Dr Mike Ward Profile picture
Data modeller with background in genetics & philosophy of science. Father, sceptic, deracinated cosmopolitan, citizen of nowhere, and angry old man.
Sep 21, 2018 9 tweets 1 min read
"We cannot accept anything that threatens the integrity of our Union" =
We have to stay in the SM and the CU or create a hard border across Ireland "Just as they cannot accept anything that threatens the integrity of theirs" =
We cannot stay in the SM and not accept Freedom of Movement of people, capital, goods, and services.
Sep 13, 2018 20 tweets 6 min read
1 What happens to EU citizens resident in the UK in the event of no deal?

Nobody knows of course and nobody in government is prepared to say (see eg or ). 2 The bad news is that we've had @Nigel_Farage basically suggesting we should deport EU citizens living here if there's no deal: (see )
Sep 7, 2018 8 tweets 4 min read
So @Jacob_Rees_Mogg makes it clear that he rejects the promises made by the official Leave campaign to EU citizens living here - the promises that 52% voted for.

docs.wixstatic.com/ugd/fc5611_cb1… And this was the official Leave campaign promise signed by @BorisJohnson, @patel4witham, & @michaelgove:
Aug 21, 2018 4 tweets 1 min read
It is always interesting to (in your head) replace "EU citizen" with "Jewish person" or "black person" in things you read. Imagine political scientists earnestly dismissing the notion that the UK had an anti-semitism problem on the basis of polls showing that "only" 30% of the populace thought Jews should be deported whereas 60% thought that Jews who were already here should be allowed to stay ...
Aug 19, 2018 9 tweets 3 min read
I was watching a House of Commons debate last night in which @DominicRaab makes a statement on the White Paper setting out the Government’s plans for legislating for the withdrawal agreement and implementation period. hansard.parliament.uk/Commons/2018-0… After he had finished, @Keir_Starmer got up and made a few points and asked a few questions: (Starmer goes on to give lots of examples of how l the legislators are tying themselves in knots over this problem.)
Aug 10, 2018 7 tweets 1 min read
The trouble with all the claims flying around at the moment is that they're all true: Niqabs and burqas really do look ridiculous
and
Boris Johnson really is a racist bigot trying to stir up hate
and
There really is antisemitism in the Labour party
and
The IHRA definition of "antisemitism" really does conflate antisemitism and criticism of Israel
and
Aug 1, 2018 11 tweets 3 min read
Fascinating programme on the wireless just now with @NickCohen4 and Simon Heffer - not least because Heffer, clearly honestly (but entirely erroneously) believes that the UK government has guaranteed the rights of EU citizens living in the UK. Heffer even seems to believe that UK citizens have been granted UK *citizenship* - something which has never been suggested and which is clearly entirely untrue - but, that aside, his core belief that EU citizens living in the UK have been told they can stay is widely shared.
Jul 26, 2018 13 tweets 2 min read
Translation from @DominicRaab-ese into English: gov.uk/government/new…

Translation from @DominicRaab-ese into English: "We have reached agreement [...] on the rights of the [...] citizens that have chosen to make their home in [...] the EU."
=
"We have abandoned the citizens that have chosen to make their home in the EU -they'll just have to sort things out themselves with each country".
Jun 28, 2018 4 tweets 2 min read
Dear @mattwridley @JuliaHB1
Assuming they ever get the system up and running, my wife (who has lived & worked & paid taxes here for 33 years) will have to pay £65 to *apply* to a malevolent & malicious Home Office to be granted permission to continue living & working here .... ...in her own house with her husband (me) in the country where both her children were born and have grown up.

All so that we can massively damage our economy in order to stop other Europeans coming here freely (and our own citizens going freely to 27 other countries).
Jun 25, 2018 4 tweets 2 min read
The chilling moment where @carolinenokes refuses to guarantee the rights of EU citizens in the (increasingly likely looking) event of no deal: Parliamentlive.tv goo.gl/EAYkvi "[this is] an important issue" ≠ "yes"
"we are not anticipating failure" ≠ "yes"
"we have confidence that there will be a deal" ≠ "yes"
"we have reached an [unratified & contingent on other agreements] agreement with the EU" ≠ "yes"
Mar 23, 2018 11 tweets 2 min read
I'm going to make some bold predictions. I hope, as I hoped when I correctly predicted the Trump and Brexit victories, I'm totally wrong; and I'm still going to continue campaigning for Remain; but here goes: The UK will leave the EU on 2019-03-30. The EU will accept some kind of kludge statement on Ireland (essentially) in exchange for us putting ourselves in a position whereby we are forced to agree to most/all of their demands further down the line.