Seven Year Itch: Scratching Brexit

[Fitzcarraldo]

Indeed, but as I am sure you know, given that you are following these developments closely, the UK Govt has enabled those UK based academics involved in the €95.5 bn Horizon 2020 to remain in the network of projects that run to 2027. So you see, just as Northern Ireland remains in the EU Customs Union, some parts of the UK also remain in the EU although initially the academic links were threatened.
UK participation in Horizon Europe | Research and Innovation Services - UCL – University College London

That said, a former colleague of mine not long after the Brexit referendum decamped to Germany with a well-funded project, never to return.

The report you cite is merely another of the Brexit Govt's futile attempts to establish the UK as a Global Leader, with miniscule amounts of cash 'guaranteed'. Not only do most Brits now regret leaving the EU, a majority now want another referendum on membership of the EU albeit in the next 10 years.

Not following them closely at all. This is the first I've heard of it. The way I read the article, it is damning the program for only producing three applicants since its inception.

[obslam]

Fast-track visa scheme for prize-winning researchers has only had three takers:
https://www.theneweuropean.co.uk/bre...ee-applicants/

Thanks, though it's a very European-centred article written by a very Euro-centred journalist for a very Euro-centred minority publication. You could just as easily spin it as a success as a failure, not to mention that many of these types of people qualify for visas in other way or, indeed, don't actually need a visa.

It's such nonsense and the like from these sorts of publications that perpetuate the myth that Brexit is any real issue in the real world. It simply isn't. Sure, there's a few losers looking for excuses, just as there are winners - but Brexit or rejoining the EU in some way is rarely discussed now and there is certainly no widespread desire to rejoin anyway, numpties who can't let the fact go that a clear majority voted to leave notwithstanding of course.

[Stavros]

Not following them closely at all. This is the first I've heard of it. The way I read the article, it is damning the program for only producing three applicants since its inception.

The key points are that few if any Conservatives expected Leave to win the Referendum in 2016, so no forward planning was made if that was the result, and since then the Conservartive Govt has been wracked by a level of party division and outright incompetence that, if polls are to be believed, will wipe out their majority if Rishi Sunak hangs on before having to call a General Election in 2024.

The irony of the academic situation is that while some have left for the EU, those who held on were able to convince the Govt that having entered into the Horizon 2020 partnership, it made no sense to withdraw the UK from it, and it thus became part of various negotiations with the EU that have retained it. It doesn't make headlines, as to some extent Northern Ireland does, but it does demonstrate in practical terms what a flop leaving the EU has been. Most of the trade agreements signed since the Referendum were renewals of existing EU-derived agreements, though they no longer give partners access to the Single Market of the EU. There has been no trade agreement with the US, which would probably be an unfair agreement anyway, and the Pacific market agreement that was reached earlier this year is valued far, far below what the UK-EU trade was before the Referendum.

As for the comment by Oblsam that "Brexit or rejoining the EU in some way is rarely discussed now and there is certainly no widespread desire to rejoin anyway,", this is verifiable rubbish, a comment made by someone who simply doesn't care about the issue, and can't believe anyone else does.

Thus:

"With public opinion having turned against Brexit, a new YouGov survey finds that most Britons would now vote to Remain were the EU referendum being held again, and likewise would vote to rejoin the EU if such a vote were being called."
Britons would vote to rejoin the EU | YouGov

[Stavros]

So, having been forced to leave the Horizon programme because of Brexit, the UK Govt has negotiated a return to it. All that time and money to achieve something that we already had: but with additional costs in terms of the loss of research funding and collaboration that took place.

Recognition that in this sector, Brexit was a mistake, and Brexit has been reversed. It can be done. And all that stuff about Horizon including more countries outside the EU, well that was one of the benefits of the UK being in the EU as well as the Horizon project, attracting countries outside the EU who wanted to share what the EU and the UK had at the same time.

Rather like trade. We need them. They need us.

(1) Sunak sidesteps question over whether Horizon deal will lead to further collaboration with EU – UK politics live (theguardian.com)

[Stavros]

What to make of the latest revelation, that the best deal we could have had from the EU was never intended to be anything other than a temporary fix, that the man negotiating on behalf of the UK was a bare-faced liar at every stage of the process, encouraged by Boris Johnson as Prime Minister to tell as many lies as needed to get a signature on peace of paper, something after the lamentable farce of Theresa May losing every vote in the House of Commons, Johnson said only he could secure.

Some might say well all politicians are liars, but this is Brexit in action, a whole new layer of lies, deception, and complete disregard for democracy, truth, freedom -all those things we are supposed to value. Ok, so Johnson is gone, but Lord Frost remains in the House of Lords where he can meddle with politics until he retires or dies.

The lesson of Brexit: when a monumental failure of policy makes its demands, tell lies, lies, and nothing but lies, in the hope the people won't notice, or care. Is this not the end of politics? Why should any Govt sit across the table from a member of His Majesty's Government if they never know if what they are negotiating is of any value?

"Lord Frost has said that, when he and Boris Johnson negotiated the Northern Ireland protocol ahead of Brexit, they “always hoped” it would eventually collapse."
Boris Johnson government ‘always hoped’ Northern Ireland protocol would collapse – UK politics live (theguardian.com)