Tag Archives: politics

If football fans want to become a political force, the next step is obvious.

football lads alliance, FLA, terrorism, antifa, racismIf you’ve ever read any of my books, you’ll know that one thing I’ve written about many times is the issue of fan power. Not just within the game itself, but as a potential political force.

The problem of course, has always been how one would harness that power but it seems that finally, that problem has been overcome by the formation of the Football Lads Alliance. A group which might have it’s origins within the great game, but which has seemingly struck a chord with a wider section of society. One which up until recently had felt largely ignored; Middle England.

I won’t go into what the FLA is all about (you can read more here) but the last march in London drew well in excess of 50,000 supporters (some estimated it to be closer to 60,000) from all over the UK and as we prepare to march again in Birmingham this Saturday (Gathering from 12.00 in Curzon Street and 12.30 in Victoria Square if you fancy coming along) I thought it might be worth sharing this extract from my book Barmy Army. 

First published in 2000, it discusses an idea which caused quite a stir when it was first mooted and that is the formation of a single issue political party. The Football Party.

Times have obviously changed since I first wrote this and the concerns of the FLA certainly extend way beyond the confines of football but the general principle remains the same and it remains sound.

The problem however, was always where to start but given what has been achieved by the FLA in such a short time in terms of generating both momentum and interest, that problem has already been circumnavigated. So the key question is what to do next.

The answer is obvious. For if it is to make a genuine statement of intent, the clear target has to be the next round of mayoral elections which are due to take place in 2020. That might seem pie in the sky but before you dismiss the idea, consider these  two simple facts.

1. Most of our major cities have more than one professional club within their boundaries with each generating sizeable and passionate support of a kind every political party would kill for. London alone, has 14 professional clubs within the M25.

2. Only 42.6% of the population of our capital voted at the last Mayoral election. In Manchester, the turnout in 2017 was just 28.9% of the electorate whilst in Liverpool, it was 26.1%. Indeed, the mayor of that great city was elected with just 171,176 votes (and for reference, 53,287 watched Liverpool hammer Watford on Saturday).

If that’s not food for thought, I don’t know what is.

Read on.

Extract from Barmy Army (2000)

So if we are to force action, then it must be done in a way which the clubs are unable to ignore. And in this country, every football fan over the age of 18 has something which those in authority have to take notice of. It’s called a vote.

A few years ago, I suggested the formation of a single issue political lobby group called the Football Party. Initially, the suggestion was that people would stand for their local council to give fans a say in issues that directly affected their local club. It was an approach that proved astonishingly successful in 1990 when supporters of Charlton Athletic FC formed The Valley Party in an ultimately successful campaign to get the club back to their spiritual home.

Such was the response, it quickly became apparent that many supporters believed that this local angle was an idea worth developing. But many people wrote to me and said we had to think big and aim higher. The more I thought about that, the more plausible the whole thing sounded. What finally convinced me that the concept of a national Football Party was a sound one was when I realised that the average local election generates a turnout of less that 40 per cent and that while over 12 million people voted for the Tories in the 1992 general election, approximately 25 million watched the England v Germany semi-final in Italia ’90. What this proved to me once and for all was that if you went canvassing around every pub, club, house and factory, and told the electorate that you were standing to give them a say within the football world, there’d undoubtedly be good support, and as soon as the established parties saw there were votes in it, their policies and actions would change so as to give football a kick up the arse.

As a result, I sat down and wrote out a manifesto, one aimed not just at local councils but also at general and European elections. It included four main points. First, the formation of an independent, credible and properly funded body to represent the views and opinions of football supporters from every level of the game; second, the appointment of supporters’ representatives to the committees of both the Football Association and the Football Trust; third, the appointment of an elected supporters’ representative to the board of every professional football club; and finally, the appointment of an ombudsman or regulator to oversee the activities of the Football Association, the Football Trust, the Premier League and its members, the Football League and its members and supporters’ groups.

In August 1998, when it was first released to the press and various supporters’ groups, the response was amazing. Yet sadly, the people I wanted to react, the football authorities and the government, paid it little heed. Undaunted, I carried on. More support poured in and the manifesto began to appear all over the Internet. I had enquiries about it from all over Europe and as far afield as Australia. It had certainly captured the imagination of supporters. However, the campaign eventually began to take its toll on me, both in terms of time and finances and I was forced to put it onto the back burner. But the idea is still very much alive and the very fact that so many people continue to respond to it proves that it is sound. It sure would rock the boat were it ever to come off.

The mere idea that football fans throughout the country could even consider voting for a fat git like me proves how desperate they are to be involved in the game they love. Every supporter has a role to play in the future of the game, and that doesn’t just apply to the hooligan issue but to every single aspect of football. Every major political party recognises that fact – which is, after all, why Tony Blair does so many stupid photo-calls – but still they do nothing about it. That is not good enough. If football will not provide us with a properly funded platform through which we can be heard and demand answers, then the government must make sure they do. And if they don’t, that’s when we should use our vote, because that is the one thing all politicians are truly scared of. All we need to do is to get organised; but how we actually do that is anyone’s guess.

Yet it has to happen. For only by wielding the immense power we as football fans have at our disposal will we ever see an end to the problems facing football, from the asset-stripping to the financial incompetence, greed and sheer hypocrisy of those who supposedly run our game on our behalf. For too long now they have got away with shafting us. They have placed us in danger, sold our very game from under our feet and in far too many cases to note here, have walked away with bank accounts bursting at the seams with money that came out of our pockets. It’s not right and the time has come to do something about it.

If you want to read more on this, Barmy Army is available to download via this link. There is also more on the subject of football protest movement in my book, Rebellion which is available here.

@dougiebrimson

The Crew. A thriller by Dougie Brimson
The Crew

Two additional plugs, I’m still giving away ebooks versions of two of my best-selling books The Crew and Everywhere We Go. Further details can be found by clicking on the links or here Free Books where you will also find details of all my other publications.

Aside from all that, work continues apace on developing the film version of Wings of a Sparrow as well as the thriller Three Greens and a couple of other movie projects. I’m also working hard on the third book in the The Crew/Top Dog trilogy.

Exciting times! green street, top dog, football, soccer, politics, screenwriting, film, author, writing, hooliganism, England, world cup, hillsborough, twitter, social media, facebook, 

The Football Lads Alliance – Are Middle England finally on the march?

FLA, football lads alliance, politics, terroismAs you may or may not have noticed, I have been quiet of late.

To be honest, much of this has been to do with the fact that I’ve become so pissed off with the state of this country and the continuing failure to deliver Brexit that I was worried that if I went on a rant, I’d be unable to restrain myself and would carry on until I wrote something which would end up with me sitting in a cell somewhere.

OK, that’s not strictly true. The truth is that I stopped blogging about the political landscape because I was becoming increasingly frustrated. Let’s face it, things are so screwed up at the moment that the hardest part about ranting about it is knowing where to start let alone stop. I mean, Sadiq Khan…. seriously?

So I have instead been channeling my angst into various projects and dragging them to the point where they’re a rewrite away from launch. These include Billy’s Log 2, the third book in the The Crew/Top Dog trilogy and a new script I’ve been working on with a lawyer chum of mine about the power of the universe.

Indeed, this last project has been especially interesting of late especially for someone like me who enjoys a bit of karma. Something which will become even more evident fairly shortly.

However, and if you’re a regular reader of this blog you’ll know that there is always a however, my enthusiasm for the future of my country has been rekindled. For next Saturday (7th) I’ll be one of many tens of thousands marching in London to protest against this governments continuing failure to confront extremist terrorism in our country.

Yes, the Football Lads Alliance are taking to the streets again, and this time, the ranks will be swelled by a large contingent from the veteran community.

I’m not going to go too deeply into the specifics here (if you want them, click here) other than to say that despite what certain factions are attempting to claim, the Football Lads Alliance is neither political nor racist. Indeed, it’s fairly safe to say that from day one the leadership have been at pains to create a totally inclusive movement by weeding out anyone who might have anything other than the core message at heart. I certainly wouldn’t be involved were that not the case but here I am.

So if, like me, you’ve become sick of hearing that the only way to combat terrorism is to be reactive, if you’re angry at photo’s of dead children on the front pages, tired of hashtags, vigils and coloured lights on the Wembley Arch and increasingly frustrated at the governments reluctance to go on the offensive against this cancer which exists amongst us, then come and join me.

It’s time for the silent majority to take a stand. Front and centre.

@dougiebrimson

football, soccer, comedy, cost of football, manchester united, liverpool, derby, watfordJust in case you didn’t already know, all of my books and DVD’s are available from both Amazon and iTunes.

Further information at dougiebrimson.com

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50 common sense political policies to make Britain great again. Part Two.

Yesterday, in response to some of the madness that has been tricking out into the public domain lately, I posted the first half of my 50 policies that I would adopt were I to be placed in charge of this once great country. You can read this by clicking here.

However, before I post the remaining 25, I feel I must comment on something that hit the news yesterday and that is the subject of Gender Neutrality in adverts.  The trouble is, I don’t know where to start because it is such absolute bloody madness that I had to check that yesterday wasn’t April 1st.

Quite why this country enables and allows these morons to dictate to us genuinely escapes me and if anything, it reinforces the idea that for the sake of the future of this country, we need someone to kick start a backlash against political correctness.

What really saddens me is that so powerful has this lobby become that no one in the public eye is prepared to stand up and call it out for the craziness that it is. Instead, they stay quiet and so the media fascists are able to railroad their agenda through without hinderance. And who suffers? Yes, we do.

It has to stop. It has to be stopped.

Here are the remaining 25 policies. Enjoy, and comment if you feel the need!

26. Make St. Georges Day a national holiday and adopt Jerusalem as the national anthem of England.

27. Have a genuinely English parliament in line with the other countries of the union.

28. Make it illegal for teachers to show political or religious bias in schools.

29. Properly fund the public and social services as priorities. They underpin this country.

30. Enforce the laws against illegal practices carried out on religious or cultural grounds.

31. Make repairing the roads an absolute priority.

32. Carry out an urgent investigation into where and how the money being raised by major charities is being spent.

33. Suspend all historic enquiries into the activities of our Armed Forces .

34. Ban the use of mobile phones in schools.

35. Anyone caught using a phone whilst driving should have it confiscated on the spot.

36. Anyone granted residency who commits a criminal offence requiring a custodial sentence within 5 years should instantly forfeit their British passport and face immediate deportation to their country of origin.

37. Anyone caught using a disabled badge illegally should have their car seized immediately.

38. Charge people for failing to attend NHS appointments.

39. Charge people for A&E services if their visits are drink or drug related.

40. Charge overseas lorry drivers for the use of our road network and put the money raised into the budget to fix the roads.

41. Any individual granted residency who shows an affiliation to any political or religious organisation dedicated to the overthrow of our nation and it’s democratic or Christian values should immediately forfeit their British passport and be deported to their country of origin. Their immediate family should also face the same sanctions.

42. If Sky TV move games at late notice, then they should be made to compensate the travelling supporters.

43. End the practice of having different rules for different countries in the union. Either we all have free prescriptions and tuition fee’s, or none do.

44. Air ambulances should not be reliant on charity and nor would they be. Same goes for the RNLI.

45. Anyone from overseas who serves or has served in HM Armed Forces would automatically have right to remain here for the rest of their natural lives.

46. Stop the practice of buy to invest by doubling the community charge bill for any properties left intentionally empty for more than three months. Properties left intentionally empty for more than 12 months would be seized for use by the local authorities for a negligible rent.

47. Make it a legal requirement for councils to house veterans as a priority.

48. Legalise the use of water cannon when necessary in the UK (and put dye in the water).

49. Make assaults on all public service workers a criminal offence.

50. Identify cases where political correctness is being used to pander to minorities and apply basic common sense to bring the country back from this liberalistic madness. For example, and as previously stated, the concept of ’gender neutrality’ is pure nonsense.

.

@dougiebrimson

romance, life, love, beer, sexAs some of you may be aware, I’ve been beavering away on the sequel to Billy’s Log for some time now and am currently publishing extracts online in ‘Billy’s Blog’.

Please click here to visit and if you enjoy it, feel free to spread the word!

football, soccer, comedy, cost of football, manchester united, liverpool, derby, watfordJust in case you didn’t already know, all of my books and DVD’s are available from both Amazon and iTunes.

Further information at dougiebrimson.com

beer, lads, women, men, relationships, sex, love, romance, author, screenwriting, ebooks, self publishing, indie film, football

50 common sense political policies to make Britain great again. Pt 1.

As anyone who knows me or reads my blogs on a regular basis will know, I am a huge advocate of something that has seemingly become old-fashioned in this modern age. It’s called common sense. And it’s demise has not simply weakened this country, it’s made it a laughing-stock.

I know, for example, that coffee is hot and that heat burns therefore I don’t need to have a label on my cup reminding me of that fact (although if you think I look so dense that I do, maybe you shouldn’t be selling it to me in the first place). Similarly, I can work out for myself that peanut butter contains nuts, fish fingers contain fish and that vegetables are suitable for vegetarians.

Common sense is, of course, most notably lacking in those who we have charged to run our country and this week that has been brought home in the most brutal way possible by news that the aircraft brought to replace the Harrier, in my humble opinion the greatest fighter aircraft of modern times, is not fit for purpose. A simple fact almost everyone with links to the Royal Air Force could have told them years ago saving billions of pounds. OUR pounds.

So, with this madness in mind, in the extremely unlikely of my assuming power over my country of birth, I thought it time to compile a list of 50 things that would sit high up on my ‘to do’ list. All of them seem to be perfectly reasonable to me yet for whatever reason, none seem to feature in the minds of the current government. In some cases, quite the opposite. Which kind of proves my point.

They are listed in no particular order and I’ll publish half now and the rest tomorrow but if you think I’ve missed anything off, please feel free to suggest it and if it’s sensible, I’ll add it to my manifesto. Come the revolution, I may even offer you a job.

Similarly, if anything here offends you, then maybe you should consider why and how your feelings are being hurt because as far as I’m concerned, you’re part of the problem. Remember, you can’t be offended, you can only take offence. A simple truth that political correctness seems to have eradicated from this once great land.

  1. Make it illegal for anyone under 25 to stand for parliament. How can anyone be an effective MP if they have no genuine experience of either life or working?
  2. Equal pay and rights for women. It’s 2017, not 1917.
  3. Actively target the big tax avoiders. They’ve had a decent run, now hit them, hard.
  4. Scrap HS2. It has it’s merits, but the cost outweighs every single one of them.
  5. Enforce random drug and alcohol testing for anyone on unemployment benefits. If people have to undergo them at work, why shouldn’t those who are seeking work?
  6. Pay the public services a decent wage. Not just as a reward for the amazing service they give, but to encourage people to look seriously at them as potential careers. 
  7. Scrap car parking charges at hospitals. Full stop. Yes, I know they raise money but where does that money come from? Staff, patients and people visiting patients. I mean, FFS.
  8. Make everyone carry a photo I.D card which has to be produced on request. Ok, I know that this is a contentious issue but let’s face it, we have to do something to find out who should or should not be living here and using our precious resources.
  9. Limit the number of Uber drivers in London. They’re flooding the capital with shit driving.
  10. Make all Taxi and Uber drivers display photo ID at all times.
  11. Schools should be teaching the following: basic manners, courtesy and respect, the notion of personal responsibility, basic money handling and basic first aid.
  12. Wind down Overseas Aid to zero over the next five years and use the money saved to fund proper mental health care and support for pensioners needing care. If individuals want to fund projects overseas, there are plenty of charities they can hand money to. 
  13. Scrap the practice of pensioners having to pay for their care in later life. The majority will have paid taxes all their lives and so we have a duty to look after them. Period.
  14. Stop the practice of benefits being sent abroad. 
  15. Stop the practice of refugees bringing their families to the UK.
  16. Anyone who has been granted asylum in the UK who returns to their country of origin for any reason within five years should forfeit their British passport immediately. If they can visit a place they supposedly fled from, it can’t have been that bad. 
  17. Carry out an urgent review of train fares and limit them as appropriate. They’re madness.
  18. Voting to be made compulsory. We should also have a system of online voting or if voting in person, be required to produce photo ID to prove we are who we say we are.
  19. Ban the sale of any meat killed to satisfy some warped religious idealism. It’s cruel and barbaric.
  20. Anyone who has been on employment benefits for over 6 months has to carry out some kind of community work to earn their money. 
  21. Set up a system where anyone who has been out of work for a year has to accept jobs offered to them or they lose their benefits. As long as those jobs offered are on or above the minimum wage, why not?
  22. Campaign actively to remind people that every penny the government spends or gives away is OUR money, not theirs. Some people seem to have forgotten that simple reality.
  23. Make it an offence to have your face covered in public unless it’s either cold or you’re riding a motorbike.
  24. Let the police actually and actively enforce the law of this land rather than force them to try and be everyone’s mate.
  25. Make the desecration of the national flag or national monuments a criminal offence.         

    @dougiebrimson

romance, life, love, beer, sexAs some of you may be aware, I’ve been beavering away on the sequel to Billy’s Log for some time now and am currently publishing extracts online in ‘Billy’s Blog’.

Please click here to visit and if you enjoy it, feel free to spread the word!

football, soccer, comedy, cost of football, manchester united, liverpool, derby, watfordJust in case you didn’t already know, all of my books and DVD’s are available from both Amazon and iTunes.

Further information at dougiebrimson.com

beer, lads, women, men, relationships, sex, love, romance, author, screenwriting, ebooks, self publishing, indie film, football

Is Middle England finally starting to find its true voice?

football lads allianceSomething amazing happened in London on Saturday.

You might not have heard about it because for some reason, the mainstream media didn’t think it was important enough to warrant even a mention. Neither did a single politician including the wonderful Mayor of London who will usually be found at the opening of an envelope.

But it was important, incredibly so.

Because what we saw, possibly for the first time, was a sizeable gathering of people from amongst what many would normally refer to as the silent majority. And unlike the kind of march we are used to seeing involving Corbyn and Co, this one passed without a hint of trouble. Indeed, both the organisers and participants have received glowing praise from the Metropolitan Police for the way it was organised and conducted.

This, in itself, is significant enough but what makes it amazing, incredible even, is that the majority of the people involved were football fans. Or rather, football lads. Working class males from clubs up and down the land who put their rivalries aside for the day and marched side by side to show their support for a common cause. 

Yes, that’s right. West Ham walked with Millwall, Spurs walked with Arsenal, and a hundred more besides walked together under the banner of The Football Lads Alliance to protest against extremism on our shores. As a show of public solidarity from the working class, it doesn’t get any bigger.

Inevitably, The Football Lads Alliance has been tagged as extreme right-wing and social media is currently awash with left-wing trolls trying to goad those who support it with accusations of racism and Islamophobia and even that this is the EDL reborn. That’s what they do to suppress anything that doesn’t fit in with their crazed idealism.

But this time, they are wrong. Instead, all they’re actually doing is showing that they’re scared. Scared that their worst nightmares are beginning to come true and that something they can’t bully or shout down has begun. 

I have spoken a lot about the silent majority of middle England over the last few months and how it has remained relatively silent in the face of the relentless attacks on it in the wake of both Brexit and the general election. Now, finally, it seems that it’s beginning to wake up from its slumber and find its voice.

When that happens, as history has proven many times, you ignore it at your peril.

Take heed.

@dougiebrimson

sex, lads romance, love, vibrator, george clooney, fart

football, soccer, comedy, cost of football, manchester united, liverpool, derby, watfordJust in case you didn’t already know, all of my books and DVD’s are available from both Amazon and iTunes.

Further information at dougiebrimson.com

beer, lads, women, men, relationships, sex, love, romance, author, screenwriting, ebooks, self publishing, indie film, football

 

Why the remainers must stop whining and embrace Brexit.

brexit,leaveEU,government,europeRemainers really are a funny bunch.

Not content with refusing to accept Brexit, they seem determined to convince those of us who voted to leave the EU that we are somehow inferior to them.

We were lied to (read stupid), we didn’t know what we were voting for (read stupid), we are racist (read stupid), we are guilty of selling future generations down the river (read stupid) or best of all, if we could vote again, we would vote to remain (read stupid).

Condescension is of course, a standard tactic of the modern day left and despite the fact that it has failed them spectacularly for over ten years, there seems little indication that things will ever change. Indeed, when condescension fails, the default is now hatred and if you doubt that, post something pro-Tory, pro-UKIP or pro-Trump on Twitter and see how long it is before you come under attack.

The reason for this is of course, that a change of tactic would involve admitting that a different opinion has a degree of validity and since there’s more chance of Diane Abbott becoming PM than of that ever happening, it’s far easier (safer) to continue doggedly along the same badly worn path and suppress (shout down) those who don’t agree with the party line.

However, this lack of respect for differing opinions is not only staggeringly offensive, it also has consequences and those consequences are potentially dangerous for all of us. The left might call for free and open debates on a regular basis but they know full well it will never happen. After all, how can you ever hope to have a discussion on anything when one side is hampered by the petulance and arrogance of the other? The truth is that you can’t, yet thanks to the rantings of the left in recent years, that is where both politics and our supposedly free society have ended up. That’s incredibly sad because such arrogance can only result in one thing and that’s division. And what does division cause? Anger, suffering, hatred and ultimately, failure. 

I’m not saying that everyone on the right is an angel, far from it, nor am I saying that there is no place for an opposition because obviously, be they left or right they have a vital part to play in the democratic process. But with intransigence seemingly part of the average lefties DNA, on the issue of Brexit there has to be a point where those who are opposed to it take the individual decision to set aside their bitterness and start helping to make the best of what the nations voters have delivered.  

Patriotism might be a dirty word to many on the left but it is a fact that the only way to secure our future prosperity is by backing ourselves and our country to the hilt. Failure to do so can only spell disaster.

In other news:

Three Greens is on it’s way to pre-production and the team is hoping to be able to make a huge announcement about our principal cast within the week.

In addition, I’ve been working on an entirely new project which I hope to be able to announce after the Berlin Film Festival which is currently in full swing. 

Positive vibes please people! The more the better!

@dougiebrimson

sex, lads romance, love, vibrator, george clooney, fart

football, soccer, comedy, cost of football, manchester united, liverpool, derby, watfordJust in case you didn’t already know, all of my books and DVD’s are available from both Amazon and iTunes.

Further information at dougiebrimson.com

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The joy of Brexit… and Trump… and ‘Yes’.

brexit, trump, EUI am, by nature, something of a miserable sod. Indeed, as anyone who knows me will know, moaning isn’t just second nature to me, it is my nature. Football, work, politics, telly… the subject is irrelevant. If it irks me, I’ll moan about it. Often for days.

There will however, eventually come a point where I’ll say ‘f**k it’ and move on. For even I will realise that the only thing moaning will ever change is my mood.

Sadly, this is not a lesson the ‘remainers’ of this little island of ours seem capable of learning. For despite it being months since they woke up to the gut wrenching feeling of being proved wrong, they are still moaning about the result of the EU Referendum. And they’re not alone. The tide of bitterness which followed the Scottish referendum shows no sign of abating and now they’ve been joined by the anti-Trump brigade. A group who are giving new meaning to the term ‘bad loser’.

Now whilst their continued angst is all highly amusing to those of us who voted to leave the EU, to remain as part of the Union or to put Trump into the White House one does have to wonder how long they are going to continue whining before they actually accept the result. Because at some point, like it or not, they are going to have to and that’s going to be a huge problem for them. Mostly, I suspect, because the vast majority aren’t football fans.

You see those of us who follow the great game are all too familiar with the gut-wrenching feeling of defeat and so are quickly able to put it behind us before moving on. Those who don’t, have no idea what humble pie tastes like and so would rather choke on it than swallow it.

OK, I know I’m being flippant, but be it in the UK or the US, there has to be some reason why people refuse to accept the outcome of a democratic process which millions have died to defend. And that reason has to be more credible than the idea that those individuals are so arrogant that they are incapable of accepting that they are in the minority.

Doesn’t there?

.

@dougiebrimson

sex, lads romance, love, vibrator, george clooney, fart

Just in case you didn’t already know, all of my books and DVD’s are available from both Amazon and iTunes.

Further information can be found at dougiebrimson.com

 

Why Trump’s victory was really a victory for free thinking.

trump,clinton,brexit,farage,EUSo the dust has settled and the results are in. Guess what? Trump won. Guess what else, it was never in doubt.

Why? Because just as they did with Brexit and the last general election (and one could even include the Scottish referendum) the liberal left and their politically correct idealism blew it. They were always going to. It’s what they do.

They simply cannot grasp the simple truth that shouting people down and bullying them with accusations of idiocy, racism, Islamophobia, Xenophobia and/or homophobia doesn’t make them change their mind, it pisses them off. And whilst they might be right in thinking that wearing a mask and throwing stuff at the Old Bill is going to send a message to the masses, it certainly isn’t going to be the message they want to send.

Yet time after time we see, read and hear this bizarre approach to the democratic process and it’s this refusal to learn from their mistakes coupled with their ingrained inability to accept that in a free society reasoned debate should be encouraged rather than suppressed that explains why the taste of defeat has become so familiar to them. But then again, as someone who voted for Brexit and who wanted Trump to win, what do I care? After all, if they lose, I win. Or rather, we win.

Carry on lefties. You’re doing a fine job. Albeit not the one you’re hoping for. 

@dougiebrimson

sex, lads romance, love, vibrator, george clooney, fart

Just in case you didn’t already know, all of my books and DVD’s are available from both Amazon and iTunes.

Further information can be found at dougiebrimson.com

screenwriting, author, ebooks, kindle, green street, writing

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Why tax is key to the case for Brexit.

As the inevitable mud slinging and bullshit battle gathers pace ahead of the European referendum on June 23rd, there is one issue I have found increasingly irritating.

My growing annoyance was given further momentum in the wake of the budget and the subsequent, and wholly justified, furore about the Tories plans to mess about with the Personal Independence Payment.

It is, quite simply, the issue of taxation. Not the fact that numerous corporations are somehow allowed to avoid paying it nor the fact that we as individuals have no choice but to pay it, but the way that we, as the public, perceive it. For the reality is that when it comes to the subject of tax, the majority of us are idiots because we fail to grasp, and keep a very firm grip on, one simple fact.

When the press and the government talk about taxpayers, they are talking about us. You and me. Therefore when they talk about taxpayers money, what they are actually talking about is YOUR money, OUR money, MY money.

So the next time you read about the £20,000.000,000 we hand to the EU every year, take a second to think about how much of that is actually yours. Picked from your pocket via income tax, VAT or any of the myriad ways the government have developed to remove your hard earned from your pocket. Then think about where that money could, and should, be better spent.

If you are anything like me, the list will be long and it will be local because I don’t want my taxes propping up the Greek economy or wasted on bizarre projects like ‘Donkeypedia’ (Google it!) I want them spent where they will make a difference to me and the people I care about. That’s why I will be voting to leave on June 23rd. Well, that and security, sovereignty, etc, etc.

However, if you are still in any doubt as to where your own vote might go, if there is a more graphic illustration of the need to leave than the current situation regarding the 5% VAT paid on sanitary products, I can’t think what it is.

The fact that our government has only been allowed to even talk about scrapping this ridiculous tax after a long and protracted spell of grovelling at the feet of the European Parliament is a shame on this once proud nation.

Do I really need to say any more?

@dougiebrimson

football, comedy, humour, rivals, derby, soccer, premier league, championship, manchester united, chelsea, liverpoolMy numerous books including the football comedy Wings of a Sparrow and the #1 thrillers, The Crew and Top Dog are available from both Amazon and iTunes.  

Please click on the relevant link for more information.

Brexit, LeaveEU, veteran, politics, Tory, Great Britain

Brexit? It’s a no brainer.

brext, europe, britain, politics, referendumThe other day, I employed the power of Facebook to ask for a single sensible reason why we should remain as members of the EU.

Amongst the deluge of responses providing me with reasons to the contrary, I received only a single pro-Europe voice which made the claim that were we to vote to leave, the banking industry would flee our little island in droves and as a consequence, the banking industry would suffer.

Well with the utmost respect to those at the coal face of the industry, in terms of eliciting sympathy, bankers rate fairly highly on the ‘fuck off’ scale and indeed, the majority of people who responded to me would seemingly be delighted to see them getting a taste of the medicine they’ve spent years creating. (Go and see The Big Short. Honestly… go see it!)

This reaction didn’t exactly come as a surprise. I’ve never made any secret of the fact that I’m English first, British second and European never and for decades I’ve watched helplessly as my country slipped ever deeper into the cesspool that is the EU. As a consequence, the opportunity to leave genuinely excites me, and for two particular reasons.

Firstly, I think it’s fairly obvious to anyone who lives in the real world, as opposed to an ivory tower or the wilds of Cumbria, that our housing and public services are at breaking point. And despite the liberal-left screaming that this is all due to a lack of investment by the Tory government (whilst conveniently forgetting the 15 years we endured under Blair and Co) the stark reality is that we are in this situation because our population has risen by around 10% since 2000. We might not be full, but it certainly feels and looks that way in parts of the country. It is therefore imperative that we gain proper control of our borders which is something we simply do not have at the moment and nor will we have whilst a member of this mess.

Secondly, membership of the EU costs us £55,000,000 per day. Think about that for a second. Yes, we get chunks back in subsidies but official figures still put the cost to us, the British tax payer, at between £33,000,000 and £20,000,000  per day. Do I really need to say any more on why that is utter madness?

Inevitably, having finally woken up to the fact that the majority of the population want out, the ‘stay’ campaign have begun a policy of scaremongering (‘jungles’ in Kent’… seriously?) whilst even that well known lover of all things British, the joyous Ms Merkel, has begun pleading with us to remain. Of course she has, she’s suddenly realised that fairly soon she’s going to be looking into a daily black hole where our £33,000,000 should have been as well as having to deal with a refugee crisis which could not have been handled any more appallingly if she’d tried.

Well those are her problems, not ours. And whilst I’m not daft enough to accept that it won’t be a bed of roses from day one, I fail to see how in the long term, the UK can fail to prosper away from an organisation which is absolutely nothing like the one we originally signed up for back in 1973. We might even start putting the Great back into Great Britain.

It’s a no brainer for me, Brexit all the way. The sooner the bloody better.

PS: I must reluctantly make reference to this, if only because it’s one of the sticks being used to beat the ‘Leave’ lobby. If you’re reason for voting to remain in the EU has anything to do with UKIP, I would urge you to think again. Don’t vote to stay because you don’t like Nigel Farage, vote to leave because it’s the right thing for the country, and ultimately, for you.

Speaking of Facebook, and apologies for repeating myself, but as some people are aware, I am one of a number of people involved in a legal dispute with Jonathan Sothcott, the producer of Top Dog.

I won’t go into details here as it’s now a matter for HMRC and the police who have already interviewed him in connection with our allegations. However, both Top Dog Films Ltd and We Still Kill The Old Way Ltd, have recently been wound up on account of unpaid invoices and as a consequence, the investigator for the Official Receiver has contacted me and requested that anyone remaining unpaid for work on Top Dog, We Still Kill or for that matter, any film made by one of Jonathan Sothcott’s companies, contact him direct as a matter of urgency.

His details are: Andrew Beckett, Official Receivers Office, The Insolvency Service (London), 2nd Floor, Abbey Orchard Street, London, SW1P 2HT .

Tel: 0207 637 6337 email: andrew.beckett@insolvency.gsi.gov.uk

@dougiebrimson

football, comedy, humour, rivals, derby, soccer, premier league, championship, manchester united, chelsea, liverpoolMy numerous books including the football comedy Wings of a Sparrow and the #1 thrillers, The Crew and Top Dog are available from both Amazon and iTunes.  

Please click on the relevant link for more information.

Georgina, refugee, brexit, politics, author, screenwriter, racism, racist, hooligans, blogger, UKIP, Farage, Sothcott