We have just produced these materials for the Tory Party Conference. Please share them widely:
Tory Brexit Scum is a Country and Western Punk Rock song by the band X RAY BREX. Download the album via Bandcamp. PG rated.
Tory Brexit Scum – see how they run …
And just for balance, we conducted an interview with BBC One News this week. We made the point that support for Labour was conditional on them opposing Brexit, which is perfectly possible, despite a load of bullshit from some areas of Labour. The BBC cut our comment on Brexit, naturally, but it was mentioned by Rosie Duffield. See below:
Denis MacShane is a former Labour MEP who has written several books on the folly of Brexit. Denis is a British former politician, author and commentator who served as Minister of State for Europe from 2002 to 2005. He joined the Labour Party in 1970 and has held most party offices. He was MP for Rotherham from 1994 to 2012. In the interview, MacShane treads a careful line as a Labour party member, but does point out that there is a new realism in politics with the presence of adults in the room and the fact that the culture carriers of Brexit are now wholly discredited. He points out that Starmer’s slogan “Make Brexit Work” is an empty promise.
Interview with Denis at UK in a Changing Europe
For a rounded appraisal of Labour’s position on Brexit, click on the image to read the article on Scottish Bylines.
Join Extinction Rebellion to surround Parliament from Saturday 21 April. Whilst I’m sure some will wish to go at le weekend, the imperative is to keep this protest alive into the following week when MPs return to Parliament. For this reason, it is imperative that people stage their efforts to run into Monday 23rd April and beyond. Parliament must be brought to a standstill. I’m not even sure that it will make any difference to our lives on a day to day basis. They are only interested in themselves. Brexit makes climate change more pronounced with moral hazard, a bonfire on environmental laws and Tory greenwashing.
Don Adamson reviews the week – there’s not enough time to get it all done within a short article !!
This week’s homework: Discuss the following statement. We used to have a system in this country. When the Tories ran out of steam Labour would take over for a while. When Labour ran out of steam the Tories would take over. It did not make for great government but it did provide for failure. That system does not work anymore. Tories have proved themselves unfit to govern and show no indication of having learned the error of their ways. Labour has been AWOL since 2010 and shows no indication of wanting to form a government. The only answer they have for inexcusable standard of government that we have is that Labour makes vague and unconvincing promises ‘to make Brexit work.’ To quote Shakespeare: A plague on both their houses. We have local government elections coming up. Vote for anybody, repeat anybody, who wants to Rejoin the EU.
Help us remove Boris Johnson from his seat – click the image
This week’s quotes: “Thick Lizzie and Toilet Kwarteng broke the economy … this budget is returning to Trussonomics… huge benefits for the rich … higher taxes and worse public services for the rest of us … good ideas that clash with Brexit ideology … useless ideas, waste of time and money but the Brexiters like it … incomes fall by further 6% … biggest drop in living standards since records began .. worst record for any major economy … rocked by post Brexit disruption … Global Britain is a lie … £29B in lost investment … future growth is unlikely to take off … lower growth because of Brexit, higher taxes because of Brexit and worse public services because of Brexit … throwing billions at the wealthiest … Brexit has made everything worse … As always in Tory Britain, there is one rule for them and another for the rest of us … Tory MPs breathless excitement at the news that Richy Scumbag was not as totally useless as Johnson and Thick Lizzie … Daily (Once was a real newspaper) Telegraph …. in other news you are unlikely to hear … Rwanda has so far picked up £140M for the deportation scheme at the time that the number of asylum seekers sent there was zero … What Sue Ellen Braverman calls invasion has been a continuous process throughout history … there is no precise distinction between British and non British life forms … never mind the facts … atavistic fear of invasion … hard to say which is more dismaying … politicians compete as to who can be the nastiest … to the most desperate people on earth … Braverman’s nasty public image … Rwanda policy is doomed … as is Richy Scumbag’s pledge to stop boats crossing … UK is abdicating an essential responsibility under international law … Rwanda’s problematical track record on human rights … British government’s message is baffling … even more nonsensical … the site Braverman visited is nothing to do with the UK … smoke and mirrors with nothing behind them … sadistic bait … UK receives small number of asylum seekers than even most European countries … British government policy serves to enrich and empower people smugglers … do we compromise with reality or continue the current deadly charade … toxicity of the asylum debate … ridiculous backlog of claims … realism needs to enter the debate … so long as there is profit people smugglers will enable that behaviour … ridiculous … government is taking the public for fools … promising something it cannot deliver … decent economic growth has escaped the Tory government for all 13 years of its tenure … Braverman’s Rwanda policy is the worst of all the options … no PM has abused powers in such a manner in the last 50 years …
Johnson’s hypocrisy … taxpayer footing the bills … Johnson has made £3.5M and counting … Murdoch talks of being Scottish … he is whatever is expedient for tax purposes … little fraternisation between Daily Mail top brass and Richy Scumbag … Richy Scumbag is in no hurry to sign off the peerage for Dacre … he could do without yet another sleaze scandal … Braverman is awful … scandals … idiotic remarks … fault is not with her but with those who over promoted her … not up to the job … Scumbag is scared of the not sensible wing of his party … Tories have run out of ideas … out of control … desperation leads to bad choices … Braverman gets a free ride for a calculated lie … Tories abandoned the British manufacturing industry in 1979 …
Trump’s dwindling but increasingly unhinged fan base … Brexit is most embarrassing unforced error since Villa keeper let a throw in into his net … Inflation in Britain rose to 10.4% in February … machinery and structure of British government need reform …
Dump Trump
Johnson’s blustering testimony to Parliament reminded us what we had not been missing … less experienced officials acre in more senior posts … ministers have eroded the tradition that officials provide candid advice … the planning system makes quagmires look slick … taxation will reach a lost war high this year … not producing better results … bleak picture …
Pip Pip Medway Delta (Retired) Brexorcist and Saboteur First Class
Learn how to get rid of these shysters – click the link on this picture
In the wake of Rishi Sunak’s admission that Brexit was a mistake and we should Rejoin the EU, here is a helpful statement from the Rejoin Party:
February 28, 2023
The government’s much-hyped Northern Ireland protocol deal shows the whole of the UK can and must return to the EU’s single market and customs union as soon as possible, the Rejoin EU Party says.
Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, who supported Brexit, is now incredibly claiming the agreement has put Northern Ireland in a “privileged position” by having access not only to the UK home market, but to the EU’s single market as well – apparently forgetting that the whole UK had exactly that privilege before Brexit.
The comments have sparked a storm of criticism on social media, with many people demanding to know why – if having such single-market access is so desirable – he and his fellow Brexiters backed leaving it in the first place.
One tweet read: “Sunak claims that because NI is in the single market, it’s an attractive location for businesses. So why are Scotland, Wales and England outside it?”
Another said: “Does Sunak realise what he’s saying? What about the thousands of GB businesses suffering because we have all sorts of obstacles between us and our biggest market?”
The Rejoin EU Party says the massive hype surrounding this deal is merely a desperate attempt by Sunak and this Brexit government to cover up the fact that they created this mess in the first place.
It believes the only real solution to the problems Brexit has caused – the latest of which is the chronic shortage of fruit and veg in our supermarkets – is for the entire UK to return to the single market, customs union and EU.
Former Conservative MEP and Rejoin EU Party supporter John Stevens said: “Sunak said this morning this deal will unlock an enormous amount of investment because Northern Ireland has this very special position where it has access to both the UK and EU markets, making it an incredibly attractive place to invest for business.
“This should be entered as a contender for the most grotesquely shameless and hypocritical remark of contemporary politics. We need to end this farce and re-join the EU now.”
Rejoin EU Party leader Richard Hewison said: “This shows what happens when Brexit dogma meets cold harsh reality and will be seen by many as the first step back to re-joining the EU.
“As for the detail of the agreement, the green channel will swiftly turn into a smuggler’s paradise, whilst the so-called ‘Stormont brake’ is virtually impossible to activate and liable to collapse the whole deal if it’s ever triggered.”
The Rejoin EU party is campaigning to re-join the EU because we believe re-joining is the only way to solve the problems Brexit has created. Brexit is broken and it’s breaking our country too. All the promises on which Brexit was sold to the electorate in 2016 were nonsense. Far from reducing red tape and providing £350m a week for the NHS, Brexit makes trading with the crucial European market more complex, difficult and expensive and threatens to reduce funding for public services. If you agree Brexit is making our country poorer, less tolerant and less united, join us and send a message to Westminster that you want your EU membership back, with all its freedoms and benefits.
I was delighted to attend a superb event hosted by Professor Anand Menon of UK in a Changing Europe. Even more delighted to meet Michel Barnier and present him with copies of the books Reboot Britain and Private Eyelines.
Here are my takeaways from the event. It was necessary to attend in person to gain the full value of the conversation between these two giants. Just click the link to Twitter below or go direct to the the full article on Linkedin.
— Reboot Britain – Rage Against The Brexit Machine (@BrexitRage) February 3, 2023
Merci beaucoup pour tout ce que vous avez fait pour essayer de sauver notre pays de lui-même. Le Brexit est perdant. Nous allons nous réveiller doucement.
Life long Tory voter Rod Stewart has just declared that the country is a mess and the Tories need to hand over power to someone more competent. This prompted me to think of the song he covered on his Atlantic Crossing album. Apologies for the lyrical changes which are occasionally grating !! 🙂
Some will know that, in 2016, Britain voted to become an isolated country via the Brexit vote. The marginal 52:48 popular vote was pumped up by:
Outlandish promises that we would fund our healthcare system with the proceeds of Brexit.
Brexit ‘freedoms’ from EU laws, 98% of which Britain helped to make.
The weaponisation of migrants ‘swarming’ into the UK, using the very same language used by the Nazis to justify the Holocaust.
It then took five years to leave our membership of the club we call the European Union, mostly because nobody in our Government could agree what Brexit meant. Some wanted total isolation with free market capitalism on steroids, a kind of ‘Singapore on Thames’. Others wished to retain all the benefits of trade and co-operation from Europe without any of the responsibilities of club membership. The battle raged on between the various factions, consuming four Prime Ministers in the process, with our fifth currently sitting in the departure lounge. Ultimately, it seems that Brexit consumes all its offspring.
Two years on from our departure, it is possible to see the beginnings of the realities of Brexit. In this film, I have taken what could be described as a ‘Brexit Stock Take’. This piece deals with the economic realities of Brexit. Others in the series will deal with Social effects, Political futures, Legal outcomes, Environmental impacts and Technological effects.
Please take a look at the film and subscribe to our EU TUBE channel. The film is 17 minutes long but well worth your time as a case study in populism which is sweeping Brazil, the USA, India, Russia and several other places. Paradoxically, the world needs collaborative leadership and joined up thinking to face climate change and the many other global issues we must address if we are to survive. Instead, many think that ‘strong men’ are the answers to such problems. We shall see who prevails.
I occasionally write about the lack of strategy, structure, cohesion, collective capability and leadership in the Remain / Rejoin movements. Once again, with a heavy heart, I must report that the chronic organisation development issues which divide us remain (sic) alive and kicking. This article concerns senior members of Grassroots for Europe, overseen by the CEO of The European Movement and its chair Lord Andrew Adonis. For some months I have attempted to resolve a worrying problem with a concerted smear campaign against me by senior people at Grassroots for Europe and The European Movement. I have had no reply in private from CEO Anna Bird, so I have reluctantly decided to go public. Here is a summary in the form of my letter to the EM CEO:
The WhatsApp group where much of this smearing takes place is overseen by Anna Bird and Lord Andrew Adonis, thus they are complicit in the campaign, by ‘letting it happen’. Andrew does not like uncomfortable truths and blocks people who he disagrees with. Thus I have no route to resolution with him.
Illiberal acts from the left
The ‘mob’ also follow the leader, sometimes without knowledge of the facts of a given cased. This is not without consequence. For example, I have been blocked from attending the March to Rejoin. I was blocked from attending a meeting with Gavin Esler. The ‘mob’ also asked that professional EM groups and affiliates in Sussex and Merseyside ‘deplatform’ me from speaking at events and so on. I mean, WTF are they frightened of?
I actively promote pro-European and anti-Brexit views and am perhaps more vigorous than many at a grassroots and strategy level, so I cannot understand their desire to silence me. Then again, I have worked on Brexit for 6 + years and I ‘get’ organisational illnesses etc. from my professional life as a business and organisational consultant. I’m hoping that Anna Bird will now make this nonsense stop and remove Richard Wilson and the other ringleaders from power. Here are some examples of the online smearing below – it is persistent and wearing. I cannot write to Richard Wilson to deal with the matter quietly, as he also adopts the Vote Leave strategy of blocking people he does not agree with.
It’s possible to see the level of confusion in these groups. For example, Lynne Armstrong manages to confuse me with Peter Corr, the leader of the March to Rejoin, but it does not stop her from condemning my / his work. In fact it’s unclear exactly who she is condemning. Other European Movement execs appear to join in with the ‘herd impunity’. For example, Emma Knaggs admits that she knows nothing about my work, but, of course, feels she must agree with those in power. She is also badly informed: Despite her assertion to the contrary, I remain Chair of The European Movement Mid Kent. Following a review by the Council chaired by Dominic Grieve QC I was confirmed in the position. My removal was an exec decision made by Anna Bird, without approval or authority of the EM. This, of course, mirrors the approach of The Conservatives re Brexit. It is quite surprising from an organisation that promotes transparency, open-ness and diversity.
In my professional life, I work with chronic organisational problems like this. When politics / egos and so on are added to the complexity, these issues become insoluble. I had offered my services for free to EM way back to help make them match fit, but they refused to accept professional help. Ostrich thinking and silos are not good enough if we are to build a movement fit to take Vote Leave on. As a result I have little confidence in Grassroots / EM’s abilities. Help can still be given but I’m not hopeful that they are in listening mode. One of their groundfloor troops, Magdalena Williams has recently stepped into the fray on Twitter.
There is a long list of people who have actively initiated and / or amplified this campaign. Others have passively supported or allowed the campaign to spread. In no particular order: Richard Wilson, Colin Gordon, Yvonne Wancke, Chris Hammond, Anna Bird, Lord Adonis, Robina Jacobson, Peter Packham, NE for Europe, SSTIE, Sue Wilson, Bremain in Spain, Doug at SODEM, Magdalena Williams, some of the SODEM gang, Lynne Armstrong, Emma Knaggs, Patrick Reynolds. There is a longer list of people who hide in the shadows … come out into the light please.
Some cold unemotional analysis for Remainers and Rejoiners who are hard of thinking. If we accept :
1. That all the Tory candidates are essentially the same in terms of their short term impact on the economy (shades of badness etc.). Morduant is another ERG puppet and Rishi is mistrusted by ERG because he is a prudent brown economist by TP members, having shown his credentials already.
2. That the next Brexit / Kwasi Recession is more or less “baked in”, thus the impact of leadership in the next few months has an NPV of zero. So the choice of leader is an irrelevant issue in ‘accountancy’ terms. Note that Liz Truss’s departure did nothing to the value of the pound. The city is not fooled by replacement headstones.
Then we move on to the next level of analysis. Which leader is worst for the Tories and Brexit?
1. If Boris loses, he loses any opportunity to return to politics. There would be no need for a judicial review etc. It’s a slam dunk success. This is probably why he’s hesitating as he is not a losing kind of guy.
2. If Boris wins, a new bloodbath will open up in the Tory party – with those who wrote letters resigning, writing more letters and so on and members leaving. Roger Gale has already written his letter!!
So, basically it’s a win win win win win win …. In short, if the ERG don’t want Johnson, and 1/3 of the Tories don’t like it, we should support it.
None of the above appears to be apparent to most Remainers / Rejoiners who are gaslit by the Johnson persona and his sins. We must set that aside. If Johnson gets elected, it will be tragic for the Tories and the Brexit bubble will be popped, like a very nasty boil.
Cold analysis is far more important than hot emotional reactions to the ghost of Johnson. Think about it. Put your head before your hedonic response.
The best outcomes at this time re Tory destruction are in order of desirability:
1. A General Election – However, I don’t yet see the mechanism for this, as the English don’t riot. The Tory argument that they were elected may well stand unless it faces significant parliamentary and public pressure. This, however is why we wrote the letter to King Charles. Now the Remainers are complaining about that for a host of bizarre reasons.
2. Boris wins – Vote of No Confidence, resignations and more mayhem.
3. Boris loses – they limp on with another lame duck.
