Concrete Achievements

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  • Links from the week of 26 June 2017

    Articles, reports and other links I shared on Twitter this week.

  • I should spend less time reading about UK politics.

    I should spend less time reading about UK politics. It doesn’t make me happy. It’s like watching your team 3-0 down at 80 minutes.

    Sure, a goal could turn it round and spark an amazing revival leading to a 4-3 win but, you know, odds are…

    (Yes I do always stay at games till the final whistle.)

  • Links from the week of 19 June 2017

    Articles, reports and other links I shared on Twitter this week.

  • Personally, I left the UK 30 days after #euref.

    Personally, I left the UK 30 days after #euref. It was something I’d been vaguely planning for years and the referendum crystallised it.

    I haven’t regretted it for a moment. I’m half English half Polish, my kids are English-Polish-Swiss-Belgian mongrels. We’re happy here.

    Also, as someone who works on democracy, Europe is an interesting and important to be in the next few years. In the words of Tom Paine

    (the internationalist after whom my son, 15 today, is named) “we have it in our power to begin the world over again”. 🇪🇺

  • A year on from #euref the sovereignty fantasists are still insisting it’s not about…

    A year on from #euref the sovereignty fantasists are still insisting it’s not about immigration. The racists are still insisting it is.

    The Liberal Leavers are still trying to disown the forces that propelled their side to victory, the soft Remainers still trying to find

    a way of selling the EU vision without admitting they won’t “reform” in the sense of doing what they tell them. The internationalists

    are still despairing (or emigrating) and British politics is still in bits on the hard shoulder, every significant problem put aside while

    we handle the consequences of a referendum on an issue that didn’t ever make the top ten public concerns. Never doubt that a small group

    of committed people can totally screw up the country, indeed it’s the only thing that ever has.

    And meanwhile, the world moves on. The British bubble seems to be far more self-absorbed than the Brussels one.

  • So the big and generous offer (speaking as someone who is directly affected by it) is…

    So the big and generous offer (speaking as someone who is directly affected by it) is incomplete and ungenerous. theguardian.com/politics/2017/…

    Nothing at all here that is better for me than what the EU are suggesting. I’ll take that. Your immigration paranoia isn’t worth my rights.

    This is going to create a lot of pain and uncertainty for Brits abroad. Sadly that will get more attention than same for Poles in UK.

    But hey. Whatever it takes to get people to realise how their choice has real human interest.

  • (1) they wouldn’t be (2) it won’t be

    (1) they wouldn’t be
    (2) it won’t be twitter.com/alaindebotton/…

    The two things the EU side have to get at the end are “being out has to be worse than being in”, and “four freedoms are indivisible”.

    There have an enormous negotiating advantage. Absolutely no need for them to concede on such major points.

    And if they did (which they won’t) would the Tories really accept all the duties of EU membership with no say (plus an immigration brake

    that would probably be virtually unusable, if other EEA models are followed). Seems unlikely to me, even if they were truly desperate.

  • Brexit negotiations are not war.

    Brexit negotiations are not war. EU are not enemies. The EU has been one of the pillars of peace in Europe. Quit the jingoistic bullshit.

    Nothing makes me more ashamed of my British passport than this “fight them on the beaches” crap from tissue-soft political journalists.

    It reinforces the idea that Britain is wallowing in some half-remembered gin-soaked Simla imperialism. We look mad. But worse,

    We look tacky and thoughtless. I don’t think Brexit can be a success but it can at least not be a national embarrassment.

  • Links from the week of 12 June 2017

    Articles, reports and other links I shared on Twitter this week.

  • Just one poll, but it’s hard to see Brexit getting more popular …

    Just one poll, but it’s hard to see Brexit getting more popular … or politicians being brave enough to turn away. twitter.com/simon_nixon/st…

    There’s a lot of fantasy about how we can “go back and get concessions greater than Cameron” and then stay in. We can’t. We can withdraw A50

    but we need agreement and would probably have to give up things not get more concessions. EU won’t let – shouldn’t let – Britain’s emotional

    spasm bring (what UK press wd call) benefits. Would weaken EU and give boost to populist cause just when it is being shown up as empty.