Rishi Sunak’s plans to stop the boats are illegal, immoral, indecent and impractical. Sunak recently lied about the reductions of migrants coming to Britain in 2023. He presumably feels he has to do that in order to pray at the altar of Brexit for his right wing factions in the Tory / UKIP / Brexit party and especially the voices of Suella Braverman, Kemi Badenoch, Nigel Farage, Richard Tice, Lee Anderson, Steve Baker, Esther McVey, Jacob Rees-Mogg, Priti Patel et al., who have poisoned the Tory party with 1930 Nazi Germany styled strategies of racism and xenophobia.
Sleepwalking into fascism
This film contains challenging images about Brexit Britain’s slide into a fascist state. We make no apology about this. Art and satire must reflect reality. The professional images in this video are by James Rowland, with the ‘garage / steampunk’ style graphics made by me on PowerPoint. How many more must die before decency is restored to our politics?
The 1950’s Sci Fi film ‘Village of the Damned’ provided a form of sad inspiration for this piece, in so far as the idea that the Tory party now sees itself as a master race who must survive at all costs. History repeats itself too often if we let it …. don’t.
Yesterday, James Cleverly lied through his teeth about immigration numbers. In June 2023 Sunak promised to abolish the backlog. Yesterday Cleverly said that there was a ‘process’ for clearing the backlog, and some new language was introduced i.e. ‘legacy claims’. Basically he was talking bollocks. Nigel Farage then complained that the review had found more than 50 000 asylum seekers were legally entitled to be here. Clearly this is the system working rather than Farage’s pound shop fascist view of things. Cleverly ‘forgot’ to mention that the Home Office had ‘lost’ 17 000 asylum seekers from the system. Careless you might say? Additionally, he forgot to mention that 100 000 asylum seekers have joined the queue in the interim. All in all, a total pack of lies. Here is a good analysis of Cleverly’s lying. Check Georgina’s Channel 4 fact check article in full.
Click the excerpt to read the whole report from Channel 4.
Some selected tweets amplify the BS of James “Shithole” Cleverly.
Despite what James Cleverly said this morning, the government has *not* cleared the legacy asylum backlog.
Channel 4 News, "The asylum backlog has been rebranded. New cases after June 2022 are now called the flow backlog. Add them and 98,599 claims remain unopened"
From 100 000 to 99 000 – that equals ZERO in Cleverly speak.
We've now got the actual Home Secretary arguing at length with a journalist, in public, about whether he said shit or shit-hole about someone in the House of Commons, so 2024 has started much as you'd expect under this circus of absolute cretins. https://t.co/REzhz9K3UA
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?
The Brexit Iceberg – what’s visible and what’s hidden.
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.
For clarity, Non-EU means people OUTSIDE the EU.
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.
Show this to anyone who voted for Brexit to reduce legal migration to the UK.
The red section is Freedom of Movement when the UK was inside the EU.
The yellow section, shows net migration to the UK since we left the EU, where have full control of our borders, where Boris… pic.twitter.com/bk3UI3vIEN
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.
Here are just a few of the joys Brexit has in store for us in 2024 and beyond.
(Long tweet. Please expand. Sorry.)
== 1 January 2024 ==
Certain temporary aspects of the UK's trade deal with Canada fall away, such as the tariff-free quotas on cheese. Result? UK exporters face…
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…
Brexit Migration Algorithm
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 …
A Britastrophe
‘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 …
Breaking the law
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 …
Sunakered
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 round up of all things politics for the week that was …
This week’s homework
One – Does the existence of pro-Brexit Toryism prove the existence of minus quantity integrity?
Two – Discuss the following statement: Hermann Göring was a slippery character. At the Nuremburg Trials the prosecution struggled to pin down the charges against him. David Maxwell Fyfe, a British trial lawyer cross examined Göring. Fyfe went through Göring testimony detail by detail. In the process he demolished his defence and afterwards he was a broken man. What a pity there are no trial lawyers in the Parliamentary Labour Party who could tear apart the fairy stories that Tory Ministers deliver in the House of Commons.
Three – Discuss the following statement: Andre Philips is the latest ‘mega talent’ to be hired to work for GB News. He would be long forgotten but for the fact that he was one of the gigolos who ill treated Katie Price. Gammonite Balderdash News seems to be only interested in hiring mediocrities and has beens; preferably with dubious reputations.
Four – Discuss the following statement. I would always allow my enemies a way out if they repent their sins and repair the damage they did. Tories are gradually coming to realise that their precious Brexit has gone horrible wrong. It has been at least a couple of years since we heard anything about that Brexit earthly paradise we were promised. Nigel Garbage is telling us that the whole point is that Brexit allows us to live in poverty if that is what we want. Gammons and Tories do not mind being detested but they do mind being the object of ridicule. They are slowly beginning to realise that they are the laughing stock of the entire world. That is not enough to justify Rejoin. Am I alone in thinking that there is a dangerous Betrayal Myth taking hold with Gammons and Tories blaming everybody but themselves for the horrors they have unleashed on us?
Five – Discuss the following statement. Fifteen years ago I would not have thought it possible that a British government could be capable of the horrible things these Tories do regularly and routinely. When challenged the Tories respond: ‘we got the big calls right.’ What on earth is that absurd statement supposed to mean?Six – Police Officers and other officials in occupied countries in wartime were faced with a cruel dilemma. Should they quit and abandon their responsibilities to the enemy? That does not come easily to dedicated public servants. Should they stay put and try to maintain some standards knowing that the stench of collaboration will cling to them. Since 2015 we have seen the most corrupt and incompetent British government for many years, perhaps of time. Since Johnson became PM we seen criminality, false values and a degree of sheer crass, pig headed uselessness that I would not have thought possible in a 21stcentury British government. The PCS, a Civil Service Trade Union has mounted a legal challenge to this government’s disgraceful scheme to transfer asylum seekers to Rwanda. Can it really be true that the Civil Service Unions are the only people in government circles with any notion at all of decency?
… autumn budget statement got one thing right. It also handed out illusory windfall … One measure … striking example of sensible policy making. … the rest leaves a mess for the next government … likely to be Labour … what he got right … ‘full expensing’ … the right of businesses to deduct upfront their capital expenditure from taxable profits … probablyby the single greatest pro-growth tax reform possible … Where did the money come from? … *unt said fall in inflation made it possible … in fact close to the opposite is true … Office of Budget Responsibility calculates that some budgets would have to fall by 4.1% per year … not credible … a fiscally responsible government would admit taxes must rise … if *unt’s successors do not reverse his tax cuts then meeting this goal will squeeze cash starved public services even more tightly. … Disappointing legacy after 13 years of Tory government … which has been comically self-contradictory on tax … hard to make sense of what Tories are trying to do other than make trouble for Labour successors…
Tax cuts and fiscal trickery
… ugly prospects for public services … autumn statement by Jeremy 8unt … declaring victory in battle against inflation … questionable accounting. … represent an improvement … only if you assume that higher inflation will have no consequences … real term cuts in public spending in five years to fund a tax give away now … a pre-election give-away, and an especially strange one … giveaway comes from deeps cuts in public services … implausible spending cuts … lots of fiscal trickery
Is the government’s plan to send asylum seekers to Rwanda salvageable?
.. Supreme Court’s demolition of the plan … so meticulous the policy was ‘probably dead’ … point of the scheme … to deter migrants … no evidence it would have that effect … Rwanda government has said it can only take a few hundred asylum seekers per year (compared to the thousands that make the crossing … Supreme Court’s description … ought to shame the scheme’s champions … only way the scheme might go ahead is if Rwanda cleans up its asylum system … Britain may not be up to the task of making that happen. British government needs to fix its own asylum system … the idea … is for the birds…
Immigration sorted in two minutes.Cynical outgoing ministers make life harder for incoming governments
… Richy Scumbag has been far too keen on wrecking … In Autumn Statement Jeremy *unt put forward preposterous spending plans … a serious government would admit this is implausible … cynical government … budgetary landmine … for the next government … a ‘pro-business’ … would be welcome …
Brexit Benefits
UK Trade Intensity remains 1-7% below its 2019 level … compared to an average increase of 1-9% across other G7 countries. … Forecasters predict … long term view of Brexit to be 15% in the long term…
What next for Michael Gove
… interviewed by the National Crime Agency as part of their investigation into how PPE Medpro, the company in which Tory Peer Michelle Mone was involved, won £200M in contracts during the pandemic …
… Relinquished her morning show on GB News … is retaining weekly column in Daily Express … ministerial code says any minister wishing to practice regular journalism must have prior approval from 10 Downing Street … unusual if not unprecedented for approval to be granted … Even Johnson was obliged to comply … code strictly forbids ministers from being paid for media articles … In the past year McVey paid £22,447 for her jottings…
Sad times for GB News viewers
… audience loudness is disproportionate to its largeness … John Cleese’s much hyped Dinosaur Hour has had its repeat removed due to waning interest … Bosses hope Johnson’s arrival in the new year will shake up ratings … lost more than £30M in first year … owner Paul Marshall hopes to spruce up image in hope of bagging Telegraph titles in New Year…
Read Gammon Brexit News
Covid Inquiry
… Some person has completely rewritten the science advice … cherry picking … Quite extraordinary … breezy confidence. Incredibly alarming … quite extraordinary … all highly political … Johnson is obsessed with older people accepting their fate … quite bonkers … economic predictions from the Treasury based on no evidence, no transparency, pure dogma, and wrong … Richy Scumbag thinks ‘just let people die and that is OK. … Johnson argues for letting it all rip … most people who die have reached their time … right-wing press are culpable… weak and indecisive PM … bring in the pro death squad from the Treasury … scientific advisers … testified that they had not been consulted … it was not sensible … obvious risk … Johnson’s witness statement’ claimed scheme was properly discussed with Chris and Patrick … they have no recollection of this … let the bodies pile high … no appetite to express with clarity what the plan was … government ignored scientists .. She could not understand why the government was doing nothing … did not believe this was enough to prevent NHS being overwhelmed … you could have heard a pin drop … controlling the next pandemic will require early mass testing and surveillance capabilities that have been dismantled… during the pandemic…
A stitch up in time saves nine
Ratings for I’m a celebrity may have plummeted
… Telegraph remains excited about its hero Nigel Garbage appearing on the show … can overdo it … featured a subhead about how Garbage was enjoying himself ‘as another jungle bunny’ … too overtly racist even for the Torygraph…
Newspaper articles never published
… would find room for the wretch that is Johnson. … Unpublished Telegraph article why he has backing Remain might be the last known point he both talked sense and told the truth … alas he sent the other one in the hope it would help him become PM … we are all paying the price …
Pip Pip Don Adamson Medway Delta (Retired) Brexorcist and Saboteur First Class
This from Marc Jarrett – an entrepreneur, people connector and Remainer who wrote this shortly after he fraudulent referendum. Mark now connects people with their passions, projects and profits. Get in touch via Marc Jarrett.
Marc Jarrett. The connection alchemist. Click image to connect with Marc.
My overwhelming emotion on the morning of Friday June 24th when David Dimbleby announced ‘we’re out’ was one of sadness. After all, whether I liked it or not, I am a hardwired European by virtue of my Father who, like Nigel Farage, elected to marry a German national. And liked it I did.
Unfortunately, my parent’s union did not last which resulted in my Mother returning to her native Fatherland when I was 7. I started travelling as an unaccompanied minor between the two countries, spending my time either in the sedate beauty of the Hertfordshire countryside in what was then Broken Britain, or in the brand new shiny modern metropolis of Düsseldorf. The contrast was striking.
Apart from attending an American School in Düsseldorf in 1973, my schooling was in England where I went to several state schools. Aged 11, I was sent to a boarding school in North Norfolk which was to become my new home for the next five years or so.
Back then, the second world war had not been all that long ago and anti-German sentiment was still relatively high. To this end, I distinctly remember trying to keep my German side private, for fear of being called a Nazi.
However, when in Germany and conversing with Germans who learnt I was half English, I always found the reception I got was far more favourable. It’s as if they were grateful to be speaking with an Englishman who accepted them.
In my thirties, moved to a small village called Blankenese on the outskirts of Hamburg where the love of all things British was arguably far greater than within Britain itself. Competition for the apartment was fierce, and I managed to secure it on account of the landlord being an Anglophile. You see, many Germans love the [still, just] United Kingdom and all things British.
In the early nineties, I found myself to be an enthusiastic proponent of the European project. After having spent countless hours waiting at border control in Netherlands, France and elsewhere, I rather liked the idea of free movement throughout all of Europe. I was sold. .
I was dating a MP’s daughter at the time who was kind enough to invite me to the public gallery on the evening that the Maastricht Treaty was ratified. All the top brass were there, and it was fascinating to be at the seat of power on such an historical day.
Over time, I detected less anti-German sentiment this side of the channel and subsequently became less inhibited about my German heritage. On the contrary, I was proud – Germany had become Europe’s economic powerhouse. Plus I love German cars and the fact that there are no speed limits there!
Germany’s hosting of the 2006 FIFA World Cup was a turning point for me since I knew that many Brits visiting the tournament would not have normally have elected to go there. But when they came back, many observed how friendly their hosts were and what a beautiful country is was. From this point forward, I would no longer hide my German side – on the contrary, I would embrace it.
A decade later, the British electorate decided that the European project was not such a good idea after all. Perhaps unsurprisingly, given my intrinsic European credentials, I voted remain.
But I totally ‘get’ some of the arguments that the other side made – the bloated bureaucracy, unelected officials, and the fact that Great Britain has always been an outwardly looking global trading nation.
In the meantime, however, we have to live with Brexit and all its unforeseen consequences. Editor’s note : in 2023 : Brexit’s Breaking Britain.
In recent years, I have been helping North American SME’s make UK their European home. It was an easy pitch: Business friendly, same language, and access to the world’s largest trading bloc.
Now that the UK is not such an attractive proposition, I will be helping UK & US SME’s establish a subsidiary in, you guessed it, Germany. This allows them to structure their affairs in such a way that they do not actually leave the European Union at all and can continue trading freely with the remaining 27 members.
I really hope that the Britain envisioned by those than wanted us to leave comes to pass, but I think it will take a while to get there. In the meantime, we are left pondering if the Le Touquet treaty will hold.
Please read the policy document on the 3Es from Gina Miller’s True and Fair party. Economy, Education, Environment. If we wish to change the state of our country and our politics, we need different and not more of the same. This first report concerns the economy, the main battleground for the forthcoming General Election. Not all political parties are the same although I understand why some would think so. We must expect better from our politics and politicians. To help Gina win in Epsom and Ewell, please go to the True and Fair website.
Gina Miller’s policy toplines.
The full policy document demands full reading. It’s excellent and I cannot convey a good sense of it here. People like to read stuff in a few seconds, but this REALLY needs your time. To whet your appetite, here I include six of the best. Make sure you eat the full meal.
A root and branch reform of taxation in the UK. By the next General Election, taxes will take 37% of our income.
An end to Brexit which has acted to reduce UK plc resilience with no collateral ‘sunny uplands’ in sight. Brexit is costing the UK £100bn a year – it is the economic equivalent of trying to swim the English Channel with a block of concrete around your neck and feet.
Bounce back loans to be written off for the three million people excluded from support during the pandemic.
Revitalise the high street through a series of measures from fairer business rates, seed funding for SMEs and community hubs.
Provide greater access to funding training, and networking opportunities for female entrepreneurs.
Double free childcare hours for low-income families. Introduce High Street childcare hubs and joint child and elderly hubs.
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…
For over two years I have tried to reach a negotiated settlement with The European Movement (EM) on their failure to pay agreed expenses for my attendance at the Reading Festival. People who know little or nothing about the matter often tut at me for daring to challenge EM, saying that ‘the Rejoin movement is more important than any one person’. However, this does not excuse anyone for breaking the law. For the lengthy background to this matter see Political Censorship. It’s a complex affair. I am now left with no option but to take them to court. I have written to Mike Galsworthy and the new CEO Sir Nick Harvey on several occasions in 2023 to offer them a way out of this. Here’s one of the letters. I had hoped that Mike would take the easy way out but he did not.
One of the letters to Mike Galsworthy. There have been several. Click to read the detail.
Indecent proposals
I took EM to court in November 2022 and offered to write off the administration costs and settle for the court fees of £50. The President stated that he was not authorised to pay £50 to settle the matter. This enraged the Judge who referred it up to a higher court, wasting considerable time and energy. I must assume that the President was under orders from then CEO Anna Bird, not to settle under any conditions, even for 50 quid!! This is not the first time that the youth branch of EM have conducted their business affairs incorrectly. On investigation, it turns out that they were nearly struck off by HMRC for not submitting tax returns. I was told by senior members of EM that they had to pay a fine of £2000 for this. We cannot lecture Vote Leave for breaking the law if our own side are also culpable.
Illiberal acts
“Reading-Gate” was left in stasis by Anna Bird, former CEO EM, due to a personal grudge over another matter. I am unable to provide more details here, as it was the subject of an NDA aka gagging order. The matter was was eventually settled after wasting £30 000 of EM members’ money on lawyers. They eventually advised Bird to settle the matter out of court (after taking the money of course!). Reading-Gate was coincident with this matter. A systematic smear campaign was organised by a few EM foot soldiers and some grassroots people in North East for Europe and Leeds for Europe. I believe that the smear campiagn and the nuclear levels of obfuscation by EM were done to discourage me from pursuing the other matter, rather like the Tories who put dead cats in the road to distract people from more important affairs. The entire story of the smear campaign and Reading-Gate can be found at Political Censorship. We return to court on January 25th 2024 unless common sense prevails and EM get in touch. Perhaps they will call Esther McVey for some advice on common sense?
The illiberal left.
I fought the law
I fully expect to get social disapproval by Rejoiners about this article, but frankly I regard the rule of law to be more important than upsetting a few snowflakes. Sorry in advance, but we must not stoop to the level of the Brexiteers in our conduct. Watch this space for updates on the case.
Regards my current role at EM, I remain Chair of The European Movement Mid Kent, although Anna Bird defenestrated me unilaterally without authority. This decision was overturned by the Rt Hon Dominic Grieve KC at a special general meeting. So at this moment, I have the unusual title of Chair of The European Movement Mid Kent (defenestrated). Life is confusing. Frankly I have no care or concern for titles, having worked for 30 years without position power or silly titles. Clearly they matter to some …
‘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.
I have been speaking with Alan Meekings on what he calls a Fresh Start, quite like Reboot Britain and very much in synch with Gina Miller’s True and Fair Party. Alan is an eminent management consultant and systemic thinker. We both plan to stand candidates for election to shake the foundations of our tired Westminster politics if people will support us. I articulated some of the thinking in these articles. Click to read more:
With thanks to Dennis Pitocco in the USA at Business Catalyst 360, Monica del Pilar Uribe Marin at The Prisma Anglo Spanish Magazine and Paolo Bolzoni at Linkedin for publishing these articles and helping us reach outside the bubble.
If you want to make a fresh start on our broken politics, please support this unusual project to ensure an end to Tory Brexit fascism:
Alan Meekings, systems thinker and founder of Landmark Consulting sums the need for a Fresh Start in our electoral system:
“The present system [FPTP] has clearly broken down. The results produced are not fair to any party, nor to any section of the community. In many cases they do not secure majority representation, nor do they secure an intelligent representation of minorities. All they secure is fluke representation, freak representation, capricious representation.”
Last night’s landmark decision on giving justice to those affected by the infected blood disaster shows that good can prevail over evil if people stand up to bullies. We will also see the same level of courage in facing down this Government’s intent to send people fleeing from war to Rwanda.
Things can change if enough of us demand it. I’m delighted that my MP voted against those who would vote to kill children.
Join Gina Miller’s True and Fair party today for a Fresh Start. Click on the bus to support her.
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