The government have been consulting on weights and measures; to their chagrin the vast majority of those consulted want to keep grams and metres but they have decided to allow wine to be sold in pints, a measure enjoyed by Churchill.
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Kier Starmer and Resolution Foundation
At the launch of the Resolution Foundation’s report, “Ending Stagnation”, [Press Release], they had a bunch of speakers, including Sir Kier Starmer, Labour’s Leader, whose speech is posted at Labour List. It seems Hunt was also there. Here are some notes and links …
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Von der Leyen again
Ursula von der Leyen made a speech in which she said the EU had goofed up over Brexit. I have a number of articles collected in response to this speech, which I will add to this page at a later stage. But today I have reproduced an article entitled “Goofy” from EuroIntelligence, because it is…
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Labour’s turning point?
Over the second half of September, a couple of things happened with respect to the Labour Party’s position on relations with the EU. I want to write something punchy, and made this page to collect my sources and shape m thoughts. This may not be easy to read because it as yet has no narrative….
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About the Eurofighter, and its future
What’s happening to the Eurofighter Typhoon? Do we need a replacement, and who’s going to build it? In this article, What does the future hold for Eurofighter Typhoon?, Air Force Technology suggest that it’s design is old, and that the older versions are being retired; they argue that the Tempest programme is an upgrade programme…
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Germany and debt fetishism
The stability and growth pact (SGP) is the EU’s public debt management rules and embedded in a separate treaty to the T[F]EU treaties. I have commented on these treaties elsewhere on this wiki. Elsewhere in several articles, on the blog, I criticise the SGP on my blog, including here, here, and here. My main criticism…
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What about the Euro?
Should we campaign to rejoin the Euro? In my blog article, Say no to extrawürst, I look at Niall Ò Conghaile’s arguments on EU re-entry terms and dovetail them with my realisation that the UK’s previous unique deal and its opt-outs are gone. I have felt there is room for a deal on the Euro…
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How much has the EU changed since Jan 20
How much has the EU changed since Jan 20, the day the UK left. As ever, notes and links although I drift a bit into the old opt-outs…
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Backtracking on macro- & climate change
What’s going on with Labour’s policy making? We are waiting for an NPF meeting, but that doesn’t seem to inhibit the front bench? This is a note on Reeves, her rules and macroeconomics.
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World Economic Power
I was thinking about UK defence policy and considering the role of the domestic economy. I was doing this in the light of the GMB’s internal debates on defence manufacturing. These charts are dated 2017 and I believe that Italy and France have both overtaken the UK since then and the measurement in USD will…
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Petitioning
UK Petitions, are they worth it. A petition at the parliamentary site, 10,000 gets a response, 100,000 is considered for debate in Parliament, albeit, not usually on the floor of the
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Devolution
After the publication of the Brown Commission report, I was surprised to discover that a Scottish comrade was underwhelmed by its proposals for Scotland, I don’t know why that way it should be, as I was underwhelmed by the English proposals for devolution; the whole thing is unambitious and the unimaginative hands of LOTO cover…
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The economics of the ERDF
In considering the recommendations of the CoFoE on digitsation, I came to consider how economies innovate and how competitive the EU is in the technology industries. The key programme may be the EU Regional Development Fund. See also their factsheet. This of course has relevance due to the announcement of the UK’s levelling up grants…
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Supercomputers
It’s been a while since I looked at this. Here are my notes …
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A bonfire of worker’s rights
Not content with making it impossible to “go and live there” if we don’t like Brexit, the Tories are planning to repeal all the EU derived legislation. The Bill is called the Retained EU Law (Revocation and Reform) Bill 2022-23. It is understood to threaten most already inadequate worker’s rights including holiday pay, working hours…
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