Westministenders: Crisis, which crisis ?

[BigChocFrenzy]

Main crises facing the government:

. Negotiating a Brexit deal with the EU
. Coronoavirus
. Floods
. Allegations of some ministers - and Cummings - bullying civil servants
. More trouble threatened from Turkey / Syria

Unfortunately with all these parallel crises, we have a workshy lying arse as PM
and the worst collection yet of incompetents in Cabinet
who seem to have decided on a strategy of bullying their civil servants to avoid hearing any facts that don't fit with current Tory party ideology

The right of UK citizens living abroad to vote in UK elections has been on Tory manifestos since 2013 at least. But they couldn't implement it once they'd committed to the referendum, for fear of accusations that they'd tried to increase the number of Remain voters/for fear of increasing the number of Remain voters (delete according to which type of Tory MP was thinking about this back in the day when they hadn't all drunk the Cummings Kool-Aid).

Now that they think Brexit is done and they have a comfortable majority, BJ and his buddies most likely figure that it might be handy to have some grateful UK citizens scattered around the world, just as the country is about to lose soft power on a massive scale.

I don't know a single UK national living in the EU who would ever dream of describing themselves as an expat; it's a very connoted colonial-era term and it's telling that BJ used it in that letter to Harry Shindler. Several people I know were quite indignant. I definitely was.

I have to admit that I'm doing more hand washing than I used to - in particular when I get in from having been out and about. Filling the bathroom sink and singing 2 verses of "Flower of Scotland" while soaping my hands

Auld I frequently refer to myself as a UK expat, as do the 2 other Brits I know best here in Germany
I also refer to E27 expats in the UK

Maybe it's a generational word shift - as we 3 are all over 60 - but it just means people living outside their native country,
not people who have colonised anywhere

Brexit: Preparations cost government more than £4bn says watchdog

https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-politics-51762243

The National Audit Office said this figure included spending on staff, external advice and advertising.
......
The NAO stressed in its report that it was not making a judgement on whether the spending represented value for money.

It also emphasised that the figures represented a "minimum estimated level of spend" due to "limitations" in the data provided by departments.

BCF, that's really interesting.
It might well be generational.
Or just one of those terms people don't agree on.

www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2018/10/expat-immigrant/570967/
www.bbc.com/worklife/article/20170119-who-should-be-called-an-expat
theconversation.com/whats-the-difference-between-a-migrant-and-an-expat-69265

One reason maybe we refer to ourselves as expats is that none of us had otiginally intended to permanently migrate to Germany

We tended to have ties - house, family etc - in the UK, until Brexit
and by then we got used to calling ourselves expats

Language can take time to catch up

However, that article is correct that those on lower incomes are almost never called expats, just migrants

I refer to myself as an immigrant. Expat feels so, I dunno, Costa Del Sol? Like we're all retirees sitting in the sun shouting at the locals in English and complaining about the number of foreigners.

Expat does have drinking a pink gin after the sun goes over the yard arm dreaming of lost empire feel doesn't it?

We are - or were, all 3 of us have retired now - hardworking scientists in Germany,
definitely no nostalgia for empire

btw, if you think BJ is being callous / casual about the Corona crisis ....

Trump:

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-health-coronavirus-usa/new-york-confirms-two-more-coronavirus-cases-state-total-at-13-idUSKBN20S1W0

“It certainly might have an impact.

At the same time, I have to say people are now staying in the United States spending their money in the U.S., and I like that.”

John Crace in excellent form with his ™️ dark political wit 😂😂

www.theguardian.com/politics/2020/mar/03/boris-fails-to-convince-with-sanitised-take-on-coronavirus

“The best thing you can do,” Boris said, “is to wash your hands with soap and hot water while singing Happy Birthday twice.”

Mostly as an aspiration that you survive until your next one.

Still, at least here he was on relatively strong ground. Because if there’s one thing Boris knows something about it’s washing his hands.

Over the years he’s washed his hands of almost everything:
family, children, friends, colleagues, morals, scruples. Pontius Boris.

Am also loving John Crace's columns

Expat v. immigrant

The classic "expat" situations are Africa, the far East, the Caribbean
The white "emigrant/ immigrant" situations are America, Australia, Canada
Modern "expat" societies are the Gulf States

its less about location than the plan of integrating

eg
BigChoc worked in a situation where the team was multinational rather than German.
Other expats work in jobs that are not open to locals (banking, accounting etc)
Whereas immigrants go and work for locally run companies and locally dominated teams and plan to integrate

NB
Not a criticism of BigChoc at all
a RL friend worked for a chip design company in France where none of the team were French and the office language was English
but they all loved living around Antibes

but it is about integration

The white "emigrant/ immigrant" situations are America, Australia, Canada
Modern "expat" societies are the Gulf States

I’d disagree on this (having been a trailing spouse). Brits are often considered “expats” if they’re on international contracts regardless of the country involved. Some big multinationals move you on every 3 or 4 years so you don’t get a chance to integrate. If you end up being rotated to the US for longer than that then the expectation is that you apply for a green card.

In contrast, anyone coming to work in the UK, regardless of how long for, is labelled as an immigrant or economic migrant.

My tuppenceworth on the Expat vs Immigrant description is more work delineated in its description. Ergo:

Expats work abroad, but have a 'home' Country they mostly identify with, although they might not live there.

Immigrants have left their home Country to start a new life in another Country but still never forget their Home Country and identify their roots with it.

HTH, Hun :)

Immigrants have left their home Country to start a new life in another Country but still never forget their Home Country and identify their roots with it

I know plenty of UK “emigrants” that have spent the last 30+ years overseas and have no intention of returning to the UK despite identifying as “British” and always describing themselves as “expats”.

It’s a British thing.

HTH sweetie.

I have to be careful here but yes
HenHarrier is right
its a British thing that dates back to the days of empire
every other nationalilty is less precious

I'd always thought expats came in groups - basically forming an 'expat community' who socialise together using their native language etc.

Having been such in several countries over my working life. On occasions when you're on your own you tend to go more 'native' and don't regard yourself as an expat?

Certainly an element of brits not learning the local language!

Listening All the teams I worked with were mostly German

We've always had to integrate, because there are no Brit enclaves in my state, unlike in Spain

• I only know 2 other Brit expats from work and we didn't socialise

For us at least it was because we came over for work, moved back & forth between both countries sometimes on short contracts and had intended to retire in the UK
.... until Brexit

But I don't regard it as special for Brits, because I almost always refer to E27 expats in the UK, not immigrants

Tory governments spend more on London than rest of England – thinktank

Will this budget change things, with all those new Tory seats ?

www.theguardian.com/politics/2020/mar/06/tory-governments-spend-more-on-london-than-rest-of-england-thinktank

.... transport spending was almost three times higher in London than the average in the rest of England since 2008
and the capital has received nearly twice the UK average science spending since 2001.

London will also have experienced five times as much support for affordable housing between 2016 and 2021,

aviationweek.com/air-transport/safety-ops-regulation/uk-will-leave-easa-says-british-transportation-secretary

A decision on one of the agencies - bonkers IMHO but par for the course I guess

I'd agree with the expat (temporary migrant) versus immigrant (longer or permanent) distinction, but my experience of being an immigrant in Europe is that many permanent immigrants use expat as shorthand, and many older migrants think of themselves as expats.

The British in Europe don't really cluster (except in a small number of communities in France and Spain) like they do in for eg Middle East states.

We live in an area with a reasonably significant number of British migrants, due to low housing costs/area of natural beauty but it would be impossible to live in an expat bubble here.

People don't learn the language because learning a language is hard. The best way is to work or study in an immersion setting, but many of the British in Europe are self employed because they don't have the language skills to get work locally.

I've lived in France for 20 years and I can't count on the fingers of one hand the British people I have known who speak fluent French without having a French partner or a history of working for a French company or studying in France.

As often my thoughts aren't following the flow of the thread....
But just wondering what thoughts are about the likely press and public response to BJ and Cummings rumoured ECHR departure?

Will the great electorate feel that actually Brexit and blue passports hasn't yet given them the bulldog boost they were expecting? Will the redtops hope that maybe ECHR departure will be the high the public need? Or have voters had enough now are focussed on Covid 19 - and actually don't care about human rights?