Political Thoughts - the magazine

Social media is decried as the denizen of fake news and slander.  How did social media happen and does it have a problem? Twitter was founded in March 2006.  Amongst its first users were large media chains.  The BBC News was one of the first to publicise Twitter, joining in Jan 2007.  The joining dates of other big media were CNN Feb 2007, New York Times March 2007, NBC News March 2008, Daily Express Dec 2008, ITV News Feb 2009, Guardian Nov 2009, Daily Mail Feb 2010.  These established media companies used Twitter to host their user groups and provided massive advertising free of charge for Twitter - "if you wish to comment on this program go to Twitter hash tag bbcqt" etc.  Yes, the BBC advertised a commercial corporation on every other programme and no questions were asked despite this being against its Charter. The Twitter user population exploded: There can be little doubt that the established media advertised the new media for free and create...

The decision on whether to extend the transition period must be made by 30th June.  Does it need extending? Barnier says that the biggest obstacle is that "the EU will not agree to any future partnership that does not include a balanced and long-term agreement on fisheries" ( Euractiv ).  If that was all then you might have imagined that a trade deal could be obtained by January 2021 so what is the problem? The problem goes deeper.  The UK wants to have a trade deal like Canada or South Korea.  A deal about trade.  The EU wants to bind the UK into a sort of EEA deal in return for free trade. The EU expects that the UK will commit to keeping EU standards on social and environmental policy, as well as state aid, in return for a free trade deal with zero tariffs and quotas.  In Barnier's latest Press Release he says that the UK must agree to the supremacy of the European Court of Justice on many matters and accuses the UK of holding up negotiations b...

Prior to considering any of the predictions for a No Deal Brexit it is worthwhile to get a sense of perspective about the role of the EU in the UK economy. In 2016 exports to the EU constituted only 12% of UK GDP. ( See  Exports of Goods and Services to EU28 (L84Y) ,  Exports of Goods and Services Total (ikbh) . ) Bear this in mind when you hear estimates of Brexit reducing GDP by 15% or more, they are clearly just trying to scare you.  The UK is not a "great trading nation" nowadays, much of UK GDP is generated by the internal economy, not by International Trade.  Several groups of economists (such as Rabobank and HM Treasury) have got so carried away with their negative predictions that they have failed to check whether they still fit with any plausible reality.  Unfortunately journalists have simply accepted what they have said. The Treasury produced this rather shabby graph to demonstrate how devastating Brexit might be over 15 years: Firstly noti...

I have had quiet conversations with several Remain backers over the past couple of weeks.  All three were absolutely clear that Leave voters did not really understand what they were voting for.  They said this to me, someone who has read the EU Treaties and studied the history of the EU, explored UK-EU Economic Relations and even read the Belfast Agreement yet voted Leave. When I pointed out that the Leave voters I know were all clear that the EU is becoming a Nation State that is steadily usurping the independence of the UK the Remain supporters all said "No, Leave didn't vote for that, they voted for the £350m a week pledge on the bus".  This is said despite the fact that the Brexit Bus appeared on 11th May 2016 and had no discernible effect on opinion polls.  The claim that the slogan changed the course of the Referendum is made with a straight face despite UKIP having been getting between 13 and 27% of the vote years before any buses appeared. None of the R...

Black people in Italy are 13 times more likely to experience housing discrimination than black people in the UK. In France and Germany they are twice as likely to experience general discrimination in a year as in the UK. These figures are shocking.  The figures for racial harassment are just as bad. See Second European Union Minorities and Discrimination Survey: Being Black in the EU . The exceptional nature of the UK within the EU has been noted by the United Nations Committee on Protection against Racial Discrimination in Europe which praised the UK: "It is noteworthy that this State party’s equality legislation has been welcomed by the Committee on a number of previous occasions and that it was the first of its kind among EU Member States, dating back to 1976 (and its predecessor to 1967)".  Compared with the EU the UK is a wonderful example of racial harmony. The UN Committee criticised the Czechs, Latvians, Cypriots, Austrians, Greeks, and Slovenes for a lack of ...