Tag: optimistic

  • EU negotiators “optimistic” about EU-UK mobility scheme

    EU negotiators “optimistic” about EU-UK mobility scheme

    “The geopolitical landscape has changed dramatically and it’s an additional reason why the United Kingdom and the European Union have to work together,” Germany’s ambassador to the UK, Miguel Berger told The Today Program on April 25.  

    Berber added that he was “really optimistic” about the deal, ahead of a summit of EU and UK leaders on May 19, where the main discussion will focus on Europe’s security and defence.  

    “This is about security in Europe. It requires cooperation between democracies, friends, allies, countries with the same values. So, the geopolitical circumstances have changed in a way that there is no other option than close cooperation,” said Berber.  

    The ambassador said the scheme being negotiated would be based on a “one in, one out” basis, with a limit on the total number of Europeans living in the UK and the number of British people going to Europe.  

    However, a UK government spokesperson told The PIE that it had “no plans” for a youth mobility agreement, a stance that it has repeatedly maintained amid heightened political sensitivity around migration.

    The most recent suggestions that a mobility scheme could be introduced come as Keir Starmer’s government is set to publish its new Immigration White Paper in the coming weeks, which is expected to reduce legal migration.  

    Berber highlighted the evolving geopolitical landscape, one in which the UK is increasingly being asked to rethink its relationship with the US and the EU.

    According to English UK, the plan is not a return to freedom of movement but a time-limited scheme lasting up to three years, something a recent survey showed the majority of UK voters were in favour of.

    In particular, the poll found 81% of Labour voters support a two-year youth mobility scheme, including two thirds on Conservative-Labour switchers, and 74% support a four-year scheme, including half Labour-Conservative switchers.

    “It is a key demand of the EU in up-coming reset talks with the UK government and we are very encouraged to see the mood shifting among senior government ministers in recent days,” an English UK spokesperson told The PIE.

    “A [youth mobility scheme] agreement with the EU would benefit British youth, inbound tourism and UK exports,” they said, adding that it would play an integral part of UK soft power networks.

    The geopolitical landscape has changed dramatically and it’s an additional reason why the United Kingdom and the European Union have to work together

    Miguel Berber, Germany’s Ambassador to the UK

    This April, more than 60 Labour MPs signed a letter calling on the Prime Minister to back time-limited visas for 18-to-30-year-olds from the EU and UK, which is seen as a key European demand in opening up more ambitious trade with Brussels.  

    According to The Times, government sources insisted that home secretary Yvette Cooper was open to a capped mobility scheme with the EU, though it is understood that no formal proposals have been put to the home secretary.

    “The news that that the government seems to be seriously considering a youth mobility scheme with the EU has been a long time coming,” said Sir Nick Harvey, CEO of the European Movement UK. 

    Harvey added that the government’s former hostility to the idea “could not be justified when the benefits of such a scheme are so obvious,” including giving young people the chance to work and study in Europe.  

    According to Berber, the scheme would “reduce obstacles and make is possible for young people with parents on a lower income to have the possibility to work abroad and to learn a language. We would like to have this in both directions,” he said.  

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  • POLL: Conservatives more optimistic, liberals more concerned about free speech in 2025

    POLL: Conservatives more optimistic, liberals more concerned about free speech in 2025

    • FIRE’s poll found confidence in the future of free speech is still low (41%), but jumped 10 points compared to a July poll.
    • Conservatives went from the most pessimistic subgroup to the most optimistic following Donald Trump’s election, while liberals’ optimism fell.

    PHILADELPHIA, Jan. 30, 2025 —A new poll finds that confidence in the future of free speech in America and belief in Donald Trump’s commitment to the First Amendment both saw an uptick, at least among conservatives. (Liberals are not so sure.)

    The newest edition of the National Speech Index — a quarterly barometer of free speech from the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression — found that Americans are still mostly pessimistic about the state of free expression in America, with only 41% saying the country is headed in the right direction. 

    But those numbers represent an all-time high since FIRE began asking the question last year, and a 10-point jump from the 31% who said the country was headed in the right direction in July.

    The increase in confidence is driven in large part by a substantial surge in free speech optimism from self-described conservatives. The October edition of the National Speech Index found that less than a third (30%) of very conservative Americans and less than a fifth (18%) of conservative Americans said that people’s ability to freely express their views was headed in the right direction, while now roughly half of very conservative (49%) and conservative (52%) Americans now say it is headed in the right direction.

    “Unsurprisingly, the sudden shift suggests that for many Americans’ their feelings about the future of free speech depend in large part on whether they trust whomever occupies the White House,” said FIRE Research Fellow and Manager of Polling and Analytics Nathan Honeycutt. “Of course, we at FIRE have long recognized that no party has a monopoly on censorship.”

    Liberals, on the other hand, saw a drop in free speech optimism. In October, 46% of very liberal Americans and 49% of liberal Americans said people’s ability to freely express their views was headed in the right direction, compared to about a third now (34% and 32% respectively). That fall wasn’t large enough to outweigh the large jump from conservatives.

    When asked about Trump’s commitment to the First Amendment, opinions were mixed. While 39% said they had “quite a lot” or “full” confidence he would protect their First Amendment rights, 41% said they had “very little” or “no confidence at all.” But that’s still a seven-point increase from when FIRE asked the same question about then-candidate Trump in October, when 32% said they had “quite a lot” or “full confidence” in Trump’s protection of the First Amendment.

    For comparison, FIRE also asked about the Supreme Court and a high-profile elected official on the other side of the political aisle, California Gov. Gavin Newsom. Opinions on Newsom were split neatly into thirds: 34% said they had high confidence, 34% said they had some confidence, and 32% expressed low confidence. Meanwhile, only 23% of Americans said they had high confidence in the Supreme Court to protect their First Amendment rights, compared to 44% who said they had low confidence.

    “Though declining levels of trust in institutions is concerning, skepticism that politicians or the courts will protect your free speech is always a healthy instinct,” said Honeycutt. “The best defense against censorship isn’t a particular public official. It’s the American people themselves cultivating a free speech culture, defending others’ right to disagree, and holding leaders accountable.”

    As censorship attempts tend to target controversial and unpopular opinions, FIRE asked respondents to judge several political statements on how offensive they found them. The results showed that wide swathes of Americans identified statements on both sides of certain divisive topics as offensive. While 45% of respondents found it “very” or “extremely” offensive to say “Black Lives Matter is a hate group,” for example, 51% said “The police are just as racist as the Ku Klux Klan” was an offensive statement as well.

    Read more about the National Speech Index

    In another example, 40% of Americans believe that “transgender people have a mental disorder” — a sentiment banned on Facebook and Instagram until earlier this month — is an extremely or very offensive statement. But 59% also said the idea that “children should be able to transition without parental consent” was offensive. 

    “The problem with policing offensive speech is that there will always be disagreement on what is and isn’t offensive,” said FIRE’s Chief Research Advisor Sean Stevens. “Many people who want to ban offensive speech imagine they could never end up on the receiving end, but often what people find offensive changes rapidly.”

    The National Speech Index is a quarterly poll designed by FIRE and conducted by the Dartmouth Polarization Research Lab to capture Americans’ views on freedom of speech and the First Amendment, and to track how Americans’ views change over time. The January 2025 National Speech Index sampled 1,000 Americans and was conducted between January 3 and January 9, 2025. The survey’s margin of error of +/- 3%.


    The Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression (FIRE) is a nonpartisan, nonprofit organization dedicated to defending and sustaining the individual rights of all Americans to free speech and free thought — the most essential qualities of liberty. FIRE educates Americans about the importance of these inalienable rights, promotes a culture of respect for these rights, and provides the means to preserve them.

    The Polarization Research Lab (PRL) is a nonpartisan collaboration between faculty at Dartmouth College, Stanford University and the University of Pennsylvania. Its mission is to monitor and understand the causes and consequences of partisan animosity, support for democratic norm violations, and support for partisan violence in the American Public. With open and transparent data, it provides an objective assessment of the health of American democracy.

    CONTACT:

    Alex Griswold, Communications Campaign Manager, FIRE: 215-717-3473; media@thefire.org

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