The EU has been pressing the UK to accept a Youth Mobility Scheme. They want anyone under the age of 30 in any of the 27 member states to have a right to come to the UK for up to four years to work, study or travel. The UK would automatically grant them a visa for entry.
The UK so far has turned this down, pointing out that is effectively freedom of movement for a large number of people. It is not clear how the UK could force people to leave at the end of the four years. It is suggested they would not be entitled to benefits but they would presumably receive NHS treatment when needed and might need other types of state assistance.
Where the last government said No, the current government is exploring options. They are looking at a lesser time period and at some limitations on what kind of work they could take. It is difficult to see how even a lesser scheme is compatible with the government’s aim of a major reduction in legal migration.
The EU also wants the UK to subsidise the fees charged continental students in UK universities. It would like to revive UK membership of Erasmus. That would mean we had pay for the full fees for continental students to attend UK universities as well as pay for some UK students to study in the EU. When we were in Erasmus there were many more continental students coming to the UK than UK students going to Europe.
The post Brexit UK Turing scheme spends the money all on UK students going abroad. It gives UK students the choice from many Universities all round the world. It would be wrong to cut our support to UK students and to prevent them studying in places. like the US and Australia.
May 16, 2025
This is Brexit by the back door – and the Government don’t think we will notice. They are determined to reverse what we voted for.
May 16, 2025
CG,
You are absolutely right. Starmer has no authority to reverse the referendum decision. It is being noticed, and I fear the repercussions. Thank goodness I am in Australia.
May 16, 2025
He isn’t reversing anything. He is using the UK’s sovereign power to agree a Treaty – which is EXACTLY what you Brexiters wanted from Brexit. You won, get over it
Reply We voted for the sovereignty of the people exercising power through Parliament. One Parliament must not bind its successors by signing Treaties without public support.
May 16, 2025
And how, other than by a government winning a majority at a General Election, does a Parliament have public support? It’s not as if any of the previous Conservative governments put any of their Brexit deals to a public vote, nor any of the trade deals that it signed.
May 16, 2025
Mr Starmer has a very large majority in Parliament, granted him by the voters at the last Election. Part of the manifesto was a commitment to reset our relations with the EU. So of course he has public support
May 16, 2025
Yes his poll ratings reflect his public support.
May 17, 2025
A large majority in the House of Commons, but voted for by only 20.22% of eligible voters (60% voter turnout with 33.7% of those voting for Labour). Hardly a mandate for overturning the results of the referendum!
May 16, 2025
2TK, No Idea, Free gear will do everything possible to get us defacto back into the EU by stealth. I’m surprised his back benchers are not revolting as it’s a sure way of signing their death warrants.
Badenough and Nigel must make it clear that any agreement will be immediately cancelled if Liebour are voted out at the next election.
May 16, 2025
Indeed I did not think Starmer could be even worse than I expected, but he is being. A grade A liar with a broken 180 degree out compass on every issue.
May 16, 2025
It’s certainly not Brexit. It’s rejoin by the back door…………..
May 16, 2025
@CG; “They are determined to reverse what we voted for.”
Yes, what was voted for in 2016, and again in 2019, not what we voted for in 2024.
No future government can be held hostage by the polices of their predecessors, if that is not true the Thatcher govt had no right in reversing nationalizations, no right to change Trade Union Laws etc.
Perhaps Reform supporters should have held their noses and voted Conservative last year if Brexit was so important, rather than voting for more Dog Whistles…
May 16, 2025
Jerry, ever heard of the Uni-Party?
May 16, 2025
@Butties; “the Uni-Party”
No, never seen or heard of such a Party, not on any ballot paper, nor a manifesto in such a name, and I very much doubt any such Political Party is registered at the Electoral commission either.
Its it the new political wing of the NUS?
May 16, 2025
You regularly use the phrase Dog Whistles” Jerry
Does it have some special meaning for you?
May 16, 2025
@Sam; No, no more special meaning than what they are, you do know what a Dog Whistle is used for, don’t you, blow one and your Poodle cum, running to you to see what you want then to do!
May 17, 2025
Sounds a rather abusive and rude metaphor.
Not very nice way of talking about people in my opinion Jerry.
May 17, 2025
@Sam; Not abusive, just cutting, a bit like how some refer to political options they don’t like as being the “Uni-Party”, or being “Populist”, but somewhat more descriptive! Whatever.
May 17, 2025
I can see you don’t grasp the difference Jerry
One is a personal negative reference to a group of individuals (ie people who vote for a particular party which you don’t like or like policies you don’t like)
You are effectively referring to those people as dogs and poodles.
Your new examples however are :-
a description applied to the similarities between the two major political parties policies (uni party) and a description of a style of political policies which are popular to many but disliked by some (populist)
May 17, 2025
@Sam; Come off it, some just don’t like seeing their own reflections in the mirror when it’s pointed back at their faces. The terms “Uni-party” and “Populist”, for example, are not even descriptive, simply used as abuse, often not even in a ‘cutting’ way.
When a politico or the partisan media use inflammatory language to rile their supporters into a response, is that not the same as blowing a Dog Whistle to rile a dog into some kind of action, as used by a Shepard for example? As for breed, would you prefer an English Bull Dog instead of the French Poodle? 😛
May 17, 2025
Oh now it’s me.
What a surprise diverting idea Jerry
I never could have predicted that response.
Carry on with your Dog Whistle tactics
It’s only you you are embarrassing.
May 18, 2025
Sam; “Oh now it’s me.”
What exactly do you not understand about the meaning of the word “some”? But if you think the cap fits…
May 16, 2025
The EU wants to export its substantial youth unemployment problem to the UK and, as usual, it would like us to pay towards it.
It would result in hundreds of thousands coming here to study/work and a very small number of Brits going the other way because most British children do not have the language skills to work on the continent for the very good reason that State Schools don’t teach them. At best the majority might have a few years of poorly taught French, Spanish or German and have reached GCSE standard.
We voted to end free movement of people and that wasn’t specified by age. There is no mandate for bringing back free movement of 18-30 yr olds.
May 16, 2025
We did not vote to end free movement of people. We voted to leave the EU. That – nothing else – was on the ballot paper in 2016. And we have left the EU. If the UK now wants to agree a Treaty with the EU including free movement of people, then that is the democratic choice of the UK Parliament. And restoring the sovereign right of the UK Parliament to chart our own course is EXACTLY what you Brexiters told me Brexit was all about
Reply Democracy us about trying to stop governments doing the wrong thing or changing them if they do.This government has no mandate to take us back into the EU and promised not to.
May 16, 2025
Agreeing a Treaty with the EU is not taking us back into the EU. Agreeing Treaties is what sovereign countries do all the time
Reply Agreeing a Treaty which accepts EU law and the ECJ contravenes the referendum and will need to be cancelled unilaterally by a future government with people like you saying that breaks international law.
May 16, 2025
Nothing on the ballot paper addressed the question of our future Treaty-based relationship with the EU. Nothing. And yes, unilateral cancellation of a Treaty is a breach of international law. You should remember what Mrs Thatcher said about the importnace of not breaking the law
May 16, 2025
International law PROHIBITS and does not recognize any treaty where land is surrendered.
The Treaty of Rome is all about surrendering your land, so obey your own statements and oppose any reversal of LEAVE THE EU.
May 16, 2025
We did vote to take back control, and until the government has some handle on numbers, just waving in more people is going against the democratic vote.
May 16, 2025
“that is the democratic choice of the UK Parliament.”
The parliament does what the people have voted for them to do….
There is no mandate for agreeing to things, that the people have voted against!
May 16, 2025
The EU permitted free movement of peoples across national boundaries, which is not usually the case internationally. By saying we wanted to leave the EU we were automatically saying we rejected free movement.
May 16, 2025
It is not just lack of tuition most Brit are not that bothered about learning other languages and which one would they bother with anyway.
May 16, 2025
32% fewer live births for women with Covid vaccines it seems I some countries. Perhap Sunak might reverse his unequivocal lie. See Dr John Campbell.
May 16, 2025
Figs from the whole of the Czech Republic, needless to say no such figures released in the UK but clearly they have them and must know this.
A hit job on Dr Malhotra the other day by Channel 4 using some Prof. “Expert” from Leeds Uni. Also ON youtube. Why do people have difficulty with the concept that some vaccines do net good on balance and other net harm on balance. BEING Pro all Vaccines or Anti-all vaccines regardless are both rather daft positions. A daft C4 interviewer too. What causes vaccine hesitancy is evil and moronic “experts” and big Pharma rolling out dangerous vaccines with the lie safe and effective even to people who never needed them!
Thank goodness for the Dr Malhotra types!
May 16, 2025
In THIS country.
May 16, 2025
Donna: +1 – I’ve said it before & will say it again. Why exactly has the EU been persistently pushing this so much and continues to do so, using it as a threat to any other likely so called ‘concessions’ they make to us. If this is accepted then this government is not only stupid but naive. A number of our 27 partners & friends have already said they would be ” willing to crash the entire negotiations if a youth mobility deal was not part of the final agreement” (“-” = DT 04/05/25 ) The EU’s proposal was for an unlimited number of young europeans to enter & students to pay the same university fees as our own and to avoid the NHS surcharge. If we believe what we read then we already have an outstanding debt for unpaid student fees. It was anticipated as probably being unpopular and quietly suggested by the EU it might be called a Youth Experience scheme. We’ve had and continue to have our own influx of thousands in the youth category. We have thousands out of work or not in education in that category. Germany alone in 2015 saw entry of well over 1 million migrants & refugees, many of them young and many likely still to be in that category. We know that even years afterwards many were not working. What about the countries’ millions presently sitting on the EU’s future accession list. And why don’t we hear more from politicians about our Turing Scheme. Maybe a short term visa scheme as seems to be acceptable to some is what will be agreed to but what trust can we have when the UK & governments lack, i m o, the agility and overall ability to control and limit effectively and not add to the already fine mess we are in.
May 16, 2025
Good morning.
No ! No ! No ! No ! A million times, No ! The country cannot cope. What are the EU trying to do, topple our government ? We already have promised infinite Indians to come and live here on top all the other legals and illegals. We have no room and cannot concrete over our green and pleasant land fast enough.
Why can’t we just walk away ? Look at what President Trump has achieved thus far. Just walk away.
May 16, 2025
@ Mark B
What a rubbish post. Trump has achieved precisely nothing so far. His ceasefire agreement with HAMAS failed after a fortnight when they re-armed and refused to release the hostages. Despite months of pressure on the brave and Churchillian Vlodomir Zelenskyy, he has failed to achieve even a 30 day ceasefire. His Defence Secretary Hegseth is a xxxx who discusses highly classified operational details with his family using insecure messaging apps. Trump has accepted the inducement of a replacement Air Force One from the Saudi’s in return for signing a huge military equipment order. He has deported far less illegal migrants each month than Biden during the last year of his presidency. Trump is being relentlessly played by the war criminal Putin. What achievements exactly?
Reply Trump is not being given a plane by Saudi. He has cut illegal migration by 95%.
May 16, 2025
Reply to reply,
Sir John. Your polite response is a credit to you. SG will discover in due course that blindly accepting the MSM version of Trump’s agenda / achievements is infantile.
May 16, 2025
Plus his drill baby drill agenda will keep energy costs at about 25% less than the UKs plus his MAHA make America Healthy agenda is rather sensible. With Dr Malhotra assisting.
May 16, 2025
25% of or 1/4 the price of the UK rather!
May 17, 2025
@ Sir John – reply
Erratum – the Qatar government is giving Trump the plane. Apologies for the error
May 16, 2025
As described, it appears to be something the EU wants more than we do. We should ask what can they do for UK for such a concession. To cease aiding and abetting foreign immigrants in Channel crossing would be good for startes.
May 16, 2025
The EU are better negotiators than we are, because our governments want to chum up to them.
You have to go back to Mrs T’s time to find anyone who fought for our national interest. That’s decades of being sold out by our political establishment.
May 16, 2025
It would be terrible to have foreigners coming here, spending money here, getting a positive attitude to the UK that will last a lifetime. Terrible
May 16, 2025
But they wouldn’t wouldn’t they. The taxpayer would be footing the bill as usual.
May 16, 2025
They might pay some rent and buy (largely imported) food & drink, but most will be saving hard so they can go back to their countries with a few quid and better English.
10 years ago they might have wanted to stay on. Somehow I doubt that now. They’ll take what they can, then leave.
May 16, 2025
They can come on holiday, WITH Health Insurance, and then go back home.
May 16, 2025
…and they can work & study, WITH funds and then go back home
May 16, 2025
Well that depends we have good positive net contribution immigrants and bad net liability ones. Take the former reject the latter is surely the way to go. Same as with “Vaccines” and medical treatments.
May 16, 2025
Yes they come here and spend OUR money – it’s terrible.
South Africa has withdrawn from the UN asylum and immigration TREATY – unilaterally. Ireland may well do so too it will have to LEAVE the EU.
May 17, 2025
If Eire left the EU. Trade with the US & ROW would increase.
Of course its for Eire to decide. If they ever vote to leave, to be sure , the blob will work tirelessly to ensure that they vote the right way.
Wonder what the exit deal will be , they may need a Trump card in the negotiations, gift horses may be time limited.
May 16, 2025
Haven’t we got enough people here already;where are we going to house them.We can’t build houses fast enough for those that are here and the rental market is on its knees due to restrictions and regulations largely bought in by the Labour government.
This is yet another daft idea by Labour;at the end of the 4 years what will happen;They will have made friends, even got jobs and won’t want to go.We can’t get rid of illegal immigrants so how will we get rid of legal students; how will it be policed, even if it’s possible to police it.This is immigration via the back door;
How does allowing youth groups to come into the UK to be educated in our schools and colleges/Universities, help the UK.When we left the EU we were treated badly as a penalty for leaving.Now we’re thinking of giving foreign students/youth free passage for a limited period.
When will we ever learn??
May 16, 2025
PLUS they absurdly want to cover the houses in solar cells and have heatpumps so will cost far more and take even longer to construct.
May 16, 2025
PLUS EV charging points so THE ELECTRICTY grid will need to be circa 10 times larger too – just for winter capacity then wasted for most of the rest of the year.
May 16, 2025
Not something any decent engineer would suggest, what does Kemi the Engineer think of this energy lunacy still on the fence I assume? Over the cliff but a bit more slowly!
May 16, 2025
Add to that water companies at risk of not being able to supply enough drinking water, and they already can’t cope with the sewerage.
Then there’s the electricity supply and the grid at its limit in certain places.
Fix these items first.
Not that it would make much difference with government policy to let anyone into the country and give them free everything plus pocket money on top.
May 16, 2025
Sir John,
I don’t trust our PM not to give the EU anything they want.
I think he will do anything or agree to anything to curry favour with his friends in Brussels.
I read many comments about using fishing licenses as levers to get our own way in negotiations but, we are now too dependent on The EU for energy.
In my opinion, the EU are not our friends and we should keep them at arms length. Many of the boat migrants are aged about eighteen to thirty. What if the EU for purely vindictive reasons, made them citizens, would we end up taking them in too under this proposed scheme.
I worry about the defence pact which the EU want us to agree to. It would be an even bigger sell out if our PM signed up to this.
The only reset I would like is a full Brexit and WTO trade.
May 16, 2025
++
May 16, 2025
+1
May 16, 2025
Ask any UK student whether they’d like to study in USA/Australia or Germany/Italy and I’d guess there’d be only one answer. Why would you want to study in a country where you don’t know the language and haven’t been taught it at school ? Most EU students on the other hand have English as a second language and so would have no problem moving to UK. That’s if the scheme is somehow confined to students rather than, say, Romanian builders and gig economy workers already granted asylum in Germany. It is a totally one-sided scheme to the benefit of the EU, just like the fishing quotas, and just like dynamic alignment of standards.
May 16, 2025
Would this be a bilateral agreement, were UK Youth get the freedom to visit or study in any of the EU27 countries, Will EU universities subsidize the fees charged to UK students studying in the EU, if so I agree it would revive UK membership of Erasmus – what was the problem with Erasmus, was/is it any different to the hoards of non EU students that come to the UK on temporary visas and the problems they can cause.
Is this really a choice between the Erasmus and UK Turing scheme, would it not be possible to offer UK students both, and indeed if UK higher education has offered a course place to a Erasmus student would it not encourage UK students to think about applying to study in the US and Australia?
Reply We cannot afford both as UK taxpayers pay. Not many UK students wanted to go to EU universities. US and English speaking countries are more popular.
May 16, 2025
@JR reply; Those are opinions, not answer to my questions.
Are you seriously suggesting there are no UK school children now learning EU languages, thus no students wishing to immerse themselves in the country of their second language, if so that is a pretty damning comment upon the state of UK education, given the international nature of business these days – even Brexiteers want bilateral trade!
Reply These are facts. Not many UK students wanted to go to an EU university with state help. Now we have Turing more want to go to non EU
May 16, 2025
@JR reply: Are we talking about the figures before Brexit, or the after Brexit?
Make anything difficult to get and there will be few takers, nor would it be the first time governments has done that and then claimed there are few interested, using it as an excuse to stop access altogether. One could claim there are few UK mature students wishing to take full-time courses here in the UK, based on current application data, but that doesn’t tell the entire story.
May 16, 2025
Starmer is an Anglophobe and rabid Europhile. He will do all he can to sneak us back into the EU(SSR) This is just the beginning.
If only the opposition party (parties) would speak up.
May 16, 2025
The UK is our home. Everyone should maintain strict rules controlling whom they allow to enter their home. Those who don’t look after their home reduce it to a place where anybody else can roam: free to spoil the environment, steal and destroy, dump old mattresses or dangerous things and turn the indigenous folk’s home life into waste like an outdoor khazi in frozen winter.
May 16, 2025
@Bloke; “The UK is our home. Everyone should maintain strict rules”
Oh so very true, the UK is like one big Condominium, were the residence who buy into it agree to a management structure, a set of House Rules, all of which makes the building and grounds ‘governable’ – every so often there are reviews of those rules, and the structure if the management committee, were changes are agreed on a majority basis by the paid-up owners; those who strongly disagree with the new rules and management have one of two choices, sell-up and move-out, or learnt to accept their wishes are the *currently* a minority opinion…
May 16, 2025
“The EU also wants the UK to subsidise the fees charged continental students in UK universities” To be clear that is the overburdened UK Taxpayer funding foreign students, ‘but’ not its own students!
EU population 449.7 million UK population 69.5million, a major we will take it all in-balance as always from the EU
May 16, 2025
@Ian B; “EU population 449.7 million UK population 69.5million”
That’s more like an argument from Remain, the UK such a small number, why do international businesses bother doing any business with us!
May 16, 2025
@jerry – that means the UK will get swamped and there is no reciprocal arrangement. The UK Taxpayer has to keep paying out for no return and submit to the ECJ overseeing our courts with the UK having no say.
International business is in the UK because it does not block it. The EU is ring fenced to protect it. Then the contradiction the EU has massive trade arrangements with China and Russia both who don’t have over-site from the ECJ, both don’t have to take EU Laws and jump to EU Orders and directives inside their own borders.
May 16, 2025
@Ian B; “and there is no reciprocal arrangement.”
That’s an easy fix, but Starmer would need to go much further than you (and I) like and he has set out as his ‘reset’ plan… How many non EU foreign students over-stay their visas, what are the figures if the EU27 students are ignored?
“International business is in the UK because it does not block it. The EU is ring fenced to protect it. ”
Nonsense, there are plenty of non European multi-national companies operating in the current EU27 and EEA/EFTA areas, most likely because it is ‘ring fenced’ [1], what is more they have easy access to a population of 449.7 million, compared to just 69.5 million here in the UK – according to you!
[1] multi-national companies have had to do what Trump now wants for the USA, operate and trade locally
May 16, 2025
Jerry
The EU Car manufacturers used to call us “Treasure Island” because they could sell into the UK at a higher price than in either the EU or USA.
Simples.
May 16, 2025
@BA; That says far more about the UK than it does anyone else! Colloquially it is known as “Rip-off Britain”, but that’s the free market, a hands-off government and largely dis-interested consumers for you.
May 16, 2025
Sir John makes some very good points. It seems likely, therefore, that the Government will do the complete opposite.
May 16, 2025
The UK laden with high taxation, high borrowing has become the Worlds Money tree. A Parliament created ‘black-hole’ want to make it bigger
May 16, 2025
@Ian B; “A Parliament created ‘black-hole’”
There was an easy solution to that Ian, federalize the debt, make it a EU28 problem, just as Greece, and Italy for that matter, did! 😛
There is no shortage of wealth, nor ability to create wealth, here in the UK, our problem is the desire to do so or when and where to spend it.
May 16, 2025
@jerry – please explain.
The UK debt is through a UK Parliament spending money it doesn’t have on things it doesn’t need. The EU in control of the UK has already demonstrated massive proof that things would get worse and the UK citizen will still be the ones paying not only their bills but every-ones else’s.
One illustration would be Fish in UK waters, the EU wants to take the fish at no benefit to the UK while at the same time not wanting to buy UK fish. The UK Fishing fleet even now while supposedly having left the EU is not even permitted to take 50% of the fish quotas in its own waters, but it is up to the UK to maintain the stocks for the EU fishing fleets.
May 17, 2025
@Ian B; I’ll try again… No explanation is needed, other than to suggest you look up the meaning of a Federation of Countries or States.
May 16, 2025
@jerry Try telling the Land Rover workers that lost their jobs, about EU fairness. The LR Defender is made in the EU not the UK, the UK taxpayer had to pay a subsidy to move the facility from the UK, then pay by losing the workers their jobs
May 16, 2025
@Ian B; That’s foreign ownership, not the EU, and why only pick out JLR, what about MG Rover (now MG Motor), what about those facing the loss of their jobs at the old Vauxhall plant in Luton. Only BMW appears to have committed to the UK.
May 16, 2025
Why does the government want young people to be “mobile”?
May 16, 2025
@ Kenneth
Why does the government want young people to be “mobile”?
‘So they become ‘persons of nowhere?’ Globalists?
May 16, 2025
Indeed. The trouble is, we are a society plagued with loneliness.
Students often fall in love.
Falling in love abroad means at least one of the partners will no longer be near their family or it means hours of commuting over long distances.
As more family members scatter, the more a given family will be atomised. No grandparent to babysit and no family get-togethers.
More “mobility” ultimately means more isolation and loneliness. Bad idea!
May 16, 2025
Quite right Kenneth, let’s confine them to their home towns. We’ll need to recruit extra policemen to run road-blocks on the main roads on Friday nights to make sure the teenagers don’t try for a night out in the neighbouring town’s pubs. Their job is to stay at home and to get each other pregnant.
Obviously not, you ridiculous old man.
May 16, 2025
Nobody says we cannot offer UK students both, one does not exclude the other from happening.
May 16, 2025
The conditions stated would make any deal favour EU countries and put extra cost on the UK without real benefits – I can see why this appeals to Starmer. It’s a typical unfair strategy against the British people that gives us very little in return.
Plus it creates more debt for us.
No amount of pressure will make Starmer walk away from such a convincing deal – it has all the elements he cherishes. Indeed, expect more treachery in the small print.
May 16, 2025
With any such scheme there will always be a risk that it will be abused and become another route for unwanted mass immigration. The likelihood of that happening will depend on who is being allowed to come from where, so for example an arrangement with Australia would not worry me. Similarly a reciprocal arrangement with Austria for some of its young citizens and some of our young citizens to spend a few years in each others’ countries would probably be OK, but of course Austria is in the EU and the EU would want the same scheme for its other member states present and future and in some cases the driving force for migration to the UK would be higher.
May 16, 2025
The present system should be kept for our own students. My quibble with EU students coming here and our students going there is there will always be more coming here as they are all taught English at school whereas our students do not seem to bother with learning other languages these days. What is the point of the Erasmus system then? I do not doubt Starmer will crumble to EU requests but it is not in our interests. Far better for our students to go to American universities where they are likely to gain better jobs afterwards than get involved with continental Europe. Keep them for holidays which people do not seem to bother with either these days.
May 16, 2025
At least we could have au pairs again
Child care is SO expensive
May 16, 2025
I heard that EU students would once again get free tuition fees at Scottish universities, paid for by the English, who don’t get this benefit. This is unfair and one of the reasons people voted for Brexit.
May 16, 2025
dynamic alignment
May 16, 2025
Off topic, the Maidenhead Advertiser has printed this letter that I sent in:
“Saturday morning (May 3), and we are importing 24.4 per cent of our electricity from the continent through interconnectors, while exporting 4.2 per cent to Ireland.
Not only is this expensive, it also makes a mockery of the government’s stated plan that we should no longer be dependent on foreign powers for our energy.
I still have an open mind about “decarbonisation” to try to save the planet from overheating, the new national mission that our Parliament endorsed in 2008.
But if we going to continue with the present “net zero” policy its advocates should be honest about the economic cost of the consequent “deindustrialisation”.
As mentioned previously, for six decades prior to 2008 our trend growth rate was 2.7 per cent a year, but since then it has averaged only 1.1 per cent a year.
Some will welcome that, believing that we should go further into “degrowth”, but it will be difficult for the government to meet its financial commitments.
To complete the natural alliterative progression, it would be “decarbonisation”, causing “deindustrialisation”, leading to “degrowth”, and finally “destitution”.
Or maybe it is just a coincidence that the obvious break in our economic growth rate occurred in the same year that the Climate Change Act was passed?”
May 16, 2025
@Denis Cooper; The woke, in our energy supply policy started long before 2008, only the name of the Devil in Disguise changed!
May 16, 2025
That was when Parliament out it into law as our new national mission, to widespread acclaim.
Of course it did not appear out of nowhere. there were preceding events leading up to it.
Given what else was going on at that time, just months before Alistair Darling had to get the Bank of England to rig the gilts market, it seems a very stupid decision to have passed that Act at that time.
May 16, 2025
Denis, I’m talking 40-50 years ago, if not more. (New) Labour would never have entertained the idea of Climate Change or Net-zero, they would not have been allowed to by their bankers (the NUM). Why do you think the Labour Party had been (and still is to some degree) at war with its-self over Nuclear Power – the real surprise there was when Tony Benn came out in support of Nuclear in the 1970s, although he later changed his mind, claiming he had been lied to.
May 16, 2025
I read only the negatives. Why would Starmer contemplate this? Are there any benefits to the UK? I also heard that Spain wants Gibraltar back as part of this deal.
May 16, 2025
A lot of tax exiles and Company Registrations may leave Gibraltar if it loses its current status.
Expensive to purchase property there when compared to Spain.
Do not understand why Spain dislikes Gibraltar so much it has exactly the same arrangement in their own small land base in Morocco.
Give up Gibraltar and we give complete control to access the Mediterranean to Spain.
May 16, 2025
Areas are Ceuta and Melilla.
Have been to Ceuta, nice historic Town, but has its own border problems with Morocco
May 16, 2025
@BA; “Give up Gibraltar and we give complete control to access the Mediterranean to Spain.”
How?! There is an international shipping route that passes between Spain/Gibraltar and North Africa, nor is it the 16th century either, and the last time I checked Spain was a member of NATO so even if Gibraltar was handed to Spain the UK would at the very minimum retain access to, if not full control of the Navy dock yard there.
Not that I support giving up Gibraltar, but at the end of the day such a decision is for the citizens of Gibraltar. Strangely Gibraltar was the only area to vote almost 100% for the UK to Remain in the EU [1], I wonder why…
[1] 95.91% Remain, 4.08% Leave (27 invalid votes) Turnout 83.7%
May 16, 2025
Yes, Spain wants Gibraltar, some Scots want Scotland, some Irish want The 6 counties, some Welsh want wales and some Saxons want England.
So what?
May 16, 2025
Hi sir John
We don’t want more to do with the EU
Look how France is treating us with the boats taking our money but still sending them here OUR STUPID GOVERNMENTS
These young adults will be coming to get all the benefits of a generous UK lits will come just to use the NHS FREE we have got enough scrap collecter not paying any tax we have enough big issue sellers
Why should we pay for EU so called students will they be checked to see if they have a criminal record some off the students could be twenty plus running to hide in the UK were are they going to live because there will bee thousands use this loophole it’s time to stop people coming
We are a full country
As Margaret Thatcher once again
No no no no no
May 16, 2025
Nigel has now made the expected announcement. Labour can kiss goodbye to Brexit-voting areas.
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2025/05/16/farage-make-me-pm-and-ill-scrap-starmer-brexit-deal/
May 16, 2025
We shouldn’t underestimate the malicious cunning of EU negotiators to write financially exhorbitant penal clauses into the deal and make them justiciable by EU courts, if the deal is ever revoked.
This should all have been foreseen in January 2020, the EU agreement nullified by Parliament and no TCA signed, in a No Deal agreement.
As I recall, JR was one of the very few who saw this and spoke and voted thus.
May 16, 2025
It is impossible to stop Starmer’s Gang taking UK back into the EU piece by piece. If UK had PR it probably would be possible. The Tories have always supported FPTP because it delivers strong government. Well, UK certainly has strong government in terms of its parliamentary majority so now it is in practice a socialist dictatorship led by a Gang driven by its hatred of Britain’s history, hatred of Britain’s legacy and foundation in Judeo-Christianity and which believes the nation state is an impediment to progress and should be abolshed or at least subsumed inot supra-national organisations. The damage Starmer’s Gang will do will be irreversible. The Conservative Party is now a poisoned brand, nobody trusts it. The mass importation of cultures inimical to Britain’s historic culture will change Britain forever and for the worse.
The country is lost, gone. Short of revolution it will not recover.
May 16, 2025
Starmer is very keen on mobility for all, including people from Ukraine. One of them has been charged with targeting his homes and cars in arson attacks allegedly.
I wonder if Starmer is capable of learning anything at all?
May 16, 2025
”Youth Mobility Scheme. They want anyone under the age of 30”
Thats not a youth scheme ….thats half of the working population of europe …and ALL its refugees
May 16, 2025
It’s proof this country is now ruled by legal elites rather than suitably qualified politicians.
The British citizens cry out for this pretentious Labour government to take control of the mass, unfettered immigration, getting worse each day, yet they seek to add millions more EU immigrants in for free and have access to our Welfare State and the NHS, all paid for by British taxpayers. Where will they be housed? In hotels and social housing?
Apparently, they are using the same irrational logic they apply to their fantasy net-zero crusade, buying in from overseas, gas and oil, rather than using our home-grown resources, waiting to be extracted. More immigrants mean more growth! They ignore our GDP per capita of course. EG. USA and Norway $89K, UK $55K and falling.
It’s only a matter of time now before we again become the “Sick Man of Europe”, a title earned and deserved under the Labour government of the 1970s. Only this time it looks more like the ‘sick man of the Western world’! What a legacy that would be!!
May 16, 2025
Much of this is down to 14 years of unconservative government, especially the last 5 years. That opened the door to a Labour government with a third-rate PM, and 4th rate Cabinet. 2TK hates the UK, hates us having freedom and having to make decisions. He is a weak, wishy washy person with a wishbone not a backbone!
We should give nothing to the EU and agree on nothing with them. We voted out in 2016 and 2019, but the current PM spent all his time trying to reverse a democratic decision. So he does not believe in democracy, or being a servant to the people. If we still have laws about treason, we should use them!
May 16, 2025
“The EU has been pressing the UK to accept a Youth Mobility Scheme.”
More likely the other way round. I’m expecting the Civil Service to be pressing for the “youths” to include unidentified young men of fighting age who have just arrived in the EU and have been given Euro passports in exchange for going to the UK.
May 16, 2025
O/T if I may please:
Worryingly Chinese “kill switches” have been discovered in US solar farms. If the Civil Service do nothing to check out our solar equipment we will know why. The whole idea that depending upon wind and solar equipment made in China, a state described by our security services as “hostile”, is the exact opposite of providing the energy security they claim comes from renewables. I’d rather take my chances with petrostates such as the UK (North Sea & fracking), Norway and the USA. And put in place a nuclear program.
May 16, 2025
“It is suggested they would not be entitled to benefits”
And how on earth would you prevent them? Once they have an NI number and a registered address, they would be able to access any benefits – and where disputed, the courts would support that access.
More, they would have the right to vote in every council and mayoral election, every election except the General Election, and would all vote for Starmer’s party, in many cases outweighing the native vote, and killing off Reform. Starmer could even use his majority to bulldoze through their right to vote in General Elections as well.
And we have already seen how moneyed EU propaganda forces target the UK youth and particularly the student vote. How a militant student presence at a single university overturned a Conservative majority and won the seat for Labour – why are non-working, non-taxpaying students been allowed to vote as a bloc in their university constituency? This was never allowed in previous times, for obvious commonsensical reasons.
Starmer will use the presence of EU-brainwashed continental youngsters to redraw the country’s political landscape.
And this is only a part of the gigantic betrayal he is about to perpetrate. Can nothing be done to stop him? Sir John, do you have nothing to suggest?
Reply I am helping alert people to the danger. Conservatives and Reform oppose this.
May 16, 2025
Plus they trebled the national debt – while wasting nearly all of this debt – most of it did real net harm!
May 16, 2025
Have you any clue on how the UK operates? Anyone here on a visa has, as a condition, “no recourse to public funds” and has to pay an NHS surcharge, currently over £1,000/year, on top of the cost of the visa. If that isn’t paid, the visa application will not even be looked at.
And what’s wrong with people who pay taxes having the right to vote for who raises and spends those taxes. Whatever happened to “no taxation without representation”?
May 17, 2025
Only £1000 per yesr for free health care by the NHS?
One visit to A and E for a minor injury or illness would cost more.
Let alone dealing with pregnancy care or a serious illness needing in hospital stay and an operation.
No wonder the NHS is overworked and has record waiting times
May 17, 2025
Only £1000 per yesr for free health care by the NHS? No, £1000/year more than the rest of us pay.
You may not be aware, but immigrants are not exempt from paying direct taxation (income tax, NI etc.) and indirect taxation (VAT, excise duties etc.), so, on a comparable income to a UK national, immigrants pay more to in to Treasury coffers, yet receive less (due to having no recourse to public funds).
May 18, 2025
Over 1.5 million immigrants get state benefits so are unlikely to pay any income tax or NI.
The hundreds of thousands of illegals get free health care and dental care as well free pocket money and accommodation.
Overseas students here on visas will also not be working and paying income tax snd NI
There nearly 400,000 such visas issued in 2024 alone.
May 16, 2025
I can see no case for rejoining Erasmus; because of the difference in size of population between the EU and the UK there are always going to be far more EU students wanting to attend UK universities than vice-versa. And I would like to see UK support for UK students studying at universities all over the world rather than just in the EU.
Perhaps it would also be a good control to insist that any EU students studying studying here should have been an EU citizen for at least 10 years to prevent schemes like this becoming an easy way round immigration controls ?
May 16, 2025
I supposed all those Romanian and Bulgarian strippers bring some joy, if you want a bright side to the sheer incompetence of our ruling classes.
May 16, 2025
I can’t see many Uk studebts wanting to go all the way to Australia or the US to spend four years studying when the best of colleges are at home or else a short hop across the channel.
May 16, 2025
So what about ‘freedom and prosperity’ – if for instance some young people could find suitable employment or college place in say France Germany or other EU country then why should they not be free to take up such work/ study? Also if British farmers need young people for picking fruit and veg then why not allow young European foreigners in to do the work – likewise if EU young people want to attend our colleges and pay their way then why not? Everything else is nonsense.
May 17, 2025
I repeat the comments that I made on this site several weeks ago. Ratio of populations of EU/UK approximately 500/50 =10. Ratio of young EU young adults who speak conversational English to English who speak corresponding level of appropriate foreign language 10/1. Hence approx ratio of EU to English students who participate 100/1. No wonder our EU “friends” are keen on the exchange.