In other words, it takes dynamic alignment perpetual rule-taking on SPS off the table....
I think the negative reactions come from people who just realise that it would take 2000 such deals to replace the loss of trade pursuant to Brexit.
Some trade analysts are also claiming that the deal look very weighted in Australia’s favour.
Ed Conway of Sky News pointed out last night that Australia has made significant concessions on migration.
There will effectively be free movement for under 35s, up to a total of three years, with unrestricted working and residency rights.
Free movement to Aus could see quite a few young people give it a go, and even if planning only to stay 'for a while' ending up staying there.
Like my brother - "for 18 months" - over a quarter of a century ago. There's a reason the British diaspora is as large in Australia alone as the whole of the EU.....
I heard this weekend that my niece and her bf are planning to go there. This policy looks like it comes at just the right moment for them.
When does the BoE governor have to write a letter to Mr Sunak?
When it's <1% or >3%. So the last letter would have been written a couple of months ago.
Indeed. The amusing thing is that at 2.1% the inflation rate now is 0.1% off target versus 0.4% off target last month. Not that many people will be saying that today.
Finally you accept that the inflation target is 2%.
What are you talking about? I've never said anything else.
What I've said in the past is that eg increasing from 0.8% to 1.4% doesn't mean that inflation is too high, it means its gone from not high enough* to still below target.
2.1% is pretty much at the sweet spot at the perfect amount of inflation. Its only 0.1% off target. If it keeps rising past 3% then that would be bad and trigger a "please explain" letter on what steps will be required, if any, to get it back down.
* Indeed 0.8% is so low the Governor of the Bank of England is required by law to write a "please explain" letter to the Chancellor of the Exchequer.
You have said in the past (and no I can't be arsed to find it) that the 2% target was actually a 3% target.
No I've said the acceptable range of inflation, as defined by where a letter does not need to be sent, is 2% +/- 1%
If inflation is 2.9% then that's every bit as acceptable as if it is 1.1%, no letter needs to be sent at that rate.
I see Darren Grimes has made it onto GB News after all, albeit as a preferred “talking head” rather than a presenter.
LOL.
Yes, this is the fresh perspective we have all been waiting for, compared with the “biased” BBC.
Has anyone seriously got the time to listen to listen to Darren Grimes pontificating on Australian trade agreements or anything else for that matter except perhaps Philip Thomson?
A young gay working class Leaver. How DARE he go on TV and give us his vile plebeian opinion.
What we need is another posh middle aged Remainery Guardian journalist with a Cambridge degree, to tell us all that we’re racist. Proper Remoaner people like this are the reason regular TV news is already watched by up to three dozen viewers every day
I've got some sympathy for Roger's point here. I'm quite sympathetic to the GB News angle. And I'm quite interested in news. But I can't imagine myself sitting down to watch any news channel any more. So consistently terrible has news broadcasting been over the past 15 years or so (or longer) that I've completely lost my appetite for it. It's not how I get my news any more. The telly is for entertainment only nowadays. If even I'm not going to watch GB News, who will? Hopefully some people will because I'd like it to succeed. I'd like the broadcast media not to be so one-sided. But I don't see how it will.
R down to 1.36 from 1.57 last week. That's an enormous change - way too much to be explained by vaccination alone. No way on Earth Step 4 would have been postponed if the R last week had been 1.36 (or even 1.4). Policymakers have been spooked into an error by 1 weeks' data.
Boris did say they would review the situation after two weeks. Perhaps we will be free on the Fourth of July
It would be good optics and good politics.
Look serious with the change and the slow down in the easing, but then 'oh wait, it's ok, we can go earlier as it's better than we feared'.
Boris looks like Father Christmas again, and a grateful nation loves him/
I know I go on about this, it’s close to my heart because my friend is getting married. But one simple and very effective easement they could do is remove social distancing / masks / dancing ban from weddings. They could do that this weekend, and allow the events to proceed as normal from 21 June.
In other words, it takes dynamic alignment perpetual rule-taking on SPS off the table....
I think the negative reactions come from people who just realise that it would take 2000 such deals to replace the loss of trade pursuant to Brexit.
Some trade analysts are also claiming that the deal look very weighted in Australia’s favour.
Ed Conway of Sky News pointed out last night that Australia has made significant concessions on migration.
There will effectively be free movement for under 35s, up to a total of three years, with unrestricted working and residency rights.
Free movement to Aus could see quite a few young people give it a go, and even if planning only to stay 'for a while' ending up staying there.
Like my brother - "for 18 months" - over a quarter of a century ago. There's a reason the British diaspora is as large in Australia alone as the whole of the EU.....
A lot of people do a few years then return. I agree though that the appeal of Australia is far wider than EU countries due mainly to language issues.
It’s also two-way traffic. There’s as many young Aussies who want to come and jeer the Pommies as they lose the Ashes spend a couple of years working and travelling in the UK, as their are Brits wanting to visit Down Under.
London is a huge draw for young Aussies. A great world city, speaking English, with all the treasures of Europe surrounding you. Much more alluring than NYC and LA, and now much easier to access
Britain’s bars and restaurants are about to recruit a lot of Aussie workers
Back in the Eighties all bar staff in London seemed to be Australian. I am not convinced that we will see that again.
Did anyone else watch ‘Time’ on the BBC starring Sean Bean & Stephen Graham? I thought it was brilliant
Yes. Absolutely marvellous; loved the scene where the inmate who'd stabbed somebody had a 'restorative justice' type meeting with the victim's parents. Well worth the licence fee on its own.
R down to 1.36 from 1.57 last week. That's an enormous change - way too much to be explained by vaccination alone. No way on Earth Step 4 would have been postponed if the R last week had been 1.36 (or even 1.4). Policymakers have been spooked into an error by 1 weeks' data.
Boris did say they would review the situation after two weeks. Perhaps we will be free on the Fourth of July
It would be good optics and good politics.
Look serious with the change and the slow down in the easing, but then 'oh wait, it's ok, we can go earlier as it's better than we feared'.
Boris looks like Father Christmas again, and a grateful nation loves him/
I know I go on about this, it’s close to my heart because my friend is getting married. But one simple and very effective easement they could do is remove social distancing / masks / dancing ban from weddings. They could do that this weekend, and allow the events to proceed as normal from 21 June.
The rest they can review for 5 July…
Yeah - or the best man wouldn't be able to have a crack at the bridemaids.
In other words, it takes dynamic alignment perpetual rule-taking on SPS off the table....
I think the negative reactions come from people who just realise that it would take 2000 such deals to replace the loss of trade pursuant to Brexit.
Some trade analysts are also claiming that the deal look very weighted in Australia’s favour.
Ed Conway of Sky News pointed out last night that Australia has made significant concessions on migration.
There will effectively be free movement for under 35s, up to a total of three years, with unrestricted working and residency rights.
Free movement to Aus could see quite a few young people give it a go, and even if planning only to stay 'for a while' ending up staying there. Apart from any other consideration it's not as cheap to come back from Australia as from Spain.
But if one of my grandchildren was talking about trying it'd say go.
That's harsh. Are you not very keen on your grandchildren?
When I was about 18 I told my father that once I was qualified I was going to go to New Zealand. He got very upset and said it would break my mothers heart, they'd never see me again and so on. 20 years or so later, married with a family and career in UK, I told my mother about the conversation. 'Silly old fool' she sniffed. 'We could have come out to see you. it would have been an adventure!'
And that's the view I take. Bit difficult just at the moment, of course, but things will ease up.
“The biodiversity values in Australia are incomparable to the UK. One is a large continent of Gondwanan-origin whose variety of life has evolved in isolation for tens of millions of years and is like nothing else on the planet,” he says.
“The other is a small damp island whose entirety of lifeforms emigrated back from Europe after the place was wiped clean in the last ice age a mere 10 thousand years ago.”
As Mr Beshara put it in a recent speech to the Australian Farm Institute: “the UK has 32 native species of trees and shrubs full stop. Australia has 850 species of eucalypts alone”
Excellent, I'd not heard the "place was wiped clean in the last ice age" line before but it's a good one. On the flip side you could make a similar argument about literature, music and architectural history.
Australia was wiped clean, culturally, by the British: 200 years ago
A 50,000 year-old-civilisation - intricate, complex, fantastical, unique - was obliterated in a couple of generations
Whenever I see Great Britain described as a 'small island' I wince. Of the millions and millions of islands that there are in the world - and the thousands of inhabited islands - Great Britain is the 8th biggest. It is (I think) the fifth most populous. The second most important economically. That is not a 'small island'. Alderney is a small island. Great Britain is not.
Now the UK is, at best, a medium sized country in land area (though large in terms of population or economy). And we certainly don't have the diversity of geography that Australia does (though arguably the UK contains a lot more diversity per unit area). The point the writer makes is broadly valid. But the 'small island' claim is witless.
Australia is a fuck off big desert filled with killer spiders, scorpions, snakes and crocodiles surrounded by water filled with sharks. Great Britain is a fecund island with about a dozen snakes nobody ever sees and surrounded by water with tasty fish.
NZ is coming and will expect the same, very generous, access.
Great, lets give it to them. 👍
Ending the scars of 1973. Growing up downunder in the 90s it was still relatively fresh the betrayal of 1973 and the UK ending Commonwealth Preference and putting tariffs on Commonwealth goods instead.
As we move forwards with tariff-free trade with Europe, having tariff-free trade with our allies and cousins in the Commonwealth is both morally and economically the right thing to do.
Interesting that you call it a betrayal. I certainly felt it was shameful at the time.
I see Darren Grimes has made it onto GB News after all, albeit as a preferred “talking head” rather than a presenter.
LOL.
Yes, this is the fresh perspective we have all been waiting for, compared with the “biased” BBC.
Has anyone seriously got the time to listen to listen to Darren Grimes pontificating on Australian trade agreements or anything else for that matter except perhaps Philip Thomson?
A young gay working class Leaver. How DARE he go on TV and give us his vile plebeian opinion.
What we need is another posh middle aged Remainery Guardian journalist with a Cambridge degree, to tell us all that we’re racist. Proper Remoaner people like this are the reason regular TV news is already watched by up to three dozen viewers every day
I've got some sympathy for Roger's point here. I'm quite sympathetic to the GB News angle. And I'm quite interested in news. But I can't imagine myself sitting down to watch any news channel any more. So consistently terrible has news broadcasting been over the past 15 years or so (or longer) that I've completely lost my appetite for it. It's not how I get my news any more. The telly is for entertainment only nowadays. If even I'm not going to watch GB News, who will? Hopefully some people will because I'd like it to succeed. I'd like the broadcast media not to be so one-sided. But I don't see how it will.
The biggest problem with the "news" is that it hasn't adapted to the capabilities offered by the web.
Imagine a wiki of information continuously added to, with actual interlinking, references etc - no, the newspapers still don't do this. Stories as an ongoing process, continually updated and added to... Clearly labelled opinion and factual pieces, all attached to each other and the stories. Video and text interacting and connecting...
In other words, it takes dynamic alignment perpetual rule-taking on SPS off the table....
I think the negative reactions come from people who just realise that it would take 2000 such deals to replace the loss of trade pursuant to Brexit.
Some trade analysts are also claiming that the deal look very weighted in Australia’s favour.
Ed Conway of Sky News pointed out last night that Australia has made significant concessions on migration.
There will effectively be free movement for under 35s, up to a total of three years, with unrestricted working and residency rights.
Free movement to Aus could see quite a few young people give it a go, and even if planning only to stay 'for a while' ending up staying there.
Like my brother - "for 18 months" - over a quarter of a century ago. There's a reason the British diaspora is as large in Australia alone as the whole of the EU.....
A lot of people do a few years then return. I agree though that the appeal of Australia is far wider than EU countries due mainly to language issues.
What an indictment of education in this country that we'd prefer a monoculture than one with 28 countries speaking 24 languages.
In other words, it takes dynamic alignment perpetual rule-taking on SPS off the table....
I think the negative reactions come from people who just realise that it would take 2000 such deals to replace the loss of trade pursuant to Brexit.
Some trade analysts are also claiming that the deal look very weighted in Australia’s favour.
Ed Conway of Sky News pointed out last night that Australia has made significant concessions on migration.
There will effectively be free movement for under 35s, up to a total of three years, with unrestricted working and residency rights.
Free movement to Aus could see quite a few young people give it a go, and even if planning only to stay 'for a while' ending up staying there.
Like my brother - "for 18 months" - over a quarter of a century ago. There's a reason the British diaspora is as large in Australia alone as the whole of the EU.....
A lot of people do a few years then return. I agree though that the appeal of Australia is far wider than EU countries due mainly to language issues.
It’s also two-way traffic. There’s as many young Aussies who want to come and jeer the Pommies as they lose the Ashes spend a couple of years working and travelling in the UK, as their are Brits wanting to visit Down Under.
London is a huge draw for young Aussies. A great world city, speaking English, with all the treasures of Europe surrounding you. Much more alluring than NYC and LA, and now much easier to access
Britain’s bars and restaurants are about to recruit a lot of Aussie workers
R down to 1.36 from 1.57 last week. That's an enormous change - way too much to be explained by vaccination alone. No way on Earth Step 4 would have been postponed if the R last week had been 1.36 (or even 1.4). Policymakers have been spooked into an error by 1 weeks' data.
Boris did say they would review the situation after two weeks. Perhaps we will be free on the Fourth of July
Yes, if the cases are coming down be then he surely has to end restrictions. He will probably get away with having extended them too.
I didn’t realise we were supposed to be going back to ‘normal life’ on the 21st - People will be imposing their own set of restrictions for a while I reckon, when they government say we are free again
And they are free to do so as long as they are not badgering the rest of us.
Whether Red Bull have been bending the tyre pressure rules more than have Mercedes is an interesting question. It's not insignificant, as optimising tyres is the single biggest differentiator of performance, race to race.
In other words, it takes dynamic alignment perpetual rule-taking on SPS off the table....
I think the negative reactions come from people who just realise that it would take 2000 such deals to replace the loss of trade pursuant to Brexit.
Some trade analysts are also claiming that the deal look very weighted in Australia’s favour.
Ed Conway of Sky News pointed out last night that Australia has made significant concessions on migration.
There will effectively be free movement for under 35s, up to a total of three years, with unrestricted working and residency rights.
Free movement to Aus could see quite a few young people give it a go, and even if planning only to stay 'for a while' ending up staying there.
Like my brother - "for 18 months" - over a quarter of a century ago. There's a reason the British diaspora is as large in Australia alone as the whole of the EU.....
I heard this weekend that my niece and her bf are planning to go there. This policy looks like it comes at just the right moment for them.
Free movement with Aus and NZ - both ways - is a much bigger deal than free movement within the EU.
As I've said in the past, despite a perfectly normally functioning brain in most respects, I never came close to mastering other languages. I think many to most people are the same. The theoretical benefits of being able to work in Germany or Italy are all well and good but for the vast majority of us the language barrier is a far bigger barrier than any removal of movement restrictions could ever overcome. Whereas the opportunity to work in Aus or NZ is very, very attractive. In practice I won't of course. I'm middle aged. I've got daughters and parents and in-laws anchoring me to this particular spot on the map. But that's just me - many will take advantage.
In other words, it takes dynamic alignment perpetual rule-taking on SPS off the table....
I think the negative reactions come from people who just realise that it would take 2000 such deals to replace the loss of trade pursuant to Brexit.
Some trade analysts are also claiming that the deal look very weighted in Australia’s favour.
Ed Conway of Sky News pointed out last night that Australia has made significant concessions on migration.
There will effectively be free movement for under 35s, up to a total of three years, with unrestricted working and residency rights.
Free movement to Aus could see quite a few young people give it a go, and even if planning only to stay 'for a while' ending up staying there.
Like my brother - "for 18 months" - over a quarter of a century ago. There's a reason the British diaspora is as large in Australia alone as the whole of the EU.....
A lot of people do a few years then return. I agree though that the appeal of Australia is far wider than EU countries due mainly to language issues.
What an indictment of education in this country that we'd prefer a monoculture than one with 28 countries speaking 24 languages.
NZ is coming and will expect the same, very generous, access.
Great, lets give it to them. 👍
Ending the scars of 1973. Growing up downunder in the 90s it was still relatively fresh the betrayal of 1973 and the UK ending Commonwealth Preference and putting tariffs on Commonwealth goods instead.
As we move forwards with tariff-free trade with Europe, having tariff-free trade with our allies and cousins in the Commonwealth is both morally and economically the right thing to do.
I'm fascinated that the entire content of the Oz deal seems to be known to so many people, mainly based on what seems to be the content of an Oz government press release, and lots of PR and shouting from Ministers of the ROI Government.
I'm not especially convinced of the deep and abiding professional competence of the UK Govt trade negtiaters compared to say the Canadian Govt, though I think that so far they have given the EC a nasty and necessary shock.
They have made the correct calls in rapid creation of rollover agreements, and refusing to cave in to industry lobbies, they have not given enough of a hearing to them on longer term questions.
But nor am I convinced by the EU-supporting yellow press, and UK politicians / commentators who are so far up the EC backside that only their feet are showing.
One shock that the EU needs is to come to terms with the reality that it does comprise and define the gorious moral and ethical future of everything.
Yep I have checked, Wednesday reported is always the most importent day of the week as Monday by specimen arrives in the figures so anyone who was feeling ropey over the weekend and tests positive shows up
Indeed it’s always the biggest day, but as the rate is expressed week on week, that’s the metric to keep an eye on.
In other words, it takes dynamic alignment perpetual rule-taking on SPS off the table....
I think the negative reactions come from people who just realise that it would take 2000 such deals to replace the loss of trade pursuant to Brexit.
Some trade analysts are also claiming that the deal look very weighted in Australia’s favour.
Ed Conway of Sky News pointed out last night that Australia has made significant concessions on migration.
There will effectively be free movement for under 35s, up to a total of three years, with unrestricted working and residency rights.
Free movement to Aus could see quite a few young people give it a go, and even if planning only to stay 'for a while' ending up staying there.
Like my brother - "for 18 months" - over a quarter of a century ago. There's a reason the British diaspora is as large in Australia alone as the whole of the EU.....
A lot of people do a few years then return. I agree though that the appeal of Australia is far wider than EU countries due mainly to language issues.
It’s also two-way traffic. There’s as many young Aussies who want to come and jeer the Pommies as they lose the Ashes spend a couple of years working and travelling in the UK, as their are Brits wanting to visit Down Under.
London is a huge draw for young Aussies. A great world city, speaking English, with all the treasures of Europe surrounding you. Much more alluring than NYC and LA, and now much easier to access
Britain’s bars and restaurants are about to recruit a lot of Aussie workers
Back in the Eighties all bar staff in London seemed to be Australian. I am not convinced that we will see that again.
Whyever not? Every young Australian wants to spend a year or two in Europe - for obvious reasons.
Basing yourself in the great world city in the English speaking motherland now makes even more sense. And there are tens of thousands of available jobs in hospitality…
“The biodiversity values in Australia are incomparable to the UK. One is a large continent of Gondwanan-origin whose variety of life has evolved in isolation for tens of millions of years and is like nothing else on the planet,” he says.
“The other is a small damp island whose entirety of lifeforms emigrated back from Europe after the place was wiped clean in the last ice age a mere 10 thousand years ago.”
As Mr Beshara put it in a recent speech to the Australian Farm Institute: “the UK has 32 native species of trees and shrubs full stop. Australia has 850 species of eucalypts alone”
Excellent, I'd not heard the "place was wiped clean in the last ice age" line before but it's a good one. On the flip side you could make a similar argument about literature, music and architectural history.
Australia was wiped clean, culturally, by the British: 200 years ago
A 50,000 year-old-civilisation - intricate, complex, fantastical, unique - was obliterated in a couple of generations
Whenever I see Great Britain described as a 'small island' I wince. Of the millions and millions of islands that there are in the world - and the thousands of inhabited islands - Great Britain is the 8th biggest. It is (I think) the fifth most populous. The second most important economically. That is not a 'small island'. Alderney is a small island. Great Britain is not.
Now the UK is, at best, a medium sized country in land area (though large in terms of population or economy). And we certainly don't have the diversity of geography that Australia does (though arguably the UK contains a lot more diversity per unit area). The point the writer makes is broadly valid. But the 'small island' claim is witless.
But it *feels* incredibly small - if you’re Australian. It’s one reason Australians like coming to Britain - everywhere in the country is about 2 hours away - at most. As compared to a 17 hour drive across unchanging semi-desert
I remember having lunch in at outback farm in the Northern Territory. It was quite jolly because the ‘neighbours’ had popped over. The neighbours lived 80km away
Or in the US where people think nothing of driving five hours to pick up a taco.
Lord Frost confirms to NIAC "that the protocol is 100% clear that nothing in it affects the territorial integrity" of the UK. it's "clear" that constitutional change to NI not part of NIP. Hoare: So it's a trade agreement not constitutional agreement https://twitter.com/lisaocarroll/status/1405084706736050179
NZ is coming and will expect the same, very generous, access.
Great, lets give it to them. 👍
Ending the scars of 1973. Growing up downunder in the 90s it was still relatively fresh the betrayal of 1973 and the UK ending Commonwealth Preference and putting tariffs on Commonwealth goods instead.
As we move forwards with tariff-free trade with Europe, having tariff-free trade with our allies and cousins in the Commonwealth is both morally and economically the right thing to do.
Interesting that you call it a betrayal. I certainly felt it was shameful at the time.
In Australia it was certainly viewed as a betrayal and that's effectively the way it was put in my school in the 90s.
I doubt that perspective is even considered in British schools. Nor that sneering people like @Roger would ever understand the concept.
We should offer AZ to anyone under 40 who is prepared to take it. Explain the risk of clots (1 in a million iirc??) vs long covid.
Why not give them Pfizer and Moderna?
Officially anyone in the entire country 21+ can now get a Pfizer or Moderna jab. Unofficially in much of the country anyone 18+ already can.
Yes for the sake of a week maybe on the first jab we can speed the seconds much more. Not everyone books at once either. I know we all get disappointed by low numbers but the decision to stick with mRNA now is correct
“The biodiversity values in Australia are incomparable to the UK. One is a large continent of Gondwanan-origin whose variety of life has evolved in isolation for tens of millions of years and is like nothing else on the planet,” he says.
“The other is a small damp island whose entirety of lifeforms emigrated back from Europe after the place was wiped clean in the last ice age a mere 10 thousand years ago.”
As Mr Beshara put it in a recent speech to the Australian Farm Institute: “the UK has 32 native species of trees and shrubs full stop. Australia has 850 species of eucalypts alone”
Excellent, I'd not heard the "place was wiped clean in the last ice age" line before but it's a good one. On the flip side you could make a similar argument about literature, music and architectural history.
Australia was wiped clean, culturally, by the British: 200 years ago
A 50,000 year-old-civilisation - intricate, complex, fantastical, unique - was obliterated in a couple of generations
Whenever I see Great Britain described as a 'small island' I wince. Of the millions and millions of islands that there are in the world - and the thousands of inhabited islands - Great Britain is the 8th biggest. It is (I think) the fifth most populous. The second most important economically. That is not a 'small island'. Alderney is a small island. Great Britain is not.
Now the UK is, at best, a medium sized country in land area (though large in terms of population or economy). And we certainly don't have the diversity of geography that Australia does (though arguably the UK contains a lot more diversity per unit area). The point the writer makes is broadly valid. But the 'small island' claim is witless.
Its all a matter of perspective.
Relative to the island of Orkney then Great Britain is massive, relative to the island of Australia the disparity is immense.
Britain like Rishi, while Australia is like the trooper in the photo the other day . . . only on an almost infinitely grander scale of difference.
Well yes. But most authorities consider Australia a continent, not an island. In the set of 'islands', Great Britain is undeniably one of the largest.
It's like calling Lake Huron a small lake on the grounds that the Atlantic Ocean is much bigger,
“The biodiversity values in Australia are incomparable to the UK. One is a large continent of Gondwanan-origin whose variety of life has evolved in isolation for tens of millions of years and is like nothing else on the planet,” he says.
“The other is a small damp island whose entirety of lifeforms emigrated back from Europe after the place was wiped clean in the last ice age a mere 10 thousand years ago.”
As Mr Beshara put it in a recent speech to the Australian Farm Institute: “the UK has 32 native species of trees and shrubs full stop. Australia has 850 species of eucalypts alone”
Excellent, I'd not heard the "place was wiped clean in the last ice age" line before but it's a good one. On the flip side you could make a similar argument about literature, music and architectural history.
Australia was wiped clean, culturally, by the British: 200 years ago
A 50,000 year-old-civilisation - intricate, complex, fantastical, unique - was obliterated in a couple of generations
Whenever I see Great Britain described as a 'small island' I wince. Of the millions and millions of islands that there are in the world - and the thousands of inhabited islands - Great Britain is the 8th biggest. It is (I think) the fifth most populous. The second most important economically. That is not a 'small island'. Alderney is a small island. Great Britain is not.
Now the UK is, at best, a medium sized country in land area (though large in terms of population or economy). And we certainly don't have the diversity of geography that Australia does (though arguably the UK contains a lot more diversity per unit area). The point the writer makes is broadly valid. But the 'small island' claim is witless.
Yes well said. This irks me too.
It's a bit like small business owner.
The UK vs many other countries and the continent of Europe is small. It is however a relatively big island.
People say "small island" meaning the context of the former.
Since then almost half a million #covid19 patients have died in the US.
I suspect the fact that a significant proportion of his party were in favour of a summary hanging for treason might be a bigger impediment to his chances.
In other words, it takes dynamic alignment perpetual rule-taking on SPS off the table....
I think the negative reactions come from people who just realise that it would take 2000 such deals to replace the loss of trade pursuant to Brexit.
Some trade analysts are also claiming that the deal look very weighted in Australia’s favour.
Ed Conway of Sky News pointed out last night that Australia has made significant concessions on migration.
There will effectively be free movement for under 35s, up to a total of three years, with unrestricted working and residency rights.
Free movement to Aus could see quite a few young people give it a go, and even if planning only to stay 'for a while' ending up staying there. Apart from any other consideration it's not as cheap to come back from Australia as from Spain.
But if one of my grandchildren was talking about trying it'd say go.
That's harsh. Are you not very keen on your grandchildren?
When I was about 18 I told my father that once I was qualified I was going to go to New Zealand. He got very upset and said it would break my mothers heart, they'd never see me again and so on. 20 years or so later, married with a family and career in UK, I told my mother about the conversation. 'Silly old fool' she sniffed. 'We could have come out to see you. it would have been an adventure!'
And that's the view I take. Bit difficult just at the moment, of course, but things will ease up.
I remember going to Oz at the turn of the millennium. Couldn’t afford a mobile phone. There was no Skype or whatsapp to use on it anyway. Phoning home involved using a 20 digit phone card at a call box, with proactive communication the other way only picked up if passing an “Internet cafe”. Kids today would not believe this!
I can only imagine what it would have been like several decades prior to that. Emigration to the antipodes would in many ways have been like the death of a loved one.
I am expecting the same feeling of decades yonder to return in my lifetime for many, but with respect to Mars, where a live conversation will be impossible without some dramatic breakthrough in physics, perhaps concerning quantum entanglement.
In other words, it takes dynamic alignment perpetual rule-taking on SPS off the table....
I think the negative reactions come from people who just realise that it would take 2000 such deals to replace the loss of trade pursuant to Brexit.
Some trade analysts are also claiming that the deal look very weighted in Australia’s favour.
Ed Conway of Sky News pointed out last night that Australia has made significant concessions on migration.
There will effectively be free movement for under 35s, up to a total of three years, with unrestricted working and residency rights.
Free movement to Aus could see quite a few young people give it a go, and even if planning only to stay 'for a while' ending up staying there.
Like my brother - "for 18 months" - over a quarter of a century ago. There's a reason the British diaspora is as large in Australia alone as the whole of the EU.....
A lot of people do a few years then return. I agree though that the appeal of Australia is far wider than EU countries due mainly to language issues.
What an indictment of education in this country that we'd prefer a monoculture than one with 28 countries speaking 24 languages.
Lets all move to Stoke-on-Trent
Surely you mean a Town like Alice.
IIRC Alice is a bonzer town!
And yes, I've been there. One of the outstanding memories.
When does the BoE governor have to write a letter to Mr Sunak?
When it's <1% or >3%. So the last letter would have been written a couple of months ago.
Indeed. The amusing thing is that at 2.1% the inflation rate now is 0.1% off target versus 0.4% off target last month. Not that many people will be saying that today.
Finally you accept that the inflation target is 2%.
What are you talking about? I've never said anything else.
What I've said in the past is that eg increasing from 0.8% to 1.4% doesn't mean that inflation is too high, it means its gone from not high enough* to still below target.
2.1% is pretty much at the sweet spot at the perfect amount of inflation. Its only 0.1% off target. If it keeps rising past 3% then that would be bad and trigger a "please explain" letter on what steps will be required, if any, to get it back down.
* Indeed 0.8% is so low the Governor of the Bank of England is required by law to write a "please explain" letter to the Chancellor of the Exchequer.
You have said in the past (and no I can't be arsed to find it) that the 2% target was actually a 3% target.
No I've said the acceptable range of inflation, as defined by where a letter does not need to be sent, is 2% +/- 1%
If inflation is 2.9% then that's every bit as acceptable as if it is 1.1%, no letter needs to be sent at that rate.
“The biodiversity values in Australia are incomparable to the UK. One is a large continent of Gondwanan-origin whose variety of life has evolved in isolation for tens of millions of years and is like nothing else on the planet,” he says.
“The other is a small damp island whose entirety of lifeforms emigrated back from Europe after the place was wiped clean in the last ice age a mere 10 thousand years ago.”
As Mr Beshara put it in a recent speech to the Australian Farm Institute: “the UK has 32 native species of trees and shrubs full stop. Australia has 850 species of eucalypts alone”
Excellent, I'd not heard the "place was wiped clean in the last ice age" line before but it's a good one. On the flip side you could make a similar argument about literature, music and architectural history.
Australia was wiped clean, culturally, by the British: 200 years ago
A 50,000 year-old-civilisation - intricate, complex, fantastical, unique - was obliterated in a couple of generations
Whenever I see Great Britain described as a 'small island' I wince. Of the millions and millions of islands that there are in the world - and the thousands of inhabited islands - Great Britain is the 8th biggest. It is (I think) the fifth most populous. The second most important economically. That is not a 'small island'. Alderney is a small island. Great Britain is not.
Now the UK is, at best, a medium sized country in land area (though large in terms of population or economy). And we certainly don't have the diversity of geography that Australia does (though arguably the UK contains a lot more diversity per unit area). The point the writer makes is broadly valid. But the 'small island' claim is witless.
But it *feels* incredibly small - if you’re Australian. It’s one reason Australians like coming to Britain - everywhere in the country is about 2 hours away - at most. As compared to a 17 hour drive across unchanging semi-desert
I remember having lunch in at outback farm in the Northern Territory. It was quite jolly because the ‘neighbours’ had popped over. The neighbours lived 80km away
Or in the US where people think nothing of driving five hours to pick up a taco.
You wouldn't want to be a deliveroo driver on piece work would you?
I can only imagine what it would have been like several decades prior to that. Emigration to the antipodes would in many ways have been like the death of a loved one.
Irish emigres to the US held "living wakes" when they departed
In other words, it takes dynamic alignment perpetual rule-taking on SPS off the table....
I think the negative reactions come from people who just realise that it would take 2000 such deals to replace the loss of trade pursuant to Brexit.
Some trade analysts are also claiming that the deal look very weighted in Australia’s favour.
Ed Conway of Sky News pointed out last night that Australia has made significant concessions on migration.
There will effectively be free movement for under 35s, up to a total of three years, with unrestricted working and residency rights.
Free movement to Aus could see quite a few young people give it a go, and even if planning only to stay 'for a while' ending up staying there.
Like my brother - "for 18 months" - over a quarter of a century ago. There's a reason the British diaspora is as large in Australia alone as the whole of the EU.....
A lot of people do a few years then return. I agree though that the appeal of Australia is far wider than EU countries due mainly to language issues.
What an indictment of education in this country that we'd prefer a monoculture than one with 28 countries speaking 24 languages.
Lets all move to Stoke-on-Trent
Surely you mean a Town like Alice.
IIRC Alice is a bonzer town!
And yes, I've been there. One of the outstanding memories.
I love Alice Springs. A cold bottle of Coopers PA on the main drag, in the shade, out of the hot desert sun. With the ghost gums rooted in the red dust, stark and bony against a flawless blue sky
NZ is coming and will expect the same, very generous, access.
Great, lets give it to them. 👍
Ending the scars of 1973. Growing up downunder in the 90s it was still relatively fresh the betrayal of 1973 and the UK ending Commonwealth Preference and putting tariffs on Commonwealth goods instead.
As we move forwards with tariff-free trade with Europe, having tariff-free trade with our allies and cousins in the Commonwealth is both morally and economically the right thing to do.
Interesting that you call it a betrayal. I certainly felt it was shameful at the time.
In Australia it was certainly viewed as a betrayal and that's effectively the way it was put in my school in the 90s.
I doubt that perspective is even considered in British schools. Nor that sneering people like @Roger would ever understand the concept.
I can recall the arguments and there was an argument in some quarters that once we were 'in' the EEC we should try to do 'something' of the Aussies and Kiwis.
In other words, it takes dynamic alignment perpetual rule-taking on SPS off the table....
I think the negative reactions come from people who just realise that it would take 2000 such deals to replace the loss of trade pursuant to Brexit.
Some trade analysts are also claiming that the deal look very weighted in Australia’s favour.
Ed Conway of Sky News pointed out last night that Australia has made significant concessions on migration.
There will effectively be free movement for under 35s, up to a total of three years, with unrestricted working and residency rights.
Free movement to Aus could see quite a few young people give it a go, and even if planning only to stay 'for a while' ending up staying there.
Like my brother - "for 18 months" - over a quarter of a century ago. There's a reason the British diaspora is as large in Australia alone as the whole of the EU.....
A lot of people do a few years then return. I agree though that the appeal of Australia is far wider than EU countries due mainly to language issues.
What an indictment of education in this country that we'd prefer a monoculture than one with 28 countries speaking 24 languages.
Lets all move to Stoke-on-Trent
Surely you mean a Town like Alice.
IIRC Alice is a bonzer town!
And yes, I've been there. One of the outstanding memories.
I remember getting a takeaway there and Mrs Foxy fancied some wine to wash it down with, so I popped into the pub to buy one. They directed me to the off sales window round the corner, where I joined a forlorn queue of aborigines. I think I was the only one who walked more than 10 yards before starting to drink my purchase.
In other words, it takes dynamic alignment perpetual rule-taking on SPS off the table....
I think the negative reactions come from people who just realise that it would take 2000 such deals to replace the loss of trade pursuant to Brexit.
Some trade analysts are also claiming that the deal look very weighted in Australia’s favour.
Ed Conway of Sky News pointed out last night that Australia has made significant concessions on migration.
There will effectively be free movement for under 35s, up to a total of three years, with unrestricted working and residency rights.
Free movement to Aus could see quite a few young people give it a go, and even if planning only to stay 'for a while' ending up staying there.
Like my brother - "for 18 months" - over a quarter of a century ago. There's a reason the British diaspora is as large in Australia alone as the whole of the EU.....
A lot of people do a few years then return. I agree though that the appeal of Australia is far wider than EU countries due mainly to language issues.
It’s also two-way traffic. There’s as many young Aussies who want to come and jeer the Pommies as they lose the Ashes spend a couple of years working and travelling in the UK, as their are Brits wanting to visit Down Under.
London is a huge draw for young Aussies. A great world city, speaking English, with all the treasures of Europe surrounding you. Much more alluring than NYC and LA, and now much easier to access
Britain’s bars and restaurants are about to recruit a lot of Aussie workers
Good. I've never met an Australian who ever fell anywhere short of tremendously likekable.
Of course, most people are likeable. I've never met a dislikeable Spaniard. Or Italian. But for sheer likeability, the Australians really do take the biscuit.
“The biodiversity values in Australia are incomparable to the UK. One is a large continent of Gondwanan-origin whose variety of life has evolved in isolation for tens of millions of years and is like nothing else on the planet,” he says.
“The other is a small damp island whose entirety of lifeforms emigrated back from Europe after the place was wiped clean in the last ice age a mere 10 thousand years ago.”
As Mr Beshara put it in a recent speech to the Australian Farm Institute: “the UK has 32 native species of trees and shrubs full stop. Australia has 850 species of eucalypts alone”
Excellent, I'd not heard the "place was wiped clean in the last ice age" line before but it's a good one. On the flip side you could make a similar argument about literature, music and architectural history.
Australia was wiped clean, culturally, by the British: 200 years ago
A 50,000 year-old-civilisation - intricate, complex, fantastical, unique - was obliterated in a couple of generations
Whenever I see Great Britain described as a 'small island' I wince. Of the millions and millions of islands that there are in the world - and the thousands of inhabited islands - Great Britain is the 8th biggest. It is (I think) the fifth most populous. The second most important economically. That is not a 'small island'. Alderney is a small island. Great Britain is not.
Now the UK is, at best, a medium sized country in land area (though large in terms of population or economy). And we certainly don't have the diversity of geography that Australia does (though arguably the UK contains a lot more diversity per unit area). The point the writer makes is broadly valid. But the 'small island' claim is witless.
But it *feels* incredibly small - if you’re Australian. It’s one reason Australians like coming to Britain - everywhere in the country is about 2 hours away - at most. As compared to a 17 hour drive across unchanging semi-desert
I remember having lunch in at outback farm in the Northern Territory. It was quite jolly because the ‘neighbours’ had popped over. The neighbours lived 80km away
Or in the US where people think nothing of driving five hours to pick up a taco.
Or Canada.
My father in law was super excited last time I visited for a day out to show me Canadian Tire* in the nearest town which is only a couple of hours drive away.
* A misleading name if ever a store has one. Think B&Q but actually interesting, 10x bigger and even sells guns and ammunition.
In other words, it takes dynamic alignment perpetual rule-taking on SPS off the table....
I think the negative reactions come from people who just realise that it would take 2000 such deals to replace the loss of trade pursuant to Brexit.
Some trade analysts are also claiming that the deal look very weighted in Australia’s favour.
Ed Conway of Sky News pointed out last night that Australia has made significant concessions on migration.
There will effectively be free movement for under 35s, up to a total of three years, with unrestricted working and residency rights.
Free movement to Aus could see quite a few young people give it a go, and even if planning only to stay 'for a while' ending up staying there.
Like my brother - "for 18 months" - over a quarter of a century ago. There's a reason the British diaspora is as large in Australia alone as the whole of the EU.....
A lot of people do a few years then return. I agree though that the appeal of Australia is far wider than EU countries due mainly to language issues.
What an indictment of education in this country that we'd prefer a monoculture than one with 28 countries speaking 24 languages.
Lets all move to Stoke-on-Trent
I'm not sure you understand human behaviour. Everyone else has to learn English because it is the world business language. It is much more of an imperative that anyone doing international business learns English - there are even dialects of English between two non native speaking areas I e in the far East. Why would the vast majority of people bother learning languages unless they wanted to do so - by the way I am a languages graduate and have barely used my languages since Uni.
In other words, it takes dynamic alignment perpetual rule-taking on SPS off the table....
I think the negative reactions come from people who just realise that it would take 2000 such deals to replace the loss of trade pursuant to Brexit.
Some trade analysts are also claiming that the deal look very weighted in Australia’s favour.
Ed Conway of Sky News pointed out last night that Australia has made significant concessions on migration.
There will effectively be free movement for under 35s, up to a total of three years, with unrestricted working and residency rights.
Free movement to Aus could see quite a few young people give it a go, and even if planning only to stay 'for a while' ending up staying there.
Like my brother - "for 18 months" - over a quarter of a century ago. There's a reason the British diaspora is as large in Australia alone as the whole of the EU.....
A lot of people do a few years then return. I agree though that the appeal of Australia is far wider than EU countries due mainly to language issues.
What an indictment of education in this country that we'd prefer a monoculture than one with 28 countries speaking 24 languages.
Lets all move to Stoke-on-Trent
If you think Australia is a monoculture I would contend that you’ve not spent much time there recently.
“The biodiversity values in Australia are incomparable to the UK. One is a large continent of Gondwanan-origin whose variety of life has evolved in isolation for tens of millions of years and is like nothing else on the planet,” he says.
“The other is a small damp island whose entirety of lifeforms emigrated back from Europe after the place was wiped clean in the last ice age a mere 10 thousand years ago.”
As Mr Beshara put it in a recent speech to the Australian Farm Institute: “the UK has 32 native species of trees and shrubs full stop. Australia has 850 species of eucalypts alone”
Excellent, I'd not heard the "place was wiped clean in the last ice age" line before but it's a good one. On the flip side you could make a similar argument about literature, music and architectural history.
Australia was wiped clean, culturally, by the British: 200 years ago
A 50,000 year-old-civilisation - intricate, complex, fantastical, unique - was obliterated in a couple of generations
Whenever I see Great Britain described as a 'small island' I wince. Of the millions and millions of islands that there are in the world - and the thousands of inhabited islands - Great Britain is the 8th biggest. It is (I think) the fifth most populous. The second most important economically. That is not a 'small island'. Alderney is a small island. Great Britain is not.
Now the UK is, at best, a medium sized country in land area (though large in terms of population or economy). And we certainly don't have the diversity of geography that Australia does (though arguably the UK contains a lot more diversity per unit area). The point the writer makes is broadly valid. But the 'small island' claim is witless.
Its all a matter of perspective.
Relative to the island of Orkney then Great Britain is massive, relative to the island of Australia the disparity is immense.
Britain like Rishi, while Australia is like the trooper in the photo the other day . . . only on an almost infinitely grander scale of difference.
Well yes. But most authorities consider Australia a continent, not an island. In the set of 'islands', Great Britain is undeniably one of the largest.
It's like calling Lake Huron a small lake on the grounds that the Atlantic Ocean is much bigger,
Australia is an island, whether you want to consider it one or not. The Atlantic Ocean is not a lake.
I think if you tell Australians they don't live on an island they'd look at you very askance.
The guy just never ever ever ever disappoints. For the capacity to consistently outdo the impossible, jaw dropping standards that no one can set for him bar himself, he is up there with the all time greats, alongside only Messi and the Dacre Mail. https://twitter.com/tompeck/status/1405084876789981187
In other words, it takes dynamic alignment perpetual rule-taking on SPS off the table....
I think the negative reactions come from people who just realise that it would take 2000 such deals to replace the loss of trade pursuant to Brexit.
Some trade analysts are also claiming that the deal look very weighted in Australia’s favour.
Ed Conway of Sky News pointed out last night that Australia has made significant concessions on migration.
There will effectively be free movement for under 35s, up to a total of three years, with unrestricted working and residency rights.
Free movement to Aus could see quite a few young people give it a go, and even if planning only to stay 'for a while' ending up staying there.
Like my brother - "for 18 months" - over a quarter of a century ago. There's a reason the British diaspora is as large in Australia alone as the whole of the EU.....
A lot of people do a few years then return. I agree though that the appeal of Australia is far wider than EU countries due mainly to language issues.
What an indictment of education in this country that we'd prefer a monoculture than one with 28 countries speaking 24 languages.
Lets all move to Stoke-on-Trent
Surely you mean a Town like Alice.
IIRC Alice is a bonzer town!
And yes, I've been there. One of the outstanding memories.
I love Alice Springs. A cold bottle of Coopers PA on the main drag, in the shade, out of the hot desert sun. With the ghost gums rooted in the red dust, stark and bony against a flawless blue sky
Bliss
Wife and I only had one uncommitted night. So I went to the Tourist Office and asked what they could offer for 'tonight'. We ended up being taken, with two other, tourists, about an hours ride into the bush, where the guide showed us how to catch 'bush tucker' such as witchetty grubs then told us tales of outback life. The sky was clear and the stars were brilliant.
“The biodiversity values in Australia are incomparable to the UK. One is a large continent of Gondwanan-origin whose variety of life has evolved in isolation for tens of millions of years and is like nothing else on the planet,” he says.
“The other is a small damp island whose entirety of lifeforms emigrated back from Europe after the place was wiped clean in the last ice age a mere 10 thousand years ago.”
As Mr Beshara put it in a recent speech to the Australian Farm Institute: “the UK has 32 native species of trees and shrubs full stop. Australia has 850 species of eucalypts alone”
Excellent, I'd not heard the "place was wiped clean in the last ice age" line before but it's a good one. On the flip side you could make a similar argument about literature, music and architectural history.
Australia was wiped clean, culturally, by the British: 200 years ago
A 50,000 year-old-civilisation - intricate, complex, fantastical, unique - was obliterated in a couple of generations
Whenever I see Great Britain described as a 'small island' I wince. Of the millions and millions of islands that there are in the world - and the thousands of inhabited islands - Great Britain is the 8th biggest. It is (I think) the fifth most populous. The second most important economically. That is not a 'small island'. Alderney is a small island. Great Britain is not.
Now the UK is, at best, a medium sized country in land area (though large in terms of population or economy). And we certainly don't have the diversity of geography that Australia does (though arguably the UK contains a lot more diversity per unit area). The point the writer makes is broadly valid. But the 'small island' claim is witless.
Its all a matter of perspective.
Relative to the island of Orkney then Great Britain is massive, relative to the island of Australia the disparity is immense.
Britain like Rishi, while Australia is like the trooper in the photo the other day . . . only on an almost infinitely grander scale of difference.
Well yes. But most authorities consider Australia a continent, not an island. In the set of 'islands', Great Britain is undeniably one of the largest.
It's like calling Lake Huron a small lake on the grounds that the Atlantic Ocean is much bigger,
Australia is an island, whether you want to consider it one or not. The Atlantic Ocean is not a lake.
I think if you tell Australians they don't live on an island they'd look at you very askance.
Whether Red Bull have been bending the tyre pressure rules more than have Mercedes is an interesting question. It's not insignificant, as optimising tyres is the single biggest differentiator of performance, race to race.
Sounds like the teams have been doing something funky with the tyres - rumours of filling them with various unapproved gases and carefully timing heating and cooling so they measure as being of being legal pressure, while in practice being well below the pressure limit on the track. Give them an inch...
In other words, it takes dynamic alignment perpetual rule-taking on SPS off the table....
I think the negative reactions come from people who just realise that it would take 2000 such deals to replace the loss of trade pursuant to Brexit.
Some trade analysts are also claiming that the deal look very weighted in Australia’s favour.
Ed Conway of Sky News pointed out last night that Australia has made significant concessions on migration.
There will effectively be free movement for under 35s, up to a total of three years, with unrestricted working and residency rights.
Free movement to Aus could see quite a few young people give it a go, and even if planning only to stay 'for a while' ending up staying there.
Like my brother - "for 18 months" - over a quarter of a century ago. There's a reason the British diaspora is as large in Australia alone as the whole of the EU.....
A lot of people do a few years then return. I agree though that the appeal of Australia is far wider than EU countries due mainly to language issues.
It’s also two-way traffic. There’s as many young Aussies who want to come and jeer the Pommies as they lose the Ashes spend a couple of years working and travelling in the UK, as their are Brits wanting to visit Down Under.
London is a huge draw for young Aussies. A great world city, speaking English, with all the treasures of Europe surrounding you. Much more alluring than NYC and LA, and now much easier to access
Britain’s bars and restaurants are about to recruit a lot of Aussie workers
Back in the Eighties all bar staff in London seemed to be Australian. I am not convinced that we will see that again.
That's right because London and the UK cities were such cosmopolitan places. With this new bunch of Brexiteers they'd get more diversity staying at home.
When does the BoE governor have to write a letter to Mr Sunak?
When it's <1% or >3%. So the last letter would have been written a couple of months ago.
Indeed. The amusing thing is that at 2.1% the inflation rate now is 0.1% off target versus 0.4% off target last month. Not that many people will be saying that today.
Finally you accept that the inflation target is 2%.
What are you talking about? I've never said anything else.
What I've said in the past is that eg increasing from 0.8% to 1.4% doesn't mean that inflation is too high, it means its gone from not high enough* to still below target.
2.1% is pretty much at the sweet spot at the perfect amount of inflation. Its only 0.1% off target. If it keeps rising past 3% then that would be bad and trigger a "please explain" letter on what steps will be required, if any, to get it back down.
* Indeed 0.8% is so low the Governor of the Bank of England is required by law to write a "please explain" letter to the Chancellor of the Exchequer.
You have said in the past (and no I can't be arsed to find it) that the 2% target was actually a 3% target.
No I've said the acceptable range of inflation, as defined by where a letter does not need to be sent, is 2% +/- 1%
If inflation is 2.9% then that's every bit as acceptable as if it is 1.1%, no letter needs to be sent at that rate.
If it is 2.9% it is missing the target by 0.9%.
Just as 1.1% is missing the target by 0.9%
But neither miss will trigger a letter by the Governor, because a range of +/- 1% is considered tolerable.
Yep I have checked, Wednesday reported is always the most importent day of the week as Monday by specimen arrives in the figures so anyone who was feeling ropey over the weekend and tests positive shows up
Indeed it’s always the biggest day, but as the rate is expressed week on week, that’s the metric to keep an eye on.
We’ll see at 4pm!
We'd have to have 11,997 reported cases to maintain +38.8%
“The biodiversity values in Australia are incomparable to the UK. One is a large continent of Gondwanan-origin whose variety of life has evolved in isolation for tens of millions of years and is like nothing else on the planet,” he says.
“The other is a small damp island whose entirety of lifeforms emigrated back from Europe after the place was wiped clean in the last ice age a mere 10 thousand years ago.”
As Mr Beshara put it in a recent speech to the Australian Farm Institute: “the UK has 32 native species of trees and shrubs full stop. Australia has 850 species of eucalypts alone”
Excellent, I'd not heard the "place was wiped clean in the last ice age" line before but it's a good one. On the flip side you could make a similar argument about literature, music and architectural history.
Australia was wiped clean, culturally, by the British: 200 years ago
A 50,000 year-old-civilisation - intricate, complex, fantastical, unique - was obliterated in a couple of generations
Whenever I see Great Britain described as a 'small island' I wince. Of the millions and millions of islands that there are in the world - and the thousands of inhabited islands - Great Britain is the 8th biggest. It is (I think) the fifth most populous. The second most important economically. That is not a 'small island'. Alderney is a small island. Great Britain is not.
Now the UK is, at best, a medium sized country in land area (though large in terms of population or economy). And we certainly don't have the diversity of geography that Australia does (though arguably the UK contains a lot more diversity per unit area). The point the writer makes is broadly valid. But the 'small island' claim is witless.
Its all a matter of perspective.
Relative to the island of Orkney then Great Britain is massive, relative to the island of Australia the disparity is immense.
Britain like Rishi, while Australia is like the trooper in the photo the other day . . . only on an almost infinitely grander scale of difference.
Well yes. But most authorities consider Australia a continent, not an island. In the set of 'islands', Great Britain is undeniably one of the largest.
It's like calling Lake Huron a small lake on the grounds that the Atlantic Ocean is much bigger,
How many theatres in the West End? How many in Australia?
“The biodiversity values in Australia are incomparable to the UK. One is a large continent of Gondwanan-origin whose variety of life has evolved in isolation for tens of millions of years and is like nothing else on the planet,” he says.
“The other is a small damp island whose entirety of lifeforms emigrated back from Europe after the place was wiped clean in the last ice age a mere 10 thousand years ago.”
As Mr Beshara put it in a recent speech to the Australian Farm Institute: “the UK has 32 native species of trees and shrubs full stop. Australia has 850 species of eucalypts alone”
Excellent, I'd not heard the "place was wiped clean in the last ice age" line before but it's a good one. On the flip side you could make a similar argument about literature, music and architectural history.
Australia was wiped clean, culturally, by the British: 200 years ago
A 50,000 year-old-civilisation - intricate, complex, fantastical, unique - was obliterated in a couple of generations
Whenever I see Great Britain described as a 'small island' I wince. Of the millions and millions of islands that there are in the world - and the thousands of inhabited islands - Great Britain is the 8th biggest. It is (I think) the fifth most populous. The second most important economically. That is not a 'small island'. Alderney is a small island. Great Britain is not.
Now the UK is, at best, a medium sized country in land area (though large in terms of population or economy). And we certainly don't have the diversity of geography that Australia does (though arguably the UK contains a lot more diversity per unit area). The point the writer makes is broadly valid. But the 'small island' claim is witless.
Its all a matter of perspective.
Relative to the island of Orkney then Great Britain is massive, relative to the island of Australia the disparity is immense.
Britain like Rishi, while Australia is like the trooper in the photo the other day . . . only on an almost infinitely grander scale of difference.
Well yes. But most authorities consider Australia a continent, not an island. In the set of 'islands', Great Britain is undeniably one of the largest.
It's like calling Lake Huron a small lake on the grounds that the Atlantic Ocean is much bigger,
Australia is an island, whether you want to consider it one or not. The Atlantic Ocean is not a lake.
I think if you tell Australians they don't live on an island they'd look at you very askance.
“The biodiversity values in Australia are incomparable to the UK. One is a large continent of Gondwanan-origin whose variety of life has evolved in isolation for tens of millions of years and is like nothing else on the planet,” he says.
“The other is a small damp island whose entirety of lifeforms emigrated back from Europe after the place was wiped clean in the last ice age a mere 10 thousand years ago.”
As Mr Beshara put it in a recent speech to the Australian Farm Institute: “the UK has 32 native species of trees and shrubs full stop. Australia has 850 species of eucalypts alone”
Excellent, I'd not heard the "place was wiped clean in the last ice age" line before but it's a good one. On the flip side you could make a similar argument about literature, music and architectural history.
Australia was wiped clean, culturally, by the British: 200 years ago
A 50,000 year-old-civilisation - intricate, complex, fantastical, unique - was obliterated in a couple of generations
Whenever I see Great Britain described as a 'small island' I wince. Of the millions and millions of islands that there are in the world - and the thousands of inhabited islands - Great Britain is the 8th biggest. It is (I think) the fifth most populous. The second most important economically. That is not a 'small island'. Alderney is a small island. Great Britain is not.
Now the UK is, at best, a medium sized country in land area (though large in terms of population or economy). And we certainly don't have the diversity of geography that Australia does (though arguably the UK contains a lot more diversity per unit area). The point the writer makes is broadly valid. But the 'small island' claim is witless.
But it *feels* incredibly small - if you’re Australian. It’s one reason Australians like coming to Britain - everywhere in the country is about 2 hours away - at most. As compared to a 17 hour drive across unchanging semi-desert
I remember having lunch in at outback farm in the Northern Territory. It was quite jolly because the ‘neighbours’ had popped over. The neighbours lived 80km away
Well yes. As a 'country' it feels small, albiet with a lot packed into it. There is nowhere in England I couldn't get to, easily, within a day. I can get to Penzance, Dover, Lowestoft or Berwick or Dover within six hours if I time it right; Berwick or Lowestoft within six hours, if I time it right. Absolutely nowhere feels very far away. The UK is larger, but not much - I know someone who has travelled from one end of it to the other on a scooter. But as an island, it's a biggie.
NZ is coming and will expect the same, very generous, access.
Great, lets give it to them. 👍
Ending the scars of 1973. Growing up downunder in the 90s it was still relatively fresh the betrayal of 1973 and the UK ending Commonwealth Preference and putting tariffs on Commonwealth goods instead.
As we move forwards with tariff-free trade with Europe, having tariff-free trade with our allies and cousins in the Commonwealth is both morally and economically the right thing to do.
I'm fascinated that the entire content of the Oz deal seems to be known to so many people, mainly based on what seems to be the content of an Oz government press release, and lots of PR and shouting from Ministers of the ROI Government.
I'm not especially convinced of the deep and abiding professional competence of the UK Govt trade negtiaters compared to say the Canadian Govt, though I think that so far they have given the EC a nasty and necessary shock.
They have made the correct calls in rapid creation of rollover agreements, and refusing to cave in to industry lobbies, they have not given enough of a hearing to them on longer term questions.
But nor am I convinced by the EU-supporting yellow press, and UK politicians / commentators who are so far up the EC backside that only their feet are showing.
One shock that the EU needs is to come to terms with the reality that it does comprise and define the gorious moral and ethical future of everything.
***** 15th Jun '21 - 7:22pm HS2 is a major disaster for Amersham, Little Missenden, Great Missenden, not to mention most of Buckinghamshire.
Please remind me, what is the Lib Dem position on this major issue?
**** 15th Jun '21 - 7:51pm The Liberal Democrat national position is irrelevant to the by-election. Like any really good Liberal Democrat candidate, Sarah Green has her ears to the ground and her personal position is in opposition to HS2
Yawn.
This is very hypocritical. For decades Tory candidates ran on anti EU platforms despite the opposite official party policy.
(Ooops - except where we have a base political need to pander to local NIMBYs.)
It is neither here nor there for me now, since in my area the LDs have wiped themselves out completely even at Councillor level for the next extended period of time, having bet their existence on a highly polarised and rather abusive position on Brexit, and lost.
And yes, I have regularly given LDs my vote over the years.
The Greens are also appealing to NIMBYS, indeed in the 2019 general election the Green manifesto promised fewer new homes over the next few years than any of the main parties were proposing
“The biodiversity values in Australia are incomparable to the UK. One is a large continent of Gondwanan-origin whose variety of life has evolved in isolation for tens of millions of years and is like nothing else on the planet,” he says.
“The other is a small damp island whose entirety of lifeforms emigrated back from Europe after the place was wiped clean in the last ice age a mere 10 thousand years ago.”
As Mr Beshara put it in a recent speech to the Australian Farm Institute: “the UK has 32 native species of trees and shrubs full stop. Australia has 850 species of eucalypts alone”
Excellent, I'd not heard the "place was wiped clean in the last ice age" line before but it's a good one. On the flip side you could make a similar argument about literature, music and architectural history.
Australia was wiped clean, culturally, by the British: 200 years ago
A 50,000 year-old-civilisation - intricate, complex, fantastical, unique - was obliterated in a couple of generations
Whenever I see Great Britain described as a 'small island' I wince. Of the millions and millions of islands that there are in the world - and the thousands of inhabited islands - Great Britain is the 8th biggest. It is (I think) the fifth most populous. The second most important economically. That is not a 'small island'. Alderney is a small island. Great Britain is not.
Now the UK is, at best, a medium sized country in land area (though large in terms of population or economy). And we certainly don't have the diversity of geography that Australia does (though arguably the UK contains a lot more diversity per unit area). The point the writer makes is broadly valid. But the 'small island' claim is witless.
Its all a matter of perspective.
Relative to the island of Orkney then Great Britain is massive, relative to the island of Australia the disparity is immense.
Britain like Rishi, while Australia is like the trooper in the photo the other day . . . only on an almost infinitely grander scale of difference.
Well yes. But most authorities consider Australia a continent, not an island. In the set of 'islands', Great Britain is undeniably one of the largest.
It's like calling Lake Huron a small lake on the grounds that the Atlantic Ocean is much bigger,
Australia is an island, whether you want to consider it one or not. The Atlantic Ocean is not a lake.
I think if you tell Australians they don't live on an island they'd look at you very askance.
Is Africa an island? Is South America?
No, neither is. But Australia is.
If you look at almost any list of 'biggest islands in the world', Greenland comes top. Because Australia is considered a continental land mass.
It's a slightly arbitrary dividing line. There's no really good reason why you couldn't deem Antarctica, or 'North and South America', or 'continetal Asia/Europe/Africa' islands. But that seems to be the convention.
Even if you do consider Australia as the biggest island, that makes Great Britain the ninth biggest. Out of thousands of inhabited islands and millions of islands. You can't make a valid case that it is a 'small island'.
Since then almost half a million #covid19 patients have died in the US.
I suspect the fact that a significant proportion of his party were in favour of a summary hanging for treason might be a bigger impediment to his chances.
These things are additive, not exclusive. He's a safe lay, I think.
I see Darren Grimes has made it onto GB News after all, albeit as a preferred “talking head” rather than a presenter.
LOL.
Yes, this is the fresh perspective we have all been waiting for, compared with the “biased” BBC.
Has anyone seriously got the time to listen to listen to Darren Grimes pontificating on Australian trade agreements or anything else for that matter except perhaps Philip Thomson?
A young gay working class Leaver. How DARE he go on TV and give us his vile plebeian opinion.
What we need is another posh middle aged Remainery Guardian journalist with a Cambridge degree, to tell us all that we’re racist. Proper Remoaner people like this are the reason regular TV news is already watched by up to three dozen viewers every day
Interestingly despite being at the zenith of the governments popularity and their 24 hour a day publicity machine the last YouGov poll I saw showed there are as many Rejoiners as there are Leavers.
The guy just never ever ever ever disappoints. For the capacity to consistently outdo the impossible, jaw dropping standards that no one can set for him bar himself, he is up there with the all time greats, alongside only Messi and the Dacre Mail. https://twitter.com/tompeck/status/1405084876789981187
The phrasing, particularly ‘but we didn’t go after the Hitler Youth’ is pure Partridge, but he is actually cutting Begum some slack with the point he makes.
In other words, it takes dynamic alignment perpetual rule-taking on SPS off the table....
I think the negative reactions come from people who just realise that it would take 2000 such deals to replace the loss of trade pursuant to Brexit.
Some trade analysts are also claiming that the deal look very weighted in Australia’s favour.
Ed Conway of Sky News pointed out last night that Australia has made significant concessions on migration.
There will effectively be free movement for under 35s, up to a total of three years, with unrestricted working and residency rights.
Free movement to Aus could see quite a few young people give it a go, and even if planning only to stay 'for a while' ending up staying there.
Like my brother - "for 18 months" - over a quarter of a century ago. There's a reason the British diaspora is as large in Australia alone as the whole of the EU.....
A lot of people do a few years then return. I agree though that the appeal of Australia is far wider than EU countries due mainly to language issues.
What an indictment of education in this country that we'd prefer a monoculture than one with 28 countries speaking 24 languages.
Lets all move to Stoke-on-Trent
If you think Australia is a monoculture I would contend that you’ve not spent much time there recently.
Yes, Australia is vibrantly multicultural. Even places like Darwin, which has a lot of SE Asians now.
Though as a result, many young Australians see their heritage as Italian, or Greek or Lebanese etc.
Not new either. There was a large Chinese community in the mining town my grandfather was born in in 1902, whom the minowners had imported to cut costs.
It's hilarious reading on here how Australia is some agricultural superpower that's going to decimate Britain.
Quite barking.
Their beef export quota for Britain is indeed huge. Also, it's difficult to avoid giving the same concessions to the US, who definitely are an agricjulture superpower.
I'm not saying that people can't make a case for other bits of the deal to make the undermining of British meat farming worthwhile - that's a matter of judgment and preference. But it's silly to pretend there isn't a real issue.
I think it's crocodile tears Nick.
We have totally unlimited quotas for beef from the European continent, which is a mere 25 miles away and contains 450 million people.
What will undermine British meat farming here is dogmatic domestic climate change policy, not trade deals, and many people who favour the latter criticise it entirely inconsistently on the opposite grounds of the former.
“The biodiversity values in Australia are incomparable to the UK. One is a large continent of Gondwanan-origin whose variety of life has evolved in isolation for tens of millions of years and is like nothing else on the planet,” he says.
“The other is a small damp island whose entirety of lifeforms emigrated back from Europe after the place was wiped clean in the last ice age a mere 10 thousand years ago.”
As Mr Beshara put it in a recent speech to the Australian Farm Institute: “the UK has 32 native species of trees and shrubs full stop. Australia has 850 species of eucalypts alone”
Excellent, I'd not heard the "place was wiped clean in the last ice age" line before but it's a good one. On the flip side you could make a similar argument about literature, music and architectural history.
Australia was wiped clean, culturally, by the British: 200 years ago
A 50,000 year-old-civilisation - intricate, complex, fantastical, unique - was obliterated in a couple of generations
Whenever I see Great Britain described as a 'small island' I wince. Of the millions and millions of islands that there are in the world - and the thousands of inhabited islands - Great Britain is the 8th biggest. It is (I think) the fifth most populous. The second most important economically. That is not a 'small island'. Alderney is a small island. Great Britain is not.
Now the UK is, at best, a medium sized country in land area (though large in terms of population or economy). And we certainly don't have the diversity of geography that Australia does (though arguably the UK contains a lot more diversity per unit area). The point the writer makes is broadly valid. But the 'small island' claim is witless.
But it *feels* incredibly small - if you’re Australian. It’s one reason Australians like coming to Britain - everywhere in the country is about 2 hours away - at most. As compared to a 17 hour drive across unchanging semi-desert
I remember having lunch in at outback farm in the Northern Territory. It was quite jolly because the ‘neighbours’ had popped over. The neighbours lived 80km away
Well yes. As a 'country' it feels small, albiet with a lot packed into it. There is nowhere in England I couldn't get to, easily, within a day. I can get to Penzance, Dover, Lowestoft or Berwick or Dover within six hours if I time it right; Berwick or Lowestoft within six hours, if I time it right. Absolutely nowhere feels very far away. The UK is larger, but not much - I know someone who has travelled from one end of it to the other on a scooter. But as an island, it's a biggie.
I once travelled from Richmond SW London to the Northern tip of the Isle of Skye by public transport. I set off at approx 0530 and reached my destination at 2330!
Whether Red Bull have been bending the tyre pressure rules more than have Mercedes is an interesting question. It's not insignificant, as optimising tyres is the single biggest differentiator of performance, race to race.
Sounds like the teams have been doing something funky with the tyres - rumours of filling them with various unapproved gases and carefully timing heating and cooling so they measure as being of being legal pressure, while in practice being well below the pressure limit on the track. Give them an inch...
My wife couldn't believe that Red Bull had been "cheating" in Baku. She couldn't accept my argument that everything not explicitly outlawed in the rulebook is fair game.
I see Darren Grimes has made it onto GB News after all, albeit as a preferred “talking head” rather than a presenter.
LOL.
Yes, this is the fresh perspective we have all been waiting for, compared with the “biased” BBC.
Has anyone seriously got the time to listen to listen to Darren Grimes pontificating on Australian trade agreements or anything else for that matter except perhaps Philip Thomson?
A young gay working class Leaver. How DARE he go on TV and give us his vile plebeian opinion.
What we need is another posh middle aged Remainery Guardian journalist with a Cambridge degree, to tell us all that we’re racist. Proper Remoaner people like this are the reason regular TV news is already watched by up to three dozen viewers every day
Interestingly despite being at the zenith of the governments popularity and their 24 hour a day publicity machine the last YouGov poll I saw showed there are as many Rejoiners as there are Leavers.
Against that You Gov, since 2014 there have been six uk wide votes, under three different voting systems, and the side backing Leave has won them all
Did anyone else watch ‘Time’ on the BBC starring Sean Bean & Stephen Graham? I thought it was brilliant
Yes. Absolutely marvellous; loved the scene where the inmate who'd stabbed somebody had a 'restorative justice' type meeting with the victim's parents. Well worth the licence fee on its own.
It's excellent, helped by a vg cast; Sean Bean is carving out a niche for himself with these craggy, damaged types. Can't help thinking enforced watching of it might be more of a deterrent than hours and hours of Priti prattlin' on about crime and punishment.
Another goody this week was Peter Taylor reflecting on his almost 50 years of documenting Northern Ireland and its travails, it was a kind of a coda to the also excellent Road to Partition. I have plenty of problems with the BBC but I don't think any other institution could or would make stuff like this (with possible exception of C4).
“The biodiversity values in Australia are incomparable to the UK. One is a large continent of Gondwanan-origin whose variety of life has evolved in isolation for tens of millions of years and is like nothing else on the planet,” he says.
“The other is a small damp island whose entirety of lifeforms emigrated back from Europe after the place was wiped clean in the last ice age a mere 10 thousand years ago.”
As Mr Beshara put it in a recent speech to the Australian Farm Institute: “the UK has 32 native species of trees and shrubs full stop. Australia has 850 species of eucalypts alone”
Excellent, I'd not heard the "place was wiped clean in the last ice age" line before but it's a good one. On the flip side you could make a similar argument about literature, music and architectural history.
Australia was wiped clean, culturally, by the British: 200 years ago
A 50,000 year-old-civilisation - intricate, complex, fantastical, unique - was obliterated in a couple of generations
Whenever I see Great Britain described as a 'small island' I wince. Of the millions and millions of islands that there are in the world - and the thousands of inhabited islands - Great Britain is the 8th biggest. It is (I think) the fifth most populous. The second most important economically. That is not a 'small island'. Alderney is a small island. Great Britain is not.
Now the UK is, at best, a medium sized country in land area (though large in terms of population or economy). And we certainly don't have the diversity of geography that Australia does (though arguably the UK contains a lot more diversity per unit area). The point the writer makes is broadly valid. But the 'small island' claim is witless.
Its all a matter of perspective.
Relative to the island of Orkney then Great Britain is massive, relative to the island of Australia the disparity is immense.
Britain like Rishi, while Australia is like the trooper in the photo the other day . . . only on an almost infinitely grander scale of difference.
Well yes. But most authorities consider Australia a continent, not an island. In the set of 'islands', Great Britain is undeniably one of the largest.
It's like calling Lake Huron a small lake on the grounds that the Atlantic Ocean is much bigger,
Australia is an island, whether you want to consider it one or not. The Atlantic Ocean is not a lake.
I think if you tell Australians they don't live on an island they'd look at you very askance.
Is Africa an island? Is South America?
No, neither is. But Australia is.
If you look at almost any list of 'biggest islands in the world', Greenland comes top. Because Australia is considered a continental land mass.
It's a slightly arbitrary dividing line. There's no really good reason why you couldn't deem Antarctica, or 'North and South America', or 'continetal Asia/Europe/Africa' islands. But that seems to be the convention.
Even if you do consider Australia as the biggest island, that makes Great Britain the ninth biggest. Out of thousands of inhabited islands and millions of islands. You can't make a valid case that it is a 'small island'.
Depends on your definition of a continent, I suppose. Australia definitely looks like one geologically. Greenland is part of the North American plate.
There are bits of Pangea left lying around that are not attached to their original continental plate nor attached to another one and are just floating around. They could be regarded as continents in themselves.
Hence GB is a large island and part the Europe, but the UK also owns the entire continent of, er, Rockall.
Just surfaced, out working in the early hours. Re Chesham. Yes I would have thought 45-40 for the Tories would probably be the result. Re "Outraged" folk from Amersham comment, of course Amersham Town Council went quite heavily to the Lib Dems last month, despite the Conservative postal vote, just saying.
Euro 2020 has been a great tournament so far. Doesn’t really support the “bloated” theory by @Foxy and others who dismissed the 24 team format before it had even started.
Wonder how many tuned in for Austria vs North Macedonia?
I did, and I was rewarded with a cracking goal from Lainer, a rousing fightback from North Macedonia, and more goals later on as Austria managed to force a win. It was a good match. Although North Macedonia lost I think it vindicated the qualification route for minnows via the Nation's League.
In other words, it takes dynamic alignment perpetual rule-taking on SPS off the table....
I think the negative reactions come from people who just realise that it would take 2000 such deals to replace the loss of trade pursuant to Brexit.
Some trade analysts are also claiming that the deal look very weighted in Australia’s favour.
Ed Conway of Sky News pointed out last night that Australia has made significant concessions on migration.
There will effectively be free movement for under 35s, up to a total of three years, with unrestricted working and residency rights.
Free movement to Aus could see quite a few young people give it a go, and even if planning only to stay 'for a while' ending up staying there.
Like my brother - "for 18 months" - over a quarter of a century ago. There's a reason the British diaspora is as large in Australia alone as the whole of the EU.....
A lot of people do a few years then return. I agree though that the appeal of Australia is far wider than EU countries due mainly to language issues.
What an indictment of education in this country that we'd prefer a monoculture than one with 28 countries speaking 24 languages.
Lets all move to Stoke-on-Trent
But I already have free movement with Stoke on Trent. Nothing to stop me taking a job there, should I want to.
But if I wanted to take a job abroad - without taking into account where I was allowed to go - my order of preference would probably be something like:
1) NZ 2) Aus 3) ROI 4) Canada 5) USA 6) Rest of Europe.
I know you've lived abroad, and I admire your ability to function in an environment outside of your mother tongue. But I don't think I could. And I know relatively few people who could. I'm perfectly well educated, and my brain works well in most respects - I can retain facts, write code, solve equations - but foreign languages have just defeated me. You need a level of competence at a language equivalent to at least A level to function abroad. Imagine if you could only move abroad if you were competent at A level maths. That would exclude a lot of people from those opportunities. But that's the sort of barrier which exists to moving to a non-Anglophone country. I take no perverse pride in my inability with languages. It wasn't for want of effort at school (either by me or my teachers). It's just an area in which I failed to excel.
Yep I have checked, Wednesday reported is always the most importent day of the week as Monday by specimen arrives in the figures so anyone who was feeling ropey over the weekend and tests positive shows up
Indeed it’s always the biggest day, but as the rate is expressed week on week, that’s the metric to keep an eye on.
We’ll see at 4pm!
We'd have to have 11,997 reported cases to maintain +38.8%
In other words, it takes dynamic alignment perpetual rule-taking on SPS off the table....
I think the negative reactions come from people who just realise that it would take 2000 such deals to replace the loss of trade pursuant to Brexit.
Some trade analysts are also claiming that the deal look very weighted in Australia’s favour.
Ed Conway of Sky News pointed out last night that Australia has made significant concessions on migration.
There will effectively be free movement for under 35s, up to a total of three years, with unrestricted working and residency rights.
Free movement to Aus could see quite a few young people give it a go, and even if planning only to stay 'for a while' ending up staying there.
Like my brother - "for 18 months" - over a quarter of a century ago. There's a reason the British diaspora is as large in Australia alone as the whole of the EU.....
A lot of people do a few years then return. I agree though that the appeal of Australia is far wider than EU countries due mainly to language issues.
What an indictment of education in this country that we'd prefer a monoculture than one with 28 countries speaking 24 languages.
Lets all move to Stoke-on-Trent
Why did you choose Stoke-on-Trent? Looks like a punch-line from a second-rate middle class stand-up.
In other words, it takes dynamic alignment perpetual rule-taking on SPS off the table....
I think the negative reactions come from people who just realise that it would take 2000 such deals to replace the loss of trade pursuant to Brexit.
Some trade analysts are also claiming that the deal look very weighted in Australia’s favour.
Ed Conway of Sky News pointed out last night that Australia has made significant concessions on migration.
There will effectively be free movement for under 35s, up to a total of three years, with unrestricted working and residency rights.
Free movement to Aus could see quite a few young people give it a go, and even if planning only to stay 'for a while' ending up staying there.
Like my brother - "for 18 months" - over a quarter of a century ago. There's a reason the British diaspora is as large in Australia alone as the whole of the EU.....
A lot of people do a few years then return. I agree though that the appeal of Australia is far wider than EU countries due mainly to language issues.
What an indictment of education in this country that we'd prefer a monoculture than one with 28 countries speaking 24 languages.
Lets all move to Stoke-on-Trent
But I already have free movement with Stoke on Trent. Nothing to stop me taking a job there, should I want to.
But if I wanted to take a job abroad - without taking into account where I was allowed to go - my order of preference would probably be something like:
1) NZ 2) Aus 3) ROI 4) Canada 5) USA 6) Rest of Europe.
I know you've lived abroad, and I admire your ability to function in an environment outside of your mother tongue. But I don't think I could. And I know relatively few people who could. I'm perfectly well educated, and my brain works well in most respects - I can retain facts, write code, solve equations - but foreign languages have just defeated me. You need a level of competence at a language equivalent to at least A level to function abroad. Imagine if you could only move abroad if you were competent at A level maths. That would exclude a lot of people from those opportunities. But that's the sort of barrier which exists to moving to a non-Anglophone country. I take no perverse pride in my inability with languages. It wasn't for want of effort at school (either by me or my teachers). It's just an area in which I failed to excel.
I have never understood the love people have for New Zealand
Is there much left of Cameron's legislation/policy agenda? votes for england only to pulled, HS2 always on a knife edge, austerity splurged out of existence, raising tax threshold each year, fixed terms and on and on.
It would probably do the country, and the government, a favour if the Lib Dem’s won this by election, as in don’t think it’s healthy for the Boris & the Tories for them to keep winning everything so easily
“The biodiversity values in Australia are incomparable to the UK. One is a large continent of Gondwanan-origin whose variety of life has evolved in isolation for tens of millions of years and is like nothing else on the planet,” he says.
“The other is a small damp island whose entirety of lifeforms emigrated back from Europe after the place was wiped clean in the last ice age a mere 10 thousand years ago.”
As Mr Beshara put it in a recent speech to the Australian Farm Institute: “the UK has 32 native species of trees and shrubs full stop. Australia has 850 species of eucalypts alone”
Excellent, I'd not heard the "place was wiped clean in the last ice age" line before but it's a good one. On the flip side you could make a similar argument about literature, music and architectural history.
Australia was wiped clean, culturally, by the British: 200 years ago
A 50,000 year-old-civilisation - intricate, complex, fantastical, unique - was obliterated in a couple of generations
Whenever I see Great Britain described as a 'small island' I wince. Of the millions and millions of islands that there are in the world - and the thousands of inhabited islands - Great Britain is the 8th biggest. It is (I think) the fifth most populous. The second most important economically. That is not a 'small island'. Alderney is a small island. Great Britain is not.
Now the UK is, at best, a medium sized country in land area (though large in terms of population or economy). And we certainly don't have the diversity of geography that Australia does (though arguably the UK contains a lot more diversity per unit area). The point the writer makes is broadly valid. But the 'small island' claim is witless.
But it *feels* incredibly small - if you’re Australian. It’s one reason Australians like coming to Britain - everywhere in the country is about 2 hours away - at most. As compared to a 17 hour drive across unchanging semi-desert
I remember having lunch in at outback farm in the Northern Territory. It was quite jolly because the ‘neighbours’ had popped over. The neighbours lived 80km away
Well yes. As a 'country' it feels small, albiet with a lot packed into it. There is nowhere in England I couldn't get to, easily, within a day. I can get to Penzance, Dover, Lowestoft or Berwick or Dover within six hours if I time it right; Berwick or Lowestoft within six hours, if I time it right. Absolutely nowhere feels very far away. The UK is larger, but not much - I know someone who has travelled from one end of it to the other on a scooter. But as an island, it's a biggie.
I once travelled from Richmond SW London to the Northern tip of the Isle of Skye by public transport. I set off at approx 0530 and reached my destination at 2330!
A heroic effort! (Have you met @Sunil_Prasannan , by the way ?) I was going to prattle on about public transport. From the North of England, I can get to pretty much anywhere on mainland GB by public transport within a day; and most significant destinations before lunchtime. Much as we may complain about it, the public transport system in this country is pretty good - and enables you to do the sorts of journey you just described.
Whether Red Bull have been bending the tyre pressure rules more than have Mercedes is an interesting question. It's not insignificant, as optimising tyres is the single biggest differentiator of performance, race to race.
Sounds like the teams have been doing something funky with the tyres - rumours of filling them with various unapproved gases and carefully timing heating and cooling so they measure as being of being legal pressure, while in practice being well below the pressure limit on the track. Give them an inch...
My wife couldn't believe that Red Bull had been "cheating" in Baku. She couldn't accept my argument that everything not explicitly outlawed in the rulebook is fair game.
Don’t tell her about Ferrari allegedly pulsing the fuel pump in time with the fuel flow meter, to make the meter under-read the actual volume of fuel going past it. Nor the ‘bendy’ rear wings, nor hundreds of similar acts of gamesmanship over the years.
Put a bunch of engineers in a room with a rule book, and they’ll find a way to make something that looks like it complies with the letter of the law, but not close to the spirit of it.
It’s why Ross Brawn at FOM hired a bunch of senior ex-F1 engineers, to write the new 2022 technical regulations, trying to find and close as many loopholes as possible before letting the teams develop their cars.
No-one thought of the Mercedes DAS system, until they saw it on their car last year!
It would probably do the country, and the government, a favour if the Lib Dem’s won this by election, as in don’t think it’s healthy for the Boris & the Tories for them to keep winning everything so easily
Likely just too big a gap from the GE to make up I think though. What's not normal is for the main opposition party to be going backwards in by-elections. Starmer's ratings underwater with the muslim vote ! Probably does for him in Batley.
In other words, it takes dynamic alignment perpetual rule-taking on SPS off the table....
I think the negative reactions come from people who just realise that it would take 2000 such deals to replace the loss of trade pursuant to Brexit.
Some trade analysts are also claiming that the deal look very weighted in Australia’s favour.
Ed Conway of Sky News pointed out last night that Australia has made significant concessions on migration.
There will effectively be free movement for under 35s, up to a total of three years, with unrestricted working and residency rights.
Free movement to Aus could see quite a few young people give it a go, and even if planning only to stay 'for a while' ending up staying there.
Like my brother - "for 18 months" - over a quarter of a century ago. There's a reason the British diaspora is as large in Australia alone as the whole of the EU.....
A lot of people do a few years then return. I agree though that the appeal of Australia is far wider than EU countries due mainly to language issues.
What an indictment of education in this country that we'd prefer a monoculture than one with 28 countries speaking 24 languages.
Lets all move to Stoke-on-Trent
But I already have free movement with Stoke on Trent. Nothing to stop me taking a job there, should I want to.
But if I wanted to take a job abroad - without taking into account where I was allowed to go - my order of preference would probably be something like:
1) NZ 2) Aus 3) ROI 4) Canada 5) USA 6) Rest of Europe.
I know you've lived abroad, and I admire your ability to function in an environment outside of your mother tongue. But I don't think I could. And I know relatively few people who could. I'm perfectly well educated, and my brain works well in most respects - I can retain facts, write code, solve equations - but foreign languages have just defeated me. You need a level of competence at a language equivalent to at least A level to function abroad. Imagine if you could only move abroad if you were competent at A level maths. That would exclude a lot of people from those opportunities. But that's the sort of barrier which exists to moving to a non-Anglophone country. I take no perverse pride in my inability with languages. It wasn't for want of effort at school (either by me or my teachers). It's just an area in which I failed to excel.
I have never understood the love people have for New Zealand
It looks bloody marvellous on film, but it's so far away that most people have never been there, and so can project onto it what they like. It's easy to imagine that it's all the good bits about Britain and Australia, with none of the bad bits.
In other words, it takes dynamic alignment perpetual rule-taking on SPS off the table....
I think the negative reactions come from people who just realise that it would take 2000 such deals to replace the loss of trade pursuant to Brexit.
Some trade analysts are also claiming that the deal look very weighted in Australia’s favour.
Ed Conway of Sky News pointed out last night that Australia has made significant concessions on migration.
There will effectively be free movement for under 35s, up to a total of three years, with unrestricted working and residency rights.
Free movement to Aus could see quite a few young people give it a go, and even if planning only to stay 'for a while' ending up staying there.
Like my brother - "for 18 months" - over a quarter of a century ago. There's a reason the British diaspora is as large in Australia alone as the whole of the EU.....
A lot of people do a few years then return. I agree though that the appeal of Australia is far wider than EU countries due mainly to language issues.
What an indictment of education in this country that we'd prefer a monoculture than one with 28 countries speaking 24 languages.
Lets all move to Stoke-on-Trent
There's a minimum of 251 languages spoken in Australia. I wonder why the speakers of 250 of them are invisible to you
It would probably do the country, and the government, a favour if the Lib Dem’s won this by election, as in don’t think it’s healthy for the Boris & the Tories for them to keep winning everything so easily
Likely just too big a gap from the GE to make up I think though. What's not normal is for the main opposition party to be going backwards in by-elections. Starmer's ratings underwater with the muslim vote ! Probably does for him in Batley.
When is the extension vote?
Another opportunity for Starmer to burnish his credentials as Leader of the Opposition by voting for the government.
In other words, it takes dynamic alignment perpetual rule-taking on SPS off the table....
I think the negative reactions come from people who just realise that it would take 2000 such deals to replace the loss of trade pursuant to Brexit.
Some trade analysts are also claiming that the deal look very weighted in Australia’s favour.
Ed Conway of Sky News pointed out last night that Australia has made significant concessions on migration.
There will effectively be free movement for under 35s, up to a total of three years, with unrestricted working and residency rights.
Free movement to Aus could see quite a few young people give it a go, and even if planning only to stay 'for a while' ending up staying there.
Like my brother - "for 18 months" - over a quarter of a century ago. There's a reason the British diaspora is as large in Australia alone as the whole of the EU.....
A lot of people do a few years then return. I agree though that the appeal of Australia is far wider than EU countries due mainly to language issues.
What an indictment of education in this country that we'd prefer a monoculture than one with 28 countries speaking 24 languages.
Lets all move to Stoke-on-Trent
But I already have free movement with Stoke on Trent. Nothing to stop me taking a job there, should I want to.
But if I wanted to take a job abroad - without taking into account where I was allowed to go - my order of preference would probably be something like:
1) NZ 2) Aus 3) ROI 4) Canada 5) USA 6) Rest of Europe.
I know you've lived abroad, and I admire your ability to function in an environment outside of your mother tongue. But I don't think I could. And I know relatively few people who could. I'm perfectly well educated, and my brain works well in most respects - I can retain facts, write code, solve equations - but foreign languages have just defeated me. You need a level of competence at a language equivalent to at least A level to function abroad. Imagine if you could only move abroad if you were competent at A level maths. That would exclude a lot of people from those opportunities. But that's the sort of barrier which exists to moving to a non-Anglophone country. I take no perverse pride in my inability with languages. It wasn't for want of effort at school (either by me or my teachers). It's just an area in which I failed to excel.
I have never understood the love people have for New Zealand
Very sad. There are one or two NZ-bashers on here; @Anabobazina is the other one.
It would probably do the country, and the government, a favour if the Lib Dem’s won this by election, as in don’t think it’s healthy for the Boris & the Tories for them to keep winning everything so easily
Likely just too big a gap from the GE to make up I think though. What's not normal is for the main opposition party to be going backwards in by-elections. Starmer's ratings underwater with the muslim vote ! Probably does for him in Batley.
When is the extension vote?
Another opportunity for Starmer to burnish his credentials as Leader of the Opposition by voting for the government.
Surely he’s not going to just nod this past, in the face of a potentially huge Tory rebellion?
Come up with an amendment for additional financial support to affected industries, then vote the bill down when it doesn’t pass. It’s not difficult, but SKS appears to have little thought as to the political machinations of Parliament.
(Not that his predecessor was any better, he could have abstained on the May deal and it would have passed, splitting the Tories clean in half)
In other words, it takes dynamic alignment perpetual rule-taking on SPS off the table....
I think the negative reactions come from people who just realise that it would take 2000 such deals to replace the loss of trade pursuant to Brexit.
Some trade analysts are also claiming that the deal look very weighted in Australia’s favour.
Ed Conway of Sky News pointed out last night that Australia has made significant concessions on migration.
There will effectively be free movement for under 35s, up to a total of three years, with unrestricted working and residency rights.
Free movement to Aus could see quite a few young people give it a go, and even if planning only to stay 'for a while' ending up staying there.
Like my brother - "for 18 months" - over a quarter of a century ago. There's a reason the British diaspora is as large in Australia alone as the whole of the EU.....
A lot of people do a few years then return. I agree though that the appeal of Australia is far wider than EU countries due mainly to language issues.
What an indictment of education in this country that we'd prefer a monoculture than one with 28 countries speaking 24 languages.
Lets all move to Stoke-on-Trent
But I already have free movement with Stoke on Trent. Nothing to stop me taking a job there, should I want to.
But if I wanted to take a job abroad - without taking into account where I was allowed to go - my order of preference would probably be something like:
1) NZ 2) Aus 3) ROI 4) Canada 5) USA 6) Rest of Europe.
I know you've lived abroad, and I admire your ability to function in an environment outside of your mother tongue. But I don't think I could. And I know relatively few people who could. I'm perfectly well educated, and my brain works well in most respects - I can retain facts, write code, solve equations - but foreign languages have just defeated me. You need a level of competence at a language equivalent to at least A level to function abroad. Imagine if you could only move abroad if you were competent at A level maths. That would exclude a lot of people from those opportunities. But that's the sort of barrier which exists to moving to a non-Anglophone country. I take no perverse pride in my inability with languages. It wasn't for want of effort at school (either by me or my teachers). It's just an area in which I failed to excel.
I have never understood the love people have for New Zealand
Very sad. There are one or two NZ-bashers on here; @Anabobazina is the other one.
Yes. New Zealand is even more glorious in person than it is on film.
It would probably do the country, and the government, a favour if the Lib Dem’s won this by election, as in don’t think it’s healthy for the Boris & the Tories for them to keep winning everything so easily
That is a line that I'm told is resonating with Tory voters in C&A
It would probably do the country, and the government, a favour if the Lib Dem’s won this by election, as in don’t think it’s healthy for the Boris & the Tories for them to keep winning everything so easily
Likely just too big a gap from the GE to make up I think though. What's not normal is for the main opposition party to be going backwards in by-elections. Starmer's ratings underwater with the muslim vote ! Probably does for him in Batley.
I’ll probably be corrected, but it seems to me that, on the whole, Muslims and Jews have never really got on, and the rising levels of islamophobia & anti- semitism are nothing more than there being more opportunities for them to clash in England than there used to be. We never really saw it this close up before
The worry for me is that if Labour lose the Muslim vote in the inner cities, an Islamic party will step into the vacuum - that would be a disastrous outcome
Whether Red Bull have been bending the tyre pressure rules more than have Mercedes is an interesting question. It's not insignificant, as optimising tyres is the single biggest differentiator of performance, race to race.
Sounds like the teams have been doing something funky with the tyres - rumours of filling them with various unapproved gases and carefully timing heating and cooling so they measure as being of being legal pressure, while in practice being well below the pressure limit on the track. Give them an inch...
My wife couldn't believe that Red Bull had been "cheating" in Baku. She couldn't accept my argument that everything not explicitly outlawed in the rulebook is fair game.
Don’t tell her about Ferrari allegedly pulsing the fuel pump in time with the fuel flow meter, to make the meter under-read the actual volume of fuel going past it. Nor the ‘bendy’ rear wings, nor hundreds of similar acts of gamesmanship over the years.
Put a bunch of engineers in a room with a rule book, and they’ll find a way to make something that looks like it complies with the letter of the law, but not close to the spirit of it.
It’s why Ross Brawn at FOM hired a bunch of senior ex-F1 engineers, to write the new 2022 technical regulations, trying to find and close as many loopholes as possible before letting the teams develop their cars.
No-one thought of the Mercedes DAS system, until they saw it on their car last year!
Oh I know - I think the issue is that she is a Town Planner so works on the basis that there are a set of rules that need to be complied with.
I meanwhile design computer systems so end up trying to work out how to get square pegs into very fixed round holes.
In other words, it takes dynamic alignment perpetual rule-taking on SPS off the table....
I think the negative reactions come from people who just realise that it would take 2000 such deals to replace the loss of trade pursuant to Brexit.
Some trade analysts are also claiming that the deal look very weighted in Australia’s favour.
Ed Conway of Sky News pointed out last night that Australia has made significant concessions on migration.
There will effectively be free movement for under 35s, up to a total of three years, with unrestricted working and residency rights.
Free movement to Aus could see quite a few young people give it a go, and even if planning only to stay 'for a while' ending up staying there.
Like my brother - "for 18 months" - over a quarter of a century ago. There's a reason the British diaspora is as large in Australia alone as the whole of the EU.....
A lot of people do a few years then return. I agree though that the appeal of Australia is far wider than EU countries due mainly to language issues.
What an indictment of education in this country that we'd prefer a monoculture than one with 28 countries speaking 24 languages.
Lets all move to Stoke-on-Trent
There's a minimum of 251 languages spoken in Australia. I wonder why the speakers of 250 of them are invisible to you
There are 2000 languages spoken in Africa but unlike the 24 in Europe they aren't all the official language of the countries.
England v India Test about to start. Seems like England have decided to bat first, before the remaining life drains out of the used pitch. I hope they put on a better show of things than Root's lot.
It would probably do the country, and the government, a favour if the Lib Dem’s won this by election, as in don’t think it’s healthy for the Boris & the Tories for them to keep winning everything so easily
That is a line that I'm told is resonating with Tory voters in C&A
It would probably do the country, and the government, a favour if the Lib Dem’s won this by election, as in don’t think it’s healthy for the Boris & the Tories for them to keep winning everything so easily
That is a line that I'm told is resonating with Tory voters in C&A
Yes, understandable I’d say.
If I was a C&A voter I'd spoil my ballot this week rather than vote Tory.
If the Lib Dems were campaigning on liberalism instead of NIMBYism I'd vote for them this week.
Comments
If inflation is 2.9% then that's every bit as acceptable as if it is 1.1%, no letter needs to be sent at that rate.
I'm quite sympathetic to the GB News angle. And I'm quite interested in news. But I can't imagine myself sitting down to watch any news channel any more. So consistently terrible has news broadcasting been over the past 15 years or so (or longer) that I've completely lost my appetite for it. It's not how I get my news any more. The telly is for entertainment only nowadays. If even I'm not going to watch GB News, who will?
Hopefully some people will because I'd like it to succeed. I'd like the broadcast media not to be so one-sided. But I don't see how it will.
The rest they can review for 5 July…
Take back control from the unelected bureaucrats...Lord Frost kicks off an appearance at the Commons NI cttee telling MPs he is giving evidence before them as a courtesy “but not a precedent” for future appearances.
https://twitter.com/_katedevlin/status/1405081800326750210
20 years or so later, married with a family and career in UK, I told my mother about the conversation.
'Silly old fool' she sniffed. 'We could have come out to see you. it would have been an adventure!'
And that's the view I take. Bit difficult just at the moment, of course, but things will ease up.
Officially anyone in the entire country 21+ can now get a Pfizer or Moderna jab. Unofficially in much of the country anyone 18+ already can.
Imagine a wiki of information continuously added to, with actual interlinking, references etc - no, the newspapers still don't do this. Stories as an ongoing process, continually updated and added to... Clearly labelled opinion and factual pieces, all attached to each other and the stories. Video and text interacting and connecting...
Lets all move to Stoke-on-Trent
F1 teams face new cold pressure tyre checks from French GP
https://www.motorsport.com/f1/news/f1-teams-new-cold-pressure-tyre-checks-at-french-gp/6572403/
Whether Red Bull have been bending the tyre pressure rules more than have Mercedes is an interesting question.
It's not insignificant, as optimising tyres is the single biggest differentiator of performance, race to race.
As I've said in the past, despite a perfectly normally functioning brain in most respects, I never came close to mastering other languages. I think many to most people are the same. The theoretical benefits of being able to work in Germany or Italy are all well and good but for the vast majority of us the language barrier is a far bigger barrier than any removal of movement restrictions could ever overcome. Whereas the opportunity to work in Aus or NZ is very, very attractive.
In practice I won't of course. I'm middle aged. I've got daughters and parents and in-laws anchoring me to this particular spot on the map. But that's just me - many will take advantage.
I'm not especially convinced of the deep and abiding professional competence of the UK Govt trade negtiaters compared to say the Canadian Govt, though I think that so far they have given the EC a nasty and necessary shock.
They have made the correct calls in rapid creation of rollover agreements, and refusing to cave in to industry lobbies, they have not given enough of a hearing to them on longer term questions.
But nor am I convinced by the EU-supporting yellow press, and UK politicians / commentators who are so far up the EC backside that only their feet are showing.
One shock that the EU needs is to come to terms with the reality that it does comprise and define the gorious moral and ethical future of everything.
https://twitter.com/kakape/status/1405052640317349889
One year ago today, then Vice President Mike Pence wrote that there was no second wave of Covid19 and that the US was “winning the fight”.
It was the start of the second wave.
Since then almost half a million #covid19 patients have died in the US.
We’ll see at 4pm!
Basing yourself in the great world city in the English speaking motherland now makes even more sense. And there are tens of thousands of available jobs in hospitality…
Lord Frost confirms to NIAC "that the protocol is 100% clear that nothing in it affects the territorial integrity" of the UK.
it's "clear" that constitutional change to NI not part of NIP.
Hoare: So it's a trade agreement not constitutional agreement
https://twitter.com/lisaocarroll/status/1405084706736050179
I doubt that perspective is even considered in British schools. Nor that sneering people like @Roger would ever understand the concept.
Not everyone books at once either.
I know we all get disappointed by low numbers but the decision to stick with mRNA now is correct
In the set of 'islands', Great Britain is undeniably one of the largest.
It's like calling Lake Huron a small lake on the grounds that the Atlantic Ocean is much bigger,
The UK vs many other countries and the continent of Europe is small. It is however a relatively big island.
People say "small island" meaning the context of the former.
I can only imagine what it would have been like several decades prior to that. Emigration to the antipodes would in many ways have been like the death of a loved one.
I am expecting the same feeling of decades yonder to return in my lifetime for many, but with respect to Mars, where a live conversation will be impossible without some dramatic breakthrough
in physics, perhaps concerning quantum entanglement.
And yes, I've been there. One of the outstanding memories.
Bliss
I've never met an Australian who ever fell anywhere short of tremendously likekable.
Of course, most people are likeable. I've never met a dislikeable Spaniard. Or Italian. But for sheer likeability, the Australians really do take the biscuit.
My father in law was super excited last time I visited for a day out to show me Canadian Tire* in the nearest town which is only a couple of hours drive away.
* A misleading name if ever a store has one. Think B&Q but actually interesting, 10x bigger and even sells guns and ammunition.
My last comment used a comma where a semi-colon was more appropriate.
I think if you tell Australians they don't live on an island they'd look at you very askance.
https://twitter.com/tompeck/status/1405084876789981187
@tompeck you can launch a whole channel and staff it with known liabilities, but you can't beat one touch from Madeley
https://twitter.com/janinegibson/status/1405087292906262535
We ended up being taken, with two other, tourists, about an hours ride into the bush, where the guide showed us how to catch 'bush tucker' such as witchetty grubs then told us tales of outback life. The sky was clear and the stars were brilliant.
But neither miss will trigger a letter by the Governor, because a range of +/- 1% is considered tolerable.
On the other hand when inflation recently was 0.4% that did trigger a letter from the Governor. https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/open-letters-between-hm-treasury-and-bank-of-england-may-2021
Implied r(t)
12000 1.39
11000 1.36
10000 1.34
9000 1.32
8000 1.29
How many in Australia?
(Opera does not count
But as an island, it's a biggie.
Unfortunate typo.
It's a slightly arbitrary dividing line. There's no really good reason why you couldn't deem Antarctica, or 'North and South America', or 'continetal Asia/Europe/Africa' islands. But that seems to be the convention.
Even if you do consider Australia as the biggest island, that makes Great Britain the ninth biggest. Out of thousands of inhabited islands and millions of islands. You can't make a valid case that it is a 'small island'.
Yes I know correlation isn't necessarily causation etc
He's a safe lay, I think.
Though as a result, many young Australians see their heritage as Italian, or Greek or Lebanese etc.
Not new either. There was a large Chinese community in the mining town my grandfather was born in in 1902, whom the minowners had imported to cut costs.
We have totally unlimited quotas for beef from the European continent, which is a mere 25 miles away and contains 450 million people.
What will undermine British meat farming here is dogmatic domestic climate change policy, not trade deals, and many people who favour the latter criticise it entirely inconsistently on the opposite grounds of the former.
Currently some LDs are very censorious.
There are still people talking about concept of "taint" wrt Ministers in the Coalition.
I set off at approx 0530 and reached my destination at 2330!
Another goody this week was Peter Taylor reflecting on his almost 50 years of documenting Northern Ireland and its travails, it was a kind of a coda to the also excellent Road to Partition. I have plenty of problems with the BBC but I don't think any other institution could or would make stuff like this (with possible exception of C4).
Still, Dan Wootton, eh.
There are bits of Pangea left lying around that are not attached to their original continental plate nor attached to another one and are just floating around. They could be regarded as continents in themselves.
Hence GB is a large island and part the Europe, but the UK also owns the entire continent of, er, Rockall.
Re "Outraged" folk from Amersham comment, of course Amersham Town Council went quite heavily to the Lib Dems last month, despite the Conservative postal vote, just saying.
But if I wanted to take a job abroad - without taking into account where I was allowed to go - my order of preference would probably be something like:
1) NZ
2) Aus
3) ROI
4) Canada
5) USA
6) Rest of Europe.
I know you've lived abroad, and I admire your ability to function in an environment outside of your mother tongue. But I don't think I could. And I know relatively few people who could. I'm perfectly well educated, and my brain works well in most respects - I can retain facts, write code, solve equations - but foreign languages have just defeated me.
You need a level of competence at a language equivalent to at least A level to function abroad. Imagine if you could only move abroad if you were competent at A level maths. That would exclude a lot of people from those opportunities. But that's the sort of barrier which exists to moving to a non-Anglophone country.
I take no perverse pride in my inability with languages. It wasn't for want of effort at school (either by me or my teachers). It's just an area in which I failed to excel.
Apropos of nothing I rewatched This is England the other day. Still chilling and a brilliant film.
In particular I liked his (character's) speech about the immigrants coming over here and taking our jobs.
Plus ça change...
I suppose he'll always have the pasty tax.
I was going to prattle on about public transport. From the North of England, I can get to pretty much anywhere on mainland GB by public transport within a day; and most significant destinations before lunchtime. Much as we may complain about it, the public transport system in this country is pretty good - and enables you to do the sorts of journey you just described.
Put a bunch of engineers in a room with a rule book, and they’ll find a way to make something that looks like it complies with the letter of the law, but not close to the spirit of it.
It’s why Ross Brawn at FOM hired a bunch of senior ex-F1 engineers, to write the new 2022 technical regulations, trying to find and close as many loopholes as possible before letting the teams develop their cars.
No-one thought of the Mercedes DAS system, until they saw it on their car last year!
Starmer's ratings underwater with the muslim vote ! Probably does for him in Batley.
Another opportunity for Starmer to burnish his credentials as Leader of the Opposition by voting for the government.
There are one or two NZ-bashers on here; @Anabobazina is the other one.
Come up with an amendment for additional financial support to affected industries, then vote the bill down when it doesn’t pass. It’s not difficult, but SKS appears to have little thought as to the political machinations of Parliament.
(Not that his predecessor was any better, he could have abstained on the May deal and it would have passed, splitting the Tories clean in half)
The worry for me is that if Labour lose the Muslim vote in the inner cities, an Islamic party will step into the vacuum - that would be a disastrous outcome
I meanwhile design computer systems so end up trying to work out how to get square pegs into very fixed round holes.
If the Lib Dems were campaigning on liberalism instead of NIMBYism I'd vote for them this week.