Full Disclosure : I’m no fan of Keir Starmer’s Labour Government, but the far right and their media hoods just hounded out the best person to lead the Labour party. I’m sure there is a parallel in Nazi Germany … answers on a postcard please.
Angela Rayner’s departure was voluntary, but I’d be sure that Starmer would have pushed her to save his skin in the end, due to media pressure, and cat calls from Farage’s fascist followers. It is a testament to Starmer’s weakness as a leader, running in FOF (Fear of Farage). Morgan McSweeney’s name (The Dominic Cummings of Labour) also turns up again in the frame.
Meanwhile, Jeremy Hunt ‘forgot’ that he owned 7 homes. Matt Hancock forgot the £37 Bn COVID Ponzi scheme, Boris Johnson ‘forgot’ that he killed 30 000 people unnecessarily, The Truss gambled £70 Bn of OUR money on fantasy economics, Zahawi experienceed £4.8 million in “tax amnesia” whilst heating his horses. NF’s accountancy skills seem rather dodgy … Dido Harding, Michelle Mone, the list goes on ….. These are willful crimes, yet none were held to account.
Angela Rayner’s case is different on two counts (a) Proportionality and (b) Willfulness. I’m sure lots of people would think that £40 000 is a lot, but go compare with the eye watering sums trousered by the Tories. Secondly, unlike the Tories, Angela admitted the mistake and apologised. She was hung out to dry based on her open-ness, misogyny and because she came from a council house ‘oop north’, disguised as a gap between standards expected by leaders and the rest of us. And nobody mentions Rayner’s disabled son, who she set up a trust fund for to care for him after her death. Shameful behaviour by all who have hounded her.
Many of the Reform pack hounds probably contribute to the estimated UK tax gap for 2021-2022 of £36 billion, an increase from £32 billion in 2019-2020. Pure hypocrisy, but that is the operating system of Reform UK 2.0.
Meanwhile Keir pivots further to the far right by appointing Shabama Mahmood as Home Secretary. And Farage says prepare for an election in 2027 as yet another magic spell to fool his followers. Do remember that Governments don’t step down just because things go badly. Theresa May, Liz Tuss, Rishi Sunak were not elected by the public. I assume that Nigel thinks his followers will find him out (or possibly die in some cases) by 2029, hence his call for a 2027 election.
This is a failure of Keir Starmer and his cabal. I have to say that they deserve to get Reform UK. The need for a national conversation about A Better Britain has never been greater. I started this in North Somerset, but it need to be mainstreamed. I think it may now be too late …
Oh, yes, and just apply to Rejoin the EU. £140 bn pa would go a long way to dealing with Britain’s problems.
Paul Higgins (London for Europe) disagrees with me and in the spirit of diversity, I have published his reply below.
And just for some bizarre context, a Blue Sky person who identifies as a Marmousette eviscerated me online for quoting a Travis song as the title of this article (without reading it), stating that my title was misogynistic. I asked him / her to explain but the ran off claiming that I was bullying them … oh well.
I like Angela Rayner. See our latest article on her demise. As some who started life in a council house, who pulled myself up by my bootstraps, with a wife from Manchester, I identify with Angela’s straight talk on many things. I was therefore even more dismayed to hear her spinning myths and lies on LBC this week about Brexit. Angela came up with many of the Brexiteer arguments in this interview. Here are some of her ‘whoppers’.
The will of the people must be respected
Horseshit. We are fast approaching the point where 70% of people in Britain believe that Brexit has failed. Angela appears not understand that democracy is NOT a project. It is a process. She would not even be an MP if democracy were a project as women would not have a vote or be able to participate in society. We would be more like Saudi Arabia under Angela’s view of democracy.
We can’t just rejoin
Bollocks. Whilst it’s true that all takes time, the only thing preventing us from starting the process is a backbone in politics. Read our article on the matter at Byline Times.
I met with four Labour Councillors campaigning in my area on Sunday. All said they fundamentally disagreed with the exec. Are they prepared to do anything about it? Of course not. We need ‘different’ and not more of the same. What matters is the beginning of the journey, not the end point.
We can’t rejoin on the same terms
This was perhaps Angela’s cleverest deception. By not being specific, she allowed people to fill in the dots by themselves … for example “oh we’ll lose the pound, Shengen, pints”, and many other myths put forward by the Brexiteers. These feed the Labour project fear narrative and Angela should really know better.
It is true that Old Albion will need to learn some appropriate humility as part of the joining process, instead of the English exceptionalism which characterised the Brexit vote. However, it is unwise to place more constraints in the way of success than is necessary before negotiations begin. When I reflect on the conversation I observed with Barnier, I know that rejoining is possible. Yes, it will be difficult and everything will be on the table. If Britain decided that it must keep the pound for example, I’m sure it would be considered. Since all is a trade, the EU may come with some other things we may have to move on to keep the pound, perhaps in the finance domain, perhaps an asymmetric trade-off. For example, we have just seen concessions on Northern Ireland traded with changes to the Erasmus scheme. Nonetheless, what we must do is establish the principle of rejoining and political will to do so. Once that is secured, we must then leave the negotiators to do the work, as we did in the Brexit negotiations. See our book on Rejoining the EU.
In the run up to the 2024 general election, I was told by numerous Labour voters and activists “Look, just vote Labour. It’s going to be alright. As soon as they get elected, they will end Brexit”. Although I did not believe them (and have been proved to be right), I agreed that the Tories needed to go. So I made sure thatmy election campaign did not harm Labour and then waited. I’m still waiting. In this article, I take a dispassionate view of Labour’s first year in power.
A good start marred by sheer incompetence
Labour got off to a good start, facing down “The Farage Riots” to great effect. It is to Labour’s actual decisions that I have the greatest issues. Decisions which barely touch the sides of our problems in Rebooting Britain, but which have generated so much heat and given the far right media so many easy wins. For example : The pensioners heating allowance last winter. Worth a measly £1.2 billion (Yes, I’d like to have £1.2 bn but it’s petty cash in the grand scheme of things). This generated so much heat for so little financial gain … in fact if the heat generated by public and media reaction had been stored we could have heated the whole country for several winters!! Worse still, Labour have now backtracked on it, long after the damage to the Labour brand has been done.
Death by 1000 Brexit ameliorations
Labour claim to have kept their Brexit red lines but in fact broken them in several areas. See Labour’s Red Lines. This has not gone unnoticed by Farage and the Alt Right Wing press. Even though Labour’s strategy on Europe amounts to “death by 1000 Brexit ameliorations” rather than more fundamental fixes, they have gained just as much damage to the Labour brand as if they had applied to Rejoin the EU. Brexit costs us £140 Billion every year in lost opportunity and taxes. This dwarfs the pensioners’ heating costs, PIP, social care etc.
Shameful behaviour
The PIP fiasco was yet another disastrous decision, presumably informed by the triumph of ideology over pragmatism and an adherence to the doctrines of Morgan McSweeney. On this subject, I find it hard to tell the difference between Starmer’s government and the Tories. I could go on about rollback on climate commitments, social care, toadying to Trump due to our Brexit weakness and Labour’s point blank refusal to provide safe routes for migrants, instead preferring to up the ante about undocumented migration, in order to pray at Nigel Farage’s fascist altar.
Sympathy for the devil?
Yes, we have had 14 years of managed decline via austerity on steroids amplified by Brexit, and most people do not understand how long it takes to turn the economic cycle round, so it’s slightly unfair to expect Labour to be able to waive magic wands on all the issues competing for their attention. However, there was no need for Labour to prey upon our most vulnerable citizens in order to look tough for a few knuckle dragging gammons in the so called red wall. There are plenty of other good choices to be made. There is no way Labour can discuss growth without confronting the Brexit elephant in the room. See our work in Somerset for the Labour MP there. Labour are also shamefully complicit in the genocide in Gaza and for trying to criminalise old age pensioners who use the word Palestine as part of civil protests.
Death by 1000 ameliorations is still death
We were asked to give an interview for Dubai TV in Arabic regarding the Kensington Treaty. This is an agreement between Chancellor Merz and Keir Starmer on defence and security, climate, economics, trade and STEM co-operation. Starmer chose to highlight the rather thin issue of some basic co-operation on migration control to appease Farage. Here is the raw interview. We simply need to apply to rejoin EU fullyto overcome the problems facing Brexit Britain. Death by 1000 Brexit ameliorations is still death, albeit a slow one.
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This is a short story about the power of networking and connectivity. It took place over several weeks and involved at least 8 people from Swindon to Italy, Florida, Tunbridge Wells and Northern Ireland … It shows how “Parking on Red Lines” can sometimes be of value …
I was talking with Steve Rouse, leader of Swindon for Europe and instigator of “Dance Europa”. He explained how he had a difficult conversation with his Labour MP about their Brexit “red lines”. He pointed out that Labour can drop red lines on pretty much everything from Climate Change, but apparently not on Brexit. I popped that thought in my incubator … and shared it on our WhatsApp group.
Fast forward to our meeting at Reboot Britain. I was explaining Steve’s challenge to the team. Then Paul Cawthorne produced one of his famous lists on reasons why Labour’s red lines are seriously flawed … a little later and we get to the point that Labour have already broken its Brexit red lines on Gibraltar. If it can do this, it can apply to Rejoin the EU.
Although I am giving up on collaboration, I remain open to honouring great ideas when they come. I was compelled to make this one page summary (and Paul’s other meme) on red lines.
Parking on Red Lines
Send a letter with these graphics to MPs and share with influencers on social media.
Send a letter with these graphics to MPs and share with influencers on social media.
This story demonstrates the power of collaboration, joining the dots and why “Parking on red lines” matters. Thank you to the team for this. It’s a pity we cannot unify around the idea of Rejoining the EU. We still have as many formulations of what the problems are, what the obstacles are and what the end game is. Multiple perspectives on ends and means. These are typical characteristics of what I call “Wicked Problems“. Divergence on ends and means is at the heart of why we lose. The only good Brexit is a dead Brexit and the only good answer is to drop the red lines and apply to Rejoin.
Take Action – Park the Red lines
Write to your MP using these points above, the graphic and a copy of our book on Rejoining the EU. Having spent 32 years leveraging creativity, good ideas come from diverse connections and not from linear planning. Parking on red lines matters !!
Next steps – Remove Reform
I’m talking to Reform Watch today to see if we can join some more dots with our book on Brexorcism and our group “Fact Check Fash”. I recently had a letter from the Labour MP in Portishead explaining that they are holding a town hall meeting on Brexit following the lines of our suggestion for a national conversation on the matter in “A Better Britain“.
I’m also planning to stand for Council here in Medway to ensure Reform UK do not take hold in my area. Please support the campaign via Remove Reform UK.
I was called to give some interviews for various Middle Eastern TV platforms on the reasoning for Mark Rutter’s visit to UK on Monday 9th June. The interviews are obviously not in English, so here I set out some of the arguments I made. The TV clips can be found below.
37 pence a day for 70+ years of peace in Europe
Mark Rutte visited UK to shore up support for NATO, Ukraine etc.
Starmer is desperate for friends in a post Brexit jurassic world. However, kowtowing to Trump and Farage is not the right strategy. More courage is needed from Starmer. Morgan Mc Sweeney must go.
Trump knows that Starmer is beleaguered by Brexit so he uses Britain as a bridgehead to batter Europe and the EU for his ally Putin.
Our natural partner is Europe and Britain must show unity. We have no other choice and cannot continue with “cakeist democracy”.
Sadly, the only defence strategy is to show Putin a united front.
UK is strapped for cash due to Brexit. But a 1% rise in defence spending equates to £30 billion pa. Brexit costs us £140 billion EVERY year in lost opportunity and tax receipts, so defence uplift can be afforded if Starmer will face down the Brexit elephant in the room. Read more at Rejoin the EU.
Peace is more than the absence of war. Brits paid 37 pence a day each for our EU membership. Go compare how much we paid for EU membership from your council tax bill (see below).
Whilst Starmer needs to be courteous to President Trump, he goes too far in the appeasement game. Instead, he must learn from John Bolton, Mark Carney, Chancellor Merz and President Zelenskyy.
Moving from 2.5% to 3.0% in the next Parliament is simply too little, too late. It places politics before country. Do better.
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.
Here is our review of the Rejoin EU debate in Parliament on 24 March which found that Brexit was overwhelmingly a disaster. You can read the full transcript here.
Rage Against The Brexit Machine
There was unified Rage Against The Brexit Machine from right across the political spectrum save for the Tory party and Reform UK, who were too scared to attend. This rage even included Labour, who came as close as possible to being censured by the Labour party machine. Stella Creasy, in particular, gave an excoriating account of the damage being inflicted by Brexit, but, of course, stopped short of calling for Labour to reverse it, putting party before country. They will pay for this in support as I understand from inside sources that people are leaving Labour in droves. Is she waiting for her moment to unseat Starmer? We shall see. Here is an excerpt:
“Brexit is a disaster. It is a disaster by anybody’s metric, not least those according to whom it was purported to be a route to the promised land. The pandemic spared some of the blushes of those who still try to claim that we have got some elusive sovereignty as a result of leaving the European Union, but we can see the damage. Our constituents can see the damage.
Many Members have already cited some of the relevant figures; let me cite some more. As a result of Brexit, 1.8 million fewer jobs have been created in our economy, and that number is likely to rise to 3 million by 2035. Some 16,500 small businesses have stopped exporting to Europe all together. Those of us who were part of the parliamentary delegation last week had the pleasure of listening to Lord Frost trying to argue that up was down, but we know the truth for our constituents. We have seen the damage.
To me, the Brexiteers are like those people—we all have met them on a night out—who join the group, start a fight in the club and get everyone kicked out, but who still maintain, three hours later, as they are walking everyone around a completely empty industrial estate somewhere, that they know a great club that everyone can get into.”
Stella Creasy
Former Labour MP Rosie Duffield extinguished the notion that Labour had made an election promise NOT to reverse Brexit, by pointing out the many election promises already broken by Labour.
“The people now in charge were campaigning, with those of us who were here then, against Brexit several years ago, and I would like them to stick to that.”
Rosie Duffield
Creasy chose a particularly pathetic excuse to justify why Brexit could not be ended, by stating that it would be “difficult”. FFS, this is the job of politics and politicians, to do difficult things to make the world a better place!! Brexit was difficult, so stating the obvious as a reason to do nothing was possibly one of the ludicrous reasons to let Brexit continue that I’ve heard. This fits in with Paul Cawthorne’s list of reasons to do nothing articulated by Remoaners on an almost daily basis.
Friends Reunited
The debate was very cordial and was a model example of the kind of democratic behaviour we can return to when the Brexit nightmare has been put into a grave. It gave a united voice to the many Lib Dems who spoke, the SNP, Plaid Cymru and Independents. Impressive stuff from all. Here’s a few highlights:
“We can see from the number of Liberal Democrat contributions that this subject is very important to our party. My hon. Friend the Member for Tunbridge Wells (Mike Martin) talked about the impact on defence, and my hon. Friend the Member for Stratford-on-Avon (Manuela Perteghella) talked about higher education. My hon. Friend the Member for Lewes (James MacCleary) spoke about youth mobility and the Pan-Euro-Mediterranean convention, while my hon. Friend the Member for Brecon, Radnor and Cwm Tawe (David Chadwick) talked about the impact on farmers.
My hon. Friend the Member for Bath (Wera Hobhouse) gave a very personal reflection on her own journey, for which I am grateful, and my hon. Friend the Member for South Devon (Caroline Voaden) talked about fishing. My hon. Friend the Member for Wokingham (Clive Jones) spoke eloquently about barriers to trade. My hon. Friend the Member for Wimbledon (Mr Kohler) gave a polemic, which I really enjoyed, and my hon. Friend the Member for Melksham and Devizes (Brian Mathew) made a particularly interesting contribution about health co-operation, for which I thank him.”
Sarah Olney
“I encourage Labour Members to pursue this issue and keep on taking it to their Government—to argue with passion and conviction that they want the UK to be back in the European Union. That is the only thing that will satisfy the petitioners, because that is what they want. As has been rightly said, the UK public are way ahead of the House on this issue; some 60% of them now want the UK to rejoin the European Union. We should look at what they want. If one of the parties—just one—were to say, “We are totally committed to full EU membership,” that would be immensely popular; it would go with the grain of public opinion throughout the United Kingdom.”
Pete Wishart
“The Government must do what is right for the British public and not just run scared of the hon. Member for Clacton and the rest of his quarrelsome rag-bag of little Englanders and cheerleaders for Trump and Putin. We are part of Europe, and I have no doubt that one day we will rejoin the EU and regain our position at its heart, just as Winston Churchill advocated. Until that day, we must work tirelessly towards fostering ever closer co-operation by breaking free of the red lines in which this Government have bound themselves so unnecessarily.” Paul Kohler
“The end of January marked five years since the UK left the EU. Although a majority of people in the UK, and indeed in Wales, voted to leave the EU at that time, the majority do not think it was a good idea any more. Polling shows that 55% of Britons now say that it was wrong for the UK to leave the EU, with just 11% seeing Brexit as more of a success than a failure. Let us also not forget that young people voted decisively to remain.”
Liz Savile-Roberts
“Speaking of the architects of the botched Brexit, where exactly is the hon. Member for Clacton (Nigel Farage)? According to Hansard, he has mentioned Brexit just twice since his election in July. Surely, if this Brexit deal was the monumental success that he and others promised, he would be reminding us no end of times. His silence speaks volumes. Even he seems aware that this supposed triumph is best quietly forgotten.”
James MacCleary
I do not think that anyone in this Chamber, or the petitioners, expects the Labour party to lead us back into the EU tomorrow. What we want to hear from this Labour Government is a commitment that that is their objective and that is what they will work towards.
Pete Wishart
“I urge the Government to move away from warm words—at the PPA, we all exchanged warm words about our new relationship—towards action and results. Otherwise, we will be talking about a reset for many decades. We need action from the Government now.”
Wera Hobhouse
“I still wholeheartedly believe in us rejoining the European Union—that is our future—and debates like this are part of that process. People need be under no illusion that this issue is going away; as the petitioners and those supporting them prove, this debate is ongoing in the country. There is also strong support, as the polling evidence shows, that the public believe that we made a mistake.”
Tim Roca
We cannot afford to wait 10 years to address some of the very real challenges that we face as a country. Practical, tangible steps can be taken to help to build a stronger and closer relationship with the EU.
James Naish
“What is it about enriching young people’s lives that frightens this Government so much?“
Liz Savile-Roberts
Several Labour MPs went further than I had expected them to go, whilst sticking to red lines, red lines made largely irrelevant and inappropriate by redneck Trump and his Russian sponsors. We have also received some gratifying replies from Labour MPs.
To absent friends …
Save for a couple of swivel headed Unionist loons talking vacuous BS about fish and democracy, the debate was devoid of the Brexit Culture Carriers. No Nigel, Tice, Johnson, Mogg, Braverman, Duncan Smith, Truss, Sunak, Patel, Redwood, Davis, Failing Grayling, Chope, Coffey, Whittingdale, Francois, Hoey, Steve (beardy wierdy) Hardman Baker, Jenkyns, Fabricate, Leadsom, Gullis, Mordaunt, Hayes and many more. When people tell me that now is not the right time to end Brexit in case we end up in a hokey cokey Brexit, they seem to forget that Brexit has no cheerleaders. Nigel F has mentioned the word just twice since taking up office in his constituency of Washington and adopted the easy lie that Brexit was in fact perfection but it was just executed extremely badly by the hard Brexit cabinet. One would have thought that if Brexit was so good, then Brexiteers would have been lining up in their thousands to extol its virtues at the event. No one came. This speaks volumes. Even the Tory Gammon MP for Fylde said that Brexit had provided many benefits, but was unable to name ANY in his summing up. And the party line offered by Labour MP for Thamesmead was lacking in substance and delivered in such a robotic style that I began to wonder if AI had arrived sooner than expected.
It ain’t over
The motion passed. Sadly that does not mean anything other than the debate was held. If we want anything to happen, we must make it so … So, the job is not finished ….
I was delighted to receive over 30 positive replies from MPs due to our mass mailing of our book Rejoin EU: Reboot Britain to MPs, the work of 60 people, including former Labour MEPs, a KC and subject experts across many fields. This nearly involved my detention in parliament due to taking 30 kg of book in a suitcase for a meeting there !!
We have about 300 Labour MPs / journalists and influencers still to mail with books and are hatching a plan to form a “coalition of the willing and able” to meet with Sir Keir Starmer directly. We will need around £4000 to undertake these tasks (£1500 for books, a meeting in London for 20 people and associated costs). If you can help, please send us some support via WISE, BACS, Go Fund Me etc.
And you can still mail your MP with our letter and a hard copy of the book – get the template here and the book on Amazon. Bulk orders at 60% author discount direct via e-mail at reboot@brexitrage.com
Debate Rejoin NOW
“The EU is a pragmatic project, but at its core it is also an idealistic one. It is a project grounded in ideals, and in the idea that the nations of central Europe should never go to war again. It succeeded in that mission, making it one of the most successful political projects ever in mankind’s history. When we are making the argument for rejoining the European Union, let us use the language of idealism, not just rationalism. Unless we build a case for the UK to rejoin the EU based on idealist language and get people to buy into the ideals on which the European Union was founded, we will not have long-term buy-in to the project among the people we need to convince.”
David Chadwick
“I fear that I am in danger of picking at the scars and wounds referred to by the hon. Member for Walthamstow (Ms Creasy)—a very learned Member—but I must reflect on these past nine years. On 23 June 2016, the people of Scotland voted to remain within the European Union by 62% to 38%. There was a majority for remain in every single one of Scotland’s local authorities. In anyone’s terms, that was decisive, and if the vote were rerun today, I suggest it would be even more decisive.”
Rachel Reeves’ financial statement aka emergency budget landed yesterday. Labour have abandoned their principles of support for those in most need in society. And yet, a simple remedy to our woes is at hand … to end Brexit and apply to Rejoin the EU immediately. Brexit is costing us £140 Million every year. Much more than the floor sweepings she is trying to hoover up from the poor, needy and vulnerable.
Trumpaction costs
Worst of all, buggered by Brexit, Labour are forced to go with a begging bowl to TrumPutin. What transaction costs will Trump require to cut Labour a bit of slack? The price will be high for sure as transactional (trumpactional) negotiation is all that Trump understands.
Will Britain allow US crap food to be dumped on our kids?
Will Britain be expected to place further distance from Europe?
Will Britain have to withdraw support partially or wholly from Ukraine?
Reeves should know that by dealing with Trump, she is dealing with Putin.
Reeves and Moartar
There are better answers than kowtowing to psychopaths … Rejoin the EU, starting NOW.
Britain cannot indulge in full-on direct trade wars as we are now weakened by Brexit as we are now about as important as Panama. We can however be more creative than that, by indulging in what are known in the trade as “assymetric actions”. The most obvious one is applying to Rejoin the EU. We must also postpone the state visit. There are many other things that Trump wants to run his MAGA America First industry. We could simply redirect these resources to other countries. We are not stronger than Trump, but we can be cleverer. At this point in time Reeves and Starmer are in the “Chamberlain position”.
Unite and Survive Trump
This is what lies ahead if Britain doesn’t stand up to Trumputin:
Labour’s Brexit Jurassic Theme Park.
Brexit Hannibal Lecter Starmer 2024.
Your poor huddled masses, let’s club ’em to death. And get it over with and just dump ’em on the boulevard. Lou Reed.
Buy us a coffee (or more) via WISE, BACS, Go Fund Me etc. if you wish to help us do more.
No, not occupy Greenland !! The real Project 2025 is to Rejoin the EU. Our new book is out. Order your copies on Amazon. To get multiple discount copies at author discount of just £3.50 plus P&P, please mail me via reboot@brexitrage.com The main uses of the book are to:
Send physical copies to MPs, journalists and influencers in UK and Europe. A physical copy is a coffee table item and much more likely to be read than a digital copy of the book.
Place in cafes, libraries, universities (e.g. politics / history courses), pubs, clubs, book clubs and other social settings to change minds about Brexit and Europe.
Use it for the basis of talks to communities to Brexorcise groups.
Here is the press release. Feel free to use it on social media.
Sir Keir Starmer has stated that there is no case to Rejoin the EU. We disagree and 60 of us wrote this book to explain why the case for applying to Rejoin the EU is overwhelming and urgent. This will help as part of a strategy to Reboot Britain and begin the path towards sustainable growth.
Although ending Brexit and applying to Rejoin the EU is not a one size fits all magic bullet solution to Britain’s problems, the impacts will be wide ranging and felt right across the STEEPLE factors. (Social, Technological, Economic, Environmental, Political, Legal and Ethical). Contrary to what some might say, Brexit is far from done. However, we are done for if we refuse to confront the Brexit elephant in the room. It is not so much that we must Rejoin the EU, but that we cannot afford not to do it.
Please send the book to MPs, influencers, journalists, friends, family and those few who still think that Brexit was a good idea, poorly executed. It will begin the Brexorcism conversation anew, now that 2/3 of the population accept that Brexit was a mistake.
Featuring contributions from Dr Charlie Clutterbuck (Author, Bittersweet Brexit), Michael Hindley (former MEP), Ian Forrester KC, Wendy Nowak, Mark Sampson (Iron Man Records), Helga Perry, Terence Knott (President Amicale Europe Pays de Fayence), Paul Cawthorne, Julie Ward (former MEP), David Powell, Sue Bird, Adrian Ekins-Daukes (former EU Commission diplomat), Paul Weller, Irina Fridman, John Falch, Kevin McDonald, Judith Spencer and Andrew Hessleden.
You may also enjoy our other publications : “Reboot Britain” – a book on the gentle art and discipline of Brexorcism and “Private Eyelines” – a book on Brexit satire which busts the myths of Brexit using the power of humour mixed with facts.
A letter to my new MP Naushabah Khan. I supported her candidacy in the General Elections, helping to split the Tory vote three ways. Even more pleasing I got a reply on her 2nd day in office. This validates my decision to stand and, of course, my strategy to ‘do no harm’ to Labour during my campaign, in spite my key difference over Brexit. Write your own letter to your MP. Feel free to use mine as a template.
The next five years
Morning Naushabah,
Firstly, congratulations on your appointment – fully deserved !!
My campaign was instructive in so far as it revealed something that I already knew … just how little Rehman Chishti bothers to deal with local issues unless it was multi-faith or Saudi arms ‘consultancy’ – coughs a bit …. But turning to the positives here …
I wonder if you will reverse this lack of consultation by installing ‘citizens’ assemblies’ here in Gillingham and Rainham? I know you are much more plugged into local issues than Mr Chishti, but I detected a distinct lack of public consultation from my hundreds of miles cycling round the constituency and in cafes / bars and fb groups in recent times. There is disquiet about a number of current initiatives where local consultation would lead to better solutions.
And, of course, you will expect me to ask you to put an end to Brexit as a priority and not in 2032 as Tristan Osbourne has mentioned a few times. Nobody will know what Brexit is by then and the damage will be complete, much of it irreversible. Nigel F will exploit a slow drift towards Rejoin in 2029 anyway if he is still around. Keir need not have boxed himself in on Brexit. It would have been enough to say that Brexit isn’t working, but there we are. And slow death by a thousand sector by sector ameliorations (what I call logical incrementalism in Reboot Britain) is also not an answer. Mr S seems puzzled by the question of a business case for Brexit. I am not and will be writing one in the coming week. In common with 2019, people loaned their votes to Labour in order to remove the terrible Tories. I doubt that will happen a second time and I realise how unfair this is, given the scale of things that need improving, but that’s politics as they say !
On a note of help, you can rely on my assistance in every way to improve the high street and other areas in which I can provide help. I’m also a skilled campaigner having received more votes than I deserved and having been told by many people that although they wished to vote for me, would I mind if they voted Labour to ‘carry the ming vase across the ice rink’. I did not mind and actively encouraged it.
You probably figured out at the hustings that I am supremely talented as a ‘critical friend’. I am presently bogged down in getting repairs made to my property due to criminal damage and knife crime by Reform UK acolytes, but once I have raised funds to pay for their criminal activities, I will be ready to assist in making Gillingham and Rainham a better place.
