Dear Subscribers,
The week began with the Prime Minister’s resignation: Starmer is set to remain in No. 10 until a new Labour party leader has been elected. It is hard not to feel some animal sympathy towards Starmer. It is not obviously clear why he has become an object of hate throughout the nation. Contempt should perhaps be directed more to his Cabinet Ministers, as well as the Labour MPs, who shamelessly posed with Andy Burnham for a selfie following his tearful resignation. The anonymous testimony of someone from within the government certainly adds to this picture: ‘[Starmer] let others take the credit and [has] taken all the blame himself – but they [Ministers] walked in to tell Keir he had to go, and walked out to gloat to the press.’ It is as if Labour backbenchers and Ministers care only about their status as MPs and office, and are devoid of political loyalty and honour.
The prospects, then, of an Andy Burnham premiership seem almost inevitable. But whether Burnham will seek a fresh mandate is another matter. There have been various calls for a general election: by Farage, by Simon Case, by Labour MP Mike Tapp and others. This is all the more pressing, since Burnham is supposed to radically devolve political power from Westminster to something like a ‘No.10 of the North’. There has also been speculation as to who Burnham will retain or dispense with from the Starmer ministry: Reeves has come out in desperation in support of Burnham, but it is likely that she will go; instead, it is believed that either Mahmood or Miliband could become Chancellor. What is known is that Burnham has chosen James Purnell to be his Chief of Staff, a Blairite described as ‘a grown-up’ (remember when Starmer et al were called ‘grown-ups’?), whose stint as a BBC executive revealed a preference for wokeism.
On the right of British politics things are in flux, fragmented, and unpropitious for a general election. For the ten-year anniversary of Brexit, Farage did the media rounds on morning radio and television, during which he was interrogated about the £5 million gift from Christopher Harbourne. This has been music to the ears of those who want Farage to fall, but whether it will damage his support is dubious but not implausible. Meanwhile Badenoch continues to succeed in PMQs, eviscerating the Labour front benches – Badenoch: ‘she [Reeves] lives next door to him [Starmer] and wouldn’t even come out to stand by him during his resignation speech. She was too busy getting ready for a selfie with the new leader. Does the Prime Minister feel let down by his Chancellor?’
Lastly, with the ten-year anniversary of the Brexit referendum on Tuesday, it is notable how deeply Remainer mythologies have bitten into the establishment mind. BfB Newsletters have noted for months how they have determined the Starmer government’s policy, foreign and economic. Relatedly, a two-part series on the Leave campaign made by the BBC has been released. It interviews the key figures (except Cummings who refused to partake): for instance, Cameron, who comes across as cheated and parochial, Boris as exasperated, even frustrated (with what could have been), Corbyn with concealed regret (about betraying his Bennite destiny), Osborne with the smugness of one who feels vindicated, Gove with assurance and Farage with the nostalgia of a veteran, when a Leave electoral coalition was but a gleam in the eye. The documentary concludes abruptly and unsubtly, silently condemning Leavers for not having a ‘plan’ (which is what ‘grown-ups’ do, of course). It is worth watching to get a sense of what makes a Remainiac’s mouth foam and tail wag.
Book release – Brexit: The Facts Strike Back
Almost exactly ten years after the June 2016 referendum, Brexit and its consequences again dominate British politics. These ten years have seen the country divided and its political system tested almost to destruction. The public debates have often been based on assertions and arguments that are highly technical, especially those concerning economics and trade. Has Brexit made us poorer, and do we therefore need to return to the EU fold, as the present government and its supporters insist? Or is it the government’s own policies that are responsible for our economic handicaps?
There has been a ten-year campaign, still continuing, to persuade the British public that they made the wrong decision in 2016, and that they should have listened to those politicians, intellectuals and ‘experts’ who told them to vote Remain. Yet much of what we have been told, and are still being told, has no basis in evidence, and it is often provably wrong. Resolving the biggest political issue of our time needs facts, not propaganda, and this book gives them.
The contributors are members of Briefings for Britain, a volunteer group that has been supplying information to the public since 2017. Catherine McBride OBE is a professional trade economist, Wilf Glasby is a professional economist working in the private sector, Nick Busvine OBE is a former diplomat, co-editors Robert Tombs and Graham Gudgin CBE are respectively a historian and an economist at Cambridge.
You can purchase a copy on Amazon for £12.95.
Blog
The Brexit decade: was it worth it? by Michael Gove
Ten years after the historic vote, Michael Gove reflects on the Brexit decade. From restored democracy to new trade deals, explore why he believes leaving the EU was a necessary step for Britain’s future despite the challenges.
Time to Get Brexit Done by Dr. Dan Boucher
Dan Boucher contends that the use of the terms hard and soft Brexit amount to a fairly brazen attempt to undermine Brexit and make it unsustainable. The legacy of confusion caused by these terms must now be called out if we are to secure what we voted for.
Media
Three reflections on Brexit ten years on by Robert Tombs –
I have no Brexit regrets, and nor should you (The Telegraph)
The real threat to democracy after Brexit (The Spectator)
Why Britain’s elites still cling to the European Union (Spiked)
Lies, damned lies, and Brexit economic models by Ambrose Evans-Pritchard for The Telegraph
How sticking-plaster Britain lost the art of getting stuff done by Simon Heffer for The Telegraph
The myth of the King of the North: Burnham’s realm is not united by James Rebanks for UnHerd
Key Points
Inside the Remainer mind – Alaistair Campbell
‘I’m not going to do this lying thing…they [Brexiteers] do not want to talk about the substance because they are so deluded in still thinking that Brexit’s been anything other—you’ve made every person in this country poorer by the lies that you told!’
‘The economic consequences of Brexit have been catastrophic…Productivity is lower than it would be, GDP is lower than it could be…had we not left we could currently double National Defence spending and increase NHS spending by 50 per cent without touching any taxes.’
‘I do want to revisit the debate and do think it’s a debate that has to be had.’
‘I actually think a lot of people who voted for Brexit are disappointed that that hasn’t delivered a better life for them, beyond the symbolism and the flags and the sort of fake debate about sovereignty and so forth.’
These are just a selection of fantastical comments by Alaistair Campbell in a debate with Jacob Rees-Mogg held by Bloomberg for the ten-year anniversary of the referendum. This is a mind at the end of its tether. Yet, at a time when the Labour government’s future is at once stable and uncertain, it is perhaps significant to hear what a Labour elite such as Campbell thinks, or asserts, about Brexit. His is a voice that is listened to – the debate has over 200k views.
Campbell shares the BBC’s view (see above) that Brexiteers were lying fools because (a) they misrepresented facts and (b) they didn’t have a plan in case they won. This is an orthodox Remainer view and helpfully diverts attention away from detailed argument about the economy, the Remain campaign’s inadequacies (not least choosing ‘Remain’ rather than ‘Stay’ as its title) and the fact that Remainers like May and Oliver Robbins were charged with Leaving in government, before Brexiteers were in charge.
Campbell is also typical of the Remain view (also a feature of the BBC documentary) in which the years between 2016 and 2026 are abridged: to his mind there is a straight line from the referendum to soaring debt, poor productivity and border chaos. Remain, in this view, is vindicated. The lockdowns and failures of individual politicians are secondary consequences: Brexit is the first cause of our present woes.
Except that this is a figment of Campbell’s imagination. That whenever Campbell (et al) refer to economic damage they are not really referring to economic arguments per se: they are making political attacks, in which broad claims about productivity or GDP damage sound authoritative. Despite talk of his ‘deluded’ opponents not arguing with ‘substance’, Campbell debates with assertion, sarcasm and irony – he has no interest in argument (ie, ‘fake debate about sovereignty’). As demonstration of the correctness of his views he asked the audience to raise their hands if they thought Brexit was a mistake, to which the audience assented. An unthinkable response, of course, for a room of listeners who willingly attended a Bloomberg event in central London.
There is no doubt in Campbell’s mind that Brexit is evil. But he does believe in salvation – that of a reformed Europe which includes Ukraine, Turkey, Norway and Iceland, and a Brussels that abolishes the power of veto. This was not a joke: Campbell was being serious. How can anyone debate someone who has lost all sense of reality? This, after all, comes from an authoritative commentator on British politics, whose podcast draws a quarter of a million listeners a month.
Perhaps losing the referendum was the best thing that could have happened to Campbell. He has become an authority, has made a (highly likely) friend in Rory Stewart and, as he says, many people agree with his analysis. Perhaps it is fitting that everything he says about Brexiteers – lack of substance, lying, delusion, danger, harm, irresponsibility etc – in the end serves as a highly accurate self-description for Remainers who cannot concede defeat.
