domusaltera

Also, when a bunch of people left reddit 3 years ago, it seemed like they flooded it with bots to pad the numbers. In any case welcome! 😁 I’ve also been here (in some form or another) since the API drama.

I would recommend that you create a couple of accounts on different instances (Piefed/Fedia etc.) because, although it’s a lot better these days, sometimes they can suddenly go offline. Not all together usually, but it’s nice to still have some way in when that happens.

I was one of seemingly few uses who actually left permanently after they killed the API

You and me both! I left and never went back and it’s been one of the best decisions I ever made.

It’s Boaty McBoatface time! 😁

TL;DR: “Brexit has therefore not produced an economic crisis in the conventional sense. The UK economy has continued to grow, unemployment remains relatively low, and many firms have adapted. But adaptation is not the same as absence of cost. The more relevant counterfactual is not whether the economy is still functioning, but how much better it might have performed; on that question, the evidence is increasingly settled.”

It’s kind of a strange article… UIACE are widely regarded as being impartial and that does seem to be reflected in the text, but this conclusion is still kind of vague. Seems to boil down to “It hasn’t been too bad but still might be”. Feels like kind of a pointless take. Brexiteers will probably latch onto the first half " Brexit has therefore not produced an economic crisis in the conventional sense. The UK economy has continued to grow, unemployment remains relatively low, and many firms have adapted " while remainers will point to the second half " adaptation is not the same as absence of cost. The more relevant counterfactual is not whether the economy is still functioning, but how much better it might have performed; on that question, the evidence is increasingly settled ". What it doesn’t offer is any insight as to what the middle ground might be in terms of reconciliation and what a more nuanced future might look like.

An interesting point (and I like your username 🙂) But not what I was talking about. Maybe you should post this point as a post of it’s own? It’s certainly a thought-provoking topic.

By harmony I mean the people of the UK making peace with each other again in order to present a united front against external threats (I thought that was obvious but my bad if it wasn’t). Putin has tried to divide us in a bunch of different ways from amplifying our differences over Brexit to encouraging people in the UK to hate immigrants. I’m not making any of that up. For example just check where Nathan Gill, the former leader of Reform UK in Wales is right now and why…

I’ve come to realise over the years that it’s the people fanning the flames of discord on both sides (edit: of the Brexit argument) that are helping the external forces that want to sow division in the UK. There are many who benefit from a divided Europe, including Putin and his orange puppet. These days I focus on the voices (edit: in the UK) that want to move us towards harmony rather than away from it. Unfortunately, there are fewer of those voices on social media than there should be and it’s a pity.

It’s not that simple for Slovakia…

Firstly Fico risks isolating Slovakia now that he doesn’t have Hungary as an ally to protect him from any disciplinary actions from the EU.

Secondly, the EU has developed a bilateral loan system from individual member states that doesn’t require a unanimous EU vote.

Thirdly, there’s also a “enhanced cooperation” system now that allows groups of countries to proceed without unanimity.

Fico is going to have to balance the benefits he gets from doing Putin’s bidding with the blowback he is going to get and the consequences that will generate for Slovakia.

…and with him goes the most significant and consistent opponent to funding for Ukraine within the EU. Good.

Why doesn’t he give Churchill a call

This raises an interesting point actually… I have a new Win11 machine but my old Win10 one is just being kept around for low level, non essential tasks. I don’t have any essential apps left on there really now. I signed up for that extra year of Microsoft support that was offered but when that runs out I guess what a perfect time to have a play with Linux and see what all the fuss is about.