Life long Tory voter Rod Stewart has just declared that the country is a mess and the Tories need to hand over power to someone more competent. This prompted me to think of the song he covered on his Atlantic Crossing album. Apologies for the lyrical changes which are occasionally grating !! 🙂
Some will know that, in 2016, Britain voted to become an isolated country via the Brexit vote. The marginal 52:48 popular vote was pumped up by:
It then took five years to leave our membership of the club we call the European Union, mostly because nobody in our Government could agree what Brexit meant. Some wanted total isolation with free market capitalism on steroids, a kind of ‘Singapore on Thames’. Others wished to retain all the benefits of trade and co-operation from Europe without any of the responsibilities of club membership. The battle raged on between the various factions, consuming four Prime Ministers in the process, with our fifth currently sitting in the departure lounge. Ultimately, it seems that Brexit consumes all its offspring.
Two years on from our departure, it is possible to see the beginnings of the realities of Brexit. In this film, I have taken what could be described as a ‘Brexit Stock Take’. This piece deals with the economic realities of Brexit. Others in the series will deal with Social effects, Political futures, Legal outcomes, Environmental impacts and Technological effects.
Please take a look at the film and subscribe to our EU TUBE channel. The film is 17 minutes long but well worth your time as a case study in populism which is sweeping Brazil, the USA, India, Russia and several other places. Paradoxically, the world needs collaborative leadership and joined up thinking to face climate change and the many other global issues we must address if we are to survive. Instead, many think that ‘strong men’ are the answers to such problems. We shall see who prevails.
Write to Lee Anderson MP (e-mail lee.anderson.mp@parliament.uk) to help him understand his failings. Here is a sample letter from a good friend:
Dear Mr. Anderson,
Just in case you missed it all – I think you’ve decided to take a break from Twitter after your last car crash pronouncements – you’ve really thrown Katy under the bus and are now trending like no other MP since Matt Hancock was filmed grabbing his assistant’s bum in his office.
In particular, you may wish to find the clips from James O’Brien’s radio show on LBC this morning. It’s a corker.
MP Dawn Butler has a bit to say about you on Twitter as well, as does Mike Galsworthy. You should make an effort to read these, if no others.
#PoorKaty is trending on Twitter as well, due to your poor judgement.
You have made a huge mistake by doubling down on your original ‘30p’ message, first with ‘own brand’ Weetabix, and now by using Katy. Did you not think that she would come under the microscope? The whole country knows about her background now.
You should feel ashamed of yourself. You have once again showed the country, in fact the World, what an ignorant fool you are.
Keep digging
I occasionally write about the lack of strategy, structure, cohesion, collective capability and leadership in the Remain / Rejoin movements. Once again, with a heavy heart, I must report that the chronic organisation development issues which divide us remain (sic) alive and kicking. This article concerns senior members of Grassroots for Europe, overseen by the CEO of The European Movement and its chair Lord Andrew Adonis. For some months I have attempted to resolve a worrying problem with a concerted smear campaign against me by senior people at Grassroots for Europe and The European Movement. I have had no reply in private from CEO Anna Bird, so I have reluctantly decided to go public. Here is a summary in the form of my letter to the EM CEO:
The WhatsApp group where much of this smearing takes place is overseen by Anna Bird and Lord Andrew Adonis, thus they are complicit in the campaign, by ‘letting it happen’. Andrew does not like uncomfortable truths and blocks people who he disagrees with. Thus I have no route to resolution with him.
The ‘mob’ also follow the leader, sometimes without knowledge of the facts of a given cased. This is not without consequence. For example, I have been blocked from attending the March to Rejoin. I was blocked from attending a meeting with Gavin Esler. The ‘mob’ also asked that professional EM groups and affiliates in Sussex and Merseyside ‘deplatform’ me from speaking at events and so on. I mean, WTF are they frightened of?
I actively promote pro-European and anti-Brexit views and am perhaps more vigorous than many at a grassroots and strategy level, so I cannot understand their desire to silence me. Then again, I have worked on Brexit for 6 + years and I ‘get’ organisational illnesses etc. from my professional life as a business and organisational consultant. I’m hoping that Anna Bird will now make this nonsense stop and remove Richard Wilson and the other ringleaders from power. Here are some examples of the online smearing below – it is persistent and wearing. I cannot write to Richard Wilson to deal with the matter quietly, as he also adopts the Vote Leave strategy of blocking people he does not agree with.
It’s possible to see the level of confusion in these groups. For example, Lynne Armstrong manages to confuse me with Peter Corr, the leader of the March to Rejoin, but it does not stop her from condemning my / his work. In fact it’s unclear exactly who she is condemning. Other European Movement execs appear to join in with the ‘herd impunity’. For example, Emma Knaggs admits that she knows nothing about my work, but, of course, feels she must agree with those in power. She is also badly informed: Despite her assertion to the contrary, I remain Chair of The European Movement Mid Kent. Following a review by the Council chaired by Dominic Grieve QC I was confirmed in the position. My removal was an exec decision made by Anna Bird, without approval or authority of the EM. This, of course, mirrors the approach of The Conservatives re Brexit. It is quite surprising from an organisation that promotes transparency, open-ness and diversity.
In my professional life, I work with chronic organisational problems like this. When politics / egos and so on are added to the complexity, these issues become insoluble. I had offered my services for free to EM way back to help make them match fit, but they refused to accept professional help. Ostrich thinking and silos are not good enough if we are to build a movement fit to take Vote Leave on. As a result I have little confidence in Grassroots / EM’s abilities. Help can still be given but I’m not hopeful that they are in listening mode. One of their groundfloor troops, Magdalena Williams has recently stepped into the fray on Twitter.
There is a long list of people who have actively initiated and / or amplified this campaign. Others have passively supported or allowed the campaign to spread. In no particular order: Richard Wilson, Colin Gordon, Yvonne Wancke, Chris Hammond, Anna Bird, Lord Adonis, Robina Jacobson, Peter Packham, NE for Europe, SSTIE, Sue Wilson, Bremain in Spain, Doug at SODEM, Magdalena Williams, some of the SODEM gang, Lynne Armstrong, Emma Knaggs, Patrick Reynolds. There is a longer list of people who hide in the shadows … come out into the light please.
Please send a letter to King Charles III. It is best if you write your own letter as multiple copies of letters tend to be ignored. Here however is a template you may adapt to suit your needs. We recommend using the rule of three … pick three issues from the main body of the letter to use. We also recommend that you send your letter by post for maximum impact. Handwritten letters are especially valuable. The address is Buckingham Palace, London SW1A 1AA
Your Majesty/Your Royal Highness (whichever is preferred),
It is with some hesitation that I write to you so early in your reign, and at a time of great bereavement for you and your loved ones and the country in general. However, the wheels of government roll on regardless. This emboldens me to raise with you a number of issues which I hope will inform your reign.
First and foremost, I hope that you will use your influence to help us address the pressing issue of climate catastrophe, which threatens us all. Planet earth will not wait for sub-committees to agree compromises which allow our planet to continue warming. Instead of responding to the call to suspend the use of fossil fuels in favour of sustainable energy sources, we are presently pursuing the controversial issue of fracking, a subject on which your latest Prime Minister may have been badly advised. The prime reason for removing the ban imposed as recently 2019 by her predecessor has been justified by the war in Ukraine and its effects on the economy and consumers. Yet the energy crisis preceded the advent of war. Does this not raise questions to the advocates of this course of action? Fracking is more expensive than solar and other forms of energy production. We should look upon the UK via the medium of the BBC sitcom “The Good Life”, in other words, we must be responsible environmental stewards. A hallmark of our existence is to leave the planet in a better state than when we arrived.
At the same time, the bonfire on standards due to Brexit enhances environmental damage through increased carbon footprint from ever longer trading across continents, moral hazard through use of poor materials for manufacturing and an increased use of irresponsible capitalism.
Brexit has not delivered on the promises made in the ‘brochure’ in 2016. Instead it threatens the breakup of your Kingdom, the loss of Britain’s position as a world leader in many fields, breakages of international law, a possible return to the troubles in Northern Ireland and human trafficking of people to Rwanda as a supposed ‘solution’ to migration by people fleeing from war and oppression. Just when many countries in the world are recognising that joined up thinking is needed to solve joined up problems, we appear to have elected to live in un-splendid isolation. I know that your mother Queen Elizabeth II was opposed to Brexit and I hope you will exert further influence in this direction for a better Britain in a better Europe for a better world.
Clean beaches and Britain’s waterways have always been one of the defining hallmarks of our green and pleasant land. They are under systemic attack from our Government, simply because the laws that allowed us to reach these standards of excellence did not emanate from Westminster. It matters not who sets the bar for excellence on planet earth. What matters is excellence itself. I hope you will agree that we must maintain clean beaches, clean rivers and clean towns and villages. Each and every one of us can play a part in this, but it needs your leadership to bind the country together. It is both distasteful and dangerous to allow our waterways to be filled with e-coli.
We have developed a class of people who are skilled in the art of offering easy answers to difficult problems. We know that complex problems have no easy answers and we need to take time to understand the systemic consequences of our actions. But it is clear that our standards have been decimated over recent years, with more to come due to the ideology of Brexit which requires the purging of all that emanates from the EU. Of course, 98% of these standards were ones which Britain created or supported.
It has become apparent that we need to reform farming towards more sustainable approaches and an approach that conserves the land to reclaim food security for Britain. Whilst it was right for Government to replace EU subsidies for farmers with an equivalent scheme, the scheme was not of equivalent value and it was wrong to then cancel that scheme. This will undoubtedly affect lives and livelihoods for people who manage 71% of our land to everyone’s ultimate loss.
Britain had a role as a world leader in science and science relies on collaboration with the finest minds on the planet. Every single scientific body warned against Brexit as having the potential to reduce the gene pool of talent on which some of our greatest achievements have rested. King Charles II founded the Royal Society which continues to make awards for contributions to the promotion, advancement, or use of science for the benefit of society. We have a long tradition of successful collaborations in science, whether that be in advances in health, aerospace, defence, living standards and so on. In the 4th industrial age, the age of information, we owe it to our children to offer them the best environment to bring innovative collaborations together through projects such as HORIZON.
For some time now, British democracy has been under attack. Examples include the illegal prorogation of parliament, manifesto promises being broken almost on a monthly basis and the erosion of truth and trust in politicians and politics. Flip flop politics are not without consequence. In recent times our economic experiments on the population of Britain have caused untold irreversible increases in mortgages and the cost of living. Prime Ministers are now elected without recourse to the vast majority of the people of Britain. We need a proper written constitution and the reform of our democracy and democratic processes as a matter of urgency.
The self-isolation of Brexit is clearly affecting our relationships with Commonwealth countries, for example Bermuda. This has cross impacts on your own families’ standing as leaders and representatives of the United Kingdom and the Commonwealth. It takes decades to build trust and co-operation and minutes to destroy it. We must save precious relationships on which we rely.
You mentioned that you were born on the same date as the NHS and quipped that you felt you were doing better than them when interviewed. Our NHS is under threat to become a two-tier system rather like the US, but without any safety net for those without means. A hallmark of a civilised society is in how vulnerable people are treated. Our NHS is too precious to be traded away as an asset.
I understand that you are unable to act in public as it would contravene your role. However, I urge you to influence the debates on our ‘Britastrophe’. I remain, Your Majesty, your faithful and loyal subject.
Joe Bloggs
I don’t really think that Boris Johnson deserves more than one minute to reflect upon his legacy so I made several videos in less than one minute on this subject. In fact James O’Brien summed up the detail so well that I don’t feel i could better that. In summary we are talking about:
Broken promises on Brexit (It is NOT “DONE”, it will consume a lifetime of wasted time and money to continue the pretence). To read the full history, read Private Eyelines – Have I Got Fake Brexit News for EU and Reboot Britain – Strategies and skills to change minds on Europe and Brexit. Remainers and Rejoiners seriously need to up their skills if we are to win the next battle with the populists. Never forget that we lost two elections and a referendum, however inconvenient that fact is. Yesterday I delivered copies of these books to Sir Alan Sugar, Richard Branson and James O’Brien. I wish to send them to Hugh Grant next if anyone can help with this.
Outright LIES on COVID (Johnson was late to the party when others were listening to experts. He conducted an experiment with genocide by placing infected NHS patients into care homes, causing 10’s of 1000’s of unnecessary deaths). The list goes on. These were political CHOICES and not inevitable. Johnson has been lying ever since he was born. Why would we expect any different from him?
Industrial levels of distraction or dead cat politics, the latest one being the “kettle”. Even the kettle story is not correct. If you want your kettle to boil faster, descaling and using the correct amount of water will make bigger impacts on your bill. £20 is of course not even significant when compared with the actual energy price rises, but Johnson assumes that people cannot add up.
I don’t believe the Tories will call an election in order to lose their majority but if they do, we’ll need to do better than sharing memes on fb. The Daily Maul has set another dead cat loose on this subject today. Preparation is better than regret. Learn the skills to persuade people outside your bubble to change their voting behaviour here.
Join us on Monday September 12 at 8 pm on ZOOM to build momentum to remove the Brexit beast from our lives and build a better Britain in a better Europe for a better World.
Support our election fighting fund via Go Fund Me. Read our strategy for this at Brexit Doesn’t Pay.
I had a chance encounter with a Labour Councillor the other day whilst at gay pride in Rochester. We know each other from many years back and I like and respect him as a solid campaigner for Remain within the Labour party. He approached me because he recognised me from behind, as I had my ‘offensive swimming bag’ with me, pictured below.
After a brief exchange of pleasantries, he raised the issue of Labour’s strategy for Brexit. Here is what he told me:
“In our first term we will join EFTA.
In our second term we will have a referendum to rejoin the EU”.
Here is my analysis of this strategy, based on a much fuller treatment of the issue in my book Reboot Britain : Strategies to change minds on Europe and Brexit.
He claimed that Kier Starmer could not argue about ending Brexit at this time, due to his need to hold on to red wall seats at an election. I dispute this position:
If Kier Starmer continues with the strategy of ‘making Brexit work’, he will be accused, quite rightly, of being a liar after being elected. This is the very thing that he has accused Boris Johnson and the Conservative party of doing and is therefore morally bankrupt.
Everyone knows that Starmer is a Remainer and therefore there would be no great loss if he were to remind us of this fact. Boris Johnson reminds Keir Starmer of his EU / Remain credentials on a weekly and sometimes daily basis in parliament, so there is very little currency in the Daily Excess, Son or Maul revealing this ‘secret’. Opinions about Brexit are changing rapidly, with Lord Sugar the latest person to call for Brexit to be reversed.
The Labour Party seem to be terrified of the right-wing media, yet they themselves have a media machine. Therefore, they ought to be able to put up a valid defence of his position if they needed to. The Labour party somehow believe that their own media machine is inferior to the Tory party’s. Perhaps Labour need to read my books as well.
My sense is that Keir Starmer is even more scared of the hard left element of his own party than the Conservatives and that this is driving his avoidance of the Brexit issue. You have gotta love Mick Lynch’s ability to stand up and speak truth to power, but let’s not forget that Lynch is also a relic of the militant tendency from the 1980’s in terms of his wish to shut the borders and return us to Little Britain via Brexit myopia.
Let’s suppose that Starmer decided to ignore the hard left in his party. It is indeed possible that he would lose some votes in red wall seats. Let’s guess that this may amount to 10% losses of seats in those areas. However he stands to gain anything like 20 to 40% of Conservative seats in other areas. Labour are allowing the militant tendency to dictate their strategy for re-election and this makes them no better than the bluekip Tories. I cannot recommend that any remainers vote for them under these circumstances, except where their candidates have a more enlightened view about Brexit.
My Councillor friend put it to me that Starmer simply cannot say the Brexit word at this time. Respectfully, I say this is horseshit. He can say that Brexit isn’t working and has not delivered what was on ‘the brochure’ in 2016. He can also point to clear evidence to support such statements at this time, coming from UK in a changing Europe and our own work at Reboot Britain. The Labour Party has fallen into the trap of believing that a poll in OK Magazine or the results of the latest focus group should dictate party policy. This is not leadership. Silence is assent and Starmer’s position is a clear demonstration of putting party before country, what Tony Blair describes as putting ideology before pragmatism. I expected better from a clever man and I must conclude that, like the Tories, there are people who they are afraid of behind the scenes.
As regards Labour’s long-term plan, there are many flaws with this:
The EFTA countries are a small club of nations: Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway and Switzerland who value collaboration over competition. It is unclear as to how such a club would wish to invite an aggressive competitor with a track record for wanting ‘cake and eat it too’ from its relationships with other trading partners. Brexit Britain has demonstrated a complete lack of regard for the role of international law, breaking deals made with others and riding roughshod over nations that it considers to be inferior to itself. These are hardly the kinds of elements of a compelling psychological contract to join a new trading bloc. Joining EFTA also means accepting the four freedoms of the EU. How will this be put to the knuckle dragging red wall Brexiteers?
The assumption of a second term in office is also questionable, particularly if it becomes apparent that Starmer lied to get into power. This makes him equivalent to Johnson and the mainstream media would certainly weaponise this. The second doubtful assumption is that another referendum would be desirable or indeed practical. Brexit has divided the nation and I very much doubt that the nation will look back on 2016 and want to repeat the exercise with all that it has brought. It is entirely possible that, by this time, many people will have forgotten most of what Michael Gove glibly called ‘bumps in the road’ and will not wish to open up the debate again. The longer we leave this question, the more difficult it becomes, as divergence will be complete and the damage to lives and livelihoods will be complete.
My friend assumed that the binary ping-pong politics model remain resilient into the future. This itself is questionable. Brexit has of course unleashed a disruptive influence on British politics, with a number of parties now standing for anything but the current system. Within the next few years we will see the emergence of Gina Miller’s True and Fair party, the possible resurgence of the Lib Dems in the South, the departure of Scotland from the United Kingdom and the emergence of other single-issue parties such as the Rejoin party. Under such circumstances, I’m doubtful as to whether ping-pong politics will remain the norm. My friend tried to deal with this with me by saying that if I didn’t vote Labour I would get the Tories. My reply was simple. I stated that I cannot vote for a Brexit party and that Labour must do better than this.
I am not sure whether the Labour strategy was given to my labour councillor friend in order to appease him or for him to use to appease me. Although miracles are sometimes possible, the strategy he presented has more holes in it than a piece of Swiss cheese banned by Liz Truss. He is a very good chap and I wanted to believe him. But I ended up with the feeling that he himself may well be hanging onto unicorns and trying to ‘believe harder’.
In the wake of Lord Geidt’s letter to Boris Johnson and now his additional explanation, please write to your MP via Write to Them. The only way is ethics.
“Conscious of my own obligations under the Seven Principles of Public Life (including integrity), I could not be a party to advising on any potential law-breaking”. Lord Geidt
Here is a template letter you can adapt:
Dear Boris Johnson,
I am a scientist with 50 years’ experience in academia and industry and am well positioned to take on your recently vacant role of ethics advisor.
The company I worked for before retiring required all staff from the CEO to the most junior employees to sign up to a code of ethics and take an annual on-line ethics training course followed by an online test – which was reviewed by their managers.
The test covered such things as bullying, dishonesty with e.g. expense claims, taking gifts and other inducements from suppliers, racist behaviour and so on.
This policy was rigorously enforced by the management team, as was the ethics hotline which was a widely advertised toll-free telephone service for employees, run by an organization which was completely independent from the company, ensuring there was no bias or favouritism.
It would appear that your current set-up is lacking in many, if not all of these critical requirements, and hence I am sure I can help and advise you.
I look forward to your early reply.
Yours sincerely
aaa
Private Eyelines : Have I Got Fake Brexit News for EU is just released. Humour is one of the few weapons this Government cannot take away from us. It’s a historical and hysterical record of #Brexit and one that holds this #fascist government to account in ways that spreadsheets and graphs do not. The book helps us deconstruct the fake news of populist media from “The Son” to “The Daily Maul” “Excess” and “Telegravda”. Grab copies for yourself and your Brexity friends now on Amazon or order discount copies direct from the author by e-mailing us at reboot@academy-of-rock.co.uk Here is the book blurb below:
Satire reaches the parts that spreadsheets, graphs and logic do not. Brexit provides a rich dark seam of tragicomedy in a Kafkaesque world of gaslighting, shapeshifting and shameless lies. We live in desperately sad times. But simply drowning in the sadness of Brexit does not help us deal with paranoid populist politicians. Bittersweet levity cuts through people’s minds to their visceral core. Simply stated, satire heals.
Populist media brainwashed leave voters to believe in Brexit unicorns. I tried my hand at parodying these media to expose the lies on which the Brexit hydra reared its many ugly heads. I found that people rather liked my gutterpress pages. Some even believed that they were real!
To change minds on Brexit, it is not sufficient to break the parliamentary paralysis which continues to enable the slow-motion destruction of Britain. Nor is demographic change, aka death, a success recipe. We must actively work on the huddled masses. People almost literally eat lies for breakfast from a biased populist media, owned by people who seem just a little bit too friendly with Vladimir Putin. Private Eyelines opens up the conversation anew with Brexiteers with buyers’ remorse, or Remainers numbed into submission by six years of bullshit and bullying from our so-called political leaders.
Peter Cook is a unique combination of scientist, business consultant and musician. As a 60’s child, his mum made him watch Peter Cook and Dudley Moore, saying “it would be good for him”. It wasn’t! Instead, Peter built a solid career bringing life-saving treatments for diabetes and HIV / AIDS to the world, 18 years tutoring MBAs in academia, writing books and 28 years running a business. His early exposure to Cook and Moore suddenly came to the fore after 24 June 2016, as satire met real life through Brexit. His mis-spent youth and creativity have been rejuvenated through campaigning, writing, music, film making and speaking about our rightful place in Europe. It was good for him after all. Mum was right!
In the last few days I have been practising the gentle art of “brexorcism” on the street whilst campaigning to get the Tories out. These brief encounter stories are examples of what you can expect in my latest book on the subject in the story section. A brexorcism takes time, patience and skill, but these examples demonstrate how such things can be quite brief in some circumstances.
I was late to catch a train from Strood and deposited my bicycle at the barrier to buy a ticket. The staff member had studied my bike which I use to trigger conversations about Brexit. On my return I found I had a few spare minutes as the train was late. Sam began the conversation:
SAM: “I take it you are against Brexit?”
ME: “Er, yes”.
SAM : “I’m afraid I voted for it”.
ME: “Well, people had many reasons”.
SAM: “I doubt you will be able to guess mine”.
ME: Well, let me see, was it the £350 million for the NHS? Maybe the idea of sticking it to Cameron? Or taking back control of our borders? or something else?”
SAM: “None of these – my wife is from the Philippines – she works in the NHS and had to pay £11 000 to get her into the UK. I feel sick as a dog as I now realise that Brexit has not solved this problem”.
ME: Well, I am so impressed that you told me, that is brave”.
SAM: “If I ever get the chance to go back on this decision I will”.
ME: “Thank you so much. I’m working on the case”.
We shook hands and I went on my way. I sense that he wanted to test my reaction to his ‘confessional’ and he was pleased with the result. In the book I show the methodologies behind the conversation. Key to my conversation was the bike which acts as the conversation starter and, of course, what I call UPR or unconditional positive regard in the book.
On this occasion I was with a group of young people at an open mic jam session (my son’s friends). One of their circle opened up (he knows my views on Brexit but I’d never met him before):
“I’m from Italy but I’ve lived here for about 10 years. I’ll be brutally honest. I don’t give a fuck about anyone else. Why should I? I’m 23 and all I care about is earning a big pile of cash and having a life”.
I decided to offer lots of UPR by saying that I understood why he would think like that at his age. He admitted that he might think differently if he had kids (his girlfriend was with him – from her body language, I detected that she did not fully agree with him about his self centred view of life).
ME: “I completely understand your viewpoint. We adults have ruined the planet but I personally have not given up on planet earth”.
I then showed them this video below, explaining that this was why I continue to give a fuck about my fellow citizens, regardless of their viewpoints. It made a deep impact, especially on his girlfriend. I considered that this was enough as our first brief encounter and left them to consider what I’d said. Sometimes Brexorcisms needed to be left unfinished to allow for a period of reflection … The other important factor in this interaction was the social nature of the dialogue. He had 3 of his peer group sitting at the table. Peer pressure is more important than hierarchy in social herds.
