Tom Forth

@strandedbar There is a reason why Canada was able to unite Catholic and Protestant and French and English into a country that persisted. Neither Montreal nor Toronto could be the capital of that country and the decision was taken clearly with that in mind.

@strandedbar A country that Britain and Ireland formed together and was successful would see London hugely diminished versus what we have today. So from London perspective, my counterfactual is very bad. It could not be the capital city of such a country for example. Liverpool would be that.

1/ Yes. 30M easily. 2/ In a world where Britain had properly joined Ireland as equals in 1800 and built a country together, Ireland and we would share that country which would have avoided famine, and we'd be 120 million today. Decent chance. . My favourite what if in history.

@HangBlaa But I've learned my lesson. I always avoid writing about Ireland, except for Northern Ireland, and I'll go back to trying to avoid that again now.

@HangBlaa And Ireland was right to leave it, as they did, to great success.

@HangBlaa John, Yorkshireman here. I never suggest anyone in Ireland should consider Irish independence as a blunder. I'm clear the blunder was on the British side. . I think your statement is a perfect illustration that the arrogance you assign to the British is common in Ireland too.

@thomasforth Tom, Irishman here. Most of the people I know would NEVER consider Irish independence as a blunder. And they hope to see it finally completed in the next decade or so. I think your statement is a perfect illustration of the British arrogance you bemoan.

London gets better rules and more freedom,... because of course.

And because the UK government regulate local government parking fees and conditions and process so tightly, really very little that Manchester City Council can do.

Fantastic story on car parking and economics this. bbc.co.uk/news/articles/…

@emmaconcepts And a table of charges. Just fantastic stuff.

@emmaconcepts Because this is England, much of this really isn't a local issue. The UK government heavily regulates what local governments can fine. There's a cap on fines, there's a required discount for paying early.

@JonNeale @nouveaucolonial Yes, I think that's a fair point. All very much just a guess.

@thomasforth @nouveaucolonial One question would be how much Irish immigration contributed to growth, particularly in the north west. If that hadn’t happened…..

@SimpGanassi @ForfarshireUK That was the third famine. Small compared to the previous two. But I think a reminder to a new generation of what had happened in the past.

@thomasforth @ForfarshireUK What happened in 1879? Was that one of the failed Home Rule bills?

I have quite a lot of sympathy with the "make energy cheap" and "don't tariff steel" and "cut the highest marginal tax rates" crowd. Which makes it all the more amusing to see how awful their arguments are and how deservedly they are losing. Brexit broke their brains.

@matthew_inaus I disagree. Very clear fertility differences between Ireland and Scotland visible before the famines. Scotland also treated quite poorly within the Union needs to be considered too.

@thomasforth I doubt it. If your premise were correct about Ireland, Scotland would also have a lot more people, and yet it doesn't.