Rolling Brexit Links/UK politics in the neo-Weimar era

I bought the June 22nd "Please Don't Go!"* Der Spiegel with dual-language pre-Brexit editorials from WH Smith for £3.

I looked at this week's "Oh Shit You Went"** Der Spiegel in WH Smith yesterday. It cost £5.20. I assume the actual Euro cover price was the same for both. Felt a bit funny thinking about that.

* actual cover text
** not actual cover text

price of imported goods will rise with the weak pound, but there might also be a fall in demand in some sectors too so that might mitigate inflation?

Devaluing the Yuan makes sense because China is a huge manufacturer and net exporter. The UK isn't, really. I effectively work as an exporter and it's pretty good for my company - selling something for $250 and recognising the revenue in GBP = more revenue than ever.

The UK doesn't have a strong manufacturing base and is unlikely to get one in the near future without serious investment that won't happen during periods of extended uncertainty though. We import almost everything and it's going to get more expensive.

I'm pretty sceptical of the idea that we are stuck with perennial Tory govt from now on - all the Conservatives really have is a reputation for economic competence and that's taking one hell of a battering at the moment. Hard to see how they win extra seats even allowing for Labour being in a mess.

I looked at this week's "Oh Shit You Went"** Der Spiegel in WH Smith yesterday. It cost £5.20.

sad lol

we've had nothing but Tory government since 1979, i'm kind of getting used to it

im a bit tired of party politics, important and fascinating though it is (though slightly demoralised by gove making people feel some sort of pity for poor old boris)

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2016/jul/07/stories-buried-brexit-child-poverty-un-austerity

Tracer: FT sort-of says ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

https://next.ft.com/content/16e5a42e-4441-11e6-9b66-0712b3873ae1#axzz4Dl1tt2Ar

Spoke to a friend who's head of a dept. at Glasgow Uni. They have people who've been working on establishing relationships with continental partners over the past decade, building Erasmus exchanges, funding research. All of it gone to shit in the past fortnight. So sad.

― Acting Crazy (Instrumental) (jed_), Thursday, July 7, 2016 12:38 AM (Yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

i work in scottish higher education, and i've been out of the country on holiday since the day of the vote until yesterday. just had a chat over the phone with my boss about the vote - he said in our institution alone he knows of at least a couple of major research projects which have been cancelled already and one prominent foreign academic who was due to join us but has backed out because of the uncertainty. boss said he was at a meeting with his equivalents from other uk universities last week and the overriding atmosphere was disbelief, fear and anger. can't wait to get back to work :(

so here comes inflation, and with it interest rate hikes, and with that a drop in home sales, and eventually falling house prices. which is kind of good right?

plus a weak pound helps wipe out the trade deficit? i.e. raises price of imported goods and lowers the price of our exports, making them more attractive?

am i missing something?

― illegal economic migration (Tracer Hand), Friday, 8 July 2016 13:03 (2 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

biggest sectors of British exports are like: financial services, tech services, consulting

which don't intuitively obey the rules of the invisible hand the same way , but i wd want to leave the explanation to someone who knows what they're talking about

https://telescoper.wordpress.com/2016/06/29/the-brexit-threat-to-british-science/

It has been guaranteed that funding commitments will be honoured until the end of Horizon 2020, but that assumes that holders of such grants don’t leave the UK taking the grants with them. I know of four cases of this happening already. They won’t come back even if we’re still in the European Union then.

Another probable outcomes are that:

the shrinking economy will cause the UK government to abandon its ring-fence on science funding, which will lead to cuts in domestic provision also;
a steep decline in EU students (and associated income) will halt the expansion of UK science departments, and may cause some to shrink or even close;
non-UK EU scientists working in the UK decide to leave anyway because the atmosphere of this country has already been poisoned by xenophobic rhetoric.

British science may “endure” after BrExit but it definitely won’t prosper.

I still have yet to see a single persuasive argument for why leaving the EU is beneficial to the UK.

Or, rather, a persuasive argument for how leaving the EU is anything but an actively bad decision.

The positive would be that it becomes more affordable for non-EU students though with a PM who seems dead set on driving them away, that isn't much of a comfort.

Xps

WE'VE TAKEN BACK OUR COUNTRY

all these reports across so many sectors are like the sound of 1,000 toilets flushing

I still have yet to see a single persuasive argument for why leaving the EU is beneficial to the UK.

they don't exist

i suppose a salmon would be exactly the right person to lead us back out of these lavatorial rapids xp

It means we can now elect a government that will bring about full communism without interference from Brussels. Which given the political climate in this country will definitely happen.

I have tended to view Lexit as pie in the sky stuff, but I suppose that's how centre-left/liberals view people who still support Corbyn, which I loosely do.

https://twitter.com/andrealeadsom/status/751531686987501570

Crabb must be pretty grateful that this is overshadowing the other story on that front page

Is his body not beach-ready?

so leadsom actually said that being a mother puts her at a disadvantage against may?

there are some direct quotes from the article here. I can see how the Times may have stitched her up with leading questions/taking stuff out of context, but even if that's what happened it makes her look incompetent to fall into that trap

https://twitter.com/stephenkb/status/751528074295009280

She is such a treat <3

lol at Crabb but disappointed the texts were to a woman tbh

so many pro-Leadsom replies to that tweet blaming the ~mainstream media~ for being biased against good honest British Brexiters, a conspiracy theory I keep seeing in comments sections (why oh why do I read them?), because obviously the Sun and the Mail aren't mainstream media. it's quite hard to find out about such underground little zines, always telling the truth about everything

the science/research/higher ed situation is really v v depressing and I haven't heard a single politician even mention the importance of funding for any of the above

Apparently Australia's about to elect a climate denier/anti-vaxxer and Trump shares those two hobby-horses, so it's conspiracies all round. It's the new thing?

Andrea Leadsom supporter Lousie Mensch doing a bang up job of defending Andrea Leadsom:

Louise Mensch ‏@LouiseMensch 34m
@chrisshipitv @andrealeadsom @thetimes @RSylvesterTimes I'm not on the campaign. Andrea is a trusting soul. Produce unedited tape

http://leadsomforleader.com/
http://leadsom2016.com/
http://leadsomforleader.co.uk/

this transcript seems pretty unambiguous, despite her "not saying, just saying" preface:

https://twitter.com/emmatimes2/status/751551212495986688/photo/1

This is going to get really fucking dog whistle nasty in ways that will put the London mayoral election to shame.

Leadsom seems notably bad at dog whistling i.e. not understanding that you don't actually come out and explicitly say the awful things instead of just implying them, what with this and the "overrun by foreigners" tweet

Well, whistle be damned - let's not forget she's more of a hunting bugle type anyway

as it is important try find a gender-matching comparison andrea leadsom seems in her being thrust close to power from practically nowhere (and her ineptitude and superficiality) more like an english sarah palin than a 21st c. margaret thatcher

The amount of deluded anti-EU conspiracy theorists flooding twitter is genuinely terrifying to me. And also how young some of them are.

this is terrifying not really because distant outsider andrea leadsom is still batshit and awful but because the "sensible option/safe pair of hands" narrative around theresa may is more and more iron-clad

My dad just got spam from Delta airlines:

Now is a historically great time to discover adventure in the U.K.

Don't miss this incredible opportunity to experience everything London has to offer, including once-in-a-lifetime exchange rates and travel savings. Book a trip to select U.K. cities by July 14, 2016, and travel between August 23, 2016 and March 31, 2017 to seize this perfect London moment.

once-in-a-lifetime

Citation needed

Apparently Australia's about to elect a climate denier/anti-vaxxer and Trump shares those two hobby-horses, so it's conspiracies all round. It's the new thing?

― Never changed username before (cardamon), Friday, 8 July 2016 23:50 (Yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

There really does seem to be a lack of trust in experts these days. I remember at the anti-EU flotilla event some journalist asked Farage why he'd started smoking again and he said that he thought the doctors were wrong about it, and I definitely feel like a lot of people in the UK and the US (and apparently Australia) are taking Homer Simpson's 'eggheads - what do they know?' approach to life

A lot of people don't know which public figures to trust so they don't trust any of them. 'They're all a bunch of crooks'

I can sort of understand why people would feel that way (just look at the Chilcot report) but it's deeply worrying

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YM8t29gD8J8

I can't judge that mentality when applied to one's own health, because I'm too busy cooking a greasy processed meat fryup for brunch, while nursing a standard hangover.

Well there's ignoring health advice and there's discounting its validity

truedat

But let us consider this further point: Is not he who can best strike a blow in a boxing match or in any kind of fighting best able to ward off a blow?

Certainly.

And he who is most skilful in preventing or escaping from a disease is best able to create one?

True.

And he is the best guard of a camp who is best able to steal a march upon the enemy?

Certainly.

Then he who is a good keeper of anything is also a good thief?

That, I suppose, is to be inferred.

Then if the just man is good at keeping money, he is good at stealing it.

That is implied in the argument.

Then after all the just man has turned out to be a thief. And this is a lesson which I suspect you must have learnt out of Homer; for he, speaking of Autolycus, the maternal grandfather of Odysseus, who is a favourite of his, affirms that He was excellent above all men in theft and perjury. And so, you and Homer and Simonides are agreed that justice is an art of theft; to be practised however 'for the good of friends and for the harm of enemies,' --that was what you were saying?

once-in-a-lifetime

Into the blue again after the money's gone

NV with the potent reminder of how awful philosophy is

xp there is water at the bottom of the ocean lol crabb