And the next Tory leadership race is off. Here are some helpful memes that articulate the qualities of some of the Runners and Riders through some allusions to boy and girl bands. Yes, I know that Farage is not currently in the Tory party and Penny Morduant is now not even an MP, but I needed to make up numbers. Like the Tories, never let the truth interfere with a good story … I left Tom Tugendhat out as one of more decent Tory MPs who feels he must say that leaving the ECHR is a good idea to make the cut to the final two candidates, even though he does not believe it. And Mel Stride is not even worthy of a mention. First the men ….
From Far right to Further right. Robert Jenrick, married to the grandchild of holocaust survivors. Fashi boi Jenrick wishes to re-enact Nazi styled approaches to asylum. Jeremy C Hunt seems to live by renting buy to let houses out to people who cannot afford the rent hence his boyband name. Nigel who wishes to drown immigrants by sinking boats. Iain who lacks sustenance in the House of Commons and needs to supplement his diet by eating his nose pickings. And the worst named MP ever – James Cleverly aka Dumb boi. And then we have the Spite Girls …
Priti Posh Spice – the nasty one. Suella who has eclipsed Priti for racism and hatred in some kind of strange grudge match. Dodgy aka Kemi Bad Enoch, a fraudster with a proven track record of incompetence, lying about CPTPP and much more. Nutty Slack Liz Spice, who crashed the economy in just 49 days. And finally, Busty Mordaunt Spice who thought that carrying a sword was a relevant qualification to be Prime Minister. The world thought otherwise.
It’s not much of a choice, is it?
Since we published this, Racy Spite (Suella) could not even get a nomination. Some good news then ….
I attended the local church hustings recently to face down lies from the Reform party and the Conservatives, who had fled the scene of the crime. Here are my answers to questions levied by the public. Click on You Tube to view. The whole hustings were two hours and this summary is the shortest I could make it with some annotations of the questions.
The film covers a wide range of issues and I’m available to answer others on request. More below on Food Banks.
I offer five key points of difference compared with the mainstream parties:
100% independent so no party whips to obey. My stakeholders are our citizens.
Brexit must be ended as a priority. No-nonsense trying to “Make Brexit Work” or mealy mouthed accommodations which fail to address the elephant in the room. We stand to gain £140 BILLION per annum as a start from making a commitment to rejoin the EU. Money which can be spent on healing the damage of 14 years of Tory chaos. All talk of growth by other parties is vacuous nonsense without dealing with Brexit.
An acceleration of our efforts towards net zero and the climate crisis in general.
An immediate ceasefire in Gaza and a Northern Ireland styled dialogue to resolve the mess.
Reforms to our democracy, truth, trust and transparency in politics.
We have just been ranked as five stars by Stay European, above all the major parties. If you want to Rejoin EU in Gillingham and Rainham, please vote Independent.
There’s a lot to be done in the next six weeks in the run up to the General Election aka Independence Day. We have a one time opportunity to change the course of the future … this will not wait !! I am spreading my effort across a number of initiatives to meet several goals :
To remove the Tory majority and end the chaos of 14 years of Tory disaster capitalism jet propelled by Brexit.
To introduce more plurality in Parliament and make sure that Brexit and Joining the EU anew remains on the agenda.
To this end, we have several collaborative projects which you must join:
Getleafletting
To get a minimum of 500 000 of our ABC (Anyone But Conservative) leaflets out to various constituencies. Please order yours NOW by mailing me at reboot@brexitrage.com Guide prices : 500 = £42, 2000 = £67, 5000 £100 etc. These are non-party campaigning leaflets, perfectly legal to use alongside regular campaigning. We need a small army of people to get these leaflets out. If you cannot deliver leaflets but want to get the Tories out, please send money so that we can buy the needed leaflets and resource distribution. By sponsoring others, you will get digital copies of the leaflet to use on social media and in other communications.
Mail us to get your leaflets.Mail us to get your leaflets.
Boots on the ground – Epsom, Ewell and Leatherhead
We will support Helen Maguire on the ground and online in Epsom, Ewell and Leatherhead. The area is Chris “Failing” Grayling’s constituency and the new Tory candidate is a Trump supporter with a reliable track record of losing elections!! Having worked on the ground in Epsom, Ewell and Leatherhead for Gina Miller, I have determined that the area is a two horse race between The Lib Dems and one nation Tories. As such and having done some due diligence on the situation I can no longer support Gina Miller’s party in Epsom, as I believe it will split the vote to stop the Tories. To help the Lib Dems to win this seat in the blue wall on the ground, online or both, please mail me at reboot@brexitrage.com
Helen Maguire’s pitch.
I plan a meeting to discuss the GE at the Ewell Tap on Thursday May 30th. This is the same day as BBC Question Time.
Boots on the ground – Rejoin Party
We will support the Rejoin Party in Sidcup and Bexley and in other places where they are standing. Rejoin are fresh from a massive vote in the London Assembly Elections and will publish their target seats soon. Who’s in for this?
Rejoin EU.
Boots on the ground – The Climate Party
The Climate Party are a small party with an excellent strategy to target centre-right voters who are concerned about sustainable development and environment but with a pragmatic view of how Britain may seize the initiative from zero carbon politics. Ed Gemmill leads the party. They seek candidates and volunteers and are willing to pay the deposit for standing in July 4th. See Change the Climate. Ed is himself targeting “Brexit Hardman” Steve Baker’s constituency of High Wycombe, a worthy target for a man who has done so much damage to Britain. If you can help in target seats below, get in touch via info@theclimate.party We are especially interested in candidates in the following areas below but if you have vim and vigour, please apply anyway.
One mission, One vision.
Target Seats,
Swap My Vote
Maximise your vote in an unfair system by swapping it. It’s perfectly legal and decent in a broken FPTP system. Find our more at Swap My Vote.
Collaborate to win
Join us at 8 pm Monday 27 May on ZOOM via this link to discuss plans to change the course of history at the election.
Amidst all the other carnage of Brexit, Tory sleaze, corruption and mismanagement a rather odd item emerged into the political landscape this week. It was a report from Conservative Home stating that Brexit had not produced ANY benefits, now or into the future. It also pointed out that Brexit has cost us some 2-3% in terms of resilience. Actually that figure is ‘conservatively’ low aka a LIE. Best estimates suggest a 4.5% GDP hit to the UK economy into perpetuity… with a peak of 5-6% by 2035. Any ideas of growth from Liz Truss, Rishi Sunakered or Keir Starmer are therefore for the birds. And it’s not just GDP. Imports and exports will tank by 15% The impact of post-Brexit trade deals is minimal at best and probably insignificant, never mind the social and environmental effects of Brexit.
Seeing is believing … from the horse’s mouth below !!
This comes on a day when David Cameron stepped out into the open and more or less admitted that Brexit was the main obstacle in addressing the question of illegal migration. He had to backtrack in order to avoid having several organs removed by ERG hopefuls Truss, Badenoch, Mordaunt, Braverman et al. I’ve said on many occasions that Cameron did not rejoin mainline politics as a swansong, and despite his many peccadilloes, we should ‘play the ball and not the man‘. Of course, I have been pilloried by Labour ideologues and Remoaners with visceral reactions to Lord Cameron. Nonetheless, I’m possibly right and willing to eat a hat if I’m wrong, in the absence of any serious and cohesive cross party strategy to join the EU anew. Watch Peter Stefanovic’s surgical analysis of Cameron’s ‘walk on the wild side’.
Lord Cameron is backtracking on his suggestion Brexit is to blame for no asylum returns deal with France
But damning report from Durham University has found the primary factor in sky rocketing small boat crossings is Brexit -namely a decision to leave without a returns agreement pic.twitter.com/03MHXnN87r
In case anyone is still confused about ways to address immigration, watch my two minute film on the solution. Of course, the overarching solution to immigration is the end of Brexit which has now failed : it’s OFFICIAL.
Just two minutes needed.
In case of any doubt as to the manufacture of the immigration issue:
2015: 299 crossed on small boats 2022: 45,000 crossed on small boats Post Dublin Regulations. No returns arrangement made in that ‘oven ready deal’, burned to a crisp!!
Not only have we had five Prime Ministers since Brexit, we have also had five lecterns. Each of them have a different character, like each PM and each has cost the taxpayer more than Angela Rayner’s alleged tax scam. Liz Truss’ Jenga lectern cost an uncool £4175, seemingly appropriate, as, no doubt it could be rebuilt into something else 49 days later … In this article we look at the emerging “academic discipline” of lecternology inspired by Peter Hurst and Peter Stefanovic.
Cameron
Cameron’s lectern was designed by his head of operations to appear “statesmanlike”. Cameron was the youngest PM and, as such, the wood for his lectern was sourced from B&Q, using freshly cut pine with a curved, flared column, signifying agility and smoothness, and a glossy finish to signify superficiality. Read more on Cameron at Cameron.
May
The simple religious cross style of Theresa’s oak lectern symbolises her victimhood as the Prime Minister who felt a sense of duty to serve but who ultimately would be hoist by her own inner conflict. In the end, the ERG and Remainers placed her on a cross for sacrifice in favour of someone more malleable. That person would be the fatberg formerly known as Boris Johnson.
Johnson
Johnson’s lectern column and base are the thickest of the five, matching the intelligence and heft of the incumbent. “The Johnson” as it was referred to in No 10 was constructed of teak for strength, as it doubled as a shagging plinth for internal use. It is believed that Carrie’s children were conceived on “The Johnson” along with other random offspring from the Brexit staffers during Partygate.
Truss
The Truss lectern is perhaps the most interesting in so far that it is constructed using Jenga. This would enable quick breakdown and reassembly after her 49 days tenure. We have an authentic woodchip replica of The Truss ceremonial lectern available on e-bay for the bargain price of £30 000. This would enable us to stand a lettuce for election in her South West Norfolk constituency. Tony Hanlon commented on the spiral construction “Its a treasured memory of her death spiralling of the economy”.
Truss has since blamed the failure of her Brexonomics budget on the infiltration of left-wing Norwegian wood into her lectern at a cost of £70 billion to the taxpayer and the ruination of young people’s hopes of home ownership. John Lennon, Kate Bush, Chris Witty and Angela Rayner have been blamed by The Truss, along with left wing lawyers, left wing carpenters, carping judges, civil servants, punk rockers, classicists, MDF, lettuce, homosexuals, trannies, the blob, layabouts, drug users, climate protesters, smoking bans, Potter Heigham, Brundall, The A47, The Bank of England, The OBR, UN, The Queen, charities, do-gooders, poets, artists, piss artists, vegans, Christians, Moslems, London, wood carvers, carvery owners, wood workers, sex workers, sex swappers, The Lib Dems, brie, gorgonzola, camembert, left wing cheese, real ale drinkers, real world thinkers, Remoaners, men, women, children, animals, plants, left wing micro-organisms, algae, fungi, Liz’s parents and all members of the deep state who sought to bring her down. The Jenga lectern proved to be her downfall and it was nothing to do with her incompetence, social ineptitude and the triumph of confidence over competence. That is a disgrace. In Liz’s own words “Liz Truss is best ignored”.
Click on the description to buy The Truss on e-bay.
Sunakered
The Sunak lectern is paradoxical. It is bigger than the other lecterns although Sunak is possibly the shortest Prime Minister in history. The upright section is designed to obscure both of Rishi’s legs for reasons of modesty and as support in case he were to break one. Just like its user, the Sunak lectern has no integrity, professionalism or accountability, being made from offcuts from the “previous administration”.
All of the above are, of course, pathetic attempts to look in control by people who are easily persuaded by presentation over content.
This list will probably be out of date by the time it is published. Thank you to my musical chum Dr Mike Alexander for sending me this list. Fear of losing one’s seat is a powerful motivator and the Tories have run to the hills to quote Iron Maiden. Order our leaflets to end Tory rule.
Douglas Ross – Moray (announced 14/10/21)
Charles Walker – Broxbourne (announced 2/2/22)
Crispin Blunt – Reigate (announced 1/5/2022)
Mike Penning – Hemel Hempstead (announced 17/5/2022)
Adam Afriyie – Windsor (announced 22/7/2022)
Andrew Percy – Brigg and Goole (announced 8/11/2022)
Chloe Smith – Norwich North (announced 22/11/2022)
William Wragg – Hazel Grove (announced 22/11/2022)
Gary Streeter – South West Devon (announced 25/11/2022)
The popular view of Theresa May in the wake of her decision to stand down as an MP is ‘good riddance’. As always, I wish to put forward a more nuanced view. My title does not wish her dead by the way, just that she now has some peace from the swivel-headed loons on both sides of the Brexit debate. Here’s a few inconvenient facts for Remoaners and Brexiteers alike:
Sure, yes, May’s record at the Home Office was pretty terrible. The hostile environment and so on. Not as terrible as Patel, Braverman et al, but terrible. Then there was Windrush …
However, May appointed a 52:48 cabinet to respect the Brexit vote, whereas Johnson reduced the gene pool to far right nutters and sycophants. See my interview on the BBC for more on this point.
I spoke with Michel Barnier a little while back. He pointed out that May had two battles to fight. The one on Brexit and the bigger one of her own party fighting like cats in a sack. Eventually they killed her. Paul Witts nails the leadership difficulty in one pithy paragraph:
“The second most difficult thing in the world is to admit to someone that you made a mistake … that you were wrong. The most difficult thing in the world is to admit that to yourself. But as time and pandemics pass, an ever-growing number of people who voted for Brexit after being duped by dopes with red buses, are running out of other things to blame. They were promised the Nirvana of a “global Britain”. Slowly the reality is dawning, and that Nirvana is beginning to look like a scene from a gritty 1970s inner-city gangster movie … complete with outside toilets, spam fritters, rickets, and pints of warm brown ale with suspicious-looking white floaters, served in pubs with sticky carpets.” Paul Witts.
Although the only good Brexit remains (sic) a dead Brexit, Theresa May’s deal was the ‘high water mark’ of Brexit deals. Crucially it covered the economic relationship, security co-operation, cross-cutting issues and institutional arrangements that would preserve the future relationship. if you cannot now remember the details, see Institute for Government. Johnson systematically degraded May’s deal to get it through Parliament. He allowed no scrutiny of the deal using Christmas and COVID as a distraction and not even reading the contract himself. Rishi Sunak has quietly tried to restore elements of Theresa May’s deal through what I called a Pay as EU go rejoin strategy. However, ‘Logical incrementalism’ has many faults, as I pointed out in conversation with the BBC’s Jonty Bloom.
May fought her own party, saying that they would end up with no Brexit deal at all if they did not unite on more than one occasion. Mr Bullion is always on point (and pints) with points about strategy:
“My view was always that May was a fundamentally strategic establishment appointment in case Cameron lost the referendum. Hence her nickname the Submarine. My conclusion was that she was genuine and understood what was happening both to politics in general and her own party, but both Remain and Brexit ultras over played their hands, and the Brexit ultras played the Trump card.” Alan Bullion.
The illusion of control Johnson style – a fancy slogan but totally vacuous.
May did not indulge in public backstabbing of her own party. I’m pretty sure she was a tough opponent in the back rooms though.
May was socially inept. Yet, did you prefer Johnson, Truss or Sunak? What exactly is so wrong about being good at the strategy and details but rather less good at the presentation? Please write to me when you have found the perfect leader.
She was however rubbish at Grenfell and I’m not saying in any way that she was perfect before the attacks on my analysis begin.
I was shot down in flames when I suggested that Remainers should support Theresa in her last months as PM. I pointed out that we’d end up with Boris and a hard Brexit. Look what happened … ? !! The European Movement and other large Remoan groups were consumed by the visceral reactions of the mob. May stayed in the party when others fled. Can anyone imagine how hard that might be?
Theresa. You are not Mother Theresa. Nadine Dorries even pointed out that you are not a mother. However I feel you are owed some thanks for trying to hold back the tide of the swivel-headed Brexiteers.
We have got a fantastic leaflet design for ‘non-party leaflets’ to encourage people to vote for Anyone But Conservative. These are perfectly legal under our current system. To order some leaflets for local distribution, please get in touch. The design builds on an iconic image from Pink Floyd’s “The Wall” and a withered Tory tree. Prices range from £35 inc P&P for 1000, £75 for 5000 and progressively better rates for larger orders. Included in all orders is a hi res pdf / jpg version of the leaflet for use on social media.
If you wish to make variations to the draft design below for a more local feel, we can also do that. Please get in touch with amended wording etc. via reboot@brexitrage.com
Collaborations
We have our next ZOOM meeting on Mon 11 March at 8 pm – NOTE Monday not Wednesday – open agenda but the GE will feature strongly. We will know whether the GE is to be called in May, November or January 2025 shortly after Jeremy Hunt’s tortured budget. Usual link via ZOOM.
I made a new film with a Rejoin Party member, inspired by a 50’s Sci-Fi Movie as Rishi Sunak’s power decreases in size by the day. Please share widely.
Larry knows it …
Meanwhile Brexit continues to deliver its toxic payload of destruction, socially, culturally, politically, economically, legally and environmentally. See Brexit Four Years On. Of course, getting rid of the Tories is paramount and guaranteed at this point in the cycle of things. We must therefore turn our attention to strategy. My contention is that if we rid ourselves of the Tories and end up with Brexit we will have failed to Reboot Britain. All efforts in terms of influence and persuasion must continue on Labour, now that the Tories face oblivion. Yes, it’s true that the main parties have formed a pact not to mention Brexit at a GE, but all the offspring of Brexit will be doorstep issues and Brexit will not go away just because it does not fit into polite conversation at Sunday tea.
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.
I’ve been shocked and disappointed by the public reaction to David Cameron’s appointment by Remainers and Rejoiners alike. They appear unable to get past the “two minutes of hate”, sometimes much longer, for pig fucking and various other of David Cameron’s peccadilloes. It is, of course, too early to judge him by his actions now in post, but I put it to you that Cameron is a potentialasset in the fight against Brexit. Stay with me on this. This will be a long piece and a nuanced argument and I am not in any way excusing him for his sins in and out of office. Before we begin, I am NOT suggesting that we forgive Cameron for his faulty referendum decision and various other defects and decisions. I am suggesting that we use Cameron’s obvious regret about that decision to help alter the political paralysis that has allowed Brexit to prevail. Let’s begin with the man himself:
Regrets, I’ve had a few
Cameron says in his autobiography that not one day passes when he does not regret Brexit. If you are a cynic, you may find this to be an attempt to gain sympathy. It’s true that people do not write autobiographies to trash their reputation. However, when taken in the round I find his regrets to be authentic and heartfelt. More importantly, whatever the reasons for his regret, we must use his reflections as a lever for change. Compared with Liz Truss, Johnson and the emotionally bankrupt Sunak, Cameron is a much softer figure. He mistakenly thought that he could build unity in the Tory party by offering the people a plebiscite on Brexit. Of course he was horribly wrong and, importantly he did not see that Nigel Farage would weaponise austerity by blaming immigrants for people’s lived experience in 2016. Research from UKICE demonstrates that Vote Leave moved the dial on the result by 12% – in other words the referendum result would have been 60:40 for staying in the EU without Farage’s ‘clever’ but deplorable interventions on ‘othering’. Yes, the campaign was lame and the murder of Jo Cox allowed Richard Tice and his mates to pile into the campaign in the final days. All of it odious.
Total misjudgement by Cameron? YES.
Total contrition by Cameron? YES.
Has he emerged wiser? We’ll see but possibly YES …
… but only if we play the ball, not the man.
Hold your nose and read his reflections.
STOP PRESS : Guy Verhofstadt welcomes Cameron’s return
Click to respond to Guy’s tweet.
Rishi’s decision
I called James O’Brien some months back saying that if Rishi Sunak was wise, he would pivot to the centre rather than the right to save his party. I suggested that he needed about a dozen rabbits to pull from a hat. It seems that David Cameron is one of those rabbits, judging by the reactions of voters in Brexity West Bromwich being interviewed for BBC Radio 4 Today on Saturday 18 November around 07.20. Jeremy C. Hunt’s tax cuts are another, even though these will probably only affect a small number of people and are probably based on fiddled inflation figures.
A passage to India
Sunak is not Johnson. Sunak will not have tossed a coin, smoked a cigar or had a few glasses of Chablis to decide whether he should sack Braverman. He will have carefully weighed up the issues, perhaps even on a spreadsheet! He must have ‘priced in’ the notion that the ERG are a busted flush and that any counter reaction would be tolerable, even agreeable. So far, his analysis holds true: Hardly anyone attended the New Conservatives (akin to the Real IRA?) meeting on Monday 13 November and; Andrea Jenkyns managed to get a five year old to write a letter asking for Sunak to resign.
It is rumoured that Sunak may wish to be off soon to a position in the Indian High Commission. By putting Cameron in the Foreign Office, he has installed a safe pair of hands amidst the lunatic fringe of Badenoch, Morduant and others who may wish to hold the crown or a sword. A journalist pointed out that Sunak may have just installed the next Prime Minister and with it someone who may be able to join the EU anew before Starmer has even woken up in 2032. Perhaps the question to ask in terms of Sunak’s reputation is does he leave before an election to pursue other goals or does he risk leaving after a crushing or less fatal defeat which still seems possible given recent events on all sides. I know which I’d choose. Yes, Cameron’s appointment is an affront to democracy and so on, but I repeat, we are not in a position at this point to do much about that, so we must act in ways that can make some useful changes.
Vital signs
At the moment, the jury is out as to whether Cameron will be a force for reform towards the centre, although I have some direct intel from inside Parliament that says he could well be. However, he did temper the Government’s attitude towards the ceasefire on Tuesday 14th November. This itself is a sea change from the far right loons of his party such as Braverman who borders (sic) on fascism. Labour are now caught with their trousers down on the ceasefire. This is an immediate vital sign of a more centrist viewpoint from Cameron acting from his role as Foreign Secretary.
But what would Cameron need to do in order to change the parliamentary paralysis that I mention? His moves may only need to be quite minimal to be effective. For example, as Foreign Secretary, all Cameron has to do is go on a trip to Europe, mend some bridges with EU leaders, utter some of his regrets about Brexit in despatches, perhaps even suggest that Brexit has not worked out per the ‘brochure’ and so on. His views on Brexit are already public knowledge so there are no surprises for the far right press to report on here. If he even so much as whispered something about the failure of Brexit, Keir Starmer would be compelled to agree, in order to maintain his strategy of being in lockstep with the Tories. The vow of silence on Brexit would be broken irrevocably.
Marred by pigs
Andrew Marr has an interesting complementary outlook on this matter. It’s well worth watching his You Tube video on matter. In the words of George Michael, ‘Listen without prejudice’. Marr agrees with me on the point that Cameron virtually had no choice but to offer a referendum on Brexit. Clearly he did not factor in the toxic weaponisation of austerity by Nigel Farage, without which the referendum result would have been 60:40 to remain in the EU.
My views have polarised the masses, with some believing that we should influence the debate and others (almost universally Labour ideologies) saying that we must just get the Tories out. That of course is guaranteed, but then we are left with a red Brexit. Read Faulty Towers for more on the existential risks of leaving Brexit to Labour. Some of the people telling me I’m wrong have not even read the article before making their judgement. I imagine that thy must have ESP !!
It seems that Betty did not bother to read the article before responding. Oh well.
2 minutes of hate. Actually I’ve had hours of it on social media. Note that I never said any of these points yet people believe I’m giving Cameron a pardon for his misdemeanours which I’m not.
At the present time, all we have had in terms of tools to stop Brexit have been lobbying Labour, Lib Dems etc. and our efforts have largely failed in the wake of complete radio silence on the subject and mealy mouthed platitudes from both main parties. If Cameron were to utter even some doubt about Brexit we suddenly have a new powerful tool in the box to work across the other parties with. Political influence requires us to be emotionally detached from political ideology. Breaking Parliamentary Paralysis has been one of our five goals for activism.
I sometimes wonder if grassroots Rejoiners and especially those who are Labour supporters actually want to remain ‘Brexit victims’. When they are presented with opportunities, they spend inordinate amounts of time telling me how I’m mad, bad or evil. I prefer not to pathologise victimhood or what I call ‘learned helplessness’. Here are my suggestions if you wish to act rather than watch from the sidelines.
Forget the pig fucking.
Start supporting Cameron.
Separate this from legitimate criticism of Sunak and the cabinet.
Lobby for a change in the Conservative party’s position on Brexit.
Mention what you are doing to Keir Starmer and Labour.
Remember, you don’t have to agree with Cameron on everything.
Be surgical and support any positive moves he makes on Europe.
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