***Disclaimer: All views expressed on this site are my own, and not necessarily the views of Reform UK ***
A little about me…
After a long career in IT, as a technician and manager, working for a number of large companies including Bass, Saga Insurance and Accenture, it was time for a change.
I have always had a great interest in politics, so around seven years ago I decided to get actively involved.
I wanted to test the problem solving and organisational skills I had developed in a different environment.
“The world of politics” would definitely prove to be very different, but I have always relished a challenge !
A passionate believer in a strong, independent United Kingdom, I initially got involved in campaigning to leave the EU.
I led the campaign to Leave in Sandwell, and was delighted when two thirds of the people who live here voted “Out”.
Whilst I have a number of issues with the way our departure has been handled, not least the abject betrayal of our fishing industries and coastal towns, and the ridiculous, ultimately unworkable “fudge” that is the Northern Ireland Protocol,
– I believe the way the EU is currently behaving over vaccines, more than justifies our decision to Leave in June 2016.
Nasty, petty, vindicate, spiteful, nonsensical, pathetic. “Choose your adjective”.
I would suggest most of them could reasonably be used when describing the actions of EU leaders in recent weeks and months.
It’s becoming increasing clear, even to some former “Arch Remainers/Rejoiners”,
– that we are very much Better Off Out.
Why did I run against Andy Street to become the next West Midlands Metro Mayor in 2021?
First and foremost, I care passionately about the West Midlands.
And I have hated to watch the way it has been run by Labour locally, and Conservatives nationally for the last decade.
I have lived here all my life, I wanted to play my part in helping the region return to being the thriving “engine of the UK” that it used to be.
We have now returned to Conservative and Labour parties being very hard to tell apart.
Conservatives dream up ever more ways to restrict our freedoms and have the state control every aspect of our lives, Labour says “yes”,
– “but can we have them imposed sooner, more harshly, and can they last longer please?”
Despite the fact more than 80% of the adults in the UK have now been vaccinated, and almost everyone in the vulnerable groups, where 99% of fatalities have occurred, most of our personal freedoms have still not been returned.
There is no longer any possible justification for restricting our lives in the most severe way. Never again should we put up with it being made “illegal” to visit members of our close family. We must say “No”.
Promises have been constantly broken, goalposts regularly moved. Confusion reigns.
Not only are people’s lives still being regularly restricted and made miserable unnecessarily,
– huge numbers of businesses are on the point of folding, and may well do so if they are prevented from trading freely again, over the Winter of 2021/2022, which sadly now looks almost certain.
(At the time of writing, mid September 2021, we are being told that if the NHS should become “under pressure”,
– we will see a return to the Lockdowns and compulsory mask mandates of the previous Winter, plus in addition the introduction of so-called Vaccine Passports, essentially creating a “Papers Please!” society,
– Health Id checkpoints, initially on the entry to nightclubs, sports and entertainment venues, no doubt soon followed by an extension to pubs, restaurants, even shops, as has already been implemented in France.
This will only happen “if the NHS comes under pressure”. In other words, as it has done every Winter, for the last decade at least, and those Winters were ‘pre-Covid19.’
So no prizes for guessing what we have in store for us…)
Our country appears to be being run by a group of scientists who are obsessed with Covid-19, and Covid-19 statistics.
Around 450 people die every day from cancer, the number of deaths from Covid-19 remains many times smaller, yet receives almost 100% of the attention of both government ministers and their complicit Mass Media.
450 is just cancer deaths.
Heart disease, diabetes, suicide, people continue to die from many other causes,
(seemingly unbeknown to SAGE, independent SAGE, and all the other scientists now determining how we live our lives, or if they get their way, largely don’t live them any more…. )
– and in far greater numbers than those sadly dying as a result of contracting Covid-19.
Fundamentally I am a libertarian. I believe that wherever possible, whenever possible, people should be allowed to make their own choices, and that left to do so, they will usually make the right ones.
I didn’t campaign to leave an organisation where a group of unelected, power-crazed people are clearly desperate to run every aspect of our lives (the EU)
– only to sit back and accept similar, if not even worse from ministers in a UK government.
The key difference of course is, we can get rid of UK governments at the ballot box.
Even if there are no Parliamentary elections until 2024, we can send MPs and the Prime Minister a strong message in any elections which are being held prior (in most areas these will be council elections, early May 2022).
There is now a mountain of evidence from across the globe showing Lockdowns and mask mandates make very little difference to the inexorable spread of Covid-19 throughout population groups.
I have detailed some of this elsewhere on this site, however as they say “a picture paints a thousand words” :
What almost no one disputes, because it is so obvious,
– is that Lockdowns do a great deal of harm. They make the poorest poorer, and the rich richer.
Young people tend to be less well off than older ones. They are being hit the hardest of all.
There is a direct relationship between poverty and ill health/early death.
Lockdowns cripple economies.
Whilst Amazon and the like are “doing great”, smaller shops on the High Street are closing, and may well never reopen.
Even the World Health Organisation clearly states that Lockdowns should only ever be used to avoid national health systems being overwhelmed.
They should not be used simply “to ease pressure on them”.
In addition to the “chains around our lives and movement”, our freedom of speech is also being restricted in all kinds of ways.
If I venture on to Social Media and say something which contradicts the World Health Organisation’s standpoint on Covid-19, Facebook or Twitter will either take my comments down, or simply prevent me from using their platforms in future.
Yet governments can totally ignore WHO recommendations, as ours did by continuing with Lockdown until mid-June 2021.
It’s time claim our freedoms back, and get our lives back.
Not in two months time, not at some future point, which keeps getting delayed and put off.
No more excuses, no more indecipherable charts and graphs. Right Now.
If you would like to know more about what I believe in and stand for, follow me on Twitter, Facebook, email me,
– or of course please feel free to explore the other pages on this site at your leisure.
My personal contact details are:
Facebook user: pete.durnell1
Twitter: @petedurnell
Email: petedurnell@hotmail.com
Reform UK web site: https://www.reformparty.uk/
Promoted by Pete Durnell, of Reform UK, 83 Victoria Street, London SW1H 0HW
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Pete Durnell 