Category: Brexit

Posted on by Tim Worstall

Gove’s Rapid Response Unit On Brexit

This should be easy enough, Michael Gove is setting up a rapid response unit to counter the lies and falsehoods being spread about a no deal Brexit:

Michael Gove will launch a new ‘rapid rebuttal unit’ at the heart of Government on Monday to provide instant responses to “media myths and half-truths” about the risks of a no-deal Brexit. The new Response Unit will be run by civil servants in the Cabinet Office and will ensure that “the public and businesses are not being alarmed by scare stories or falsehoods “, The Sunday Telegraph can disclose.

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Posted on by Tim Worstall

Nobel Winning Physicist Not So Hot On Brexit Logic

Will Brexit wreck British science? Or be its saviour? Opinions, of course, are mixed on this point. However, Sir Andre Geim, Nobel Laureate for the discovery of graphene (the levitating frog was fun too) seems to be a bit lacking in logic department here:

Sir Andre revealed that his close collaborator Professor Sir Konstantin Novoselov, with whom he shared the Nobel prize for physics in 2010, had left their base in Manchester, where they discovered graphene, after the 2016 referendum on Britain’s membership of the EU.

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Posted on by Tim Worstall

Amaaazing! We Can Be Part Of Europe Without Being Part Of The European Union!

One of the more vile rhetorical tricks played upon us all is the confabulation of Europe with the European Union. To be against Ursine van der Lyin’ being in charge of our lives is to be against the very continent we sit a little offshore of. I’m regularly asked why I live in Portugal if I’m “against Europe”. The answer being of course that I’m not against the continent, the people, cuisines, landscapes or weather. Rather in favour of them all in fact.…

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45,000 Cows To DIE Because Of Brexit

Apparently 45,000 cows will be murdered in their beds if Brexit goes ahead. Which does leave us with a difficult question. 45,000 cows or decades more for 65 million people under Ursilly van der Lyin:

Some 45,000 dairy cows could be culled in Northern Ireland, in the event of a no-deal Brexit if new higher tariffs are applied to British milk, senior industry figures have warned. Northern Ireland is particularly vulnerable because about a third of its dairy output is processed in the Republic of Ireland, which would continue to be part of the EU.

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Posted on by Tim Worstall

The Great Brexit Schools Disaster

Apparently the education system is going to fall apart the moment that we’re not led on the international stage by Ursulie von der Lyin’:

Schools may have to close, exams could be disrupted and fresh food for pupils’ meals could run short because of panic buying with prices soaring by up to 20%, according to a secret Department for Education analysis of the risks of a no-deal Brexit obtained by the Observer. The five-page document – marked “Official Sensitive” and with the instruction “Do Not Circulate” – also raises the possibility of teacher absences caused by travel disruption, citing schools in Kent as particularly at risk.

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Posted on by Tim Worstall

Tactical Remain Voting At A Brexit General Election – Bring It On Quite Frankly

The People’s Vote Campaign – as vile a collection of Remoaners as the country contains – are recommending that Remoaners vote tactically at any general election called to sort out this Brexit controversy. The correct answer to this being Bring It On.

For the more people calling for tactical voting the more tactical voting there will be. And Leave is, as we know, the preference of that plurality of the electorate and that majority of those who bothered to vote when asked directly on the point.…

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Posted on by Tim Worstall

It Appears That Paul Mason Can’t Count

So, the Brecon byelection, given that a couple of lefty parties stood down then one of the not so lefty parties was able to beat the two major rightie parties standing. OK, united beats split, that’s not exactly a surprise in a first past the post electoral system:

The Liberal Democrats won because Plaid Cymru and the Greens stood down, in an explicit electoral pact. The Tories could have inched it had the Brexit party also stood down.

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Bugger Modern Languages Then

We’re repeatedly told that we need to have more foreign language studies in the UK because. Because we need to now trade with the rest of the world after Brexit is because. That large chunks of the non-EU world speak English while little of the EU does seems to have passed notice. But there’s something rather more important here as well. We’ve absolutely no evidence that a common language increases trade:

The potential impact of machine translation on foreign trade – caution, please
Jacques Melitz, Farid Toubal 01 August 2019

Artificial intelligence has made spectacular progress in recent years.…

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Posted on by Tim Worstall

Today’s Brexit Joy – Turkey Twizzlers Are Back!

Moving on from the last outburst from Project Fear – the tits of every teenage girl will shrink two sizes in the message put out on social media for the kiddies – we’ve this absurdity:

Turkey twizzlers could be back on school menus after no-deal Brexit following new Government warning

There is no reason whatsoever that turkey twizzlers will be served in schools because of Brexit. They might be served because the kiddies like them, they might not be served because the kiddies like them.…

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Posted on by Tim Worstall

The EU’s Herr Oettinger Doesn’t Understand How Credit Ratings Work

The aim of the European Union project is that all those know nothing politicians get brushed aside and replaced with the sort of technocrats who really know how to do things. This would be a rather more effective plan if we had any evidence that the technocrats had a clue. Something which Herr Oettinger is failing to provide here:

EU Budget Commissioner Günther Oettinger fired the warning after Prime Minister Boris Johnson repeated his threat to withhold the huge sum in the event of a no-deal Brexit.

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