Tuesday 21 December 2021

The End of Brexit and the return of the Remainers

 Why do I write this you ask? 

Well if you recall the crazy days of 2016 there were 4 very strong Brexiteers. Farage, Boris and Gove with guidance from Cummings. They really led the charge  to the Brexit vote. In more recent times, the brain charged with delivering Brexit has been Lord Frost and he has made his excuses and exited stage left (because of Covid, allegedly). 

Here in 2021, Boris is on the edge, his reputation will never recover from this, even if he limps back up a bit for a while. Farage is a radio host and Cummings sniping from the sidelines, disillusioned by the realities of power. 

Meanwhile, remain leader - Keir Starmer - is happily sitting an waiting for the Covid mess to hand him the keys to No 10. Future Tory leaders like Liz Truss and Rishi Sunak are both europhiles. 

Whilst no one, above all Brussels, will want us back in the EU full time. The machinations will begin to get the UK into the vast majority of EU things, maybe even the army using Ukraine shenanigans as cover. 

Won't it be ironic, that the outcome of the Covid pandemic will be a long-term remainer victory? Even though in reality the jabs, boosters and even-handed approach to the science have overall been very effective from the Government since the early disasters of March 2020. 

Who is there available to the Tories who could credibly lead the post-Boris Brexit faction. The loonies on the right of the party like Andrew Bridgen are only going to make things worse - who is there?

38 comments:

dearieme said...

I'm always willing to fill in until a properly suitable candidate emerges.

Lord Dearieme of Wetwang. Sounds good, eh?

Nick Drew said...

Lots of our BTL-ers here gonna love this:

https://novaramedia.com/2021/12/20/the-right-is-destroying-our-freedom-and-the-left-is-letting-it-happen/

Bill Quango MP said...

I’ll consider being leader.
What are the hours?

Any perks?

Don Cox said...

"Any perks?"

Babies, apparently.

Don

andrew said...

Won't it be ironic, that the outcome of the Covid pandemic will be a long-term remainer victory?

Not really.

It is at best interesting that it happened much sooner than (I) expected, but imo not due to the Pandemic(*) (capital P), but the utter incompetence of the current donkeys that are in office.

People are noticing life is a bit more s*** than it used to be.
Politicians gain power my promising to make life less s***

I do not intend to re-litigate brexit and have no will to even think of rejoining the EU but

This govt, pursuing a strategy of
1. 'Sunlit brexity uplands - esp. the north'
2. 'Well, not so much the north'
3. 'No cake because EU, lets f*** off the EU'
4. 'Please can the UK police occupy northern France, oh, and Eire'

has not worked brilliantly.
Pols aspiring to power may conclude that something really simple like
1. 'Lets not f*** off the EU'

might work less badly, and rise on that promise, and it might (or might not) actually work, it depends on quality of execution.

(*) the Pandemic laid bare one of the economic assumptions of brexit
- that world trade would be fast and cheap
as not entirely true.
Last time I looked we were the 9th largest manufacturing nation in the world and relied on those efficient, cheap supply chains.
Which are now neither efficient nor cheap.

Jan said...

Bill Q obviously but if he chickens out (or the perks aren't enough for him) then someone from the rank and file............Mark Harper perhaps? He isn't too scary a Brexiteer.

There's no-one with any experience but what does that matter?

Elby the Beserk said...

Nick Drew said...
Lots of our BTL-ers here gonna love this:

https://novaramedia.com/2021/12/20/the-right-is-destroying-our-freedom-and-the-left-is-letting-it-happen/

11:25 am
============================================

Well, it's true. Having voted for Boris we seem to have ended up with a Soviet government. Regards, Lils and I are in full FU non-compliant mode. We will not mask up, and we will hang out with who we want, when we want, where we want. If it's good enough for Johnson, Hancock and Ferguson, it's good enough for us.

As for alternatives, well, ha ha ha. They're all as bad as each other. I really cannot see me voting again.

Bill Quango MP said...

Boris, much as Lyndon before him, was sidetracked into areas and policies he had never planned to visit.

Costly, unpopular, society changing, personal popularity destroying, nation dividing, world hate creating, career ending, fiscally draining, never ending, unresolvable quagmires.

Sidetracked, tripped and destroyed LBJs previously highly regarded, necessary, civil rights agenda stalled. And in the end, Vietnam made the situation even worse than before.

Covid is Johnson B’s, Vietnam.

Without even having the better soundtrack for the historical documentaries

jim said...

No plan survives the heat of battle - and Brexit didn't even have a plan. I always thought it was a daft idea, totally unimplementable. I did wonder if the ERG et al did have some highbrow plan I just could not see. I am still waiting.

Covid has probably done us a favour and killed any chance Brexit would have dragged on for a decade or more before giving up. Brexit has not so much given up, it never had anything to give. Or at least nothing acceptable to Middle England. No Singapore on Thames, no freeports, no massive industrial cities dedicated to bath taps or whatever. To achieve anything like scale we would have had to sell Norfolk to the Chinese, Mrs Windsor getting a timeshare on what was not bulldozed. That is what a successful Brexit would have meant - and we bottled it. But we always would.

We needed a spectrum of manufacture, finance, soft skill and hard skill work. But we never faced what it would take to develop that industry and the needed people and housing. We kept on with a sh**ged out 19th century model of government - the one we are looking at right now. If you wanted Brexit to work you should have hired Xi Jinping.

The only selling point Brexit has was cutting down the numbers of Polish plumbers nicking the jobs we didn't want and didn't train anyone for. In that goal I give it to you - Brexit succeeded - try getting a plumber or electrician to fix your house.

Matt said...

@ jim

Like all Remoaner cranks you have entirely missed the point about Brexit. It was never about things being better - in fact, everyone knew they would be worse* because the government spent a lot of money sending us all a leaflet that explained this.

It was about taking back power from unelected people in Brussels so we could give our own politicians a kicking when they were crap.

The failing was not spotting that the blob runs the shop and the politicians are in their control. So now we need a Blobxit to drain the swamp.

* Worse of course not actually being worse just less better off.

DJK said...

Surprising number of remainers here. But leaving was as much about rejecting the direction of travel in the EU, as it was about making things better.

The BBC is still analyzing the photo of the garden party/meeting that Sunak's people leaked to the Guardian. Meanwhile, gas prices are going batshit crazy again. I see that AEP has noticed in the Telegraph, and also linked to a story of the German and French governments closing nuclear power plants. As he says, if push comes to shove we can probably forget about importing power through the interconnectors.

E-K said...

On the contrary.

Brexit DID reveal the Blob as did coronavirus.

The failure with Brexit is that it was never on offer in the first place. Cameron resigned rather than implement it as he promised.

The idea of the referendum wasn't to offer Brexit - it was to kill off the ERG and UKIP once and for all and to take us into the EU at speed.

What do you think Remain would have meant ? Staying as we were ?

No.

We would have been in the Euro by now.

----------

Original post. Covid is being used to thwart Conservative governments everywhere in the West.

Zero Covid is unachievable and they know it. The campaign for Zero Covid can last forever like the wars in 1984. It's never going to end. It is too useful to Marxists.

It is how the get all the power whilst losing all the votes.

E-K said...

*they*

Seelby the Berk said...

Another LOL

“ full FU non-compliant mode. We will not mask up, and we will hang out with who we want, when we want, where we want.“

So tough Jeremy. You forget the nudge factor of no compliance no admittance.

You carry on banging that anti vaxxing drum.
Could be only you and the lil lady left if the rest of us all die at the hands of Bill Gates.
Or more likely your exclusion from mainstream society.

At your age it’s your choice.

Elby the Beserk said...

SeelbyTheberk said...
Another LOL

“ full FU non-compliant mode. We will not mask up, and we will hang out with who we want, when we want, where we want.“

So tough Jeremy. You forget the nudge factor of no compliance no admittance.

You carry on banging that anti vaxxing drum.
Could be only you and the lil lady left if the rest of us all die at the hands of Bill Gates.
Or more likely your exclusion from mainstream society.

At your age it’s your choice.

8:43 pm
==========================

0.15% fatality rate globally, huge percentage of that sick as sick can be already.

And you're frit. You utter weedy wet. Grow a pair. I'm perfectly capable of looking after my own health. One of my lad has Omicron. "Bad cold". I'm off to give him a hug and a kiss to boost my already excellent immunity.

DJK said...

For once I agree with Justin Welby: getting vaccinated is "not about me and my rights to choose --- it's about how I love my neighbour." Philip Johnson in the Telegraph has a go too: selfish pricks like Elby and his, oh-so-brave chums are the ones holding the rest of us hostage. The only reason to threaten another lockdown in the new year is the fear that hospitals will be overwhelmed with dying vaccine refusniks.

So there you have it: if your mum has her cancer treatment postponed again, it's because of the Elbys of this world, and the Tory party tendency to indulge them.

E-K said...

The problem we have is that we can see it coming now. Good research and testing.

So - instead of 'BOOM' lots of dead and "WTF was that ??? Oh well. Bury our dead and get on with life" what we've got is "There's a nasty cold coming - but it could be worse. LOCKDOWN !"

Our civilisation cannot survive this as it is.

The worst is that I see no-one has bothered to lose weight. In fact more have put it on. A known comorbidity with covid.

Typical NHS !

"I can get/stay fat. There's medicine that the NHS can give me."

Or

"I can age without making any effort to stay healthy or get fit for life" (I exclude people here who are properly old and genuinely ill)


This would have been nature's cull of the obese and the old (sorry to be callous) but here we are.

In effect we've thrown that into reverse and sacrificed the young and the fit to create more fat and old.

We've made being scared and staying safe our role model for life. Our heroes are those mouthless/noseless peering out at the world with scared little eyes and the bold and maskless are the villains.

This is Idiocracy. Reverse Darwinism.

Whether you think badly of me for saying so it's not me killing the NHS by getting fat or smoking during a pandemic but there are plenty who seem to look down on me for not wearing a mask.

I would feel more guilt about saying the above if the NHS/Govt had presented the advice "Stop smoking, lose weight. If you are able do balance and strength training exercise into old age. Save the NHS."

But no. There is none of that. Slap a face nappy on like a baby and take this jab every four months.

This morning on BBC news the classic NHS beardy leftist was there via zoom - given a load of airtime to terrify us about staff shortages in the NHS by people who aren't sick but who are contagious.

Yup. I see how this is working out in my own industry. People who just can't wait to get ping'd - they get paid anyway. A good percentage of them. I'm not saying people in the NHS are motivated the same way.

When does this end then ? No vaccine is good enough.

Zero covid, obviously. Which is impossible

So. An impossible dream - a nightmare for conservatives and a living fantasy for the Left with the General Strikes that they can declare whenever Conservatism of any sort is tried.

At the same time that we are being told that a 'woman' can be defined as a person with testicles, a penis and no vagina. Does this not strike you as a tad suspicious ?

This is the end of capitalism for ordinary people in the West.

Matt said...

@ DJK

So your argument is that the unvaccinated should take a jab "for the good of the country and fellow man*"?

LOL - are you 6 years old or something? Bollocks to fellow man - if they are scared they can stay inside and hide from the world.

* Sorry, there are only two sexes - none of this "I identify as a unicorn".

Nick Drew said...

@ if the NHS/Govt had presented the advice "Stop smoking, lose weight. Save the NHS."

Actually, Kev, they did, at the start, when obesity quickly registered as a leading candidate for co-morbidity - I remember the radio ads (featuring a very Jamaican lady's voice, ostensibly an ICU nurse, so they were targetting quite specifically)

these ads ran for many weeks. I don't know why they stopped. I'm sure one could come up with a theory

Elby the Beserk said...

DJK said...
For once I agree with Justin Welby: getting vaccinated is "not about me and my rights to choose --- it's about how I love my neighbour." Philip Johnson in the Telegraph has a go too: selfish pricks like Elby and his, oh-so-brave chums are the ones holding the rest of us hostage. The only reason to threaten another lockdown in the new year is the fear that hospitals will be overwhelmed with dying vaccine refusniks.
===========================

You are talking about coercion not medicine. You seem unaware that the vaxxed can still get Covid, still infect others, but are often asymptomatic. I know if I am sick of a virus at 70. If I am I stay at home. If not, I carry on as I have always done, pre and post-vaxx. You guys are deranged and beyond dumb if you think vaxxing will stop Covid. It's already clear it doesn't. I'm not getting vaxxed to save someone already vaxxed, you pea brain, you seem to be saying....

"I got vaxxed, but if you get vaxxed, my vax will work better".

Science? Pah. You feel free to get jabbed as much as you want, despite clinical trials not yet finished and vaccine injuries for these jabs totalling MORE than ALL previous jabs. Feel free to damage your immune system with the jabs, but I take great care to keep mine in good order.

=====================================================
"'The BNT162b2 mRNA vaccine against SARS-CoV-2
reprograms both adaptive and innate immune
responses'"

https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.05.03.21256520v1
====================================================
Yup. Feel free to damage your immune system, but do NOT ask me to damage mine on behalf of your stupidity.

Meanwhile here's a link to my library of medical papers and articles on Covid and the vaxxes. Three figures of papers noting how dangerous they are. You feel free to follow "The Science", DJK. I'll stick to science.

https://www.mediafire.com/folder/guovnglxuj5xf/Documents

======================================================
"Acute myocardial infarction and myocarditis following COVID-19 vaccination"

https://academic.oup.com/qjmed/advance-article/doi/10.1093/qjmed/hcab252/6377795
======================================================
Lancet Vaxxed AS infectious as unvaxxed, if not more

"High COVID-19 vaccination rates were expected to reduce transmission of SARS-CoV-2 in populations by reducing the number of possible sources for transmission and thereby to reduce the burden of COVID-19 disease. Recent data, however, indicate that the epidemiological relevance of COVID-19 vaccinated individuals is increasing. In the UK it was described that secondary attack rates among household contacts exposed to fully vaccinated index cases was similar to household contacts exposed to unvaccinated index cases (25% for vaccinated vs 23% for unvaccinated). 12 of 31 infections in fully vaccinated household contacts (39%) arose from fully vaccinated epidemiologically linked index cases"

https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lanepe/article/PIIS2666-7762(21)00258-1/fulltext?s=08#%20
===================================================
PFIZER DOCUMENT CONCEDES THAT THERE IS A LARGE INCREASE IN TYPES OF ADVERSE EVENT REACTION TO ITS VACCINE

"Document released by Pfizer apparently as a result of a Freedom Of Information court order in the USA reveals a vast array of previously unknown vaccine adverse effects compiled from official sources around the world.
Pfizer concedes this is ‘a large increase’ in adverse event reports and that even this huge volume is under reported.
Over 100+ diseases are listed, many very serious."

https://dailytelegraph.co.nz/news/pfizer-document-concedes-that-there-is-a-large-increase-in-types-of-adverse-event-reaction-to-its-vaccine/
=========================================================

And lots lots more

DJK said...

ND: Enough with the covid, clearly everybody has already made their minds up. Tell us about the energy crisis.

Gridwatch says wind 11% of 'leccy generation; CCGT 23%.

Nick Drew said...

@ Tell us about the energy crisis.

I refer the Hon Gentleman to 2 recent posts:

http://www.cityunslicker.co.uk/2021/12/energy-crisis-nobody-seems-to-care-yet.html
http://www.cityunslicker.co.uk/2021/12/to-whom-energy-spoils-genuine-puzzle.html

Update: things are just getting worse ...

Nick Drew said...

... There is, however, some gaiety to be had:

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/dec/21/eu-in-row-over-inclusion-of-gas-and-nuclear-in-sustainability-guidance

sorry, Greta! - but the people will have heating and light

Wildgoose said...

Energy Crisis?

How about this beautifully timed application of pressure:

https://www.rt.com/russia/543844-yamal-europe-pipeline-halt/

Don Cox said...

It's good to see that the new nuclear power station in Finland is done at last and will be connected to the grid over the next few weeks. There have been many delays and problems.

I think Hinckley Point C is the same design and is benefitting from the problem-solving in Finland.

Don Cox

DJK said...

Sorry, finger trouble with the statistics. Should read

Gridwatch says wind 11% of 'leccy generation; CCGT 53%.

If old Mr. Biden poking the Russian bear means our gas disappears, and our energy strategy is to be the "Saudi Arabia of wind", then I don't think I'd want to start from here.

Seelby the Berk said...

Jeremy
You do realise that

https://www.medrxiv.org/

Is not peer reviewed. You do know what peer reviewed means ?

Why you have to consistently go off the subject.
I suspect it is because no other adults will listen to your inane ramblings.
Have all your Facebook friends blocked you.

E-K said...

Well I had my triple today. I may live to see Zero Heating yet !

Nick Drew said...

@ It's good to see that the new nuclear power station in Finland is done at last and will be connected to the grid over the next few weeks. There have been many delays and problems. I think Hinckley Point C is the same design and is benefitting from the problem-solving in Finland

I can't quite tell, Don, whether that's you being sarcastic. The facts is, until Taishan is fixed, and fixed satisfactorily, nobody's going ahead with any other EPRs elsewhere

Anonymous said...

double jabbed and then got the covid.
might of been the omnibus. who knows. got it week after the SA game at twickers end of Nov.
it was like a normal winter cold, except couldn't taste anything for a week. perhaps i was lucky, being middle aged and not too overweight, perhaps it was the jabs wot saved me. wont stop be going to the rugby again next year if i'm still allowed.
if everyone gets it this winter and we mainly** get colds, then i can't see anyone ever much giving a stuff about it again. sounds like herd immmunity.

dearieme said...

"For once I agree with Justin Welby": and you are wrong. Look at the results of the original Pfizer vaccine trials. More people fell ill and died in the treatment group - those who got the vaccine - than the control group - those who got the placebo. It follows that the increased burden on the relevant US hospitals was caused by the vaccinated not the unvaccinated. It's just that the illnesses of the vaccinated would not be classed as Covid while the illnesses of the unvaccinated would be.

In other words, the notion that the problem comes from the unvaccinated is an illusion. It's surely not an insuperable intellectual problem to understand that, is it?

Anonymous said...

It's odd that Boris, who's generally been just the kind of bounder who attracts women as a flame attracts moths, seems to be under the manicured thumb of the lady with the power but no responsibility - and she's not even very attractive.

At the moment he seems fatally weakened - but in the US sports fans chant abuse at Biden as UK fans do at Boris, don't forget.

Dom is at it again, and he's more optimistic about the EU providing Boris doesn't fold, which as he admits is a big if (Steph Riso, EU negotiator in 2020 "I know you are not bluffing but we all know your Prime Minister is weak, he is bluffing, he will collapse, you should take this deal").

https://dominiccummings.substack.com/p/risk-aggression-brexit-and-article

The border in Ireland is messy and is doomed to stay messy for many years. The deal we signed is ambiguous enough to allow very wide interpretation.

We partly stick to the deal, partly ‘bend’ it on the ground but without making a fuss. Like the Greeks do with EU laws every day. And we wait… If Brussels and France want to blow everything up because it’s messy, and they want to make the argument that total, Cartesian, ECJ standards are more important than peace, let them. I think that most in Europe are happy to focus elsewhere provided No10 does not force them to pay attention. As the stagnation and crises of the EU mount, and as it becomes increasingly clear that there is no Delors-like plan to revive the project, they will be less and less inclined to spend time on intractable Irish border issues. If we get our act together, our hand will be stronger in a few years.

...

Fundamentally, unless the UK folds the EU will have to decide between two paths: A) accept Ireland is messy and focus elsewhere because peace and terrorism mean you can’t treat this border like other Single Market borders, B) insist on a border between the island of Ireland and the Single Market. I think they’ll pick A but if they prefer B, we should make sure they get the blame not us.

Elby the Beserk said...

Energy? Just hi thee to https://grid.iamkate.com/ where you will note that over the past week (hover cursor over pie chart), renewables contributed 8.8%, not untypical for a winter spell - worth noting that wind has been lessening in Europe for some years

So only another 91.2% for NetZero to put in place.

Don Cox said...

Nick said: "The facts is, until Taishan is fixed, and fixed satisfactorily, nobody's going ahead with any other EPRs elsewhere"

So far as I know, construction at Hinckley Point is going ahead as planned.

EPR power stations are clearly too big and too complicated. But they will still work in the end and in Britain they can replace the old power stations that are due to be closed down. My local nuclear power station has done a fine job of supplying me with electricity for the past 45 years. If we had built a few more like it, the price of electricity wouldn't be shooting up.

Don

Nick Drew said...

Don, all the current work @ Hinkley is civil engineering - and it's not close to being finished, there is a bunch of offshore work still to do on the cooling-water inlets, so they can keep busy on just boring old steel & concrete stuff for months to come.

But they aren't remotely close to installing (or even manufacturing, in France) the true nuke stuff. Despite this PR bollocks ...
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-somerset-58724732
... they ain't gonna make 2026 completion whatever happens now - and the very least that'll happen is a Taishan-induced hiatus on the nuke stuff.

djm said...

Who knew there were still so many cockchafing remaintards around ?

I blame BQ for assisting in making them so welcome here

Anonymous said...

"EPR power stations are clearly too big and too complicated. But they will still work in the end"

Taishan 2 is working, but for how long? That's one reactor out of six.

The first build in Finland is projected 13 years late, it's been building since 2005! Flamanville likewise, since 2007.

Elby the Beserk said...

"SeelbyTheberk said...
Jeremy
You do realise that

https://www.medrxiv.org/

Is not peer reviewed. You do know what peer reviewed means ?

Why you have to consistently go off the subject.
I suspect it is because no other adults will listen to your inane ramblings.
Have all your Facebook friends blocked you.
5:00 pm"
=================

Bliss.

1. I am not on Facebook.

2. "Peer reviewed"? Oh my. Mann's Hockey Stick nonsense, in which he disappeared two well know periods in the Holocene, the MWP and LIA was "peer reviewed". Now known as "Pal reviewed".

"The fight against fake-paper factories that churn out sham science
Some publishers say they are battling industrialized cheating. A Nature analysis examines the 'paper mill' problem — and how editors are trying to cope."

https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-021-00733-5

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_scientific_misconduct_incidents

Unbelievable what such as you believe. Unbelievable.

Maybe do your own research? Maybe try thinking independently and critically? Uh?