A wilding

Sure England will remain a better place to live than much of the rest of the world, and I have no idea how you got the impression that I was saying it is not a relatively good place for LGBT people. But as for using Brexit to "put off immigrants" - I am calling it as I see it, however much I would love to be wrong (our EU friends have all packed up and left already). For example right now I wouldn't want to bet that a desperately stretched NHS will still be providing free services to EU citizens in a few years time.

My two pennyworth. As Xray says, being a straight white male I can't tell, and it probably does depend on what sort of circles you move in, but I would also say that most English people are quite relaxed about homosexuality, with the possible exception of the elderly (70+). We certainly know some lesbian couples who generally seem to have little problem. My impression is that there was a real sea change in public opinion about 10 - 15 years ago (one of my friends puts it down partly to Big Brother). When Cameron pushed through the gay marriage law a few years back the story is that most of his MPs - older white males almost to a man - were in shocked disagreement to it, until they went back to their constituencies, took soundings, and realised how much out of step with public opinion they had become on the issue. However, you tangentially mentioned Brexit. What is going to happen after Brexit is in practice still totally up in the air. Any promises of EU citizens being able to live here should, in my opinion, not be counted on. It is also quite possible that England may end up not being a very good place to live full stop. If at all possible I would suggest holding off for a year or so until the situation becomes clearer.

Well I certainly don't trust the current Tory Cabinet. Given the total power to choose our Brexit, I think it near certain that they will either choose a disastrous "no deal" crash out (if only out or sheer incompetence / brinkmanship), or one that cements in advantages for "big international corporations" with the discarding of consumer protections and human rights. I hope everyone who identifies with the political left would be concerned about that, At least giving MPs a veto might serve to keep the cabinet slightly more honest. It is not as if the Tories have a majority, or are even united. A decent opposition should be able to hold them to at least some account.

I read most of it once, years ago, in the complete Richard Burton translation, which has copious footnotes that are ... interesting. I thought it interesting mostly for the insight it gives into the culture it was written in, one in which, for example slavery is taken for granted and women are generally considered chattels. And there was a great deal of sex. "Greatest piece of literature ever made" sounds like hyperbole to me, though I suppose you always lose something in translation .

Well I didn't watch the Andrew Marr show, it being a long time since I have been able to stomach listening to a professional politician, but I still don't personally think the BBC website at least can be described as "complicit". They can't really not give May a platform, but here for example are some quotes from that article:

Not sure that I would say the BBC is complicit exactly: See here https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-44495598 I think that is reasonably fair, being enough for anyone capable of thinking about it to realise that this promise is completely unfunded.

Seconding EB here. There was widespread feeling in Europe that these deals were not so much trade agreements as the erosion of national sovereignty by ISDS tribunals dominated by global corporations. See for example Wikipedia on TTIP:

Would it though? I don't know if you have ever tried it, but it is hard labour. I don't think I would be willing unless the alternative was something like starvation. But of course the limiting factor is actually being somewhere near competitive with foreign imports. So if you like I will rephrase "any money" to "any reasonable amount of money".

Out of interest, can anyone quote any examples of industries or skill sets where UK workers were driven out or disadvantaged by EU migrants willing to work for less? The only candidate I can think of offhand is fruit picking, but the general opinion on that seems to be that UK people are simply no longer willing to do that for any money.

Also not a fan of Perdido Street Station. and would agree with most of your criticism of it, but try Mieville's The City and the City before giving up on him. If any of his books deserve to be considered "literate" it does. Not for nothing has it been compared with 1984 and with Kafka. Minor The City and the City spoiler:

I would add friction over the Austria / Italy border to the list of territorial issues that the EU solved - though it is one not very well known in the UK.

A future left wing UK government can now pursue a left-wing agenda of the sort you are talking about only if they ignore economic reality. Not so much the Singapore model, as the Venezuela model. And from all I have seen of Corbyn, this is a frighteningly plausible scenario. Incidentally, if you mean the Viking windfarm case, I don't think that reached the ECJ? The enshrining of austerity is a Tory policy, the EU was just fine with the UK's welfare state. As for the Greek crisis; they, like the UK, should have never joined the Euro. Once they had done so an impossible situation was created with no good answer. As for voting out a UK government I disagree with; like many English people I feel as much European as English, and feel no more connection to the UK government than to the EU one. Only once in my lifetime has the UK government been one I voted for. By the way, your location says New Zealand? If so then you have no skin in the game and can afford to be idealistic!

I had to rise to this, because from here it really does feel like projection. Do you really think that remainers are remainers because they mindlessly followed Cameron? Don't you realise that many of them would entirely agree with Notone that his main virtue was not being quite as bad as Johnson, Gove and Fox? That most of them would consider Osborne a contemptible idiot for panicking with his stupid punishment budget threat when he finally realised how little political credibility he had? Or don't you know that the hard left, with, as you said, its deplorable collective mindset where everyone is expected to conform, was predominantly in favour of Brexit, apparently on the grounds that the EU rules stood in the way of them creating their socialist utopia? Useful idiots indeed. I also think that it is hard not to believe that the right wing tabloid media, with its years of stories falsely blaming everything under the sun on the EU, didn't have its effect. Speaking personally, I don't need to look very far to educate myself about Brexit, indeed I need only look around my own acquaintance. To the friend employed by an EU company who is taking early retirement as an alternative to redundancy or moving to the continent. To the EU friends who have contributed significantly to the UK who have sold up and moved back and whose skills will be very difficult to replace. To the academic whose funding is going to be lost. To the small farmer who was already struggling and who thinks that without EU subsidies they are going to have to throw in the towel. To the small businessman who fears that no longer being able to easily export to the EU will put him out of business. Of course our recent right wing UK governments have slashed the welfare state and ensured that most wealth has ended up in the hands of the 1%, and the "technocratic" elements of the EU are to some extent in sympathy with this. But redirecting the wealth back towards the welfare state and the less well off does still require wealth to be generated. I would love to be able to believe that Brexit won't screw that up (even if it doesn't result in the Singapore on Thames model), but I can't manage to close my eyes sufficiently.

Talking about mobiles, this is something I actually saw. In South Africa in the 1990's just after apartheid had ended and they had just got their first mobile network up. A guy was walking through the city centre talking loudly on his mobile, clearly showing it off. And then it rang, because someone had actually phoned him ...

Yes, at least until they make it legal again after Brexit!