The passengers/residents interviewed seemed quite relaxed about the whole thing. The CEO was a little embarrassed but not much. It's an interesting concept - is living on the ocean wave really better than going to sea?
I don't see how anybody can say that Brexit isn't done. Brexit is shorthand for the UK leaving the European Union. That has happened. We did leave. It's done.
Absolutely. I voted for Brexit, but I have no time for the complaining "we didnt really leave". We left, the democratic mandate was actioned. It was utterly appalling that some wanted to stop it from happening and put a lot of effort into (and nearly doing so ) that. But it is done. Starmer has a 200 seat majority, he could negotiate our re-joining if he so desired with a referendum at the end to join. None of this betrays the vote. People got caught up in a purity spiral which resulted in us leaving institutions such as the Single Market and the customs unions, both of which we could have happily sat as non members.
Brexit is done on that poll for most Tory voters and that was who Boris focused on as he was elected PM of a Conservative majority government.
It isn't done for most Labour and LD voters as they want Starmer to start to restore free movement and dilute Brexit.
It isn't done for most Reform voters as they want an even harder Brexit than Boris had with the RN stopping the boats and a hard border in Northern Ireland
Interestingly ‘most Tory voters’ is a diminishingly small proportion of the population.
Brexit is done on that poll for most Tory voters and that was who Boris focused on as he was elected PM of a Conservative majority government.
It isn't done for most Labour and LD voters as they want Starmer to start to restore free movement and dilute Brexit.
It isn't done for most Reform voters as they want an even harder Brexit than Boris had with the RN stopping the boats and a hard border in Northern Ireland
I assume that Tory voters in that poll is the 20-something percent who voted Tory in 2024, so it's unlikely that a majority of 2019 Tory voters would agree that Brexit was done.
Those that don't want an even harder Brexit as I said, blocking up the channel tunnel, razor wire on Kent beaches, naval ships in the channel, checkpoints at the Irish border and tariffs on EU imports etc but they are mainly Reform voters now not Tories
Does anyone really want to block up the Channel Tunnel? Anyone?
A reminder that thirty days from now, that figure will reset to zero and stay there for good, bringing an end to coal burning for mass power in the UK.
Genuinely landmark moment.
Does that include imported electricity?
Does 'coal burning for mass power in the UK' include imported electricity?
Gee, well...
More seriously I think most of our imports are from Norway (hydro) and France (wind and nuclear) when they have a surplus, so I'm guessing very little of our imports are coal fired anyway.
It all depends on how one looks at it, given how interconnected the UK/EU now are. We currently are quite heavy net importers, as government policy has been to close down dispatchable power and replace it with wind/solar when it's available and imports when it isn't.
Looking at the EU as a whole it would be a lot better for the environment to have kept Radcliffe going flat out and turned off one of the German lignite plants instead, but as usual our policy is to offshore all the as many of our carbon emissions as possible and then pretend we've gone green.
The passengers/residents interviewed seemed quite relaxed about the whole thing. The CEO was a little embarrassed but not much. It's an interesting concept - is living on the ocean wave really better than going to sea?
If it stays in port too long, do the cruise company start having to pay taxes on booze, and so on?
By the same token, I wonder if any of the passengers were planning to avoid UK tax this year on the basis of being abroad...
The information that I find most interesting is that Reform is now no more pro Brexit than the Conservative party. My observation is that the Reform party is morphing in the same way that the right wing parties have done in EC. Control of immigration is now seen as key and the single market is no longer a big issue. In the new Reform party Nigel Farage is looking more and more dated and a new generation will come to the fore.
The party most threatened by Reform is now Labour and not the Tories. It is hard to know why Keir Starmer approval rating is dropping so fast but my gut feeling is that young white working class men are the biggest movers.
Perhaps, perhaps not. I do think the Reform leadership and the membership/voters are in two different places and that divergence is likely to grow. The anti-immigration schtick holds them together for now but while Farage and Tice are small-state Thatcherites who would love to see tax cuts, the average Reform voter (especially in Labour constituencies) is more likely to support Johnson's "levelling up" agenda with the promise of money and resources for the north and midlands.
The betrayal of the Sunak Conservatives with the cancellation of HS2 and the scrapping of most of the Johnson programme will take a long time to be forgotten but instead the Reform voters will be looking to Labour to deliver both on the immigration question and on additional spending in WWC areas.
The question is whether Reform is more in the mood of Alternative for Germany or in fact more of a Wagenknecht-style movement. I think it may have been the former but may become the latter and that's the big threat for Labour.
Brexit is done on that poll for most Tory voters and that was who Boris focused on as he was elected PM of a Conservative majority government.
It isn't done for most Labour and LD voters as they want Starmer to start to restore free movement and dilute Brexit.
It isn't done for most Reform voters as they want an even harder Brexit than Boris had with the RN stopping the boats and a hard border in Northern Ireland
Is the 'hard border in Northern Ireland' a concept that even enters the imagination of the average Reform voter?
Farage tells them that the Tories fumbled it and, since we self-evidently are not in the land of milk and honey promised, it's easy for them to believe him.
When you look at the economic data out of France and Germany in the last couple of weeks, the UK is doing bloody damn well at the moment. These things are of course all relative, and we all have a limited scope of personal experience which can differ wildly from the official statistics - especially when pay rises lag a period of high inflation and relatively high interest rates, as we might have seen recently.
That's why Biden's strong economy isn't sealing it for the Dems this year. They're needing the extra factor of running against Donald Trump.
Americans don’t see it as a strong economy. That’s why Trump is favoured on the issue.
Today’s swing State polls from Emerson show it’s still a coin-toss. Trump is just ahead in Wisconsin, N Carolina, and Arizona, Harris just ahead in Georgia, Nevada, Michigan, with Pennsylvania tied.
Brexit is done on that poll for most Tory voters and that was who Boris focused on as he was elected PM of a Conservative majority government.
It isn't done for most Labour and LD voters as they want Starmer to start to restore free movement and dilute Brexit.
It isn't done for most Reform voters as they want an even harder Brexit than Boris had with the RN stopping the boats and a hard border in Northern Ireland
I assume that Tory voters in that poll is the 20-something percent who voted Tory in 2024, so it's unlikely that a majority of 2019 Tory voters would agree that Brexit was done.
Those that don't want an even harder Brexit as I said, blocking up the channel tunnel, razor wire on Kent beaches, naval ships in the channel, checkpoints at the Irish border and tariffs on EU imports etc but they are mainly Reform voters now not Tories
Does anyone really want to block up the Channel Tunnel? Anyone?
Rees Mogg wanted to build a wall in the English Channel
Didn't Alan Clark want to put a self-destruct mechanism in the Channel Tunnel, in case of invasion?
That's nothing. You should see the plans for fortifications at the Dover end from when when it was originally mooted in the Victorian era. Not just valves to flood the thing, but a substantial gun battery aimed at the exit too IIRC, just in case the Frogs got ant ideas.
I don't see how anybody can say that Brexit isn't done. Brexit is shorthand for the UK leaving the European Union. That has happened. We did leave. It's done.
Absolutely. I voted for Brexit, but I have no time for the complaining "we didnt really leave". We left, the democratic mandate was actioned. It was utterly appalling that some wanted to stop it from happening and put a lot of effort into (and nearly doing so ) that. But it is done. Starmer has a 200 seat majority, he could negotiate our re-joining if he so desired with a referendum at the end to join. None of this betrays the vote. People got caught up in a purity spiral which resulted in us leaving institutions such as the Single Market and the customs unions, both of which we could have happily sat as non members.
Yes, although imo the efforts to stop Brexit after the vote were futile. It was always going to happen one way or another. The mandate from the Ref had to be executed. Ref2 was a pipedream. I made quite good betting profits off that view.
Smoking income (from tax) exceeds the costs of treatment. If everyone stops smoking then it creates a shortfall in funding. At least, that was the case when I was at school, but I find it hard to believe the situation has changed since.
That's a classic economics fallacy. It would be much better if those smokers were spending money, paying tax and reaping the positive effects of some other item (running shoes or bicycles, for example).
I also don't think it's true any more.
It used to be the case that taxes on smoking paid for the entire NHS, in the 1980s when more people smoked and costs were lower, but not now.
Tax receipts from smoking last year: £8.8 billion.
I very much doubt if smoking related cancers and other illnesses only cost 5% of NHS budget.
On the basis that people will all eventually die of something, and that something will often cost lots of NHS money, I suspect that the lifetime costs of smokers to the NHS/social care is probably lower than non-smokers - they are mostly just bringing forward their expensive death by 10-20 years, rather than avoiding it forever. Every potential dementia sufferer who instead dies at 65 from lung cancer must cost vastly less, even accounting for the cancer treatment.
I'm not sure this is a strong argument for permitting smoking, but trying to justify banning it because of the cost to the NHS doesn't really pass the smell test.
Yes the real and stronger argument (for a ban) is that the end of cigarette smoking will foster a happier healthier population. Politicians shy away from that because it sounds a bit nanny state and opt instead for the more bloodless lowfalutin 'it will reduce pressure on the NHS'.
Are non-smokers happier, when controlled for other relevant factors like wealth?
Most smokers want to be non-smokers, suggesting so.
That's a reasonable logical leap, I think. I guess I just don't understand why it's difficult. Which is not to say that it isn't - just that I don't have anything to compare it to.
Nicotine is very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very addictive. When I was doing my PhD, my officemate was studying polydrug users, and they told him that nicotine was harder to quit than the various illegal things they were doing.
So, you're saying that if I found quitting cigarettes easy, then I shouldn't worry about starting a minor heroin habit?
The passengers/residents interviewed seemed quite relaxed about the whole thing. The CEO was a little embarrassed but not much. It's an interesting concept - is living on the ocean wave really better than going to sea?
If it stays in port too long, do the cruise company start having to pay taxes on booze, and so on?
By the same token, I wonder if any of the passengers were planning to avoid UK tax this year on the basis of being abroad...
If the pax stay ‘airside’ on the ship, then they’ll be okay with regard to immigration rules. There’s a number of stories of executives (I used to work for one) miscalculating the 90-day rule by a day and sleeping on a private plane overnight.
Tax on booze etc is an interesting one, but the cruise line will argue that they weren’t selling tickets to an offshore party but rather an international trip that is unavoidably delayed by technical problems.
The one rule that does usually apply in port is with regard to the casino, which is usually required to remain shut.
A reminder that thirty days from now, that figure will reset to zero and stay there for good, bringing an end to coal burning for mass power in the UK.
Genuinely landmark moment.
Does that include imported electricity?
We will - very occasionally - import coal fired electricity from Ireland. Usually, however, we export to them, and it's mostly when they have surplus wind power than it heads our way.
Other than that, no.
Don't we sometimes import power from the continent during winter, some of which will have been provided by Germany? Germany tends to export power during the coldest part of the winter, when around 25% of Germany's electricity is from coal generation. I suppose you could argue that it doesn't come directly from Germany, but if we weren't importing it from other countries, then Germany wouldn't have to export to them.
Brexit is done on that poll for most Tory voters and that was who Boris focused on as he was elected PM of a Conservative majority government.
It isn't done for most Labour and LD voters as they want Starmer to start to restore free movement and dilute Brexit.
It isn't done for most Reform voters as they want an even harder Brexit than Boris had with the RN stopping the boats and a hard border in Northern Ireland
Is the 'hard border in Northern Ireland' a concept that even enters the imagination of the average Reform voter?
Farage tells them that the Tories fumbled it and, since we self-evidently are not in the land of milk and honey promised, it's easy for them to believe him.
When you look at the economic data out of France and Germany in the last couple of weeks, the UK is doing bloody damn well at the moment. These things are of course all relative, and we all have a limited scope of personal experience which can differ wildly from the official statistics - especially when pay rises lag a period of high inflation and relatively high interest rates, as we might have seen recently.
That's why Biden's strong economy isn't sealing it for the Dems this year. They're needing the extra factor of running against Donald Trump.
Americans don’t see it as a strong economy. That’s why Trump is favoured on the issue.
Today’s swing State polls from Emerson show it’s still a coin-toss. Trump is just ahead in Wisconsin, N Carolina, and Arizona, Harris just ahead in Georgia, Nevada, Michigan, with Pennsylvania tied.
Because wages haven't beaten recent high inflation for many workers.
Yep, polls have it very close. I think it's more 60/40 Harris but if you go purely by the current polling averages it's 50/50.
Brexit is done on that poll for most Tory voters and that was who Boris focused on as he was elected PM of a Conservative majority government.
It isn't done for most Labour and LD voters as they want Starmer to start to restore free movement and dilute Brexit.
It isn't done for most Reform voters as they want an even harder Brexit than Boris had with the RN stopping the boats and a hard border in Northern Ireland
Is the 'hard border in Northern Ireland' a concept that even enters the imagination of the average Reform voter?
Farage tells them that the Tories fumbled it and, since we self-evidently are not in the land of milk and honey promised, it's easy for them to believe him.
When you look at the economic data out of France and Germany in the last couple of weeks, the UK is doing bloody damn well at the moment. These things are of course all relative, and we all have a limited scope of personal experience which can differ wildly from the official statistics - especially when pay rises lag a period of high inflation and relatively high interest rates, as we might have seen recently.
That's why Biden's strong economy isn't sealing it for the Dems this year. They're needing the extra factor of running against Donald Trump.
Americans don’t see it as a strong economy. That’s why Trump is favoured on the issue.
Today’s swing State polls from Emerson show it’s still a coin-toss. Trump is just ahead in Wisconsin, N Carolina, and Arizona, Harris just ahead in Georgia, Nevada, Michigan, with Pennsylvania tied.
Because wages haven't beaten recent high inflation for many workers.
Yep, polls have it very close. I think it's more 60/40 Harris but if you go purely by the current polling averages it's 50/50.
Add that the headline inflation rate has been understated for the vast majority of people, who have seen basics such as food and utilities rise well above the headline inflation rate, at a time when increased interest rates are also making housing costs much higher than recently. There’s a lot of people earning up to 50% more than they were four years ago, who feel significantly poorer than they did in 2020.
Different trading blocks and membership requirements
Yes, it would all melt away if the EU joined. But the EU is a protectionist racket (which was probably better to be in the customs union than out of it). They're keen to help developing worlds, but not too much. An example is there's little to no import duties on cocoa or sugar from African nations. But if you want to import a bar of chocolate, it gets slapped right on there. Little more than economic colonialism that holds developing nations back.
Will joining the CPTPP stop the UK rejoining the European Union? No. If the UK were to decide to rejoin the EU, it would have to leave the CPTPP, since having separate free trade agreements is incompatible with being a member of the EU’s single market and customs union. But the UK could do this by giving notice under Article 30.6 of the CPTPP. Six months after the date on which it gave notice, it would cease to be a member of the CPTPP. This would probably take place at a late stage of the UK’s negotiations to rejoin the EU under Article 49 of the Treaty on European Union...
Will joining the CPTPP stop the UK rejoining the European Union? No. If the UK were to decide to rejoin the EU, it would have to leave the CPTPP, since having separate free trade agreements is incompatible with being a member of the EU’s single market and customs union. But the UK could do this by giving notice under Article 30.6 of the CPTPP. Six months after the date on which it gave notice, it would cease to be a member of the CPTPP. This would probably take place at a late stage of the UK’s negotiations to rejoin the EU under Article 49 of the Treaty on European Union...
It does unless the UK resigns from the CPTPP but we will have been a member since 15th December 2024 as confirmed by the government today and actually trading in the block
Indeed the trade minister has welcomed the news today
Will joining the CPTPP stop the UK rejoining the European Union? No. If the UK were to decide to rejoin the EU, it would have to leave the CPTPP, since having separate free trade agreements is incompatible with being a member of the EU’s single market and customs union. But the UK could do this by giving notice under Article 30.6 of the CPTPP. Six months after the date on which it gave notice, it would cease to be a member of the CPTPP. This would probably take place at a late stage of the UK’s negotiations to rejoin the EU under Article 49 of the Treaty on European Union...
Brexit is done on that poll for most Tory voters and that was who Boris focused on as he was elected PM of a Conservative majority government.
It isn't done for most Labour and LD voters as they want Starmer to start to restore free movement and dilute Brexit.
It isn't done for most Reform voters as they want an even harder Brexit than Boris had with the RN stopping the boats and a hard border in Northern Ireland
Is the 'hard border in Northern Ireland' a concept that even enters the imagination of the average Reform voter?
Farage tells them that the Tories fumbled it and, since we self-evidently are not in the land of milk and honey promised, it's easy for them to believe him.
When you look at the economic data out of France and Germany in the last couple of weeks, the UK is doing bloody damn well at the moment. These things are of course all relative, and we all have a limited scope of personal experience which can differ wildly from the official statistics - especially when pay rises lag a period of high inflation and relatively high interest rates, as we might have seen recently.
That's why Biden's strong economy isn't sealing it for the Dems this year. They're needing the extra factor of running against Donald Trump.
Americans don’t see it as a strong economy. That’s why Trump is favoured on the issue.
Today’s swing State polls from Emerson show it’s still a coin-toss. Trump is just ahead in Wisconsin, N Carolina, and Arizona, Harris just ahead in Georgia, Nevada, Michigan, with Pennsylvania tied.
Because wages haven't beaten recent high inflation for many workers.
Yep, polls have it very close. I think it's more 60/40 Harris but if you go purely by the current polling averages it's 50/50.
Last August, I discussed it with Saul David, and we thought it was 11/9 in Biden’s favour, which is where I’d now place Harris.
Will joining the CPTPP stop the UK rejoining the European Union? No. If the UK were to decide to rejoin the EU, it would have to leave the CPTPP, since having separate free trade agreements is incompatible with being a member of the EU’s single market and customs union. But the UK could do this by giving notice under Article 30.6 of the CPTPP. Six months after the date on which it gave notice, it would cease to be a member of the CPTPP. This would probably take place at a late stage of the UK’s negotiations to rejoin the EU under Article 49 of the Treaty on European Union...
Will joining the CPTPP stop the UK rejoining the European Union? No. If the UK were to decide to rejoin the EU, it would have to leave the CPTPP, since having separate free trade agreements is incompatible with being a member of the EU’s single market and customs union. But the UK could do this by giving notice under Article 30.6 of the CPTPP. Six months after the date on which it gave notice, it would cease to be a member of the CPTPP. This would probably take place at a late stage of the UK’s negotiations to rejoin the EU under Article 49 of the Treaty on European Union...
Just paid Sky £34.99 for a month's access so I can watch the US Open tennis. When it was on Amazon, it was £7.99.
Broken Britain, innit?
Would hurt less if the cataloguing and interface weren't awful. Last night a stream was cancelled during the final tiebreak in a five set match. Just gone. "This stream has ended".
Brexit is done on that poll for most Tory voters and that was who Boris focused on as he was elected PM of a Conservative majority government.
It isn't done for most Labour and LD voters as they want Starmer to start to restore free movement and dilute Brexit.
It isn't done for most Reform voters as they want an even harder Brexit than Boris had with the RN stopping the boats and a hard border in Northern Ireland
Quite.
That's why it's quite a stupid polling question for measuring sentiment on Brexit - you can give the same answer and mean two totally different things.
Are we batting for Lucy because she was a pretty, middle class, white girl next door or because the evidence was circumstantial, the statistics didn't imply her guilt and she was a handy scapegoat for the incompetent managers at the Countess of Chester Hospital?
This is going to run and run. Those who wish to preserve their sanity will bear in mind these points:
1) There are no cases where you can't point out that miscarriages of justice have occurred before, so the point doesn't really help
2) The starting point for criticisms is evaluation of the Court of Appeal judgement. It runs to 58 pages. People who make points without serious reference to it are not serious
3) The defence called no expert evidence though it could have done if it wanted.
4) If Letby wanted to suggest that her lawyers missed key matters, she could have used a new team for the appeal, and for the second trial. She didn't. People who want to raise points not raised at the appeal will need to rationally explain why they have spotted what the defence experts didn't.
I have no idea about the truth of the matter. I wasn't there. There were (I think) undoubtedly threads of evidence corroborating the expert evidence. Nothing I have seen yet suggests a miscarriage of justice but I shall stay open minded.
Brexit is done on that poll for most Tory voters and that was who Boris focused on as he was elected PM of a Conservative majority government.
It isn't done for most Labour and LD voters as they want Starmer to start to restore free movement and dilute Brexit.
It isn't done for most Reform voters as they want an even harder Brexit than Boris had with the RN stopping the boats and a hard border in Northern Ireland
I assume that Tory voters in that poll is the 20-something percent who voted Tory in 2024, so it's unlikely that a majority of 2019 Tory voters would agree that Brexit was done.
Those that don't want an even harder Brexit as I said, blocking up the channel tunnel, razor wire on Kent beaches, naval ships in the channel, checkpoints at the Irish border and tariffs on EU imports etc but they are mainly Reform voters now not Tories
Does anyone really want to block up the Channel Tunnel? Anyone?
The information that I find most interesting is that Reform is now no more pro Brexit than the Conservative party. My observation is that the Reform party is morphing in the same way that the right wing parties have done in EC. Control of immigration is now seen as key and the single market is no longer a big issue. In the new Reform party Nigel Farage is looking more and more dated and a new generation will come to the fore.
The party most threatened by Reform is now Labour and not the Tories. It is hard to know why Keir Starmer approval rating is dropping so fast but my gut feeling is that young white working class men are the biggest movers.
Perhaps, perhaps not. I do think the Reform leadership and the membership/voters are in two different places and that divergence is likely to grow. The anti-immigration schtick holds them together for now but while Farage and Tice are small-state Thatcherites who would love to see tax cuts, the average Reform voter (especially in Labour constituencies) is more likely to support Johnson's "levelling up" agenda with the promise of money and resources for the north and midlands.
The betrayal of the Sunak Conservatives with the cancellation of HS2 and the scrapping of most of the Johnson programme will take a long time to be forgotten but instead the Reform voters will be looking to Labour to deliver both on the immigration question and on additional spending in WWC areas.
The question is whether Reform is more in the mood of Alternative for Germany or in fact more of a Wagenknecht-style movement. I think it may have been the former but may become the latter and that's the big threat for Labour.
Despite regaining the Red Wall seats, Labour’s position is far weaker in them than it was pre 2017. Added to which, a recent poll showed 25% of Labour voters would consider voting Reform, compared to 6% Conservative. A modest fall in Labour support, combined with Conservatives voting tactically, could see quite a few such seats going Reform.
Will joining the CPTPP stop the UK rejoining the European Union? No. If the UK were to decide to rejoin the EU, it would have to leave the CPTPP, since having separate free trade agreements is incompatible with being a member of the EU’s single market and customs union. But the UK could do this by giving notice under Article 30.6 of the CPTPP. Six months after the date on which it gave notice, it would cease to be a member of the CPTPP. This would probably take place at a late stage of the UK’s negotiations to rejoin the EU under Article 49 of the Treaty on European Union...
Alternative reading: Yes, we’d have to leave the CPTPP if we wanted to rejoin the EU.
And doing so would be trivially easy.
It may be that the UK finds CPTPP congenial enough that it doesn't want to. But there is minimal difficulty in doing so.
We start trading in the block from December and it is many years until rejoining the EU becomes even a possibility and in the meantime billions of pounds of trade will take place by companies across the block
Brexit is done on that poll for most Tory voters and that was who Boris focused on as he was elected PM of a Conservative majority government.
It isn't done for most Labour and LD voters as they want Starmer to start to restore free movement and dilute Brexit.
It isn't done for most Reform voters as they want an even harder Brexit than Boris had with the RN stopping the boats and a hard border in Northern Ireland
I assume that Tory voters in that poll is the 20-something percent who voted Tory in 2024, so it's unlikely that a majority of 2019 Tory voters would agree that Brexit was done.
Those that don't want an even harder Brexit as I said, blocking up the channel tunnel, razor wire on Kent beaches, naval ships in the channel, checkpoints at the Irish border and tariffs on EU imports etc but they are mainly Reform voters now not Tories
Does anyone really want to block up the Channel Tunnel? Anyone?
Rees Mogg wanted to build a wall in the English Channel
Didn't Alan Clark want to put a self-destruct mechanism in the Channel Tunnel, in case of invasion?
To be fair to the bigoted old hypochondriac, he did live 3 miles from the tunnel entrance.
I think he was right to do so - I certainly hope there's an easy way to block it up/destroy it if the worst happens. We are constantly told of the menace of Putin to the continent - are we going to wait for him to arrive at St Pancras?
Brexit is done on that poll for most Tory voters and that was who Boris focused on as he was elected PM of a Conservative majority government.
It isn't done for most Labour and LD voters as they want Starmer to start to restore free movement and dilute Brexit.
It isn't done for most Reform voters as they want an even harder Brexit than Boris had with the RN stopping the boats and a hard border in Northern Ireland
I assume that Tory voters in that poll is the 20-something percent who voted Tory in 2024, so it's unlikely that a majority of 2019 Tory voters would agree that Brexit was done.
Those that don't want an even harder Brexit as I said, blocking up the channel tunnel, razor wire on Kent beaches, naval ships in the channel, checkpoints at the Irish border and tariffs on EU imports etc but they are mainly Reform voters now not Tories
Does anyone really want to block up the Channel Tunnel? Anyone?
Rees Mogg wanted to build a wall in the English Channel
Didn't Alan Clark want to put a self-destruct mechanism in the Channel Tunnel, in case of invasion?
To be fair to the bigoted old hypochondriac, he did live 3 miles from the tunnel entrance.
And as I pointed out, preparation for destruction of the tunnel in time of war was a standard military request since people started proposing Channel Tunnels.
And such preparations were built into many tunnels and bridges in Europe.
Probably incompatible with full membership through clash of jurisdiction wrt to Trade Rules and the European Court's right to enforce them, I think. I don't think members can have separate Foreign Trade Agreements. Remember all that shenanigans about who spoke for us at the World Trade Association. It would not inhibit SM or CU.
Will joining the CPTPP stop the UK rejoining the European Union? No. If the UK were to decide to rejoin the EU, it would have to leave the CPTPP, since having separate free trade agreements is incompatible with being a member of the EU’s single market and customs union. But the UK could do this by giving notice under Article 30.6 of the CPTPP. Six months after the date on which it gave notice, it would cease to be a member of the CPTPP. This would probably take place at a late stage of the UK’s negotiations to rejoin the EU under Article 49 of the Treaty on European Union...
Alternative reading: Yes, we’d have to leave the CPTPP if we wanted to rejoin the EU.
And doing so would be trivially easy.
It may be that the UK finds CPTPP congenial enough that it doesn't want to. But there is minimal difficulty in doing so.
We start trading in the block from December and it is many years until rejoining the EU becomes even a possibility and in the meantime billions of pounds of trade will take place by companies across the block
I do not see that as trivially easy
Rejoining will be the easiest deal in history, we hold all the cards.
Deservedly ridiculed in the comments. They are desperate, and clueless.
Just checked when I last did my CV (In 2006 for my current role) - mentions of my Burger King job... Zero. And that was 4 years after leaving university !
Deservedly ridiculed in the comments. They are desperate, and clueless.
Just checked when I last did my CV (In 2006 for my current role) - mentions of my Burger King job... Zero. And that was 4 years after leaving university !
My CV mentions neither my job at the Wimpy as chef nor as petrol station attendant.
Brexit is done on that poll for most Tory voters and that was who Boris focused on as he was elected PM of a Conservative majority government.
It isn't done for most Labour and LD voters as they want Starmer to start to restore free movement and dilute Brexit.
It isn't done for most Reform voters as they want an even harder Brexit than Boris had with the RN stopping the boats and a hard border in Northern Ireland
I assume that Tory voters in that poll is the 20-something percent who voted Tory in 2024, so it's unlikely that a majority of 2019 Tory voters would agree that Brexit was done.
Those that don't want an even harder Brexit as I said, blocking up the channel tunnel, razor wire on Kent beaches, naval ships in the channel, checkpoints at the Irish border and tariffs on EU imports etc but they are mainly Reform voters now not Tories
Does anyone really want to block up the Channel Tunnel? Anyone?
Rees Mogg wanted to build a wall in the English Channel
Didn't Alan Clark want to put a self-destruct mechanism in the Channel Tunnel, in case of invasion?
To be fair to the bigoted old hypochondriac, he did live 3 miles from the tunnel entrance.
I think he was right to do so - I certainly hope there's an easy way to block it up/destroy it if the worst happens. We are constantly told of the menace of Putin to the continent - are we going to wait for him to arrive at St Pancras?
The plans for the 1960s Tunnel proposal were supposed to include demolition chambers - cavities next to the tunnel that would ordinarily be empty. In time of war, an explosive charge (nuclear?) would be placed in it.
IIRC someone asked the question if such a cavity or cavities exist for the current Channel tunnel. And didn’t get an answer.
Will joining the CPTPP stop the UK rejoining the European Union? No. If the UK were to decide to rejoin the EU, it would have to leave the CPTPP, since having separate free trade agreements is incompatible with being a member of the EU’s single market and customs union. But the UK could do this by giving notice under Article 30.6 of the CPTPP. Six months after the date on which it gave notice, it would cease to be a member of the CPTPP. This would probably take place at a late stage of the UK’s negotiations to rejoin the EU under Article 49 of the Treaty on European Union...
Alternative reading: Yes, we’d have to leave the CPTPP if we wanted to rejoin the EU.
And doing so would be trivially easy.
It may be that the UK finds CPTPP congenial enough that it doesn't want to. But there is minimal difficulty in doing so.
We start trading in the block from December and it is many years until rejoining the EU becomes even a possibility and in the meantime billions of pounds of trade will take place by companies across the block
I do not see that as trivially easy
Rejoining will be the easiest deal in history, we hold all the cards.
If we were to rejoin in our current state, they'd drive a very hard bargain I imagine. All of which the gruesome inadequates who are desperate to go back in would probably love - the more abject the return and punishing the conditions the more it would satisfy their perverse desire to punish their own country.
Brexit is done on that poll for most Tory voters and that was who Boris focused on as he was elected PM of a Conservative majority government.
It isn't done for most Labour and LD voters as they want Starmer to start to restore free movement and dilute Brexit.
It isn't done for most Reform voters as they want an even harder Brexit than Boris had with the RN stopping the boats and a hard border in Northern Ireland
I assume that Tory voters in that poll is the 20-something percent who voted Tory in 2024, so it's unlikely that a majority of 2019 Tory voters would agree that Brexit was done.
Those that don't want an even harder Brexit as I said, blocking up the channel tunnel, razor wire on Kent beaches, naval ships in the channel, checkpoints at the Irish border and tariffs on EU imports etc but they are mainly Reform voters now not Tories
Does anyone really want to block up the Channel Tunnel? Anyone?
Rees Mogg wanted to build a wall in the English Channel
Didn't Alan Clark want to put a self-destruct mechanism in the Channel Tunnel, in case of invasion?
To be fair to the bigoted old hypochondriac, he did live 3 miles from the tunnel entrance.
I think he was right to do so - I certainly hope there's an easy way to block it up/destroy it if the worst happens. We are constantly told of the menace of Putin to the continent - are we going to wait for him to arrive at St Pancras?
Quite possibly.
I was trying to write a description he may have used of himself .
Will joining the CPTPP stop the UK rejoining the European Union? No. If the UK were to decide to rejoin the EU, it would have to leave the CPTPP, since having separate free trade agreements is incompatible with being a member of the EU’s single market and customs union. But the UK could do this by giving notice under Article 30.6 of the CPTPP. Six months after the date on which it gave notice, it would cease to be a member of the CPTPP. This would probably take place at a late stage of the UK’s negotiations to rejoin the EU under Article 49 of the Treaty on European Union...
Alternative reading: Yes, we’d have to leave the CPTPP if we wanted to rejoin the EU.
And doing so would be trivially easy.
It may be that the UK finds CPTPP congenial enough that it doesn't want to. But there is minimal difficulty in doing so.
We start trading in the block from December and it is many years until rejoining the EU becomes even a possibility and in the meantime billions of pounds of trade will take place by companies across the block
I do not see that as trivially easy
Rejoining will be the easiest deal in history, we hold all the cards.
We can even win the Referendum by promising the oldies their WFA back because of the economic growth.
Smoking income (from tax) exceeds the costs of treatment. If everyone stops smoking then it creates a shortfall in funding. At least, that was the case when I was at school, but I find it hard to believe the situation has changed since.
That's a classic economics fallacy. It would be much better if those smokers were spending money, paying tax and reaping the positive effects of some other item (running shoes or bicycles, for example).
I also don't think it's true any more.
It used to be the case that taxes on smoking paid for the entire NHS, in the 1980s when more people smoked and costs were lower, but not now.
Tax receipts from smoking last year: £8.8 billion.
I very much doubt if smoking related cancers and other illnesses only cost 5% of NHS budget.
On the basis that people will all eventually die of something, and that something will often cost lots of NHS money, I suspect that the lifetime costs of smokers to the NHS/social care is probably lower than non-smokers - they are mostly just bringing forward their expensive death by 10-20 years, rather than avoiding it forever. Every potential dementia sufferer who instead dies at 65 from lung cancer must cost vastly less, even accounting for the cancer treatment.
I'm not sure this is a strong argument for permitting smoking, but trying to justify banning it because of the cost to the NHS doesn't really pass the smell test.
Yes the real and stronger argument (for a ban) is that the end of cigarette smoking will foster a happier healthier population. Politicians shy away from that because it sounds a bit nanny state and opt instead for the more bloodless lowfalutin 'it will reduce pressure on the NHS'.
Are non-smokers happier, when controlled for other relevant factors like wealth?
Most smokers want to be non-smokers, suggesting so.
That's a reasonable logical leap, I think. I guess I just don't understand why it's difficult. Which is not to say that it isn't - just that I don't have anything to compare it to.
Nicotine is very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very addictive. When I was doing my PhD, my officemate was studying polydrug users, and they told him that nicotine was harder to quit than the various illegal things they were doing.
So, you're saying that if I found quitting cigarettes easy, then I shouldn't worry about starting a minor heroin habit?
I actually reckon I might find it easier to kick heroin than cigs. With the H although the withdrawal is objectively more harrowing I'd know I have to stop or I'll be dead or ruined and quite soon. With cigs it's more insidious. You can keep going and hope it'll stay ok for a long time. Or mess about for years stopping and starting or 'cutting down'. You don't face quite the brutal clarity that comes with hard drugs addiction.
Will joining the CPTPP stop the UK rejoining the European Union? No. If the UK were to decide to rejoin the EU, it would have to leave the CPTPP, since having separate free trade agreements is incompatible with being a member of the EU’s single market and customs union. But the UK could do this by giving notice under Article 30.6 of the CPTPP. Six months after the date on which it gave notice, it would cease to be a member of the CPTPP. This would probably take place at a late stage of the UK’s negotiations to rejoin the EU under Article 49 of the Treaty on European Union...
Brexit is done on that poll for most Tory voters and that was who Boris focused on as he was elected PM of a Conservative majority government.
It isn't done for most Labour and LD voters as they want Starmer to start to restore free movement and dilute Brexit.
It isn't done for most Reform voters as they want an even harder Brexit than Boris had with the RN stopping the boats and a hard border in Northern Ireland
I assume that Tory voters in that poll is the 20-something percent who voted Tory in 2024, so it's unlikely that a majority of 2019 Tory voters would agree that Brexit was done.
Those that don't want an even harder Brexit as I said, blocking up the channel tunnel, razor wire on Kent beaches, naval ships in the channel, checkpoints at the Irish border and tariffs on EU imports etc but they are mainly Reform voters now not Tories
Does anyone really want to block up the Channel Tunnel? Anyone?
Rees Mogg wanted to build a wall in the English Channel
Didn't Alan Clark want to put a self-destruct mechanism in the Channel Tunnel, in case of invasion?
To be fair to the bigoted old hypochondriac, he did live 3 miles from the tunnel entrance.
I think he was right to do so - I certainly hope there's an easy way to block it up/destroy it if the worst happens. We are constantly told of the menace of Putin to the continent - are we going to wait for him to arrive at St Pancras?
The plans for the 1960s Tunnel proposal were supposed to include demolition chambers - cavities next to the tunnel that would ordinarily be empty. In time of war, an explosive charge (nuclear?) would be placed in it.
IIRC someone asked the question if such a cavity or cavities exist for the current Channel tunnel. And didn’t get an answer.
It will surprise nobody to learn this, but I believe the whole purpose of a European rail network and its importance to the project is the potential to subdue a discontented populace. We might find such ideas quaint, but in the former Soviet bloc it's a very real concept.
A reminder that thirty days from now, that figure will reset to zero and stay there for good, bringing an end to coal burning for mass power in the UK.
Genuinely landmark moment.
Does that include imported electricity?
Does 'coal burning for mass power in the UK' include imported electricity?
Gee, well...
More seriously I think most of our imports are from Norway (hydro) and France (wind and nuclear) when they have a surplus, so I'm guessing very little of our imports are coal fired anyway.
It all depends on how one looks at it, given how interconnected the UK/EU now are. We currently are quite heavy net importers, as government policy has been to close down dispatchable power and replace it with wind/solar when it's available and imports when it isn't.
Looking at the EU as a whole it would be a lot better for the environment to have kept Radcliffe going flat out and turned off one of the German lignite plants instead, but as usual our policy is to offshore all the as many of our carbon emissions as possible and then pretend we've gone green.
Point of order: the Channel Interconnectors can't carry that much power, and are often maxed out. And at the times they are maxed out, France is usually exporting to Germany too, so it's going to take a pretty strange set of circumstances for German lignite power to make it to the UK.
With that said... when Viking Link goes live later this year (I'm assuming it's still on for later this year, but haven't checked), then there will be a much closer link between the UK and Germany grids, given it goes via Denmark. Now, most of the time, it will carry Danish off shore wind electricity, but it does - at least theoretically - allow power from German brown coal to potentially make it to the UK.
This is from the Governments website with the trade minister welcoming the agreement
CPTPP is a free trade area spanning five continents and almost 600 million people once the UK joins. Following Peru’s ratification of our deal to join the bloc, the agreement will now officially enter into force by 15 December 2024.
More than 99% of current UK goods exports to CPTPP members will be tariff-free once the deal enters into effect, helping businesses export more to CPTPP markets and contributing to the government’s priority of driving economic growth. By 2040, the agreement could boost the UK economy by around £2 billion annually.
Before Peru, five other CPTPP members ratified the terms of the UK’s accession: Japan, Singapore, Chile, New Zealand and Vietnam. This means the agreement will come into force with those members by 15 December, and subsequently with other members as they ratify. We continue to work closely with the remaining member countries who are in the process of ratifying the deal.
As the first country to accede to this agreement the UK will be well positioned to shape its future development, from influencing the development of the CPTPP rulebook to championing the group’s expansion to new economies.
Minister of State for Trade Policy Douglas Alexander said:
This is good news for UK businesses, who are now one step closer to being able to take advantage of the opportunities our membership of CPTPP will bring.
My message to businesses is to get in touch with the Department for Business and Trade to find out how CPTPP could benefit your business, if you haven’t already.
We’re extremely grateful to all the CPTPP partners that have already ratified our accession - Japan, Singapore, Chile, New Zealand, Vietnam and now Peru - and look forward to more doing so over the coming months.
Will joining the CPTPP stop the UK rejoining the European Union? No. If the UK were to decide to rejoin the EU, it would have to leave the CPTPP, since having separate free trade agreements is incompatible with being a member of the EU’s single market and customs union. But the UK could do this by giving notice under Article 30.6 of the CPTPP. Six months after the date on which it gave notice, it would cease to be a member of the CPTPP. This would probably take place at a late stage of the UK’s negotiations to rejoin the EU under Article 49 of the Treaty on European Union...
Alternative reading: Yes, we’d have to leave the CPTPP if we wanted to rejoin the EU.
And doing so would be trivially easy.
It may be that the UK finds CPTPP congenial enough that it doesn't want to. But there is minimal difficulty in doing so.
We start trading in the block from December and it is many years until rejoining the EU becomes even a possibility and in the meantime billions of pounds of trade will take place by companies across the block
I do not see that as trivially easy
Rejoining will be the easiest deal in history, we hold all the cards.
If we were to rejoin in our current state, they'd drive a very hard bargain I imagine. All of which the gruesome inadequates who are desperate to go back in would probably love - the more abject the return and punishing the conditions the more it would satisfy their perverse desire to punish their own country.
Talk about a failure to get irony - 'Perverse desire to punish their own country' is exactly what many Brexiteers deliberately chose to do
Will joining the CPTPP stop the UK rejoining the European Union? No. If the UK were to decide to rejoin the EU, it would have to leave the CPTPP, since having separate free trade agreements is incompatible with being a member of the EU’s single market and customs union. But the UK could do this by giving notice under Article 30.6 of the CPTPP. Six months after the date on which it gave notice, it would cease to be a member of the CPTPP. This would probably take place at a late stage of the UK’s negotiations to rejoin the EU under Article 49 of the Treaty on European Union...
Alternative reading: Yes, we’d have to leave the CPTPP if we wanted to rejoin the EU.
And doing so would be trivially easy.
It may be that the UK finds CPTPP congenial enough that it doesn't want to. But there is minimal difficulty in doing so.
We start trading in the block from December and it is many years until rejoining the EU becomes even a possibility and in the meantime billions of pounds of trade will take place by companies across the block
I do not see that as trivially easy
We already trade with the countries in the CPTPP bloc- £113 billion a year in 2022. The Sunak government analysis put the likely increase due to CPTPP membership at £5 billion a year. The trade links were there before, CPTPP smooths them a bit, but not by much.
Deservedly ridiculed in the comments. They are desperate, and clueless.
Just checked when I last did my CV (In 2006 for my current role) - mentions of my Burger King job... Zero. And that was 4 years after leaving university !
I see loads of CVs where people refer to summer work. At least it tells you they got off their arse.
Deservedly ridiculed in the comments. They are desperate, and clueless.
Just checked when I last did my CV (In 2006 for my current role) - mentions of my Burger King job... Zero. And that was 4 years after leaving university !
I see loads of CVs where people refer to summer work. At least it tells you they got off their arse.
Yep. I’d much rather see someone who worked a McJob in the summer as a student, than one who did an unpaid internship at some fancy place in big city. Unless of course I’m the hiring manager for that fancy place in the big city.
Will joining the CPTPP stop the UK rejoining the European Union? No. If the UK were to decide to rejoin the EU, it would have to leave the CPTPP, since having separate free trade agreements is incompatible with being a member of the EU’s single market and customs union. But the UK could do this by giving notice under Article 30.6 of the CPTPP. Six months after the date on which it gave notice, it would cease to be a member of the CPTPP. This would probably take place at a late stage of the UK’s negotiations to rejoin the EU under Article 49 of the Treaty on European Union...
Alternative reading: Yes, we’d have to leave the CPTPP if we wanted to rejoin the EU.
And doing so would be trivially easy.
It may be that the UK finds CPTPP congenial enough that it doesn't want to. But there is minimal difficulty in doing so.
We start trading in the block from December and it is many years until rejoining the EU becomes even a possibility and in the meantime billions of pounds of trade will take place by companies across the block
I do not see that as trivially easy
We already trade with the countries in the CPTPP bloc- £113 billion a year in 2022. The Sunak government analysis put the likely increase due to CPTPP membership at £5 billion a year. The trade links were there before, CPTPP smooths them a bit, but not by much.
We already trade with countries in the EU bloc and have a very favourable trade deal.
It's a bit 1914 to be worried about blowing up our railway tunnels to keep Johnny Frenchman out rather than preventing the Russian Bear from blowing up our data and power connectors.
I don't see the issue with blowing up the tunnel. We must have data about how much of what sort of HE we have to put on a train and it doesn't take a formal agreement with the builders, just a nod and a wink that at mile 19 there's a joint and a storeroom which between them make the whole thing slightly less robust than the other bits.
Brexit is done on that poll for most Tory voters and that was who Boris focused on as he was elected PM of a Conservative majority government.
It isn't done for most Labour and LD voters as they want Starmer to start to restore free movement and dilute Brexit.
It isn't done for most Reform voters as they want an even harder Brexit than Boris had with the RN stopping the boats and a hard border in Northern Ireland
I assume that Tory voters in that poll is the 20-something percent who voted Tory in 2024, so it's unlikely that a majority of 2019 Tory voters would agree that Brexit was done.
Those that don't want an even harder Brexit as I said, blocking up the channel tunnel, razor wire on Kent beaches, naval ships in the channel, checkpoints at the Irish border and tariffs on EU imports etc but they are mainly Reform voters now not Tories
Does anyone really want to block up the Channel Tunnel? Anyone?
Rees Mogg wanted to build a wall in the English Channel
Didn't Alan Clark want to put a self-destruct mechanism in the Channel Tunnel, in case of invasion?
To be fair to the bigoted old hypochondriac, he did live 3 miles from the tunnel entrance.
I think he was right to do so - I certainly hope there's an easy way to block it up/destroy it if the worst happens. We are constantly told of the menace of Putin to the continent - are we going to wait for him to arrive at St Pancras?
The plans for the 1960s Tunnel proposal were supposed to include demolition chambers - cavities next to the tunnel that would ordinarily be empty. In time of war, an explosive charge (nuclear?) would be placed in it.
IIRC someone asked the question if such a cavity or cavities exist for the current Channel tunnel. And didn’t get an answer.
I haven't *heard* of there being such cavities - and they would have to be known about for inspections et al.
Besides, I'm unsure what the advantage of such cavities would be: opening up the tunnel to the seabed would require a hideous amount of explosives. You'd be much better stopping the pumps (water and ventilation) and cutting off the power on the Kent side.
And the tunnel entrances are fairly defensible; pity any troops that tried to come through against an army that had any kind of early warning, and especially if they have poor air inside.
Think that it speaks volumes for the egoism, immorality AND incompetence of Donald Trump and his so-called "campaign", when he & they can NOT behave in a semi-civilized, quasi-respectful manner in Arlington National Cemetery.
The question "have you no shame?" answers itself . . . in the NEGATIVE.
So Starmer has taken down portrait of Thatcher from the Thatcher room (that Gordon Brown put up). Do you think he might having lying about his huge respect for Maggie?
#New Nate Silver Model update - Trump is back in the lead
🔴 Trump 52% (Chance) 🔵 Harris 47%
Errr...except that he has Harris winning the Electoral College 272-266.
Possibly a misprint somewhere?
Harris is ahead by 3.8 points in our national poll tracker — up from 2.3 points the day before the Democratic Convention began — which does suggest some sort of convention bounce. However, she’s fallen to a 47.3 percent chance of winning the Electoral College versus 52.4 percent for Donald Trump. (The numbers don’t add to 100 because of the possibility of an Electoral College deadlock.)
Some of this is because of the convention bounce adjustment that the model applies to polls that were conducted during or after the DNC. It assumes Harris’s polls are somewhat inflated right now, in other words — just as it assumed Trump’s numbers were inflated after the RNC. While there’s a solid basis for this empirically, you could argue we’re under unusual circumstances because of her late entry into the race. So if you want to treat all of this as a little fuzzier than usual, I don’t really mind that. The good news for Harris is that if she merely holds her current numbers for a couple more weeks, she’ll begin to track up again in our forecast as the model will become more confident that she’s out of the convention bounce period.
So Starmer has taken down portrait of Thatcher from the Thatcher room (that Gordon Brown put up). Do you think he might having lying about his huge respect for Maggie?
Well a spot has to be found for Liz's picture.
A giant frieze with the letters T R U S S in 200pt Helvetica is planned, I'm sure.
This question would be better phrased: "are you satisfied with our existing relationship with the EU?"
It would probably be heavily in the negative for almost every year since 1973.
Even 19% of Reform voters and 26% of Con believe that Brexit has had more negatives than benefits.
If Starmer is desperate to fire up the voters in 4 years time he should make Rejoin his centrepiece for the GE. Pretty much nail on another 5 years if he did. It's impossible to ignore the voters forever.
Why is Labour so terrified of a youth mobility scheme with the EU . We have these with a host of countries .
It’s not FOM and Starmer needs to get a grip and realize many Remainers have stomached his new found Brexit zeal and held their noses to vote Labour at the last GE to ensure the Tories would get sent packing .
Remainers want more opportunities for younger people to at least have the chance to spend a few years in an EU country .
Banning smoking in beer gardens seems pretty spiteful.
Starmer seems quite a vindictive individual.
Catastrophic fail. Quite an achievement in a honeymoon period in the silly season, but he is already making Sunak look adequate and Brown a titan. Roll on GE 2029.
Boris Johnson's Brexit legacy is being consolidated by Starmer. Only "never-Boris" Cleggites are still dreaming of a return to the pre-2016 era.
What on earth is a "never-Boris" Cleggite? Is this just something you've made up ?
Yes. The Lib Dem wing of the Tories.
Sorry - I wasn't aware the Conservative Party had a "Lib Dem" wing - presumably any MPs in that wing would be delighted by the advance of the real Liberal Democrats in July.
Who is one of this "Lib Dem" wing please as a point of reference?
I think it's fair to say that smokers don't realise how much the rest of us (86%) resent them.
I’m surprised the oppose is that high combined . And it’s not clear is this just smoking or will that include vaping.
I still have the odd cigarette and vape but drink little . So I’m getting irritated by this obsession with banning everything . The constant lecturing on what to eat , the pathetic and failed war on drugs , the list goes on .
Why is Labour so terrified of a youth mobility scheme with the EU . We have these with a host of countries .
It’s not FOM and Starmer needs to get a grip and realize many Remainers have stomached his new found Brexit zeal and held their noses to vote Labour at the last GE to ensure the Tories would get sent packing .
Remainers want more opportunities for younger people to at least have the chance to spend a few years in an EU country .
1. Because the traffic is 95% one way, towards the UK. 2. Because it’s proven to be almost impossible in practice to actually deport someone from the UK for overstaying a visa. 3. Because the government would need to either specify a tight limit on such numbers of visas, or open up to what’s basically FoM with millions of well-paid jobs suddenly becoming minimum-wage jobs overnight.
Boris DID get Brexit "done" from the POV that we left the EU and all it's institutions. Only morons like Farage who can't take yes for an answer would claim we haven't left.
Of Brexit is never "done" from the POV that it can't ever be looked at again, changed, tweaked, debated, discussed and heck maybe even one day we rejoin.
Getting Brexit "done" was about implementing the instruction given by the British people in 2016 but new instructions can be given at any point in the future (indeed have been by the election of the Starmer government which was explicit about wanting a closer relationship with the EU)
Comments
But it is done. Starmer has a 200 seat majority, he could negotiate our re-joining if he so desired with a referendum at the end to join. None of this betrays the vote.
People got caught up in a purity spiral which resulted in us leaving institutions such as the Single Market and the customs unions, both of which we could have happily sat as non members.
Looking at the EU as a whole it would be a lot better for the environment to have kept Radcliffe going flat out and turned off one of the German lignite plants instead, but as usual our policy is to offshore all the as many of our carbon emissions as possible and then pretend we've gone green.
By the same token, I wonder if any of the passengers were planning to avoid UK tax this year on the basis of being abroad...
The betrayal of the Sunak Conservatives with the cancellation of HS2 and the scrapping of most of the Johnson programme will take a long time to be forgotten but instead the Reform voters will be looking to Labour to deliver both on the immigration question and on additional spending in WWC areas.
The question is whether Reform is more in the mood of Alternative for Germany or in fact more of a Wagenknecht-style movement. I think it may have been the former but may become the latter and that's the big threat for Labour.
Today’s swing State polls from Emerson show it’s still a coin-toss. Trump is just ahead in Wisconsin, N Carolina, and Arizona, Harris just ahead in Georgia, Nevada, Michigan, with Pennsylvania tied.
This makes rejoining the EU difficult
https://www.gov.uk/government/news/uk-to-join-cptpp-by-15-december
At least he'd scored 143 by this one.
Tax on booze etc is an interesting one, but the cruise line will argue that they weren’t selling tickets to an offshore party but rather an international trip that is unavoidably delayed by technical problems.
The one rule that does usually apply in port is with regard to the casino, which is usually required to remain shut.
Yep, polls have it very close. I think it's more 60/40 Harris but if you go purely by the current polling averages it's 50/50.
Played some good shots too.
An example is there's little to no import duties on cocoa or sugar from African nations. But if you want to import a bar of chocolate, it gets slapped right on there. Little more than economic colonialism that holds developing nations back.
Will joining the CPTPP stop the UK rejoining the European Union?
No. If the UK were to decide to rejoin the EU, it would have to leave the CPTPP, since having separate free trade agreements is incompatible with being a member of the EU’s single market and customs union. But the UK could do this by giving notice under Article 30.6 of the CPTPP. Six months after the date on which it gave notice, it would cease to be a member of the CPTPP. This would probably take place at a late stage of the UK’s negotiations to rejoin the EU under Article 49 of the Treaty on European Union...
https://www.instituteforgovernment.org.uk/explainer/comprehensive-and-progressive-agreement-trans-pacific-partnership
Indeed the trade minister has welcomed the news today
It may be that the UK finds CPTPP congenial enough that it doesn't want to. But there is minimal difficulty in doing so.
Broken Britain, innit?
Would hurt less if the cataloguing and interface weren't awful. Last night a stream was cancelled during the final tiebreak in a five set match. Just gone. "This stream has ended".
That's why it's quite a stupid polling question for measuring sentiment on Brexit - you can give the same answer and mean two totally different things.
1) There are no cases where you can't point out that miscarriages of justice have occurred before, so the point doesn't really help
2) The starting point for criticisms is evaluation of the Court of Appeal judgement. It runs to 58 pages. People who make points without serious reference to it are not serious
https://www.judiciary.uk/wp-content/uploads/2024/07/R-v-Letby-Final-Judgment-20240702.pdf
3) The defence called no expert evidence though it could have done if it wanted.
4) If Letby wanted to suggest that her lawyers missed key matters, she could have used a new team for the appeal, and for the second trial. She didn't. People who want to raise points not raised at the appeal will need to rationally explain why they have spotted what the defence experts didn't.
I have no idea about the truth of the matter. I wasn't there. There were (I think) undoubtedly threads of evidence corroborating the expert evidence. Nothing I have seen yet suggests a miscarriage of justice but I shall stay open minded.
@KamalaHQ
JD Vance calls audience “haters” as he is booed at firefighters union conference
https://x.com/KamalaHQ/status/1829195356971651174
I do not see that as trivially easy
And such preparations were built into many tunnels and bridges in Europe.
That date looks dodgy afaics. If you only have 6 ratifications, not all 11, it's 15 months not 60 days, according to Wiki.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Accession_of_the_United_Kingdom_to_CPTPP
https://www.instituteforgovernment.org.uk/explainer/comprehensive-and-progressive-agreement-trans-pacific-partnership#:~:text=No.,Article 30.6 of the CPTPP.
Perhaps I should have been more diligent.
IIRC someone asked the question if such a cavity or cavities exist for the current Channel tunnel. And didn’t get an answer.
I was trying to write a description he may have used of himself
Are they still cheesed off?
#New Nate Silver Model update - Trump is back in the lead
🔴 Trump 52% (Chance)
🔵 Harris 47%
With that said... when Viking Link goes live later this year (I'm assuming it's still on for later this year, but haven't checked), then there will be a much closer link between the UK and Germany grids, given it goes via Denmark. Now, most of the time, it will carry Danish off shore wind electricity, but it does - at least theoretically - allow power from German brown coal to potentially make it to the UK.
Possibly a misprint somewhere?
This is from the Governments website with the trade minister welcoming the agreement
CPTPP is a free trade area spanning five continents and almost 600 million people once the UK joins. Following Peru’s ratification of our deal to join the bloc, the agreement will now officially enter into force by 15 December 2024.
More than 99% of current UK goods exports to CPTPP members will be tariff-free once the deal enters into effect, helping businesses export more to CPTPP markets and contributing to the government’s priority of driving economic growth. By 2040, the agreement could boost the UK economy by around £2 billion annually.
Before Peru, five other CPTPP members ratified the terms of the UK’s accession: Japan, Singapore, Chile, New Zealand and Vietnam. This means the agreement will come into force with those members by 15 December, and subsequently with other members as they ratify. We continue to work closely with the remaining member countries who are in the process of ratifying the deal.
As the first country to accede to this agreement the UK will be well positioned to shape its future development, from influencing the development of the CPTPP rulebook to championing the group’s expansion to new economies.
Minister of State for Trade Policy Douglas Alexander said:
This is good news for UK businesses, who are now one step closer to being able to take advantage of the opportunities our membership of CPTPP will bring.
My message to businesses is to get in touch with the Department for Business and Trade to find out how CPTPP could benefit your business, if you haven’t already.
We’re extremely grateful to all the CPTPP partners that have already ratified our accession - Japan, Singapore, Chile, New Zealand, Vietnam and now Peru - and look forward to more doing so over the coming months.
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/cptpp-impact-assessment/impact-assessment-of-the-uks-accession-to-the-cptpp-executive-summary-web-version
For comparison, our trade with the EU is over £800 billion.
https://commonslibrary.parliament.uk/research-briefings/cbp-7851/
Anyone who has told you that CPTPP has any salience at all to what future voters decide to do is indulging in wishful thinking, a shyster, or both.
https://x.com/christopherhope/status/1829205619485905177
On the political aspect, some right wing journalists have got off-the-record quotes from McDonalds corporate that Kamala Harris never worked there.
https://x.com/akafacehots/status/1829189038949163349
I don't see the issue with blowing up the tunnel. We must have data about how much of what sort of HE we have to put on a train and it doesn't take a formal agreement with the builders, just a nod and a wink that at mile 19 there's a joint and a storeroom which between them make the whole thing slightly less robust than the other bits.
Besides, I'm unsure what the advantage of such cavities would be: opening up the tunnel to the seabed would require a hideous amount of explosives. You'd be much better stopping the pumps (water and ventilation) and cutting off the power on the Kent side.
And the tunnel entrances are fairly defensible; pity any troops that tried to come through against an army that had any kind of early warning, and especially if they have poor air inside.
The question "have you no shame?" answers itself . . . in the NEGATIVE.
Some of this is because of the convention bounce adjustment that the model applies to polls that were conducted during or after the DNC. It assumes Harris’s polls are somewhat inflated right now, in other words — just as it assumed Trump’s numbers were inflated after the RNC. While there’s a solid basis for this empirically, you could argue we’re under unusual circumstances because of her late entry into the race. So if you want to treat all of this as a little fuzzier than usual, I don’t really mind that. The good news for Harris is that if she merely holds her current numbers for a couple more weeks, she’ll begin to track up again in our forecast as the model will become more confident that she’s out of the convention bounce period.
It would probably be heavily in the negative for almost every year since 1973.
If Starmer is desperate to fire up the voters in 4 years time he should make Rejoin his centrepiece for the GE. Pretty much nail on another 5 years if he did. It's impossible to ignore the voters forever.
Is it something I did on my humble pc? Maybe some techie techetry beyond my simple ken (and barbie)!
I'd love to go, but too expensive and kids
A: Don't Look Back in Hangar.
It’s not FOM and Starmer needs to get a grip and realize many Remainers have stomached his new found Brexit zeal and held their noses to vote Labour at the last GE to ensure the Tories would get sent packing .
Remainers want more opportunities for younger people to at least have the chance to spend a few years in an EU country .
Britons tend to support the proposed smoking ban in pub gardens and outdoor restaurants
Strong support: 35%
Tend to support: 23%
Tend to oppose: 17%
Strong oppose: 18%
https://x.com/YouGov/status/1829172165272580618
I think it's fair to say that smokers don't realise how much the rest of us (86%) resent them.
Who is one of this "Lib Dem" wing please as a point of reference?
I still have the odd cigarette and vape but drink little . So I’m getting irritated by this obsession with banning everything . The constant lecturing on what to eat , the pathetic and failed war on drugs , the list goes on .
2. Because it’s proven to be almost impossible in practice to actually deport someone from the UK for overstaying a visa.
3. Because the government would need to either specify a tight limit on such numbers of visas, or open up to what’s basically FoM with millions of well-paid jobs suddenly becoming minimum-wage jobs overnight.
Boris DID get Brexit "done" from the POV that we left the EU and all it's institutions. Only morons like Farage who can't take yes for an answer would claim we haven't left.
Of Brexit is never "done" from the POV that it can't ever be looked at again, changed, tweaked, debated, discussed and heck maybe even one day we rejoin.
Getting Brexit "done" was about implementing the instruction given by the British people in 2016 but new instructions can be given at any point in the future (indeed have been by the election of the Starmer government which was explicit about wanting a closer relationship with the EU)