Brexit and the waning days of the United Kingdom

[Josquius]

Also I laugh at the Tynemouth seat.
In terms of organisation it seems fair enough, the southern half of South Tyneside. But the name... Tynemouth is traditionally clumped under North Shields. Though increasingly it has been steadily taking over as the dominant of the two (it being posh and fancy). Now its dominion stretches to Wallsend too.

As mentioned the main one that stood out to me was Jarrow and Sunderland West.
Which is basically Jarrow and some other bits of South Tyneisde nearby, fair enough, then a big long thin strip down to take in Pennywell, one of the more infamous parts of Sunderland,.
Really does look like they're just clumping the poors together artificially there.

Yeah, that is a bad one; they would be better having Hebburn and Jarrow with South Shields and having a "Sunderland North" constituency including Whitburn, East Boldon and Pennywell. I suspect that the South Tyneside constituency would then have too big an electorate under the rules though....even though it makes good geographical sense.

The way things are at the moment there seems fine to me and doesn't need substantial changes.
They really do need to be more far more flexiable on this trying to equalise population thing.  If you did have to merge Jarrow into something going a bit more west into Gateshead would make a bit more sense and more naturally fit population patterns.

Which....Just noticed Blaydon stretches to include Birtley and environs


My seat looks set to be becoming an even safer Labour seat with the centre being switched over to us but a substantial poor area still being there to ward off any hope of a lib dem marginal.

[The Larch]

More bureaucratic shenanigans screwing EU citizens trying to work, study and/or settle in the UK.

Brexit bureaucracy creates British nightmare for Dutch boat captain

LONDON (Reuters) - When Dutch boat captain and engineer Ernst-Jan de Groot applied to continue working in Britain after Brexit, he became ensnared in a bureaucratic nightmare because of an online glitch and says he is now likely to lose his job.

Under new immigration rules coming into force, de Groot faces the prospect of losing the right to come to Britain to work unless he can successfully apply for a visa through a government website by the end of June.

Following its departure from the European Union's orbit at the end of December, Britain is changing its immigration system, ending the priority for EU citizens over people from elsewhere.

While the government has so far processed more than 5 million applications from EU citizens to continue living in Britain, lawyers and campaigners estimate there are tens of thousands who, like de Groot, risk missing the deadline.

Those who succeed are not given a physical document to prove they have the right to live or work in Britain, so they remain hostage to websites when they need to show evidence of their status at borders, or when they apply for mortgages or loans.

The experience of de Groot and eight other applicants spoken to by Reuters shows how Brexit has put some EU citizens at the mercy of government websites and officials, and how Britain may be inadvertently discouraging people with skills it needs.

"I am trapped in a bureaucratic maze that would even astonish Kafka, and there is no exit," de Groot said. "I have tried everything I can think of to communicate the simple fact that their website is not functioning as it should."

LABYRINTHINE NIGHTMARE
De Groot, 54, has worked happily in Britain on and off for the past six years.

He sails long, narrow barges from the Netherlands to England to be used as floating homes. He also spends a few months a year building boats at a shipyard near London and captains a tall ship around the west coast of Scotland in the summer.

A fluent English speaker, de Groot says he followed the post-Brexit rules by applying for a frontier worker permit to allow him to work in Britain while not being resident.

The online application was straightforward until he was asked to provide a photo. The next page of his application, which was reviewed by Reuters, said: "you do not need to provide new photos", and there was no option to upload one.

A few weeks later, his application was rejected - for not having a photo.

So began a labyrinthine nightmare of telephone calls, emails and bureaucratic disarray. De Groot estimates he has spent over 100 hours contacting government officials who he said were either unable to help or gave conflicting information.

Some officials told him there was a technical issue that would be resolved quickly. Others said there was no problem.

Each time he phoned, de Groot said he asked the person to make a record of his complaint. On his last call, he said an official told him they did not have access to individual cases, so that was impossible.

He tried to start a new application to bypass the glitch but each time he entered his passport number it linked to his first application and he remained trapped in the photo-upload loop.

The Home Office, the government department that administers immigration policy, did not respond to requests for comment about de Groot's case or the lack of physical documents proving the status of successful applicants.
(...)
MISTAKEN IDENTITY
While the system has worked well for millions, the nine EU nationals struggling with applications spoken to by Reuters say it seems overwhelmed. They complain of long waits to speak to staff in call centres and, when they get through, they are not given case-specific advice.

One of them, a Spanish student in Edinburgh, told Reuters he was concerned he would be unable to finish his studies because his settled status application in November has been put on hold.

Three days after applying he was informed in documents reviewed by Reuters that police considered he was being investigated for "culpable and reckless conduct" - an offence in Scotland for behaviour that exposes an individual, or the public, to the significant risk to their life or health.

The student, who asked not to be named publicly for fear of jeopardising career prospects, said he had never been in trouble with the police and he had no idea what the alleged investigation might relate to.

He requested details from the Scottish police. In replies seen by Reuters, they said their databases showed he was not listed for any crime, nor under investigation.

He has approached his university, campaign groups for EU nationals and the Spanish embassy asking for help. So far, no one has been able to get him out of the bureaucratic maze.

"The panic has been constant and gradual," he said. "I end up thinking about it all the time because I might get literally kicked out of the country."

A spokeswoman for Police Scotland directed questions to the Home Office.

The Home Office did not respond to requests for comment about the student's case or complaints about call centres.

De Groot is equally frustrated. The company that usually employs him to captain a ship in the summer has started to look for someone else.

Diplomats say another problem is looming: what will Britain do with EU citizens who don't have the right documents by July?

The government has said those who miss the deadline will lose the right to services such as free non-urgent healthcare and could be deported. Guidelines suggest leniency will only be granted in certain cases, such as for people with a physical or mental incapacity.

Even those with settled status are concerned that without a physical document as proof, they could still end up in immigration limbo if websites fail.

When Rafael Almeida, a research fellow in neuroscience at the University of Edinburgh, applied for a mortgage this year, he was asked to provide a share code generated by a government website to prove his settled status.

Almeida said the website would not work and he was greeted with a message: "There's a problem with this service at the moment. Try again later."

After a month of failed attempts to generate the code, Almeida's mortgage broker persuaded the lender to accept only his passport as proof of identity. The website is still not working.

The Home Office did not respond to requests for comment.

Almeida is worried that from next month he will unable to access healthcare, apply for a job if he ever wants to, or return to Portugal to see family or friends.

"I am incredibly anxious, I am incredibly frustrated with the people who should have been taking care of this," he said. "I am just really worried for the future."

[garbon]

https://www.theguardian.com/education/2021/jun/09/president-of-oxford-college-defends-students-right-to-remove-photo-of-queen

President of Oxford college defends students' right to remove Queen's photo

Gavin Williamson had earlier called the move by postgraduates at Magdalen College 'absurd'

The president of Magdalen College, Oxford, has strongly defended her graduate students' right to remove a photograph of the Queen from their common room after the education secretary, Gavin Williamson, called the move "absurd".

Members of the college's middle common room (MCR), which is restricted to students taking postgraduate degrees, voted to take down the print, with minutes of the meeting noting that "for some students depictions of the monarch and the British monarchy represent recent colonial history".

Williamson tweeted: "Oxford university students removing a picture of the Queen is simply absurd. She is the head of state and a symbol of what is best about the UK. During her long reign she has worked tirelessly to promote British values of tolerance, inclusivity and respect around the world."

But Dinah Rose, the president of Magdalen College, swiftly responded: "Here are some facts about Magdalen College and HM the Queen. The Middle Common Room is an organisation of graduate students. They don't represent the College. A few years ago, in about 2013, they bought a print of a photo of the Queen to decorate their common room.

"They recently voted to take it down. Both of these decisions are their own to take, not the College's. Magdalen strongly supports free speech and political debate, and the MCR'S right to autonomy. Maybe they'll vote to put it up again, maybe they won't. Meanwhile, the photo will be safely stored."

Rose added: "Being a student is about more than studying. It's about exploring and debating ideas. It's sometimes about provoking the older generation. Looks like that isn't so hard to do these days."

Williamson's intervention comes as the government has put pressure on universities to defend access to campuses for controversial speakers. Last month it proposed new freedom of speech legislation that would bring student unions under the surveillance of the higher education regulator, the Office for Students, and appoint a "free speech champion" to its board.

The bill would allow academics, students or visiting speakers to seek compensation through the courts if they suffered loss from a university's policies.

Matthew Katzman, Magdalen's MCR president, told the Daily Telegraph: "It has been taken down. It was decided to leave the common room neutral. That was what this was about. The college will have plenty of depictions of various things, but the common room is meant to be a space for all to feel welcome."

[Josquius]

Its amazing how upset the media gets these days over petty little student things like that.
Not just the right wing media either.

[Syt]

https://twitter.com/BorisJohnson/status/1402659741738885120?s=20

Boris Johnson
@BorisJohnson
United Kingdom government official

I've arrived in Cornwall for this year's @G7 where I'll be asking my fellow leaders to rise to the challenge of beating the pandemic and building back better, fairer and greener.

It will be a busy and important Summit, and I can't wait to get started.

#G7UK

"greener"
*flies to fucking Cornwall*

[Sheilbh]

Yes, but Cornwall's about 5-6 hours from London. It's about as far away as Newcastle.

So while I wouldn't take a flight, I wouldn't ban it as it's over 4 hours as an alternative.

[alfred russel]

Should the prime minister take a train (doesn't seem especially practical)? or spend 10 hours in a car on a round trip journey to attend the G7?

[Valmy]

Maybe if the train or car has a set up that enables him to do whatever work he has to do that day.

Anyway demanding we all take bicycles across country is not really the solution, the solution is to invent planes or plane equivalent transportation that is green.

[The Brain]

A G7 airplane...?

[Valmy]

A G7 airplane...?

Damn straight. Fly like a G7.

[Sheilbh]

They do take the train sometimes - Cameron famously left his red box of official papers (with the key in the lock) while he went to the cafe car to buy a coffee. People took photos and posted it online (but didn't try to look inside) - but then he also left one of his kids in a pub by mistake

To St Ives is multiple changes and over six hours by train. It's far longer than a trip to, say, Edinburgh by train (4 hours) because it's basically a rural county and not really on a mainline - also don't think there's a motorway there (I know there isn't in Dorset but not sure about the rest of the South-West).

[Tamas]

Yes, but Cornwall's about 5-6 hours from London. It's about as far away as Newcastle.

So while I wouldn't take a flight, I wouldn't ban it as it's over 4 hours as an alternative.

Come on now, you want to get rid of cars but are ok with people flying to spare themselves a 4 hour ride?

[Sheilbh]

Yeah - I think the French ban is if rail could do the journey in 2.5 hours. I'd push that to 4.

But by train London to Aberdeen is quicker than St Ives. There's a reason there's a night train to Cornwall - it is far away (as far as Newcastle) and, despite summer tourism, still very rural.

[garbon]

[Sheilbh]

Oh that controversy.

I've been using trains little bit for holidays last week and seeing family. It is very weird as they are basically all running at half capacity for social distancing.