Interesting Links for 14-09-2023

[andrewducker]

1. London hospital becomes first in the UK to perform 10,000 operations using a robot

(tags:robots surgery uk london )

2. Human memories are unreliable because of our tendency for complete storylines

(tags:stories psychology memory )

3. Theresa May is telling a fairytale about her Brexit deal. This is the truth

(tags:uk europe lies Conservatives )

4. UK government will not block Scots drug room pilot

(tags:Scotland drugs GoodNews UK )

5. Unfortunate Starlink 2 Hour Outage Last Night Just As Ukraine Attacked Sevastapol

(tags:Ukraine Russia space ElonMusk OhForFucksSake )

6. ScotRail peak fares to be scrapped as ministers try to push return to trains

(tags:Scotland trains money )

7. There are a *lot* of underwater cables

(tags:Ocean internet maps viaDanielDWilliam )

8. Alan Moore's 1986 opinions on superhero (and hero) discourse, and how ahead of the time they were.

(tags:superheroes alanmoore society history batman )

9. Scotland's population grew to record high (driven by migration)

(tags:scotland population )

10. Edinburgh Filmhouse: Lease deal agreed to save cinema

(tags:scotland edinburgh movies cinema )

Comments

[calimac]

3) Article says that there was a simple solution to the Brexit dilemma available to May, which was for the UK to leave the EU formally but stay in the single market and customs union.

That was not an option that could have been taken at the time, not according to anything I was reading about it, and I was taking in quite a lot on the topic then. Staying in the single market and customs union would have required the UK to remain under EU trade regulations, and getting out from under EU regulation was, we were repeatedly assured, the whole point of Brexit.

The article is correct that driving a customs border either between NI and the Republic, or down the Irish Sea, were the only other options, and that eventually Boris picked the last and pretended he hadn't.

Here's what I wrote at the time of Boris's actions.

[andrewducker]

"That was not an option that could have been taken at the time, not according to anything I was reading about it"

Here's a collection of lots of members of the Vote Leave collection of groups saying that we could stay in the Single Market/take the Norway Option: https://nitter.net/EmporersNewC/status/1009155543087362050

They were all over the place, over here, reassuring people that they could safely vote Leave, and then the government would choose the most sensible approach, with lots of opportunities for constructive closeness. It was only after May announced that Brexit Means Brexit, and came out with her Red Lines that suddenly all of that was off the table (https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2017/dec/05/theresa-may-brexit-red-lines-reckless-hostage-dup-promises-cant-keep). Up until that point a great many people were still hoping for a Soft Brexit.

[calimac]

That must have been a whole different group of people, because desire to get out from under EU regulations was the whole driving force of the Brexit campaigners I heard. If any of them were pushing a "stay in the Market" option, they were being completely dishonest, because this was incompatible with their anti-Brussels goals. However, dishonesty was a marker of the campaign, so there you go.

I notice that the collection you cite 1) is in response to John Redwood, who was under the same impression I was, so it's not just me; 2) most of the items fail to state specifically that staying in the Market is an option, they just don't say that it's not an option. I call that misleading at best.

At least, though, you've explained what May meant by "Brexit means Brexit." I wondered at the time, what else could it mean?

[agoodwinsmith]

I have the most unflattering suspicions about Musque Esquire.

[andrewducker]

You are not alone.