Update on the British public attitude towards Brexit

Like the cabinet, the public at large also seems uncertain about the implications of Brexit. The BBC today released a poll showing that, while 62% of people are positive about Britain’s future after the EU referendum, 35% are negative. Some of the other poll findings are more awkward for the Brexiteers. A quarter of Britons …

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Should we go easy on attracting foreign students?

To The Times “As former vice-chancellor of a Russell Group university, I strongly disagree with a continued and even increased influx of foreign students. You describe our universities as one of “Britain’s most lucrative exports”, but that is not the purpose of our universities, which is to educate our citizens and to pursue research. An …

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Heat and economic productivity: follow-up to yesterday’s posting.

Research indicates that for a single very hot day — warmer than 86 degrees Fahrenheit — per capita income goes down by $20.56, or 28 percent. The optimum temperature for human productivity seems to be around 13 degrees Celsius or about 55 degrees Fahrenheit, as an annual average in a particular place. When it gets …

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The threat to American real estate

Brady Dennis in the August 24, 2016 edition of the Washington Post reports a study done by Zillow, a real estate company, that estimates that rising sea levels could leave nearly 2 million U.S. homes inundated by 2100, a fate that would displace millions of people and result in property losses in the hundreds of …

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Should we scrap the present benefits system?

The government of Finland is hoping to kick-start its stagnant economy by investing €20bn in a two-year trial, involving 100,000 people, for a system known as “universal basic income”, or UBI. Instead of the current complicated and bureaucratic system, fraught with rules, means tests and alleged opportunities to cheat the system, the government plans to simply …

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