From The Bookseller:
DK c.e.o. Ian Hudson said UK Prime Minister Theresa May was “inhuman” for “playing with people’s lives” in her Brexit negotiations, adding that he was struggling with recruitment as a consequence, while HarperCollins UK c.e.o. Charlie Redmayne said uncertainty around freedom of movement could hit businesses that use temporary workers—such as HC’s distribution centre.
In a strongly worded speech at yesterday’s London Book Fair (14th March), Hudson called for “an immediate commitment” guaranteeing the rights of EU citizens living in the UK, so that the 81 EU nationals among DK’s 500 London-based staff could be confident that Brexit would not impede their career at the firm.
“The reluctance of Theresa May to do this isn’t a smart negotiation ploy, it’s just inhuman,” he said. “Why are we playing with people’s lives?” Hudson told The Bookseller that a talent drain should be a “big concern” for the book trade, and that DK was “struggling to recruit people for jobs in London”.
Redmayne, who attended Hudson’s speech, echoed his plea. He said the uncertainty around freedom of movement had resulted in staff departures from HarperCollins’ distribution centre in Scotland, where a “significant proportion” of staff hail from Eastern Europe.
Link to the rest at The Bookseller
Rupert Murdoch has been a backer of Brexit, especially through his newspaper The Sun. He also owns HarperCollins. I’d like to be a fly on the wall at those boardroom discussions.
But May wasn’t an Inhuman, she was a Life Model Decoy.
(I’m not the only one who watches Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., right?)
Yes. Yes, you are.
Pretty much.
I keep giving them a chance year after year and losing interest around the time when the drawn-out “plots” should be reaching peak.
Last year I skipped the last month.
This year I skipped the last five.
I have similar issues with the Netflix shows.
As near as I can tell, LUKE CAGE had just enough story for a good two hour movie.
Maybe I’m spoiled by the Berlanti formula that keeps me engaged over 23 episodes and peaks in the latter half of the season rather than the fourth or fifth episode.
They really have serious pacing issues.
My wife and I watch Agents of Shai Hulud. But we cringe our way through it. Things like an inhuman disguising herself as May and piloting one of the Jets but nobody thinks to ask why she’s flying two aircraft in the same mission…
No, you are not. I love Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. It’s my must-see TV. Didn’t notice the plot hole Andrew mentioned and I’d have to see the episode again to see if it’s there or not. But overall, I’m very happy with the show and hope it’s renewed.
guaranteeing the rights of EU citizens living in the UK, so that the 81 EU nationals among DK’s 500 London-based staff could be confident that Brexit would not impede their career at the firm.
And the welfare of a nation takes a back seat to the career confidence of 81 publishing employees…
Yeah, the whole point of the Brexit was to be able to deny those EU citizens the same rights as the Brits in Britain, so really I don’t understand why this guy is whining now.
A major point of Brexit was to deny the EU commissioners the right to impose laws that supersede those of the British Parliament. It wasn’t all about Europeans living in the UK.
I thought the major point was dissatisfaction with Brussel’s rules for the kind of olive oil decanters that could be placed on every restaurant table in member countries.
Indeed. What’s the world coming to when a freeborn Englishman can’t decide what kind of olive oil decanter to use in his restaurant?
Another reason for hating the EU is that, for years, British governments have been using it to impose laws they couldn’t otherwise get past British voters. They just convince the EU to demand the same law, and then say ‘sorry, it’s Brussels, nothing we can do’.
And then there’s the way that politicians like Neil Kinnock who were soundly rejected by British voters then go off to the EU and help create regulations that are imposed on those British voters.
May asked the EU for an early reciprocal guarantee of the rights of those living outside their country of origin when Britain leaves. Frau Merkel said “nein”, and would not discuss it until negotiations began.
As British PM, May is trying to put Brits living abroad first (and they are also giving her a hard time for not ensuring their right to remain abroad, despite the fact she has done all she reasonably can to ensure they aren’t shipped back home). If she guaranteed all those EU citizens currently in this country, and the EU refused to keep ours, we would have a problem. I keep switching back and forth on whether she should guarantee them anyway and hope the EU does the right thing, but I follow EU politics too much to trust they will.
Ultimately, whether May’s strategy is right or wrong, it certainly isn’t inhuman. What is inhuman is the average publishing contract that publishers expect unwitting authors to sign, preferably without proper legal counsel.
“and the EU refused to keep ours”.
You know, most of the European continental countries you are speaking of are not in the habit of throwing out people who have a normal life and a regular job here. It could be said that we are even mostly unwilling and/or unable to throw out people who have no right to be here and no way of sustaining themselves. So I really do not think that the Brits will be drowned in the Channel or burned at the spike. At “worse”, they will keep on living in the EU under the same conditions as, let’s say, the Americans or the Australians — and those don’t seem to be unduly miserable here.
And maybe you could ask yourself who started this whole sad business ? EU and its members did not ask the UK to leave.
“And maybe you could ask yourself who started this whole sad business ?”
Ted Heath, by lying about the plans to turn the EEC into a European superstate before the previous referendum. Had the government been honest back then, Britain would never have been part of the EU (and it’s worth noting that some European leaders never wanted it to be, because they knew the British people wouldn’t stand for it for long).
But, you know, it centralizes at centralization time, and it decentralizes at decentralization time. The EU is done, as are other big, centralized, industrial governments. They seemed to make sense in the 70s, but make no sense in a post-industrial world.
The future is small and local, not bloated and remote. The only question is whether we get there peacefully, or through war.
There is also that, yes.
Huh, my other comment no longer appears to be showing up for me, so it’s not obvious what the rest was that makes this an “also”.
Possibly because I was making an edit. Edit time is far too short these days.
Second attempt:
You are putting words in my mouth. I said we would have a problem. We would. I didn’t say those who have not already acquired right to remain status (which is unaffected by treaty change) would be shipped home by minibus (or drowned or burnt) the moment the UK is out of the EU.
In fact, I never said anything negative about European countries. I said the EU. Believe it or not there is a distinction, and I dislike it when people conflate the two.
There are Brits living in other EU countries worried May isn’t doing anything to protect their rights to stay there, so obviously they are concernes for their future on the continent, even if they don’t need to be. May’s duty first and foremost is to the British people.
Now, my initial reaction to the whole guaranteeing EU citizens rights in the UK was “do it, deal with the consequences later if the EU don’t do the same”. But I keep switching back and forth on that as I hear different arguments.
The main problem is an issue of good faith. The EU Brexit negotiators have already suggested they wll not negotiate in good faith, and if the UK guarantee EU citizens but the EU does not reciprocate, that is indicative and will be a bad start to negotiations. May offered to take this thorny issue off the table, it was denied.
I fail to see why we as a country should stay in a bloc that does not like us. We do not want to go in the same direction, but keep getting pressured to step back into line. We either capitulate, which is bad for us, or we block, which frustrates the rest. The simple solution is to leave and clear the way for each side to go in the direction they feel suits them best.
And that does not mean the UK is giving up on Europe. The majority of Brits like Europe, despite what the parade of loud mouth bigots the media like to wheel out suggests. We would be happy to be good neighbours, but it seems folk like Juncker and Verhofstadt do not want that. They want us to have a bad deal so no other member state choses the same path. It is the EU as an institution that I do not trust, and it is the words and actions of those at the top that have lead me to this position.
If you really want to believe that everyone who voted Brexit is a bigoted Little Englander, that is your problem. But this is not about Brits vs Europe and Europeans, it’s about the UK and the political behemoth called the European Union.
Another thing I hate, but I note I have been guilty of (and Marquejaune has not) is talking about Europe as though the UK is not part of it. It is, and always will be. At least until such a time as the European continental shelf splits across the channel and we slowly move away. If that should ever happen, it would be preferable to the alternative, which is a terrible collision.
😉
Yes. If you’re buying a car, you don’t give the dealer a check for the full price and then try to negotiate it down.
But, on the ‘Little Englander’ front, I was working in the UK when Poles were first allowed to move and work there. The office had a bunch of English women cleaning it. Less than a week later, they’d all been replaced with Poles.
I’m guessing none of those women voted ‘Remain’, and I’m not at all surprised that the working-class vote was overwhelmingly ‘Leave’.
You’re right on most points, Alex, and believe me, the “EU as an institution” is less and less trusted on this side of the Channel too. It is true that they give more and more reasons to be disliked, and it is true also that many petty local politicians take any opportunity of putting the blame on the EU for any and all problems that arise from their own inactivity and incompetency.
And I do not believe all people who voted for the Brexit are bigoted “Little Englanders”. As Edward suggested, many people had good personal reasons to do so, and others may have had other good reasons. Despising people because of their vote or choices is the best way anyway to convince them they were right in the first place !
I apologise if I came off as rude earlier. I’ll be first to admit I’m rather highly strung on this topic.
I’m glad to see we actually agree on a fair bit. 🙂
You know, most of the European continental countries you are speaking of are not in the habit of throwing out people who have a normal life and a regular job here.
I think that’s exactly what the German foreign minister threatened in the post-Brexit sputtering.
EU nationals do not have a right to live in the UK if the British people do not want them there. I don’t understand how one such as this Ian Hudson can feel so entitled to another people’s country. I have enormous sympathy for regular joes who are going to have to deal with setbacks in their career from Brexit, but there are no rights that May can infringe upon if they UK people decide they don’t want so many continental Europeans living in their country.
I just wish our brothers and sisters well; it’s so much change for them re immigration, brexit, dividing people, young from older, fellow who engineered brexit admitting he thought itd never pass and hadnt a clue about how to engineer it through, david resigning and acting an idiot walking away literally singing while abandoning ship…
may all do well, may as many as possible have all they need with as least upheaval against their wills.
Thanks, USAF. I think, once the dust has settled, we’ll be fine.
As I understand it, Cameron only proposed a referendum because he was sure it would fail. So he’d made no plans for what to do if it passed, made a fast exit when it did, and dumped it in May’s lap.
Given how low an opinion I had of her in the past, I’m actually surprised that she’s got it this far. Unlike Cameron, she may actually go down in history as a good PM.
Cameron’s abdication of power ranks just behind Edward VIII’s. It was nothing more than a tantrum when Edward did it; it was nothing more than a tantrum when David did it. Losers. Criticism and jealousy do not make a business strategy; neither do they make good government.
George VI picked up the monarchy and led Britain through WW2 with courage and wisdom. I pray that Theresa May does the same for the government of the UK.
Um… distribution center workers? You mean you can’t get those in the U.K.? People to pick and pack and drive? I’m finding that difficult to believe. Unless the problem here is cheap labor, which is another subject entirely.
Bingo. The real reason big business wants to stay in the EU is because British workers can’t work for wages as low as EU workers willing to live six to a house so they can send money back home where it’s worth far more
As for May, she wanted to invoke Article 50 early, but the courts refused to let her, then the unelected House of Lords tried to prevent it…. and now he’s complaining that she’s taking too long?
It’s the same situation here in America. We’ve been priced out of most jobs because we can’t work for what these companies are willing to pay — and it’s not limited to physical labor, either. We apparently need many, many more H1B visas, because all those folks busy studying and graduation from college won’t be hired.
People who wouldn’t rent to me, with two kids, are more than happy to rent to five to twenty people.
The problem lies with the businesses, not the immigrants. If business didn’t want cheap labor, and get it with the government’s collusion, immigration would slow to a trickle.
But arent you then just arguing against capitalism?
Much as I dislike some of its excesses, it is true to note that capitalism has lifted more people out of poverty than any other system before it.
Of course businesses are always going to want cheap labour, they exist to make a profit after all.
Yeah, weren’t these the same guys screaming about how Amazon treats their workers during contact negotiations?