People are right to be angry when they see others disrespecting our laws.
Now, those who try to make the crossing illegally will soon find themselves back where they started.
That is a real deterrent.
It's not remotely a deterrent. They will just come over again.
I don't think that is necessarily true. It's not free and the aslyos frequently drop their entire bundle on paying for a crossing.
It's all about probability. The risk tolerance of someone willing/brainwashed to burn all their cash and risk their life on a channel crossing is exceptionally high. Will the chance of being sent back to France be high enough to stop them taking that risk?
The scheme is predicated on the fact neither the refugee taken in from France, nor the one sent there, can be deported back to their country of origin. In other words these are genuine asylum seekers. Given that it, it enables two things useful to the British and French governments respectively. It reduces the number of boat crossings as anyone sent back to France once can be immediately returned. It keeps asylum seekers away from Calais as they will be returned to another part of France.
Doubtful that it reduces the overall number of asylum seekers coming to this country but it shouldn't increase the number either.
I suppose if every boat person was sent back to France then it would eventually reduce the numbers coming here because the UK would no longer have to accept the substitutes either. Which France might perceive as a problem. I'm sure it can be negotiated - ie UK still takes refugees from France without a corresponding arrival by boat, but presentationally tricky.
Is that not the point? With this being a pilot that needs to scale up to the point where it's not worth risking your life.
I think the advantage for France, is that they're not the first country anyone arrives at. If getting to the UK is much harder, then migrants are more likely to spread out across Europe, rather than heading to France.
The British police have dropped the case against the Palestine Action “activists” who slashed and defaced a 1914 portrait of Lord Balfour at Cambridge's Trinity College last year.
It would be wrong to assume that the crisis of trust is limited to politicians. Most segments distrust journalists and big business and we are split on judges, with more socially conservative segments less trusting. Scientists are an exception & remain trusted across the board.
On the other, have you lot met scientists? Half of us are away with the fairies most of the time .
When you look at how often sceptical scroller and dissenting disruptors are sad or lonely compared to happy or respected, particularly compared with either traditional conservatives or established liberals it doesn't look to be a formula for good mental health. Indeed if these switch off social media and engage more with the real world then both their mental balance and our national life would benefit.
People are right to be angry when they see others disrespecting our laws.
Now, those who try to make the crossing illegally will soon find themselves back where they started.
That is a real deterrent.
It's not remotely a deterrent. They will just come over again.
I don't think that is necessarily true. It's not free and the aslyos frequently drop their entire bundle on paying for a crossing.
It's all about probability. The risk tolerance of someone willing/brainwashed to burn all their cash and risk their life on a channel crossing is exceptionally high. Will the chance of being sent back to France be high enough to stop them taking that risk?
The scheme is predicated on the fact neither the refugee taken in from France, nor the one sent there, can be deported back to their country of origin. In other words these are genuine asylum seekers. Given that it, it enables two things useful to the British and French governments respectively. It reduces the number of boat crossings as anyone sent back to France once can be immediately returned. It keeps asylum seekers away from Calais as they will be returned to another part of France.
Doubtful that it reduces the overall number of asylum seekers coming to this country but it shouldn't increase the number either.
Those returned to France. Do they become French headcount as part of the Dublin Agreement i.e they need to take less from other EU countries. If they do, seems like a backdoor into the DA.
The British police have dropped the case against the Palestine Action “activists” who slashed and defaced a 1914 portrait of Lord Balfour at Cambridge's Trinity College last year.
People are right to be angry when they see others disrespecting our laws.
Now, those who try to make the crossing illegally will soon find themselves back where they started.
That is a real deterrent.
It's not remotely a deterrent. They will just come over again.
I don't think that is necessarily true. It's not free and the aslyos frequently drop their entire bundle on paying for a crossing.
It's all about probability. The risk tolerance of someone willing/brainwashed to burn all their cash and risk their life on a channel crossing is exceptionally high. Will the chance of being sent back to France be high enough to stop them taking that risk?
No.
And can we stop trying to portray these people as innocent victims of trafficking - it's so patronising as to border on racism. They are young, able, and making a rational decision to come here and better their lives as they see it. I wish to shut off that option for them, primarily because I wish to preserve the resources and integrity of our country, with the side benefit of stopping unsafe crossings. There's far too much bullshit about this topic on both sides of the debate.
I think it depends on the likelihood of being detected. They've said they'll take biometric info for everyone who lands, so even at the pilot stage, if you're sent back once, you're not back to a 1 in 17 chance, and then the chance to claim asylum. You'd be making the second trip, only if you thought your boat was going to land undetected, and you would them disappear, with no chance of claiming asylum.
That seems like high risk, for quite a small likelihood of success, and a life as an illegal immigrant with no support.
That Guardian article about AI tanking the graduate job market has an interesting comment from a recruitment consultant saying that the ability to read, write, and form an analysis without using the internet are now "elite skills." Wouldn't it be great if we had degree subjects that teach just that?
Perhaps the result of AI is that we lose our intelligence.
The owners of paper books will be king - they're the only people that can be even close to certain about facts.
I'm currently (and slowly) slinging out my books. Even the recycling centre has given up on the idea of saving them for reuse and resale and now just directs people to the cardboard skip.
But there is an interesting finding that AI makes programmers faster.
LOL. Scooped by rkrkrk with a different link to the same study.
Got any old linux/unix/C stuff?
Let me know if you have a wishlist. A complete (maybe) set of Stevens, for instance.
For sure, I'm getting into systems programming and find the old stuff v-interesting. Don't want to put you out but I'd love to see what your throwing and maybe save it from the shredder. Anything network, systems programming, kernel stuff, C and advanced C etc etc would work.
Where roughly in the country are you? Logistics might be a killer.
North Yorks, Harrogate area. Happy to pay!
Miles away. Give me a couple of days to compile some sort of list.
Occasionally, my A-level students ask me for vocational advice. They must look at me and think this bloke is doing all right for himself, he must know something. Not realising that I have spent my entire adult life falling arse backwards into money via various inheritances.
I always tell them to go to university, study something that interests them and don't waste their time, money or energy with alcohol.
But this is elitist PB.
Persuade my lazy arsed offspring to become tradesmen* whilst trailing their little geniuses around St Andrews. I suppose they could always become Princess Kate.
Their idea to close all the non-Russell Group universities down and send other people's children to technical college for a trade is doubtless sound advice for the scumbag class (although not necessarily for themselves).
*Who will require the services of all these tradespeople? Surely even all the million pound earners on PB each need only one chippy, one sparky, one brickie and one plumber and at irregular intervals.
It's not "an idea" or a "proposal" you chippy little prole, it's just the facts
Going to uni is increasingly pointless, and self harming (the debt, the opportunity cost). Ergo, students will stop going: they will leave school at 18, most unis will shut
I don't disagree with your notions that I a am a chippy proletarian and that universities are facing an existential crisis.
I don't want to be lectured by you and other PB right wing elitists who suggest that my scumbag offspring should train as binmen or road sweepers whilst you are ignoring your own advice by taking ( quite rightly) your child to check our St Andrews, and good on you for that.
P.S. I bet it woz Lucky wot giv you the like!
You don't understand. I'd give the same advice to my own kids, if they were willing to listen
But did you?
Yes. I told them “there is virtually no point in doing university any more as almost every cognitive role and screen based job will be gone in a decade. So you’ll be acquiring loads of debt for little reason”
Then they started to cry so I sighed and said “just do what you love”
That said the eldest is turning out to be SO smart she might just be in the cerebral elite that does OK. The youngest, I worry
They'll be fine, I'm sure. You get a lot from uni if you maximise its opportunities. My nephew is at St Andrews as it happens. Just finished his first year. Top of, it seems. Think he's enjoying it too, which is just as important.
The British police have dropped the case against the Palestine Action “activists” who slashed and defaced a 1914 portrait of Lord Balfour at Cambridge's Trinity College last year.
The British police have dropped the case against the Palestine Action “activists” who slashed and defaced a 1914 portrait of Lord Balfour at Cambridge's Trinity College last year.
The British police have dropped the case against the Palestine Action “activists” who slashed and defaced a 1914 portrait of Lord Balfour at Cambridge's Trinity College last year.
The British police have dropped the case against the Palestine Action “activists” who slashed and defaced a 1914 portrait of Lord Balfour at Cambridge's Trinity College last year.
Edit - also AIUI it wasn't that 'they dropped the case' it was they couldn't identify the perpetrator with enough certainty to bring charges.
I don't think they tried very hard, given they are on bloody video.
They are on video, but it's not easy to identify her without a clear shot of her face which I don't think we have.
The perpetrator must have walked past dozens of cameras. It wouldn’t have been hard to find some footage where their face was visible if they’d really been trying.
The British police have dropped the case against the Palestine Action “activists” who slashed and defaced a 1914 portrait of Lord Balfour at Cambridge's Trinity College last year.
Edit - also AIUI it wasn't that 'they dropped the case' it was they couldn't identify the perpetrator with enough certainty to bring charges.
I don't think they tried very hard, given they are on bloody video.
They are on video, but it's not easy to identify her without a clear shot of her face which I don't think we have.
No CCTV at all anywhere in the college. They also will have had to get into the college. etc. They didn't have their face covered.
Not when slashing the painting. We don't know that she was stupid enough to wear the same clothes or even the same hairstyle when walking past the college's own cameras.
Look, I'm not saying the police have done a good job, I'm saying we don't have enough information to be sure they've done a bad one. Meanwhile, the tweet itself isn't correct in at least one key point and we should treat it with caution.
ETA - at this moment by the way it seems it isn't that the case has been dropped, it's that the investigation is inactive pending any further info coming out.
That would be a difficult result for Plaid. I assume they wouldn’t be prepared to work with Reform. They would be despised if they kept Labour in power against the electorate’s wishes. However, Would Labour ally with Reform to keep themselves in power? Would Reform let them?
It would be a Labour and Plaid government on those numbers, maybe with alternating FMs as FF and FG did in the Republic of Ireland to keep power with alternating PMs to keep out SF who like Reform in Wales on that projection won most seats
That would be devastating for the Tories. It would cement Reform as the de facto rightwing opposition. We would then see a tidal wave of movement towards Reform, and I don't see how the Tories recover
So where do us real Right-wingers go?
Those of us who see right through Reform and their opportunism, who dislike Farage and who are essentially elitist rather than populist?
I keep hearing about a notional tipping point at which all former Conservatives desert the sinking ship and flock to Reform, but it doesn't feel like something I'd ever do, and I can't imagine I'm alone.
The LDs? Why would those of us who are essentially Classical Liberals defect to a party that spent a lot of time to the left of Labour, that is fundamentally illiberal in many ways and whose main purpose, aside from five pretty good years in coalition government, has been to serve as the anti-Tory party everywhere they are competitive?
That would be devastating for the Tories. It would cement Reform as the de facto rightwing opposition. We would then see a tidal wave of movement towards Reform, and I don't see how the Tories recover
The Tories have never won most seats in Wales once, even in 1983 or 2019.
They can survive if Reform win most seats in the North and Wales, even in the Midlands (though they can't win a Conservative majority without the Midlands). However the Tories cannot likely survive if Reform overtake them on seats in the South of England and East of England too unless we went to PR.
The Tories are also likely to still be second to Labour and ahead of Reform in London in the local elections next year where all London seats are up and the Tories could win more constituency MSPs than Reform in Scotland too
That would be devastating for the Tories. It would cement Reform as the de facto rightwing opposition. We would then see a tidal wave of movement towards Reform, and I don't see how the Tories recover
The Tories have never won most seats in Wales once, even in 1983 or 2019.
On a point of pedantry, they have won most seats in Wales, just not since 1852.
Occasionally, my A-level students ask me for vocational advice. They must look at me and think this bloke is doing all right for himself, he must know something. Not realising that I have spent my entire adult life falling arse backwards into money via various inheritances.
I always tell them to go to university, study something that interests them and don't waste their time, money or energy with alcohol.
Ludicrous advice. Soon there won’t be anything left BUT boozing
Want to become a lawyer, doctor, teacher, academic? You will still need a degree, even nurses require a degree now
I have a 20-something nephew-in-law who studied photography at uni (yes, photography). Let’s call him Todd
He accrued debt and - unsurprisingly - didn’t get a job as a pro tog at the end
Many of his uni peers are still desperately struggling and failing to get into the arts as a job, and working minimum wage in the meantime
Todd decided No, so he retrained as an electrician - and he’s very good - and he’s making £££ a day
All well and good for now, if everyone trained as electricians though the supply would soon exceed demand and the average electrician wage would collapse
I have a 20-something nephew-in-law who studied photography at uni (yes, photography). Let’s call him Todd
He accrued debt and - unsurprisingly - didn’t get a job as a pro tog at the end
Many of his uni peers are still desperately struggling and failing to get into the arts as a job, and working minimum wage in the meantime
Todd decided No, so he retrained as an electrician - and he’s very good - and he’s making £££ a day
Yes, but here is the case for the humanities or liberal arts – why not an electrician who quotes Catullus? You yourself are a travel writer but I'm guessing you did not graduate in joint honours English and Geography. For most graduates over the past hundred years, university never was a trade school so it seems perverse to complain it is not one now.
I had my boiler replaced recently and got chatting to the engineer when he took a break. Usual 'what is it you do?' chat. I explained I messed around with computers, and 'AI' at the moment.
Then he showed me the custom GPT's he'd made, raved about 'AI', a custom application he'd "vibe coded" and shared with his other engineers at work to help them plan work, ordering parts, etc. Some of the GPTs have all their training material, safety manuals, tips and tricks embedded in it. Said it could sometimes save hours of a day instead of having to look up terrible, clunky manufacturer websites, or worse - being on the phone to their call-centres.
Really struck me that it was quietly becoming pervasive in ways I don't think are being picked up in surveys - possibly as no-one has thought to survey non-white-collar workers about it.
Helpful links on how to create a "Custom GPT" (a personalised AI that uses documents you have uploaded)
GPT's are more like 'projects' in claude, if you've tried those. Really very useful - especially as you can now share them with free-tier users and choose which model you want for a given one. Though I haven't kept up with NotebookLM so not sure if they've added specific 'this is your system prompt for this project' or "I want to use gemini 2.5-flash for this' features. It was quite generic 'gemini - take it or leave it' when I tried it 'back in the day' (ie, months ago...).
If OpenAI would let you make a custom gpt, then expose/export it via the API that would be fantasticality useful. But they seem very intent on keeping the two worlds apart.
(it is also the lead article in the print version, for those of you who skin read a 'paper')
It's not a pleasant read, I've posted on here many times if the UK becomes unwelcome for Jews then eventually it will become unwelcome for other minorities.
One thing that has been bubbling away, and I'm not sure what the answer is, I suspect it is complex.
One thing that (rightly) is said that you cannot hold Jews responsible for the actions of the state of Israel, but in that photo in the Telegraph article (and elsewhere) you see Jewish people using the Israeli flag at antisemitism rallies which I think clouds the issue.
I think Edward Leigh (or somebody else) who is a longstanding Friend of Israel has said accusations of antisemitism are thrown when people rightly condemn the genocide in Gaza.
Do you think people holding the Palestinian flag clouds the issue on Islamophobia?
In the aftermath of the October 7 attacks and the pre-emotive anti-Israel “demonstrations” a lot of British Jews made the point that this is why Israel needs to exist. Jews need somewhere they can retreat to if things get really bad.
So I don’t think Jews waving Israeli flags means anything more than that and anyone saying it clouds the issue just wants an excuse to hate Jews.
The problem is that the state of Israel is expanding into other territories.
I have a 20-something nephew-in-law who studied photography at uni (yes, photography). Let’s call him Todd
He accrued debt and - unsurprisingly - didn’t get a job as a pro tog at the end
Many of his uni peers are still desperately struggling and failing to get into the arts as a job, and working minimum wage in the meantime
Todd decided No, so he retrained as an electrician - and he’s very good - and he’s making £££ a day
All well and good for now, if everyone trained as electricians though the supply would soon exceed demand and the average electrician wage would collapse
Which is basically what happened when we sent everyone (well, half of everyone) to university to enjoy the graduate earnings premium.
Multi-million pound mansions and townhouses on the wide leafy lanes of Knightsbridge and Kensington have fallen in value and are at the lowest levels for 15 years.
Since 2018, house prices in Knightsbridge alone have dropped by over a million pounds, costing on average just £2.6 million today.
Occasionally, my A-level students ask me for vocational advice. They must look at me and think this bloke is doing all right for himself, he must know something. Not realising that I have spent my entire adult life falling arse backwards into money via various inheritances.
I always tell them to go to university, study something that interests them and don't waste their time, money or energy with alcohol.
Ludicrous advice. Soon there won’t be anything left BUT boozing
Want to become a lawyer, doctor, teacher, academic? You will still need a degree, even nurses require a degree now
How do you convince people to read Hegel or worse! if all they have to do is type the essay question into their laptop and then mess around with it a bit? And how do you convince people to mark this trash if they can get a machine to do it? A machine can set the essay question too.
I'm not really convinced that nursing needs to be a degree. Hell, I'm not even convinced Law needs to be a degree. It's competitive admin. Perfect for machines.
Multi-million pound mansions and townhouses on the wide leafy lanes of Knightsbridge and Kensington have fallen in value and are at the lowest levels for 15 years.
Since 2018, house prices in Knightsbridge alone have dropped by over a million pounds, costing on average just £2.6 million today.
No source for that claim. Hotel prices certainly haven't dropped though.
Sounds right. The Standard has made similar claims. The tendentious part of the Mail story is blaming a 7-year price fall on a 1-year Labour government.
Multi-million pound mansions and townhouses on the wide leafy lanes of Knightsbridge and Kensington have fallen in value and are at the lowest levels for 15 years.
Since 2018, house prices in Knightsbridge alone have dropped by over a million pounds, costing on average just £2.6 million today.
Occasionally, my A-level students ask me for vocational advice. They must look at me and think this bloke is doing all right for himself, he must know something. Not realising that I have spent my entire adult life falling arse backwards into money via various inheritances.
I always tell them to go to university, study something that interests them and don't waste their time, money or energy with alcohol.
Ludicrous advice. Soon there won’t be anything left BUT boozing
Want to become a lawyer, doctor, teacher, academic? You will still need a degree, even nurses require a degree now
I think @Leon is suggesting that AI makes people superfluous to those roles, certainly lawyers, teachers and accountants. I suspect Spectator Travel Correspondents on the other hand will always be required.
That would be devastating for the Tories. It would cement Reform as the de facto rightwing opposition. We would then see a tidal wave of movement towards Reform, and I don't see how the Tories recover
So where do us real Right-wingers go?
Those of us who see right through Reform and their opportunism, who dislike Farage and who are essentially elitist rather than populist?
I keep hearing about a notional tipping point at which all former Conservatives desert the sinking ship and flock to Reform, but it doesn't feel like something I'd ever do, and I can't imagine I'm alone.
The LDs? Why would those of us who are essentially Classical Liberals defect to a party that spent a lot of time to the left of Labour, that is fundamentally illiberal in many ways and whose main purpose, aside from five pretty good years in coalition government, has been to serve as the anti-Tory party everywhere they are competitive?
Multi-million pound mansions and townhouses on the wide leafy lanes of Knightsbridge and Kensington have fallen in value and are at the lowest levels for 15 years.
Since 2018, house prices in Knightsbridge alone have dropped by over a million pounds, costing on average just £2.6 million today.
Looks more like Sir Keir to me, to be honest. Got that sort of vacant glare he specialises in. But that might be interesting so I am probably wrong about that.
“Starmer often seems like a headmaster in assembly, whereas Nigel Farage comes across as a stand-up comedian.”
From “coercion” to “rigidity,” linguistics expert Dr Geoff Lindsey compares the speech of the “diametric opposites,” Sir Keir Starmer and Nigel Farage. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gRqh7_ThUVM
Think I prefer a headmaster to run the place rather than a stand-up comedian.
Zelenskyy was a comedian Putin was a KGB henchman
Didn't Zelensky used to do Gregg Wallace style cock gags? Or an I just thinking of Gregg Wallace?
He (Zelensky) mimed playing the piano with his penis. At least I assume it was mimed.
Occasionally, my A-level students ask me for vocational advice. They must look at me and think this bloke is doing all right for himself, he must know something. Not realising that I have spent my entire adult life falling arse backwards into money via various inheritances.
I always tell them to go to university, study something that interests them and don't waste their time, money or energy with alcohol.
Ludicrous advice. Soon there won’t be anything left BUT boozing
Want to become a lawyer, doctor, teacher, academic? You will still need a degree, even nurses require a degree now
I think @Leon is suggesting that AI makes people superfluous to those roles, certainly lawyers, teachers and accountants. I suspect Spectator Travel Correspondents on the other hand will always be required.
If AI automates barristers, city lawyers and teachers and all but the most creative and fluent travel writers then most jobs are doomed. A UBI is inevitable funded by a robot tax on every corporation that replaces jobs with AI without creating new jobs and no government would ever win an election again without backing a big UBI
(it is also the lead article in the print version, for those of you who skin read a 'paper')
It's not a pleasant read, I've posted on here many times if the UK becomes unwelcome for Jews then eventually it will become unwelcome for other minorities.
One thing that has been bubbling away, and I'm not sure what the answer is, I suspect it is complex.
One thing that (rightly) is said that you cannot hold Jews responsible for the actions of the state of Israel, but in that photo in the Telegraph article (and elsewhere) you see Jewish people using the Israeli flag at antisemitism rallies which I think clouds the issue.
I think Edward Leigh (or somebody else) who is a longstanding Friend of Israel has said accusations of antisemitism are thrown when people rightly condemn the genocide in Gaza.
Do you think people holding the Palestinian flag clouds the issue on Islamophobia?
In the aftermath of the October 7 attacks and the pre-emotive anti-Israel “demonstrations” a lot of British Jews made the point that this is why Israel needs to exist. Jews need somewhere they can retreat to if things get really bad.
So I don’t think Jews waving Israeli flags means anything more than that and anyone saying it clouds the issue just wants an excuse to hate Jews.
The problem is that the state of Israel is expanding into other territories.
Multi-million pound mansions and townhouses on the wide leafy lanes of Knightsbridge and Kensington have fallen in value and are at the lowest levels for 15 years.
Since 2018, house prices in Knightsbridge alone have dropped by over a million pounds, costing on average just £2.6 million today.
(it is also the lead article in the print version, for those of you who skin read a 'paper')
It's not a pleasant read, I've posted on here many times if the UK becomes unwelcome for Jews then eventually it will become unwelcome for other minorities.
One thing that has been bubbling away, and I'm not sure what the answer is, I suspect it is complex.
One thing that (rightly) is said that you cannot hold Jews responsible for the actions of the state of Israel, but in that photo in the Telegraph article (and elsewhere) you see Jewish people using the Israeli flag at antisemitism rallies which I think clouds the issue.
I think Edward Leigh (or somebody else) who is a longstanding Friend of Israel has said accusations of antisemitism are thrown when people rightly condemn the genocide in Gaza.
Do you think people holding the Palestinian flag clouds the issue on Islamophobia?
In the aftermath of the October 7 attacks and the pre-emotive anti-Israel “demonstrations” a lot of British Jews made the point that this is why Israel needs to exist. Jews need somewhere they can retreat to if things get really bad.
So I don’t think Jews waving Israeli flags means anything more than that and anyone saying it clouds the issue just wants an excuse to hate Jews.
The problem is that the state of Israel is expanding into other territories.
Yes 'Asked whether Britain should be allowed back in on the conditions it enjoyed when it left, however, including not having to adopt the euro currency and remaining outside the Schengen passport-free zone, the numbers changed significantly.
Barely one-fifth of respondents across the four biggest EU members, from 19% in Italy and France to 21% in Spain and 22% in Germany, felt the UK should be allowed to return to the bloc on those terms, with 58-62% saying it must be part of all main EU policy areas.
The pollster stress-tested western European attitudes by asking whether, if the UK was only willing to rejoin the EU on condition it could keep its old opt-outs, it should be allowed to. Some (33-36%) felt this would be acceptable, but more (41-52%) were opposed.
In the UK, while 54% of Britons supported rejoining the EU when asked the question in isolation, the figure fell to just 36% if rejoining meant giving up previous opt-outs. On those terms, 45% of Britons opposed renewed membership. The survey found that remain voters and those who backed more pro-EU parties would still broadly back rejoining if this meant adopting the euro and being part of the Schengen area, albeit at much lower rates.
Almost 60% of remain voters said they would support rejoining the EU without the previous opt-outs, down about 25 percentage points from the non-specific question, as would 58% of Labour voters (-23 points) and 49% of Liberal Democrats (-31 points). The percentage of Eurosceptic voters willing to rejoin without the previous special treatment more or less halved, falling from 21% to 10% among leave voters; 25% to 12% among Conservative voters, and 15% to 9% among Reform UK supporters.
The fifth continental European country polled, Denmark, proved an outlier. Respondents there were very keen (72%) for the UK to rejoin, and more enthusiastic than larger member states about it keeping its previous opt-outs (43%).'
Shows rejoining EFTA and the EEA may a realistic prospect in 10 or 20 years but not rejoining the full EU
Multi-million pound mansions and townhouses on the wide leafy lanes of Knightsbridge and Kensington have fallen in value and are at the lowest levels for 15 years.
Since 2018, house prices in Knightsbridge alone have dropped by over a million pounds, costing on average just £2.6 million today.
No source for that claim. Hotel prices certainly haven't dropped though.
If the claim is true, good.
Why good? Are they pricing you out of the Knightsbridge/Kensington market?
I would prefer these prices to remain strong and a moving market to generate bigger stamp revenues if I was in the UK and wanting good government finances.
The Tories are also likely to still be second to Labour and ahead of Reform in London in the local elections next year where all London seats are up.
Apologies for the snipping but I'm the one who adds the extraneous verbage - no one else.
London will be fascinating next year - 1,817 seats are up for grabs in the 32 Boroughs. Currently, according to OpenCouncil data, Labour hold 1,094 seats, the Conservatives 394. the LDs 181, the Greens 27, Reform 3, there are 115 Others and 3 vacancies - one in Barking, one in Bromley and one in Hounslow.
The "Others" are primarily 30 Residents of various stripes in Havering and 26 under the Aspire banner in Tower Hamlets.
Of the LD seats, two thirds (120) are in Richmond, Sutton and Kingston (the boroughs under LD control) and in 19 of the 32 boroughs, there are currently no LD Councillors at all.
The Conservatives are absent from eight Boroughs and their largest numbers are in Kensington & Chelsea (36), Bromley (35), Croydon (33), Harrow (31), Bexley (30) and Hillingdon (30) and you might argue some or all of those might be fertile ground for Reform.
Labour are only absent in Kingston and Richmond and have 59 Councillors In Ealing, 58 in Newham (yay) and 57 in Lambeth.
Reform have two in Barnet and one in Westminster but presumably you can look at where the party polled best in London last year for a sense of where their local strength might be - it's also fair to say in local council by-elections, the main group which has suffered from the rise in Reform has been local Independents and Residents.
Occasionally, my A-level students ask me for vocational advice. They must look at me and think this bloke is doing all right for himself, he must know something. Not realising that I have spent my entire adult life falling arse backwards into money via various inheritances.
I always tell them to go to university, study something that interests them and don't waste their time, money or energy with alcohol.
Ludicrous advice. Soon there won’t be anything left BUT boozing
Want to become a lawyer, doctor, teacher, academic? You will still need a degree, even nurses require a degree now
I think @Leon is suggesting that AI makes people superfluous to those roles, certainly lawyers, teachers and accountants. I suspect Spectator Travel Correspondents on the other hand will always be required.
If AI automates barristers, city lawyers and teachers and all but the most creative an fluent travel writers then most jobs are doomed. A UBI is inevitable funded by a robot tax on every corporation that replaces jobs with AI without creating new jobs and no government would ever win an election again without backing a big UBI
Perhaps politicians would also be redundant. No great loss anyway, I wouldn't have thought.
I have a 20-something nephew-in-law who studied photography at uni (yes, photography). Let’s call him Todd
He accrued debt and - unsurprisingly - didn’t get a job as a pro tog at the end
Many of his uni peers are still desperately struggling and failing to get into the arts as a job, and working minimum wage in the meantime
Todd decided No, so he retrained as an electrician - and he’s very good - and he’s making £££ a day
All well and good for now, if everyone trained as electricians though the supply would soon exceed demand and the average electrician wage would collapse
Which is basically what happened when we sent everyone (well, half of everyone) to university to enjoy the graduate earnings premium.
My 22 year old granddaughter has graduated with her degree from Leeds, and despite hundreds of jobs applications she has not received an offer. Indeed her peer group are nearly all in the same category
Her younger brother starts FE in September and will emerge with no student debt and most likely job offers
Something is not right in this country and nobody can convince me 50% need to go to university
Since when did nurses and police officers need a degree ?
Occasionally, my A-level students ask me for vocational advice. They must look at me and think this bloke is doing all right for himself, he must know something. Not realising that I have spent my entire adult life falling arse backwards into money via various inheritances.
I always tell them to go to university, study something that interests them and don't waste their time, money or energy with alcohol.
Ludicrous advice. Soon there won’t be anything left BUT boozing
Want to become a lawyer, doctor, teacher, academic? You will still need a degree, even nurses require a degree now
I think @Leon is suggesting that AI makes people superfluous to those roles, certainly lawyers, teachers and accountants. I suspect Spectator Travel Correspondents on the other hand will always be required.
If AI automates barristers, city lawyers and teachers and all but the most creative and fluent travel writers then most jobs are doomed. A UBI is inevitable funded by a robot tax on every corporation that replaces jobs with AI without creating new jobs and no government would ever win an election again without backing a big UBI
Can AI replace travel writers by parsing tourist board and hotel websites? Asking for a friend.
Occasionally, my A-level students ask me for vocational advice. They must look at me and think this bloke is doing all right for himself, he must know something. Not realising that I have spent my entire adult life falling arse backwards into money via various inheritances.
I always tell them to go to university, study something that interests them and don't waste their time, money or energy with alcohol.
Ludicrous advice. Soon there won’t be anything left BUT boozing
Want to become a lawyer, doctor, teacher, academic? You will still need a degree, even nurses require a degree now
I think @Leon is suggesting that AI makes people superfluous to those roles, certainly lawyers, teachers and accountants. I suspect Spectator Travel Correspondents on the other hand will always be required.
It is worth going back to read the predictions made at the time when new mechanical devices for work and home were regularly being invented, and again during the emergence of computers. People whose intelligence was strictly linear really did predict that, by now, we’d all be sitting around working only a few hours a week, and otherwise living a life of leisure, as all these machines would be saving us so much time.
Whereas the reality, in both cases, was that these innovations enabled people to do more, and in the end this occupied more of our time than previously. As anyone working through a full email inbox knows, comparing that to a time when importance correspondence would be sent by proper mail and all the trivia wouldn’t be sent at all, not being worth the price of a stamp.
The limitations of the simple minded now simply cannot see into what the world of work will expand once AI is helping us produce written stuff much more quickly. At first base, will be a whole shedload of extra stuff we will be expected to read.
The limitations of the simple minded now simply cannot see into what the world of work will expand once AI is helping us produce written stuff much more quickly. At first base, will be a whole shedload of extra stuff we will be expected to read.
Surely only a simple minded person would think they have to read it themselves rather than using an AI to do the job.
Yes 'Asked whether Britain should be allowed back in on the conditions it enjoyed when it left, however, including not having to adopt the euro currency and remaining outside the Schengen passport-free zone, the numbers changed significantly.
Barely one-fifth of respondents across the four biggest EU members, from 19% in Italy and France to 21% in Spain and 22% in Germany, felt the UK should be allowed to return to the bloc on those terms, with 58-62% saying it must be part of all main EU policy areas.
The pollster stress-tested western European attitudes by asking whether, if the UK was only willing to rejoin the EU on condition it could keep its old opt-outs, it should be allowed to. Some (33-36%) felt this would be acceptable, but more (41-52%) were opposed.
In the UK, while 54% of Britons supported rejoining the EU when asked the question in isolation, the figure fell to just 36% if rejoining meant giving up previous opt-outs. On those terms, 45% of Britons opposed renewed membership. The survey found that remain voters and those who backed more pro-EU parties would still broadly back rejoining if this meant adopting the euro and being part of the Schengen area, albeit at much lower rates.
Almost 60% of remain voters said they would support rejoining the EU without the previous opt-outs, down about 25 percentage points from the non-specific question, as would 58% of Labour voters (-23 points) and 49% of Liberal Democrats (-31 points). The percentage of Eurosceptic voters willing to rejoin without the previous special treatment more or less halved, falling from 21% to 10% among leave voters; 25% to 12% among Conservative voters, and 15% to 9% among Reform UK supporters.
The fifth continental European country polled, Denmark, proved an outlier. Respondents there were very keen (72%) for the UK to rejoin, and more enthusiastic than larger member states about it keeping its previous opt-outs (43%).'
Shows rejoining EFTA and the EEA may a realistic prospect in 10 or 20 years but not rejoining the full EU
Also shows the generational damage that your party’s frothy-mouthed obsession has done to our national prospects.
Occasionally, my A-level students ask me for vocational advice. They must look at me and think this bloke is doing all right for himself, he must know something. Not realising that I have spent my entire adult life falling arse backwards into money via various inheritances.
I always tell them to go to university, study something that interests them and don't waste their time, money or energy with alcohol.
Ludicrous advice. Soon there won’t be anything left BUT boozing
Want to become a lawyer, doctor, teacher, academic? You will still need a degree, even nurses require a degree now
I think @Leon is suggesting that AI makes people superfluous to those roles, certainly lawyers, teachers and accountants. I suspect Spectator Travel Correspondents on the other hand will always be required.
It is worth going back to read the predictions made at the time when new mechanical devices for work and home were regularly being invented, and again during the emergence of computers. People whose intelligence was strictly linear really did predict that, by now, we’d all be sitting around working only a few hours a week, and otherwise living a life of leisure, as all these machines would be saving us so much time.
Whereas the reality, in both cases, was that these innovations enabled people to do more, and in the end this occupied more of our time than previously. As anyone working through a full email inbox knows, comparing that to a time when importance correspondence would be sent by proper mail and all the trivia wouldn’t be sent at all, not being worth the price of a stamp.
The limitations of the simple minded now simply cannot see into what the world of work will expand once AI is helping us produce written stuff much more quickly. At first base, will be a whole shedload of extra stuff we will be expected to read.
Oddly enough - Youtube showed me this just the other day :
1980: Will TECHNOLOGY put an END to JOBS? | General Studies | Predicting the Future | BBC Archive
"The capacity to control society because of this technology is almost limitless, unfortunately - that's why we have to be so vigilant it's untrue.
How will the silicon chip affect the quality of our lives and our attitudes to work? Starting at the hyper-modern Washington Metro in the US, Bernard Falk visits places that have already adopted new technology to find out what could be in store for white collar, blue collar and professional workers in the next decade.
What kinds of jobs will change or disappear? Are there areas where employment will increase? What will be the effects on various professions? How must our attitudes change if we are to enjoy the benefits of this new technological revolution and not suffer its worst effects?"
Yes 'Asked whether Britain should be allowed back in on the conditions it enjoyed when it left, however, including not having to adopt the euro currency and remaining outside the Schengen passport-free zone, the numbers changed significantly.
Barely one-fifth of respondents across the four biggest EU members, from 19% in Italy and France to 21% in Spain and 22% in Germany, felt the UK should be allowed to return to the bloc on those terms, with 58-62% saying it must be part of all main EU policy areas.
The pollster stress-tested western European attitudes by asking whether, if the UK was only willing to rejoin the EU on condition it could keep its old opt-outs, it should be allowed to. Some (33-36%) felt this would be acceptable, but more (41-52%) were opposed.
In the UK, while 54% of Britons supported rejoining the EU when asked the question in isolation, the figure fell to just 36% if rejoining meant giving up previous opt-outs. On those terms, 45% of Britons opposed renewed membership. The survey found that remain voters and those who backed more pro-EU parties would still broadly back rejoining if this meant adopting the euro and being part of the Schengen area, albeit at much lower rates.
Almost 60% of remain voters said they would support rejoining the EU without the previous opt-outs, down about 25 percentage points from the non-specific question, as would 58% of Labour voters (-23 points) and 49% of Liberal Democrats (-31 points). The percentage of Eurosceptic voters willing to rejoin without the previous special treatment more or less halved, falling from 21% to 10% among leave voters; 25% to 12% among Conservative voters, and 15% to 9% among Reform UK supporters.
The fifth continental European country polled, Denmark, proved an outlier. Respondents there were very keen (72%) for the UK to rejoin, and more enthusiastic than larger member states about it keeping its previous opt-outs (43%).'
Shows rejoining EFTA and the EEA may a realistic prospect in 10 or 20 years but not rejoining the full EU
Also shows the generational damage that your party’s frothy-mouthed obsession has done to our national prospects.
It was the will of the people.
I assume you would have denied them the chance to vote?
That would be devastating for the Tories. It would cement Reform as the de facto rightwing opposition. We would then see a tidal wave of movement towards Reform, and I don't see how the Tories recover
So where do us real Right-wingers go?
Those of us who see right through Reform and their opportunism, who dislike Farage and who are essentially elitist rather than populist?
I keep hearing about a notional tipping point at which all former Conservatives desert the sinking ship and flock to Reform, but it doesn't feel like something I'd ever do, and I can't imagine I'm alone.
The LDs? Why would those of us who are essentially Classical Liberals defect to a party that spent a lot of time to the left of Labour, that is fundamentally illiberal in many ways and whose main purpose, aside from five pretty good years in coalition government, has been to serve as the anti-Tory party everywhere they are competitive?
A party relatively light on self-important careerists (since why would one of those join in the first place?) whose only shot at real influence during our lifetime led to, in your own words, “pretty good years in government” - what’s not to like?
Occasionally, my A-level students ask me for vocational advice. They must look at me and think this bloke is doing all right for himself, he must know something. Not realising that I have spent my entire adult life falling arse backwards into money via various inheritances.
I always tell them to go to university, study something that interests them and don't waste their time, money or energy with alcohol.
Ludicrous advice. Soon there won’t be anything left BUT boozing
Want to become a lawyer, doctor, teacher, academic? You will still need a degree, even nurses require a degree now
I think @Leon is suggesting that AI makes people superfluous to those roles, certainly lawyers, teachers and accountants. I suspect Spectator Travel Correspondents on the other hand will always be required.
It is worth going back to read the predictions made at the time when new mechanical devices for work and home were regularly being invented, and again during the emergence of computers. People whose intelligence was strictly linear really did predict that, by now, we’d all be sitting around working only a few hours a week, and otherwise living a life of leisure, as all these machines would be saving us so much time.
Whereas the reality, in both cases, was that these innovations enabled people to do more, and in the end this occupied more of our time than previously. As anyone working through a full email inbox knows, comparing that to a time when importance correspondence would be sent by proper mail and all the trivia wouldn’t be sent at all, not being worth the price of a stamp.
The limitations of the simple minded now simply cannot see into what the world of work will expand once AI is helping us produce written stuff much more quickly. At first base, will be a whole shedload of extra stuff we will be expected to read.
Yes 'Asked whether Britain should be allowed back in on the conditions it enjoyed when it left, however, including not having to adopt the euro currency and remaining outside the Schengen passport-free zone, the numbers changed significantly.
Barely one-fifth of respondents across the four biggest EU members, from 19% in Italy and France to 21% in Spain and 22% in Germany, felt the UK should be allowed to return to the bloc on those terms, with 58-62% saying it must be part of all main EU policy areas.
The pollster stress-tested western European attitudes by asking whether, if the UK was only willing to rejoin the EU on condition it could keep its old opt-outs, it should be allowed to. Some (33-36%) felt this would be acceptable, but more (41-52%) were opposed.
In the UK, while 54% of Britons supported rejoining the EU when asked the question in isolation, the figure fell to just 36% if rejoining meant giving up previous opt-outs. On those terms, 45% of Britons opposed renewed membership. The survey found that remain voters and those who backed more pro-EU parties would still broadly back rejoining if this meant adopting the euro and being part of the Schengen area, albeit at much lower rates.
Almost 60% of remain voters said they would support rejoining the EU without the previous opt-outs, down about 25 percentage points from the non-specific question, as would 58% of Labour voters (-23 points) and 49% of Liberal Democrats (-31 points). The percentage of Eurosceptic voters willing to rejoin without the previous special treatment more or less halved, falling from 21% to 10% among leave voters; 25% to 12% among Conservative voters, and 15% to 9% among Reform UK supporters.
The fifth continental European country polled, Denmark, proved an outlier. Respondents there were very keen (72%) for the UK to rejoin, and more enthusiastic than larger member states about it keeping its previous opt-outs (43%).'
Shows rejoining EFTA and the EEA may a realistic prospect in 10 or 20 years but not rejoining the full EU
Also shows the generational damage that your party’s frothy-mouthed obsession has done to our national prospects.
Or maybe it was a democratic vote that all politicians subsequently failed to find a compromise between the extreme views of leave and remain supporters, all pulling in opposite directions
We should have achieved a Norway style deal though if Trump carries out his tariff threat to the EU then being out may have some real benefit
Certainly Mandelson is very effusive about Trump today
So Mr Dog and I spent four hours climbing up the mountain behind my Lofoten village today, and coming back, and the absence of shade has put me on the edge of sunburn and the dog very happy to now be sleeping spread sideways out on the floor.
So we shelter from the heat while people outside whizz by on speedboats and jet skis, as if we were in the Med. I just need to remember that people here have told me that the spring here was relentless days of wind, cloud, storms and rain, and this is pretty much only the fourth or fifth day of blue sky sunshine they’ve had here this entire year.
Yes 'Asked whether Britain should be allowed back in on the conditions it enjoyed when it left, however, including not having to adopt the euro currency and remaining outside the Schengen passport-free zone, the numbers changed significantly.
Barely one-fifth of respondents across the four biggest EU members, from 19% in Italy and France to 21% in Spain and 22% in Germany, felt the UK should be allowed to return to the bloc on those terms, with 58-62% saying it must be part of all main EU policy areas.
The pollster stress-tested western European attitudes by asking whether, if the UK was only willing to rejoin the EU on condition it could keep its old opt-outs, it should be allowed to. Some (33-36%) felt this would be acceptable, but more (41-52%) were opposed.
In the UK, while 54% of Britons supported rejoining the EU when asked the question in isolation, the figure fell to just 36% if rejoining meant giving up previous opt-outs. On those terms, 45% of Britons opposed renewed membership. The survey found that remain voters and those who backed more pro-EU parties would still broadly back rejoining if this meant adopting the euro and being part of the Schengen area, albeit at much lower rates.
Almost 60% of remain voters said they would support rejoining the EU without the previous opt-outs, down about 25 percentage points from the non-specific question, as would 58% of Labour voters (-23 points) and 49% of Liberal Democrats (-31 points). The percentage of Eurosceptic voters willing to rejoin without the previous special treatment more or less halved, falling from 21% to 10% among leave voters; 25% to 12% among Conservative voters, and 15% to 9% among Reform UK supporters.
The fifth continental European country polled, Denmark, proved an outlier. Respondents there were very keen (72%) for the UK to rejoin, and more enthusiastic than larger member states about it keeping its previous opt-outs (43%).'
Shows rejoining EFTA and the EEA may a realistic prospect in 10 or 20 years but not rejoining the full EU
Also shows the generational damage that your party’s frothy-mouthed obsession has done to our national prospects.
It was the will of the people.
I assume you would have denied them the chance to vote?
On a non- binding vote that polling suggests resulted in buyer's remorse.
Yes 'Asked whether Britain should be allowed back in on the conditions it enjoyed when it left, however, including not having to adopt the euro currency and remaining outside the Schengen passport-free zone, the numbers changed significantly.
Barely one-fifth of respondents across the four biggest EU members, from 19% in Italy and France to 21% in Spain and 22% in Germany, felt the UK should be allowed to return to the bloc on those terms, with 58-62% saying it must be part of all main EU policy areas.
The pollster stress-tested western European attitudes by asking whether, if the UK was only willing to rejoin the EU on condition it could keep its old opt-outs, it should be allowed to. Some (33-36%) felt this would be acceptable, but more (41-52%) were opposed.
In the UK, while 54% of Britons supported rejoining the EU when asked the question in isolation, the figure fell to just 36% if rejoining meant giving up previous opt-outs. On those terms, 45% of Britons opposed renewed membership. The survey found that remain voters and those who backed more pro-EU parties would still broadly back rejoining if this meant adopting the euro and being part of the Schengen area, albeit at much lower rates.
Almost 60% of remain voters said they would support rejoining the EU without the previous opt-outs, down about 25 percentage points from the non-specific question, as would 58% of Labour voters (-23 points) and 49% of Liberal Democrats (-31 points). The percentage of Eurosceptic voters willing to rejoin without the previous special treatment more or less halved, falling from 21% to 10% among leave voters; 25% to 12% among Conservative voters, and 15% to 9% among Reform UK supporters.
The fifth continental European country polled, Denmark, proved an outlier. Respondents there were very keen (72%) for the UK to rejoin, and more enthusiastic than larger member states about it keeping its previous opt-outs (43%).'
Shows rejoining EFTA and the EEA may a realistic prospect in 10 or 20 years but not rejoining the full EU
Also shows the generational damage that your party’s frothy-mouthed obsession has done to our national prospects.
It was the will of the people.
I assume you would have denied them the chance to vote?
Ultimately politics is about delivering good solutions and a better life for the voters, maintaining popular consent meanwhile. The Brexit scandal simply draws attention to why, sometimes, those things don’t work out.
The real damage was done not so much by the vote, as by the way your own party went about implementing it.
For generations you Tories dined out on being the pragmatic party, opposed to Labour’s ideologically driven agenda… - and then your MPs sell out to a purely ideological, utterly unpragmatic obsession.
England would probably be better off declaring here tbh now
I think that they are at least 100 runs short but these 2 are not going to get them and if one of them got injured England would be in a world of pain.
Yes 'Asked whether Britain should be allowed back in on the conditions it enjoyed when it left, however, including not having to adopt the euro currency and remaining outside the Schengen passport-free zone, the numbers changed significantly.
Barely one-fifth of respondents across the four biggest EU members, from 19% in Italy and France to 21% in Spain and 22% in Germany, felt the UK should be allowed to return to the bloc on those terms, with 58-62% saying it must be part of all main EU policy areas.
The pollster stress-tested western European attitudes by asking whether, if the UK was only willing to rejoin the EU on condition it could keep its old opt-outs, it should be allowed to. Some (33-36%) felt this would be acceptable, but more (41-52%) were opposed.
In the UK, while 54% of Britons supported rejoining the EU when asked the question in isolation, the figure fell to just 36% if rejoining meant giving up previous opt-outs. On those terms, 45% of Britons opposed renewed membership. The survey found that remain voters and those who backed more pro-EU parties would still broadly back rejoining if this meant adopting the euro and being part of the Schengen area, albeit at much lower rates.
Almost 60% of remain voters said they would support rejoining the EU without the previous opt-outs, down about 25 percentage points from the non-specific question, as would 58% of Labour voters (-23 points) and 49% of Liberal Democrats (-31 points). The percentage of Eurosceptic voters willing to rejoin without the previous special treatment more or less halved, falling from 21% to 10% among leave voters; 25% to 12% among Conservative voters, and 15% to 9% among Reform UK supporters.
The fifth continental European country polled, Denmark, proved an outlier. Respondents there were very keen (72%) for the UK to rejoin, and more enthusiastic than larger member states about it keeping its previous opt-outs (43%).'
Shows rejoining EFTA and the EEA may a realistic prospect in 10 or 20 years but not rejoining the full EU
Also shows the generational damage that your party’s frothy-mouthed obsession has done to our national prospects.
It was the will of the people.
I assume you would have denied them the chance to vote?
Ultimately politics is about delivering good solutions and a better life for the voters, maintaining popular consent meanwhile. The Brexit scandal simply draws attention to why, sometimes, those things don’t work out.
The scandal being the lack of popular consent for the post-Maastricht settlement or for extending free movement to a significantly expanded EU?
Yes 'Asked whether Britain should be allowed back in on the conditions it enjoyed when it left, however, including not having to adopt the euro currency and remaining outside the Schengen passport-free zone, the numbers changed significantly.
Barely one-fifth of respondents across the four biggest EU members, from 19% in Italy and France to 21% in Spain and 22% in Germany, felt the UK should be allowed to return to the bloc on those terms, with 58-62% saying it must be part of all main EU policy areas.
The pollster stress-tested western European attitudes by asking whether, if the UK was only willing to rejoin the EU on condition it could keep its old opt-outs, it should be allowed to. Some (33-36%) felt this would be acceptable, but more (41-52%) were opposed.
In the UK, while 54% of Britons supported rejoining the EU when asked the question in isolation, the figure fell to just 36% if rejoining meant giving up previous opt-outs. On those terms, 45% of Britons opposed renewed membership. The survey found that remain voters and those who backed more pro-EU parties would still broadly back rejoining if this meant adopting the euro and being part of the Schengen area, albeit at much lower rates.
Almost 60% of remain voters said they would support rejoining the EU without the previous opt-outs, down about 25 percentage points from the non-specific question, as would 58% of Labour voters (-23 points) and 49% of Liberal Democrats (-31 points). The percentage of Eurosceptic voters willing to rejoin without the previous special treatment more or less halved, falling from 21% to 10% among leave voters; 25% to 12% among Conservative voters, and 15% to 9% among Reform UK supporters.
The fifth continental European country polled, Denmark, proved an outlier. Respondents there were very keen (72%) for the UK to rejoin, and more enthusiastic than larger member states about it keeping its previous opt-outs (43%).'
Shows rejoining EFTA and the EEA may a realistic prospect in 10 or 20 years but not rejoining the full EU
Also shows the generational damage that your party’s frothy-mouthed obsession has done to our national prospects.
Or maybe it was a democratic vote that all politicians subsequently failed to find a compromise between the extreme views of leave and remain supporters, all pulling in opposite directions
We should have achieved a Norway style deal though if Trump carries out his tariff threat to the EU then being out may have some real benefit
Certainly Mandelson is very effusive about Trump today
You say compromise, but what if that compromise was the worst of both worlds?
It's all very well blaming politicians for failing to lead us to a great national compromise, but nothing suggests that we were prepared to be led that way. And do you really think that the practical compromises of a Norway arrangement would have put Farage, Cummings and Johnson back in their boxes? Really?
As for the will of the people, the will of the people is to have highish government spending and lowish tax. The contortions to try to deliver that are the reason that the nation is in the state is in.
Yes 'Asked whether Britain should be allowed back in on the conditions it enjoyed when it left, however, including not having to adopt the euro currency and remaining outside the Schengen passport-free zone, the numbers changed significantly.
Barely one-fifth of respondents across the four biggest EU members, from 19% in Italy and France to 21% in Spain and 22% in Germany, felt the UK should be allowed to return to the bloc on those terms, with 58-62% saying it must be part of all main EU policy areas.
The pollster stress-tested western European attitudes by asking whether, if the UK was only willing to rejoin the EU on condition it could keep its old opt-outs, it should be allowed to. Some (33-36%) felt this would be acceptable, but more (41-52%) were opposed.
In the UK, while 54% of Britons supported rejoining the EU when asked the question in isolation, the figure fell to just 36% if rejoining meant giving up previous opt-outs. On those terms, 45% of Britons opposed renewed membership. The survey found that remain voters and those who backed more pro-EU parties would still broadly back rejoining if this meant adopting the euro and being part of the Schengen area, albeit at much lower rates.
Almost 60% of remain voters said they would support rejoining the EU without the previous opt-outs, down about 25 percentage points from the non-specific question, as would 58% of Labour voters (-23 points) and 49% of Liberal Democrats (-31 points). The percentage of Eurosceptic voters willing to rejoin without the previous special treatment more or less halved, falling from 21% to 10% among leave voters; 25% to 12% among Conservative voters, and 15% to 9% among Reform UK supporters.
The fifth continental European country polled, Denmark, proved an outlier. Respondents there were very keen (72%) for the UK to rejoin, and more enthusiastic than larger member states about it keeping its previous opt-outs (43%).'
Shows rejoining EFTA and the EEA may a realistic prospect in 10 or 20 years but not rejoining the full EU
Also shows the generational damage that your party’s frothy-mouthed obsession has done to our national prospects.
Yes 'Asked whether Britain should be allowed back in on the conditions it enjoyed when it left, however, including not having to adopt the euro currency and remaining outside the Schengen passport-free zone, the numbers changed significantly.
Barely one-fifth of respondents across the four biggest EU members, from 19% in Italy and France to 21% in Spain and 22% in Germany, felt the UK should be allowed to return to the bloc on those terms, with 58-62% saying it must be part of all main EU policy areas.
The pollster stress-tested western European attitudes by asking whether, if the UK was only willing to rejoin the EU on condition it could keep its old opt-outs, it should be allowed to. Some (33-36%) felt this would be acceptable, but more (41-52%) were opposed.
In the UK, while 54% of Britons supported rejoining the EU when asked the question in isolation, the figure fell to just 36% if rejoining meant giving up previous opt-outs. On those terms, 45% of Britons opposed renewed membership. The survey found that remain voters and those who backed more pro-EU parties would still broadly back rejoining if this meant adopting the euro and being part of the Schengen area, albeit at much lower rates.
Almost 60% of remain voters said they would support rejoining the EU without the previous opt-outs, down about 25 percentage points from the non-specific question, as would 58% of Labour voters (-23 points) and 49% of Liberal Democrats (-31 points). The percentage of Eurosceptic voters willing to rejoin without the previous special treatment more or less halved, falling from 21% to 10% among leave voters; 25% to 12% among Conservative voters, and 15% to 9% among Reform UK supporters.
The fifth continental European country polled, Denmark, proved an outlier. Respondents there were very keen (72%) for the UK to rejoin, and more enthusiastic than larger member states about it keeping its previous opt-outs (43%).'
Shows rejoining EFTA and the EEA may a realistic prospect in 10 or 20 years but not rejoining the full EU
Also shows the generational damage that your party’s frothy-mouthed obsession has done to our national prospects.
Yes 'Asked whether Britain should be allowed back in on the conditions it enjoyed when it left, however, including not having to adopt the euro currency and remaining outside the Schengen passport-free zone, the numbers changed significantly.
Barely one-fifth of respondents across the four biggest EU members, from 19% in Italy and France to 21% in Spain and 22% in Germany, felt the UK should be allowed to return to the bloc on those terms, with 58-62% saying it must be part of all main EU policy areas.
The pollster stress-tested western European attitudes by asking whether, if the UK was only willing to rejoin the EU on condition it could keep its old opt-outs, it should be allowed to. Some (33-36%) felt this would be acceptable, but more (41-52%) were opposed.
In the UK, while 54% of Britons supported rejoining the EU when asked the question in isolation, the figure fell to just 36% if rejoining meant giving up previous opt-outs. On those terms, 45% of Britons opposed renewed membership. The survey found that remain voters and those who backed more pro-EU parties would still broadly back rejoining if this meant adopting the euro and being part of the Schengen area, albeit at much lower rates.
Almost 60% of remain voters said they would support rejoining the EU without the previous opt-outs, down about 25 percentage points from the non-specific question, as would 58% of Labour voters (-23 points) and 49% of Liberal Democrats (-31 points). The percentage of Eurosceptic voters willing to rejoin without the previous special treatment more or less halved, falling from 21% to 10% among leave voters; 25% to 12% among Conservative voters, and 15% to 9% among Reform UK supporters.
The fifth continental European country polled, Denmark, proved an outlier. Respondents there were very keen (72%) for the UK to rejoin, and more enthusiastic than larger member states about it keeping its previous opt-outs (43%).'
Shows rejoining EFTA and the EEA may a realistic prospect in 10 or 20 years but not rejoining the full EU
Also shows the generational damage that your party’s frothy-mouthed obsession has done to our national prospects.
Leave 52% Remain 48%
Do you realise how annoying it is when you post that 9 years on?
Yes 'Asked whether Britain should be allowed back in on the conditions it enjoyed when it left, however, including not having to adopt the euro currency and remaining outside the Schengen passport-free zone, the numbers changed significantly.
Barely one-fifth of respondents across the four biggest EU members, from 19% in Italy and France to 21% in Spain and 22% in Germany, felt the UK should be allowed to return to the bloc on those terms, with 58-62% saying it must be part of all main EU policy areas.
The pollster stress-tested western European attitudes by asking whether, if the UK was only willing to rejoin the EU on condition it could keep its old opt-outs, it should be allowed to. Some (33-36%) felt this would be acceptable, but more (41-52%) were opposed.
In the UK, while 54% of Britons supported rejoining the EU when asked the question in isolation, the figure fell to just 36% if rejoining meant giving up previous opt-outs. On those terms, 45% of Britons opposed renewed membership. The survey found that remain voters and those who backed more pro-EU parties would still broadly back rejoining if this meant adopting the euro and being part of the Schengen area, albeit at much lower rates.
Almost 60% of remain voters said they would support rejoining the EU without the previous opt-outs, down about 25 percentage points from the non-specific question, as would 58% of Labour voters (-23 points) and 49% of Liberal Democrats (-31 points). The percentage of Eurosceptic voters willing to rejoin without the previous special treatment more or less halved, falling from 21% to 10% among leave voters; 25% to 12% among Conservative voters, and 15% to 9% among Reform UK supporters.
The fifth continental European country polled, Denmark, proved an outlier. Respondents there were very keen (72%) for the UK to rejoin, and more enthusiastic than larger member states about it keeping its previous opt-outs (43%).'
Shows rejoining EFTA and the EEA may a realistic prospect in 10 or 20 years but not rejoining the full EU
Also shows the generational damage that your party’s frothy-mouthed obsession has done to our national prospects.
Or maybe it was a democratic vote that all politicians subsequently failed to find a compromise between the extreme views of leave and remain supporters, all pulling in opposite directions
We should have achieved a Norway style deal though if Trump carries out his tariff threat to the EU then being out may have some real benefit
Certainly Mandelson is very effusive about Trump today
You say compromise, but what if that compromise was the worst of both worlds?
It's all very well blaming politicians for failing to lead us to a great national compromise, but nothing suggests that we were prepared to be led that way. And do you really think that the practical compromises of a Norway arrangement would have put Farage, Cummings and Johnson back in their boxes? Really?
As for the will of the people, the will of the people is to have highish government spending and lowish tax. The contortions to try to deliver that are the reason that the nation is in the state is in.
Norway could have been negotiated before Johnson if the politicians worked together
And as far as government spending and low tax is concerned we simply have to reduce both as difficult as it maybe
Yes 'Asked whether Britain should be allowed back in on the conditions it enjoyed when it left, however, including not having to adopt the euro currency and remaining outside the Schengen passport-free zone, the numbers changed significantly.
Barely one-fifth of respondents across the four biggest EU members, from 19% in Italy and France to 21% in Spain and 22% in Germany, felt the UK should be allowed to return to the bloc on those terms, with 58-62% saying it must be part of all main EU policy areas.
The pollster stress-tested western European attitudes by asking whether, if the UK was only willing to rejoin the EU on condition it could keep its old opt-outs, it should be allowed to. Some (33-36%) felt this would be acceptable, but more (41-52%) were opposed.
In the UK, while 54% of Britons supported rejoining the EU when asked the question in isolation, the figure fell to just 36% if rejoining meant giving up previous opt-outs. On those terms, 45% of Britons opposed renewed membership. The survey found that remain voters and those who backed more pro-EU parties would still broadly back rejoining if this meant adopting the euro and being part of the Schengen area, albeit at much lower rates.
Almost 60% of remain voters said they would support rejoining the EU without the previous opt-outs, down about 25 percentage points from the non-specific question, as would 58% of Labour voters (-23 points) and 49% of Liberal Democrats (-31 points). The percentage of Eurosceptic voters willing to rejoin without the previous special treatment more or less halved, falling from 21% to 10% among leave voters; 25% to 12% among Conservative voters, and 15% to 9% among Reform UK supporters.
The fifth continental European country polled, Denmark, proved an outlier. Respondents there were very keen (72%) for the UK to rejoin, and more enthusiastic than larger member states about it keeping its previous opt-outs (43%).'
Shows rejoining EFTA and the EEA may a realistic prospect in 10 or 20 years but not rejoining the full EU
Also shows the generational damage that your party’s frothy-mouthed obsession has done to our national prospects.
Leave 52% Remain 48%
Do you realise how annoying it is when you post that 9 years on?
Yes 'Asked whether Britain should be allowed back in on the conditions it enjoyed when it left, however, including not having to adopt the euro currency and remaining outside the Schengen passport-free zone, the numbers changed significantly.
Barely one-fifth of respondents across the four biggest EU members, from 19% in Italy and France to 21% in Spain and 22% in Germany, felt the UK should be allowed to return to the bloc on those terms, with 58-62% saying it must be part of all main EU policy areas.
The pollster stress-tested western European attitudes by asking whether, if the UK was only willing to rejoin the EU on condition it could keep its old opt-outs, it should be allowed to. Some (33-36%) felt this would be acceptable, but more (41-52%) were opposed.
In the UK, while 54% of Britons supported rejoining the EU when asked the question in isolation, the figure fell to just 36% if rejoining meant giving up previous opt-outs. On those terms, 45% of Britons opposed renewed membership. The survey found that remain voters and those who backed more pro-EU parties would still broadly back rejoining if this meant adopting the euro and being part of the Schengen area, albeit at much lower rates.
Almost 60% of remain voters said they would support rejoining the EU without the previous opt-outs, down about 25 percentage points from the non-specific question, as would 58% of Labour voters (-23 points) and 49% of Liberal Democrats (-31 points). The percentage of Eurosceptic voters willing to rejoin without the previous special treatment more or less halved, falling from 21% to 10% among leave voters; 25% to 12% among Conservative voters, and 15% to 9% among Reform UK supporters.
The fifth continental European country polled, Denmark, proved an outlier. Respondents there were very keen (72%) for the UK to rejoin, and more enthusiastic than larger member states about it keeping its previous opt-outs (43%).'
Shows rejoining EFTA and the EEA may a realistic prospect in 10 or 20 years but not rejoining the full EU
Also shows the generational damage that your party’s frothy-mouthed obsession has done to our national prospects.
Leave 52% Remain 48%
Rejoin 61% Don’t rejoin 39%
🤫
Err not according to the poll in the Guardian which is far more nuanced and which @HYUFD helpfully summarised
Yes 'Asked whether Britain should be allowed back in on the conditions it enjoyed when it left, however, including not having to adopt the euro currency and remaining outside the Schengen passport-free zone, the numbers changed significantly.
Barely one-fifth of respondents across the four biggest EU members, from 19% in Italy and France to 21% in Spain and 22% in Germany, felt the UK should be allowed to return to the bloc on those terms, with 58-62% saying it must be part of all main EU policy areas.
The pollster stress-tested western European attitudes by asking whether, if the UK was only willing to rejoin the EU on condition it could keep its old opt-outs, it should be allowed to. Some (33-36%) felt this would be acceptable, but more (41-52%) were opposed.
In the UK, while 54% of Britons supported rejoining the EU when asked the question in isolation, the figure fell to just 36% if rejoining meant giving up previous opt-outs. On those terms, 45% of Britons opposed renewed membership. The survey found that remain voters and those who backed more pro-EU parties would still broadly back rejoining if this meant adopting the euro and being part of the Schengen area, albeit at much lower rates.
Almost 60% of remain voters said they would support rejoining the EU without the previous opt-outs, down about 25 percentage points from the non-specific question, as would 58% of Labour voters (-23 points) and 49% of Liberal Democrats (-31 points). The percentage of Eurosceptic voters willing to rejoin without the previous special treatment more or less halved, falling from 21% to 10% among leave voters; 25% to 12% among Conservative voters, and 15% to 9% among Reform UK supporters.
The fifth continental European country polled, Denmark, proved an outlier. Respondents there were very keen (72%) for the UK to rejoin, and more enthusiastic than larger member states about it keeping its previous opt-outs (43%).'
Shows rejoining EFTA and the EEA may a realistic prospect in 10 or 20 years but not rejoining the full EU
Also shows the generational damage that your party’s frothy-mouthed obsession has done to our national prospects.
Leave 52% Remain 48%
Do you realise how annoying it is when you post that 9 years on?
Why ?
Because we really want to know about his latest railway journey, or in extremis his mother’s latest horticultural success, and don’t take kindly to being trolled with simply repeating a vacuous post that we have all seen thousands of times before?
Occasionally, my A-level students ask me for vocational advice. They must look at me and think this bloke is doing all right for himself, he must know something. Not realising that I have spent my entire adult life falling arse backwards into money via various inheritances.
I always tell them to go to university, study something that interests them and don't waste their time, money or energy with alcohol.
Ludicrous advice. Soon there won’t be anything left BUT boozing
Want to become a lawyer, doctor, teacher, academic? You will still need a degree, even nurses require a degree now
I think @Leon is suggesting that AI makes people superfluous to those roles, certainly lawyers, teachers and accountants. I suspect Spectator Travel Correspondents on the other hand will always be required.
It is worth going back to read the predictions made at the time when new mechanical devices for work and home were regularly being invented, and again during the emergence of computers. People whose intelligence was strictly linear really did predict that, by now, we’d all be sitting around working only a few hours a week, and otherwise living a life of leisure, as all these machines would be saving us so much time.
Whereas the reality, in both cases, was that these innovations enabled people to do more, and in the end this occupied more of our time than previously. As anyone working through a full email inbox knows, comparing that to a time when importance correspondence would be sent by proper mail and all the trivia wouldn’t be sent at all, not being worth the price of a stamp.
The limitations of the simple minded now simply cannot see into what the world of work will expand once AI is helping us produce written stuff much more quickly. At first base, will be a whole shedload of extra stuff we will be expected to read.
Get the AI to summarise it for you. I'm already aware of one acquaintance using chatgpt to first draft outgoing reports from bullet points and also to summarise incoming reports.
Would be more efficient of course if people just communicated by bullet points
Yes 'Asked whether Britain should be allowed back in on the conditions it enjoyed when it left, however, including not having to adopt the euro currency and remaining outside the Schengen passport-free zone, the numbers changed significantly.
Barely one-fifth of respondents across the four biggest EU members, from 19% in Italy and France to 21% in Spain and 22% in Germany, felt the UK should be allowed to return to the bloc on those terms, with 58-62% saying it must be part of all main EU policy areas.
The pollster stress-tested western European attitudes by asking whether, if the UK was only willing to rejoin the EU on condition it could keep its old opt-outs, it should be allowed to. Some (33-36%) felt this would be acceptable, but more (41-52%) were opposed.
In the UK, while 54% of Britons supported rejoining the EU when asked the question in isolation, the figure fell to just 36% if rejoining meant giving up previous opt-outs. On those terms, 45% of Britons opposed renewed membership. The survey found that remain voters and those who backed more pro-EU parties would still broadly back rejoining if this meant adopting the euro and being part of the Schengen area, albeit at much lower rates.
Almost 60% of remain voters said they would support rejoining the EU without the previous opt-outs, down about 25 percentage points from the non-specific question, as would 58% of Labour voters (-23 points) and 49% of Liberal Democrats (-31 points). The percentage of Eurosceptic voters willing to rejoin without the previous special treatment more or less halved, falling from 21% to 10% among leave voters; 25% to 12% among Conservative voters, and 15% to 9% among Reform UK supporters.
The fifth continental European country polled, Denmark, proved an outlier. Respondents there were very keen (72%) for the UK to rejoin, and more enthusiastic than larger member states about it keeping its previous opt-outs (43%).'
Shows rejoining EFTA and the EEA may a realistic prospect in 10 or 20 years but not rejoining the full EU
Also shows the generational damage that your party’s frothy-mouthed obsession has done to our national prospects.
Leave 52% Remain 48%
Do you realise how annoying it is when you post that 9 years on?
Why ?
Well it hasn't gone particularly to plan under Starmer has it, and as the dial has moved back towards rejoin (something I don't advocate by the way) it is rather unhelpful.
Yes 'Asked whether Britain should be allowed back in on the conditions it enjoyed when it left, however, including not having to adopt the euro currency and remaining outside the Schengen passport-free zone, the numbers changed significantly.
Barely one-fifth of respondents across the four biggest EU members, from 19% in Italy and France to 21% in Spain and 22% in Germany, felt the UK should be allowed to return to the bloc on those terms, with 58-62% saying it must be part of all main EU policy areas.
The pollster stress-tested western European attitudes by asking whether, if the UK was only willing to rejoin the EU on condition it could keep its old opt-outs, it should be allowed to. Some (33-36%) felt this would be acceptable, but more (41-52%) were opposed.
In the UK, while 54% of Britons supported rejoining the EU when asked the question in isolation, the figure fell to just 36% if rejoining meant giving up previous opt-outs. On those terms, 45% of Britons opposed renewed membership. The survey found that remain voters and those who backed more pro-EU parties would still broadly back rejoining if this meant adopting the euro and being part of the Schengen area, albeit at much lower rates.
Almost 60% of remain voters said they would support rejoining the EU without the previous opt-outs, down about 25 percentage points from the non-specific question, as would 58% of Labour voters (-23 points) and 49% of Liberal Democrats (-31 points). The percentage of Eurosceptic voters willing to rejoin without the previous special treatment more or less halved, falling from 21% to 10% among leave voters; 25% to 12% among Conservative voters, and 15% to 9% among Reform UK supporters.
The fifth continental European country polled, Denmark, proved an outlier. Respondents there were very keen (72%) for the UK to rejoin, and more enthusiastic than larger member states about it keeping its previous opt-outs (43%).'
Shows rejoining EFTA and the EEA may a realistic prospect in 10 or 20 years but not rejoining the full EU
Also shows the generational damage that your party’s frothy-mouthed obsession has done to our national prospects.
Leave 52% Remain 48%
Do you realise how annoying it is when you post that 9 years on?
Why ?
Well it hasn't gone particularly to plan under Starmer has it, and as the dial has moved back towards rejoin (something I don't advocate by the way) it is rather unhelpful.
Have you read the Guardian's poll on this I published earlier?
That would be devastating for the Tories. It would cement Reform as the de facto rightwing opposition. We would then see a tidal wave of movement towards Reform, and I don't see how the Tories recover
So where do us real Right-wingers go?
Argentina, where Milei is proving to be the greatest statesman in the democratic world, certainly since Mrs Thatcher whom he greatly admires and maybe ever.
Who'd have thought that appointing someone who actually believes in and understands free market economics could cause a basket-case country to boom?
Of course the Guardianista left-liberal socialist establishment predicted disaster. Just as they wrote to the Times in 1981 prophesying collapse, on about the same day when economic growth resumed, so their successors wrote a similar badly-thought-through letter forecasting disaster in Argentina. But now poverty is down and the economy is growing by 6%/year.
Of course there's still plenty to do. Inflation, though down massively, is too high and dollarisation is a big gamble. But you can bet that if this economic miracle were happening in Germany or America not darkest South America we'd be falling over ourselves to imitate it.
Meanwhile we have Sir Keir Fucking Starmer and Rachel Awful Reeves trapping us in a socialist doom loop started by the fake Conservative Party.
And I hope there'll be an apology from Piketty, Stiglitz et al for completely misjudging Milei's reforms. But I won't hold my breath.
Yes 'Asked whether Britain should be allowed back in on the conditions it enjoyed when it left, however, including not having to adopt the euro currency and remaining outside the Schengen passport-free zone, the numbers changed significantly.
Barely one-fifth of respondents across the four biggest EU members, from 19% in Italy and France to 21% in Spain and 22% in Germany, felt the UK should be allowed to return to the bloc on those terms, with 58-62% saying it must be part of all main EU policy areas.
The pollster stress-tested western European attitudes by asking whether, if the UK was only willing to rejoin the EU on condition it could keep its old opt-outs, it should be allowed to. Some (33-36%) felt this would be acceptable, but more (41-52%) were opposed.
In the UK, while 54% of Britons supported rejoining the EU when asked the question in isolation, the figure fell to just 36% if rejoining meant giving up previous opt-outs. On those terms, 45% of Britons opposed renewed membership. The survey found that remain voters and those who backed more pro-EU parties would still broadly back rejoining if this meant adopting the euro and being part of the Schengen area, albeit at much lower rates.
Almost 60% of remain voters said they would support rejoining the EU without the previous opt-outs, down about 25 percentage points from the non-specific question, as would 58% of Labour voters (-23 points) and 49% of Liberal Democrats (-31 points). The percentage of Eurosceptic voters willing to rejoin without the previous special treatment more or less halved, falling from 21% to 10% among leave voters; 25% to 12% among Conservative voters, and 15% to 9% among Reform UK supporters.
The fifth continental European country polled, Denmark, proved an outlier. Respondents there were very keen (72%) for the UK to rejoin, and more enthusiastic than larger member states about it keeping its previous opt-outs (43%).'
Shows rejoining EFTA and the EEA may a realistic prospect in 10 or 20 years but not rejoining the full EU
Also shows the generational damage that your party’s frothy-mouthed obsession has done to our national prospects.
Leave 52% Remain 48%
Do you realise how annoying it is when you post that 9 years on?
Why ?
Because we really want to know about his latest railway journey, or in extremis his mother’s latest horticultural success, and don’t take kindly to being trolled with simply repeating a vacuous post that we have all seen thousands of times before?
You do not find it suspicious that Sunil's mum's green fingers won prizes soon after her son got a PhD in the biochemistry of flowers? They are probably stuffed full of steroids and CRISPR genes.
Occasionally, my A-level students ask me for vocational advice. They must look at me and think this bloke is doing all right for himself, he must know something. Not realising that I have spent my entire adult life falling arse backwards into money via various inheritances.
I always tell them to go to university, study something that interests them and don't waste their time, money or energy with alcohol.
Ludicrous advice. Soon there won’t be anything left BUT boozing
Want to become a lawyer, doctor, teacher, academic? You will still need a degree, even nurses require a degree now
I think @Leon is suggesting that AI makes people superfluous to those roles, certainly lawyers, teachers and accountants. I suspect Spectator Travel Correspondents on the other hand will always be required.
It is worth going back to read the predictions made at the time when new mechanical devices for work and home were regularly being invented, and again during the emergence of computers. People whose intelligence was strictly linear really did predict that, by now, we’d all be sitting around working only a few hours a week, and otherwise living a life of leisure, as all these machines would be saving us so much time.
Whereas the reality, in both cases, was that these innovations enabled people to do more, and in the end this occupied more of our time than previously. As anyone working through a full email inbox knows, comparing that to a time when importance correspondence would be sent by proper mail and all the trivia wouldn’t be sent at all, not being worth the price of a stamp.
The limitations of the simple minded now simply cannot see into what the world of work will expand once AI is helping us produce written stuff much more quickly. At first base, will be a whole shedload of extra stuff we will be expected to read.
Get the AI to summarise it for you. I'm already aware of one acquaintance using chatgpt to first draft outgoing reports from bullet points and also to summarise incoming reports.
Would be more efficient of course if people just communicated by bullet points
In my first job, I got given the task of selecting the technologies for a new IT system. As it happened, the large company in question had a policy on which programming language, database etc should be used for new IT projects.
So I wrote up the short list of technologies and why there was no reason to go against the mandate for each.
My boss, a kindly man, explained that no-one could be expected to spend several million pounds from 6 bullets points. With a bunch of copy and paste, he and I turned it into a proper document.
Being a chap with a sharp sense of humour, he later sent me the minute taken by the Big Boss on the subject, when it was signed off. The Big Boss had summarised the x page report. Back, nearly exactly, to my original bullet points.
Yes 'Asked whether Britain should be allowed back in on the conditions it enjoyed when it left, however, including not having to adopt the euro currency and remaining outside the Schengen passport-free zone, the numbers changed significantly.
Barely one-fifth of respondents across the four biggest EU members, from 19% in Italy and France to 21% in Spain and 22% in Germany, felt the UK should be allowed to return to the bloc on those terms, with 58-62% saying it must be part of all main EU policy areas.
The pollster stress-tested western European attitudes by asking whether, if the UK was only willing to rejoin the EU on condition it could keep its old opt-outs, it should be allowed to. Some (33-36%) felt this would be acceptable, but more (41-52%) were opposed.
In the UK, while 54% of Britons supported rejoining the EU when asked the question in isolation, the figure fell to just 36% if rejoining meant giving up previous opt-outs. On those terms, 45% of Britons opposed renewed membership. The survey found that remain voters and those who backed more pro-EU parties would still broadly back rejoining if this meant adopting the euro and being part of the Schengen area, albeit at much lower rates.
Almost 60% of remain voters said they would support rejoining the EU without the previous opt-outs, down about 25 percentage points from the non-specific question, as would 58% of Labour voters (-23 points) and 49% of Liberal Democrats (-31 points). The percentage of Eurosceptic voters willing to rejoin without the previous special treatment more or less halved, falling from 21% to 10% among leave voters; 25% to 12% among Conservative voters, and 15% to 9% among Reform UK supporters.
The fifth continental European country polled, Denmark, proved an outlier. Respondents there were very keen (72%) for the UK to rejoin, and more enthusiastic than larger member states about it keeping its previous opt-outs (43%).'
Shows rejoining EFTA and the EEA may a realistic prospect in 10 or 20 years but not rejoining the full EU
Also shows the generational damage that your party’s frothy-mouthed obsession has done to our national prospects.
Leave 52% Remain 48%
Do you realise how annoying it is when you post that 9 years on?
Why ?
Because we really want to know about his latest railway journey, or in extremis his mother’s latest horticultural success, and don’t take kindly to being trolled with simply repeating a vacuous post that we have all seen thousands of times before?
You do not find it suspicious that Sunil's mum's green fingers won prizes soon after her son got a PhD in the biochemistry of flowers? They are probably stuffed full of steroids and CRISPR genes.
All I remember is spending a most pleasant afternoon being shown around Mrs Sunil’s home and hearing all about her green fingered success while admiring her garden. On that occasion, young Sunil was nowhere to be seen….
Occasionally, my A-level students ask me for vocational advice. They must look at me and think this bloke is doing all right for himself, he must know something. Not realising that I have spent my entire adult life falling arse backwards into money via various inheritances.
I always tell them to go to university, study something that interests them and don't waste their time, money or energy with alcohol.
Ludicrous advice. Soon there won’t be anything left BUT boozing
Want to become a lawyer, doctor, teacher, academic? You will still need a degree, even nurses require a degree now
I think @Leon is suggesting that AI makes people superfluous to those roles, certainly lawyers, teachers and accountants. I suspect Spectator Travel Correspondents on the other hand will always be required.
It is worth going back to read the predictions made at the time when new mechanical devices for work and home were regularly being invented, and again during the emergence of computers. People whose intelligence was strictly linear really did predict that, by now, we’d all be sitting around working only a few hours a week, and otherwise living a life of leisure, as all these machines would be saving us so much time.
Whereas the reality, in both cases, was that these innovations enabled people to do more, and in the end this occupied more of our time than previously. As anyone working through a full email inbox knows, comparing that to a time when importance correspondence would be sent by proper mail and all the trivia wouldn’t be sent at all, not being worth the price of a stamp.
The limitations of the simple minded now simply cannot see into what the world of work will expand once AI is helping us produce written stuff much more quickly. At first base, will be a whole shedload of extra stuff we will be expected to read.
Get the AI to summarise it for you. I'm already aware of one acquaintance using chatgpt to first draft outgoing reports from bullet points and also to summarise incoming reports.
Would be more efficient of course if people just communicated by bullet points
I think I'd make a huge swathe of Universities into FE colleges in all but name, and I'd allow people to go there at 6th form age for 3 years. Learning trades, but also business/accountancy, technology subjects, design, vocational careers like nursing etc. And heavy emphasis on sport, sports science. Apprenticeship schemes running alongside. After the 3 years, you'd either enter the world of work, or do an MBA type thing. A few Institutes would do this. The Manchester Institute of Technology (our MIT) would be one. The whole stream would be called the Ivy League. I realise that that term means America's version of the elite universities, and it would strike an American and 'elitist' feel with emphasis on sports. Also emphasis on looking good - this is about entering the world of work. Uniform of chinos/chino skirts and navy blazers.
Without getting into detail, I'm not sure about "Ivy League" as a title - they are a tiny number of massively expensive institutions with a total undergraudate body of about 65k (AI answer, which sounds about right).
Just the two Nottingham Universities have nearly that many undergrads.
"Polytechnics"?
It's an aspirational title, but that is what's needed. The hope would be to provide a bit of a 'uni' experience but for the stream to be seen as equal in status to the academic route. The younger generation that might be attracted into such a system are (sadly) familiar with US culture and aspire to it. This would have some of the glamour of that, but in a British way. Most of elite US culture is inherited or comes from Britain, so I don't see an issue with appropriating it the other way.
Yes 'Asked whether Britain should be allowed back in on the conditions it enjoyed when it left, however, including not having to adopt the euro currency and remaining outside the Schengen passport-free zone, the numbers changed significantly.
Barely one-fifth of respondents across the four biggest EU members, from 19% in Italy and France to 21% in Spain and 22% in Germany, felt the UK should be allowed to return to the bloc on those terms, with 58-62% saying it must be part of all main EU policy areas.
The pollster stress-tested western European attitudes by asking whether, if the UK was only willing to rejoin the EU on condition it could keep its old opt-outs, it should be allowed to. Some (33-36%) felt this would be acceptable, but more (41-52%) were opposed.
In the UK, while 54% of Britons supported rejoining the EU when asked the question in isolation, the figure fell to just 36% if rejoining meant giving up previous opt-outs. On those terms, 45% of Britons opposed renewed membership. The survey found that remain voters and those who backed more pro-EU parties would still broadly back rejoining if this meant adopting the euro and being part of the Schengen area, albeit at much lower rates.
Almost 60% of remain voters said they would support rejoining the EU without the previous opt-outs, down about 25 percentage points from the non-specific question, as would 58% of Labour voters (-23 points) and 49% of Liberal Democrats (-31 points). The percentage of Eurosceptic voters willing to rejoin without the previous special treatment more or less halved, falling from 21% to 10% among leave voters; 25% to 12% among Conservative voters, and 15% to 9% among Reform UK supporters.
The fifth continental European country polled, Denmark, proved an outlier. Respondents there were very keen (72%) for the UK to rejoin, and more enthusiastic than larger member states about it keeping its previous opt-outs (43%).'
Shows rejoining EFTA and the EEA may a realistic prospect in 10 or 20 years but not rejoining the full EU
Also shows the generational damage that your party’s frothy-mouthed obsession has done to our national prospects.
Leave 52% Remain 48%
Do you realise how annoying it is when you post that 9 years on?
Why ?
Well it hasn't gone particularly to plan under Starmer has it, and as the dial has moved back towards rejoin (something I don't advocate by the way) it is rather unhelpful.
Have you read the Guardian's poll on this I published earlier?
People are right to be angry when they see others disrespecting our laws.
Now, those who try to make the crossing illegally will soon find themselves back where they started.
That is a real deterrent.
It's not remotely a deterrent. They will just come over again.
I don't think that is necessarily true. It's not free and the aslyos frequently drop their entire bundle on paying for a crossing.
It's all about probability. The risk tolerance of someone willing/brainwashed to burn all their cash and risk their life on a channel crossing is exceptionally high. Will the chance of being sent back to France be high enough to stop them taking that risk?
The scheme is predicated on the fact neither the refugee taken in from France, nor the one sent there, can be deported back to their country of origin. In other words these are genuine asylum seekers. Given that it, it enables two things useful to the British and French governments respectively. It reduces the number of boat crossings as anyone sent back to France once can be immediately returned. It keeps asylum seekers away from Calais as they will be returned to another part of France.
Doubtful that it reduces the overall number of asylum seekers coming to this country but it shouldn't increase the number either.
Those returned to France. Do they become French headcount as part of the Dublin Agreement i.e they need to take less from other EU countries. If they do, seems like a backdoor into the DA.
I think it's a net neutral for both countries. The UK sends one back to France and gets one from France. So the UK would need to be satisfied that the the one they are sending back to France can't be deported elsewhere. Likewise France for the one it sends to the UK. Otherwise it wouldn't accept the returnee.
Yes 'Asked whether Britain should be allowed back in on the conditions it enjoyed when it left, however, including not having to adopt the euro currency and remaining outside the Schengen passport-free zone, the numbers changed significantly.
Barely one-fifth of respondents across the four biggest EU members, from 19% in Italy and France to 21% in Spain and 22% in Germany, felt the UK should be allowed to return to the bloc on those terms, with 58-62% saying it must be part of all main EU policy areas.
The pollster stress-tested western European attitudes by asking whether, if the UK was only willing to rejoin the EU on condition it could keep its old opt-outs, it should be allowed to. Some (33-36%) felt this would be acceptable, but more (41-52%) were opposed.
In the UK, while 54% of Britons supported rejoining the EU when asked the question in isolation, the figure fell to just 36% if rejoining meant giving up previous opt-outs. On those terms, 45% of Britons opposed renewed membership. The survey found that remain voters and those who backed more pro-EU parties would still broadly back rejoining if this meant adopting the euro and being part of the Schengen area, albeit at much lower rates.
Almost 60% of remain voters said they would support rejoining the EU without the previous opt-outs, down about 25 percentage points from the non-specific question, as would 58% of Labour voters (-23 points) and 49% of Liberal Democrats (-31 points). The percentage of Eurosceptic voters willing to rejoin without the previous special treatment more or less halved, falling from 21% to 10% among leave voters; 25% to 12% among Conservative voters, and 15% to 9% among Reform UK supporters.
The fifth continental European country polled, Denmark, proved an outlier. Respondents there were very keen (72%) for the UK to rejoin, and more enthusiastic than larger member states about it keeping its previous opt-outs (43%).'
Shows rejoining EFTA and the EEA may a realistic prospect in 10 or 20 years but not rejoining the full EU
Also shows the generational damage that your party’s frothy-mouthed obsession has done to our national prospects.
Leave 52% Remain 48%
Rejoin 61% Don’t rejoin 39%
🤫
Rejoin 36% Don't Rejoin 45% is what today's Guardian poll has it if Rejoin requires the Euro and Schengen
Yes 'Asked whether Britain should be allowed back in on the conditions it enjoyed when it left, however, including not having to adopt the euro currency and remaining outside the Schengen passport-free zone, the numbers changed significantly.
Barely one-fifth of respondents across the four biggest EU members, from 19% in Italy and France to 21% in Spain and 22% in Germany, felt the UK should be allowed to return to the bloc on those terms, with 58-62% saying it must be part of all main EU policy areas.
The pollster stress-tested western European attitudes by asking whether, if the UK was only willing to rejoin the EU on condition it could keep its old opt-outs, it should be allowed to. Some (33-36%) felt this would be acceptable, but more (41-52%) were opposed.
In the UK, while 54% of Britons supported rejoining the EU when asked the question in isolation, the figure fell to just 36% if rejoining meant giving up previous opt-outs. On those terms, 45% of Britons opposed renewed membership. The survey found that remain voters and those who backed more pro-EU parties would still broadly back rejoining if this meant adopting the euro and being part of the Schengen area, albeit at much lower rates.
Almost 60% of remain voters said they would support rejoining the EU without the previous opt-outs, down about 25 percentage points from the non-specific question, as would 58% of Labour voters (-23 points) and 49% of Liberal Democrats (-31 points). The percentage of Eurosceptic voters willing to rejoin without the previous special treatment more or less halved, falling from 21% to 10% among leave voters; 25% to 12% among Conservative voters, and 15% to 9% among Reform UK supporters.
The fifth continental European country polled, Denmark, proved an outlier. Respondents there were very keen (72%) for the UK to rejoin, and more enthusiastic than larger member states about it keeping its previous opt-outs (43%).'
Shows rejoining EFTA and the EEA may a realistic prospect in 10 or 20 years but not rejoining the full EU
Also shows the generational damage that your party’s frothy-mouthed obsession has done to our national prospects.
Leave 52% Remain 48%
Rejoin 61% Don’t rejoin 39%
🤫
Rejoin 36% Don't Rejoin 45% is what today's Guardian poll has it if Rejoin requires the Euro and Schengen
Occasionally, my A-level students ask me for vocational advice. They must look at me and think this bloke is doing all right for himself, he must know something. Not realising that I have spent my entire adult life falling arse backwards into money via various inheritances.
I always tell them to go to university, study something that interests them and don't waste their time, money or energy with alcohol.
Ludicrous advice. Soon there won’t be anything left BUT boozing
Want to become a lawyer, doctor, teacher, academic? You will still need a degree, even nurses require a degree now
I think @Leon is suggesting that AI makes people superfluous to those roles, certainly lawyers, teachers and accountants. I suspect Spectator Travel Correspondents on the other hand will always be required.
If AI automates barristers, city lawyers and teachers and all but the most creative an fluent travel writers then most jobs are doomed. A UBI is inevitable funded by a robot tax on every corporation that replaces jobs with AI without creating new jobs and no government would ever win an election again without backing a big UBI
Perhaps politicians would also be redundant. No great loss anyway, I wouldn't have thought.
Unlikely, that suggests even more populist politicians will be elected to reject AI or promote UBI and AI can automate dispassionate data management and admin etc but it can't automate Corbyn and Farage I suspect
Yes 'Asked whether Britain should be allowed back in on the conditions it enjoyed when it left, however, including not having to adopt the euro currency and remaining outside the Schengen passport-free zone, the numbers changed significantly.
Barely one-fifth of respondents across the four biggest EU members, from 19% in Italy and France to 21% in Spain and 22% in Germany, felt the UK should be allowed to return to the bloc on those terms, with 58-62% saying it must be part of all main EU policy areas.
The pollster stress-tested western European attitudes by asking whether, if the UK was only willing to rejoin the EU on condition it could keep its old opt-outs, it should be allowed to. Some (33-36%) felt this would be acceptable, but more (41-52%) were opposed.
In the UK, while 54% of Britons supported rejoining the EU when asked the question in isolation, the figure fell to just 36% if rejoining meant giving up previous opt-outs. On those terms, 45% of Britons opposed renewed membership. The survey found that remain voters and those who backed more pro-EU parties would still broadly back rejoining if this meant adopting the euro and being part of the Schengen area, albeit at much lower rates.
Almost 60% of remain voters said they would support rejoining the EU without the previous opt-outs, down about 25 percentage points from the non-specific question, as would 58% of Labour voters (-23 points) and 49% of Liberal Democrats (-31 points). The percentage of Eurosceptic voters willing to rejoin without the previous special treatment more or less halved, falling from 21% to 10% among leave voters; 25% to 12% among Conservative voters, and 15% to 9% among Reform UK supporters.
The fifth continental European country polled, Denmark, proved an outlier. Respondents there were very keen (72%) for the UK to rejoin, and more enthusiastic than larger member states about it keeping its previous opt-outs (43%).'
Shows rejoining EFTA and the EEA may a realistic prospect in 10 or 20 years but not rejoining the full EU
Also shows the generational damage that your party’s frothy-mouthed obsession has done to our national prospects.
Leave 52% Remain 48%
Do you realise how annoying it is when you post that 9 years on?
Why ?
Well it hasn't gone particularly to plan under Starmer has it, and as the dial has moved back towards rejoin (something I don't advocate by the way) it is rather unhelpful.
Have you read the Guardian's poll on this I published earlier?
The nuanced description goes something like this, I reckon.
The public have fairly solidly decided that Brexit has been a failure. (61-13 is pretty solid, is it not?) We're not yet ready to embrace any sort of course-change. It's too embarrassing and we're really hoping that there is a cake'n'eat it deal hiding somewhere. Meanwhile the figures from the continent are more Britain-friendly than I'd have expected, even for reverting to the 2016 status quo.
Whilst that continues, the pong will continue to stink out British politics, however much nobody really wants to talk about it.
The Tories are also likely to still be second to Labour and ahead of Reform in London in the local elections next year where all London seats are up.
Apologies for the snipping but I'm the one who adds the extraneous verbage - no one else.
London will be fascinating next year - 1,817 seats are up for grabs in the 32 Boroughs. Currently, according to OpenCouncil data, Labour hold 1,094 seats, the Conservatives 394. the LDs 181, the Greens 27, Reform 3, there are 115 Others and 3 vacancies - one in Barking, one in Bromley and one in Hounslow.
The "Others" are primarily 30 Residents of various stripes in Havering and 26 under the Aspire banner in Tower Hamlets.
Of the LD seats, two thirds (120) are in Richmond, Sutton and Kingston (the boroughs under LD control) and in 19 of the 32 boroughs, there are currently no LD Councillors at all.
The Conservatives are absent from eight Boroughs and their largest numbers are in Kensington & Chelsea (36), Bromley (35), Croydon (33), Harrow (31), Bexley (30) and Hillingdon (30) and you might argue some or all of those might be fertile ground for Reform.
Labour are only absent in Kingston and Richmond and have 59 Councillors In Ealing, 58 in Newham (yay) and 57 in Lambeth.
Reform have two in Barnet and one in Westminster but presumably you can look at where the party polled best in London last year for a sense of where their local strength might be - it's also fair to say in local council by-elections, the main group which has suffered from the rise in Reform has been local Independents and Residents.
The Tories will also hope to take back Westminster from Labour
Yes 'Asked whether Britain should be allowed back in on the conditions it enjoyed when it left, however, including not having to adopt the euro currency and remaining outside the Schengen passport-free zone, the numbers changed significantly.
Barely one-fifth of respondents across the four biggest EU members, from 19% in Italy and France to 21% in Spain and 22% in Germany, felt the UK should be allowed to return to the bloc on those terms, with 58-62% saying it must be part of all main EU policy areas.
The pollster stress-tested western European attitudes by asking whether, if the UK was only willing to rejoin the EU on condition it could keep its old opt-outs, it should be allowed to. Some (33-36%) felt this would be acceptable, but more (41-52%) were opposed.
In the UK, while 54% of Britons supported rejoining the EU when asked the question in isolation, the figure fell to just 36% if rejoining meant giving up previous opt-outs. On those terms, 45% of Britons opposed renewed membership. The survey found that remain voters and those who backed more pro-EU parties would still broadly back rejoining if this meant adopting the euro and being part of the Schengen area, albeit at much lower rates.
Almost 60% of remain voters said they would support rejoining the EU without the previous opt-outs, down about 25 percentage points from the non-specific question, as would 58% of Labour voters (-23 points) and 49% of Liberal Democrats (-31 points). The percentage of Eurosceptic voters willing to rejoin without the previous special treatment more or less halved, falling from 21% to 10% among leave voters; 25% to 12% among Conservative voters, and 15% to 9% among Reform UK supporters.
The fifth continental European country polled, Denmark, proved an outlier. Respondents there were very keen (72%) for the UK to rejoin, and more enthusiastic than larger member states about it keeping its previous opt-outs (43%).'
Shows rejoining EFTA and the EEA may a realistic prospect in 10 or 20 years but not rejoining the full EU
Also shows the generational damage that your party’s frothy-mouthed obsession has done to our national prospects.
Leave 52% Remain 48%
Rejoin 61% Don’t rejoin 39%
🤫
Rejoin 36% Don't Rejoin 45% is what today's Guardian poll has it if Rejoin requires the Euro and Schengen
Which it wouldn't.
Have you read the Guardian's poll ?
58% to 62% of EU nations say the UK must be part of all the blocks policy areas !!!
Yes 'Asked whether Britain should be allowed back in on the conditions it enjoyed when it left, however, including not having to adopt the euro currency and remaining outside the Schengen passport-free zone, the numbers changed significantly.
Barely one-fifth of respondents across the four biggest EU members, from 19% in Italy and France to 21% in Spain and 22% in Germany, felt the UK should be allowed to return to the bloc on those terms, with 58-62% saying it must be part of all main EU policy areas.
The pollster stress-tested western European attitudes by asking whether, if the UK was only willing to rejoin the EU on condition it could keep its old opt-outs, it should be allowed to. Some (33-36%) felt this would be acceptable, but more (41-52%) were opposed.
In the UK, while 54% of Britons supported rejoining the EU when asked the question in isolation, the figure fell to just 36% if rejoining meant giving up previous opt-outs. On those terms, 45% of Britons opposed renewed membership. The survey found that remain voters and those who backed more pro-EU parties would still broadly back rejoining if this meant adopting the euro and being part of the Schengen area, albeit at much lower rates.
Almost 60% of remain voters said they would support rejoining the EU without the previous opt-outs, down about 25 percentage points from the non-specific question, as would 58% of Labour voters (-23 points) and 49% of Liberal Democrats (-31 points). The percentage of Eurosceptic voters willing to rejoin without the previous special treatment more or less halved, falling from 21% to 10% among leave voters; 25% to 12% among Conservative voters, and 15% to 9% among Reform UK supporters.
The fifth continental European country polled, Denmark, proved an outlier. Respondents there were very keen (72%) for the UK to rejoin, and more enthusiastic than larger member states about it keeping its previous opt-outs (43%).'
Shows rejoining EFTA and the EEA may a realistic prospect in 10 or 20 years but not rejoining the full EU
Also shows the generational damage that your party’s frothy-mouthed obsession has done to our national prospects.
Leave 52% Remain 48%
Rejoin 61% Don’t rejoin 39%
🤫
Rejoin 36% Don't Rejoin 45% is what today's Guardian poll has it if Rejoin requires the Euro and Schengen
Which it wouldn't.
I'm at a loss as to what the problem is with Schengen? Every argument I've see seems to be based on a misunderstanding over what Schengen actually is..
Yes 'Asked whether Britain should be allowed back in on the conditions it enjoyed when it left, however, including not having to adopt the euro currency and remaining outside the Schengen passport-free zone, the numbers changed significantly.
Barely one-fifth of respondents across the four biggest EU members, from 19% in Italy and France to 21% in Spain and 22% in Germany, felt the UK should be allowed to return to the bloc on those terms, with 58-62% saying it must be part of all main EU policy areas.
The pollster stress-tested western European attitudes by asking whether, if the UK was only willing to rejoin the EU on condition it could keep its old opt-outs, it should be allowed to. Some (33-36%) felt this would be acceptable, but more (41-52%) were opposed.
In the UK, while 54% of Britons supported rejoining the EU when asked the question in isolation, the figure fell to just 36% if rejoining meant giving up previous opt-outs. On those terms, 45% of Britons opposed renewed membership. The survey found that remain voters and those who backed more pro-EU parties would still broadly back rejoining if this meant adopting the euro and being part of the Schengen area, albeit at much lower rates.
Almost 60% of remain voters said they would support rejoining the EU without the previous opt-outs, down about 25 percentage points from the non-specific question, as would 58% of Labour voters (-23 points) and 49% of Liberal Democrats (-31 points). The percentage of Eurosceptic voters willing to rejoin without the previous special treatment more or less halved, falling from 21% to 10% among leave voters; 25% to 12% among Conservative voters, and 15% to 9% among Reform UK supporters.
The fifth continental European country polled, Denmark, proved an outlier. Respondents there were very keen (72%) for the UK to rejoin, and more enthusiastic than larger member states about it keeping its previous opt-outs (43%).'
Shows rejoining EFTA and the EEA may a realistic prospect in 10 or 20 years but not rejoining the full EU
Also shows the generational damage that your party’s frothy-mouthed obsession has done to our national prospects.
Leave 52% Remain 48%
Rejoin 61% Don’t rejoin 39%
🤫
Rejoin 36% Don't Rejoin 45% is what today's Guardian poll has it if Rejoin requires the Euro and Schengen
Which it wouldn't.
Even the 61% rejoin one without those things shows a very sticky Brexit-favouring vote and isn't spectacular given the remainer punishment beating we've had since 2016. Heartening actually.
Yes 'Asked whether Britain should be allowed back in on the conditions it enjoyed when it left, however, including not having to adopt the euro currency and remaining outside the Schengen passport-free zone, the numbers changed significantly.
Barely one-fifth of respondents across the four biggest EU members, from 19% in Italy and France to 21% in Spain and 22% in Germany, felt the UK should be allowed to return to the bloc on those terms, with 58-62% saying it must be part of all main EU policy areas.
The pollster stress-tested western European attitudes by asking whether, if the UK was only willing to rejoin the EU on condition it could keep its old opt-outs, it should be allowed to. Some (33-36%) felt this would be acceptable, but more (41-52%) were opposed.
In the UK, while 54% of Britons supported rejoining the EU when asked the question in isolation, the figure fell to just 36% if rejoining meant giving up previous opt-outs. On those terms, 45% of Britons opposed renewed membership. The survey found that remain voters and those who backed more pro-EU parties would still broadly back rejoining if this meant adopting the euro and being part of the Schengen area, albeit at much lower rates.
Almost 60% of remain voters said they would support rejoining the EU without the previous opt-outs, down about 25 percentage points from the non-specific question, as would 58% of Labour voters (-23 points) and 49% of Liberal Democrats (-31 points). The percentage of Eurosceptic voters willing to rejoin without the previous special treatment more or less halved, falling from 21% to 10% among leave voters; 25% to 12% among Conservative voters, and 15% to 9% among Reform UK supporters.
The fifth continental European country polled, Denmark, proved an outlier. Respondents there were very keen (72%) for the UK to rejoin, and more enthusiastic than larger member states about it keeping its previous opt-outs (43%).'
Shows rejoining EFTA and the EEA may a realistic prospect in 10 or 20 years but not rejoining the full EU
Also shows the generational damage that your party’s frothy-mouthed obsession has done to our national prospects.
Leave 52% Remain 48%
Rejoin 61% Don’t rejoin 39%
🤫
Rejoin 36% Don't Rejoin 45% is what today's Guardian poll has it if Rejoin requires the Euro and Schengen
Which it wouldn't.
Given most voters from every EU member nation polled except Denmark said Rejoin for the UK must require Euro plus Schengen now it would. Only the single market is a realistic prospect for rejoin in a decade or two, not full EU again
Comments
I think the advantage for France, is that they're not the first country anyone arrives at. If getting to the UK is much harder, then migrants are more likely to spread out across Europe, rather than heading to France.
https://x.com/visegrad24/status/1944308452857147772
https://bsky.app/profile/luketryl.bsky.social/post/3lttp4mhrlk24
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cx2xpnx93epo
Edit - also AIUI it wasn't that 'they dropped the case' it was they couldn't identify the perpetrator with enough certainty to bring charges.
That seems like high risk, for quite a small likelihood of success, and a life as an illegal immigrant with no support.
Where as the police didn't seem to have much trouble finding the knuckle draggers after rioting.
Look, I'm not saying the police have done a good job, I'm saying we don't have enough information to be sure they've done a bad one. Meanwhile, the tweet itself isn't correct in at least one key point and we should treat it with caution.
ETA - at this moment by the way it seems it isn't that the case has been dropped, it's that the investigation is inactive pending any further info coming out.
Those of us who see right through Reform and their opportunism, who dislike Farage and who are essentially elitist rather than populist?
I keep hearing about a notional tipping point at which all former Conservatives desert the sinking ship and flock to Reform, but it doesn't feel like something I'd ever do, and I can't imagine I'm alone.
The LDs? Why would those of us who are essentially Classical Liberals defect to a party that spent a lot of time to the left of Labour, that is fundamentally illiberal in many ways and whose main purpose, aside from five pretty good years in coalition government, has been to serve as the anti-Tory party everywhere they are competitive?
They can survive if Reform win most seats in the North and Wales, even in the Midlands (though they can't win a Conservative majority without the Midlands). However the Tories cannot likely survive if Reform overtake them on seats in the South of England and East of England too unless we went to PR.
The Tories are also likely to still be second to Labour and ahead of Reform in London in the local elections next year where all London seats are up and the Tories could win more constituency MSPs than Reform in Scotland too
https://www.espncricinfo.com/story/eng-vs-ind-england-sweat-on-shoaib-bashir-fitness-after-finger-injury-1494916
If OpenAI would let you make a custom gpt, then expose/export it via the API that would be fantasticality useful. But they seem very intent on keeping the two worlds apart.
Since 2018, house prices in Knightsbridge alone have dropped by over a million pounds, costing on average just £2.6 million today.
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-14893579/Why-super-rich-FLEEING-Knightsbridge-Elite-West-London-residents-reveal-mansions-dropped-1million-value-just-7-years-Labour-tax-raids-rampant-crime.html
No source for that claim. Hotel prices certainly haven't dropped though.
I'm not really convinced that nursing needs to be a degree. Hell, I'm not even convinced Law needs to be a degree. It's competitive admin. Perfect for machines.
I presume the two lines are houses and flats. But they don't actually say...
https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2025/jul/13/most-people-in-france-germany-italy-and-spain-would-support-uk-rejoining-eu-poll-finds?CMP=Share_AndroidApp_Other
Area of Arab League states = 13,000,000 sq. km.
Barely one-fifth of respondents across the four biggest EU members, from 19% in Italy and France to 21% in Spain and 22% in Germany, felt the UK should be allowed to return to the bloc on those terms, with 58-62% saying it must be part of all main EU policy areas.
The pollster stress-tested western European attitudes by asking whether, if the UK was only willing to rejoin the EU on condition it could keep its old opt-outs, it should be allowed to. Some (33-36%) felt this would be acceptable, but more (41-52%) were opposed.
In the UK, while 54% of Britons supported rejoining the EU when asked the question in isolation, the figure fell to just 36% if rejoining meant giving up previous opt-outs. On those terms, 45% of Britons opposed renewed membership.
The survey found that remain voters and those who backed more pro-EU parties would still broadly back rejoining if this meant adopting the euro and being part of the Schengen area, albeit at much lower rates.
Almost 60% of remain voters said they would support rejoining the EU without the previous opt-outs, down about 25 percentage points from the non-specific question, as would 58% of Labour voters (-23 points) and 49% of Liberal Democrats (-31 points).
The percentage of Eurosceptic voters willing to rejoin without the previous special treatment more or less halved, falling from 21% to 10% among leave voters; 25% to 12% among Conservative voters, and 15% to 9% among Reform UK supporters.
The fifth continental European country polled, Denmark, proved an outlier. Respondents there were very keen (72%) for the UK to rejoin, and more enthusiastic than larger member states about it keeping its previous opt-outs (43%).'
Shows rejoining EFTA and the EEA may a realistic prospect in 10 or 20 years but not rejoining the full EU
I would prefer these prices to remain strong and a moving market to generate bigger stamp revenues if I was in the UK and wanting good government finances.
London will be fascinating next year - 1,817 seats are up for grabs in the 32 Boroughs. Currently, according to OpenCouncil data, Labour hold 1,094 seats, the Conservatives 394. the LDs 181, the Greens 27, Reform 3, there are 115 Others and 3 vacancies - one in Barking, one in Bromley and one in Hounslow.
The "Others" are primarily 30 Residents of various stripes in Havering and 26 under the Aspire banner in Tower Hamlets.
Of the LD seats, two thirds (120) are in Richmond, Sutton and Kingston (the boroughs under LD control) and in 19 of the 32 boroughs, there are currently no LD Councillors at all.
The Conservatives are absent from eight Boroughs and their largest numbers are in Kensington & Chelsea (36), Bromley (35), Croydon (33), Harrow (31), Bexley (30) and Hillingdon (30) and you might argue some or all of those might be fertile ground for Reform.
Labour are only absent in Kingston and Richmond and have 59 Councillors In Ealing, 58 in Newham (yay) and 57 in Lambeth.
Reform have two in Barnet and one in Westminster but presumably you can look at where the party polled best in London last year for a sense of where their local strength might be - it's also fair to say in local council by-elections, the main group which has suffered from the rise in Reform has been local Independents and Residents.
Her younger brother starts FE in September and will emerge with no student debt and most likely job offers
Something is not right in this country and nobody can convince me 50% need to go to university
Since when did nurses and police officers need a degree ?
Whereas the reality, in both cases, was that these innovations enabled people to do more, and in the end this occupied more of our time than previously. As anyone working through a full email inbox knows, comparing that to a time when importance correspondence would be sent by proper mail and all the trivia wouldn’t be sent at all, not being worth the price of a stamp.
The limitations of the simple minded now simply cannot see into what the world of work will expand once AI is helping us produce written stuff much more quickly. At first base, will be a whole shedload of extra stuff we will be expected to read.
https://www.youtube.com/shorts/m1_2u7uTrrE
Having a quick look at the odds, I can only see 3/1 for England to win the test - must be something better than that.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jRTv9S8ufBw
1980: Will TECHNOLOGY put an END to JOBS? | General Studies | Predicting the Future | BBC Archive
"The capacity to control society because of this technology is almost limitless, unfortunately - that's why we have to be so vigilant it's untrue.
How will the silicon chip affect the quality of our lives and our attitudes to work? Starting at the hyper-modern Washington Metro in the US, Bernard Falk visits places that have already adopted new technology to find out what could be in store for white collar, blue collar and professional workers in the next decade.
What kinds of jobs will change or disappear? Are there areas where employment will increase? What will be the effects on various professions? How must our attitudes change if we are to enjoy the benefits of this new technological revolution and not suffer its worst effects?"
I assume you would have denied them the chance to vote?
We should have achieved a Norway style deal though if Trump carries out his tariff threat to the EU then being out may have some real benefit
Certainly Mandelson is very effusive about Trump today
So we shelter from the heat while people outside whizz by on speedboats and jet skis, as if we were in the Med. I just need to remember that people here have told me that the spring here was relentless days of wind, cloud, storms and rain, and this is pretty much only the fourth or fifth day of blue sky sunshine they’ve had here this entire year.
But we are where we are.
The real damage was done not so much by the vote, as by the way your own party went about implementing it.
For generations you Tories dined out on being the pragmatic party, opposed to Labour’s ideologically driven agenda… - and then your MPs sell out to a purely ideological, utterly unpragmatic obsession.
At least you are now getting your just desserts.
It's all very well blaming politicians for failing to lead us to a great national compromise, but nothing suggests that we were prepared to be led that way. And do you really think that the practical compromises of a Norway arrangement would have put Farage, Cummings and Johnson back in their boxes? Really?
As for the will of the people, the will of the people is to have highish government spending and lowish tax. The contortions to try to deliver that are the reason that the nation is in the state is in.
Remain 48%
Don’t rejoin 39%
🤫
And as far as government spending and low tax is concerned we simply have to reduce both as difficult as it maybe
Would be more efficient of course if people just communicated by bullet points
Who'd have thought that appointing someone who actually believes in and understands free market economics could cause a basket-case country to boom?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_real_GDP_growth_rate
Of course the Guardianista left-liberal socialist establishment predicted disaster. Just as they wrote to the Times in 1981 prophesying collapse, on about the same day when economic growth resumed, so their successors wrote a similar badly-thought-through letter forecasting disaster in Argentina. But now poverty is down and the economy is growing by 6%/year.
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/nov/08/argentina-election-javier-milei-economists-warning
Of course there's still plenty to do. Inflation, though down massively, is too high and dollarisation is a big gamble. But you can bet that if this economic miracle were happening in Germany or America not darkest South America we'd be falling over ourselves to imitate it.
Meanwhile we have Sir Keir Fucking Starmer and Rachel Awful Reeves trapping us in a socialist doom loop started by the fake Conservative Party.
And I hope there'll be an apology from Piketty, Stiglitz et al for completely misjudging Milei's reforms. But I won't hold my breath.
So I wrote up the short list of technologies and why there was no reason to go against the mandate for each.
My boss, a kindly man, explained that no-one could be expected to spend several million pounds from 6 bullets points. With a bunch of copy and paste, he and I turned it into a proper document.
Being a chap with a sharp sense of humour, he later sent me the minute taken by the Big Boss on the subject, when it was signed off. The Big Boss had summarised the x page report. Back, nearly exactly, to my original bullet points.
https://marketoonist.com/2023/03/ai-written-ai-read.html
Don't Rejoin 45% is what today's Guardian poll has it if Rejoin requires the Euro and Schengen
dispassionate data management and admin etc but it can't automate Corbyn and Farage I suspect
The public have fairly solidly decided that Brexit has been a failure. (61-13 is pretty solid, is it not?) We're not yet ready to embrace any sort of course-change. It's too embarrassing and we're really hoping that there is a cake'n'eat it deal hiding somewhere. Meanwhile the figures from the continent are more Britain-friendly than I'd have expected, even for reverting to the 2016 status quo.
Whilst that continues, the pong will continue to stink out British politics, however much nobody really wants to talk about it.
58% to 62% of EU nations say the UK must be part of all the blocks policy areas !!!