Today's DT headline reads, "Farage to No campaigners: Get off your backside or lose." What hypocrisy! Farage has spent the last 10 years kicking out good talented activists, just the sort of people you need across the country to help the Out campaign but replaced by talentless sycophants some of whom like Atkinson and Bashir having been selected on UKIP MEP slates thanks to Farage's favour have already deserted to other parties within one year. They are however on the EU gravy train which is what they wanted leaving the hard work to the UKIP OAP foot soldiers.
Farage wants to grab the glory of leading the Out campaign but the Tories and others have said no way and rightly want an apolitical business figure. I would add to that an academic a historian not an economist plus a military figure like Tim Collins not a General. That would give Troika leadership better than Farage or a Tory.
Finally the DT says , " Farage will today call for his party to play a leading role in the deabate". Kiss of death for the Out campaign.
http://digital-ukip.nationbuilder.com/how_no_can_win
A very small audience. Crowther cannot organise a decent microphone so one can hear the questions from the floor. So typical of UKIP.
27JUL 2015
UNIVERSITIES UK IS WRONG TO SAY UK SHOULD STAY IN EU AT ALL COSTS
This morning, Universities UK has launched a highly political campaign, calling for Britain to remain in the EU at all costs, even before the terms of membership the UK will be voting on in an EU referendum are made clear. A number of claims by the group do no stand up to scrutiny though. The group is seeking to portray a vote to leave an unreformed EU as damaging for university funding and co-operation, despite this not being the case. Furthermore, as Change, or go points out, the amount of EU funding for Universities is dwarfed by the amount we pay into the EU, and is not contingent on membership:
Claim: UK universities accessed over £870 million in research funding in 2013 alone.
Response: The main system for channelling funding, Horizon 2020, includes a number of “associated countries” including: Iceland, Norway, Turkey and Israel. The UK does not need to be an EU member to continue to cooperate with Horizon 2020.
Response: The main system for channelling funding, Horizon 2020, includes a number of “associated countries” including: Iceland, Norway, Turkey and Israel. The UK does not need to be an EU member to continue to cooperate with Horizon 2020.
Claim: The Erasmus programme 207,546 students and 21,133 staff from the UK have benefited from it.
Response: Erasmus does not require EU membership. Erasmus+ is not limited to just EU states, or even just to EEA countries. The programme covers 32 primary countries – the EU, the EEA, Turkey, and even Macedonia. Nearly every country in the world has opted in to some elements of the Erasmus+ package.
Response: Erasmus does not require EU membership. Erasmus+ is not limited to just EU states, or even just to EEA countries. The programme covers 32 primary countries – the EU, the EEA, Turkey, and even Macedonia. Nearly every country in the world has opted in to some elements of the Erasmus+ package.
Claim: The UK’s research base has been strengthened by over 6,000 individual researchers coming to UK universities by the EU’s Marie Curie scheme.
Response: A country does not need to be in the EU to benefit from the Marie Curie scheme. According to the Commission, the eligible host institutions for Marie Curie are organisations active in research or researcher training located in EU Member States or “Associated States.”
Response: A country does not need to be in the EU to benefit from the Marie Curie scheme. According to the Commission, the eligible host institutions for Marie Curie are organisations active in research or researcher training located in EU Member States or “Associated States.”
Claim: Free movement of staff and students allows UK universities to access to talent from across Europe.
Response: Leaving the EU need not compromise the free movement of staff and students. A number of countries, including Norway and Switzerland, have free movement agreements with the EU. However, were Britain to opt out of free movement, the reduction in migratory pressures means that the UK could reverse the decision by the Home Office to scrap the Tier 1 post-study work visa (a decision which, according to the Institute of Directors and James Dyson, has made Britain less attractive to students).
Response: Leaving the EU need not compromise the free movement of staff and students. A number of countries, including Norway and Switzerland, have free movement agreements with the EU. However, were Britain to opt out of free movement, the reduction in migratory pressures means that the UK could reverse the decision by the Home Office to scrap the Tier 1 post-study work visa (a decision which, according to the Institute of Directors and James Dyson, has made Britain less attractive to students).
Claim: Nearly half of UK academic papers have an international author
Response: Universities UK admits that “we have links all around the globe.” Our ability to work with countries beyond the EU would not be harmed by leaving the EU.
Response: Universities UK admits that “we have links all around the globe.” Our ability to work with countries beyond the EU would not be harmed by leaving the EU.
These arguments are being put forward by the the President-elect of Universities UK, Dame Julia Goodfellow, who is hardly a neutral figure in this debate. She is is Board Member of the extremely pro-EU campaigners British Influence, and she contributed to a 2003 paper that stated “There is no going back from the euro” and claimed that the euro was “an irreversible engine for heightened competitiveness”
Meanwhile, the UK enjoys the highest university standards in Europe, and is outmatched globally only by the United States. The UK Government itself has raised concern about the problems the EU has created in the educational sector in its review of the Balance of Competences:
“The UK Government does not believe that the EU approach to education policy coordination sufficiently recognises the variety and variation of experience and expertise in member states.”
It also states: “Even among what might be considered its natural audience, the inconsistent Ministerial attendance from all member states at meetings of the EducationCouncil or the Youth Council, as well as the level of attendance at Director General meetings, High Level Group meetings and meetings of thematic groups, suggest – anecdotally, at least – a bureaucracy and a system with little traction.”
Outside of an unreformed EU, the UK would still be capable of cooperating with other universities through a number of key organisations, including:
- The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). This is the leading organisation for comparative education indicators, analysis and trends, notably through its PISA and Education at a Glance (EAG) programmes. OECD members are not limited to the EU, but include Korea, Australia, Chile and Israel
- The International Association for the Evaluation of Educational Achievement (IEA)
- United Nations agencies, including UNESCO, the UNESCO Institute for Statistics (UIS) and UNICEF
Even if all these schemes didn’t exist, as home to numerous pre-eminent educational establishments, Britain will remain a key education destination of choice for students across the EU and around the world.