Britain outside the EU

[1andrew1]

UK university research faces funding cliff edge as EU support ends

Across the bay from Port Talbot’s steelworks, one of the biggest metal plants in Europe, academics at Swansea University are laying the foundations of Wales’s green economy.

In campus labs, academics are inventing materials that stop steel corrosion to extend the life of machine parts and support sustainable industry. Nearby stands an “Active House” that can generate its own renewable energy.

“We’re not focusing on just short-term goals, we’re thinking about how we can develop capability over a number of years,” said Justin Searle, technology director for Specific, a university project that works with businesses to trial new approaches to green construction.

But these projects — along with more than 150 others in the UK — face imminent closure, as the EU funding that has supported them finally tapers out this month...

In its place, the UK government has set up the £2.6bn shared prosperity fund (SPF). However, it has different funding priorities and university leaders say the substitution has left many projects short.

Once gone, sector leaders say, most of these innovative research projects will not return, hobbling regional development and progress to net zero and skills targets, and leaving the innovation sector with a funding hole.

Paul Boyle, Swansea’s vice-chancellor, said the sector was “on the precipice of a disaster. I couldn’t think of another time when such a significant amount of valuable research and innovation work will be lost.

https://www.ft.com/content/ca6ed436-...4-4f532429e754

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-64823710

Boris Johnson has said he will find it "very difficult" to vote for Rishi Sunak's new Brexit deal for Northern Ireland.

The former prime minister said the deal was "not about the UK taking back control".

It is the first time he has commented since Mr Sunak unveiled the Windsor agreement on Monday…

… In a speech in Westminster, the former PM said: "This is the EU graciously unbending to do what we want in our country not by our laws but by theirs.

"I'm going to find it very difficult to vote for something like this myself, as I believe we should have done something different."

The deal would act as a "a drag anchor on divergence" from the EU, he added.

"Brexit is nothing unless we in this country don't do things differently."

[1andrew1]

Originally Posted by jonbxx

Yeah, the Horizon thing is great news. Not taking part in the Horizon program was a disaster for the scientific community

Sunak apparently disagrees.

Rishi Sunak holds back on rejoining Horizon after Brexit breakthrough

Senior colleagues said the UK prime minister was “sceptical” about the value of the research programme — the world’s biggest — and the cost of British participation. They added that he would “take stock” of options including the country’s “plan B” global research plan.

While Britain had been expected to contribute £15bn for the full seven-year Horizon programme, three years have already passed and the two sides must now agree how much the UK would have to provide.

Sunak’s hesitancy comes despite calls by UK scientists for Britain to re-enter Horizon, which many see as vital for research, investment and turning the country into a “science superpower”.

https://www.ft.com/content/409bccc7-...4-340d15147c55

[Sephiroth]

Oh dear - more stupidity.

[jonbxx]

Originally Posted by 1andrew1

Sunak apparently disagrees.

https://www.ft.com/content/409bccc7-...4-340d15147c55

Bugger. The scientific community wants to be part of Horizon, the CBI said that membership was a ‘win-win’ but no. Hopefully, sense will prevail…

[Sephiroth]

Interesting article in the Torygraph today that will rankle Ian and other Remainers.

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/business...paign=DM118944

The key points from this paywall site are:

The European Union, and its most enthusiastic advocates, have long argued that its power as the world’s largest trade bloc means it is impossible to ignore. Anyone who attempted to stand up to it could simply be swatted aside, and countries might as well sign up to its rules because they would have to follow them anyway. Even worse, any country that left, such as the UK, would find itself an irrelevance on the world stage.

Forty years ago, the EU was the largest economic bloc in the world, but now it is in third place behind the US and China, and getting smaller all the time.

And it is a relative industrial failure, too. You can’t hope to regulate technology, for example, when none of the major companies are European. Likewise, while Volkwagen and Renault are trying to compete in electric vehicles, they are nowhere close to Tesla, Ford, or the emerging Chinese competitors such as BYD. Most of Europe has been so poor at creating new companies, or re-inventing old ones, that it is no longer relevant in most major industries.

Add it all up, and there can only be one conclusion. The EU has allowed its position as an economic superpower to slip. As a result, while a country like the UK clearly doesn’t gain any influence by leaving, it doesn’t lose any, either. There is simply nothing to lose.

The EU keeps trying to strut on the world stage, demanding concessions from its major rivals, and threatening reprisals if others fail to listen.

But it is making itself increasingly ridiculous. Joe Biden is courteous whenever he meets the president of the European Commission. But that shouldn't fool us into believing that Washington is taking a great interest in what she has to say.

And we are kidding ourselves if we think that the Biden administration will back down on poaching VW’s battery factories, or any other European assets. The EU's clout is gone – and it is difficult to see how it will claw it back.

Here’s an unpaywalled link, for anyone who wants a laugh - it’s an anti-EU diatribe, using hyperbole and emotive language, playing to its audience’s prejudices, from a man whose previous predictions include stating "Apple will sell a few to its fans, but the iPhone won't make a long-term mark on the industry" and " The iPhone is nothing more than a luxury bauble that will appeal to a few gadget freaks. In terms of its impact on the industry, it is less relevant.", and who also predicted 11 years ago that Spain would leave the Euro, and that the Euro would collapse.

I think his best prediction (in 2011) was "Russia is now a stable democracy. There is little chance of it reverting to autocratic rule…

The language used shows it isn’t a serious article, but just a dog-whistle to it’s established audience, saying things like

Anyone who attempted to stand up to it could simply be swatted aside
any country that left, such as the UK, would find itself an irrelevance on the world stage
its attempts to strut on the world stage
every self-important commissioner in Brussels has been lecturing anyone who will listen
A few grandiose proclamations aside
it is making itself increasingly ridiculous

https://12ft.io/proxy?q=https://www....ic-superpower/

This section intimates that the EU is saying this because the U.K. left the EU

Even worse, any country that left, such as the UK, would find itself an irrelevance on the world stage.

When, in fact, the hyperlink leads to another Kippergraph article discussing a CEBR* viewpoint about Jeremy Hunt’s mini-budget in December last year…

https://12ft.io/proxy?ref=&q=https:/...ax-raid-warns/

Britain will stagnate on world stage after Jeremy Hunt tax raid, warns CEBR

Long-term damage will derail growth that would have seen UK overtake Germany, consultancy warns

Jeremy Hunt's tax raid will leave Britain stagnating on the world stage, according to new analysis that shows the Chancellor's attack on aspiration will leave the country languishing behind other economies for the next two decades.

The Centre for Economics and Business Research (CEBR) warned that the jump in Britain's tax burden, which is set to climb to a peacetime high in 2024, will inflict long-term damage and derail growth that would have seen the UK overtake Germany.

It’s basically a rant from a Spectator contributor appealing to the rabid anti-EUers - I wonder why Seph recommends it…

* The Centre for Economics and Business Research (CEBR) is an economic consultancy based in London

[Sephiroth]

Originally Posted by Hugh

<SNIP>



It’s basically a rant from a Spectator contributor appealing to the rabid anti-EUers - I wonder why Seph recommends it…

<SNIP>

I recommend the Telegraph article because it rings right to me, particularly because it is angled towards an EU/US comparison.

[TheDaddy]

Originally Posted by Sephiroth

I recommend the Telegraph article because it rings right to me, particularly because it is angled towards an EU/US comparison.

Wonder if it rings right to you because it's what you want to hear

[Sephiroth]

Originally Posted by TheDaddy

Wonder if it rings right to you because it's what you want to hear

No you don't. You just want to be contrary. I've told you what interested me in the Telegraph article. And yes, I did manage a smile.

[ianch99]

Originally Posted by Sephiroth

No you don't. You just want to be contrary. I've told you what interested me in the Telegraph article. And yes, I did manage a smile.

I'm afraid TheDaddy is right. The article is really what you want to hear. These days, there is very little to cheer up the hard-core Leavers so any old fiction will sooth over the pain that reality brings. Oh, nearly forgot, I need to "open my eyes"

[Sephiroth]

Originally Posted by ianch99

I'm afraid TheDaddy is right. The article is really what you want to hear. These days, there is very little to cheer up the hard-core Leavers so any old fiction will sooth over the pain that reality brings. Oh, nearly forgot, I need to "open my eyes"

…… and smell the coffee.

[Mad Max]

Originally Posted by Sephiroth

…… and smell the coffee.

[ianch99]

Originally Posted by Sephiroth

…… and smell the coffee.

I do smell my coffee .. it smells of tolerance, compassion and kindness. Must be made abroad

[Sephiroth]

Originally Posted by ianch99

I do smell my coffee .. it smells of tolerance, compassion and kindness. Must be made abroad

Tolerance for what? Albanian gangsters? Fit young men from the Middle East?

Compassion for what? Economic migrants who have to be housed at the taxpayers' expense? Who have deliberately destroyed their documents so we don't know for sure whether or not they are likely terrorists?

Kindness? Of course.