Leaving Europe has cut off access to a very large, skilled and flexible workforce. That was a stupid thing to do for a country like Britain. But what happened next is a reflection of the UK' s policy choices. Migrants are not to blame. 4
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This is correct, and not widely understood in the UK And it is that misunderstood history of the UK that has led to the Europhobia that characterised Brexit. There was no "buccaneering Britain" turning towards "the high seas" and "our friends in the Commonwealth". 5
aug 23, 2025, 12:24 pm • 29 6 • view
That is a warped memory of Britain's Imperial experience and the seed of the exceptionalism that it destroying efforts to join 🇪🇺 and become part of our community today. Anyhow, tight writing, Bear, well done! Do have a read. Ends
aug 23, 2025, 12:24 pm • 24 3 • view
Might interest @chrisgrey.bsky.social @debbieeade.bsky.social @madridcorro.bsky.social
aug 23, 2025, 12:24 pm • 4 0 • view
Thanks Niall, it's a good read and is very honest about the UK's continuing dependence on migrants, like all wealthy countries, but which most seem to be in denial about, which is grist to the mill of the far right, who will only make matters MUCH worse.
aug 23, 2025, 2:42 pm • 10 1 • view
Britain's looting of the Empire over the centuries has been well covered by many historians, a recent and justifiably popular example of which is this book I'd recommend:
aug 23, 2025, 2:42 pm • 8 1 • view
It's very true. Nobody gets this exactly right and we all need to learn .
aug 23, 2025, 3:03 pm • 2 0 • view
Brexit was revelatory for me in showing the inability of the British state & political-media class to manage a serious, mature debate about the country's future. I'd grown up believing the UK was at least a "serious" country with rational (if sometimes dogmatic) government. That myth was blown.
aug 23, 2025, 12:55 pm • 25 4 • view
I think that's fair. Even the Commission had different expectations, and was caught off guard by how unprepared. And shallow David Davies and Co. were. And they were reelected.
aug 23, 2025, 12:59 pm • 13 0 • view
As @rolandmcs.bsky.social always used to say, Brexiteers were good at politics but terrible at policy (while Remainers had the opposite problem). But the fact that unserious Davis & co could even be in government in the first place shows the decline of British politics and media since the 1990s.
aug 23, 2025, 1:04 pm • 17 4 • view
Social care workers should be paid more & Gov should invest in training of personnel in many fields but I doubt that would make a dent on the need for immigrants (there’s research on this by King’s College) also same happened in the 1950s. Btw, the immigration numbers are tiny!! No, it’s not high!
aug 23, 2025, 3:15 pm • 2 1 • view
Is it?
aug 23, 2025, 12:49 pm • 0 0 • view
The Bear is a bit broadbrush wrt stuff like energy and industry in the piece. Two things can be true at the same time, dontcha know. The tragedy is the homemade wealth was plundered just as the wealth of the empire was.
aug 23, 2025, 12:53 pm • 1 0 • view
At base, I reckon it's a fair point. But as to my point, the idea that there is an imperial alternative to Europe, or that the UK had ever stood alone, is the exceptionalist fantasy that has bred Brexit.
aug 23, 2025, 12:57 pm • 0 0 • view
The commonwealth gibberish always did my head in. All those lads and lasses who have a day off every year to celebrate booting us out. Yeah, they're gonna indulge that particular fantasy. The level of delusional thinking is really quite spectacular.
aug 23, 2025, 1:08 pm • 4 1 • view
I don’t know about everywhere, as there is no single system in Britain, but here in Scotland we have increased the number of medical students dramatically. I am now teaching almost double the number of students compared with 5 years ago and the increase is in home (ie Scottish) students. The utter
aug 24, 2025, 8:47 am • 10 3 • view
It doesn't have to be one or the other. But it's good to give kids a chance to become medical professionals.
aug 24, 2025, 9:54 am • 3 0 • view
It is. And we also have widening participation scheme to admit people from different backgrounds. Personally I have no problem with immigration, but I recognise the issue of taking too many individuals from countries that can’t replace them easily.
aug 24, 2025, 10:11 am • 5 1 • view
… mess is the over centralised government and its lack of reach beyond the South. One of the problems of using migrant nurses say, is that the country that trained them at vast cost loses them so easily.
aug 24, 2025, 8:47 am • 5 1 • view