Bremainers Ask……. Graham Hughes

 Michael Soffe : Name your three greatest losses caused by leaving the EU and which of the three would you like to get back first?

From a purely selfish point of view, I’d like my career back. I used to present travel shorts and promos for companies across the EU. They were well-paid gigs and had me doing what I enjoy most: waking up somewhere new, presenting to camera and encouraging people to travel from a position of unique insight. Since Brexit, the offers declined, and now that I’d need a work permit, the offers have stopped entirely.

The second thing, which affects almost all of us, is how we can no longer freely travel around our own continent anymore. There are restrictions, and compromises have to be made. I can no longer even dream about retiring by the Med.

Finally, and again possibly selfishly, the cultural loss is something I take personally. There are the bands and singers, artists and dreamers who can no longer tour freely around our continent – the thousands of songs we’ll never hear, stories we’ll never read, films we’ll never see, all as a direct consequence of Brexit.

As a scouser who didn’t attend a private school, it really annoys me that the people who told us to vote for Brexit were almost all (to a man) members of that posh, pampered, privileged elite for whom this sort of thing isn’t a bother. They’ve lost NOTHING. They can afford the work permits, the visas, the residencia. Farage’s kids have German passports, Johnson’s dad lives in France, Tommy Ten Names has an Irish passport. No skin off their noses.

So yeah, what do I want more than anything? My freedom of movement. I want that back. I don’t see why it should be the reserve of the feckless, braying, inbred English neo-aristocracy.

Lisa Burton : How much more difficult would it be now, post Brexit, to visit all 193 UN member countries as you did previously?

It would be even more of a headache, that’s for sure. I mean it’s great that once I’m in the Schengen Area, I’ve got 29 countries I can visit without having to wait for 17 hours at each border, but what about the overseas territories of the EU that I had to pass through in order to complete my journey… Martinique, St Martin, Reunion, New Caledonia etc.? It would all add up. What if I went over my 90 days in 180?

Back when I was setting my Guinness World Record in 2010, the British passport was the most powerful in the world, something that gave me a bit of an edge to complete my mission. It no longer is. Furthermore, I don’t know if I could rely on representatives of EU countries coming to my aid if I got into a sticky situation – something they did when I was in Cape Verde and Congo.

I don’t think Brits who have rarely travelled outside of the EU know what it’s like crossing a “normal” border. They were lulled into a false sense that the freedoms we enjoyed, to buzz around our continent at a whim with minimum fuss were a given, that’s what it’s like everywhere, right? No

Anon : Of all the 193 UN member states you visited, which have made the most indelible impressions on you?

That’s a tricky one… since they all did! Sometimes for bad reasons, but more often for the best of reasons. Places like Egypt, Bolivia, Madagascar, Ethiopia, Thailand hold a special place in my heart, but it was Iran that really stood out. Terrible government for sure, but the people I met were just amazing. I got adopted everywhere I went!

My favourite memory of the entire journey was when I was on an overnight bus from Shiraz to Khorramshahr, and the little old lady sitting in front of me, who only spoke Farsi, passed me her phone. I put it to my ear, and the guy on the other end of the line introduced himself as Seyed, and told me (perfect English, by the way) that I was sitting behind his grandmother. She had called him because she was concerned about me. You see, the bus got in very early the next day, around 5am. She thought that I’d have nothing to do and nowhere to go. So, she wanted to know (if it was okay with me) if she could take me home with her and make me breakfast.

I get a bit teary when I recount that. Faith in humanity… restored!

Iran is also where I picked up my favourite saying: “Always be kind to strangers, for one day you might be the stranger.”

Steve Wilson : What lessons could the UK learn from other nations about democracy and dealing with far-right extremism?

I think there is a line that must be drawn, where people who don’t believe in democracy are not given a democratic platform.

Two things that I think are urgent: Firstly, clamping down on the misinformation and disinformation in the traditional media and on social media. We need press reform and robust legislation to curtail hate speech online. Hold the platforms accountable. Ofcom needs teeth, newspaper barons and the likes of GB News should no longer get away with spreading their lies and poison without any meaningful consequences. Germany is a good example of a place where Nazism is clamped down on hard (notwithstanding the recent AfD vote) and it’s against the law to deny or downplay the Holocaust.

Secondly, we need to equip our populations with the tools they need to spot bullshit wherever it appears. Finland does a great job with this, teaching kids in primary school how to identify fake news. Kids can then pass on what they’ve learnt to their parents, to their grandparents. It’s why Finland is the least likely place in Europe, and possibly the world, to fall for Russian propaganda etc.

Valerie Chaplin : How can we fight Starmer and his #MakeBrexitWork mantra?

Lobby Labour MPs. Most of them are decent people and want what’s best for the country. But be smart: going in all guns blazing demanding Brexit be reversed (although that’s what we all want to do) isn’t going to get us anywhere. Think about what moves we can realistically take with regards to greater cooperation with the EU: common defence strategies, youth mobility schemes, reviving Erasmus, joining the Pan-Euro-Mediterranean (PEM) convention, a return as a full member of Euratom etc.

Every step on that journey is another step closer to rejoining the EU. But, don’t forget, we don’t just need Labour onside to make this happen, we need the vast majority of Brits onside as well, and while the number of people who think Brexit has gone well is declining by the day, there are still a sizeable number of “loonies” (to use the scientific term) who would defend even an imperfect Brexit like it was their firstborn.

Helen Johnston : The Government is failing to call out Trump and Musk and publishing Reform-style ads boasting “Labour hits 5-year high in migrant removals”. Where do we go from here?

Yes, it blows my mind. However, this is precisely why I’m not a politician. No way could I be diplomatic in the face of such provocation from the likes of Trump and Musk.

I guess Starmer has made the calculation that prohibitive tariffs placed on British goods entering the US would massively impact the UK economy, already reeling from Austerity, Brexit, Covid and Truss, and that our defence capabilities rely heavily on American hardware and software… so play nice, flatter the Mango Mussolini, while quietly plotting an exit strategy (one that I hope takes us back to our true friends in the EU).

As for those bloody ads… urgh. What were they thinking?!! I run a YouTube channel called Politics Social, and one topic that comes up more often than not when I’m chatting to Phil Moorhouse, Mike Galsworthy, Femi Oluwole, Marina Purkiss etc., is just how utterly dire Labour comms are. They make the marketing division of the Sirius Cybernetics Corporation look competent!

Those of us that have a bit of a platform are trying our best to encourage Labour to see how they’re coming across to the vast majority of us voters. My hope is that they get their act together in the next few years in time for the next election.

I want a Labour Party that works on the principles of the people who vote for them, not one that operates out of fear of those who do not.

Ruth Woodhouse : I understand you have stood as an independent candidate and as a candidate for the Liberal Democrats. Would you consider standing as a Rejoin EU candidate should the opportunity arise?

To be brutally honest, if there was a danger of me actually being elected, I wouldn’t have stood! I don’t want to be a politician, and I don’t think I’d make a particularly good one (not least because of the reason I gave in my last answer… I’m far too hot-headed).

As for Rejoin EU, I’m a bit torn. Since we live in a first-past-the-post system, there’s the argument that it takes the sensible vote away from other centre and left-wing parties, without any realistic chance of getting in an MP. That being the case, I would prefer to work with the rejoin wing of the Lib Dems or the Labour Movement for Europe in order to effect change from within the established parties. But yeah, if we had Proportional Representation, I would be more inclined to stand. Can’t say I’d make a “good” MP though!

David Eldridge : Do you think the UK will rejoin the EU one day and if so, what would the process and timescale be?

Yes. Absolutely. Of that I have no doubt whatsoever. I see it as inevitable. A geographic, historic, socio-economic certainty. There’s very little I’m thankful to that Wotsit Wanker in Washington for, but if he’s achieving anything right now, it’s frog-marching the UK back into the arms of our lovely neighbours. So, er, thanks for that, you Spray-Tan Satan.

Coupled with Vladimir Putin’s barbarous designs on the free peoples of Europe, I can see Reunification Day edging ever closer with each and every unhinged headline I read about the MAGA Mafia currently running America into the ground.

I think we’ll see more UK-EU cultural, economic and military agreements over the next four years, and when Trump refuses to leave the White House (I can’t see him ever leaving that place unless it’s in a box), the need for us to return home to the EU will become more pressing than ever.

I can see the 2029 election being fought on closer integration with the EU: single market, customs union, a free movement deal and perhaps even a legally binding referendum to rejoin in 2030.

If you had asked me that question a few months ago, I would have said a rejoin referendum in the 2034 Labour and Lib Dem manifestos was an outside possibility, but with that Tangerine Twat tearing up all international norms, that timeline is accelerating by the day.

Turns out, even the most toxic of clouds can have a silver lining…

Thanks for your questions. That was fun! Slava Ukraini.