Brexit and the waning days of the United Kingdom

[Sheilbh]

Good thing the UK has left the EU otherwise this could be an easy option for Brits.

It still is as Larch says.

I was in Athens recently visiting a friend who works there (but is actually employed in an office building in Athens ) and it was incredible the number of Brits and Americans especially who were just rocking up to work for 6 months, a year or more on the digital nomad schemes.

It's really good for certain sectors I think especially where there's lots of free-lancing like some developers, designers, some media work. I was chatting with one woman (who was really impressive), most of her network was in Chicago and she did lots of work for them - and was earning Chicago rates but living in Athens which I think was significantly cheaper.

As Cel says I think it's a bit of a mixed blessing. I think you could definitely use it to kickstart regeneration in a city (I feel like Leipzig and Tbilisi have maybe been doing this). I think it could also work where you have a city that's basically already very popular with international tourists like Venice because it actually creates a local scene for a bit. But I'm really not sure of the benefits in cities that already get lots of tourists and are already going pretty well/not in need of regeneration like, say Lisbon or Barcelona (or Athens). It just feels like it'll add a lot of pressures.

[Sheilbh]

Re things in British politics that just drive me crazy - and I think is tied to that ridiculously low salary for HM Treasury's cyber security director Or moaning about "hundreds of thousands" spent ("wasted") on Deliveroo by the Department of Health during covid - which is because civil servants and politicians were working through their meals and ordered it in. Like many professions - if I had to be in the office late when I was in private practice, I'd order food (up to £20) and put it on the file because I was in the office at 9pm doing their work

He is Prime Minister, representing the country at international conferences and visiting allies - this is part of the job and obviously he'll be supported by aides and civil servants etc because he's the Prime Minister. I know the British instinct to just be hobbits is very strong but it is annoying

Sunak took £500,000 worth of private jet trips in less than a fortnight
Lib Dems criticise 'shocking waste of taxpayers' money' as Cabinet Office document reveals PM's flight costs
Peter Walker Political correspondent
@peterwalker99
Fri 31 Mar 2023 10.54 BST
Last modified on Fri 31 Mar 2023 13.01 BST

Rishi Sunak took private jet trips costing almost £500,000 in just over a week last year, government data has shown, prompting opposition claims that he is out of touch and unable to lead on green issues.

A Cabinet Office document detailing overseas prime ministerial travel in the third quarter of 2022 showed No 10 spent just under £108,000 on private jet travel to and from the Cop27 summit in Egypt, flying in on 6 November and returning the next day.

A week after, he set off to the G20 summit in Bali, Indonesia, coming back on 17 November, a round trip that cost more than £340,000.

In December, a day trip to Latvia and Estonia to visit troops cost more than £62,000. The period also covers an official overseas trip during Liz Truss's brief tenure, during which she took a private jet to and from a meeting in Prague that cost almost £40,000.

While Downing Street sometimes has access to an RAF Voyager plane, a mid-air refuelling craft that has had its interior fitted out to carry passengers, all the flights listed involved an Airbus A-321 operated by the charter carrier Titan Airways on behalf of the UK government.

The plane is painted with a union flag tail fin, and is a de facto equivalent to the official aircraft used by some other world leaders.

Wera Hobhouse, the Liberal Democrats' energy and climate spokesperson, said: "This is a shocking waste of taxpayers' money at a time when people are struggling to pay their bills. Yet again this Conservative government is completely out of touch.

"The government can pretend to care about a greener future with their so-called 'green day' but the reality is they are trashing their own promises."

The Cabinet Office costings document shows nearly another £20,000 was spent on other costs for the prime ministers, including accommodation, meals and visas.

This does not include the costs for officials who also went on the trips. The delegations varied in size from the 19 who accompanied Truss to Prague to the 35 who joined Sunak in Bali.

Some prime ministerial flights, for example those to and from Bali, also carry members of the travelling UK press, who pay for the flights.

A Downing Street spokesperson defended the flights. They said: "The role of the prime minister includes holding vital meetings with world leaders during bilateral visits and summits to discuss issues of international importance – including security, defence and trade."

I agree if he was using these planes for his personal holidays or something similar that would be wildly inappropriate and a resigning matter. But head of government, using government plane to attend international meetings representing the government is not a scandal

Edit: Particularly galling in this case given that the very same Wera Hobhouse was one of many who complained about Sunak's initial plan to not attend COP27 and is now attacking him for travelling to attend it

[Tamas]

Should have travelled by boat to Egypt. If it was good enough in the 1880s it's ought to be good enough now. 

[Richard Hakluyt]

Churchill would have travelled on the Admiralty yacht :

https://winstonchurchill.hillsdale.edu/churchill-and-the-hms-enchantress/

[Syt]

So when was the new Britannia yacht going to be launched?

[Crazy_Ivan80]

Should have travelled by boat to Egypt. If it was good enough in the 1880s it's ought to be good enough now. 

a gunship ideally

[Sheilbh]

You know I wish it was RETVRN type nostalgia for a gunship or royal yacht. As I say I sadly think it's the curtain twitching, hobbit side of Brits.

But sadly I think it's a combination of the penny-pinching meanness of complaining about the PM staying in a four star hotel (recommeneded by their Italian hosts) during the G7 in Venice, as opposed to the local Premier Inn. I think we'll see the same during the coronation (when the costs are largely security of big crowds of the public plus lots of dignitaries). But we'll see people complain as if power is best handed over through a ceremonial exchange of the lanyard in a strip lit leisure centre. Or, frankly, everything to do with "Treasury brain".

But I think the other bit it's a bit of the real cakeism in British politics. We want energy security, we want to meet our net zero targets and we want to do it without having to build any new infrastructure anywhere ever. I've said it before about net zero especially but there are a few policy goals with broad, almost universal support and an equally universal goal of blocking any practical step towards achieving them

[PJL]

I've come to the conclusion that if people block practical steps in achieving a policy goal then they don't support the policy irrespective if they say they do.

[Sheilbh]

Yeah I think the latest I saw that provoked this was a Green organised protest somewhere in Oxfordshire against a solar farm.

Not every project is perfect and you don't need to support anyone but ultimately if you want us to hit net zero, but you also oppose every local solar farm, on-shore wind farm, interconnector with off-shore wind, new grid infrastructure or nuclear plant then I'm not sure how you actually expect us to get to net zero
 
It got approved but there was also the story of objections to a new GPs clinic being built in Kent. It's going to be built in an area that is designated for more housing and seems to address the (legitimate) complaint many people have about new housing that it doesn't always have enough infrastructure so it puts the strain on often already stretched local services. But you still had people objecting to the council. My favourite reason for objecting was "excessive noise from car doors shutting"

[PJL]

The ultimate in NIMBYism was someone objecting to having a bus stop outside their house, which I read about in my local rag earlier this week.

[Sheilbh]

Incredible.

[PJL]

Here's the article about it:

https://www.gloucestershirelive.co.uk/news/gloucester-news/churchdown-man-pledges-spend-last-8304663

[Zanza]

Leipzig

Leipzig has rejuvenated by digital nomads? First time I hear that. Can you elaborate? 

[mongers]

Here's the article about it:

https://www.gloucestershirelive.co.uk/news/gloucester-news/churchdown-man-pledges-spend-last-8304663

I'm rather keen to see a new small oilfield built here in the New Forest, rather than say allowing our oil to be imported from environmentaly devasted places in the 3rd world.

Love to see the local objections to that, especially as this area was one of the last areas to see protests against the installation of the national grid, I think in about 1937??

[Sheilbh]

Leipzig

Leipzig has rejuvenated by digital nomads? First time I hear that. Can you elaborate? 

I could be wrong - maybe it's Dresden?

But I've definitely heard lots of people at tech events planning to go to one of them because it's the new Berlin - affordable, cool etc. Of course they are the people who made Berlin unaffordable for many and they're just moving somewhere else to do the same but plus ca change.