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Rejoin EU

To Rejoin or not to Rejoin

Last week was a bit of a bumper ride. I attended the UK in a Changing Europe (UKICE) event in London on Tuesday, then Stella Creasy’s Labour For Europe event on Thursday. I also spoke with James O’Brien on Brexit Day 31 January !! We have also started some musical and activist projects. Settle in for a long read ….

Before we begin, We are supporting Robert McMaster’s petition to force a debate about Rejoining in Parliament. The petition had stalled at 69 000 signatures with virtually no activity. In just three days we restarted the flywheel, adding 13 000 to the total and more since. Please sign and share, then send copies of our book to MPs and influencers. 60% author discount copies for those who don’t wish to use Amazon via e-mail reboot@brexitrage.com

Watch our latest videos on the project:

UKICE event highlights

UK in a Changing Europe hosted an event with Sir John Curtice, Prof Anand Menon, Prof Catherine Barnard and Sarah Hall, hosted by the BBC’s Jo Coburn. Labour stayed away from the event which surprised me. Catherine Barnard began by confirming our own view that the problem with Brexit is political paralysis and suggested that lawyers would be happy to sort the ‘wiring’ out if the politicians ever developed backbones (my words, not hers). John Curtice explained why Labour are reluctant to move the Overton window to bring Brexit back into view, stating that a referendum would consume a lot of political energy. Our settled view is that if Labour don’t confront the Brexit elephant in the room, there will be no substantial growth and therefore no second term. Anand Menon suggested that there would not be sufficient time for any Rejoin benefits to flow through. I believe that this is based on the liberal elitist assumption that a referendum is needed and therefore a lot of time would be needed to orchestrate such a decision. Also, the strategic intent to rejoin would be sufficient to boost confidence in business and markets, so I beg to differ with courtesy Anand. Views like this from academics, prominent Remain figures such as Jon Danzig and ‘peaceful warriors’ play straight into Labour’s hands when they say that that nobody wants to go back through the arguments over rejoining. Yet we all know the polling data. Yes, people don’t want to go back through a lengthy national soul searching process again, but this assumes that one is needed. From my own research, I find that the vast majority of people would not be that troubled if Brexit were made to go away quickly and without fuss. We say, let Parliament do the job they are paid to do. A referendum may only be needed as a confirmatory step, and then a simple, short process with fully fact checked information. See Reboot Britain for the reasons we say this.

On the other side of the debate, I find that some Remainers unwittingly reinforce and mirror the views of Remoaners, some of whom have pathologised victimhood, as articulated by this view from one of our co-authors Paul Cawthorne:

Curtice importantly confirmed our view that the time is now to campaign for rejoin. The entire session is below on video. Although I took comfort from Catherine Barnard and John Curtice’s remarks, overall the tone of the debate was one of ‘learned helplessness’, perhaps informed by fears and fantasies about what the far right might do if Labour were to take decisive action to stem the flow of blood from Brexit rather than apply more bandages. Leadership is needed from Labour rather than followership aka management by driving through the rear view mirror. My question to the panel can be found at 1.05.47 ish onwards. I gave books to Jo Coburn and John Curtice and our 1:1 conversations were candid about the need for leadership rather than handing the country to Farage and his wolves.

Stella Creasy’s Labour In Europe Event

Undoubtedly Labour have not stooped to the depths of depravity that 14 years of Tory rule have delivered in terms of divide and conquer politics, austerity on steroids and victimisation of vulnerable people via Brexit on crack cocaine. So the Tories should have been an easy ‘support act’ for Labour to follow. Labour’s first moves in power have however been somewhat awkward, as brilliantly parodied by Larry and Paul. That said, we must not underestimate the difficult of turning a super tanker round mid ocean after 14 years of degradation with some people still on deck trying to lock the ship onto icebergs.

In Labour’s search for “growth by 1000 ameliorations” whilst ignoring the Brexit elephant in the room, they will find it difficult, dare we say impossible to deliver the levels of growth required to win a 2nd term in office. By the end of the evening, Stella Creasy seemed a little rattled by an audience of remainers for ‘going on about Brexit’. Possibly in a moment of sheer frustration, she brought up the bogey man of rule by Elon Musk if we did not ‘get over it’. She seemed somewhat irritated by the encounter and took me to task over my suggestion that Keir Starmer needed more confidence to take tough decisions. This was the essence of my question to Stella:

I stood for Parliament in 2024 against Labour. I say against but my candidacy was solely to split the Tory vote in a safe seat. I recommended that people vote for Labour at all Hustings events, something that political candidates don’t do. Having spoken with Labour MPs and MEPs I am told that Labour’s strategy will be to consider rejoining in 2032. When I explain to them that (a) all the Brexit damage will be complete by then (b) much of it will be irreversible like some chemical reactions and (c) since there is no appetite to discuss Brexit in 2024, no one will be able to connect their lived experience with Brexit as a contributory cause in 2032, Labour MPs agree with me that the idea of rejoining later is disingenuous at best. At the hustings Naushabah Khan (Labour) stated that Brexit did not come up on the doorstep in defence of Labour’s position. I agreed, stating that all the front of mind issues that did come up on the doorstep (Cost of Living, NHS, social care etc.) had at least one foot in Brexit as a contributory factor. I used the Brexit iceberg to illustrate my point. Nashabah did not challenge my analysis. The Conservatives and Labour passively colluded to move Brexit out of the Overton window in favour of its offspring.

Brexit Iceberg
Brexit Iceberg

Our internal sources tell us that Keir Starmer is naturally cautious and need a lot of support to make bold decisions. By fearing Farage, Starmer is “managing by driving through the rear view mirror” rather than leading. And when he says we won’t rejoin in his lifetime, he means his political lifetime. It may come soon without a little more risk taking. Perhaps this week’s incremental moves in Brussels are a kind of “national focus group” to test reactions. If nobody blinks, he moves another inch and so on. The right wing media and the Farage extremists have all cried “surrender” just because he went to Brussels at all … if that’s the reaction to an entirely trivial set of proposals, he may as well be hung for a sheep than a lamb. See sunk costs in the book.

I came away a little disheartened by the tone of the event which appeared to be telling us that ‘mum and dad knows best’. Although I would rather have open heart surgery without an anaesthetic than vote Reform UK, I came away with a strong understanding as to why others would. The more that people in Labour tried to defend the indefensible, the more toxic the comments became via the online chat. In hindsight, I think this dialogue may have been better handled in a real life event than on ZOOM, where feedback can go unheard and views build up like a pressure cooker. I was pleased however to see that my MP was brave enough to share my reactions to the event on social media and Nigel Farage is incandescent that Starmer signed a paper in the same building that Edward Heath used many years ago. Nigel really cares about the people of Britain of course but seems trapped by the iconography …

Naushabah Khan
My MP Naushabah Khan
Rejoin EU
Rejoin EU

Brexorcists in Chief

On Friday I had a dialogue with James O’Brien about the last Remaining Brexiteers. There are not many people flying the flag for Brexit now, some 11% in fact. They mostly now fall into two categories: The people who still believe that the EU is an unelected superstate and who vote for Nigel Farage (himself elected to the EU as an MEP!!) and the racists / xenophobes. Gone are the people who voted for Brexit to stick it to Cameron, the ones who believed in the £350 million on the bus, Mogg’s lies about cheap food and shoes and so on. Are we to die on a hill for these people with Keir Starmer? Here’s the interview with James:

Click to listen to LBC

We also wrote a new song in partnership with Paul Cawthorne in Italy. Brexit’s in the air is a rewrite of the Wet Wet Wet song – the band title is “Slightly Red” to reflect Labour’s current positioning. Don’t just graze on the website, download the track and support our work.

Click to download on Bandcamp

Farage: Make Shit Happen

Finally, we rewrote a Sham 69 song around the story of Nigel Farage’s nephew, convicted for upskirting in the Co-Op in Orpington. How bizarre.

Keep on keeping on

Keep sending hard copies of the Rejoin EU book to MPs, influencers etc. …

Press Release
Press Release
DEFORM UK Press Release.
Rejoin

Rejoin Day

It’s Rejoin Day 11th November. Please read our newsletter via Reboot Britain : Rejoin EU and subscribe for updates. In this issue:

Send our 89 page white paper and two page executive summary to your MP. A template letter is provided, so a few clicks and you are all done. It matters not if your MP is a Tory, a Brexiteer etc. It will be read and shared by others, eventually finding its way to the Civil Service, hence the 89 page version. Share the summary online with an invite to ask for the white paper via reboot@brexitrage.com

Over time we will provide you with graphics, films and other ways to persuade your chosen targets.

We need a tsunami of letters a la opening scene from Harry Potter … all political parties have attempted to airbrush Brexit out of the conversation. Rekindling a fire is much harder than fanning the flames of one that’s already raging … and most of the major political parties are trying to ignore the Brexit elephant in the room, SO

Share the Reboot Britain : Rejoin EU newsletter with friends by e-mail and ask them to write letters to MPs as well. Share again and again on all platforms in the coming weeks and months.

Join us on ZOOM this evening Monday 11 November at 8 pm UK Time via ZOOM.

We need a tsunami of letters to MPs / Councillors and others spread out over time ….

Join EU

Reboot Britain – Join EU anew

Keir Starmer seems to be “confused” about the case to join the EU anew, stating that there is no such case. I thought I would put him out of his misery on the topic, so we have written this proposal. It is far from complete, so please add your contributions via e-mail to reboot@brexitrage.com. I will incorporate and credit you in the final work. Ending Brexit is not a magic bullet solution to Britain’s problem but the impacts will be wide ranging and felt right across the STEEPLE factors (Sociological, Technological, Economic, Environmental, Political, Legal and Ethical). We must join EU anew as part of a strategy to Reboot Britain after 14 years of managed decline.

Brexit is costing us £100 BILLION every year with a 4.5% drag on our resilience. Remember Michael Gove’s claim of frictionless trade? Well that so-called ‘non-friction’ is costing us £40 BILLION every year in lost revenue. For comparison, Boris Johnson and Nigel Farage’s much vaunted £350 million per week for the NHS that we supposedly saved from our EU membership only grosses up to £18.2 BILLION per annum. As far as I can tell, we never actually spent this money on the NHS anyway and the 40 mythical hospitals never materialised. In 2020 the UK made an estimated gross contribution to the EU (after the rebate) of £17.0 billion. The UK also received £4.5 billion of public sector receipts from the EU, so the UK’s net public sector contribution to the EU was an estimated £12.5 billion. So, we are bleeding something like £140 bn to save £13 bn. For the avoidance of doubt and for those Brexiteers who Rishi Sunak suggested have issues with mathematics, 140 is quite a lot more than 13.

The word BILLION is also an eye watering number. To put this into context it means that each citizen is £2000 worse off due to Brexit.

And some 300 000 jobs have been lost from the City of London alone. This alone ought to be a wake up call to Keir Starmer and Rachel Reeves. I cannot detect whether they are frightened of someone or something (CAN’T do it) or whether Labour’s vacillation is ideologically based (WON’T do it). Either way, it’s certainly not in the interests of the country. We are expected to be £311 billion worse off by 2035.

Brexit has also made the cost-of-living crisis more severe in the UK. City Hall analysis shows that 30% of the 25%  increase in food prices between December 2019 and March 2023 could be attributed to the effects of Brexit. Other research from the London School of Economics (LSE) confirms this by showing that Brexit added an average of £250 to household food bills over the two years to the end of 2021, costing UK consumers a total of £6 billion.

GVA (Gross Value Added) analysis : Source Sky News.

Given the eye watering cost of Brexit and lost opportunities measured in multi-billions, some comparisons are helpful. £140 billion could pay the annual wages bill for ALL NHS staffTWICE at £71.1 billion !! Or we could nationalise water with some spare change left (£90 billion). Or fix social care at a mere £7 billion ! Repairing schools a snip at £11.4 billion and upgrading defence £50 billion. Our police force costs £23.5 billion per year. £140 billion could go a long way towards fixing broken Brexit Britain. Rachel Reeves is just fiddling whilst Brexit Britain burns … WHY, WHY, WHY?

Join EU - Economic Appraisal

But, it’s not just about the money, money, money … If Starmer / Reeves choose to ignore the numbers, they cannot ignore the ugly face of Brexit inspired fascism which is sweeping the nation as I write. Farage / Robinson / Braverman et al’s Provisional English Defence League have moved beyond rioting towards terrorism by trying to burn people alive in a hotel under the guise of ‘taking back control’. Claiming to be patriots whilst looting shops, smashing up property and threatening to kill people is an odd way to be patriotic. This is justification enough to end Brexit inspired racism and Reboot Britain, never mind anything else. It also comes with an economic cost. In 2011, the riots were estimated to have cost Britain between £200 million and 500 million in damages, lost trade and policing, a hit to monthly U.K. GDP of roughly 0.15% The WSJ also estimated that riots damage the economy through loss of confidence and so on.

Hate crimes have seen a consistent rise since 2014. Farage used racism as a weapon to swing the 2016 Brexit referendum, some analysts belive by up to 12%. The referendum vote was followed by an increase in race and religious hate crime of 15-25% in England and Wales. The recent reaction to the tragic events in Southport by far right thugs is itself a demonstration of just how much Farage, Tice, Braverman, Anderson, Oakeshott, Badenoch, Robinson, Jenrick, Patel et al. have emboldened overt racist behaviour by a small section of society. Brexit is the fuel for these fires. People demonstrated that they no longer fear racist behaviour and, in some cases, it is seen as a badge of honour, just like in the 1970s.

Source Gov.uk crime statistics England and Wales.
Join EU - Social Appraisal

In 2020, a set if predictions were made about social impacts of Brexit. All have come to pass in one way or another. Potential impacts included: loss of rights, economic and public services impacts, increase in hate crime, immigration and labour market impacts, and the potential for further dilution of equalities rights and protections. Of course, undoing social illnesses is not as quick as economic ones and, in some cases, these changes are not easily reversible.

The Scottish Government also reported that the impact of Brexit on consumers would be gendered because women are the main managers of family budgets and the shock-absorbers of poverty. In contrast to Nigel Farage’s 2016 ‘brochure’ Brexit benefits have turned out to be “for the few and NOT the many. Since there is so much focus on immigration due to Braverman’s moving of the “Overton window” on this matter, it is worth repeating the fact that immigration can be fixed. Watch our two minute explainer film on the matter:

Just two minutes – Keir Starmer, take note.

A piece on NI to be written.

We continue to be critically short of skilled people in social care, the NHS, farming, hospitality, science, engineering and many other professions. Some 330 000 shortages in fact. And the Farage loving Brexiteers have not stepped up to the plate to pick crops and wipe ar..es in care homes, let alone train as doctors, space scientists, computer programmers and so on. In my own area of Kent, they now complain that the faces of people coming here are darker … they are just never satisfied with their Brexit, all of which was predicted for them so painfully. But the number of people I encounter on a daily basis who say such things is much reduced. Only Nigel Farage, Suella Braverman, Badenoch et al continue to promulgate the myth that migration is a blight on our society, followed by a few people with feeble minds.

As a direct result of leaving the EU, healthcare has suffered due to loss of EU NHS staff. Waiting lists are appalling. This is having an effect on our health in general. Patients can’t be sure of getting essential meds. Amidst worldwide shortages UK govt. has made this much worse by cutting supply chains.

We are what we eat and Brexit red tape has also restricted our supplies of healthy, low-carb food (essential for diabetics, for example). On top of that Brexit has made our food much more expensive. People can’t afford to eat properly, which can have a detrimental effect on health. We’re seeing many more cases of malnutrition since Brexit. When people suffer sickness the economy gets sick too because workers are off sick.

The Tory government is to blame for mismanagement and underfunding of the NHS and also appalling response to the pandemic, causing long term sickness for those with Long Covid. Rejoining the EU would certainly help us to alleviate some of these issues.

This section would benefit from some data links.

The Royal Society of Chemistry recently reported that Brexit continues to cause significant damage to UK businesses. They recommend a UK wide National Chemicals Agency. This kind of call for a ‘sticking plaster’ rather than reaching for a cure is replicated across many industries and sectors, in the great British “make, do and mend” tradition. I would rather emulate the Japanese with a “right first time” approach. In other words, rather than “death by a 1000 ameliorations”, the best option is to put an end to Brexit.

Brexit resilence concrete
The only good Brexit is a dead Brexit …

Furthermore, science and many other sectors face critical skill shortages. See the FT article on care workers for example. Science is not practised on a country by country basis. It requires the finest minds from across the world. The RSC reported that there are still obstacles to attraction and retention of talented people.

Source : FT.

Even the Brexity BBC Radio 4 reported on the fact that we lack resilience in our food supply. Our decision to Brexit has magnified the problem. I even suggested that BBC Farming Today be renamed Brexit Today as they speak of little else on every programme whilst the nation slumbers.

Source : The Independent.

More to be added here.

I’d hazard an informed guess that the 2024 General Election result was a reversal of the 2019 one, where Boris did not win, but Corbyn and the false promise of ‘getting Brexit done’ lost Labour the election. In 2024, the Tories undoubtedly lost, but did Labour really win, with a resounding success for the Lib Dems and a significant protest vote by the Reform party aka ‘none of the above’? Recent Statista analysis shows that views on the Brexit vote continue to be negative, especially with younger people. If Starmer continues to ignore these findings, he could find himself in the 2019 position in 2029. Labour MPs continue to float the myth that we can rejoin in 2032. Well guys, you may not get that far …

This section needs expansion re Labour, Tories, Lib Dems, Leave Voters and of course the EU.

The key barriers to success are the UK parties, especially Labour and Conservatives, then there is the EU itself and of course the 67 million people of Britain. Dealing with these one by one:

Remainers are the best asset that Nigel Farage and Richard Tice. They are meek, unassuming and make few demands on the political system. Here is a quote from an older gentleman that does not believe we can rejoin without decades of repentance:

The issue then is arrogant British exceptionalism that both sides seem to possess. Because the major stumbling block for Britain Is .. Will the EU ever trust the British again? Not the baby boomer generation I suspect.

Of course, what is needed are more than calm words. We are now at the point where 2/3 of the UK population believe that we must rejoin. Given the numbers of young people who wish to rejoin and the certainty that people of my generation who still believe in Brexit will literally expire in the coming years, this represents an irrevocable shift in public attitudes towards Europe and EU membership. This is an overarching majority and politicians do not hold grudges where there are opportunities to be seized. What is now needed at a macro level would be some guarantees and at a micro level further education and mass Brexorcisms of the soft Brexiteer population, see objective four of our Reboot Britain strategies and our book which offers a practical guide to the gentle art of Brexorcism.

Our five strategies to Reboot Britain.

The few remaining Brexiteers claim that Brexit was not about making us wealthier and that you cannot put a price on freedom. Well, you can …

The freedom NOT to waste £4.7 billion of YOUR taxes on Brexit border checks.

The freedom NOT to lose 4.5% GDP EVERY year from Brexit.

More to be added here.

The longest journey begins with the first step. In other words, it’s all about strategic intent rather than the destination. People waste a lot of energy discussing the end point of the Rejoin journey. What matters is the beginning of the process and this simply requires the completion of an application for to join the EU anew. Since markets are perfect, this act of intent would have immediate benefits. The financial sector would stop bleeding key staff to Europe. The car industry would be assured of continuity of operations since rules of origin laws would no longer apply once re rejoin. The pharmaceutical, high tech, finance sectors and so on would immediately realise that there is no need to continue the slow drift away from Brexit Britain. Shared industrial standards would bring many benefits e.g. to construction and the chemical industry. Since markets are perfect, all of this would mean a fairly instantaneous uplift to our fortunes. And so on …

So, it does not matter so much when we complete the rejoining process. What matters is when we begin …

Remoaners also keep talking of the need for a referendum. No referendum is needed, nor is it the best or only route to achieve the goal. There is incontrovertible evidence that Brexit is a socio-economic, environmental and political disaster. I pay my taxes for Government to make complex decisions on my behalf. The Brexit referendum was declared unlawful by The Supreme Court if it had been anything but advisory. It is a mistake to repeat a broken process and our best choice is to let Government do their job. If however we felt compelled to do so due to faux reasoning about democracy, we should conduct it in EXACTLY the same way as we did before, i.e. with a simple yes/no question and the same criteria for the decision. No need for the super majority demanded by some Remoaners – if 52:48 was good enough in 2016, it’s good enough now. but with a proper campaign so that people could understand the decision being presented to them, without misinformation or disinformation. The best option will be to let Parliament do the job we pay them for.

People also say that another referendum will open up the toxic debate in families. That may be true for some. Yet the Brexit question will otherwise plague the nation of several more generations without dealing with the unfinished business of Brexit. We must pop the boil of Brexit, otherwise it will continue oozing toxic puss for many decades to come without resolution. Britain will otherwise continue to be a basket case re grown up attitudes to politics. The referendum revealed the need for fundamental reforms to our democracy and governance.

This proposal needs many refinements. For example, sections on legal, ethical and environmental benefits of joining the EU anew. A Pros and Cons grid as a summary would also be great. And more on European perspectives. The final document will be organised as a WORD document with appendices for detail to preserve the benefits of summary highlights and granular detail. Please mail me your contributions via reboot@brexitrage.com.

Eventually, we’ll need mass media spreading of the proposal and targeted letter writing to MPs and influencers. Other ideas include a book, films, petition, media pieces and so on. Your thoughts are welcome. If you find this useful, send us a tip on Paypal so that we can keep the website running and cover our basic costs of maintaining our work.

These videos are well worth your time: For an independent viewpoint, visit Post Factum.

The wonderful work of Rob Groves – subscribe to his channel.
Michael Lambert’s work is well worth your time – subscribe and learn.

Seamless borders. Ease of doing business with one of the world’s biggest markets that is RIGHT on our door step! Ease of collaboration and partnership with an enormous range of the world’s most advanced companies. Shared access to similar grant/research funding. Access to a mobile, highly skilled, multi-lingual workforce….. Cross border skills exchange/training. Shared industrial standards. Shared values.

To reopen barriers chosen by a brainwashed electorate! Viz: single market trade and free movement of goods; ability to live, work or study in any EU country; free access to emergency health care; common standards for health and environment; access to funding and investment.

My partner of 11 years & future wife (had to cancel wedding due to a no fault eviction notice) is an EU citizen- our travel is curtailed & restricted due to my EU passport being taken from me without my consent.

With thanks to Jane Berry, Richard Moore, Greg Newman, Wendy Nowak, Michael Lambert, Political X, Max Robespierre, Rob Groves, Robert Holman, Denis Buckley, Ian S Forrester KC, Terry Knott, Alison Murray, Adrian Ekins-Daukes, John Stephens, Andrew Hessleden.

Save the Bollocks to Brexit Mini Cooper

Save the Bollocks to Brexit Mini

Do you want to save the ‘Bollocks to Brexit’ Mini Cooper from the scrap yard? We need funds to take ‘Johnson’ the mini on the road around UK and Europe to remind people that Brexit has failed. The car has generated significant mainstream media publicity for the Rejoin / anti-Brexit cause. Accordingly, now that less than 1/5th of British people think that Brexit was worth it, we plan to take the car on tour to local groups for the purpose of mass Brexorcisms. Our visits can be accompanied by a musical protest and motivational speeches.

Save the Mini

This story went across all mainstream media in UK, Ireland and Europe. It went as far as the New York Times and Australia !! It’s a superior return on your investment.

We have taken the car from Dominic Cummings house to Barnard Castle to check our eyesight. Also to Brussels, and all round Britain. The car, codenamed ‘Johnson’ was stopped by Essex Traffic Policeman PC Smith, in a rage on the M25 motorway.  Smith asked us to remove the signage on the car on the hard shoulder of the M25, putting the police officer and the passengers at risk of death.  Subsequently, Smith has not been located by Essex Police some three years after we provided his full details to the force … All that is needed is political will to change the ongoing ‘Britastrophe‘.  

From Wikipedia.

Brexit has failed. Rejoin EU

We will put boots on the ground to stomp on the big footed fuckers of Brexit bollocks.
Sunakered

Brexit Chaos

In the wake of the first Labour local council victory in Medway since 1998, I draw some post-election consequences for the Lib Dems, Greens, SNP, Labour and Conservatives. Undoubtedly, this was a disaster for the Tories and Brexit in terms of what was predicted. The Tories lost 1061 local council seats. The question is, is this enough to get the Tories done and Brexit undone?

My part in the Tories’ decline

At a personal level, I was delighted to play my part in the Tories’ decline in Medway, through long term campaigning, mass Brexorcisms in pubs, cafes, supermarkets, bus stops etc., and doorstepping in Tory voting areas over the last few weeks. My family loaned 8 votes from my family to Labour last week and some to the Lib Dems and Greens. However, we shall not repeat this performance in a General Election, unless Labour turn on Brexit and Europe. I have put their Councillors on notice to this effect.

My Tory MP Rehman Chishti became so desperate about the decline in his party’s fortunes that he decided to attack Suella Braverman about her recent demonisation of Pakistani Muslims in The Observer. This is significant, in so far as Mr Chishti has an impeccable record in voting with the prevailing cabinet. His unbridled attacks appear to have sprung from sheer desperation and a desire to pick up the Pakistani vote in my area rather than any serious conviction that Braverman is an evil spirit who was herself an immigrant. He failed. Given that the Tories have a stronghold in my area, I plan to stand an independent candidate in Gillingham and Rainham and need your help to do this NOW. Please click on the link below and back us.

Get the Tories out in 2024

Lib Dem renaissance

Perhaps the story less covered in the mainstream media is that of the Lib Dems renaissance in last week’s elections. The Conservatives losses were fairly evenly distributed between Labour and the Lib Dems, with the Greens taking a very good proportion of votes as well. If this were to continue, the Lib Dems could find themselves as Kingmakers in a General Election along with the SNP. The Tories and Labour like the binary system which both believe they profit from. But we could find ourselves in a rainbow coalition in 2024. A lot can happen between now and then. Coalitions mean that politicians have to do things they really don’t like doing : listening to opposing views ; coming up with better decisions ; occasional compromises and so on. It’s all good with me. The people may just be the net winners in such a system … ?

The big winners here were the Lib Dems and Greens, with the losers being the far right (Tories) and the far right parties.

Green revolt

The Green party cleaned up, gaining a very respectable 241 seats in England and taking control of one Council in Brexity Mid Suffolk completely. Increasing awareness of sewage, climate catastrophe and possibly a protest vote against the far right parties aka Tories and UKIP may all have contributed to this. Let’s hope this continues into a General Election. Check our film out, based on our music composition ‘How do we want to be remembered‘.

Climate Crisis is the number one issue facing our planet.

How do we want to be remembered?

Rishi Sunakered

Sunak is under pressure from the ERG to go further right with his policies. As a holding statement on The BBC on Friday, Sunakered simply repeated his five priorities. He claims that people who cannot afford to eat were more interested in stopping the boats. Even James O’Brien is not sure what Sunak means by lurching to the far right. O’Brien frivolously suggested on LBC that it might involve bringing back the birch. I’d add bear bating, the rack and the drowning of witches, to take us back fully to Jacob Rees-Mogg’s 18th Century Brexit idyll.

An 18th Century Tory Synthpop Trance Floor dance groove we composed.

I called James to discuss Sunak’s options. Paradoxically, I suggested that Sunak would be better advised to move towards the centre ground of politics to pull the Swordaunt from the stone. James and I riffed away to my catchphrase ‘Sunackered’, which I coined in the summer of 2022. James said that Sunackered (or Sunakered) is worthy of a Daily Mail headline ‘if some guy wasn’t going to wear his mum’s hat and sit on a chair on Saturday’. Listen into to our riotous dialogue at LBC James O’Brien. #Sunackered is trending on Twitter as I write this.

Sunakered
I coined the phrase at the end of Summer 2022. Sunakered is free to use by the populist press. Please download the album to support our continuing work to banish Brexit bullshit.

Early indications suggest that Rishi Sunakered listened to my advice on LBC. Yesterday, Kemi Bad Enoch Powell announced that the Government has rowed back on its promise to have a bonfire of EU laws, 98% of which British politicians helped to make! Unusually, Jacob Rees-Mogg has called Sunak out as a traitor. Bad Enoch was sanctioned by TWFKASLH (The worm formerly known as Sir Lyndsay Hoyle) yesterday. Hoyle is a man who has allowed all sorts of bad behaviour to pass in the House of Commons but decided that enough was enough with the Nigerian Brexit fraudster. Mogg never calls the Government out. He even backs rapists. His outburst on the bonfire of EU law is clearly a smokescreen to get more than 20 Tory signatures on a letter to shaft Rich Tea Sunakered. I confidently predict that the approx 600 laws to be incinerated will be the ones with no large scale impact or connectivity to the main body of EU law. In other words, it will look as if we have taken back control of our laws, but, in reality, nothing will have changed, unless you indulge in some arcane Brexity manufacturing processes. For example, making car engines from English oak, impact-destructing cricket bats or pepper grinders without holes. Otto English sums up one of the many contradictions:

Arse Nicked by Brexit

And, once again, the ERG are fighting like cats in a sack. Andrew Bridgen has split the fascist parties by joining Lozza Fox’s Reshame party instead of Ricardo Tice’s Rebjorn Again party. It’s all good. Rishi is doing exactly what I predicted in order to save the Tory party from Brexit oblivion. Next he will steal Keir Starmer’s clothes, see Hard Labour. Perhaps Rishi is not Sunakered after all?

Sunackered or Sunakered – The theme tune – we were the first to convert the catchphrase into an EDM dance groove in 2022!!

Go now

In his weakened state, Sunak now needs some scapegoats. Given that the Select Committee has not yet reported on Boris Johnson’s multiple illegal, immoral and indecent behaviours, a convenient distraction would be for this committee to make a strong verdict against Johnson soon, such as full suspension from parliament. Accordingly, this would allow Sunak to blame the current malaise in the Conservative party on Johnson and Truss’ catastrophic mishandling of the country. It would also allow him to exorcise Johnson’s ghost without having to do anything himself. This is the way that Sunak likes to handle his HR decisions, through outsourcing to other agencies.

If Johnson is suspended for more than 10 days, The Rejoin Party have a plan to issue a recall petition to remove him from office and break the spaffer’s spell for good. Please join them in readiness.

Voter Suppression

The other big news about the election was voter id and voter suppression. For more on this read our full article on the subject. Early indications suggest that this will have disadvantaged specific demographic areas, such as ethnic minorities, the disabled and young people. The Government now runs the Electoral Commission and they decided not to record any data from polling stations. Correspondingly, it is quite likely that there is serious under-reporting on the extent of voter suppression in these elections. Edwin Hayward reports on over 70 case studies of voter suppression. They are almost certainly the very small tip of a very large electoral fraud iceberg.

These elections have demonstrated that the voter id system is totally unfit for purpose. I made my own small protest to the Electoral Commission. Above all else, please make your voice heard. Add your name to the call for action at electoral reform.

Say no to voter suppression

The Scottish position

Although the local elections are a hammer blow for the Tories, they are not catastrophic. Labour needed to reach the magic number of 40% vote share in these elections to win a General Election outright. They won approximately 35%. This explains why Labour want to take 30 seats in Scotland. I predict an informal coalition of aggression between Labour and Conservative to viciously attack the SNP on any agenda and exploit the change of leadership. Admittedly, the SNP’s transition could have been smoother. However, I believe we will see some very bad behaviour from both Labour and Conservatives in the coming weeks and months. They must be dealt with accordingly.

That said, the SNP’s problems are temporary. The essence of SNP support and the values underpinning them will be largely unchanged by a few sensational tabloid headlines in the longer term. For comparison, I note that Boris Johnson’s many breaches of the law did not attract police tents in his garden and officers in fancy dress Hazmat suits. Added to this, Brexit delivers a daily stream of bad news, both in the short, medium and long term. Robert Peston reported that 86% of young people wish to rejoin the EU. In consequence, Starmer’s position on Brexit is ultimately untenable. I reported on Labour’s position on Brexit in the previous article “Hard Labour“. If Labour’s results are not good enough to win a General Election outright, a hung parliament still seems a likely outcome of the current optimism about the local elections.

Read our page on Scotland