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tomhayes.bsky.social
Irish, lives in France, labour relations consultant, writes about Brexit, the world of work, and EU issues.
711 posts 4,547 followers 498 following
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Posts 24 Comments 26

Is there actually a point to this editorial? It reads like a school report card: "Must try harder". www.ft.com/content/4fde...

submitted 2 hours ago • 0 comments

No doubt Labour's already cold feet about the EU will be developing frostbite this morning, EU circles will also be doing some serious thinking about relations with the UK. If, a big if, Reform is the future, why waste time and energy doing a deal with the UK that will be shredded in 4 years' time?

submitted 1 day ago • 9 comments

This week I look in Scribblings at the difference between “making a deal” and “negotiating an agreement”. The difference? Long term relationships. They matter. hayest.substack.com/p/sunday-scr...

submitted 1 day ago • 1 comment

She will soon find that the UK is not the US where there are no dismissal laws. You cannot fire people in the UK on a whim or for political reasons. Rightly so.

submitted 1 day ago • 6 comments

Watching the early news come in from the Australian election. Looks like Labor has it. If it does, it is goodbye to another Trump-lite candidate, Peter Dutton, after Polivier in Canada. UK Labour needs to learn the lesson. Stop kissing right-wing ass.

submitted 2 days ago • 3 comments

As he moves on within the FT to try and make sense of Trump's global madness, just a thank you to @pmdfoster.bsky.social as the best "Brexit" journalist during the years of Brexit madness. If anyone can make sense of Trump, Peter can. www.ft.com/content/eb42...

submitted 3 days ago • 1 comment

Fish for food. Seems like a reasonable deal to me. www.ft.com/content/d230...

submitted 4 days ago • 2 comments

I fully agree with what Simon has written here. But it was ever so, going back to the 1950s. The British political elite, including the Whitehall mandarins, just cannot accept Britain's diminished role in the world. They cannot accept that it is just a medium sized power off the Eurasian landmass.

submitted 5 days ago • 1 comment

Is not the takeaway from this that Labour's "hunt with the hounds and run with the hare" approach is in tatters? Trying to do incompatible deals with the US and Europe at the same time. Trying to have it all. "Ass kissing" Trump does not work. Ask Mark Carney. www.theguardian.com/politics/202...

submitted 5 days ago • 2 comments

As it now seems certain that the Liberals will form the next government in Canada, I am reposting this from Sunday. Now for Australia and, hopefully, the beginning of a new, non-Trumpian global, democratic, economic and security alliance. hayest.substack.com/p/sunday-scr...

submitted 6 days ago • 1 comment

Who exactly is angry over this, other than the Express? Does it want young UK people NOT to be free to work and travel in Europe? Or for young Europeans not to come to the UK? Does it feel the same about all those Aussies, New Zealanders or Canadians who come to the UK? Or just Europeans?

submitted 7 days ago • 14 comments

Nothing to see here, Just the German ambassador saying "let's see what happens", but if the UK gov sticks to its three red lines, then not a lot will happen. Labour needs to stop governing in the shadow of Reform. www.ft.com/content/f3da...

submitted 7 days ago • 0 comments

Just what France needs at this time of global uncertainty is a 31-year-old far-right president who has never had a job outside of politics. That will do it. Mind you, it does not need Le Pen either. www.ft.com/content/5a83...

submitted 7 days ago • 0 comments

What the European Union needs. Lessons from Brexit Britain and a former VP of META on what it should do so that the UK can half-sneak back in. This may be the "new" Observer, but it is the same song the UK has been singing since the EU was first mooted in the 50s. observer.co.uk/news/opinion...

submitted 8 days ago • 3 comments

Some thoughts this week on the future of “The West”, as elections in Canada and Australia loom. hayest.substack.com/p/sunday-scr...

submitted 8 days ago • 0 comments

When you insist on creating borders, what do you expect? That the other side won't also create borders and impose controls? That's the way it works. You want borders? You get borders.

submitted 8 days ago • 3 comments

A limited one-year youth exchange program would appear to be all that the UK is willing to offer. This shows how cramped and insular Labour has become. Once a party of internationalism, it is increasingly a party of Little Britain nationalism. www.theguardian.com/world/2025/a...

submitted 9 days ago • 5 comments

Trump claims to have done 200 trade deals. According to the UN, there are 195 countries in the world. Does this mean he has done two trade deals with five countries? Seems implausible. As does the figure of 200. He is away wth the fairies. www.ft.com/content/0192...

submitted 9 days ago • 2 comments

The idea that the UK, outside the EU, would get a free pass into this scheme is for the birds. Just another symptom of the "Brexit mindset" to which Labour is prone. "Can we have benefits without obligations and costs?" Take all the hype about pacts with a grain of salt www.ft.com/content/08a5...

submitted 9 days ago • 1 comment

Well, there's a surprise. If you insist on redlines, you are not going to get much. Who would have guessed? www.ft.com/content/f893...

submitted 9 days ago • 1 comment

Today I got an email telling me that Tortoise Media will now be publishing the Observer. Today, I cancelled my Guardian payment. If Guardian management puts financial considerations ahead of editorial values, then I am free to make financial decisions as well.

submitted 10 days ago • 0 comments

I wonder why politicians write vacuous articles like this. "We're going to get a better deal from the EU because, well, we will." How can you write an article about EU security and not mention Trump's planned Ukraine sell-out? Labour is afraid of its own shadow. www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

submitted 10 days ago • 1 comment

Looking for a good summer read. Go get this political thriller written by my good friend, Dan Yager. Out in August. Pre-order now. www.amazon.com/Saundra-Gray...

submitted 11 days ago • 0 comments

If I read you correctly, what will be announced in May is not an economic deal as such, but the opening of negotiations that might lead to a deal. Also, I suspect, the defence agreement will be a headline agreement only, with a lot of detail to be subsequently worked out.

submitted 11 days ago • 1 comment