Our Government have resorted to putting lots of dead cats in the way of the real news about Brexit, COVID and so on. So this week, we have resorted to providing a whole front page dedicated to dead cats and the other to news.
We should not underestimate Johnson’s regime’s staying power. It has shown the determination to ignore demonstrations in London of over one million people, and large demonstrations in other cities, at a time when they had no parliamentary majority and had to face a general election. Now, with a majority of over 80, they will not yield to the sort of soft pressure exercised by central movements in Millbank such as March for Change and The European Movement. I fear they may well try to tough it out even in the circumstances which you predict, using fake news and propaganda. In that case, the only thing which will shake them is loss of electoral seats. But the general election is still nearly 4 years away and by that time the electorate may have been conditioned to live with the status quo. It even remains in doubt that another election will happen now that The Kremlin is involved in day to day government of this green and pleasant land.
However, next year there are the County Council elections as well as Borough and District elections postponed from this year. Some will no doubt say “Oh, but those are about local affairs and shouldn’t be mixed up with national arguments ”. This is of course rubbish, as any political commentator will tell you. Number 10 and party HQs are sensitive to the results even if they pretend otherwise. These give us an opportunity, and we have time to plan, organise and soften up the targets.”
There would be no need for us to put up candidates. Instead, we, as “REBOOT BRITAIN“, would be an unregulated campaigning organisation, inviting voters to vote for anyone (or no one) provided they did not vote Conservative. We would produce literature, using all the strongest arguments we can muster (and we already have a legion in our records). As I read the Electorate Commission’s rules – and I have done so several times – we would not have to register with them if we did not intend to spend over £20,000 in the pre-election period and could do what we like provided we didn’t break the ordinary laws of the land. Preparatory work is needed, but I would volunteer to be chief donkey. Peter Cook has offered to help with strategy and communications to help us punch above our weight. There are rewards too. We are dealing here directly with electors of all persuasions, including those averse to using social media. We don’t have to rely or newspapers who all too often, in my experience, refuse to publish those letters which really nail the opposing arguments. Instead, we would go direct to the public via blogs and other direct means. Astonishingly Peter gained supporters by specifically asking people NOT to vote for him in the 2019 General Election. Finally, our campaign will offer real, measurable results within a year. This will provide our supporters with a real incentive to leaven the status quo by choosing differently from the herd.
Editor’s footnote – Adrian’s efforts in 2019 helped to cause a 6% drop in a Brexiteer MP’s share of the vote and a fall in his majority. This even caused the BBC to comment!
And finally, a word from Julie Ward from the European Parliament:
In case your eyesight is compromised through driving, this is the text of Julie’s letter:
Dear Sir,
Barnard Castle continues to be the focus of enormous attention since Dominic Cummings made his illegal trip to the town on Easter Sunday, an action which undermined the government legislation that Cummings himself helped to shape, thereby contributing to the general public’s disregard of government guidelines and undoubtedly increasing the number of coronavirus infections and deaths from Covid19.
Last Sunday the town saw a visit from musician, author and entrepreneur Peter Cook, of the Academy of Rock. Peter, who normally lives in Kent, is currently touring the UK in his iconic yellow Mini-Cooper which bears slogans warning the general public about the disastrous impact of multiple crises. His trip to Barnard Castle included a spontaneous concert for passers-by accompanied by campaigners from NE4EU who also gave a rendition of the Lambton Worm. Other people joining Peter in the town were members of Leeds for Europe and pro-EU groups from Herefordshire and the Midlands. As well as entertaining and educating passers-by, the group also posed for photos outside Spec Savers wearing Dominic Cummings masks and witty T-shirts bearing the imprint “HM Govt Approved Eye Test”. Passing traffic tooted in support and lots of people went off wearing stickers bearing the slogan – “Corona Crisis + Brexit Disaster = Britastrophe”.
I know how much our communities enjoy live music – from teen fans to ageing rockers, music is an important part of our lives. Like all those working in the industry Peter Cook understands well the disastrous consequences of Brexit on the arts and entertainment industry which will make tours much less viable resulting in fewer opportunities for fans to see their favourite bands, and ultimately fewer bands making less music, and also less money for the treasury.
It is no surprise that the Musicians Union supported the UK remaining in the EU. The loss of Freedom of Movement is a tragedy for all of us but is of particular concern for touring artists and for young people, many of whom were denied a say about their future.
Now, as the government threatens to drive us off a cliff with a ‘No Deal Brexit’ at the end of the year in the midst of an almost certain second wave of coronavirus infections, please make YOUR voice heard by writing to your MP and insisting on a detailed response to your concerns, not cut and paste Cummings-speak. You can also support Peter Cook’s campaign to ‘Reboot Britain’ here – www.brexitrage.com
Yours sincerely
Julie Ward
Formerly Vice Chair of the European Parliament’s Culture & Education Committee
You know what really troubles me about our Government? It’s the fact that nobody gives a damn about being lied to on a daily basis. My own brother typifies the condition known as learned helplessness, when he points out that he was lied to in 1996 about his pension by the Government and so he now expects to be lied to on a daily basis. Although he voted to Remain, he has swallowed the lie that we must not interfere with the “will of the people”, nor does he understand how he might go about this if he did.
Mike Cashman devised an interesting way to test the nation’s agreeableness to being lied to with his “acceptometer”. It asks you to decide whereabouts on a Likert scale you are prepared to accept being lied to on a daily basis by politicians. Test yourself on this simple example:
It occurred to me that this very dark piece of music I wrote a while back sums up the essential value conflict that Mike speaks of. In the piece Nigel Farage reflects on the poverty of his existence in a kind of confessional, set against a very dark backdrop of synths and saxes in a retro futurist jazz mashup. This is not pop music!
We will be taking the Bollocks to Brexit Mini Cooper out again soon with your support. We are looking at Hampshire, Yorkshire, Kent, Essex and London but are open to offers from feisty campaigners. Please provide your support via Bollocks. We take no prisoners.
Here is the spreadsheet of how much it takes to rent a Tory. The surprising finding is just how little it takes to gain influence with these people with Teresa Villiers at just £2000 if paid in Roubles. Times must be hard …
Our chancellor costs just £6000 for example. He is currently serving beer and full English Brexits at Wetherspoons for hardly any inducements.
If you want access to the very top, you might want to try something a little more exotic, with Brandon Lewis at circa £50K.
Write to your chosen MP and make some gentle enquiries about the money. Ask them if they will offer you personal services for a knockdown price.
We have just produced these materials for the Tory Party Conference. Please share them widely:
Tory Brexit Scum is a Country and Western Punk Rock song by the band X RAY BREX. Download the album via Bandcamp. PG rated.
And just for balance, we conducted an interview with BBC One News this week. We made the point that support for Labour was conditional on them opposing Brexit, which is perfectly possible, despite a load of bullshit from some areas of Labour. The BBC cut our comment on Brexit, naturally, but it was mentioned by Rosie Duffield. See below:
I don’t really think that Boris Johnson deserves more than one minute to reflect upon his legacy so I made several videos in less than one minute on this subject. In fact James O’Brien summed up the detail so well that I don’t feel i could better that. In summary we are talking about:
Broken promises on Brexit (It is NOT “DONE”, it will consume a lifetime of wasted time and money to continue the pretence). To read the full history, read Private Eyelines – Have I Got Fake Brexit News for EU and Reboot Britain – Strategies and skills to change minds on Europe and Brexit. Remainers and Rejoiners seriously need to up their skills if we are to win the next battle with the populists. Never forget that we lost two elections and a referendum, however inconvenient that fact is. Yesterday I delivered copies of these books to Sir Alan Sugar, Richard Branson and James O’Brien. I wish to send them to Hugh Grant next if anyone can help with this.
Outright LIES on COVID (Johnson was late to the party when others were listening to experts. He conducted an experiment with genocide by placing infected NHS patients into care homes, causing 10’s of 1000’s of unnecessary deaths). The list goes on. These were political CHOICES and not inevitable. Johnson has been lying ever since he was born. Why would we expect any different from him?
Industrial levels of distraction or dead cat politics, the latest one being the “kettle”. Even the kettle story is not correct. If you want your kettle to boil faster, descaling and using the correct amount of water will make bigger impacts on your bill. £20 is of course not even significant when compared with the actual energy price rises, but Johnson assumes that people cannot add up.
I don’t believe the Tories will call an election in order to lose their majority but if they do, we’ll need to do better than sharing memes on fb. The Daily Maul has set another dead cat loose on this subject today. Preparation is better than regret. Learn the skills to persuade people outside your bubble to change their voting behaviour here.
Join us on Monday September 12 at 8 pm on ZOOM to build momentum to remove the Brexit beast from our lives and build a better Britain in a better Europe for a better World.
Support our election fighting fund via Go Fund Me. Read our strategy for this at Brexit Doesn’t Pay.
The recent news that Trump is under investigation is yet another point on the curve towards improved world leadership. To misquote the band name : Populism will eat itself !
In world that needs collaborative leadership to face complex problems such as climate change, famine, war, migration and so on, we seem to have opted for more didactic leaders with catchy but meaningless slogans. In the UK we have Brexit populism. In the US we have Trump’s version of isolationist politics, and so on.
This is why I coined the phrase ‘Brexorcism’ to change minds in the UK about Brexit. The skills involved are just as applicable in other theatres of populism.
Last week, I was asked to speak on the need to turn back from populism and discuss the contributions from psychology, sociology and therapeutic approaches to wake people up to more long-term and global outlooks on our politics. You can view the masterclass below.
I also spoke on the role of satire, humour and catharsis as a way into the most closed minds on political issues, based on our book Private Eyelines.
To get hold of the books ‘Reboot Britain’ and ‘Private Eyelines’ please go to Rage Against The Brexit Machine or write direct to me at reboot@brexitrage.com
EXTRACT from the book Private Eyelines. I’ve noticed that everything is UP in the post-Brexit sunny uplands world. What could have possibly caused this?
Costs of children’s shoes are UP by 20% shortly. Jacob Rees-Mogg promised that shoe prices would plummet after Brexit. Oh dear, Jake was wrong.
Inflation in UK is UP at over 6%. This is exceptional.
Gas prices are UP by 54% In France they are UP by 4% France levied a windfall tax on energy companies using their own sovereign powers. In Brexit Britain our Brexit freedoms seem to have prevented this. How strange?
Hunger is UP.
Food bank usage in Britain is UP, but food bank donations are DOWN.
COVID cases are UP. This is preventing the NHS from treating people with other serious conditions.
DEATHS will be UP but Boris Johnson says that COVID is DOWN. Of course, he is WRONG.
Russian influence is UP.
Sunak’s tax dodging is UP. His holidays in California are UP. More sunny uplands.
Channel 4 is UP for sale.
National debt is UP.
Petrol prices are UP.
Homelessness is UP.
Delivery times are UP.
Troubles in Northern Ireland are UP.
Fines for breaking lockdown are UP.
Postage fees are UP.
Bullshit from the Go Home Office about the Ukrainian refugee settlement scheme is UP.
Queues on the M20 / M2 in Kent are UP. P&O Ferries are only in part to blame. Since we have no resilience in our port systems after Brexit, only a small knock is needed to bring the system to a standstill.
The Brexit IT system is UP the cack. This does not help, but the underlying cause of delays in Kent is Brexit and not the IT system per se. if we did not have Brexit we would not have the crappy IT system and we would not have gridlock in Kent.
Urination is Kent is up as drivers have no place to go (freedom of movement and urination).
National Insurance is UP.
Sea levels are UP.
Hospital parking fees are UP.
Looting is UP.
Tory ethics are DOWN.
Labour is UP.
Tax is UP.
The game is UP.
With thanks to all at Re-Boot Britain for this list. The sunny uplands can only increase. This list is an extract from Private Eyelines.
Private Eyelines : Have I Got Fake Brexit News for EU is just released. Humour is one of the few weapons this Government cannot take away from us. It’s a historical and hysterical record of #Brexit and one that holds this #fascist government to account in ways that spreadsheets and graphs do not. The book helps us deconstruct the fake news of populist media from “The Son” to “The Daily Maul” “Excess” and “Telegravda”. Grab copies for yourself and your Brexity friends now on Amazon or order discount copies direct from the author by e-mailing us at reboot@academy-of-rock.co.uk Here is the book blurb below:
Satire reaches the parts that spreadsheets, graphs and logic do not. Brexit provides a rich dark seam of tragicomedy in a Kafkaesque world of gaslighting, shapeshifting and shameless lies. We live in desperately sad times. But simply drowning in the sadness of Brexit does not help us deal with paranoid populist politicians. Bittersweet levity cuts through people’s minds to their visceral core. Simply stated, satire heals.
Populist media brainwashed leave voters to believe in Brexit unicorns. I tried my hand at parodying these media to expose the lies on which the Brexit hydra reared its many ugly heads. I found that people rather liked my gutterpress pages. Some even believed that they were real!
To change minds on Brexit, it is not sufficient to break the parliamentary paralysis which continues to enable the slow-motion destruction of Britain. Nor is demographic change, aka death, a success recipe. We must actively work on the huddled masses. People almost literally eat lies for breakfast from a biased populist media, owned by people who seem just a little bit too friendly with Vladimir Putin. Private Eyelines opens up the conversation anew with Brexiteers with buyers’ remorse, or Remainers numbed into submission by six years of bullshit and bullying from our so-called political leaders.
Peter Cook is a unique combination of scientist, business consultant and musician. As a 60’s child, his mum made him watch Peter Cook and Dudley Moore, saying “it would be good for him”. It wasn’t! Instead, Peter built a solid career bringing life-saving treatments for diabetes and HIV / AIDS to the world, 18 years tutoring MBAs in academia, writing books and 28 years running a business. His early exposure to Cook and Moore suddenly came to the fore after 24 June 2016, as satire met real life through Brexit. His mis-spent youth and creativity have been rejuvenated through campaigning, writing, music, film making and speaking about our rightful place in Europe. It was good for him after all. Mum was right!
