sanshee
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Edited Apr 21, 2017, 12:54
We never really 'cared that much'
Apr 21, 2017, 12:45
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http://www.ukpolitical.info/european-parliament-election-turnout.htm
EDIT:
As is evident here, we swap ideas and attitudes regards our own domestic politics, we have our villains rare heroes, but the EU?
What do we know or care about it?
The chart above shows, we do not and have never 'engaged'.
Not really.
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thesweetcheat
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Re: We never really 'cared that much'
Apr 21, 2017, 18:25
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That's our loss and our ignorance then isn't it?
The media has been generally anti-EU throughout my lifetime, very few voices have pointed out the positives (the Remain campaign did a terrible job of helping anyone understand what was good about the EU, focusing too much on negativity). And yet we have had unparalleled peace, brilliantly shared research into medicine, science and technology, the human rights legislation that those who fought the last world war wanted to see.
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sanshee
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Edited Apr 21, 2017, 19:28
Re: We never really 'cared that much'
Apr 21, 2017, 19:10
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I don't know if we would have found another reason to go to war anyway.
We have researchers over here from every corner of the planet.
EDIT: For sure, there will be a different funding model.
I just can't envisage scientists seeking not to work together anymore.
It makes no sense.
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thesweetcheat
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Re: We never really 'cared that much'
Apr 21, 2017, 19:40
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sanshee wrote: I don't know if we would have found another reason to go to war anyway.
We have researchers over here from every corner of the planet.
EDIT: For sure, there will be a different funding model.
I just can't envisage scientists seeking not to work together anymore.
It makes no sense.
A different funding model that almost certainly won't be as advantageous to the UK as being in the EU when it comes to research and development, not to mention to consequential effects on British firms who rely on contracts derived from that R&D work.
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sanshee
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Re: We never really 'cared that much'
Apr 21, 2017, 20:10
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What do you foresee?
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thesweetcheat
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Re: We never really 'cared that much'
Apr 21, 2017, 20:21
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I see us missing out on involvement in European-wide science and tech advances, and in particular I foresee our companies being unable to go for contracts resulting from those advances. Britain does not have the money to go it alone on those projects.
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sanshee
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Re: We never really 'cared that much'
Apr 21, 2017, 20:33
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We do hand over more than we get back.
Crudely as I put it, it is true.
https://fullfact.org/europe/our-eu-membership-fee-55-million/
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riverman
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Re: We never really 'cared that much'
Apr 21, 2017, 20:45
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sanshee wrote: I don't know if we would have found another reason to go to war anyway.
We have researchers over here from every corner of the planet.
EDIT: For sure, there will be a different funding model.
I just can't envisage scientists seeking not to work together anymore.
It makes no sense.
I am a university lecturer who did 6 years of postdoc research in Madrid on projects funded by the EC. It is true scientists from outside the EC could work on EC funded projects - but as far as I'm aware they couldn't lead projects and didn't have the same advantages (why should they?). They could be research partners effectively. Since the referendum UK based researchers have reported being dropped from initial project discussions - it can take years to put a proposal together and due to the uncertainty of what will happen UK based researchers are being dropped.
We have hundreds of EC nationals in UK academia who face uncertainty - it's almost certain that some will leave if they have the opportunity, because of the uncertainty.
Applications from EC (and other overseas students I believe) are down on last year so the university sector will have less income.
Our current project budgets have been squeezed by the devalued pound - a PhD student of mine may not be able to travel for his second fieldwork season - or rather I will have to pay some of my own money to help him out.
In short there isn't a chance in hell that Brexit will not negatively affect UK universities - how we quantify it will be tricky because we are being attacked from all sides (increased privatisation, possible 2 year degrees) etc.
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thesweetcheat
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Re: We never really 'cared that much'
Apr 21, 2017, 20:48
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That's not really the whole story though. The EU is our biggest trading partner and lots of UK businesses benefit directly from being in the EU, that will go so the money we "put in" and "get out" isn't really factoring that at all. Plus the money we currently "put in" will still be paid to the government, but you'll be trusting the Tories not the EU with investing it. I hope Cornwall and Wales have been saving up.
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