Do me a favour and slag Churchill off. Ellers won’t be able to reply as he didn’t live through it.
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Do me a favour and slag Churchill off. Ellers won’t be able to reply as he didn’t live through it.
Reckon he did a job and a half before my time. Blair the best PM I can remember.
You shouldn’t disrespect Oslo’s life experience.
Even with the blood of innocents on his hands? Dragged us into conflicts we had no right to be in
That's quite a statement, I see him as an opportunist war criminal, but I respect your opinion
What's relevant there is I doubt there has been a PM since Atlee that wouldn't have done exactly the same as Blair on Sadam, who had already invaded 2 Countries and killed many more in his own, though I didn't support the attack on him. Wilson runs Blair closest for me, but he supported the US in Viet Nam, where I dont recall the Vietnamese invading anyone.
I’m not I just can’t believe what he said. Anyway you don’t believe in life experiences you learn from a book. I will remember that one.
A roll call of PMs from Attlee onwards doesn't leave much for Blair to beat. I think Attlee himself did a great job both during and after the war as he faced the devastation the country had suffered and the NHS was his government's greatest achievement.
Blair was a smart operator who used control of the media like no other, he knew how to manipulate and, above everything, knew how to win elections aided by a very poor opposition. Iraq never stopped him winning a 3rd term but the 'golden boy' image he created was as fake as his principles. For me Attlee was in such adversity the greater man...
It would be difficult for me to have an opinion of Thatcher based on life experience.
Bloody hell mate you must have a hotline to this place! I just heard our games been postponed. Gutted as I reckon Charlie would have scored again.
After Brexit, UK seeks worker-rights reforms, setting up EU clash
UK reportedly wants to scrap 48-hour limit on length of working week but says it will not lower protections.
The UK-EU Brexit deal allows Brussels to retaliate if the UK implements measures that are deemed to give it an unfair competitive advantage [File: Molly Darlington/Reuters]
Bloomberg
15 Jan 2021
The U.K. government is exploring reforms to workers’ rights that would break from European Union rules, potentially opening Britain up to retaliatory measures from the bloc.
Officials have drawn up proposals that would scrap the 48-hour limit on the length of the working week, according to a person familiar with the matter, who said the plans are preliminary and that ministers have made no decisions yet. The measures were first reported by the Financial Times.
KEEP READING
New year, new era as UK begins post-Brexit futureUK scraps ‘tampon tax’ in move hailed by rights groups‘Worst situation you can ever be in’: What Gen Z thinks of BrexitScottish fishermen halt exports due to Brexit red tape
Business Secretary Kwasi Kwarteng said on Twitter that the government is “not going to lower the standards of workers’ rights.”
If the plans are pursued, they have the potential to cause friction with the EU just weeks after the U.K. sealed a trade deal with the bloc. Negotiations dragged on until just before Christmas, with the so-called level playing field of fair competition rules being one of the last areas of contention.
The agreement allows the U.K. and EU to set their own labor, environment, climate and social policies, but also permits retaliation if any changes result in “material impacts on trade or investment between the parties.”
Also being considered are changes to regulations around breaks during the working day, and a proposal not to include overtime when calculating some holiday pay allowances, according to the person. The government aims to make changes that can support businesses and growth, without undercutting worker protections, they said.
‘Enhanced’ Rights
“We have absolutely no intention of lowering the standards of workers’ rights,” the government said in a statement. “Leaving the EU allows us to continue to be a standard-setter and protect and enhance U.K. workers’ rights.”
Any proposals that do emerge will be put to a full consultation to ensure no policies that are pursued have any unintended consequences that diminish workers’ rights, the person said.
Opposition Labour Party Business Spokesman Ed Miliband accused ministers of “preparing to tear up their promises to the British people and taking a sledgehammer to workers’ rights,” and said his party will “fight tooth and nail” to defend existing protections.
Ripping Up Rights
“These proposals are not about cutting red tape for businesses but ripping up vital rights for workers,” he said in a statement. “The government wants Britain to compete on the back of ordinary working people losing their rights.”
While the U.K departed the EU sharing the same environmental and labor rules, the ability to free the country from Brussels red tape was hailed by supporters of Brexit as one its great prizes during the referendum campaign in 2016.
Prime Minister Boris Johnson, who was one of the figureheads of that campaign, last week held a conference call with business chiefs during which he asked them to help him decide which regulations should be ripped up now that the divorce with the bloc is complete.
UK reportedly wants to scrap 48-hour limit on length of working week but says it will not lower protections.
You must log in or register to see images
The UK-EU Brexit deal allows Brussels to retaliate if the UK implements measures that are deemed to give it an unfair competitive advantage [File: Molly Darlington/Reuters]
Bloomberg
15 Jan 2021
The U.K. government is exploring reforms to workers’ rights that would break from European Union rules, potentially opening Britain up to retaliatory measures from the bloc.
Officials have drawn up proposals that would scrap the 48-hour limit on the length of the working week, according to a person familiar with the matter, who said the plans are preliminary and that ministers have made no decisions yet. The measures were first reported by the Financial Times.
KEEP READING
New year, new era as UK begins post-Brexit futureUK scraps ‘tampon tax’ in move hailed by rights groups‘Worst situation you can ever be in’: What Gen Z thinks of BrexitScottish fishermen halt exports due to Brexit red tape
Business Secretary Kwasi Kwarteng said on Twitter that the government is “not going to lower the standards of workers’ rights.”
If the plans are pursued, they have the potential to cause friction with the EU just weeks after the U.K. sealed a trade deal with the bloc. Negotiations dragged on until just before Christmas, with the so-called level playing field of fair competition rules being one of the last areas of contention.
The agreement allows the U.K. and EU to set their own labor, environment, climate and social policies, but also permits retaliation if any changes result in “material impacts on trade or investment between the parties.”
Also being considered are changes to regulations around breaks during the working day, and a proposal not to include overtime when calculating some holiday pay allowances, according to the person. The government aims to make changes that can support businesses and growth, without undercutting worker protections, they said.
‘Enhanced’ Rights
“We have absolutely no intention of lowering the standards of workers’ rights,” the government said in a statement. “Leaving the EU allows us to continue to be a standard-setter and protect and enhance U.K. workers’ rights.”
Any proposals that do emerge will be put to a full consultation to ensure no policies that are pursued have any unintended consequences that diminish workers’ rights, the person said.
Opposition Labour Party Business Spokesman Ed Miliband accused ministers of “preparing to tear up their promises to the British people and taking a sledgehammer to workers’ rights,” and said his party will “fight tooth and nail” to defend existing protections.
Ripping Up Rights
“These proposals are not about cutting red tape for businesses but ripping up vital rights for workers,” he said in a statement. “The government wants Britain to compete on the back of ordinary working people losing their rights.”
While the U.K departed the EU sharing the same environmental and labor rules, the ability to free the country from Brussels red tape was hailed by supporters of Brexit as one its great prizes during the referendum campaign in 2016.
Prime Minister Boris Johnson, who was one of the figureheads of that campaign, last week held a conference call with business chiefs during which he asked them to help him decide which regulations should be ripped up now that the divorce with the bloc is complete.
With so many people leaving unemployment must be down
|Migration
‘Unprecedented exodus’: Why are migrant workers leaving the UK?
New study says COVID has forced up to one million from the country, but many people Al Jazeera spoke to cited Brexit as another push factor.
The study's authors said the exodus was primarily being driven by the economic fallout unleashed by the COVID-19 crisis [File: Tolga Akmen/ AFP] (AFP)
By
David Child
15 Jan 2021
London, United Kingdom – Migrants have left the United Kingdom in large numbers, causing what is likely to be the largest population decline since WWII, according to a new study.
As many as 1.3 million people born abroad left the UK in just over a year – from July 2019 to September 2020 – the UK’s Economic Statistics Centre of Excellence (ESCoE) think-tank said on Thursday, describing an “unprecedented exodus” driven by the economic fallout from the coronavirus pandemic.
The trend was particularly pronounced in London.
KEEP READING
After Brexit, UK seeks worker-rights reforms, setting up EU clashUK reports record 1,564 daily COVID deathsWith Brexit complete, fervour for Scottish independence growsThe Lancet editor: UK ‘steadfastly refused to follow the science’
The ESCoE said almost 700,000 people may have left the capital during the same period. If accurate, that would mean the city had lost nearly eight percent of its population in a little more than 14 months.
The analysis was based on UK labour statistics.
Authors of the study noted a high number of job losses in sectors that rely heavily on workers from abroad, such as hospitality.
“It seems that much of the burden of job losses during the pandemic has fallen on non-UK workers and that has manifested itself in return migration, rather than unemployment,” they said.
Brexit, pandemic fuel departures
COVID-19 has battered the UK, killing more than 86,000 people nationwide, threatening millions of people’s livelihoods and plunging the country into its deepest recession for 300 years.
But a number of people who left the UK last year told Al Jazeera the pandemic was not the biggest factor in their decision to relocate.
Instead, they said, it was mainly the country’s tortuous exit from the European Union.
Freyja Graf-Caruthers, 50, said the “threat of coronavirus” gave her the final push to depart England’s northeast for her native Germany in June 2020, after years of heightened anti-immigration rhetoric and political crises that followed the UK’s June 2016 referendum on EU membership.
“I had made plans to leave the UK since the Brexit vote,” said Graf-Caruthers, a university lecturer. “[But] leaving felt terrible, after 30 years of building my life in the UK; it felt like ripping out my own heart.”
Fabian Vella, a 32-year-old project manager, also cited Brexit as his motive in returning to France from London last year.
“I am pretty convinced that Europe is a good thing,” he said. “And I didn’t feel like I wanted to live in a country that didn’t want to live in the EU any more. The pandemic just reinforced my willingness to come back to France.”
‘No plans to ever return’
The ESCoE study’s authors said the exodus may be temporary, suggesting some could return when the pandemic eases.
“But it may not,” they cautioned, noting a permanent drop in London especially would have “profound” implications.
“Big shifts in population trends in London, driven by economic changes and events, are by no means historically unprecedented,” they wrote. “Inner London’s population shrank by fully 20 percent in the 1970s, so the recent picture of sustained growth driven by international migration is relatively recent.”
Todd Foreman, a dual US-UK national, was among those who left the capital in 2020.
He relocated to Paris in October after witnessing the UK “change for the worse” as it struggled to divorce itself from the EU.
“I regard Brexit as an enormous and tragic mistake fuelled largely by xenophobia, misplaced British exceptionalism and shortcomings in UK democratic structures,” the 47-year-old financial services lawyer said. “COVID played no part whatsoever in my decision to emigrate … [although] it did make leaving more difficult.”
Foreman was clear there would be no turning back.
“I have no plans or desire to ever return to live in England,” he said.
|Migration
‘Unprecedented exodus’: Why are migrant workers leaving the UK?
New study says COVID has forced up to one million from the country, but many people Al Jazeera spoke to cited Brexit as another push factor.
You must log in or register to see images
The study's authors said the exodus was primarily being driven by the economic fallout unleashed by the COVID-19 crisis [File: Tolga Akmen/ AFP] (AFP)
By
David Child
15 Jan 2021
London, United Kingdom – Migrants have left the United Kingdom in large numbers, causing what is likely to be the largest population decline since WWII, according to a new study.
As many as 1.3 million people born abroad left the UK in just over a year – from July 2019 to September 2020 – the UK’s Economic Statistics Centre of Excellence (ESCoE) think-tank said on Thursday, describing an “unprecedented exodus” driven by the economic fallout from the coronavirus pandemic.
The trend was particularly pronounced in London.
KEEP READING
After Brexit, UK seeks worker-rights reforms, setting up EU clashUK reports record 1,564 daily COVID deathsWith Brexit complete, fervour for Scottish independence growsThe Lancet editor: UK ‘steadfastly refused to follow the science’
The ESCoE said almost 700,000 people may have left the capital during the same period. If accurate, that would mean the city had lost nearly eight percent of its population in a little more than 14 months.
The analysis was based on UK labour statistics.
Authors of the study noted a high number of job losses in sectors that rely heavily on workers from abroad, such as hospitality.
“It seems that much of the burden of job losses during the pandemic has fallen on non-UK workers and that has manifested itself in return migration, rather than unemployment,” they said.
Brexit, pandemic fuel departures
COVID-19 has battered the UK, killing more than 86,000 people nationwide, threatening millions of people’s livelihoods and plunging the country into its deepest recession for 300 years.
But a number of people who left the UK last year told Al Jazeera the pandemic was not the biggest factor in their decision to relocate.
Instead, they said, it was mainly the country’s tortuous exit from the European Union.
Freyja Graf-Caruthers, 50, said the “threat of coronavirus” gave her the final push to depart England’s northeast for her native Germany in June 2020, after years of heightened anti-immigration rhetoric and political crises that followed the UK’s June 2016 referendum on EU membership.
“I had made plans to leave the UK since the Brexit vote,” said Graf-Caruthers, a university lecturer. “[But] leaving felt terrible, after 30 years of building my life in the UK; it felt like ripping out my own heart.”
Fabian Vella, a 32-year-old project manager, also cited Brexit as his motive in returning to France from London last year.
“I am pretty convinced that Europe is a good thing,” he said. “And I didn’t feel like I wanted to live in a country that didn’t want to live in the EU any more. The pandemic just reinforced my willingness to come back to France.”
‘No plans to ever return’
The ESCoE study’s authors said the exodus may be temporary, suggesting some could return when the pandemic eases.
“But it may not,” they cautioned, noting a permanent drop in London especially would have “profound” implications.
“Big shifts in population trends in London, driven by economic changes and events, are by no means historically unprecedented,” they wrote. “Inner London’s population shrank by fully 20 percent in the 1970s, so the recent picture of sustained growth driven by international migration is relatively recent.”
Todd Foreman, a dual US-UK national, was among those who left the capital in 2020.
He relocated to Paris in October after witnessing the UK “change for the worse” as it struggled to divorce itself from the EU.
“I regard Brexit as an enormous and tragic mistake fuelled largely by xenophobia, misplaced British exceptionalism and shortcomings in UK democratic structures,” the 47-year-old financial services lawyer said. “COVID played no part whatsoever in my decision to emigrate … [although] it did make leaving more difficult.”
Foreman was clear there would be no turning back.
“I have no plans or desire to ever return to live in England,” he said.
Yes. I was around at the time and remember it well. She was a disaster and completely stubborn. The Falklands crisis was sparked by her ignoring the advice of Carrington's FO who had warned her what could happen if she withdrew military personnel from the Falklands. She decided to do so any way. The Argies walked in. Carrington did the honourable thing and resigned even though it was not his fault. She kept quiet and didn't. The victory which followed was a classic case of a professional army going into battle against a poorly armed, poorly trained conscript force who did not believe in the cause their leaders had chosen to prop up the last years of their reign. At last her stubbornness and refusal to listen was rewarded and therefore emboldened her that she was always right and the electorate duly lapped it all up. After all who else was there? Michael Foot in his donkey jacket. Vast swathes of the country were put on the scrap heap but the electorate bribed year after year.
While I actually agree with some of what you say about Blair, and think some of the anti-Iraq sentiment is simplified 'after the event' analysis, wasn't Wilson famous for keeping the UK out of the Vietnam war? Or do you mean support for the US war effort in some other way?
Quote from Britannica.com- profile of Harold Wilson
Wilson steered Britain clear of direct military involvement in the Vietnam War, though he gave verbal support to the U.S. war effort.
https://www.britannica.com/biography/Harold-Wilson-Baron-Wilson-of-Rievaulx
“I regard Brexit as an enormous and tragic mistake fuelled largely by xenophobia, misplaced British exceptionalism and shortcomings in UK democratic structures,”
Shame on him for not realising how good things will be from some arbitrary point in the future.
I agree w u about Atlee but he was before my time really. Also that the UK have had mainly poor PM's since him. All have been subservient to the US , except to an extent Thatcher who refused to listen to their attempts to get her to find other ways of resolving the Falklands problem in 82.