Building a competitor to GPS and Galileo strikes me as an idea well worth looking at...
If the UK wishes to position itself as a significant world economy, independent of the EU, US or China then having its own positioning capability may make perfect sense.
Selling the service could underpin trading and security relationships. It would provide significant investments in hi tech industries in the immediate post Brexit period, much of it inward investment. It would boost R&D in UK universities.
Finally, it could be a superior proposition to Galileo given that it could exploit the most up-to-date technology and lower satellite launch costs. In an outward looking UK, it makes more sense than HS2.
The UK has the resources to do a satellite navigation system. I am doubtful whether it WILL do one. It won't be nearly as cheap as people make it out to be. The EU system has the inefficiencies of a multinational system. On the other hand it has the scale that allows each nationality to specialise in what it is good at. Standalone we would have to replicate others' expertise. Galileo can also tap into existing resources such as the ESA that we would have to build from scratch. A cost of £10-£20 billion, which is what Galileo cost, seems a reasonable guestimate of the actual cost of such a system. Of the same order as the cost of a aircraft carrier capability or a nuclear weapons programme. We can do it but we would need to make choices. What will we give up to afford it?
Housing benefit and working tax credits to EU citizens?
Except EU citizens are paying much more tax then they receive in benefits.
Genuine question which I don't know the answer to, what is the situation with respect to national insurance and the state pension for EU citizens ?
Everyone has to pay NI. The country you retire in is responsible, I believe, for paying you the pension accrued in any EU member state you have previously worked in. I don't know how it gets aggregated.
No, the pension is paid from the country where the credits accrued. At least it is for us.
Building a competitor to GPS and Galileo strikes me as an idea well worth looking at...
If the UK wishes to position itself as a significant world economy, independent of the EU, US or China then having its own positioning capability may make perfect sense.
Selling the service could underpin trading and security relationships. It would provide significant investments in hi tech industries in the immediate post Brexit period, much of it inward investment. It would boost R&D in UK universities.
Finally, it could be a superior proposition to Galileo given that it could exploit the most up-to-date technology and lower satellite launch costs. In an outward looking UK, it makes more sense than HS2.
The UK has the resources to do a satellite navigation system. I am doubtful whether it WILL do one. It won't be nearly as cheap as people make it out to be. The EU system has the inefficiencies of a multinational system. On the other hand it has the scale that allows each nationality to specialise in what it is good at. Standalone we would have to replicate others' expertise. Galileo can also tap into existing resources such as the ESA that we would have to build from scratch. A cost of £10-£20 billion, which is what Galileo cost, seems a reasonable guestimate of the actual cost of such a system. Of the same order as the cost of a aircraft carrier capability or a nuclear weapons programme. We can do it but we would need to make choices. What will we give up to afford it?
Housing benefit and working tax credits to EU citizens?
Except EU citizens are paying much more tax then they receive in benefits.
Beware aggregate statistics.
Exactly - some are some are not. Perhaps we want to be able to pick the former not the latter. Not all migrants are doctors or bankers or engineers - some do minimum wage work topped up by welfare payouts and some don't work at all.
We attract a lot of welfare recipients as our non contributory welfare system entitles EU citizens to tax credits, social housing, housing benefits, free NHS healthcare, welfare and more almost immediately. If I went to Poland as a working age person to live and decided not to work - even if I didn't claim the dole - I would have to have private medical insurance as their health system is not free at the point of use and I wouldn't as a permanent resident be able to use an EHIC. Same in Spain, Eastern Europe and almost all EU member states.
I have no problem with reciprocal arrangements - but our welfare system isn't. And any attempts to reform it in any radical way seem impossible.
Genuine question which I don't know the answer to, what is the situation with respect to national insurance and the state pension for EU citizens ?
If they contribute they qualify. They can even buy missing years contributions, aiui. My wife is an EU citizen and receives a partial NI pension.
You have to have paid NICs for a certain period of time though to get any sort of UK State pension my wife’s 4 years of contribs won’t give her anything and she has lost those years as they don’t count towards her Danish pension.
Mind you in Denmark you have to be a citizen with at least 15 years contributions to get a State pension at all - once again it is UK rules that are open & generous not EU diktats
We forget the Labour leavers - Stringer, Hoey, Field et all. Let alone those like Caroline Flint who backed remain but are committed to following the direction of their constituents. It's one thing Soubry, Grieve, Morgan and co voting against the government on a procedural matter - quite another voting against the core policy on a 3 line whip. When it comes to the crunch will they all go through with it.
If they contribute they qualify. They can even buy missing years contributions, aiui. My wife is an EU citizen and receives a partial NI pension.
You have to have paid NICs for a certain period of time though to get any sort of UK State pension my wife’s 4 years of contribs won’t give her anything and she has lost those years as they don’t count towards her Danish pension.
Mind you in Denmark you have to be a citizen with at least 15 years contributions to get a State pension at all - once again it is UK rules that are open & generous not EU diktats
In my wife's case she was self-employed for the last 20 years and had eschewed the Class Whatever NI contributions at the time, but coming up to retirement age was able to purchase a (limited) number of years in order to get her modest NI pension.
Chris Grayling looks like a dependable plodder for the Brexit cause.
If the answer to the question is "Chris Grayling", you are already up a certain creek and lacking appropriate means of propulsion
I was trying to answer the barking allegation, not a new charsmatic Brexit conservative PM.
No, that cap fits Grayling perfectly along with dozens of other candidates on either side of the house.
If you are looking for volunteers to be a Charismatic Brexit Conservative for PM, Johnson Major has, rhetorically speaking, both hands in the air shouting 'me sir' at the top of his voice, today-again!
We forget the Labour leavers - Stringer, Hoey, Field et all. Let alone those like Caroline Flint who backed remain but are committed to following the direction of their constituents. It's one thing Soubry, Grieve, Morgan and co voting against the government on a procedural matter - quite another voting against the core policy on a 3 line whip. When it comes to the crunch will they all go through with it.
We shall see,
Problem is that no one's talking about stopping Brexit. This is a more arcane matter of thrashing out post-Brexit trading arrangements. The Labour leavers could humiliate Theresa and bring down her government over this while keeping their consciences clear.
Didn't realise deputy mayor was an appointment. That said not seen "deputy mayor" on any ballot paper in my memory...
The Mayor of London can appoint up to 10 deputy mayors - he has them for fire, policing, housing, regeneration, culture, and transport and more. They are political appointees - sort of like his Cabinet. They are often elected Assembly members - most are not.
If the Speaker's chair became empty, would Jacob Rees-Mogg go for it or would he hold out for advancement within the Conservative party? What does the brains trust think?
I think he'd like to be Speaker one day. But in the present circumstances, he would surely be delighted to see Harman get it, continuing the newish tradition of alternation. I think it's hers for the taking (her restraint over the Badenoch thing was instructive).
Didn't realise deputy mayor was an appointment. That said not seen "deputy mayor" on any ballot paper in my memory...
The Mayor of London can appoint up to 10 deputy mayors - he has them for fire, policing, housing, regeneration, culture, and transport and more. They are political appointees - sort of like his Cabinet. They are often elected Assembly members - most are not.
Is this customs partnership actually workable - it's a theory at present and the EU have said its not workable and wouldn't support it. It sounds like a nice idea - but it is actually credible and deliverable let alone acceptable to the EU?
PS I assume this letter is not from the John Mann MP?
Is this customs partnership actually workable - it's a theory at present and the EU have said its not workable and wouldn't support it. It sounds like a nice idea - but it is actually credible and deliverable let alone acceptable to the EU?
PS I assume this letter is not from the John Mann MP?
Losing the will to live on all this frankly. The EU have said no to May's crackpot scheme. So unless Ollie Robbins knows something the rest of us don't, then its all a delicious waste of time.
The vultures are circling above Theresa. She should use the nuclear option: say that either Boris and co. back her, or she'll call a vote of no confidence, which she'll lose and which will make Jezza PM.
Except it wouldn't make Jezza PM. Just because May is not PM does not automatically mean Jezza is.
Yes, but it's theoretically possible that HM could ask Jezza to form a government once the no-confidence vote is lost. If Theresa's people hype this possibility loudly enough, it should be enough to bring Boris and co. back to heel: they wouldn't want to be deemed responsible for that.
Surely it's a given that HM would have to ask Jezza to try to form a government if TMay lost a vote of NC? How long that would last is doubtful but IUIC unless he is able to win a confidence vote within 14 days of the NC vote there will have to be a GE.
The likely solution to the customs union question looks pretty straightforward. I'm surprised so much energy is being wasted on it. There's a solution that will appease all sides for now.
The likely solution to the customs union question looks pretty straightforward. I'm surprised so much energy is being wasted on it. There's a solution that will appease all sides for now.
The likely solution to the customs union question looks pretty straightforward. I'm surprised so much energy is being wasted on it. There's a solution that will appease all sides for now.
The likely solution to the customs union question looks pretty straightforward. I'm surprised so much energy is being wasted on it. There's a solution that will appease all sides for now.
The vultures are circling above Theresa. She should use the nuclear option: say that either Boris and co. back her, or she'll call a vote of no confidence, which she'll lose and which will make Jezza PM.
Except it wouldn't make Jezza PM. Just because May is not PM does not automatically mean Jezza is.
Yes, but it's theoretically possible that HM could ask Jezza to form a government once the no-confidence vote is lost. If Theresa's people hype this possibility loudly enough, it should be enough to bring Boris and co. back to heel: they wouldn't want to be deemed responsible for that.
Surely it's a given that HM would have to ask Jezza to try to form a government if TMay lost a vote of NC? How long that would last is doubtful but IUIC unless he is able to win a confidence vote within 14 days of the NC vote there will have to be a GE.
No, HM would only invite Corbyn to try to form a government if 'soundings' indicated that he had a reasonable chance of doing so. In the current circumstances, he doesn't. An alternative Conservative candidate would be the most likely option, given the parliamentary numbers.
Is this customs partnership actually workable - it's a theory at present and the EU have said its not workable and wouldn't support it. It sounds like a nice idea - but it is actually credible and deliverable let alone acceptable to the EU?
PS I assume this letter is not from the John Mann MP?
Losing the will to live on all this frankly. The EU have said no to May's crackpot scheme. So unless Ollie Robbins knows something the rest of us don't, then its all a delicious waste of time.
Which may be the game plan.
That is the game plan. As long as you are still in the game you have a chance. TM waiting for events to overcome the impasse. The council elections were a non event and cant see anything happening now until after summer.
I expect that this will be an easy Labour hold. Labour would probably have to be in government, and unpopular, for the Lib Dems to generate a bandwagon against them.
There's no value there with the possibility of internal splits. I'd want 1/10 at least at this stage. (1/50 might look very big soon enough).
I'd be interested in a without the fav market.If Shadsy really does think it's equal for both LDs and Cons for 2nd place,a bet on Con would be value as would a Lab-Con forecast.LDs more of a 100-1 price than 25s to me.
I’ve moved on. My view has consistently the sooner we Leave the sooner we rejoin.
As my day job is 99% Brexit related I’m intrigued by it all.
Yes - I'm a little tired of the endless skirmishes over Brexit. I want to see the ending of this movie.
I'm with TSE on this, and have been since day 1. We've got to leave to respect the vote and the sooner we do the sooner we'll be back. Just a little surprised at how much the Brexiters have helped the process by making sure the whole thing is as traumatic as possible.
The Conservatives held Lewisham East until 1992. It's a seat that shows just how far London has swung away from the Conservatives.
Yes - a huge amount of this is simple demographic changes - I know as I lived through it from 1980-2009.
The ward in which I grew up (Clock House) finally fell completely to Labour last week. My parents still haven't forgiven the Boundary Commission for moving them out of Beckenham and in to Lewisham West & Penge
Hmm. GP (effectively) asks consultant to look at image. Consultant does so. Tells GP what it looks like. GP has previously examined, presumably has an idea, wants it confirmed or rejected. Gets opinion. Proceeds. Seems OK to me.
Why not email the image from the hospital to the GP?
If the GP wanted a second opinion, you might be right, but that was not a requirement in this case.
The same thing happened with an ultrasound. The GP wanted it done, but never got to see the raw image data, only somebody else's interpretation of it (so it's not really a second opinion; it's 2 different opinions based on 2 different data sets. 1 examination, 1 image. Can't be the best solution...)
It’s probably the best solution.
At this point they are really triaging to see if you need more work. All the images are reviewed in a consistent way by a small group of centralised experts.
If the Speaker's chair became empty, would Jacob Rees-Mogg go for it or would he hold out for advancement within the Conservative party? What does the brains trust think?
I think he'd like to be Speaker one day. But in the present circumstances, he would surely be delighted to see Harman get it, continuing the newish tradition of alternation. I think it's hers for the taking (her restraint over the Badenoch thing was instructive).
I can’t think of anyone I’d rather see as speaker less than Harriet Harman. Surely the Commons wouldn’t?
I expect that this will be an easy Labour hold. Labour would probably have to be in government, and unpopular, for the Lib Dems to generate a bandwagon against them.
I'm hoping for a big ruck over candidate selection. As others have said, this must be a big goal for momentum to get one of their favoured ones on the ballot.
"Two Brains" (And No Sense) Willetts coming up with another cunning plan to hit Con voters?
Any sign of Letwin's fingerprints on this one?
Keep Willetts well away from making government policy, the man will hit the Tory vote.
On radio 5 this morning, the idea went down like a bucket of sick and the last time I mentioned that was the tory manifesto for the last GE.
The helping young people bit will be one of those airy fairy benefits that noone actually sees whereas the cost will be straight out the pocket of those hit.
I signed a petition to prevent Willets from getting some honour or other because he is one of the main reasons Corbyn might well get in*. I hope he is nowhere near making policy for the Tories in 2022.
* This probably isn't the main reason most people signed the petition against him.
I’ve moved on. My view has consistently the sooner we Leave the sooner we rejoin.
As my day job is 99% Brexit related I’m intrigued by it all.
Yes - I'm a little tired of the endless skirmishes over Brexit. I want to see the ending of this movie.
I'm with TSE on this, and have been since day 1. We've got to leave to respect the vote and the sooner we do the sooner we'll be back. Just a little surprised at how much the Brexiters have helped the process by making sure the whole thing is as traumatic as possible.
IMO far from guaranteed we will be back. A soft Brexit which gradually hardens most likely to be permanent. But what can we call it? A meringue Brexit? A mouse brexit?
Ian Dunt - @IanDunt: You couldn't ask for a more perfect encapsulation of the pointlessness of Brexit than ham-faced cretin Gavin Williamson saying we should build our own Galileo system.
Ian Dunt - @IanDunt: He wants to spend countless millions replicating a project we are already invested in. He calls it... you guessed it... "rediscovering our bulldog spirit".
And that is the fault of the EU.
More seriously, this kind of cooperation makes perfect sense. It was the political stuff that didn’t work for the U.K.
I’ve moved on. My view has consistently the sooner we Leave the sooner we rejoin.
As my day job is 99% Brexit related I’m intrigued by it all.
Yes - I'm a little tired of the endless skirmishes over Brexit. I want to see the ending of this movie.
I'm with TSE on this, and have been since day 1. We've got to leave to respect the vote and the sooner we do the sooner we'll be back. Just a little surprised at how much the Brexiters have helped the process by making sure the whole thing is as traumatic as possible.
IMO far from guaranteed we will be back. A soft Brexit which gradually hardens most likely to be permanent. But what can we call it? A meringue Brexit? A mouse brexit?
Cake goes hard when it's stale and biscuits go soft, so perhaps 'cakeism' is apt in more ways than one.
"Two Brains" (And No Sense) Willetts coming up with another cunning plan to hit Con voters?
Any sign of Letwin's fingerprints on this one?
Keep Willetts well away from making government policy, the man will hit the Tory vote.
On radio 5 this morning, the idea went down like a bucket of sick and the last time I mentioned that was the tory manifesto for the last GE.
The helping young people bit will be one of those airy fairy benefits that noone actually sees whereas the cost will be straight out the pocket of those hit.
I signed a petition to prevent Willets from getting some honour or other because he is one of the main reasons Corbyn might well get in*. I hope he is nowhere near making policy for the Tories in 2022.
* This probably isn't the main reason most people signed the petition against him.
If you put the petition on here,I would probably sign it ;-)
I’ve moved on. My view has consistently the sooner we Leave the sooner we rejoin.
As my day job is 99% Brexit related I’m intrigued by it all.
Yes - I'm a little tired of the endless skirmishes over Brexit. I want to see the ending of this movie.
I'm with TSE on this, and have been since day 1. We've got to leave to respect the vote and the sooner we do the sooner we'll be back. Just a little surprised at how much the Brexiters have helped the process by making sure the whole thing is as traumatic as possible.
IMO far from guaranteed we will be back. A soft Brexit which gradually hardens most likely to be permanent. But what can we call it? A meringue Brexit? A mouse brexit?
Edit - was going for mousse
Coprolite Brexit. The starting point is pretty unattractive, then it fossilises into something that doesn't improve with the process.
But the polls already show voters thinking the EU are not playing fair.....there'll be plenty of blame to go round - and the EU will get its share of it....fair or otherwise......'Lets re-join the club that grounded our planes' will be a tough sell.....
When the UK finds itself in a pickle we’re prepared to do bold things. Heck in the past we came close to merging the UK with France.
Plus, you know, wasn't an abiding principle of Brexit that we would no longer be able to blame the EU for our predicament and that British politicians would have nowhere to hide?
Given we have not yet left the EU and your fellow travellers are doing their best to make sure we never do then your clever point is... well bollocks really. As and when we do get to leave then we can stop blaming the EU and its Remaniac cronies.
QED
Always someone else's fault.
Nope. Just pointing out the idiocy of your supposed logic. You are the one who moaned about blaming the EU when we had said we would no longer be able to do that when we left. I am simply pointing out we have not yet left so again your point is bollocks. QED.
Building a competitor to GPS and Galileo strikes me as an idea well worth looking at...
If the UK wishes to position itself as a significant world economy, independent of the EU, US or China then having its own positioning capability may make perfect sense.
Selling the service could underpin trading and security relationships. It would provide significant investments in hi tech industries in the immediate post Brexit period, much of it inward investment. It would boost R&D in UK universities.
Finally, it could be a superior proposition to Galileo given that it could exploit the most up-to-date technology and lower satellite launch costs. In an outward looking UK, it makes more sense than HS2.
The UK has the resources to do a satellite navigation system. I am doubtful whether it WILL do one. It won't be nearly as cheap as people make it out to be. The EU system has the inefficiencies of a multinational system. On the other hand it has the scale that allows each nationality to specialise in what it is good at. Standalone we would have to replicate others' expertise. Galileo can also tap into existing resources such as the ESA that we would have to build from scratch. A cost of £10-£20 billion, which is what Galileo cost, seems a reasonable guestimate of the actual cost of such a system. Of the same order as the cost of a aircraft carrier capability or a nuclear weapons programme. We can do it but we would need to make choices. What will we give up to afford it?
Housing benefit and working tax credits to EU citizens?
Except EU citizens are paying much more tax then they receive in benefits.
Genuine question which I don't know the answer to, what is the situation with respect to national insurance and the state pension for EU citizens ?
Everyone has to pay NI. The country you retire in is responsible, I believe, for paying you the pension accrued in any EU member state you have previously worked in. I don't know how it gets aggregated.
Interestingly that seems to be different for the EFTA members of the EEA. I received a letter last year from the Norwegian Government which said I would be due a small pension from them for the 15 years I worked there. I assume this is a reciprocal arrangement.
But the polls already show voters thinking the EU are not playing fair.....there'll be plenty of blame to go round - and the EU will get its share of it....fair or otherwise......'Lets re-join the club that grounded our planes' will be a tough sell.....
When the UK finds itself in a pickle we’re prepared to do bold things. Heck in the past we came close to merging the UK with France.
Plus, you know, wasn't an abiding principle of Brexit that we would no longer be able to blame the EU for our predicament and that British politicians would have nowhere to hide?
Given we have not yet left the EU and your fellow travellers are doing their best to make sure we never do then your clever point is... well bollocks really. As and when we do get to leave then we can stop blaming the EU and its Remaniac cronies.
QED
Always someone else's fault.
Nope. Just pointing out the idiocy of your supposed logic. You are the one who moaned about blaming the EU when we had said we would no longer be able to do that when we left. I am simply pointing out we have not yet left so again your point is bollocks. QED.
You say "your fellow travellers are doing their best to make sure we never do [leave]" and yet you personally have always been in favour of the EEA option. If anyone you deemed to be unsound proposed exactly the same thing you'd denounce them for betraying Brexit. It's absurd.
Building a competitor to GPS and Galileo strikes me as an idea well worth looking at...
If the UK wishes to position itself as a significant world economy, independent of the EU, US or China then having its own positioning capability may make perfect sense.
Selling the service could underpin trading and security relationships. It would provide significant investments in hi tech industries in the immediate post Brexit period, much of it inward investment. It would boost R&D in UK universities.
Finally, it could be a superior proposition to Galileo given that it could exploit the most up-to-date technology and lower satellite launch costs. In an outward looking UK, it makes more sense than HS2.
The UK has the resources to do a satellite navigation system. I am doubtful whether it WILL do one. It won't be nearly as cheap as people make it out to be. The EU system has the inefficiencies of a multinational system. On the other hand it has the scale that allows each nationality to specialise in what it is good at. Standalone we would have to replicate others' expertise. Galileo can also tap into existing resources such as the ESA that we would have to build from scratch. A cost of £10-£20 billion, which is what Galileo cost, seems a reasonable guestimate of the actual cost of such a system. Of the same order as the cost of a aircraft carrier capability or a nuclear weapons programme. We can do it but we would need to make choices. What will we give up to afford it?
Housing benefit and working tax credits to EU citizens?
Except EU citizens are paying much more tax then they receive in benefits.
Genuine question which I don't know the answer to, what is the situation with respect to national insurance and the state pension for EU citizens ?
Everyone has to pay NI. The country you retire in is responsible, I believe, for paying you the pension accrued in any EU member state you have previously worked in. I don't know how it gets aggregated.
Interestingly that seems to be different for the EFTA members of the EEA. I received a letter last year from the Norwegian Government which said I would be due a small pension from them for the 15 years I worked there. I assume this is a reciprocal arrangement.
Worth noting the Five Presidents report also contained a vision of a social union in the EU as well.
"It is hard not to see the Lib Dem gains in Haringey as indications that voters can be persuaded to take fright when the prospect of Corbynite Labour actually running things is very real – a quite different situation from last year’s general election, when Labour looked so far from national power that it also looked a safe place to deposit a protest vote, whether against the Conservatives, Brexit or both. Antisemitism has played a part in the Haringey story too, and the triumphalism of those who organised and encouraged the ousting of so many now former Labour councillors seems premature as well as unappealing. The unfolding story of who will next lead the council could deflate the Corbynite bubble still more."
I think that as per these election results the next election will see a slight swing towards Labour in the cities and North West England, where they are already strong, and away from them everywhere else. The Tories will go back a little particularly in the cities and remain areas, and the Libdems will make a comeback where they are strong. I think where I live in the South West they will be able to make disproportionate improvements in vote share, but it will be close as to whether this will translate into seats. I think that if the next election happens in 2022 then they should be able to put a distance between that election and their record in Government.
No member state would deny the UK access to core EU programmes where its participation makes sense both in terms of financial contribution and expertise. This includes satellites and security.
However the EU institutions are so minded to cut off Member States' nose to spite the UK's face.
There's been a consistent pattern ever since the beginning. Every time the backbenchers and ERG become restless, Boris ostentatiously attacks Theresa May's position and threatens to challenge her leadership to subdue them. It's almost as if that's his real role in the government. In substance he's John Prescott to May's Blair.
No member state would deny the UK access to core EU programmes where its participation makes sense both in terms of financial contribution and expertise. This includes satellites and security.
However the EU institutions are so minded to cut off Member States' nose to spite the UK's face.
But the polls already show voters thinking the EU are not playing fair.....there'll be plenty of blame to go round - and the EU will get its share of it....fair or otherwise......'Lets re-join the club that grounded our planes' will be a tough sell.....
When the UK finds itself in a pickle we’re prepared to do bold things. Heck in the past we came close to merging the UK with France.
Plus, you know, wasn't an abiding principle of Brexit that we would no longer be able to blame the EU for our predicament and that British politicians would have nowhere to hide?
Given we have not yet left the EU and your fellow travellers are doing their best to make sure we never do then your clever point is... well bollocks really. As and when we do get to leave then we can stop blaming the EU and its Remaniac cronies.
QED
Always someone else's fault.
Nope. Just pointing out the idiocy of your supposed logic. You are the one who moaned about blaming the EU when we had said we would no longer be able to do that when we left. I am simply pointing out we have not yet left so again your point is bollocks. QED.
You say "your fellow travellers are doing their best to make sure we never do [leave]" and yet you personally have always been in favour of the EEA option. If anyone you deemed to be unsound proposed exactly the same thing you'd denounce them for betraying Brexit. It's absurd.
I am very much in favour of the EEA option. Of course that means being outside a Customs Union. And I have not denounced anyone as betraying Brexit because they favour the EEA solution. It is by far the best result and always has been.
But if you think that is what the games in the Lords are about then you are dead wrong. There is a clear movement to ensure Brexit fails and we never leave at all.
Of course this has nothing to do with what I was arguing with Topping about but I thought you deserved an answer.
If The Three Brexiteers resign from the Cabinet today what does May do?
A leadership challenge would ensue.
Indeed.
And it would not make a jot of difference. You cannot alter the basic law of mathematics. There are not the votes in the HOC or HOL to approve a hard Brexit
So you get rid of Theresa May and then change the numbers by having another general election under a new Con leader.
It's not rocket science.
There's an assumption that whatever is thrown at Brexiteers and Brexit voters they just have suck it up. That assumption is false.
The local elections looked like the start of Brexit voters beginning to reassert their authority - Time for Brexiteers at Westminster to do the same.
Did you miss the 2017 general election ?
The one that was going to crush the saboteurs.
if only you had the common sense of Dave to say what has happened has happened and there's no point crying over spilt milk.
Get on with life as it is not how you thought it would be
I’ve moved on. My view has consistently the sooner we Leave the sooner we rejoin.
As my day job is 99% Brexit related I’m intrigued by it all.
I cant see us rejoining in the short-medium term, and any terms offered would be on the same terms as new entrants.
personally I think that will be hard to sell
Depends on how we Leave.
If it is viagra hard Brexit with supermarkets running out of food, planes grounded et al then it’ll happen.
If it is the long goodbye with a decade long transition then rejoining it won’t happen in the medium term.
oh dear, youre just so addicted to Project Fear
which do you think will cost more jobs ?
Greg Clarks scaremongering about Brexit or Greg Clark refusing to stop Melrose asset stripping GKN and allowing an oligopoly in the supermarket sector ?
GKN’s proposed Dana deal was outrageous.
Management was weak - it would have been better had the board sacked them, but once they declined to do so, the owners had no choice.
"It is hard not to see the Lib Dem gains in Haringey as indications that voters can be persuaded to take fright when the prospect of Corbynite Labour actually running things is very real – a quite different situation from last year’s general election, when Labour looked so far from national power that it also looked a safe place to deposit a protest vote, whether against the Conservatives, Brexit or both. Antisemitism has played a part in the Haringey story too, and the triumphalism of those who organised and encouraged the ousting of so many now former Labour councillors seems premature as well as unappealing. The unfolding story of who will next lead the council could deflate the Corbynite bubble still more."
I think that as per these election results the next election will see a slight swing towards Labour in the cities and North West England, where they are already strong, and away from them everywhere else. The Tories will go back a little particularly in the cities and remain areas, and the Libdems will make a comeback where they are strong. I think where I live in the South West they will be able to make disproportionate improvements in vote share, but it will be close as to whether this will translate into seats. I think that if the next election happens in 2022 then they should be able to put a distance between that election and their record in Government.
Labour's resurgence is fatal to a LibDem recovery in the SW. Labour voters who lent the LibDems their vote now wonder why they ever bothered.
"Two Brains" (And No Sense) Willetts coming up with another cunning plan to hit Con voters?
Any sign of Letwin's fingerprints on this one?
Keep Willetts well away from making government policy, the man will hit the Tory vote.
On radio 5 this morning, the idea went down like a bucket of sick and the last time I mentioned that was the tory manifesto for the last GE.
The £10k dividend for 25 year-olds is a bloody stupid idea - untargeted/means tested, discriminating against those just a bit too old (but suffering from exactly the same plight), and liable to be blown by the feckless. Far better to invest a lot more than that is public housebuilding, which would better address much the same problem - and which at current borrowing rates could in any event be a profitable investment.
One of his brains is an idiot.
Should the older generation make a larger tax contribution to their care ? Probably.
Ian Dunt - @IanDunt: You couldn't ask for a more perfect encapsulation of the pointlessness of Brexit than ham-faced cretin Gavin Williamson saying we should build our own Galileo system.
Ian Dunt - @IanDunt: He wants to spend countless millions replicating a project we are already invested in. He calls it... you guessed it... "rediscovering our bulldog spirit".
And that is the fault of the EU.
More seriously, this kind of cooperation makes perfect sense. It was the political stuff that didn’t work for the U.K.
There is no real need for Galileo at all, it's a white elephant.
Commercially GPS as-is works well enough for most uses, and it's not a fixed system, there is a whole series of upgrades in deployment which will satisfy many other applications.
Further into the future there will be so many satellites in LEO that dedicated systems for navigation will be functionally redundant for most common uses.
Comments
https://twitter.com/BBCPolitics/status/993794446570508288
We attract a lot of welfare recipients as our non contributory welfare system entitles EU citizens to tax credits, social housing, housing benefits, free NHS healthcare, welfare and more almost immediately. If I went to Poland as a working age person to live and decided not to work - even if I didn't claim the dole - I would have to have private medical insurance as their health system is not free at the point of use and I wouldn't as a permanent resident be able to use an EHIC. Same in Spain, Eastern Europe and almost all EU member states.
I have no problem with reciprocal arrangements - but our welfare system isn't. And any attempts to reform it in any radical way seem impossible.
You have to have paid NICs for a certain period of time though to get any sort of UK State pension my wife’s 4 years of contribs won’t give her anything and she has lost those years as they don’t count towards her Danish pension.
Mind you in Denmark you have to be a citizen with at least 15 years contributions to get a State pension at all - once again it is UK rules that are open & generous not EU diktats
Labour are as all over the place as the conservatives
We shall see,
I want to see the ending of this movie.
Chance of a Lib-Dem by election spectacular?
If you are looking for volunteers to be a Charismatic Brexit Conservative for PM, Johnson Major has, rhetorically speaking, both hands in the air shouting 'me sir' at the top of his voice, today-again!
http://www.tylervigen.com/spurious-correlations
Any sign of Letwin's fingerprints on this one?
Be interesting to see how that holds up in this by election.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lewisham_East_(UK_Parliament_constituency)
PS I assume this letter is not from the John Mann MP?
Which may be the game plan.
https://twitter.com/LadPolitics/status/993806230345875456
On radio 5 this morning, the idea went down like a bucket of sick and the last time I mentioned that was the tory manifesto for the last GE.
At this point they are really triaging to see if you need more work. All the images are reviewed in a consistent way by a small group of centralised experts.
The GP examination is just marketing...
Labour Party 60%
The Conservative Party 14%
Liberal Democrats 12%
Green Party 12%
As others have said, this must be a big goal for momentum to get one of their favoured ones on the ballot.
I signed a petition to prevent Willets from getting some honour or other because he is one of the main reasons Corbyn might well get in*.
I hope he is nowhere near making policy for the Tories in 2022.
* This probably isn't the main reason most people signed the petition against him.
Neither doctor gets to see the entire data set.
That's almost guaranteed to lead to mistakes.
A soft Brexit which gradually hardens most likely to be permanent.
But what can we call it? A meringue Brexit? A mouse brexit?
Edit - was going for mousse
More seriously, this kind of cooperation makes perfect sense. It was the political stuff that didn’t work for the U.K.
(Sorry...)
And Letwin to be fair...
Lab - 50%
Con - 17%
Grn - 14%
LD - 12.5%
Kip - 4%
Oth - 3%
https://ufile.io/280eh
(A spreadsheet with the last 3 cycles. Uses highest figure for each party as their vote share in each ward, due to multi-member wards.)
You Brexit, you broke it...
http://www.onlondon.co.uk/labour-has-become-still-stronger-in-london-but-its-weaknesses-have-been-exposed/
"It is hard not to see the Lib Dem gains in Haringey as indications that voters can be persuaded to take fright when the prospect of Corbynite Labour actually running things is very real – a quite different situation from last year’s general election, when Labour looked so far from national power that it also looked a safe place to deposit a protest vote, whether against the Conservatives, Brexit or both. Antisemitism has played a part in the Haringey story too, and the triumphalism of those who organised and encouraged the ousting of so many now former Labour councillors seems premature as well as unappealing. The unfolding story of who will next lead the council could deflate the Corbynite bubble still more."
I think that as per these election results the next election will see a slight swing towards Labour in the cities and North West England, where they are already strong, and away from them everywhere else. The Tories will go back a little particularly in the cities and remain areas, and the Libdems will make a comeback where they are strong. I think where I live in the South West they will be able to make disproportionate improvements in vote share, but it will be close as to whether this will translate into seats. I think that if the next election happens in 2022 then they should be able to put a distance between that election and their record in Government.
However the EU institutions are so minded to cut off Member States' nose to spite the UK's face.
Ummm...
But if you think that is what the games in the Lords are about then you are dead wrong. There is a clear movement to ensure Brexit fails and we never leave at all.
Of course this has nothing to do with what I was arguing with Topping about but I thought you deserved an answer.
Management was weak - it would have been better had the board sacked them, but once they declined to do so, the owners had no choice.
Far better to invest a lot more than that is public housebuilding, which would better address much the same problem - and which at current borrowing rates could in any event be a profitable investment.
One of his brains is an idiot.
Should the older generation make a larger tax contribution to their care ?
Probably.
Commercially GPS as-is works well enough for most uses, and it's not a fixed system, there is a whole series of upgrades in deployment which will satisfy many other applications.
Further into the future there will be so many satellites in LEO that dedicated systems for navigation will be functionally redundant for most common uses.