I attended the local church hustings recently to face down lies from the Reform party and the Conservatives, who had fled the scene of the crime. Here are my answers to questions levied by the public. Click on You Tube to view. The whole hustings were two hours and this summary is the shortest I could make it with some annotations of the questions.
The film covers a wide range of issues and I’m available to answer others on request. More below on Food Banks.
I offer five key points of difference compared with the mainstream parties:
100% independent so no party whips to obey. My stakeholders are our citizens.
Brexit must be ended as a priority. No-nonsense trying to “Make Brexit Work” or mealy mouthed accommodations which fail to address the elephant in the room. We stand to gain £140 BILLION per annum as a start from making a commitment to rejoin the EU. Money which can be spent on healing the damage of 14 years of Tory chaos. All talk of growth by other parties is vacuous nonsense without dealing with Brexit.
An acceleration of our efforts towards net zero and the climate crisis in general.
An immediate ceasefire in Gaza and a Northern Ireland styled dialogue to resolve the mess.
Reforms to our democracy, truth, trust and transparency in politics.
We have just been ranked as five stars by Stay European, above all the major parties. If you want to Rejoin EU in Gillingham and Rainham, please vote Independent.
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”.
Click on the description to buy The Truss on e-bay.
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.
We recently went to Dover to find out what people really think about Brexit. Most now realise that they were lied to and Brexit has not delivered on the promises from the 2016 ‘brochure’. Write to your MP to demand an end to Brexit carnage. Contrary to what people believe, Brexit is far from done and it’s possible to Rejoin if we apply enough pressure. The Rejoin Party are standing 11 candidates in the London Mayoral Election, in non-competitive seats under a proportional system, so it is possible to express your view without damaging Mayor. Watch our video account of the day:
The most insightful part of our day was not recorded, when we came upon the station staff at Dover Priory rail station. Three men and one woman. The woman was born and bred in the area, had a mining family from Shepherdswell, probably voted Labour originally, but voted for Boris in 2019 on the promise of stopping immigration. She planned to vote for Reform as she felt betrayed by the Tories. As usual she was resistant to questions about being lied to (time was very short for a decent Brexorcism) and said she did not care about future generations (again this is typical of the residual hardcore Brexiteer). Her colleagues were most amused as we asked questions and gently prodded her about her underlying xenophobia (one of the other station staff was black).
This list will probably be out of date by the time it is published. Thank you to my musical chum Dr Mike Alexander for sending me this list. Fear of losing one’s seat is a powerful motivator and the Tories have run to the hills to quote Iron Maiden. Order our leaflets to end Tory rule.
Douglas Ross – Moray (announced 14/10/21)
Charles Walker – Broxbourne (announced 2/2/22)
Crispin Blunt – Reigate (announced 1/5/2022)
Mike Penning – Hemel Hempstead (announced 17/5/2022)
Adam Afriyie – Windsor (announced 22/7/2022)
Andrew Percy – Brigg and Goole (announced 8/11/2022)
Chloe Smith – Norwich North (announced 22/11/2022)
William Wragg – Hazel Grove (announced 22/11/2022)
Gary Streeter – South West Devon (announced 25/11/2022)
The popular view of Theresa May in the wake of her decision to stand down as an MP is ‘good riddance’. As always, I wish to put forward a more nuanced view. My title does not wish her dead by the way, just that she now has some peace from the swivel-headed loons on both sides of the Brexit debate. Here’s a few inconvenient facts for Remoaners and Brexiteers alike:
Sure, yes, May’s record at the Home Office was pretty terrible. The hostile environment and so on. Not as terrible as Patel, Braverman et al, but terrible. Then there was Windrush …
However, May appointed a 52:48 cabinet to respect the Brexit vote, whereas Johnson reduced the gene pool to far right nutters and sycophants. See my interview on the BBC for more on this point.
I spoke with Michel Barnier a little while back. He pointed out that May had two battles to fight. The one on Brexit and the bigger one of her own party fighting like cats in a sack. Eventually they killed her. Paul Witts nails the leadership difficulty in one pithy paragraph:
“The second most difficult thing in the world is to admit to someone that you made a mistake … that you were wrong. The most difficult thing in the world is to admit that to yourself. But as time and pandemics pass, an ever-growing number of people who voted for Brexit after being duped by dopes with red buses, are running out of other things to blame. They were promised the Nirvana of a “global Britain”. Slowly the reality is dawning, and that Nirvana is beginning to look like a scene from a gritty 1970s inner-city gangster movie … complete with outside toilets, spam fritters, rickets, and pints of warm brown ale with suspicious-looking white floaters, served in pubs with sticky carpets.” Paul Witts.
Although the only good Brexit remains (sic) a dead Brexit, Theresa May’s deal was the ‘high water mark’ of Brexit deals. Crucially it covered the economic relationship, security co-operation, cross-cutting issues and institutional arrangements that would preserve the future relationship. if you cannot now remember the details, see Institute for Government. Johnson systematically degraded May’s deal to get it through Parliament. He allowed no scrutiny of the deal using Christmas and COVID as a distraction and not even reading the contract himself. Rishi Sunak has quietly tried to restore elements of Theresa May’s deal through what I called a Pay as EU go rejoin strategy. However, ‘Logical incrementalism’ has many faults, as I pointed out in conversation with the BBC’s Jonty Bloom.
May fought her own party, saying that they would end up with no Brexit deal at all if they did not unite on more than one occasion. Mr Bullion is always on point (and pints) with points about strategy:
“My view was always that May was a fundamentally strategic establishment appointment in case Cameron lost the referendum. Hence her nickname the Submarine. My conclusion was that she was genuine and understood what was happening both to politics in general and her own party, but both Remain and Brexit ultras over played their hands, and the Brexit ultras played the Trump card.” Alan Bullion.
The illusion of control Johnson style – a fancy slogan but totally vacuous.
May did not indulge in public backstabbing of her own party. I’m pretty sure she was a tough opponent in the back rooms though.
May was socially inept. Yet, did you prefer Johnson, Truss or Sunak? What exactly is so wrong about being good at the strategy and details but rather less good at the presentation? Please write to me when you have found the perfect leader.
She was however rubbish at Grenfell and I’m not saying in any way that she was perfect before the attacks on my analysis begin.
I was shot down in flames when I suggested that Remainers should support Theresa in her last months as PM. I pointed out that we’d end up with Boris and a hard Brexit. Look what happened … ? !! The European Movement and other large Remoan groups were consumed by the visceral reactions of the mob. May stayed in the party when others fled. Can anyone imagine how hard that might be?
Theresa. You are not Mother Theresa. Nadine Dorries even pointed out that you are not a mother. However I feel you are owed some thanks for trying to hold back the tide of the swivel-headed Brexiteers.
Our leaflets are now ready to destroy the Tories. Please mail me at reboot@brexitrage.com to order yours. Together with your order, you will receive digital versions of the leaflet for use on social media. For local versions of the leaflet with different text please get in touch. Low res drafts below:
We have got a fantastic leaflet design for ‘non-party leaflets’ to encourage people to vote for Anyone But Conservative. These are perfectly legal under our current system. To order some leaflets for local distribution, please get in touch. The design builds on an iconic image from Pink Floyd’s “The Wall” and a withered Tory tree. Prices range from £35 inc P&P for 1000, £75 for 5000 and progressively better rates for larger orders. Included in all orders is a hi res pdf / jpg version of the leaflet for use on social media.
If you wish to make variations to the draft design below for a more local feel, we can also do that. Please get in touch with amended wording etc. via reboot@brexitrage.com
Collaborations
We have our next ZOOM meeting on Mon 11 March at 8 pm – NOTE Monday not Wednesday – open agenda but the GE will feature strongly. We will know whether the GE is to be called in May, November or January 2025 shortly after Jeremy Hunt’s tortured budget. Usual link via ZOOM.
I made a new film with a Rejoin Party member, inspired by a 50’s Sci-Fi Movie as Rishi Sunak’s power decreases in size by the day. Please share widely.
Larry knows it …
Meanwhile Brexit continues to deliver its toxic payload of destruction, socially, culturally, politically, economically, legally and environmentally. See Brexit Four Years On. Of course, getting rid of the Tories is paramount and guaranteed at this point in the cycle of things. We must therefore turn our attention to strategy. My contention is that if we rid ourselves of the Tories and end up with Brexit we will have failed to Reboot Britain. All efforts in terms of influence and persuasion must continue on Labour, now that the Tories face oblivion. Yes, it’s true that the main parties have formed a pact not to mention Brexit at a GE, but all the offspring of Brexit will be doorstep issues and Brexit will not go away just because it does not fit into polite conversation at Sunday tea.
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.
Click to read Gina Miller’s piece in the New European today.
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.
When you lose the argument, attack the crocodile …
When you cannot answer the question, gaslight away from the question …
When you have REALLY lost the argument, just insult the messenger …
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 ….
Click to view the whole programme.
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.
An uncool £74 billion blown in just 49 days of Brexonomics.
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.
Talking Heads.
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.
The parable of populism …
Naked populism
Find all Gordon’s work at www.coldwellandcoldwell.co.uk
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