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Category: Economics

Little Britain

Little Britain roundup

I’m at something of a loss to know where to begin this week. I’ll start with a progress check on the five goals necessary to commit Brexit to an early grave:

Reboot Britain goals

Breaking Parliamentary Paralysis

Regards Parliamentary Paralysis (Goal No 1), the unholy Brexit alliance of Labour and Conservatives remains in tact, in spite of compelling evidence that Brexit isn’t working and now over 60% of people in Britain realise that. Some fine words were spoken by Hillary Benn, Yvette Cooper and a few others at Monday’s Brexit Inquiry review, but more is needed. Please see our article at Scottish Bylines for a full analysis of Labour’s untenable position on the B word including an interview with former MEP Denis MacShane.

Hard Labour
Hard Labour – Click to read the article. Image by P Paton

The local elections are a good opportunity to send messages to your councillors about Brexit. Many are running scared of their party’s position on Brexit as this hilarious Twitter post shows between my Tory Councillor who denies any link between Brexit and local affairs. Sadly Labour are in the same boat. Let them know that Brexit doesn’t pay. Above all else, vote and vote for non-Tories.

Increasing MSM footprint

Goal No 2 concerns increasing our footprint in mainstream media (MSM). We have always needed more people who can cut through on mainstream media in meaningful ways rather than just being used as a backdrop in the Guardian or on Channel 4 News. Marina Purkiss is one such talent. James O’Brien another. Ian Hislop and Rosie Holt plus others. Here’s Marina’s surgical destruction of Jacob Rees-Mogg’s “war on woke”. We need many more such people to act in the media. Letters work, radio phone calls, all the way up to articles, books and TV appearances. Learn how to begin the work here. Whilst we are on the subject, write a letter to King Charles III on the occasion of his coronation. Watch Marina’s masterpiece on GB News:

18th century Latin student Mogg destroyed by Marina Purkiss

The work of the Holy Mole show should also be amplified much more. Please see Holy Mole. Their work is of superior quality to the now watered down Now Show on BBC Radio 4.

Holy Mole !!

Increasing social media amplification

Social media amplification (Goal No 3) remains key and everyone can do it. In the wake of a tsunami of fake news, it is essential that we fight fiction with full facts. Join our Anti-Brexit Virus Super Spreader Group on Facebook. We have something similar on Twitter. Send me a message to join.

I attended the Extinction Rebellion event, made some street videos and did a performance, making clear the connections between the national disaster of Brexit with the global catastrophe of Climate Change. Having been branded as a “thwarter” by Jacob Rees-Mogg and his kind, I invite you to join me as CTOs (Chief Thwarting Officers). See these Twitter posts:

Mass Brexorcisms

Goal No 4 is the slowest of all goals, but one of the most important. We need to actively move the dial on how people feel about Brexit to 70% who think it was a mistake. We cannot wait for people to die. Please read a copy of the books Reboot Britain and Private Eyelines for a heady cocktail of the psychology, sociology and therapeutic insights into mindset change for people who experienced nuclear levels of attack by Tory / UKIP lies about Brexit. Here is an approximation of the inside view of a typical Brexiteer’s brain. This is the raw material for Brexorcism. Click the image to read the books:

Brexit-Psyche

Strengthening our relationship with Europe

Goal No 5 requires an international network and slow continuous work inside the corridors of power. We host meetings to cultivate and coach such people. Our next event will be on Wed 8 May at 8 pm on ZOOM. UK in a Changing Europe lead the field in this area and I am also connected with some former European Movement seniors who are quietly forging ahead with preserving our integrity with people who matter in Europe.

Click to kick an ERG Tory

Finally, I have decided to stand for election in 2024 to make sure that Brexit doesn’t pay. Please support our project to do this by clicking on the Tory Brexit ERG Scum picture below. This is a long haul effort to make any significant impact and funding is needed NOW to register the party and get some basic leafletting done.

Click to kick a Tory
Click to kick a Tory in 2024

And just a reminder of some of the people we are targeting:

The Brexit Black Hole

By Adrian Ekins-Daukes – former Conservative Councillor, Tunbridge Wells

The Chancellor, Jeremy Hunt, went to considerable lengths in his budget speech to cover up the extent of the black hole in Britain’s finance’s, largely attributable to Brexit and deepened by Liz Truss’s and Kwasi Kwarteng’s mini-budget in their brief period in power.  His fantasies, however, that Brexit is going to plan and delivering successes come up against the real world inhabited by most of us, where the damage caused by Brexit becomes ever plainer.  The facts provided by the Office of Budget Responsibility (OBR) and other authorities are set out below.

THE DEPTH AND COST OF THE HOLE

The OBR had  confirmed its view prior to the budget that Brexit has reduced  the UK economy by 4% lower than it would have been had  we stayed in the EU.  Without Brexit, the money saved could, in theory, have increased spending on the NHS and social care from around £148bn to £327bn.  Since in practice no government would have spent the whole of such a sum, the real cost of Brexit would probably be £40-£50 billion per annum.

The budget makes clear that the government is still borrowing heavily – the equivalent of 5.1% of GDP in 2023/24, dropping in phases to 1.7% in 2027/28.  Without the Brexit “black hole”, that borrowing would have been lower and the  interest burden less.  Both the Institute for Fiscal Studies and the OBR, in their comments on the budget, stressed the seriousness of the difficulties facing our economy, notably the largest tax burden in years on and huge levels of borrowing But there also difficulties other than the black hole which impede diminishing it.

BREXIT VIRUS MAKES UK SICK MAN OF EUROPE

OBR forecasts a fall of a further 6% in disposable household income over the next two years – the biggest drop in living standards since records began, a lower level than that before the pandemic and the worst record for any major economy.  According to the International Monetary Fund (IMF), the UK will have the worst economic performance of the G20 in 2023 (the  20 largest economies including sanctions-hit Russia) The UK economy will shrink this year by 0.3% in 2023 before growing by 1% next year.  Other major economies are forecast to grow in 2023 except that of Germany, which is forecast to drop less than ours.

NO EXIT WITH BREXIT FROM BLACK HOLE

The Chancellor is well aware of economic policies capable of stimulating the economy.  Investment is one, and he has devised tax incentives to encourage  businesses to invest.  However, his own figures show this will only be bring forward expected business investment, not create more of it.  As for new investment from abroad, there is little prospect of regaining the UK’s position as top recipient in Europe of foreign investment when we were in the EU.  The attraction of our market was largely due to free access to the EU single market.  Without that access, our market alone lacks the same attraction.

A boost in trade would be another path to economic recovery, improving productivity and keeping prices down.  Here, however, the OBR prediction is a 15% fall, due to post-Brexit disruption and red tape. The Brexiteer future vision of “global Britain” involves imposing costs and obstacles on previously highly profitable trade with our nearest neighbours, whilst attempting to divert our trade pattern to far off markets on the other side of the globe, where our exports will be subject to high shipping costs and high environmental impact, language differences and other costs and barriers.   It is calculated that our much-trumpeted accession to the Pacific Trade Area will boost GDP by just 0.08%, no substitute for the 4% lost by leaving the EU.  We would need 50 of such trade deals just to stand still.  There are not 50 trading blocs in the world and, as yet we are not trading with the people of Uranus.  It would seem that the Liz Truss’ thinking on growth is coming from ‘heranus’ and not Uranus.

THE MAIN BUDGET BENEFICIARIES ?

One measure in the budget is the removal of the total limit that people can save into their pension pots.  The purpose of this is claimed to be to encourage retired doctors back to work, thus relieving pressures on the NHS.  Whether or not it has this effect, the benefit goes much wider, granting tax breaks to the best-off 1% (e.g. bankers, hedge fund managers, development moguls as well as senior doctors), at a cost to the tax payer of £1 billion a year.

THE SOLUTION ?

Joining the EU and creating the EU Single Market provided the opportunities to raise our economy from being the Sick Man of Europe where it languished in the late 1960s/70s.  Follow this path by restoring our close economic relationships with the EU as soon as possible.

Speaking of black holes, please vote the Tory aliens out on May 04.

Brexit is not a complete disaster, it is an incomplete disaster

From Don Adamson in Yorkshire. Brexorcist First Class, campaigner, writer and impressario:

This week’s quotes: “ Brexit re-enactment society: historical re-enactments are popular in Britain … fans of the genre should go the House of Lords … scrutinising the Retained EU Law (Revocation and Reform) bill … lawmakers know the bill is dangerous, wasteful and one of the silliest pieces of legislation ever to come before Parliament … Parliament is again galloping towards an avoidable blunder … it is like lighting a fire in a library and handing the librarians a photocopier and a marker pen to save what they can … ministers do not know how many laws are in scope … hands the executive broad powers to make laws with no idea as to how the power might be used …

Treasury fears it could lose billions in tax challenges … an almighty time sink … for the vanity of those for whom the battle to leave the EU was the highlight of their careers … parliament is imprisoned by the shrill politics of Brexit … some of the most damaging features of the Brexit process … a sane country would never allow itself to be put in this vice … familiar mix of terror and irresponsibility … blithe optimism smothers debate …

Labour is wary of opposing Brexit … terrible mistake …  a clear majority of Brits believe that to Leave the EU was a mistake … Brexit causes politicians to lose their judgement …  The Old Bailey focuses mainly on murder, rape and terrorism cases … the majority of terrorism cases involved people on the far right of British politics. A minority involves Islamic terrorist cases …

Thick Lizzie addressed a reception at the Japanese Embassy … the feet shuffling mood hovered between embarrassment and cringe coated pain … Thick Lizzie assumes publishers would flock to offer her big bucks for her memoirs … interest varied between minimal and zero … must be hurtful … Johnson is clocking up millions for his memoirs and after dinner speeches … while persuading Richy Scumbag to fund lawyers to help Johnson pretend that he did not lie to Parliament over Partygate …

Brexit is choking the arts and the government is doing nothing about it … touring orchestras and music sales – British culture and arts are a huge success story … Brexit means struggling with tough opposition from abroad … rivals get better tax breaks … children’s TV is suffering … movies of all kinds, music, live theatre, dance, audio books and video games … the world loves British cultural exports but Brexit makes it far harder to sell them … games firms give £7B a year to the economy … music exports are worth £3.5B … creative industries contribute £116B to the economy … yet is one of the worst hit by Brexit … government is totally indifferent … British government promised to make up any shortfall but has not done so … huge problem for the industry … harder and more expensive … a ruinously expensive waste of time … hurt an industry where Britain has huge advantages … You have to be something of a strange breed to want to be an MP in the first place …

Daily Telegraph runs pieces overtly critical of Brexit and Johnson …  Johnson can only count on Daily Mail and Sunday Mail for blind loyalty … Michael Gove admitted ‘I ask myself if Brexit was the right thing to do ‘ … Gove’s loyalty lasts only so long as it suits his interests … wants to distance himself from the Brexit recriminations after the next election … frankly hilarious death spiral the governments poll numbers have been taking for months …

Thick Lizzie continues to peddle her ‘it was all the fault of communist currency traders’ … ‘le grande illusion’ encapsulates Brexit … Johnson’s audacity … ‘that is what Louis XVI did and he got the guillotine …  Redevelopment at Teesside Freeport is Europe’s largest and most risky Brownfield project… highly toxic land and riverbed is churned up at breakneck speed …

Environment Secretary Therese Coffey has little interest in protecting the environment … toxic waste is taken from remediated areas and piles driven into contaminated land … ‘business partners’ make tens of millions … Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy … it was in the days of Nigel Lawson and Peter Walker that this vital industry last enjoyed civil servants with genuine energy expertise … the timing of these disruptions could not be worse … a new defence export advocate to promote arms sales … given the job to a Tory peer … under investigation by the Serious Fraud Office  … there are more health professionals of Ghanaian origin working for the NHS than in Ghana … Brexit is not a complete disaster, it is an incomplete disaster … Brexit does not need fixing stormed Lord Frost to the Daily Mail …

Brexit is not a complete disaster, it is an incomplete disaster

Michel Barnier

I was delighted to attend a superb event hosted by Professor Anand Menon of UK in a Changing Europe. Even more delighted to meet Michel Barnier and present him with copies of the books Reboot Britain and Private Eyelines.

Here are my takeaways from the event. It was necessary to attend in person to gain the full value of the conversation between these two giants. Just click the link to Twitter below or go direct to the the full article on Linkedin.

Merci beaucoup pour tout ce que vous avez fait pour essayer de sauver notre pays de lui-même. Le Brexit est perdant. Nous allons nous réveiller doucement.

Whilst we are here, do check out my riotous conversation with James O’Brien on LBC re Rishi Sunak’s motivational strategy.

Talking bollocks about Rishi Sunakered – Please download the album and subscribe to our Bandcamp page for updates

We are failing

Life long Tory voter Rod Stewart has just declared that the country is a mess and the Tories need to hand over power to someone more competent. This prompted me to think of the song he covered on his Atlantic Crossing album. Apologies for the lyrical changes which are occasionally grating !! 🙂

Brexit Britain 2023

Some will know that, in 2016, Britain voted to become an isolated country via the Brexit vote.  The marginal 52:48 popular vote was pumped up by:

  • Outlandish promises that we would fund our healthcare system with the proceeds of Brexit.
  • Brexit ‘freedoms’ from EU laws, 98% of which Britain helped to make.
  • The weaponisation of migrants ‘swarming’ into the UK, using the very same language used by the Nazis to justify the Holocaust.

It then took five years to leave our membership of the club we call the European Union, mostly because nobody in our Government could agree what Brexit meant.  Some wanted total isolation with free market capitalism on steroids, a kind of ‘Singapore on Thames’.  Others wished to retain all the benefits of trade and co-operation from Europe without any of the responsibilities of club membership.  The battle raged on between the various factions, consuming four Prime Ministers in the process, with our fifth currently sitting in the departure lounge.  Ultimately, it seems that Brexit consumes all its offspring.

Two years on from our departure, it is possible to see the beginnings of the realities of Brexit.  In this film, I have taken what could be described as a ‘Brexit Stock Take’.  This piece deals with the economic realities of Brexit.  Others in the series will deal with Social effects, Political futures, Legal outcomes, Environmental impacts and Technological effects.

Please take a look at the film and subscribe to our EU TUBE channel.  The film is 17 minutes long but well worth your time as a case study in populism which is sweeping Brazil, the USA, India, Russia and several other places.  Paradoxically, the world needs collaborative leadership and joined up thinking to face climate change and the many other global issues we must address if we are to survive.  Instead, many think that ‘strong men’ are the answers to such problems.  We shall see who prevails.

How the rest of the world sees Brexit

Check this interview out on US National Public Radio. Brexit has contributed to our lack of resilience in Britain. We are this more exposed to shocks.

We must also be ‘grateful’ to Liz Truss. In just a few weeks, she conducted a clinical trial on Britain, a trial for which no one volunteered. The experiment was in hard Brexit economics. All the patients died and we are left with a £30 billion black hole in the economy. Even Boris Johnson was unable to match these levels of spaffing.

The interview is syndicated across 1000 + US Radio networks.

Click on the image to listen to the radio package

Reboot Britain

Write a letter

Letters work. Write your letter to King Charles III and or your MP using the template we provided. Here’s a graphic example as to why letters work from an anonymous source:

To Tom Pursglove MP


So you’re backing the return of a known corrupt liar. Well done. Are your family proud of you?

Dr R

Dear Dr R
Thank you for your email.
However, as someone who no doubt considers themselves to be a ‘professional’ person – hence your ‘Dr’ title – your email is beneath you and lacks any sort of integrity.  Don’t you dare bring my family into it.  
After all, it is perfectly possible to disagree respectfully, without being downright rude and personal.
Yours sincerely,
Tom
Tom Pursglove MP Member of Parliament for Corby & East Northamptonshire

Dear Mr Pursglove,

Please don’t talk about integrity whilst voicing support for Boris Johnson, who is a confirmed liar. May I remind you that he was forced out of office for just that.As for ‘bringing your family into it’, my question remains. It appears to have touched a nerve with you.

As for being rude – really?

Dr R

Dear Dr R,
Yes, I’m afraid you’re being consistently rude – and I suspect you wouldn’t like me involving your family in matters in such a way either.
This correspondence is now closed.
With best wishes,
Tom
Tom Pursglove MP Member of Parliament for Corby & East Northamptonshire

Whilst we are here please read our post on why backing Boris Johnson is a really good idea. Find out more about the gentle art of Brexorcism here.

BOJO Rising

Some cold unemotional analysis for Remainers and Rejoiners who are hard of thinking. If we accept :

1. That all the Tory candidates are essentially the same in terms of their short term impact on the economy (shades of badness etc.). Morduant is another ERG puppet and Rishi is mistrusted by ERG because he is a prudent brown economist by TP members, having shown his credentials already.

2. That the next Brexit / Kwasi Recession is more or less “baked in”, thus the impact of leadership in the next few months has an NPV of zero. So the choice of leader is an irrelevant issue in ‘accountancy’ terms. Note that Liz Truss’s departure did nothing to the value of the pound. The city is not fooled by replacement headstones.

Then we move on to the next level of analysis. Which leader is worst for the Tories and Brexit?

1. If Boris loses, he loses any opportunity to return to politics. There would be no need for a judicial review etc. It’s a slam dunk success. This is probably why he’s hesitating as he is not a losing kind of guy.

2. If Boris wins, a new bloodbath will open up in the Tory party – with those who wrote letters resigning, writing more letters and so on and members leaving. Roger Gale has already written his letter!!

So, basically it’s a win win win win win win …. In short, if the ERG don’t want Johnson, and 1/3 of the Tories don’t like it, we should support it.

None of the above appears to be apparent to most Remainers / Rejoiners who are gaslit by the Johnson persona and his sins. We must set that aside. If Johnson gets elected, it will be tragic for the Tories and the Brexit bubble will be popped, like a very nasty boil.

Cold analysis is far more important than hot emotional reactions to the ghost of Johnson. Think about it. Put your head before your hedonic response.

The best outcomes at this time re Tory destruction are in order of desirability:

1. A General Election – However, I don’t yet see the mechanism for this, as the English don’t riot. The Tory argument that they were elected may well stand unless it faces significant parliamentary and public pressure. This, however is why we wrote the letter to King Charles. Now the Remainers are complaining about that for a host of bizarre reasons.

2. Boris wins – Vote of No Confidence, resignations and more mayhem.

3. Boris loses – they limp on with another lame duck.

Write a letter

King Charles III

Please send a letter to King Charles III. It is best if you write your own letter as multiple copies of letters tend to be ignored. Here however is a template you may adapt to suit your needs. We recommend using the rule of three … pick three issues from the main body of the letter to use. We also recommend that you send your letter by post for maximum impact. Handwritten letters are especially valuable. The address is Buckingham Palace, London SW1A 1AA

Your Majesty/Your Royal Highness  (whichever is preferred),

INTRO PARA

It is with some hesitation that I write to you so early in your reign, and at a time of great bereavement for you and your loved ones and the country in general. However, the wheels of government roll on regardless. This emboldens me to raise with you a number of issues which I hope will inform your reign.

MAIN BODY – Do not overload and perhaps pick three issues for your letter – please remove the paragraph markers in BLUE

PARA ONE – CLIMATE

First and foremost, I hope that you will use your influence to help us address the pressing issue of climate catastrophe, which threatens us all.  Planet earth will not wait for sub-committees to agree compromises which allow our planet to continue warming.  Instead of responding to the call to suspend the use of fossil fuels in favour of sustainable energy sources, we are presently pursuing the controversial issue of fracking, a subject on which your latest Prime Minister may have been badly advised.  The prime reason for removing the ban imposed as recently 2019 by her predecessor has been justified by the war in Ukraine and its effects on the economy and consumers. Yet the energy crisis preceded the advent of war. Does this not raise questions  to the advocates of this course of action?  Fracking is more expensive than solar and other forms of energy production. We should look upon the UK via the medium of the BBC sitcom “The Good Life”, in other words, we must be responsible environmental stewards. A hallmark of our existence is to leave the planet in a better state than when we arrived.

At the same time, the bonfire on standards due to Brexit enhances environmental damage through increased carbon footprint from ever longer trading across continents, moral hazard through use of poor materials for manufacturing and an increased use of irresponsible capitalism. 

PARA TWO – BREXIT

Brexit has not delivered on the promises made in the ‘brochure’ in 2016.  Instead it threatens the breakup of your Kingdom, the loss of Britain’s position as a world leader in many fields, breakages of international law, a possible return to the troubles in Northern Ireland and human trafficking of people to Rwanda as a supposed ‘solution’ to migration by people fleeing from war and oppression.  Just when many countries in the world are recognising that joined up thinking is needed to solve joined up problems, we appear to have elected to live in un-splendid isolation.  I know that your mother Queen Elizabeth II was opposed to Brexit and I hope you will exert further influence in this direction for a better Britain in a better Europe for a better world.  

PARA THREE – MICRO ENVIRONMENT

Clean beaches and Britain’s waterways have always been one of the defining hallmarks of our green and pleasant land. They are under systemic attack from our Government, simply because the laws that allowed us to reach these standards of excellence did not emanate from Westminster. It matters not who sets the bar for excellence on planet earth. What matters is excellence itself. I hope you will agree that we must maintain clean beaches, clean rivers and clean towns and villages. Each and every one of us can play a part in this, but it needs your leadership to bind the country together. It is both distasteful and dangerous to allow our waterways to be filled with e-coli.

We have developed a class of people who are skilled in the art of offering easy answers to difficult problems. We know that complex problems have no easy answers and we need to take time to understand the systemic consequences of our actions. But it is clear that our standards have been decimated over recent years, with more to come due to the ideology of Brexit which requires the purging of all that emanates from the EU. Of course, 98% of these standards were ones which Britain created or supported.

PARA FOUR – FARMING

It has become apparent that we need to reform farming towards more sustainable approaches and an approach that conserves the land to reclaim food security for Britain. Whilst it was right for Government to replace EU subsidies for farmers with an equivalent scheme, the scheme was not of equivalent value and it was wrong to then cancel that scheme. This will undoubtedly affect lives and livelihoods for people who manage 71% of our land to everyone’s ultimate loss.

PARA FIVE – SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY

Britain had a role as a world leader in science and science relies on collaboration with the finest minds on the planet. Every single scientific body warned against Brexit as having the potential to reduce the gene pool of talent on which some of our greatest achievements have rested. King Charles II founded the Royal Society which continues to make awards for contributions to the promotion, advancement, or use of science for the benefit of society. We have a long tradition of successful collaborations in science, whether that be in advances in health, aerospace, defence, living standards and so on. In the 4th industrial age, the age of information, we owe it to our children to offer them the best environment to bring innovative collaborations together through projects such as HORIZON.

PARA SIX – DEMOCRACY

For some time now, British democracy has been under attack. Examples include the illegal prorogation of parliament, manifesto promises being broken almost on a monthly basis and the erosion of truth and trust in politicians and politics. Flip flop politics are not without consequence. In recent times our economic experiments on the population of Britain have caused untold irreversible increases in mortgages and the cost of living. Prime Ministers are now elected without recourse to the vast majority of the people of Britain. We need a proper written constitution and the reform of our democracy and democratic processes as a matter of urgency.

PARA SEVEN – COMMONWEALTH

The self-isolation of Brexit is clearly affecting our relationships with Commonwealth countries, for example Bermuda. This has cross impacts on your own families’ standing as leaders and representatives of the United Kingdom and the Commonwealth. It takes decades to build trust and co-operation and minutes to destroy it. We must save precious relationships on which we rely.

PARA EIGHT – THE NHS

You mentioned that you were born on the same date as the NHS and quipped that you felt you were doing better than them when interviewed. Our NHS is under threat to become a two-tier system rather like the US, but without any safety net for those without means. A hallmark of a civilised society is in how vulnerable people are treated. Our NHS is too precious to be traded away as an asset.

OUTRO 

I understand that you are unable to act in public as it would contravene your role. However, I urge you to influence the debates on our ‘Britastrophe’. I remain, Your Majesty, your faithful and loyal subject.

Joe Bloggs