£120 million tax mo...
 

  You don't need to be an 'investor' to invest in Singletrack: 6 days left: 95% of target - Find out more

£120 million tax money spent on Brexit Festival

57 Posts
23 Users
0 Reactions
144 Views
Posts: 13601
Free Member
Topic starter
 

During these trying times it's good to know the Tories, the party of 'fiscal responsibilty', hasn't pissed our money up the wall with this shit show

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/festival-of-brexit-unboxed-event-b2157732.html


 
Posted : 02/09/2022 5:58 pm
Posts: 5297
Full Member
 

Half a million £ per person. That must be some festival, how do i get in?


 
Posted : 02/09/2022 6:07 pm
Posts: 7751
Free Member
 

Widely covered on the Brexit 2020+ thread.
butcher - some dodgy maths there as you're out by a factor of 1000!
£500 per attendee: £120 million cost, 238k visitors.


 
Posted : 02/09/2022 6:19 pm
Posts: 11402
Free Member
 

I'm hoping they bring back the death penalty, the thought of Johnson et al dangling on the end of a rope is becoming very inviting.


 
Posted : 02/09/2022 6:22 pm
Posts: 65918
Free Member
 

Said it on the other thread but Unboxed ended up being a pretty interesting bunch of events, and was pretty much completely shorn of "festival of brexit"ness by the time it launched. I got banned from their FB for mentioning hte B word 🙂 I'd bet money that most people that went to an event didn't know it was brexit related- and likewise that very few people decided not to go because they were remainers.

It wasn't good value for money, pretty much by design- my old team could have put on an event a day for a year for a fraction of that- but in the end it became something better than its origin and frankly something that we used to do a lot more of and now are really bad at. Of all the things that this government spunks millions of quid on it's probably one of the closest things to a success


 
Posted : 02/09/2022 6:43 pm
 Drac
Posts: 50352
 

Absolutely ridiculous waste of money.

Half a million £ per person. That must be some festival, how do i get in?

Only 240 people turned up?


 
Posted : 02/09/2022 6:47 pm
Posts: 77347
Free Member
 

This was interesting I thought.

https://festival-of-brexit.politicshome.com/


 
Posted : 02/09/2022 6:53 pm
Posts: 17779
Full Member
 

How well publicised was it? I had no idea what it comprised or where it was.


 
Posted : 02/09/2022 6:57 pm
Posts: 15315
Full Member
 

I challenge anyone to find a single event listed in the link below which has anything remotely connected to brexit.

Just click on any event and it will give you details concerning what it involves

https://unboxed2022.uk/unboxed-2022-event-listing


 
Posted : 02/09/2022 7:03 pm
Posts: 5164
Free Member
 

Not really a festival of Brexit, only got that because of the posh idiot in parliament, from what i've read, it was giving arts and science funding to put on a show across the nation, not exactly jingoistic either, just badly supported and a poor turnout unforuntately.


 
Posted : 02/09/2022 7:05 pm
Posts: 44146
Full Member
 

It sarted as a brexit festival and as thus is forever tainted

And a huge flop. Typical tory nonsense.


 
Posted : 02/09/2022 7:06 pm
Posts: 15315
Full Member
 

It sarted as a brexit festival

Have you got any proof to back up that claim?


 
Posted : 02/09/2022 7:22 pm
Posts: 5297
Full Member
 

butcher – some dodgy maths there as you’re out by a factor of 1000!

Maths was never my strong point.


 
Posted : 02/09/2022 7:25 pm
Posts: 4397
Full Member
 

Have you got any proof to back up that claim?

It was announced by Theresa May in 2018 as a festival to celebrate Brexit. It was briefly renamed Festival UK until they realised that the abbreviation was unfortunate, when it became Unboxed.


 
Posted : 02/09/2022 7:37 pm
Posts: 11402
Free Member
 

love the daily fails take "Twas Woke that broke it" 🙂


 
Posted : 02/09/2022 7:40 pm
Posts: 44146
Full Member
 

As one wheel says.


 
Posted : 02/09/2022 7:47 pm
Posts: 15315
Full Member
 

It was announced by Theresa May in 2018 as a festival to celebrate Brexit.

So at what point did it change?

All I can see is that the people who were given responsibility to organise it had absolutely nothing to do with brexit. Do you know of any prominent brexiteers involved?

The person who was given most of the responsibility for organising it doesn't seem to mention brexit much when he was extensively interviewed:

https://england.britishcouncil.org/october-2020-festival-uk2022-meet-martin-green

Edit : To be fair this event tomorrow sounds really excellent:

https://greenspacedarkskies.uk/events/scafell-pike-lake-district-national-park/


 
Posted : 02/09/2022 7:50 pm
Posts: 77347
Free Member
 

So at what point did it change?

Does it matter? Do you need a calendar?

The organisers only agreed to organise it if it was categorically nothing to do with brexit, to a point where it pushed a few Tory noses out of joint. If you want to argue that "it was (ultimately) nothing to do with brexit" then you're absolutely correct.

The problem though is that it was initially promoted as a celebration of brexit and then when its direction changed the grandstanders promptly lost interest. So it was tainted from the outset which could have been reversed but, again as art imitates life, as soon as it was non-brexity it got bugger all promotion. I didn't even know it'd gone ahead until the thread on here yesterday.


 
Posted : 02/09/2022 8:08 pm
Posts: 2737
Free Member
 

the thought of Johnson et al dangling on the end of a rope is becoming very inviting.

They tried that in 2012 didn't they ? It only increased his "popularity" 🙁


 
Posted : 02/09/2022 8:13 pm
Posts: 7128
Free Member
 

They know they're shit but they're desperate to lay down markers for themselves as if they'd achieved something for the nation: Thatcher statue, 'Boris' bikes, garden bridge, bendy buses, brexit beano.
Whereas the reality of the achievements include: 40 hospitals, Dido's £37bn, hospital tents, Johnson's paid for shags, £350m pw to the NHS, etc etc.
My gob this country has been degraded by that mendacious filth.


 
Posted : 02/09/2022 8:23 pm
Posts: 15315
Full Member
 

Does it matter? Do you need a calendar?

The organisers only agreed to organise it if it was categorically nothing to do with brexit,

So without using a calendar we can safely say from the start. According to your link it was JRM who claimed that it would be a brexit festival, perhaps we shouldn't automatically assume that whatever Mogg says must be true.


 
Posted : 02/09/2022 8:28 pm
Posts: 7128
Free Member
 

Why are they not celebrating Europe-beating inequality?


 
Posted : 02/09/2022 8:31 pm
Posts: 44146
Full Member
 

No ernie. At the start it wad " the festival of brexit" and us such is tainted by the huge clusterbourach that is brexit.

You cannot rewrite history no.matter how hard you try


 
Posted : 02/09/2022 8:32 pm
Posts: 4170
Free Member
 

It's the Government's priorities that frustrate me. The NHS is broken, the courts are broken, the police are broken, energy supply is broken - lets have a festival.


 
Posted : 02/09/2022 8:38 pm
Posts: 15315
Full Member
 

I don't think I'm trying to do that TJ. The thread title is claiming that it is a brexit festival which it doesn't appear to be, nor has it ever been organised as such, whatever JRM might have hoped for in his head.

It might well have been a shit idea or very badly organised, I don't know. But I'm not sure the fact that it has been a flop should be celebrated because it somehow represents a victory over the Tories/brexit.

The Daily Mail are currently claiming to their readers that it flopped because it went all "woke", some talk about gender fluid performers and other stuff.

There seems to be a remarkably large cross section of people who are apparently pleased that it flopped.


 
Posted : 02/09/2022 8:50 pm
Posts: 44146
Full Member
 

Yes you are. The original concept was festival of brexit. Thats a fact. It matters not one jot it metamorphosed into something else. The fact it was conceived to celebrate brexit means that its tainted and is a large part of why it flopped


 
Posted : 02/09/2022 9:01 pm
Posts: 15315
Full Member
 

matters not one jot it metamorphosed into something else.

Well obviously it does. Although possibly not to you. And it certainly matters to the Daily Mail:

https://www.****/news/article-11169053/Festival-Brexit-hijacked-woke-officials-say-critics.html

Apparently it's "neo-Marxist" and wants to decolonise your garden from imperialism, and talk about childhood gender fluidity, among other things.
-


 
Posted : 02/09/2022 9:16 pm
Posts: 13601
Free Member
Topic starter
 

It’s the Government’s priorities that frustrate me. The NHS is broken, the courts are broken, the police are broken, energy supply is broken – lets have a festival

This is what angered me also. So many people are living hand to mouth and desperately trying to stop their worlds falling apart right now - and it's looking like it's going to get worse- and they've wasted 120 million on this horse shit. These corrupt pocket liners and their cronies need to go, it's beyond a joke now


 
Posted : 02/09/2022 9:51 pm
Posts: 77347
Free Member
 

According to your link it was JRM who claimed that it would be a brexit festival, perhaps we shouldn’t automatically assume that whatever Mogg says must be true.

I think it was May actually, but whatever, it's not relevant. As the Tories and the mainstream media have (probably deliberately) proved time and again, first impressions are what counts. It takes hours to livery up a bus but years to debunk it, this is how propaganda works. They can say what they like, it doesn't matter if it's a lie because it's too late, the idea is in people's heads and the horse has bolted.

With the festival formerly known as brexit, they'd poisoned the well from the outset. Facts don't matter once the seeds have been planted because initial perceptions persist. Just this last weekend my girlfriend was talking about road tax despite it never having existed in the living memory of any driver today.


 
Posted : 02/09/2022 10:41 pm
Posts: 4170
Free Member
 

With the festival <span style="text-decoration: underline;">formerly</span> known as brexit

I'm only pointing out the typo because if taken as read it negates you argument


 
Posted : 02/09/2022 10:47 pm
Posts: 77347
Free Member
 

Arse. Corrected within the edit window, thanks for the catch.


 
Posted : 02/09/2022 10:49 pm
Posts: 2808
Full Member
 

If it was originally envisaged as a festival to celebrate brexit,  then not having anything in it about brexit is quite fitting, as there's nothing to celebrate.


 
Posted : 02/09/2022 10:55 pm
Posts: 24498
Free Member
 

If it had been a roaring success, I have no doubt it would be held up as validation that Brexit was a good thing supported by the masses and the Mail and others would be all over May's announcements that it was to be "a moment of national renewal"

For that reason alone many will have avoided it, rebadged or reimagined or whatever.

I get the point that the country has to get to grips with our current position and start to make the best of it. Turning out in the millions to a vanity festival is not the same thing.


 
Posted : 03/09/2022 7:36 am
 StuE
Posts: 1672
Free Member
 

Marketing and promotion seems to have been none existent, most people didn't seem to know anything about it, not sure that the choice of location for many of the events helped, I live in Leeds and the nearest event is on top of Scafell pike (think you're meant to watch it on tv)


 
Posted : 03/09/2022 8:21 am
Posts: 11884
Full Member
 

How well publicised was it? I had no idea what it comprised or where it was.

And as Stu said. The name or intent of it doesn't matter a jot if nobody knows about it!


 
Posted : 03/09/2022 8:48 am
Posts: 5164
Free Member
 

I don't actually think Theresa May called it the Brexit festival, only stating it was a festival to celebrate and showcase Britains culture in a new age (post Brexit), i think JRM was the one who tagged it with Brexit and instantly got the organisers backs up, who then renamed it to remove the word festival.

This is just a sad statement of the UK, people linking this with Brexit and failure, there's enough of that with the actual Brexit deal, we don't need to add this to it, from what i have seen and read, this was a genuine attempt to highlight and fund British artists, scientists, etc to showcase their talent.


 
Posted : 03/09/2022 8:59 am
Posts: 44146
Full Member
 

Not true argee

It was supposed tobe a showcase of how wonderful brexit is originally.


 
Posted : 03/09/2022 10:16 am
Posts: 17779
Full Member
 

just badly supported and a poor turnout unforuntately.

Due to piss poor marketing?


 
Posted : 03/09/2022 10:16 am
Posts: 10567
Full Member
 

It celebrates the benefits of Rexit.

There's nothing in it that shows anything benefiting from Brexit

There's nothing contradictory about those 2 statements.


 
Posted : 03/09/2022 1:09 pm
Posts: 13601
Free Member
Topic starter
 

What's Rexit?


 
Posted : 03/09/2022 1:12 pm
 DrT
Posts: 280
Free Member
 

Thanks for the heads up. Just got myself tickets to 'dreammachine' which looks like a fascinating art/human perception project.


 
Posted : 03/09/2022 1:24 pm
Posts: 10567
Full Member
 

Rexit?

One of the Fairbrothers leaving Ambridge. Or a typo.


 
Posted : 03/09/2022 1:35 pm
Posts: 15315
Full Member
 

Just got myself tickets to ‘dreammachine’

Careful now, 'dreammachine' sounds an experience ripe for subliminal manipulation.


 
Posted : 03/09/2022 1:38 pm
Posts: 5164
Free Member
 

Not true argee

It was supposed tobe a showcase of how wonderful brexit is originally.

Again, you'll have to link me to that press release, as all i've ever seen is a celebration of British innovation and creativity, bar JRM nobody has used the brexit tag on this, and the organisers (and artists) have had to fight that slur since the start.


 
Posted : 03/09/2022 2:34 pm
 DrT
Posts: 280
Free Member
 

@ernielynch I hadn't thought of that, I may some out thinking the country isn't a major shit show after all!


 
Posted : 03/09/2022 3:13 pm
Posts: 65918
Free Member
 

Dreammachine looks interesting.

A pretty good example of why it's good is the unexpected gardens thing- they've worked with an agro cooperative near me and turned a low value bit of monoculture into a produce garden, all very well done, a good investment for the future.

A good example of why it's bad is that the agro cooperative always struggles for funding, and this one project got enough cash thrown at it to complete their entire stretch plan for the site and run it for years.


 
Posted : 03/09/2022 3:16 pm
Posts: 44146
Full Member
 wbo
Posts: 1669
Free Member
 

The Guardian editorial from 2021 seems pertinent https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2021/mar/29/the-guardian-view-on-the-festival-of-brexit-judge-it-on-its-results

Breitbart isn't really reliable on much is it now?


 
Posted : 03/09/2022 9:20 pm
Posts: 15315
Full Member
 

Here you go ernie

Thanks TJ but I mentioned all that yesterday with a link to a Daily Mail article.

Me :

Apparently it’s “neo-Marxist” and wants to decolonise your garden from imperialism, and talk about childhood gender fluidity, among other things.


 
Posted : 03/09/2022 9:36 pm
Posts: 44146
Full Member
 

The point i am making is everyone called it the brexit festival


 
Posted : 03/09/2022 9:41 pm
Posts: 15315
Full Member
 

Yeah alright everyone called it the brexit festival. But the government agreed with the organisers that it would have nothing to do with brexit and brexit would never be mentioned.

.

In other shocking news Boris bikes are named after the wrong person:

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/livingstone-plan-for-streetcorner-cycle-hire-stands-781025.html


 
Posted : 03/09/2022 10:00 pm
Posts: 30093
Full Member
 

It’s just not worth it TJ.


 
Posted : 03/09/2022 10:14 pm
Posts: 5164
Free Member
 

The point i am making is everyone called it the brexit festival

Apart from the organisers, artists, volunteers, etc who have been working around the country on the projects and events supporting this festival https://unboxed2022.uk/

It just seems a disservice to those who have brought this festival across the country to be tarred with the Brexit brush, just because of a daft comment by JRM and echoed by the media, and now they are celebrating this as a failure, so expect a reduction in funding for the arts and sciences in the future!


 
Posted : 03/09/2022 10:25 pm
Posts: 30093
Full Member
 

The “unboxed” rebranding was smart, but ‘The Festival’ was always tarred by the fact that May launched it to celebrate Brexit. It was doomed from that moment on. Trying to depoliticise it later was never going to work.


 
Posted : 03/09/2022 10:29 pm
Posts: 44146
Full Member
 

Its what May made it brexit festival was what it was. Simple as that. It was the whole intent. Yes the organisers refused to call it thst and the performers took the money but brexit festival was the aim intention and why it flopped

A good metaphor


 
Posted : 03/09/2022 10:31 pm
Posts: 30093
Full Member
 

Mrs May said: “Almost 70 years ago the Festival of Britain stood as a symbol of change.

Britain once again stands on the cusp of a new future as an outward facing global trading nation.”

[ not about celebrating Brexit … yeah, right ]


 
Posted : 03/09/2022 10:32 pm
Posts: 15315
Full Member
 

The “unboxed” rebranding was smart, but ‘The Festival’ was always tarred by the fact that May launched it to celebrate Brexit. It was doomed from that moment on. Trying to depoliticise it later was never going to work.

So you do think it's worth it after all?

Edit: I totally agree with TJ btw, it was called the brexit festival.


 
Posted : 03/09/2022 10:36 pm
Posts: 30093
Full Member
 

What was worth it? Continuing with a festival doomed due to its political birth? No, they should have scrapped it long ago when it was obvious to anyone and everyone that it would be a flop, rather than rebranding and putting more money into it.


 
Posted : 03/09/2022 10:43 pm

6 DAYS LEFT
We are currently at 95% of our target!