+UPDATE+

UK govt backtracks and decides at the last minute to supply £250 million funding to keep association with EU “Horizon” research & science program.

The UK govt has refused to participate post-Brexit but plans for other schemes such as a CANZUK system never materialised.
2/

Report in Guardian today on this.

theguardian.com/science/2021/a…
3/

The report by the govt on the other hand seems designed to give the impression to the uniformed observer in the 1st paragraphs that it’s all a new thing so that UK can become a “science superpower”...

...rather than a continuation of an EU project.

gov.uk/government/new…
4/

This would also suggest that the govt is moving away from the Dominic Cummings plan of an “independent British high spending moonshot” science policy and back towards something more akin to Theresa May’s ideas on Brexit.

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More from @nicktolhurst

30 Mar
While the hundreds & thousands of pounds UK govt paid in cash or in kind to Jennifer Arcuri due to her relationship with Boris Johnson has created the biggest storm...

..the real story is the amount of of undisclosed money funnelled to Arcuri..& this could run to over a million.
2/

Question we should really be asking is how a bankrupt waitress being sued for $100 000 in unpaid student fees..

...ended up with $1 million plopping into her failing company which had no assets nor income save govt grants Boris arranged for her...

dailymail.co.uk/news/article-7…
3/

Again why isn’t the media asking:

1. Where this $1 million came from?
2. Did Boris know the source or even help arrange it?
3. Is the source British?
4. What did the provider of this money receive in return?
Read 6 tweets
29 Mar
I started this thread 18 months ago when I heard Jennifer Arcuri - a bankrupt student-waitress whose only real income was via fraudulent grants arranged by Boris Johnson..

..loaned her own failing firm £700 000.

It’s surely in UK’s interest that we know who supplied this money?
2/

There’s a lot about this story that simply demands a thorough investigation - particularly on national security grounds.

1. Who supplied the £700 000?
2. Was the source known to Boris Johnson?
3. Was the ultimate source British?
4. What did they get/expect to get in return?
3/

A failing company with no real assets or income run by a bankrupt student heavily involved with Boris Johnson in what looks like fraudulent schemes suddenly gets a cash injection of almost £750 000.

Months later Johnson became Prime Minister.

Who is looking into this?
Read 5 tweets
21 Mar
+UPDATE+

An estimated 500 000 young people have left UK due to a combination of COVID + Brexit.

A number of studies show half a million people aged between 18-39 left the UK in the final provisional years of Brexit & as COVID struck.
2/

The decline in older people has been far less pronounced as older settled foreigners choose to stay while a significant number of older British citizens decided to return full time from EU states to the UK.
3/

This is a good link as it shows a number of different estimates.

At this stage we don’t know exactly how many people have left - although no one serious is denying something dramatic has happened in population flows & numbers.

bbc.com/news/uk-564351…
Read 4 tweets
19 Mar
Somewhere around 2022/3 the penny will drop with the London polit-media establishment that they’re involved in a race...

...a race to make Brexit work before N. Ireland & Scotland leave the UK.

& the last gambit they realise they can play that might just work is...

...the EEA.
2/

It won’t be rejoin because the establishment campaigning for rejoin inside 5 years is the national equivalent of humiliating oneself & showing ones utter ridiculousness before the entire world.

But EEA.
It’s doable.
And EEA..
..will inevitably lead to rejoin.
3/

People saying the "EU will never let the UK rejoin" are looking at the future too much through the eyes of this year's feelings.

In 2030 the world, Europe, the UK will be all very different. Virtually all European leaders will be different.
A generational change from 2016.
Read 6 tweets
18 Mar
Many Brits don’t realise it - but we were lucky.
Being a former huge empire means having a lot of historical enemies.
But our soft power:
Sharing English with the US, London, the Beatles, the EU, cricket, British TV means we got treated well.

But theses soft powers are fading.
2/

The “pragmatic conservative” strategy of avoiding the “unpleasant aspects” of empire & hoping our EU membership, shared modern sport, culture & commonwealth/WW II/VSO relations would take away the sting of empire was very smart...but has been trashed or running out of road...
3/

I fear Brits have increasingly believed their own publicity.

We told ourselves a story of our plucky WWII fight to save humanity, our empire as funny dressed men spreading cricket & tea...

...but forgotten that we can’t rely on the rest of the world to see it that way.
Read 5 tweets
18 Mar
Johnson’s appeal used to baffle me.
Why do people want a clown as leader?
Until I realised it’s a form of “English exceptionalism”.

Other countries are nervous about replacing leaders with fools. But Johnson as leader is unconscious confirmation that Britain will always be fine.
2/

This is an interesting article on this kind of “deliberately subvert seriousness” strategy.

You will notice, particularly in international events, Johnson always acts up more.
It’s an attempt to make the seriousness of the others look ridiculous.

theguardian.com/news/2021/mar/…
3/

This is what distinguishes Johnson from Trump & Mussolini.

The latter 2 are more concerned with a strident masculinity - Johnson wants to communicate a complete disregard for the concept that Britain even needs to try to be serious - because we are so naturally superior.
Read 5 tweets

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