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Brexit bunker

Don’s Brexit Bunker

Don Adamson reports from the Brexit bunker in Barnsley.

This week’s homework:

One – Discuss the following statement: a so called ‘Independent’ firm of lawyers was called in to investigate the allegations that NatWest Bank treated Nigel Garbage badly. Unsurprisingly the so called ‘independent’ law firm found that Nat West’s treatment of Nigel Garbage was not to the required standard. What more proof does anybody need that the legal system in this country has been nobbled by neo Nazis? Perhaps decent people in this country should close their bank accounts and bank with Nat West instead.

Two – Crispin Blunt MP says he is confident that no charges will be brought against him in the matter of sex crime allegations. Is this because a) sex crimes have been punishment free in this country since 2010 b) the legal profession in this country has been nobbled by neo Nazis or c) both? 

Rhymes with Crispin Blunt …

Three – Johnson has a new job: his own programme on GB News. No doubt some people will watch it. The Tories have wrecked the economy for the benefit of tax dodgers and other criminals. The newspapers in this country are owned by unscrupulous billionaires who have convinced the suckers that poverty is in their best interests. Keith Starmer’s one and only response is to have us believe that Labour can make Brexit and Tory austerity work. How much are Murdoch and Rothermere paying Starmer to say this? 

Four – Some fascinating stuff is coming out of the inquiry in to the Covid pandemic. One Tory MP has been quoted as saying that Johnson was the wrong PM for Covid. In which unlikely parallel dimension would Johnson remotely resemble any kind of right PM? 

Five – Discuss the following: In Harold MacMillan we had a Tory Prime Minister who was horrified when John Profumo told lies in Parliament. Why do we now have politicians who would be horrified if anybody spoke the truth in Parliament? When Profumo’s political career ended he redeemed himself by working for Toynbee Hall, a charity that exists to alleviate poverty in the East End of London. What is the possibility of 21st century politicians making any effort to redeem themselves? 

Join us on Tuesday 14 Nov 9 am on ZOOM with Gina Miller

This week’s quotes: 

Brexit has made collaborations problematical 

… one example is defence … Brexit has seriously damaged that … Big projects were always a motor for positive Anglo-French relations.

Richy Scumbag’s plans to revitalise Euston 

… of the thousands of dwellings built in Docklands only a handful were affordable by local residents … Regeneration of Battersea Power Station, Nine Elms and King’s Cross … have been characterised by inordinate delays and skyscrapers of apartments … sold to offshore investors … an odd template for a ‘levelling up’ project … 

Read Private Eyelines

Bernie Ecclestone is the only high profile prosecution for hiding assets offshore 

… Cameron government made it a criminal offence for tax evasion… not been deployed … 

Boris Johnson took an undeclared £800,000 

… loan facilitated by Richard Sharp before making Sharpe chairman of the BBC… 

… drastically cutting back sports desk … not all cuts … recently advertised for a ‘sports betting correspondent … Never mind boring writing about sports when you can tell readers how to lose money betting on it … Maths clearly not the strong suit … ‘Poll stated PM trusted to protect rights of women … in fact the poll stated the exact opposite … poll also indicated that Mail readers blamed Johnson for the nation’s woes.

Job cuts at the Mail on Sunday 

Big Pharma was a big presence at  Labour conference , perhaps hoping  a change of government may sweeten relationships and deals with NHS … if the NHS does not pay more it will force Pharma to reduce … R& D and manufacturing investment in UK … 

Read 12 Angry Tories

Richy Scumbag’s wife, Akshata Murty vouched for her husband’s love for the UK

… without mentioning any such commitment on her own part … may have been down to her tax advisers … acknowledging the UK as her home may jeopardise any future ‘non dom’ claim … she gave up that status in 2022 but there was no promise not to use it again …

Starting on 29 October GB News will give viewers a break

… cranks conspiracists and Tory politicians … John Cleese’s 10 part … Dinosaur hour… I want to discuss ‘Woke issues’ but we could not get people on … 

The Barclay Dynasty – a story of secrecy, survival and succession 

…like a high end episode of East Enders … one side of the family bugs the conversations of the other … Fred’s wife divorces him … he pleads poverty and refused to  hand over the cash ordered by the courts, daring the judge to send him to prison … avowedly impecunious … sunk £7.5 into suing his nephews over the bugging incident … for a measly return of £800,000 settlement … book reads as a history of the dodgier corners of the financial world over the last eight decades … emerged unscathed from the ensuing scandal with debts happily unpaid … Byzantine business structure .. Pay no tax … obsessive persecution of the people of Sark… 

Pandemic Deaths 

… England and Wales excess mortality of +26% …third highest Western Europe … 12 highest globally … BMA criticised government for … failure to provide an official, strong, independent public health presence … slowness to introduce proper PPE … Eat out to help out …drove up infections by between 8-17% … chopping and changing of ever more complex and confusing restrictions … clear by February 2020 that NHS would be overwhelmed.. Civil Servants and ministers aware of this … rising deaths in care homes … as patients were discharged from hospitals without testing … no testing or PPE for staff … basic infection control was so poor in hospitals and care homes that they had their own epidemics … Staff died alongside patients and still have long Covid …Cabinet turmoil was a key reason for dismal UK response to Covid … breaches of Covid rules  by those in power destroyed public trust … government does not have the credibility needed … we look like a terrible, tragic joke ..Carrie Johnson appeared to be the real person in charge … Lee Cain, Johnson’s director of communications until November 2020 said ‘Carrie ‘does not know wtf she is talking about … don’t worry about Demonic Shortcummings Carrie is the real person in charge … Met police issued a further 24 referrals for Partygate fines after illegal party at Tory HQ on  14 December 2020 … bringing total fines to 150 … terrible mistake to open pubs while keeping schools shut … mental illness eating disorders, self harm and suicide all rose ..still high rates of absence from school and attainment gap widening … excess deaths remained high in 2023 … bodes ill for the coming winter  … poor public health and long waiting times for treatment … increased alcohol consumption, worsening mental health …

Brexit Too Little, Too Late
I made this in March 2020 – we knew all this at the time.

Good news from Warsaw 

… Poles turned out in record numbers to vote down populist- nationalists Law and Justice (PiS) Party … the result is a relief … PiS has installed handpicked judges … turned state broadcasters into megaphones for PiS propaganda … deployed its people to run state-run industries … building a patronage system … Poland won … Democracy won … PiS deployed state media and state owned companies stuffed with cronies to blitz the country with propaganda …

Brexit Referendumb begat four years of uncertainty followed by a trade deal that introduced friction to formerly frictionless borders

…. ruptured global supply chains … decision to leave … EU … presented serious difficulties … Bosses still grumble about uncertainty … the real risk was not that manufacturers would shut up shop but that future investment would go elsewhere … there is more to grumble about … policy stability is essential, yet the government has followed six different industrial strategies in the last decade … making even short term planning arduous … 

Read Deceptive Bends

Prisons are overcrowded because Tories demanded longer sentences without building more prisons 

… most absurd example of a tactic increasingly deployed by… not willing to increase taxes to cover the cost of services voters demand … results are shortages, queues unpredictable rationing … Richy Scumbag cancelled the Manchester leg of HS2 railway … painted it as redistribution … money saved could be spent elsewhere .. it is fair to assume that few other schemes will materialise … most pernicious in housing … shortages have reached new highs … NHS waiting lists stand at 8m cases in a country of 56m people … Tories are allergic to high taxes but do not have the cojones to support market based solutions  … miserable compromise … no way to run a country …

Tory Party Conference 

… Northern delegates angry at Richy Scumbag … only Sue Ellen Braverman is less popular … every time she speaks a Tory seat loses 2,000 votes … makes me think of a cross between ‘Carry on up the Khyber’ and the Titanic … all of them know they are doomed … hard-line Tories don’t appeal to anybody any more, even their own children … Nigel Garbage at Disco with Priti Patel … there is a match made in Hades … Labour Party conference … Trying to be more British … Union flags … Tory  should have next conference in Torquay at Fawlty Towers because there will be so few of them as MPs …

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

12 angry Tories

12 angry Tories

Some of you will have seen the famous film “12 angry men”. If you have not here is the plot in a few words from the official film description. Following the closing arguments in a murder trial, 12 members of the jury must deliberate. A guilty verdict would mean death for the accused, an inner-city teen. As the dozen men try to reach a unanimous decision while sequestered in a room, one juror (Henry Fonda) casts considerable doubt on elements of the case. Personal issues soon rise to the surface, and conflict threatens to derail the delicate process that will decide one boy’s fate. Through the process of dialogue and analysis Fonda convinces his fellow jurors to acquit the teenager against all the odds. The parallel questions here must be:

“Why are the Tories so angry?”

and

“Can anyone heal their regrets?”

12 angry Tories
Who will heal their collective anger?

From far right to right :

1. Steve Baker

Self-confessed hardman of Brexit who went soft as his dream melted away and under pressure from the many people who said he was delusional. Baker said he hadn’t felt happy since the Brexit vote, never mind the people who had to suffer from its death wave. Baker recently said that the 2016 referendum should have had a mandatory 60% majority for it to be a settled matter. This is polite parlance for the fact that Brexit has failed and we can and must join the EU anew.

2. Nadine Dorries

Monkey testicle eating Dorries now falls into the category of a woman scorned, after falling in love with Boris Johnson and having that love denied. This coincided with Johnson giving an honour to a 29 year old woman who bears an uncanny resemblance to Bojo rather than ‘Lady’ Dorries. Nadine more or less went on strike, failing to attend Parliament or do her constituency work for an extended period. She is no more, having been voted out of her Mid Bedfordshire constituency. Anger is too polite a word to describe Ms Dorries. Even local dad and police commissioner could not save her solid Tory constituency from falling in the recent by-election.

3. Penny Morduant

PM (Penny Morduant not Prime Minister) in waiting, Penny is angry because she was overlooked in the search for a Prime Minister in 2022, having been passed over for Liz Truss. Penny decided it was best to hold a sword for an hour to demonstrate the relevant competences for being PM (Penny Morduant not Prime Minister). PM has the unusual accolade of claiming military credentials in the Royal Navy, although it seems that all her experience with seamen was acquired on dry land. Another angry Brexiteer with several grudges, a sword and a desire to stand up and fight …

4. Douglas Ross

Scottish Conservatives leader. Yes it’s hard being a Conservative in Scotland as virtually everyone swears at you but Douggie has other reasons to be angry as well. Boris Johnson swore at him when Doug voted for Johnson to resign in 2022. Doug shouted Deputy First Minister of Scotland Shona Ross down when she called on Rishi Sunak to meet his commitments for net zero instead of watering them down. This is one of his regular behaviours in the Scottish Parliament. Don’t be like Doug.

5. Priti Patel

Priit Patel was once hailed as the most extreme Home Secretary of all time. Priti is angry because Suella Braverman has made her look like a member of the Cats’ Protection League when compared with Suella’s full fat Nazi style celebration of children drowning in small boats. One of the most vicious ‘immigrants turned racist’ in the Tory party, Priti remains popular due to her loyalty to Boris Johnson. Known for shouting and bullying staff, Priti waits in the wings ready to pounce on Rishi when the time is right. Check our remake of “Priti Woman” which satirises some of her most famous quotes. PG rated due to Matt Hancock in leg irons.

6. Liz Truss

What can one say? The woman who broke Britain with her version of hard Brexit economics in just 49 days with her partner in grime Kwasi Kwarteng. The cost of ‘Trussonomics‘ was an eye watering £60 billion, only eclipsed by the ongoing cost of Brexit which stands at £100 billion EVERY year. As if all this was not bad enough, Liz is undeterred and plans a comeback, saying that her wilful destruction of the country was “not understood by the markets”. The Truss has had some public speaking training recently. Since people are easily fooled by a slick presentation over content (see also Johnson for style over substance), we should be very afraid. Although The Truss started life as an anti-monarchist woke lefty liberal, she has now ‘manned up’ in support of cheese, Norfolk turkeys and the British apple. A stint on ‘Bakeoff’ seems more appropriate. Our song “more than enough” sums up The Truss well. Watch the video and buy the albums to support our independent journalism.

Download the albums via https://academy-of-rock.bandcamp.com/
Resilence

7. Boris Johnson

There are not enough column inches or time at the COVID enquiry to describe this man’s impact and catastrophic demise from his imposter position as PM. He said that Brexit could be microwaved when it was already burned. Brexit has given us a 4.5% hit to UK resilience. This is the equivalent of trying to swim the English Channel with a block of concrete around your neck. Johnson killed up to 40 000 vulnerable people through dither and delay and making decisions that were against the science. He allowed his mates to profit from COVID, even encouraged it. Eventually his party chums turned against him and he more or less had to be forcibly removed from No 10 Downing Street. Johnson’s attempted comeback was resisted by his party colleagues. He has now reversed into GB News so that he can snipe at Rishi Sunak from the sidelines.

8. Jacob Rees-Mogg

Having lined his pockets from Brexit, lied to the Queen and then reversed into being a paid hack for GB News, Jacob resigned from his position. This was probably because he regretted the reverse takeover of the British Empire by the Indians. Mogg is one of the few politicians who continues to stand by Brexit which he claims will offer immense opportunities sometime into the 23rd Century. Privately I suspect he is much less happy about the lack of divergence from EU laws 98% of which we helped to make. He will also be spooked by the paltry returns on our trade deals which are effectively ‘fire sales’ in our desperation to point to something positive about Brexit (See also Kemi Badenoch and CPTPP). This film is from 2018 when we ambushed Jake at BBC Question Time.

9. Suella Braverman

As stated previously, Suella has made Priti Patel look like Mother Theresa with her full fat fascist agenda to feed a few remaining gammon voters with live immigrant children. Braverman has recently tried to put thought crime on the statute book, by suggesting that anyone who uses the word Jihad on the street is a terrorist. Even Tory peer Baroness Warsi was moved to criticise Suella by pointing out that divide and rule tactics are themselves the tools of hate. Not content with trying to kill migrants on dangerous disease ridden prison ships and breaking international law, I imagine that Suella must have said “thank you God” when the Israeli – Palestinian conflict started. She has been quick to use the war to weaponise her own domestic agendas. It’s even more surprising as Braverman is herself a barrister at No 5 Silk Chambers (better suited to being a barrista). As most observers have stated, Suella’s bizarrely disturbed outlook on foreigners is probably rooted in some very dark experiences in childhood.

The Disney Longstocking prison ship
I had trouble deciding if Robert Jenrick or Lee Anderson ought to be part of our 12 angry Tories.

10. Richard Tice

Of course Tice is not a Tory, just a pound shop racist. Tice recently turned his hatred on Sadiq Kkan and ULEZ in a desperate move to find a new issue to enrage people with feeble minds. Nigel Farage is also searching for things to trigger his remaining following from Gammon Brexit (GB) News. Tice remains angry that he has not got the Brexit he wanted. But he still cannot describe the one he was looking for … No wonder Steve Baker is effectively saying that the referendum should be declared null and void. Tice is angry with the Tory party for being more fascist than his Brexit party aka Reframe UK.

11. Kemi Badenoch

Another PM hopeful, Badenoch has the dubious credentials of having done some of the most worthless Brexit trade deals on the planet via the CPTPP deal (worth 1/50th of what we had in the EU over 10 years at best and pushed through Parliament without a referendum). Although she was appointed by Truss, I suspect that this was Liz acting ‘to keep one’s enemies close’, as Badenoch is also popular with the Tory membership. Rishi has also kept her close, possibly because her nuclear levels of incompetence make Sunak look good. Incidentally, Badenoch stated that the CPTPP deal will only produce any benefit if we use it. So she’s already getting ready to say that the people thwarted her pathetic CPTPP deal.

No 12?

By this time, you may have worked out that there were only 11 angry people in the picture. So who is no 12? – Lee Anderson, Jonathan Gullis, Gove, Iain Duncan-Smith, Mark Francois, Esther McVey, Dehenna Davison, Liam Fox, Keegan, Coffey, Harper, Steve Barclay, the Tory rapists? There are so many to choose from. Usually a threat from outside is the stimulus for unity. Can Keir Starmer provide that threat? I think not since I find it increasingly difficult to find differences on policy between Labour and The Tories in many areas.

Read Red and Blue Brexit

Read Faulty Towers

Join us Wed 1st Nov 8 pm on ZOOM

Oven ready

Deceptive Bends

Professor Anand Menon recently published a paper for UK in a Changing Europe (UKICE) stating that there was no political advantage for Labour or Conservatives in focusing on Brexit as an election issue. I know Anand, having met and spoken with him at events on quite a few occasions. As a fellow academic, this gives me the right to challenge him. I’m sorry mate, but you have confused political expediency with political leadership. Let me explain:

UK in a changing Europe’s research states that neither the Conservatives nor Labour stand to gain much from focusing on Brexit. We know that the word Brexit has gone out of circulation, primarily because (a) hardly any of the political parties want to talk about Brexit and many have demonised party members from even uttering the word (b) the media has a virtual blackout on the word Brexit, preferring ‘global factors’ as a euphemism for the lived experience of the British Brexit people (c) many families and friend circles do not wish to reopen the toxic conversations that characterised the Brexit referendum. It’s a particularly English condition to sweep difficult conversations under the carpet. But, and it’s a very BIG BUT

Not talking about Brexit does not make Brexit go away

Leaving the Brexit conversation undone is what therapists call ‘unfinished business’ or ‘closure’, rather like an angry boil that is left to fester. Unless the Brexit boil is popped, it will continue to haunt families with its puss for a generation. UKICE have of course published many fine articles and studies that point out that Brexit is far from done, with many further ‘bumps in the road’ to come. This is why a new conversation about Brexit and Europe is needed. Also why I advocate an active rather than a passive approach to difficult conversations about Europe and Brexit (a passive approach is simply waiting for granny and grandad Brexit to die). This is what I call ‘Brexorcism‘.

Brexorcism
Brexorcism unplugged.

Join us for a free masterclass on Brexorcism

Brexit’s offspring are being talked about

Whilst mentioning the B word may not be a vote winner according to Menon, all the ‘offspring’ of Brexit are being talked about as voter priorities. Like it or loathe it, all of the issues on our Brexit iceberg have their roots, fully or partly in Brexit.

The Brexit Iceberg
All of these electoral issues have their roots wholly or partly in Brexit. Menon is wrong in his analysis.
Menon concludes ‘meh’. I conclude that this is sloppy analysis by UKICE.

Political expediency versus political leadership

Menon is right from UKICE polling data that it may not be politically expedient to mention Brexit. Expediency is not importance however. Two things occur to me:

Firstly and most importantly, political leadership is not about constantly responding to polls about the here and now. This is in effect driving through the rear view mirror. Leadership is about synthesising long-term decisions and short term actions to lead people towards better futures. OK, of course I realise that UKICE is not OK Magazine, but I feel that Menon has conflated expediency with leadership. As a leader, Keir Starmer et al. should be in the business of explaining the connections between our ‘Brexitberg’ elements (NHS collapse, cost of living, migration, UK stagnation, business collapse, lost trade, friction, food shortages, sector specific staff shortages, brain drain etc.) with Brexit. Starmer has stated that he wants to deal with root causes and not symptoms of our problems. Brexit is at the heart of Britain’s decline.

Secondly, snapshots are just that. A snapshot in time. I recall that Menon was first talking about this research at a UKICE event way back in 2022. The focus groups were conducted in Brendan Clarke-Smith’s constituency of Brexity Bassetlaw, Thurrock and Lee Anderson’s constituency of Ashfield !!! This knocks the qualitative findings out of the park in terms of validity. What possessed Public First aka Britain First in choosing these areas and not a mixed sample? And why did UKICE decide to use them for this research? The quantitative poll of 4005 people is now nearly 6 months out of date, so the dataset is also of dubious value. We are nearly at the point where 2/3 of the population accept that Brexit has failed and within striking distance of 70%

Bassetlaw, Thurrock and Ashfield are not representative !!!

Leaders synthesise long-term decisions and short term actions for better futures

Yes, people in Bassetlaw and Thurrock can argue that Brexit realities are the fault of the Tories not being Brexity enough (although I’m at a loss to understand how much more Brexity Johnson, Truss and Sunak’s puppet cabinet could have been), or that Remainers have ‘thwarted’ a true Brexit (I never knew I had so much power, having been ignored by MPs on all sides etc.). Nobody knows or agrees on what a true Brexit would have been and certainly an immediate exit via WTO would have left us with a 10-12% GDP deficit compared with the 4.5% we currently have. This would have been catastrophic. I predict that we will soon reach a point where 70% of people accept that Brexit has failed, even if the B word has been airbrushed out of public discourse. People are not stupid and, like it or not, Brexit and the offspring of Brexit will remain on or under the table as election issues, especially if people keep the conversation going about Brexit. Learn how to do it here:

Books
Learn the skills of Brexorcism here.

Why this matters

In my humble opinion, Menon is feeding Remainers and Rejoiners a false narrative. Having met Anand quite a few times, I sense he is at best a fence sitter on the subject of Brexit in order to keep in with his politicos on both sides of the debate such as David Frost and others. Some tell me that he is a closet Brexiteer, which would explain his misleading conclusions from the research.

The not so secret Labour ‘promise’ to look at Brexit again in 2032 is also another unicorn designed to put Remainers and Rejoiners to sleep. See Faulty Towers for more on Labour’s disingenuous Brexit strategy. Sorry Anand, I expect better from a professor who should know the difference between political expediency and political leadership. I look forward to a conversation about the matter.

Telegravda

CPC 2023

CPC 2023 : Conservative Party Chaos 2023

Our front page of today’s Telegravda covers some of the main stories from the CPC 2023 (Conservative Party Chaos 2023). Yet another Tory donor, Richard Walker, CEO of Iceland, has resigned, stating that the Conservative party does not conserve. Doubtless another tree will be felled or a bully dog scandal be started to distract a public punch drunk by Brexit chaos, cost of living crisis, energy prices, NHS vandalism, pension triple lock, sending women and gays to Rwanda etc. As always I find it essential with these satirical front pages to produce a fact and fiction decoder below, as some people no longer understand the difference between Tory lies and real life. If you enjoy this satirical edition, you will love our book Private Eyelines. Find it here.

Telegravda
Click to read Private Eyelines.

FACT : GB News has the dubious accolade of being the so called news channel with the most fake news. Endorsed by Liz Truss today, surely the kiss of death. Here are six ways you can boycott fake GB News.

FAKE NEWS – Therese Coffey to ban the non-existent bendy banana EU regulation !! Praise the Lord.

FACT : Lee Anderson presents as a journalist on GB News but interviews Tory politicians. This is quite unacceptable but OFCOM have no teeth to deal with this gross abuse of power. GB News is thus a 24/7 Tory party campaigning platform and not a news channel. 30p Lee interviewed Suella Braveman after she attended a far right rally in the USA. Watch Led by Donkeys’ sting operation on the underground story of Suella’s wicked games. She should be jailed for this as a bare minimum.

FACT : Braverman has blamed women and gays for illegal immigration when the numbers do not support her random claims. Even a bunch of senior Tory MPs and some ministers have denounced her for her statement demonising women and LGBTQ people.

FICTION : No boxing matches are planned at the Tory Party Conference in Manchester, but the Tories are fighting like cats in a sack as the party takes their final breaths. On the other hand Liz Truss did her levelling up best to put more nails in Rishi Sunak’s coffin.

FICTION : The Rev Awdry has not taken on the contract to deliver HS2 (Hysterical Sunak II), nor has Ringo Starr locked Rishi Sunak in a tunnel. Nor has Thomas the Tank engine applied to Suella Braverman for gender reassignment …

HS2
I think the Tories deserve their fate, don’t you?

FACT : Rishi Sunak’s Meat Tax is FICTION. Liz Truss is not saving British beef, pork or bully sausage dogs. She is however on patrol to get the top job again. It’s unbelievable as she broke the economy after her 46 days in office. But, of course, The Truss is undeterred by this catastrophe. This is the power of the Brexit unicorns on Tory hopefuls. Badenoch and Morduant are also on manoeuvres at the Conservative Party Conference alongside Priti Patel who still seeks revenge on Sunak. Meanwhile Sunak desperately tries to fight his ground using the same arguments about Brexit freedoms by trying to become the motorist’s friend on potholes and speed bumps.

Torassic Park
Let the games begin … at Torassic Park.

Join us on Wed 4 October 8 pm ZOOM to Reboot Britain

Tory party policy is to fill the news with not just a stream of dead cats, but a veritable tsunami of them. Lies about meat taxes, dustbins and so on. And it was only a couple of weeks ago when RAAC was occupying the headlines. They rely on the speed of the news feed to never get held to account for their sins. Don’t let them get away with it. Keep on reminding them of ‘unfinished business’. And don’t forget that Brexit is at the root of many of these problems and lies.

RAAC and Roll
Just two weeks on and airbrushed from mainstream media …
The Brexit Iceberg
The Brexit Iceberg.

Support our work to end Tory rule in Mid Beds

The Brexit Psyche

Changing Minds on Brexit

This article in The Guardian is being shared widely by Rejoiners at the moment. It is a good piece of academic analysis. Yet I have some problems with a couple of the points it makes (I guess that’s unsurprising!!). It’s a long piece, so buckle yourself in for a long ride. Here’s what I really like about the piece:

Consonance

The article correctly states that the Brexit mindset is a complex interwoven set of beliefs (coalitions within coalitions) that keep getting reinforced by our populist media. I articulated this via my ‘Brexit Brain’ model below. Quite why I coined the phrase ‘Brexorcism‘ to describe the complex quasi-religious mindset change process in the book Reboot Britain.

“It’s really hard. We see tremendous stability over very long periods of time. A choice like Brexit provides endless stimuli to feed that brain activity. It’s coalitions within coalitions within coalitions…”   Darren Schreiber.

The Brexit Brain
The Brexit Brain – Read more by clicking the brain.

Thus, normal approaches to change management are not valid: ‘Carrots and sticks; are often used to change simple levels of behaviour and performance at work. For example, if you pay people more, they might work harder for a while. Put them under threat, they may also work harder, go on strike, work less or leave the company etc. But changing Kwasi-religious beliefs such as Brexit is a whole different ball game. It’s not a rational choice as the Guardian article rightly explains.

Whole brained change

I advocate a blend of so-called left (more analytical) and right brained (more emotional) thinking to reach deep into the Brexit psyche of my ‘clients’, what is known as a ‘hearts and minds’ approach in business consulting circles. Using hard hitting emotional headlines to grab people by the heart and longer more analytical approaches to ensure that their heads fall in line with their hearts. The dual approach is epitomised in the book Private Eyelines, a book targeted at leave voters to help them understand how they were lied to. p.s. DO NOT buy the book on Amazon. I get a £2.00 royalty on a sale of £32.99 for six months work, as Amazon keep all the profits!  Whilst I don’t write books as an income source, I also don’t write them to boost Amazon’s profits. If you wish to buy a copy direct at an author’s discount, talk to me direct via reboot@brexitrage.com. By the way the left-right brain divide has been questioned but the idea of whole brain thinking (analytical and emotional) is a handy notion to help us think about the need to reach head and heart.

“A man with a conviction is a hard man to change. Tell him you disagree and he turns away. Show him facts or figures and he questions your sources. Appeal to logic and he fails to see your point.” Leon Festinger.

Another truism in the article is the belief that all leave voters are unresponsive to dialogue, thick or closed. This reveals itself in oft quoted statements by some Remainers, who say things like “You can’t educate pork”, “I’ve tried everything” and “They are thick as mince”. Truth be told, some Remainers lack the skills, patience and time to conduct effective Brexorcisms. Also it really matters who you choose as your ‘client’. There really is no point working on a ‘Nigel Farage type hardcore Brexiters’ but many leave voters are not hard leavers. Selection of your targets is key, both in terms of where they sit on the Remain – Leave continuum and to what extent they are key opinion formers for others who follow their views.

“When you pathologise the other side, there’s no point in reaching out to them” Brian Hughes.

Relationship and rapport is key

The article goes on to say something terribly important. “If there is a way through this, he suggests, it is to break down the myths of us and them.”  A successful Brexorcism only operates on the basis of a strong relationship and a basic bond of trust. If you are going to challenge beliefs, you need a massive ‘bank balance’ of relationship power to succeed. This is why Steve Bray and his cult have changed very few minds by ‘shouting at people’ in Parliament, upsetting sympathetic media people into the process. In case of doubt, I started on the street with Steve at No 10 Vigil. He quickly spotted that the real action was at Parliament instead of Downing Street and set up a splinter group. Later on, I tried to gain him a permanent platform with other figures at Channel 4 News which he rejected. Of course, Steve’s activities outside the House of Commons have other functions. However, his finest moments were when he quietly but firmly ask politicians difficult questions using a Socratic style and a ‘servant leadership’ approach. But everything counts. We need to use all the therapeutic communication styles as discussed by John Heron in Reboot Britain. Social settings such as cafes, pubs etc. are often more helpful than formal settings, hence my comments about the sauna below, although the sauna is not the only environment in which you can change someone’s mind about Brexit!

In the article, Carol Tavris confirms the view that ‘consonance’ or rapport is vital as a starting point for a successful Brexorcism. The conversation is a healthy mixture of what Comms people call ‘pull’ and ‘push’ strategies or what musicians and psychologists call consonance and dissonance. Finding some common ground is extremely important or giving away trivial wins in order to build a connection. One of the difficulties I notice in some activists is their fundamentalist need to ‘win’ all the arguments with leave voters. It’s better to let them have some small wins in the dance of Brexorcism.

“When we argue with somebody about their beliefs, the absolute crucial thing to avoid is making them feel foolish. If you say something like, ‘How could you be so stupid?’, that will almost always make your listener become even more committed to their belief. If you say instead, ‘Well, many of my own expectations turned out not to be the case too’, that might be a place to start.”

Dissonance

The Guardian article suggests that we must fully convert people to become Rejoiners. This is akin to a religious conversion or what I call a 360-degree Brexorcism. This is fundamentally incorrect. All we need to deliver as a ‘MVP‘ (Minimum Viable Product” is to move people from the idea that Brexit is a good idea towards ambivalence or doubt about the value of Brexit, a 180-degree Brexorcism. This is a much easier task. This converts in behavioural terms to people not voting in another referendum / General Election to support a Brexit party or possibly voting for a pro-Rejoin party to balance out their previous vote. Obviously a full conversion to the cause would be a much stronger position but, as the article points out, it is much more difficult. This is like trying convert a moderate Christian to Islamic fundamentalism when we only need to go as far as agnosticism, not even atheism.

Our approach to Brexorcism has validation from low-profile approaches to change which were reported on by the BBC some while back. A Brexorcism blends ideas from psychology, sociology, anthropology and therapeutic interventions. People who tell me that you cannot change the minds of Brexit voters simply have not understood the fundamentals of Brexorcism which requires large doses of skill, patience and time. I’m offering a free masterclass on the topic for North Hertfordshire for Europe on Sunday November 19th at 5.00 pm via ZOOM. Contact me to reserve your place. I am also willing to give keynotes and masterclasses on our UK tour to develop a cadre of Brexorcists. This is vital if we are to move the dial faster on Brexit regret by a General Election.

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Brexorcism unplgged
Brexorcism

The will of the people has changed

My other major beef with the article is that it suggests that “though there is some anecdotal and polling evidence that there has been a shift in sentiment, and that remain might now prevail, the same polls show very little appetite to reopen the question.”  This is incorrect on two levels:

There has been a seismic shift from 4% to 24% of people that believe that Brexit has failed. By 2024 it is quite feasible that 70% of people will believe that Brexit has failed. At that point politicians will no longer be able to look the other way.

Brexit has failed

Whilst it’s true that there is currently no appetite to reopen the Brexit question, this is merely a feature of where we have got to in the cycle. Also, of course, a sense of foreboding that another referendum would re-open all the family feeds / social angst and so on. However, another bloody referendum is not the only way to settle the matter. It is also quite certain that not opening up the difficult question will mean that the wounds of Brexit will remain with us for generations to come. Some kind of healing could actually take place with a grown-up recognition that Brexit has failed and that rejoining the EU is both possible and desirable. There is an embedded assumption that we MUST do this via a referendum. It ain’t necessarily so. See this article for London for Europe and Reboot Britain on the choices we face.

Myths and Riffs of Brexit

I note that the last remaining Brexiters are putting forward a number of myths to silence debate. Sadly some remainers also buy into these myths due to learned helplessness. For example:

We’ll have to have the Euro

We’ll have to have Schengen

The EU will reject our application

And so on.

See our article for Bylines Myths and Riffs of Brexit for a fuller exposition on these myths.

‘Learned helplessness’ on the part of Remainers plays into a passive acceptance of the idea that Brexit is done and it cannot be undone. This is the belief that we don’t deserve to join anew as it might be considered anti-democratic etc. However, a referendum won through fraud, fake social media ads and which was judged illegal by the Supreme Court had it been mandatory is not the high-water mark of democracy. Leavers were not satisfied by a super majority (67.2% on a 64% turnout) in the initial referendum to join the EU in 1975. Nor should we.

Learned Helplessness
Learned Helplessness summed up. We must not subscribe to it.

Indonesia – our structural deficit

Learned helplessness prevails in a vacuum of leadership and a lack of coherent strategy. Whilst the Remain movement was relatively united in the summer of 2019 after a number of victories, the 2019 election fragmented people again along political party lines. There are now as many proposals on how we rejoin as there are pundits. I describe the organisational structure of the Remain movement as being like Indonesia i.e. 17 000 islands and a few bigger ones. But all operating independently. The bigger beasts such as the European Movement compete with other actors such as Best for Britain. Others prefer to plough their own furrow. Some have been asleep at the wheel, calling for Remainers to make the most of Brexit. Yet, the only good Brexit is a dead Brexit. The consequence of being ‘Indonesia’ is that we find it hard to do things at scale. Fragmentation of strategy / structure and poor leadership also mean that we spend as much time arguing internally about strategy as we do in acting on Brexit and Rejoin. I set out five goals which we coalesce around on a monthly basis. It ain’t perfect but we do our best to provide clarity and collaborative leadership across a group of people from Europe. Join us on the first Wednesday of each month at 8 pm UK time via ZOOM. See also our article on Strategies to Join EU anew.

Indonesia
17 000 islands. A few bigger ones.

Five Goals
Five goals to join anew.

Not fade away

One specific point in the article which is not quite correct is the mention of BBC Question Time’s Brexit special event in Clacton. The journalist stated that the audience was made up entirely of those who voted leave. He went on to suggest that this was presumably to ensure the debate would not simply descend into an all-too familiar slanging match. We actually attended the event and talked with people on the street in Clacton. Levels of ‘Bregret’ were widespread in Brexity Clacton outside the event. They were also quite easy to get from people who realised that they had been taken for fools. The Brexit voting audience were also happy to speak with us after the event and many were of the view that Brexit had failed and that they were lied to. It is therefore a mistake to assume that all Brexiters attending BBC QT are now fully committed to Brexit.

This was mirrored in Brexit voting Deal the other week and on BBC Any Questions in Tory voting Southend on 17 August 2023, where the audience failed to applaud any of the statements made by the Tory panel member. Having been at the centre of some extreme nastiness by Brexiters, including the ex Met Policeman who issued threats of violence, spray painted my house and attended with a knife, I observe from Brexit voting Kent that the slanging matches have largely subsided. However, the article is correct when it infers that the products of Brexit won’t go away by not talking about it. See our Brexit iceberg below. Like it or loathe it, Brexit is the smelly dump and stain in the toilet bowel of life that won’t flush.

The Brexit Iceberg
The Brexit Iceberg.

Brexit will continue to traumatise a generation if we do not burst the boil of Brexit one way or another. I believe in facing problems rather than sweeping them under political carpets. Labour in particular will be culpable for assisting the tragedy of Brexit if they continue to look away. Much in the way that the vast majority of good German people were silenced through fear during Hitler’s populist uprising. Fence sitting on Brexit is assent.

“The Tories will crow about Brexit being done. The Labour frontbench will solemnly observe that past tense, and avoid the B-word, as if it is a triggering trauma for the party and the country, best left undisturbed.”

Brexit is the smelly dump and stain in the toilet bowl of life that won’t flush

Lost consonance

As an aside, I found the opening paragraph about ‘Brexit hard man’ Steve Baker an unusual lead into the Guardian piece. I saw Mr Baker’s attempt to draw sympathy from the public to be a calculated attempt to humanise him as a piece of electioneering and not a window on his tortured Brexit soul. No decent Christian would agree with the human principles on which Brexit is founded. Like everything else with Brexit, it’s just another set of illusions. For example, The European Research Group (ERG) does no research. The weaponisation of asylum seekers to appeal to racists and people with feeble minds is not what Jesus would have done. and so on. Baker uses his faux Christianity as a shield and has now turned into a snowflake to gain sympathy from his constituents using the Brexit confessional box. Baker’s so called mental illness, beard growth and acne were mobilised as excuses. Krishnan Guru-Murphy’s analysis was correct when he pointed out that Baker was a C…nt.

Baker explained “I felt repugnant, hateful, to blame for all of the troubles that we had, absolutely without any joy, constantly worried about everything to the point of mental torment. A constant state of panic attacks and anxiety”. So he should, for all the pain he has inflicted on our children and those having anxiety, depression and lost careers / jobs / livelihoods due to Brexit. In fact, Baker should be in jail alongside Rees-Mogg who promised us cheap training shoes, Farage who promised a boom in fish and chips and Johnson who said that Brexit would make my wife’s breasts bigger. I’ve checked several times. They haven’t.

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Brexit Betrayal

Were you played?

I write this piece directly to leave voters. I ask you the Johnny Rotten question: Ever get the feeling you’ve been cheated? This piece of investigative journalism deserves your full attention. I’ve set out some of the main points below, but watch the entire film. You were played by Nigel Farage, Richard Tice, their shady backers and their poster boy Boris Johnson. They took you for fools with well executed lies about fish, the NHS, laws, borders, sovereignty et al. How does it feel to be treated like pawns in a game that you were never part of? You will be paying for Brexit for decades in your pay packets, your freedoms, your health, wealth and happiness. It is time to demand your money back for the illusions of Brexit. Watch and learn how you were played:

The Brexit illusion of sovereignty was just that – an illusion – we could not have had fox hunting, pints, three pin plugs etc. if we were enslaved to a European superstate

The Farage illusion of taking back control of our fish was also an illusion. Many fishing businesses are suffering under Brexit

The Brexit illusion of funding our NHS failed. The £350 million every week never arrived

The Brexit illusion of a United Kingdom failed. Northern Ireland will eventually unite with the Republic of Ireland. Scotland and probably Wales will also leave Brexit Albion

The Brexit illusion of growth failed. Liz Truss’ experiment with Brexonomics took £100 BILLION off the UK balance sheet. You will be paying for this long into the future.

The Brexit illusion of frictionless trade never happened. With food inflation of 15% and a Government fear of implementing border checks lest it leads to food shortages

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48 52 Brexit
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Daily Excess

Nigella Legionnaris Brexitosis-23

Whilst the Tories continue to gaslight the nation about small boats, prison ships and so on, the truth will out. Here is our mash up of the Daily Excess for the week of bullshit in politics. If you like this, you will love our book Private Eyelines. DO NOT BUY on Amazon. Buy direct for best prices via reboot@brexitrage.com. Please see below for the real Tory stories they are trying to cover up.

For more of this, please get your copy of Private Eyelines by mailing us at reboot@brexitrage.com

Sugar Sugar

Brexit Secretary and sugar magnate David Davis went on BBC Radio 4 to explain that Brexit was not a cause of our problems. Instead he blamed the Civil Service. When pressed he admits that the Tory Government were responsible. Even the BBC’s Brexit loving Martha Kearney was astonished. Hear a slice of the interview on our Bandcamp radio interviews album. To correct the Daily Maul front page, Brexit is the cause of Brexit and not lefty doctors, cat owners, scientists, benefit claimants, woke metropolitan elitists yada yada.

Sick of being sick

Therese Coffey, Suella Braverman, Robert Jenrick and others are in denial of the significant outbreak of sewage related illness at the recent triathlon in Sunderland. Instead they continue the blame game whilst water companies turn in record profits. Lib Dem MP Munira Wilson did not even get an answer to her question about a related problem with Thames Water. Are you still prepared to vote for these shape-shifters? SARS in their eyes?

The contempt of Sunak’s so called ‘answer’ and the nodding Tory dogs are the hallmarks of fascism …
Sick of being Jenrick ….

The Pippy Longstocking

The wonderful Jonathan Pie sums up all that is wrong with this Brexitory government in his latest rant. Attempting to put asylum seekers with tuberculosis onto a boat which would act as an incubator for the disease is a significant public health risk. It is an echo of Boris Johnson’s wilful act of killing 40 000 people by putting infected COVID patients into care homes. Meanwhile Rishi Sunak took his kids to a restaurant in the USA where meals can cost £12 000 whilst Lee Anderson is knocking them up in the kitchen for 30p a serving, even undercutting Jamie Oliver.

Legion-Ella

It has emerged that Suella Braverman knew of the Legion-ella infestation the day BEFORE they started putting asylum seekers on the prison ship !!! This is a government sponsored death camp. Read our article in Spanish and English on the subject of racism at The Prisma.

The Prisma
From the moment that Nigel Farage adopted a Nazi inspired poster to stir up latent racism in Britain, he then won the Brexit referendum by the narrowest of margins.

Follow the money

Meanwhile, it has been revealed that the real reason for the Stop the Boats campaign, is of course, once again money. UKIP donated £70 000 to Langham Industries. John Langham the owner was a long term supporter of UKIP and clearly the Tories are frightened of UKIP and the far right so they have become them. In time, I would not be surprised to learn that the Tories themselves have financial interests in the boats, hotels and other aspects of the criminal fraud that sits below the ‘fury’ in the Express, Mail and Sun. Crispin Blunt already receives a salary as an adviser to one of the asylum hotel groups.

Aside from all the above, one boat to house 220 people is quite literally a drop in the ocean when compared with the backlog at the Home Office. This is deliberate managed decline by the Tory Government. The ceremonial nature of the Bibby Stockholm hides something else that they do not want us to talk about. Look deeper.

“Fuck off back to France” – Lee Anderson.
Watch and share our two minute explainer on how to deal with immigration properly.

FASCISM FACT AND FICTION CHECKER

ULEZ is the Ultra Low Emission Zone and not the Uber Lesbian Empowerment Zone as Boris Johnson probably thinks it is. Doubtless Bojo would be willing to lend his ‘Johnson seed’ for the purposes of ‘lesbianic correction’ though !! How many kids has he got now? 12? It was in FACT Boris Johnson who introduced ULEZ and NOT Sadiq Khan. It is yet another manufactured piece of ‘gaslighting’ done by the Tories as a desperate piece of electioneering.

The Sunday gutterpress papers are trying to blame the French for the deaths in the channel. NO, this is fully the responsibility of Rishi Sunak, Suella Braverman and the Brexit cabinet. I’m quite surprised that the Sunday Express et al have not tried to blame French Legionnaires, Emmanuel Macron, Sophia Loren, Camembert, Cotes du Rhone or Sacha Distel for the deaths as yet.

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Brexit Tattoo

Keith Starmer and other matters

By Don Adamson in the Barnsley Brexit Bunker

This week’s homework

One – Discuss the following statement. Margaret Thatcher thought she was creating Britain in the image of her father – a hard working grocer. In fact she created a Britain in the image of her son – an underachieving spiv.

Two – Discuss the following statement – Tories have proved themselves unfit to govern. Labour Party has been AWOL since 2010 and flatly refuses to return to work. 30 Tory MPs have stated that will not stand for re-election. Labour Party members are leaving the Labour Party by the thousand. Will this be enough to make Labour and Tory Parties get real? 

Three – In 1984 MORI conducted a poll about sex in politics. Women members of each party were asked if they had ever had sex with anybody other than a current partner. The answers were Alliance (Now Liberal Democrats) 33%, Tories 33% Labour 26%. 1% of Tory women voted ‘Don’t Know.’ Pre Brexit did you expect Tory women to be so stupid? Post Brexit do you expect Tory Women to be so stupid? 

Pornservatives
Pornservatives.

Four – The Liberal Party Club on Tong has, since we arrived here, flown the banner of the White Rose on their flagstaff. They recently flew the Union Jack instead. Have the Bradford Liberals turned Gammonite? 

Five – Can honest Tories be defined as Tories who do what they are bribed to do?

Six – We have had the horror show of Johnson’s Resignation Honours List. It was a foul parody of what ought to be something important. We now have the horror show of Thick Lizzie’s Resignation Honours list. Apparently some of the nominees declined the ‘honour’ because they did not want to be associated with Thick Lizzie or her corruption, incompetence and false values. What does the word ‘honour’ mean in booming Brexit Britain? 

Seven – Another controversial Honours list has been published and once again Nigel Garbage has not been awarded the knighthood he craves and his bootlickers demand. Since 2010 we have been horrified by the idiots and scoundrels who have been awarded decorations up to and including knighthoods and peerages. There is a rumour that Nigel Garbage will not be awarded a gong because of some sinister misdeed. What did he do that disqualifies him from getting an award from these Tories: Cannibalism? Devil Worship?

This week’s quotes

Keith Starmer thinks ruling out Rejoin will win the election

… it will continue the destruction of Britain  … Spineless attitude to Brexit … Likely that car manufacturing in Britain is simply going to end … closure of huge car plants in working class areas … this will be the first generation that will earn less than their parents did … Starmer will lie … he has no choice while his stance is ‘make Brexit work’ … Brexit cannot work. Keith Starmer knows this … he has simply lost touch with working people … we are about to elect another lying PM … all he will be able to do is to lie like Johnson did – again and again and again … Lowest valuation of inflation caused by Brexit is 40% … institutional racism was the underlying Brexit and Keith Starmer is swept along with it … forever worsening health and public services … forever declining manufacturing and services industry … forever diminishing education system for working people … forever worsening relationship between the four nations of the UK … If Keith Starmer’s Labour wins the election on this ticket it will quickly fail. That will mean just one term until they are back out and it will be their fault…. If we do not Rejoin where is the money coming from to change anything? … Polls show 63% of Brits want to Rejoin … Polls suggest that people do not believe Starmer anyway … We will never give up but Starmer has done so and it will cost the country dearly … We are asked to vote for somebody saying the opposite of what we believe based on the assumption that they are lying. That is a horrific state for politics to be in…

Read Hard Facts about Hard Brexit

Defence Admiral Sir Tony Radkin

.. under fire … after recent to-dos about honesty at Westminster it would be a pity if UK’s top military bod was found to have been dishonest with Parliament… 

Equalities Minister appointed Tories to a public body 

… 4 of the 8 people on the Social Mobility  Commission are Tory activists … with former MP Rob Wilson  … joined by GB News’s favourite academic who argues that Britain has been taken over by ‘radical, woke, middle class liberals … 

Britain’s economy is spluttering 

7.9% inflation is the highest in the G7 … disastrous premiership of Thick Lizzie … good news for Britain’s economy is hard to find…

Car making big battery investment may not put the brakes on long term decline

… the shots have been largely aimed at the foot in recent years … rumours that Tata asked for a £500M for investment in £4B factory … government was desperate …Stellantis (European car giant) has threatened to pull out of Britain … Mini (owned by BMW) said it would shift its EV business to China …

Rise of the self pitying MP 

MPs agree the pay is woeful, patronage trumps competence… online abuse is rife and MPs are leaving in droves … Almost 70 MP said they will leave on or before the next election … incompetent bootlickers rise faster than more talented and principled peers… 

Shout about Rejoin 

Tories feel obliged to try to talk up the benefits of Brexit – an impossible task that leaves them looking ludicrous since there are none. Labour is squeamish about taking a stance that might alienate Brexit voters so continue to witter about ‘making Brexit work’ … given the evidence that is piling up to demonstrate the disastrous scale of the Brexit mistake …. The cultural sector is just as unhappy as business over the Brexit fall-out. Mention the word and it occasions a deep outpouring of misery from artists and musicians … Rejoin will be far from easy but the preparations need to start now…

Read Brexit Freedoms

Jaguar Land Rover 

It took a £500M sweetener … Richy Scumbag is trumpeting the fact that Jaguar Land Rover, owned by the Tata group, had decided to build a gigafactory in Somerset … construction company … gave £177,293 and £17,152 to the Tory Party …  Financial Times said Tata project looked expensive and hard to pull off …  Richy Scumbag’s father in law will approve …  how good a friend Tata will be to the British economy is less certain… 

Daily Express 

Recent poll showed 74% of readers say it was a mistake to leave the EU … Editor Gary Jones is still championing the dubious merits of Brexit

Braverman degradation scandalous conditions … diphtheria, norovirus, scabies, open sores … hopelessly overcrowded tents … Richy Scumbag knows that his plans for economic recovery will not be advanced by the next election … hence the attacks on ‘wokery’ and migrants … firmly rightward trajectory of Tory Party … wretched …. Even on its own terms Tory approach to migrants is neither administratively practical nor financially viable…. ‘Cruelty is the point’ … systematic dehumanisation, a truly dreadful development … hateful … most debased form of politics imaginable … playing with dangerous fire … unforgivable ignorance of 20th Century lessons … devoid of mercy, compassion, or shame. It should chill every decent Brit to the bone … cruel stupid and terrible …, Home Secretary’s plans are just plain cruel … I do not understand how anybody could talk about and treat a human being the way that Braverman does… 

Brexit Migration Algorithm
Brexit Migration Algorithm

Schools 

‘Is Brexit going well?’… Not a single hand went up …

Resignation

Dame Alison Rose Johnson becomes a late convert to the view that bosses who mislead the public should resign…

Nigel Garbage and Daily Express  

… desperate attempt to draw readers to ill fated US website … not known how much Garbage will be paid … Garbage’s recruitment has led to downing of tools by Reach Culture … does not suggest everything is tickety boo …

Confession 

‘Forgive me father for I felt sympathy for Nigel Garbage’ …

Watch Nigel Farage’s Garage

View from the Right 

‘I am a lifelong Tory voter but I am dismayed by the procession of talentless nobodies we have had to endure over the last 13 years … ‘

Cabinet Reshuffle 

Before – Hopeless and Inept … After Inept and Hopeless…

By Don Adamson, Brexorcist from Barnsley. Soothsayer, Truth teller, elder statesman.

Fuck Brexit
Fuck Brexit before Brexit Fucks you. Get your car sticker from EU Flag Mafia. Click image.
Hannibal Lecter Brexit T-Shirt
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We are everywhere

This week’s quotes

Don Adamson writes from his Barnsley Brexit Bunker.

This week’s homework: 

One – Compare the two words Media and Mediocrity. Is there a similarity of meaning? Do the words come from the same root?

Two – Discuss the following statement: ‘I just cannot bring myself to say anything nice about my father. He brought nothing but anguish to our lives.’ That is what producer Charles Finch said about his father; the actor Peter Finch. What would you expect Boris Johnson’s sons and daughters to say about their father? 

Three – ‘An over-fat flatulent windbag, a master of inconsequence now masquerading as a guru, passing off his vast limitations as pious virtues’ That is what Richard Harris said about Michael Caine. Do you think that Harris let Caine off lightly? 

Four – Discuss the following statement. Wallace is reputedly one of the more competent Cabinet Ministers in this government. He was even considered for the job of NATO Secretary General. Last week he made a gratuitously offensive remark about valiant Ukrainians heroically resisting the Russian military monster: ‘We are not part of Amazon.’ As a consequence Wallace has asked to be moved out of the defence job in the next Cabinet Reshuffle. Tories know a lot less about history in general and WW2 in particular. FD Roosevelt blenched when he saw the list of military equipment that Churchill demanded of the USA. These Tories imagine themselves to be bargain basement Churchills. Did they ever imagine themselves as bargain basement FD Roosevelts? If Wallace is one of the more competent Tory ministers what does this say about the dimwits in the Cabinet? 

Five – Johnson refuses to hand over his mobile phone to the authorities investigating his misconduct as PM. We are given to understand that the mobile contains evidence of Tory incompetence and corruption. There is already an abundance of open source material to prove that and it seems unlikely that there might be any more hidden evidence on that subject. Rumours are circulating that the mobile has evidence that we know about but may not be able to prove; for instance: a) that the whole point of Brexit is to wreck the NHS and sell it cheap to asset strippers or b) that the whole point of Brexit is to decriminalise sex offences (especially child molesting). What other explanations might there be? 

Six – Johnson is living rent free in a house provided by the Bamford Group (robber baron capitalists of the worst description and unrepentant Gammons). Johnson likes to be photographed by Murdoch and Rothermere lackeys when he goes jogging in the vicinity of the house. People in the neighbourhood show their displeasure by flying the Euro Flag. Why do these flags never find their way into trashy Murdoch and Rothermere tabloids?

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This week’s quotes: 

Children are shrinking poorest fifth of households now need to spend half their disposable income to eat healthy diets

… years of poor diet lead to obesity and affect children’s heights … British 5 year olds among the shortest in Europe … average height started falling in 2014 … deprivation clearly goes hand in hand with stunting … average boy in the most deprived area of Britain is now 1.3cm shorter than in the least deprived area…

Bregret : Rising disillusion with Brexit

… polls find that sizeable majorities of Brits now regret the decision to leave the EU … margin as wide as 60-40 … steady shift … demography … older people mostly backed leave while younger folk preferred Remain … passage of time tilts against Brexit … Those who did not vote in 2016 now break strongly against leaving the EU … 20% of those who backed Leave in 2016 now say they would support Remain instead … Why? … disappointment with the outcome … high cost of living … falling real wages, struggling public services … high immigration … leaving the EU has clearly made problems worse … Britain was one of the last G7 countries to recover to pre pandemic levels of output … inflation and interest rates are higher than in most European countries; net migration is running at highest level ever … promises made by Vote Leave have proved illusory … broadest promise that there would be no downside to Brexit but only upside looks empty … Nigel Garbage admits that Brexit has failed … Jacob Grease Bogg, Tory Brexiter, is laughed at for citing benefits of Brexit … rising disillusion … Johnson’s notably thin Trade and Cooperating Agreement ….  Delusion is believing something despite evidence to the contrary … Brexiters adhere to their beliefs despite compelling evidence that their predictions about Brexit were wrong…

Read helpful facts

Discrediting the falsehoods of Brexit and Rejoining the EU are the way forward

… numerous motivations for Brexit, some were, at best, incoherent and at worst outright lies … only a third of those eligible voted for Brexit … Few people would disagree with the statement that the country is in a mess … David Davis accused of abusing parliamentary privilege and being ‘a political has been who botched Brexit … ‘

Johnson destroyed almost all he touched

… promises of a better tomorrow based on Brexit has left everybody who voted for it with less not more … Johnson is now universally viewed as a liar makes Brexit’s failure more palatable to Brexiters. It was his fault, Nigel Garbage’s fault, Grease Bogg’s fault, and the media’s fault, not theirs… Johnson’s Daily Mail column is not only ruinously expensive but increasingly embarrassing … Rothermere, Mail owner, is not happy … paying over £1M  for the appallingly bad column .. Provided a more than adequate supply of clownish incompetence…. 4thMail column took aim at the ‘odious, transparently wrong and unnecessary Ultra Low Emission Zone’ imposed on London by, er, Mayor Boris Johnson … what do readers make of ‘erudite’ jottings … Masil has taken the unusual step of moderating online comments, a step usually reserved for contentious or legally risky pieces … one positive post was published immediately … swiftly down voted by readers … 10 worst rated comments praised Johnson’s column … previously loyal Mail readers told Mail they had decided to stop buying while Johnson was on the payroll … 

National Rejoin March 23 September looks to be the mother of all marches

… 20 times more popular than last year … coaches booked from around the country …  Peter Corr, founder, says ‘almost all coming will be coming as Brexit has hit them the hardest … UK inflation caused by Brexit … can only be fixed by Rejoin … everything bad happening in the country is made worse by Brexit’ … clear warning to Keith Starmer… 

Lie of the Week Nigel Garbage

…  ‘establishment is trying force me out of the country by closing my bank accounts’ … Coutts exclusive bank used by the Royal Family … Garbage admits he does not meet the financial threshold for a Coutts account (£3M in savings or £1M in investments) … Garbage is being very, very dishonest … 

Torygraph speculation about the value of Torygraph titles has fluctuated wildly since the titles were seized by Lloyd’s Bank after a £1B loan to the owners turned bad

… initial estimates of between £400M and £600M for the titles may be absurdly optimistic given the extent to which the Barclay family have appeared to leverage up the business … I have hear the jaw droppingly low figure of £68M mentioned …Lloyds taking control of the company was extreme and unprecedented and shows they have no confidence in the Barclays … Barclays massively overpaid when they acquired the titles of £665M in 2004 … motives of the Eurosceptic twins had been … ideological … Lloyds Bank face a new headache … Fraser Nelson Spectator editor,  threatens to  quit and take his core team to set up a rival right wing weekly … Murdoch … interested in Spectator if decoupled from Torygraph titles …  Rothermere only interested in Torygraph’s paying subscribers as his own operation has been struggling for some time to get a figure anywhere near that … Rothermere rumoured to shutting down Mail on Sunday …  profitable and once respected newspaper … mired in family scandal and extremism … Torygraph has been snatched from the Barclay family by Lloyds Bank … Torygraph played a part in diminishing the public’s respect for politicians … reputation tarnished by extremist output … despite all the evidence to the contrary Torygraph refuses to admit that Brexit has failed … outlandish views … Ofcom just ensure that whoever buys the paper also meets the definition of ‘fit and proper’ that is required of media owners (COMMENT: Yeah, Right)  Tory billionaire keen to enhance their influence over the government might not clear that hurdle …

Immigration 

Braverman’s Rwanda plan is on hold but the cruel and crazy stance remains … cost of sending each migrant to Rwanda … £169,000 … £63,000 more than keeping them in the UK … Government is so committed to the scheme that it is not open to rational argument …  polls show that immigration is nowhere near the obsession with voters than it is with the Tories … questionable on many grounds … inhumane … government struggling to justify an untenable argument…  government policy has a lot of holes … Rwanda government said it would only take  2000 asylum seekers initially. Last year 46,000 people crossed the channel in small boats … Illegal Migration Bill has so many defects it seems largely unworkable … most likely outcome is a perma-backlog of undecided asylum claims … government must hope that tough talk will go down well with voters … by the time the election comes and policy has still not worked it will have upset all voters…

University Admissions practices 

A vast hereditary mediocracy… 

National Health Service 

Only the rich paying more taxes can save the NHS … NHS is in crisis …7.4 million people waiting for treatment up from 7.2 million a month ago, with more than 371,000 people waiting more than a year for routine treatment … short of 154,000 doctors, nurses, midwives and technical staff … that number will more than double in a decade … only the USA among developed countries has a higher rate of avoidable deaths than ours … all universal healthcare systems are feeling the pinch but the NHS more than most … 18th out of 19 countries for MRI and CT scanners per million of population … second worst for avoidable deaths … puts politicians in charge who know nothing about healthcare and dislike funding it … most chronic diseases have mushroomed, from diabetes to depression to  dementia …  chewed up money the NHS does not have … crumbling estate and 150,000 vacancies … 25th in the league table for doctors per 1,000 population and 18th for nurses … Staff are expensive but so is waste … GPs and hospital doctors taking early retirement has risen by 9.3% year on year since 2008 … three years after the start of Covid the department has spent £14.9B overpaying and over ordering PPE, medicines and vaccines … excessive profits on PPE so vast it is not hard to see how £14.9B made opportunistic scamsters very rich indeed … The only good Tory is a suppository …

Nadine Dorries infrequent visitor to Commons but draws her salary

… topped up by her undeclared income from GB News … more than a month since she announced resignation as MP…

Read 50 Shades of Gray

50 Shades of Sue Grey

50 Shades of Gray

I had a curious encounter with Kevin Gray on Linkedin the other day. Kevin is CEO of Bath Building Society and, as such, I expected a degree of skill not available to the average soul. Kevin was responding to a post about Nicola Sturgeon’s leadership skills and the SNP in general. It transpired that Kevin does not like the SNP, Nicola Sturgeon or Scottish Independence although he is a Scot in England. Not unsurprisingly, Kevin also likes Brexit. But quite surprisingly, given his position as CEO, he had swallowed some of Boris Johnson’s lies. The transcript of the dialogue that follows illustrates just how pervasive the Dunning-Kruger effect is and especially so when one tries to change someone’s mind using online media. This BBC post was the initial trigger for Kevin’s outburst at Nicola. She rightly pointed out that Boris Johnson’s preoccupations with getting Brexit done, childbirth, ovens, fridges etc. had made a considerable impact on Britain’s ability to focus on the pandemic. I have left Kevin’s remarks unchecked in purple. My replies are in red. The entire conversation is exactly as it emerged on Linkedin. No editing etc. Simply reportage.

Kevin’s initial reaction was : “Hhhmmmm. Not so sure about that. If there was one example of where Brexit did actually help anyone it was in allowing the uk goverment to move quickly with the vaccine taskforce and deliver mass vacination ahead of EU states. I suspect Devolution did not help however. Having x4 parliaments/assemblies to deal with in the UK must surely have slowed up the response? Much as Nicola was a great politician, I would personally not give too much air time to any nationalist whose aim is only to deliver further and much more serious division in the UK.”

Given Kevin’s senior position, I felt no need to hold back and I replied thus:

“I’m afraid this is incorrect Kevin. We could always have done this as an EU member. The truth will come out in the COVID inquiry. Do remember that the vaccine was developed by foreign scientists. In desperation, Johnson used buying power to snaffle up the supplies. Speaking as a scientist, I must remind you of the short-sightedness of stockpiling medicines in a GLOBAL pandemic. This strategy sprang from Johnson’s desire to mask Brexit carnage with the COVID cover up. The result was a “Britastrophe”. Please check with scientific facts if you don’t believe me.” 

To cheer him up and keep it a bit lighter I sent him a copy of the song I wrote in 2020 to epitomise the word Britastrophe:

Kevin was undeterred :

“Don’t get me wrong… we were ill prepared for the pandemic and the preps and early actions were inadequate. I’m pretty sure the enquiry will recognise that. Nevertheless, I’m pretty happy that early political action to stockpile and make early orders might have protected my friends, family, neighbours and their relations and friends in the UK. When it comes to avoiding death of my loved ones…I’m happy to jump the waiting list. We steal nurses from the third world ‘day in day out’ for the NHS so no new low standard applied there. I can’t see how being in the EU would have made a positive difference to the outcome for the UK quite frankly. I also think that SNP will find any cause to justify further separation, angst and years of pain in these islands that will be far worse than any political split from the EU. Some of us are Scots with families divided by politics on this matter. The SNP have hardly covered themselves in glory with their running of the NHS in Scotland for oh so many years after all. Now… an EU wide future plan including with the UK involved would make a lot of sense.”

I decided to challenge the basis of his competence. I am quite sure that Kevin is a competent CEO of a building society, but not so sure about this matter of science :

“Kevin, I imagine that you are NOT a biologist, epidemiologist or similar. As I said, your first statement was demonstrably wrong and the stockpiling of medicines is not a victimless crime. I’m quite disappointed that a CEO can have so little systemic thinking.”

Kevin defended himself again : “We sadly live in an imperfect world where states do not have equal resources or peoples have access to the same levels of health care. I agree that stockpiling vaccine was not victimless but the NHS holds drug stockpiles as part of their business as usual. British citizens benefit from the NHS hiring foreign health workers, often at the expense of others’ health care. It’s not right… but the primary duty of the UK government is to protect UK citizens. Same elsewhere. The UK government was following the preps for the wrong pandemic and clearly failed to implement lockdown as quickly as it should have. They failed to see what had worked in Asia to control SARS. That undoubtedly cost lives. I still cannot see what difference being in the EU would have made though. Happy to be put right on that point. The seeds of our slow initial response were sown decades ago. The next pandemic could be far worse so let’s hope the learning is swift.”

I decided at this point to put some external expert support from a Government source and offered him a way out of his fake news and an opportunity to ‘kiss and make up’ online :

“Kevin. Please read full fact : COVID and Brexit. Now you may correct the record on here. People believe fake news so please add a fact check to your original post.

‘Wrong pandemic’ – coughs … 🙂 I won’t embarrass you further on here but you are welcome to an online leaders’ debate.

Re your point ‘Some of us are Scots with families divided by politics on this matter.’ I can help you with the family healing issue. Read my book on Rebooting Britain.

You made two further points : ‘They failed to see what had worked in Asia to control SARS. That undoubtedly cost lives.’

This was not so much a failure, which implies accidental ignorance. This was wilful ignorance. Johnson and Hancock deliberately put infected patients into care homes due to the false narrative of herd immunity and a non-existent protective ring. This cost 40 000 unnecessary deaths. As regards Johnson’s level of attention and focus on the problem, this image sums up his leadership skills in this area :

Brexit Too Little, Too Late
Johnson’s dithering cost lives.

You also said ‘When it comes to avoiding death of my loved ones…I’m happy to jump the waiting list. We steal nurses from the third world ‘day in day out’ for the NHS so no new low standard applied there.’

This too is a false equivalence. I won’t bore you with the details but it is one of Jacob Rees-Mogg’s skills. To learn more read the book. Both situations are deplorable (poaching foreign nationals and stockpiling drugs in a pandemic), but they are NOT equivalent.”

By this time I thought Kevin was probably looking for an equitable way out of the matter, having perhaps wished he had never begun this encounter. He used the well-worn Brexiter phrase in an attempt to find something we could agree about:

Kevin : “Well everyone is entitled to their own opinion. I hope we can agree on that. The truth will out in the end and I’m sure that we may all be enlightened. I’m pretty sure that we can also agree that it won’t be 100 years before the next pandemic.”

I’m afraid I could not let this false equivalence pass for peace either :

“Kevin. Facts trump opinions I’m afraid. When they are put in the scales of truth, facts outweigh opinions.

But you are most welcome to join me on a leader’s debate on ZOOM at your convenience with an invited audience on “Brexit Futures”.

Human intervention has probably guaranteed that it will not be 100 years until another health crisis, possibly fungal and far more problematic, but nonetheless, Brexit will have a deeper impact on lives and livelihoods in the long term than COVID has, save for those killed by Johnson’s careless care home strategy, for which there is no way back for them.

The Brexit impact films are worth a look – all fact checked.”

At this point, Kevin ran away as they often do. I would draw some lessons out from this dialogue ….

Lessons learned

Brexiteers can come from anywhere. Even CEOs and intellectually bright are susceptible to illusions about Brexit. This merely confirms that Brexit is a religion / ideology and we must use strategies that address beliefs and identity change rather than the usual toolkit.

The lies put forward by Brexiteers have been installed like permafrost on some people’s minds. I very much doubt that Kevin is stupid. I imagine he can count money, but maybe not microbes or viruses.

The Dunning-Kruger effect is powerful when a figure of authority is challenged online where position power counts for nothing. I gave Kevin several levels of expertise to help him revise his view that Brexit had helped the COVID vaccine delivery programme but he stuck to his previously held beliefs.

Online Brexorcisms are always problematic. See the reasons why in this extract from Reboot Britain below.

That said, other people watch these online interactions and stay silent. They are sometimes more important than the other person in the conversation. Kevin made himself and his company look pretty daft in this interaction.

I doubt I will be getting a Christmas card from The Bath Building Society … oddly enough Bath voted to Remain. I wonder if some of the good people of Bath are reviewing their local building societies …

Online Brexorcisms
Read the book by clicking the extract.