EU referendum, brexit and the aftermath

#sickburn

The issue we have at our place is foreign languages. For bi/tri-lingual candidates with accounting experience the pool of talent from the UK is pretty minimal.

Ohhhhhh yes.

I'm tri-lingual but in NI you pretty much only get a callcentre job with that, or a low paid customer support job.

If the issue is the same where you are, I'd say people don't study languages or just leave.

The way languages here are taught/lack of foreign tv with subtitles/lack of proximity doesn't help.

Which is the only good thing that could come out of this, Brits finally getting serious about learning other languages.

Of course, to do so it would be helpful to have some sort of union that allowed you to study anywhere in Europe without worrying about a visas and residency permits.

Son is at local secondary, (which academised to avoid being co-opted by an academy chain).
Pre-GCSE choice was French or Spanish, (no option for German).
Post-academisation it has sought to differentiate itself, by chumming up to Harrow School,
(just a few miles away), and offering Latin as a GCSE option as part of the 'English Baccalaureate'.

http://www.thedailymash.co.uk/news/international/australia-ideal-trading-partner-say-britons-happy-to-wait-three-months-for-stuff-20160907113467

So their idea is to draft a bill to encourage swiss employers to employ swiss people. I wonder what form this would take? Surely many businesses are going to ignore it and take the cheaper/more available labour anyway. It would have to be a very real and pursuasive incentive.

All of this isolationist stuff is simply bonkers. People have always moved around a lot, but war, international injustice, and conflict that have caused the recent surge in refugees need to be tackled at their roots (ending wars, ending economic imbalances mostly caused by colonialism, ending environmental destruction on a grand scale, etc.), to turn all those refugees into tourists who occasionally travel abroad from well-functioning home countries in whose culture they feel a sense of belonging and pride. Those who really want to go and live somewhere else should generally be allowed to. I think if the world wasn't in such upheaval their number wouldn't be very significant at all, e.g. the current drive to get people with very specific skills from all over the shop would be unnecessary if education was more even worldwide. You get all the talents everywhere.

Of course, I know that's nothing but pious hopes, especially at the moment, but I find it tiresome to think about all of these absurdities like that Swiss policy one by one.

Which is the only good thing that could come out of this, Brits finally getting serious about learning other languages.

I'm all for learning languages, but how much of an issue actually is it for the UK from an economic standpoint?

From an employment perspective does it really add value? I'd really like to see some data on that point as annacdotally the multilingual people I've know have always said that it hasn't translated into an increase in salary.

I'm tri-lingual but in NI you pretty much only get a callcentre job with that, or a low paid customer support job.

That's bullshit. You speak English, Irish and Ulster-Scots and you get to pick which ministerial post you want.

I don't see what you mean by increase in salary, seeing as the candidate's language skills are clarified at the point of hiring. If you hire Pablo because he speaks Spanish, why should he expect a raise for speaking Spanish 6 months down the line?
Salary increases aside, there is a significant number of white collar jobs in London that are only open to people who speak English plus X language.

Amazing. We're all in this together....

Well, not the bankers etc.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2016/09/08/european-bankers-will-be-exempt-from-migration-curbs-after-brexi/

I'd think it's more the case that you don't get the job at all without the languages.

On an individual level, anecdotal of course, I've been approached around half a dozen times over the years by people (ex-colleagues, friends of friends, people I've met at industry things) asking if I can speak a second language (specifically mandarin, sometimes other chinese) because they "really need" to hire someone who can (in a particular job area, not just for the language skills). I imagine those opportunities would only actually translate into maybe 2 job offers, but I never found out because I don't actually speak mandarin, I just have a mandarin name. But yeah, I think it definitely broadens opportunity.

Haha well played.

I don't quite speak bigotry and/or sectarianism though :P

(and on that note we have The Greens/Alliance/PBP here too...but SF/DUP/UUP/SDLP can GTFO)

“It was too complex an issue to leave to the public, because most people are thick."

Bradley Wiggins in today's Guardian.

It was too complex an issue to leave to the public

tru

because most people are thick.

Brutal.

So when the team he’s assembled to manage his post-competitive career asked if he had any ideas, he told them, “Well, I’ve always had this idea to design kids’ bikes. Because no one else does them.”

Er, what about Islabikes?

Forrin

Er, what about Islabikes?

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-37324491

Liam Fox calls British business [cos NI doesn't count again] "lazy and fat". Ho-hum.

I read the same thing on the FT this morning. BTL comments are interesting, one of the most highly rated says "if only there was an opposition we could vote them out". Depressing...

Labour has not exactly made itself look good by internal strife. But if people are unwilling to try an alternative (Greens and many other parties outside England) what can you do?

Leaving the UK is then about all that's left.

But it's not general election time yet...come on Labour get your shit together please... O_o

He has probably only alienated himself from Daily Mail reading cunts who hate cyclists anyway.

http://www.mofa.go.jp/files/000185466.pdf

[Japan brexit demands]
Japan says it like it is. Holy cow, they're not normally this direct.

"here, if you get rid of cheap EU labour, we need to up our prices"
and
"piss over the EU employees in our firms and we may just leave"
and
"we invested a lot, and now you are pissing on our chips".