U-Turn #2565465 incoming. By "slow" they mean kick so far into the long grass. Fail to plan, plan to fail.
One factor likely pushing up youth unemployment in the UK is AI take-up. I've seen an interesting chart showing the increase in youth unemployment is greater in countries like the UK with relatively high rates of AI adoption. Certainly makes sense with respect to the timing of the rise, which started two years before Labour came in and enacted all these supposed job destroying policies.
The AI narrative is massive overstated at the moment. It doesn't really fit as it was shit 3 years ago and its still minor usage. I am as big a fan / user of AI as there is and I don't think it anywhere near there yet to making masses of people unemployed.
Also yes been rising for 3-4 years, but there was big bump the last year. I think its much simpler, the economy hasn't been growing for years, things are tight, you don't hire as much, especially inexperienced*, and the current government have made that worse by tanking business confidence and raising taxes / minimum wage making the problem worse.
* also I have heard from both those in academia and business that the cohort who came through under COVID are really lacking in many aspects.
It's just a scatter plot but it's a suggestive one. Anecdotally it is a factor in my sector (finance). I agree it's not the only thing, probably not the main thing, going on.
Mr. Eagles, unfair to mention Mazepin there. He's both far less talented than Stroll *and* a worse human being by a long way.
Why’s Mazepin a worse human being?
During his brief stint as an F1 driver there was a video of him driving (in a normal car) a young lady, and his behaviour towards her prompted Ted Kravitz to call him a 'lout', which is very much on the polite end of the scale of descriptions.
Mr. Eagles, unfair to mention Mazepin there. He's both far less talented than Stroll *and* a worse human being by a long way.
Why’s Mazepin a worse human being?
During his brief stint as an F1 driver there was a video of him driving (in a normal car) a young lady, and his behaviour towards her prompted Ted Kravitz to call him a 'lout', which is very much on the polite end of the scale of descriptions.
U-Turn #2565465 incoming. By "slow" they mean kick so far into the long grass. Fail to plan, plan to fail.
One factor likely pushing up youth unemployment in the UK is AI take-up. I've seen an interesting chart showing the increase in youth unemployment is greater in countries like the UK with relatively high rates of AI adoption. Certainly makes sense with respect to the timing of the rise, which started two years before Labour came in and enacted all these supposed job destroying policies.
The AI narrative is massive overstated at the moment. It doesn't really fit as it was shit 3 years ago and its still minor usage. I am as big a fan / user of AI as there is and I don't think it anywhere near there yet to making masses of people unemployed.
Also yes been rising for 3-4 years, but there was big bump the last year. I think its much simpler, the economy hasn't been growing for years, things are tight, you don't hire as much, especially inexperienced*, and the current government have made that worse by tanking business confidence and raising taxes / minimum wage making the problem worse.
* also I have heard from both those in academia and business that the cohort who came through under COVID are really lacking in many aspects.
It's just a scatter plot but it's a suggestive one. Anecdotally it is a factor in my sector (finance). I agree it's not the only thing, probably not the main thing, going on.
Recruitment in number of sectors seems to have collapsed - employers can’t find staff, and people can’t find jobs.
I suggested, in a meeting, that we get someone to write a job descriptions (quill pen and parchment) and employ a chap in a tricorn hat to announce them - perhaps on the steps of the Royal Exchange.
I wonder who is briefing so hard against the lady who is being lined up for Cabinet Secretary? Thought it was quite funny how she is supposed terrible bully but led the charge against Dominic Raab whose bullying appeared to be not much more than looking at people the wrong way and making people redo their homework because it was wrong.
Sir Keir said: 'Well, I think it's important to remind ourselves that the decision to cancel was a locally led decision, in the sense that each authority could decide. 'In relation to the position, we took further legal advice and, as you would expect as a Government, having got further legal advice, we followed that legal advice.'
It wasn't me, never crossed my desk, barely knew anything about it.
Sir Keir said: 'Well, I think it's important to remind ourselves that the decision to cancel was a locally led decision, in the sense that each authority could decide. 'In relation to the position, we took further legal advice and, as you would expect as a Government, having got further legal advice, we followed that legal advice.'
It wasn't me, never crossed my desk, barely knew anything about it.
Successive UK government's have given this loon, who appears to be on meth, multiple contracts to manage information for Health, Defence, Intelligence and Borders.
Rachel Reeves has ruled out an increase in defence spending this year after coming under pressure from military chiefs. On Wednesday, the Chancellor said the Ministry of Defence (MoD) would have to wait for “future spending reviews” before pouring billions more into Britain’s military.
Battle ready by 2034 3034....
As always, there needs to be a differentiation between military spending and military capability.
There’s never been a startup disruptive arms industry until now, and the government needs to start taking advantage of that rather than pouring endless billions into the same old military industrial complex. War spending priorities rather than peace spending priorities.
Excellent drone tech out of Birmingham University associated Science Parks will be more useful than billions frittered on a carrier group and maintenance payments to corrupt chums from Eton
Successive UK government's have given this loon, who appears to be on meth, multiple contracts to manage information for Health, Defence, Intelligence and Borders.
Sir Keir said: 'Well, I think it's important to remind ourselves that the decision to cancel was a locally led decision, in the sense that each authority could decide. 'In relation to the position, we took further legal advice and, as you would expect as a Government, having got further legal advice, we followed that legal advice.'
It wasn't me, never crossed my desk, barely knew anything about it.
It would be better if it didnt cross his desk or we'd end up cancelling all our future elections and paying Mauritius to run theirs
U-Turn #2565465 incoming. By "slow" they mean kick so far into the long grass. Fail to plan, plan to fail.
One factor likely pushing up youth unemployment in the UK is AI take-up. I've seen an interesting chart showing the increase in youth unemployment is greater in countries like the UK with relatively high rates of AI adoption. Certainly makes sense with respect to the timing of the rise, which started two years before Labour came in and enacted all these supposed job destroying policies.
I think AI is quite over-stated, more that the economy is in the doldrums and Labour's policies were quite counter-productive. Sensible policies from Government are counter-cyclical, but at a time of a "crisis"* of youth unemployment the Government has increased costs of hiring young people quite rapidly via not one but two major increases in National Insurance as well as increasing youth NMW at a considerably higher percentage rate than regular NMW.
As Sir Keir Starmer unveiled a £31bn technology pact to coincide with Donald Trump’s state visit last September, one AI deal buried within the flood of investments raised eyebrows. The Government announced that a previously unknown company, AI Pathfinder, would invest £1bn to build a data centre in Northamptonshire.
Yet just a few months on, AI Pathfinder is in turmoil. The data centre developer’s website now features a placeholder image and nearly all of its staff have left.
I said at the time, the companies they were announcing were "interesting". None of them had the money that the government were saying they were going to invest and nor were they say an Oracle who can phone up anybody and get the loan.
Hey their voters (over 60, racist) must keep their sweeties -
Reform voters are actually quite evenly distributed across ages groups (relative to voters, not population). Or at least they were at GE '24.
It's the Conservatives who are intensely concentrated in the 60+ bracket.
Probably the case for the fifteen percent who voted Reform in 2024. Now they're on thirtyish percent, and a lot of the switchers have been Con-to-Ref, so their age profile is skewed too.
From this week's YouGov, since it's to hand:
18-24: Con 7 Ref 6 25-49: Con 16 Ref 17 50-64: Con 18 Ref 33 65+: Con 26 Ref 33
Have the LDs ever finished last in a by-election where at least one minor/fringe candidate is standing?
Falkirk West 2000 if you include Scottish Socialust as fringe (contiuning to searxh)
Presumably Tommy Sheridan was in charge while it was the Scottish Socialust Party, I believe Citizen Tommy is the lead list candidate for Alba in Glasgow and his missus also in the mix. No idea how they’ll do, but not great I suspect.
OT - I'm not sure there is too much value in the odds but when it comes to finishing last in parliamentary elections the Communist League is at a different level.
9,710 UK medical graduate applications to specialty training programmes.
6,913 International medical graduate applications to speciality training programmes.
In 2025:
12,316 UK medical graduate applications to specialty training programmes.
20,807 International medical graduate applications to speciality training programmes.
No wonder UK grads now finish university, do two years on the job training as foundation doctors and then end up unemployed.
Number of grad applications though increased for both UK and overseas applicants but the number of doctor and consultant training places hasn't. There are only 12,000 such training places a year and only 23% of overseas applicants are successful compared to 69% of UK applicants
Yes, but that means 5 000 successful IMG applications out of 12 807 places, so over a 3rd of ST places go to IMGs.
Yes but given the majority of applications are from overseas now that is a far lower success rate for ST places than UK applicants
That isn’t the point. The point is that we (i.e. the country) have paid a lot of money to train our best and brightest as doctors to leave them unemployed. That’s a ridiculous state of affairs.
So ban immigrants from overseas taking medical jobs then I presume, British doctor jobs for only British medical grads! Nige and Rupert would be proud of you!
Alternatively, give anyone graduating from a U.K. university absolute priority for a training place.
Which is effectively the same thing, given there are 12,316 UK medical grad applicants and only 12,000 training places available
Some applicants will apply for more than one training programme so not quite
'The government has put an offer to the British Medical Association (BMA) that would put in place emergency legislation for UK and Republic of Ireland medical graduates and doctors who have worked in the NHS for a significant period of time to be prioritised for specialty training and tackling bottlenecks through an overhaul of recruitment for medical training. Should the BMA accept this offer, the government will accelerate plans to prioritise these medics, addressing the current system that has led to soaring competition ratios - with current applicants set to benefit from the 2026 intake.
Not sure the BMA will approve of that particular use of Brexit Freedoms. I wonder if it's open to legal challenge from settled status EU citizens.
Would it be based on UK and Irish citizenship, or UK and Irish Universities?
If a settled status EU citizen went into a British Uni, then they'd be counted within the 12,316 UK medical grad applicants surely?
If a UK citizen has not been resident in the UK for three years before, they pay overseas fees at university. So, would they be counted or not?
As I've discovered with my daughter's applications, it's complicated! Edinburgh just asked for a full list of dates she's been in the UK in the last 10 years, and the email contains the line "we're not asking for tickets at this stage".
9,710 UK medical graduate applications to specialty training programmes.
6,913 International medical graduate applications to speciality training programmes.
In 2025:
12,316 UK medical graduate applications to specialty training programmes.
20,807 International medical graduate applications to speciality training programmes.
No wonder UK grads now finish university, do two years on the job training as foundation doctors and then end up unemployed.
Number of grad applications though increased for both UK and overseas applicants but the number of doctor and consultant training places hasn't. There are only 12,000 such training places a year and only 23% of overseas applicants are successful compared to 69% of UK applicants
Yes, but that means 5 000 successful IMG applications out of 12 807 places, so over a 3rd of ST places go to IMGs.
Yes but given the majority of applications are from overseas now that is a far lower success rate for ST places than UK applicants
That isn’t the point. The point is that we (i.e. the country) have paid a lot of money to train our best and brightest as doctors to leave them unemployed. That’s a ridiculous state of affairs.
So ban immigrants from overseas taking medical jobs then I presume, British doctor jobs for only British medical grads! Nige and Rupert would be proud of you!
Alternatively, give anyone graduating from a U.K. university absolute priority for a training place.
Which is effectively the same thing, given there are 12,316 UK medical grad applicants and only 12,000 training places available
Some applicants will apply for more than one training programme so not quite
'The government has put an offer to the British Medical Association (BMA) that would put in place emergency legislation for UK and Republic of Ireland medical graduates and doctors who have worked in the NHS for a significant period of time to be prioritised for specialty training and tackling bottlenecks through an overhaul of recruitment for medical training. Should the BMA accept this offer, the government will accelerate plans to prioritise these medics, addressing the current system that has led to soaring competition ratios - with current applicants set to benefit from the 2026 intake.
Not sure the BMA will approve of that particular use of Brexit Freedoms. I wonder if it's open to legal challenge from settled status EU citizens.
Would it be based on UK and Irish citizenship, or UK and Irish Universities?
If a settled status EU citizen went into a British Uni, then they'd be counted within the 12,316 UK medical grad applicants surely?
If a UK citizen has not been resident in the UK for three years before, they pay overseas fees at university. So, would they be counted or not?
As I've discovered with my daughter's applications, it's complicated! Edinburgh just asked for a full list of dates she's been in the UK in the last 10 years, and the email contains the line "we're not asking for tickets at this stage".
I mean... what?
They will be asking for tickets at the next stage, if she gets that far.
If she’s been living overseas for most of the past three years - and they already know which schools she’s been attending - then expect the bill for the full fees.
The grammar in this is entirely effable, but it's a welcome British success. Though of course they had to get the funding from US venture cap.
Sequoia (@sequoia) leading the largest European seed round of all time with $1B at $4B valuation.
David Silver, one of Britain’s top AI researchers, left Google DeepMind late last year to launch the London-based start-up Ineffable Intelligence.
He aims to build “superhuman intelligence”.
Sequoia partners Alfred Lin and Sonya Huang flew to London to visit Silver after his departure, who is also a professor at University College London. https://x.com/etnshow/status/2024071567584469330
The grammar in this is entirely effable, but it's a welcome British success. Though of course they had to get the funding from US venture cap.
Sequoia (@sequoia) leading the largest European seed round of all time with $1B at $4B valuation.
David Silver, one of Britain’s top AI researchers, left Google DeepMind late last year to launch the London-based start-up Ineffable Intelligence.
He aims to build “superhuman intelligence”.
Sequoia partners Alfred Lin and Sonya Huang flew to London to visit Silver after his departure, who is also a professor at University College London. https://x.com/etnshow/status/2024071567584469330
i think its a bit early to call it a success. He is super talented guy who has raised money on a idea. The same as 3 of the OpenAI founder who left and raised similar amounts of money baed upon their reptutations.
Sythensia the biggest recent "British"* success, where they have products, they are making money, and recently raised at valuation of $4bn (after turning down $3bn buy-out from Adobe).
By British, its two Danes, a German and a Spaniard. Albeit the one is an academic at UCL and whose research a lot of the original product was based.
The grammar in this is entirely effable, but it's a welcome British success. Though of course they had to get the funding from US venture cap.
Sequoia (@sequoia) leading the largest European seed round of all time with $1B at $4B valuation.
David Silver, one of Britain’s top AI researchers, left Google DeepMind late last year to launch the London-based start-up Ineffable Intelligence.
He aims to build “superhuman intelligence”.
Sequoia partners Alfred Lin and Sonya Huang flew to London to visit Silver after his departure, who is also a professor at University College London. https://x.com/etnshow/status/2024071567584469330
i think its a bit early to call it a success. He is super talented guy who has raised money on a idea.
Getting $1bn inward investment from the US is a success in itself, so no, I don't think it is.
Sir Keir said: 'Well, I think it's important to remind ourselves that the decision to cancel was a locally led decision, in the sense that each authority could decide. 'In relation to the position, we took further legal advice and, as you would expect as a Government, having got further legal advice, we followed that legal advice.'
It wasn't me, never crossed my desk, barely knew anything about it.
It would be better if it didnt cross his desk or we'd end up cancelling all our future elections and paying Mauritius to run theirs
Yesterday, upon the stair at No.10, I met a man who wasn't there! He wasn't there again today, I wish, I wish he'd go away!
When I came to No. 10 last night at three, The man was waiting there for me But when I looked around the hall, I couldn't see him there at all! Go away, go away, don't you come back any more! Go away, go away, and please don't slam the door... (slam!)
Last night I saw upon the stair at No.10, A little man who wasn't there He wasn't there again today Oh, how I wish he'd go away....
The grammar in this is entirely effable, but it's a welcome British success. Though of course they had to get the funding from US venture cap.
Sequoia (@sequoia) leading the largest European seed round of all time with $1B at $4B valuation.
David Silver, one of Britain’s top AI researchers, left Google DeepMind late last year to launch the London-based start-up Ineffable Intelligence.
He aims to build “superhuman intelligence”.
Sequoia partners Alfred Lin and Sonya Huang flew to London to visit Silver after his departure, who is also a professor at University College London. https://x.com/etnshow/status/2024071567584469330
i think its a bit early to call it a success. He is super talented guy who has raised money on a idea.
Getting $1bn inward investment from the US is a success in itself, so no, I don't think it is.
It hasn't been raised yet. Its a desire to raise that amount. Negotiations remain ongoing, and terms could shift. I am no doubt he will raise a significant amount, as I say the cofounders of OpenAI all got big raises, what they have achieved so far, less impressive.
Remember OpenAI actually did a presser announcing with Nvidia $100bn, and that disappeared into the ether.
OT - I'm not sure there is too much value in the odds but when it comes to finishing last in parliamentary elections the Communist League is at a different level.
Sir Keir said: 'Well, I think it's important to remind ourselves that the decision to cancel was a locally led decision, in the sense that each authority could decide. 'In relation to the position, we took further legal advice and, as you would expect as a Government, having got further legal advice, we followed that legal advice.'
It wasn't me, never crossed my desk, barely knew anything about it.
Starmer is a lawyer, not a politician. More specifically, Starmer is a lawyer following the law, not a politician ducking responsibility, even if that is the more effective attack line. If the law says one thing, that is what Starmer thinks. If subsequently a court rules or a new legal opinion submitted, then that becomes what Starmer thinks.
OT - I'm not sure there is too much value in the odds but when it comes to finishing last in parliamentary elections the Communist League is at a different level.
U-Turn #2565465 incoming. By "slow" they mean kick so far into the long grass. Fail to plan, plan to fail.
Yet again they have failed to plan for the most predictable consequences of their actions. Anyone who has attended a first year undergraduate economics course knows that if you increase the price of something you reduce the demand for it. So of course minimum wages destroy low paying jobs and should be reduced or, better still, scrapped entirely. They also have more pernicious consequences, including administrative costs of meeting them, and destroying the link between productivity and pay, but those are slightly more difficult to grasp and if you can't even see the basic supply and demand point you won't grasp those.
Anyway, the bunch of fuckwits that pass for this clown show of a government seem incapable of realising the most basic facts. In the meantime, business confidence has been damaged, investment has doubtless been delayed and lots of young adults have been thrown unnecessarily on the scrapheap.
The sooner the current government replaces them there, the better.
Sir Keir said: 'Well, I think it's important to remind ourselves that the decision to cancel was a locally led decision, in the sense that each authority could decide. 'In relation to the position, we took further legal advice and, as you would expect as a Government, having got further legal advice, we followed that legal advice.'
It wasn't me, never crossed my desk, barely knew anything about it.
Starmer is a lawyer, not a politician. More specifically, Starmer is a lawyer following the law, not a politician ducking responsibility, even if that is the more effective attack line. If the law says one thing, that is what Starmer thinks. If subsequently a court rules or a new legal opinion submitted, then that becomes what Starmer thinks.
Which is utterly ridiculous. He is the PM with a huge majority in the House of Commons, he IS the law if he wants to be. Parliament is sovereign in the UK, the Lords cannot block legislation from the Commons in the end and the King will sign whatever Parliament passes into statute law and no court in the land can overrule what is in statute law
30% of Labour voters and 25% of Green voters and 45% of LDs would vote Tory in a seat where only Reform or the Conservatives could win on that new Yougov poll
Indeed. Reform sweeping East Anglia as per MRPs looks a stretch.
The number of left wing voters who would switch to the Conservatives, and the number of Conservative voters who would switch to Labour, under any circumstances, is miniscule. If Reform really do poll 29%, they will sweep East Anglia.
45% of LDs and 30% of Labour voters being willing to tactically vote Tory to beat Reform with Yougov today is not miniscule it is nearly half of LD voters and nearly a third of Labour voters!
If they really did cross the political divide, it would be big, but we know that in practice, they do not.
We've tested it in 206 local by elections since May 2025. Reform have won 73 (35%) on 27% of the vote. The Conservatives have won 24 (12%) on 17% of the vote. If there were any evidence for left wingers for the Conservatives, we would expect it to show up in real votes.
Tactical voting takes time to emerge; compare the 1983 and 1997 General Elections. At one the Alliance got a quarter of the votes, and about 3% of the seats. At the other they got half the proportion of votes, and twice the number of seats.
And look at Scotland - first there was anti-Tory tactical voting, and then there was unionist tactical voting against the SNP.
Of course, this cuts both ways too: if both Reform and the Conservatives survive as electoral forces, one would expect that -just as with the LibDems vs Labour- the number of seats where they are competing with each other will be very small.
U-Turn #2565465 incoming. By "slow" they mean kick so far into the long grass. Fail to plan, plan to fail.
Yet again they have failed to plan for the most predictable consequences of their actions. Anyone who has attended a first year undergraduate economics course knows that if you increase the price of something you reduce the demand for it. So of course minimum wages destroy low paying jobs and should be reduced or, better still, scrapped entirely. They also have more pernicious consequences, including administrative costs of meeting them, and destroying the link between productivity and pay, but those are slightly more difficult to grasp and if you can't even see the basic supply and demand point you won't grasp those.
Anyway, the bunch of fuckwits that pass for this clown show of a government seem incapable of realising the most basic facts. In the meantime, business confidence has been damaged, investment has doubtless been delayed and lots of young adults have been thrown unnecessarily on the scrapheap.
The sooner the current government joins them, the better.
Reducing or eliminating the minimum wage, ie making a not insignificant percentage of the population poorer is not a vote winner.
Hey their voters (over 60, racist) must keep their sweeties -
Reform voters are actually quite evenly distributed across ages groups (relative to voters, not population). Or at least they were at GE '24.
It's the Conservatives who are intensely concentrated in the 60+ bracket.
Probably the case for the fifteen percent who voted Reform in 2024. Now they're on thirtyish percent, and a lot of the switchers have been Con-to-Ref, so their age profile is skewed too.
From this week's YouGov, since it's to hand:
18-24: Con 7 Ref 6 25-49: Con 16 Ref 17 50-64: Con 18 Ref 33 65+: Con 26 Ref 33
Rachel Reeves has ruled out an increase in defence spending this year after coming under pressure from military chiefs. On Wednesday, the Chancellor said the Ministry of Defence (MoD) would have to wait for “future spending reviews” before pouring billions more into Britain’s military.
Battle ready by 2034 3034....
As always, there needs to be a differentiation between military spending and military capability.
There’s never been a startup disruptive arms industry until now, and the government needs to start taking advantage of that rather than pouring endless billions into the same old military industrial complex. War spending priorities rather than peace spending priorities.
I'm not sure that's quite true: there were quite a lot of aviation industry startups in the UK in the First World War.
U-Turn #2565465 incoming. By "slow" they mean kick so far into the long grass. Fail to plan, plan to fail.
Yet again they have failed to plan for the most predictable consequences of their actions. Anyone who has attended a first year undergraduate economics course knows that if you increase the price of something you reduce the demand for it. So of course minimum wages destroy low paying jobs and should be reduced or, better still, scrapped entirely. They also have more pernicious consequences, including administrative costs of meeting them, and destroying the link between productivity and pay, but those are slightly more difficult to grasp and if you can't even see the basic supply and demand point you won't grasp those.
Anyway, the bunch of fuckwits that pass for this clown show of a government seem incapable of realising the most basic facts. In the meantime, business confidence has been damaged, investment has doubtless been delayed and lots of young adults have been thrown unnecessarily on the scrapheap.
The sooner the current government joins them, the better.
Reducing or eliminating the minimum wage, ie making a not insignificant percentage of the population poorer is not a vote winner.
No more rises in it until unemployment falls significantly though should be the way forward
U-Turn #2565465 incoming. By "slow" they mean kick so far into the long grass. Fail to plan, plan to fail.
Yet again they have failed to plan for the most predictable consequences of their actions. Anyone who has attended a first year undergraduate economics course knows that if you increase the price of something you reduce the demand for it. So of course minimum wages destroy low paying jobs and should be reduced or, better still, scrapped entirely. They also have more pernicious consequences, including administrative costs of meeting them, and destroying the link between productivity and pay, but those are slightly more difficult to grasp and if you can't even see the basic supply and demand point you won't grasp those.
Anyway, the bunch of fuckwits that pass for this clown show of a government seem incapable of realising the most basic facts. In the meantime, business confidence has been damaged, investment has doubtless been delayed and lots of young adults have been thrown unnecessarily on the scrapheap.
The sooner the current government joins them, the better.
Reducing or eliminating the minimum wage, ie making a not insignificant percentage of the population poorer is not a vote winner.
There is a middle ground between reducing or eliminating the minimum wage, and increasing youth minimum wage at a considerably faster rate than regular minimum wage, at a time of a "crisis" of youth unemployment and a time of full regular employment.
That's without considering jacking up considerably taxes like employers NICs that are solely a tax on salaried incomes.
So the Reform policy seems to be if you’re not a British national , have worked for years here , paid your taxes and then suddenly fall ill or lose your job you get zero benefits. If you’re a Brit whose done bugger all and sponged off the state for years then you’re fine , keep claiming benefits .
Funnily the media seem to have ignored their major u turn on the child benefit cap . And seeing as this impacts one of their core voter demographics you’d think it would get some attention .
Why should foreigners get benefits?
If you’ve worked and paid your taxes why shouldn’t you .
The policy is just more divide and rule from them . They really are a hateful bunch . This country is fxcked if they get in .
I think part of the problem is that the UK doesn't really differentiate between immigrant and non-immigrant visas.
The former allow one -over time- to become a British citizen, and have a path to Indefinite Leave to Remain, etc. The latter one is easier to get, but doesn't have that path.
Most countries have that distinction. (And the UK does to an extent, with visas like the working holiday one that Australians used to take full advantage of.)
Now, of course, people on non-immigrant visas meet and marry British people from time-to-time, so a chunk of people on non-immigrant visas woudl end up staying. But having such a distinction also the government a bit more control over numbers.
U-Turn #2565465 incoming. By "slow" they mean kick so far into the long grass. Fail to plan, plan to fail.
One factor likely pushing up youth unemployment in the UK is AI take-up. I've seen an interesting chart showing the increase in youth unemployment is greater in countries like the UK with relatively high rates of AI adoption. Certainly makes sense with respect to the timing of the rise, which started two years before Labour came in and enacted all these supposed job destroying policies.
The AI narrative is massive overstated at the moment. It doesn't really fit as it was shit 3 years ago and its still minor usage. I am as big a fan / user of AI as there is and I don't think it anywhere near there yet to making masses of people unemployed.
Also yes been rising for 3-4 years, but there was big bump the last year. I think its much simpler, the economy hasn't been growing for years, things are tight, you don't hire as much, especially inexperienced*, and the current government have made that worse by tanking business confidence and raising taxes / minimum wage making the problem worse.
* also I have heard from both those in academia and business that the cohort who came through under COVID are really lacking in many aspects.
U-Turn #2565465 incoming. By "slow" they mean kick so far into the long grass. Fail to plan, plan to fail.
Yet again they have failed to plan for the most predictable consequences of their actions. Anyone who has attended a first year undergraduate economics course knows that if you increase the price of something you reduce the demand for it. So of course minimum wages destroy low paying jobs and should be reduced or, better still, scrapped entirely. They also have more pernicious consequences, including administrative costs of meeting them, and destroying the link between productivity and pay, but those are slightly more difficult to grasp and if you can't even see the basic supply and demand point you won't grasp those.
Anyway, the bunch of fuckwits that pass for this clown show of a government seem incapable of realising the most basic facts. In the meantime, business confidence has been damaged, investment has doubtless been delayed and lots of young adults have been thrown unnecessarily on the scrapheap.
The sooner the current government replaces them there, the better.
That does sound like the first lecture in an undergraduate economics course.
If you stay for week 2, they explain how things aren't quite so simple.
By the end of the first year, you know why economics is a social science.
Rachel Reeves has ruled out an increase in defence spending this year after coming under pressure from military chiefs. On Wednesday, the Chancellor said the Ministry of Defence (MoD) would have to wait for “future spending reviews” before pouring billions more into Britain’s military.
Battle ready by 2034 3034....
As always, there needs to be a differentiation between military spending and military capability.
There’s never been a startup disruptive arms industry until now, and the government needs to start taking advantage of that rather than pouring endless billions into the same old military industrial complex. War spending priorities rather than peace spending priorities.
I'm not sure that's quite true: there were quite a lot of aviation industry startups in the UK in the First World War.
There is, these days, an enthusiastic revisionist industry claiming that the B.E.2 wasn’t that bad, and Sopwith was overrated.
Rachel Reeves has ruled out an increase in defence spending this year after coming under pressure from military chiefs. On Wednesday, the Chancellor said the Ministry of Defence (MoD) would have to wait for “future spending reviews” before pouring billions more into Britain’s military.
Battle ready by 2034 3034....
As always, there needs to be a differentiation between military spending and military capability.
There’s never been a startup disruptive arms industry until now, and the government needs to start taking advantage of that rather than pouring endless billions into the same old military industrial complex. War spending priorities rather than peace spending priorities.
I'm not sure that's quite true: there were quite a lot of aviation industry startups in the UK in the First World War.
I think there were a few electrical/electronic startups shortly after WWII which grew quite rapidly partly thanks to military spending (Decca Radar; Racal etc) ?
Have the LDs ever finished last in a by-election where at least one minor/fringe candidate is standing?
Yes, but not for a long time!
They were second from bottom, beating UKIP, in Kingswood in 2024 and likewise before that in the 2011 Inverclyde by-election. They were second from bottom, beating the Green, in the 2014 Heywood and Middleton by-election.
But keep going back and we get to the 2000 Falkirk West by-election. Lab, Con, SNP, LD and Scottish Socialist all stood, and the LD came bottom, beaten by the Scottish Socialist candidate. I think it's fair to call the Scottish Socialist Party a minor party?
Alliance in Northern Ireland came last in the 2018 West Tyrone by-election, the 2013 Mid Ulster by-election and the 2011 Belfast West by-election, but those were without minor candidates. (Well, the last was with PPP, who beat the Alliance candidate, but I think I'd count them as a major party?)
'A Restore Britain Government would hold a referendum on the reintroduction of the death penalty - for the most evil crimes, where the guilt is absolutely undeniable.
Our members would be free to campaign how they choose in that referendum, but we believe that it should be put to the British people.
I would personally be campaigning very much in favour.
In my view, there is no absolutely zero benefit to keeping a monster like Axel Rudakubana alive.
He butchered those beautiful young girls in cold blood.
He does not deserve to live. Tragically, there are too many just like him.
U-Turn #2565465 incoming. By "slow" they mean kick so far into the long grass. Fail to plan, plan to fail.
One factor likely pushing up youth unemployment in the UK is AI take-up. I've seen an interesting chart showing the increase in youth unemployment is greater in countries like the UK with relatively high rates of AI adoption. Certainly makes sense with respect to the timing of the rise, which started two years before Labour came in and enacted all these supposed job destroying policies.
The AI narrative is massive overstated at the moment. It doesn't really fit as it was shit 3 years ago and its still minor usage. I am as big a fan / user of AI as there is and I don't think it anywhere near there yet to making masses of people unemployed.
Also yes been rising for 3-4 years, but there was big bump the last year. I think its much simpler, the economy hasn't been growing for years, things are tight, you don't hire as much, especially inexperienced*, and the current government have made that worse by tanking business confidence and raising taxes / minimum wage making the problem worse.
* also I have heard from both those in academia and business that the cohort who came through under COVID are really lacking in many aspects.
Calude Cowork is getting really good.
As far as I understand it is just a nice wrapper around Claude Code to make it easier for the less terminal ninjas of the world to use the functionality. I use Claude Code extensively.
There is one big drawback with Cowork, no memory between sessions. The beauty of Claude Code is the that ability to pick things back up again, and if you actually get it to write a work in progress doc in markdown / latex, it is even better.
Rachel Reeves has ruled out an increase in defence spending this year after coming under pressure from military chiefs. On Wednesday, the Chancellor said the Ministry of Defence (MoD) would have to wait for “future spending reviews” before pouring billions more into Britain’s military.
Battle ready by 2034 3034....
As always, there needs to be a differentiation between military spending and military capability.
There’s never been a startup disruptive arms industry until now, and the government needs to start taking advantage of that rather than pouring endless billions into the same old military industrial complex. War spending priorities rather than peace spending priorities.
I'm not sure that's quite true: there were quite a lot of aviation industry startups in the UK in the First World War.
There is, these days, an enthusiastic revisionist industry claiming that the B.E.2 wasn’t that bad, and Sopwith was overrated.
Presumably by people who have never even heard of -let alone read- the the Pemberton-Billing debates.
U-Turn #2565465 incoming. By "slow" they mean kick so far into the long grass. Fail to plan, plan to fail.
One factor likely pushing up youth unemployment in the UK is AI take-up. I've seen an interesting chart showing the increase in youth unemployment is greater in countries like the UK with relatively high rates of AI adoption. Certainly makes sense with respect to the timing of the rise, which started two years before Labour came in and enacted all these supposed job destroying policies.
The AI narrative is massive overstated at the moment. It doesn't really fit as it was shit 3 years ago and its still minor usage. I am as big a fan / user of AI as there is and I don't think it anywhere near there yet to making masses of people unemployed.
Also yes been rising for 3-4 years, but there was big bump the last year. I think its much simpler, the economy hasn't been growing for years, things are tight, you don't hire as much, especially inexperienced*, and the current government have made that worse by tanking business confidence and raising taxes / minimum wage making the problem worse.
* also I have heard from both those in academia and business that the cohort who came through under COVID are really lacking in many aspects.
Calude Cowork is getting really good.
As far as I understand it is just a nice wrapper around Claude Code to make it easier for the less terminal ninjas of the world to use the functionality. I use Claude Code extensively.
There is one big drawback with Cowork, no memory between sessions.
That's sort of true: however, you can -and I do- instruct it to keep a markdown file, where it notes the task at hand, etc. A lot of smart LLM usage is simply making sure the context window contains the most important stuff.
Sir Keir said: 'Well, I think it's important to remind ourselves that the decision to cancel was a locally led decision, in the sense that each authority could decide. 'In relation to the position, we took further legal advice and, as you would expect as a Government, having got further legal advice, we followed that legal advice.'
It wasn't me, never crossed my desk, barely knew anything about it.
Starmer is a lawyer, not a politician. More specifically, Starmer is a lawyer following the law, not a politician ducking responsibility, even if that is the more effective attack line. If the law says one thing, that is what Starmer thinks. If subsequently a court rules or a new legal opinion submitted, then that becomes what Starmer thinks.
Which is utterly ridiculous. He is the PM with a huge majority in the House of Commons, he IS the law if he wants to be. Parliament is sovereign in the UK, the Lords cannot block legislation from the Commons in the end and the King will sign whatever Parliament passes into statute law and no court in the land can overrule what is in statute law
Like he correctly said.
Starmer is a lawyer first second third.
He isn't a politician.
That is deemed to be a weakness.
After Boris it should be deemed a strength.
The problem Starmer has is that from day1, 90% of the UK media fully paid up uneqivical Tory supporting and not questioning of Reform were out to get him.
He hasn't helped himself.
A more street wise and less inherently polite and decent man would have fired back with both barrels.
30% of Labour voters and 25% of Green voters and 45% of LDs would vote Tory in a seat where only Reform or the Conservatives could win on that new Yougov poll
Indeed. Reform sweeping East Anglia as per MRPs looks a stretch.
The number of left wing voters who would switch to the Conservatives, and the number of Conservative voters who would switch to Labour, under any circumstances, is miniscule. If Reform really do poll 29%, they will sweep East Anglia.
45% of LDs and 30% of Labour voters being willing to tactically vote Tory to beat Reform with Yougov today is not miniscule it is nearly half of LD voters and nearly a third of Labour voters!
If they really did cross the political divide, it would be big, but we know that in practice, they do not.
We've tested it in 206 local by elections since May 2025. Reform have won 73 (35%) on 27% of the vote. The Conservatives have won 24 (12%) on 17% of the vote. If there were any evidence for left wingers for the Conservatives, we would expect it to show up in real votes.
Tactical voting takes time to emerge; compare the 1983 and 1997 General Elections. At one the Alliance got a quarter of the votes, and about 3% of the seats. At the other they got half the proportion of votes, and twice the number of seats.
And look at Scotland - first there was anti-Tory tactical voting, and then there was unionist tactical voting against the SNP.
Of course, this cuts both ways too: if both Reform and the Conservatives survive as electoral forces, one would expect that -just as with the LibDems vs Labour- the number of seats where they are competing with each other will be very small.
The catch is that sorting like that tends to take time- both for the voters to work it out, but also for the parties. The Lib Dem map in 2024 is a thing of beauty in its coherence, but it didn't happen overnight.
Can Reform and Conservative do something similar? Perhaps, though it's not obvious what the basis of the division would be. How should a Reform constituency look different to a Conservative one? What shop- like Gail's- works as an indicator species? On top of which, neither party seems to be in the mood to accept the status of 'significant but junior member of our bloc'. As long as each one thinks it can beat the other, they are more likely to fight each other to a standstill- 1983 flipped in the mirror, so to speak.
'A Restore Britain Government would hold a referendum on the reintroduction of the death penalty - for the most evil crimes, where the guilt is absolutely undeniable.
Our members would be free to campaign how they choose in that referendum, but we believe that it should be put to the British people.
I would personally be campaigning very much in favour.
In my view, there is no absolutely zero benefit to keeping a monster like Axel Rudakubana alive.
He butchered those beautiful young girls in cold blood.
He does not deserve to live. Tragically, there are too many just like him.
9,710 UK medical graduate applications to specialty training programmes.
6,913 International medical graduate applications to speciality training programmes.
In 2025:
12,316 UK medical graduate applications to specialty training programmes.
20,807 International medical graduate applications to speciality training programmes.
No wonder UK grads now finish university, do two years on the job training as foundation doctors and then end up unemployed.
Number of grad applications though increased for both UK and overseas applicants but the number of doctor and consultant training places hasn't. There are only 12,000 such training places a year and only 23% of overseas applicants are successful compared to 69% of UK applicants
Yes, but that means 5 000 successful IMG applications out of 12 807 places, so over a 3rd of ST places go to IMGs.
Yes but given the majority of applications are from overseas now that is a far lower success rate for ST places than UK applicants
That isn’t the point. The point is that we (i.e. the country) have paid a lot of money to train our best and brightest as doctors to leave them unemployed. That’s a ridiculous state of affairs.
So ban immigrants from overseas taking medical jobs then I presume, British doctor jobs for only British medical grads! Nige and Rupert would be proud of you!
Alternatively, give anyone graduating from a U.K. university absolute priority for a training place.
Which is effectively the same thing, given there are 12,316 UK medical grad applicants and only 12,000 training places available
Some applicants will apply for more than one training programme so not quite
'The government has put an offer to the British Medical Association (BMA) that would put in place emergency legislation for UK and Republic of Ireland medical graduates and doctors who have worked in the NHS for a significant period of time to be prioritised for specialty training and tackling bottlenecks through an overhaul of recruitment for medical training. Should the BMA accept this offer, the government will accelerate plans to prioritise these medics, addressing the current system that has led to soaring competition ratios - with current applicants set to benefit from the 2026 intake.
Not sure the BMA will approve of that particular use of Brexit Freedoms. I wonder if it's open to legal challenge from settled status EU citizens.
Would it be based on UK and Irish citizenship, or UK and Irish Universities?
If a settled status EU citizen went into a British Uni, then they'd be counted within the 12,316 UK medical grad applicants surely?
If a UK citizen has not been resident in the UK for three years before, they pay overseas fees at university. So, would they be counted or not?
As I've discovered with my daughter's applications, it's complicated! Edinburgh just asked for a full list of dates she's been in the UK in the last 10 years, and the email contains the line "we're not asking for tickets at this stage".
U-Turn #2565465 incoming. By "slow" they mean kick so far into the long grass. Fail to plan, plan to fail.
One factor likely pushing up youth unemployment in the UK is AI take-up. I've seen an interesting chart showing the increase in youth unemployment is greater in countries like the UK with relatively high rates of AI adoption. Certainly makes sense with respect to the timing of the rise, which started two years before Labour came in and enacted all these supposed job destroying policies.
The AI narrative is massive overstated at the moment. It doesn't really fit as it was shit 3 years ago and its still minor usage. I am as big a fan / user of AI as there is and I don't think it anywhere near there yet to making masses of people unemployed.
Also yes been rising for 3-4 years, but there was big bump the last year. I think its much simpler, the economy hasn't been growing for years, things are tight, you don't hire as much, especially inexperienced*, and the current government have made that worse by tanking business confidence and raising taxes / minimum wage making the problem worse.
* also I have heard from both those in academia and business that the cohort who came through under COVID are really lacking in many aspects.
Calude Cowork is getting really good.
As far as I understand it is just a nice wrapper around Claude Code to make it easier for the less terminal ninjas of the world to use the functionality. I use Claude Code extensively.
There is one big drawback with Cowork, no memory between sessions.
That's sort of true: however, you can -and I do- instruct it to keep a markdown file, where it notes the task at hand, etc. A lot of smart LLM usage is simply making sure the context window contains the most important stuff.
The plugins feature is nice. I am not sure why they haven't made the app do both, have the UI, have ability to add the plugins, setup general use of life stuff, but then the ability to open a terminal and bring all that with you.
Sir Keir said: 'Well, I think it's important to remind ourselves that the decision to cancel was a locally led decision, in the sense that each authority could decide. 'In relation to the position, we took further legal advice and, as you would expect as a Government, having got further legal advice, we followed that legal advice.'
It wasn't me, never crossed my desk, barely knew anything about it.
Starmer is a lawyer, not a politician. More specifically, Starmer is a lawyer following the law, not a politician ducking responsibility, even if that is the more effective attack line. If the law says one thing, that is what Starmer thinks. If subsequently a court rules or a new legal opinion submitted, then that becomes what Starmer thinks.
Which is utterly ridiculous. He is the PM with a huge majority in the House of Commons, he IS the law if he wants to be. Parliament is sovereign in the UK, the Lords cannot block legislation from the Commons in the end and the King will sign whatever Parliament passes into statute law and no court in the land can overrule what is in statute law
Like he correctly said.
Starmer is a lawyer first second third.
He isn't a politician.
That is deemed to be a weakness.
After Boris it should be deemed a strength.
The problem Starmer has is that from day1, 90% of the UK media fully paid up uneqivical Tory supporting and not questioning of Reform were out to get him.
He hasn't helped himself.
A more street wise and less inherently polite and decent man would have fired back with both barrels.
A PM can employ a top lawyer to advise him, the PM though is a politician ultimately not a lawyer and making decisions and policy and indeed law with some decisiveness, something SKS seems incapable of
Rachel Reeves has ruled out an increase in defence spending this year after coming under pressure from military chiefs. On Wednesday, the Chancellor said the Ministry of Defence (MoD) would have to wait for “future spending reviews” before pouring billions more into Britain’s military.
Battle ready by 2034 3034....
As always, there needs to be a differentiation between military spending and military capability.
There’s never been a startup disruptive arms industry until now, and the government needs to start taking advantage of that rather than pouring endless billions into the same old military industrial complex. War spending priorities rather than peace spending priorities.
I'm not sure that's quite true: there were quite a lot of aviation industry startups in the UK in the First World War.
There is, these days, an enthusiastic revisionist industry claiming that the B.E.2 wasn’t that bad, and Sopwith was overrated.
Presumably by people who have never even heard of -let alone read- the the Pemberton-Billing debates.
Rather like the R101 apologists - they have elaborate arguments for why total failure was actually not that bad.
Sopwith managed to make components so interchangeable, that some apprentices accidentally attached the wrong wings to aircraft. In 1918.
Compare that to the Nimrod ASW farce. 100 years later.
Have the LDs ever finished last in a by-election where at least one minor/fringe candidate is standing?
Yes, but not for a long time!
They were second from bottom, beating UKIP, in Kingswood in 2024 and likewise before that in the 2011 Inverclyde by-election. They were second from bottom, beating the Green, in the 2014 Heywood and Middleton by-election. The 2002 Ogmore by-election saw only Lab, Con, Plaid and the LibDems stand, and the LibDems beat the Tory.
But keep going back and we get to the 2000 Falkirk West by-election. Lab, Con, SNP, LD and Scottish Socialist all stood, and the LD came bottom, beaten by the Scottish Socialist candidate. I think it's fair to call the Scottish Socialist Party a minor party?
Alliance in Northern Ireland came last in the 2018 West Tyrone by-election, the 2013 Mid Ulster by-election and the 2011 Belfast West by-election, but those were without minor candidates. (Well, the last was with PPP, who beat the Alliance candidate, but I think I'd count them as a major party?)
Tamworth 2023 saw them behind UKIP and Britain First but ahead of Loonies and an indy (and equal with Greens)
Rotherham 2012 they finishrd behind UKIP, Respect, BNP , English Democrats and an Indy but ahead of TUSC and another Indy
Rachel Reeves has ruled out an increase in defence spending this year after coming under pressure from military chiefs. On Wednesday, the Chancellor said the Ministry of Defence (MoD) would have to wait for “future spending reviews” before pouring billions more into Britain’s military.
Battle ready by 2034 3034....
As always, there needs to be a differentiation between military spending and military capability.
There’s never been a startup disruptive arms industry until now, and the government needs to start taking advantage of that rather than pouring endless billions into the same old military industrial complex. War spending priorities rather than peace spending priorities.
I'm not sure that's quite true: there were quite a lot of aviation industry startups in the UK in the First World War.
There is, these days, an enthusiastic revisionist industry claiming that the B.E.2 wasn’t that bad, and Sopwith was overrated.
Presumably by people who have never even heard of -let alone read- the the Pemberton-Billing debates.
Rather like the R101 apologists - they have elaborate arguments for why total failure was actually not that bad.
Sopwith managed to make components so interchangeable, that some apprentices accidentally attached the wrong wings to aircraft. In 1918.
Compare that to the Nimrod ASW farce. 100 years later.
Despite their heroic defence of St Matthews station, saving it from the bulldozers, the original Anti-Beeching Front was wound up in the 1960s after allegedly abandoning the Trainspotting Community - a charge they deny. Graffiti appeared in rail enthusiast neighbourhoods such as "ABF - A Bloody Failure". An order was given to "dump arms", but volunteers mistakenly interpreted it as an order to take a dump at their nearest station toilets!
However, a hard-core group decided to perpetuate the struggle, albeit covertly, as the Continuity ABF, vowing to carry on its campaign of Physical Force Trainspotting!
9,710 UK medical graduate applications to specialty training programmes.
6,913 International medical graduate applications to speciality training programmes.
In 2025:
12,316 UK medical graduate applications to specialty training programmes.
20,807 International medical graduate applications to speciality training programmes.
No wonder UK grads now finish university, do two years on the job training as foundation doctors and then end up unemployed.
Number of grad applications though increased for both UK and overseas applicants but the number of doctor and consultant training places hasn't. There are only 12,000 such training places a year and only 23% of overseas applicants are successful compared to 69% of UK applicants
Yes, but that means 5 000 successful IMG applications out of 12 807 places, so over a 3rd of ST places go to IMGs.
Yes but given the majority of applications are from overseas now that is a far lower success rate for ST places than UK applicants
That isn’t the point. The point is that we (i.e. the country) have paid a lot of money to train our best and brightest as doctors to leave them unemployed. That’s a ridiculous state of affairs.
So ban immigrants from overseas taking medical jobs then I presume, British doctor jobs for only British medical grads! Nige and Rupert would be proud of you!
Alternatively, give anyone graduating from a U.K. university absolute priority for a training place.
Which is effectively the same thing, given there are 12,316 UK medical grad applicants and only 12,000 training places available
Some applicants will apply for more than one training programme so not quite
'The government has put an offer to the British Medical Association (BMA) that would put in place emergency legislation for UK and Republic of Ireland medical graduates and doctors who have worked in the NHS for a significant period of time to be prioritised for specialty training and tackling bottlenecks through an overhaul of recruitment for medical training. Should the BMA accept this offer, the government will accelerate plans to prioritise these medics, addressing the current system that has led to soaring competition ratios - with current applicants set to benefit from the 2026 intake.
Not sure the BMA will approve of that particular use of Brexit Freedoms. I wonder if it's open to legal challenge from settled status EU citizens.
Would it be based on UK and Irish citizenship, or UK and Irish Universities?
If a settled status EU citizen went into a British Uni, then they'd be counted within the 12,316 UK medical grad applicants surely?
If a UK citizen has not been resident in the UK for three years before, they pay overseas fees at university. So, would they be counted or not?
As I've discovered with my daughter's applications, it's complicated! Edinburgh just asked for a full list of dates she's been in the UK in the last 10 years, and the email contains the line "we're not asking for tickets at this stage".
I mean... what?
You will have to pay regardless
My half-Thai, half British grandchildren are at/applying to Australian universities. Much more financially appealing, apparently, than British ones.
9,710 UK medical graduate applications to specialty training programmes.
6,913 International medical graduate applications to speciality training programmes.
In 2025:
12,316 UK medical graduate applications to specialty training programmes.
20,807 International medical graduate applications to speciality training programmes.
No wonder UK grads now finish university, do two years on the job training as foundation doctors and then end up unemployed.
Number of grad applications though increased for both UK and overseas applicants but the number of doctor and consultant training places hasn't. There are only 12,000 such training places a year and only 23% of overseas applicants are successful compared to 69% of UK applicants
Yes, but that means 5 000 successful IMG applications out of 12 807 places, so over a 3rd of ST places go to IMGs.
Yes but given the majority of applications are from overseas now that is a far lower success rate for ST places than UK applicants
That isn’t the point. The point is that we (i.e. the country) have paid a lot of money to train our best and brightest as doctors to leave them unemployed. That’s a ridiculous state of affairs.
So ban immigrants from overseas taking medical jobs then I presume, British doctor jobs for only British medical grads! Nige and Rupert would be proud of you!
Alternatively, give anyone graduating from a U.K. university absolute priority for a training place.
Which is effectively the same thing, given there are 12,316 UK medical grad applicants and only 12,000 training places available
Some applicants will apply for more than one training programme so not quite
'The government has put an offer to the British Medical Association (BMA) that would put in place emergency legislation for UK and Republic of Ireland medical graduates and doctors who have worked in the NHS for a significant period of time to be prioritised for specialty training and tackling bottlenecks through an overhaul of recruitment for medical training. Should the BMA accept this offer, the government will accelerate plans to prioritise these medics, addressing the current system that has led to soaring competition ratios - with current applicants set to benefit from the 2026 intake.
Not sure the BMA will approve of that particular use of Brexit Freedoms. I wonder if it's open to legal challenge from settled status EU citizens.
Would it be based on UK and Irish citizenship, or UK and Irish Universities?
If a settled status EU citizen went into a British Uni, then they'd be counted within the 12,316 UK medical grad applicants surely?
If a UK citizen has not been resident in the UK for three years before, they pay overseas fees at university. So, would they be counted or not?
As I've discovered with my daughter's applications, it's complicated! Edinburgh just asked for a full list of dates she's been in the UK in the last 10 years, and the email contains the line "we're not asking for tickets at this stage".
I mean... what?
You will have to pay regardless
I know.
And I showed her Trainspotting last night, so she knows what the locals are like.
Rachel Reeves has ruled out an increase in defence spending this year after coming under pressure from military chiefs. On Wednesday, the Chancellor said the Ministry of Defence (MoD) would have to wait for “future spending reviews” before pouring billions more into Britain’s military.
Battle ready by 2034 3034....
As always, there needs to be a differentiation between military spending and military capability.
There’s never been a startup disruptive arms industry until now, and the government needs to start taking advantage of that rather than pouring endless billions into the same old military industrial complex. War spending priorities rather than peace spending priorities.
I'm not sure that's quite true: there were quite a lot of aviation industry startups in the UK in the First World War.
There is, these days, an enthusiastic revisionist industry claiming that the B.E.2 wasn’t that bad, and Sopwith was overrated.
Presumably by people who have never even heard of -let alone read- the the Pemberton-Billing debates.
Rather like the R101 apologists - they have elaborate arguments for why total failure was actually not that bad.
Sopwith managed to make components so interchangeable, that some apprentices accidentally attached the wrong wings to aircraft. In 1918.
Compare that to the Nimrod ASW farce. 100 years later.
Despite their heroic defence of St Matthews station, saving it from the bulldozers, the original Anti-Beeching Front was wound up in the 1960s after allegedly abandoning the Trainspotting Community - a charge they deny. Graffiti appeared in rail enthusiast neighbourhoods such as "ABF - A Bloody Failure". An order was given to "dump arms", but volunteers mistakenly interpreted it as an order to take a dump at their nearest station toilets!
However, a hard-core group decided to perpetuate the struggle, albeit covertly, as the Continuity ABF, vowing to carry on its campaign of Physical Force Trainspotting!
What about the Real ABF, and their splinter group The Really Real ABF and *their* splinter group The Really Real, Keepin’ It Real ABF?
A beautiful bromance between a meth addict and a gym bunny with a literal brain worm. Is this the cultural and civilisational renaissance Europe is supposed to join in?
'A Restore Britain Government would hold a referendum on the reintroduction of the death penalty - for the most evil crimes, where the guilt is absolutely undeniable.
Our members would be free to campaign how they choose in that referendum, but we believe that it should be put to the British people.
I would personally be campaigning very much in favour.
In my view, there is no absolutely zero benefit to keeping a monster like Axel Rudakubana alive.
He butchered those beautiful young girls in cold blood.
He does not deserve to live. Tragically, there are too many just like him.
How many supporters of the death penalty believe that introducing retrospective sentencing for individuals selected by politicians would be a good idea ? Seems like a very dangerous precedent to me.
'A Restore Britain Government would hold a referendum on the reintroduction of the death penalty - for the most evil crimes, where the guilt is absolutely undeniable.
Our members would be free to campaign how they choose in that referendum, but we believe that it should be put to the British people.
I would personally be campaigning very much in favour.
In my view, there is no absolutely zero benefit to keeping a monster like Axel Rudakubana alive.
He butchered those beautiful young girls in cold blood.
He does not deserve to live. Tragically, there are too many just like him.
'A Restore Britain Government would hold a referendum on the reintroduction of the death penalty - for the most evil crimes, where the guilt is absolutely undeniable.
Our members would be free to campaign how they choose in that referendum, but we believe that it should be put to the British people.
I would personally be campaigning very much in favour.
In my view, there is no absolutely zero benefit to keeping a monster like Axel Rudakubana alive.
He butchered those beautiful young girls in cold blood.
He does not deserve to live. Tragically, there are too many just like him.
Probably the best place I've visited. September 2012, 4 days.
A long way to go for 4 days
I had a work trip to South Africa where I was in the country for under 24 hours. I spent longer in the air.
I once sat by a guy on a plane, his job involved Dublin -> London -> Miami -> Dallas -> Miami -> London -> Dublin , meeting in each of those locations on concurrent days...once a week every single month.
He was in cattle class on the Miami to London after a mix up, he was not a happy chappy. Even less so when I started chatting to him.
Probably the best place I've visited. September 2012, 4 days.
A long way to go for 4 days
I had a work trip to South Africa where I was in the country for under 24 hours. I spent longer in the air.
Pah! I once went to Perth, WA to bollock somebody, then came home that night.
It worked. They stopped sending us invoices for tens of millions were were never going to pay.
I also went to Trinidad for less than a day. (It was very shortly after Lady Diana had been killed/died. I was inundated with people wanting me to take flowers to Buck House.)
'A Restore Britain Government would hold a referendum on the reintroduction of the death penalty - for the most evil crimes, where the guilt is absolutely undeniable.
Our members would be free to campaign how they choose in that referendum, but we believe that it should be put to the British people.
I would personally be campaigning very much in favour.
In my view, there is no absolutely zero benefit to keeping a monster like Axel Rudakubana alive.
He butchered those beautiful young girls in cold blood.
He does not deserve to live. Tragically, there are too many just like him.
Here's the thing: some of the worst miscarriages of justice have happened when everybody was absolutely certain of the guilt of the accused.
Then you get into arguments over who deserves to die, and who doesn't, and unless you're willing to execute hundreds of people each year, it all becomes pretty arbitrary. And, in my experience, the typical murderer is not irredeemably evil (conversely, there are non-murderers who are irredeemably evil.)
I see no point in sparing traitors in time of war, or war criminals in its immediate aftermath, (and in such cases, there will rarely be any doubt about guilt), but the death penalty in peacetime is more trouble than it is worth.
'A Restore Britain Government would hold a referendum on the reintroduction of the death penalty - for the most evil crimes, where the guilt is absolutely undeniable.
Our members would be free to campaign how they choose in that referendum, but we believe that it should be put to the British people.
I would personally be campaigning very much in favour.
In my view, there is no absolutely zero benefit to keeping a monster like Axel Rudakubana alive.
He butchered those beautiful young girls in cold blood.
He does not deserve to live. Tragically, there are too many just like him.
Here's the thing: some of the worst miscarriages of justice have happened when everybody was absolutely certain of the guilt of the accused.
Not doubting you but some examples? I think the 'Let him have it' case is often raised. Were people convinced of the Birmingham Six? It is tough to be absolutely certain for a lot of cases, for sure, but take the guy at Southport, apprehended at the scene. No doubt he did it.
'A Restore Britain Government would hold a referendum on the reintroduction of the death penalty - for the most evil crimes, where the guilt is absolutely undeniable.
Our members would be free to campaign how they choose in that referendum, but we believe that it should be put to the British people.
I would personally be campaigning very much in favour.
In my view, there is no absolutely zero benefit to keeping a monster like Axel Rudakubana alive.
He butchered those beautiful young girls in cold blood.
He does not deserve to live. Tragically, there are too many just like him.
Here's the thing: some of the worst miscarriages of justice have happened when everybody was absolutely certain of the guilt of the accused.
Then you get into arguments over who deserves to die, and who doesn't, and unless you're willing to execute hundreds of people each year, it all becomes pretty arbitrary. And, in my experience, the typical murderer is not irredeemably evil (conversely, there are non-murderers who are irredeemably evil.)
I see no point in sparing traitors in time of war, or war criminals in its immediate aftermath, (and in such cases, there will rarely be any doubt about guilt), but the death penalty in peacetime is more trouble than it is worth.
I'm not actually in favour of the death penalty, but I would make suicide an option for prisoners. I don't see why we should feed, clothe, keep them warm etc for the next 30-40 years.
9,710 UK medical graduate applications to specialty training programmes.
6,913 International medical graduate applications to speciality training programmes.
In 2025:
12,316 UK medical graduate applications to specialty training programmes.
20,807 International medical graduate applications to speciality training programmes.
No wonder UK grads now finish university, do two years on the job training as foundation doctors and then end up unemployed.
Number of grad applications though increased for both UK and overseas applicants but the number of doctor and consultant training places hasn't. There are only 12,000 such training places a year and only 23% of overseas applicants are successful compared to 69% of UK applicants
Yes, but that means 5 000 successful IMG applications out of 12 807 places, so over a 3rd of ST places go to IMGs.
Yes but given the majority of applications are from overseas now that is a far lower success rate for ST places than UK applicants
That isn’t the point. The point is that we (i.e. the country) have paid a lot of money to train our best and brightest as doctors to leave them unemployed. That’s a ridiculous state of affairs.
So ban immigrants from overseas taking medical jobs then I presume, British doctor jobs for only British medical grads! Nige and Rupert would be proud of you!
Alternatively, give anyone graduating from a U.K. university absolute priority for a training place.
Which is effectively the same thing, given there are 12,316 UK medical grad applicants and only 12,000 training places available
Some applicants will apply for more than one training programme so not quite
'The government has put an offer to the British Medical Association (BMA) that would put in place emergency legislation for UK and Republic of Ireland medical graduates and doctors who have worked in the NHS for a significant period of time to be prioritised for specialty training and tackling bottlenecks through an overhaul of recruitment for medical training. Should the BMA accept this offer, the government will accelerate plans to prioritise these medics, addressing the current system that has led to soaring competition ratios - with current applicants set to benefit from the 2026 intake.
Not sure the BMA will approve of that particular use of Brexit Freedoms. I wonder if it's open to legal challenge from settled status EU citizens.
Would it be based on UK and Irish citizenship, or UK and Irish Universities?
If a settled status EU citizen went into a British Uni, then they'd be counted within the 12,316 UK medical grad applicants surely?
If a UK citizen has not been resident in the UK for three years before, they pay overseas fees at university. So, would they be counted or not?
As I've discovered with my daughter's applications, it's complicated! Edinburgh just asked for a full list of dates she's been in the UK in the last 10 years, and the email contains the line "we're not asking for tickets at this stage".
I mean... what?
You will have to pay regardless
I know.
And I showed her Trainspotting last night, so she knows what the locals are like.
I am sure she will avoid those areas for sure, certainly brilliant for good pubs and restaurants in the better parts.
9,710 UK medical graduate applications to specialty training programmes.
6,913 International medical graduate applications to speciality training programmes.
In 2025:
12,316 UK medical graduate applications to specialty training programmes.
20,807 International medical graduate applications to speciality training programmes.
No wonder UK grads now finish university, do two years on the job training as foundation doctors and then end up unemployed.
Number of grad applications though increased for both UK and overseas applicants but the number of doctor and consultant training places hasn't. There are only 12,000 such training places a year and only 23% of overseas applicants are successful compared to 69% of UK applicants
Yes, but that means 5 000 successful IMG applications out of 12 807 places, so over a 3rd of ST places go to IMGs.
Yes but given the majority of applications are from overseas now that is a far lower success rate for ST places than UK applicants
That isn’t the point. The point is that we (i.e. the country) have paid a lot of money to train our best and brightest as doctors to leave them unemployed. That’s a ridiculous state of affairs.
So ban immigrants from overseas taking medical jobs then I presume, British doctor jobs for only British medical grads! Nige and Rupert would be proud of you!
Alternatively, give anyone graduating from a U.K. university absolute priority for a training place.
Which is effectively the same thing, given there are 12,316 UK medical grad applicants and only 12,000 training places available
Some applicants will apply for more than one training programme so not quite
'The government has put an offer to the British Medical Association (BMA) that would put in place emergency legislation for UK and Republic of Ireland medical graduates and doctors who have worked in the NHS for a significant period of time to be prioritised for specialty training and tackling bottlenecks through an overhaul of recruitment for medical training. Should the BMA accept this offer, the government will accelerate plans to prioritise these medics, addressing the current system that has led to soaring competition ratios - with current applicants set to benefit from the 2026 intake.
Not sure the BMA will approve of that particular use of Brexit Freedoms. I wonder if it's open to legal challenge from settled status EU citizens.
Would it be based on UK and Irish citizenship, or UK and Irish Universities?
If a settled status EU citizen went into a British Uni, then they'd be counted within the 12,316 UK medical grad applicants surely?
If a UK citizen has not been resident in the UK for three years before, they pay overseas fees at university. So, would they be counted or not?
As I've discovered with my daughter's applications, it's complicated! Edinburgh just asked for a full list of dates she's been in the UK in the last 10 years, and the email contains the line "we're not asking for tickets at this stage".
I mean... what?
You will have to pay regardless
My half-Thai, half British grandchildren are at/applying to Australian universities. Much more financially appealing, apparently, than British ones.
Will not be as pleasant as Edinburgh OKC. Especially given RCS is loaded and can afford to indulge her.
Comments
https://x.com/_ConnieShaw/status/2024069047206179028
Anyway, I must be off.
I suggested, in a meeting, that we get someone to write a job descriptions (quill pen and parchment) and employ a chap in a tricorn hat to announce them - perhaps on the steps of the Royal Exchange.
What's good for the goose.
I’m in a freezing cold field under cyclonic gloom! And the easterly winds picking up.
It wasn't me, never crossed my desk, barely knew anything about it.
Why did you post Reilly ace of spies?
...at 3am? With the toilet brush? With your reputation? What were they thinking?
Palantir Technologies CEO Alex Karp couldn’t stay seated in his chair as he proudly stated, “We kill people sometimes,” while speaking to shareholders.
https://x.com/MmisterNobody/status/2023780218650194110
Palantir CEO Dr. Alex Karp:
“You need a higher purpose, and I think you often need a lower purpose.
@andrewrsorkin : “What’s your lower purpose?”
Karp: “I love the idea of getting a drone and having light fentanyl-laced urine spraying on analysts that tried to screw us.”
It's the Conservatives who are intensely concentrated in the 60+ bracket.
Not exactly joined-up thinking.
* this Government's own words.
Yet just a few months on, AI Pathfinder is in turmoil. The data centre developer’s website now features a placeholder image and nearly all of its staff have left.
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2026/02/18/this-british-tech-champion-had-an-18bn-vision-for-ai-now-it/
I said at the time, the companies they were announcing were "interesting". None of them had the money that the government were saying they were going to invest and nor were they say an Oracle who can phone up anybody and get the loan.
From this week's YouGov, since it's to hand:
18-24: Con 7 Ref 6
25-49: Con 16 Ref 17
50-64: Con 18 Ref 33
65+: Con 26 Ref 33
https://d3nkl3psvxxpe9.cloudfront.net/documents/VotingIntention_MRP_Results_260216_w.pdf
I believe Citizen Tommy is the lead list candidate for Alba in Glasgow and his missus also in the mix. No idea how they’ll do, but not great I suspect.
I mean... what?
Tamworth 2023 was their worst recent one but not last
Ogmore 2016 last but UKIP were the only non standard and were still big fish
If she’s been living overseas for most of the past three years - and they already know which schools she’s been attending - then expect the bill for the full fees.
Though of course they had to get the funding from US venture cap.
Sequoia (@sequoia) leading the largest European seed round of all time with $1B at $4B valuation.
David Silver, one of Britain’s top AI researchers, left Google DeepMind late last year to launch the London-based start-up Ineffable Intelligence.
He aims to build “superhuman intelligence”.
Sequoia partners Alfred Lin and Sonya Huang flew to London to visit Silver after his departure, who is also a professor at University College London.
https://x.com/etnshow/status/2024071567584469330
Sythensia the biggest recent "British"* success, where they have products, they are making money, and recently raised at valuation of $4bn (after turning down $3bn buy-out from Adobe).
By British, its two Danes, a German and a Spaniard. Albeit the one is an academic at UCL and whose research a lot of the original product was based.
I met a man who wasn't there!
He wasn't there again today,
I wish, I wish he'd go away!
When I came to No. 10 last night at three,
The man was waiting there for me
But when I looked around the hall,
I couldn't see him there at all!
Go away, go away, don't you come back any more!
Go away, go away, and please don't slam the door... (slam!)
Last night I saw upon the stair at No.10,
A little man who wasn't there
He wasn't there again today
Oh, how I wish he'd go away....
Remember OpenAI actually did a presser announcing with Nvidia $100bn, and that disappeared into the ether.
Anyway, the bunch of fuckwits that pass for this clown show of a government seem incapable of realising the most basic facts. In the meantime, business confidence has been damaged, investment has doubtless been delayed and lots of young adults have been thrown unnecessarily on the scrapheap.
The sooner the current government replaces them there, the better.
And look at Scotland - first there was anti-Tory tactical voting, and then there was unionist tactical voting against the SNP.
Of course, this cuts both ways too: if both Reform and the Conservatives survive as electoral forces, one would expect that -just as with the LibDems vs Labour- the number of seats where they are competing with each other will be very small.
Though Kemi has made a few Tory gains amongst under 30s since 2024.
Hence Reform is now a party with a bigger age gap amongst its supporters than the Tories
That's without considering jacking up considerably taxes like employers NICs that are solely a tax on salaried incomes.
The former allow one -over time- to become a British citizen, and have a path to Indefinite Leave to Remain, etc. The latter one is easier to get, but doesn't have that path.
Most countries have that distinction. (And the UK does to an extent, with visas like the working holiday one that Australians used to take full advantage of.)
Now, of course, people on non-immigrant visas meet and marry British people from time-to-time, so a chunk of people on non-immigrant visas woudl end up staying. But having such a distinction also the government a bit more control over numbers.
If you stay for week 2, they explain how things aren't quite so simple.
By the end of the first year, you know why economics is a social science.
There was a queue outside which provided a hint. But still. Fucking hell
They were second from bottom, beating UKIP, in Kingswood in 2024 and likewise before that in the 2011 Inverclyde by-election. They were second from bottom, beating the Green, in the 2014 Heywood and Middleton by-election.
But keep going back and we get to the 2000 Falkirk West by-election. Lab, Con, SNP, LD and Scottish Socialist all stood, and the LD came bottom, beaten by the Scottish Socialist candidate. I think it's fair to call the Scottish Socialist Party a minor party?
Alliance in Northern Ireland came last in the 2018 West Tyrone by-election, the 2013 Mid Ulster by-election and the 2011 Belfast West by-election, but those were without minor candidates. (Well, the last was with PPP, who beat the Alliance candidate, but I think I'd count them as a major party?)
Usual lines, usual insults. Don't care.'
https://x.com/RupertLowe10/status/2024063954566140052?s=20
'A Restore Britain Government would hold a referendum on the reintroduction of the death penalty - for the most evil crimes, where the guilt is absolutely undeniable.
Our members would be free to campaign how they choose in that referendum, but we believe that it should be put to the British people.
I would personally be campaigning very much in favour.
In my view, there is no absolutely zero benefit to keeping a monster like Axel Rudakubana alive.
He butchered those beautiful young girls in cold blood.
He does not deserve to live. Tragically, there are too many just like him.
If the British people support the reintroduction of the death penalty in our referendum, a Restore Britain Government would put Rudakubana to death.'
https://x.com/RupertLowe10/status/2024114121021505812?s=20
There is one big drawback with Cowork, no memory between sessions. The beauty of Claude Code is the that ability to pick things back up again, and if you actually get it to write a work in progress doc in markdown / latex, it is even better.
Starmer is a lawyer first second third.
He isn't a politician.
That is deemed to be a weakness.
After Boris it should be deemed a strength.
The problem Starmer has is that from day1, 90% of the UK media fully paid up uneqivical Tory supporting and not questioning of Reform were out to get him.
He hasn't helped himself.
A more street wise and less inherently polite and decent man would have fired back with both barrels.
Can Reform and Conservative do something similar? Perhaps, though it's not obvious what the basis of the division would be. How should a Reform constituency look different to a Conservative one? What shop- like Gail's- works as an indicator species? On top of which, neither party seems to be in the mood to accept the status of 'significant but junior member of our bloc'. As long as each one thinks it can beat the other, they are more likely to fight each other to a standstill- 1983 flipped in the mirror, so to speak.
Sopwith managed to make components so interchangeable, that some apprentices accidentally attached the wrong wings to aircraft. In 1918.
Compare that to the Nimrod ASW farce. 100 years later.
Rotherham 2012 they finishrd behind UKIP, Respect, BNP , English Democrats and an Indy but ahead of TUSC and another Indy
However, a hard-core group decided to perpetuate the struggle, albeit covertly, as the Continuity ABF, vowing to carry on its campaign of Physical Force Trainspotting!
And I showed her Trainspotting last night, so she knows what the locals are like.
https://www.thelist.com/1776728/rfk-jr-relationship-history-before-wife-cheryl-hines/
How many supporters of the death penalty believe that introducing retrospective sentencing for individuals selected by politicians would be a good idea ?
Seems like a very dangerous precedent to me.
He was in cattle class on the Miami to London after a mix up, he was not a happy chappy. Even less so when I started chatting to him.
It worked. They stopped sending us invoices for tens of millions were were never going to pay.
I also went to Trinidad for less than a day. (It was very shortly after Lady Diana had been killed/died. I was inundated with people wanting me to take flowers to Buck House.)
I see no point in sparing traitors in time of war, or war criminals in its immediate aftermath, (and in such cases, there will rarely be any doubt about guilt), but the death penalty in peacetime is more trouble than it is worth.