RayC

And you can supply no evidence to support your contention that the UK's relative "success" is due to Brexit. Moreover, you are cherry picking your countries and timescales to use as a comparison. Why not include Italy? If the UK/ Germany are similar in scale, so are the UK/ Italy. Why not set the timeline to July 2016 or February 2020? In any event, absolute size means little. Exports make up 50% of Germany's GDP vs. <30% of the UK's. A slowdown in the world's economic growth was always going to hit them harder. Having a (imo) weak Chancellor and government doesn't help either. I made no doomsday predictions. I believed that Brexit would have negative effects for the UK in almost all regards e.g. economically, culturally, diplomatically, etc. Almost all the research and reports to date have shown that to be the case. You claimed that Brexit would be beneficial for the UK. To date, there is little to suggest that is the case. Maybe being 6,000 miles away has shielded you from the facts.

Yes it is ridiculous, but you were less vocal about the result of the 2019 election when the Tories got an 80-seat majority with 43% of the vote.

Sorry busy morning. Anyway, I'm here now. And you attribute that "outperformance" to Brexit? Be good to see your workings. Btw since the referendum vote the UK has underperformed France on an annualised GDP growth basis (Source: World Bank)

It will be like Brexit then, with the responsible party unwilling to be accountable for its' failure (to date).

These are still isolated incidents albeit, unfortunately apparently on the increase. Why would acts of violence against homosexuals make liberals feel good about themselves? That makes no sense. Still no comment about the other racist incident?

You're way out in your timings! It's a shame that your post hasn't got an exact time-stamp. I'd hazard a guess that it took <2 minutes for the Labour hating comments to start.

So both the UK and Canadian governments willingly allow known terrorists into their respective countries in order to diversify and culturally enrich their respective nations? Yeah, right. I note that you avoid commenting about the Israeli nationalists chanting racist slogans.

That view is contrary to how British Muslims see themselves https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&opi=89978449&url=https://www.ipsos.com/sites/default/files/ct/publication/documents/2018-03/a-review-of-survey-research-on-muslims-in-great-britain-ipsos_0.pdf&ved=2ahUKEwiP78eqxY2HAxU-VqQEHc5cBf4QFnoECA0QBQ&usg=AOvVaw03eszbKhkyHiCx2I2YyeoF (Note: I only read the Executive Summary) You're right. Would you also agree that it's extremely likely that Muslims don't appreciate Jewish nationalists walking through Jerusalem chanting, "Death to Arabs"? (Note: This pre-dates the Hamas atrocity, so that can't be used to excuse these individuals) https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.pbs.org/newshour/amp/world/israeli-crowds-chant-racist-slogans-taunt-palestinians-during-jerusalem-day-march Such appalling acts are not in the name of diversity. They are committed in the name of religious bigotry.

There is nothing "interesting" about my use of the word 'most', not is there any circle to square. The overwhelming majority of the UK population - irrespective of their gender, race, religion or any other attribute - are law-abiding. Therefore, I'd suggest that my contention that " ...most Muslim immigrants to the UK are not a threat to the fabric of British society" is correct. The case of the Batley teacher is appalling but is, fortunately, one of a few isolated incidents: I don't know the reason why no arrests have been made but, presumably, it has something to do with the police being unable to identify the individuals concerned? There is no blasphemy law - explicit or implicit - in the UK nor should there be imo. A government commissioned report entitled, 'Understanding and Responding to Blasphemy Extremism in the UK', was published in March. Hopefully, the new government will consider implementing its' recommendations https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/understanding-and-responding-to-blasphemy-extremism/understanding-and-responding-to-blasphemy-extremism-in-the-uk-accessible https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2024/mar/31/batley-school-what-teacher-in-hiding-can-tell-us-about-our-failure-to-tackle-intolerance

You're talking to yourself!😉

Would you agree that most Muslim immigrants to the UK are not a threat to the fabric of British society?

Fine. But how exactly are Labour responsible for you being unable to buy a property when they are in government?

It is so easy to spot a Leaver who buries his head in the sand and will still not accept the evidence presented to him regarding the negative effects of Brexit. Here's a link outlining how the EU actually works https://www.cfr.org/backgrounder/how-does-european-union-work I will ignore your advice and continue to moan about Brexit for as long as I see fit.

The EU is a Single Market therefore the comparison should be with that entity. In any event, there is little to suggest that being outside the EU has contributed much to the UK's economic growth. If France were to leave the EU would face a major crisis. However, given that National Rally have stated that they will seek to leave and the majority of the French public are overwhelming in favour of remaining a French exit from the EU in the foreseeable future is unlikely.

Unless they are Greek, your friends' views are not representative of their compatriot's. In fact, they are not representative of many people worldwide. https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2023/10/24/people-broadly-view-the-eu-favorably-both-in-member-states-and-elsewhere/

Brexit has been a failure by most metrics. I have submitted numerous links on numerous occasions to support this contention. It is disingenuous of Redwood to imply that leaving the EU has had a positive effect on service exports. Services did not form part of the TCA. Leaving the EU has had a negative effect on the UK's trade deficit in goods: Trade with the EU is down and the promised trade deals with China, India and the US are nowhere to be seen. 95% of the "many, many trade deals" were simply legacies of the UK's membership of the EU which we subsequently carried over. The very few trade deals that the UK has struck since Brexit e.g. with Australia have generally been more favourable to our bi-lateral partners. However, the provision of financial services was the one area where the Leavers refrain, "They need us more than we need them", had a ring of truth. The EU is still building the infrastructure necessary to support its' financial services industry. In addition, there has been little diversification of regulation since Brexit. When the EU is comfortable with it's ability to supply the necessary services and if the UK departs from EU regulation, the effect of leaving the EU will be clearer. I doubt that the outcome will be favourable for the UK. Rather than compare the UK with only one EU member state over a short time scale, a better comparison would be with the EU bloc or Eurozone since the referendum. On most metrics, the UK has underperformed. https://www.cnbc.com/2024/02/14/brexit-has-sliced-5percent-off-uk-economic-growth-goldman-sachs-says.html Hopefully, National Rally won't win in the second round of the French election. Even if they do succeed, I'd make sure that you get the supplies in: You'll have a long wait for France leaving the EU.

I agree with your first two paragraphs. However, we don't all have paranoid tendencies which assume that anyone originating from another country, who might follow a different religion, is by definition a threat to the host culture and people.

Why not? I brought a flat in London when the Tories were in government and sold it when Labour were in power. Neither transaction was particularly difficult.

I can see how right-wing neo-conservatives, who can't come to terms with change of any sort and have an irrational fear of immigrants, might perceive Starmer as a threat..... There again, given that Starmer appears about as radical as John Major maybe I can't.

Who should be PM in your opinion?

I agree that there is little real enthusiasm for either Starmer personally or Labour as a party. It's more a case of 'they can't be any worse than the current lot'. Let's face it, the bar has been set so low by Johnson, Truss and Sunak that it's very difficult to imagine that Starmer can be worse.

I can only assume that the other 28% weren't prepared to say so publically.

I know that time flies and the memory fades as we get older, but I can't remember anything of the last 900 years😉

We are not exactly blessed with a surplus of excellent politicians in the UK but man alive, surely the two major US parties could have found better candidates than the two currently on offer?

I agree (+ try to ensure that they are free from persecution) A licence is required in order to employ overseas nationals. I doubt that this presents much of a problem for multinationals, but it is probably a different story for SMEs. However, that is an aside. Rather than pander to calls to cut immigration to some arbitrary number, I would like to see immigration numbers based on the UK's estimated future needs. Of course for this to happen, it would the government to develop an integrated industrial strategy. Given that, such a policy would have to be medium/ long term in nature and political parties cannot see further than the next election, I'm not hopeful.