Brexit

[Pyperkub]

Trusterf*ck indeed. Truss + 25!!!! Cabinet Ministers!!!!

[malchior]

This Truss story is another headline that should be unbelievable. We're looking at yet another huge breach of western intelligence here by the Russians. And then on top there is potentially huge political damage because the allegation is that the UK internal security folks discovered this during the summer leadership campaign. Boris Johnson and cabinet secretary Case may have covered it up by forcing a press blackout. Some allege this was to protect Truss's premiership campaign but it's also possible they did it purely for security reasons. It's little wonder that Johnson was quickly forced out of the leadership race last weekend.

[Carpet_pissr]

Hmmm, interesting timing (re: hacked phone):
"Russia says UK navy blew up Nord Stream, London denies involvement"

[Max Peck]

Another Brexit success story, as Britain reasserts ownership of British research at British institutions.

Brexit causes collapse in European research funding for Oxbridge

One of the UK’s most prestigious universities has seen its funding from a large European research programme plummet from £62m a year to nothing since Brexit, new figures show.

The latest statistics from the European Commission reveal that Cambridge University, which netted €483m (£433m) over the seven years of the last European research funding programme, Horizon 2020, has not received any funding in the first two years of the new Horizon Europe programme.

Meanwhile, Oxford, which won €523m from the earlier programme, has only been awarded €2m to date from Horizon Europe.

Britain’s associate membership of the €95.5bn Horizon Europe programme was agreed in principle as part of the Brexit trade deal negotiations in 2020, but ratification was disrupted after the UK failed to implement the Northern Ireland protocol. Such funding is vital to UK universities because it enables research collaborations with institutions across Europe and carries considerable international prestige.

“For higher education and research, there are no new opportunities and no actual possible upsides from Brexit,” said Simon Marginson, professor of higher education at Oxford.

He described Brexit as a “historic error of monumental proportions” and said the new data on Oxford and Cambridge – usually the top performers in Europe – was “very worrying”. The losses reached beyond money, he added, with the UK also becoming less attractive to high-quality European researchers and students.

The government has guaranteed it will cover all successful Horizon Europe grants applied for by the end of March, but after watching the political wranglings for more than two years, many academics are now leaving the UK, saying they no longer believe their vital European research partnerships will be protected.

[malchior]

I am "enjoying" all this reckoning on the wreckage of Brexit. It took a few years for the obvious consequences to sink in. It's hard when your bad decisions come back to eventually haunt you. America is slowly learning this lesson now as well.

[Isgrimnur]

[Jaymann]

Lest we never forget.

[Max Peck]

Brexit continues to deliver, even after all these years.

Like British cheddar? Enjoy it while you can still find it

The grey weather outside Darren Larvin's window in Wiltshire, U.K., when he spoke to CBC News last Tuesday matched the forecast for his company's Canadian cheese sales in 2024.

"Essentially, we're going to fall off the edge of a cliff at the end of this year," said the managing director of Coombe Castle International, an award-winning global exporter of British dairy products like specialty creams, butters and cheeses.

After Brexit — the United Kingdom's departure from the European Union in 2020 — an interim agreement kept tariff-free British cheese on Canadian shelves for three years, as government negotiators worked on a longer-term bilateral trade deal to replace the liberalized trade the U.K. enjoyed under the terms of Canada's Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA) with the EU.

Those bilateral negotiations have yet to land. And in the meantime, both sides confirm their temporary cheese deal expires at the end of 2023. There's a risk British cheese imports are set to nosedive.

After four decades of working with other top British cheesemakers to find openings for fancy U.K. cheddars in Canada's notoriously closed dairy market, Larkin admits to feeling "pretty desperate." This change affects about one-third of his business. While British cheese shipments may not drop to zero, he's poised to lose a lot of Canadian shelf space.

[Blackhawk]

Canada stared at the US. The US stared right back. Each stood their ground, one on either side of the prize.

The Battle for Wisconsin had begun.

[Kraken]

Is Canada trying to take Wisconsin? I didn't hear about that.

[Isgrimnur]

If you listen closely at night, you can hear them sharpening their skates, getting ready to come down and take our cheese.

[Jaymann]

First they will attack the rogue fort.

[Isgrimnur]

[Blackhawk]

Is Canada trying to take Wisconsin? I didn't hear about that.

The cheddar must flow.

[Pyperkub]

The people who voted Leave are people who are (potentially) the most impacted by cheap labor.

That implies some rationality to their Leave vote, which appears to be a questionable prospect.

There is a rationality here that the elites ignore. There are over 3 million EU citizens living in the UK today, almost one million of them Poles. That's 5% of the population, a very large percent. These people are not low wage/skill migrants such as many Hispanic immigrants in the US, many of them are skilled in trades such as construction, auto repair, etc. Others have been attracted to the UK financial sector. Many UK citizens see these immigrants competing with them for jobs and depressing wages. That's a good deal of what is driving this vote.

I'm not so sure that leaving the EU will have the economic benefits they apparently are hoping for.

It had the ones we expected - $178 billion less annually (which even seems low to me):

Britain's departure from the European Union has reduced the size of its economy by 6% so far - an annual cost of 140 billion pounds ($178 billion) - London mayor Sadiq Khan said on Thursday, with the shortfall seen reaching 10% by 2035.

All quite predictable.

[Alefroth]

I wonder if there is any chance of a Broin now?

[Carpet_pissr]

Is that related to the Britcoin?

[TheMix]

I would assume that it's "Britain" + "join". As Brexit was "Britain" + "exit".

And no, I don't know if that should mean it should be "Brjoin".

[Alefroth]

Maybe Brenter?

[Isgrimnur]

British prime minister sets July 4 election as his Conservatives face biggest challenge in a decade

“Now is the moment for Britain to choose its future,” Sunak said in an announcement that took many people who expected a fall election by surprise. He spoke on a day of good economic news, hoping to remind wavering voters of one relative success of his time in office.

But Sunak was drenched by heavy rain outside the prime minister’s residence, and his announcement was nearly drowned out by protesters blasting “Things Can Only Get Better,” a rival Labour campaign song from the Tony Blair era.
...
Elections in the U.K. have to be held no more than five years apart, but the prime minister can choose the timing within that period. Sunak, 44, had until December to call an election. The last one was in December 2019.

[Pyperkub]

Farage also completely full of sh*t and looking for a grift ...

Nigel Farage claims Russia was provoked into Ukraine war

Farage, who has long been accused of being a Putin apologist, tells BBC Moscow was given excuse by EU and Nato eastern expansion

[Isgrimnur]

Farage ... said [Andrew Tate] had raised awareness of ‘men becoming feminine’ and stood up for their ability to ‘be a bloke’

[Max Peck]

The ghosts of Canada's 1993 Conservative wipeout hang over Britain's election campaign

Rural Alberta may be a continent away from the faded British seaside town of Clacton-on-Sea, but Nigel Farage believes both places will be remembered for starting political revolutions.

Already a familiar face to Britons, Farage has injected some drama into an otherwise staid British general election that the Labour Party under leader Keir Starmer appears well on its way to winning.

Farage, instead, has set his sights on the Conservatives, transforming his political party, Reform UK, into a rising political force that appears to be siphoning off their votes.

"What we want to do is replace [the Conservatives] with something more positive," Farage told CBC News at a well-attended political rally earlier this week in Clacton, where he's running to be the next member of Parliament.

[Isgrimnur]

Rishi Sunak on stage conceding the Election

(L to R)

Rishi Sunak, YouTuber Niko Omilana, Lee Taylor, Gilly Nicholls and Sir Archibald Stanton, Rio Goldhammer, Count Binface.

[GreenGoo]

Since the UK is a parliament, each Member has to campaign in the constituency or area where they are running. When results are announced, all candidates for that constituency are standing together on stage. And because the criteria to run for Parliament are quite basic, you always have a couple of comedy candidates or bizarre protest candidates who get their 2 minutes on stage.

He actually won his local election, but along with that he has to announce that his party has lost the government.

[Max Peck]

It's always fun to see how First Past The Post distorts the popular vote when you have multiple viable parties occupying overlapping portions of the political spectrum.



Starmer really should send a big box of chocolates and a nice thank-you note to Farage.

[Isgrimnur]