Monthly Archives: July 2022

UK Atomic Energy Authority (UKAEA) and Commonwealth Fusion Systems (CFS) have announced a new trans-Atlantic agreement to advance commercial nuclear fusion energy. The UK has signed a five-year deal to collaborate on a series of projects with CFS, a US-based firm, in which the UKAEA will support the development of fusion energy and related technologies.

Nuclear fusion is the energy that powers the sun and other stars, combining light elements in the form of hot, charged particles known as plasma to generate near endless amounts of energy.

According to a statement released by the UKAEA, this Collaboration Framework Agreement highlights the efforts of both parties to use the innovative research being done on nuclear fusion right now, and boost it with private sector support to harness low carbon commercial fusion energy.

Professor Ian Chapman, the UKAEA CEO, said: Achieving our shared missions to deliver low carbon and sustainable fusion energy involves working at the forefront of science, engineering, and technology.

This new collaboration agreement with CFS will help push these developments and capabilities, drive innovation and accelerate progress.

Fusion presents an exciting opportunity for the UK and were proud our ground-breaking work here continues to support economic growth and attracts such leading international partners.

Bob Mumgaard, the CFS CEO, added: CFS and UKAEA have a mutual interest and strong belief that public-private collaborations such as this represent a way to accelerate advances in commercial fusion energy technology and support CFS plans to deliver commercial fusion as quickly as possible.

UKAEA is a leader in fusion energy research and CFS plans to establish a UK presence as we leverage the combined skills and talents of both organisations to develop the fastest path to commercial fusion power on the grid.

Brexit Britain is at the forefront of developing nuclear fusion technology, with former Science Minister George Freeman noting that the UKAEA will see commercial fusion energy deployable by 2040.

READ MORE:Nuclear fusion breakthrough: World closer to limitless energy

Funded by the UK Government, Spherical Tokamak for Energy Production (STEP) project is present in its initial, concept design phase, which will be completed by 2024.

As part of this latest deal, operations teams in both the UKAEA and CFS would be able to access each others technological facilities like robotics, while also sharing and learning best practices from fusion experiments.

The two would also collaborate on fuel cycle technologies, neutronics modelling, systems integration models, advanced manufacturing, diagnostics, remote handling and remote maintenance.

They would also work together to identify and answer emerging plasma physics questions, and help develop new breakthroughs to help the world harness limitless energy.

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Between 20252032, the UK Atomic Energy Authority (UKAEA) will develop the engineering design, with the reactor itself to then be constructed and commissioned by 2040.

According to the UKAEA, fusion has the potential to provide a near-limitless source of low carbon energy by copying the processes that power the sun and stars, where atoms are fused to release energy.

Fusion power creates nearly four million times more energy for every kilogram of fuel than burning coal, oil or gas.

Read the rest here:

Brexit Britain poised to commercialise nuclear fusion with US deal in energy breakthrough - Express

There's an old political joke where a soul is asked to choose between heaven and hell and is given a trial run in each. Down in hell, he's shown around what amounts to the best country club in the world, plays a few holes of golf with Beelzebub, is served fine venison, and washes it down with long-vanished Bordeaux vintages in a tte--tte with the devil himself. Preferring this to sitting on clouds listening to lyre music surrounded by winged toddlers, he chooses hell, only to be thrust into a fire pit, watching his best friend be flayed alive by a pair of oversized demons. What happened to the country club, he asks? Satan wastes no time in putting the poor soul right: "Then, we were campaigning. Now, we're governing."

As prime minister, Boris Johnson gave Britain a government that ended up on the lower end of purgatorycloser to the decaying end of a dictatorship, with sex predators being appointed to positions of authority, admissions of mysterious visits to supposedly former KGB agents' villas, $1,000rolls of wallpaper, and attempts to extort a $180,000treehousefor his latest son, all against the background of a once-in-a-century pandemic and the most serious war in Europe since 1945.

The war and pandemic were of course outside his control. Brexit, however, is his responsibility. His decision to campaign for Britain to leave the European Union (he notoriously wrote a pro-Remain and a pro-Leave article before deciding to publish the second) is credited with giving it the 52 percent needed for victory. His takeover of the Conservative Party, ruthless purge of moderate Tories (including even Charles Wellesley, the Duke of Wellington, as well as Winston Churchill's grandson Nicholas Soames), and decisive victory in the 2019 general election enabled him to get an agreement acceptable to the EU through Britain's Parliament.

Unlike his predecessor Theresa May's deal, which sought to avoid the need for a trade and customs border between Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland, and included arrangements for security cooperation, Johnson's required checks on goods traded between the island of Great Britain and Northern Ireland. Johnson, however, sought later to renege on his own deal and the Northern Ireland Protocol that gives it legal force, going so far as to introduce a bill that would give British ministers the power to unilaterally violate the protocol.

Yet there is a fundamental difference between getting Brexit to happen and ensuring it sticks. Johnson's idea of Brexit, famously summed up as "pro having [cake] and pro eating it," has run up against its own impossibility and the incompetence with which it has been implemented. Six years after the vote, 53 percent of British votersthink they were wrong to leave the EU, and only 35 percent say that the decision was right.

The Tories are behind in the polls, and though some of that is due to Johnson's now tarnished brand, they are also suffering from being in power for 12 years and from an adverse economic climate. In addition, Keir Starmer, who leads the opposition Labour Party, has detoxified his party so that the worst people say about him is that he's "boring," while the third party, the Liberal Democrats, have become acceptable to left-leaning voters no longer put off by their time in government with the Tories between 2010 and 2015, while at the same time winning over the support of more pro-European former Tory voters.

This means that while Britain's majoritarian system usually gives the party that can assemble around 40 percent of the vote a parliamentary majority, tactical votingin which voters choose the candidate most likely to defeat the one they like least rather than the one they support the mostagainst Conservatives has returned.

The approximately 60 percent of the vote now shared by Labour, Greens, and Liberal Democrats is likely to be more concentrated on the candidates most likely to defeat Tory incumbents. Setting aside Scottish National Party support for the moment,current pollingwould produce a Labour governmentsupported by the Liberal Democratswith a very slim majority. Such a government would probably change the electoral system to a form of proportional representation, making the Tories' Brexit-reconciled coalition of voters unviable.

Now that pragmatic former soldier Tom Tugendhat has been eliminated from the Tory leadership contest, voters are likely to hear even less discussion about how to make the best of Brexit and even more determination to be tough on Brussels as the remaining candidates compete for the support of mostly anti-European party members. Yet, the route to Conservative success in the next election consists of more Brexit pragmatism, not less.

Current Tory support is vulnerable on two flanks. The "red wall" of Northern English seats formerly held by Labour and the "blue wall" of long-standing Tory seats in wealthy southern counties are both under threatfrom Labour in the north and the resurrected Liberal Democrats in the south. Red wall voters who switched to the Tories support Brexit but are vulnerable to economic shocks. The blue wall voters whom the Liberal Democrats are trying to poach opposed Brexit but have an economic interest in Tory government: They are generally affluent and support low taxes, low regulation, and other economically right-wing policies.

The main effect of Brexit has been to damage manufacturing on the island of Great Britain, which is no longer able to participate in Europe-wide supply chains. According to an economicanalysisby the Centre for European Reform, the goods trade is down 14 percent, adding a further Brexit shock to inflation caused by energy price rises and the waning of the COVID-19 pandemic. U.K. inflation is expected topeak at 11percent this year, compared to7 percent inside the eurozone.

This crunchhigher prices and lower outputdisproportionately hits areas in the so-called red wall of parliamentary seats in the Midlands and North of England where the Tories picked up seats from Labour in 2017 and 2019.

The blue wall in South East England depends more heavily on services, which escaped a Brexit hit (the Centre for European Reform analysis tentatively concludes that services trade has gone up since), and it is populated by Remainers who are nevertheless reconciled to Brexit, provided their prosperity is maintained.

Figures from Northern Ireland suggest a way forward. The Northern Ireland Protocol gives Northern Ireland's businesses access to both the U.K. and EU goods markets, and it has led to the region having thestrongest growthof all (apart from London), a change from years of decline relative to the rest of the United Kingdom.

The protocol's direct extension to the whole of the U.K. (which would essentially be the same as May's failed Brexit deal) would revitalize U.K. manufacturing in the red wall, eliminating many trade barriers with the EU, and allowing U.K. manufacturers to take part in European supply chains again, while reassuring blue wall voters that Brexit is being pursued with an eye to pragmatism. It would also alleviate the fears of unionists in Northern Ireland (the mostly Protestant political community in Northern Ireland that wants to stay part of the U.K.), who would then have exactly the same relationship with the EU as the rest of the U.K.

Formal endorsement of May's approach to Brexit is of course far too pragmatic for the current Conservative Party. The short period devoted to the Tory leadership racein which candidates compete for the votes of Tory members of Parliament, then of party membersdoes not offer the chance to develop such a radical argument.

But its spiritengaging with the needs of the manufacturing-centered economy of the red wall, adopting a pragmatic stance to keep the blue wall on their side, and extending the provisions of the Northern Ireland Protocol to the rest of the U.K. in order to reassure unionistsoffers the best route to Conservative victory in the next election. It would be their best option for preventing a Labour-Liberal Democrat government that would enact electoral reform, free Labour from its dependence on Euroskeptic red wall seats, and keep the Tories out of power for long enough to undo Brexit altogether.

Like Dante, the Conservative Party has been offered a glimpse of the underworld by Johnson's mismanagement of Brexit. Returning to May's deal offers the chance to escape permanent confinement there.

Garvan Walsheis a former national and international security policy advisor to the British Conservative Party and the founder and CEO of Article7.

Disclaimer:This article first appeared on Bloomberg, and is published by special syndication arrangement.

Link:

Boris Johnsons fall gives Brexit a chance to succeed - The Business Standard

The Tory leadership contest is growing increasingly hostile as Foreign Secretary Liz Truss and former Chancellor Rishi Sunak have clashed over how they plan to handle China should they win the contest to become Britains next Prime Minister. Ms Truss' supporters have accused Mr Sunak of being soft on Beijing, with former Tory leader Iain Duncan Smith claiming the Treasury, led by Mr Sunak at the time, was pushing for stronger economic ties. The comments come after Mr Sunak vowed to review all UK-Chinese research partnerships, and accused Bejing of "stealing our technology and infiltrating our universities.

The leadership contenders have also clashed over Brexit during the contest.

In one of the televised debates, Mr Sunak asked Ms Truss: "Liz, in your past you've been both a Liberal Democrat and a Remainer.

"I was just wondering which one you regretted most?"

While Ms Truss has managed to win over ardent Brexiteers such as Jacob Rees-Mogg and Steve Baker, her previous support for Remain and her vote to remain in the EU in 2016 could come back to bite her.

In May 2016, she gave a speech to the Food and Drink Federation, in which she argued the UK would be "better off" in a reformed EU.

She said: I do think its in all of our interests to communicate the real impact on the ground; the real impact this would have on jobs, livelihoods because what we know is less trade would mean fewer investments, it would mean fewer jobs and that would feed through to peoples incomes.

And that just doesnt affect me and you in this room, that affects everyone in the overall economy.

"So even if youre in a company that doesnt export, the company that does export will be buying less of your services and I think thats a message we really need to get across in the closing weeks of this campaign.

But I have great faith in the British people; I think the British people are sensible people [and] they understand fundamentally that, economically, Britain will be better off staying in a reformed EU.

Then, a month later, Ms Truss tweeted this: Leave cannot name one country we would get a better trade deal with if we left the EU."

When Theresa May became Prime Minister, Ms Truss was appointed to a Government job as Chief Secretary to the Treasury.

READ MORE:'The country will need him again' Johnson poised to make comeback

It was at this point she appeared to suddenly change her mind on Brexit, saying that she had also seen the opportunities of leaving the EU.

Ms Truss said at the time: I believed there would be massive economic problems but those havent come to pass and Ive also seen the opportunities.

The other thing is it was a big moment on June 23 when British people voted to leave and it was an expression about what kind of country we wanted to be and I think that has changed the debate in this country as well.

Last week, Ms Truss once again tried to bolster her Brexit credentials, admitting she was wrong to back Remain in 2016.

She told the BBC: "I fully embraced the choice that the people of Britain have made.

"I was wrong and I am prepared to admit I was wrong. Some of the portents of doom didn't happen and instead we have actually unleashed new opportunities."

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Ms Truss is continuing her staunch defence of Brexit as she blames France for the chaos in Dover, not the UK's departure from the EU.

She demanded France fix the avoidable and unacceptable situation as long queues grew over the weekend.

But France's transport minister, Clment Beaune responded: The French authorities are mobilised to control our borders and facilitate the traffic as much as possible. I discussed this constructively with my counterpart [Grant Shapps]. But France is not responsible for Brexit.

Queues in Dover have caused chaos for people travelling, and have been blamed on post-Brexit border checks as well as understaffed checkpoints.

View post:

Liz Truss anti-Brexit speech unearthed: 'Britain would be better off in EU' - Express

This is a long, hot summer in Britain, and 150,000 people are choosing our next prime minister.

One candidate is charmlessly patrician, full to bursting with clever, informed answers. The other talks about challenging the orthodoxya fancier version of draining the swampand is accused of denying reality. Care to make a bet on who will win?

Last week, the race to succeed Boris Johnson narrowed to two candidates, Rishi Sunak and Liz Truss. They will spend the summer appealing to the only people with a voteConservative Party members, who will register their choice by mail or onlinebefore the result is announced on September 5. How many of these powerful electors are there? The most common estimate is 150,000, equivalent to 0.2 percent of the British population, but no one outside the party knows for sure, because the Tories wont give out hard numbers on the size of their membership. The next prime minister could be decided by the votes of 1 million people. Or by three dogs in a trench coat. We just have to trust them, whoever they are.

Anne Applebaum: What Brexit did to Boris Johnsonand Britain

If this sounds like a bad system, it is. This is the second time in six years that the Conservative Party has toppled a prime minister and chosen a successor without consulting the wider electorate. In American terms, this summers contest between Truss and Sunak is a primary without a subsequent electiona recipe for candidates to pander to the prejudices and obsessions of a minority, without worrying too much about the judgment of the majority. The next nationwide ballot is not expected until at least 2024.

When the United States allows a few hundred thousand people to decide an election, at least it asks them to live in Michigan or Wisconsin. The Conservative Party membership is more geographically diverse, but it is equally unrepresentative of the entire United Kingdom. Older, well-off, white southerners may be a wee bit of a caricature, but it isnt so very far from the truth, Tim Bale, a politics professor at Queen Mary University of London, recently told the Financial Times. These voters are more economically secure than the average Briton, given that homeownership rates rise with age, and less bothered by rising interest rates, since many have paid off their mortgage. They are therefore less likely to feel a sense of impending economic doom than low-income, working-age people are.

They are also much more likely to have voted to leave the European Union. You might expect that to improve the chances of Rishi Sunaka Brexiteerover Liz Truss, who voted to Remain. Truss even made one of the standout speeches of the 2016 campaign, arguing that less trade would mean fewer investments, it would mean fewer jobs, and that will feed through to peoples incomes I think the British people are sensible people. They understand, fundamentally, that economically Britain would be better off staying in a reformed EU.

But since 2016, Truss has stealthily accomplished one of the great rebrands of modern politics. She has become a born-again Brexiteer, displaying all the zeal of the convert. Her campaign for the leadership has leaned hard on her ability to seize the opportunities available outside the EU, first as trade minister and then as foreign secretary. So how great are these opportunities? And how impressive is her record of capitalizing on them? Let me answer by telling you that one of her supporters, Thrse Coffey, offered up the reintroduction of beaversyes, big teeth, build dams, those beaversas one of Trusss biggest achievements in government. Big whoop. Rishi Sunak, a wealthy former financier, could beat this record in an afternoon if he wanted, simply by obtaining three dozen eagles on the black market and releasing them in his back garden.

Read: Britains unbridgeable divide

So far, every poll of Conservative members puts Truss ahead of Sunak. Her greater appeal to Tory members has several potential explanations, although none of the obvious ones are immediately convincing. (One pollster privately confessed to me that he struggles to see what Tory members love so much about Truss.) Sunak quit Boris Johnsons government, helping to bring it down, while Truss kept the faith. Maybe Conservative members value loyalty. Sunak wont promise immediate tax cuts to voters struggling with rising prices and energy bills; Truss wants at least 30 billion of them. Maybe Conservative members think lower taxes are the best route to economic growth, and reject Sunaks argument that true conservatism means discipline and prudence. Sunak went to an expensive private boarding school and Truss attended a state-funded school. Maybe Conservatives dislike privilegebut then again, Sunaks parents were immigrants to Britain, and both candidates attended Oxford University. None of these explanations quite fits.

What Conservative members certainly are not looking for is the slickest or most alpha candidate. Both Truss and Sunak are sort of dweeby. There is probably no good way for a politician to boast in a speech that they are opening up new pork markets, but Trusss self-satisfied smile after doing so has become a haunting meme. Sunak, meanwhile, is fastidious and obsessive; he always reminds me of Niles Crane from Frasier. He once handed out coasters to journalists because their sweaty drinks were too distracting, and he limits himself to one Coca-Cola a week, as a Saturday night treat with his wife. That wife, by the way, is an Indian telecommunications heiress whos even richer than Maris Crane.

That leaves Brexit, which is now less a policy than a vibe. Boris Johnson associated Brexit with his own boosterismmaking Britain great again!and that association has stuck. No Negative Nellies or Cautious Colins will be tolerated. Any politician who warns, as Sunak has done, that the countrys finances are still battered by COVID-19, and that more economic pain is on the way, is now seen in some miasmic, indefinable way as betraying the promise of Brexit. Things were supposed to get better once we left the EU, after all, and since an estimated three-quarters of the voters in this contest are Brexiteers, they do not want to be told they bought a lemon. Trusss born-again Brexitism is more flattering: She says now that she would vote Leave if the referendum were held again. In other words, yes, she was once a doubter, but she has changed. And there is more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over 99 just men who need no repentance.

Helen Lewis: The Brexit revolution that wasnt

The power of Trusss conversion was obvious at the debate between her and Sunak, which was hosted by the BBC in the Midlands city of Stoke-on-Trent on Monday night. The audience was made up of Conservative members, and the difference from previous crowds was stark. In Channel 4s earlier debate, with an audience drawn from across the electorate, the general consensus was that Johnson was a bounder, a cad, and a mountebank, and that anyone who stayed in his cabinet was tainted by association. The Conservative members in Stoke responded differently. When Truss rated Johnsons time in office seven out of 10, the audience barely stirred. When Sunak was asked the same question, he first equivocated on Johnsons broader record and was greeted by silence. Then he declared, Actually, in delivering a solution to Brexit, and winning an election, thats a 10 out of 10. Youve got to give the guy credit for that. No one else could have done that. Those lines drew the biggest applause of the night. In short, this race for the Conservative leadership leaves no space for a balanced appraisal of Brexitthat Britain obtained greater control over immigration and trade policy at the price of an Irish border crisis, more friction in trade, and the loss of other rights. No, it has to be all upside. Boris Johnson won bigly, and his triumph was glorious.

This sentiment made another appearance in Stoke when the host, Sophie Raworth, asked both candidates whether the recent chaos at British portswhich left families heading to France stuck in gridlocked traffic for hours last weekendwas caused by Brexit. No, they said in unison. But why is France now stamping the passports of Britons heading off to camping trips in Brittany, when once it waved them through? Because when Britain took back control of its borders, so did France. And even if the French are not employing enough border officials, as Johnsons government asserts, what recourse does a Britain outside the EU have except to whine about it? But again, any criticism of Brexit is forbidden; blame the French instead. Reality denial is now the price of leading the Conservative Party.

Overall, it was a bad debate for Sunak, who pushed Truss hard on her tax plans and frequently interrupted her during the first questions. Afterward, a Truss-campaign spokesperson accused him of mansplaining. Fighting words, though Sunaks mistake was more damaging than casual sexism. He was orthodoxysplaining.

Sunak is clearly aware of his image problem: He constantly stresses his middle-class background, and whenever he is asked about climate change, he claims to take advice from my two young daughters, who are the experts on this in our household. This is just as odd as the time Elizabeth Warren promised to let a 9-year-old vet her candidates for education secretary. Both statements spring from the same impulse of trying to look folksy and authentic rather than pointy-headed and elitist.

Nice try, but so far its not working for Sunak. A snap poll by Opinium found that a random sample of voters declared the debate to be a draw, and that Sunak had a small lead on the question of who would make the better prime minister. But among Conservative voters, the winner was clear: Liz Truss. On the British right, just like in America, a born-again believer is more appealing than the avatar of elite consensus, the credentialed insider, the man saying hes from the government and hes here to help.

Go here to read the rest:

Britains Next Prime Minister Will Have to Be a True Believer - The Atlantic

July 25, 2022 4:17 pm(Updated July 26, 2022 5:10 pm)

Theres a lot to be said for changing your mind, particularly in politics.

In our hyper-polarised world, where tribal connections and allegiances matter more than cool assessment of the facts, changing your mind is increasingly celebrated as a noble act. Podcasts, radio programmes, blogs and books laud the journey that some open-minded leaders manage to take.

This is partly because its often not easy to do. We know from academic experiments people find admitting theyre wrong embarrassing and that its psychologically painful to give up your pre-existing convictions. But we also know that we often admire others when they do.

As that archetype of grown-up assessment of shifting evidence, John Maynard Keynes, said, When the facts change, I change my mind what do you do?

Conservative leadership hopeful Liz Truss used almost exactly the same phrasing in an interview explaining her personal switch from useless remainer to the favoured candidate by many arch-Brexiteers in the race to be our next PM. Her experience as foreign secretary, she says, convinced her of the opportunities available to a free Britain, and that the portents of doom havent come to fruition. She echoed similar sentiments about a journey when she was criticised by rival Rishi Sunak about once being a Liberal Democrat.

But there are always two stories told about switching. Some will see them as honest, painful and evidence-driven. And others will portray them as selfish, convenient and evidence-free.

And, as many have pointed out, the counterpoint to this Damascene conversion is that several of the warnings that Truss herself gave in a speech to the Food and Drink Federation in May 2016, five weeks before the referendum, have, to a large extent, come true. The food industry has been one of the hardest hit, there has been a huge increase in bureaucracy, and investment in the UK has decreased relative to countries still in the single market.

But do either of Trusss U-turns or the possible shakiness of the rationale really matter? Almost certainly not. Truss is open to attacks on two fronts but neither now carry much threat.

First, the contrast with Sunaks impeccable Brexit-supporting record is negated by her endorsement from the majority of ERG (European Research Group) members. As chair Steve Baker said in a radio interview, Truss has completed the journey that the whole nation needs to go on. She may well have been for remain, but now we all need to be reconciled to the direction of travel of the country.

Converts are irresistible to believers in a cause, because they show the way for others.

The second front is driven by commentators asking Truss to explain what changed her mind. The implication is that this is not a sincere conversion but a calculated shift to curry favour, that casts doubt on her character more than the decision itself. But this is unlikely to gain much traction, not least because its difficult for her rival to exploit: to really hit home, it requires a focus on drawbacks of Brexit.

In any case, the public, and, more importantly, Conservative party members, wont care nearly as much as commentators.

We know the general public are pretty evenly divided on whether politicians changing their mind is a good thing: Ipsos and YouGov polling consistently shows a third think its a sign of weakness, incompetence and lack of conviction, a third that its a positive signal that politicians are listening and adapting, and a third dont really have a view.

It depends on the circumstances, and most importantly, whether the change is in your direction. And, as the polling suggests, we shouldnt assume people are paying that much attention. Even among Conservative supporters, only 10 per cent say they know a great deal about Liz Truss. This is put into sharper relief by the fact that five per cent of Conservatives also say they know a great deal about Stewart Lewis, a fictional candidate made up by the pollsters.

And, in the end, the majority of Conservative members seem convinced by Truss, according to YouGov polling. Not only does she have a lead in voting intentions over Sunak, she is more trusted despite the attempts to question her conviction: 63 per cent trust her to tell the truth, compared with 48 per cent trusting Sunak.

Changing your mind seems fraught, but its not something to be automatically lauded or criticised, and most of the time, it doesnt matter nearly as much as we think.

Bobby Duffy is Director of the Policy Institute at Kings College London, and author ofGenerations: Does When Youre Born Shape Who You Are?

Original post:

Who cares if Liz Truss changed her mind about Brexit? The public certainly don't - iNews

As the realities of the end of free movement are felt acutely by millions of British holidaymakers this summer, people in the UK and the EU have discussed their reasons for applying for a European passport after the Brexit vote.

The Guardian received more than 800 submissions and almost half of respondents had gained Irish citizenship, reflecting the surge in the number of Irish passports issued in Great Britain in recent years.

While the right to work, travel and retire in the EU were raised across the board, many also discussed the issue of European identity. Additionally, while the majority were not forced to give up their UK passport in order to gain EU citizenship, some said they would have done so had they been forced to choose.

Here, six people share why they applied for European citizenships and what it feels like to have gained another nationality.

I was granted French nationality in 2018, but I have kept and will keep my UK passport. My wife and children have joint British-French nationality. I was devastated by Brexit and applied after the referendum. The process took circa a year and cost about 800.

Because of my advanced age I did not have to take a language exam but decided to do so to show how committed I was to becoming French. This involved going back to verb tables and past exam papers. I had not written French since my O-level in 1964!

Im really proud of my French passport, and was pleased to vote in the last presidential election, which is part of being French. But when Im in France I dont tell people Ive got French nationality.

Some cultural differences are distinct: the French are fond of rioting, the British slow to kick up a fuss. I find the behaviour of French police very odd.

But I feel smug going through the short queue at the Eurotunnel, which is probably the only practical benefit of gaining EU citizenship for me, due to my age. Mark Noble, 75, a retired chartered accountant from Oxfordshire

I applied for Irish citizenship via my grandfather. Sadly, neither of my children are eligible to inherit my Irishness.

Im not sure what benefit the passport itself would give me, as my partner and kids only have British passports, and I would not want to be separated from them.

But I feel proud of it and look forward to visiting Ireland more, as I hardly know it, which is odd now!

My mum says her father would have found it astonishing that his grandchildren would be going through all this effort and expense in order to be Irish via him, as his generation felt they were leaving for better opportunities in Glasgow and that becoming British was going to improve their lives. Now things are a bit reversed. Amy Cooper-Wright, 37, a designer and entrepreneur from London

Both my parents are British; we moved to Finland for my dads job when I was 12. I did all of my schooling in Finland in English and moved back to the UK for university. In 2018, however, with Brexit on the horizon, I left my job in the UK and moved back to Finland with the intent of securing citizenship.

I spent two years improving my Finnish language skills its a very difficult language to learn. I passed that and since then, I have just been using it more and more, and I now work in Finnish.

As a male under the age of 30, though, I am required to complete either military or civilian service the price to pay for the citizenship, but one that I knew was part of the deal!

Getting citizenship solidified my affinity with Finland and then theres the nice aspect of travelling and working easily within Europe. Jamie McDonald, 26, Helsinki, completing national service

I moved to France in 2012 to live in our old family holiday house after my divorce and retirement, just me and the dog. I chose France as I wouldnt be able to afford renting in the UK on my small pension. All my children are in the UK. I cried on the morning after the referendum, I have always regarded myself European.

I was born in England to an English mother and Polish father and I never really knew my father but I read that I was entitled to Polish citizenship.

Finally after two years, a great detective search for my fathers documents and a not insignificant 1,800 [1,500] I received my Polish citizenship certificate. I cried with joy and relief when my Polish passport arrived, but did not have my British one rescinded.

For those of us living in the EU who arent millionaires Brexit has brought many stressful hurdles, the latest being a letter form Barclays telling me my UK sterling account I have had for decades and into which I receive my pension will close in January.

Ive never been to Poland, but Im hoping to go soon, its on the bucket list. Sandra Jones, 72, a pensioner living in Herault, France

I have lived in Spain for more than 30 years this is my home. I started the process the of applying for Spanish citizenship the day after the referendum. I had to wait 4.5 years for my application to be approved, partly due to the pandemic. In order to get my Spanish passport, I had to verbally renounce my British citizenship (but not hand in my British passport).

There was a swearing in ceremony where I had to promise to honour the king, obey the constitution and renounce my British nationality.

I did resent that, as Ill always be British, thats my culture, thats my upbringing, although Im very integrated here. I would have handed over my passport if I had to, and will do if the rules change in future.

I never had any doubts about doing it, I needed to be European. It feels like a huge relief to be a citizen here. Hilary Plass, 69, Madrid, retired

I was 14 going on 15, in the summer of 2015, when I decided to apply for a German passport, as the prospect of the Brexit vote grew ever closer. Everyone around me was convinced that we would remain but Ive always been a bit of a worrier. I was born in the UK, but my mother had UK and German citizenship, so I knew I was eligible.

Ive always had a strong connection to Germany, and I dont intend to stay in the UK I might go to Denmark next year.

Id give up my British nationality if I was made to choose. Id be locked out of so many opportunities if I were just a Brit. Being British just doesnt hold the same advantages any more as being German, Dutch or Swiss does. Karim, 21, a student from Surrey

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I feel smug going in the short queue: UK readers on getting EU passports - The Guardian

Dublin Ports trade volumes almost recovered to pre-pandemic and pre-Brexit levels in the first half of the year but Brexit has depressed average trailer and container loads, new figures show.

The States largest port released first-half figures showing an increase in trade volumes in the six months compared with 2021 as trade rebounded from the Covid-19 slump.

Overall volumes increased 10 per cent year on year but are still down almost 4 per cent compared with the first half of 2019, the period before the pandemic and Brexit suppressed trade.

Based on cargo units, the number of containers and trailers passing through the port increased by almost 8 per cent year on year and were just under 1 per cent below the same period in 2019.

Eamonn OReilly, chief executive of Dublin Port, said the post-Brexit pattern where the average cargo load per container and trailer fell by 4.2 per cent was now an established reality.

It is a permanent inefficiency in logistics supply chains caused by the introduction of border controls on imports into Ireland from the UK. This is putting greater pressure on port lands as trade volumes climb back to record levels, said Mr OReilly.

The port chief said that since Brexit businesses were choosing not to send goods across the UK landbridge between Ireland and continental Europe, while traders were choosing to source goods from alternative suppliers in continental Europe to avoid new border controls with the United Kingdom.

He attributed the decline in average cargo load per container and trailer to pressure on groupage loads where a haulier would carry different consignments in one container or trailer.

Pre-Brexit, this was a way for hauliers to make more money but having to file separate customs forms for every single item under the new border controls has made this too costly, he said.

You cannot use the container or trailer as efficiently as you used to, he said.

Speaking on the figures overall, he said the first-half trading results were the first opportunity to assess trends in port volumes after two years of disruption caused by the pandemic and Brexit.

What we are seeing is a return of the strong volume growth which has characterised Dublin Port for decades, said Mr OReilly who is leaving his role as chief executive next month.

This is driven by population growth as confirmed in the recent census. More people means more trade and more trade means greater volumes through Dublin Port.

The population rose by 7.6 per cent in the last six years, reaching 5.1 million people, the highest level in more than 170 years, according to this years census.

Ferry traffic volumes jumped significantly as Covid-19 travel restrictions were lifted. Passenger numbers more than doubled to 671,000 and tourist vehicle numbers more than trebled to 196,000.

Passenger numbers are still almost 20 per cent below where they were in the first half of 2019, while tourist vehicle numbers are 16 per cent below the pre-pandemic levels of three years ago.

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Dublin Port trade recovers to close to pre-pandemic and pre-Brexit levels - The Irish Times

Now a major initiative is being unveiled on Monday by Truss, designed to unleash Britains post-Brexit potential. In an echo of Margaret Thatchers Enterprise Zones, which helped create Canary Wharf and London Docklands and laid the foundations for massive investment in places such as Liverpool, the Foreign Secretary wants to establish whole new towns and communities that will benefit from low tax and low regulation.

These Investment Zones, as they will be called, are designed to give existing businesses a massive boost and encourage entrepreneurs to set up new businesses there.

Full details of how this will be achieved are still to be revealed, but new ideas are badly needed. This is a big one and it has great promise.

The crisis facing care homes in the UK came into sharp and shocking focus during the pandemic, with hundreds of lives lost, and relatives not being able to see loved ones.

At the time, the Government promised to put care, in all its forms, at the top of the political agenda.

But today, the Express can reveal that only four in 10 care homes have been inspected since the start of the pandemic, meaning that many of the most vulnerable in our society could be living in substandard conditions with, at worst, their very lives being put at risk.

This is a disgrace. Many of us have friends or family who have moved to care homes, and we expect that they should receive a high level of care. But how do we know for sure when so few have been subjected to in-person inspections?

Care home campaigners are pointing the finger at the Care Quality Commission regulator and accusing them of letting older people down. In turn, the CQC claims it is powerless to act because it is governed by regulations set by Parliament.

One thing is certain: we will make it our task to ensure that the next Prime Minister champions the cause of the elderly and those who are unable to live independently.

Football still has not come home at least not since 1966. But now the England womens team is on the verge of appearing in a major football final.

Standing in their way tomorrow will be Sweden. The Lionesses will give their their all and the rest of us will be roaring

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Zoning in on a boost for business after Brexit - EXPRESS COMMENT - Express

Delays are increasing at British airports. / photo file

Thousands of passengers are facing last-minute flight delays and cancellations as a result of staff shortages at UK airports, as well as additional post-Brexit passport controls and seals at major ports connecting the United Kingdom with France. Unprecedented delays are being faced due to installation.

Airports and Airlines Job cuts during pandemic lockdown They are having trouble hiring more workers as demand for tourism increases.

in addition to the following Long queues and thousands of canceled flightsproblems includeDelays for passengers with reduced mobility and bags that do not travel with passengers or that arrive late and are stored at airports.

Last week, Heathrow air terminal, the largest in the United Kingdom, went so far as to ask airlines not to sell more tickets because they cannot cope with a rebound in air travel.

The airport had to limit the number of passengers departing each day during the peak summer months to 100,000, which is currently 4,000 fewer than scheduled.

Gatwick, the UKs second largest airport, also had to reduce the number of flights during the peak summer season due to staff shortages.

Earlier in the week, passengers heaved a sigh of relief when hundreds of British Airways employees at Heathrow airport called off a strike after reaching an agreement for an 8% pay increase.

A total of 700 workers, mostly billing workers, declared unemployment during the boreal summer due to a 10% pay cut imposed during the pandemic.

The move was expected to create more problems and cause severe disruption and cancellations for passengers during busy holiday periods.

vacationers also had There was a delay of up to six hours in passing border control through the Channel Tunnel connecting with FranceWhose officials say the long queues are the result of a huge increase in travel following the pandemic, combined with passport controls following the British exit from the European Union (EU).

The problem began over the weekend and spread throughout the week, with huge queues at the ports of Dover and Folkestone as tourists and truck drivers tried to cross into France.

French authorities attributed the delay to additional checking and stamping of British passports.

However, the British government has assured that travel delays are caused by a number of factors and do not necessarily mean they have left the European bloc on December 31, 2020.

Because of the freedom of movement between EU countries, before Brexit, there was little need for strict border controls.

Because of the freedom of movement between EU countries, before Brexit, there was little need for strict border controls.

French authorities will now have to stamp the passport and carry out a series of checks: check that the traveler has not been in the EU for more than 90 days in the last 180 days, check if they have at least 3 months left on their passport If the traveler has a return ticket, has travel insurance, or has money to stay in the country of destination.

For example, Britons traveling to Spain must have 85 a day to spend under the new rules.

Transport expert Simon Calder told the BBC that checking each person could take up to a minute instead of a few seconds.

While the Port of Dovers executive director, Doug Bannister, for his part indicated to the British media that the French border police did not have enough personnel.

Problems may increase even more next year When the European Travel Information and Authorization System (ETIAS) is in place for the British, a visa waiver program is exactly the same as for citizens of certain nationalities in the United States.

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Unprecedented Delays At Airports And Seaports Due To Brexit And Staff Shortages - Nation World News

The case for Brexit was very simple: it was the retrieval of self-government by the British people. When the Heath government joined the EU in 1973, with a referendum in 1975 under Harold Wilsons Labour government, both governments argued that British self-government was not at risk: we were joining a customs union only.

Tony Benn and Enoch Powell, at opposite ends of the political spectrum, warned that this would eventually lead to the loss of sovereignty, and in the intervening 40 years have been proved right. The EU has moved steadily towards its stated aim of a federal state of a united Europe, acquiring power over not merely trade but also regulation of all industrial and social areas of life, owing to the creation of the single market and then the Social Chapter.

The final straw for the British public was uncontrolled immigration from EU countries, with immigrants getting the same rights as UK citizens to public health, education and benefits. As has been made very clear since Brexit, it was not immigration as such that British people rejected; there has always been a welcoming attitude to immigrants from all over the world, whether they are true refugees (as are those from Ukraine), have a claim on us (as do those from Hong Kong), or are skilled workers able to contribute to the economy, with the ability to pay their way.

What Brexit offers us today, therefore, is the return of self-government and the long-term welfare gains that brings with it. The Remain side argued that there would be short-term economic costs from the disruption of the existing close links with the EU. On this, it was right; but this is a short-term cost, such as often occurs when long-term shifts of policy direction take place.

Furthermore, it could have been avoided if the EU, instead of taking the path of aggressive non-cooperation, had behaved as the friendly ally it is in its long-term interests to be. In any case, it is quite limited: the only statistically significant short-term effects of Brexit have been on our EU trade in both directions; they cancel out in their effect on GDP, where there has been no significant effect at all, once you allow for Covid. In the long term, the gains from the British people choosing the trade barriers and regulations that suit them best are the economic consequence of choosing political independence.

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EU economic policies have been chosen to suit the interests of EU members. Thus, they chose high protection of agriculture to suit French interests, and both protection and regulation oriented towards the interests of German manufacturing. To this, add the use of regulations to achieve social aims in the labour and product markets, in line with the social democratic philosophy of the major European countries.

These regulations were issued under the Napoleonic style of European law, with top-down interdiction of possible harms. To make such regulation effective in the UK with its common law system, under which all is permitted unless explicitly forbidden, these EU regulations had to be spelt out in the form of lists of interdictions, a damaging process known as gold plating.

It can be seen from all this that the EU was saddling the UK with governmental demands that were thoroughly at variance with British peoples interests. These demands to date, without factoring in what they might have been followed by in the future, imply large-scale long-term gains for our economy from leaving. In my modelling work, I estimated these at around 7 per cent of our GDP. But this was the minimum, assuming there were to have been no further divergence of EU policies from our UK interests which of course there were very likely to have been.

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It will take time for these gains to be realised by our political processes, which work by grinding out consensus after long debate. Free trade agreements (FTAs) around the non-EU world face opposition from vested interests in agriculture and manufacturing; but with more than 9 per cent of the labour force now working elsewhere, with their main interest being in competition and lower prices, these FTAs will gradually be rolled out.

Similarly, regulatory reform will face predictable opposition, but this will be overcome as people observe the benefits of a common law regulatory system based on responding to the side effects of free market experimentation.

This government is committed to pushing on with the Brexit programme. It could help matters by avoiding unforced errors, such as putting up taxes in the cause of rushing to pay off its Covid debts. But whatever errors it makes, the key point is that the British people now have back in their hands the power to vote in a government that will act in line with their interests. Our long history shows that they know how to use it.

Patrick Minford CBE is a British macroeconomist who is professor of applied economics at Cardiff University

To mark the six year anniversary of the referendum on Britains membership of the EU, Voices brings you Brexit, 6 years on a series exploring the impact of the vote to leave

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Voices: Brexit had to happen this is why - Yahoo News UK