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Brexit bunker

Brexit bunker

Now that Nigel Farage has declared that Brexit had failed, Don Adamson reports the news that the tabloids dare not print. Don writes from his British Brexit Bunker in balmy Barnsley …

This week’s quotes: “British government makes a mockery of its rules … politicians need to get real, fast … Britain’s under taxation of posh houses is scandalous … like all autocrats … has cemented himself in power by systematically weakening institutions … erosion of democracy … excessive accumulation of power … clouds judgement and moral sense … diminishing the role of parliament … used state’s power in partial and punitive ways … massaging inflation figures and awarding lucrative contracts to cronies …

48 52 Crash

Britain’s stock market has deteriorated … in 2022 just 1% of global capital was raised in London … in 2006 the City’s share was 18% … Dealmakers after Brexit do not see London Stock Exchange as the gateway to Europe … the 48 : 52 Brexit vote has crashed to 37 : 63.

Shut your cakehole

Brexit The Movie … explains why much has gone awry … Johnson embraced a ‘cakeist’ approach claiming Britain could have it all … instead  surrendered market access and kept the laws … political failure … a half remembered vision of Thatcherism … attempts floundered … Britain’s small market made the burden of additional bureaucracy unaffordable … the notion that Britain needed smarter  and better funded officials was absent … too under resourced to keep pace with EU … subject to less scrutiny by judges … no debate about how Britain should be regulated … what happens when cronyism gets completely out of control. If elites so enrich themselves that they impoverish the country … a kleptocracy forms … at what level does corruption destroy the functions of a state … kleptocrats launder kickbacks … shady owners skirt rules and registries often lack the resources to police them …

Visa vis Brexit

Britain’s tier one visa scheme gave permanent residency to foreigners who invested £1M in Britain … of the 13,777 visas issued a fifth went to Russians and a third to Chinese … Authorities need to prevent hazardous assets seeping into their countries  ….a vote to stop the NHS disputes is not the end of the story … worst industrial action in British history. The scale would have shocked Thatcher …

Sunackered

Richy Scumbag has urged the public to ‘hold me to account’ if waiting lists do not fall. That goal looks precarious … Tories have no idea how to reform Britain … Sharp’s departure is the latest example of Tory failure … Tories have lost almost every fight they picked … taming the Treasure has been a goal of successive Tory PMs … Treasury is stronger than ever … Cameron promised a ‘bonfire of Quangos’ … today they are stronger than ever … Brexit was supposed to create a leaner  more efficient British state … it is easier to complain than to achieve anything …

Good morning judge

Tories seethe about the influence of European judges … do little about it … Tories have no excuse … happier moaning about institutions than altering them … After more than a decade in power Tories have no idea how to reform the state … 

Farage in a bunker

Meanwhile Nigel Garbage, that is Trump’s Brexit Guru Buddy, has stated that Brexit has failed. The best brains in the world have been saying for years that Brexit is howling lunacy that would FUBAR Britain. For some time now Gammons and Flagshaggers have been making excuses to the effect that Brexit is a brilliant idea that would have worked perfectly except that ‘Remoaners’ jinxed it by maliciously and deliberately getting the facts right. What is interesting about the Nigel Garbage statement is that Garbage blames the Tories for the failure of Brexit. Garbage is paid handsomely by Gammonite Balderdash News to cheerlead for a) the Tories and b) Brexit. We do live in strange times when even Nigel Garbage has noticed that Brexit has failed.

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

Nigel Farage’s Garage – post-punk jazz funk psychotic ambience.
Our Brexit impact film.
Boris Johnson in the stocks

Gammonite Balderdash News

Our weekly update from Brexit Balderdash de-Bunker Don Adamson from his Brexit Bunker buried in Barnsley. Don takes on GB News aka Gammon Balderdash News this week.

This week’s homework: 

One. Discuss the following statement – Daily Vile has made large numbers of staff redundant, Torygraph has called in the receivers, fewer and fewer people are watching Gammonite Balderdash News Cur James Dyson, Nigel Garbage, Dim Tim Wetherspoon, Ann Widdecombe. Rachel Johnson (sister of Satan’s Deputy) and 66% of Daily Express readers have stated that Brexit has gone horribly wrong. Meanwhile Keith Starmer insists he can ‘make Brexit work’ despite all the evidence to the contrary. Starmer is, essentially, giving us the same deceit and hypocrisy that Neo Nazi Tories and far left Trade Unionists have been giving us for years. Can Keith Starmer do what Neo Nazi Tories have failed to do?

Two: ‘Men without honour and women without virtue’ is a disparaging comment that has fallen into disuse because it is nowadays considered politically incorrect. For all that it may be out of step with the times it is a profoundly accurate way to describe the people who have inflicted this Brexit FUBAR on us. This is a good time for Johnson to go. He can quit politics secure in the knowledge that Keith Starmer is as hell bent on doing a Brexit FUBAR as the Tories are hell bent on doing a Brexit FUBAR. Tories got us into this mess by making promises they could not keep. Keith Starmer says he can get us out of this mess by repeating the same promises even though he knows full well that that these are promises that nobody can keep. In what way are Labour Party promises they cannot keep better than Tory Party promises they cannot keep? In what way is a Labour Party Brexit FUBAR better than a Tory Party Brexit FUBAR? In what way are Labour Party Brexit masturbation fantasies better than Tory Party Brexit masturbation fantasies? Why are we stuck with a ruling class that is hell bent on doing a FUBAR? 

Read Hard Labour

Three: In the language that Gammons, Flagshaggers and Tories speak the term ‘Move on’ is a euphemism for ‘Allow crimes to go unpunished.’ Why are Gammons, Flagshaggers and Tories so anxious to let crimes go unpunished? Similarly: Love Americans or hate those at least Federal Prosecutors have the brains, courage and decency to bring charges against Trump. Why is it that British prosecutors lack any kind of brains, courage and decency? 

Four: Torygraph has gone into receivership. Elon Musk has expressed an interest in buying it. Will this make the Torygraph more of a pack of lies or less of a pack of lies? 

Telegraph
The Torygraph. Return to sender. Click to read more.

Five. Rachel Johnson (sister of Satan’s Deputy). Recently commented that apart from Brexit and the Pandemic her adored brother got everything right. For the last three years Gammons and Flagshaggers have been telling us that they ‘Got the big calls right.’ Do we now understand that Brexit and the Pandemic are otherwise than ‘the big calls?’ 

Boris Johnson in the stocks
Boris Johnson in the stocks – Image by the brilliant James Rowland.

Read Brexit has failed

This week’s quotes: 

Fraud

Richy Scumbag’s new ‘anti fraud champion’ Antony Brown…. accepted £5,000 … from Jeffrey Archer – one of the most notorious frauds in British political history…. Polyco Healthline’s Covid record … supplying more than a million counterfeit masks … bagged profits of £40M last year… Blame Matt Hancock … everything is his fault. We always knew that he was a useless idiot; which is why we made him health secretary…

Sexual harassment 

How did Nadine Dorries react when Johnson was accused of covering up repeated incidents of sexual harassment by Tory Whip Chris Pincher … Dorries defends Johnson … a man who thinks he is above the law and the standards the rest of us are held to… Rape has long had the lowest charging rate of all crimes…. in recent years a precipitous drop in the number of cases that make it to court … reports of rape have increased exponentially … 

Last year a senior Daily Mail journalist … sacked after sexual investigation with junior trainee … pontificating of one pundit left colleagues gobsmacked  … propensity for harassing junior male staff … resulted in staff leaving with payouts … 

Sue Ellen Braverman’s speeding ticket 

… Grease Bogg laughed off questions about whether he speeds … message from corridors of power is that speeding is something that everybody does … provisional  statistics for 2022 reveal 136,000 road casualties including 1,659 deaths … 

We need a new industrial revolution 

Can Labour provide one? … Manufacturing peaked across G7 countries in the mid 1960s …our political elites did deindustrialisation long and hard … manufacturing in Germany and Japan contribute 20% and 17% … in Britain 9.7% … we have the smallest manufacturing sector in the G7 and is shrinking the fastest … restricted the UK’s ability to haul itself out of recession … only a productivity miracle will provide an escape hatch … too small to drive an economic turnaround … there are solutions but none of them have the slightest chance of boosting UK to pole position within 5 years … the easiest way to achieve Labour’s growth target would be to boost inward immigration beyond the already all time high … the deindustrialisation mania of the 1980s and 1990s left us strategically insecure … learning must begin with frank admission of what we do not know … 

Keith Starmer’s attempt to win over Daily Express readers by nailing his colours to threadbare Brexit flag

… Starmer accused the EU of stealing our dinner money on the basis of a Brexit that he voted for … Express readers cynical about attempt to win them round…  at event in Ely not one person thought Brexit was going well … Brexit is the worst act of self harm in the world’s development … direction of opinion polls is all one way at the moment …  timing of Keith Starmer’s article … adamantly sticking to his ‘make Brexit work’ approach all the more baffling … reality has caught up with Johnson lies and Nigel Garbage fantasies … ‘Christ! This is worse than anybody expected’ … Keith Starmer promises the ‘highest sustained growth in the G7 … not going to happen until we fix the damage Brexit has done … 

Read Myths and Riffs of Brexit

Johnson 

… resignation honours always pretty dodgy … Thick Lizzie’s list has also been put on definite hold… prospect of Johnson’s unredacted WhatsApp messages being submitted as evidence to Covid enquiry is causing terror in the Cabinet Office … it is difficult to find ways to satirise this stuff … it would seem that whatever Johnson has just submitted is at least as damaging to his successors as it is to him… Schofield had an affair and lied about it … so did Johnson … Johnson lied about far more consequential things … Schofield is disgraced former TV presenter … why is Johnson never the disgraced former PM? … Schofield is a ruined, broken man … Johnson broke a country … plays the media like a fiddle, gets taxpayer to fund huge legal bills … buys a £4M house for cash …. Fights to put donors in the House of Lords…

Rupert Murdoch’s summer party 

Keen to demonstrate he is still breathing … dilemma for Keith Starmer … keen to ingratiate himself with Murdoch … also reluctant to alienate his natural base … 

Andrew Bridgen

… kicked out of Tory Party … sole Reclaim MP … predicted other Tories would be won over by Laurence Pox …remain in splendid isolation … Tories so unpopular people will vote for anybody who is not Tory … 

John Simpson 

BBC world affairs correspondent for 35 years … criticised BBC for giving too much air time to Brexiters … powers want the viewers to see him as little as possible…

Australia / NZ trade deals

… negligible contribution to British economy … not a good deal for the UK … gave far too much away for too little… 

National Conservatives

Knew their name would be abbreviated to NatCees and did it on purpose … human breach of the Ministerial Code Sue Ellen Braverman… 

Suella Braverman Priti Patel
Do you support killing children? Suella and Priti do.

Pandemic 

We are not ready for the next pandemic … Arcturus is the  latest variant of Covid 19 …surged across India …detected in more than 30 countries … pathogen is still mutating …We cannot afford to drop our guard … 227,000 fatalities recorded in Britain to date … compare to 454,000 Brits killed in WW2 …  twice the toll of the virus but over six years not three … Lady Hallett’s inquiry … reported as Westminster soap opera … Richy Scumbag might reflect on Richard Nixon  … reluctance to hand over tapes led to impeachment … For PM who promised ‘integrity, professionalism and accountability to make himself vulnerable to charge of cover up is madness … preparations for a future pandemic are in a wretched state … when not if … we are not ready … infrastructure developed during the crisis is being dismantled or defunded … deliberate government policy … Westminster recrimination and desperate Tory infighting … 

Covid 19 inquiry 

Commissions in other countries finished their reports…. In complexity, political sensitivity…. only Chilcott Iraq inquiry  compares … most sensational hearings will come Autumn 2023 … focus on Johnson and his inner circle …’why did you skip five meetings …. did you really suggests you should be injected with Covid on TV … obtaining evidence has become a circus … Witness statements patchy and late … silence and obfuscation … Inquiry is still in the dark … Britain was led into a crisis by an inadequate and distracted PM …

Richy Scumbag 

Setting up a public enquiry then withholding evidence looks like an admission of guilt … Scumbag’s approval ratings at -21 point (20 points worse than Keith Starmer’s) … Scumbag accepted that his election defeat is inevitable … what is happening in Scumbag’s government is so ill thought-through that it is hard to believe that a clever Goldman Sachs man is in charge … furlough loans … undue generosity to fake businesses that have since disappeared … no hope of being repaid … Tory party riven with divides for decades … Scumbag as reluctant as his predecessors to confront them … striving to keep far right Sue Ellen Braverman lovers sweet, while attempting to please more moderate Tories … grandstanding … not impressive … other European countries benefitting hugely … another Brexit ‘freedom’ that is damaging … glaring evidence that government takes a blinkered view ….dogmatic approach leads government in indefensible positions … selfish … short-sighted … if Tories sneak an election victory … he will find himself confronting the same problems, only even more deep seated … sound bites will have vanished along with the hopes they promised … Scumbag does not look like a man in charge … increasingly looks like one leaving after the next election for comfortable life in Santa Monica … 

Economists wring their hands over seaside towns 

Metropolitan politicians fret (their inhabitants were likeliest to vote for Brexit) … ‘Good Lord! This is ghastly?’ … populist tides that resulted in Brexit swelling in eastern coastal towns … fertile soil for resentment based cause … 

Join us in Clacton next Thu 22 June

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

Russian Federation

Brexit and geopolitics

By Denison Chapman from the Netherlands. Soundbites are not free. In a dangerous world, crawling under a mythical Brexit comfort blanket is not a solution. It’s a slowly evolving economic and political disaster. The sunlit uplands and other fairy tales like levelling up and the northern powerhouse required billions if not trillions over decades, whereas politicians delivered soundbites for votes. [1]

Geopolitics I

If you believe the news creeping out of Ukraine the Russian forces are in trouble.

And some of the fires in western United States were started by individuals of Russian background.

Yesterday I sat in on a short seminar and it included a summary of a book about to be released stating that from the Russian government perspective the cold War didn’t start in 1945 and end in 1992. It started in the revolution and has never ended.

Russian spies, placemen that include most of the oligarchs we have welcomed, plus the excessively large numbers of “diplomats” have been “strategically directed” to undermine Western democracies. So what we have seen via Carole Cadwalladr regarding the exploitation of social media is just the tip of an iceberg[2].

Russian exploitation of social media is just the tip of the iceberg

And as this all unfolds and perhaps Russia collapses China will pick up the pieces. In effect as of now Russia can’t act without a tacit nod from China. For Russia Ukraine is a last hurrah. If it loses Russia will

This there is a deep lack of understanding and naivety in the West in politicians, military, and most of the population. Far less in the case in countries like Finland and Poland who are closer to the history.

A retired army friend just asked regarding Ukraine if Taiwan is next. Do we just worry more as we get older or is the world spinning out of control?   When he was born the population of the World was 2.5 billion, now it’s 8 billion.  Many of the problems we face including climate change originate from those two numbers. Taiwan is strategically as important to the West as Ukraine.  An invasion of Taiwan would deprive the world of microprocessors, as COVID did. 

I wonder if it means that Taiwan is next? 

The USA and Japan and South Korea at least appear to have woken up regarding Taiwan. A conflict that was it to involve Russia and China acting in concert would be apocalyptic.  There is also another factor. Both Russian and China are facing severe demographic changes. population decline and aging. This is causing internal pressures which bigging up external enemies and maybe a war is designed to maintain public support for the regime. China’s economy is morphing to one less reliant on exports to the west. For them it’s a balancing act but they have a huge home market, plus the potential gains of a Russian and central Eurasian market to offset any western losses or sanctions.

The Chinese “Belt and Road” scheme is already indicative of Chinese ambitions. For China it will be domestic pressures that determine if and when they try to take Taiwan. Even if they fail the semiconductor industries will likely be destroyed.

Please support us at BBC Question Time on 22 June

Brexit – The UK in Limbo

Image by Peter Cook.

Brexit has drained the coffers and national energy

Despite the claims of “taking back control”; Despite the fact that we divert significant treasure into defence spending; Despite that its two main arguments were to cut immigration and restore the green and pleasant sunlit uplands. Brexit has drained the coffers and drained the national energy. The first has become considerably worse and the second requires loads of non-existent cash to treat the symptoms.

Russia and Covid just exposed the sorry state of a nation that is lost and that might well, in a last gasp of Empire, break into its constituent parts of Scotland, Ireland, Wales and England.

Brexit was the equivalent of winning the booby prize at the UK’s national jumble sale where the the only winners were political cronies of the government and enemies of the state.

Three Essential Actions to Regain Control and Restore the Economy to Growth

A New National Political Settlement

A Modern Constitution founded on Proportional Representation[3]

A Commitment to Rejoin the European Single Market

Geopolitics II  – Russian Collapse – Yugoslavia only ten times bigger

A map of former Yugoslavia
A map of Yugoslavia.

Most in the west see Russia as we did the USSR as one country. We were all surprised when Yugoslavia overnight descended into chaos, civil war and ultimately into its constituent parts with their diverse ethnicities, histories, religions, and cultures.

Well, Russia, divided into 89 federal subjects, is potentially Yugoslavia only ten times bigger. Spanning 14 time zones with the vast majority of the population in the European west.

Of the 89, nine are krais. Oblasts, another type of federal subject, are legally identical to krais and the difference between a political entity with the name “krai” or “oblast” is purely traditional, similar to the commonwealths in the United States; both are constituent entities equivalent in legal status.

Many of those regions are already restless and, in the past, have been subject to Russian repression.


Russian Federation
Russian Federation.

Geopolitics  III – Russian – Iran – China

An interesting read by Yunis Sharifli      see also [4]

In a recent development, on May 17, Russia and Iran officially signed an agreement for the construction of the Rasht-Astara railway (Kremlin.ru, May 17). This railway project holds immense significance as it addresses a key missing link in the International North-South Transport Corridor (INSTC), or Middle Corridor. The INSTC is a multi-modal network of shipping, rail and road routes for moving freight between India, Iran, Azerbaijan, Russia, Central Asia and Europe. As two of the most sanctioned countries in the world, both Russia and Iran are interested in finding alternative routes to diversify their export and import routes as well as circumvent Western sanctions. In this context, since the beginning of Russia’s war against Ukraine, the INSTC’s strategic importance has significantly increased for Moscow and Tehran.

For both countries, the INSTC is central to replacing European trade with Asian markets, facilitating a pivot to the East and providing an alternative to the traditional sea route through the Suez Canal. For Moscow, the route provides opportunities to improve its economic relations with India, which has increased its oil imports from Russia by about 2,200 percent since the beginning of the war (The Moscow Times, March 28). For Iran, the development of the corridor offers a lucrative opportunity to earn transit fees, estimated at about $100 per ton of goods passing through its territory, which is comparable to the cost of one barrel of oil. (Mehr News Agency, August 1, 2022).

The corridor has three primary routes. The trans-Caspian direction crosses through the Caspian Sea as well as the territories of its littoral states. To the west, the route runs along the Caspian’s western coast, passing through Russia and Azerbaijan. In the east, the route passes through Iran, enters Turkmenistan and then crosses through Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan (Silk Road Briefing, April 4). For Moscow and Tehran, the western route holds greater significance as compared to the trans-Caspian and eastern routes. This is primarily due to the fact that the western parts of both countries encompass the most densely populated regions. As a result, this route presents favorable prospects for fostering trade relations and stimulating the emergence of new business sectors.

Furthermore, the western route is crucial to the Middle Corridor in terms of capacity and investment. The share of its potential freight traffic is around 60 percent, and it is expected to receive approximately 69 percent of future investments (Eurasian Development Bank, November 30, 2021, October 26, 2022). In fact, this passage has recently seen an increase in freight traffic. Rail transport along the INSTC increased by more than 40 percent to 4 million tons from January to May 2023. Most of the volume was carried along the western route, which accounted for 3.6 million tons during this period, representing a growth of 37.9 percent as compared to the same period in 2022 (Kommersant, June 5).

Brexit and Russia
Read Reboot Britain for more on Russian influence on Brexit. Click on the red wall.

In this regard, growing cooperation between Tehran and Moscow reflects their interests in developing both the hard and soft infrastructure of the western route. In terms of hard infrastructure, the agreement on the construction of the Rasht-Astara railway will play a key role in improving the efficiency and effectiveness of the INSTC. According to the agreement, Russia has allocated 1.6 billion euros ($1.71 billion) for the development of its segment of the railway, which is planned to be completed within 48 months. Iran will pay for its portion of this from transit fees once the route becomes operational. After completion, Iran will be able to connect its railway network with the South Caucasus countries, Russia and Northern European countries, which will reduce the travel time for cargo transportation from Asia to the European Union by four weeks (Silk Road Briefing, April 20, 2022, May 18, 2023).

Russia and Iran also reached an agreement on improving soft infrastructure. They agreed to facilitate and expedite customs procedures and provide assistance to businesses to increase the volume of trade being transported along the route. In addition, Iran offered services for authorized Russian businesses to sign contracts with their Iranian counterparts within the framework of the “Green Customs Corridor” (Mehr News Agency, May 17).

Although the new agreements to develop the INSTC’s western route have the potential to help reduce delivery times and the costs of cargo, both political and technical challenges remain in the long-term development of the corridor. Regarding technical difficulties with hard infrastructure, differences between Russia and Iran on track gauges and rolling stock dimensions complicate smooth transportation via the railway route. Moreover, the lack of transit wagons and poorly developed infrastructure on Iran’s part due to geographical constraints and lack of investment create further problems for the INSTC’s efficiency (Silk Road Briefing, April 4).

Moreover, Iran’s current transit capacity is less than 10 million tons. In this context, the Russian and Iranian target of increasing shipments through the western route to as much as 15 million tons of cargo per year by 2030 does not seem feasible. In fact, according to the Eurasian Development Bank, INSTC container traffic could be as high as 5.9 to 11.9 million tons by 2030, when considering all three primary routes and all modes of transport (Eurasian Development Bank, October 26, 2022; Financial Tribune, March 12; TASS, May 17).

Finally, the disparity in freight rates, lack of a single window system for customs control and absence of a harmonization of procedures lead to increased delivery times and costs, as well as reduce the predictability of arrival times, leading to further delays (Eurasian Development Bank, October 26, 2022).

Politically, Western sanctions against Iran and Russia and increasing uncertainty in domestic policies have deterred some countries and international companies from using Russia and Iran as transit countries. Furthermore, sanctions have also had a negative impact on attracting private companies to invest in Russian and Iranian infrastructure, which requires massive investment capital for developing the INSTC (35 and 34 percent, respectively). In this context, the national budgets of the two countries are the only sources of financing, which have also been limited due to the deteriorating economic situation in both countries (Eurasian Development Bank, October 26, 2022).

Simmering tensions between Iran and Azerbaijan represent another political challenge, which could limit the development of the INSTC’s western branch. At the moment, Azerbaijani infrastructure is the most used and developed part of the corridor. As a result, further deterioration of relations between Tehran and Baku could negatively affect further development, especially in improving soft infrastructure (see EDM, April 19; Trend.az, May 18).

In sum, both Russia and Iran are deeply interested in developing the INSTC, especially its western branch, as this section passes through the most populous provinces of both countries and has the highest potential freight-carrying capacity. Yet, despite the recent agreement on the construction of the Rasht-Astara railway and the easing of customs problems, political and technical difficulties may prevent the corridor from reaching its maximum potential in the long term. This reveals an interesting paradox: Russia and Iran are the main drivers of the INSTC’s development; however, at the same time, the increasing sanctions against both countries and problematic relations with their neighbours make them the main obstacles to future development of this corridor.


[1] https://www.theguardian.com/politics/commentisfree/2023/jun/04/rishi-sunak-keir-starmer-corporate-speak-british-politics-securonomics

[2] 469887879-Russia-Report.pdf

[3] https://citizen-network.org/library/elements-of-a-new-constitution.html

[4] Iran’s Deepening Strategic Alliance with Russia | The Iran Primer (usip.org)

Denison Chapman.

Read Hard Facts about Hard Brexit

Read Brexit under the microscope

Downing Street

Car crash special

Don Adamson reports on the Tory car crash special : the news that Rupert Murdoch dares not publish. It is indeed strange that a car trundles into a gate at 2 mph, causing no damage to the car or the gate and, all of a sudden, Rishi Sunak has to be evacuated. One is left wondering if this is a stunt dreamt up in Tufton Street to garner sympathy for Sunakered? Or, to insist on greater police powers to arrest children riding Playmobil cars in Britain, on suspicion of crimes against the state?

Talking cock

This week’s quotes: “Nigel Garbage sees himself as cock of the walk at Gammonite Balderdash News … sense of resentment that GB News does not remunerate him more handsomely … little or no logic on how people are paid … sniping about pay and grievances … Garbage paid £480 536 … Last year Labour raised £300,000 more from donors than Tories … Johnson’s earnings (sic) down from £766,000 to £216,000 from speeches in London, Pennsylvania and Lagos … not persuaded Johnson to give up the free accommodation that JCB heir, Lord Bamford, provides … not all joy in Johnson land. …

Wipeout

Tory wipe out in local elections … eccentric fan club Conservative Democratic Organisation champion his return to office …. Johnson fanzine Mail On Sunday decided to focus on Prince Harry bashing … support for Brexit drastically falling … 63% want UK to Rejoin … I cannot see the Tories coming back from this one … no disguising catastrophic results … a range of exhausted volcanoes … seven years of Brexit have been an unqualified disaster … terrible reckoning lies ahead of the Tories … the party is over. Brexit has reduced Tories to a populist campaigning movement … crude culture wars … nativist vilification…. Tories have to answer to the questions … nothing of substance to say … The sun is finally setting on a political empire born 44 years ago (Thatcherism) …

Starmer or Stammer?

It is high time the 21st century began in earnest . Is Starmer’s Labour Party up for the challenge? … Might the Mail and other right wing propaganda rags have been part of the reason for the Tories dire performance in recent elections … the difference between their version of politics and what is actually happening is now so vast it just makes people angrier … Tory tone deaf response to shellacking underlines how out of touch they are … ‘if they focussed less on stopping boatloads of refugees and more on stopping our teeth from falling out we might not be so desperate to kick out the Tories’ … I doubt Richy Scumbag will see that … What can Labour promise? … It is easier to be principled and uncompromising when you do not collide with reality … Any idiot can promise the world. There is nothing impressive about extravagant promises that can never become real … very few voters think the country is on the right track and even fewer want an opposition party to deliver more of the same only more competently …

Nuts

I thought Brexit was, frankly, nuts, … the private equity sector think that Cruella de Ville is some kind of woke do-gooder ,,, financier Guy Hands has emerged as an intriguing and informed critic of the whole Brexit mess …a Brexit that was designed to tear up the accepted order, risk the country’s future and benefit the ultra rich … libertarian right wing – callous and uncaring assumed they would always survive decided to press ahead, setting their own needs ahead of the country … people dismissed Thick Lizzie as being incredibly stupid, whereas what she was saying was that the only way Brexit would work was basically to tear up the rule book … within a few weeks it was clear that could not happen and the country would go bankrupt … she was ideologically correct … that was the only way Brexit could work … ironic that Tory ministers try to blame the Civil Service or Remainers for the failure of Brexit … will not take responsibility for the fact that what they tried to do was delusional … the reality is that Brexit could never have worked … we have the worst of both worlds … the issue is how much damage will have been done to Europe as a whole … while it is bad for the UK it is bad for Europe as a whole …”

Car Crash
It is indeed strange that a car trundles into a gate at 2 mph, causing no damage to the car or the gate and, all of a sudden, Rishi Sunak has to be evacuated. One is left wondering if this is a stunt dreamt up in Tufton Street to garner sympathy for Sunakered? Or, to insist on greater police powers to arrest children riding Playmobil cars in Britain, on suspicion of crimes against the state? And what was Ann Widdecombe doing in the boot?

Winners and Losers

(COMMENT: I said this all along).  “The only people really benefitting are the Chinese … the damage from Brexit continues … we are losing our advantage. UK is being torn apart … death by a thousand cuts … They think the French are going to love us because we divorced them … UK is in decline … Britain has become rather nasty. Whether it is sending people to Rwanda or attacking people who disagree with the government…. we need politicians who admit they got it wrong … It is a mess … asking for such politicians nowadays is asking for pigs to fly … steady creep of Tory attacks on our freedom  … Britain feels less like a third country and more like a third world country …Brexit has done good job of making EU countries glad they are in it – they look at us and shudder … If voter ID cannot stop the anti Tory vote we should raise the voting age to 70 … we should add ‘expectation management’ to the ever growing list of things the Tories cannot do …  

Who are EU?

“World Health Organisation declared Covid 19 is no longer a ‘public health emergency … 7M deaths have been reported … WHO thinks the true toll is 20M …Fox Corporation swung to a quarterly loss because of costs associated with $787.5M settlement in a defamation case …Britain plays catch up in a global scramble for essential commodities …lacks the heft of USA, China or EU … it is a big hole to dig out of … Ramsgate Harbour once held a big fishing fleet … only sign of life is four cutters of the Border Force … in 2015 UKIP took control of Ramsgate council, first and last it would run…. shambolic … the issue of Brexit has faded … lives are dominated by the cost of living and the health service … UKIP lost all its councillors … the towns where the Brexit revolution started are showing signs it may be at an end … Mid Suffolk district council… first to be controlled by the Green Party …  decades of cuts to the British Army have called into question its ability in a conflict … at its smallest since the Napoleonic era …

From Russia with hate

Putain’s generals are useless, Putain himself is a ‘a complete asshole’ and the war is going to be lost … Russia’s willingness to go on fighting is approaching tipping point … what can break that arrogance, along with the propensity to rape, torture, murder and mutilate that Russian troops have become infamous for? … what, if anything might persuade Sue Ellen Braverman that her rhetoric and strategy might have gone too far … morally unacceptable … denounced by the UN Refugees Association, Council of Europe, UNICEF and former PM Theresa May … Braverman has been referred to the Bar Standards Board for breaching its code of conduct … what we in the trade call ‘ a lie’ … the majority of child exploitation groups are made up of white men under the age of 30 .., downright sinister shift in her rhetoric … even on its own terms the government is failing …

Bankrolled by Putin … now totally discredited … Nigel Farage

Truth bombs

Starmer promised that his government would be transformative … a good start would be to present himself as a leader with courage to speak the truth … rank hypocrisy … encouraging signs that this wave of popular illiberalism encouraged by irresponsible politicians is receding … Lincoln, Churchill and Kennedy demonstrated that nations can be inspired by confrontation with reality …. Richy Scumbag has worked out that an economy battered by Brexit cannot take much more of financial, legal, commercial and environmental chaos … Brexit being both symptom and cause of our decline … running the new line ‘if only we did Brexit the way we want it everything would be tickety boo … some of the many things about Brexit that were damaging the country … Brextremists never accepted responsibility for Brexit’s failure, and none of them ever had a credible plan …

Brexit Broadcasting Corporation

BBC has for years provided platforms to the Brexiters and they are never properly challenged nor scrutinised …  the right seem to defend their anti-woke diatribes as being rooted in free speech … in practice try to shut down any criticism of the populist, polarising, post truth approach … Brexit morass into which we are sinking more each day … more bad news about the impact of Brexit … “ Everything in the country seems broken … disappearing Tory voters and disaffected Brexiters … classic Tory tactic … arriving at fantasy uncosted figures … there is a real black hole … created by 13 years of bad government, austerity, slow productivity growth, and the disaster of Brexit … failing state with weak defence and a deteriorating health service … Brexit is costing the government some £40B to £50B per year in tax revenue …

Sharp cuts

RAF does not have enough pilots, the navy does not have enough ships and shrunken army cannot put an armoured division in the field … a host of other areas where massive cuts have sneaked through and the consequences are being felt … the police and the courts are groaning. The civil service’s ability to deal with crises has been affected by cuts … the atavistic Thatcherite belief that you can provide a good NHS, strong defence and everything else people and business need while keeping taxes low has been exposed as a lie … Brexit costing £100B a year in lost output … the chatter among the media classes is who will replace Sharp?  …

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

Coffey anyone?

Borassic Park

Medway council made a complete cock up when they commissioned an art installation by Glastonbury artist Cold War Steve, but one which I have enjoyed immensely. It seems that the Tory controlled Council thought that it would be a nice idea to cheer their residents up by commissioning an art installation in Medway Country Park, a place for families to walk and cycle, freed from the troubles of the day. Imagine their surprise when they realised that Cold War Steve does surrealistic and satirical art on Brexit? Within hours complaints started to arrive. I heard that the Councillors then started fighting about “who dunnit”.

Brexit Blind Date – Click image to find Cold War Steve’s work.

I was alerted about the installation by someone last Sunday. On Tuesday I had a “Ron Weasley moment” from Harry Potter, having a sudden and compelling need to go down to the installation. I told my wife and we set off. We almost immediately came upon one of the artworks which had been ripped off the stand and thrown into the River Medway. A crowd had assembled around the stand. I decided to shimmy down the bank, realising that I might find it hard to get back up, went out onto the mud and retrieved “Tim Wetherspoon”. I have dubbed Medway Country Park as “Borassic Park” as a result of Steve’s marvellous work.

Gammon in aspic.

I called the Council to retrieve the artwork in case of theft and then called the media. The result was a piece in the Kent Messenger. The comments are hilarious and well worth reading.

An incensed caller to the newsroom said his granddaughter had been left shaken by the image of “a near naked Boris Johnson next to a mass grave”. He said: “What the hell are they playing at having such ‘art’ on display?

Truly offensive – Brexit – Find Cold War Steve’s work by clicking the image.
Some of my fellow residents seem to think that I crave publicity and actually organised the attack. How very sad.

I could not resist a little careful augmentation of a couple of the exhibits with some of The EU Flag Mafia’s Britastrophe Stickers whilst I was down there … placing the stickers carefully for pictures and then removing from the artworks.

Priti Patel welcomes migrants on the Essex coast.
Matt Hancock oversees herd immunity for Old Age Brexiteers at the White Cliffs of Dover.

We have asked Cold War Steve if he would like to work with us on a project at the Gulbenkian Theatre in Canterbury soon. Details to follow.

Fix my bike Dom.

Read up on why Brexit can be suspended at Suspended Animation. Read up on why Rejoining may be a unicorn in the long term at Fool Britannia. Check out the implications of Brexit for Kent and Medway at Not In My Back Yard.

Write to your MP to demand that Brexit be suspended in the wake of Corona.

Snitch on MPs for voting to break international law.

Gammon Fest.
Brexit Fiesta.

Do or Die

Here is a roundup of Brexit news in case you are bored with COVID apathy. Remember COVID is a crisis. Brexit a disaster in slow motion. Brexit will make the bigger impact on our country in the long run. The toxic combination of Corona + Brexit = a Britastrophe. We must pull back from a Do or Die Brexit. Your ditch awaits Mr Johnson.

Down on the farm

I watched with dismay, as Parliament voted to lower our food standards. This opens the door to hormone fed beef, chlorinated chicken and a host of other dodgy practices. In case you think this doesn’t matter, US cases of food poisoning are some 10 times higher than our country.

I have mixed feelings about the farmers. I helped Liz Webster, PPC for Swindon, gain the only TV coverage for the Lib Dems in the entire South West in 2017. Liz organised the farmers marches. I attended the last event to be told that they did not wish to mention Brexit, as the issue was toxic. Instead they protest to save themselves. Parochial self-interest is a hardy perennial problem of Remain. There is a hierarchy of problems here with Brexit at the apex. In other words, stopping Brexit leads to solutions to other issues such as food standards, EU citizens rights and so on. But people would rather form into silos (sic), allowing our Government to operate “divide and rule” politics. Oh well, the farmers have been composted and we all lose.

Die Another Day

We’ve had “Do or Die” and “Die in a Ditch” from Boris Johnson, so we may as well have “Die Another Day” or “Live and Let Die”. Brexit negotiations remain deadlocked. Johnson is trapped by the ERG on one side, funded by Russia and wanting No Deal, which nobody voted for. He is also confounded by the EU, who must satisfy the four freedoms and protect their enterprise. It is always unwise to capitulate to bullies. The EU cannot give Britain a better deal for less money, as it will threaten the cohesion of the other 27 member states. I covered this point in the post Brexit Choices.

Why then are the negotiations deadlocked? Quite simply the “mechanics” of Brexit remain unresolvable. By moving one part of the puzzle to resolve one issue, the other parts become entangled. It’s what we call a “Wicked Problem” in consulting circles. Wicked problem do not lend themselves to simple solutions as Boris Johnson would like to believe. As reported last year, changing the leader or applying more “bluster” does not alter the underlying problems that exist with Brexit.

The Golf Club analogy

BOJONA-20

The latest instalment of industrial scale lies and gaslighting comes from yesterday’s COVID announcements. With £40 Billion worth of tax rises now inevitable, let’s examine some COVID facts that Boris Johnson must have missed whilst chasing a violinist …

Scientists advised the Government to install circuit breakers to stop Corona contagion on September 21, 2020. Ignored.

Professor Chris Witty told the Government that that the latest COVID rules will not be enough to contain the virus. Ignored.

Keir Starmer has just asked the Prime Minister to follow the science and install a 2-3 week circuit breaker across the UK. I predict he will either be ignored or blamed for the deaths already baked in by Johnson’s lack of action from mid-September, when he was talking about “Getting Christmas Done”. This is a repeat performance from February, when Johnson was more concerned with bonging bells, shaking hands and minting 50 pence coins than running the country.

Too Little, Too Late, pre-occupied with Brexit
670 NHS deaths during the first wave due to inaction. 30 000 unnecessary deaths overall

Test and Trace is still not working, despite Matt Hancock promising to get it up and running many months ago. Without measurement, there can be no management of COVID and the idea of “Controlling the Virus” is at best fanciful, at worst dangerous.

Bojona-20 - Putting the K in ILL
Still pursuing Cummings eugenics aka herd immunity model

In case you think that the idea of unnecessary deaths are a feature of Brexit, please read what Wendy Novak has to say on the matter at Brexit : A matter of life or death.

Meanwhile £3 BILLION of your taxes has mysteriously disappeared on Government COVID contracts handed out to friends and cronies.

Hard facts on COVID + Brexit = Britastrophe

And Johnson now does not want to appear in front of the public, having hired Allegra Stratton to handle “comms” so he can move on to pursue more important matters.

The lesson for us all is neatly summed up by James O’Brien:

Britastrophe

Happy now?

Do or Die Brexit in a ditch Johnson?

What are you waiting for?

Take Action

Report MP’s for breaking international law.

Write to your MP and ask them to make Better Brexit Choices for a Better Britain, by opposing reckless behaviour by the Cabinet.

Snitch on MPs for breaking international law.

Do or Die Brexit

Populism will eat itself

More like this at Private Eyelines
The Son

Remember, the withdrawal agreement was a 2019 ELECTION PROMISE. It’s not even a year on and Johnson has broken his marriage vows, his election promises and caused at least 30 000 unnecessary deaths. Are you still happy about this?

Write to your MP and demand that Boris admits that he lied to win the election. Ask them to oppose Johnson’s reckless Brexit.

Indecent Proposals

The theme for our weekly roundup is “indecent proposals”. No, not the movie, but the continuing stream of outrageous law breaking, morally reprehensible behaviours of our ruling elite, moral hazard and cronyism.

How much are you worth?

We begin with a question. What would you be prepared to do in order to earn £175 000 for two days work per week? Seriously? Ask Boris Johnson.

Judgement day

Brexit has spawned a culture of mistrust amidst politicians and a response to “Take Back Control” through an assault on all the checks and balances that exist to prevent politicians acting as dictators. Last year we had the pro-rogation of Parliament when Boris Johnson could not get his own way re Brexit. This year there are moves afoot to suppress the power of judges. These are the behaviours of a banana republic.

Backbones needed

How happy are you to know that we have left the EU only to find that our Government is now controlled by agents of Vladimir Putin? This has been brilliantly articulated by Garry Lawrence who has sent 34 Tory MP’s a white feather in the post as an award for cowardice.


Hunt the rapist

The Tory party still refuse to take action on the rapist MP in their midst. In all other walks of life they would have been suspended. Whilst we understand that the law must also be allowed to take its course, in the specific example of public figures, the problem of not taking action is two-fold:

  • Everyone will be under suspicion in the interim.
  • The longer this goes on, the more damage to the reputation of the Tory party.
  • Then, of course, there is the poor victim to consider. That does not seem to be on the list of concerns for Boris Johnson

Austerity II

“Dishy Rishi” Sunak may soon no longer be the Tory poster boy, after it was revealed that he plans to raise taxes to pay for the Corona + Brexit Britastrophe.

Burying bad news

Our correspondent in Winchester was gobsmacked when she found out that the investigation into Cambridge Analytica has been called off by the ICO. This is the latest in a series of failures to respect democracy, the very thing that Leave voters say they voted for.

Shooting Stars

In our continuing culture wars, we were astonished to learn that a key advisor appointed by Dominic Cummings suggested that Police use live rounds on Black Lives Matter protestors.

Brexit Trust Pilot

Trust Pilot

Yesterday Boris Johnson withdrew the withdrawal agreement. Let’s remember that he won an election primarily on the idea of getting Brexit done. He also then persuaded his party to vote for the Withdrawal Agreement. Today Theresa May has just cut Boris Johnson into tiny pieces over the WA.

It occurred to me that, although, I don’t want Brexit, Theresa May’s Withdrawal Agreement could be considered to be the high water mark of Brexit deals. All subsequent deals have been a considerable watering down of Theresa May’s achievement. No wonder she is angry about the wilful destruction of one nation Conservatism by Dominic Cummings.

Take the example of a plumber or builder. There are only two circumstances when you would have to not pay your dues or not deliver your work to the required standard. The first would be if you were fixing to die the following day. The second would be if you were planning to retire and live on a remote desert island so that nobody could call you to account. In the case of the UK, we are not fixing to die or live in splendid isolation (or are we?). We need the trust of other nations in order to secure future trading relationships.

In the modern world we have systems such as Trust Pilot to rate businesses for delivery and trustworthiness. If the UK plc were a plumber or builder, its Trust Pilot score would now be at minus 3000. Any future post-Brexit trading partners will doubtless include North Korea, Syria and Venezuela to name a few.

Write to your MP to say that you agree with Theresa. Point out that the party voted for the WA and that it was a pivotal election pledge.

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