I know that Brexiteers have short memories, some because they have died since 2016, but Michael Gove promised us frictionless trade, only sunny uplands with no downsides from Brexit. It seems that Gove lied. Brexit has moved Britain from frictionless trade to rough trade. Please spend 20 minutes watching Michael Lambert’s report on the matter at the end of this article – it’s well worth your time. Some highlights follow:
Rough Trade
Veterinary checks at the border are expected to add 0.2% to inflation, plus of course delays and shortages of perishable goods such as meat and veg. BBC Tory cheerleader Amol Rajan tried to make light of this on the Today programme on Monday 20 May, yet of course, it’s all totally unnecessary. In any case, 0.2% from one single issue in an instant hit is rather a lot really, certainly a lot more than the 0.08% over 10 years expected to accrue from Kemi Badenoch’s overblown CPTPP trade deal !!
Then there is the impact on haulage companies. Ciaran the Euro Courier reports on the insane practices being used at Sevington:
There is no water at the purpose built facility, apart from a tap in the toilets, no food and no option to leave the facility to get food and drink. You may be stuck there for days, especially if you arrive late in the day as the facility only operates 12 hours a day in a 24/7 logistics business. This makes onwards journeys much more dangerous for the driver and, of course, other motorists.
The inspection process compares (poorly) with prison. It is designed to be intimidating. No one speaks to you. This is nothing like the process at Calais. It is designed to be intimidating. No wonder many drivers don’t come back.
This will impact our food security despite the many mitigations, cover ups and pieces of gaslighting that will be employed to distract us. Even the fucking Torygraph and The Sun have reported that Brexit border checks will cost us £4.7 BILLION. Try measuring that in nurses, carers and fruit pickers !! To avoid upsetting their readers, the Son are now calling it BREX !!
Greenbelt …. Kent – The Lorry Park of England.
Did you vote to waste £4.7 BILLION of YOUR money on this?
All the while, the whole HMRC process is meaningless in terms of what it intends to achieve. There is 22 miles between the Sevington facility and the port of Dover. You are free to pick up migrants, contraband and additional goods if you so wish. Brexit is pointless. A tragic comedy of errors.
Pop will
Well worth your time. The work of Michael Lambert.
Most people now realise that Brexit was a mistake. Make sure politicians hear you loud and clear in the run up to the GE, especially Labour. Write to them today. It matters not whether they respond or whether you like them or not.
I took a rare holiday in Normandy last week. The stark differences between Brexit Britain and France were plain. The border crossing was uneventful until we returned to British customs on the way back, with an amount of petty bureaucracy. We had chosen to go by Le Shuttle to avoid potential delays on the M20 / M2 which forced the cost up, but it was more relaxed overall.
On the first evening, we went shopping to get some provisions. I was struck by the price of cheese (inexpensive) and bought a bottle of Malbec for €1.99 !!! It was surprisingly good and would retail from £9 upwards here, probably more after Brexit border checks are introduced which may add 60% to the price of imported goods. Oh well, it’s what they wanted.
But what really struck me was the sense of community and state of high streets in French towns and villages. More so because I watched a film of “English Patriots” saying that they had no identity, because we have no nursery rhymes, have to drink coffee and are no longer allowed to eat fish and chips or meat and two veg. Painfully funny reportage by Max Robespierre below:
By contrast, I noted that entire families dine out in the towns I visited, including children, who ate real food, not fast food. I hardly saw any children playing computer games in cafes with their parents. Instead they had family conversations. A common complaint of the English Patriots is that the high street has been taken away from them. It’s no wonder when many of them shop at Tesco etc. In the high streets of Normandy, it was not a constant stream of kebab joints, vaping huts and coffee outlets. Whilst the butcher, baker and candlestick maker are absent from most English towns, there was a rich diversity of shops in the French towns. Although there are supermarkets, they are not of the massive size that are allowed in Britain. I sense a very different approach to town planning and culture. The very culture that the English patriots crave is present … in France!! Perhaps Margaret Thatcher was right when she said that “there is no such thing as (English) society”.
Britain seems to have invested in the industrialisation of high streets / consumption and much of what these people feel they have lost is the product of this process. The faux nostalgia of the English Brexit patriots is painfully summed up by Billy Bragg in his epic song “Full English Brexit”.
Amidst all the other carnage of Brexit, Tory sleaze, corruption and mismanagement a rather odd item emerged into the political landscape this week. It was a report from Conservative Home stating that Brexit had not produced ANY benefits, now or into the future. It also pointed out that Brexit has cost us some 2-3% in terms of resilience. Actually that figure is ‘conservatively’ low aka a LIE. Best estimates suggest a 4.5% GDP hit to the UK economy into perpetuity… with a peak of 5-6% by 2035. Any ideas of growth from Liz Truss, Rishi Sunakered or Keir Starmer are therefore for the birds. And it’s not just GDP. Imports and exports will tank by 15% The impact of post-Brexit trade deals is minimal at best and probably insignificant, never mind the social and environmental effects of Brexit.
Seeing is believing … from the horse’s mouth below !!
This comes on a day when David Cameron stepped out into the open and more or less admitted that Brexit was the main obstacle in addressing the question of illegal migration. He had to backtrack in order to avoid having several organs removed by ERG hopefuls Truss, Badenoch, Mordaunt, Braverman et al. I’ve said on many occasions that Cameron did not rejoin mainline politics as a swansong, and despite his many peccadilloes, we should ‘play the ball and not the man‘. Of course, I have been pilloried by Labour ideologues and Remoaners with visceral reactions to Lord Cameron. Nonetheless, I’m possibly right and willing to eat a hat if I’m wrong, in the absence of any serious and cohesive cross party strategy to join the EU anew. Watch Peter Stefanovic’s surgical analysis of Cameron’s ‘walk on the wild side’.
Lord Cameron is backtracking on his suggestion Brexit is to blame for no asylum returns deal with France
But damning report from Durham University has found the primary factor in sky rocketing small boat crossings is Brexit -namely a decision to leave without a returns agreement pic.twitter.com/03MHXnN87r
In case anyone is still confused about ways to address immigration, watch my two minute film on the solution. Of course, the overarching solution to immigration is the end of Brexit which has now failed : it’s OFFICIAL.
Just two minutes needed.
In case of any doubt as to the manufacture of the immigration issue:
2015: 299 crossed on small boats 2022: 45,000 crossed on small boats Post Dublin Regulations. No returns arrangement made in that ‘oven ready deal’, burned to a crisp!!
Not only have we had five Prime Ministers since Brexit, we have also had five lecterns. Each of them have a different character, like each PM and each has cost the taxpayer more than Angela Rayner’s alleged tax scam. Liz Truss’ Jenga lectern cost an uncool £4175, seemingly appropriate, as, no doubt it could be rebuilt into something else 49 days later … In this article we look at the emerging “academic discipline” of lecternology inspired by Peter Hurst and Peter Stefanovic.
Cameron
Cameron’s lectern was designed by his head of operations to appear “statesmanlike”. Cameron was the youngest PM and, as such, the wood for his lectern was sourced from B&Q, using freshly cut pine with a curved, flared column, signifying agility and smoothness, and a glossy finish to signify superficiality. Read more on Cameron at Cameron.
May
The simple religious cross style of Theresa’s oak lectern symbolises her victimhood as the Prime Minister who felt a sense of duty to serve but who ultimately would be hoist by her own inner conflict. In the end, the ERG and Remainers placed her on a cross for sacrifice in favour of someone more malleable. That person would be the fatberg formerly known as Boris Johnson.
Johnson
Johnson’s lectern column and base are the thickest of the five, matching the intelligence and heft of the incumbent. “The Johnson” as it was referred to in No 10 was constructed of teak for strength, as it doubled as a shagging plinth for internal use. It is believed that Carrie’s children were conceived on “The Johnson” along with other random offspring from the Brexit staffers during Partygate.
Truss
The Truss lectern is perhaps the most interesting in so far that it is constructed using Jenga. This would enable quick breakdown and reassembly after her 49 days tenure. We have an authentic woodchip replica of The Truss ceremonial lectern available on e-bay for the bargain price of £30 000. This would enable us to stand a lettuce for election in her South West Norfolk constituency. Tony Hanlon commented on the spiral construction “Its a treasured memory of her death spiralling of the economy”.
Truss has since blamed the failure of her Brexonomics budget on the infiltration of left-wing Norwegian wood into her lectern at a cost of £70 billion to the taxpayer and the ruination of young people’s hopes of home ownership. John Lennon, Kate Bush, Chris Witty and Angela Rayner have been blamed by The Truss, along with left wing lawyers, left wing carpenters, carping judges, civil servants, punk rockers, classicists, MDF, lettuce, homosexuals, trannies, the blob, layabouts, drug users, climate protesters, smoking bans, Potter Heigham, Brundall, The A47, The Bank of England, The OBR, UN, The Queen, charities, do-gooders, poets, artists, piss artists, vegans, Christians, Moslems, London, wood carvers, carvery owners, wood workers, sex workers, sex swappers, The Lib Dems, brie, gorgonzola, camembert, left wing cheese, real ale drinkers, real world thinkers, Remoaners, men, women, children, animals, plants, left wing micro-organisms, algae, fungi, Liz’s parents and all members of the deep state who sought to bring her down. The Jenga lectern proved to be her downfall and it was nothing to do with her incompetence, social ineptitude and the triumph of confidence over competence. That is a disgrace. In Liz’s own words “Liz Truss is best ignored”.
Click on the description to buy The Truss on e-bay.
Sunakered
The Sunak lectern is paradoxical. It is bigger than the other lecterns although Sunak is possibly the shortest Prime Minister in history. The upright section is designed to obscure both of Rishi’s legs for reasons of modesty and as support in case he were to break one. Just like its user, the Sunak lectern has no integrity, professionalism or accountability, being made from offcuts from the “previous administration”.
All of the above are, of course, pathetic attempts to look in control by people who are easily persuaded by presentation over content.
We recently went to Dover to find out what people really think about Brexit. Most now realise that they were lied to and Brexit has not delivered on the promises from the 2016 ‘brochure’. Write to your MP to demand an end to Brexit carnage. Contrary to what people believe, Brexit is far from done and it’s possible to Rejoin if we apply enough pressure. The Rejoin Party are standing 11 candidates in the London Mayoral Election, in non-competitive seats under a proportional system, so it is possible to express your view without damaging Mayor. Watch our video account of the day:
The most insightful part of our day was not recorded, when we came upon the station staff at Dover Priory rail station. Three men and one woman. The woman was born and bred in the area, had a mining family from Shepherdswell, probably voted Labour originally, but voted for Boris in 2019 on the promise of stopping immigration. She planned to vote for Reform as she felt betrayed by the Tories. As usual she was resistant to questions about being lied to (time was very short for a decent Brexorcism) and said she did not care about future generations (again this is typical of the residual hardcore Brexiteer). Her colleagues were most amused as we asked questions and gently prodded her about her underlying xenophobia (one of the other station staff was black).
Our leaflets are now ready to destroy the Tories. Please mail me at reboot@brexitrage.com to order yours. Together with your order, you will receive digital versions of the leaflet for use on social media. For local versions of the leaflet with different text please get in touch. Low res drafts below:
Niall Ó Conghaile reviews the bizarre outcomes of the post-Brexit metric review. Talking Pints was originally published by East Anglia Bylines. Historically Britain has led the way in setting international standards. So will the pint bottle of champagne return in a post Brexit world?
Following Brexit there was a lot of excitement in the UK about the possible return of the pint bottle of champagne. Apparently, this size of bottle was much beloved of Winston Churchill, and so for reasons to do with winning the War (?) it was important that the pint bottle return.
The claim had become widespread before Brexit that the pint bottle had been banned by metrification and the diabolical Brussels bureaucrats. Of course, it was all nonsense. Pint bottles of cider, for example, are widely available under European law.
So why can’t you get pint bottles of champagne?
It’s because of regulation and standardisation. Just not in the way that you might think.
The 750 ml bottle is now almost the global standard. However, in the past in France (and indeed Europe) non-standard bottle sizes were common.
Over time the variations reduced to the few that remain today in your local Auchan, Lidl or Kaufland. But why are Britons forced to drink the continental 750 ml and not a true British pint of champers?
Actually, the 750 ml is British, or at least “for Britain”. Dealing with all those irregular wine bottle sizes, and an irregular number of bottles to the case, was an irritant to the wine merchants and wholesalers of London in centuries gone by.
750 ml was the standard set in France to facilitate exports to … Britain.
Why? The six bottles amounted to… one imperial gallon.
Why would a château in Bordeaux care?
The UK for much of the 19th century was the richest country in the world and had the richest middle class with the most disposable income. The UK was the largest importer of wine – other big consuming countries drank their own.
Moreover, the wholesalers in London were also often suppliers to British colonies and much of the rest of the world – in both the actual Empire, and the informal Empire. In places like Argentina, Britain was often the centre of the world. Hence the standards set in London became international standards.
Incidentally this British influence can also be seen in other ways in the world of wine, including the taste and types of fortified wines exported.
Standardisation meant that the pint bottle, for most wines, was effectively the Betamax of vessels: something to be nostalgic about, sure; but too costly to continue producing separately.
So who is the dominant force now?
The UK remains an important market for wine, of course. But it is very far from dominant.
Nowadays wine producers and the “Place de Bordeaux” market tend to have prices (especially at the top end) set by the United States and increasingly East Asian markets. This is even starting to change how the wine is produced and how it tastes.
The old wine markets of Europe, like London, that used to set the prices, have gone by the wayside. Now they just remain tram-stop names, and squares in old towns.
Post Brexit Britain is somewhat in the same position
Policymakers in the UK have to adjust to the reality of no longer setting international standards. The UK no longer offers markets of bulk. Nor does it have recognised high standards that others are keen to adopt.
Such realisation is painful, for sure. But isn’t it healthier than trying to keep up with the European and America behemoths. After all, Australia and Switzerland don’t try to have their own “world-leading standards”.
Yet many Brexiteers, and some in the Labour Party, seem to have difficulty in adjusting to the UK’s new place in the world.
Why are they finding their new role vis-à-vis standard-setting and regulation so hard to understand?
Once you accept that it’s inevitable that you will accept European standards, then the point becomes, why not get the full benefit of common standards by being inside a single market?
We leave you with a punk rock song about the difficulty of ordering two pints of lager and a packet of crisps – based on Max Spodge’s difficulty in being heard at the Tramshed in Woolwich – it was impossible to procure said 568 ml of light ale in the 1980’s … Splodgenessabounds were an oi band which the editor played with in days of yore … I doubt Max had foreseen the problems of Brexit, but just as a soft landing for this article …
Rishi Sunak’s plans to stop the boats are illegal, immoral, indecent and impractical. Sunak recently lied about the reductions of migrants coming to Britain in 2023. He presumably feels he has to do that in order to pray at the altar of Brexit for his right wing factions in the Tory / UKIP / Brexit party and especially the voices of Suella Braverman, Kemi Badenoch, Nigel Farage, Richard Tice, Lee Anderson, Steve Baker, Esther McVey, Jacob Rees-Mogg, Priti Patel et al., who have poisoned the Tory party with 1930 Nazi Germany styled strategies of racism and xenophobia.
Sleepwalking into fascism
This film contains challenging images about Brexit Britain’s slide into a fascist state. We make no apology about this. Art and satire must reflect reality. The professional images in this video are by James Rowland, with the ‘garage / steampunk’ style graphics made by me on PowerPoint. How many more must die before decency is restored to our politics?
The 1950’s Sci Fi film ‘Village of the Damned’ provided a form of sad inspiration for this piece, in so far as the idea that the Tory party now sees itself as a master race who must survive at all costs. History repeats itself too often if we let it …. don’t.
Yesterday, James Cleverly lied through his teeth about immigration numbers. In June 2023 Sunak promised to abolish the backlog. Yesterday Cleverly said that there was a ‘process’ for clearing the backlog, and some new language was introduced i.e. ‘legacy claims’. Basically he was talking bollocks. Nigel Farage then complained that the review had found more than 50 000 asylum seekers were legally entitled to be here. Clearly this is the system working rather than Farage’s pound shop fascist view of things. Cleverly ‘forgot’ to mention that the Home Office had ‘lost’ 17 000 asylum seekers from the system. Careless you might say? Additionally, he forgot to mention that 100 000 asylum seekers have joined the queue in the interim. All in all, a total pack of lies. Here is a good analysis of Cleverly’s lying. Check Georgina’s Channel 4 fact check article in full.
Click the excerpt to read the whole report from Channel 4.
Some selected tweets amplify the BS of James “Shithole” Cleverly.
Despite what James Cleverly said this morning, the government has *not* cleared the legacy asylum backlog.
Channel 4 News, "The asylum backlog has been rebranded. New cases after June 2022 are now called the flow backlog. Add them and 98,599 claims remain unopened"
From 100 000 to 99 000 – that equals ZERO in Cleverly speak.
We've now got the actual Home Secretary arguing at length with a journalist, in public, about whether he said shit or shit-hole about someone in the House of Commons, so 2024 has started much as you'd expect under this circus of absolute cretins. https://t.co/REzhz9K3UA
One of the few remaining arguments of the last Brexiters on planet earth is that it’s too soon to review the benefits of Brexit in 2023. It isn’t. We have had nearly eight years of intention / formulation of Brexit strategy and nearly four years of Brexecution / implementation. Formative evaluation is therefore both possible and necessary. Let’s not forget that we were told that there would be no downsides to Brexit and we would have instant wins from our independence, in terms of ‘taking back control’ of our money, borders and laws. So, how is it all going? What does it mean to the man and woman on the street? Take a look back to my Linkedin article of July 2023 for a bit of nostalgia – Hard Facts about Hard Brexit. It gets worse every month. Header image by the genius Cold War Steve.
Money
On a simple basis, Brexit did not solve our abilities to take back control of our money. Brexit inflicted the Government’s own predictions – a 4.5% resilience shock to GDP or £100 BILLION per year. This is the equivalent to trying to swim the English Channel with a 4.5 kg block of concrete round your neck. Liz Truss’ experiment in Brexonomics added a whopping £74 BILLION in just 49 days, ruining young people’s dreams of home ownership for a generation. Read the Bloomberg report on decline in foreign investment in Brexit Britain. Whilst it is clear that nobody wants to talk about Brexit in 2023 due to radio silence by politicians on all sides, the ‘offspring’ of Brexit are all around us with the cost of living, food inflation and so on. All is depicted by our Brexit iceberg below. Government gaslighting continues with ‘pints of wine’ and other bollocks. Nobody of any intelligence is fooled by this shit. Are you?
The Brexit Iceberg – what’s visible and what’s hidden.
At a more parochial level and as an example of ‘taking back control of our money’, British energy prices in 2023 are 53% more than in France. Yet Gina Miller demonstrated that we have always had our sovereignty without needing to leave the EU. French energy companies are owned by the state and still make a profit at half the prices of British energy companies. When Boris Johnson said ‘take back control’ he forgot to mention WHO would be taking back that control. Clearly it was NOT the taxpayer or the great unwashed.
Longer term, we have only just begun to see the unfolding of a return to slavery in terms of minimum wages and an unwinding of employment standards in Brexit Britain. The drive towards the return to a feudal system continues with no opposition in sight. Read Red Brexit, Blue Brexit for insights into Labour’s failed Brexit strategy. Take a look at this You Tube video below, made earlier this year for insights into Brexonomics and numbers in general.
Clearly Brexit worked from the viewpoint that it discouraged Europeans from wanting to come to Britain. We could have achieved this quite simply by having a Government sponsored campaign of racial hatred in Britain, without needing to break the economy and destroy our reputation in the world as a standard bearer. Oh, wait a minute, we did that! You will notice from the graph below that migration figures from Europe are now in negative numbers. Yet migration from Africa, India and the Far East has increased dramatically.
As well as that, Brexit did not magic away our responsibilities to take in migrants from Hong Kong, Ukraine, Afghanistan and so on. Brexit has worked in exactly the opposite way to that predicted by the Brexiters. This is the perverse law of unintended consequences that arises from shoddy strategy. In short, fail to plan, plan to fail.
For clarity, Non-EU means people OUTSIDE the EU.
Inside the non-EU figures in the graph are people who came from Ukraine, the Hong Kong refugees and other effects, so the figure is temporarily high. Nonetheless, Brexit did not solve migration, nor will it. Britain also relies on foreign students as a source of income, many of who then return to their own countries, so it is all too simple to say that we must ban students. Our Government needs to maintain the illusion of ‘the enemy outside’ in order to win the votes of xenophobic Brits, racists and general shits in elections. Watch our You Tube video on how to address immigration.
Show this to anyone who voted for Brexit to reduce legal migration to the UK.
The red section is Freedom of Movement when the UK was inside the EU.
The yellow section, shows net migration to the UK since we left the EU, where have full control of our borders, where Boris… pic.twitter.com/bk3UI3vIEN
Before Brexit, small boats were not a thing really. The weaponisation of small boats was an invention by a Tory government desperate to distract people from thinking about the real issues facing an island nation with an increasing elderly population with food, skills and other resource insecurities. It is the triumph of marketing via right wing media to feed feeble minds and fill their minds with fury. Nearly every headline in the Mail and the Express has the word FURY in it. This is exactly why I wrote Private Eyelines to highlight how we are being taken for furious fools. In a parallel universe, in 2014 nobody gave a stuff about Europe or the EU. Again, EU fury was steadily manufactured to win a referendum based on lies.
Were you sold a pup when you were told that Brexit would allow us to take back control of our borders?
Laws
In the 14th century it may have been feasible to operate your own laws in your town, fiefdom, region or country as, generally speaking, world trade and travel were not a thing. In 2023, we live in a globally connected world and it becomes increasingly difficult to become a rogue state, unless you are Belarus or North Korea. if we wish to exploit people’s lives and livelihoods we are set on a course to become international pariahs rather than guardians of law and order. People still moan at me about the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) as if it is part of the EU. It is not.
When people talk to me about taking back control of our laws, they often fail to mention which ones are troubling them. We don’t have to drive on the left hand side of the road as part of the EU, nor drink litres of beer. We are still free to conduct barbaric acts such as fox hunting as the Spanish have their bull fighting. We have pounds and the Queen on our money. Just what laws do the Brexiters mean when they claim that they want them back? The law exists to protect people from exploitation. We now see the bizarre spectacle of our Government arguing with the rule of law in order to exploit people or behave unethically.
This is not the high water mark of British justice and not my Brexit. Is it yours?
The boiling frog problem
I’m sure you know the story of the boiling frog. People tell me that “Brexit was done”. “It happened”. Sorry, Brexit was not an event, a newspaper headline or a project with an end point. It was a process. Michael Vail, a ‘farmer’ living in Brisbane, typifies the view that Brexit was an event on his Linkedin ravings. Sure there can be some winners and losers in all changes, such as in the field of disaster capitalism (Michael is a disaster capitalist cum estate agent) but, of course, Brexit was supposed to offer benefits for all not just for people who can play the financial system in the wake of a boom or bust.
Brexit hasn’t delivered the promised benefits except in the case of people who have exploited other people’s misery. I am not in a stage of grief. When someone points to the many benefits of Brexit, I will join the cause. It’s just that Michael and his few remaining Brexiters have nothing to show me socially, economically, politically, environmentally and so on for the positive impacts of Brexit nor any problems that Brexit solves. Read Brexit Freedoms.
Michael resorts to yin and yang rather than a lie on a bus to explain Brexit. I guess it’s a new take on “Que sera sera” which my Brexity sister favours. He also lies about the Cuty (city) who are quietly moving people out of London. It’s easy to say all this when you live in Australia.
In case you are still under any illusions that “Brexit is done”, please see this very long list of Brexit impacts still to come in 2024 – 2027 and beyond. from Edwin Hayward.
Here are just a few of the joys Brexit has in store for us in 2024 and beyond.
(Long tweet. Please expand. Sorry.)
== 1 January 2024 ==
Certain temporary aspects of the UK's trade deal with Canada fall away, such as the tariff-free quotas on cheese. Result? UK exporters face…
In Europe, they have agreed to use one charger to rule all our electronic devices. It means 🔌The same charger for all phones, tablets and cameras ⚡ Harmonised fast-charging technology 🔄Reduced e-waste
In Britain, we’re still talking pints. Soon, we will be introducing bakelite plugs. This brilliant video sums up the fact that Brexit and satire are now indistinguishable.
Don Adamson’s weekly roundup in his inimitable style from the Brexit bunker in Barnsley.
This week’s homework
One – Richy Scumbag has started a useless and unnecessary argument with the Greeks over the Elgin Marbles. As if we needed more of that. Would returning the Elgin Marbles to Athens be a fair price to pay to Rejoin the EU?
Two – Discuss the following statement. There is no truth in the rumour that Richy Scumbag is playing politics. He is doing his utmost to avoid getting the Tories re-elected.
Three – Is there any truth in the rumour that there is another nasty respiratory infection emerging in China and the Chinese are, as usual, keeping it secret for much longer than is sensible?
Four – Johnson will appear in front the Covid Inquiry this week. Will he be called upon to testify on oath? Do these Tories understand the significance of testifying on oath?
Five – Is there any truth in the rumour that the evil Barclay family have put together enough money to pay off their debts to Lloyds Band and are regaining control of Telegraph Newspapers? How did they do that since for some considerable time they have been swearing on oath in courts (see above) that they are fearfully pushed for lolly? Is the money coming from respectable sources?
This week’s quotes
Richy Scumbag
… yet another car crash week … Cruella Braverman signalling all out war … resurrection of David Cameron heading into ‘seemed like a good idea at the time’ territory … appointment caught MPs and media by surprise, no mean feat among the leaky dysfunction this government has become … makes it easier for the opposition to make a big deal of austerity when its architect is back on the scene …
… it is not easy these days to find anybody who will speak in defence of Brexit … pro Brexit arguments lost 9-1 … even hard core Brexiters seem to realise that you cannot polish a turd …
BBC tried to fix who chaired Ofcom regulator
… won’t set the record straight … press relations industry complicit in reputation management … well qualified candidates deterred from applying … wholly improper for Robbie Gibb to try to fix who got to be Ofcom regulator … Getting at the truth is what BBC is supposed to be for … Alas, no … cover up …
Foreign Direct Investment is a key economic indicator
… Britain is in big trouble … Foreign Direct Investment into the UK is in serious decline and has been since 2016 … FCI peaked in 2016 … losing FCI at a worrying rate … we are nowhere near as attractive a place to do business as pre-Brexit … seven years of political interference in the economy … foreign investors prefer stability and kept promises … we had been dependent on FDI for many years … car industry … rate of investment by car companies slowing … City of London … Loss of equivalence after Brexit has undermined business model … UK is dependent on people coming here to do business … domestic levels of investment, training and productivity lamentable … UK government needs to take the UK back into the Single Market …
Daily Mail owner, Lord Rothermere, decided against holding his Christmas Party at Claridges
… after a miserable year of declining sales and redundancies … judge’s decision to let 7 high profile individuals the go ahead to bring law suits alleging widespread unlawful behaviour … Tory MPs have expressed concerns about the Barclay family using middle east cash to repurchase Telegraph … Mail on Sunday ‘a nauseating apologist for war crimes and mass murder … Jones … ‘a shit weasel with a rat’s intellect.’ …
Tories are obsessed with tedious nonsense
… says Ken Clarke …Cruella Braverman has not got the large number of supporters in the House of Commons that Daily Mail or Express think she has got … move of extreme right from the margins to the mainstream of British politics … brought to a head disastrous Brexit vote … Clarke refers to as ‘a silly three week opinion poll … politics …. particularly in the Tory Party since the referendumb … has been surreal … worst political periods in my lifetime … particularly bitter inside Tory Party … disastrous governments … Brexit exerted huge strain not only on the country but also the ideological structure of the Tory Party … dividing itself into factions … Richy Scumbag has to get control of these factions … if he is to get the country out of the mess it is in … Dreadful crises … Economy … National Health Service and much else besides … silly politics … scandals, crises, newspaper tripe … Tories incapable of confronting any of the fundamental problems that Britain faces … Conrad Black bought the Telegraph to turn into a raging Europhobe newspaper … then Mail and Express got dodgy … Thatcher’s worst friends persuaded her that hour ousting was a European plot … half remembered Thatcherism is a slew of extreme and damaging ideas …
Britain has paid £140M ($175m) to Rwanda government
… none of the money has been spend on improving the asylum process … it is unclear whether any treaty could satisfy the courts, whether any law could get through the Lords or how the ECHR could be stopped from blocking things … theatrics …
Cameron’s return marks the triumph of image over reality
… Cameron could have been an excellent PM … intelligence, diligence, quick wit, smooth manner … he managed to be one of the worst … a man who bungled foreign policy is will help to shape it again. Government struggling to repair public services has appointed the man who did more than any other to cause the difficulties … appearance of competence is more important than the evidence of it … for half a millennium Britain aimed to ensure Europe did not unite against it … as a result of the referendumb Cameron managed it in three years … one error: the Brexit referendumb … Chaotic Thick Lizzie government … austerity was a radical experiment and it failed … when he would have been most useful he deserted … such a record is no obstacle to high office … Scumbag is desperate … Editor’s note : Other views of Cameron are possible.
Insecurity has become the watchword for British politics
… Britain suffers more deeply and for longer than our international peers…. we are failing … business leaders who want to invest in Britain are put off by Westminster turmoil …13 years of chaos and instability … government incompetence … a drag on economic performance…
