Brit here, and I don’t know which statues you mean are being displayed in a garden but yeah you could well be right.

There was famously the statue of Edward Colston, a slave trader, in Bristol. In 2020 the statue was toppled by some protestors. The statue is now in a museum. The people who toppled it were tried in a court for criminal damage, but they were found not guilty by a jury who I guess were sympathetic to the defendants.

Add some veg, and some butter for the bread, and it’s a good meal

Anyhow, Keir seems like a lame duck right?

If he can keep Labour members of parliament happy then perhaps he can stay as prime minister. But he might lose his job if Labour do badly in the May local elections. Polling shows they might indeed do badly.

Yeah that’s fair enough. Maybe the UK will eventually reach a Norway-style arrangement but like you suggest, it could take some years.

You might be right, but if the UK did have to adopt the Euro like you say, I would guess that British support for rejoining would decline. If it really is a red line for the EU then it would probably lead to a lot of debate in the UK. Like I said though, for the moment the UK will probably just adopt half measures which bring the UK slightly closer to the EU.

With Trump’s recent ambitions regarding a seizure of European land, maybe more Brits will now recognise that reliance on the US isn’t a great idea

Would today’s voters vote the UK back into the block?

According to this polling, 56% of Brits either “strongly” or “somewhat” support the UK rejoining the EU. In reality it would be bitterly contested within the UK though, especially if the UK would have to adopt the Euro. In a few years’ time (5 to 10 years or more) the prospect of the UK rejoining the EU might become more realistic.

Perhaps it’s possible that both the current governments of the US and PRC are doing immoral things. I think the US has a bit more political freedom though.

Maybe you mean high levels of ethnic minorities in US prisons, but I don’t think that’s the same as specifically persecuting Uyghurs in “education” centres where they are apparently raped and tortured.

Like I said, yes the US is flawed, especially their current government, but I still think the US government is not as oppressive as the PRC government. Another example of this is the recent sentencing of Jimmy Lai to 20 years in prison, seemingly only because he supported the democracy movement in the PRC.

The PRC, a one party state which puts ethnic minorities in internment camps, is better than the democratic USA, which AFAIK hasn’t put ethnic minorities in internment camps since WW2?

Of course the USA is a very flawed country, especially their current government, but it seems to me that the PRC is a pretty repressive regime with less political freedom than the USA.

The Brexit phenomenon is very similar to the Trump phenomenon. Populist, anti-immigrant, nationalist sentiment.

I think the UK could eventually rejoin the EU but it’s not going to happen soon. Brexiteers are probably a minority of the British population now (Brexiteers tend to be older, and some of those voters have passed away since the Brexit referendum). But the pro-Brexit camp has wealthy backers who will kick up a fuss.

Maybe what will happen is more indecision and half measures for the next 10 or 20 years, perhaps followed by another referendum that would take us back into the EU.

As for terms, it depends on what the EU would insist. Perhaps they would insist upon the UK adopting the Euro.

If I were president of Europe, I would merge the FCAS fighter jet programme undertaken by Germany, France, and Spain with the GCAP fighter jet programme being undertaken by the UK, Italy, and Japan. Then use the resulting plane instead of the F-35.

But alas, there is still too much bickering and division between non-American western allies.

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As a Brit I would support the UK reducing its ties with the US and increasing its ties with Europe. The UK’s values (democracy, rule of law, public healthcare, welfare safety net) are closer to those of Europe, than those of the US. Maybe over the next few years the UK will slowly get closer to Europe.

You said before that “those fuckers… voted for Brexit” but remember that only 52% of voters supported Brexit and 48% were against it, and Brexit is now less popular than it was in 2016.

Yes they probably would form a coalition if one of those parties won the election and the other could provide enough seats for a majority. But if the right-wing vote were split between Reform and the Tories then probably neither would win the election. Anyway I guess we’ll see. Hope for the best, expect the worst.

If Reform do win the next election then sure, I strongly doubt they would introduce proportional representation. But if the UK did have proportional representation then Reform would be nowhere near a majority in parliament, since their share of the vote (in current polling) is about 33% at most.

I’m not sure it will do much good, the numbers are very close when it comes to CON + “reform” , compared to LIB + LAB. (~10mil v ~12 mil, favouring left).

Fair point. The latest YouGov poll shows 44% of British voters favouring Reform and the Tories so I guess a majority are against the Tories and Reform. But yeah, due to being split between different parties, Reform look likely to win the next election. We really should have proportional representation.

Speaking of left-wing purity tests, when the next UK election comes, I wonder if anti-Reform voters will be able to unite around a single party to keep Reform out of power, or whether they’ll be spread into factions between Labour/LibDems/Greens/SNP/Plaid and even the Tories.

If anti-Reform voters can’t unite behind a single party then Farage will surely be the next prime minister.

True. They could be fined more for certain practices.