If you keep working on it you will find out things that certain politicians and newspapers would rather you didn't know.
I'm quite content to leave the negotiations up to David Davis and his merry men. You will soon have to accept Brexit will definitely happen. Most people that live in the UK hope that Brexit is successful. I'm not sure what you are trying to achieve?
He knows full well the real negotiations will not be discussed until a much later date. Unlike you, he will not be getting excited by any early EU posturing. The current designated EU negotiators will not even be involved in the final stages. Decisions will be made by the heads of state, probably in the final week. Are you still hoping it is all a bad dream and magically the referendum didn't happen. Sorry, your PM has confirmed Brexit is Brexit. You really should be more concerned about what is happening in France.
Nothing will happen at all until the EU are notified what the UK is hoping for. Seeing as no one, not even you has the slightest idea what it might be it is rather pointless to speculate, and that is what you are doing. We noticed that the PM had one message at the party conference, that was quickly changed when she started to realize what she had been saying and changed the message when it came down to talking with business. Practical considerations will win the day over political dogma, and by putting your head in the sand without wondering how the political message will slowly change is not very clever.
The UK negotiators know far more than they are letting on and far more than your guesses. I have always said that practical decisions over trade will finally hit the EU negotiators as they contemplate losing trade with the UK. Several things will not be negotiated. The UK will not accept free movement after Brexit. The UK will also achieve sovereignty. The UK also demands facility to negotiate bi-lateral deals. The rest is to be negotiated.
The practical decisions over trade which you dream of are dictated by the fact that our exports to the EU. amount to 13% of our GDP, whereas EU exports to us make up 3% of theirs ie. we need them more than they need us - that is the bottom line. Britain will only be able to negotiate deals outside of the EU. when it is no longer a member ie. after all negotiations are finished.
If I had a business which relied to some extent on exporting the EU I would use the next two years to build up non EU business. At worst we will still trade with the EU under WTO rules. Tariffs are much lower than they used to be, currency movements are more challenging than tariffs. The Euro has suffered a large devaluation against the USD over the last few years as confidence in the Euro has wilted further. In the EU countries and businesses just react in different ways to try to overcome these problems. With the UK's relatively flexible workforce, UK businesses are better placed to handle fluctuations. When some of the unwarranted EU red tape is ditched in a few years we will be even better positioned to compete globally.
If only Diane Abbott could leave her champagne socialist and private schooling for HER child behind for a day and visit proper Labour supporters who actually feel the true affect of uncontrolled immigration. The town where even immigrants are fed up with migration: Failing schools, filthy streets and benefit fraud - a ROBERT HARDMAN dispatch which those who accuse Brexiteers of being racist MUST read The Page Hall district in Sheffield is the subject of a new Government report Reports highlights impact of 6,000 Roma moving into one Asian community In this area, the only complaint about Brexit is that it will come too late By ROBERT HARDMAN FOR THE DAILY MAIL PUBLISHED: 22:45, 9 December 2016 | UPDATED: 00:24, 10 December 2016 e-mail 611shares 128 View comments We have heard it said so often that it has virtually acquired Biblical status. The reason that 17.4 million British people voted to leave the European Union, so it is written in The Book Of Remain, is that they were ill-informed and hoodwinked by a gang of political shysters with a bogus pledge about NHS funding on the side of a bus. However, it’s a safe bet that those who proclaim this to be the gospel truth will never have walked through Page Hall — the area of Sheffield singled out in a landmark Government report this week — let alone lived anywhere like it. After a few hours spent here, your average Islingtonian or Hampsteadite might think a little differently. please log in to view this image +10 Pressures: Slovakian Roma families in the Page Hall area of Sheffield, which was singled out in a landmark Government report this week please log in to view this image +10 The Page Hall district in North Sheffield, which has absorbed 6,000 Roma and other Eastern Europeans, mostly since 2012 Because here they would find a group of people who aren’t bothered about what Nigel Farage has to say or give two hoots about the details of Article 50. Their only complaint about Brexit is that it will come too late. Ask them why and they have countless reasons. For a start, they will point to the soiled mattress on the corner of Lloyd Street, or the abandoned sofa (with half-eaten portion of chips sitting on it) on Robey Street, or the doorless fridge blocking the pavement on Popple Street, not to mention the quite staggering volumes of filth and detritus in between. An area where several cultures had rubbed along happily enough for decades has become, quite literally, a rubbish-strewn dump ever since a sudden influx of thousands of arrivals from mainland Europe. RELATED ARTICLES Previous 1 Next please log in to view this image Britain's Brexit chief David Davis is 'not really... please log in to view this image Theresa May is urged to halt Rupert Murdoch's $22bn deal to... SHARE THIS ARTICLE Share Most are Roma migrants from Slovakia, attracted by the prospect of a better life thanks to Britain’s generous welfare benefits, free health treatment, housing and schools. The residents will also talk about the local schools trying to cope with a 15-fold increase in non-English-speaking children and about the groups of foreigners who hang around on street corners for hours shouting and spitting. And then the same residents will tell you about the time, a few decades ago, when their own families came to live in Britain. For these are immigrants, too. Woe betide the sneering Remainer who tries to call this lot stupid or racist — or both. ‘Anyone who comes here ought to work hard and respect the people who live here. please log in to view this image +10 The reason that 17.4 million British people voted to leave the European Union, so it is written in The Book Of Remain, is that they were ill-informed and hoodwinked please log in to view this image +10 However, it’s a safe bet that those who proclaim this to be the gospel truth will never have walked through Page Hall please log in to view this image +10 A discarded sofa on Popple Street in Page Hall - where the roads are strewn with rubbish ‘If you don’t, you should lose your benefits and your perks. Simple as that,’ says local businessman Zulq Rehman, 36, pointing to the piles of rubbish which a Slovakian Roma family have dumped in the road opposite his own, immaculate house. Out of the house next door appears his father, Aziz, broom in hand, ready for yet another clean-up. ‘Sometimes, you see them throwing away stuff in the middle of the night and you tell them not to and they just say the f-word,’ sighs this house-proud pensioner in a shalwar kameez and Pringle cardigan, who arrived from Pakistan 43 years and recently retired from the local steelworks. His first chore every morning, he says, is clearing the mess from the doorsteps of all the family members who live in this road. However, he is one of life’s optimists. ‘These people will learn, though it may take a few years,’ he says, as a Roma couple walk past us. They give a ‘no speak English’ shrug and walk on when I ask if I may talk to them. At the other end of the street, however, I can hardly get a word in edgeways as community radio disc jockey John Simpson, 47, gives me an impassioned explanation of where it’s all gone wrong. ‘When my parents came here from Jamaica in the Fifties, they came to do a job, they spoke English and we all had the Commonwealth in common,’ says the father-of-two. ‘Anyone who says Brexit is racist just doesn’t understand what’s happened.’ Comparing the recent migrants’ arrival to someone visiting another person’s home, he says they ought to ‘play by their hosts’ rules’. ‘Is that racist to say such things?’ he asks. please log in to view this image +10 After a few hours spent here, your average Islingtonian or Hampsteadite might think a little differently please log in to view this image +10 The story of Page Hall is one of many which feature in this week’s Government review of ‘opportunity and integration’ by former Whitehall mandarin Dame Louise Casey please log in to view this image +10 An area where several cultures had rubbed along happily enough for decades has become a rubbish-strewn dump ever since a sudden influx of thousands of arrivals from mainland Europe The story of Page Hall is one of many which feature in this week’s Government review of ‘opportunity and integration’ by former Whitehall mandarin Dame Louise Casey. Unlike some of the hand-wringing, punch-pulling reports on this most sensitive of subjects in recent years, the former charity executive and ex-Home Office anti-social behaviour ‘tsar’ offers a frank diagnosis. She condemns the way that monocultural ghettoes have become established across parts of Britain — places in which too many migrant communities cling to the language, values and social norms of other societies. Dame Louise makes a number of recommendations, including an oath of integration for new arrivals, an oath of allegiance for all public office holders and a much greater emphasis on learning English. Predictably, some of her findings have been criticised, most notably her repeated references to ‘regressive’ attitudes among some Muslim communities towards women. She says: ‘There are numerous examples of local authorities, agencies and individuals bending over backwards to accommodate people from minority faiths or “different” cultures.’ By way of example, she tells of a head teacher who took down a poster about forced marriages ‘for fear of it upsetting the local community’, and trades union opposition to a Government proposal that public-sector workers who deal with the public should be able to speak fluent English. ‘Throughout the review,’ she goes on, ‘we have encountered repeated examples of regressive, discriminatory and harmful attitudes and behaviours being sanctioned by authorities in the name of tolerance and multi-culturalism.’ This was illustrated by the myopia of the Left-wing end of the panel on BBC1’s Question Time ten days ago, when the programme was broadcast from Wakefield, West Yorkshire. Their usual pieties — more public spending, please; down with the evil Tories etc — failed to catch the mood of the audience. The biggest applause was for those wanting to press on with Brexit. The most surprising moment was when a middle-aged member of the public said: ‘Once upon a time, people came to this country and gradually integrated and were welcomed. We’re a very welcoming nation. ‘But when you get a massive influx of people all coming at the same time, that’s what people have a problem with. That’s when we get concerned when we go to the doctor and we can’t get an appointment. ‘Now people may turn round and say: “Oh no, no, that’s racist. But 18 million people — we knew what we were voting for.’ Horror of horrors, he was not some swivel-eyed loon. Eek! He was, in fact, a primary school teacher. And he had concerns about the lack of English among both pupils and parents. Social media users burst forth with righteous indignation. On Twitter, the man was branded as a ‘racist’. There were calls for him to be sacked. Several people demanded that he should be barred from working with children ever again. Others vowed that they would never set foot in horrid, Northern, Brexity Wakefield. ‘So glad I live on the South Coast & nowhere near Wakefield,’ tweeted one. And so on and so on. Not that such people, I suspect, have a clue what it’s like to wake up in a place like Page Hall, where every day is rubbish day — minus the bins. But Dame Louise points out: ‘We saw the issues faced by the local authority and the community following a sudden growth in a Roma community in the city.’ Noting that almost all of the 6,000 new Roma and Eastern European arrivals in Sheffield were living in Page Hall, she says that more than half are aged under 17. ‘This is creating pressure on schools, with an estimated increase in Eastern European children from 150 to almost 2,500 in the space of four to five years. ‘A head teacher told us that educational attainment gaps against the Sheffield average are huge.’ So huge, in fact, that fewer than nine per cent of Roma children aged five to seven can read, compared with 80 per cent among the general population. ‘Community tensions are also arising over alleged practices such as fly-tipping and benefit fraud,’ the report adds. Of course, Page Hall’s problems are not new. Three years ago, former Labour Home Secretary David Blunkett, who was then still a local MP, warned that its streets were a ‘boiling pot’ waiting to spill over into riots. His comments led to a Channel 4 documentary about the area earlier this year. It investigated the reasons why Roma had left Slovakia to come to Britain. They found that they suffered overt discrimination and poverty in their homeland and it was understandable that they sought a better life abroad. ‘The Queen will sort things out,’ one man explained cheerfully as he prepared to board a bus for Britain and its fabled generosity. Meanwhile, it is no surprise that Page Hall residents are keen to tell me their side of the story about life in what many of them now regard as a blighted, litter-filled Slovakian ‘ghetto’. Shopkeeper Fahib Khan, 43, has been here for 15 years and tells me that he was most struck by the phenomenon of what some call ‘white flight’ (white people moving from inner-city areas such as Page Hall to the suburbs). ‘I used to have English customers all the time, but now it’s only two or three a day,’ he says. Another man, who tells me his name is Prince Khan, says his family came to Britain from Pakistan and he works in a chemist’s. He claims that despite the awful conditions most Slovakians seem to live in, there are some of them who drive around in shiny, new Hyundai cars, despite having no obvious source of employment. P rince’s supposition is that they must be milking the benefits system or otherwise making money out of the black economy. ‘I have to get up and work all day to pay for that,’ he exclaims, pointing at a passing Hyundai driven by a man who may or may not be from Slovakia. His friend, Mark, a British plasterer, agrees. ‘Everyone used to get along here, but it’s a disgusting place now,’ he says. ‘People don’t want to stay here. An £85,000 house sells for £25,000 now.’ He has defiantly hung a huge England flag across the middle of his street. For good or for bad, the truth is that Mark is one of only a handful of white British people I meet in Page Hall during a day spent in the area. But whatever their backgrounds, residents’ complaints are invariably the same: the piles of rubbish (much of it with tell-tale Eastern European brand names) and the threatening sight of loitering groups of men and youths. This is not to say that different nationalities don’t mix. For it is natural that they do in an area that has been a multi-cultural melting pot for decades. Next I meet Abdullah, a Yemeni, working at one of several Slovakian grocery stores. Karim, a Kurd, runs another. Across the road, Hussein, whose family are from Kashmir, runs an Asian food store. A few doors down, Helena, a Polish housewife is cleaning her windows. There are certainly plenty of people trying to improve the place. please log in to view this image +10 Almost all of the 6,000 new Roma and Eastern European arrivals in Sheffield are living in Page Hall, more than half are aged under 17 please log in to view this image +10 Here are a group of people who aren’t bothered about what Nigel Farage has to say or give two hoots about the details of Article 50 http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/art...use-Brexiteers-racist-read.html#ixzz4SQNCdOGE Follow us: @MailOnline on Twitter | DailyMail on Facebook
Meanwhile: https://www.theguardian.com/politic...erm=203529&subid=21159432&CMP=EMCNEWEML6619I2 The paradox and hypocrisy of UKIP.....
Lot's of overkill here SH. try writing your own texts. Apart from a few groups wandering around with dark hair you could find pictures like this in most English Cities, and some smaller ones like Luton (there even the rats walk around in broad daylight in gangs) - and it's not all the result of immigration, there are many English people who also have a 'relaxed' notion of how to dispose of their rubbish. Just how many East European Roma live in England ? Compare that number with those found in other European countries and then ask why they are concentrated in ghettoes in England yet appear to be more integrated, and dispersed, in other European countries.
I agree this area is replicated throughout the UK, that is the problem. They should not be our problem, it is unfortunate they cannot be sent back home. Germany also seems a nice place although Merkel has turned full circle on immigration, something to do with a forthcoming election?
The problem in Britain is that you have one of the most unequal societies in the Western World (measured on distribution of wealth) and where you have pre existing ghettoes of poverty then they will act as a magnet. Another problem is the amount of semi legal work agencies active in Britain - people move there because they think that the possibilities of picking up casual, semi legal work, are higher there, often enticed by false promises. When you talk about them coming because of the generous social security in Britain, then, once again, your argument falls flat because social security benefits are higher in France, Germany and the Netherlands. The real difference to Germany is that all benefits in Germany are paid via direct bank transfer (no such thing as dole cheques here) - which means that all claimants would have to have a German bank account - this type of 'filter' is also possible for Britain.
Whatever, we do not need these hordes of unskilled migrants. Anyway can't stop, off to Watford for late breakfast and hornets win before packing cases for our Canaries trip early tomorrow morning.
They seem to be having a Trots convention in Momentum, sounds like civil war within. No its worse than Norwich, We are flying from Luton yuk!!
Everything can be blamed on 'the foreigns' nowadays. This government are scum, treading a dangerous line and need to be banned from office. The Home Office is considering cutting international student numbers at UK universities by nearly half, Education Guardian can reveal. The threat is being greeted with dismay by university heads, who say some good overseas applicants are already being refused visas on spurious grounds. The home secretary, Amber Rudd, pledged a crackdown on international student numbers at the Conservative party conference in October, to include tougher visa rules for “lower quality” universities and courses. But senior university sources are warning that the cutbacks could be far more severe than expected. They say they have seen Home Office plans that model slashing overseas student numbers, with one option to cut the current 300,000 to 170,000 a year. The Home Office says a rumour it had modelled even more severe cuts of two-thirds, to 100,000 students a year, are “categorically untrue”. The rumour was discussed at private seminars last month by leading figures at the government’s Higher Education Funding Council for England. International students bring more than £10.7bn to the UK economy, according to Universities UK, the vice-chancellors’ umbrella group. The head of one leading university, who asked not to be named, denounced the potential scale of the cuts as “insane”, adding: “politics is trumping economics”. Prof Colin Riordan, vice-chancellor of Cardiff University, agrees: “The Home Office seems to have decided that cutting international students is the only way of delivering the manifesto target of getting net migration down to the tens of thousands. But it doesn’t address people’s concerns about immigration. The problems people are seeing on the ground are certainly not caused by international university students or staff.” Vice-chancellors say some bona fide students are already being turned away after difficult “credibility” interviews, which can be part of the visa process. University heads are frightened of speaking out about these decisions in case it counts against future applicants to their institution, but have shared examples with Education Guardian: • An applicant was deemed not to be genuine because he did not know the university library opening times. • Another was excluded for not knowing the name of the vice-chancellor at his university – a test many would-be domestic students would certainly fail. • One applicant was refused a visa for “falling below the amount specified in a bank account by a couple of pounds on one day out of the 90-day period, even though his parents had huge funds and their accounts were also submitted”. Another vice-chancellor says the judgments being made by UK Visas and Immigration have changed significantly in the past few months. Indian students, in particular, seem to be having a tougher time. “They are telling some students there is exactly the same quality of course available in India so why are you coming here,” one vice-chancellor says. “That is outrageous.” Even if students proved they had sufficient funds, some interviewers were questioning whether the chosen subject was an “appropriate” use of students’ money. “Some applicants are being asked questions we would never ask a domestic student … about what they will be doing at 25 and 30 and what they will be earning at 40,” the vice-chancellor says. “This is all clearly designed to make the applicant reconsider.” Sir Keith Burnett, of Sheffield University, one of the vice-chancellors who accompanied Theresa May on a recent trade delegation to India, says: “If we genuinely want to be open to the world and a global leader in free trade, we can only do so by welcoming talent. This cannot simply be our own assessment; international students need to feel welcome and that accessing the UK to study and for a period of work experience is easy. Even a hint that students are unwelcome and they will go elsewhere.” He says other countries, including Australia and Canada, are already benefiting from the government’s “deeply damaging” current position, by welcoming excellent international students who will go on to secure leading jobs and be lasting allies of their countries. “Our great British universities are great precisely because they are international – and we urgently need the government to recognise this, to honour the enormous benefit international students bring to the UK,” he says. Abhinav Paul Kongari, from Jharkhand, India, is studying mechanical engineering at Sheffield University and says it is the best decision he has ever made. “I wanted really good work experience while I was studying,” he says. “And the system of education in the UK, and especially engineering, is much better than in many other countries. I was really excited that I could engage in research early on, too.” He adds: “I’m hoping to use the knowledge I’ve learned helping make people’s lives easier in undeveloped countries like India or South America. But I want to retain my links with Britain.” In her party conference speech Rudd said the government wanted to help “the best universities – and those that stick to the rules – to attract the best talent, while looking at tougher rules for students on lower quality courses”. There is anxiety in universities that the Home Office may rely on the Teaching Excellence Framework – the government’s new league table – to decide which “lower quality” institutions and courses to cut. Vice-chancellors warn this could have shocking consequences as some world-class research universities, including the London School of Economics, Bristol and King’s College London, are not predicted to score well in the new “gold, silver and bronze” rankings. Rudd’s reference to universities that “stick to the rules” is widely thought to be a signal that the government will also crack down on institutions and courses with higher visa refusal rates. Under current guidelines universities will lose their licence to recruit international students if more than 10% of the students they recruit are refused visas. Two senior university sources said the Home Office was considering reducing this to 7%, and had looked at dropping it to 4% or 5%. A number of institutions could fail if the bar were this high. The Home Office said: “Claims the Home Office is modelling cuts to reduce international students to a third [ie 100,000 a year] are categorically untrue. We want to strengthen the system to support the best universities – and those that stick to the rules – to attract the best talent. The British people have sent a clear message that they want more control of immigration and we are committed to getting net migration down to sustainable levels in the tens of thousands.” It did not deny that a figure of 170,000 student visas was on the table. Riordan says shifting the visa rules is unnecessary. “There is already a system that is stopping any abuse. If they are refused a visa, they aren’t coming here, so where is the problem?”
Major problems for Universities... who all have targets to reach ( thank you Conservative Education policies) My old place failed significantly two years bsack to attract requisite numbers back as changes to Visa process meant numbers went down + there is now evidence of foreign students , including our old commonwealth partners of going elsewhere, Europe, Australia, Canada, US
