Brexit watch

Seems to have been very little comment so far about the Machinery of Government changes. Two new departments, amalgamation of two more, changes to Education dept, extra buildings and more civil servants needed, trade negotiators to hire etc etc.

ukandeu.ac.uk/from-rolls-royce-to-handcart-the-future-of-whitehall-in-a-brexit-world/

www.theguardian.com/politics/2016/jul/15/cameron-gave-aides-extra-severance-pay-against-official-advice

One rule for some....
Anyone else you know who has been made redundant and been given more than their entitlement?

Here is a list of our current exports.

www.tradingeconomics.com/united-kingdom/exports

To keep talking of high end goods is quite wide of the mark in my opinion.

We export a huge variety of things. Massive

@ Obieone.
That is a very interesting list.

@obieone

That is only a list of manufactured goods. Nearly 80% of British exports are services. Most of our exports are 'high end'. The UK cannot compete with countries with low incomes in labour intensive industries.

Holiday firm Lowcost blames its demise on Brexit and leaves 137,000 customers in the lurch, having taken their money but not paid it over to hotels, airlines, transport firms. Presumably many employees will lose their jobs too and hotels etc could go out of business.

I know several Brits who own holiday and ski companies in Europe. The profit margin is VERY VERY tight- and yes, many will not survive tbe drop in the £, and here, the associated rise in the Swiss Franc. And the job losses and loss of income to local trades and staff affect many, not just the Brits. A lot of staff come from other parts of Europe too, where there is a lot of unemployement, like Portugal, Spain, Italy and the Eastern countries.

This is - was - a big firm, not a small operation, operating out of Spain.

If it was due to Brexit, they should have contacted their customers and, apologising, ask for the difference in exchange rate on the hotel/transfer costs.
It's a cop-out

JessM,

The website www.studentfinancewales has information regarding the tuition loans and grants available to EU students.
Currently up to £3,900 p.a. for loans and £5,100 p.a.for grants.Students can apply for both.Many EU students will be paying very reduced fees throughout their course.Welsh uni fees also are considerably less than our English fees.
English students get the rawest deal of all.

No doubt though that the UK leaving the EU will make some difference.
Students could be subsidised for half of their course but self funded to completion.

I

I think the point might possibly be that some EU students feel they would not be welcome here Granny2016 Although of course I don't know their individual reasons.
The funding in Wales is complicated and varies according to what course you are doing and many other factors.
I would predict that it is Master's degrees that will be hit. On the one my husband did recently there was one German, one Greek, one Venezuelan, one Irish (2 if you count DH but he's lived here since childhood) and one UK born. It was probably already subsidised by other more popular courses in the department. Lose the overseas students and the course becomes obviously non-viable. UK prospective students will have nowhere to go to study a difficult but important aspect of science.
Welsh universities have all suffered a massive mid-year budget cut recently due to Osborne cutting the amount of money Wales gets from Westminster.
UK students can go and study courses, taught through the medium of English, in countries like The Netherlands and pay no fees at all.

I think the Master's degrees were being hit before Brexit?
Master's degrees in the UK at least, have not been easy to get funding for for a while, a couple of years?

Masters degrees have been a bit the poor relation for a while now, from what I know.

JessM,

Yes,the university felt that the students had withdrawn because they may not feel welcome.
What a sorry state that our own young people could choose a free university in Holland over an excellent one here,as they were unable to meet the high fees.

Masters degrees are offered now in Germany and business degrees sometimes in English. A BA is just not good enough for a good job here. I live in a small town and there is a private business college which offers courses and cheap accomodation. There is a lot of competition at that level

I'm sure that Brexit must mean that some foreign studente reconsider, coming from the EU they will think its better to remain connected to it.
My main worry is the research, nearly all research is international these days.

Yes Master's funding had been a problem for several years now. No student loads. No career development loans. And lots of students with rather general, and not very useful first degrees. It has been like this throughout the coalition years if I remember correctly. And fees have gone up for first degrees and consequently the debts UK students have when they leave Uni. Some excellent Master's programmes have struggled on with support from foreign students.

The Welsh Uni fees are the same as England but if you are a Welsh student with a Welsh home address and attended a Welsh school then some of the fees are paid by the Welsh Assembly Govt.
What I find astounding is that Scottish and. EU students attending Scottish Unis do not pay fees but English ones do - at the moment England is still part of the EU so cannot see why they do not qualify.

The English always wanted to be considered special?

I think it's a legal loophole. Not allowed to discriminate against other EU countries but of course England does not qualify as another EU country.

www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-23279868

Interesting fact unearthed by www.sumofus.org

5 of the top 6 government ministers have links to private healthcare companies. They have a petition to sign too, asking her to stop the NHS sell off. Hopeful or what.

Interesting snippet on BBC Magazine website re those who voted Brexit. Apparently the assumption that social class, income, professional status & where one lived was a good indicator was unreliable. Support for capital punishment was apparently a much more reliable indicator, ie over 70%, of voting Out intention. Quite a large study of 42,000, by the British Election Study. There is discussion on Radio 4 "Briefing Room" on Thursday. I know statistics can show anything you want, but thought this was interesting.

It is interesting. Could it mean that many [not all, I hasten to add] out voters were people who looked on things in a very black and white sort of way ie no grey areas?

Wouldn't have even thought of that, Lazigirl.
Surprised it was so low.

Interesting but not surprising Lazigirl - what used to be referred to in the social sciences as "authoritarian personality". Have to say that most of the people I spoke to during the campaign who were going to vote Leave were pretty grumpy and said things like "I don't like people telling me what to do!"