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Brexit BS

This week’s quotes

Updated on date by author

From Don Adamson, Brexorcist in Chief.

Tory Brexit Scum

This week’s quotes: “open goals that Labour are constantly missing … we have had uncaring people in high office before … rarely have they been as uncaring and incompetent as Priti Patel and Sue Ellen Braverman …disaster of Brexit … fake balance has corrupted TV in recent decade … Brexiters and Tory Party … to blame for everything … what does Labour think it is playing at? … Jeremy *unt knows that doctor’s pay has fallen relative to inflation since the Tories came into power … we are losing British trained doctors … go abroad where the pay and conditions are better … raw sewage pumped into English rivers on average 825 times a day … 

Frack off …

What the papers say

Lawyers for the Daily Mail successfully argued in the High Court that that the names of Daily Mail journalists accused of crimes should remain secret … Graham Johnson confessed to fabricating stories for the Murdoch press …  Gavin Burrows has provided contradictory witness statements to both sides in the Mail litigation … prompted chair of the UK statistics authority to write to the Tory Party to say their infographic was misleading … former Energy Minister Chris Skidmore MP … has been receiving salary of £80,000 a year as an adviser to a company … setting up a business.. Former education minister Gavin Williamson … will be paid £50,000 a year for seven hours work a month … News UK, the company that launched Talk TV lost owner Rupert Murdoch £4M in last financial year … even more than £31M lost by rival GB News… 

Cost of living

Britain’s annual rate of inflation is 10% … still stubbornly high and twice that of US … populist economic model is bust … extraordinary … nightmare … reckless economic model … government has treated business with contempt … only bad options left … surging costs have kept the annual inflation rate in double figures … Britain’s post pandemic inflation rate … stubbornly higher than many of its peers … Tories will be remembered as the party who made most people poorer over 14 years and screwed up public services … there are more credible ways to count inflation … NHS is a stressful and poorly paid place … struggles to retain staff … junior doctors choose to work overseas … junior doctors left the profession a huge cost to the taxpayers for training them … something has gone badly wrong … real pay has fallen to around 14% below levels in 2010 …

The NHS

150,000 vacancies in vital jobs across the NHS … method is not working … Australia, New Zealand and Canada are only too happy to employ doctors we have paid £250,000 to 5000,000 to train … overseas recruitment is drying up because word is out NHS conditions are awful … excess deaths and waiting lists already high … UK has fewer doctors per head of population than most comparable countries and worse public health … worst public health crisis in a century … profiteering pack … profits of £78.4 M on income of £468M … extreme profits made by suppliers of PPE and testing kit … multi billion pound extent to which taxpayers were overpaying …

Brexit NHS Farage
We’re still waiting for the £350 million EVERY week Johnson

Brexit superpowers failing

We have no chance of being the new Silicon Valley and the Tories know it … all such promises will remain hollow … Tory politicians are anti Woke, despise the left wing ‘blob’ of human rights lawyers and civil servants … they want to represent the ‘somewheres’ and not the rootless cosmopolitan ‘anywheres’ … the ‘anywheres’ can take a hint … they will go anywhere to avoid the hate speech the Tories are spouting … what are the chances of UK emulating California … Zero … UK is lagging because we de-industrialised under Thatcher … our education system produces too few teenagers with maths and science skills … EU has agreed to pour in €6.2B of subsidies into semiconductor design … our young innovators are barred …

London is an attractive place for high flyers … in banking … Australia has become a Mecca for UK qualified doctors and nurses … Brexit has seriously damaged Britain’s ability to be part of the tech innovations story …  youngsters have to believe that this is a country with a future, not just a past … Richy Scumbag has always been reluctant to talk about Infosys, the Indian IT giant founded by his father in law … government’s own database has shown the company has been involved in £172 M worth of public sector contracts … Scumbag’s wife holds 38.9M shares worth around £89M in Infosys … dividends £12M a year … not liable for UK tax …

Raab C Brexit

Dominic Raas … massively unpopular … more than half his constituents do not want him or his ideology… graceless remorseless death of a desperate man … Raas wrote the least contrite resignation letter of the modern era … Raas told the BBC that civil servants were out to sabotage Brexit, parole reform and overhaul of human rights laws … Tory Peer Lord Marland said exit of Raas … a conspiracy by the civil service … if anything the opposite is true … Raas did not recognise wise counsel when offered it … Johnson claimed ‘the civil service wants to destroy me’ … remorseless attacks on Civil Servants … is deeply corrosive to good government … populist politics … premise that there are simple solutions to complex problems … when the absurdity of this becomes clear the next step is the attribution of blame: the vilification of people supposedly obstruct the popular will … Judges are enemies of the people …

Parliament is unlawfully prorogued … civil servants are plotting against popular ministers … The civil service deserves a gold plated ‘thank you’ for keeping the country running while the Tories have been preoccupied with a seven year long nervous collapse over Brexit, the economy and tribal identify … Raas was one of the worst Foreign Secretaries of modern times (a disaster during the retreat from Kabul) … Underlying this is the weakness of Richy Scumbag … looked desperately for a loophole that would allow him to keep Raas … Scumbag clings to Sue Ellen Braverman ,,, she is a human shield between him and the far right … Scumbag presides over a hung Parliament of factions … just waiting to see how bad the damage is in local government elections … Tory edifice continues to crumble and the country suffers accordingly … Raas … pathetic conspiracy theories are just another manifestation of this protracted decline … a reminder that desperate people really will say anything …

Murdoch

I wanted to see Rupert Murdoch put his hand on the bible and burst into flames … an alternative facts’ media empire … did concede that Fox News promoted 2020 election falsehoods … Murdoch has got away with it … what is $787.5M  when you have another $20B  to spare … Fox News broadcast of lies … the settlement is tax deductible … Murdoch thought ‘the election is a hoax’ thing ‘really crazy’ … Fox fact checkers considered the promotion of election deniers as ‘dangerous’ and ‘mind blowing nuts’ … hoodwinked outright fools … *ucker Carlson was the fountainhead…stoking ‘white hatred’ … maintaining a toxic workplace … Johnson and Thick Lizzie ludicrously turned up for the dinner at Hillsborough Castle … even he must have felt the coldness of the cold shoulders turning as they saw him loom … qualities of bad leaders ‘bitterness, jealousy and paranoia … the damage Brexit has done to the Good Friday Agreement … change of government in London cannot come a day too soon …

Little Brexit Britain

Britain has been diminished by Brexit …People in France remain baffled why a once powerful partner in the European project has been stricken low by an act of elective impoverishment … Claims that Rejoiners are lying about the true cost of leaving the EU are more absurd than ever … Lord Adonis said in 2016 that the vote caused a nervous breakdown in Whitehall … it is a jump to suggest that this proves the existence of a dastardly plot …. Remainer propagandists like nothing better than to use ‘official figures’ to suggest things are not working …

In Tombsland if figures do not show that Brexit is a triumph they must be the work of a dark conspiracy that supposedly pro Brexit ministers have been deplorably slow to disavow ‘misleading’ statistics … attacks on what he calls ‘dodgy figures’ … make no sense at all … The UK would see income losses of about £57B annually … in fact we are losing £40B annually so the cost of leaving is four to five times higher than the cost of membership and that is only if you count the cost of leaving the single market; just one small part of the EU … Swathes of the UK political and columnist class have lost their sanity over the visit by Biden to UK and Ireland … UK’s strange neediness towards America … “

Brexit cannibalism
Posted in Brexit, Brexorcism, Britain, Britastrophe, Keir Starmer, Labour, Liz Truss, Sovereignty, Sunak | Tagged , , , , , , , | Leave a reply
Brexit NHS Farage

The NHS and Brexit

Updated on date by author


From a friend … This tells the story of the reality of Tory Brexit cuts in graphic detail …

Hi everyone, just want to explain to you all why I have been quiet since before Christmas.
Also to those of you that may be a bit cynical that the A&E is not in as bad a crisis as it seems.
I can tell you the images that are shown on TV are the easy on the eye images.
This is my experience please read to the end …
Before Christmas I had the flu virus. I made two attempts to get a doctor’s appointment. Both failed and I ended up needing antibiotics for what took place subsequently.
On Christmas Day I was in so much pain was taken to Medway hospital by ambulance had intravenous antibiotics sent home to come back Wednesday
On Wednesday attended SDEC (Same Day Emergency Care) after X-rays and bloods I was told I had severe pneumonia and pleurisy with infected fluid around my lung.
As no bed available I was sat in a recliner chair in SDEC treatment room 1.
There I stayed for 5 days.
There were 14 patients waiting for beds in an area that is not set up for long term patients hence SDEC.
in the day the general public and A&E patients were coming in for treatment next to us.
I was having constant iv painkillers antibiotics saline oxygen and nebuliser with all this going on around me.
As not a ward there were no washing facilities we had to use a public toilet which was often filthy NHS is short of cleaners.
I was left sitting in my own urine and diarrhoea as was too weak to walk out to the toilet. I vomited all down myself but no nurse was available to help me . The other patients were trying to help each other.
I honestly thought I would die in there.
The nurses were writing notes on paper towels as they had no paper.
Took 3 days to get a pillow and blanket.
I do not blame the nurses and other staff at all. They are so over worked and kept apologising for the situation. They are not equipped in that area for long term patients.
They had to search for breakfast and meals for us.
On the 6th day I was moved to a ward normally I hate going in to a ward but when I got there it felt as if I had stepped in to heaven it was clean, calm and quiet and when the nurse said would I like a wash (I had not had a wash for 6 days and had sores on my bottom).
I broke down sobbing. I had been so traumatised by what I experienced the nurse sat and held my hand to calm me.
I was in that ward for 2 days it felt like heaven.
I am now home with a 6 week recovery.
I do not blame the staff at the hospital.
I blame the Government.
“To get Brexit done“ they promised.
“To put £350 million EVERY WEEK into The NHS”.
“To build 40 new hospitals”.
“To fund and train 50,000 nurses”.
40, 000 have left the profession.
They have not delivered any of the above.
Our NHS is broken, A&E is in crisis and we need another A&E hospital towards Swale to cope with the amount of houses being built in Kent.
I am totally traumatised by what I experienced. No one should go to hospital and have to go through that.
Fuck The Tories.
This is their doing. They need to make it good.

Check our work out by clicking the image

Posted in Brexit, Brexorcism, Britain, Britastrophe, Europe, Labour, Liz Truss, NHS | Leave a reply
Reboot Britain

The last angry Brexiteers

Updated on date by author


Michael and Alan are angry about Brexit. So they have decided to turn their fire on me in their own version of the ‘Daily Mail v Prince Harry’ moment. I had published a post about my books on Rebooting Britain in response to a facebook post by Led By Donkeys. Alan immediately tries to ‘look for a motive for my crime’ and assumes incorrectly that writing books on Brexit is a money spinner. That’s the only reason he can come up with, based on zero knowledge of how publishing works:



Later on, Alan runs away when asked about the benefits of Brexit. Again this is typical in an online exchange and is one of the reasons why I don’t bother with online Brexorcisms, except when I need some entertainment.

End of communication
Get copies of the books by clicking the page above


Michael is made of stronger stuff. He wants free copies of my books, but he is not a reviewer, a media person or anyone with reach and influence. He finds it hard to understand why I refuse to give 6 months of work away for free to someone with no track record or profile. This trait is not just reserved for Brexiteers. I know plenty of Remainers that refuse to learn the skills needed to change the game. On the one hand they are happy to buy badges and tat and pay Andrew Adonis et al for their writing, they are affronted when I ask that they value my efforts. Oh well. So much for not being an elitist. No wonder we lost three times.

Michael pleads for the book whilst simultaneously pointing out that he already knows what’s in it. Some of our chat on facebook is out of chronological order in what follows below, but I think you will get the gist of Michael’s beef.

It was emotional Michael. Learn the skills of Brexorcism here.

Posted in Brexit, Brexorcism, Britain, Britastrophe, Europe, Labour, Liz Truss | Leave a reply
Brexorcism

Rescue me

Updated on date by author

It is time for Keir Starmer, Ed Davey and their parties to acknowledge that Brexit has destroyed Britain’s resilience and offer a grown up analysis of what needs to be done to save the country from itself. David Lammy managed to dodge the bullet this am on the BBC. Brexit Remains the elephant in the room. It’s time to grow up as Jackie Brook points out elegantly.




Regards The Truss, Liz must now listen to moderate Conservatives inside and outside her party. The underlying problem is Brexit, which has destroyed Britain’s ability to absorb shocks. She must make amends to save Britain and her party. It may be too late of course. The appointment of Jeremy Hunt is a nudge strategy in this general direction. Yes, I know that some of you will have another word for Jeremy, but set against the swivel eyed ERG loons, it is an interesting strategy at this time. She faces a radical decision or oblivion and we know that she is (a) a Janusian thinker and (b) willing to be unpopular. Remainers remain (sic) stuck in the hedonic response cycle of only ever seeing one way out of this problem when binary politics delivered Brexit:

I am as tough on the thinking of Remainers as I am Brexiteers … 🙂 🙁


A general election is unlikely unless forced in some way. It is yet another Remainer unicorn of low probability. Hope is not a strategy.

Forget “Britannia Unchained”, see our work on a better Britain in a better Europe for a better World.

Posted in Brexit, Brexorcism, Britain, Britastrophe, Europe, Labour, Liz Truss | Leave a reply
Truss Fridge

Reflections from a sea dog

Posted on date by author

Don Adamson writes from Yorkshire on the latest mayhem which contributes to our Britastrophe.

This week’s quotes: “Johnson’s ‘levelling up’ agenda is ailing and listless, a casualty of Johnson’s lack of seriousness …   Few doubt the new chancellor’s intellect but he swings between genius and idiocy …  an attention span of four seconds … The Chancellor rattles the Treasury … the Treasury needs good advice more than ever … may not be enough to avoid a downturn … None of this bodes well for the public finances. Yet the government is expected to announce tax cuts … Having got their woman into Downing St dodgy financiers can look forward to … deregulate their businesses yet further … Kwarteng should be able to get his ideas through with less sense checking from experienced officials…. However resounding the next crash the sound for friends of Kwasi wil be ‘kerching’ … Department of Health and Social Care is proving shy about efforts to claw back billions of pounds from underperforming suppliers … progress on suspect suppliers is close to bugger all …Priti Patel put former Australian Foreign Secretary (who helped create Australia’s harsh anti-refugee system) in charge of ‘independent review’ of her Rwanda scheme  … leaked files showed guards hitting children or demanding sex from female inmates in grim camps in Papua New Guinea … If Downer could not detect abuse in Australia’s infamous offshore camps it seems unlikely he will spot it in Rwanda … Chris Philp, new appointment as Chief Secretary to the Treasury … why pay any tax at all when they can simply fold their companies when owing hundreds of thousands of pounds to Revenue and Customs … It was refreshing to hear a Labour Politician unapologetic about opposing Brexit, clear about the palpable damage was doing …  Sept ans plus tard qui peut pretendre que le Royaume-Uni a beneficie du Brexit (Translation – after seven years who can pretend that the UK benefits from Brexit) … the answer is next to nobody. The tragedy is that the few who do pretend are sitting round the cabinet table, living in la la land imagining that Brexiters who ‘knew what they were voting for’ knew that it was bankers getting bigger bonuses … many of Thick Lizzie and Kwarteng’s plans are detailed in an economically illiterate pamphlet they published ten years ago … Britannia Unchained … unremarkable, badly researched, cherry picked data using taxi drivers’ anecdotes as ‘evidence.’ … evidence is thin … lifting the ban on bankers’ bonuses … even Johnson retreated on this idea … the authors without a science or maths degree between them or any sense of irony … one of the most illiterate parts of the prospectus is the notion that we will all have to work harder … in fact British workers put in longer hours but productivity remains low … the obvious change  is more training, investment and better management … if you don’t believe ‘Britannia Unchanged’ the pamphlet has the evidence to convince you  … the opinions of taxi drivers … the authors are terrible at maths, economically illiterate, ignorant of science and engineering and completely unaware of how to research a book or write well … smug, selfish, self satisfied, lacking in empathy, ignorant of facts and believing in their own fantasy economics …unfortunately they are now running the country …

Pip Pip            

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

Posted in Boris Johnson, Brexit, Brexorcism, Britain, Britastrophe, Cheese, Europe, Labour, Leadership, Liz Truss, Northern Ireland, Politics, Sovereignty, Ukraine | Leave a reply
Kettling Johnson

Boris Johnson’s legacy

Updated on date by author

I don’t really think that Boris Johnson deserves more than one minute to reflect upon his legacy so I made several videos in less than one minute on this subject. In fact James O’Brien summed up the detail so well that I don’t feel i could better that. In summary we are talking about:

Broken promises on Brexit (It is NOT “DONE”, it will consume a lifetime of wasted time and money to continue the pretence). To read the full history, read Private Eyelines – Have I Got Fake Brexit News for EU and Reboot Britain – Strategies and skills to change minds on Europe and Brexit. Remainers and Rejoiners seriously need to up their skills if we are to win the next battle with the populists. Never forget that we lost two elections and a referendum, however inconvenient that fact is. Yesterday I delivered copies of these books to Sir Alan Sugar, Richard Branson and James O’Brien. I wish to send them to Hugh Grant next if anyone can help with this.

On Brexit, COVID and lies

Outright LIES on COVID (Johnson was late to the party when others were listening to experts. He conducted an experiment with genocide by placing infected NHS patients into care homes, causing 10’s of 1000’s of unnecessary deaths). The list goes on. These were political CHOICES and not inevitable. Johnson has been lying ever since he was born. Why would we expect any different from him?

On COVID, care homes and unnecessary deaths

On Brexit, Kettles and gold wallpaper

Industrial levels of distraction or dead cat politics, the latest one being the “kettle”. Even the kettle story is not correct. If you want your kettle to boil faster, descaling and using the correct amount of water will make bigger impacts on your bill. £20 is of course not even significant when compared with the actual energy price rises, but Johnson assumes that people cannot add up.

I don’t believe the Tories will call an election in order to lose their majority but if they do, we’ll need to do better than sharing memes on fb. The Daily Maul has set another dead cat loose on this subject today. Preparation is better than regret. Learn the skills to persuade people outside your bubble to change their voting behaviour here.

Join us on Monday September 12 at 8 pm on ZOOM to build momentum to remove the Brexit beast from our lives and build a better Britain in a better Europe for a better World.

Support our election fighting fund via Go Fund Me. Read our strategy for this at Brexit Doesn’t Pay.

Posted in Borders, Boris Johnson, Brexit, Brexorcism, Britastrophe, Corona, Cummings, Education, Europe, Farage, Immigration, Labour, Leadership, Liz Truss, Northern Ireland, Partygate, Politics, Racism, Russia, Sovereignty, Ukraine | 2 Replies

Keir Starmer and Rejoining the EU

Updated on date by author

I had a chance encounter with a Labour Councillor the other day whilst at gay pride in Rochester. We know each other from many years back and I like and respect him as a solid campaigner for Remain within the Labour party. He approached me because he recognised me from behind, as I had my ‘offensive swimming bag’ with me, pictured below.

Brexit-Watchers
Brexit-Watchers

After a brief exchange of pleasantries, he raised the issue of Labour’s strategy for Brexit. Here is what he told me:

“In our first term we will join EFTA.

In our second term we will have a referendum to rejoin the EU”.

Here is my analysis of this strategy, based on a much fuller treatment of the issue in my book Reboot Britain : Strategies to change minds on Europe and Brexit.

He claimed that Kier Starmer could not argue about ending Brexit at this time, due to his need to hold on to red wall seats at an election.  I dispute this position:

If Kier Starmer continues with the strategy of ‘making Brexit work’, he will be accused, quite rightly, of being a liar after being elected. This is the very thing that he has accused Boris Johnson and the Conservative party of doing and is therefore morally bankrupt.

Everyone knows that Starmer is a Remainer and therefore there would be no great loss if he were to remind us of this fact.  Boris Johnson reminds Keir Starmer of his EU / Remain credentials on a weekly and sometimes daily basis in parliament, so there is very little currency in the Daily Excess, Son or Maul revealing this ‘secret’.  Opinions about Brexit are changing rapidly, with Lord Sugar the latest person to call for Brexit to be reversed. 

The Labour Party seem to be terrified of the right-wing media, yet they themselves have a media machine.  Therefore, they ought to be able to put up a valid defence of his position if they needed to.  The Labour party somehow believe that their own media machine is inferior to the Tory party’s.  Perhaps Labour need to read my books as well.

My sense is that Keir Starmer is even more scared of the hard left element of his own party than the Conservatives and that this is driving his avoidance of the Brexit issue.  You have gotta love Mick Lynch’s ability to stand up and speak truth to power, but let’s not forget that Lynch is also a relic of the militant tendency from the 1980’s in terms of his wish to shut the borders and return us to Little Britain via Brexit myopia.

Let’s suppose that Starmer decided to ignore the hard left in his party. It is indeed possible that he would lose some votes in red wall seats.  Let’s guess that this may amount to 10% losses of seats in those areas. However he stands to gain anything like 20 to 40% of Conservative seats in other areas. Labour are allowing the militant tendency to dictate their strategy for re-election and this makes them no better than the bluekip Tories. I cannot recommend that any remainers vote for them under these circumstances, except where their candidates have a more enlightened view about Brexit.

My Councillor friend put it to me that Starmer simply cannot say the Brexit word at this time. Respectfully, I say this is horseshit.  He can say that Brexit isn’t working and has not delivered what was on ‘the brochure’ in 2016. He can also point to clear evidence to support such statements at this time, coming from UK in a changing Europe and our own work at Reboot Britain.  The Labour Party has fallen into the trap of believing that a poll in OK Magazine or the results of the latest focus group should dictate party policy. This is not leadership. Silence is assent and Starmer’s position is a clear demonstration of putting party before country, what Tony Blair describes as putting ideology before pragmatism.  I expected better from a clever man and I must conclude that, like the Tories, there are people who they are afraid of behind the scenes.

As regards Labour’s long-term plan, there are many flaws with this:

The EFTA countries are a small club of nations: Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway and Switzerland who value collaboration over competition. It is unclear as to how such a club would wish to invite an aggressive competitor with a track record for wanting ‘cake and eat it too’ from its relationships with other trading partners. Brexit Britain has demonstrated a complete lack of regard for the role of international law,  breaking deals made with others and riding roughshod over nations that it considers to be inferior to itself. These are hardly the kinds of elements of a compelling psychological contract to join a new trading bloc.  Joining EFTA also means accepting the four freedoms of the EU.  How will this be put to the knuckle dragging red wall Brexiteers?

The assumption of a second term in office is also questionable, particularly if it becomes apparent that Starmer lied to get into power. This makes him equivalent to Johnson and the mainstream media would certainly weaponise this. The second doubtful assumption is that another referendum would be desirable or indeed practical. Brexit has divided the nation and I very much doubt that the nation will look back on 2016 and want to repeat the exercise with all that it has brought. It is entirely possible that, by this time, many people will have forgotten most of what Michael Gove glibly called ‘bumps in the road’ and will not wish to open up the debate again.  The longer we leave this question, the more difficult it becomes, as divergence will be complete and the damage to lives and livelihoods will be complete.

My friend assumed that the binary ping-pong politics model remain resilient into the future. This itself is questionable. Brexit has of course unleashed a disruptive influence on British politics, with a number of parties now standing for anything but the current system. Within the next few years we will see the emergence of Gina Miller’s True and Fair party, the possible resurgence of the Lib Dems in the South, the departure of Scotland from the United Kingdom and the emergence of other single-issue parties such as the Rejoin party. Under such circumstances, I’m doubtful as to whether ping-pong politics will remain the norm. My friend tried to deal with this with me by saying that if I didn’t vote Labour I would get the Tories. My reply was simple. I stated that I cannot vote for a Brexit party and that Labour must do better than this.

I am not sure whether the Labour strategy was given to my labour councillor friend in order to appease him or for him to use to appease me. Although miracles are sometimes possible, the strategy he presented has more holes in it than a piece of Swiss cheese banned by Liz Truss.  He is a very good chap and I wanted to believe him.  But I ended up with the feeling that he himself may well be hanging onto unicorns and trying to ‘believe harder’.

Brexit Books
Brexit Books – Check them out on Etsy
Posted in Boris Johnson, Brexit, Brexorcism, Britastrophe, Education, Europe, Labour, Leadership, NHS, Politics | Leave a reply
Dear diary

Clarissa Cork’s Diary

Updated on date by author

A diary from the “Sunlit Uplands” written by Clarissa Cork.

My week (18th May – 24th May)

Tuesday 18th May 2022

My day started at about half past six when I woke up and realised that I was in the middle of a nightmare. I was living in 1509 (or was it earlier?) and the rich lords of the manor were taking food out of the mouths of starving children, the starving children in their rags and pale faces were looking at me pleadingly and begging for food. Meanwhile, in my dream, the lords of the manor (on horseback) are laughing at the poor, and as they ride off to their castles, they’re shouting across to each other, telling each other how much money they’ll give each other from the poor boxes they raided from the church. (Certainly NOT like Robin Hood).

Back in 2022, I glanced at my phone and saw the Guardian headlines: Liz Truss (looking fiercer than usual – and that’s quite fierce…) wants to renege on the Irish protocol – she doesn’t seem to care about risking the Good Friday Agreement!!  (Does she understand the Good Friday Agreement?).

There is also an article on the poor and the cost-of-living crisis – and how some families are going to MacDonalds to eat, shower and keep warm. We are reading about this daily. I must remind myself that this is happening in one of the richest countries in the world – although I acknowledge that our country’s economy is visibly on a steep decline….

And again, the images of starving people creep back into my head I realise – this is no dystopian nightmare – it’s our dystopian reality.

I try to get back to sleep, but I can’t. I keep returning to my nightmare.

A little later, I realise that I need to acknowledge that it’s another day, and I need to take the dog for a walk into the woods. After a while, the elephant in my room (the combination of Brexit and this government) becomes a small elephant and I almost forget my worries – but they never completely disappear.

I meet a pleasant woman in the woods with her dog, she’s like minded about the situation and the calamity that is Brexit. Apparently, she has avoided the news for two years because she finds it so stressful and worrying. Editors note : The Book of Brexorcism will help.

When I return from my walk, I discover that my husband is decanting my wardrobe (we must move soon) and his plan is that I take some of my many handbags to charity shops or give them away. Being a man, he has no idea about handbags – it is not his specialist subject. He doesn’t realise -after decades of living with a woman – that women need different handbags in a variety of shades and sizes for various different occasions, even though I don’t have many “occasions” any more these days…

Fortunately, he starts watching the football starts so this annoying birth twin of Marie Kondo is distracted for a couple of hours. Hopefully, prolonged by extra time.

Later I go to bed so that I can rerun my nightmare.

Wednesday 18th May 2022

Is it only Wednesday?

So much has happened in “Car Crash Britain”. Apparently, this government have rejected the proposal for a windfall tax that was suggested by the opposition. Perhaps they want to re-enact the Irish Famine? (Actually, it was really called the Irish Hunger because the Irish were allowed). There are people in the government who are descendants of those who played a key role in the Irish Hunger. This resonates with what’s happening today. Some people in the government are even wearing the costumes dating back from that era…

My husband and I have occupational pensions, in addition to our meagre state pensions (We have one of the worst pensions in the developed world). We know we are luckier than so many… yet here we are, in week three of the month and we have run out of housekeeping. I’ll have to have a rummage in the freezer, but if memory serves me correctly there’s nothing that constitutes a meal.

I’m toying with the idea of watching PMQ’s on catch up but then, can I take the emotional hit?

Perhaps not.

Ok. I did watch it.

It was shambolic. It was even worse than usual. The windfall tax was suggested (again) by Keir Starmer to mitigate the damage of huge fuel rises, but Johnson changed the subject and talked about the trans issue. What has that got to do with the windfall tax? Yet more obfuscation! Most people are focusing on surviving!

People are really suffering, yet this government are giving huge bonuses to people who are already incredibly wealthy.

Why?

Living in these times, in this country, with this government, is worse than I could have ever imagined.

I’m going to bed. In utter despair.

Turn despair into action. Join us at Reboot Britain.

Thursday 20th May 2022

Today the police fined more people who were at parties during lockdown at number ten Downing Street. These numerous fines didn’t include the Prime Minister or the Chancellor. Apparently, they were not at these parties. (I thought that I had seen them on photographs in the press. But I must have been imagining it).

The police say that there will be no further investigations into this.

Meanwhile, in the House of Commons SNP MP Mhairi Black makes a powerful and compelling speech about this government’s march towards fascism.

Are these two events related in any way?

Yes, I believe they are.

I know they are.

Live scenes from lockdown parties – the work of @aidangrooville on twitter

Saturday 21st May 2022

Today I was talking to one of our granddaughters. She goes to a good secondary school, one of our own daughters went there; also, I have friends who are still teaching, and they confirm that this school is one of the best.

I ask her what she is doing in English (this was her best subject in primary school). She tells me that she’s enjoying English Literature, but English language is a drudge because it’s all about grammar. Apparently, or so she tells me, her English lessons are spent chopping up sentences and learning such things as what adverbial clauses are – so she informs me that her enjoyment of English has virtually disappeared. This is a child who in the past, always had her head in a book.

Thank you, Michael Gove.

(Co-incidentally, I heard almost the exact same thing from a neighbour whose son is in year four in a local primary school (an excellent school: I know it well).

I asked her how her French was going… she said “Fine!”

My mother was a French speaker, so I was brought up with “some French”. We were chatting and this bright girl from a supportive, education-valuing family knew frighteningly little. I discussed this with my daughter and told her that at the same stage she and her siblings knew far more than this. As did I.

I realised with a heavy heart that this is, of course, the Tory plan. Drastically reduce spending on education, pay teachers badly so that people don’t stay long in the profession (they can’t afford to), make it more difficult to achieve reasonable grades because the exams have been made more punitive (and no course work components) and the odds are stacked against state school education. Add to that, the eye watering cost of university and the average child should be totally disenfranchised and disadvantaged.

(And I haven’t even mentioned the added negative impact of the cost of living crisis. It could be a problem if children need to eat as well as learn)

I’m more than convinced – to coin a phrase – that this is about creating a two-tier society: a private education for the rich, and a poorly paid alternative that will keep the masses – “the plebs” – in their place. The bonus being that they will be so uninformed and working so hard for a pittance, they will be too exhausted as a result of doing several jobs simply to survive, that they’ll not informed and/or motivated when it comes to voting. They will probably accept what they’re told in the right-wing press and vote against their own interests.

Oh! Hang on! Isn’t that what happened in the 2015, 2019 elections and Brexit?

But still, with underfunding in place, the Tories will hope that this will continue!

A win:win for the Tories.

I should acknowledge that although I disliked Thatcher and her government, I never felt that she wanted to diminish education. Kenneth Baker (although not overly popular at the time) introduced the 16 plus exam, followed by GCSE exams and I thought that this was a very good system. (Both my husband and I have spent all our working lives in education).

Also, Margaret Thatcher, Edward Heath, John Major and Michael Howard were all state school educated. They also didn’t charge university fees. A good move.

This “new dawn” (or is it “Golden Dawn”?) feels very sinister and very depressing.

Sunday 22nd May 2022

I am working hard not to get depressed. Sorry, I mean MORE depressed.

We decided we would try and watch some good television tonight in order to distract ourselves from depressing times; so, we watched “Grace” with John Sims (such a wonderful actor!) although the plot is grim – but, no spoilers here….

However, you can play “Spot the Tory character” (a game all the viewers can play in the comfort of their own home). He’s easy to spot in this programme.

(Maybe it was the cravat?)

He has no empathy and thinks of “poor people” as inferior and unworthy of consideration. His specialist subject is “Otherness”.

To distract ourselves from the miseries of these times, when the credits are being shown at the beginning, there’s an actor called Craig P……….. . We both used to teach a boy who was also called Craig P. Every time his name comes up, I say to my husband

“Craig’s doing really well, isn’t he? Who’d have thought he’d be so successful? And FAMOUS?”

My husband answers and replies that it’s “great news”.

I’m really getting into this surreal situation, so I add…

“How proud are you on a scale of 1 – 10?”

“SO proud. I cannot find the words” is his deadpan response.

But then he says “C, every time we see his name, we have this conversation at least twice every episode and now I feel that Craig has become a fixture in our lives. Can we stop?”

“OK!” I sigh.

(How boring….)

Later, I realise I haven’t read my Sunday paper, but these days it takes real courage to even open the pages.

Am I exaggerating?

No.

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Tony Blair

Tony Blair

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Continuing our theme on censorship, this piece, written by Alan Bullion was censored by Byline Times, presumably as it criticises the left. Whilst I don’t agree fully with all that it says, I would defend Alan’s right to say it to the hilt. All leaders and political systems have faults and some tend to believe that they are messiah like. Blair is not immune to our failings as humans and in this article, Alan argues that Tony Blair’s commitment to representative democracy may have set up the conditions for UKIP / Farage to gain oxygen and fuel the Brexit debate. As always at Re-Boot Britain, comments are welcome and free. In the words of George Michael, listen without prejudice.

Tony Blair is perhaps the most controversial Labour Prime Minister of the post-war period. Most come to bury not praise his significant legacy and reputation, especially since the furore surrounding the Iraq war and its subsequent aftermath. Just this year we have had an online petition attracting millions of signatures opposing his proposed knighthood, both from left and right-wing critics.

Indeed, it is often forgotten brushed aside that Blair led his party to a huge majority under the ‘New Labour’ project in 1997, followed by two more convincing general election victories, one after the Iraq war.

In order to better understand how the Brexit referendum of 2016 and its aftermath occurred, I have analysed the timeline and impact of several key events under the Blair/Brown governments which led up to those fateful events of Britain leaving the EU.

Of course, I am not suggesting that these actors alone were to blame. Farage, Cameron, Johnson, Cummings and several others – all privileged public-school educated white men – clearly played their part.

But as I will argue below, the actions of Blair and others around him led to a process where an already sceptical British public became increasingly critical of the EU and its perceived ills. This resulted in the calamitous narrow vote in favour of departure in 2016.

The fringe cause of Euroscepticism under Farage and the UK Independence Party (UKIP) had been previously the province of right-wing fanatics and Home Counties pub bores.               

The rise of UKIP as an electoral force

The first touchstone in our trajectory was when Blair went along with the proposal by the then Lib Dem leader Paddy Ashdown to introduce proportional representation in the 1999 elections to the European Parliament. This led UKIP and its leader Nigel Farage to gain a mainstream and increasingly influential foothold in politics. Blair had not been won over to PR, rather it was a political compromise to avoid the introduction of PR to elections for the House of Commons. or local government.

Ironically, while Farage was sceptical about winning an in/out Brexit referendum, Blair, along with Ashdown, Cameron and Clegg, were overwhelmingly enthusiastic.  They severely underestimated public fears, stoked by Farage, that such a binary vote would result in disaster on a huge turnout, driven by immigration and issues such as ‘sovereignty’.

Narcissist and messiah?

In June 2014, the novelist and former Labour acolyte Robert Harris, while publicising his book The Ghost, described Blair as a ‘tragic narcissist with a messiah complex’, who would be doomed to live a ‘tragic life’ and face trial at the International Criminal Court for alleged war crimes.

There was an element of truth in this harsh judgement. Both Blair and his barrister wife Cherie were often accused of being ‘money mad’, rushing around the world advising dubious autocrats on how to improve their image.

There might well have been an element of neediness there, which others such as former Labour MP Leo Abse psychologically analysed in The Man Behind the Smile. Indeed, Blair was well suited to the world of celebrity politics and self-publicists such as Kim Kardashian.The tragedy was that he would never be able to completely resurrect his image after the Iran/Iraq war, despite his other considerable achievements at winning elections.        

The truth is inevitably more complex. In my 1996 article ‘What Blair Believes’, published in the Jewish Quarterly, I argued that Blair was driven by a simplistic dualist ideology devised by Anglican mystic John Macmurray, which he imbibed while at university. This belief system basically sees protagonists in international politics as either essentially ‘good’ or ‘evil’, thereby explaining Blair’s support for US President Bush in Iraq.

Blair was highly active on the EU. For example, he was instrumental in establishing the cross-party grouping Britain in Europe, specifically to argue the case for the UK signing up to the Euro (single currency) and the European Monetary Union, via a popular referendum. This came to a crescendo in the wake of the sudden death of Princess Diana in August 2007. 

There were serious differences over this issue between Blair and Chancellor Gordon Brown. This was further exemplified by the clash over the Treaty of Lisbon and the Court of Justice of the European Union (ECJ), which was signed in December 2007 and came into force two years later under Brown.

Originally a referendum was promised by Labour Foreign Secretary Jack Straw for Spring 2006, but that never happened, adding more fire to the UKIP fray that the court was increasingly compromising British sovereignty. 

Eastern European migrants and the reserve army of labour

In May 2004, Blair, supported by Home Office minister David Blunkett, decided to allow migrant labour from the eight Eastern European countries that would be joining the EU. Unlike the UK, other EU member states such as Germany had instead opted to impose a seven-year delay from these countries achieving full entry to work.   

As these Eastern European migrants started to arrive, Blunkett went on BBC2 Newsnight to defend the policy, declaring that there was ‘no obvious upper limit on migration’. That calendar year alone there was a net increase of 350,000. Blunkett later conceded that he lost public support and made a mistake.

At the time I was visiting Kent sixth forms and colleges to make the case for remaining in the EU. Comments from working class children in those schools told stories of perceived resentment at migrants taking jobs such as cleaning, catering and car mechanics, and driving down wages.

It was in 2005 when I campaigned as a parliamentary candidate in Hammersmith and Fulham and was confronted on the doorstep by a British plumber who claimed he had been undercut by the nice Polish plumbers taken up promptly by middle-class housewives.

‘It’s all right for the likes of the Blairs, living their aloof and cosmopolitan lives in Islington and Brussels’, was the implication.

So now we come to 2022, with Tory cuts to universal benefits, rising food and fuel prices, and tax increases.

We are still talking about migrants … while there are severe shortages of food and farm labourers, lorry and bus drivers. And ironically, as the consequences of Brexit become ever more stark, arch Brexiteer Jacob Rees-Mogg has just been appointed by Johnson as minister for Brexit Opportunities. You couldn’t make it up.  

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Posted in Brexit, Britastrophe, Education, Europe, Farage, Immigration, Jacob Rees-Mogg, Labour, Leadership | Leave a reply
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