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Brexit activist visits Dominic Cummings’ Islington home on Barnard Castle protest journey
Peter Cook outside Dominic Cummings' home with the "B*llocks to Brexit" car. Picture: Danny Halpin - Credit: Archant
An anti-Brexit campaigner performed a one-man show outside Dominic Cummings’ Islington home on Wednesday (July 8).
Peter Cook outside Dominic Cummings' home with the "B*llocks to Brexit" car. Picture: Danny Halpin - Credit: Archant
Peter Cook, who has written three albums of anti-Brexit songs under the name Rage Against the Brexit Machine, played guitar next to a yellow Mini Cooper with the words “B*llocks to Brexit” stuck on the side.
“I think Brexit is so sad, the only way I can cope with it is by making fun of it,” he said.
READ MORE: Councillor leading Islington’s no deal Brexit preparations blast absence of Government plan as ‘devastating’ exit loomsHe has nicknamed the car Johnson and plans to drive it to Barnard Castle in Durham with a fake baby, in parody of Cummings’ trip in April.
He said the publicity of that trip “blew the bubble” on the lockdown.
Peter Cook outside Dominic Cummings' home with the "B*llocks to Brexit" car. Picture: Danny Halpin - Credit: Archant
“You can’t do cause and effect in social situations but it was definitely a tipping point,” Peter said.
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Dominic Cummings, who was director of the Vote Leave campaign, drew criticism for driving from London to Durham with his wife and four-year-old son during the height of lockdown.
In November, Johnson - the car - was stopped by Essex Police on the M25 and the driver was forced to remove the stickers. “He must have been a Brexiteer,” said Peter. “I requested an apology but they refused to apologise.”
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In his day job, Peter uses music to give lessons in business management and employs his consulting skills to persuade Leave voters to abandon Brexit.
He has written a book on the subject, Let’s Talk About Brex, in which he details the “quasi-religious process” of unhooking people from their ideological beliefs. He calls this “Brexorcism.”
The book is based on thousands of hours of conversation with Leave voters, one of which resulted in him receiving two black eyes.
Peter said: “Some people know why they want Brexit, but the vast majority of people have swallowed the ‘take back control’ mantra. They don’t know what they want.”
He added that when speaking of the past, many Leave voters have “airbrushed out the bad parts”, such as thalidomide, a cancer treatment that caused birth defects.
“We have to live with corona but we don’t have to live with Brexit,” he added.
In 2016, 75.2 per cent of Islington voters backed Remain, and only 24.8pc wanted to Leave.
The UK left the EU on January 31 this year, but is still subject to EU rules until December 31, when the transition period ends.
