patricklohlein.bsky.social
30 years in Campaigns & Comms, International Business & Public Affairs in Asia & Europe | 中国通 | ex- @ToriesVsBrexit @the3million +++ | occasionally ✍️ 📺 🎙 at various | not always serious
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Neil Young is just the right vibe for a festival, though
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Alexei Sayle
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Back in the 70s or 80s, Rod Stewart wouldn't have wanted to play Glastonbury, and the festival would never have invited him. He'd have been booed off the stage, as would half the other old acts
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Stunning graph
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The problem is that the subsidiarity principle has long been disregarded
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It was a core obstacle. See particularly the article written by Jo Johnson in 2018
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The vile behaviour of pro- and anti-Brexit keyboard warriors in each other was also instrumental in getting the silent majority into the #GetBrexitDone message with its subliminal meaning of "we have to stop all these arguments and move on as a society"...
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So what we are ending up with isn't a third British pillar of the Single Market, but a third entity to complement the SM and CU
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Also worth noting that Switzerland and the EU agreed to set up a Common Food Safety Area, which sounds like it's the same as the SPS area with 🇬🇧 and I wouldn't be surprised if this is also offered to CEFTA states in the Balkans fed up with waiting to be let into the EU
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Perhaps a bit too negative on the gains? Not everyone realises that rejoining the EU itself couldn't result in gains approaching the cost of leaving. Much of the damage was due to 4 years of uncertainty that is just lost + UK SMEs who set up subsidiaries in the EU aren't going to shut those down...
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Unwitting self-sabotage of the Remain movement by doing exactly what LeaveEU wanted
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Seeing pyramidical orchids everywhere now, especially on roundabouts
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I thought Anglo-futurism was an architectural movement until I read this and I think that that'll end up as the main definition once these madcap social engineering ideas fizzle out, hopefully sooner rather than later
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Throughout those years, Conservative remainers were under a constant barrage of online pressure to leave the party from BOTH hardcore leavers and "SabotEUr" remainers. The role of this in weakening the pro-EU side within the Tory party was a key factor in the failure of the People's Vote campaign
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His 2015 speech on Powellism
www.britishfuture.org/douglas-cars...
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"Multiculturalism in the sense of parallel societies" is an interesting choice of words
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Most maps are just "No Data" for Greenland and the Faroes are a bit small for a world map 😉. I'm more curious about Singapore being seen as a potential partner in South East Asia - and the only one
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I'd argue that the centre-right also needs to define and defend its own corner in the culture wars, around preserving traditional British values, such as courtesy, kindness and tolerance, which are under attack from both the radicalised right and left who relish in the polarisation of society
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Good points, well made. Worth noting that the 4 years of uncertainty over future terms of trade (2016-20) had a most negative effect on investment and by extension on productivity - and that the rebound after that uncertainty ended was cut short by COVID
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At first glance, I thought that was a pizza 🍕
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No more strange than the UK's shift in attitude towards German armament
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No. The labelling simply means that the paperwork FOR EU import hasn't been done. What I think confuses people is that the green lane requires no paperwork to show standards are met (but that label instead), while the red lane requires paperwork to prove compliance
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Moreover, as the EU is no longer obliged to check goods marked *for transit* to the UK, it doesn't do so, which ironically creates a bigger loophole as so much third country produce enters the UK via the EU.
IMHO The proposed Common Food Area won't work unless it also solve this.
3/3
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While the slight degree of UK divergence from EU SPS regs is an issue as mentioned, the EU also doesn't trust the UK's post-Brexit import controls, so the concern is as much about food from third countries entering the Single Market via Northern Ireland.
2/3
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IMO the principle of self-determination should play a leading role in international relations. Self-determination is an essential part of democracy and it means that any regime change has to be driven from within.
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It would be interesting to see this data on a map. There are vast differences between constituencies, but also some patterns, e.g., when comparing rural and urban constituencies in the same county, the former appear to have twice as many recipients
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Don't know why this sort of thing irritates me so much. But it does.
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Another way to look at this is that "activist judges" are making political decisions that should be left to politics (e.g Klimaseniorinnen vs Switzerland). Such a perception undermines trust in the rule of law and risks making Europe more US-like in viewing judges as partisan rather than impartial
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John has a point. bsky.app/profile/joxl...
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Now to the big argument: Was it a Brexit benefit? Or was the lack of earlier remedy a cause? 😉