In our latest series of Populist Press Parodies from the Red Tops, we tackle the big issues of the day. In case of confusion in our age of disinformation, please find our fact and fantasy checker at the bottom of the page.
Lunch Box Luxury
Spanish Lies
Page 3 remodelled
FACTS v. FANTASIES
FANTASY Jacob Rees-Mogg did not live in fact live on a diet of Cream Crackers. He did however proclaim that British fish were happier now that they have Brexit. It’s just a matter of time before he asks for the restoration of the birch.
FACT The Government plan to only give one shot of the COVID vaccine. This would provide 70% protection. There is no evidence to suggest that this will lead to herd immunity. It is also feasible that it would mean that insufficient protection is given, providing the Corona virus with an open doorway to the development of a more virulent strain. We will essentially be the clinical trial for this risky experiment.
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FACT A large number of Tory MPs joined banned website Parler.
Shame these MP’s on social media. Request a public apology for their sins
FANTASY There are no Brexit Universities.
FACT British people living in Spain were surprised to learn that they could not stay in their second homes indefinitely and that they needed to make a financial contribution to their country of residence. They failed to understand that freedom of movement works both ways under Brexit.
FACT Just days after we signed the Brexit trade deal we are breaking it. In particular we plan to use neonecotonoids on sugar beet. This chemical is toxic to bees. It is estimated that once the bees die, we are not long for the world either.
FACT The European Union are offering to help Ireland from their fund post Brexit. In the longer term it is probably that Ireland and Northern Ireland will simply cut England out of the equation through their dealings.
FICTION French model Rachelle Gauchette is not travelling to Scotland or Ireland to boost morale for independence or reunification … yet. Napoleon did not have a Napoleon complex. The offer of a night with Nigel Farage is a dirty lie.
Just 20 days into Brexit and it seems that nearly every industry and sector of society are either asking for a hand out or a hand up after Brexit. Some of you will be familiar with Maslow’s hierarchy of needs. Here’s the Brexit hierarchy of needs:
Working up from the bottom of Maslow’s hierarchy, it has become apparent that our so-called free trade deal is not free, nor frictionless. We can already see low-level shortages of fresh food on supermarket shelves. Tony Hale, managing director of London-based DH Foods, said he had five containers of fresh pork sitting at Rotterdam port that was now “completely rotten”. Another mentioned £500 000 worth of meat rotting after being delayed by our ‘frictionless trade’. Fishermen protested in Downing Street on Monday and the Government tried to buy them off by offering £23 million in compensation for losses. Let’s do the math:
£23 million = £19 166 for each fisherman
Our attempts to secure a Brexit deal for the fishermen have cost £7 BILLION. That’s 304 times more than the sum of money being offered !!
£19 K sounds a lot, but of course it’s barely enough to live on for a year, in return for the fishermen’s silence. A fisherman’s friend once said that “a cod in the hand is worth two in the net”, but this is plainly a fobbing-off strategy. Cod only knows what we’d do without EU …
Controversial thought. Should people who largely voted for Brexit be rewarded for that decision? Arguably not.
Sold down the river by Brexit
Scotland did not vote for this
Note that the fishermen did not do this properly as they did not write their slogans on a bus …
These effects are DIRECTLY related to Brexit
The bribe for the fisherman sets an important precedent. If you feel you have been adversely affected by Brexit, simply write to Boris and ask for a ‘bung’.
Breathe
Parliament voted down an amendment to the Brexit Trade Bill which sought to ensure the NHS is excluded from future trade deals. This means that The NHS is once again up for sale on the international markets, breaking yet another Conservative manifesto promise. Expect American styled healthcare charges in the future and the eventual end of our NHS, currently free at the point of delivery. Oh, yes, and the £350 million per week has still not materialised …
Boris Johnson narrowly avoided defeat on a bill to avoid parliamentary scrutiny on trade deals with regimes which commit genocide. One can soon expect Liz Truss to come back from North Korea signing deals for missiles in exchange for cheese.
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Read our satirical spoofs of The Sun, Mail, Express at Private Eyelines
Brain Damage
Maslow did not deal with money in his hierarchy of needs, as it was what fellow traveller Frederick Herzberg termed a ‘dissatisfier’. Simply stated, doubling your salary does not double your motivation, but an inadequate wage is a massive source of dissatisfaction.
Losing your livelihood can also lead to mental health issues, aka what Pink Floyd referred to as ‘brain damage’ on ‘Dark Side of the Moon’. We are currently in the midst of experiencing what could be described as ‘collective PTSD’ in the UK, as lives and livelihoods are destroyed by COVID. Whilst it makes total sense to close down non-essential activities, such as hairdressers, nail bars etc. and to restrict social participation in sports and hospitality, the impacts on mental health are considerable.
Whilst Brexit is not a direct causal factor of these COVID-related closures. Brexit has contributed to our lack of resilience in the UK and therefore our sense of dystopia about the future. Going forward, Brexit will do much more damage to our sense of belonging and place in the world, with impacts on lives and livelihoods. We can only express our sorrow to those people whose lives depend on the resumption of their businesses. All we can do is to point out that the measures taken by Boris Johnson have been too little, too late. This has resulted in repeated lockdowns and restrictions and extended the pain from COVID. Adding Brexit to COVID results in a ‘Britastrophe’.
A stitch in time saves nine – click on the image to save democracy
I am part musician, part scientist, part business academic, so it pains me to say this, but if we had to choose between eating and music, the rational choice would be to eat. Yet our Brexit Government has voted for neither. With shops now emptying of fruit, veg, meat and fish, one could have taken consolation in music. Yet it emerges that Boris Johnson rejected a special deal for musicians working in Europe as part of the Brexit trade deal. I wrote on the issue of musicians working in Europe many years ago, in Voices for Europe and recently the world’s most famous musicians have protested against this criminal assault on the arts by our Government.
Won’t get fooled again (by Brexit) … We’ll be fighting on the streets – click on Roger Daltrey to help Re-Boot Britain – Graphic by Cold War Steve www.coldwarsteve.com
UK culture secretary Oliver Dowden urged musicians to use their ‘star power’ to lobby the EU to ease new visa and work permit rules. Dowden revealed his pathetic idiocy and ignorance in suggesting that musicians should be able to break international trade agreements. In doing so, he made himself and his Government look especially stupid. The fault rests with third-rate negotiator Frost, who, instead of looking after the interests of musicians and others, wasted months of negotiations parroting the words that Britain is a sovereign country.
"France received €170 billion by 2020-end because of Brexit. In spite of the pandemic about 2,500 jobs have already been transferred & about fifty British entities have authorised the relocation of at least €170 billion in assets to France at the end of 2020". Banque de France.
— A C Grayling #FBPE 3.5% #Reform #Rejoin #FBPA 🐟 (@acgrayling) January 20, 2021
HMRC are also charging truckers for delays that THEY are causing in terms of customs checks. This will not go well. There have been several reports on extensive delays for lorry drivers. In case you are confused about why this is happening, this helpful diagram explains all:
Alone again, naturally – our place as a 3rd Country
Every year is getting shorter never seem to find the time. Plans that either come to naught or half a page of scribbled lines Hanging on in quiet desperation is the English way The time is gone, the song is over, Thought I’d something more to say.
The Government has ended the restrictions on the 48-hour working week, although employers have not complained of feeling unduly shackled by EU standards and the majority of workers working more than 48 hours a week willingly opted out with better pay conditions. This opens the door to the exploitation of poorly paid workers. This breaks the government’s election manifesto pledge and was a key part of the Tories’ appeal to voters in traditional Labour seats which helped the party to secure its 2019 General Election victory.
Time is of course at the heart of our problems with delivery of fresh food and medicines, many of which require cool chain delivery and which rely on Just In Time manufacturing in order to reach us in good condition. In some cases we have yet to see the impacts of Brexit in these areas but the signs are not good.
Meanwhile, Boris Johnson continues to gaslight us into accepting sub-optimal doses of the COVID vaccine. He is going against best advice from the manufacturers and the WHO although they understand our sense of desperation, given the toxic effects of Corona + Brexit. This decision is not risk free and we shall find out the effects by experimentation.
Just 20 days in and Brexit carnage has begun, from the top to the bottom of Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, as we enter the Winter of Discontent.
Well, this article compiled by Peter Cook summarises some of what has happened in the first 3 weeks of real Brexit. We all need to recognise these real problems that have arisen from the fact of Brexit and from the reckless rushed and incompetent negotiation. No one should refer any more to Project Fear – this is Reality and businesses are facing disaster.
Do we accept that this has happened? Government Ministers consistently refuse to answer questions about reasons for our dreadful situation, whether that is Brexit or Covid. As expected, they have started to blame Covid for Brexit problems.
Will Boris Johnson now move on? Will his Government act honourably, do what the Dutch Government have done and resign en masse with him? Ask your MP.
We finish as we began, with a performance of Pink Floyd’s “Another Prick in the Mall”, on a train after The People’s March:
With thanks to Sy Donne, Irina Fridman, Helga Perry, Adrian Ekins-Daukes, Mike Cashman, Jo Wace, Martin Housden, Lisa Lanfranchi, Carol Fraser, Roger Cracknell, Patricia Manning, Daphne Franks, Peter Daws, June Austin, Greg Newman for helping compile this article.
I have been asked to stand as a candidate for the Council of Grassroots for Europe. This is part of a wider initiative to bring together the many organisations that supported Remaining in the EU and is a welcome development.
I therefore ask for your vote. Voting takes place from TODAY Monday 1st Feb 00.01 until Sunday 7th Feb 23.59. Here’s my video pitch. You will find all the details of how to vote on the You Tube description and the list of eligible groups at the bottom of this post.
I presented at the hustings on Friday 29 Jane. You can find all the lovely candidate presentations at HUSTINGS
My presentation begins at just over two hours in. The first 30 minutes of the video is empty so please jump ahead on the link.
My candidate statement is attached below. I am not a continuity candidate but in our 4.5 years, continuity has not exactly got us where we need to be in terms of Brexit, democracy and our place in the world. However I am an extremely skilled person with considerable experience and someone who works to get the best out of others, sometimes against the odds. Grassroots for Europe has emerged as one of the main players in the post Brexit fight to rejoin and re-boot our democracy.
Peter Cook – Grassroots for Europe
I am an unusual mix of scientist, business academic and musician. I have led a variety of grassroots activities from street stalls to writing three albums of political protest songs and got one of them to Number One on the Amazon chart. Aside from that I’ve organised dozens of activities and events both in the street and online, e.g. interviews with MEPs and celebrities about Brexit, restoring democracy and ending populism. Working with a wide variety of groups e.g. EU Flag Mafia, European Movement. I am both a strategist and exceptional mentor / coach and a pragmatist, turning ideas into events with impact across national and international media.
In Limbo reached No 1 on Amazon for several days – all this from a basement with no mainstream record company support
On terms of my work over the last five years, I have led the Rage Against The Brexit Machine project, having written three albums of anti-Brexit protest songs and got one of them to Number One on the Amazon chart. “Brexorcist in Chief” for Mid Kent 4 EU, I wrote a book on the subject of having difficult conversations with Leave voters from many thousands of hours of activity on the street, in cafes and bars. Out of all this time, on one occasion I gained two black eyes for misjudging an interaction with angry leave voters. I was also arrested by Essex Police for driving a Mini Cooper with “B*llocks to Brexit” on the side. They asked me to remove the signage on the hard shoulder of the M25. Sadly for Essex Police I called 999 to have the officer arrested. 250 000 Tweets later, Essex Police had to retreat with an apology for putting their lives and ours at risk. I should emphasise that the vast majority of our dealings with the Police and public have been cordial and uneventful.
With Grassroots for Europe Chair Richard Wilson
I stood a stuffed cat in the 2019 General Election. Although the cat was only there to create tactical voting, to my surprise, Stan the Cat did not come last in the ratings, beating the Christian People’s Alliance who had been campaigning for 15 years with a budget !! Aside from the above sensationalism, I’ve managed to get our cause into the BBC, ITV, Sky, LBC and all major print media from The Guardian to The Express without ANY media agency or budget, just by using a professional approach. Whilst some Remainers consider me “underground”, my approach is much more effective than the blowhards in committees who simply watch things happen.
We organised the relabelling of Kent as the “Toilet of England” – featured on most mainstream media from The New York Times to “Have I Got More News for You”
For nearly 5 years I have acted to dispel the illusions of Brexit. At 62 I am at some risk from Corona and consider that a fitting epitaph for my life would be the destruction of Brexit populism for the sake of future generations. I wrote a requiem for Brexit on 31 January 2020. This explains why Re-Booting Britain matters better than words can manage:
You may vote if you are members of the following groups. Please contact your group leader to express your views.
Bremain in Spain
Oxford For Europe
Brighton & Hove for EU
Leeds for Europe
Liverpool for Europe
Hope for Europe
Merseyside for Europe
EMM European Movement Merseyside
London4Europe
Sevenoaks Swanley and Tonbridge in Europe
Glasgow Loves EU
MoVEM Mole Valley European Movement
NES4EU North East Surrey for Europe
EUnitySeahaven
North Somerset 4 Europe
Berkshire for Europe
Cambridge for Europe
Sixteen Million Rising
EU in Brum
Lewisham East for Europe/Lewisham Together in Europe
Northern Devon for Europe
Ipswich With Europe
Open Britain Reading and Berkshire
Fife4Europe
Highland4EU
Edinburgh 4 Europe
Preston For Europe
Waltham Forest
EMGreenwich for Europe
Lancaster For Europe
Witney for Europe (formally known as Peoples’ Vote, Witney)
Maidenhead for EU
Warwick District 4 Europe
East Kent European Movement
Ashford for Europe
Hull and East Yorkshire for Europe
Veterans For Europe
Suffolk EU Alliance
York for Europe
Swindon for Europe
Norfolk for Europe
Bromley4Europe
South Bucks for Europe
EM South West Surrey
Lambeth for Europe
EM Portsmouth-Chichester
European Movement Mendip Branch
Hampshire European Movement
Devon for Europe
Devizes for Europe
Islanders for Europe, The Isle of Wight Branch of the European Movement UK
Cheltenham for Europe
Wales for Europe
Harrow and Hillingdon European Movement
European Movement Sussex
SW Scotland for Europe
EM Mid Kent
Re-Boot Britain
Herefordshire for Europe
Dorset for Europe
Coventry4Europe
Lincolnshire European Movement
Gwynedd dros Ewrop [Welsh]/Gwynedd for Europe [English]
Jacob Rees-Mogg has been slammed for suggesting the people died in the Grenfell Tower tragedy because they listened to the fire brigade’s orders. Mugged by Mogg, Jacob claimed that they lacked ‘common sense’. The Tory MP told LBC host Nick Ferrari that the victims would have survived if they’d just ignored what they were told. Since when would anyone ignored the advice of someone in charge of saving lives if your house was burning down. The Metro reported that Jacob would have left the building as ‘it just seems the common sense thing to do’.
Mogg Fish
A happy fish
Faced with furious complaints that lorry loads of fish had to be thrown into the sea owing to delays caused by Brexit red tape, Jacob Rees-Mogg replied as follows to questions in the house:
“The key is we’ve got our fish back. They are now British fish and they’re better & happier fish for it”
Toby Earle MP stated that unsold fish are rotting on docks, seafood companies are hitting the wall.
Others pointed out that rotting fish are not happy fish. Also, the happiest of all are those who are not caught and live out their lives peacefully because British fisherman have all gone bankrupt because they have no one to sell their fish to!
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This piece of condescending Etonian humour stands comparison with Mary Antoinette’s remarks about cake eating. It is fit for an audience of three-year-olds only, not grown ups inside or outside the House of Commons.
Suffer little children
Jacob Rees-Mogg is also under fire for accusing UNICEF of a “political stunt” after the UN agency stepped in to help feed deprived children in the UK during the COVID-19 pandemic.
The Commons leader hit out at Unicef, which provides humanitarian aid to children worldwide, after it launched its first domestic emergency response in the UK in its over 70-year history. He characterised Unicef’s support as “playing politics” and said it should be “ashamed of itself”.
As part of the support programme of more than £700,000 to help fund projects for children and their families, UNICEF has pledged £25,000 to supply nearly 25,000 breakfasts in a south London borough over the Christmas holidays and February half-term.
After UNICEF’s support in the UK was raised in the Commons, Mogg stated:
“I think it’s a real scandal that UNICEF should be playing politics in this way when it is meant to be looking after people in the poorest, the most deprived countries in the world, where people are starving, where there are famines and there are civil wars. And they make cheap political points of this kind, giving, I think, £25,000 to one council. It is a political stunt of the lowest order.”
He defended the government’s response to child poverty, including expanding free school meals, adding: “UNICEF should be ashamed of itself.”
However, the minister’s comments prompted a backlash, with Labour’s deputy leader, Angela Rayner:
She said: “In one of the richest countries in the world, our children should not be forced to rely on a charity that usually works in war zones and in response to humanitarian disasters. The only scandal here is this rotten Tory government leaving 4.2 million children living in poverty, a number that will only rise due to the coronavirus crisis.”
The Liberal Democrat leader, Ed Davey, said: “Rees-Mogg’s sneering comments are abhorrent – a modern-day version of ‘let them eat cake’.”
Write to your MP using this as content to complain about the slow creep into fascism as espoused by Jacob Rees-Mogg. Refuse to be mugged by Mogg.
Here’s a couple of songs we wrote which express our views on being mugged by Mogg:
Mogg Chorus – with apologies to Paul McCartney
Jacob Rees- Moog – THE BREX-KIP FAR-RIGHT FAR-AGE DOMINATRIX MIX – PG rated
Buy the Rage Against The Brexit Machine songs at Bandcamp to support our continuing work.
Click the image to buy on Bandcamp, where most of the royalties go to the artists
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BACKGROUND
Anna Kettley, UNICEF UK’s director of programmes and advocacy, said: “UNICEF UK is responding to this unprecedented crisis and building on our 25 years’ experience of working on children’s rights in the UK with a one-off domestic response, launched in August, to provide support to vulnerable children and families around the country during this crisis period.
“In partnership with Sustain, the food and farming alliance, over £700k of UNICEF UK funds is being granted to community groups around the country to support their vital work helping children and families at risk of food insecurity during the coronavirus pandemic. UNICEF will continue to spend our international funding helping the world’s poorest children. We believe that every child is important and deserves to survive and thrive no matter where they are born.”
Kettley said UNICEF UK was providing grants of between £5,000 and £25,000, with more than £700,000 being made available in total to 30 community organisations to fund projects for children and families in their area. “For some of the projects, the funding is distributed via a council, but the majority of the grants are being made directly to community organisations,” she said. “In Southwark, the funding has gone directly to School Food Matters, a community organisation.”
UNICEF UK said the first round of grants were confirmed in mid-August and all funded programme activity was due to conclude in February next year.
It has given a £25,000 grant to the community project School Food Matters. The charity says it is working with Premier Foods, Southwark council and Southwark Food Action Alliance – a collective of charitable organisations, residents and community partners – to deliver 18,000 breakfasts to 25 schools for distribution around the borough over the two-week Christmas holidays, as well as an additional 6,750 breakfasts over the February half-term.
The PM’s spokesman declined to comment directly on Rees-Mogg’s remarks, saying: “What we would point towards is the work and the action that we’ve already taken to support the most vulnerable and the poorest families across the country.”
By Irina Fridman : Brexit happened. Brexit got done. We left the EU. For some, we left Europe. ‘We won, get over it!’ – heard we for the last four years. Predicting a disaster, Remainers cum Remoaners cum Snowflakes kept warning, protesting, marching, fighting: People’s Vote march, ‘Kent, toilet of England’, ‘Operation Pisspot’ … Alas! ‘We won, get over it!’
Fast forward six weeks, and February’s list of unravelling consequences of Brexit is rotting fish, rotting meat, rotting cheese, rotting clothes, custom duties, paperwork that nobody understands how to fill in, proud end of free movement, lost businesses … it’s only the beginning … And an arrogant ‘We won! Get over it!’ turned into an arrogant ‘You won! Get over it!’
Those, whose livelihoods are now being destroyed, wish they had never voted ‘Leave’. Those, who are not directly affected, are still in denial. Can one eat sovereignty? But irrespective of whether sovereignty and blue passports can satisfy hunger or not, these ‘hard-core’ Leavers are here to stay. They live among us in this deeply divided country: Gammons versus Snowflakes; we interact with them, willingly or otherwise, on a daily basis – butchers, nurses, teachers…
One day, when we rejoin (and yes, it will happen), they will still be here. Can we do anything about them? What can be changed? How? We recognise the falsehoods peddled on social media and know that regulation is required, but that will not happen neither tomorrow, nor next year. Yes, education is the key, but it also takes time, and the process is painstakingly slow.
Buy our bag of sovrinty on e-bay
Can we do anything today?
What should we do?
How can we deal with these people now?
Let’s start with language. Pointing an accusatory finger and gleefully declare each time ‘We told you so!’ does not help. No matter how much we are reeling inside, it is up to us to be a grown-up in this relationship. And as a grown-up, when dealing with an unreasonable child, we are to adopt a different vocabulary, use different terminology. Forget ‘Brexit’, it’s got done. Let’s ‘build back better’, but build it to benefit everyone.
Playing to the gallery – The Daily Excess
Let’s drop the argument and change the subject. No, we do not need to forget what’s happened, but as a grown-up, we must be able to hold a civilised conversation and engage in constructive activity. We can draw on precedents: before the Good Friday Agreement many ‘peacebuilding’ projects avoided any conversations between Catholics and Protestants about politics, but built community centres, put up Christmas lights and organised job training for young people. The projects can be dull, narrow, specific, but would benefit everybody. It does not mean we have to like those, who voted Leave, but we will be able to work alongside them.
By finding common ground in language and deeds, we will move forward, and restore, realign and rejoin.
Not getting over it – click to support our work
Obvious attacks on Brexit or the Tories, or Farage are unpopular but if you denounce a result of Brexit by stating that this is not what was promised, or that it’s the result of the government’s poor policy choices, then there will be agreement. (Be more nuanced with Leavers and let them save face).
Find different vocabulary, which does not inflame the issue.
For more on language, read our book on changing minds about Brexit
The same goes for cross-community discussions about infrastructure…The topics can be boring, they benefit everybody. Make the problem narrow, specific.
How to invite the leavers to conversations? Work with trusted messengers, people who have authority within the seditious community, who sympathise with its shared values but are nevertheless willing to talk their comrades down from the brink.
Most are in favour of economic links with Europe (eg. EEA, Norway, Switzerland models). What they don’t want is the idea of the “EU dictatorship”, EUSSR etc. (it’s an emotive issue, so focus on single market membership as a first step).
By finding common ground if we want to Rejoin one day. Don’t just demonise them – it’ll achieve nothing.’
Written by Irina Fridman, author, Foreigners, Aliens, Citizens
Health Secretary Hancock protests indignantly about the High Court judgement against him in three cases where PPE contracts were granted during the pandemic without competition and announcement delayed until long after the time period required under the regulations. His excuse based on urgency created by the pandemic seems plausible enough . However he might do better to tread more carefully in what may well prove to be a minefield, in the interests of his own future credibility. The purpose behind the regulations is transparency, in particular to ensure there is no suspicion of bias in the awarding of public contracts. This suspicion is aroused in at least one of the three cases concerned where a contract worth £252m was awarded to a tiny company founded by an associate of a Minister.
Your last gasp?
There are other such cases before the courts, including one where the beneficiary company was owned by friends of Michael Grove and Dominic Cummings, who was responsible for awarding the contract. If, as seems possible, findings against the government in this and other cases reveal the awarding of contracts at excessive prices, to firms unfitted to fulfil their commitments and resulting in huge waste of public money , the full extent of ‘chumocracy’, verging on corruption, within the Cabinet Office during the first wave of the pandemic will come to light.
In fact, there are grounds for suspicion that the Cabinet office, far from being desperately overworked in trying to find suppliers of PPE and other essential equipment at that time, may actually have obstructed some offers of supply. Could it be that they were seeking to avoid granting contracts to suppliers outside their own circle, preferring to wait until a favoured producer turned up? If that were so, the Cabinet Office is guilty of actually impeding the NHS in its war against the pandemic.
60 days of Brexit and the massive success stories of Brexit keep coming in. Here’s a roundup of recent news and fake news by The Express, Mail and Sun.
Brexit realities
Millions face economic shock from COVID. Brexit simply multiples the problem into the long term. See New Economics.
Meanwhile, Kent Police are involved in Operation Mask Brexit, drawing in thousands of Police officers from 33 forces to cover up the effects of Brexit on borders, ports and roads.
Steve Cock, who runs a customs consultancy, regularly sees lorry drivers forced to stay in his firm’s car park at Ashford for several nights because they do not have the right paperwork to get into Europe. Such confusion is echoed by the Road Haulage Association (RHA), which says that 50-60 per cent of freight vehicles are leaving the UK empty. A haulage source was blunt: “We have become the world leader in exporting fresh air.”
There’s still time to make your mark on Boris Johnson’s awful Junta. Please follow the links below and help us chart Dying for Boris this week.
Daphne Franks writes in The Craven Herald about the realities of clapping for carers versus the hard realities of paying key workers properly. If you care about carers vote the Tories out on May 6th in the local elections.
“We need our nurses. They care for us. We need to care for them”.
A stitch in time saves nine
Join us to find out how you can move the dial on local elections every Tuesday at 7 pm via ZOOM
Masking Brexit 1984 style
The media are now running ads to tell people how well Brexit is going. The ads are not paid for by Russian oligarchs or our enemies, but by OUR Government !!
+UPDATE+
U.K. govt paying British newspapers & media outlets large sums of money to run pro Govt fake news items telling the population what a success Brexit has been.
Don’t die for Boris – download the song and take back control of our media – click on the image to find all options to bugger Brexit
A number of people are suggesting myself and others in the shellfish industry have been lazy, stupid (or both) for not being ‘prepared’ for the carnage Brexit has caused on the shellfish export industry. If we predicted this, why weren’t we ready? 1/9
You know we have reached rock bottom when businesses ask Michael Gove for help with Brexit. The Gove – Johnson marriage of convenience is clearly under strain now that Johnson has put unelected mediocre bureaucrat “Sir” David Frost into the cabinet to fight Gove.
Distraction and gaslighting
Andrew Bridgen wants us to drink “Peckham Spring Water” and not that “smelly Euro water”. Satire made real in his letter to the House of Commons to distract us from Brexit realities.
Peckham Spring
Get your copy of our book on Brexorcism – click on the extract
With thanks to Irina Fridman, Mike Cashman, Peter Daws, Helga Perry, Lisa Lanfranchi, Daphne Franks, Adrian Ekins-Daukes, Heike Wilms, Louise Hunter, Martin Housden, Carol Fraser, Paul Bowers and Susanna Leislle.
EU rules on some types of shellfish leave UK fishers ‘devastated’.
By Adrian Ekins-Daukes
Fishers around the UK have been “devastated” by fresh problems with exporting their produce to the EU, after the government admitted that exports of live mussels, oysters, scallops and certain other shellfish would be subject to ongoing restrictions.
Those are all classified as “live bivalve molluscs” – a category which also includes cockles and clams. Under longstanding EU rules, catches of live bivalve molluscs from non-EU member states can only be imported without treatment if they come from waters deemed of the highest quality. Vessels from non-EU states also cannot land live bivalve molluscs in EU ports.
These rules have closed off many exports of live bivalve molluscs from the UK, since Brexit took full effect. The market for such shellfish is a small and specialist one, valued at less than £12m a year, but for the small number of fishers who operate in it, it is often their main livelihood.
Selfish Shellfish? Click on the image to Re-Boot Britain
The rules, and the disruption their enforcement has caused for fishers, cannot be termed a “teething problem” as other red tape has been, because they will apply permanently under Brexit unless the government can forge a fresh agreement with the EU to make exceptions for UK produce.
The fishing industry called on the government to do more to try to resolve the problem. Barrie Deas, chief executive of the National Federation of Fishermen’s Organisations, said: “This is devastating for those involved, and it cannot be left as a closed issue. Those of our members who produce mussels and cockles in particular are affected and are very seriously impacted – no exports to the EU as the UK is now a third country. This has to be sorted at government-to-government level and our understanding is that talks are under way, but so far without producing a satisfactory outcome.”
Alistair Sinclair, chair of the Scottish Creel Fishermen’s Federation, blamed the French president, Emmanuel Macron, as well as the UK government for the difficulties, and warned that they were a foretaste of future negotiations. “This is possibly a demonstration of the difficulties that lie ahead Throughout the whole run-up to Brexit, our voice was not considered by the Scottish government and indeed the Tory grandees.”
Fishers could try to comply with the regulations by taking on further processing of the molluscs, to gain the health certification necessary for exports, but this can be costly and time-consuming. Many had hoped that the Brexit agreement would allow for their exports to continue. The EU is the main market for many such specialist fishers.
Brexit was sold on the promise of fish and ships
A spokesperson for the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs said: “Live bivalve molluscs such as oysters, mussels, clams, cockles and scallops can continue to be exported to the EU if they’re harvested from class A waters or cleaned, or have cleared end product testing in the UK. We will continue to raise the issue of live bivalve molluscs not ready for human consumption with the EU, to ensure the trade can continue securely.”
The European commission confirmed that the requirements were not temporary, and were applicable to all such shellfish imported from the UK.
Most of the fisheries affected are in England and Wales. Exports of bivalve molluscs are worth less than £12m a year, of which clams make up more than half, with oysters and mussels worth about £2.7m each. Defra said it could not estimate how much of this market would be affected as some are subject to “depuration” which would allow their export to continue.
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All at sea with Brexit?
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During the 2019 general election campaign, the Conservatives rebranded their official Twitter account as “factcheckUK” during the televised leaders’ debate and used it to publish anti-Labour posts. The inconspicuous Twitter handle remained as @CCHQPress, but all other branding was changed to look like an independent factchecking outlet. It was not obvious to an individual glancing at the account’s tweets in their feed that it came from Conservative party HQ. The public have increasingly turned to factchecking websites, such as the independent Full Fact, the BBC’s Reality Check, Channel 4 News’ FactCheck and the Guardian’s Factcheck, to verify claims made by politicians. Changing the site’s logo to hide its political origins, and using it to push pro-Tory material was a thus flagrant attempt to deceive voters. This was not the only case of malpractice by the Tory digital team. Other examples included a bogus website presented as Labour’s manifesto, and an interview with Keir Starmer, then Labour’s Brexit spokesperson, edited to make it appear he was unable to answer questions about the party’s policy on leaving the EU.
Topham and Guerin
The PR unit behind these deceitful stunts was Topham Guerin, a New Zealand digital team signed up by Isaac Levido, the Tory campaign leader. They were not in the least abashed by the criticism of their tactics, declaring that that the success in spreading the Tory message was well worth the controversy it aroused. After the election, Levido, was ennobled and in March 2020 Topham Guerin received a £3m Covid 19 contract from the Cabinet Office, without competitive tender, to work on the government’s public communications on the pandemic. According to PR Week’s site, they still play a key role in managing No10’s social media and digital output.
With the local elections coming:
Don’t believe anything Boris Johnson says
Don’t believe his Ministers
Don’t believe anyone speaking for the Conservative Party
It’s all been masterminded by experts in spin and deceit. And it’s all specially designed to fool YOU.
So, remain particularly alert for Tory fake news at this time !
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In this Dead Cat Special, “The Daily Maul” features the news that our Government want to you read whilst the nation sleepwalks deeper into fascism every day ….
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