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.
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.
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.
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:
A landmark judgement was made recently that allows British Citizens in Europe (EU Britizens) a vote in elections. Some 3.8 million people are affected by this decision which could have easily swung the Brexit referendum away from the tragedy of Brexit. Grateful thanks to Julien Fouchet, Grazia Valentino-Boschi and Alice Boulliez who have pursued this case relentlessly over an extended period. This from Gina Miller explains what you need to do about the opportunity.
The 2024 general election represents a real opportunity to create a movement that gives people a positive political choice including all Brits abroad.
If you are living abroad, irrespective of length of time, you are now able to register to vote in the 2024 General Election. It is more important than ever that you use this opportunity to vote, make your voice heard and ensure your interests, values and beliefs are represented.
If you’ve got all the information needed to hand, you can register in under 10 minutes! Read on:
Eligibility
In order to be eligible to register as an overseas voter for the general election you will need to:
Be a British, Irish or qualifying Commonwealth citizen.
Have been previously registered to vote in the UK and/or previously resident in the UK.
More information about eligibility can be found here.
What you need to register
To register you will need:
Proof of ID: you will need your date of birth and your National Insurance number, you may also need to give details of a current or expired British passport. If you have lost your NI number, you can search for it here.
The last UK address where you were registered to vote, or the last UK address at which you resided (if you were not registered to vote in the UK before you left). STOP PRESS : Grazia tells me that there is no need for proof of address from those who’ve already registered so it’s even easier!!
You may need to provide additional evidence to support your application if your identity/address cannot be verified. Your registration will last for 3 years before needing to be renewed.
How to register
You can register online on the GOV.UK website. If you have all the information to hand this should take under 10 minutes. You can also apply by post.
One of the few remaining arguments of the last Brexiters on planet earth is that it’s too soon to review the benefits of Brexit in 2023. It isn’t. We have had nearly eight years of intention / formulation of Brexit strategy and nearly four years of Brexecution / implementation. Formative evaluation is therefore both possible and necessary. Let’s not forget that we were told that there would be no downsides to Brexit and we would have instant wins from our independence, in terms of ‘taking back control’ of our money, borders and laws. So, how is it all going? What does it mean to the man and woman on the street? Take a look back to my Linkedin article of July 2023 for a bit of nostalgia – Hard Facts about Hard Brexit. It gets worse every month. Header image by the genius Cold War Steve.
Money
On a simple basis, Brexit did not solve our abilities to take back control of our money. Brexit inflicted the Government’s own predictions – a 4.5% resilience shock to GDP or £100 BILLION per year. This is the equivalent to trying to swim the English Channel with a 4.5 kg block of concrete round your neck. Liz Truss’ experiment in Brexonomics added a whopping £74 BILLION in just 49 days, ruining young people’s dreams of home ownership for a generation. Read the Bloomberg report on decline in foreign investment in Brexit Britain. Whilst it is clear that nobody wants to talk about Brexit in 2023 due to radio silence by politicians on all sides, the ‘offspring’ of Brexit are all around us with the cost of living, food inflation and so on. All is depicted by our Brexit iceberg below. Government gaslighting continues with ‘pints of wine’ and other bollocks. Nobody of any intelligence is fooled by this shit. Are you?
At a more parochial level and as an example of ‘taking back control of our money’, British energy prices in 2023 are 53% more than in France. Yet Gina Miller demonstrated that we have always had our sovereignty without needing to leave the EU. French energy companies are owned by the state and still make a profit at half the prices of British energy companies. When Boris Johnson said ‘take back control’ he forgot to mention WHO would be taking back that control. Clearly it was NOT the taxpayer or the great unwashed.
Longer term, we have only just begun to see the unfolding of a return to slavery in terms of minimum wages and an unwinding of employment standards in Brexit Britain. The drive towards the return to a feudal system continues with no opposition in sight. Read Red Brexit, Blue Brexit for insights into Labour’s failed Brexit strategy. Take a look at this You Tube video below, made earlier this year for insights into Brexonomics and numbers in general.
Clearly Brexit worked from the viewpoint that it discouraged Europeans from wanting to come to Britain. We could have achieved this quite simply by having a Government sponsored campaign of racial hatred in Britain, without needing to break the economy and destroy our reputation in the world as a standard bearer. Oh, wait a minute, we did that! You will notice from the graph below that migration figures from Europe are now in negative numbers. Yet migration from Africa, India and the Far East has increased dramatically.
As well as that, Brexit did not magic away our responsibilities to take in migrants from Hong Kong, Ukraine, Afghanistan and so on. Brexit has worked in exactly the opposite way to that predicted by the Brexiters. This is the perverse law of unintended consequences that arises from shoddy strategy. In short, fail to plan, plan to fail.
Inside the non-EU figures in the graph are people who came from Ukraine, the Hong Kong refugees and other effects, so the figure is temporarily high. Nonetheless, Brexit did not solve migration, nor will it. Britain also relies on foreign students as a source of income, many of who then return to their own countries, so it is all too simple to say that we must ban students. Our Government needs to maintain the illusion of ‘the enemy outside’ in order to win the votes of xenophobic Brits, racists and general shits in elections. Watch our You Tube video on how to address immigration.
Before Brexit, small boats were not a thing really. The weaponisation of small boats was an invention by a Tory government desperate to distract people from thinking about the real issues facing an island nation with an increasing elderly population with food, skills and other resource insecurities. It is the triumph of marketing via right wing media to feed feeble minds and fill their minds with fury. Nearly every headline in the Mail and the Express has the word FURY in it. This is exactly why I wrote Private Eyelines to highlight how we are being taken for furious fools. In a parallel universe, in 2014 nobody gave a stuff about Europe or the EU. Again, EU fury was steadily manufactured to win a referendum based on lies.
Were you sold a pup when you were told that Brexit would allow us to take back control of our borders?
Laws
In the 14th century it may have been feasible to operate your own laws in your town, fiefdom, region or country as, generally speaking, world trade and travel were not a thing. In 2023, we live in a globally connected world and it becomes increasingly difficult to become a rogue state, unless you are Belarus or North Korea. if we wish to exploit people’s lives and livelihoods we are set on a course to become international pariahs rather than guardians of law and order. People still moan at me about the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) as if it is part of the EU. It is not.
When people talk to me about taking back control of our laws, they often fail to mention which ones are troubling them. We don’t have to drive on the left hand side of the road as part of the EU, nor drink litres of beer. We are still free to conduct barbaric acts such as fox hunting as the Spanish have their bull fighting. We have pounds and the Queen on our money. Just what laws do the Brexiters mean when they claim that they want them back? The law exists to protect people from exploitation. We now see the bizarre spectacle of our Government arguing with the rule of law in order to exploit people or behave unethically.
This is not the high water mark of British justice and not my Brexit. Is it yours?
The boiling frog problem
I’m sure you know the story of the boiling frog. People tell me that “Brexit was done”. “It happened”. Sorry, Brexit was not an event, a newspaper headline or a project with an end point. It was a process. Michael Vail, a ‘farmer’ living in Brisbane, typifies the view that Brexit was an event on his Linkedin ravings. Sure there can be some winners and losers in all changes, such as in the field of disaster capitalism (Michael is a disaster capitalist cum estate agent) but, of course, Brexit was supposed to offer benefits for all not just for people who can play the financial system in the wake of a boom or bust.
Brexit hasn’t delivered the promised benefits except in the case of people who have exploited other people’s misery. I am not in a stage of grief. When someone points to the many benefits of Brexit, I will join the cause. It’s just that Michael and his few remaining Brexiters have nothing to show me socially, economically, politically, environmentally and so on for the positive impacts of Brexit nor any problems that Brexit solves. Read Brexit Freedoms.
Michael resorts to yin and yang rather than a lie on a bus to explain Brexit. I guess it’s a new take on “Que sera sera” which my Brexity sister favours. He also lies about the Cuty (city) who are quietly moving people out of London. It’s easy to say all this when you live in Australia.
In case you are still under any illusions that “Brexit is done”, please see this very long list of Brexit impacts still to come in 2024 – 2027 and beyond. from Edwin Hayward.
Meanwhile in Europe
In Europe, they have agreed to use one charger to rule all our electronic devices. It means 🔌The same charger for all phones, tablets and cameras ⚡ Harmonised fast-charging technology 🔄Reduced e-waste
In Britain, we’re still talking pints. Soon, we will be introducing bakelite plugs. This brilliant video sums up the fact that Brexit and satire are now indistinguishable.
Don Adamson spreads some Brexit Christmas cheer from his bunker in Barnsley.
This week’s homework
One – Discuss the following statement: The controversy over the Elgin Marbles could have been resolved easily enough if the curators of the British Museum had been allowed to discuss it with their opposite numbers in Athens. Instead Richy Scumbag decided to turn it in an international p*****g to impress Gammons and Flagshaggers.
Two – Did George Orwell write ‘1984’ as a dire warning or as a training manual for Johnsonite Tories?
Three – Princess Nut Nuts (sometimes known as Carrie Johnson) was described in the Covid Inquiry as behaving like Lady Macbeth. Is this a fair comment or was Lady Macbeth a much nicer person?
Four – Recent edition of Question Time was held in Kelso; on the Scottish side of the border. BBC goes to a lot of trouble to ensure that the QT audiences are predominantly pro Brexit and pro Tory. How did they manage that in Scotland?
Five – Johnson has been described as ‘a useless tosser.’ Is that on a good day?
Six – Should Gammons and Tories bog off back to Russia where they belong?
Seven – Gammons and Flagshaggers insist that the world owes them a living for their heroism in wars that ended before they were born. Which bit of that does Biden not get?
Eight – WW2 has been a regular fixture on British television for many years. This explains why lowlifes like Johnson and Nigel Garbage are the misapprehension that they have received multiple awards of the Victoria Cross for their heroism in wars that ended before they were born. The more I see of Brexit the better I understand what happened in pre WW2 Germany. For some reason we do not see many 1950s vintage movies of Churchill roaring defiance at the bad guys. What we do see are TV documentaries that explain in great detail how Nazis nobbled a great country. Why is this happening on a BBC that is strictly under the control of Johnsonite Tories? You would expect this BBC to pander to Johnson’s misapprehension that he is Churchill reincarnated.
This week’s quotes
Thatcher may have come late to Euro scepticism but she certainly threw herself into it
… in thrall to her supposed economic success… Tory Regimes have carried on with this disastrous course … the cupboard is empty and bills are due … Thatcher set in course the destruction of this country …
I wonder how many people who voted for Brexit saw the spike in migration coming
… we are allowing in more non EU migrants … we are also allowing in more overseas students to prop up underfunded university sector … this will increase … How richly ironic. Brexit has opened the door to more immigration, not closed it…
Covid inquiry has shone a light on government’s pandemic response
… now it is time for a scrutiny of Brexit … same reckless fools were in charge … even Titans would have struggled … dark chaos of Johnson … was frighteningly obvious … casual, complacent, determinedly ignorant and jingoistic leadership … hopeless … bewildered ministers … Brexit deal was being negotiated at the same time … incompetent government … Brexit deal that is as calamitous as response to pandemic … nightmarish … determined by shallow ‘British exceptionalism’ … Johnson struggled to take Covid seriously … at same time did not bother to contemplate the tortuous details of Brexit … Johnson’s erratic attention span taken up wholly with demands of Covid … Lord Frost made Mad Halfcock look like Bismarck and Churchill combined … Cummings encourage out of depth Frost to be aggressive … when EU proposed a deal mutually beneficial … Frost would loftily reject it … Cummings gone by November 2020 leaving bewildered Frost to please Johnson alone … Johnson was indifferent to detail … seeking a fantasy Brexit where Britain would recover past glories … disgracefully doting media elevated Johnson to status of war hero … no discussions in Cabinet … Keith Starmer did not ask a single question about Brexit … serious consequences for UK in many ways for years to come … doubt that Johnson read the deal passed to him on Christmas Eve … was he playing a poker game … bluffing … probably did not know himself … Frost … politically naive … unworkable protocol for Northern Ireland … Johnson ran away from scrutiny all his life … briefly ran a government where he was omnipotent … deeply damaging … sought the hardest of Brexits without knowing what that meant …
‘Fearless’ Tory press meekly ducked criticism of Johnson and Richy Scumbag
… ‘let people die’ … ‘They’ve had a good innings’ … Downing St was a hive of tragic chaos … dystopian nightmare … incompetent ministers lied … claimed the authority to play God … orgy of narcissism … toxic culture of misogyny … Johnson incapable of making a decision … bamboozled by statistics and numbers …. hiding behind science which he did not understand … Covid still a factor in 300 deaths a week … sensational and scandalous material … editors spoiled for choice … Johnson did not think old people’s lives mattered … language shocking but not shocking enough to make the Tory Press … possibly because they agreed with the sentiments … Tory Press … did not shine much light on accusations of ministerial dithering … shy away from anything that shows Tories in a less than brilliant light … not one mentioned Johnson wanting to leave old people to die .. Chaos and incompetence…
November 8, the day that Georgia was recommended for EU candidacy status
… obtaining EU candidacy status is not only a significant step towards realising the European aspirations of Georgian but also a vital means of diminishing Russia’s influence in Georgia … support for membership across civil society has always been some of the strongest in the region … after Russia launched its full-scale war in Ukraine, it immediately became clear how much of a threat the Kremlin truly posed … for Georgians joining the EU will have deep consequences. November 8 was a huge day for the people of Georgia, a historic day when my country made a step towards the EU and away from Moscow. It is what we have wanted for decades…
Alastair Darling
… If there is one lesson from his life and times it is this: politics needs good, honest, principled, hard working, serious people more than it has ever needed them…..
Mad Halfcock, as Health Secretary
… assured Dominic Cummings that full pandemic contingency plans were in place – but they claimed under cross examination that they were not up to scratch. This is why Cummings, in June 2021 said no plans had been in place … an assertion that mystified staff at Porton Down … that is the whole reason why we have Porton Down, where they have long recognised that that a pandemic is the number one threat on the risk register … they war gamed pandemics and shared their ideas with Europe, Singapore, the Gulf States etc, … ironically some of them put Porton Down’s ideas into practice and looked back at us mystified why we were not doing what we had advised … Theories abound why the plans were never used … by the time Johnson and co. Took an interest there was little that was still salvageable so they denied they existed …
Richy Scumbag .. unable to corral the warring factions in the Tory Party
… Keith Starmer has been effective in keeping the outlying far left of the Labour Party in check, Tory factions openly in dispute … Scumbag completely devoid of the power to bring performers into line … Cruella Braverman supporters cannot contain their anger … Cleverly (sic) attempt to reduce the perceived but deeply misplaced believe that Rwanda could solve the small boats problem … ‘Let Markets Rip’ Brigade bemoan the ousting of Thick Lizzie … relics of a bygone era (Deadwood) call for yet more of her disastrous economic enemas … right wing think tanks that begot Thick Lizzie are still in residence in Tufton Street … despair over current divisions … while the damage done by Brexit continues to mount the recriminations seem destined to sour relations for years … Richy Scumbag is desperately trying to appease as many warring tendencies as possible … succeeding only in looking devoid of principles … latest attempt to exert the authority of his office … pathetic, petulant, cause for laughter … turning the Tory Party into a joke is a sacking matter … Tories united by one thing: hunger for power … polls indicate that the challenge is insurmountable …
Peevish toddler in Downing St
… cancelling meeting with Greek PM … Anybody who believes in the rightness of the position is never afraid of confronting arguments … a perfectly routine government meeting became a full scale diplomatic row … clusterf**k … nothing the Greek PM said new or surprising … Elgin Marbles a controversy since 1816 … nothing Mitsotakis could have said should have taken Scumbag by surprise … Instead Scumbag … in a whole of his own digging decided to keep at it …. failed desperately with an ill-focussed attempt to start a culture war … there are artefacts and works of art about which the British feel strongly … The Parthenon Sculptures are not among them, … Scumbag is not a Churchillian defender of the nation … instead a complete fool … King Charles wore a tie with a Greek flag … uncodified constitution prevents the monarch from calling the PM a prat but this is the next best thing…
Pip Pip Don Adamson Medway Delta (Retired) Brexorcist and Saboteur First Class
Don Adamson’s round up of all things politics for the week that was …
This week’s homework
One – Does the existence of pro-Brexit Toryism prove the existence of minus quantity integrity?
Two – Discuss the following statement: Hermann Göring was a slippery character. At the Nuremburg Trials the prosecution struggled to pin down the charges against him. David Maxwell Fyfe, a British trial lawyer cross examined Göring. Fyfe went through Göring testimony detail by detail. In the process he demolished his defence and afterwards he was a broken man. What a pity there are no trial lawyers in the Parliamentary Labour Party who could tear apart the fairy stories that Tory Ministers deliver in the House of Commons.
Three – Discuss the following statement: Andre Philips is the latest ‘mega talent’ to be hired to work for GB News. He would be long forgotten but for the fact that he was one of the gigolos who ill treated Katie Price. Gammonite Balderdash News seems to be only interested in hiring mediocrities and has beens; preferably with dubious reputations.
Four – Discuss the following statement. I would always allow my enemies a way out if they repent their sins and repair the damage they did. Tories are gradually coming to realise that their precious Brexit has gone horrible wrong. It has been at least a couple of years since we heard anything about that Brexit earthly paradise we were promised. Nigel Garbage is telling us that the whole point is that Brexit allows us to live in poverty if that is what we want. Gammons and Tories do not mind being detested but they do mind being the object of ridicule. They are slowly beginning to realise that they are the laughing stock of the entire world. That is not enough to justify Rejoin. Am I alone in thinking that there is a dangerous Betrayal Myth taking hold with Gammons and Tories blaming everybody but themselves for the horrors they have unleashed on us?
Five – Discuss the following statement. Fifteen years ago I would not have thought it possible that a British government could be capable of the horrible things these Tories do regularly and routinely. When challenged the Tories respond: ‘we got the big calls right.’ What on earth is that absurd statement supposed to mean?Six – Police Officers and other officials in occupied countries in wartime were faced with a cruel dilemma. Should they quit and abandon their responsibilities to the enemy? That does not come easily to dedicated public servants. Should they stay put and try to maintain some standards knowing that the stench of collaboration will cling to them. Since 2015 we have seen the most corrupt and incompetent British government for many years, perhaps of time. Since Johnson became PM we seen criminality, false values and a degree of sheer crass, pig headed uselessness that I would not have thought possible in a 21stcentury British government. The PCS, a Civil Service Trade Union has mounted a legal challenge to this government’s disgraceful scheme to transfer asylum seekers to Rwanda. Can it really be true that the Civil Service Unions are the only people in government circles with any notion at all of decency?
… autumn budget statement got one thing right. It also handed out illusory windfall … One measure … striking example of sensible policy making. … the rest leaves a mess for the next government … likely to be Labour … what he got right … ‘full expensing’ … the right of businesses to deduct upfront their capital expenditure from taxable profits … probablyby the single greatest pro-growth tax reform possible … Where did the money come from? … *unt said fall in inflation made it possible … in fact close to the opposite is true … Office of Budget Responsibility calculates that some budgets would have to fall by 4.1% per year … not credible … a fiscally responsible government would admit taxes must rise … if *unt’s successors do not reverse his tax cuts then meeting this goal will squeeze cash starved public services even more tightly. … Disappointing legacy after 13 years of Tory government … which has been comically self-contradictory on tax … hard to make sense of what Tories are trying to do other than make trouble for Labour successors…
Tax cuts and fiscal trickery
… ugly prospects for public services … autumn statement by Jeremy 8unt … declaring victory in battle against inflation … questionable accounting. … represent an improvement … only if you assume that higher inflation will have no consequences … real term cuts in public spending in five years to fund a tax give away now … a pre-election give-away, and an especially strange one … giveaway comes from deeps cuts in public services … implausible spending cuts … lots of fiscal trickery
Is the government’s plan to send asylum seekers to Rwanda salvageable?
.. Supreme Court’s demolition of the plan … so meticulous the policy was ‘probably dead’ … point of the scheme … to deter migrants … no evidence it would have that effect … Rwanda government has said it can only take a few hundred asylum seekers per year (compared to the thousands that make the crossing … Supreme Court’s description … ought to shame the scheme’s champions … only way the scheme might go ahead is if Rwanda cleans up its asylum system … Britain may not be up to the task of making that happen. British government needs to fix its own asylum system … the idea … is for the birds…
Cynical outgoing ministers make life harder for incoming governments
… Richy Scumbag has been far too keen on wrecking … In Autumn Statement Jeremy *unt put forward preposterous spending plans … a serious government would admit this is implausible … cynical government … budgetary landmine … for the next government … a ‘pro-business’ … would be welcome …
Brexit Benefits
UK Trade Intensity remains 1-7% below its 2019 level … compared to an average increase of 1-9% across other G7 countries. … Forecasters predict … long term view of Brexit to be 15% in the long term…
What next for Michael Gove
… interviewed by the National Crime Agency as part of their investigation into how PPE Medpro, the company in which Tory Peer Michelle Mone was involved, won £200M in contracts during the pandemic …
… Relinquished her morning show on GB News … is retaining weekly column in Daily Express … ministerial code says any minister wishing to practice regular journalism must have prior approval from 10 Downing Street … unusual if not unprecedented for approval to be granted … Even Johnson was obliged to comply … code strictly forbids ministers from being paid for media articles … In the past year McVey paid £22,447 for her jottings…
Sad times for GB News viewers
… audience loudness is disproportionate to its largeness … John Cleese’s much hyped Dinosaur Hour has had its repeat removed due to waning interest … Bosses hope Johnson’s arrival in the new year will shake up ratings … lost more than £30M in first year … owner Paul Marshall hopes to spruce up image in hope of bagging Telegraph titles in New Year…
Covid Inquiry
… Some person has completely rewritten the science advice … cherry picking … Quite extraordinary … breezy confidence. Incredibly alarming … quite extraordinary … all highly political … Johnson is obsessed with older people accepting their fate … quite bonkers … economic predictions from the Treasury based on no evidence, no transparency, pure dogma, and wrong … Richy Scumbag thinks ‘just let people die and that is OK. … Johnson argues for letting it all rip … most people who die have reached their time … right-wing press are culpable… weak and indecisive PM … bring in the pro death squad from the Treasury … scientific advisers … testified that they had not been consulted … it was not sensible … obvious risk … Johnson’s witness statement’ claimed scheme was properly discussed with Chris and Patrick … they have no recollection of this … let the bodies pile high … no appetite to express with clarity what the plan was … government ignored scientists .. She could not understand why the government was doing nothing … did not believe this was enough to prevent NHS being overwhelmed … you could have heard a pin drop … controlling the next pandemic will require early mass testing and surveillance capabilities that have been dismantled… during the pandemic…
Ratings for I’m a celebrity may have plummeted
… Telegraph remains excited about its hero Nigel Garbage appearing on the show … can overdo it … featured a subhead about how Garbage was enjoying himself ‘as another jungle bunny’ … too overtly racist even for the Torygraph…
Newspaper articles never published
… would find room for the wretch that is Johnson. … Unpublished Telegraph article why he has backing Remain might be the last known point he both talked sense and told the truth … alas he sent the other one in the hope it would help him become PM … we are all paying the price …
Pip Pip Don Adamson Medway Delta (Retired) Brexorcist and Saboteur First Class
This from Marc Jarrett – an entrepreneur, people connector and Remainer who wrote this shortly after he fraudulent referendum. Mark now connects people with their passions, projects and profits. Get in touch via Marc Jarrett.
My overwhelming emotion on the morning of Friday June 24th when David Dimbleby announced ‘we’re out’ was one of sadness. After all, whether I liked it or not, I am a hardwired European by virtue of my Father who, like Nigel Farage, elected to marry a German national. And liked it I did.
Unfortunately, my parent’s union did not last which resulted in my Mother returning to her native Fatherland when I was 7. I started travelling as an unaccompanied minor between the two countries, spending my time either in the sedate beauty of the Hertfordshire countryside in what was then Broken Britain, or in the brand new shiny modern metropolis of Düsseldorf. The contrast was striking.
Apart from attending an American School in Düsseldorf in 1973, my schooling was in England where I went to several state schools. Aged 11, I was sent to a boarding school in North Norfolk which was to become my new home for the next five years or so.
Back then, the second world war had not been all that long ago and anti-German sentiment was still relatively high. To this end, I distinctly remember trying to keep my German side private, for fear of being called a Nazi.
However, when in Germany and conversing with Germans who learnt I was half English, I always found the reception I got was far more favourable. It’s as if they were grateful to be speaking with an Englishman who accepted them.
In my thirties, moved to a small village called Blankenese on the outskirts of Hamburg where the love of all things British was arguably far greater than within Britain itself. Competition for the apartment was fierce, and I managed to secure it on account of the landlord being an Anglophile. You see, many Germans love the [still, just] United Kingdom and all things British.
In the early nineties, I found myself to be an enthusiastic proponent of the European project. After having spent countless hours waiting at border control in Netherlands, France and elsewhere, I rather liked the idea of free movement throughout all of Europe. I was sold. .
I was dating a MP’s daughter at the time who was kind enough to invite me to the public gallery on the evening that the Maastricht Treaty was ratified. All the top brass were there, and it was fascinating to be at the seat of power on such an historical day.
Over time, I detected less anti-German sentiment this side of the channel and subsequently became less inhibited about my German heritage. On the contrary, I was proud – Germany had become Europe’s economic powerhouse. Plus I love German cars and the fact that there are no speed limits there!
Germany’s hosting of the 2006 FIFA World Cup was a turning point for me since I knew that many Brits visiting the tournament would not have normally have elected to go there. But when they came back, many observed how friendly their hosts were and what a beautiful country is was. From this point forward, I would no longer hide my German side – on the contrary, I would embrace it.
A decade later, the British electorate decided that the European project was not such a good idea after all. Perhaps unsurprisingly, given my intrinsic European credentials, I voted remain.
But I totally ‘get’ some of the arguments that the other side made – the bloated bureaucracy, unelected officials, and the fact that Great Britain has always been an outwardly looking global trading nation.
In the meantime, however, we have to live with Brexit and all its unforeseen consequences. Editor’s note : in 2023 : Brexit’s Breaking Britain.
In recent years, I have been helping North American SME’s make UK their European home. It was an easy pitch: Business friendly, same language, and access to the world’s largest trading bloc.
Now that the UK is not such an attractive proposition, I will be helping UK & US SME’s establish a subsidiary in, you guessed it, Germany. This allows them to structure their affairs in such a way that they do not actually leave the European Union at all and can continue trading freely with the remaining 27 members.
I really hope that the Britain envisioned by those than wanted us to leave comes to pass, but I think it will take a while to get there. In the meantime, we are left pondering if the Le Touquet treaty will hold.
‘I was delighted to provide a masterclass on Rejoining the EU and preparing the ground to end Brexit via the gentle art and discipline of “Brexorcism” for North Herts for Europe. Here are the video recordings of both sessions if you missed it.
Check out our latest article for The Prisma Anglo-Spanish newspaper on the art of protest here. Here’s a taster:
On a cold day in March 2017, I had heard that a few people were planning to gather on the street opposite No 10 Downing Street. I decided to set aside my business activities and cycled into town from South London. En route, I got a puncture just by Bermondsey tube station, some 6 km from my destination. I was in the midst of fixing the tyre when a woman approached asking if I needed any help. It turned out as if by magic that we were both going to No 10. That woman was Wendy Novak, ex BBC photographer and a constant protestor for vulnerable people who face medical supply shortages due to Brexit. The group that assembled that cold evening in March became ‘The No 10 Vigil’. Read the full article here.
The crucible of No 10 Vigil was, in effect, a ‘clinical trial’ for much of what became the grass roots movement to Remain in the EU. Groups such as Extinction Rebellion and others clearly learned from our successes and mistakes and were able to add money and discipline to our unfettered creativity.
Don Adamson writes from the Barnsley Brexit Bunker:
This week’s homework
One – Discuss the following statement. Murdoch and Rothermere lackeys are under strict instructions that they must not believe what they write in the newspapers.
Two – Discuss the following statement: Richy Scumbag has dismissed Cruella Braverman from the job of Home Secretary. This comes as a surprise to 21st century Tories who expect Cabinet Ministers to be a) extremely incompetent and b) racists of the worst description. The scandal involving Stickyfinger Pansey-Lenin (alias Tommy Robinson) is also causing consternation in 21st century Tory circles. Laws, conventions, terms and conditions that affect decent people do not apply to Gammons and Flagshaggers. It is interesting that Cameron has been appointed Foreign Secretary. He is neither an MP nor a Peer. That ordinarily would disqualify him from being a Cabinet Minister. We do live in strange times. Editor’s note : We must use Cameron – Read Play the ball, not the man.
Three – Several years ago John Cleese was a high profile member of the Liberal Democrats. The Lib Dems are not to every taste but, at least at that time they bore some resemblance to a respectable political party. Around that time Cleese was quoted as saying that ‘Woke’ was a good thing and applied to people with some kind of empathy. Cleese quit the Lib Dems and became an outspoken supporter of Brexit and other dubious causes. He now has become a presenter for Gammonite Balderdash News and has some offensive things to say about people who are ‘Woke.’ Cleese is not a stupid person so why is he lending his name and fame to dubious causes? How badly does he need the money?
This week’s quotes
Inheritance Tax is fair
… irrational hatred of inheritance tax … that hardly anybody pays … may only be paid the estate of dead people who have accumulated an awful lot of money … Inheritance Tax is necessary … Untaxed wealth creation distorts the economy … creating a level playing field is essential not just because it is fair but because it is economically efficient … Tory Party will spend billions of poor taxpayers money in a state run attempt to increase house price inflation and make the rich richer … 96% of people will never pay IHT … a more subtle version of Trussonomics … Jeremy *unt is not reversing her disastrous measures after all, he is just being more clever than she was … *unt threw a billion pounds at the wealthy in his first financial statement … billions will go to the wealthiest, to the house building sector (which donates millions to the Tory Party) … the plan is to take a large slice of money and give it to millionaires, while telling ordinary taxpayers they will benefit (COMMENT: if they are thick enough to believe Brexit is a good idea then they are thick enough to believe anything) … It is a total con and an economically damaging con …
Libidinous haystack and, to our undying shame recent Prime Minister
will soon add his name to the roster of failed entertainers who have sought career stretching refuge in the clammy arms of Gammon Balls News. The only surprising development is that some people appear to be surprised by it … increasingly unfunny farce that is the life and times of Alexander du Piffle Johnson … a lot of free time on his hands just now … had a lot of free time when he was supposed to be leading the country through the worst pandemic in a century … what a joy it will be for the man who was dismissed from the Times for dishonesty to be working for a ‘news station’ where pulling ‘facts’ directly out of your arse is keenly encouraged … Johnson can expect a cool welcome … will he really feel at home among the assorted wing nuts and tinfoil hatters on GB News? … Maybe it will convince OFCOM that the station is balanced as opposed to completely unbalanced…
Struggling GB News plunged into fresh controversy
… breached impartially rules for the fourth time … chaos at GB News … Telegraph is up for sale ‘’’ owners of GB News and Daily Mail are sitting at the front of the auction room … expect more slagging off across the right wing media … as they struggle to prove … they are ready to step into Barclay’s shoes …
Lying in state
… Westminster Hall debate entitled ‘Honesty in Politics’ … just 8 MPs attended and the only Tories were the chair and duty minister …
Telegraph
… systems have been rejigged that … ‘actively prevents anybody who knows what they are talking about attending’ … the system collapses into a state of Chinese whispers…
Richy Scumbag … a year in office … people are deeply dissatisfied … Tories look exhausted and short of ideas…
Things go from bad to worse for hapless Mad Halfcock
… A corrupt, lying, philandering, incompetent…
Britain’s entire criminal justice system is under strain
… no long term planning; disjointed decision making; tension between expert advice and political calculation … some parts of the criminal justice system close to breakdown … push to be tough on crime coincided with .. spending cuts … gaols, overcrowded, squalid and unsafe … gaol population nearly double in three decades … emergency measures … will not come close to tackling the crisis … decision making … contradictory and incoherent … probation service is in terrible shape … part privatisation so disastrous … it was reversed … backlogs worsened by problems of the government’s own making … in large part caused … by politicians … grim conditions … more assaults and suicides behind bars … poorly run services compromise public safety … situation dreadfully exacerbated by shortage of prison guards … a redundancy scheme so dire it had to rehire many of those it paid off … calamitous … jammed understaffed gaols … 22 hours of daily confinement not uncommon … self-harm, drug use and violence are all rising … situation gets worse and worse … prisons failing in … chief purpose … rehabilitation … perfect storm of failures … situation so bad that government cannot ignore it … probation service in shockingly bad shape …
Covid 19 enquiry
… Dominic Cummings called ministers ‘useless f***pigs’, ‘morons,’ ‘c*nts’ … Cabinet Office ‘terrifyingly sh*t’ … if anything he understated the scale of the dysfunction within the government … individuals in power spectacularly unsuited to the job … departmental responsibilities … horribly muddled … glacially slow to respond to emergencies … chaos was driven by individuals … Johnson … unserious, indecisive and unable to grasp detail … Cummings … incapable of running a functioning office … an environment that was toxic, macho and sexist … Richy Scumbag has spent the last year trying to banish memories of his chaotic predecessors. Instead the circus is back…
Thick Lizzie government
… huge damage to the economy … concept of shame is as alien to Thick Lizzie as is to Johnson … continues to insist that she alone is marching to the right tune … Tories believe her … Mad Halfcock …. Presided over a process that was corrupt and chaotic … had a tendency to get over excited and make stuff up…
Lib Dems gaining ground in Gove’s constituency
… persistent rumours … Murdoch wanted him to edit the Times … rumours did not originate with Murdoch … Gove has been sucking up to GB News … Gove’s predicament emphasis the problem Brexit ultra will have finding employment after the election …
The Cabinet Secretary holds a particularly important post in the UK
… current incumbent proclaimed that the ‘government is looking like terrible, tragic joke… while Johnson was nominally PM the real person in charge was his then fiancée, now wife … demoralise a civil service in desperate need of strong leadership … the rich and powerful brazen out their position in the knowledge that the public is not interested and the media will follow its lead … Johnson is the most obvious example to whom the concept of shame is meaningless … his attitudes have polluted the atmosphere … Ecclestone was found guilty of misleading HMRC over £400M in an offshore account… he got a suspended sentence … self righteous newspapers that would pillory a desperate single mother for being a ‘benefits scrounger’ showed barely a flicker of interest in Ecclestone’s attempts to rob the country … Michelle Mone used her position to benefit from PPE contracts, has shown no sign of penitence … Yet another Tory MP accused of rape with drug possession thrown in … soon vanished from the headlines … similar allegations about another Tory MP … never been named … fiasco
Keith Starmer had an illustrious career at the bar but can struggle under light interrogation
… the former human rights lawyer appearing to endorse what some regard as war crimes went viral in Labourland where Israel/Palestine is a poisonous issue … he was stuck, kippered, by a breakfast show radio Disc Jockey … Rachel Reeves published book ‘The women who made economic’ … lifted phrases and paragraphs fro, Wikipedia … both errors tell a story, one serious and one silly … when Labour is in power … Labour neuroses will replace Tory neuroses … Tories spent a decade obsessing over Europe not because the voters wanted but because Tories were obsessed by it … with Labour in power topics such as Israel/ Palestine will become matters of internal psychodrama rather than cold debate about policy … Backbench Tory bores waving copies of the Treaty of Rome will be replaced by Labour counterparts quoting the Balfour declaration … Control was one part of the Labour pitch … competence was the other. Reeves’ literary endeavours have damaged that part of the pitch … lifting an explanation out of Wikipedia is mortifying … Labour’s reputation for economic competence is relative… relies on Tory ineptitude … Tory polling is only four points above … Thick Lizzie era … a quicker leader would not have made the error on Gaza in the first place … now that Labour government seems inevitable … boot licking season has begun … masterful inactivity can easily be labelled timidity…
Covid inquiry … government was completely out of its depth
… ineptitude of ministers … dangerous distraction … all pervading culture of misogyny … government machine not structured to cope … floods … evacuation of Afghanistan … food shortages, the UK has been found wanting … public wants and expects government to sort out its problems but the government is not equipped to do so … it is not just the constant restructuring which hampers government … government is no longer fit for purpose … huge expertise and talent within the civil service but the difficulty is getting that applied to the issues … even the most competent ministers – and that is not saying much, given the depressingly low calibre of the current crop – is hugely dependent on senior civil servants … this government… is determined to sour its relationship with the civil service … Misconduct and malfeasance by the ton … corruption … needless loss of life … cavalier, unserious, incompetent, law-breaking charlatans in Downing St … fascinating that there was no inquiry into Brexit … same lack of accountability and unsuitability for the job … the damage that these chancers have done on so many fronts is off the scale ..
Pip Pip Don Adamson Medway Delta Retired Brexorcist and Saboteur First Class
Don Adamson writes on the crazy week that was from his Barnsley Brexit Bunker.
This week’s homework:
One – Discuss the following statement: ‘Have I got news for you’ used to be a satire programme that treated all politicians mercilessly. Is it gradually turning into a Tory propaganda programme?
Two – Discuss the following statement. Bonfire Night has come and gone. I am finally beginning to see Guy Fawkes’ point.
Three – Discuss the following statement. Common sense is a punishment because you must deal with all the people who do not have it.
… Poles turned out in record numbers to vote down populist – nationalists Law and Justice (PiS) Party … the result is a relief … PiS has installed handpicked judges … turned state broadcasters into megaphones for PiS propaganda … deployed its people to run state-run industries … building a patronage system …
Windsor Framework still knotty
… nor has the framework removed the biggest concern for business … uncertainty … little divergence has happened in practice; most British firms do not want it … politics still in limbo … missing executive makes it harder to run fraying public services … Keith Starmer says he would like to move closer to the EU … negotiations would be testing … Brexit was always going to be problematic.. For years Northern Ireland has been treated as collateral damage in internecine Tory wars…
Why can’t Britain build the infrastructure it needs?
… painfully slow … in the next seven years Britain will need to build four times more grid infrastructure than it has managed in the last 30 … tangle of agencies … none has a convincing plan …
Welcome to the haunted house of Westminster
… a year since Thick Lizzie left … keep hearing about her … Richy Scumbag … message is that he is weak and she is still running the show … He is just Ken in her Barbie world … rather like Corbyn … Keith Starmer is a Marxist … I have principles but if you dislike them I will change them … Keith Starmer has never given a convincing explanation for why, unlike many colleagues, he served in Corbyn’s shadow cabinet for over three years. The charge of opportunism lingers … Thick Lizzie is unpopular among Tory MPs … Richy Scumbag has criticised her disastrous term in office only in mild terms … the charge of weakness sticks … Thick Lizzie is a reminder of a double Tory failure: acute blunder of the mini budget of September 2022 and the chronic failure to contain the ballooning tax burden …
… after Brexit referendumb policies were analysed only as they to appealed to an imagined working class voter… a Leave voting man in his 50s with reactionary views. This voter handed the Tories a fat majority in the 2019 election … skip forward four years and dysphoria is mercifully on the wane … partly due to its own absurdities … Richy Scumbag and his family are too rich to pretend to be anything else … negative ratings rival Johnson’s at his nadir … proverbial Red Wall voter, who delivered Labour heartlands to the Tories in 2019 matters far less … when standards of living are falling, questions of identity fall … never mind how people take their coffee …
The people who ruined Britain
… the death of political shame … Richy Scumbag … a weak man who betrayed his office, party and country … Britain has always been multicultural … Braverman’s rhetoric inflames tensions without resolving them … despicable game … portrayed all Albanians as criminals
Has anything this UK government has done actually improved things in the last 13 years?
Worse even than Johnson or Thick Lizzie … Richy Scumbag ‘s blinkered arrogance has accelerated the decline of the Tory empire … premature success … Napoleonic delusion … March 2022, spring statement was hailed as a dud … emerged that his father in law’s company continued to operate in Russia during the Ukraine conflict … wife benefitted from non Dom status … Scumbag badly mishandled furore … role of PM … utterly unsuited … at least he blocked some of Johnson’s most outrageous recommendations for honours … Scumbag has much to answer for … fixation with ‘small boats,’ Rwanda, Bibby Stockholm barge (infected with Legionella) … badly mishandled public sector strikes … PM and most of his colleagues shamefully absent from Commons … debate .. Privileges committee report on Johnson’s lies to Parliament about Partygate … deplorable speech to Parliament … slowing strategy to achieve net emissions … cancellation Northern Leg HS2 … exasperated investors … who set a premium on consistency … broken Britain over which he presides with a rictus grin … probable that Scumbag will lead Tories to defeat … excuses are being prepared … Scumbag has been Starmer’s greatest ally … a terrible PM … done nothing to restore confidence in party or politics generally … failed his own test … reappointed Braverman … after she broke ministerial code … dithered feebly over Nadhim Zahawi’s tax affairs … allegations against Dominic Raas perfectly clear … Scumbag desperately hung on to Raas looking for a loophole … instead of renewing standards … he encouraged conspiracy theories … stoked the populist fervour … Tory Party shifted towards MAGA UK … exploits Braverman’s spiel … He is worse than Johnson (a lumbering hulk of amorality) or Thick Lizzy (ideologically deranged)… entirely calculated and all the more despicable … delusion that past success denotes future triumph … terrible self deception … soon the magnitude of that failure will become clear …
How they broke Britain
… politicians denied everything … loss betrayal, unbridled arrogance, impunity, warped ideology and political incompetence … deliberately set UK on course of decline … remained in power long after the damage they did became clear … not a single word of contrition … supporters of austerity, Brexit Johnson, Thick Lizzie and other disasters … determined to blame people who had spent years warning and explaining what those consequences would be … lies, prejudice, manipulations … unforgivable … controlled by… media, politics and wealth … sheer abnormality is rarely noted … we rarely notice how ridiculous our country has become … proof is everywhere … government inflicted economic catastrophe … what was once unthinkable is now unremarkable … politicians and cronies remain in office after being found guilty … epic delays … trade unfeasibly complicated … unnecessary damage … meaningless anti-woke rhetoric … bogus culture wars … former head of the British Army said … ‘I’ve been to Rwanda … shadow of genocide lingers … dark history … ‘ … Braverman has yet to provide evidence of her claims … commercial catastrophes, national tragedies … routinely proved spectacularly wrong without suffering censure … experts proved horribly wrong … continue to broadcast with their status undimmed … Think of one shameful episode and a dozen more will spring to mind … secretly funded lobby groups … represent nobody except anonymous tycoons and vested interests … allowed ridiculous things to happen … first population to vote sanctions on itself … Brexit costing the country £100Bn a year … UK is in the most difficult position of major economies … suffered loss of investment of £29Bn … economic catastrophe … Tories bear obvious responsibility .. you would not know this from media coverage … as dangerous as it is daft … delusional denialism … traced back to Brexit … Tories increasingly detached from reality and integrity … lasting damage … inability to disown the deceptions that delivered Brexit … pantomime characters like Grease Bogg … bigots, weirdoes … flourished most in Brexit Britain … everything they touched began to crumble … constantly denying reality, inventing persecution, shifting blame, rewriting history … everyday something new happens to deepen the awfulness, absurdity of what these people have done …
Don Adamson Brexorcist in arms The Brexit Bunker, Barnsley
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