Open Britain on the Threat of Farage Becoming Tory Prime Minister

‘Dear David,

We need to talk about Farage. Again.

In a terrifyingly matter-of-fact interview with the Sun’s Harry Cole, Steve Bannon, the architect of Donald Trump’s polarising presidency, gave Farage a glowing endorsement and set out how he would go about succeeding Keir Starmer as Prime Minister.

Bannon believes that Farage could soon ride a wave of populist sentiment all the way to Number 10, especially if the Tories take a drubbing in the next election. (Spoiler: They’re going to.) His strategic advice? Take a page from the MAGA playbook and stage a hostile takeover of the Conservative Party.

And now, in his most recent email to his supporters, Farage has given his strongest hint yet at a potential return to frontline politics.

The prospect of Farage at the helm of a radicalised Tory party, steering the UK down a path of increased nationalism and xenophobia, is deeply troubling. At Open Britain, we’ve been warning about this possibility for some time now. With these brazen comms, it’s starting to look less like a potential distant nightmare and more a well-planned future reality. The 2029 election may seem a long way off, but the foundations for the profound political shift it could bring are being laid now.

We cannot afford to be complacent. It’s essential we spend the next five years growing, organising, mobilising, and fighting for the values that define us as a nation – openness, tolerance, and unity. We need to counter the siren song of populism with a positive vision of a Britain that works for everyone and secure the functional democracy needed to deliver it.

The next five years will be a pivotal period in our history. The decisions we make – and the policies the next government implements – will shape our country for generations to come. Will we succumb to the politics of division and fear in a country that is a democracy in name only, or will we stand together and build a brighter, more inclusive future with a democracy that works for everyone?

It’s up to all of us to get involved, speak out, and make our voices heard. There are more than a quarter of a million of us in Open Britain. We have the potential to be a powerful force for good. Together, we can ensure that the UK remains a beacon of democracy and hope in an increasingly uncertain world.

Let’s do exactly that.

All the best, The Open Britain Team‘

Why am I not surprised the Sun has interviewed Steve Bannon, who was praising the prospect of Farage taking the reigns of government? Way back in the early part of this century, when the Scum got into trouble for printing a cartoon showing pigs demonstrating against being compared with Arabs, Private Eye reminded its readers that Rupert Murdoch’s mighty organ already had 19 judgements against it for racism by the former Press Complaints Commission. It’s probably no surprise then, that they’re backing the man who used to sing Hitler Youth Songs when a boy at public school.

38 Degrees Poster Campaigning for Proper NHS Dentistry

I’ve had no problems ordering one because of the appalling state decades of Tory/Thatcherite underfunding and ideology have done to dental care and the NHS.

‘David, this is a national embarrassment. Millions of us can’t get NHS dental treatment. [1] Even Ukrainian refugees are travelling back home, in the midst of a brutal war, to get dental treatment. [2] It’s truly shocking.

But with an election on the horizon, we have a real chance for change. [3] Election candidates will soon be out in full force, knocking on doors, desperately trying to win our support. It’s the perfect opportunity to force NHS dentistry up the political agenda.

Since yesterday thousands have signed up to get a poster! But if we’re going to have the impact we want, we need thousands more.

So, David, if you want to help save NHS dentistry will you order a poster to display in your window today? All you have to do is fill out the short form and we’ll send you your A4 poster in the post. Clicking the button below will take you through to a page where you’ll need to enter a few details so we can get your poster in the post as soon as possible:

ORDER A POSTER

This is what your poster could look like, although the final design may vary:

Thanks for all that you do,

Itzel, Mike, Anna, Tom and the 38 Degrees team

PS: We’re aiming to have posters shipped out by the end of May. Please remember 38 Degrees is a campaigning organisation with a small office team and so we don’t have the facilities of an online giant like Amazon. Please be patient with us. Please also note, posters will NOT be shipped outside of the UK. You can read more about the poster on our FAQs page here.‘

NOTES:
[1] iNews: Millions wait for NHS dentist appointments – queues are just tip of the iceberg
[2] BBC News: Ukrainians returning home to get dental treatment
[3] BBC News: General election: When is the next one and who decides?‘

Open Britain on EU Opening Negotiations To Allow Free Travel to Young People

‘Dear David,

One of the many damaging things about Brexit was its massive impact on young people. The referendum (which the young largely voted against) deprivedBritain’s youth of their ability to travel and study abroad, barricading off opportunities and making their home a smaller, less cosmopolitan place.

Successive Conservative governments – hardly ever a mouthpiece for the younger generations – have routinely left the massive impact on Britain’s youth out of the conversation. Even among those willing to have that discussion, concerns arise over whether the EU would actually be willing to entertain any new arrangement with a country as politically unstable as ours is today.

But now there are signs that the Brexit freeze can possibly be lifted. The European Commission today proposedopening new negotiations with the UK over youth mobility, giving young people a thread of hope. While the Council still needs to agree on the proposal, it’s a sign that there is a real chance of repairing the damage done by Brexit – if we ever get a UK government willing to enter negotiations in good faith.

Therein lies the real challenge. Even Labour now view Brexit largely as a “settled” matter. Despite the fact that 87% of young people want to rejoin the EU, and a majority (55%) of the general population say they’d vote to remain if the referendum was held today, we still seem to be locked into the political choices of seven years ago.

Navigating our post-Brexit relationship with Europe democratically will be no easy task, but it’s clear that our current government is simply not up to the job. To do it properly, we’re going to need a system that actually represents the public’s real feelings about Britain’s role in Europe. We’re going to need a real democracy.

In that sense, the only thing holding us back is ourselves. A real democracy that can collectively own the mistakes of the past and move forward is no impossibility in Britain. We know what we need to do to get there. We just have to make it happen.

All the best,

Matt Gallagher

Communications Officer,

Open Britain’

Petition to Restore the Labour Whip to Diane Abbott

I don’t know whether I’ve broken some kind of party political rule by signing this, as I’ve resigned from the Labour party and am actively encouraging people to vote against them. I am also very definitely not a fan of Abbott, as I feel very strongly that she’s an out of touch anti-White racist who is actively ignoring and discouraging any investigation of and action against racism by non-Whites in our multicultural society. But she was one of the few genuinely left-wing MPs left in the Labour party, and aside from race, I agree with her economic views. It is grossly hypocritical for Starmer to complain about Tory racism against her while refusing to restore the whip.

‘ACTION ALERT: 10,000 say to Starmer, restore the whip to Diane!

Sign here // RT here // Share here // Read here.

Hello David

Thanks to over 10,000 of you who’ve signed our petition – if you haven’t yet, don’t delay & add your name now.

We received some press coverage when it reached 10k & you can keep building the pressure by getting to 15k asap – add your name now.

I am also writing with some of the latest articles standing with Diane:

• Over 10,000 Say to Starmer – Restore the Whip to Diane Abbott – featuring Apsana Begum, Bell Ribeiro-Addy, TSSA GS Maryam Eslamdoust, & more – here.
• UCU shows support & calls for whip to be restored – here.
• Political persecution against Diane must stop – Claudia Turbet Delof here.
• Stand with Diane– up the pressure on Starmer – here.

Yours in solidarity,
Matt Willgress, on behalf of the LAAA & Arise volunteers.

PS: Don’t delay – add your name here now.’

Rejoin EU Party on the Brexit Lies about the NHS

Here’s another party political video, but this time from a far more serious alternative party. It’s from the Rejoin the EU party, who are single issue party whose policies are what their name says. It begins with the Brexit video claiming that the NHS would be improved if we left the EU. This the narrator states very clearly and definitely, is lies. It shows the reality in one of the NHS Trusts after we left in another video. A member of staff, perhaps a nurse, tells waiting patients that there is a queue of 90 people and some of them will wait 12 hours before they’re seen.

It does not mention, but very well could, the lie retailed by Grove and Johnson that the £300-odd million that we contributed to the EU would be spent on the NHS. This didn’t happen, and when challenged on the lies BoJo did a reverse ferret and claimed that no such promise had been made. They had only said that it could be spent on the NHS. This is a plain, flat-out lie, as the Leave campaign clearly said on the sides of their adverts on that nation’s buses.

Rejoin the EU seem to be composed of people from across the political divide. One of them, Donnelly, was formerly a Conservative member of the London Assembly, I have found an interview with him and another Rejoiner on YouTube, who make some very interesting points about their party and the state of politics surrounding Brexit. I’d like to post up a bit about it later.

In this election, I strongly recommend that people ignore the big two parties, who are now playing from the same failed Thatcherite script, and vote for alternative candidates. I am therefore posting this video in the same spirit.

Rejoin EU Party Interview SODEM’s Steve Bray

I found this on the Net this morning. I’m not a member of the Rejoin EU party, put I’ve been advising people on this channel to look at the alternative parties if they’re unsatisfied in the direction Labour has gone. By which I means Starmer’s transformation of the party into another version of the Tories. Steve Bray and SODEM, the video tells us, have been campaigning around the country against Brexit for the past eight years. Rejoin EU’s man asks Bray what he has noticed change in this time, and his reply is a sharp reminder how democracy and the right to protest has been undermined by the Tories in this time. Bray states that it began under Johnson and is now worse with Sunak telling the police to arrest protesters. The attitude to protests vary from police force to police force. In London they’ll arrest protesters, but in Liverpool they won’t. But they will in Manchester. The Rejoin EU fellow and Bray joke about that grand city being the next place the Tories will hold their conference. Bray states that the government has been telling the police to crack down on protests. This isn’t democracy, but authoritarianism.

This is all true, although I think the attacks on public protests began under David Cameron. Cameron passed legislation against them under the pretext of protecting residents from the noise and nuisance caused by demonstrations in their areas. And both Blair and Cameron have supported the legislation setting up courts where you can be tried in secret without knowing the evidence against you if this is considered necessary for national security. Open Britain has also described the way the Tories are nobbling the Electoral Commission to allow their infractions of the rules governing elections and the conduct of political campaigns, as well as the pernicious influence of corporate donations and dark money.

As for the EU, despite the attempts by right-wingers like Michael Heaver and Jacob Rees-Mogg to present it as a glowing success, Brexit has done much to wreck this country’s economy. And despite the claims of the anti-migrant Tory lobby that it would it would halt mass migration, it has clearly done no such thing as the continuing arrival of the Channel migrants shows.

Reform Party Attack AD on the Broken Pledges of Keir Starmer

This came up for me the other day on YouTube. Before I start, I am definitely not a member of the Reform Party and won’t vote for them in the coming election. They’re just the Tory right on steroids, who want, as well as an end to immigration, the further privatisation of the NHS and the dismantlement of the welfare state. They did say something a few months ago about partially renationalising the electricity companies, but still wanted it open to investment by the financial sector. As this has been one of the causes of the failure of utilities privatisation in the first place, especially in the perilous financial position imposed by the hedge funds on care homes which resulted in the collapse of so many of them, this is another reason not to vote for them. A few weeks ago I ended up listening to their party conference. This had Ben Habib attempting to convince his audience that we hadn’t really left Europe, because we were still bound by their regulations when trading with them, and Anne Widdecombe. Widdecombe wanted us all to believe that Reform could bring back the days when you could walk in to your doctors’ surgery and see a doctor. Yes, I remember those days from when I was at school. This system vanished because of the privatisation and underfunding introduced by Maggie and the Tories, who included Anne Widdecombe. She declared that this return to proper NHS service could be done. Yes, it can, but not by her, Ben Habib and Richard Tice.

I’m putting this video up, however, as it’s a succinct summary of Keir Starmer’s Lies and broken promises. These include his initial opposition to private healthcare in the NHS, tuition fees and international freedom of movement. It also includes his contradictory statements supporting and condemning Jeremy Corbyn, the return of Shamima Begum, the ISIS bride and how he dumped his previous commitment to the nationalisation of the railways and the utilities. It concludes with an audience member asking Starmer at a Labour party conference how they could ever trust him after so many broken promises. This is followed by a clip of Stalin himself saying that if you can’t keep your promises you shouldn’t make them in the first place. The video concludes with the statement that can’t trust Keir Starmer. Which is absolutely true.

Open Britain Tear into Farage’s Scheme to Act as Bridge-Builder between Trump and the Labour Party

Yes, it is a ridiculous idea. Or it would be if Tony Blair hadn’t been so chummy with his old pal George Dubya that he didn’t go to various Republican conventions in the US. Having radicalised and helped wreck the Tories, Bilious Barrage is clearly looking round for another political role, and clearly thinks he can do it with Starmer in charge of Labour. The really frightening thing is that Starmer, as a true, blue Blairite, might just let him. Here’s Open Britain’s analysis of the situation:

‘Dear David,

The UK’s number one power-seeking provocateur has yet another scheme to get into the limelight. Nigel Farage, seeing the writing on the wall for the Conservative party he worked so hard to radicalise, is now proposing an unlikely alliance with Labour. In the event of a Trump victory across the pond, Farage thinks he can be the “bridge” between the American far-right and a new Labour government.

It’s tempting to just dismiss Farage as the opportunist crank he so clearly is. But that would be to ignore the massive influence his movement has had on British politics over the past decade. Farage’s framings of immigration, Brexit, and British identity (unfortunately) continue to shape our political discourse. Like it or not, he’s got a foothold in our political system, and a Conservative defeat likely won’t be enough to see the back of him.

Farage is no bridge-builder. The man who wants to scrap postal voting, who champions racist conspiracy theories like the “Great Replacement” and the “Deep State”, who disparages the civil service, and who throws petrol on every single culture war fire from 15-minute cities to flags may get Trump’s blessing, but his destructive instincts mean he will always be more inclined to sew discord than start dialogue, so he’s unlikely to be of any value at all to a new Labour government.

This is merely the latest attempt by Britain’s US-backed far-right to weasel their way into a flawed democratic system, despite the polls indicating their ideas are about to be roundly rejected at the ballot box. It’s an attempt to draw Britain even closer to America’s burgeoning far-right, steering us even further away from fairness and accountability.

Even if Trump wins this year, we should not appoint one of his agents as a trade envoy. We should not enable his transatlantic far-right network to worm its way into another european democracy. We should not put the national interest in the hands of someone like Farage, a mouthpiece for American billionaires who would happily stomp all over British values and ways of life if it meant making a buck or two.

Instead, we should focus on removing the financial loopholes and repairing the broken safeguards that empower Farage’s far-right. We should build a democracy powered by real people instead of dirty money from the American uber-wealthy and the Russian oligarchs. We’ve got the blueprints…and, with your support, we will build a democracy that works for everyone, before it’s too late.

Warmest regards,

The Open Britain Team‘

Have GB News Revealed Their Real Views on Democracy?

A day or so ago pro-Palestinian protesters painted graffiti over the Labour party’s headquarters, doubtless in protest at Starmer’s continuing support for the Israeli state and its ethnic cleansing of the Palestinians. GB News has posted a video about this, and the response of Lord Walney. Walney has blamed the far left, of course, and according to the blurb for the video said it shouldn’t be allowed. I haven’t watched the video, but I was struck by its thumbnail. This had the line ‘Democracy has failed!’ Well, I always had the suspicion that GB News didn’t believe in democracy. This is the broadcaster that flouts Ofcom regulations against employing politicians as news presenters. And it has been described by one Labour MP as having two points of view: right, and far right. With this latest headline from them, I’m left wondering if they’ve got a portrait of Oswald Mosley down in the basement. I suppose it’s a good thing that there’s no longer a TV closedown, as there was when I was growing up in the 1970s. The TV companies went off at about 10.30 or so. Just before then, there was the Epilogue, which I think consisted of a clergyman or other spiritual person giving us his thought for the day. Then I think you had the national anthem and that was it. Programmes are over, it’s time for bed. If GB News ended its broadcasting like that, I wonder if instead of ‘God Save the King’, we’d have the Nazi anthem, the Horst Wessel Song, and a photo of Mussolini.

But I think they have a point – democracy has failed. It’s failed because the three main parties don’t believe in it. Leaving aside the controversy over Scotland’s hate crime laws for a moment, neither Labour nor the Tories actually want to give the British public what they want. Poll after poll shows that severely normal Brits want a fully nationalised NHS and trains and the public utilities taken back into public ownership. A majority of Brits also want arms sales to Israel to stop. But neither party wants to enact such policies. Despite the massive profiteering of Thames Water, one of the Tory ministers appeared on TV the other day to say that nationalisation wasn’t the answer. Well, of course not. It would prevent their corporate chums from screwing their customers and then screwing the British taxpayer to bail them out. The Tories have been passing legislation after legislation to make public protests and demonstrations difficult, and both Blair and the Tories also set the legal foundations for secret courts. These are tribunals where, if it is deemed in the interest of national security, the trial may be held behind closed doors with the defendant not informed who his accuser is or the evidence against him.

Democracy is being stifled thanks to Labour and the Tories. It’s time to consider voting for the other parties, like the Greens and Independents, who may offer the voting public what they really want and need.

38 Degrees Petition Against NHS Outsourcing in Advance of Panorama Documentary on Patients Deaths in Treatment Outsourced to Private Hospitals

‘Dear David,

Tonight’s BBC Panorama is dynamite.

Over the past few years, the government has sent NHS patients to get operations in private hospitals, funded by taxpayers.

BBC Panorama just revealed NHS patient deaths following operations in private hospitals.

Unbelievably, Wes Streeting and Victoria Atkins, the Labour and Conservative health leads, are talking about outsourcing even more NHS operations to private hospitals.

We saw how the recent Post Office drama on TV forced politicians to act.

While the whole nation is talking about this Panorama documentary, can you take 1 minute to sign our petition demanding Wes Streeting and Victoria Atkins stop risking patients’ lives and invest in our NHS instead?

Sign the petition now

The vast majority of private hospitals do not have intensive care units, meaning that if patients develop complications there, their lives are in danger.

They don’t have their own staff – they leech over 18,000 doctors from the NHS.

They only accept profitable patients, which means they care more about profits than patients.

Despite only taking the simplest cases, 791 NHS patients who were treated in private hospitals in just four years, have sued those private hospitals for medical negligence – AND WON.

And just last month, an Oxford University study has shown that NHS outsourcing leads to poor quality care for patients.

You can make sure Wes Streeting and Victoria Atkins know that sending patients to private hospitals, is putting patients at risk.

Take 1 minute to sign the petition now and make sure they hear your demand that they invest in the NHS, not private profit

I’ll add my name to this demand

Wes Streeting presents using the private sector as a short term solution that has no negative effect on the NHS and on patients.

But here are 3 reasons outsourcing operations to private hospitals even in the short-term is a terrible policy:

– The NHS uses the most straightforward operations, which are currently outsourced, to train its doctors – outsourcing means the NHS can’t train the doctors needed to fill the nearly 10,000 vacancies for doctors in the NHS.

– Spending NHS money on private hospitals builds up and strengthens private healthcare, and weakens the NHS. This amounts to investing in two-tier healthcare in Britain.

– Using the private hospitals is far more expensive because they end up dumping any complications that arise back onto the NHS – 550 such cases arise every month on average.

78% of the British public, from across the political spectrum, want our NHS fully public – and properly funded.

You have a huge opportunity right now to demand that Wes Streeting adopt your demand that he end NHS outsourcing into the Labour Party’s election manifesto.

Sign the petition now

The NHS has just lived through the worst 14 years of underfunding, understaffing and outsourcing in its history. Please sign and share the petition to show them the strength of opposition to another 5 years of NHS privatisation.

Tonight’s Panorama documentary shows how vital your fight for our NHS is. Thank you for being a part of this fight for an NHS that works for patients, and not the profits of private healthcare shareholders.

Cat, Johnbosco, Matthew, Kate, Imogen, John – the We Own It team’