I was called to give some interviews for various Middle Eastern TV platforms on the reasoning for Mark Rutter’s visit to UK on Monday 9th June. The interviews are obviously not in English, so here I set out some of the arguments I made. The TV clips can be found below.
37 pence a day for 70+ years of peace in Europe
Mark Rutte visited UK to shore up support for NATO, Ukraine etc.
Starmer is desperate for friends in a post Brexit jurassic world. However, kowtowing to Trump and Farage is not the right strategy. More courage is needed from Starmer. Morgan Mc Sweeney must go.
Trump knows that Starmer is beleaguered by Brexit so he uses Britain as a bridgehead to batter Europe and the EU for his ally Putin.
Our natural partner is Europe and Britain must show unity. We have no other choice and cannot continue with “cakeist democracy”.
Sadly, the only defence strategy is to show Putin a united front.
UK is strapped for cash due to Brexit. But a 1% rise in defence spending equates to £30 billion pa. Brexit costs us £140 billion EVERY year in lost opportunity and tax receipts, so defence uplift can be afforded if Starmer will face down the Brexit elephant in the room. Read more at Rejoin the EU.
Peace is more than the absence of war. Brits paid 37 pence a day each for our EU membership. Go compare how much we paid for EU membership from your council tax bill (see below).
Whilst Starmer needs to be courteous to President Trump, he goes too far in the appeasement game. Instead, he must learn from John Bolton, Mark Carney, Chancellor Merz and President Zelenskyy.
Moving from 2.5% to 3.0% in the next Parliament is simply too little, too late. It places politics before country. Do better.
I have written many times on the fragmentation of the Remain / Rejoin organisation and likened our movement to that of Indonesia (17 000 islands, many with just a few inhabitants etc.). For more detail on the OD issues, see Reasons to be Helplessand Indonesia. Last week I attended the so-called Brexit reset summit to meet a few colleagues. In passing, I made a trip down memory lane and it was good to catch up with a few friends. Although this will grate a little with some of you reading this, I was not impressed with the organisation of the event, save for the Three Million, who at least had thought about some level of coherence.
Shouting at the wind
Steve Bray dominated the protest with his SODEM fan club. It was the usual bad karaoke punctuated by occasional shouting. In case of doubt, I helped to start the street activism that became SODEM (Stand of Defiance European Movement – itself a two fingered salute to The European Movement). Some of you may therefore see my critique as being based on jealousy. It is not. The trouble with the SODEM protest is that it fails to provide any meaningful content or substance to journalists. Instead they use it as a colourful backdrop to their own stories, which is widely regarded as a joke by critics.
Photo backdrops may please those that appear in the pictures but it means that Remain still has no a credible voice in Mainstream Media – See objective 2 of our five goals. Where I live in Brexit Central, leave voters think that Steve Bray IS the sum total of our movement. It’s very hard to push back on this view.
Style and substance
Some Remainers still don’t understand the need to balance substance (content) with style (delivery). I made several attempts to get Steve a regular podcast with Jon Snow of Channel 4 some years back. I also gave several other suggestions to professionalise SODEM’s work, such as making the compilation video interviews. However, the C4 opportunity was disregarded out of hand and I (and Jon) were shouted down by the mob. Our protest at Parliament remains literally a one man show with a loud hailer and an amplifier. This is a far cry from the diverse and more inclusive offerings of previous incarnations.
Even Steve himself has done better. For example, when he used to intercept politicians with his Socratic questioning style. These were often deeply penetrating pieces rather than “shouting at the wind”. Whilst the loud hailer was amusing for a while, Steve’s act has not changed and it grates with professional journalists trying to do their job. Sadly, this is what many people see as our public face. We can and have done much better.
No more heroes
I’m told that Steve has made several millions from his protests. People love to support lone heroes and this satiates their own guilt, allowing them to do nothing. We have always needed distributed leadership and not heroic leadership – see the academic literature on these terms.
Pressure groups … not
I was astonished to see that the “real” European Movement made a claim on Linkedin that their own pressure had led to Keir Starmer’s reset. In fact, the elements in the so-called reset were included in the Labour 2024 Manifesto. Having once been a leader of an EM group, I’m afraid to say that they are not leaders, not even fast followers but laggards, in terms of being a pressure group. The leader of the Rejoin Party nailed the point:
“The purpose of a pressure group is to apply pressure, NOT to align themselves with one party’s manifesto commitments.”
Brendan Donnelly, former MEP.
Illogical incrementalism
It was Andrew Adonis, EM Chair, who sold the Remainers the false narrative of “step by step” aka logical incrementalism.
Hardly stretch targets. Just Labour Policy or opportunistic asks (defence).
Leadership is needed
I make these remarks in the hope that this prompts some continuous improvement in both areas. Labour will move only if they see considerable political advantage in doing so. Influence comes from both “push” and “pull” communications’ strategies. SODEM’s voice is an extreme form of push communications and is no longer very persuasive. EM’s voice does not push or pull our leaders to action at all, being totally in the pocket of their intended audience. “Creative tension” is always needed between leaders and their intended audience, rather than corrosive tension or no tension at all. See Peter Senge for more on creative tension and leadership of change.
Reset or Reboot and Rejoin?
It is clear that the only good Brexit reset is a dead Brexit. Read more by subscribing to our newsletter (free). Labour must find more courage. Rejoin won’t wait until 2032 as the damage of Brexit will be largely complete, much of it irreversible. The only piece of solace from the Brexit reset is the agreement to dynamic alignment. Still this is thin gruel. Starmer has managed to upset both ‘sides’ of the Brexit debate. Labour are banking on the belief that the Remainers are more forgiving. We shall see ….
This article in The Guardian is being shared widely by Rejoiners at the moment. It is a good piece of academic analysis. Yet I have some problems with a couple of the points it makes (I guess that’s unsurprising!!). It’s a long piece, so buckle yourself in for a long ride. Here’s what I really like about the piece:
Consonance
The article correctly states that the Brexit mindset is a complex interwoven set of beliefs (coalitions within coalitions) that keep getting reinforced by our populist media. I articulated this via my ‘Brexit Brain’ model below. Quite why I coined the phrase ‘Brexorcism‘ to describe the complex quasi-religious mindset change process in the book Reboot Britain.
“It’s really hard. We see tremendous stability over very long periods of time. A choice like Brexit provides endless stimuli to feed that brain activity. It’s coalitions within coalitions within coalitions…” Darren Schreiber.
The Brexit Brain – Read more by clicking the brain.
Thus, normal approaches to change management are not valid: ‘Carrots and sticks; are often used to change simple levels of behaviour and performance at work. For example, if you pay people more, they might work harder for a while. Put them under threat, they may also work harder, go on strike, work less or leave the company etc. But changing Kwasi-religious beliefs such as Brexit is a whole different ball game. It’s not a rational choice as the Guardian article rightly explains.
Whole brained change
I advocate a blend of so-called left (more analytical) and right brained (more emotional) thinking to reach deep into the Brexit psyche of my ‘clients’, what is known as a ‘hearts and minds’ approach in business consulting circles. Using hard hitting emotional headlines to grab people by the heart and longer more analytical approaches to ensure that their heads fall in line with their hearts. The dual approach is epitomised in the book Private Eyelines, a book targeted at leave voters to help them understand how they were lied to. p.s. DO NOT buy the book on Amazon. I get a £2.00 royalty on a sale of £32.99 for six months work, as Amazon keep all the profits! Whilst I don’t write books as an income source, I also don’t write them to boost Amazon’s profits. If you wish to buy a copy direct at an author’s discount, talk to me direct via reboot@brexitrage.com. By the way the left-right brain divide has been questioned but the idea of whole brain thinking (analytical and emotional) is a handy notion to help us think about the need to reach head and heart.
“A man with a conviction is a hard man to change. Tell him you disagree and he turns away. Show him facts or figures and he questions your sources. Appeal to logic and he fails to see your point.” Leon Festinger.
Another truism in the article is the belief that all leave voters are unresponsive to dialogue, thick or closed. This reveals itself in oft quoted statements by some Remainers, who say things like “You can’t educate pork”, “I’ve tried everything” and “They are thick as mince”. Truth be told, some Remainers lack the skills, patience and time to conduct effective Brexorcisms. Also it really matters who you choose as your ‘client’. There really is no point working on a ‘Nigel Farage type hardcore Brexiters’ but many leave voters are not hard leavers. Selection of your targets is key, both in terms of where they sit on the Remain – Leave continuum and to what extent they are key opinion formers for others who follow their views.
“When you pathologise the other side, there’s no point in reaching out to them” Brian Hughes.
Relationship and rapport is key
The article goes on to say something terribly important. “If there is a way through this, he suggests, it is to break down the myths of us and them.” A successful Brexorcism only operates on the basis of a strong relationship and a basic bond of trust. If you are going to challenge beliefs, you need a massive ‘bank balance’ of relationship power to succeed. This is why Steve Bray and his cult have changed very few minds by ‘shouting at people’ in Parliament, upsetting sympathetic media people into the process. In case of doubt, I started on the street with Steve at No 10 Vigil. He quickly spotted that the real action was at Parliament instead of Downing Street and set up a splinter group. Later on, I tried to gain him a permanent platform with other figures at Channel 4 News which he rejected. Of course, Steve’s activities outside the House of Commons have other functions. However, his finest moments were when he quietly but firmly ask politicians difficult questions using a Socratic style and a ‘servant leadership’ approach. But everything counts. We need to use all the therapeutic communication styles as discussed by John Heron in Reboot Britain. Social settings such as cafes, pubs etc. are often more helpful than formal settings, hence my comments about the sauna below, although the sauna is not the only environment in which you can change someone’s mind about Brexit!
In the article, Carol Tavris confirms the view that ‘consonance’ or rapport is vital as a starting point for a successful Brexorcism. The conversation is a healthy mixture of what Comms people call ‘pull’ and ‘push’ strategies or what musicians and psychologists call consonance and dissonance. Finding some common ground is extremely important or giving away trivial wins in order to build a connection. One of the difficulties I notice in some activists is their fundamentalist need to ‘win’ all the arguments with leave voters. It’s better to let them have some small wins in the dance of Brexorcism.
“When we argue with somebody about their beliefs, the absolute crucial thing to avoid is making them feel foolish. If you say something like, ‘How could you be so stupid?’, that will almost always make your listener become even more committed to their belief. If you say instead, ‘Well, many of my own expectations turned out not to be the case too’, that might be a place to start.”
Dissonance
The Guardian article suggests that we must fully convert people to become Rejoiners. This is akin to a religious conversion or what I call a 360-degree Brexorcism. This is fundamentally incorrect. All we need to deliver as a ‘MVP‘ (Minimum Viable Product” is to move people from the idea that Brexit is a good idea towards ambivalence or doubt about the value of Brexit, a 180-degree Brexorcism. This is a much easier task. This converts in behavioural terms to people not voting in another referendum / General Election to support a Brexit party or possibly voting for a pro-Rejoin party to balance out their previous vote. Obviously a full conversion to the cause would be a much stronger position but, as the article points out, it is much more difficult. This is like trying convert a moderate Christian to Islamic fundamentalism when we only need to go as far as agnosticism, not even atheism.
Our approach to Brexorcism has validation from low-profile approaches to change which were reported on by the BBC some while back. A Brexorcism blends ideas from psychology, sociology, anthropology and therapeutic interventions. People who tell me that you cannot change the minds of Brexit voters simply have not understood the fundamentals of Brexorcism which requires large doses of skill, patience and time. I’m offering a free masterclass on the topic for North Hertfordshire for Europe on Sunday November 19th at 5.00 pm via ZOOM. Contact me to reserve your place. I am also willing to give keynotes and masterclasses on our UK tour to develop a cadre of Brexorcists. This is vital if we are to move the dial faster on Brexit regret by a General Election.
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Brexorcism
The will of the people has changed
My other major beef with the article is that it suggests that “though there is some anecdotal and polling evidence that there has been a shift in sentiment, and that remain might now prevail, the same polls show very little appetite to reopen the question.” This is incorrect on two levels:
There has been a seismic shift from 4% to 24% of people that believe that Brexit has failed. By 2024 it is quite feasible that 70% of people will believe that Brexit has failed. At that point politicians will no longer be able to look the other way.
Whilst it’s true that there is currently no appetite to reopen the Brexit question, this is merely a feature of where we have got to in the cycle. Also, of course, a sense of foreboding that another referendum would re-open all the family feeds / social angst and so on. However, another bloody referendum is not the only way to settle the matter. It is also quite certain that not opening up the difficult question will mean that the wounds of Brexit will remain with us for generations to come. Some kind of healing could actually take place with a grown-up recognition that Brexit has failed and that rejoining the EU is both possible and desirable. There is an embedded assumption that we MUST do this via a referendum. It ain’t necessarily so. See this article for London for Europe and Reboot Britain on the choices we face.
Myths and Riffs of Brexit
I note that the last remaining Brexiters are putting forward a number of myths to silence debate. Sadly some remainers also buy into these myths due to learned helplessness. For example:
‘Learned helplessness’ on the part of Remainers plays into a passive acceptance of the idea that Brexit is done and it cannot be undone. This is the belief that we don’t deserve to join anew as it might be considered anti-democratic etc. However, a referendum won through fraud, fake social media ads and which was judged illegal by the Supreme Court had it been mandatory is not the high-water mark of democracy. Leavers were not satisfied by a super majority (67.2% on a 64% turnout) in the initial referendum to join the EU in 1975. Nor should we.
Learned Helplessness summed up. We must not subscribe to it.
Indonesia– our structural deficit
Learned helplessness prevails in a vacuum of leadership and a lack of coherent strategy. Whilst the Remain movement was relatively united in the summer of 2019 after a number of victories, the 2019 election fragmented people again along political party lines. There are now as many proposals on how we rejoin as there are pundits. I describe the organisational structure of the Remain movement as being like Indonesia i.e. 17 000 islands and a few bigger ones. But all operating independently. The bigger beasts such as the European Movement compete with other actors such as Best for Britain. Others prefer to plough their own furrow. Some have been asleep at the wheel, calling for Remainers to make the most of Brexit. Yet, the only good Brexit is a dead Brexit. The consequence of being ‘Indonesia’ is that we find it hard to do things at scale. Fragmentation of strategy / structure and poor leadership also mean that we spend as much time arguing internally about strategy as we do in acting on Brexit and Rejoin. I set out five goals which we coalesce around on a monthly basis. It ain’t perfect but we do our best to provide clarity and collaborative leadership across a group of people from Europe. Join us some Mondays at 8 pm UK time via ZOOM. See also our article on Strategies to Join EU anew.
17 000 islands. A few bigger ones.
Five goals to join anew.
Not fade away
One specific point in the article which is not quite correct is the mention of BBC Question Time’s Brexit special event in Clacton. The journalist stated that the audience was made up entirely of those who voted leave. He went on to suggest that this was presumably to ensure the debate would not simply descend into an all-too familiar slanging match. We actually attended the event and talked with people on the street in Clacton. Levels of ‘Bregret’ were widespread in Brexity Clacton outside the event. They were also quite easy to get from people who realised that they had been taken for fools. The Brexit voting audience were also happy to speak with us after the event and many were of the view that Brexit had failed and that they were lied to. It is therefore a mistake to assume that all Brexiters attending BBC QT are now fully committed to Brexit.
This was mirrored in Brexit voting Deal the other week and on BBC Any Questions in Tory voting Southend on 17 August 2023, where the audience failed to applaud any of the statements made by the Tory panel member. Having been at the centre of some extreme nastiness by Brexiters, including the ex Met Policeman who issued threats of violence, spray painted my house and attended with a knife, I observe from Brexit voting Kent that the slanging matches have largely subsided. However, the article is correct when it infers that the products of Brexit won’t go away by not talking about it. See our Brexit iceberg below. Like it or loathe it, Brexit is the smelly dump and stain in the toilet bowel of life that won’t flush.
The Brexit Iceberg.
Brexit will continue to traumatise a generation if we do not burst the boil of Brexit one way or another. I believe in facing problems rather than sweeping them under political carpets. Labour in particular will be culpable for assisting the tragedy of Brexit if they continue to look away. Much in the way that the vast majority of good German people were silenced through fear during Hitler’s populist uprising. Fence sitting on Brexit is assent.
“The Tories will crow about Brexit being done. The Labour frontbench will solemnly observe that past tense, and avoid the B-word, as if it is a triggering trauma for the party and the country, best left undisturbed.”
Brexit is the smelly dump and stain in the toilet bowl of life that won’t flush
Lost consonance
As an aside, I found the opening paragraph about ‘Brexit hard man’ Steve Baker an unusual lead into the Guardian piece. I saw Mr Baker’s attempt to draw sympathy from the public to be a calculated attempt to humanise him as a piece of electioneering and not a window on his tortured Brexit soul. No decent Christian would agree with the human principles on which Brexit is founded. Like everything else with Brexit, it’s just another set of illusions. For example, The European Research Group (ERG) does no research. The weaponisation of asylum seekers to appeal to racists and people with feeble minds is not what Jesus would have done. and so on. Baker uses his faux Christianity as a shield and has now turned into a snowflake to gain sympathy from his constituents using the Brexit confessional box. Baker’s so called mental illness, beard growth and acne were mobilised as excuses. Krishnan Guru-Murphy’s analysis was correct when he pointed out that Baker was a C…nt.
Baker explained “I felt repugnant, hateful, to blame for all of the troubles that we had, absolutely without any joy, constantly worried about everything to the point of mental torment. A constant state of panic attacks and anxiety”. So he should, for all the pain he has inflicted on our children and those having anxiety, depression and lost careers / jobs / livelihoods due to Brexit. In fact, Baker should be in jail alongside Rees-Mogg who promised us cheap training shoes, Farage who promised a boom in fish and chips and Johnson who said that Brexit would make my wife’s breasts bigger. I’ve checked several times. They haven’t.
Nigel F wants to get rid of the NHS and install “Two Tier Health”. He’s entitled to have that view in a democracy, but lets just think a while on what private healthcare means for most of us. There is already a way to see the future of a privatised NHS via the US model of healthcare. Just look at what you will likely be paying for critical operations and care:
This is not a joke. In the US if you cannot pay, you don’t get treatment. Be careful what you wish for …
Wendy Novak is an expert on this subject. Read her extract from the book Reboot Britain on Brexit and Healthcare. It was recently reported that Brexit has led to 1500 unnecessary deaths every year due to the exodus of European health professionals. Nigel did not put that on a bus! Perhaps that’s why he tells people not to listen to experts … Watch our mini film featuring several examples of people who rely on critical care. I’m glad to say that all are still alive as I write this.
Brexit kills … 1500 people a year … unnecessarily … let that sink in.Brexit is bad for your health …
Saving lives
But I’m an optimist, so I have a few suggestions on how to save lives for others through the unselfish acts of leave voters …
Just say no … to treatment
Do it yourself
Reforming Reform
If we want to deal with the causes of the Reform UK vote, deep therapeutic interventions into the minds and souls of the great unwashed are needed. I wrote a book to teach people how to do it based on 1000s of hours of deliberate practice. Please read the book of Brexorcism and attend our next meeting on Monday 12 May at 8 pm via ZOOM. I am also going to offer a six month professional development programme in the art and practice of what I call “Brexorcism” to give you the skills, strategies and stories to change mindsets if there is sufficient interest. Write to me for details via reboot@brexitrage.com.
I have also written to my Labour MP on the subject of mass Brexorcisms … and potholes … write your Labour MP a letter about Brexit and send a copy of Rejoin EU: Reboot Britain to them. See my letter below:
Dear Naushabah,
Firstly, may I congratulate you on the noticeable improvements to the roads after 14 years of Tory managed decline. As a cyclist, I am much closer to the asphalt than most road users and have fallen off my bicycle several times due to potholes in recent times. Although no physical damage has been done, I’ve had to replace a wheel due to the disgraceful neglect of the roads by the Tories. As a principle, I refuse to use my car on environmental grounds, preferring public transport and my bicycle and this gives me much better contact with the road (not literally for the most part).
I spoke with Cllr Vince Maple yesterday and pointed out that much of our “populist pothole problems” come from shoddy piecemeal repairs from dodgy contractors rather than complete resurfacing projects. To use a dental analogy, quite a few of these ‘drill and fill’ operations have now opened up on my street which will cost more money to fix. I’m pleased to see that your approach in Gillingham and Rainham (and in other parts of the Medway Towns) has been for wholesale renewal and hope these contracts are being closely managed.
I’m pretty sure that you have audited the area, as I see white lines around some of the most offending holes, but if I could add my two penneth of comment in, the bottom half of Barnsole Road has some very dangerous ruts and the middle of Canterbury St is very bad for bicycles. Please pass on the word to Tristan from bus drivers that the Brook in Chatham is extremely hazardous.
At the same time, I’m disappointed to see that many of the double red lines and now turning back to yellow. IMHO, it was shoddy work to just paint over the yellow lines, especially when the contractors were paid £800 000 to do it. Frankly I would have done it for less, to a better standard. Please ask them to make the work good at no cost to the taxpayer. I am currently dealing with a cowboy builder for my neighbours who are without good English language and I take a dim view of shoddy work which is not fit for purpose.
And whilst we are on the subject and at a national level, just stop the ‘drill and fill’ operation with Brexit. It opens the door to Nigel’s army of the “hard of thinking”. As discussed with Vince yesterday, the local election wins for Deform UK were characterised by low turnout and a certain number of people wanting to give Labour a bloody nose for what are, frankly, some terrible decisions, which have generated a great deal of angst for little real return. To strech the dental analogy a bit too far, more drilling and filling and tooth extractions without anaesthesia will not make the pain of Brexit diminish. It is time for some “Brexit root canal surgery” via an application to Rejoin the EU. Trump 2.0 / Putin / Farage etc. makes the burning platform of our relationship with the EU mission critical. Do remember that many of the people who voted for Brexit are now dead. As far as I know, dead people cannot vote in elections …
I am willing to help you design interventions to deal with the root causes of the Reform vote on a national basis via a series of large-scale interventions along the lines of the excellent event you held on climate yesterday in Rochester. I fear that if you don’t deal with Reform’s voter base, this will be a one term Labour party.
To sum up, I am extremely happy with all that you are doing locally. You prove yourself worthy of the job and I understand just how hard it is, given my other life working with senior people from global enterprises. I remain doubtful about some of the national choices being made by Labour, when there are easier picks to make, but I know you understand that. Keep going with the reforms (sic) to Gillingham and Rainham.
p.s. I’ve just published this review on the costs of Nigel’s “Two Tier Health” which gives people some foresight on Reform’s proposals to privatise the NHS. People may find it helpful, including Wes Streeting.
All the best
Peter Cook – Human Dynamics and The Academy of Rock
I was astonished to learn that Reform UK supporters are actively backing killing immigrants who they believe to be paedophiles. Rupert Lowe, Reform UK MP for Great Yarmouth constantly posts disinformation about immigration and a host of other subjects on LinkedIn to trigger people who are easily swayed into believing him. This set of responses are possibly the worst I’ve seen, although they are not the only ones by far. Eugene seems quite happy to shoot paedophiles. He has fallen prey to the idea that there is a “paedophilia gene” and it resides exclusively within foreigners, when the vast majority of rapists in Britain are the “old English variety”. Eugene works as a business development manager at Future Optics in Lancashire. I’d be quite concerned if he is willing to kill people indiscriminately based on Rupert’s dogwhistle calls.
At various points, Rupert stokes the idea that not only are the rapists ‘foreigners’, but they are also ‘islamic’. This dangerous disinformation is poisoning our society and Eugene is an easy target for people looking for easy answers to complex problems.
In terms of incitement, here are some example of the kind of post that Rupert puts up. He posts this kind of thing several times daily, but never answers any comments. It is a persistent campaign of disinformation.
Please report disinformation and / or hate crimes. It helps keep the internet safe. False information and outright lies do not help to “Make Britain Great Again” as Nigel Farage would have you believe. They simply poison the culture and breed hatred, which is the basis of dogwhistle politics. And, in case you are wondering, better answers to immigration are available. See below. In case you also think we are “lefty losers”, think again. Yet it is always a mistake to pray at Donald Trump, Putin and Farage’s altar. Take courage Sir Keir Starmer.
No, not occupy Greenland !! The real Project 2025 is to Rejoin the EU. Our new book is out. Order your copies on Amazon. To get multiple discount copies at author discount of just £3.50 plus P&P, please mail me via reboot@brexitrage.com The main uses of the book are to:
Send physical copies to MPs, journalists and influencers in UK and Europe. A physical copy is a coffee table item and much more likely to be read than a digital copy of the book.
Place in cafes, libraries, universities (e.g. politics / history courses), pubs, clubs, book clubs and other social settings to change minds about Brexit and Europe.
Use it for the basis of talks to communities to Brexorcise groups.
Here is the press release. Feel free to use it on social media.
Sir Keir Starmer has stated that there is no case to Rejoin the EU. We disagree and 60 of us wrote this book to explain why the case for applying to Rejoin the EU is overwhelming and urgent. This will help as part of a strategy to Reboot Britain and begin the path towards sustainable growth.
Although ending Brexit and applying to Rejoin the EU is not a one size fits all magic bullet solution to Britain’s problems, the impacts will be wide ranging and felt right across the STEEPLE factors. (Social, Technological, Economic, Environmental, Political, Legal and Ethical). Contrary to what some might say, Brexit is far from done. However, we are done for if we refuse to confront the Brexit elephant in the room. It is not so much that we must Rejoin the EU, but that we cannot afford not to do it.
Please send the book to MPs, influencers, journalists, friends, family and those few who still think that Brexit was a good idea, poorly executed. It will begin the Brexorcism conversation anew, now that 2/3 of the population accept that Brexit was a mistake.
Featuring contributions from Dr Charlie Clutterbuck (Author, Bittersweet Brexit), Michael Hindley (former MEP), Ian Forrester KC, Wendy Nowak, Mark Sampson (Iron Man Records), Helga Perry, Terence Knott (President Amicale Europe Pays de Fayence), Paul Cawthorne, Julie Ward (former MEP), David Powell, Sue Bird, Adrian Ekins-Daukes (former EU Commission diplomat), Paul Weller, Irina Fridman, John Falch, Kevin McDonald, Judith Spencer and Andrew Hessleden.
You may also enjoy our other publications : “Reboot Britain” – a book on the gentle art and discipline of Brexorcism and “Private Eyelines” – a book on Brexit satire which busts the myths of Brexit using the power of humour mixed with facts.
Keir Starmer seems to be “confused” about the case to join the EU anew, stating that there is no such case. I thought I would put him out of his misery on the topic, so we have written this proposal. It is far from complete, so please add your contributions via e-mail to reboot@brexitrage.com. I will incorporate and credit you in the final work. Ending Brexit is not a magic bullet solution to Britain’s problem but the impacts will be wide ranging and felt right across the STEEPLE factors (Sociological, Technological, Economic, Environmental, Political, Legal and Ethical). We must join EU anew as part of a strategy to Reboot Britain after 14 years of managed decline.
TITLE : Reboot Britain– Join EU Anew
Exec summary to be written once the main body and all the detail is complete. And a structure applied to the document for overview and detail.The final document will be presented as a WORD / PDF download with a petition attached for supporters’ signatures.
Our primary audiences will be politicians of all persuasions, mainstream media, community leaders and influencers across the entire spectrum. We will need people to reach these people as part of a mass communication strategy.
The economic opportunities
Brexit is costing us £100 BILLION every year with a 4.5% drag on our resilience. Remember Michael Gove’s claim of frictionless trade? Well that so-called ‘non-friction’ is costing us £40 BILLION every year in lost revenue. For comparison, Boris Johnson and Nigel Farage’s much vaunted £350 million per week for the NHS that we supposedly saved from our EU membership only grosses up to £18.2 BILLION per annum. As far as I can tell, we never actually spent this money on the NHS anyway and the 40 mythical hospitals never materialised. In 2020 the UK made an estimated gross contribution to the EU (after the rebate) of £17.0 billion. The UK also received £4.5 billion of public sector receipts from the EU, so the UK’s net public sector contribution to the EU was an estimated £12.5 billion. So, we are bleeding something like £140 bn to save £13 bn. For the avoidance of doubt and for those Brexiteers who Rishi Sunak suggested have issues with mathematics, 140 is quite a lot more than 13.
The word BILLION is also an eye watering number. To put this into context it means that each citizen is £2000 worse off due to Brexit.
And some 300 000 jobs have been lost from the City of London alone. This alone ought to be a wake up call to Keir Starmer and Rachel Reeves. I cannot detect whether they are frightened of someone or something (CAN’T do it) or whether Labour’s vacillation is ideologically based (WON’T do it). Either way, it’s certainly not in the interests of the country. We are expected to be £311 billion worse off by 2035.
Brexit has also made the cost-of-living crisis more severe in the UK. City Hall analysis shows that 30% of the 25% increase in food prices between December 2019 and March 2023 could be attributed to the effects of Brexit. Other research from the London School of Economics (LSE) confirms this by showing that Brexit added an average of £250 to household food bills over the two years to the end of 2021, costing UK consumers a total of £6 billion.
GVA (Gross Value Added) analysis : Source Sky News.
Go Compare
Given the eye watering cost of Brexit and lost opportunities measured in multi-billions, some comparisons are helpful. £140 billion could pay the annual wages bill for ALL NHS staff … TWICE at £71.1 billion !! Or we could nationalise water with some spare change left (£90 billion). Or fix social care at a mere £7 billion ! Repairing schools a snip at £11.4 billion and upgrading defence £50 billion. Our police force costs £23.5 billion per year. £140 billion could go a long way towards fixing broken Brexit Britain. Rachel Reeves is just fiddling whilst Brexit Britain burns … WHY, WHY, WHY?
The social opportunities
But, it’s not just about the money, money, money … If Starmer / Reeves choose to ignore the numbers, they cannot ignore the ugly face of Brexit inspired fascism which is sweeping the nation as I write. Farage / Robinson / Braverman et al’s Provisional English Defence League have moved beyond rioting towards terrorism by trying to burn people alive in a hotel under the guise of ‘taking back control’. Claiming to be patriots whilst looting shops, smashing up property and threatening to kill people is an odd way to be patriotic. This is justification enough to end Brexit inspired racism and Reboot Britain, never mind anything else. It also comes with an economic cost. In 2011, the riots were estimated to have cost Britain between £200 million and 500 million in damages, lost trade and policing, a hit to monthly U.K. GDP of roughly 0.15% The WSJ also estimated that riots damage the economy through loss of confidence and so on.
Hate crimes have seen a consistent rise since 2014. Farage used racism as a weapon to swing the 2016 Brexit referendum, some analysts belive by up to 12%. The referendum vote was followed by an increase in race and religious hate crime of 15-25% in England and Wales. The recent reaction to the tragic events in Southport by far right thugs is itself a demonstration of just how much Farage, Tice, Braverman, Anderson, Oakeshott, Badenoch, Robinson, Jenrick, Patel et al. have emboldened overt racist behaviour by a small section of society. Brexit is the fuel for these fires. People demonstrated that they no longer fear racist behaviour and, in some cases, it is seen as a badge of honour, just like in the 1970s.
Source Gov.uk crime statistics England and Wales.
In 2020, a set if predictions were made about social impacts of Brexit. All have come to pass in one way or another. Potential impacts included: loss of rights, economic and public services impacts, increase in hate crime, immigration and labour market impacts, and the potential for further dilution of equalities rights and protections. Of course, undoing social illnesses is not as quick as economic ones and, in some cases, these changes are not easily reversible.
The Scottish Government also reported that the impact of Brexit on consumers would be gendered because women are the main managers of family budgets and the shock-absorbers of poverty. In contrast to Nigel Farage’s 2016 ‘brochure’ Brexit benefits have turned out to be “for the few and NOT the many. Since there is so much focus on immigration due to Braverman’s moving of the “Overton window” on this matter, it is worth repeating the fact that immigration can be fixed. Watch our two minute explainer film on the matter:
Just two minutes – Keir Starmer, take note.
The Irish question
A piece on NI to be written.
Fixing the NHS / Social care / Farming etc.
We continue to be critically short of skilled people in social care, the NHS, farming, hospitality, science, engineering and many other professions. Some 330 000 shortages in fact. And the Farage loving Brexiteers have not stepped up to the plate to pick crops and wipe ar..es in care homes, let alone train as doctors, space scientists, computer programmers and so on. In my own area of Kent, they now complain that the faces of people coming here are darker … they are just never satisfied with their Brexit, all of which was predicted for them so painfully. But the number of people I encounter on a daily basis who say such things is much reduced. Only Nigel Farage, Suella Braverman, Badenoch et al continue to promulgate the myth that migration is a blight on our society, followed by a few people with feeble minds.
A healthier Britain
As a direct result of leaving the EU, healthcare has suffered due to loss of EU NHS staff. Waiting lists are appalling. This is having an effect on our health in general. Patients can’t be sure of getting essential meds. Amidst worldwide shortages UK govt. has made this much worse by cutting supply chains.
We are what we eat and Brexit red tape has also restricted our supplies of healthy, low-carb food (essential for diabetics, for example). On top of that Brexit has made our food much more expensive. People can’t afford to eat properly, which can have a detrimental effect on health. We’re seeing many more cases of malnutrition since Brexit. When people suffer sickness the economy gets sick too because workers are off sick.
The Tory government is to blame for mismanagement and underfunding of the NHS and also appalling response to the pandemic, causing long term sickness for those with Long Covid. Rejoining the EU would certainly help us to alleviate some of these issues.
This section would benefit from some data links.
Science
The Royal Society of Chemistry recently reported that Brexit continues to cause significant damage to UK businesses. They recommend a UK wide National Chemicals Agency. This kind of call for a ‘sticking plaster’ rather than reaching for a cure is replicated across many industries and sectors, in the great British “make, do and mend” tradition. I would rather emulate the Japanese with a “right first time” approach. In other words, rather than “death by a 1000 ameliorations”, the best option is to put an end to Brexit.
The only good Brexit is a dead Brexit …
Furthermore, science and many other sectors face critical skill shortages. See the FT article on care workers for example. Science is not practised on a country by country basis. It requires the finest minds from across the world. The RSC reported that there are still obstacles to attraction and retention of talented people.
Source : FT.
Food security
Even the Brexity BBC Radio 4 reported on the fact that we lack resilience in our food supply. Our decision to Brexit has magnified the problem. I even suggested that BBC Farming Today be renamed Brexit Today as they speak of little else on every programme whilst the nation slumbers.
Source : The Independent.
More to be added here.
The will of the people
I’d hazard an informed guess that the 2024 General Election result was a reversal of the 2019 one, where Boris did not win, but Corbyn and the false promise of ‘getting Brexit done’ lost Labour the election. In 2024, the Tories undoubtedly lost, but did Labour really win, with a resounding success for the Lib Dems and a significant protest vote by the Reform party aka ‘none of the above’? Recent Statista analysis shows that views on the Brexit vote continue to be negative, especially with younger people. If Starmer continues to ignore these findings, he could find himself in the 2019 position in 2029. Labour MPs continue to float the myth that we can rejoin in 2032. Well guys, you may not get that far …
Barriers to Rejoin
This section needs expansion re Labour, Tories, Lib Dems, Leave Voters and of course the EU.
The key barriers to success are the UK parties, especially Labour and Conservatives, then there is the EU itself and of course the 67 million people of Britain. Dealing with these one by one:
Remainers are the best asset that Nigel Farage and Richard Tice. They are meek, unassuming and make few demands on the political system. Here is a quote from an older gentleman that does not believe we can rejoin without decades of repentance:
The issue then is arrogant British exceptionalism that both sides seem to possess. Because the major stumbling block for Britain Is .. Will the EU ever trust the British again? Not the baby boomer generation I suspect.
Of course, what is needed are more than calm words. We are now at the point where 2/3 of the UK population believe that we must rejoin. Given the numbers of young people who wish to rejoin and the certainty that people of my generation who still believe in Brexit will literally expire in the coming years, this represents an irrevocable shift in public attitudes towards Europe and EU membership. This is an overarching majority and politicians do not hold grudges where there are opportunities to be seized. What is now needed at a macro level would be some guarantees and at a micro level further education and mass Brexorcisms of the soft Brexiteer population, see objective four of our Reboot Britain strategies and our book which offers a practical guide to the gentle art of Brexorcism.
Our five strategies to Reboot Britain.
The price of freedom
The few remaining Brexiteers claim that Brexit was not about making us wealthier and that you cannot put a price on freedom. Well, you can …
The freedom NOT to waste £4.7 billion of YOUR taxes on Brexit border checks.
The freedom NOT to lose 4.5% GDP EVERY year from Brexit.
More to be added here.
The longest journey
The longest journey begins with the first step. In other words, it’s all about strategic intent rather than the destination. People waste a lot of energy discussing the end point of the Rejoin journey. What matters is the beginning of the process and this simply requires the completion of an application for to join the EU anew. Since markets are perfect, this act of intent would have immediate benefits. The financial sector would stop bleeding key staff to Europe. The car industry would be assured of continuity of operations since rules of origin laws would no longer apply once re rejoin. The pharmaceutical, high tech, finance sectors and so on would immediately realise that there is no need to continue the slow drift away from Brexit Britain. Shared industrial standards would bring many benefits e.g. to construction and the chemical industry. Since markets are perfect, all of this would mean a fairly instantaneous uplift to our fortunes. And so on …
So, it does not matter so much when we complete the rejoining process. What matters is when we begin …
Routes to Renaissance
Remoaners also keep talking of the need for a referendum. No referendum is needed, nor is it the best or only route to achieve the goal. There is incontrovertible evidence that Brexit is a socio-economic, environmental and political disaster. I pay my taxes for Government to make complex decisions on my behalf. The Brexit referendum was declared unlawful by The Supreme Court if it had been anything but advisory. It is a mistake to repeat a broken process and our best choice is to let Government do their job. If however we felt compelled to do so due to faux reasoning about democracy, we should conduct it in EXACTLY the same way as we did before, i.e. with a simple yes/no question and the same criteria for the decision. No need for the super majority demanded by some Remoaners – if 52:48 was good enough in 2016, it’s good enough now. but with a proper campaign so that people could understand the decision being presented to them, without misinformation or disinformation. The best option will be to let Parliament do the job we pay them for.
People also say that another referendum will open up the toxic debate in families. That may be true for some. Yet the Brexit question will otherwise plague the nation of several more generations without dealing with the unfinished business of Brexit. We must pop the boil of Brexit, otherwise it will continue oozing toxic puss for many decades to come without resolution. Britain will otherwise continue to be a basket case re grown up attitudes to politics. The referendum revealed the need for fundamental reforms to our democracy and governance.
An unfinished symphony
This proposal needs many refinements. For example, sections on legal, ethical and environmental benefits of joining the EU anew. A Pros and Cons grid as a summary would also be great. And more on European perspectives. The final document will be organised as a WORD document with appendices for detail to preserve the benefits of summary highlights and granular detail. Please mail me your contributions via reboot@brexitrage.com.
Eventually, we’ll need mass media spreading of the proposal and targeted letter writing to MPs and influencers. Other ideas include a book, films, petition, media pieces and so on. Your thoughts are welcome. If you find this useful, send us a tip on Paypal so that we can keep the website running and cover our basic costs of maintaining our work.
Useful resources
These videos are well worth your time: For an independent viewpoint, visit Post Factum.
The wonderful work of Rob Groves – subscribe to his channel.
Michael Lambert’s work is well worth your time – subscribe and learn.
Still to be integrated
Seamless borders. Ease of doing business with one of the world’s biggest markets that is RIGHT on our door step! Ease of collaboration and partnership with an enormous range of the world’s most advanced companies. Shared access to similar grant/research funding. Access to a mobile, highly skilled, multi-lingual workforce….. Cross border skills exchange/training. Shared industrial standards. Shared values.
To reopen barriers chosen by a brainwashed electorate! Viz: single market trade and free movement of goods; ability to live, work or study in any EU country; free access to emergency health care; common standards for health and environment; access to funding and investment.
My partner of 11 years & future wife (had to cancel wedding due to a no fault eviction notice) is an EU citizen- our travel is curtailed & restricted due to my EU passport being taken from me without my consent.
With thanks to Jane Berry, Richard Moore, Greg Newman, Wendy Nowak, Michael Lambert, Political X, Max Robespierre, Rob Groves, Robert Holman, Denis Buckley, Ian S Forrester KC, Terry Knott, Alison Murray, Adrian Ekins-Daukes, John Stephens, Andrew Hessleden.
I attended the local church hustings recently to face down lies from the Reform party and the Conservatives, who had fled the scene of the crime. Here are my answers to questions levied by the public. Click on You Tube to view. The whole hustings were two hours and this summary is the shortest I could make it with some annotations of the questions.
The film covers a wide range of issues and I’m available to answer others on request. More below on Food Banks.
I offer five key points of difference compared with the mainstream parties:
100% independent so no party whips to obey. My stakeholders are our citizens.
Brexit must be ended as a priority. No-nonsense trying to “Make Brexit Work” or mealy mouthed accommodations which fail to address the elephant in the room. We stand to gain £140 BILLION per annum as a start from making a commitment to rejoin the EU. Money which can be spent on healing the damage of 14 years of Tory chaos. All talk of growth by other parties is vacuous nonsense without dealing with Brexit.
An acceleration of our efforts towards net zero and the climate crisis in general.
An immediate ceasefire in Gaza and a Northern Ireland styled dialogue to resolve the mess.
Reforms to our democracy, truth, trust and transparency in politics.
We have just been ranked as five stars by Stay European, above all the major parties. If you want to Rejoin EU in Gillingham and Rainham, please vote Independent.
I note empirically from loads of conversations in real life and on Linkedin that the last remaining Brexiteers really only have one issue left. It’s their illusion that the EU is an unelected, bloated dictatorship. Although online Brexorcisms are essentially a waste of time for a host of reasons, other people do notice the whining desperation of these people and therefore I spend a little time on this artform. Here’s a sadly amusing sequence from Steve Rimmington, who today admitted that he was diagnosed with mental health problems but refused to get treatment. I am left wondering if this influenced his Brexit vote (only joking of course – mental health problems, particularly untreated as in Steve’s case, are something that the Government and everyone need to take seriously). I always seek an answer from such people about the benefits of Brexit. None ever came during our exchange and instead Steve tried distraction and gaslighting. None of these work as someone who wrote the book on Brexorcism. Here is some of our exchange, as a series of responses to a post from Sir Keir Starmer.
Steve’s valid objection is that I have not worked as an employee in the service sector. It’s true. Yet I have met plenty of people who do. One does not need to have committed suicide to be a suicide counsellor and so on. More importantly, Steve does not seem to understand that Zero Hours Contracts are particularly a UK phenomenon, with many European countries outlawing them. Zero-hours contracts are NOT permitted in: Austria, Belgium, Czech Republic, Denmark, France, Germany, Hungary, Italy, Poland and Spain. So, UK was able to operate these bad HR arrangements whilst it was a member of the EU. This rather debunks his notion of a controlling EU superstate. Exploitation of workers is a feature of bad management and that’s what a decent Government might address in a decent political system. Our Brexit government has failed to do so and the direction of travel is back to the workhouse. Although ZHC are currently running at a rate of 3.6% the trend is upwards in Brexit Britain and I agree with Steve that they are a bad feature of our employment landscape.
Steve decides to take offence at this point. As a self employed person of 30 years I have effectively always been on zero hours, having juggled clients over this time. So, I do understand the uncertainty that this can produce. Having said that, I chose my employment arrangement which makes an enormous difference. As a former CIPD Council member, I can confirm that Brexit will gradually lead to poorer employee protection.
Steve attempts to suggest that I blame everything on Brexit. He has not seen my multiple causation / correction iceberg model that includes COVID and Ukraine as causation factors for our malaise. However COVID is a short term effect and Ukraine has only really had a dramatic effect on oil prices and, to some extent, food. Brexit has affected our resilience to the tune of 4.5% GDP loss into the future. Like trying to swim the channel with a 20kg block of concrete round your neck.
The Brexit iceberg – a simplified multiple cause / correlation model.
Brexit’s Breaking Britain.
Steve then tries more shapeshifting to avoid answering the simple question about the ‘many benefits’ of Brexit. In a very usual trick he tries to blame the EU for OUR decision to leave the EU. He appears to have forgotten the promises of zero friction, only sunny uplands and no downsides with immediate benefits. In a real life Brexorcisms I never let people pass to a new subject until they have answered the set question. Rather than explain the benefits of Brexit, Steve suggests that I have insulted him. An insult might be something like “you smell”, but as is clear here I have kept to the simple question of asking him to explain Brexit benefits. In real life, this very occasionally leads to violence. Despite this, I always advocate real life rather than online Brexorcisms due to the factors mentioned below. Steve demonstrates these well.
The perils of working online with people who have quasi religious beliefs about Brexit.
Steve has worked out that I’m getting bored so he attempts to cough up some benefits. The COVID vaccine story is a verified LIE. And the Australian deal heavily favours Australia being worth just £11 bn as compared with £550 bn with EU. To put this in plain terms, the Australian trade deal offers a potential saving of just £1 per household. How will you spend yours? Steve was right when he stated that he was humouring me. Sadly the self-inflicted slow decline of a once proud nation is not funny.
Steve does not understand that we were so desperate to secure Brexit deals that we effectively are in a Brexit fire sale. The Australian deal crucially threatens our farming and farmers. And the CPTPP deal is worth LESS than 0.08% over a decade. Even Nigerian Fraudster Kemi Badenoch has admitted this. Steve does not understand negotiation strategy. All the more reason for Steve to read Reboot Britain. I know he won’t. He will just get more angry with his Brexit buyers’ remorse and attempt to blame others for his decision. And finally on the questions raised at the outset of this article:
BLOATED : The EU has around 30 000 Civil servants to serve 500 million people whereas Britain has 502,710to serve 67 million people. I will leave you to do the math. This has increased by 19,260 in recent times. It is the UK who score most highly on bureaucracy.
UNELECTED : Contrary to headlines in the Daily Mail / Express, EU officials are elected.
DICTATORSHIP : The EU sets guidelines for high standards of behaviour in many areas of global governance, but individual nations are free to address national issues. If it were a dictatorship, everyone would rive on the same side of the road, bullfighting and fox hunting would be banned and so on. The accusation is quite simply barking mad. In many areas the EU is way ahead of Britain in terms of democratic processes such as Citizens’ Assemblies and so on. For dictatorship see Belarus and North Korea.
At this point I concluded that Steve was really a waste of my time online. I left him with the option of calling me for a proper conversation or an online debate. I much prefer real life conversation as a medium for Brexorcism. I do offer crayons with all direct purchases of my books by the way. Steve left me with the view that nobody could predict the future. Of course, he’s right, if we are talking about the precision of forecasting methods, scenario planning and so on, but it is entirely false to say that Brexit futures cannot be predicted. Most of the predictions made by the Remain movement have come to pass and the worst is yet to come. I am not King Canute either. At this point, Steve does not realise that the Bank of England have withheld an evaluation report on Brexit. I can only presume it makes for uncomfortable reading …
Rishi Sunak’s plans to stop the boats are illegal, immoral, indecent and impractical. Sunak recently lied about the reductions of migrants coming to Britain in 2023. He presumably feels he has to do that in order to pray at the altar of Brexit for his right wing factions in the Tory / UKIP / Brexit party and especially the voices of Suella Braverman, Kemi Badenoch, Nigel Farage, Richard Tice, Lee Anderson, Steve Baker, Esther McVey, Jacob Rees-Mogg, Priti Patel et al., who have poisoned the Tory party with 1930 Nazi Germany styled strategies of racism and xenophobia.
Sleepwalking into fascism
This film contains challenging images about Brexit Britain’s slide into a fascist state. We make no apology about this. Art and satire must reflect reality. The professional images in this video are by James Rowland, with the ‘garage / steampunk’ style graphics made by me on PowerPoint. How many more must die before decency is restored to our politics?
The 1950’s Sci Fi film ‘Village of the Damned’ provided a form of sad inspiration for this piece, in so far as the idea that the Tory party now sees itself as a master race who must survive at all costs. History repeats itself too often if we let it …. don’t.
Yesterday, James Cleverly lied through his teeth about immigration numbers. In June 2023 Sunak promised to abolish the backlog. Yesterday Cleverly said that there was a ‘process’ for clearing the backlog, and some new language was introduced i.e. ‘legacy claims’. Basically he was talking bollocks. Nigel Farage then complained that the review had found more than 50 000 asylum seekers were legally entitled to be here. Clearly this is the system working rather than Farage’s pound shop fascist view of things. Cleverly ‘forgot’ to mention that the Home Office had ‘lost’ 17 000 asylum seekers from the system. Careless you might say? Additionally, he forgot to mention that 100 000 asylum seekers have joined the queue in the interim. All in all, a total pack of lies. Here is a good analysis of Cleverly’s lying. Check Georgina’s Channel 4 fact check article in full.
Click the excerpt to read the whole report from Channel 4.
Some selected tweets amplify the BS of James “Shithole” Cleverly.
Despite what James Cleverly said this morning, the government has *not* cleared the legacy asylum backlog.
Channel 4 News, "The asylum backlog has been rebranded. New cases after June 2022 are now called the flow backlog. Add them and 98,599 claims remain unopened"
From 100 000 to 99 000 – that equals ZERO in Cleverly speak.
We've now got the actual Home Secretary arguing at length with a journalist, in public, about whether he said shit or shit-hole about someone in the House of Commons, so 2024 has started much as you'd expect under this circus of absolute cretins. https://t.co/REzhz9K3UA
