I would like to tell a bit about myself at the time when we are in the midst of the cost-of-living crisis, Ukraine-Russia conflict, post-pandemic, and the low-morale amongst humans across all age categories. My name is Sam. I was originally from Taiwan 45 years ago. I have lived in 4 different countries in my life time: Taiwan, US, UK and Denmark. The UK has particularly shaped me for who I am now. I came to the UK because I felt the education system was much better than in my own country.
My mother died some 31 years ago in Taiwan. It was not a good start to my teenage life.
I started my new life in the UK by attending a boarding school in Cambridge back in September 1995. It was not an easy start, as my spoken English contained a heavy North American accent. But, I really made many British friends at school in the first year. I had managed to get the “gist” of the various aspects of “Britishness”: Fish-and-Chips, Snooker, Football, Rugby, Tennis, TV programmes (They Think It Is All Over is one, Absolutely Fabulous etc.), the “posh” accents, jokes etc. I gradually acquired more British friends as the years went on.
After Cambridge, I went to three different British universities to study undergraduate and postgraduate degrees (Staffordshire, Bradford and Leeds). I had also been through a broken engagement, changing jobs, and the acceptance of this country for me being a new British citizen 15 years ago.
I must admit, I did not know very much about the European Union until after I used my UK passport travelling freely in the first 4-6 years. That was why I ended up living in Denmark for 11 months. I met my ex-wife back in 2012 and she was from Denmark. We met online first and then for real at Leeds Train Station. I miss 2012. That year, Britain was hosting the Olympics and Paralympics. Despite the state of the country’s politics was divisive back then (more divisive now!), Britain was still enjoying an important and a respectable status in European and global politics. We had two children together. However, the 2016 Referendum result had changed all that for the worst. On top of that, my two children were diagnosed with slow learning developments in Denmark. I got depressed. I thought I could have a family of my own on both sides of the North Sea. Now, I have to worry about everything. And, I have lost almost everything, including the future with my family, either here in the UK, or in Denmark, or both. I thought that Britain could provide me a stable life. I was wrong.
Now I have to worry about the future of Europe, as well as the tensions between Taiwan and China, as well as worrying about the future of my two children.
To sum up, due to the result of the 2016 EU referendum, Brexit has taken away the opportunity to establish a stable family in both the UK and Denmark as my freedom of movement is under threat and I find that I am a ‘Citizen of Nowhere’ to quote Theresa May.
All my hopes and dreams are gone now. We must rejoin our European neighbours.
Brexit has damaged my mental health. I am still suffering from it.
Do we need to reform the civil service? By Paul Higgins.
We have heard quite often lately that the civil service needs to be reformed. Whilst this is true, the reform needed should go in the opposite direction to the one we so often hear about. Most problems in the civil service come from contagion from politicians, especially ministers and secretaries of state.
If we look at current ministers and compare them with those 30 or 40 years ago, we see that today ministers in any department have little or no expertise or knowledge of their areas. 40 years ago, the Secretary of, say, Defence, used to be a military or an expert with an idea of where he wanted our armed forces to be in 10 years and what steps were needed for that journey to happen. Similarly, the Secretary of Agriculture was a farmer, an academic, a veterinarian or someone with experience or expertise in farming. Because of this expertise they tended to stay longer in the post, which enabled them to build a strong corporate memory to address the various issues affecting the department or the field, to see future problems and to prevent them before they happened.
Things have changed dramatically. Ministers now move fast from one department to another and they rarely have any knowledge of the areas they manage, whether it is farming, defence or international relations. Because of this, politics are now quite shortsighted. Nothing after the next general election matters and public services show a sharp decline in efficiency and quality. This is because the building stones for this quality will deliver tangible results only after some decades after being laid instead of some months. Another factor behind the increasingly poorer quality of public decisions is its politicisation. It is quite common to see a minister arguing with the engineers about whether a road should be built passing through this or that constituency, and, as you can imagine, the arguments rest on how voters in the constituency would react to a new road instead of on how to make the road safe, cheaper, environmentally friendly or how it will improve the capacity and time of journeys.
The civil service is suffering a similar trend. This is very clear when we look at recruitment or promotions where technical expertise has disappeared and instead the so-called behaviours are now the only criteria. These behaviours are valid everywhere, in every post, but leadership, influence or communicating will not make you capable of designing the best road but to argue in a powerpoint that it wasn’t your fault that the road was of a substandard quality. Putting even more effort in promoting these behaviours will improve relations between ministers and civil servants in the short term but will result in even worse and more expensive public services. As problems and tensions accumulate the blame game will intensify and we will see even more and louder calls to reform the civil service and get rid of unelected bureaucrats and experts. Since civil servants are not allowed to respond and publish their side of the story, this trend is quite difficult to reverse.
Finally, it is worth noticing that while most governments in western democracies suffer this problem, it is the UK Government where it is most exacerbated and, hence, more difficult to reverse.
I am speaking at a panel event with the BBC’s Jonty Bloom on September 7th in Brighton from 7 – 9.30 pm with a cast of star people. We will be discussing the impact of Brexit on musicians. Organised by Helen Gibbons, Chair of European Movement Sussex. We will also be making stops with the Bollocks to Brexit Mini Cooper en route at the Millennium Clocktower and Seaford (venue tbc) 2 – 4 pm with our UK Brexorcism Tour. See Facebook for up to date details of the tour schedule.
Click to reserve your place.
Click to reserve your place.
Unlock the Music
The careers and livelihoods of UK musicians are being damaged by the loss of the right to work across borders in Europe. European Movement Sussex presents Unlock the Music, a panel event focused on the impact of Brexit on the music industry.
Experienced industry professionals and working musicians will each present their evidence and tell of the issues that have damaged the careers and prospects of many of those involved in music in the UK. They will also offer achievable solutions that the UK government should pursue.
Panel members include:
Dave Webster – Head of International at the Musicians’ Union
Will Page – Author, podcaster and former Chief Economist at Spotify
Tom Kiehl – Deputy CEO and Director of Public Affairs at UK Music
Heather Bird – Double bassist and founder of Classical Evolution
Peter Cook – Author of three books on Brexit and six albums of protest songs
Hanna Madalska-Gayer – Head of Policy & Communications, Association of British Orchestras
Jonty Bloom – Freelance journalist ex BBC and New European contributor (Moderator)
This is the first of a series of three Rebuild with Europe events addressing Brexit impacts on specific sectors. Future events will focus on agriculture and education.
Don Adamson writes from his hollow in Barnsley where he contemplates everything from the Disney Longstocking prison ship to Boris Johnson’s sacking from journalism and beyond.
This week’s homework:
One – Some people would say that Chris Mullins was an under rated minister. He felt strongly about efficiency and economy. He would never make a decision until he was satisfied that the proposal was a) effective and b) economical. His staff officers complained that he sometimes took this to the point of diminishing returns. Sooner or later you come to the point where the cheapest thing you can do is sign the cheque and get on with it. Are there any ministers in this government who can be criticised for being over economical and over efficient?
Two – Trump faces 91 indictments. a) Will he score a century? b) Trump calls this a Which Hunt. Is that because he does not know which indictment is which?
Three – I looked in at the Iceland supermarket to buy provisions. The young lady at the checkout said she like my Bulwarks to Brexit cap; for which I thanked her. With the benefit of hindsight perhaps I should have told her that the people in charge of Iceland used to be ardent supporters of Brexit. We hear less of that nowadays. Do I understand that even the people who own Iceland have noticed that Brexit has not turned out to be the earthly paradise we used to hear so much about? Have even the people who own Iceland noticed that Brexit is doing a FUBAR on the British economy?
This week’s quotes:
Rupert Murdoch
… used to grant more audiences to Richy Scumbag than even his arch toady Johnson … passion appears to have cooled…
JCB Chairman Lord Bamford
… said in 2016 that UK was the fifth biggest economy in the world … last year UK dropped to 6th largest … Bamford in no way apologetic for his position on Brexit but wails ‘Isn’t our country in a mess now?’
Immigration no immigration dream of Brexiters lies in tatters
… no public acceptance of this by the government … compared with what we had before Brexit the system is costly, time consuming, badly run, wrapped in miles of red tape and is nothing more than a huge anchor holding the economy back … Brexiters are in full retreat. While publicly lecturing business on the need to conjure up new British employees out of thin air … privately lowering the thresholds under which foreign workers can come to Britain … quite a turnaround … foreign workers can come to Britain at great expense and bother to themselves … makes sectors of the economy look aghast at the government making their lives more difficult … hospitality…. government has come up with what in Blackadder would be described as a ‘cunning plan’ … a pathetic ruse to claim that immigration is not happening when in reality it is … an arrogant, ignorant fantasy … desperation leads the government to propose ridiculous policies like these … Scumbag’s team is torn between populist rhetoric it spews out and reality .. a moribund economy where growth is non existent … a disaster happening before our eyes … latest ruses make it harder for universities to recruit foreign students, even though they are the only thing keeping the further education sector afloat … At least in Italy the far right has woken up to reality … in our surreal politics government promises cuts to immigration knowing full well that it is neither in the national interest or possible…
Number Crunching
7.47M is the number of people on National Health Service waiting lists (up since Richy Scumbag pledged to reduce them). – 8% proportion of NHS budget spent transferring patients to private care … £318M cost of housing 500 refugees in cramped Bibby Stockholm barge for a year … £15.25M Cost of sending 500 refugees on a Disney cruise for a year.
Live scenes from the Disney Longstocking.
Hack watch
Nick Timothy, Telegraph correspondent … Britain faces multiple, complex crises … everything seems frozen by uncertainty, ignorance and fear. The understanding is not there, the ideas are not there … The challenges we face are truly enormous, yet our politics has never seemed smaller … Capitalism as we know it has failed. Not even the Tories can defend it…
Michael Gove told last month’s conference of Local Government Associations
… financially struggling councils were a handful of cases, the exception … six councils have declared themselves bankrupt since 2020 … several others could join them … Kensington and Chelsea (Conservative) …deficit of £47M by 2027 … Kent County Council (Conservative) … faces a deficit of £86M this year … Hartlepool (Conservative since 2019) …even with a 5% increase in council tax deficits could increase to 8M … Warwickshire (Conservative) … worst cases scenario of £106M deficit by 2028 … Guildford (Lib Dem since May previously Conservative) … £300M debts …
Coutts furore with Nigel Garbage
Coutts indicated the decision was not about politics but corporate image… Mad Nad Dorries is taking a break from her little watched show on Talk TV … less than 3,000 views on YouTube … has not spoke in Commons for a year … her constituency want her to resign for her lack of work … most MPs don’t give a toss about the public …
Richy Scumbag’s stance continues to baffle EU officials, UK universities and research community … haggling over pennies … Brexit Britain procrastinates while other countries queue to join, New Zealand is latest non EU country to apply for associate membership … Scumbag is determined to de-Europeanise education and research … Scumbag is committed to government’s own half baked Pioneer scheme …
Immigration legal aid lawyers in South West England have zero capacity to take on asylum seekers housed on Bibby Stockholm
… makes a nonsense of Deputy PM’s claims that the barge will make processing easier … Dowden also complained he did not hear howls of outrage of use of floating accommodation in other countries … Silya Europa in Netherlands has been controversial for the last year…
Lobbying by MPs government promised reform
… not much has changed … income from outside jobs up to £4.75M from £4M … Tory MPs … make multiples of their salaries … standards committee concluded that placing limits on outside work was too difficult … plenty of room at the trough …
Britain should rejoin … without further delay … British sciences face major obstacles … British scientists are clamouring to get back into Horizon … Richy Scumbag sees three arguments against … none stand up to scrutiny … Tories trumpeting planned Britain only project Pioneer … cannot match … Horizon … hard-line Gammons argued Britain could keep benefits of membership … difficult to find a better example than Horizon … Researchers and universities say delay over Horizon has cost the country … If Scumbag is serious about supporting British science he should stop dithering and sign up without delay ..
Brexit has failed
… London Stock Exchange looks increasingly moribund … Brexit has not made it easier to manufacture in UK … exporting has become more complicated … Britain is a diminished actor in export markets … failed to bring in investment … shrank by nearly half in 2022 … Britain is going backwards … Britain’s finance sector battered by Tories … workers have fared no better … raw sewage pumped into English waterways … failing health service… Brexit is a catastrophe for the country which those who campaigned for it claimed to love … Nigel Garbage now barely mentions the B-word … Johnson’s weekly Daily Mail column is largely a B-word free zone … no wonder Mail executives are ever more loudly asking each other ‘whose f*****g idea was this?’ … meanwhile true believer Richy Scumbag quietly drops, yet again, plans for new checks on imports from EU of farm produce … Who would have thought it, apart from those people who warned it would happen? … If Brexit was going well we would never hear the end of it…
Brexit has failed. Click to read our article from 2021.
Eurosceptics are Ecosceptics
This time they will wreck the plant … When you have done all you can to wreck the nation what is next? Answer: wreck the planet … two projects are two sides of the same ugly coin … striking membership overlap between the European (not much) Research Group and the Net Zero scrutiny Group … Lord Frost, former chief Brexit negotiator, claimed, extraordinarily that ‘rising global temperatures are likely to be beneficial’ … both ideologies involve a shocking indifference to evidence and data … distaste for ‘experts’ … same paranoid suspicion of ‘global elites and conspiracies’ … Nigel Garbage is the key figure moving further and faster than most Tory MPs are prepared to go … all horribly familiar … classic disruptive playbook, first devised by the tobacco industry and now the basis of most populist politics … put the frighteners on Keith Starmer … you might think that Brexit did more than enough damage …
… his Daily Mail gig likely to be no exception … Rothermere, mindful that Keith Starmer has promised to end non dom tax status, is less concerned that the column is desperately boring as its ceaseless digs at Richy Scumbag…
Don Adamson Pip Pip Medway Delta (Retired) Brexorcist and Saboteur First Class
This week, I’ve been out and about in Medway and Deal in Kent discussing the fact that Brexit has failed and that we can and must Rejoin the EU to save Britain from itself. Reactions to this have been overwhelmingly positive. But, as always, the comically sad stories of the exceptions make for much better reading ….
Bicycle racists
I visited two pubs in Medway. Within a few minutes of my visit to one, a woman came to tell me that my bicycle had been vandalised. In fact someone had broken the sign off. The pub in question was full of older very suntanned people talking about their holidays in Europe. One of them presumably thought that it was their right to teach me a lesson whilst smoking a fag outside. Imagine their anger when they find out that they will no longer be able to travel to Alicante or Tenerife after Brexit if they have criminal records …
Bicycle racists.Sunakered.
I was broke but not broken. The trouble is, if we had spoken about the matter I’d hazard a guess that the person who did this would have agreed that they don’t have the Brexit they wanted, IN SPITE of a 90% Brexit cabinet for FOUR years, a Brexit PM who allegedly delivered Brexit from an OVEN and now a fully RACIST PM in Rishi Sunakered. I felt pity for the person who did it. I will now have to redouble my efforts to get a secure sign for the bicycle.
We went to Deal in Kent yesterday with the Bollocks to Brexit Mini Cooper, stopping at Ash for breakfast much to the delight of the chickens and the people at the cafe there. Deal WAS very Brexity. It is no longer. The town is close to Dover where they even have a racist pub. UKIP and the Tories stoked racism there to preserve the illusion that Brexit will solve all their problems. In large measure, the people were not fooled. A wonderful chap called David Reid put the event together. He ran a Brexitometer which overwhelmingly showed that people now realise that they were lied to about Brexit, save for one person who even went as far as saying that he believed Boris’ suggestion that we would have straight bananas if we left the EU. Johnson also said that Brexit would make your wife’s breasts larger. I have checked with several woman and this is also untrue.
Only one in 40 felt that they had not been lied to about Brexit in Deal of all places.
We parked up and began our work. On returning, someone had used lipstick to write on the car, YES lipstick. This bourgeous protest made me feel very sorry for the perpetrator. Some of the stories we were told by people lined up with this ‘dirty protest’. One woman walked past and said “I like Brexit”. I politely asked what did she like most about it and she ran away. Another man shouted at the car “Bollocks to you” as I drove by. Sadly, he had nothing else to offer me. Two women tried to explain that carbon dioxide was good for plant growth and we should put cars with their engines on in polytunnels to promote food growth!! But MOST people were quite willing to say that Brexit has failed and that we should Rejoin the EU. Some were not sure how this might happen. I explain this in the book Reboot Britain.
Shocking pink.Brexit chickens coming home to roost in AshMost offensive.
Lipstick on my collar … put a Brexit spell on EU.
Points of order
The word bollocks is vulgar but not offensive as we demonstrated when Essex traffic cops tried to arrest us on the M25 and then had to back down. Read Sex Pistols v The Queen 1977.
Our car has a snowflake in place of the O of BOLLOCKS. The projection by Brexiteers of vulgarity is, of course, a product of their own tesiticular minds.
Support the tour. Click on the bollocks.
One man in Deal claimed to support our campaign but objected to Charlie Mullins’ (former CEO of Pimlico Plumbers) use of the word ‘Bollocks’ in our Chas and Dave Cockney Brexit Knees-UP song which we performed on the street. His argument was that children could be polluted by my bollocks. Methinks the ‘lady’ doth protest too much. Later on that day, I heard a young women shouting at her three kids (aged around 3 – 7 years old) “stand together you fucking c…nts – we’re crossing the road”.
With thanks to the wonderful force of nature that is David Reid for organising the event.
Last Orders
Here’s the latest round up of myths put forward by the last remaining Brexiteers to justify their fading Brexit unicorn:
Brexit is done
A barmaid in a pub on Thursday told me that Brexit is done. When I tried to explain that it is far from done and that impacts would continue long into the 2020’s she then invoked a made up ‘rule’ that “we don’t talk about Brexit in this pub” (there was no sign) !! This kind of cancel culture is a bizarre development from people who say they wanted Brexit freedoms. Of course, it’s untrue. To look at what’s coming over the hill with Brexit, see Biz Catalyst 360 and UK in a Changing Europe (UKICE). p.s. I cannot recommend that anyone spend their money in this pub in future.
Brexit is an unbreakable spell
A couple of the last remaining Brexiteers have told me that our CPTPP deal means that we cannot legally rejoin the EU. Something akin to the unbreakable vow in Harry Potter. Of course it is horseshit but it is all they have left. The Tories continue to diverge away from the EU, in order to increase the difficulty, but nothing is impossible in politics. Read what Gina Miller has to say about Rejoining the EU. It could take just 3 years to stop the carnage and we would gain an immediate uplift just by applying to join anew.
I love Boris
The same sad landlady who told me that Brexit is done as Boris put Brexit in an oven also came out with “I love Boris”. I had to ask her “what do you love about him? Is it his hair, his fertility, his oral skills (oratory), the way he dresses like a tramp or something else?” Strangely, she did not know. Usually people are able to explain themselves. I found this strange although I’ve heard it before. Precisely why a much longer sitting and effort over time is needed to Brexorcise the worst cases of “Bojona-19”.
I had a curious encounter with Kevin Gray on Linkedin the other day. Kevin is CEO of Bath Building Society and, as such, I expected a degree of skill not available to the average soul. Kevin was responding to a post about Nicola Sturgeon’s leadership skills and the SNP in general. It transpired that Kevin does not like the SNP, Nicola Sturgeon or Scottish Independence although he is a Scot in England. Not unsurprisingly, Kevin also likes Brexit. But quite surprisingly, given his position as CEO, he had swallowed some of Boris Johnson’s lies. The transcript of the dialogue that follows illustrates just how pervasive the Dunning-Kruger effect is and especially so when one tries to change someone’s mind using online media. This BBC post was the initial trigger for Kevin’s outburst at Nicola. She rightly pointed out that Boris Johnson’s preoccupations with getting Brexit done, childbirth, ovens, fridges etc. had made a considerable impact on Britain’s ability to focus on the pandemic. I have left Kevin’s remarks unchecked in purple. My replies are in red. The entire conversation is exactly as it emerged on Linkedin. No editing etc. Simply reportage.
Kevin’s initial reaction was : “Hhhmmmm. Not so sure about that. If there was one example of where Brexit did actually help anyone it was in allowing the uk goverment to move quickly with the vaccine taskforce and deliver mass vacination ahead of EU states. I suspect Devolution did not help however. Having x4 parliaments/assemblies to deal with in the UK must surely have slowed up the response? Much as Nicola was a great politician, I would personally not give too much air time to any nationalist whose aim is only to deliver further and much more serious division in the UK.”
Given Kevin’s senior position, I felt no need to hold back and I replied thus:
“I’m afraid this is incorrect Kevin. We could always have done this as an EU member. The truth will come out in the COVID inquiry. Do remember that the vaccine was developed by foreign scientists. In desperation, Johnson used buying power to snaffle up the supplies. Speaking as a scientist, I must remind you of the short-sightedness of stockpiling medicines in a GLOBAL pandemic. This strategy sprang from Johnson’s desire to mask Brexit carnage with the COVID cover up. The result was a “Britastrophe”. Please check with scientific facts if you don’t believe me.”
To cheer him up and keep it a bit lighter I sent him a copy of the song I wrote in 2020 to epitomise the word Britastrophe:
Kevin was undeterred :
“Don’t get me wrong… we were ill prepared for the pandemic and the preps and early actions were inadequate. I’m pretty sure the enquiry will recognise that. Nevertheless, I’m pretty happy that early political action to stockpile and make early orders might have protected my friends, family, neighbours and their relations and friends in the UK. When it comes to avoiding death of my loved ones…I’m happy to jump the waiting list. We steal nurses from the third world ‘day in day out’ for the NHS so no new low standard applied there. I can’t see how being in the EU would have made a positive difference to the outcome for the UK quite frankly. I also think that SNP will find any cause to justify further separation, angst and years of pain in these islands that will be far worse than any political split from the EU. Some of us are Scots with families divided by politics on this matter. The SNP have hardly covered themselves in glory with their running of the NHS in Scotland for oh so many years after all. Now… an EU wide future plan including with the UK involved would make a lot of sense.”
I decided to challenge the basis of his competence. I am quite sure that Kevin is a competent CEO of a building society, but not so sure about this matter of science :
“Kevin, I imagine that you are NOT a biologist, epidemiologist or similar. As I said, your first statement was demonstrably wrong and the stockpiling of medicines is not a victimless crime. I’m quite disappointed that a CEO can have so little systemic thinking.”
Kevin defended himself again : “We sadly live in an imperfect world where states do not have equal resources or peoples have access to the same levels of health care. I agree that stockpiling vaccine was not victimless but the NHS holds drug stockpiles as part of their business as usual. British citizens benefit from the NHS hiring foreign health workers, often at the expense of others’ health care. It’s not right… but the primary duty of the UK government is to protect UK citizens. Same elsewhere. The UK government was following the preps for the wrong pandemic and clearly failed to implement lockdown as quickly as it should have. They failed to see what had worked in Asia to control SARS. That undoubtedly cost lives. I still cannot see what difference being in the EU would have made though. Happy to be put right on that point. The seeds of our slow initial response were sown decades ago. The next pandemic could be far worse so let’s hope the learning is swift.”
I decided at this point to put some external expert support from a Government source and offered him a way out of his fake news and an opportunity to ‘kiss and make up’ online :
“Kevin. Please read full fact : COVID and Brexit. Now you may correct the record on here. People believe fake news so please add a fact check to your original post.
‘Wrong pandemic’ – coughs … 🙂 I won’t embarrass you further on here but you are welcome to an online leaders’ debate.
Re your point ‘Some of us are Scots with families divided by politics on this matter.’ I can help you with the family healing issue. Read my book on Rebooting Britain.
You made two further points : ‘They failed to see what had worked in Asia to control SARS. That undoubtedly cost lives.’
This was not so much a failure, which implies accidental ignorance. This was wilful ignorance. Johnson and Hancock deliberately put infected patients into care homes due to the false narrative of herd immunity and a non-existent protective ring. This cost 40 000 unnecessary deaths. As regards Johnson’s level of attention and focus on the problem, this image sums up his leadership skills in this area :
Johnson’s dithering cost lives.
You also said ‘When it comes to avoiding death of my loved ones…I’m happy to jump the waiting list. We steal nurses from the third world ‘day in day out’ for the NHS so no new low standard applied there.’
This too is a false equivalence. I won’t bore you with the details but it is one of Jacob Rees-Mogg’s skills. To learn more read the book. Both situations are deplorable (poaching foreign nationals and stockpiling drugs in a pandemic), but they are NOT equivalent.”
By this time I thought Kevin was probably looking for an equitable way out of the matter, having perhaps wished he had never begun this encounter. He used the well-worn Brexiter phrase in an attempt to find something we could agree about:
Kevin : “Well everyone is entitled to their own opinion. I hope we can agree on that. The truth will out in the end and I’m sure that we may all be enlightened. I’m pretty sure that we can also agree that it won’t be 100 years before the next pandemic.”
I’m afraid I could not let this false equivalence pass for peace either :
“Kevin. Facts trump opinions I’m afraid. When they are put in the scales of truth, facts outweigh opinions.
But you are most welcome to join me on a leader’s debate on ZOOM at your convenience with an invited audience on “Brexit Futures”.
Human intervention has probably guaranteed that it will not be 100 years until another health crisis, possibly fungal and far more problematic, but nonetheless, Brexit will have a deeper impact on lives and livelihoods in the long term than COVID has, save for those killed by Johnson’s careless care home strategy, for which there is no way back for them.
At this point, Kevin ran away as they often do. I would draw some lessons out from this dialogue ….
Lessons learned
Brexiteers can come from anywhere. Even CEOs and intellectually bright are susceptible to illusions about Brexit. This merely confirms that Brexit is a religion / ideology and we must use strategies that address beliefs and identity change rather than the usual toolkit.
The lies put forward by Brexiteers have been installed like permafrost on some people’s minds. I very much doubt that Kevin is stupid. I imagine he can count money, but maybe not microbes or viruses.
The Dunning-Kruger effect is powerful when a figure of authority is challenged online where position power counts for nothing. I gave Kevin several levels of expertise to help him revise his view that Brexit had helped the COVID vaccine delivery programme but he stuck to his previously held beliefs.
Online Brexorcisms are always problematic. See the reasons why in this extract from Reboot Britain below.
That said, other people watch these online interactions and stay silent. They are sometimes more important than the other person in the conversation. Kevin made himself and his company look pretty daft in this interaction.
I doubt I will be getting a Christmas card from The Bath Building Society …oddly enough Bath voted to Remain. I wonder if some of the good people of Bath are reviewing their local building societies …
I like Angela Rayner. As some who started life in a council house, who pulled myself up by my bootstraps, with a wife from Manchester, I identify with Angela’s straight talk on many things. I was therefore even more dismayed to hear her spinning myths and lies on LBC this week about Brexit. Angela came up with many of the Brexiteer arguments in this interview. Here are some of her ‘whoppers’.
The will of the people must be respected
Horseshit. We are fast approaching the point where 70% of people in Britain believe that Brexit has failed. Angela does not understand that democracy is NOT a project. It is a process. She would not even be an MP if democracy were a project as women would not have a vote or be able to participate in society. We would be more like Saudi Arabia under Angela’s view of democracy.
We can’t just rejoin
Bollocks. Whilst it’s true that all takes time, the only thing preventing us from starting the process is a backbone in politics. Read our article on the matter at Byline Times.
I met with four Labour Councillors campaigning in my area on Sunday. All said they fundamentally disagreed with the exec. Are they prepared to do anything about it? Of course not. We need ‘different’ and not more of the same. In contrast, Gina Miller leads the only party in Britain who unequivocally favour rejoining the EU. It is possible and need take no longer than 3 years.
This was perhaps Angela’s cleverest deception. By not being specific, she allowed people to fill in the dots by themselves … for example “oh we’ll lose the pound, Shengen, pints”, and many other myths put forward by the Brexiteers. These feed the Labour project fear narrative and Angela should really know better.
It is true that Old Albion will need to learn some appropriate humility as part of the joining process, instead of the English exceptionalism which characterised the Brexit vote. However, it is unwise to place more constraints in the way of success than is necessary before negotiations begin. When I reflect on the conversation I observed with Barnier, I know that rejoining is possible. Yes, it will be difficult and everything will be on the table. If Britain decided that it must keep the pound for example, I’m sure it would be considered. Since all is a trade, the EU may come with some other things we may have to move on to keep the pound, perhaps in the finance domain. For example, we have just seen concessions on Northern Ireland traded with changes to the Erasmus scheme. Nonetheless, what we must do is establish the principle of rejoining and political will to do so. Once that is secured, we must then leave the negotiators to do the work, as we did in the Brexit negotiations.
To mark the 7th anniversary of the Brexit referendum with no visible signs of any Brexit benefits on the horizon, we are embarking on a UK Rejoin tour, to celebrate the benefits of joining the EU anew and to explain the pathways to ending Brexit. Please support this tour and let us know where you want us to go in the UK. It has cost us £1000 to put the show on the road and obviously we’ll need travel expenses and subsistence. Find all the funding options for one-off small donations and more regular contributions at:
We began the tour at Clacton for BBC Question Time on Thursday 22 June. Despite the BBC’s attempt to fill the hall with a few remaining Brexiteers of Clacton, our experience on the street was quite different. Hardly anyone said that Brexit was a success and most wanted a return to the EU, now that they realised that they were lied to. On leaving the town hall, many of the participants at BBQ QT stayed on to listen to us, with some wanting selfies with the Bollocks to Brexit Mini, as they listened to our song of Brexit buyer’s remorse. “Alo Vera – Brexit’s Comin’ ‘Ome” is written through the eyes of a leave voter who now regrets being lied to – watch the whole film – the best part comes at the end !!
Wait for the end …. With Alastair Campbell. Click to support the tour.The Con Club Clacton. Click to support the tour.
"I believe in a thing called loft"
After 7 years of heartache, suffering and pain, the answer to the question as to what #Brexit has given us has been given by a woman in #Clacton. Freedom to be killed by not using safety equipment whilst working on roofs … pic.twitter.com/jz3tjb1oqz
— Reboot Britain / Rage Against The Brexit Machine (@BrexitRage) June 24, 2023
One of the guests said that Brexit meant that builders no longer needed safety equipment to go on roofs. Well that’s sorted then !!
We greeted John Redwood with Another Prick in the Mall.
City Hall 23 June
On hearing that Rishi Sunak plans to waste more of our taxes taking Sadiq Khan to court for flying EU flags on his building, we arranged at short notice to flag bomb City Hall in Docklands. A great crew of insurgents showed up within just a few hours of announcing the event. We delivered a keynote address around our ‘Brexit Iceberg’, a musical performance of our protest songs and engaged loads of young people. Out of several hundred people we spoke with only two people insisted that Brexit was a good thing although they declined to explain why.
A marvellous team of people showed up to support Sadiq Khan.It’s our young people’s futures. Click to support the tour.Brexit fashion to defeat fascism.Click to support the tour.
Future dates
29 July – The Cinque Ports Tour – From Sandwich to Hastings calling at all stops.
7 September – The Brighton Belle – From Seaford to Brighton where we will give a keynote event at The European Movement in the evening.
30 September – 04 October – The Northern Powerhouse – from Barnsley to Manchester and Liverpool, taking in Norfolk and Lincolnshire.
Where next for the UK Rejoin tour?
We have had enquiries to go to Yorkshire, Dorset, Ireland, The West Midlands, Northumberland and the West Country so far. If you want us to visit your city, town, village, front room or bathroom, follow these steps:
Don Adamson reports on the BREX files : all things Britain from his shady hollow in Barnsley, in the forgotten northern Brexit powerhouse.
This week’s homework:
One. Discuss the following statement: Nigel Garbage, Widdecombe, Andrew Neil (Murdoch lackey of the worst description for decades), swathes of the Tory Party and 66% of Daily Express readers have noticed that Brexit has failed. Nigel Garbage blames the Tories. Meanwhile Tories blame everybody but themselves. Who is right? Meanwhile the only people who do not notice that Brexit has failed are Keith Starmer and the Labour Party. Why is that?
Brexit has failed. Click to rejoin the EU.
Two: Discuss the following statement – There is nothing the Tory newspapers would like better than to blame Labour for the failure of Brexit (Incidentally, Brexit has already failed). By making these weird and wonderful claims that Labour can make Brexit work is Starmer playing into their hands?
Three: Discuss the following statement: Ben Wallace is that rarest of endangered species – he is a Tory Cabinet Minister with a deserved reputation for competence. By all accounts he has done a reasonably good job as Secretary of State for Defence. In the dim and distant past he would have been a strong candidate to be appointed Secretary General of NATO. He is not going to get the job. As a consequence of Brexit British Ministers (even surprisingly competent ones) are not considered to be ‘serious people.’ Brexit has made Britain as irrelevant as Andorra or San Marino. This is what Gammons and Flagshaggers wanted when they voted for Brexit. Does this mean that in future Britain’s most valuable export will be special issues of postage stamps for sale to philatelists?
Brexit has made Britain as irrelevant as Andorra or San Marino
This week’s quotes:
Future of the Torygraph
… journalists wonder what the future holds now that Lloyds Banking Group has seized control of media empire and seeking to sell it off … best hope is that somebody Looney right comes forward … titles reckoned to be worth £500-£600M .. Short of the £600M the Barclays paid in 2004… Rothermere has shown ‘mild interest’ but has enough on his plate … Barclay’s dispute with Lloyds over debts allegedly approaching £1B… Torygraph opposes Inheritance Tax on behalf of 3.76% of the population that pays it … recruited 50 MPs … include fiscal mastermind Thick Lizzie … absurdly easy for millionaires to avoid paying tax … weirdo twins Cur Frederick and Cur David Barclay … complex series of trusts … to avoid tax liabilities …
Brexit stuffed the city
Financial Services, one of UK’s very few world class sectors…. put at serious risk by Brexit … Paris now largest Stock Exchange in Europe … London is losing business and jobs … Large companies do not bother to float on LSE … going to New York … London lost all its EU trading to Amsterdam … abolishing rules and balances is not a rational move … British financial sector has to do business in EU, US, Japan and China, all of which have tough rules of their own … watering down your own rules little use when competing for foreign business …. Gammons and Flagshaggers forget that they have to follow other people’s rules…. access to EU dependent of membership of the Single Market … City contributes huge amounts to Treasury coffers and to the size and success of the British economy … Brexit was a ridiculous act of vanity and self harm … don’t worry about the demented fools who backed this madness. They are multimillionaires who can live anywhere they want … when they abandon the sinking ship they will take their money with them … any credible economic policy must acknowledge and address the economic damage done by Brexit … Labour refuses to do that…
Read Brex and the city by clicking on Carrie.
Brexit relegated Britain from the Art Major League .
.. Before Brexit, London was the art capital of Europe … cancellation of three major fairs … government complacency … neglect of arts and creative industries … calamitous impact…. Spanner in the works … doing any sort of business with Britain involves a mountain of paperwork … additional and unpredictable costs … thousands of job losses….
Read Musicians and Brexit at The Federal Trust.
Bribing the Tories £5M from Mohamed Mansur
… questionable Egyptian … Russian connections … Non Dom status … Amit Lohia gave £2M … low wages … disrespect of staff … put a major Tory donor on the Charities Commission … Crapita has profited from privatised public services including NHS ‘outsources’ and ‘private foster care agencies’ …
Pandemic Ministers panicked by forensic questions
… Did you inform Italian PM that you wanted ‘herd immunity’…. did you state that you would rather let the ‘bodies pile high’ … did the then Cabinet Secretary advise you to dismiss Mad Halfcock … government’s only tactic is to delay and minimise damage …. Deadlines have passed unanswered…. unacceptable delays … why have excess deaths remained high … complex questions but we should have better answers … Telegraph report was based on a widely criticised analysis … epidemiologists and mathematicians called it half baked. Peter Cook called it a Britastrophe as long ago as 2020.
In 2020 we said that the toxic combination of Corona Crisis + Brexit Disaster amounted to a Britastrophe – turns out we were right.
Bribing the Labour Party
Labour pockets big donation from hedgie who was denounced by the party for privatisation of the Post Office … Stuart Roden … sat on the board alongside Cur Ian Duncan Smith.
BBC merged international and domestic News Channel
Just two of his allies said they would also quite Parliament in solidarity…. Nicola Sturgeon, Scottish First Minister was glad he hogged the headlines to attention from her troubles… Will we miss Johnson … unfortunately not? He will hang around like the smell of a sewer… post Johnson to fight to reassert truth is the fight of our times … nauseating Mirror video of Tories partying on the day Mad Halfcock announced that Covid restrictions would apply to London … what happened to basic ethical decencies of politics … Johnson personifies the rip in the space time continuum … In 1964 when MacMillan discovered Profumo had lied in parliament … MacMillan was physically ill … Parliamentary standards rely on the honesty of ministers … compare Johnson’s systematic to the Commons … his expensive lawyers should introduce him to the concept of mens rea or ‘guilty mind’ … truth means nothing to Johnson and his allies … the less we hear from Johnson the better … Johnson’s biggest crime was the insider dealing where mates of the powerful got to bid for the mountain of Covid cash …. Could be his lasting legacy … blasé manner all these stitch ups were made … lying and cover up … notorious Tories … unequalled since WW2 …
Richy Scumbag’s plans to make UK an AI superpower fall short
… AI has stoked a frenzy of excitement … Scumbag’s vim sounds breathless…. problems aplenty … Brexit means Britain has lost access to EU Single Market … much will have to change … Britain will struggle to persuade anybody to set up here … holding back investors across the economy … AI announcements gush from Downing St … for all his well intentioned zest … government has yet to confront reality … enormous hurdles … Britain has serious difficulties to overcome … lack of access to the large market on its doorstep … pitifully little has been done … borderline dishonest … Richy Scumbag should know better … the longer the delay the lower the chances of success … another set of British companies misses out … too often a mess … British government lags behind … fool’s errand … we lack competence at the heart of government … people who run the policy just do not understand it … majority of firms that started in London are now in USA … the country lags …
… Johnson’s political legacy has already disappeared…. Tories are losing everywhere … support is falling fastest in the north … in the constituencies it was so proud of winning … northern voters who backed the Tories have little to show for it … fundamental problems … Johnson made impossible promises … four big pledges … they received one – Brexit … and delivering it made the others impossible to achieve … Brexit has weighed on growth … grand schemes Johnson promised have been scrapped … by pressures worsened by Brexit … MPs offered bromides best left in an airport self help book … Voting Tory for the first time was a big deal … they want to be proven right … Tories are not trying to win … need to win voters in the North to hold power. The party needs to maintain voters in the south to exist … Johnson’s sweeping promises are gone … Scumbags Doncaster speech became a eulogy for Johnsonite Toryism which is dead … came across as an admission of defeat.
Fiscal policy
… grossly irresponsible … Britain is uniquely exposed to a wage spiral … efforts to change course have been paltry…
Fiscal incompetence due to Brexit. Well worth 17 minutes of your time. Please subscribe to the EU TUBE channel.
Labour and the media
Tory Party, which Mail backed to the hilt imploded in office … already blaming the next Labour government for everything … Mail story so ridiculous as to be funny: living in a country with a plebeian far right at war with the government will not be so funny … anti fascist monitoring sites have seen a surge in hate speech … Braverman and Scumbag cannot open their mouths except to say ‘Stop the boats’ … Brexit killed the expat dream.
Meaningless drivel flows from Sunak’s mouth when asked serious questions
Post Brexit travel rules driving us mad
… Brexit has shattered their Italian dream … bureaucracy is tedious and time consuming … Seafood restaurants along the Italian coast are worried. Brits were regular clients but this year have not shown up … Brits really should have considered the affects of Brexit more seriously … Sarah felt sad and betrayed by Brexit … which she now regrets voting for … nobody in the UK was fully informed … ‘we were all duped’ …
Daily Mail and Johnson
… after agreeing to pay Johnson £1M a year for a weekly column there is buyer’s remorse among Mail executives…. inaugural column made nonsense of the claim … ‘he would be required reading in Westminster and across the world’ … too early to say if Johnson will attract or repel readers … comments beneath the online version … ‘just unbelievable, no shame … Paul Dacre … looked as if Dacre would receive peerage … must be feeling especially aggrieved … morale among Mail journalists not high … declining print sales … Johnson’s salary has gone down like a bucket of cold sick …
… has the wit to see that Keith Starmer … intention to abolish non dom tax status… will cost Murdoch a fortune … word has come down from on high to get behind Richy Scumbag …
Pip Pip Medway Delta (Retired) Brexorcist and Saboteur First Class
Some of my Remoaner friends keep telling me there are no Brexit Freedoms. They are not looking hard enough. I have come up with a long list of Brexit Freedoms to counterbalance the cost of Brexit, currently standing at an eye watering £128 BILLION, and predicted to outweigh the cost of COVID multiple times into the future. So, doomsayers, prepare for a shock !!
Pints
For years I have been compelled to go into English pubs and say in a weakened voice “Can I have 564 ml of Champagne please?” No longer. I can now stride in proud and say “Stout Yeoman, I want a pint of foaming English brown beer in a straight glass”. And it has a little crown on the side. As I drink the hoppy infusion, I am reminded of are Queen and Prince Andrew. It just gets better and better … Soon, we’ll be able to have English Lions back on our eggs … HM Government state that imperial units like pounds and ounces are widely valued in the UK and are a core part of many people’s British identity. I don’t know anyone of my own age that can count in stones, pounds and ounces. My sense is that this is a LIE.
We now have the Brexit fifty pence piece back, although I confess I have not seen one of late. But it signifies the fact that we now have the Pound back as our currency. I did speak with a woman who told me that her dad said that we no longer had the Pound before Brexit. Did you notice that? Buy one of the rare 50 pence pieces on e-bay and support our work to Re-Boot Britain. Outrageous prices!! 🙂
Buy our new book on Amazon – click the image.
Brexit freedoms o’ fish
Scottish Salmon fishermen report on Farming Today that Europeans still want our salmon, although exports have been hit to EU countries due to Brexit. Since Scottish Salmon is a major Scottish export, salmon fishermen are able to hire entire containers to ship their goods to Europe, reducing the mountain of Brexit paperwork and other costs in their segment of the fishing industry. Sadly this benefit does not exist for other fish varieties and the predicted decline in fishing continues, as predicted by the Remainiacs. And let’s remember this is Scottish Salmon. Once Scotland have their independence, they will take this benefit with them. Scottish Salmon and Whisky are major exports from Scotland.
Against the backdrop of the BBC’s nationalistic drive to back Brexit on Farming Today, The Food and Drink Federation showed that Scotland’s whisky and salmon exports were down by 11% and 6.4% respectively since 2019, with the UK’s total exports of food and drink was down by £2.7 billion (-15.9%) in the first three quarters of 2021 – with £2.4bn (-23.7%) directly from a drop in sales to the EU. It’s not necessarily true that the salmon are swimming against the tide.
Cod only knows …
Helpful comparisons …
Irish unification
The current troubles with Edwin Poots and the DUP draw Irish unification ever closer. The DUP seek to throw away 30 years of relative peace on the island of Ireland by asking the Government to break international law on the Northern Ireland Protocol, a bill which they signed up to. I cannot comprehend the nuclear levels of two faced stupidity being brought to bear on the people of Ireland by the DUP. It seems that plans are underway for a cross-border administration in the wake of the breakdown of the Stormont Government. Meanwhile trade between Ireland and Northern Ireland is UP after Brexit with trade between NI and mainland Britain DOWN. Our Brexit scenarios predict that this will continue to a point where the vast majority of people see the economic advantages of a united Ireland outweigh the religious and political forces that divide the island.
Blue tape
Brexit is reckoned to SAVE £1 BILLION in cutting red tape. It is not specified where this will happen, but we presume it will be in a bonfire on worker protections, food, environmental and other regulations, making our products less safe and opening up Victorian levels of exploitation and climate damage. At the same time, The FT says that Brexit has ADDED £7 BILLION of red tape. We only have to ask lorry drivers, farmers, fishermen et al. Taking Back Control never specified who would gain that control and plainly it was the Government through moral hazard and a return to Victorian England. In case of doubt, £7 bn is more than £1 bn.
Boris Johnson claims that the speed of our vaccination programme was due to Brexit Freedoms. Sadly it is not true. The BBC reported that we have been able to authorise the supply of this vaccine using provisions under European law. Johnson simply acted first in a desperate move to buy up the vaccine and starve the rest of the world from supplies, like the little boy in the playground who kept all the sweets and then realised that nobody wanted to play with him. By the way, the British vaccine was developed by Turkish and German scientists. I’m surprised that Brexiteers want such a “foreign invasion”.
Brexit freedoms : Rich pickings
Undoubtedly Brexit has caused an exodus of foreign workers, in part due to red tape and associated costs, but, in the main because, England has once again become a racist country under Brexit. Arguably, we did not need Brexit Freedoms to “take back control” of the fields, lorry parks, bus stations etc. I await the queues of Brexit voting OAPs to pick for Britain, drive for Britain, stack shelves for Britain and so on. So far, we have been underwhelmed with applications from “Dad’s Brexit Army”. Meanwhile illegal migration proceeds, due to our Government’s attempts to kill people who flee from terror.
Left outside alone to die by Priti Patel and Suella Braverman.
Sovereignty
The Government claim that the Brexit Freedoms of sovereignty are many and various in their 105 page document. I can only find wind. Grab your bag of Brexit Sovrinty here.
Undoubtedly the showstopper in Brexit Freedoms has been the blue passport. We will pay £30 per family and hours of queuing to benefit from this Brexit Freedom, but clearly it’s worth it. In case of doubt we were always able to have blue passports, even if they were made in France. The Government paper on this is simply FAKE NEWS:
LIES, LIES, LIES. To support our work on the truth about Brexit, click on the lies above.
Funding the NHS
The Government document claims that £57 BILLION is to be given to the NHS. They were promised £18.2 BILLION EVERY YEAR. You do not need a calculator to realise that the £57 billion is actually smaller than £18.2 billion every year. Go compare.
State control
France recently decided to make EDF Energy subsidise energy price hikes. So energy consumers in France will get a 4% price hike whilst UK consumers will experience a 54% price hike. And France is in the EU. How then were France able to do this if they are “controlled by an EU superstate”? See Social Care for more details on our lies about the need to raise national insurance. How was Viktor Orban able to buy his vaccines from Russia whilst being part of the EU? The EU superstate argument is vacuous.
Tampon freedom
We are now free of the Tampon Tax!! Women may rest safe in the knowledge that the VAT man is not taking a percentage of their periodic blood losses. Except that even this is a LIE-Let me explain. The trouble with so-called “tampon freedom” is that this arrangement was made in 2016, whilst we were a member of the EU. We have NOT been prevented from removing tax on tampons by our EU membership. UPDATE : the 5% tampon tax was only reduced by 1%. Brexit is literally bleeding Britain to death …
LIE Lets.
Amidst the other Brexit Freedoms that The Government paper puts forward that we could not do as members of EU are:
Giving up smoking – really?
Adding more arsenic into children’s food.
Healthy eating – who knew that the EU were stopping this?
Ending the throw away culture – Britain leads the world in throw away culture.
Faster HGV licence approval by reducing the difficulty of HGV tests, so more dangerous OAP lorry drivers on the roads.
Simpler, better railways – this means not doing the Northern leg of HS2.
Pints of French champagne.
Use of the 105 page document for redecoration of 10 Downing Street when Boris Johnson leaves.
This website uses cookies so that we can provide you with the best user experience possible. Cookie information is stored in your browser and performs functions such as recognising you when you return to our website and helping our team to understand which sections of the website you find most interesting and useful.
Strictly Necessary Cookies
Strictly Necessary Cookie should be enabled at all times so that we can save your preferences for cookie settings.
If you disable this cookie, we will not be able to save your preferences. This means that every time you visit this website you will need to enable or disable cookies again.
