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Nadine Dorries Boris

Bojo, Nads and Beds

Updated on date by author

You are invited to support Gina Miller’s True and Fair party in the Mid Beds by-election. True and Fair are the only serious professionally run party in England that has a clear position on Brexit and Rejoining the EU standing in this by-election with all the other main parties running scared of the word for fear of upsetting voters. More importantly, True and Fair also have exceptional policies on parliamentary and political reform for a better Britain. Plus all the usual policies that you would expect from a serious political party, except that none of them are ‘usual’. Check their policy platform out at policy toplines.

Click to view policy toplines. T&F offer a clear and refreshing difference.

In case you are not aware, Nadine Dorries finally stood down this week and this means that a by-election will be held. If you live within 40 miles of Nad’s constituency I invite you to join us for doorstep campaigning, street events and any other help you can provide on the ground or via social media. Some of you will be asking why it is both safe, effective and incredibly sensible to support Gina’s party. Here is a Q&A to help you decide:

What’s up for grabs here?

The Tories won with 39 000 votes in Mid Beds in 2019. Given that Nadine Dorries has shamed her party and her constituents, it’s quite likely that the vast majority of these votes will go elsewhere in this by-election. Votes for other parties were fairly split in 2019 – Labour 14 000, Lib Dems 8 000, Greens 2.5K. With up to maybe 30 000 to distribute, it seems unlikely that the Tories will pull off a victory this time. Both the Lib Dems and Labour are running vigorous campaigns based on the same old hubris that they can win. Whilst it is likely that one of them will win, if they don’t, it will be a failure entirely of their own making and not because of a small challenger party. Labour are already saying that Gina’s party will allow the Tories back in – the usual bullying tactic. In Jurassic Park terms, this is the equivalent of the Veloceraptor (Tories), T.REX (Labour) and Triceratops (Lib Dems) trying to blame a Gecko (T&F) for allowing the Veloceraptor to prevail. It’s entirely safe to vote for truth and fairness in our politics at this by-election. See the candidate’s views on the matter.

Who are The True and Fair Party?


Gina Miller founded The True and Fair party to improve our politics. I’d imagine that some of you will not know who Miller is. She gained a reputation for upholding truth when she took the Westminster government to the Supreme Court to demonstrate that Britain had always had sovereignty as a member of the EU. She won her case. Of course, the government ignored the Supreme Court judge. You may more likely know Miller from the tabloid gutter press who vilified her for winning the case. The result of this was various vile threats of beheading and gang rape. All this for upholding the truth, fairness and the rule of law. Some people must have felt truly threatened. If like me, you believe that truth and trust matters, please vote for Alan Victor and The True and Fair party.

Miller’s position on Brexit is unequivocally clear, compelling, and concise. The Brexit experiment has failed. We both ‘can’ and ‘must’ rejoin the EU. She confirmed that this can be done within three years and that “there must be no half measures and mealy-mouthed compromises*. What matters most is starting the process rather than ending it.

“In terms of joining the single market and customs union option, we are not supporters as this would mean the UK doffing our cap and accepting existing and future rules and regulation without any vote or voice. The only viable option is to re-establish our membership of the EU and return to the top table once again. After seven years of failure, now we need to pull the rip cord, and start the process of re-establishing our membership of the EU, as the benefits far outweigh the costs.”

Gina Miller

Who is Alan Victor?

Alan stood as an independent candidate in 2019 gaining a respectable 812 votes. You can find Alan’s profile here. Alan decided to join the True and Fair party because he was fed up with the current state of UK politics and mainstream political parties hijacking our democracy, promising the world and failing to deliver. A multiple of 4-8 times his current vote would ensure that his deposit is returned and also that the True and Fair party are considered a serious challenger to our broken politics. If you can help in any way (on the street, online amplification of social media posts etc.), please e-mail me at reboot@brexitrage.com or write to Alan direct at alan@trueandfairparty.uk

Why is it safe to vote for the True and Fair party?

It would be a miracle if Alan Victor won the seat … yet miracles do happen in our disruptive politics. However, a significant increase on his vote share from 2019 would send an important message to Labour and Lib Dems about their myopia over Brexit and other matters. Brexit has failed. It is no longer the will of the people. Waiting longer will prolong the carnage. Just a single voice in Parliament would significantly disrupt the parliamentary paralysis that gave us Brexit and many other things. Read more at Truth and Fairness on Byline Times.

What can one person achieve?

A great deal. Just remember that Nigel Farage got us Brexit without ever getting elected to the UK parliament. Then there is Caroline Lucas who has achieved great things from a single platform. Stephen Flynn and his colleagues at the SNP do a fine job for Scotland. Just 12 DUP assassins held the Tories and the country to ransom over Brexit. I am not approving of Nigel or Arlene Foster’s politics at all, just that one person or twelve in the case of the DUP can make a big difference.

Might the Tories win?

It’s possible but quite unlikely. The local Tory candidate is a departure from the Nadine Dorries’ cult. However, if the Tories win, it will be because Labour and Lib Dems are refusing to stand aside and NOT because of the True and Fair candidate. Both Labour and Lib Dems are trying to block out all other parties by saying that the little parties will spoil the vote. Perhaps they should look a little closer to home, especially Labour and their mealy mouthed capitulation to the Tories on Brexit, Climate Change, environmental damage, ULEZ, electoral reform, taxation and so on. A Tory victory at this point, however small, will force Labour and the Lib Dems reconsider their election strategy on Brexit. After all, it’s only a by-election. If they don’t, I myself will be campaigning against the Tories AND Labour by standing an independent candidate in my area for 2024.

Please support our campaign at 2024 GE

How do I get involved?

If you can help in any way, please e-mail me at reboot@brexitrage.com or Alan alan@trueandfairparty.uk We need boots on the ground and social media support for Alan Victor.

Mid Bedfordshire
Mid Beds – a peculiar assembly of small towns without a real centre. A bit like a Polo.
Posted in Brexit, Britain, Climate Disaster, Democracy, Elections, Gina Miller, Leadership, Rejoin EU | Tagged , , | 5 Replies
Farming

Countryside Matters

Updated on date by author

True & Fair is a minor party, passionate about local issues affecting our rural countryside communities. The countryside is the backbone of our economy and we recognise it has been left out in the cold after Brexit with no deal and no way forward, the True & Fair Party plans to change that.

You are invited to join our Parliamentary Candidate for East Wiltshire, Pete Force-Jones and True & Fair Party Leader, Gina Miller on Wednesday, the 30th of August, at 10 am where we will announce the beginning of our journey to improve the countryside, and get a better deal after years of inaction and being let down by the major parties. 

This is your opportunity to let us know how we can best represent you and your businesses; we are here to listen. We will be announcing our countryside policy at the town hall event. Join the True and Fair party – we deserve better, not more of the same.

When

August 30, 2023 at 10:00 am – 12.00 noon

Where

Marlborough Town Hall
The Court House 5 High Street
Wiltshire, England SN8 1AA
United Kingdom

Join the True and Fair party

Join us afterwards for a musical protest as well

Posted in Britain, Democracy, Elections, Farming, Gina Miller, Politics | Tagged , , , | Leave a reply
The Disney Longstocking prison ship

The Don

Updated on date by author

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?’ 

Read Changing Minds on Brexit

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.

Disney Boat
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 …

Join us in Brighton

Horizon Europe 

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 …

Read our Gutterpress pages

Horizon 

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… 

48 52 Brexit
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 …

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Johnson is a person who rarely stays the course 

… 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

Don Adamson
Don Adamson and family.
Posted in Borders, Brexit, Brexorcism, Britain, Britastrophe, Democracy, Economics, Education, Elections, Europe, Immigration, Leadership, Liz Truss, Politics, Populism, Racism, Rejoin EU, Sovereignty, Sunak | Tagged , , | Leave a reply

Career opportunities

Updated on date by author

I stumbled over a job for Medway Council as a Political Assistant to the Conservative Group. The role requires an allegiance to the Tory party but is paid for by taxpayers money. I cannot understand how this can be legal. It’s an outrage. Anyway I made an application. Here are the job basics in blue and my personal statement in purple. What are my chances?

Job Spec

The Conservative Group are looking to recruit a highly motivated individual with exceptional political and communication skills to support its work. You will assist with political issues, suggest potential courses of action and provide evaluation, information and research services as required. You will proactively research policy, liaise with the media, prepare speeches and brief members.

You will need acute political judgement, be able to establish positive working relationships with members and officers, have excellent communication skills and be able to assimilate and analyse information quickly, spotting critical political issues and managing time effectively to ensure deadlines are met. The need to be sympathetic to the aims of the Conservative Party will be essential.

My personal statement

I am committed to Tory fascism and its practical applications in Medway. This makes me ideal for the position. Here are some specific behaviours and projects I would be willing to oversee:
Very happy to watch asylum seekers drown whilst fleeing from terror if it pleases my MP.
I will assist the sitting Tories to recreate Dead Man’s island as an asylum centre.
Delighted to see the rise of food banks in Medway. Lee Anderson is right when he says that people can cook a meal for 30p. Dust is plentiful in the towns and inexpensive.
I think Boris is a good laugh and probably plays a good game of darts. If required I will meet him in the Cooper’s Arms to talk about Winston Churchill, the Dambusters and the failure of Medway to ingratiate itself by becoming a city.

I can spend money without moral justification or a business case. Whilst I’m not up to the Liz Truss, Dido Harding or Boris Johnson nuclear levels of spaffing, I will learn at the feet of the masters in the council. I approved of the utter waste of money for the Japanese roundabout and the Tori.

We will commission a bird clearance society on the Cliffe Peninsula. Birds serve no useful function for the Tories and the removal of the birds will pave the way for Cliffefell – a high rise development on the marshes, built to new Brexit fire standards.
I’m able to come up with meaningless three word chants to distract the masses from anything that might be important.
I would help to see Suella Braverman as the head of social services in Medway and the installation of prison hulks on Rochester Riverside and Chatham Dockside.

I am joining the Masons. You may say it’s too late, but I have ordered an apron on e-bay.

Civil servants are a blight on society. I would ensure that the council workers are publicly humiliated and flogged at the Dockyard for their woke dress sense and other aspects of their scummy hand to mouth existence on a daily basis. This would also serve as a visitor attraction and bring more revenue to the Council.

I have many bags of sovrinty in my loft and will use them to inflate the aspirations of the prevailing Tory MPs who are not so ashamed of themselves that they will still stand for election in 2024.

I once drowned a puppy and felt no emotion. I saw that as a turning point in my emotional resilience, taking my inspiration from Robert Jenrick, Priti Patel and Suella Braverman.

I am not afraid to call Vince Maple and Keith Starmer out for copying us on Brexit. They have no ideas of their own.

Kelly Tolhust is a proper hardcore woman. She’s a dude innit. We should use her to do some cage fighting with the woke Labour Councillors. We should fight them with the biatches. The Green party in Medway are terrified of her and we can organise some Just Stop Oil type people to fight with them as they eat their vegan sandwiches.
We can transform the Dickens’ Festival into an all year round reality event with guidance from the Minister for the 18th Century, Jacob Rees-Mogg. With forced child labour camps in Luton Road, bear-bating in Lordswood and a Scurvy Centre replacing Gillingham Library. Disease keeps the proles occupied and I will ask Rodney Chambers to commission a campaign of releasing rats into lower Gillingham.

I am skilled in painting and decorating and stand ready to paint over any cheery artworks in child care centres and infant schools.
We could turn the Medway Tunnel into a giant refugee concentration centre. If anyone escapes they would find themselves on the Medway City Estate, itself a wasteland. Fun Drum could also be used to contain the immigrant scum.
If needed. I have some Nat C cosplay suits for party conferences and other Tory youth rallies.
I have a collection of German marching tunes on 78 RPM CDs.
I will fashion an Alan Jarrett memorial statue using slave labour from the Medway artist community and erect it at the War Memorial. Art, music and poetry are a blight on the Medway landscape and I would work hard to replace this will statues of Mark Francois and other military figures.
I am comfortable with taking additional wages for doing arms consultancy with Saudi Arabia whilst relaxing at Avenue Tennis Club.

I have many criminal convictions: petty crime, grand fraud, sexual predation and so on as well as general lying and making false promises. I hope these will be an asset to the Tory party.
I hope that’s enough.

p.s. Brexit has failed – 350 000 people agree with me on this.

350 000 plus views in one day and no credible explanations of the benefits of Brexit.

Somewhat fortuitously, Rishi Sunak has just requested a new post of Prime Minister’s Official Deputy Spokesperson and Head of News. I have also applied for this using some of the ideas for the local job. No disrespect to the council but I’d prefer the top job.

No future … at Medway Council.

Read Bath Building Society and Brexit

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Posted in Corruption, Democracy, Elections, Politics | Tagged , , , | 1 Reply
Daily Excess

Nigella Legionnaris Brexitosis-23

Updated on date by author

Whilst the Tories continue to gaslight the nation about small boats, prison ships and so on, the truth will out. Here is our mash up of the Daily Excess for the week of bullshit in politics. If you like this, you will love our book Private Eyelines. DO NOT BUY on Amazon. Buy direct for best prices via reboot@brexitrage.com. Please see below for the real Tory stories they are trying to cover up.

For more of this, please get your copy of Private Eyelines by mailing us at reboot@brexitrage.com

Sugar Sugar

Brexit Secretary and sugar magnate David Davis went on BBC Radio 4 to explain that Brexit was not a cause of our problems. Instead he blamed the Civil Service. When pressed he admits that the Tory Government were responsible. Even the BBC’s Brexit loving Martha Kearney was astonished. Hear a slice of the interview on our Bandcamp radio interviews album. To correct the Daily Maul front page, Brexit is the cause of Brexit and not lefty doctors, cat owners, scientists, benefit claimants, woke metropolitan elitists yada yada.

Sick of being sick

Therese Coffey, Suella Braverman, Robert Jenrick and others are in denial of the significant outbreak of sewage related illness at the recent triathlon in Sunderland. Instead they continue the blame game whilst water companies turn in record profits. Lib Dem MP Munira Wilson did not even get an answer to her question about a related problem with Thames Water. Are you still prepared to vote for these shape-shifters? SARS in their eyes?

The contempt of Sunak’s so called ‘answer’ and the nodding Tory dogs are the hallmarks of fascism …
Sick of being Jenrick ….

The Pippy Longstocking

The wonderful Jonathan Pie sums up all that is wrong with this Brexitory government in his latest rant. Attempting to put asylum seekers with tuberculosis onto a boat which would act as an incubator for the disease is a significant public health risk. It is an echo of Boris Johnson’s wilful act of killing 40 000 people by putting infected COVID patients into care homes. Meanwhile Rishi Sunak took his kids to a restaurant in the USA where meals can cost £12 000 whilst Lee Anderson is knocking them up in the kitchen for 30p a serving, even undercutting Jamie Oliver.

Legion-Ella

It has emerged that Suella Braverman knew of the Legion-ella infestation the day BEFORE they started putting asylum seekers on the prison ship !!! This is a government sponsored death camp. Read our article in Spanish and English on the subject of racism at The Prisma.

The Prisma
From the moment that Nigel Farage adopted a Nazi inspired poster to stir up latent racism in Britain, he then won the Brexit referendum by the narrowest of margins.

Follow the money

Meanwhile, it has been revealed that the real reason for the Stop the Boats campaign, is of course, once again money. UKIP donated £70 000 to Langham Industries. John Langham the owner was a long term supporter of UKIP and clearly the Tories are frightened of UKIP and the far right so they have become them. In time, I would not be surprised to learn that the Tories themselves have financial interests in the boats, hotels and other aspects of the criminal fraud that sits below the ‘fury’ in the Express, Mail and Sun. Crispin Blunt already receives a salary as an adviser to one of the asylum hotel groups.

Aside from all the above, one boat to house 220 people is quite literally a drop in the ocean when compared with the backlog at the Home Office. This is deliberate managed decline by the Tory Government. The ceremonial nature of the Bibby Stockholm hides something else that they do not want us to talk about. Look deeper.

“Fuck off back to France” – Lee Anderson.
Watch and share our two minute explainer on how to deal with immigration properly.

FASCISM FACT AND FICTION CHECKER

ULEZ is the Ultra Low Emission Zone and not the Uber Lesbian Empowerment Zone as Boris Johnson probably thinks it is. Doubtless Bojo would be willing to lend his ‘Johnson seed’ for the purposes of ‘lesbianic correction’ though !! How many kids has he got now? 12? It was in FACT Boris Johnson who introduced ULEZ and NOT Sadiq Khan. It is yet another manufactured piece of ‘gaslighting’ done by the Tories as a desperate piece of electioneering.

The Sunday gutterpress papers are trying to blame the French for the deaths in the channel. NO, this is fully the responsibility of Rishi Sunak, Suella Braverman and the Brexit cabinet. I’m quite surprised that the Sunday Express et al have not tried to blame French Legionnaires, Emmanuel Macron, Sophia Loren, Camembert, Cotes du Rhone or Sacha Distel for the deaths as yet.

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EU benefits
We can and must Rejoin the EU to save Britain from Brexit oblivion. There is now a whopping gap of 24% in favour of Rejoining the EU.Click the image to support us via PayPal, Patreon or Go Fund Me.
Posted in Borders, Boris Johnson, Brexit, Brexorcism, Britain, Britastrophe, Climate Disaster, Corona, Democracy, Elections, Europe, Gutter Press, Leadership, Populism, Rejoin EU, Sovereignty, Sunak | Tagged , , , , | 5 Replies
The week that was

The week that was

Updated on date by author

By Don Adamson, Brexorcist, 1st class honours, reporting on the week that was from his grim Northern Powerhouse Brexit Bunker in Barnsley.

This week’s homework

One – Harold Wilson got into trouble when he awarded MBEs all round to the Beatles. At the time the Beatles were the most successful popular music band in the world and bringing in vast amounts of export earnings to this country. That was not the point. You cannot have a Labour PM awarding decorations to scruffy characters from the rough end of Liverpool.  Johnson awarded controversial decorations (up to and including peerages) to some very nasty people who, by rights, ought to be in the Nonce wing of some very nasty prison. That is perfectly in order and the newspapers do not mind a bit. Why the different treatment? 

Uncanny.

Two – Discuss the following statement: Nigel Garbage (of all people) has stated that Brexit has failed. Express, Mail and Telegraph newspapers (notorious Brexit cheerleaders of the worst description) are saying (grudgingly) that Brexit has not turned out to be the earthly paradise they promised. Tories got us into this mess by making extravagant promises. Keith Starmer has promised to get us out of this mess by repeating the same extravagant and now discredited promises. Einstein defined insanity as repeating a mistake in the expectation of a different result. What would Einstein have said about Brexit? 

Serial loser Farage.

Three – Discuss the following statement. We now know the truth behind scandal concerning Nigel Garbage and the NatWest Bank. Garbage stirred up trouble so that his nasty friends could speculate on shares in the NatWest Bank. There are two kinds of Gammon. On the one hand you have blithering idiots who are stupid enough to believe what they read in trashy newspapers. On the other hand you have some very clever and calculating people who get rich by dubious means. If they would put as much effort and ingenuity into doing something useful we would all benefit. Instead they got us into this Brexit mess. 

Join Gina Miller’s True and Fair Party

Gina Miller
Join the True and Fair Party for much better politics.

Four – Discuss the following statement. The Economist of 29 July has an interesting article about US universities and sometime controversial entry criteria for students. The article must be read carefully because it contains a lot of facts, figures and sometimes complex reasoning. The last two sentences summarise the situation – “These universities are channelling comparatively under qualified legacies, athletes and private school graduates into positions of unusual influence. A greater emphasis on academic merit would yield not only a fairer society but also a brighter elite.” Meanwhile in Britain we have brain-dead Cabinet Ministers who attended Oxbridge universities. They would be unemployable if they had attended less prestigious institutes of learning (if that is the right word). 

Five – When the Tories were making extravagant promises about Brexit they had a lot to say about ‘Singapore on Thames.’ To anybody with more than three brain cells this was conclusive proof that Brexit was only ever for the benefit of tax dodgers and dubious financiers (and not many of either). Singapore used to have a commendable reputation for efficiency and clean government. Singapore is nowadays developing a reputation for mismanagement and corruption. Which ‘Singapore on Thames’ do the Tories have in mind for Booming Brexit Britain: a) the Singapore with a commendable reputation for efficiency and clean government or b) the Singapore that is groaning under the weight of incompetence and corruption? 

Brexit was not for voters. It was for Jacob Rees-Mogg et al.

This week’s quotes: 

Schools and education

Each chart looks the same … gradual improvement from the early 1990s until 2010. Then things become worse … rule that runs for everything from rough sleeping to real wages to hospital waiting lists … housing policy chaotic … From 2010 to 2016 Tories  offered a small state country within the EU. After 2016 Tories offered a flabby big state vision outside the EU … political chaos … a bureaucratic mess … one in ten children attends a school that is falling down … Teachers did not sign up to be auxiliary social workers … often must be due to government failure … experienced teachers leave profession … for more than two years the government has failed to  negotiate Britain’s re-entry to Horizon, a European research collaboration programme it left because of Brexit … many scientists say it is essential to Rejoin … my worry is we are going back to the 1990s  where you got a system that was running into the sand …

Read our page on Scotland

Sunak ‘rip-off degree war’ deserves a diploma for missing the point … the whole higher education system is a mess …we are staring down the barrel of a mid century skills crisis … unless British universities produce tens of thousands of engineers the green transition is stuffed … unless universities produce tens of thousands  more doctors and nurses  the NHS workforce plan cannot be delivered … incentives for Britain’s most talented graduates seem misaligned … how much greater would our problems look if somebody actually calibrated them against the problems we face … tens of thousands of teachers leaving the profession exhausted …  we need a more skilled and educated workforce …  any politician who refuses to answer is in the business of fantasy economics …

Tory hate mob licking its lips as … Richy Scumbag’s reign falls apart 

… the electorate in very large numbers has had enough of this government … the whiff of a dying administration … the only thing growing in the economy is the scale of the debt … a corrupt incompetent government deserves to be sacked but one presiding over a bombed-out economy will be … The Right of the Tory Party is preparing for that. Thick Lizzie … who has no sense of shame has gathered an unsavoury collection of free trade extremists and wealthy US climate change deniers to build on her policies that failed so spectacularly just months ago … Sue Ellen Braverman and Lee Anderson … gathering New Conservatives to espouse ideals that are to the right of the right … constituency organisers have welcomed former UKIP members and ushered out the moderates … the appalling misjudgement of Brexit. The problem for Starmer is that these problems would take years to settle even against the backdrop of a strong economy. The risk is that after one term of Labour the country feels no better off, and potentially worse, it will turn to the pedlars of false hopes and real hatred. That is the game plan of the New Conservatives…. 

Labour are a Brexit party

Rothermere 

Dominic Williams, chief revenue officer … was asked if he could see the irony of a news business that pushed Brexit so far being damaged by it … … insiders say Williams is the consummate office politician … would not have dreamed of speaking out unless he felt Rothermere had come round to that way of thinking … dismayed to see how much the company has suffered from Brexit… Daily Mail editor in Chief has not been seen in the office for a while … Brextremist Bible now seems willing to think the unthinkable: what will happen if Brexit fails? … Tories will be blamed if it flops… 

Brexit Bible
The Brexit Bible. Click to read more.

James Cleverly, Foreign Secretary 

is doing as much globetrotting as possible in the Tories remaining months in office … took 91 officials with him, set the taxpayer back £700,500 … unwilling to slum it on commercial flights … £178,761 for a 3 day visit to Washington … trip to Belfast cost £4,142 for an RAF aircraft … 

Lib Dem omerta on Brexit 

Our membership and polling were at their highest when we were most outspoken against Brexit…. 

Tory MP second jobs 

average wage of  £233 per hour … Nadine Dorries job at GB News … rumoured six figure salary … £20,500 advance for Johnson hagiography … nobody can remember when she last appeared in Parliament …

Funding the National Health Service 

… Labour, with their child benefit caps and promise to continue with Tory tax and spending plans … show no sign of recognising … that Tory plans are not producing growth now and are not likely to produce growth in the future … 

Dignified exit of the week 

… ever expanding list of Tory MPs announcing they will not stand at the next election … Ben Wallace  … may yet go down as the first instance of a ship running out of rats before it even starts to sink … Wallace denies rumours of affair with Thick Lizzie …. Wallace might be applying for appointment to a juicy quango under Starmer… 

Liz Truss
Liz Truss chased the economy and escaped with a lifetime salary.

Queues at Ports 

… This is the curse of Brexit die hards: they cannot believe that EU does not realise that we are special … that the queues are caused by Brexit … what Brexiters voted for … checks that Faragists wanted to impose on visitors to Britain. Ironic that Faragists get annoyed when they are imposed on us … emergency planning for queues at Dover has now entered the English language … Operation Brock … miles of the M20 turned in a huge car park … Dover is also the port through which 35% of UK trade passes through … UK government allocated £45 from the levelling up fund to fix the problem … that could have been spent on actually  helping rundown parts of the country … will be spent on the chaos Brexit is causing at Dover ….

Nigel is now at the confessional box stage of Brexit. Nothing left to offer anyone apart from boats, banks and stale beer.

Easter was a disaster … coaches turned around and abandoned foreign trips after 24 hours queuing … Eurotunnel Terminal was built on the assumption that UK would be in the EU … Last summer queues of 18 hours … Eurostar stations were build on the assumption that UK would be in EU … some Eurostar trains travel with empty seats that could have been sold … because company could not get passengers on board in time … Easyjet has cancelled hundreds of trips … travel sector is facing significant disruption … It might help if the government had spent the last seven years preparing for what the industry saw coming … Brexiters dismissed all the predictions of chaos as a Remoaner lie … government has built its strategy on the same crazy belief … 

Don Adamson Pip Pip             Medway Delta (Retired)                       Brexorcist and Saboteur First Class

Posted in Brexit, Brexorcism, Britain, Democracy, Elections, Farage, Leadership, Populism, Rejoin EU | Tagged , , , | Leave a reply
Private Eyelines

Don Adamson’s Brexit Blog

Updated on date by author

Don Adamson writes his weekly roundup from the Bungled Brexit Bunker in Barnsley.

This week’s homework

One – The Whigs, later Liberals, were a major force in British politics from about 1690 to about 1920. Several factors brought about the decline of the Liberal Party. One was the rise of the Labour Party and extending the franchise to working people. Another was a major scandal about granting knighthoods and peerages to very dubious people, usually this was a financial arrangement. A third factor was financial misconduct by Cabinet Ministers; notably the Marconi shares scandal where Cabinet Ministers awarded lucrative government contracts to Marconi on the basis of Ministers having inside knowledge. Do you see a resemblance to recent events? Is it time for another radical change in British politics? 

Two – In 2010 we got a hung parliament. Labour had been in office for a number of years. They were exhausted and accident prone. It is interesting that the Tories did not win outright but had to form a coalition with the Liberal Democrats. In 2015 the Tories won an election with a small majority. In 2017 we got another hung parliament in an election that Labour should have won outright. The Tories entered into a very dubious arrangement with Ulster Unionists. In 2019 the Tories won a huge majority in an election that Labour should have won. Last week there were three by-elections where Labour should have romped home. Labour got one seat, Lib Dems got another and the Tories got a tiny minority in what usually one of the safest Tory seats in the country. What is happening? Tories have proved themselves unfit to govern. Labour has been Absent Without Leave since 2010 and flatly refuses to return to work. How are we going to get out of this mess? 

Three – Discuss the following statement – Keith Starmer talks about there being no case for Rejoin and that Britain’s best hope for the future is outside the EU (despite all the evidence to contrary). Starmer is, in fact preparing for Rejoin. It is all part of a cunning plan to deceive Gammons and Flagshaggers. We are in this mess because Tories told (and continue to tell) an infinity of shameless lies. What useful purpose will it serve for Labour leaders to repeat the same discredited Tory lies?  

Read Post-election analysis

Four – Discuss the following statement – Rumours circulate to the effect that a person named in Johnson’s controversial honours and awards has only one qualification for a peerage: This person is Johnson’s illegitimate firstborn. The flaw in this argument is that Johnson cannot count up to one. 

Five – Discuss the following statement: I spent many years being irritated by Irish, Scottish and Welsh Nationalists (alphabetical order) moaning about the English. Then Brexit came along and I began to understand what they were moaning about.

Six – Nigel Garbage claims to have been victimised by the NatWest Bank. Did this victimisation happen because (uniquely among Gammons and Flagshaggers) Nigel Garbage noticed that Brexit has failed? 

Read Brexit has Failed

This week’s quotes 

Theresa May at least had some sense of propriety

… Richy Scumbag travels in private jets and helicopters … outdoing even Johnson … spent £100,000 on travel in April … taken £54,418 from private donors over two month period … 

Environment 

Keith Starmer told Times Radio “I hate tree huggers”… 

Download our song written for COP26 on Bandcamp. Link on You Tube.

Rupert Murdoch’s summer party Starmer attended

… Whatever Starmer is thinking, his appearance at the party seemed as forlorn an exercise as his ‘We are not reversing Brexit’ article for the Daily Express … Brexiters say ‘You cannot trust him’ … Party leaders seem to believe in the power of the press … When Blair travelled to Australia at Murdoch’s behest the Sun was selling nearly 4M copies a day. The News International titles had a combined sale of 10M copies. Today many news organisations have stopped publishing audited figures … Press Gazette concluded that our national and daily papers now barely sell 6M between them … estimates the Sun sells about 770,000 against the Mail’s 780,000 … when Blair won his landslide the Times was selling about 800,000, is now about 216,000 ‘’’ the Telegraph has gone from just over 1M to 188,000 … Newspaper circulations have been in decline for a long time, but the rate of collapse is accelerating. In 2010 the Sun was selling 3M copies daily, the Mail 2M … Mail stuck with May to the end and was messianic in defence of Johnson … it hectored the Tories into electing Thick Lizzie and perpetuated the fantasy of her competence … It seems that no PM can take office without making early contact with Murdoch, Rothermere or the Telegraph … it is hard to escape the impression that the meetings are about taking orders: cut taxes, emasculate the BBC … nowadays people get their news elsewhere  … notably social media … and publications that are increasingly seen as more reliable sources. Private Eye sales are growing fast as newspapers are sinking … sells around 250,000 a fortnight … more than Telegraph, Times, Express FT, i, or Guardian can manage on an average day …  Eye breaks important stories and exposes corruption … Fleet Street is slow to follow up … Symbiotic relationship between the Tories and the right wing press will face biggest test in the coming year. Their futures depend on it. If they fail Tory Party could face oblivion, newspaper proprietors could lose billions … Starmer should not have attended Murdoch’s party … 

Private Eyelines
Private Eyelines parodies the populist media. Click to read.

World renowned economist Adam Posen 

… described Brexit as the only time a country declared a trade war on itself … it is getting worse … expanding it to an immigration war on itself … these mistakes are going to have longer lasting effects … Five Prime Ministers and five governments in seven years … That is Italy like territory, perhaps not quite Argentina (COMMENT: You might not think it now but pre 1920 Argentina was one of the richest countries in the world).  … we have had volatile and irresponsible economic policies … excessive austerity … Brexit  … productivity problem … undermined credibility … less faith in the government’s ability to deliver … costs of Brexit worse than the optimists predicted … made inflation worse … red tape …admin costs and supply chains … the UK has become a small economy and must start acting like one … UK is sailing in the wrong direction … NHS is crumbling … education and training are underfunded … it is getting worse … start talking about rejoining … that might seem like common sense but we live in a country where the government thinks such talk is treason … we need to Rejoin, and, most importantly to stop the government’s war on its own country … Britain’s stock market is drifting into irrelevance Bribing the Tories Mantrac selling industrial equipment to Russia long after the Ukraine invasion … Tories accepted £5M earlier this year from  Mantrac’s owner, Egyptian Mohamed Mansour … 

Read Hard Brexit Facts

Sexual harassment 

Tory lawmaker faces ejection from Parliament for groping strangers at a London club …Ex SPAD Daniel Korski … Tory Candidate for London Mayor … groping allegation by TV writer Daisy Goodwin…. she has been contacted by other women with ‘some interesting stories’ … Mayoral selectors suggest that anybody associated with this government would lose to Labour … 6 Weeks is the time it took BBC to respond to allegations of presenter paying teenager for explicit photos … 5 years is the time it took Tory party to  respond to allegations of MP Chris Pincher making unwanted sexual advances … Russell Tillotson, former Tory councillor … was, on 29 June  convicted of four sex offences .. 1984 – 2001 while a teacher at Tonbridge school… The lurid affair of Hew Edwards has raised more questions about the state of British journalism … the young person’s lawyers, published in the Sun, were nonsense and the police ruled out criminal charges… 

Tabloids one month after launch of US websites for Mirror, Express, Irish Daily News … not going to plan … US audiences not flocking to the news brands … New York office engulfed in  a sexism storm reminiscent of 1990s lad mags … absolute shit show … Express online .. Resulted in a potentially expensive shitshow… 

Mutiny in Metroland 

Conservatives despatched Tory MPs from Parliament … Tories’ old heartlands not yet lost but they are becoming contested battlegrounds … in 2021 a Lib Dem was elected MP for Chesham and Amersham … earlier this year Lib Dems took control of councils in commuter towns around London … current polling suggests they could surge from 14 Parliamentary seats to 40 or 50 … a majority in Metroland voted against Brexit, which left a widespread impression that banking and the professions were a low priority for the Tories … rage has subsided but has left dismay … Johnson and his cronies mocked …the drinking, bullying, and sleaze of his administration seemed divorced from modern corporate culture … sewage spills … Lib Dems have used them to signal that politics is now fetid … voters feel overlooked and taken for granted by governments … a sentiment normally associated with poorer constituencies … Richy Scumbag is struggling to reverse Tory fortunes … estrangement may be too far gone to prevent a Tory rout …  the earth is shifting … 

Don Adamson Pip Pip             Medway Delta (Retired)           Saboteur and Brexorcist First Class

Editor’s note : Somewhat spookily, Vera Lynn died on the day I released this song and I got hate mail from the Brexiteers as if I had caused her demise …. oh well ‘Alo Vera charts the story of the Brexiteer with Brexit Buyer’s remorse but who cannot tell his mates down the pub …

Don Adamson is a true patriot – not befuddled by British Brexit mythology.
Posted in Brexit, Britain, Elections, Keir Starmer, Labour, Leadership, Liz Truss, Populism, Sunak | Tagged , , , | Leave a reply
Icberg Strat

Election elephants in the room

Updated on date by author

The big story from the by-elections this am is a Lib Dem landslide in Somerset and Frome with a 29% swing. Labour also put in a record performance in Selby with the biggest swing recorded for decades. However, the Conservatives surprised everyone by crawling across the finishing line with 495 votes in Uxbridge. Labour say that they achieved this by opposing the extension of the ULEZ scheme, a policy that Boris Johnson originated. However, the Labour candidate in Uxbridge opposed the extension of ULEZ to keep in lockstep with Tory policy on the matter, opposing Sadiq Khan and the entire environmental movement.

Tories voted to kill kids

Someone said that Labour could have won if the Greens had loaned their 700 or so votes in Uxbridge. I think it highly unlikely that Green party members would have loaned their votes given Labour’s capitulation to the Tories on ULEZ, a core issue for Green party voters. This was a victory for people who don’t mind killing children. Given that many young people don’t vote Tory, I can almost imagine the text on Johnson’s WhatsApp messages on his phone “Let the bodies pile high”. Just remember it was Grant Shapps who ordered Sadiq Khan to extend ULEZ.

Vote Tory to kill your kids would have been a more honest electoral slogan.

Ming vase broken

A lack of opposition (Keir Starmer’s so-called Ming vase / ice rink strategy) may not have helped Labour in Uxbridge. Worse still, Labour are asking Sadiq Khan to roll back his ULEZ initiative which affects one in 10 cars in London. Climate denial is not the answer and capitulating to swivel headed loons worse. Sure more help needs to be given to affected people to do the right thing, but this is Tory policy rather than Sadiq Khan’s decision.

I was ambivalent about Labour, as I am a realist but their recent position on climate change has turned me from ambivalence to opposition. Not content with running my kids socio economic futures with brexit, they are now chasing the far right climate denial bus ….

Brexit’s Breaking Britain

Brexit remained the elephant in the room at the by elections. No one discussed it, yet it is at the root of most of our lived experiences in Britain as depicted by the iceberg below. By extension, a lack of opposition on Brexit and the products of Brexit (cost of living, NHS crisis and so on) may well come to bite Labour on their collective bottoms. It’s entirely feasible that a lack of opposition on child benefit by Labour may also have played into the overall result in Uxbridge.

The Brexit Iceberg
The Brexit Iceberg connects front of mind issues with their underlying roots.

Approximately 2500 votes when to other parties such as Lawrence Fox, other far right parties and some anti-ULEZ parties. I don’t buy the argument that these far right votes would have gone to Labour if these parties had not split the vote. The lesson for Labour here is clear:

Oppose

Oppose

Oppose

Tell the truth

I have just listened to Daisy Cooper refusing to answer a simple question on Brexit on BBC Radio 4. In conversation with senior figures such as Sal Briton and Irina von Weise, we agreed that the Lib Dems need a clear USP on Brexit rather than a mealy mouthed apology (we’ll join when the time is right, yada, yada). Nick Robinson just savaged Cooper live on this point who replied with a word salad of internationalism, environmentalism etc. This is why I’m backing Gina Miller and The True and Fair Party.

Join the True and Fair Party today.

Join True and Fair today

Brexorcisms work

To those that tell me that the electorate are stupid and we can’t talk to them about uncomfortable truths such as Brexit, climate disaster, asylum seekers and so on I say horsehit. But we must hold these difficult conversations in a skillful way. Quite why I wrote a book on the gentle art of Brexorcism based on therapeutic interventions supported by psychology and anthropology. A Brexorcism takes skill, patience and time but I have 1000’s of hours experience in changing minds on Brexit. The approach applies just as much to other difficult issues. Labour and Lib Dems ought to be in the business of confronting racists, climate deniers and so on rather than chasing their votes.

Support mass Brexorcisms

Nonetheless, however many Tories attempt to spin the election results, it is a crushing defeat for Rishi Sunakered. We have not yet seen the outfall of this shocking result. No doubt Nadine Dorries, Liz Truss, Kemi Bad Enoch Powell and Penny Morduant will be sharpening their claws. John West sums up the outcome:

Follow John West for hard facts about politics.
Posted in Boris Johnson, Brexit, Britain, Britastrophe, Climate Disaster, Elections, Sunak | Tagged , , , | 2 Replies
Truth

True

Updated on date by author

I am attending the policy launch of the True and Fair Party on Monday. Gina Miller stands head and shoulders above the vast majority of Westminster politicians and deserves your support.

Truth, trust and equity in politics are precious assets. A lack of these things is the reason most often given by people who are disenfranchised with politics, politicians and the media in my local area. Wouldn’t it be nice to know that you could trust the people making decisions about your children’s lives and livelihoods? I’d vote for that.

The question of truth and trust will become magnified in the AI world. We habitually place trust in authority figures, for example Martin Lewis in terms of money. But the world of deep fakes has the potential to undermine that trust. This calls on policy makers to up our game in terms of making good laws to protect vulnerable people from exploitation.

I’m sure some of you will not know who Gina Miller is. She gained a reputation for upholding truth when she took our Government to court to demonstrate that Britain had always had sovereignty as a member of the EU. Of course, the Government ignored the ruling. You may more likely know her from the tabloid newspapers who vilified her for doing this. The result of this was various vile threats of beheading and gang rape. All for upholding truth and the rule of law.

The binary prisoner’s dilemma of the Conservatives and Labour delivered Brexit. The Tories are finished. If Labour are so far ahead as they claim, it is time to introduce some diversity into the mix. Please support The True and Fair party for a better Britain in a better Europe for a better World. Gina is not a threat to the Labour party as some Labour zealots claim. She is standing a handful of candidates. However if she wins, she is a threat to the cosy binary status quo. That’s healthy and refreshing. In the same way that Caroline Lucas has leveraged change from a single seat, the True and Fair party stand as a disruptor to sleaze, corruption, cronyism and hateful practices in politics. Never forget that Nigel Farage tricked people will feeble minds to vote for Brexit without ever having been elected as an MP.

Gina’s position on Brexit is unequivocally clear, compelling and concise:

True and Fair
Please support the True and Fair Party. Click the banner above.

My small part in the story was in getting Gina some support from Richard Branson to launch her earlier initiative Campaign 2018.

The hallmark of a just society is in how we treat vulnerable people. Click to join Gina.

Well worth 10 minutes of your time.
Gina Miller
A Prince and a Queen.
True and Fair – it’s time for different rather than more of the same.

Please support our UK Tour

Posted in Brexit, Britain, Democracy, Elections, Gina Miller, Politics, Populism, Rejoin EU | Leave a reply
Make Votes Matter

Make Votes Matter

Updated on date by author

In this article by Simon Steil, from the Chesham and Amersham seat in Buckinghamshire, he asks if you want to Reboot Britain? If so, it’s essential to make your vote matter.

Beginnings 2005

The year 2005 was significant for me in many ways:

I went up to read History and Politics at Queen Mary, University of London. I’m an F1 fan and young Spanish driver Fernando Alonso and Renault won the Drivers’ and Constructors’ Championship, beating Michael Schumacher/Ferrari who had won both championships since the beginning of the 2000s. Doctor Who was revived on the BBC. I watched it and thanks to the writing, the cast and the powerful performance of Christopher Eccleston as the Doctor, I was hooked and I have watched it ever since.

Having done mock General Elections at school and having turned 18, I voted in the General Election. At the time I was politically partisan in favour of one party. There are things I believed and said back then that I feel deeply embarrassed about now.

My three years at QMUL were fantastic. I challenged and questioned my beliefs and by the time I graduated in July 2008, I resolved not to become a member of any political party. I did help out at Watford and Norwich North seats and found the experience great fun: speaking to voters in-person as well as telephone canvassing in local offices and national headquarters. It was at the time of the expenses scandal and there was a lot of anger from many people at MPs. I tried to explain that MPs were so important for constituents, that they try and help people solve serious difficulties affecting their lives.

Then came the 2010 General Election. I am not proud to say that for that election, I spoiled my ballot paper. I drew a box and voted for RON or Re-Open Nomination. Student Union elections have that option and I wanted that for the General Election. I was not happy with what the three main parties had to offer, I couldn’t vote for any of them so I did what I did.

Stoke Mandeville.
Stoke Mandeville.

A Coalition Government was formed for the first time since the Second World War. In 2011 we had a national referendum for the first time since the 1975 European Economic Community one. I voted Yes for the Alternative Vote to replace First Past the Post as the system we use for General Elections. Having looked at the different electoral system, I concluded that First Past the Post should have been scrapped. The post is all over the place because of the erratic variation in the relationship between number of votes, number of seats parties can win. As shown time and time again by reports by the Electoral Reform Society, candidates/incumbent MPs could win seats with ridiculously low shares of the total vote.

First Past the Post distorts campaigning by parties. A form of negative campaigning is constantly done by the major parties “Don’t vote for the candidate or party you really want to, you’d let the other one in.” One major reason the June 2016 European Union membership referendum happened was the Conservatives were fearful they’d continue to lose votes to the United Kingdom Independence Party.

FPTP unfit for purpose

The 2015 General Election happened and the result was the Conservatives got a majority of 12 seats despite a vote share increase of 0.8% compared to 2010. The Liberal Democrat vote collapsed and they were left with eight seats in the Commons despite the fact they had got more votes than the Scottish National Party. The SNP achieved 56 seats.

The following June, the European Union referendum did take place and the Leave campaign won it. I voted Remain in 2016 referendum. I was not convinced the Leave side had anything positive to offer and that Britain was better off staying in an imperfect European Union compared to outlandish claims of supposed benefits like an improved National Health Service if we did leave the EU.

I hoped up to 2018 that Britain could negotiate an exit while staying in the Single Market/Customs Union. That seemed possible with the indecisive 2017 General Election that led to the Conservatives forming a pact with the Democratic Unionist Party of Northern Ireland. In summer 2018 the Leave campaign’s cheating and law-breaking became publicly known.

I had hoped that after those findings, Article 50 could be revoked. The 2019 General Election then happened and with a withdrawal agreement on offer in their manifesto, the Conservatives were able to hoover up Leave or Leave-sympathetic voters nationwide.

Swings and roundabouts

How big was the swing really? It was swing of 270,000 votes or 1.2% compared to the 2017 General Election. It was still big enough to give the Conservatives an 80-seat majority. The Liberal Democrats had the manifesto titled: STOP BREXIT: Build a Brighter Future. They achieved a vote swing of 4.2% nationwide compared to 2017. Their result? A loss of a seat.

We left the European Union the following year. I thought that was it. We were out and we would stay out …

Seeds of change

… Until June 2021 when Sarah Green won the Chesham and Amersham by-election. Chesham & Amersham had been Conservative-held since it was created in 1974. It also thought of as an ultra-safe Conservative seat. Then Prime Minister Johnson, Cabinet Ministers and others came to canvass with their candidate Peter Fleet. They were confident the seat would be theirs again. They were proved wrong.

So what of the future? If you are a Leave voter or a voter that thinks that Britain’s new relationship with the EU is better than what we had before 2016, you can vote Conservative or Labour.  

There are millions of voters who disagree and think we should at least rejoin Single Market / Customs Union or perhaps try to apply to be a full member again.

Read Post Election Blues

Fixing a broken system

In July 2021 I was at a Make Votes Matter stand in Marlow. Make Votes Matter was formed in 2015 to try and persuade the public that First Past the Post should be ditched. I agree with them, it should have been scrapped decades ago not just now.

Whatever you do at the next election, use your vote whether it’s walking into a polling station, by post or by proxy.  Just use it. You may supplement your tactical vote with Swap My Vote, which helps to make the most of an unfair system. Swap my vote is completely legal and decent in an unfair system. Get in touch if you want to understand how Swap My Vote works via e-mail reboot@brexitrage.com

Swap My Vote
Click on the image to find Swap My Vote.

Just use it to show our politicians that Brexit is hurting many, it’s not a success now and it never will be.

In everyday life, when you get scammed and given a crummy product, you return it, get your money back and get compensation from those who mis-sold it to you.

Brexit is a crummy product, let’s rejoin the EU

Read Brexit and Geopolitics

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Remove Johnson’s honour’s list

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