Not only have we had five Prime Ministers since Brexit, we have also had five lecterns. Each of them have a different character, like each PM and each has cost the taxpayer more than Angela Rayner’s alleged tax scam. Liz Truss’ Jenga lectern cost an uncool £4175, seemingly appropriate, as, no doubt it could be rebuilt into something else 49 days later … In this article we look at the emerging “academic discipline” of lecternology inspired by Peter Hurst and Peter Stefanovic.
Cameron
Cameron’s lectern was designed by his head of operations to appear “statesmanlike”. Cameron was the youngest PM and, as such, the wood for his lectern was sourced from B&Q, using freshly cut pine with a curved, flared column, signifying agility and smoothness, and a glossy finish to signify superficiality. Read more on Cameron at Cameron.
May
The simple religious cross style of Theresa’s oak lectern symbolises her victimhood as the Prime Minister who felt a sense of duty to serve but who ultimately would be hoist by her own inner conflict. In the end, the ERG and Remainers placed her on a cross for sacrifice in favour of someone more malleable. That person would be the fatberg formerly known as Boris Johnson.
Johnson
Johnson’s lectern column and base are the thickest of the five, matching the intelligence and heft of the incumbent. “The Johnson” as it was referred to in No 10 was constructed of teak for strength, as it doubled as a shagging plinth for internal use. It is believed that Carrie’s children were conceived on “The Johnson” along with other random offspring from the Brexit staffers during Partygate.
Truss
The Truss lectern is perhaps the most interesting in so far that it is constructed using Jenga. This would enable quick breakdown and reassembly after her 49 days tenure. We have an authentic woodchip replica of The Truss ceremonial lectern available on e-bay for the bargain price of £30 000. This would enable us to stand a lettuce for election in her South West Norfolk constituency. Tony Hanlon commented on the spiral construction “Its a treasured memory of her death spiralling of the economy”.
Truss has since blamed the failure of her Brexonomics budget on the infiltration of left-wing Norwegian wood into her lectern at a cost of £70 billion to the taxpayer and the ruination of young people’s hopes of home ownership. John Lennon, Kate Bush, Chris Witty and Angela Rayner have been blamed by The Truss, along with left wing lawyers, left wing carpenters, carping judges, civil servants, punk rockers, classicists, MDF, lettuce, homosexuals, trannies, the blob, layabouts, drug users, climate protesters, smoking bans, Potter Heigham, Brundall, The A47, The Bank of England, The OBR, UN, The Queen, charities, do-gooders, poets, artists, piss artists, vegans, Christians, Moslems, London, wood carvers, carvery owners, wood workers, sex workers, sex swappers, The Lib Dems, brie, gorgonzola, camembert, left wing cheese, real ale drinkers, real world thinkers, Remoaners, men, women, children, animals, plants, left wing micro-organisms, algae, fungi, Liz’s parents and all members of the deep state who sought to bring her down. The Jenga lectern proved to be her downfall and it was nothing to do with her incompetence, social ineptitude and the triumph of confidence over competence. That is a disgrace. In Liz’s own words “Liz Truss is best ignored”.
Sunakered
The Sunak lectern is paradoxical. It is bigger than the other lecterns although Sunak is possibly the shortest Prime Minister in history. The upright section is designed to obscure both of Rishi’s legs for reasons of modesty and as support in case he were to break one. Just like its user, the Sunak lectern has no integrity, professionalism or accountability, being made from offcuts from the “previous administration”.
All of the above are, of course, pathetic attempts to look in control by people who are easily persuaded by presentation over content.
Today marks the fourth anniversary of Brexit and we’ve nothing to show for it. The last remaining Brexiteers tell me that ‘it’s too soon to say’ – of course that’s rubbish, four years is plenty of time for some formative evaluation across the STEEPLE factors. They also say that people like me have thwarted Brexit … I never realised I had so much power !!… In case of amnesia, we were sold Brexit in 2016 with a brochure that promised ONLY sunny uplands and NO downsides. Neither have materialised. Meanwhile the dead cats are out in force : Vaping, Conscription, Rwanda, Cheese, Hanging … the list goes on in the Daily Excess, the Daily Maul and The Son. Brexit has failed. The only good Brexit is a dead Brexit. We can and must join EU anew as a priority.
The comments below come from Linkedin in response to a post by The Crocodile Club. They are ‘one of a kind’ as the sum up the sheer desperation of the last remaining Brexiteers. They also bear testimony to the poverty of what I call ‘online Brexorcisms’. By definition these people are the extremists and I’m always more interested in the silent majority. Matthew deserves the chance to read what he wrote again. I pity his employer. He has become trapped by the quasi religion of Brexit.
These below are some of the reasons why online Brexorcisms are often ineffective taken from my book Reboot Britain. It is a social process, not a social media process. We are fast approaching the point where a super majority believe that Brexit has failed. Once that happens, politicians have to listen or lose their seats. Labour are complicit in the radio silence on the matter, as are the Lib Dems who have copped out by saying that we’ll rejoin ‘at some time in the future. Simply dodging the question.
I watched Nick Ferrari melt when challenged by Gina Miller with astonishment on Sophy Ridge’s Politics Hub last week 18 January 2024. So should you ….
Ridge did a brilliant job of roasting Tory MP Brendan Clarke Smith, the coward to stood down to object to the Rwanda bill and then came back to vote for fear of losing his seat in the House of Commons.
What was even more surprising was how Nick Ferrari melted under the force of arguments employed by Gina Miller. In the first round, Ferrari teased Miller on her powers of prediction (Mystic Miller). Yet she is right and Nick accepted her points. The Rwanda bill will eventually fail on morality, legality or practicality. As the programme went on, Ferrari found himself in the unusual position of agreeing with Miller on nearly every point she made. This was hugely generous of Nick and a measure of a man who knows the difference between right and wrong rather than left or right. Nick listens well, did not adopt the usual technique of Tory politicians by shouting Gina down and made a whole load of very valid points. It was a constructive dialogue between giants and a good example of what Parliament could be like. It was plain to see that Sophy Ridge really enjoyed the combination of the dynamic duo and she did not need to resort to the usual crowd control techniques that are the norm of our toxic politics these days.
Thank you for your candour Mr Ferrari
Imagine how much better politics could be with Gina as your MP?
If you would like Gina Miller to be your MP and build a better system of politics, join the True and Fair party today or drop me a line to reboot@brexitrage.com. If you don’t have time to watch the full programme (you should) check a few snippets out below:
Art imitates nature in all its beauty and ugliness. Gordon Coldwell’s fine work shows us the grim realities of Brexit. Find Gordon’s work at Gordon Coldwell. Here’s just a small sample of his work which includes a satirical book. The only benefit of Brexit is the level of satire that it has produced. See also Gutterpress, aimed at our populist media.
Gordon’s piece on The Truss perfectly encapsulates her own view of herself versus the chaos that surrounds her. The epitome of naked populism with zero substance.
Gordon says of himself and his satirical book:
When I was 16, in 1970, my secondary school art teacher took me to see an exhibition of work by the German anti-war artist, John Heartfield, at Newcastle University’s Hatton Gallery, in the NE of England. The exhibition left a lifelong impact on my thinking about the importance of art as a means of communicating concerns about political developments that have the potential to lead to conflict and social unrest.
Approximately 50 years on from seeing that exhibition, it is still fresh in my memory – Heartfield’s works appeared as profound, apocalyptic and poster-like compositions.
During my career, I spent 30 years working in colleges: 20 years as a Lecturer and Head of Art, Design & Media and 10 years as a Marketing Manager. I left the education sector to start my own Branding & Marketing business – after 10 years, I closed the company due to being diagnosed with Parkinson’s Disease.
Since turning 60, I have been making artworks every day. My preoccupation is always concerned with the message/meaning of each image and the ongoing development of my own pictorial language.
Since 2016, the political landscape in the USA (re Trump), UK (re BREXIT) and elsewhere, seems to me to have undergone a significant shift to the right. Populist politicians strategically presenting contrived, accusative, provocative and distorted bite-sized phrases that are essentially emotive and manipulating. These messages are the essence of today’s ‘climate of political ideas’ and pander to a Nationalist appeal.
My response has and continues to be one of making artworks, often remaking and re-populating ‘Old Master’ compositions to present oblique and, at times, humorous or ambiguous comment on, for example, President Trump’s extremely odd, self-caricatured appearance and behaviour. His use of language, his spitefulness (…etc) all point to the potential for extreme outcomes… AND… the politicians responsible for the disharmony and fracture that is self-evident in the UK because of the whole BREXIT process, which could ultimately have a seriously damaging impact on the UK’s economy and social cohesion.
One of the few remaining arguments of the last Brexiters on planet earth is that it’s too soon to review the benefits of Brexit in 2023. It isn’t. We have had nearly eight years of intention / formulation of Brexit strategy and nearly four years of Brexecution / implementation. Formative evaluation is therefore both possible and necessary. Let’s not forget that we were told that there would be no downsides to Brexit and we would have instant wins from our independence, in terms of ‘taking back control’ of our money, borders and laws. So, how is it all going? What does it mean to the man and woman on the street? Take a look back to my Linkedin article of July 2023 for a bit of nostalgia – Hard Facts about Hard Brexit. It gets worse every month. Header image by the genius Cold War Steve.
Money
On a simple basis, Brexit did not solve our abilities to take back control of our money. Brexit inflicted the Government’s own predictions – a 4.5% resilience shock to GDP or £100 BILLION per year. This is the equivalent to trying to swim the English Channel with a 4.5 kg block of concrete round your neck. Liz Truss’ experiment in Brexonomics added a whopping £74 BILLION in just 49 days, ruining young people’s dreams of home ownership for a generation. Read the Bloomberg report on decline in foreign investment in Brexit Britain. Whilst it is clear that nobody wants to talk about Brexit in 2023 due to radio silence by politicians on all sides, the ‘offspring’ of Brexit are all around us with the cost of living, food inflation and so on. All is depicted by our Brexit iceberg below. Government gaslighting continues with ‘pints of wine’ and other bollocks. Nobody of any intelligence is fooled by this shit. Are you?
At a more parochial level and as an example of ‘taking back control of our money’, British energy prices in 2023 are 53% more than in France. Yet Gina Miller demonstrated that we have always had our sovereignty without needing to leave the EU. French energy companies are owned by the state and still make a profit at half the prices of British energy companies. When Boris Johnson said ‘take back control’ he forgot to mention WHO would be taking back that control. Clearly it was NOT the taxpayer or the great unwashed.
Longer term, we have only just begun to see the unfolding of a return to slavery in terms of minimum wages and an unwinding of employment standards in Brexit Britain. The drive towards the return to a feudal system continues with no opposition in sight. Read Red Brexit, Blue Brexit for insights into Labour’s failed Brexit strategy. Take a look at this You Tube video below, made earlier this year for insights into Brexonomics and numbers in general.
Clearly Brexit worked from the viewpoint that it discouraged Europeans from wanting to come to Britain. We could have achieved this quite simply by having a Government sponsored campaign of racial hatred in Britain, without needing to break the economy and destroy our reputation in the world as a standard bearer. Oh, wait a minute, we did that! You will notice from the graph below that migration figures from Europe are now in negative numbers. Yet migration from Africa, India and the Far East has increased dramatically.
As well as that, Brexit did not magic away our responsibilities to take in migrants from Hong Kong, Ukraine, Afghanistan and so on. Brexit has worked in exactly the opposite way to that predicted by the Brexiters. This is the perverse law of unintended consequences that arises from shoddy strategy. In short, fail to plan, plan to fail.
Inside the non-EU figures in the graph are people who came from Ukraine, the Hong Kong refugees and other effects, so the figure is temporarily high. Nonetheless, Brexit did not solve migration, nor will it. Britain also relies on foreign students as a source of income, many of who then return to their own countries, so it is all too simple to say that we must ban students. Our Government needs to maintain the illusion of ‘the enemy outside’ in order to win the votes of xenophobic Brits, racists and general shits in elections. Watch our You Tube video on how to address immigration.
Before Brexit, small boats were not a thing really. The weaponisation of small boats was an invention by a Tory government desperate to distract people from thinking about the real issues facing an island nation with an increasing elderly population with food, skills and other resource insecurities. It is the triumph of marketing via right wing media to feed feeble minds and fill their minds with fury. Nearly every headline in the Mail and the Express has the word FURY in it. This is exactly why I wrote Private Eyelines to highlight how we are being taken for furious fools. In a parallel universe, in 2014 nobody gave a stuff about Europe or the EU. Again, EU fury was steadily manufactured to win a referendum based on lies.
Were you sold a pup when you were told that Brexit would allow us to take back control of our borders?
Laws
In the 14th century it may have been feasible to operate your own laws in your town, fiefdom, region or country as, generally speaking, world trade and travel were not a thing. In 2023, we live in a globally connected world and it becomes increasingly difficult to become a rogue state, unless you are Belarus or North Korea. if we wish to exploit people’s lives and livelihoods we are set on a course to become international pariahs rather than guardians of law and order. People still moan at me about the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) as if it is part of the EU. It is not.
When people talk to me about taking back control of our laws, they often fail to mention which ones are troubling them. We don’t have to drive on the left hand side of the road as part of the EU, nor drink litres of beer. We are still free to conduct barbaric acts such as fox hunting as the Spanish have their bull fighting. We have pounds and the Queen on our money. Just what laws do the Brexiters mean when they claim that they want them back? The law exists to protect people from exploitation. We now see the bizarre spectacle of our Government arguing with the rule of law in order to exploit people or behave unethically.
This is not the high water mark of British justice and not my Brexit. Is it yours?
The boiling frog problem
I’m sure you know the story of the boiling frog. People tell me that “Brexit was done”. “It happened”. Sorry, Brexit was not an event, a newspaper headline or a project with an end point. It was a process. Michael Vail, a ‘farmer’ living in Brisbane, typifies the view that Brexit was an event on his Linkedin ravings. Sure there can be some winners and losers in all changes, such as in the field of disaster capitalism (Michael is a disaster capitalist cum estate agent) but, of course, Brexit was supposed to offer benefits for all not just for people who can play the financial system in the wake of a boom or bust.
Brexit hasn’t delivered the promised benefits except in the case of people who have exploited other people’s misery. I am not in a stage of grief. When someone points to the many benefits of Brexit, I will join the cause. It’s just that Michael and his few remaining Brexiters have nothing to show me socially, economically, politically, environmentally and so on for the positive impacts of Brexit nor any problems that Brexit solves. Read Brexit Freedoms.
Michael resorts to yin and yang rather than a lie on a bus to explain Brexit. I guess it’s a new take on “Que sera sera” which my Brexity sister favours. He also lies about the Cuty (city) who are quietly moving people out of London. It’s easy to say all this when you live in Australia.
In case you are still under any illusions that “Brexit is done”, please see this very long list of Brexit impacts still to come in 2024 – 2027 and beyond. from Edwin Hayward.
Meanwhile in Europe
In Europe, they have agreed to use one charger to rule all our electronic devices. It means 🔌The same charger for all phones, tablets and cameras ⚡ Harmonised fast-charging technology 🔄Reduced e-waste
In Britain, we’re still talking pints. Soon, we will be introducing bakelite plugs. This brilliant video sums up the fact that Brexit and satire are now indistinguishable.
Don Adamson spreads some Brexit Christmas cheer from his bunker in Barnsley.
This week’s homework
One – Discuss the following statement: The controversy over the Elgin Marbles could have been resolved easily enough if the curators of the British Museum had been allowed to discuss it with their opposite numbers in Athens. Instead Richy Scumbag decided to turn it in an international p*****g to impress Gammons and Flagshaggers.
Two – Did George Orwell write ‘1984’ as a dire warning or as a training manual for Johnsonite Tories?
Three – Princess Nut Nuts (sometimes known as Carrie Johnson) was described in the Covid Inquiry as behaving like Lady Macbeth. Is this a fair comment or was Lady Macbeth a much nicer person?
Four – Recent edition of Question Time was held in Kelso; on the Scottish side of the border. BBC goes to a lot of trouble to ensure that the QT audiences are predominantly pro Brexit and pro Tory. How did they manage that in Scotland?
Five – Johnson has been described as ‘a useless tosser.’ Is that on a good day?
Six – Should Gammons and Tories bog off back to Russia where they belong?
Seven – Gammons and Flagshaggers insist that the world owes them a living for their heroism in wars that ended before they were born. Which bit of that does Biden not get?
Eight – WW2 has been a regular fixture on British television for many years. This explains why lowlifes like Johnson and Nigel Garbage are the misapprehension that they have received multiple awards of the Victoria Cross for their heroism in wars that ended before they were born. The more I see of Brexit the better I understand what happened in pre WW2 Germany. For some reason we do not see many 1950s vintage movies of Churchill roaring defiance at the bad guys. What we do see are TV documentaries that explain in great detail how Nazis nobbled a great country. Why is this happening on a BBC that is strictly under the control of Johnsonite Tories? You would expect this BBC to pander to Johnson’s misapprehension that he is Churchill reincarnated.
This week’s quotes
Thatcher may have come late to Euro scepticism but she certainly threw herself into it
… in thrall to her supposed economic success… Tory Regimes have carried on with this disastrous course … the cupboard is empty and bills are due … Thatcher set in course the destruction of this country …
I wonder how many people who voted for Brexit saw the spike in migration coming
… we are allowing in more non EU migrants … we are also allowing in more overseas students to prop up underfunded university sector … this will increase … How richly ironic. Brexit has opened the door to more immigration, not closed it…
Covid inquiry has shone a light on government’s pandemic response
… now it is time for a scrutiny of Brexit … same reckless fools were in charge … even Titans would have struggled … dark chaos of Johnson … was frighteningly obvious … casual, complacent, determinedly ignorant and jingoistic leadership … hopeless … bewildered ministers … Brexit deal was being negotiated at the same time … incompetent government … Brexit deal that is as calamitous as response to pandemic … nightmarish … determined by shallow ‘British exceptionalism’ … Johnson struggled to take Covid seriously … at same time did not bother to contemplate the tortuous details of Brexit … Johnson’s erratic attention span taken up wholly with demands of Covid … Lord Frost made Mad Halfcock look like Bismarck and Churchill combined … Cummings encourage out of depth Frost to be aggressive … when EU proposed a deal mutually beneficial … Frost would loftily reject it … Cummings gone by November 2020 leaving bewildered Frost to please Johnson alone … Johnson was indifferent to detail … seeking a fantasy Brexit where Britain would recover past glories … disgracefully doting media elevated Johnson to status of war hero … no discussions in Cabinet … Keith Starmer did not ask a single question about Brexit … serious consequences for UK in many ways for years to come … doubt that Johnson read the deal passed to him on Christmas Eve … was he playing a poker game … bluffing … probably did not know himself … Frost … politically naive … unworkable protocol for Northern Ireland … Johnson ran away from scrutiny all his life … briefly ran a government where he was omnipotent … deeply damaging … sought the hardest of Brexits without knowing what that meant …
‘Fearless’ Tory press meekly ducked criticism of Johnson and Richy Scumbag
… ‘let people die’ … ‘They’ve had a good innings’ … Downing St was a hive of tragic chaos … dystopian nightmare … incompetent ministers lied … claimed the authority to play God … orgy of narcissism … toxic culture of misogyny … Johnson incapable of making a decision … bamboozled by statistics and numbers …. hiding behind science which he did not understand … Covid still a factor in 300 deaths a week … sensational and scandalous material … editors spoiled for choice … Johnson did not think old people’s lives mattered … language shocking but not shocking enough to make the Tory Press … possibly because they agreed with the sentiments … Tory Press … did not shine much light on accusations of ministerial dithering … shy away from anything that shows Tories in a less than brilliant light … not one mentioned Johnson wanting to leave old people to die .. Chaos and incompetence…
November 8, the day that Georgia was recommended for EU candidacy status
… obtaining EU candidacy status is not only a significant step towards realising the European aspirations of Georgian but also a vital means of diminishing Russia’s influence in Georgia … support for membership across civil society has always been some of the strongest in the region … after Russia launched its full-scale war in Ukraine, it immediately became clear how much of a threat the Kremlin truly posed … for Georgians joining the EU will have deep consequences. November 8 was a huge day for the people of Georgia, a historic day when my country made a step towards the EU and away from Moscow. It is what we have wanted for decades…
Alastair Darling
… If there is one lesson from his life and times it is this: politics needs good, honest, principled, hard working, serious people more than it has ever needed them…..
Mad Halfcock, as Health Secretary
… assured Dominic Cummings that full pandemic contingency plans were in place – but they claimed under cross examination that they were not up to scratch. This is why Cummings, in June 2021 said no plans had been in place … an assertion that mystified staff at Porton Down … that is the whole reason why we have Porton Down, where they have long recognised that that a pandemic is the number one threat on the risk register … they war gamed pandemics and shared their ideas with Europe, Singapore, the Gulf States etc, … ironically some of them put Porton Down’s ideas into practice and looked back at us mystified why we were not doing what we had advised … Theories abound why the plans were never used … by the time Johnson and co. Took an interest there was little that was still salvageable so they denied they existed …
Richy Scumbag .. unable to corral the warring factions in the Tory Party
… Keith Starmer has been effective in keeping the outlying far left of the Labour Party in check, Tory factions openly in dispute … Scumbag completely devoid of the power to bring performers into line … Cruella Braverman supporters cannot contain their anger … Cleverly (sic) attempt to reduce the perceived but deeply misplaced believe that Rwanda could solve the small boats problem … ‘Let Markets Rip’ Brigade bemoan the ousting of Thick Lizzie … relics of a bygone era (Deadwood) call for yet more of her disastrous economic enemas … right wing think tanks that begot Thick Lizzie are still in residence in Tufton Street … despair over current divisions … while the damage done by Brexit continues to mount the recriminations seem destined to sour relations for years … Richy Scumbag is desperately trying to appease as many warring tendencies as possible … succeeding only in looking devoid of principles … latest attempt to exert the authority of his office … pathetic, petulant, cause for laughter … turning the Tory Party into a joke is a sacking matter … Tories united by one thing: hunger for power … polls indicate that the challenge is insurmountable …
Peevish toddler in Downing St
… cancelling meeting with Greek PM … Anybody who believes in the rightness of the position is never afraid of confronting arguments … a perfectly routine government meeting became a full scale diplomatic row … clusterf**k … nothing the Greek PM said new or surprising … Elgin Marbles a controversy since 1816 … nothing Mitsotakis could have said should have taken Scumbag by surprise … Instead Scumbag … in a whole of his own digging decided to keep at it …. failed desperately with an ill-focussed attempt to start a culture war … there are artefacts and works of art about which the British feel strongly … The Parthenon Sculptures are not among them, … Scumbag is not a Churchillian defender of the nation … instead a complete fool … King Charles wore a tie with a Greek flag … uncodified constitution prevents the monarch from calling the PM a prat but this is the next best thing…
Pip Pip Don Adamson Medway Delta (Retired) Brexorcist and Saboteur First Class
Don Adamson’s weekly roundup in his inimitable style from the Brexit bunker in Barnsley.
This week’s homework
One – Richy Scumbag has started a useless and unnecessary argument with the Greeks over the Elgin Marbles. As if we needed more of that. Would returning the Elgin Marbles to Athens be a fair price to pay to Rejoin the EU?
Two – Discuss the following statement. There is no truth in the rumour that Richy Scumbag is playing politics. He is doing his utmost to avoid getting the Tories re-elected.
Three – Is there any truth in the rumour that there is another nasty respiratory infection emerging in China and the Chinese are, as usual, keeping it secret for much longer than is sensible?
Four – Johnson will appear in front the Covid Inquiry this week. Will he be called upon to testify on oath? Do these Tories understand the significance of testifying on oath?
Five – Is there any truth in the rumour that the evil Barclay family have put together enough money to pay off their debts to Lloyds Band and are regaining control of Telegraph Newspapers? How did they do that since for some considerable time they have been swearing on oath in courts (see above) that they are fearfully pushed for lolly? Is the money coming from respectable sources?
This week’s quotes
Richy Scumbag
… yet another car crash week … Cruella Braverman signalling all out war … resurrection of David Cameron heading into ‘seemed like a good idea at the time’ territory … appointment caught MPs and media by surprise, no mean feat among the leaky dysfunction this government has become … makes it easier for the opposition to make a big deal of austerity when its architect is back on the scene …
… it is not easy these days to find anybody who will speak in defence of Brexit … pro Brexit arguments lost 9-1 … even hard core Brexiters seem to realise that you cannot polish a turd …
BBC tried to fix who chaired Ofcom regulator
… won’t set the record straight … press relations industry complicit in reputation management … well qualified candidates deterred from applying … wholly improper for Robbie Gibb to try to fix who got to be Ofcom regulator … Getting at the truth is what BBC is supposed to be for … Alas, no … cover up …
Foreign Direct Investment is a key economic indicator
… Britain is in big trouble … Foreign Direct Investment into the UK is in serious decline and has been since 2016 … FCI peaked in 2016 … losing FCI at a worrying rate … we are nowhere near as attractive a place to do business as pre-Brexit … seven years of political interference in the economy … foreign investors prefer stability and kept promises … we had been dependent on FDI for many years … car industry … rate of investment by car companies slowing … City of London … Loss of equivalence after Brexit has undermined business model … UK is dependent on people coming here to do business … domestic levels of investment, training and productivity lamentable … UK government needs to take the UK back into the Single Market …
Daily Mail owner, Lord Rothermere, decided against holding his Christmas Party at Claridges
… after a miserable year of declining sales and redundancies … judge’s decision to let 7 high profile individuals the go ahead to bring law suits alleging widespread unlawful behaviour … Tory MPs have expressed concerns about the Barclay family using middle east cash to repurchase Telegraph … Mail on Sunday ‘a nauseating apologist for war crimes and mass murder … Jones … ‘a shit weasel with a rat’s intellect.’ …
Tories are obsessed with tedious nonsense
… says Ken Clarke …Cruella Braverman has not got the large number of supporters in the House of Commons that Daily Mail or Express think she has got … move of extreme right from the margins to the mainstream of British politics … brought to a head disastrous Brexit vote … Clarke refers to as ‘a silly three week opinion poll … politics …. particularly in the Tory Party since the referendumb … has been surreal … worst political periods in my lifetime … particularly bitter inside Tory Party … disastrous governments … Brexit exerted huge strain not only on the country but also the ideological structure of the Tory Party … dividing itself into factions … Richy Scumbag has to get control of these factions … if he is to get the country out of the mess it is in … Dreadful crises … Economy … National Health Service and much else besides … silly politics … scandals, crises, newspaper tripe … Tories incapable of confronting any of the fundamental problems that Britain faces … Conrad Black bought the Telegraph to turn into a raging Europhobe newspaper … then Mail and Express got dodgy … Thatcher’s worst friends persuaded her that hour ousting was a European plot … half remembered Thatcherism is a slew of extreme and damaging ideas …
Britain has paid £140M ($175m) to Rwanda government
… none of the money has been spend on improving the asylum process … it is unclear whether any treaty could satisfy the courts, whether any law could get through the Lords or how the ECHR could be stopped from blocking things … theatrics …
Cameron’s return marks the triumph of image over reality
… Cameron could have been an excellent PM … intelligence, diligence, quick wit, smooth manner … he managed to be one of the worst … a man who bungled foreign policy is will help to shape it again. Government struggling to repair public services has appointed the man who did more than any other to cause the difficulties … appearance of competence is more important than the evidence of it … for half a millennium Britain aimed to ensure Europe did not unite against it … as a result of the referendumb Cameron managed it in three years … one error: the Brexit referendumb … Chaotic Thick Lizzie government … austerity was a radical experiment and it failed … when he would have been most useful he deserted … such a record is no obstacle to high office … Scumbag is desperate … Editor’s note : Other views of Cameron are possible.
Insecurity has become the watchword for British politics
… Britain suffers more deeply and for longer than our international peers…. we are failing … business leaders who want to invest in Britain are put off by Westminster turmoil …13 years of chaos and instability … government incompetence … a drag on economic performance…
‘I was delighted to provide a masterclass on Rejoining the EU and preparing the ground to end Brexit via the gentle art and discipline of “Brexorcism” for North Herts for Europe. Here are the video recordings of both sessions if you missed it.
Don Adamson’s ruthless report on all things Brexit and politics continues:
This week’s homework
One – Discuss the following statement. Murdoch newspapers continued to publish extracts from the Hitler Diaries after the proof emerged that that diaries were forgeries. Murdoch explained: ‘We are in the entertainment business.’ Do you find the tripe that Murdoch lackeys publish to be entertaining? Would it endanger the planet if Murdoch lackeys printed entertaining material that is factually accurate?
Two – Is there any truth in the rumour that Trump supporters refer to him as BD. This is an abbreviation for Big Dick. Why would that be an appropriate description for Trump?
Three – Discuss the following statement. Richy Scumbag has appointed David Cameron as Foreign Secretary. Tories have an eye watering majority in the House of Commons but need to look elsewhere for ability. Cam the Sham is a proven failure as a political leader. Can it be that Scumbag has appointed Cam the Sham as Foreign Secretary because the Tories are waking up to the reality that Brexit has failed while Keith Starmer continues to insist (despite all the evidence to the contrary) that Brexit can be made to work?
Four – Would it benefit Climate Change Deniers if they spent more time looking out of their own windows?
Five – TV journalism used to be Kate Adie (a Sunderland lass) reporting from dangerous places as she gave cool, calm and collected accounts of the mayhem that was breaking loose around her. TV journalism nowadays consists of some airhead in a tight skirt reading from a script that she barely understands. Why the change?
This week’s quotes
The government works on important policies like taking away the tents of the homeless and giving millions to fossil fuel giants
… cover up over a serial rapist Tory MP … failure allowed the unnamed MP to continue to offend … many other allegations … including that another MP possessed a laptop with indecent images of children … Thick Lizzie joking of her taxpayer funded security team … since leaving no 10 a year ago Thick Lizzie declared six trips worth £58,000, including a four nighter in Hawaii … After Lloyds was forced to seize Telegraph Media Group when a £1Bn loan went bad … bank is sceptical of Barclay family claims to be in a position to reacquire the titles…
Richy Scumbag’s gruesome interview with Elon Musk demeaned the office of PM
… toe curlingly gruesome … Scumbag squirming excitedly in his chair like a cross between Will from the Inbetweeners (‘Briefcase Wanker’) and the luckless executive Amazon sends on Newsnight to explain why its workplace conditions do not amount to modern serfdom … PM had no idea what he was talking about … politics … fast becoming a branch of showbiz … the spectacle is the ruling order’s non-stop discourse about itself, its never-ending monologue of self-praise … emotion trumps fact … performative charisma more valued than competence … no pendulum that is going to swing back to evidence-based technocracy and rationality … shrewd politicians should not have to surrender their dignity as Richy Scumbag did … decency does not need to be dull …
Deadly failings of a moral pygmy
… Johnson’s lack of focus and humanity cost lives during Covid … instead of facing charges he is raking in the cash … had the best, most expensive, education Britain could offer … Eton and Oxford … completely incapable of doing the job of PM … endlessly distracted and constantly changing his mind, unfit to lead … not really engaging with Covid at all … flailed, constantly changed his mind … nothing good comes of such inst ability at the top … results were catastrophic … companies have been convicted of corporate manslaughter due to gross negligence in events that killed just one person … no such investigation into corporate manslaughter here … Johnson’s advisers contemptuous of their boss … Johnson had no concern for the suffering he caused … simply ignored it … dithering uncaring blob at the heart of government, wobbling uselessly while thousands died … Johnson’s reasoning contained an error so fundamental that it should have been rectified with a two minute briefing …PM did not take the time to understand the devastating toll of the disease he was failing to contain .. an appalling failure on his part … ignorance within Downing St … an absence of humanity … jaw dropping callousness … pensioners make up core of Tory voters … no sense of gratitude to people who put him in No 10 … his word counts for very little … disgraced … lied relentlessly … a picture of extreme arrogance … disastrous mess … no pandemic plan … inevitable that Johnson would fail the challenges … few of that group accept culpability for installing as PM somebody so unfit for the job … everything seemed to be made up on the spot … gross unsuitability for role of PM … moral failure … if he was the operator of a business he would be facing time in gaol … his punishment is millions of pounds of speaking gigs, a book deal, a Daily Mail column and a TV show … British justice system is in crisis …
Mail has seen another huge fall in circulation
… I always thought Dacre would end his days an unhappy man. No Peerage, shunned by polite society. Labour likely to be office. Mail readership in freefall…
Empty Supermarket shelves
… leaving the EU has seriously stymied UK food importation and distribution centre… Brexit delays and red tape … it all worked perfectly before Brexit… government will not say the B-word when discussing it … weird supermarket culture in the UK … things will get worse … Brexit and the damage it does is increasingly hard-wired into the British economy …
Richy Scumbag
… avatar of the radical right … the truth is more disturbing than any cynical opportunism … damage the Tories have done to the UK .. unnecessary decline … international diminishment … Tories wrap themselves in the Union Jack while putting party before country … demise of good governance … sheer incompetence of Johnson …why anyone, even GB news, would pay to hear the thought of this inadequate is beyond me .. Businesses are paying millions for speeches by Johnson. What can they possibly learn that would aid their businesses…?
British Parliament is failing at its most basic job – scrutinising laws
… MPs are botching it … Brexit and Covid set precedents for legislating at speed and handing wide powers to ministers … habits ministers find as addictive as monarchs once did … Henry VIII clauses that allow ministers to alter primary legislation … consequential decisions get cursory scrutiny … carbon dioxide emissions … became law after only 90 minutes debate and without a vote … objectionable in principle … Legislature at risk of being ridden roughshod by ministers … bad in practice … drafting errors on the rise … impact assessments … cost and benefits … cosmetic or missing altogether … Johnson’s windfall tax on the oil and gas industry … had several big design flaws … Thick Lizzie’s law to cap energy prices … hasty and sloppy … malaise strengthens the case of constitutional reform …proportional representation would end one party dominance … an elected House of Lords would have a strong mandate to halt badly drafted bills … neither looks likely … amateurism goes too far … House of Lords membership … a bauble for party cronies … reflects a malaise in political couture … properly scrutiny legislation serves the country better than showy rushed law making …
… MPs spend increasingly little time on examination of proposed legislation … a swaggering executive treats scrutiny as an inconvenience … since 1997 only one in eight bills has undergone pre-legislative scrutiny … MPs regard scrutiny as drudgery … debate is partisan and cursory … weakening system of scrutiny has been hit by two bad shocks … Brexit … Covid 19 … Brexit referendumb introduced shrill and aggressive politics that treated parliamentary scrutiny not as a service but as a betrayal … eliminating the chance for meaningful scrutiny … government by diktat was leaching power away from Parliament … skeleton bills … provide few clues as to what will be essential … so skeletal we wonder if the bones were stolen away and buried somewhere … Statutory instruments get even less scrutiny than primary legislation … haste leads to less informed decisions … MPs pass legislation with no idea of costs or benefits … scrambled together at the last minute to justify a decision already taken …. errors are rising … when you do something because it is convenient that is the time to worry … Peers feel that they are doing the scrutiny that MPs are shirking … process has broken down … few Tories care how the rule of Parliament are being forgotten … should an election force them into opposition the costs of a weakened Parliament will be more obvious to them … when the rules are bent everybody loses…
Pip Pip Don Adamson Medway Delta Retired Brexorcist and Saboteur First Class
Don Adamson writes from the Barnsley Brexit Bunker:
This week’s homework
One – Discuss the following statement. Murdoch and Rothermere lackeys are under strict instructions that they must not believe what they write in the newspapers.
Two – Discuss the following statement: Richy Scumbag has dismissed Cruella Braverman from the job of Home Secretary. This comes as a surprise to 21st century Tories who expect Cabinet Ministers to be a) extremely incompetent and b) racists of the worst description. The scandal involving Stickyfinger Pansey-Lenin (alias Tommy Robinson) is also causing consternation in 21st century Tory circles. Laws, conventions, terms and conditions that affect decent people do not apply to Gammons and Flagshaggers. It is interesting that Cameron has been appointed Foreign Secretary. He is neither an MP nor a Peer. That ordinarily would disqualify him from being a Cabinet Minister. We do live in strange times. Editor’s note : We must use Cameron – Read Play the ball, not the man.
Three – Several years ago John Cleese was a high profile member of the Liberal Democrats. The Lib Dems are not to every taste but, at least at that time they bore some resemblance to a respectable political party. Around that time Cleese was quoted as saying that ‘Woke’ was a good thing and applied to people with some kind of empathy. Cleese quit the Lib Dems and became an outspoken supporter of Brexit and other dubious causes. He now has become a presenter for Gammonite Balderdash News and has some offensive things to say about people who are ‘Woke.’ Cleese is not a stupid person so why is he lending his name and fame to dubious causes? How badly does he need the money?
This week’s quotes
Inheritance Tax is fair
… irrational hatred of inheritance tax … that hardly anybody pays … may only be paid the estate of dead people who have accumulated an awful lot of money … Inheritance Tax is necessary … Untaxed wealth creation distorts the economy … creating a level playing field is essential not just because it is fair but because it is economically efficient … Tory Party will spend billions of poor taxpayers money in a state run attempt to increase house price inflation and make the rich richer … 96% of people will never pay IHT … a more subtle version of Trussonomics … Jeremy *unt is not reversing her disastrous measures after all, he is just being more clever than she was … *unt threw a billion pounds at the wealthy in his first financial statement … billions will go to the wealthiest, to the house building sector (which donates millions to the Tory Party) … the plan is to take a large slice of money and give it to millionaires, while telling ordinary taxpayers they will benefit (COMMENT: if they are thick enough to believe Brexit is a good idea then they are thick enough to believe anything) … It is a total con and an economically damaging con …
Libidinous haystack and, to our undying shame recent Prime Minister
will soon add his name to the roster of failed entertainers who have sought career stretching refuge in the clammy arms of Gammon Balls News. The only surprising development is that some people appear to be surprised by it … increasingly unfunny farce that is the life and times of Alexander du Piffle Johnson … a lot of free time on his hands just now … had a lot of free time when he was supposed to be leading the country through the worst pandemic in a century … what a joy it will be for the man who was dismissed from the Times for dishonesty to be working for a ‘news station’ where pulling ‘facts’ directly out of your arse is keenly encouraged … Johnson can expect a cool welcome … will he really feel at home among the assorted wing nuts and tinfoil hatters on GB News? … Maybe it will convince OFCOM that the station is balanced as opposed to completely unbalanced…
Struggling GB News plunged into fresh controversy
… breached impartially rules for the fourth time … chaos at GB News … Telegraph is up for sale ‘’’ owners of GB News and Daily Mail are sitting at the front of the auction room … expect more slagging off across the right wing media … as they struggle to prove … they are ready to step into Barclay’s shoes …
Lying in state
… Westminster Hall debate entitled ‘Honesty in Politics’ … just 8 MPs attended and the only Tories were the chair and duty minister …
Telegraph
… systems have been rejigged that … ‘actively prevents anybody who knows what they are talking about attending’ … the system collapses into a state of Chinese whispers…
Richy Scumbag … a year in office … people are deeply dissatisfied … Tories look exhausted and short of ideas…
Things go from bad to worse for hapless Mad Halfcock
… A corrupt, lying, philandering, incompetent…
Britain’s entire criminal justice system is under strain
… no long term planning; disjointed decision making; tension between expert advice and political calculation … some parts of the criminal justice system close to breakdown … push to be tough on crime coincided with .. spending cuts … gaols, overcrowded, squalid and unsafe … gaol population nearly double in three decades … emergency measures … will not come close to tackling the crisis … decision making … contradictory and incoherent … probation service is in terrible shape … part privatisation so disastrous … it was reversed … backlogs worsened by problems of the government’s own making … in large part caused … by politicians … grim conditions … more assaults and suicides behind bars … poorly run services compromise public safety … situation dreadfully exacerbated by shortage of prison guards … a redundancy scheme so dire it had to rehire many of those it paid off … calamitous … jammed understaffed gaols … 22 hours of daily confinement not uncommon … self-harm, drug use and violence are all rising … situation gets worse and worse … prisons failing in … chief purpose … rehabilitation … perfect storm of failures … situation so bad that government cannot ignore it … probation service in shockingly bad shape …
Covid 19 enquiry
… Dominic Cummings called ministers ‘useless f***pigs’, ‘morons,’ ‘c*nts’ … Cabinet Office ‘terrifyingly sh*t’ … if anything he understated the scale of the dysfunction within the government … individuals in power spectacularly unsuited to the job … departmental responsibilities … horribly muddled … glacially slow to respond to emergencies … chaos was driven by individuals … Johnson … unserious, indecisive and unable to grasp detail … Cummings … incapable of running a functioning office … an environment that was toxic, macho and sexist … Richy Scumbag has spent the last year trying to banish memories of his chaotic predecessors. Instead the circus is back…
Thick Lizzie government
… huge damage to the economy … concept of shame is as alien to Thick Lizzie as is to Johnson … continues to insist that she alone is marching to the right tune … Tories believe her … Mad Halfcock …. Presided over a process that was corrupt and chaotic … had a tendency to get over excited and make stuff up…
Lib Dems gaining ground in Gove’s constituency
… persistent rumours … Murdoch wanted him to edit the Times … rumours did not originate with Murdoch … Gove has been sucking up to GB News … Gove’s predicament emphasis the problem Brexit ultra will have finding employment after the election …
The Cabinet Secretary holds a particularly important post in the UK
… current incumbent proclaimed that the ‘government is looking like terrible, tragic joke… while Johnson was nominally PM the real person in charge was his then fiancée, now wife … demoralise a civil service in desperate need of strong leadership … the rich and powerful brazen out their position in the knowledge that the public is not interested and the media will follow its lead … Johnson is the most obvious example to whom the concept of shame is meaningless … his attitudes have polluted the atmosphere … Ecclestone was found guilty of misleading HMRC over £400M in an offshore account… he got a suspended sentence … self righteous newspapers that would pillory a desperate single mother for being a ‘benefits scrounger’ showed barely a flicker of interest in Ecclestone’s attempts to rob the country … Michelle Mone used her position to benefit from PPE contracts, has shown no sign of penitence … Yet another Tory MP accused of rape with drug possession thrown in … soon vanished from the headlines … similar allegations about another Tory MP … never been named … fiasco
Keith Starmer had an illustrious career at the bar but can struggle under light interrogation
… the former human rights lawyer appearing to endorse what some regard as war crimes went viral in Labourland where Israel/Palestine is a poisonous issue … he was stuck, kippered, by a breakfast show radio Disc Jockey … Rachel Reeves published book ‘The women who made economic’ … lifted phrases and paragraphs fro, Wikipedia … both errors tell a story, one serious and one silly … when Labour is in power … Labour neuroses will replace Tory neuroses … Tories spent a decade obsessing over Europe not because the voters wanted but because Tories were obsessed by it … with Labour in power topics such as Israel/ Palestine will become matters of internal psychodrama rather than cold debate about policy … Backbench Tory bores waving copies of the Treaty of Rome will be replaced by Labour counterparts quoting the Balfour declaration … Control was one part of the Labour pitch … competence was the other. Reeves’ literary endeavours have damaged that part of the pitch … lifting an explanation out of Wikipedia is mortifying … Labour’s reputation for economic competence is relative… relies on Tory ineptitude … Tory polling is only four points above … Thick Lizzie era … a quicker leader would not have made the error on Gaza in the first place … now that Labour government seems inevitable … boot licking season has begun … masterful inactivity can easily be labelled timidity…
Covid inquiry … government was completely out of its depth
… ineptitude of ministers … dangerous distraction … all pervading culture of misogyny … government machine not structured to cope … floods … evacuation of Afghanistan … food shortages, the UK has been found wanting … public wants and expects government to sort out its problems but the government is not equipped to do so … it is not just the constant restructuring which hampers government … government is no longer fit for purpose … huge expertise and talent within the civil service but the difficulty is getting that applied to the issues … even the most competent ministers – and that is not saying much, given the depressingly low calibre of the current crop – is hugely dependent on senior civil servants … this government… is determined to sour its relationship with the civil service … Misconduct and malfeasance by the ton … corruption … needless loss of life … cavalier, unserious, incompetent, law-breaking charlatans in Downing St … fascinating that there was no inquiry into Brexit … same lack of accountability and unsuitability for the job … the damage that these chancers have done on so many fronts is off the scale ..
Pip Pip Don Adamson Medway Delta Retired Brexorcist and Saboteur First Class
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