Saturday 16 April 2016

A proud Remainian (or Canadian)

On balance, I'm for staying in Europe's imperfect union. It's not great but it is, I think, the least worst option on many counts. For example:

No, leaving the EU wouldn't give the UK an extra £350m a week to spend on the NHS.

It would, however, make the following people very happy:
Michael Gove (co-convener Vote Leave) – in 2009 called for the dismantling of the NHS.

Matthew Elliott (chief executive Vote Leave) – is the founder of the Taxpayers Alliance – which has long argued for the break-up of the NHS and private competition in healthcare.

Philip Davies (Better Off Out Campaign) – once blocked plans to reverse private sector involvement in the NHS by talking out (or filibustering) a private member’s bill...

...Dominic Raab (campaign committee member Vote Leave) – as recently as last month advocated privatising the NHS.
Tom Pride

But if we absolutely have to do the Brexit thing, please can we then vote to become a province of Canada? I'm just asking, because how could you not be proud of a Prime Minister like this?
Trudeau was attending a press conference at the Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics in Waterloo, Ontario to announce $50m in science funding. A reporter jokingly asked him to explain quantum computing before shifting the question to counterterrorism, but the Canuck PM was having none of it.

"OK, quite simply, normal computers work by..." Trudeau started before the room erupted. "No, no, don't interrupt me, when you walk out of here you will know more, well no, some of you will know far less about quantum computing," he said.

"Normal computers work, either there's power going through a wire or not. It's one or a zero. They're binary systems," the premier explained.

"A quantum state can be much more complex than that because, as we know, things can be both particle and wave at the same time, and the uncertainty around quantum states allows us to encode more information into a much smaller computer."

As explanations go, it's a pretty good one. Trudeau is a self-confessed geek and a trained teacher and it's hard to fault his explanation of what is a very complex area of computing.

If only American politicians displayed the same knowledge.
The Register

If only. And while you're at it, just try to imagine an expensively-educated underachiever like Cameron, or - God help us - that self-styled clever cornflake, Boris, trying to bluster a way round that question. Makes you weep.

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