I have long advocated the need for “Mass Brexorcisms” on an individual level, to heal the divides brought about by Brexit disinformation. I developed the proven methodology in our book Reboot Britain – Changing tired minds on Brexit. Sadly, my advice largely fell on deaf ears. Admittedly a “Brexorcism” requires vast supplies of skill, patience, empathy / UPR and time, lots of it, spread out over time, to be effective. But we must gradually talk people down from “Farage’s fictional mountains” of myths, mythinformation and downright lies. Brexorcism is therefore very effective but also very inefficient, as a way to change the minds of the masses.
Brexorcism summed up.
So, we must move from individuals to groups and whole communities. Although I have dealt with social groups, operating at scale for whole communities is not within our capacity. However, it IS within reach of political parties seeking to restore trust, truth and confidence in our politics. This will deflate the “dogwhistle” variant favoured by the populists and fantasists.
A National Conversation
To this end, I propose a nationwide series of town hall type events and a sustained campaign to restore truth and trust to politics. Better Britain events will combine notable speakers and experts with the crucial element of actually listening to the lived experience of those who would normally not get involved in politics via expertly facilitated small group sessions. In doing so, we will tease out a common vision of what would constitute a Better Britain. I’m under no illusions as to just how important it will be for this to be designed properly. I am available to help political parties do the necessary groundwork from my other side of life as a management / organisation and change consultant.
Who will do this?
I favour a coalition of progressive parties, such as the Lib Dems and Greens to engage communities. However, it it is clearly Labour and The Conservatives who have the most skin in the game to deal with people who believe that Reform UK is the only answer to our problems in Britain. We offer the idea to anyone who wishes to put an end to the populist rot that is infesting our nation.
Reboot Britain
If people wish to support a pilot scale event, to show the political parties what it looks like, I am happy to mount such an event with funding. Please go to Support Us, if you would like to see a better Britain.
I was called to give some interviews for various Middle Eastern TV platforms on the reasoning for Mark Rutter’s visit to UK on Monday 9th June. The interviews are obviously not in English, so here I set out some of the arguments I made. The TV clips can be found below.
37 pence a day for 70+ years of peace in Europe
Mark Rutte visited UK to shore up support for NATO, Ukraine etc.
Starmer is desperate for friends in a post Brexit jurassic world. However, kowtowing to Trump and Farage is not the right strategy. More courage is needed from Starmer. Morgan Mc Sweeney must go.
Trump knows that Starmer is beleaguered by Brexit so he uses Britain as a bridgehead to batter Europe and the EU for his ally Putin.
Our natural partner is Europe and Britain must show unity. We have no other choice and cannot continue with “cakeist democracy”.
Sadly, the only defence strategy is to show Putin a united front.
UK is strapped for cash due to Brexit. But a 1% rise in defence spending equates to £30 billion pa. Brexit costs us £140 billion EVERY year in lost opportunity and tax receipts, so defence uplift can be afforded if Starmer will face down the Brexit elephant in the room. Read more at Rejoin the EU.
Peace is more than the absence of war. Brits paid 37 pence a day each for our EU membership. Go compare how much we paid for EU membership from your council tax bill (see below).
Whilst Starmer needs to be courteous to President Trump, he goes too far in the appeasement game. Instead, he must learn from John Bolton, Mark Carney, Chancellor Merz and President Zelenskyy.
Moving from 2.5% to 3.0% in the next Parliament is simply too little, too late. It places politics before country. Do better.
I have written many times on the fragmentation of the Remain / Rejoin organisation and likened our movement to that of Indonesia (17 000 islands, many with just a few inhabitants etc.). For more detail on the OD issues, see Reasons to be Helplessand Indonesia. Last week I attended the so-called Brexit reset summit to meet a few colleagues. In passing, I made a trip down memory lane and it was good to catch up with a few friends. Although this will grate a little with some of you reading this, I was not impressed with the organisation of the event, save for the Three Million, who at least had thought about some level of coherence.
Shouting at the wind
Steve Bray dominated the protest with his SODEM fan club. It was the usual bad karaoke punctuated by occasional shouting. In case of doubt, I helped to start the street activism that became SODEM (Stand of Defiance European Movement – itself a two fingered salute to The European Movement). Some of you may therefore see my critique as being based on jealousy. It is not. The trouble with the SODEM protest is that it fails to provide any meaningful content or substance to journalists. Instead they use it as a colourful backdrop to their own stories, which is widely regarded as a joke by critics.
Photo backdrops may please those that appear in the pictures but it means that Remain still has no a credible voice in Mainstream Media – See objective 2 of our five goals. Where I live in Brexit Central, leave voters think that Steve Bray IS the sum total of our movement. It’s very hard to push back on this view.
Style and substance
Some Remainers still don’t understand the need to balance substance (content) with style (delivery). I made several attempts to get Steve a regular podcast with Jon Snow of Channel 4 some years back. I also gave several other suggestions to professionalise SODEM’s work, such as making the compilation video interviews. However, the C4 opportunity was disregarded out of hand and I (and Jon) were shouted down by the mob. Our protest at Parliament remains literally a one man show with a loud hailer and an amplifier. This is a far cry from the diverse and more inclusive offerings of previous incarnations.
Even Steve himself has done better. For example, when he used to intercept politicians with his Socratic questioning style. These were often deeply penetrating pieces rather than “shouting at the wind”. Whilst the loud hailer was amusing for a while, Steve’s act has not changed and it grates with professional journalists trying to do their job. Sadly, this is what many people see as our public face. We can and have done much better.
No more heroes
I’m told that Steve has made several millions from his protests. People love to support lone heroes and this satiates their own guilt, allowing them to do nothing. We have always needed distributed leadership and not heroic leadership – see the academic literature on these terms.
Pressure groups … not
I was astonished to see that the “real” European Movement made a claim on Linkedin that their own pressure had led to Keir Starmer’s reset. In fact, the elements in the so-called reset were included in the Labour 2024 Manifesto. Having once been a leader of an EM group, I’m afraid to say that they are not leaders, not even fast followers but laggards, in terms of being a pressure group. The leader of the Rejoin Party nailed the point:
“The purpose of a pressure group is to apply pressure, NOT to align themselves with one party’s manifesto commitments.”
Brendan Donnelly, former MEP.
Illogical incrementalism
It was Andrew Adonis, EM Chair, who sold the Remainers the false narrative of “step by step” aka logical incrementalism.
Hardly stretch targets. Just Labour Policy or opportunistic asks (defence).
Leadership is needed
I make these remarks in the hope that this prompts some continuous improvement in both areas. Labour will move only if they see considerable political advantage in doing so. Influence comes from both “push” and “pull” communications’ strategies. SODEM’s voice is an extreme form of push communications and is no longer very persuasive. EM’s voice does not push or pull our leaders to action at all, being totally in the pocket of their intended audience. “Creative tension” is always needed between leaders and their intended audience, rather than corrosive tension or no tension at all. See Peter Senge for more on creative tension and leadership of change.
Reset or Reboot and Rejoin?
It is clear that the only good Brexit reset is a dead Brexit. Read more by subscribing to our newsletter (free). Labour must find more courage. Rejoin won’t wait until 2032 as the damage of Brexit will be largely complete, much of it irreversible. The only piece of solace from the Brexit reset is the agreement to dynamic alignment. Still this is thin gruel. Starmer has managed to upset both ‘sides’ of the Brexit debate. Labour are banking on the belief that the Remainers are more forgiving. We shall see ….
Charles Radley is mounting a campaign to persuade some MPs to change to a pro-EU party (e.g. Lib-Dem, Green, SNP, Plaid Cymru). First we are targeting those Labour constituencies where the MP is known to be pro-EU and where a pro-EU party came second in 2024. But we plan to do much more in terms of lobbying MPs across Britain with books and other resources. Can you help? Please fill in the questionnaire at this Google forms link so we can organise our campaigning most effectively. Thanks !
This piece was first written in 2024. It’s still as relevant (perhaps more so) under the Brexit Labour Trump Government … The only good Brexit … is a dead Brexit … it has become painfully clear that Brexit has not delivered any of the so-called freedoms, nor solved any of Britain’s problems or opened up opportunities of equivalent or better value when compared with our previous membership of the ‘club’. Read Rejoin EU: Reboot Britain for more on this. Better still, mail copies of the book to MPs or support our project to do so.
Even the Financial Times find it necessary to court proven liars such as Matthew Elliot in their recent film on the subject. Elliot attempts to make the argument that Brexit has not delivered because our mainstream politicians are not willing to seize opportunities, but then fails to identify any. It’s a thinly disguised argument to invite the Brexit ultras to the table, and with it, full fat fascism to Little Britain. Watch the FT film at the end of this article. Before that, watch this two minute short piece which sums up what Brexit was really about. My film is devoid of academic references as these tend to need much more time, but the supporting facts and validation can be found at the accompanying article Populism will eat itself.
Music soundtrack by Peter Cook. Available on Bandcamp with all proceeds going towards our campaign.
Brexit has failed
The film has already produced a visceral reaction from a leave voter who has clearly been affected by the film’s dystopian machine-styled soundtrack (deliberate) and the speed / brevity of the messages. He appears to have been somewhat triggered by the experience, which is good. Sadly, ‘Alan the Hat’ has no collateral in terms of his own research, content etc. Nor does he have any followers on his You Tube channel. I aim to provide a good (free) service and admittedly packed a lot of text into two minutes. Alan clearly has problems reading big words and sentences that are more difficult than “the cat bit the dog”, so I have provided a summary of the points below so he may study them in greater detail.
Brexit in 2024 – a summary
Tory gaslighting on an industrial scale fuelled Brexit. It continues via a daily stream of dead cats to take people off the scent of Brexit. Examples incude the need to incarcerate legal migrants, identity politics, constant scandals etc.
Brexit delivered 4.5% GDP LOSS into perpetuity and a broken NHS which Boris Johnson promised to fix, with the fabled £350 million per week on the bus. Brexit has damaged our resilience as a nation and therefore our ability to settle strikes with public sector workers and so on. Growth is for the birds in such circumstances. We are once again the sick man of Europe.
Cost of living impacts have Brexit as a major contribution. Food inflation has reached 20% There are more to come once border checks come in later in 2024 … In the next 28 days we will see further inflation on goods imported from Europe and barriers to trade for exporters. See Brexit Inflation. The Brexiteers’ explanation of this is that Brussels are ‘punishing’ us. Get real, we are now no longer a member of the golf club hence there are associated costs and barriers. The Golf Club analogy I made in 2018 is prescient here:
We are now a third country. Membership had benefits.
Brexit has delivered broken businesses, broken promises, broken lives and broken livelihoods. It is not true to say that Brexit Breaks Britain as this implies that Brexit is done. It is not and I deliberately choose the phrase Brexit’s Breaking Britain as it is more accurate.
Brexit weaponised an increase in racial tension from Brexit extremists such as Patel, Braverman, Badenoch, Anderson, Gullis, Mordaunt, Mogg, Farage, Tice Truss et al. They are responsible for killing people seeking safety from warzones.
Brexit has meant broken promises to farmers, fishermen, police, teachers, social carers et al. As a small example, the British replacement for the Common Agricultural Policy does not compare in any way to what we had, faults and all. Listen to the farmer in the FT film below for more on his topic.
Perhaps one of the real reasons for Brexit is yet to materialise … ‘Singapore on Thames’ beckons, with the ‘sale of the century’ via SEZs and a return to a feudal society. If you want to understand what an SEZ is, read @EuropeanPowell’s explanation of what you are about to receive whilst you are being gaslit by tales of royal cancers and gender reassignment..
Extract from @EuropeanPowell’s work. Follow him on Twitter.
Brexit is not done per Boris Johnson’s lie of an ‘oven ready deal’. Impacts will continue for the next decade.
Liz Truss’ experiment in Brexonomics cost an uncool £70 billion and ruined young people’s hopes of home ownership in just 49 days. Just imagine what the Brexit hardcore could achieve.
Boris Johnson used COVID to literally ‘mask’ Brexit impacts … what I termed a ‘Britastrophe‘.
Johnson must have jumped for joy when COVID hit. It was an opportunity to kill 30 000 OAPs in care homes whilst operating as a mass distraction for ‘getting Brexit done’. Click the image for more on our Britastrophe.
Brexit means a loss of freedom of movement, student exchange scheme and more travel friction / costs. All of this is self inflicted as part of our so-called democratic referendum.
Both the Tories and Labour are presently engaged in distraction, distortion and dead cattery, in their attempts to erase the mistake of Brexit and secure votes. Brexit has so far claimed five Prime Ministers. It will also claim Keir Starmer.
Brexit will continue to break Britain unless we Join the EU anew. We can do this. The door remains open and even The Telegraph are now recommending it.
All the while, Labour are asleep at the wheel of Brexit misfortune. Keir Starmer cannot deliver his transformation without recovering our resilience.
‘Stop the boats’ has failed. It was yet another dead cat to channel people’s anger in the Daily Mail / Excess. In any case, better answers to migration are available. See our immigration algorithm.
The damage of Brexit is cumulative and much of it irreversible. Labour’s talk of rejoining from 2032 is therefore disingenuous and despicable.
We are essentially Sunakered. Listen to our dialogue with James O’Brien on this point.
Brexorcisms still needed
Do have a look at the FT film which overall gives a good coverage of the state of our Brexit nation. I am disappointed at the lack of fact checking of some of the statements by Matthew Elliot. Where the film falls short is in the area of leadership, preferring instead to look for incremental adjustments which will not address the elephant in the room. A few mealy mouthed journalists apologise for Keir Starmer’s “management by focus groups”. Peter Foster makes the error that, since nobody wants to talk about Brexit, it will go away as an issue dividing families. Perhaps he needs to study the psychology of ‘closure’ a bit more carefully. Sure, the word Brexit can be airbrushed out of public discourse and there has been a concerted effort by politicians on most sides to do so, but the ‘dark mark’ of Brexit will be left on society unless the issue is resolved. Resolution can come through a number of means and not just another referendum. As I said in 2019, “Let’s Talk About Brexit“, maybe the title of their film acknowledges this need. Martin Wolf comes out head and shoulders above the rest of the journos and politicos with an honest appraisal of the mess that we’re in. We do need to talk about Brexit. Conduct a Brexorcism today.
Worth 30 minutes of your time.
Don’t just take my word for it. Here’s Brexit in numbers from official Government figures and other trusted sources:
Some of our books. Click the image to check them out on Amazon.
Rachel Reeves’ financial statement aka emergency budget landed yesterday. Labour have abandoned their principles of support for those in most need in society. And yet, a simple remedy to our woes is at hand … to end Brexit and apply to Rejoin the EU immediately. Brexit is costing us £140 Million every year. Much more than the floor sweepings she is trying to hoover up from the poor, needy and vulnerable.
Trumpaction costs
Worst of all, buggered by Brexit, Labour are forced to go with a begging bowl to TrumPutin. What transaction costs will Trump require to cut Labour a bit of slack? The price will be high for sure as transactional (trumpactional) negotiation is all that Trump understands.
Will Britain allow US crap food to be dumped on our kids?
Will Britain be expected to place further distance from Europe?
Will Britain have to withdraw support partially or wholly from Ukraine?
Reeves should know that by dealing with Trump, she is dealing with Putin.
Reeves and Moartar
There are better answers than kowtowing to psychopaths … Rejoin the EU, starting NOW.
Britain cannot indulge in full-on direct trade wars as we are now weakened by Brexit as we are now about as important as Panama. We can however be more creative than that, by indulging in what are known in the trade as “assymetric actions”. The most obvious one is applying to Rejoin the EU. We must also postpone the state visit. There are many other things that Trump wants to run his MAGA America First industry. We could simply redirect these resources to other countries. We are not stronger than Trump, but we can be cleverer. At this point in time Reeves and Starmer are in the “Chamberlain position”.
Unite and Survive Trump
This is what lies ahead if Britain doesn’t stand up to Trumputin:
Labour’s Brexit Jurassic Theme Park.
Brexit Hannibal Lecter Starmer 2024.
Your poor huddled masses, let’s club ’em to death. And get it over with and just dump ’em on the boulevard. Lou Reed.
Buy us a coffee (or more) via WISE, BACS, Go Fund Me etc. if you wish to help us do more.
We recently gained this endorsement for the book Reboot Britain from Lord Heseltine:
“Thank you for your letter of 19th February. I am glad you are undertaking this work which is both needed and timely”.
The Rt Hon the Lord Heseltine CH
Please send the book to MPs and influencers in advance of the Rejoin EU debate on March 24. Get copies at Amazon. Or get 60% author discount copies direct via reboot@brexitrage.com If you want us to send the books, please support us via PayPal, Go Fund Me or BACS via e-mail.
We are also planning some events to mark the debate. These need support as well. Give us our star back …
I was astonished to learn that Reform UK supporters are actively backing killing immigrants who they believe to be paedophiles. Rupert Lowe, Reform UK MP for Great Yarmouth constantly posts disinformation about immigration and a host of other subjects on LinkedIn to trigger people who are easily swayed into believing him. This set of responses are possibly the worst I’ve seen, although they are not the only ones by far. Eugene seems quite happy to shoot paedophiles. He has fallen prey to the idea that there is a “paedophilia gene” and it resides exclusively within foreigners, when the vast majority of rapists in Britain are the “old English variety”. Eugene works as a business development manager at Future Optics in Lancashire. I’d be quite concerned if he is willing to kill people indiscriminately based on Rupert’s dogwhistle calls.
At various points, Rupert stokes the idea that not only are the rapists ‘foreigners’, but they are also ‘islamic’. This dangerous disinformation is poisoning our society and Eugene is an easy target for people looking for easy answers to complex problems.
In terms of incitement, here are some example of the kind of post that Rupert puts up. He posts this kind of thing several times daily, but never answers any comments. It is a persistent campaign of disinformation.
Please report disinformation and / or hate crimes. It helps keep the internet safe. False information and outright lies do not help to “Make Britain Great Again” as Nigel Farage would have you believe. They simply poison the culture and breed hatred, which is the basis of dogwhistle politics. And, in case you are wondering, better answers to immigration are available. See below. In case you also think we are “lefty losers”, think again. Yet it is always a mistake to pray at Donald Trump, Putin and Farage’s altar. Take courage Sir Keir Starmer.
Last week was a bit of a bumper ride. I attended the UK in a Changing Europe (UKICE) event in London on Tuesday, then Stella Creasy’s Labour For Europe event on Thursday. I also spoke with James O’Brien on Brexit Day 31 January !! We have also started some musical and activist projects. Settle in for a long read ….
Before we begin, We are supporting Robert McMaster’s petition to force a debate about Rejoining in Parliament. The petition had stalled at 69 000 signatures with virtually no activity. In just three days we restarted the flywheel, adding 13 000 to the total and more since. Please sign and share, then send copies of our book to MPs and influencers. 60% author discount copies for those who don’t wish to use Amazon via e-mail reboot@brexitrage.com
Watch our latest videos on the project:
UKICE event highlights
UK in a Changing Europe hosted an event with Sir John Curtice, Prof Anand Menon, Prof Catherine Barnard and Sarah Hall, hosted by the BBC’s Jo Coburn. Labour stayed away from the event which surprised me. Catherine Barnard began by confirming our own view that the problem with Brexit is political paralysis and suggested that lawyers would be happy to sort the ‘wiring’ out if the politicians ever developed backbones (my words, not hers). John Curtice explained why Labour are reluctant to move the Overton window to bring Brexit back into view, stating that a referendum would consume a lot of political energy. Our settled view is that if Labour don’t confront the Brexit elephant in the room, there will be no substantial growth and therefore no second term. Anand Menon suggested that there would not be sufficient time for any Rejoin benefits to flow through. I believe that this is based on the liberal elitist assumption that a referendum is needed and therefore a lot of time would be needed to orchestrate such a decision. Also, the strategic intent to rejoin would be sufficient to boost confidence in business and markets, so I beg to differ with courtesy Anand. Views like this from academics, prominent Remain figures such as Jon Danzig and ‘peaceful warriors’ play straight into Labour’s hands when they say that that nobody wants to go back through the arguments over rejoining. Yet we all know the polling data. Yes, people don’t want to go back through a lengthy national soul searching process again, but this assumes that one is needed. From my own research, I find that the vast majority of people would not be that troubled if Brexit were made to go away quickly and without fuss. We say, let Parliament do the job they are paid to do. A referendum may only be needed as a confirmatory step, and then a simple, short process with fully fact checked information. See Reboot Britain for the reasons we say this.
On the other side of the debate, I find that some Remainers unwittingly reinforce and mirror the views of Remoaners, some of whom have pathologised victimhood, as articulated by this view from one of our co-authors Paul Cawthorne:
Curtice importantly confirmed our view that the time is now to campaign for rejoin. The entire session is below on video. Although I took comfort from Catherine Barnard and John Curtice’s remarks, overall the tone of the debate was one of ‘learned helplessness’, perhaps informed by fears and fantasies about what the far right might do if Labour were to take decisive action to stem the flow of blood from Brexit rather than apply more bandages. Leadership is needed from Labour rather than followership aka management by driving through the rear view mirror. My question to the panel can be found at 1.05.47 ish onwards. I gave books to Jo Coburn and John Curtice and our 1:1 conversations were candid about the need for leadership rather than handing the country to Farage and his wolves.
Stella Creasy’s Labour In Europe Event
Undoubtedly Labour have not stooped to the depths of depravity that 14 years of Tory rule have delivered in terms of divide and conquer politics, austerity on steroids and victimisation of vulnerable people via Brexit on crack cocaine. So the Tories should have been an easy ‘support act’ for Labour to follow. Labour’s first moves in power have however been somewhat awkward, as brilliantly parodied by Larry and Paul. That said, we must not underestimate the difficult of turning a super tanker round mid ocean after 14 years of degradation with some people still on deck trying to lock the ship onto icebergs.
In Labour’s search for “growth by 1000 ameliorations” whilst ignoring the Brexit elephant in the room, they will find it difficult, dare we say impossible to deliver the levels of growth required to win a 2nd term in office. By the end of the evening, Stella Creasy seemed a little rattled by an audience of remainers for ‘going on about Brexit’. Possibly in a moment of sheer frustration, she brought up the bogey man of rule by Elon Musk if we did not ‘get over it’. She seemed somewhat irritated by the encounter and took me to task over my suggestion that Keir Starmer needed more confidence to take tough decisions. This was the essence of my question to Stella:
I stood for Parliament in 2024 against Labour. I say against but my candidacy was solely to split the Tory vote in a safe seat. I recommended that people vote for Labour at all Hustings events, something that political candidates don’t do. Having spoken with Labour MPs and MEPs I am told that Labour’s strategy will be to consider rejoining in 2032. When I explain to them that (a) all the Brexit damage will be complete by then (b) much of it will be irreversible like some chemical reactions and (c) since there is no appetite to discuss Brexit in 2024, no one will be able to connect their lived experience with Brexit as a contributory cause in 2032, Labour MPs agree with me that the idea of rejoining later is disingenuous at best. At the hustings Naushabah Khan (Labour) stated that Brexit did not come up on the doorstep in defence of Labour’s position. I agreed, stating that all the front of mind issues that did come up on the doorstep (Cost of Living, NHS, social care etc.) had at least one foot in Brexit as a contributory factor. I used the Brexit iceberg to illustrate my point. Nashabah did not challenge my analysis. The Conservatives and Labour passively colluded to move Brexit out of the Overton window in favour of its offspring.
Brexit is the turd that won’t flush whether we pretend we can’t smell it or not.
Brexit Iceberg
Our internal sources tell us that Keir Starmer is naturally cautious and need a lot of support to make bold decisions. By fearing Farage, Starmer is “managing by driving through the rear view mirror” rather than leading. And when he says we won’t rejoin in his lifetime, he means his political lifetime. It may come soon without a little more risk taking. Perhaps this week’s incremental moves in Brussels are a kind of “national focus group” to test reactions. If nobody blinks, he moves another inch and so on. The right wing media and the Farage extremists have all cried “surrender” just because he went to Brussels at all … if that’s the reaction to an entirely trivial set of proposals, he may as well be hung for a sheep than a lamb. See sunk costs in the book.
I came away a little disheartened by the tone of the event which appeared to be telling us that ‘mum and dad knows best’. Although I would rather have open heart surgery without an anaesthetic than vote Reform UK, I came away with a strong understanding as to why others would. The more that people in Labour tried to defend the indefensible, the more toxic the comments became via the online chat. In hindsight, I think this dialogue may have been better handled in a real life event than on ZOOM, where feedback can go unheard and views build up like a pressure cooker. I was pleased however to see that my MP was brave enough to share my reactions to the event on social media and Nigel Farage is incandescent that Starmer signed a paper in the same building that Edward Heath used many years ago. Nigel really cares about the people of Britain of course but seems trapped by the iconography …
My MP Naushabah Khan
Rejoin EU
Brexorcists in Chief
On Friday I had a dialogue with James O’Brien about the last Remaining Brexiteers. There are not many people flying the flag for Brexit now, some 11% in fact. They mostly now fall into two categories: The people who still believe that the EU is an unelected superstate and who vote for Nigel Farage (himself elected to the EU as an MEP!!) and the racists / xenophobes. Gone are the people who voted for Brexit to stick it to Cameron, the ones who believed in the £350 million on the bus, Mogg’s lies about cheap food and shoes and so on. Are we to die on a hill for these people with Keir Starmer? Here’s the interview with James:
Click to listen to LBC
We also wrote a new song in partnership with Paul Cawthorne in Italy. Brexit’s in the air is a rewrite of the Wet Wet Wet song – the band title is “Slightly Red” to reflect Labour’s current positioning. Don’t just graze on the website, download the track and support our work.
Click to download on Bandcamp
Farage: Make Shit Happen
Finally, we rewrote a Sham 69 song around the story of Nigel Farage’s nephew, convicted for upskirting in the Co-Op in Orpington. How bizarre.
Keep on keeping on
Keep sending hard copies of the Rejoin EU book to MPs, influencers etc. …
The Overton window describes the range (or window) of policies that the public will accept. It is used by politicians to win elections through campaigning on issues that lie inside the window. Although the concept is neutral, like most things, mankind and especially politicians have attempted to manipulate things inside and outside the window for their own personal gain since humanity began. A few examples illustrate the problems of moral hazard.
The Overton window.
Brexit manipulation
In 2014, hardly anyone cared about our membership of the EU, apart from a few politicos in the Tory party and some think tanks who feed the media with lies. In doing so they feed popular culture about what people care about through the media. Fast forward to 2016 and David Cameron completely misjudged the Brexit referendum on two counts : He thought he would lose the GE and not have to keep the promise of a referendum and ; He did not see how Nigel Farage would weaponise 6 years of austerity through blaming foreigners for people’s feelings of being left behind. Result : a 52:48 vote instead of 60:40 in favour of remaining (source UKICE).
The illusion of small boats
In 2020, the perceived problem of small boats was almost non-existent. The far right moved the boats into the Overton window through manipulation of the press when the actual problem of illegal migration remains relatively small. At the same time, ALL the political parties have moved BREXIT out of the window with the illusion that “Brexit is done” when the truth is far from this. All have colluded in this piece of mass manipulation since they do not wish to fight another General Election on the “B word”. However, we are living with all the offspring of Brexit as our iceberg demonstrates. The issue does not go away just because politicians and the media have airbrushed it out of existence. And it is always best to deal with root causes of problems. Brexit remains a major contribution to broken Britain, when Sunak, Starmer, Davey et al would rather have you believe that we are at war and so on.
The Brexit Iceberg.
When one considers the global finding that the majority of people who voted for Brexit were more susceptible to being lied to, due to general intelligence levels, the Overton Window is an important concept. It’s even more important that our politicians and media people tell us the truth about difficult issues.
It is well known that it is much easier to influence people of lower general intelligence. It’s not decent tho.
Who moved my Overton window?
The lessons here are :
Do not let Brexit slip away from the Overton window. It’s a one way trip!
Always ask questions when politicians try to move issues into the public consciousness. What do they NOT want you to think about?
Continue to mass Brexorcise people using our guide to the process.
BEWARE : By writing this article, I myself am trying to move the Overton window back to the long term issues facing our children. In other words to counter lies with the truth.
Movers and shakers of the window
The latest gaslighter is Kemi Badenoch, a major racist, hiding under the cloak of equalities minister. Watch this superb film from Rob Burrows, which exposes her Overton window-shifting ways:
