Category: Brexorcism

Don’s Brexit Bunker

Updated on

23/11/2023 by author

Peter Cook

Don Adamson writes from the Barnsley Brexit Bunker:

This week’s homework

One – Discuss the following statement. Murdoch and Rothermere lackeys are under strict instructions that they must not believe what they write in the newspapers.

Two – Discuss the following statement: Richy Scumbag has dismissed Cruella Braverman from the job of Home Secretary. This comes as a surprise to 21^st century Tories who expect Cabinet Ministers to be a) extremely incompetent and b) racists of the worst description. The scandal involving Stickyfinger Pansey-Lenin (alias Tommy Robinson) is also causing consternation in 21^st century Tory circles. Laws, conventions, terms and conditions that affect decent people do not apply to Gammons and Flagshaggers. It is interesting that Cameron has been appointed Foreign Secretary. He is neither an MP nor a Peer. That ordinarily would disqualify him from being a Cabinet Minister. We do live in strange times. Editor’s note : We must use Cameron – Read Play the ball, not the man.

Three – Several years ago John Cleese was a high profile member of the Liberal Democrats. The Lib Dems are not to every taste but, at least at that time they bore some resemblance to a respectable political party. Around that time Cleese was quoted as saying that ‘Woke’ was a good thing and applied to people with some kind of empathy. Cleese quit the Lib Dems and became an outspoken supporter of Brexit and other dubious causes. He now has become a presenter for Gammonite Balderdash News and has some offensive things to say about people who are ‘Woke.’ Cleese is not a stupid person so why is he lending his name and fame to dubious causes? How badly does he need the money?

This week’s quotes

Inheritance Tax is fair

… irrational hatred of inheritance tax … that hardly anybody pays … may only be paid the estate of dead people who have accumulated an awful lot of money … Inheritance Tax is necessary … Untaxed wealth creation distorts the economy … creating a level playing field is essential not just because it is fair but because it is economically efficient … Tory Party will spend billions of poor taxpayers money in a state run attempt to increase house price inflation and make the rich richer … 96% of people will never pay IHT … a more subtle version of Trussonomics … Jeremy *unt is not reversing her disastrous measures after all, he is just being more clever than she was … *unt threw a billion pounds at the wealthy in his first financial statement … billions will go to the wealthiest, to the house building sector (which donates millions to the Tory Party) … the plan is to take a large slice of money and give it to millionaires, while telling ordinary taxpayers they will benefit (COMMENT: if they are thick enough to believe Brexit is a good idea then they are thick enough to believe anything) … It is a total con and an economically damaging con …

Libidinous haystack and, to our undying shame recent Prime Minister

will soon add his name to the roster of failed entertainers who have sought career stretching refuge in the clammy arms of Gammon Balls News. The only surprising development is that some people appear to be surprised by it … increasingly unfunny farce that is the life and times of Alexander du Piffle Johnson … a lot of free time on his hands just now … had a lot of free time when he was supposed to be leading the country through the worst pandemic in a century … what a joy it will be for the man who was dismissed from the Times for dishonesty to be working for a ‘news station’ where pulling ‘facts’ directly out of your arse is keenly encouraged … Johnson can expect a cool welcome … will he really feel at home among the assorted wing nuts and tinfoil hatters on GB News? … Maybe it will convince OFCOM that the station is balanced as opposed to completely unbalanced…

Struggling GB News plunged into fresh controversy

… breached impartially rules for the fourth time … chaos at GB News … Telegraph is up for sale ‘’’ owners of GB News and Daily Mail are sitting at the front of the auction room … expect more slagging off across the right wing media … as they struggle to prove … they are ready to step into Barclay’s shoes …

Lying in state

… Westminster Hall debate entitled ‘Honesty in Politics’ … just 8 MPs attended and the only Tories were the chair and duty minister …

Telegraph

… systems have been rejigged that … ‘actively prevents anybody who knows what they are talking about attending’ … the system collapses into a state of Chinese whispers…

Richy Scumbag … a year in office … people are deeply dissatisfied … Tories look exhausted and short of ideas…

Download the album for Christmas by clicking the banner.

Things go from bad to worse for hapless Mad Halfcock

… A corrupt, lying, philandering, incompetent…

Britain’s entire criminal justice system is under strain

… no long term planning; disjointed decision making; tension between expert advice and political calculation … some parts of the criminal justice system close to breakdown … push to be tough on crime coincided with .. spending cuts … gaols, overcrowded, squalid and unsafe … gaol population nearly double in three decades … emergency measures … will not come close to tackling the crisis … decision making … contradictory and incoherent … probation service is in terrible shape … part privatisation so disastrous … it was reversed … backlogs worsened by problems of the government’s own making … in large part caused … by politicians … grim conditions … more assaults and suicides behind bars … poorly run services compromise public safety … situation dreadfully exacerbated by shortage of prison guards … a redundancy scheme so dire it had to rehire many of those it paid off … calamitous … jammed understaffed gaols … 22 hours of daily confinement not uncommon … self-harm, drug use and violence are all rising … situation gets worse and worse … prisons failing in … chief purpose … rehabilitation … perfect storm of failures … situation so bad that government cannot ignore it … probation service in shockingly bad shape …

Covid 19 enquiry

… Dominic Cummings called ministers ‘useless f***pigs’, ‘morons,’ ‘c*nts’ … Cabinet Office ‘terrifyingly sh*t’ … if anything he understated the scale of the dysfunction within the government … individuals in power spectacularly unsuited to the job … departmental responsibilities … horribly muddled … glacially slow to respond to emergencies … chaos was driven by individuals … Johnson … unserious, indecisive and unable to grasp detail … Cummings … incapable of running a functioning office … an environment that was toxic, macho and sexist … Richy Scumbag has spent the last year trying to banish memories of his chaotic predecessors. Instead the circus is back…

Johnson v God

Thick Lizzie government

… huge damage to the economy … concept of shame is as alien to Thick Lizzie as is to Johnson … continues to insist that she alone is marching to the right tune … Tories believe her … Mad Halfcock …. Presided over a process that was corrupt and chaotic … had a tendency to get over excited and make stuff up…

Lib Dems gaining ground in Gove’s constituency

… persistent rumours … Murdoch wanted him to edit the Times … rumours did not originate with Murdoch … Gove has been sucking up to GB News … Gove’s predicament emphasis the problem Brexit ultra will have finding employment after the election …

The Cabinet Secretary holds a particularly important post in the UK

… current incumbent proclaimed that the ‘government is looking like terrible, tragic joke… while Johnson was nominally PM the real person in charge was his then fiancée, now wife … demoralise a civil service in desperate need of strong leadership … the rich and powerful brazen out their position in the knowledge that the public is not interested and the media will follow its lead … Johnson is the most obvious example to whom the concept of shame is meaningless … his attitudes have polluted the atmosphere … Ecclestone was found guilty of misleading HMRC over £400M in an offshore account… he got a suspended sentence … self righteous newspapers that would pillory a desperate single mother for being a ‘benefits scrounger’ showed barely a flicker of interest in Ecclestone’s attempts to rob the country … Michelle Mone used her position to benefit from PPE contracts, has shown no sign of penitence … Yet another Tory MP accused of rape with drug possession thrown in … soon vanished from the headlines … similar allegations about another Tory MP … never been named … fiasco

Keith Starmer had an illustrious career at the bar but can struggle under light interrogation

… the former human rights lawyer appearing to endorse what some regard as war crimes went viral in Labourland where Israel/Palestine is a poisonous issue … he was stuck, kippered, by a breakfast show radio Disc Jockey … Rachel Reeves published book ‘The women who made economic’ … lifted phrases and paragraphs fro, Wikipedia … both errors tell a story, one serious and one silly … when Labour is in power … Labour neuroses will replace Tory neuroses … Tories spent a decade obsessing over Europe not because the voters wanted but because Tories were obsessed by it … with Labour in power topics such as Israel/ Palestine will become matters of internal psychodrama rather than cold debate about policy … Backbench Tory bores waving copies of the Treaty of Rome will be replaced by Labour counterparts quoting the Balfour declaration … Control was one part of the Labour pitch … competence was the other. Reeves’ literary endeavours have damaged that part of the pitch … lifting an explanation out of Wikipedia is mortifying … Labour’s reputation for economic competence is relative… relies on Tory ineptitude … Tory polling is only four points above … Thick Lizzie era … a quicker leader would not have made the error on Gaza in the first place … now that Labour government seems inevitable … boot licking season has begun … masterful inactivity can easily be labelled timidity…

Red Brexit Blue Brexit – Read the article.

Covid inquiry … government was completely out of its depth

… ineptitude of ministers … dangerous distraction … all pervading culture of misogyny … government machine not structured to cope … floods … evacuation of Afghanistan … food shortages, the UK has been found wanting … public wants and expects government to sort out its problems but the government is not equipped to do so … it is not just the constant restructuring which hampers government … government is no longer fit for purpose … huge expertise and talent within the civil service but the difficulty is getting that applied to the issues … even the most competent ministers – and that is not saying much, given the depressingly low calibre of the current crop – is hugely dependent on senior civil servants … this government… is determined to sour its relationship with the civil service … Misconduct and malfeasance by the ton … corruption … needless loss of life … cavalier, unserious, incompetent, law-breaking charlatans in Downing St … fascinating that there was no inquiry into Brexit … same lack of accountability and unsuitability for the job … the damage that these chancers have done on so many fronts is off the scale ..

Pip Pip Don Adamson Medway Delta Retired Brexorcist and Saboteur First Class

All you ever did is wreck me – Liz Truss

Posted in Borders, Boris Johnson, Brexit, Brexorcism, Britain, Britastrophe, David Cameron, Democracy, Education, Elections, Hancock, Immigration, Labour, Leadership, Liz Truss, Politics, Populism, Rejoin EU, Sovereignty, Sunak | Tagged Brexit, Britain, Britastrophe, Conservatives | Leave a reply

John Bercow

Updated on

19/11/2023 by author

Peter Cook

ORDER !!

Please join John Bercow, Andrew Marr, Gina Miller, Alex Salmond, moi and the last remaining Brexiteers for a panel debate on Brexit at “The Ayes Have It” on Tuesday 21st November in London at the The Leicester Square Theatre. The event will debate the motion “Brexit has been a disaster and now must be reversed”.

Bercow et al — Book your ticket by clicking the picture.

I have not listed the Brexiteers on the panel as they are mostly C-listers, unwilling to support their precious Brexit. Only ‘faux Baroness’ Claire Fox dares to show her face, former member of the Revolutionary Communist Party, IRA supporter and Reform Party member. To quote Laura Kuenssberg “That’s quite a charge”. Doubtless they will try to make the claim that Brexit is bad because Boris Johnson’s 100% Brexit cabinet gave us the wrong Brexit, that people like me thwarted Brexit, or maybe that the weather ruined the sunlit uplands of Brexit … They have nothing left. Let’s be gentle on them at the event … Talk Radio Gaga hack and Concrete magnate Mike Graham is already spreading misinformation about Brexit on Twitter. His fans have told him to make sure he brings plenty of facts to the event. I’m left wondering what these might be. Join me today (Sunday 19 Nov) at 5 pm for a free online masterclass on Brexorcism.

Gina Miller — The true patriots are those wishing to build a better Britain in a better Europe for a better World.

Click the tweet to read some Brexit facts.

The Ayes have it — Hurry to buy your ticket.

Join us on Sunday 19th Nov 5 pm for a free masterclass on Brexorcism

Lyrics by the wonderful Jane Berry

Bercow’s quizzical, studied what’s admissable Process in the House Late nights all aglow in the Commons Oh, Berc – o – ow

Death-Knell Johnson-Lies, all eyes on the Hedge Fund prize Calls him on the phone “Can I take you out of the picture? Oh, Berc – o – ow

As Brexit’s getting ready to go A knockout we can’t ignore:

Bang! Bang! Bercow’s Yellowhammer comes down upon our head Bang! Bang! Bercow’s Yellowhammer makes sure that Brexit’s dead.

Back in Number Ten Johnson plays the fool again Cummings gets annoyed Wishing to create an unpleasant Sce, e, e, ene

He tells him to say YellowHammer’s not Doomsday So he fakes and lies Lying fifty times: “No Deal isn’t So, o, o, o”

He turns his back on democracy.. Grieve comes up from behind

Bang! Bang! Bercow’s Yellowhammer comes down upon our head Bang! Bang! Bercow’s Yellowhammer makes sure that Brexit’s dead.

Scottish Judges say, “We caught a dirty one” Johnson stands alone Painting testimonial busses Oh, oh, oh, oh

Mogg and Kate Hoey, screaming to the gallery Say he must be free (Johnson must be free) The judges don’t agree and they tell him So, o, o, o

But as the ruling’s leaving their court A noise comes from behind

Bang! Bang! Bercow’s Yellowhammer comes down upon our head Bang! Bang! Bercow’s Yellowhammer makes sure that Brexit’s dead. Whoa, oh, oh, oh

Posted in Boris Johnson, Brexit, Brexorcism, Britain, Britastrophe, Democracy, Europe, Gina Miller, Leadership, Rejoin EU | Tagged Brexit, Britain, Rejoin EU | 1 Reply

Mass Brexorcisms

Updated on

18/11/2023 by author

Peter Cook

Please join us THIS SUNDAY 19th November for a free masterclass in the gentle art and discipline of Brexorcism with Hertfordshire for Europe from 5.00 pm to 6.30. Tickets are free here.

We are presently at the stage where nearly 2/3 of people believe that Brexit has failed. Rather less believe that we can do anything about it given the state of parliamentary paralysis that has taken hold. If we reach 70% of people who believe that Brexit has failed, MPs will have to listen. This means dispelling thoughts of ‘learned helplessness’ and the myths currently being spread about joining EU anew.

I coined the phrase ‘Brexorcism’ to describe the gentle process of influence and persuasion needed to change minds about Europe and Brexit. A fusion of therapeutic interventions, psychology, sociology etc. In our masterclass, I will give a digest of his books on the subject and answer your questions on the practicalities of mindset change. In real life I am isa business and change management expert, having written 14 books on leadership. Find out more about Brexorcism below:

Read our books on Brexorcism here

Check out 12 angry Tories

Posted in Brexit, Brexorcism, Britain, Britastrophe | Tagged Brexit, Brexorcism, Britain, Rishi Sunak | 1 Reply

Jonty Bloom

Updated on

12/11/2023 by author

Peter Cook

Jonty Bloom was the BBC Europe correspondent for many years and now writes for The New European. In this interview Jonty and I discuss Brexit and the urgent need to join the EU anew. The event was held in Brighton with the European Movement Sussex.

A Brexit fundamentalist. With Jonty Bloom at The European Movement Sussex.

Read some of our other articles below:

Brexit has failed

We can and must rejoin asap

Mealy mouthed Labour apologists are facilitating the damage

Only Gina Miller’s True and Fair party has a clear position on joining the EU anew in England

Join Gina at her Brexit debate with Andrew Marr and John Bercow

Join Peter for a masterclass on Brexorcism with Herts for Europe

Posted in Brexit, Brexorcism, Britain, Britastrophe, Europe, Gina Miller, Rejoin EU | Tagged Brexit, Britain, Rejoin EU | 2 Replies

Brexit XL Bully Braverman

Updated on

12/11/2023 by author

Peter Cook

Brexit begat bully Braverman, but why exactly is our Home Secretary pandering to English fascists and blaming the police for protests when she is responsible for policing? From a distance I can see several possible explanations:

1. MENTAL ILLNESS : Suella Braverman is an injured person who takes pleasure in other people’s misery. Her modus operandi is that of someone who inflames division rather than uniting people to a common purpose. Certainly she shows no visible signs of someone who is troubled by the things she says or does. One wonders what happened to her in childhood to make her so devoid of emotional intelligence or empathy. Just this am senior Tory MPs have called Braverman out as being “Unhinged and ignorant”.

2. BLIND AMBITION : Braverman is so ambitious that she fails to see the moral objections to her racism. This is the triumph of ends over means. Pundits suggest that getting sacked would be a badge of honour in terms of making a bid for PM, yet she came 6th in the previous debacle and Penny Mordaunt is sharpening her sword along with Kemi, Nigel, Boris, Liz and others.

3. FEAR : She is frightened of something or someone behind the scenes and is ‘just following orders’. Most of our leaders are merely coathangers for other people who hide in the shadows. They are largely hidden from view. We know that Putin helped bankroll Brexit and the ERG are now desperate to justify the carnage of Brexit, but it’s unclear as to just who or what Suella is frightened of, if this is a possible explanation.

4. A combination of 1, 2 and 3. There is rarely a single cause for complex conditions.

“Unhinged and ignorant” – Senior Tory MPs on Braverman

Whatever the reason(s), the motive for Suella’s crimes would seem to be a bid to be PM, combined with electioneering by appealing to the knuckle dragging gammon. She is able to get away with all of this because Rishi Sunak is weak aka Sunakered. Doubtless she will combine her love of boats with the tents in her campaign of hatred. The Royal College of Physicians recently declared her statement on homelessness as a lifestyle choice as morally bankrupt. Don’t you just hate those experts? As usual John Crace hits the racist psychopath nail on the head with his latest article.

I must say that I’m not a massive fan of the Police, given the long list of ethical breaches in the use of their powers to brutalise women, ethnic groups and so on. My own treatment by ex-Met Police officers has not been a model of excellence either. That said, Mark Rowley has made the right call on the marches for peace this weekend. It is Suella Braverman who is the purveyor of hate and not the peace protestors. By pitting herself against the very organisation she is responsible for, she makes herself look like a complete psychopath whilst Rishi Sunak cowers in a corner.

Let’s march peacefully on Saturday. Show Suella up as hater in Chief.

Postscript 11/11/23

Here is my summary from my direct experience of the march.

The Daily Mail could not face the headlines of Tommy Robinson’s army being the only ones to cause serious unrest, so instead they sent Michael Gove to Victoria Station to mingle with protesters in the hope that he would be attacked. He was not, smiling most of the way through the stunt. In case of doubt, Gove always travels by chauffeur driven car, even when the journey is 300 yards. A carefully planned distraction by the Maul.

A better way

True and Fair party candidate Jonathan Tod is standing in Suella Braverman’s constituency of Fareham and Waterlooville. Jonathan says he can no longer be an ‘armchair politician’, as he feels forced to stand up and challenge the appalling behaviour and policies of the current government, its lack of compassion and integrity, and the social and financial inequality which it has exacerbated. Join Gina Miller’s True and Fair party here.

Sympathy for the devil

This poem from Paul Cookson sums up everything about Suella Braverman. It’s a brilliant piece. Check his work out.

LIFESTYLE CHOICE

I could have escaped to the country

I could have lived by the sea

I could have chosen anywhere

But this is the place for me

Handy for all amenities

In that I can rejoice

This tent in a high street doorway

That’s my lifestyle choice

Yes to the freezing nights

Yes to the driving rain

And if I had to choose once more

I’d choose the same again

Yes to constant hunger

Cold and always moist

This tent in a high street doorway

That’s my lifestyle choice

I love my cardboard notice

Asking for your charity

I love the fact I can rely

On other people’s sympathy

These things you don’t understand

While stuck in your Rolls Royce

This tent in a high street doorway

That’s my lifestyle choice

This is not a style of life

That I would recommend

To my worst enemy

Never mind a friend

But you hear what you want to hear

You cannot hear my voice

This tent in a high street doorway

That’s my lifestyle choice

Your ignorance – deliberate

Like the heartless views you voiced

Indicative of where you are

And your lifestyle choice

Paul Cookson — Check Paul’s work out by clicking the image.

Poison – Image by James Rowland.

“Inaccurate and irresponsible” – Sadiq Khan

From the River Thames to the Thames Estuary, we showed Suella what peaceful protest looks like

Posted in Borders, Brexit, Brexorcism, Britain, Ethics, Europe, Farage, Fascism, Racism | 3 Replies

Don’s week

Updated on

09/11/2023 by author

Peter Cook

Don Adamson writes on the crazy week that was from his Barnsley Brexit Bunker.

This week’s homework:

One – Discuss the following statement: ‘Have I got news for you’ used to be a satire programme that treated all politicians mercilessly. Is it gradually turning into a Tory propaganda programme?

Two – Discuss the following statement. Bonfire Night has come and gone. I am finally beginning to see Guy Fawkes’ point.

Three – Discuss the following statement. Common sense is a punishment because you must deal with all the people who do not have it.

Read Bully Braverman

This week’s quotes:

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 …

Windsor Framework still knotty

… nor has the framework removed the biggest concern for business … uncertainty … little divergence has happened in practice; most British firms do not want it … politics still in limbo … missing executive makes it harder to run fraying public services … Keith Starmer says he would like to move closer to the EU … negotiations would be testing … Brexit was always going to be problematic.. For years Northern Ireland has been treated as collateral damage in internecine Tory wars…

Why can’t Britain build the infrastructure it needs?

… painfully slow … in the next seven years Britain will need to build four times more grid infrastructure than it has managed in the last 30 … tangle of agencies … none has a convincing plan …

Welcome to the haunted house of Westminster

… a year since Thick Lizzie left … keep hearing about her … Richy Scumbag … message is that he is weak and she is still running the show … He is just Ken in her Barbie world … rather like Corbyn … Keith Starmer is a Marxist … I have principles but if you dislike them I will change them … Keith Starmer has never given a convincing explanation for why, unlike many colleagues, he served in Corbyn’s shadow cabinet for over three years. The charge of opportunism lingers … Thick Lizzie is unpopular among Tory MPs … Richy Scumbag has criticised her disastrous term in office only in mild terms … the charge of weakness sticks … Thick Lizzie is a reminder of a double Tory failure: acute blunder of the mini budget of September 2022 and the chronic failure to contain the ballooning tax burden …

Join Gina Miller at the Brexit Debate in London

Class distinction

… after Brexit referendumb policies were analysed only as they to appealed to an imagined working class voter… a Leave voting man in his 50s with reactionary views. This voter handed the Tories a fat majority in the 2019 election … skip forward four years and dysphoria is mercifully on the wane … partly due to its own absurdities … Richy Scumbag and his family are too rich to pretend to be anything else … negative ratings rival Johnson’s at his nadir … proverbial Red Wall voter, who delivered Labour heartlands to the Tories in 2019 matters far less … when standards of living are falling, questions of identity fall … never mind how people take their coffee …

The people who ruined Britain

… the death of political shame … Richy Scumbag … a weak man who betrayed his office, party and country … Britain has always been multicultural … Braverman’s rhetoric inflames tensions without resolving them … despicable game … portrayed all Albanians as criminals

Has anything this UK government has done actually improved things in the last 13 years?

Worse even than Johnson or Thick Lizzie … Richy Scumbag ‘s blinkered arrogance has accelerated the decline of the Tory empire … premature success … Napoleonic delusion … March 2022, spring statement was hailed as a dud … emerged that his father in law’s company continued to operate in Russia during the Ukraine conflict … wife benefitted from non Dom status … Scumbag badly mishandled furore … role of PM … utterly unsuited … at least he blocked some of Johnson’s most outrageous recommendations for honours … Scumbag has much to answer for … fixation with ‘small boats,’ Rwanda, Bibby Stockholm barge (infected with Legionella) … badly mishandled public sector strikes … PM and most of his colleagues shamefully absent from Commons … debate .. Privileges committee report on Johnson’s lies to Parliament about Partygate … deplorable speech to Parliament … slowing strategy to achieve net emissions … cancellation Northern Leg HS2 … exasperated investors … who set a premium on consistency … broken Britain over which he presides with a rictus grin … probable that Scumbag will lead Tories to defeat … excuses are being prepared … Scumbag has been Starmer’s greatest ally … a terrible PM … done nothing to restore confidence in party or politics generally … failed his own test … reappointed Braverman … after she broke ministerial code … dithered feebly over Nadhim Zahawi’s tax affairs … allegations against Dominic Raas perfectly clear … Scumbag desperately hung on to Raas looking for a loophole … instead of renewing standards … he encouraged conspiracy theories … stoked the populist fervour … Tory Party shifted towards MAGA UK … exploits Braverman’s spiel … He is worse than Johnson (a lumbering hulk of amorality) or Thick Lizzy (ideologically deranged)… entirely calculated and all the more despicable … delusion that past success denotes future triumph … terrible self deception … soon the magnitude of that failure will become clear …

How they broke Britain

… politicians denied everything … loss betrayal, unbridled arrogance, impunity, warped ideology and political incompetence … deliberately set UK on course of decline … remained in power long after the damage they did became clear … not a single word of contrition … supporters of austerity, Brexit Johnson, Thick Lizzie and other disasters … determined to blame people who had spent years warning and explaining what those consequences would be … lies, prejudice, manipulations … unforgivable … controlled by… media, politics and wealth … sheer abnormality is rarely noted … we rarely notice how ridiculous our country has become … proof is everywhere … government inflicted economic catastrophe … what was once unthinkable is now unremarkable … politicians and cronies remain in office after being found guilty … epic delays … trade unfeasibly complicated … unnecessary damage … meaningless anti-woke rhetoric … bogus culture wars … former head of the British Army said … ‘I’ve been to Rwanda … shadow of genocide lingers … dark history … ‘ … Braverman has yet to provide evidence of her claims … commercial catastrophes, national tragedies … routinely proved spectacularly wrong without suffering censure … experts proved horribly wrong … continue to broadcast with their status undimmed … Think of one shameful episode and a dozen more will spring to mind … secretly funded lobby groups … represent nobody except anonymous tycoons and vested interests … allowed ridiculous things to happen … first population to vote sanctions on itself … Brexit costing the country £100Bn a year … UK is in the most difficult position of major economies … suffered loss of investment of £29Bn … economic catastrophe … Tories bear obvious responsibility .. you would not know this from media coverage … as dangerous as it is daft … delusional denialism … traced back to Brexit … Tories increasingly detached from reality and integrity … lasting damage … inability to disown the deceptions that delivered Brexit … pantomime characters like Grease Bogg … bigots, weirdoes … flourished most in Brexit Britain … everything they touched began to crumble … constantly denying reality, inventing persecution, shifting blame, rewriting history … everyday something new happens to deepen the awfulness, absurdity of what these people have done …

Don Adamson Brexorcist in arms The Brexit Bunker, Barnsley

Join us at Gina Miller 3E launch event online Tues 14 Nov

Posted in Borders, Boris Johnson, Brexit, Brexorcism, Britain, Britastrophe, Democracy, Economics, Education, Gina Miller, Immigration, Politics, Rejoin EU, Sovereignty, Sunak, Tories | Tagged Brexit, Britain, Britastrophe | Leave a reply

Don’s Brexit Bunker

Updated on

05/11/2023 by author

Peter Cook

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 21^st century politicians making any effort to redeem themselves?

Join us on Tuesday 14 Nov 9 am on ZOOM with Gina Miller

This week’s quotes:

Brexit has made collaborations problematical

… 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 …

Read Private Eyelines

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 …

Read 12 Angry Tories

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 …

Brexit Too Little, Too Late — 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 …

Read Deceptive Bends

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)

Posted in Borders, Boris Johnson, Brexit, Brexorcism, Britain, Cummings, Democracy, Education, Europe, Farage | Tagged Boris Johnson, Brexit, Britain, Britastrophe, Politics, Rejoin EU, Rishi Sunak | Leave a reply

12 angry Tories

Updated on

01/11/2023 by author

Peter Cook

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?”

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 23rd Century. 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.

The Disney Longstocking prison ship — 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.

Read Red and Blue Brexit

Read Faulty Towers

Join us Wed 1st Nov 8 pm on ZOOM

Posted in Borders, Boris Johnson, Brexit, Brexorcism, Britain, Democracy, Elections, Farage, Labour, Politics, Racism, Rejoin EU, Scotland, Tories | Tagged Boris Johnson, Brexit, Britain, Britastrophe, Conservatives, Cummings, Rejoin EU, Rishi Sunak | 3 Replies

Sunakered one year on

Updated on

25/10/2023 by author

Peter Cook

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 …

Read Faulty Towers

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 …

Read Red Blue Brexit

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 …

Read Pay as EU go

Migration

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 …

Read Brexit has failed

Tax is not taxing for Tories

… 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 …

Join us for a masterclass on Brexorcism

GB News

… 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

Posted in Brexit, Brexorcism, Britain, Britastrophe | Tagged Brexit, Britain, Britastrophe, Rejoin EU, Rishi Sunak | Leave a reply

Deceptive Bends

Updated on

14/10/2023 by author

Peter Cook

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 families and friend circles 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‘.

Join us for a free masterclass on Brexorcism

Brexit’s offspring are being talked about

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.

The Brexit Iceberg — 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:

Books — 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.