Kier Starmer offered a dignified and full apology yesterday over his appointment of “Mandelstein” or “Mandy”. Subject to transparency via the investigation, that is sufficient in my view. Why do I say that, you may well ask? Starmer actually sacked Mandy where others did not. He has persuaded M to step down as a Lord. In due course and subject to there being sufficient evidence, Mandy will be prosecuted and possibly jailed. Later on we are likely to see similar outcomes with Michelle Mone and others. All takes time, but the law moves at a very slow pace. Farage law is not a suitable replacement for the rule of law as some CONform nutjobs suggest (“Farage Law” amounts to saying “Your eyes are too close together” or “You have a bit of a tan … GO TO JAIL”).
James O’Brien asked the question why did we not know all of this when Mandy was appointed as “Ferrero RocherAmbassador and Defence Against The Dark TrumPutin Arts” to face down Trump in 2025. I was in fact one person who did predict that this appointment would end in tears in time – it was not a question of if but when. If you work in HR, one normally has a list of essential and desirable qualities plus contra-indications for your selection process. Mandy did possess some qualities which will have been judged as postives, and I suspect that McSweeney et al did not use my checklist below to look at the massive list of contra-indications. Starmer’s weakness is perhaps that he listened to McSweeney. It’s a forgiveable leadership sin, especially when weighed against the actions that Starmer has now taken to rectify the error. I say this objectively as someone who is not a massive Starmer fan. At the time, we must remember that we were beleagured by Brexit, and therefore wanting to be friends with ANYONE and EVERYONE on the international stage. Although it’s not clever, I think I understand why Starmer may have come to the conclusion that Mandy was an essential evil to tame the 5 Ts : Trump’s Toddler (Todger !!) Temper Tantrums. Although I very much doubt that proper HR processes were used, a sober analysis of the situation may have revealed the looming problem of Mandelstein to those possessed with hubris when advising / lobbying Keir Starmer.
Dear Keir
Starmer stood up for decency and the rule of law yesterday and, for that, I give him a free pass. That said, it comes with some Terms and Conditions:
Morgan McSweeney must go. He is the architect of much of this and will have lobbied Starmer to accept Mandy, having also persuaded him to oust Sue Gray for opposing him.
Editor’s note. Starmer has now done this. Praise where it’s due. If he next manages to get Mandie banged up, he will cast a long shadow on Reform, The Tories and the populists polluting our politics on planet earth.
Credit where it's due. Well done to Keir Starmer for removing Morgan McSweeney from Downing Street. I'm no fan of Keir but he has done what none of the others would have done. If he gets Mandelson banged up, he will cast a shadow on the populists around the world. Still more to do but good show.
Brexit must be ended as a priority, not in 2032, as some Labour MPs suggest. Fix the fundamentals as Keir likes to say a lot. Brexit lies at the heart of a lot of Britain’s problem as our Brexit Iceberg shows
Policy making which prays to the far right fascist fringe must stop. Remember, 90% of Reform accounts are bots. Many of Starmer’s bad decisions have been aimed at appeasement of the far right. It is ALWAYS a mistake to appease fascists.
More should be made of the good works that Labour are doing. This is a comms issue, which once again lies at McSweeney’s door.
Mainstream media
I was shoe horned onto LBC at 11.57 today (Fri 6 Feb) (thank you by the way) to try to explain all of this in ‘just a minute’. Find the playback on the LBC app or here on our radio interviews with MSM:
Click the image to listen to the LBC segment on our bandcamp page.
My friend Dr Raj Persaud also made this superb piece of analysis on the matter of Mandy.
Turn despair into action
Write to your MP, enclosing a hard copy of our book Brexit RIP, written by 60 British and European citizens, including two MEPs, a KC and many eminent experts .. Hard copy books have a much longer “social journey” than bleating about it on social media. They get passed around and so on. Gift copies to your circle of contacts, especially those soft leavers who are starting to doubt the idea that Brexit was a sticking plaster for all of our problems, and Rejoiners who consider the matter closed for a host of reasons. Relight the fire.
Hard copies have a much better ‘social journey’ than e-mail. Much better for MPs, influencers and social contacts.
Reform UK have had to rebrand the party in order to cope with the “swarms of failed Tories” that are now infecting their party. Honest Bobby J joins useless Nadine Dorries and Andrea “the finger) Jenkyn this week. Quite surprisingly, The Trussmeister has not joined yet. We can presume that she’s simply too toxic to be accepted by NF. Boris must be waiting in the wings to pounce on Bad Enoch at her maximum point of weakness. Although anything is possible in our disruptive politics, I think that Boris + Nigel may fall into the category of what Sparks called “This town ain’t big enough for the both of us”. Here are the new logo designs. Feel free to use them in your work and thank you to JP Flowers for converting my CONform concept into the initial design.
It was Ken Clarke that popularised the term “the indifferent majority” … aka the vast swathe of people who couldn’t give a fcuk about politics. Farage has weaponised some of them into a loose cabal, united by swans, painting roundabouts, disinformation, shouting at hotels, attacking women and children, paedophilia and flagshagging. They are not the subject of this article however. Here I refer to the great swathe of Remainers / Rejoiners who know what they are against (Brexit and its offspring), but who are unwilling to do anything functional about it, apart from bleating about it on social media, which we all do, but is in effect it’s merely a form of therapy. It achieves very little apart from a release of angst into the ether. Worse still, the Brexiteers mostly love it, as it increases their sense of “winning”. Living as I do in Brexit Central, Reform types love nothing more than the “salty tears of Remoaners”. Nigel Farage benefits tremendously as Remoaners are, in effect, his unpaid marketing force as Reform fans are united by shared victimhood at Maslow’s sense of belonging level of his hierarachy:
Maslow’s hierarchy reframed.
Remoaners generally have no strategy. This, in part, is due to a leadership and strategy and collaboration tactics vacuum at the “top” of the movement. I have written about our structural deficit many times before and in the books. The Rejoin movement resembles Indonesia, 17000 islands, some uninhabited with a few big ones (European Brexit Movement, Best for Brexit Britain etc.), none of whom collaborate and all of whom have different ideas about the “destination and journey” (What, Why and How) of our quest. When asked about what to do about Rejoining the EU, they come up with many different objections, some of which are captured in this graphic. We’ll never achieve anything like this.
Only the cat is a valid objection …
Paul Cawthorne sums up the poverty of the “incrementalist” approach rather well …
Cherry pickers guide – TY Paul Cawthorne.
I have become tired of fighting this war on two fronts. I don’t mind dealing with Leave voters, but dealing with Remoaners who are acting to preserve the stasis sucks the very life out of me … am I beginning to sound like Liz Truss here? !! 🙂
One of my final actions before retirement was to speak about this at the recent North Herts for Europe event, where I also gave a synopsis of the Brexit RIP book. Find the masterclass below. The event was invaded by Reform UK types exposing themselves (literally), although I have removed the offensive material here.
If you like this, send copies of the book Brexit RIP to MPs and influencers. It’s far more effective than posting memes and shouting on social media to be frank. I await the hate mail and excuses from Remoaners … It’s the ideal Christmas gift for Brexiteers in remorse and Remainers in remission. QR codes are below for sharing with friends and connections. My Labour MP has a copy and is circulating it within the government, which is where we need to be if we are to be effective influencers.
Brexit is dead … but the body is still in our lounge … get rid of it.
QR codes. Also available direct from the author at a discount via e-mail reboot@brexitrage.com
I attended the anti-racist event in Rochester. Some 200 people attended to face 15 UKIP supporters with perhaps 100 police in attendance. The bill for these protests will mean more money wasted to build a better Britain (The Farage Riots of 2024 cost £32 million). This year’s flagshagging events will cost more. The flagshaggers marched up to Rochester Castle, not to pour boiling oil and shower us with arrows from the turrets, but for a much needed toilet break after a heavy session in Wetherspoons … They then departed. MUCH MORE IMPORTANTLY, I bumped into the Labour Party MP Tristan Osbourne and met with the Green Party of Medway and Lib Dems at the event.
Labour in vain
I congratulated Tristan on Labour’s decision to talk about Brexit after snuffing out all conversation about a major source of our malaise in the General Election. See Labour GE Post-Mortem for more detail.
I then pointed out that ‘one swallow does not a summer make’. Tristan agreed and responded by saying that Labour would be making a statement about it in the budget. Whilst I fully understood why he could not tell me what the statement might be, I took away the idea that it may well be more ‘logical incrementalism’ rather than a fundamental reversal of the Brexit mess. He hinted at this saying that he wanted Brexit reversed within his lifetime, however he is around 40 and I am 67! I pointed out that the matter was urgent and important and that death by 1000 ameliorations is still death. Faced in real life with a rapid death over a slow painful one, I’d opt for the rapid one. So it is with Brexit. Labour must act now or face the consequences.
Tristan then tried to punt the idea to me that the EU had said that we could not return until the threat of Farage had passed, meaning post 2029 at the earliest. I re-rehearsed the arguments that we had previously: This would be too late for a host of reasons explained in Reboot Britain. I also pointed out that what matters is putting in the application, not the end of the process. Frankly this was the part of the conversation I did not believe, since the EU have stated publicly that they would welcome us back on many occasions. See political capital in Reboot Britain.
Tristan’s answer reminded me of a teenager wanting to ask a girl out but does not want to get a no !! This was the least believable part of our dialogue and I don’t know what purpose Tristan thought it might serve, given my knowledge, skills and experience.
We went on to discuss the optics of Reform UK and agreed about a lot of that. It was a cordial and intelligent dialogue and I thank him for it. I explained that I’d given a keynote at MP Sadik Al-Hassan’s town hall meeting on Brexit and it turned out that he and Tristan are good friends. All in all a valuable ‘brief encounter’. I’d had a similar meeting with my Labour MP Naushabah Khan recently and she dropped similar hints that Labour would be more bold. I’d welcome it.
The only good Brexit is a dead Brexit.
Zac attack
I also had a great encounter with Medway Greens and was asked why I had not joined them. I stated that I was still considering standing a cat for election locally in 2027, perhaps a green cat … What was most interesting was that there was broad agreement that Zac Polanski was a force for good in terminating the rise of the far right in Britain.
Dem Libs
The Lib Dems led the charge in terms of marshalling people at the event. I have explained to Mark Pack that since Labour are on the move re Brexit, it is time for the Lib Dems to recalibrate their position on Brexit to move the Overton Window. I do hope that they don’t miss the boat on this.
Helen Maguire for Epsom.
The local Lib Dem still sees my cat as an existential threat to the survival of the Lib Dems. Amazing !!
Side note: I asked a policemen early on, had they (UKIP – UK I Pee) urinated? – he seemed confused and a little disturbed. until I pointed out that this was the key metric which would determine their eventual departure back to Wetherspoons. Youth and inexperience !!
I travel quite a bit on a bus. Upon boarding on Friday I was confronted by a man about 60 who was on his phone, swearing and shouting loudly at the front of the bus in the doorwell the driver. I sat down a few metres away and quickly noticed another man of similar age with his young grandchildren. The other man continued swearing and cursing foreigners. I spoke softly to him:
“Language Timothy, there are children present”.
He replied “Fucking muslamics and foriengers, fuck off c…nts – stop listening to my phone calls you fucking w…nker”. It was hard not to hear him for all the passengers on the bus as he was making sure everyone knew what he was saying! He moved towards me but then backed off.
There were about 15 people on the bus of all ages and races. I initially ignored his provocation and dropped eye contact, but he continued the abuse so I repeated my request. He raised his voice adding further racial abuse. Then the grandfather spoke to him saying that he had young children who were physically afraid by this time. He continued. A young nurse sitting opposite him behind the driver then asked him to be quiet. He moved towards her spewing more abuse and telling her to shut her mouth.
I decided this was enough and told him to stop abusing women and get off the bus. I was about to take further action when he decided to get off, still shouting foul abuse.
Farage Riots
This is what Nigel Farage, Boris Johnson and Brexit has brought to Britain. I had not been quick enough to record his shouting but felt the need to make a public apology on his behalf to all the other passengers on the bus. The response was quite remarkable from people of all colours and ages. It seemed that nobody wanted his racism in the community. I made a recording of this below:
If only he realised that Brexit Begat Boats and so on. but he was too thick to know anything, let alone the Dublin Agreement.
Inspired by this bizarre incident I formulated the Gammon English DNA test !! Provocative, but we must work inside their belief systems to reach them.
The only Brexit racist in the village
This is not an isolated incident where I live in Kent. Last week, I encountered an OAB (Old Age Brexiteer) on my bicycle with a union jack skirt caught shouting “F off Paki” to an Indian Sikh in Chatham. I intervened and later apologised to the Indian gentleman who said that the OAB couldn’t help himself and it was a problem of humanity. I replied that this did not make it agreeable or acceptable. Paradoxically, the OAB voted to make himself poorer via Brexit. Nigel and Boris “forgot” to mention this in the “sales pitch”. Let’s keep this in context. It was ONE old age man out of 67 million who claims to speak for all of us!!!! He does not
China Crisis
Even more disgusting is this example of a Chinese Restaurant in York:
Once again, the true spirit of Britain has come to counterbalance the knuckle dragging racists:
Brexit racists make a lot of noise (literally) but are a very small number. If this were a football match, the score on the bus would have been Multicultural Britain 15 : Racists 1. We must not be swayed by these thugs.
Farage Riots cost Britain dearly
The Farage Riots in 2024 cost £32 million. The 2025 ones probably a lot more. All money that will not be directed towards improving Britain. But the lowlifes who protest don’t understand that. Perhaps the rioters should be made to pay the bill? They certainly should not want to be receiving healthcare from forins …. We need a better Britain in a better Europe for a better World. Read our article on the subject. If you found this article useful, please support our work.
And finally, common sense
In a late entry after this was posted, please watch Zoe Gardner providing bucket loads of common sense on the subject of hotels, asylum seekers and disinformation:
Nigel F wants to get rid of the NHS and install “Two Tier Health”. He’s entitled to have that view in a democracy, but lets just think a while on what private healthcare means for most of us. There is already a way to see the future of a privatised NHS via the US model of healthcare. Just look at what you will likely be paying for critical operations and care:
This is not a joke. In the US if you cannot pay, you don’t get treatment. Be careful what you wish for …
Wendy Novak is an expert on this subject. Read her extract from the book Reboot Britain on Brexit and Healthcare. It was recently reported that Brexit has led to 1500 unnecessary deaths every year due to the exodus of European health professionals. Nigel did not put that on a bus! Perhaps that’s why he tells people not to listen to experts … Watch our mini film featuring several examples of people who rely on critical care. I’m glad to say that all are still alive as I write this.
Brexit kills … 1500 people a year … unnecessarily … let that sink in.Brexit is bad for your health …
Saving lives
But I’m an optimist, so I have a few suggestions on how to save lives for others through the unselfish acts of leave voters …
Just say no … to treatment
Do it yourself
Reforming Reform
If we want to deal with the causes of the Reform UK vote, deep therapeutic interventions into the minds and souls of the great unwashed are needed. I wrote a book to teach people how to do it based on 1000s of hours of deliberate practice. Please read the book of Brexorcism and attend our next meeting on Monday 12 May at 8 pm via ZOOM. I am also going to offer a six month professional development programme in the art and practice of what I call “Brexorcism” to give you the skills, strategies and stories to change mindsets if there is sufficient interest. Write to me for details via reboot@brexitrage.com.
I have also written to my Labour MP on the subject of mass Brexorcisms … and potholes … write your Labour MP a letter about Brexit and send a copy of Rejoin EU: Reboot Britain to them. See my letter below:
Dear Naushabah,
Firstly, may I congratulate you on the noticeable improvements to the roads after 14 years of Tory managed decline. As a cyclist, I am much closer to the asphalt than most road users and have fallen off my bicycle several times due to potholes in recent times. Although no physical damage has been done, I’ve had to replace a wheel due to the disgraceful neglect of the roads by the Tories. As a principle, I refuse to use my car on environmental grounds, preferring public transport and my bicycle and this gives me much better contact with the road (not literally for the most part).
I spoke with Cllr Vince Maple yesterday and pointed out that much of our “populist pothole problems” come from shoddy piecemeal repairs from dodgy contractors rather than complete resurfacing projects. To use a dental analogy, quite a few of these ‘drill and fill’ operations have now opened up on my street which will cost more money to fix. I’m pleased to see that your approach in Gillingham and Rainham (and in other parts of the Medway Towns) has been for wholesale renewal and hope these contracts are being closely managed.
I’m pretty sure that you have audited the area, as I see white lines around some of the most offending holes, but if I could add my two penneth of comment in, the bottom half of Barnsole Road has some very dangerous ruts and the middle of Canterbury St is very bad for bicycles. Please pass on the word to Tristan from bus drivers that the Brook in Chatham is extremely hazardous.
At the same time, I’m disappointed to see that many of the double red lines and now turning back to yellow. IMHO, it was shoddy work to just paint over the yellow lines, especially when the contractors were paid £800 000 to do it. Frankly I would have done it for less, to a better standard. Please ask them to make the work good at no cost to the taxpayer. I am currently dealing with a cowboy builder for my neighbours who are without good English language and I take a dim view of shoddy work which is not fit for purpose.
And whilst we are on the subject and at a national level, just stop the ‘drill and fill’ operation with Brexit. It opens the door to Nigel’s army of the “hard of thinking”. As discussed with Vince yesterday, the local election wins for Deform UK were characterised by low turnout and a certain number of people wanting to give Labour a bloody nose for what are, frankly, some terrible decisions, which have generated a great deal of angst for little real return. To strech the dental analogy a bit too far, more drilling and filling and tooth extractions without anaesthesia will not make the pain of Brexit diminish. It is time for some “Brexit root canal surgery” via an application to Rejoin the EU. Trump 2.0 / Putin / Farage etc. makes the burning platform of our relationship with the EU mission critical. Do remember that many of the people who voted for Brexit are now dead. As far as I know, dead people cannot vote in elections …
I am willing to help you design interventions to deal with the root causes of the Reform vote on a national basis via a series of large-scale interventions along the lines of the excellent event you held on climate yesterday in Rochester. I fear that if you don’t deal with Reform’s voter base, this will be a one term Labour party.
To sum up, I am extremely happy with all that you are doing locally. You prove yourself worthy of the job and I understand just how hard it is, given my other life working with senior people from global enterprises. I remain doubtful about some of the national choices being made by Labour, when there are easier picks to make, but I know you understand that. Keep going with the reforms (sic) to Gillingham and Rainham.
p.s. I’ve just published this review on the costs of Nigel’s “Two Tier Health” which gives people some foresight on Reform’s proposals to privatise the NHS. People may find it helpful, including Wes Streeting.
All the best
Peter Cook – Human Dynamics and The Academy of Rock
I stood an independent candidate for the GE recently with a difference … standing a cat for election, on the basis that a cat could do no worse than Rishi Sunak … We had done something similar in 2019 as a joke, asking for no votes and finding that we did not come last !! The original intention was to undertake a two year campaign of events, briefings and other campaigning, but only a few thought it worthwhile, so we could not resource the longer project. I decided at the 11th hour to conduct an intensive “one man on a bicycle with a cat in a basket” campaign over a few weeks, to see if we could disrupt the sitting Tory’s 15 000 majority and thereby assist with tactical voting by removing Rehman Chishti. I’m delighted to say that we succeeded at this level and also assisted in removingnot ONE, but at least FOUR Tories from office !! Here i describe some of the highlights.
344 votes were cast for Stan the Cat. I came 6th out of 8 candidates, beating two national parties (The Christian People’s Alliance and Social Democrat Party), both with budgets and national resources.
This was not too shabby, given that I recommended people vote for Labour rather than myself at two sets of hustings. I estimate that I would have gained at least double the vote and possibly more that Gina Miller in Epsom if I had not recommended that people vote Labour at hustings, online and on the doorstep. In spite of this kamikaze mission, I gained more votes than Count Binface, who had immense national publicity, also outperforming the vast majority of independent candidates. I was constantly schooled by some independents in The Rejoin Party and more generally, that my cat campaign was wrong headed. They are now silent. Here’s one example of my many armchair advisers.
Why a cat?
Every day over the last 6 months, we have seen adverts on facebook / You Tube etc. from Labour (and Conservative). It was not possible to compete with the £ millions used by major parties to spam people with ads, so Stan the Cat was a means of ‘punching above our weight’ in an impossible situation to cut through to 71 000 people. Although my campaign was serious (a manifesto was available and so on), I also observe that people are switched off by politics (turnout was down in my area from 70% to 56%), so I set out to conduct a campaign which was both serious on content and fun on the means of engagement. Many people who said they would vote for my cat have subsequently told me that they felt compelled to vote for Labour in the end (Labour told residents that ‘it was too close to call” and “a vote for anyone else would cause the sky to fall in” etc. All the main parties use this tactic. In the end, my prediction came to pass … Labour won comfortably with 5000 majority and my cat was no threat to their win, but I fully understand why people were frightened to make a different choice.
All by myself
I did all the on the ground campaigning by myself, accepting that most people thought that resistance was pointless and potentially dangerous. The few that offered to help were not really ready to hit the ground running, some were Labour supporters who really did not get the campaign objective of ‘do no harm’ and so on. I eventually judged them to be a drain on progress, given the short time we had and decided to get on the bicycle and do the work myself, picking up advocates on route at bus stops, cafes, bars and in pop up events on the high streets and so on. This proved to be much more effective although exhausting. My original plan of building a team over two years and offering a range of community engagement events would have been much better, but most people only act when there is a burning platform i.e. the snap election.
At least four Tories scratched
At the same time, I helped The Lib Dems to win in Epsom through recruitment of volunteers and putting down a vicious attack on Helen Maguire, Lib Dem candidate by Gina Miller, leader of the so-called True and Fair party. This was extremely disappointing, given the view I had of Gina prior to being recruited as her campaign manager.
Our anti-Tory leaflets also helped to remove the truly odious Kelly Tolhurst and Nathan Gamester in Rochester / Strood and Chatham / Aylesford, through local distribution to network contacts. Others took small orders of 1000 / 2000 to target Tory strongholds and marginals. As my mum used to say “Every little helps, said the old woman pissing into the sea”.
ABC Leaflet
I also helped to recruit 14 candidates for the Climate Party and coached them on various matters from campaigning to hustings and social media. They have made a small but vital footprint in the sand for future generations.
Deform UK
Given that Deform UK got 8000 votes from 41 000 in my area, I consider my 344 as being really good. Not content with stumbling into the ballot box, some Deform UK acolytes conducted a knife attack on my bicycle tyres and ran keys down my car. As a result I have a bill of at least £500 to put these things right. I suspect the car incident was down to our familiar local Brexitear Ken, as it was close to his house and he did say in his last communication that “doubtless we’ll meet again”, but, of course, Kent Police do not wish to investigate an ex-Met Policeman who left under mysterious circumstances … If you can help by supporting the repairs please donate via support. I asked one of the Reform UK party people who I know from musical jam sessions if he could deal with the miscreant, but, of course, he dodged the question as they always do …
Deform UK also staged a series of online attacks. Read the comments on this video.
The comments from gammon are comedy gold if a little wearing …
Remoan
I also faced endless online criticism from some people across UK who voted to Remain in the EU, who said that I would split the vote and allow the Tories to win. In fact, I did the exact opposite. I knew exactly what I was doing in my area but the armchair critics thought they knew best. Rather than looking at the campaign objectives and the detail, they continued to operate from a visceral sense of panic and doom. In that sense, these people are united with Brexiteers in their inability to see things objectively. I am slowly detaching from the Rejoin movement, as this election experience has demonstrated that (a) we are lost (b) when some leadership is shown it is rejected in favour of the status quo and (c) Starmer remains the leader of a Brexit party at the time of writing. Mealy mouthed accommodations by Starmer on Brexit are not enough. They will not solve the raft of economic, social, environmental and political problems we face as a country going forward. Yes, we won the battle against the Tories but lost the war against Brexit. It remains prescient.
Gina Miller
I was Gina Miller’s Campaign Manager for several months this year, eventually offering to resign after I realised that she preferred media attention over local campaigning and took her advice from Isabel Oakeshott and Richard Tice. I tried to persuade her of the need to rebalance from media appearances on “Talk Shit TV” with five viewers to the hard work of local campaigning. One of my greatest regrets is that I failed in this attempt. She sacked me to save face from my resignation proposal, stating a host of trivia as the reasons. You may say that I’m bitter. I’m not overall as it was a privilege to have the offer from someone I admired greatly. I do however remain cross about a sum of £5000 + that is owed due to a broken promise over a bonus (I worked for free initially based on referrals). When Mrs Miller reneged on the promise of referrals, we moved onto a more transactional financial arrangement. She lost three campaign managers over a few months. To lose one is unfortunate, to lose three, careless … I suppose the big lesson here is that it’s sometimes a mistake to meet your heroes.
In the end, Gina Miller, a woman with £46 million and a supposed international brand, got 845 votes, versus a man with a bicycle and a cat 🐈 I’ll take this as a win !!! Miaow !!
What a cynical gesture !!!
Only a week or so ago you were spinning lies about Helen.
Did Oakeshott tell you to do this or did you do it all by yourself?
— Peter Cook – Brexorcist in Chief – Reboot Britain (@BrexitRage) July 7, 2024
Media Blackout
ITV and the local media channel KMTV refused the carry any coverage of my contributions to the Hustings, despite being told by several candidates and members of the public that they were by far the best contributions to the debate. KMTV ‘forgot’ to invite me and other independent candidates to the Hustings whilst stating on their website that ALL candidates had been invited. I suspect that the main parties were aware of this ‘omission’ but did nothing about it. So much for democracy.
Reflections
Had I conducted a long range campaign, I believe it could have been transformational … leaflets hit the doorsteps around 10 days before the election, not everyone got them as I became aware that some people got three copies from the Royal Mail and others none and so on. A member of staff told me that some Royal Mail people throw the leaflets away if they don’t agree with them …
On the upside, I thoroughly enjoyed meeting new people and discussing the issues they face in the area as well as the big ticket items currently being ignored by Starmer. I’m minded to start some citizens assemblies to ensure that he hears from the people of Medway.
Overall I am minded to think that further campaigning to end Brexit is pointless. We still lack leadership, strategy, structure and collaboration mechanisms and the major movements who people listen to are polluted by Labour. Brexit is a cross party issue. I am 8 years older than when I begun this etc. The Remoaners are still far to accommodating in their expectations of politicians and lack the skills and drive that gave Nigel Farage his victory.
Some wonderful people supported me online over the six weeks and I’m very grateful to them, especially David Hennessey, Julian Foster, June Austin, Greg Newman, James Rowland, Helga Perry, and many more, too numerous to mention. Here’s a small selection of the online activity.
I was astonished to learn that Reform UK supporters are actively backing killing immigrants who they believe to be paedophiles. Rupert Lowe, Reform UK MP for Great Yarmouth constantly posts disinformation about immigration and a host of other subjects on LinkedIn to trigger people who are easily swayed into believing him. This set of responses are possibly the worst I’ve seen, although they are not the only ones by far. Eugene seems quite happy to shoot paedophiles. He has fallen prey to the idea that there is a “paedophilia gene” and it resides exclusively within foreigners, when the vast majority of rapists in Britain are the “old English variety”. Eugene works as a business development manager at Future Optics in Lancashire. I’d be quite concerned if he is willing to kill people indiscriminately based on Rupert’s dogwhistle calls.
At various points, Rupert stokes the idea that not only are the rapists ‘foreigners’, but they are also ‘islamic’. This dangerous disinformation is poisoning our society and Eugene is an easy target for people looking for easy answers to complex problems.
In terms of incitement, here are some example of the kind of post that Rupert puts up. He posts this kind of thing several times daily, but never answers any comments. It is a persistent campaign of disinformation.
Please report disinformation and / or hate crimes. It helps keep the internet safe. False information and outright lies do not help to “Make Britain Great Again” as Nigel Farage would have you believe. They simply poison the culture and breed hatred, which is the basis of dogwhistle politics. And, in case you are wondering, better answers to immigration are available. See below. In case you also think we are “lefty losers”, think again. Yet it is always a mistake to pray at Donald Trump, Putin and Farage’s altar. Take courage Sir Keir Starmer.
Nigel Farage likes to suggest that there might be a “terrorist gene”. Of course, this is utter rubbish. He also implies that no terrorists are English in spite of compelling evidence to the contrary. This is how the far right take people for a ride …. But, if that’s true, then surely there must be an “upskirting gene”, since Nigel’s cousin was convicted of the sleazy crime of photographing women’s panties in a clandestine manner at the Co-Op in Orpington, just near to Nigel’s house in Downe.
This remake of a Sham 69 song tells the story of Nigel Farridge’s nephew who got a £572 fine for upskirting, when he should have had a two year jail sentence. There’s privilege in action for you!
I decided to write a song about it, choosing the Sham 69 Punk Rock song “Hurry up Harry” as the vehicle. Download “Hurry up Farridge” at Bandcamp to support our work. Here’s the video. I rated it 18 since it deals with the unsavoury subject of upskirting.
The decision by Keir Starmer to charge inheritance tax will affect a number of farmers who are, in the vernacular, asset rich, but cash poor. For example, a farm with an asset value of £8 million but average profits of £19 000 pa will face a tax bill of £1.2 million on the death of its owner. This is yet another example of a Government looking round desperately for cash to drive recovery, although the actual amounts gained are relatively small.
Many farmers were duped by the Brexit sales pitch in 2016. It is at the root of the problem. The Conservative Government’s promised replacement for the Common Agricultural Policy was very poor in comparison with what we had in the EU. Today, the far right and Deform UK are to hijack the farmer’s protests, instead of admitting that it is THEY who the root cause of farmers’ problems, having sold them the lies of “BSE” (Brexit Surrealistic Exaggerations).
Dr Charlie Clutterbuck writes on the Brexit mistake for food, farming, land and labour. Here’s an extract from our White Paper on the topic.
If we were to admit that the Brexit elephant is at the heart of our problems and apply to Rejoin EU, we would not need to be doing this, nor punish other groups through measures which don’t help Britain grow.
Sorry (not sorry) but those pushing the farming hysteria need an absolute fcking reality check. The very same group who ignored strong warnings about the devastating impact brexit would have on farming, and who voted time and again for the actual political party that signed international deals that undercut UK farmers, undermined our food and environmental safety standards, are now reaping what they sowed.
And aided by the right wing media pumping out misinformation/disinformation fed by the tories and the millionaire agricultural land investing tax dodgers, they’re gaslighting everyone into blaming Labour for their current difficulties. I simply refuse to wring hands for people who are blaming others for a crisis of their own making (in that voting has consequences). Labour’s October inheritance tax measures are not responsible for the last eight years’ worth of farming difficulties.
Yes, things are very, very hard for farmers- as Remainers told them it would be if they voted for Brexit (and the tories), and urgent measures have to be done to help them. But get a fucking grip. Don’t let those who made policy these last 14 years play you into blaming a party which only took power before Summer Recess.
I’m fully aware commercial farmers work extremely hard to produce their harvests for domestic and overseas consumption. And every nation needs to be able to feed itself as much as possible. I am very supportive of farmers who farm ethically and sustainably. I’m very supportive of vocational, family business, small farmers. But I’m not prepared to swallow this narrative that this is all Labour’s fault and farmers are Labour’s victims. No, many farmers played a hand in this situation, and need to acknowledge it.
Analysis from Farmers’ Weekly: 7 years after Brexit, farmers count the cost: Increased red tape, a worsening economic situation, damaging free-trade deals, a trail of broken promises – it seems that farmers and those working in the ancillary industries are far from satisfied with Brexit.
That is the inevitable conclusion from a new survey by Farmers Weekly into how the agricultural sector now perceives Brexit, seven years on from the historic referendum of 23 June, 2016.
