You might not like Farage - I get that. You might not like Badenoch - I get that. You might not like Lowe - I get that.
But sooner or later you’re going to have to hold your nose and vote to #UniteTheRight or Burnham’s in No10 for a decade
The pro-Rejoin people are not engaging with how difficult it was for Britain to join in the first place.
It took over a decade -- with two vetoed applications -- and then Ted Heath had to do a massive sell-out on fish and the Commonwealth, which ended up destroying our fishing communities and (arguably) our relationship with the Commonwealth, to appease them. And that was when there were only 6 member states!
Now, with 27 members, each of them could plausibly act as a hold out, making huge demands on the UK.
One country could say the UK can't join unless they make *higher contributions* to the EU budget. Another could say that they want the UK to take *more* refugees. Others could demand Britain accept the euro. Others could say Britain must join Schengen. Spain might say, hand over Gibraltar. Ireland could say launch a border poll in Northern Ireland, etc etc.
It's a recipe for disaster. And will be such a drain on the attention of government, our politicians, civil servants, diplomats, negotiators, etc.
The original sin of Brexit was not allowing Vote Leave to own the project after victory.
In wrestling power from the people who won the referendum, insane internal machinations within the Parliamentary Conservative Party prevented those who campaigned for the outcome from delivering that outcome.
From the start the whole project was decapitated.
And so here we are now, ten years on, having repealed precious little EU law, pursuing no supply side reform, indeed still building a £125m bat tunnel in order that HS2 abide by the retained EU Habitats Directive.
For the best part of a decade the political class stole the victory from the people.
And now they have the temerity to say their own failure is actually the fault of the people for wanting an independent country.
Only one of these PR systems would even have given us a two party coalition last time. A recipe for extremist minor parties wagging the dog. Chaos and paralysis beckon
Rejoining the single market would restore more frictionless trade which, ceteris paribus, should aid economic growth, tho by how much is hard to discern.
But there are costs. Above all Brussels regulation, which inhibits high-tech and made the EU something of an AI backwater. Whereas the UK is 3rd in the world re AI and has more unicorns (high-tech start ups worth £1bn+ each) than the next three biggest European markets combined.
So that would inhibit growth (and about 25% of our growth comes from high tech these days).
The net would certainly be nothing like enough to generate enough revenues to pay for the massive tax cuts E Davey is calling for.
This sort of shut up and trust the establishment attitude only works when enough people are confident that the state is sufficiently competent that mistakes are rare. That is no longer the case.
I have to say that being run by morons who treat the voting public as if they too are witless infants is getting well beyond a joke now. The disconnect between the seriousness of our situation as a country and the calibre of the clowns in charge is incalculable
This is so bonkers I can hardly believe you made it.
A large part of the 2.5m were unproductive — students, dependents etc. So they had little impact on GDP.
But their numbers are included in GDP/capita calculations, so quite the impact on GDP/capita.
I’m amazed you don’t understand this.
No wonder the three Theresa May years were three of the most miserable, shambolic, rudderless in our country’s modern history.
A political party that is legally registered is entitled to canvass voters. Stand Up to Racism is boasts about stopping that from happening and treating it as a win. That is not protest. That is a private group appointing itself the filter for who is allowed to participate in an election. Once you accept that some parties can be physically driven off the streets because you have labelled them fascist, you have abandoned the principle that voters, not activists, decide. Democracy does not work if only the approved sides get to speak.
The UK doesn’t “ask” people to come to be carers. People come to the UK to work as carers because the roles require relatively few prior qualifications and the pay is better than their domestic market. There should be a high bar for staying after you stop working as a key worker.
The recurring theme across all these ILR reports and consultations is the same: migrant carers want ILR precisely so they can leave care work.
Yet the entire campaign against the reforms is framed as being about protecting the care sector. It's deeply disingenuous.
More information emerging about the conviction of Del Somerville (jailed for two years for throwing a plastic bottle and telling police officers to 'F**k off' at a protest against the small boats).
The court heard that Somerville had played a relatively minor role at the incident, had tried to pull another protester away when he confronted police, actually lived at the marina rather than travelled there for the purpose of protesting, and that the plastic bottle he threw was 'small' or 'empty'.
It's impossible, in the context of wider sentencing policy in this country, to avoid the conclusion that the sanction handed down to Somerville amounts to two-tier justice.
Andrew Neil’s Brexit reality check on BBC Question Time.
In a nutshell:
Rejoiners are ignoring the huge political wind of change sweeping Europe and the UK v Germany/ France/ Italy growth rates make a nonsense of their Mickey Mouse economic arguments too.
#bbcqt