Brexit Has Failed

Way back in 2019 I wrote a (slightly melodramatic) blog post - All Hearts On Sleeves - where I complained about the dishonesty and word-twisting of Remainers. How they would constantly tie poor Brexiteers in knots of language, and reframe the entire conversation. The classic was, "If only Brexiteers would tell us what type of Brexit they want!"

That one was so ironic because one of the biggest problems with the EU was that Europhiles would never outline what their own final vision of the EU looked like. Was it full EU super-state integration? Was it the status quo as things stood in the moment, and no more? Was it something in between?

We never got a straight answer ..and we still haven't. Even as they wave their EU flags and demand that we go back they never quite say. European EU supporters, such as Guy Verhofstadt, will outline their dreams (in his case it is very much an EU super-state), but British Remainers will never give an answer. I don't think a single prominent British Remainer has ever came out and just said, "Yes, I want an EU super-state." Or, alternately, "Here are my redlines on EU integration, I'll cross to your side of the aisle if they're ever breached." The question - which is a very, very important one - is just ignored.

Brexiteers on the other hand generally just wanted to fully leave the EU. It was a fairly clear position. Yes, of course, leaving was never going to be easy, and achieving a good economic relationship with the EU post-Brexit was going to be tricky, but on issues of sovereignty and governance it was pretty clear what was wanted. (Plus, even on the economics plenty of prominent Brexiteers simply said openly "WTO if necessary.")

All this was cleverly flipped around however, and we endlessly got the cry, "If only Brexiteers would tell us what relationship with Europe they want!"

There were countless other examples of this type of blatant reframing, many of which I highlighted in the article.

Brexit Has Failed

Anyway, I've been reminded of that recently by the latest example. In the last few weeks, Nigel Farage has "admitted" that Brexit has failed. Of course, he didn't actually do that. What he was doing was acknowledging the poor state of things in the country, whilst simultaneously making the point that the Brexit he and others had wanted hadn't been implemented. That doesn't stop the Remainers running with the quote though. So, once again we find ourselves living within a narrative where reality has been completely reframed.

Led By Donkeys' proposed billboard campaign

(Why they need to spend £81k putting it on billboards when

the whole media is repeating it is anyone's guess)

Let's fix all this by reminding people of the actual reality, complete with bullet points:

• June 2016: People voted to leave the EU.
• 2016 - 2019: Three solid years of politicians trying to block that from happening.
• December 2019: Boris wins a landslide to deliver Brexit.
• New Year 2019: ..meanwhile somewhere in China.
• January 2020: Britain leaves the EU (and enters the transition period).
• Feb/March 2020: Covid hysteria begins. Followed by two full years of intermittent lockdowns, maskings and the Magic Money Tree.
• (Note: at some point during this time Boris had some birthday cake - very important.)
• December 2020: Transition period ends - EU-UK trade agreement signed.
• May 2021: Trade agreement formally comes into force.
• Feb 2022: Russia invades Ukraine; leading to sanctions, economic turmoil and an energy crisis.
• May 2023: I sit here writing an article about how "Brexit has failed."

It's pretty impressive when you see it all written down like that, though a single line can't quite sum up the sheer massiveness of the 2020 - 2022 Covid period.

I shouldn't really need to state much more to illustrate how disingenuous it is when Remainers blame all our current woes on Brexit. Especially when they tended to be especially vocal when it came to demanding lockdowns. It was literally just a few short years ago that they were stating the economy could go to hell if it "saved just one life." If you even mentioned the word inflation back then you were a heartless granny-killer.

Now, as we sit here in May 2023, they've completely disowned any personal or political responsibility for those costs, and will literally blame the inflation and the cost of living crisis almost entirely on Brexit. As if the Covid hysteria simply never happened.

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Oh, and if you doubt the insincerity, just look at the bullet points on the Crowdfunder page.

Wading Through Fiction.

Well, I haven't posted on here since November 2022, and I stopped posting regularly way back in Sept '22. Back then I said I was stopping the frequent posting to concentrate on my work of fiction. The news on that is both good and bad. On the one hand I have got a lot done, but on the other it's at a rate far slower than I would've hoped. I'm over half way through writing the second (and final) book now. At current rate it should take another two to three months to get it done.

Once that's done I can put it on the back-burner. I'll still need to do 2nd, 3rd and 4th drafts, etc. So if it ever sees the light of day in public it will be a good while from now. I'm literally thinking in years rather than months. 2025/26 will probably be the ballpark for both books. No rush. It's kind of a work of passion, so the main thing is getting it out of my system and down in writing.

Anyway, it's reached the point where I feel so exhausted by it I feel it would be good to start posting here again just to freshen myself up.

Since last time..

The last time I posted a daily journal style post it was when Liz Truss was prime minister and the Queen had just died. I said at the time "I think I've covered the main things..", but obviously, since then, there's been a fair bit of drama. We're currently under the Rishi regime, and it seems we're moving back towards the EU. If not outright, then through entanglements with the European Defence Union and so forth. Things under Sunak look exactly how I expected they would be under Sunak - though not quite the worst case scenario version.

Immigration

Today it was announced that net inward migration into the country was 606,000. Quite a big number. It's getting very hard to take it all seriously now. You'd think that with numbers so huge even people on the other side of the divide would be able to say, "Yes, these numbers are large, I do understand why people have concerns." However, they don't seem capable of doing this. So they argue exactly as they would've done back when the numbers were 60,600. It's pretty incredible to watch.

I do worry that in this age of mass information it's become too easy for people to have worldviews that are detached from reality. I see it on both the left and right. People on the right watch videos of interracial crime all day on social media, so think everyone's kung-fu fighting constantly - when the reality is it's not that bad. The left watch stuff about racism all day, so genuinely believe that the country's full to the brim with racists.

Though social cohesion is a big worry going forward the most immediate problem is houses and services. You have to be pretty optimistic to think the government will provide housing for an extra 600,000 people every twelve months. So inevitably we'll get more homelessness, more people falling into debt, and more people living in very crowded or substandard accommodation.

Oink: A Book

Book update.

No, not that book, not the work of fiction. That will see the light of day in 2045 by the way it's going. These two are just PDF downloads. One is the phonetic alphabet work - basically a collection of all the blog posts on the topic. The other is the short book Birth Family Tribe Love Sex Apotheosis. The title is a bit of a mouthful, but I'm quite pleased with it. I think I'm finally starting to understand human society from the ground up. Or rather the tribe up.

They can be downloaded via the following links:

Oink: A Phonetic Alphabet

Birth Family Tribe Love Sex Apotheosis

The UK 2p Coin Value

Last night I was working out the metal value of UK coins - exciting, I know. On my other blog - a blog I've now decided to archive - I used to occasionally chart the metal value of the copper 2p coins. It was a little trivial and poindextery, but I found it interesting. The fact that the copper in the coin was worth more than the face value of the coin really fascinated me, and it was a very hands-on illustration of inflation.

I stopped doing it after a while - it was too tedious even for me. However, every now and then it re-grabs my attention, and I find myself curious to know where things stand at the present time.

When I last left off - way back in March 2012 - the value of the copper 2p was 3.7p.

(Copper 1p and 2p coins)

I should note that the 2p coins minted since 1992 have been copper-plated steel, so it's the pre-1992 ones that we're interested in. The steel ones will stick to a magnet if you want an easy way of differentiating.

Also this all applies to the 1p coins too (they're exactly half the weight as you'd expect).

Incidentally I started tracking the 5p coins back then as well. These are cupro-nickel - 75% copper, 25% nickel. This time pre-2012 (from 2012 onwards these too became nickel-plated steel).

(Likewise it's the same case for the 10p coins, which are the same as the 5p, just double the weight.)

The 5p value back then was 2.3p. I can't remember if this was just the copper, or the copper plus the nickel content, it's so long ago. Though I'm guessing I would've included both.

Anyway, what are the prices today?

This time I added the 20p and 50p to the list. Inflation is bad, but it's not quite that bad. Still, I thought it would be interesting.

These are the coin specifications:

2p: Copper up until 1992. 97% copper 2.5% zinc, 0.5% tin. Weight 7.12g.

5p: Cupro-nickel prior to 2012. 75% copper, 25% nickel. Weight: 3.25g.

20p: Currently still cupro-nickel. 84% copper, 16% nickel. Weight: 5g.

50p: Currently still cupro-nickel. 75% copper, 25% nickel. Weight: 8.0g.

The actual metal values as of today (or last night rather):

2p: 4.7p (I'm ignoring the 3% zinc/tin content)

5p: 3.2p

20p: 4.3p

50p: 7.9p

So things have changed since 2012, but not stratospherically. The 5p is slowly but surely heading towards its face value.

Of course, metal prices can jump around a bit, for various reasons, so this can't be a true measure of inflation. It's a useful consideration though.

I've actually started collecting these coins. Not in a major way, and I don't expect them to be worth much. However, they are becoming historic. Especially in this age of digitisation. So it seems like something people currently undervalue.

The Safety Harness: Our Rulers Aren't Evil

We're back. Today I want to talk about how it's a mistake to think people execute policies and actions based solely on ideology.

We tend to think - especially when it comes to politics - that people are driven by their ideology. They have an ideology and they then act according to it. However, this is only partly the case, and it's generally not how humans behave.

The Safety Harness

Take a parent with a small child. They're worried that the child may run off and get lost. Or that they may run into the road when a car's coming. Or that they may just run around and cause trouble in general.

If someone comes along and offers this parent a child safety harness, that tethers the toddler to the parent, it's likely they'll accept it and put it to use. They won't think: "Is it ethical to put my child on a lead?" or "Is this decision compatible with my overall political ideology?" They'll just do it. It's largely a practical decision.

They have the practical problem of the child running off. The safety harness solves that problem in practice.

Fast food Decisions

It's similar with eating animals (and I'm not arguing that it's wrong or right to eat animals here, I'm just using this example as it's a good one to use. Likewise I'm not necessarily saying it's right or wrong to put your child on a harness as above. These are just examples to illustrate how people make decisions in actuality).

Anyway ..if someone's walking through town and they feel hungry that hunger - i.e. that need for food - is just a problem that needs solving. If they see a fast food restaurant then that offers a solution to their problem.

Once again, it's just a practical solution to a practical problem. A mental assessment of the ideological merits of the decision usually does not take place.

If they choose an animal product not only is there no ideology involved, but the person probably isn't even thinking about the fact that an animal needs killing. It never enters their head. It's simply "I feel hungry ..this satiates my hunger."

If they are then confronted with the possible moral implications of their food choice they'll then struggle for some comforting narrative that justifies what they've already done. (People rarely just say "I eat animals because I care more about myself than I do the animals". As we like to feel like we're behaving in a good and moral way.)

So it'll usually be a case of: "Well, it's natural to eat animals," or "We need to eat animals, it's unhealthy not to," or, "If we didn't eat animals cows would go extinct," or "These cows have had a good life.."  And so on and so forth. You get the picture.

Again though, the point is not that it's wrong or right to eat animals. This is to illustrate the fact that more often than not people reach for an ideological narrative to justify their behaviour. After the fact.

Humans have practical everyday problems confronting them in their everyday lives. They take practical steps to solve these problems. Ideological philosophising doesn't figure heavily, and when it does it often serves as a fig leaf to morally frame the actions already taken.

We all behave this way to some greater degree or other. We like to believe we operate to some core set of principles, but it's often the case that we believe what is convenient.

Cats

A further and final example to illustrate things is how we treat our pets. It's quite common for people to get their pets spayed and neutered.

If we were in the position of the cat - waking up from anaesthetic one day to find our balls had been surgically removed - we'd no doubt view our owners as incredibly evil. However, cat owners aren't in fact evil (at least I don't think they are). When a pet owner takes their soon-to-be neutered cat to the vets they're not rubbing their hands with glee like some evil supervillain. Relishing the suffering and humiliation they're about to inflict on the poor cat.

They're doing it for purely practical reasons.

They don't want their cat making babies. Ergo they're stopping that from happening.

They've been offered a solution to their problem and they've utilised it.

Again, politics, morals, ideals don't come into it; and if those things do it comes only via the pangs of emotion or guilt that creep up upon the pet owner as they whisk their cat off in its little cage.

Feelings that are quickly satiated by post hoc moral excuses: "Well, we can't afford to look after baby cats - we had to do it." Along with some newly bought goodies for the cat. As if the squeaky toys and pet treats will somehow outweigh the loss of the body parts.

Again though, the pet owners aren't evil. They love the cat. (Not as much as they love themselves). But they do love it, and they believe in their hearts they love it. They'll even cry and be heartbroken when it dies.

Still, that didn't stop them cutting the cat's balls off.

So, do you still think our rulers are EVIL?

When we consider how we exercise power over the animals that feed us, or the pets that we love so dearly, or even our own children it provides a window into the mindset of those who rule us. Be they democratic leaders, technocrats or tyrants.

Like ourselves they face everyday practical problems. Both in their own lives and in their management of society at large.

If they have the practical problem of people committing crime, and putting every citizen on a 'child safety harness' solves this problem, then more likely than not they'll use it.

Likewise if too many little baby people are being born - just like the cats that were having too many little baby kittens - why would they not think to neuter and spay some of the humans? It might sound strange, but why not. As king of the home you did it to your cat to manage your household affairs - and without a second thought. So why wouldn't your masters do it to manage this wider household we call human society.

Sure, you can view all the things we see happening in the world as being driven by ideologies (communism, capitalism, technocracy, religious ideology). Or even as being driven by manifest evil itself.

However, the reality is most things are driven primarily by practicalities - and it's often all incredibly banal and thoughtless. If you fail to understand this you'll never understand the people you perceive to be your enemies.

In reality they're simply people that have needs, desires and problems that need solving.

If you're the neutered cat you may view what's been done to you as evil - and it may very well be evil - but if you think your owners are evil you are wrong and you really don't understand them. They believe they are good and they believe they love you. Even when they're cutting your balls off.

Royal Purple

As promised earlier I'll relay my observations on the Riverside minute's silence. Things were actually fairly good. Pretty much everyone was nice and respectful, and the minute's silence was silent bar the odd mobile phone accidentally going off. It wasn't a packed stadium, so it wasn't especially dramatic, but it was fitting and appropriate.

Afterwards they played 'God Save the King' and plenty sung along. I didn't sing - partly because the people around me weren't singing (I'm most definitely not a ringleader when it comes to singing at football matches), but also partly because it felt like too much. Weirdly the thought of my mam turning on the TV and seeing me singing was what swung it.

On my mam's side of the family they're most definitely republican. I'm often regaled with the story of how my nanna came and dragged my mam away from a school trip after it was found they were going to line the streets for a visiting royal. Likewise I've often heard how my uncle used to write in brackets on his tax returns, "I don't want any of this going to the royal family".

So coming out in support of constitutional monarchy I feel a bit like I did when I voted Conservative for the first time. Like I'm going against tradition. In footballing terms it's like I've decided to suddenly become a Sunderland fan after all these years.

So moderation was the order of the evening.

A few pictures. The first I took this evening on the way home showing Middlesbrough library lit in purple. The second from yesterday showing the museum. The museum looks ominous at the best of times.

Book Burning

I was also thinking today that it's time to stop posting on here daily. I really enjoy doing it, but it's taking up too much time. I really want to start properly storyboarding the part II of my fiction. I'm off work on holiday this week but I've already burned through Sunday, Monday and Tuesday and got very little done. So I need to prioritise my screen time - there's only so much time you can spend eye-balling a laptop screen before your zest goes.

Again, I like posting here, but I'm just being lazy and posting whatever springs to mind most of the time. Plus it's giving me an excuse to put off doing the writing that actually takes some mental effort.

In the few months I've been posting regularly I've covered the new prime minister and the passing of the Queen, so I think I've managed to catch the important things. Though I've always said that the death of the Queen would be the starting pistol for all of Britain's enemies, so maybe things are only just beginning (hopefully that was just overdramatization on my part).

I'll still post intermittently as before, and if freeze-ageddon happens I'll click back into gear. Then again, saying that, it might be better to just crack on with my novel by candlelight if that happens.

I have bought the candles just in case.

Social Fieldwork

I'm off to a football match later today, so it'll be interesting to see what the tributes are like. I'm not sure what to expect. I'm up north so it's not the most royalist part of the country, though these days the north tends to be more cool with being British than the rest of the country. I'll give an appraisal tomorrow, or maybe tonight.

Think I might wear a black hoodie as a mark of respect lol.