The Real Reason The UK Is Leaving The EU?

There's a technique in the Quality Assurance business called the 5 whys.  If you have a problem with a product or a process you ask why it happened 5 times.  Why did the brake fail?  The lining was too thin.  Why was it too thin? The drawing was wrong.  Why was it wrong?  The engineer hadn't been trained.  Why wasn't he trained?  There is no training department?  Why is there no training department?  The owner of the factory hasn't set one up.

Brexit Becomes A Culture War

I started 2017 without any idea of how Brexit could be stopped, and assuming it was basically unstoppable.  The majority had voted for it in the referendum and the ruling party and the bulk of the media backed it.  There was little sign of any movement of opinion and so it looked pretty much like a lost cause.  The only slim hope was if opinion started moving markedly away from it.

The Day The Brexit Died

Well today has been the most interesting since the vote itself.  I picked up a story at lunchtime that the Irish border problem had been solved.  There would be ‘regulatory convergence’ or some other waffly phrase that would ensure that there was no need for a hard border between the UK and Ireland.  So in effect Ulster was going to stay in the single market.

How The Brexit Talks Might Have Looked With A Plan

I haven’t made any attempt to hide my opinion that Britain would have done a lot better to stay in the EU, and this is something that I have been feeling steadily more strongly as the story unfolds.  There have been quite a few things that have come up where I’ve realised I had no idea how important staying in the EU was.  In fact although I did vote the way I would vote if the issue came up again, I don’t really think I had given it enough thought last time. 

UKIP have stirred things up, and it isn't all bad

This is why I never get anything done on Sundays.  I have just been on Twitter and read a link to an article by Diane James about the EU’s latest initiative.  They are proposing a common curriculum, or at least that is what I assume.  She naturally interpreted it as an attempt to push pro-EU propaganda in the schools.  Equally naturally, I think she has totally missed the point.

Who Is To Blame For Making Brexit Divisive?

It is a remarkable coincidence that the Sun and the Moon are the same size in the sky.  As a result we have solar eclipses that are extremely dramatic.  There are enough stars around that the Earth is probably not unique, but it must nonetheless be pretty rare.   There is a similar remarkable symmetry around the current state of opinion on Brexit.   A study of public opinion in the UK suggests that at the moment around 35% of the population are firmly committed to the idea of leaving the EU.  And around 35% believe strongly that we should stay in.   Neither opinion is particularly surprising, but to have such even support for both is one heck of a coincidence. 

Brexit Is Like Giving Up Smartphones

We could do without smartphones.  Everything they do can be done by somthing else.  It makes sense to use the phone as the conduit for a lot of services that really fit being in the palm of your hand.  But if we chose as a society to do without them nothing much would really change.   Once everyone had got rid of their devices, all the software had been rewritten and all the jobs that are currently created by the smartphone infrastructure redirected to alternative platforms, nothing much would be different.  We’d just have a very slightly less convenient life than we have, but not so you’d particularly notice.