0 – What’s in store?
‘Radical Rishi 2.0‘ will be tough on society and tough on the causes of society. Fierce with the 99% of wokeists, leftists, left luggage attendents, left handed bankers, left leaning journalists, centrists, greenies, hippies, commies, liberals, snowflakes, members of the London Assembly, forins, doctors, train drivers, nurses, social workers, teachers, farmers, fishermen, firemen, train drivers, trainspotters, comedians, LGBTQIA+, judges et al. In fact everyone that does not sign up to the Tory fascist agenda. Here are some of the policies which Rishi 2.0 will likely hint at in the coming months, slightly exaggerated for fun. Of course he will actually do nothing about any of them:
Rishi 2.0 Part I.
Running through some of the Rishi 2.0 bullet points above:
On Thursday Sunak aligned himself with Italian fascist Georgia Meloni, to build a desperate consensus around his “Stop the Boats” campaign. However, Brexit Britain will be regarded as international pariahs if we leave the ECHR as a piece of Brexit grandstanding. Twinned with North Korea and Russia.
It sounds frivolous to suggest that model railway company Hornby should run the railways, but clearly a Government that does not know whether the rail link has been built to Manchester airport is not fit to commission rail projects using £ billions of our taxes. The HS2 fiasco has cost £91 billion of taxpayers’ money.
Check out CPC 2023 by clicking on Thomas.
As with Johnson, the devil is in the detail with Sunak. Having announced that HS2 will go to Euston at CPC 2023, the truth is that this will only happen with private investment to build the line from Old Oak Common to Euston. If I were an investor at this point in the cycle I’d not be up for investing in a railway that could be cancelled in a few years’ time after an election.
Rishi 2.0 Part II.
The distraction of a new British educational qualification almost literally concretes over the problems of crumbling schools. Rishi is trying to gaslight us away from the problems of RAAC by introducing the ABS (Absolute Bullshitter Sunak / Advanced British Standard) qualification to replace A and T Levels. You fool no-one Rishi.
Gillian Keegan – concreting over education problems.
Will Rishi cancel the triple lock for pensioners as the new hard man of the Tory party? Time will tell. So far, it is more of the same with Jeremy Hunt targeting the most vulnerable with his next set of cuts. But the pensioners could well be next as a new cash cow. After all, I guess that Lee Anderson would ask what is the point of them being alive if they won’t vote Conservative? In any case, I guess Anderson believes that pensioners can live on 30p a day.
Levelling up proves to be a project about levelling roads, with 25% of the £36 billion ‘windfall’ from HS2 going to fill potholes. This may help to fill election leaflets in MP constituencies but is hardly a demonstration of Rishi Sunak’s so-called claim of “long term decisions for a brighter future“.
Clearly the Tories love the distraction of XL Bully dogs to stop people thinking of more important matters. Nonetheless I doubt we’ll see The Police employing them to patrol the streets, but anything is possible given recent lies about meat tax and 15 minute cities.
Finally, Robert Jenrick has suggested that we must breed more children to cope with the need for more carers for old people. I imagine that Boris Johnson is ready as CIO (Chief Insemination Officer).
Will Rishi 2.0 succeed?
Highly doubtful – Tufton Street have no idea about personality change, as they are people without personalities. Leopards and spots etc. Rishi Sunak’s speech to CPC 2023 was pretty much his usual “Blue Peter” style of delivery and the excitement of all the promises has been shown to be a pack of lies within a day. CPC 2023 looked like a wake for a dying brand. I guess Tufton Street could tell Sunak to work on his image rather than his content. Perhaps some pink flashes in his hair, flairs to give him more appeal to youth or at least trousers that reach his ankles? Or maybe a beard to make him look a bit more radical / risky?
Don Adamson reports the news that the Brexit media refuse to print from his Brexit bunker in Barnsley.
This week’s homework
One – discuss the following statement. – Compare Rupert Murdoch’s conduct in the matter of Brexit with the conduct of Josef Goebbels in the matter of Nazi war crimes. Is the only real difference that at least Goebbels had the decency to predict the trial verdict?
Dreams of drowning children.
Two – Why do Russian spies spend so much time and effort trying to steal British secrets? Putain likes the Tory Party so much he bought it. These Tories will tell Putain anything he wants to know?
Brexit and Russia
Three – Discuss the following statement. Princess Anne presided at the awards ceremony when Grease Bogg was dubbed knight. Persistent rumour states that he late Queen would show her displeasure at controversial honours and awards by refusing to attend the awards ceremony and to get somebody else to dish out the gongs. Awards do not get much more controversial than a knighthood for Grease Bogg. Would it have been appropriate if King Charles had demanded that Prince Andrew should have been deputed to confer the knighthood on Grease Bogg?
Four – ‘Cock of the North’ is the nickname awarded to Henry Percy, son and heir of the Duke of Northumberland. Some years ago the BBC did a series of Shakespearean plays. They got Sean Connery to play Young Percy. At least that was better than giving the part to some upper class twit from RADA. Would ‘C**t of the South’ be an appropriate nickname for Johnson?
This week’s quotes
Richy Scumbag’s anti green turn
… feebler goals will raise uncertainties, deter investors and probably not win votes … if Richy Scumbag hopes that attacking Labour’s green plans is a way to turn around the polling figure, then he is almost certainly wrong…. his hotch potch of delays is likely to deter investors, making it harder to cut the price of technologies; that will raise the costs paid by consumers … the immediate consequence will be questions over Britain’s commitment to emissions targets and uncertainty for business … it is stable long term policies that drive down the costs of new technologies … more delays will not help Richy Scumbag … without clear regulation the market will take longer to grow, costs will be slower to fall … how businesses should plan if we tear up key planks of government policy … pollsters are sceptical that greenery is a strong wedge issue for Scumbag … rowing back on commitments looks more likely to divide his own voters … across all parties voters are likelier to say the government should do more, not less on climate ….
Times have been tough for British workers
…; price rises outpacing wage growth … until recently Brits enjoyed access to the cheapest food in Europe…. inflation is uncomfortably high … a faster pace of price rises than is found in USA, France or Germany,
A year ago financial markets gave Britain a fright …
after Thick Lizzie’s new government unveiled a growth plan that involved £45B of annual, unfunded tax cuts … cavalier approach sent yields on gilts spiralling and the pound plummeting to its lowest level against the dollar … Thick Lizzie’s 49 days in office, were the briefest of any PM … Britain is still paying a ‘moron risk premium’ … Tory party is still reeling … Tory deficit to Labour is close to 20 points in the polls. Tory reputation for economic competence is shattered … Thick Lizzie shows little contrition…
Just remember what Truss and Hunt did in 2022.
Russell Brand is the symbol of a cruel, misogynistic and politically vacant era
…several women have accused Brand of sexual assault and rape … an investigation by the Sunday Times and Channel 4 revealed two decades of misogynistic behaviour ranging from criminality to the harassment of junior staff the bulk of the coverage regurgitates behaviour Brand once bragged about and which was blithely accepted by media executives, politicians and viewers … he boasted about his predilections for ‘them blowjobs where the mascara runs a little bit … the most chilling allegations are the claims that Brand sexually assaulted a teenager with a BBC car picking up the car from school … by 2014 Brand had evolved into a wannabe politico … it was not the misogyny was unknown it was that it did not matter … the media bosses who coddled Brand and the politicians who sucked up to him now dismiss him as an exception rather than the norm …. He was not an aberration. The audio of Brand trying to arrange a meeting with Jimmy Savile, who was later revealed as a serial rapist, by offering to let him see his assistant naked sounds like a surreal parody … … beggars belief … Censorious and puritanical attitudes that are prominent today exist as a reaction to the excesses of a previous era …
Conservative politicians in Europe are pitting migrants against babies
… no EU country is producing enough babies to sustain its population … populists pit the fight for babies and the one against migration as two sides of the same coin …this is utterly crackers … those risking their lives in small boats have not been consulting fertility tables ….
A century after it controlled a vaster empire than the world has ever seen, today, Britain is less influential than it has been in living memory
… it has a diminished military force and has separated from its biggest market, Europe had always been far more important than the empire … EU hope to be the promised land in the digital realm … EU laws, particularly digital ones tend to become global standards … the Brussels effect … governments around the world have adapted the law to make trade with EU easier … EU represents one of the world’s biggest markets … tech giants must follow its rules … The Tory Party has one over-arching aim: to win elections. On some occasions, the prevailing views of the electorate might mean that he broader ambitions may be accommodated under that arch, but the extent, to which the party would, in pursuit of victory, be prepared to ditch apparently key policies or adopt those that had previously seemed untenable, should never be underestimate. … Mammoth efforts will be put into dredging up ideas that will get Tory voters salivating. Policies that might lift the UK out of the difficulties in which it now finds itself are of lesser importance … Tory Conference is likely to be filled with Mail pleasing messages … Richy Scumbag is no different from Johnson in his willingness to pander to right wing factions …. yet Johnson is not going to make it easy for Scumbag … Johnson still has the hearts of many Tory voters in a way that Richy Scumbag never will … Dynamics of the Tory conference have changed … party membership has been decimated … increasingly the lack of membership at conference has been compensated for by businesses keen to cosy up to politician and pay heavily for the privilege. This year the Tory party may struggle to attract many of them … businesses may reason there is little point in investing in an outgoing government…. Tory Party has become a club with limited membership… Scumbag and Co will use every weapon they can to persuade voters it is the club they must support…
In one of the most Tory areas in the country I said that Richy Scumbag was not as big a liar as Johnson and not as utterly useless as Thick Lizzie
I engaged the audience in show of hands questions…. Hands up if you think Brexit is going well … zero hands…
Nobody knows what Richy Scumbag stands for
… an advocate of low taxes and spending who has increased taxes and spending… promised to protect the environment and pushed back on targets that would do that …Scumbag cannot cut taxes … the economy is too weak and government deficit too large … mammoth cost of losing frictionless trade with our biggest markets …. He is sacrificing prosperity and jobs to Brexiters … he must be seen to be leading a government that is competent and trustworthy … Scumbags’ latest Yougov rating is minus 45 … failed to rescue his government from Johnson’s melodrama and Thick Lizzie’s catastrophe … his problem is not just that so many of his targets will be missed … failed to make things better and will have broken specific promises … Scumbag lacks a distinctive ideology and a capacity to inspire… Tory Party’s inability to stick with a PM is costing us dear £18,660 severance pay that Johsnon and thick Lizzie pocketed – not to mention the £115,000 a year all former PMs get … inflation busting £300,000 increase at Chequers (PM’s country cottage) …
In 2019 BC obediently covered Nigel Garbage’s pitifully attended march as it set off from Sunderland
…. tens of thousands on the Rejoin march on 23 September not mentioned by the BBC … it was as if they had been told not to talk about us … pathetic … thousands of Lib Dems boycotted the first day of their own conference to attend the march … overseas broadcasters covered the event…. ‘We will march each year till Britain Rejoins ‘… Fundamental problem executives at the Mail have with Johnson is that he regards his £1M 2 year’s contract as money in the bank… With no incentive to break stories or say anything remotely interesting … if you want to read anything remotely interesting about Johnson you will not find it in the paper that pays him…
Don Adamson Pip Pip Medway Delta (Retired) Brexorcist and Saboteur First Class
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