The Tories are looking to snub the SNP:
The Scottish part of the BTP accidentally got transferred to the Scottish Parliament a while back.
The manifesto says that counting students this way is the internationally agreed standard. It also says that they will have to meet higher standards to remain. It doesn’t say that these standards will be the same as other immigrants. It’s very carefully worded, so you can expect a political fudge. Employers will want those students.
“Accidentally”?
Just out of curiosity - has the SNP ever run candidates in constituencies outside of Scotland?
I don’t think so - but if they did, I imagine they went down in flames.
It’s the academic institutions themselves I’m more worried about. There’s loads of stats here:
If I’m reading correctly, a full 19% of the higher education student body in the UK 2015-2016 academic year were non-UK domiciled, totalling 438,010 people. If the intention is to reduce immigration to the tens of thousands per annum range, then that’s a huge chunk of revenue for UK HE institutions to lose. Not to mention the soft-power and goodwill lost.
But surely, if Mrs May gets her strong and stable majority, she’s the person best placed and qualified to apply her famous negotiating skills to get an agreement that’s good for Britain. And strong. And stable.
Both of these statements could merit a warning. The first for threadshitting and the second for stating who is on your ignore list. If you feel that responding would be unproductive, then don’t. Making declarative statements in the fashion of the first is not appropriate, and stating who is on your ignore list is not allowed. Don’t do these again.
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No. Why would it? 
You could join the London SNP branch and suggest it for fun, I suppose. 
It’s NET migration that the manifesto is discussing. UK degree courses are typically 3 years so if 146K foreign students a year arrive to start their studies and 146K foreign students a year leave having completed their studies, that’s fine. The problems will come when British businesses decide that they want to recruit the best of those graduating students. Even 10% would be over 14K per year.
Okay, but I was only being polite!
The problem is that the real world does not work that way. I was a foreign student for several years in the UK. And then, I was a worker for years more. I always intended to return home eventually and in fact did. Most people do so.
Which displays why the “Net per year” number is stupid. It does not reflect actual workings. The vast majority of students intend to and in fact do return home within a few years.
Looking at my classmates from a decade ago on FB and the ones I have had contact with, almost all of the foreigners who stayed back after graduation, have left now, for their own countries or third countries. This includes at least two who married British subjects. Admittedly, the lousy UK economy for most of the period since I graduated probably had a role, but these are qualified professional persons.
Which displays why the “Net per year” number is stupid. It does not reflect actual workings. The vast majority of students intend to and in fact do return home within a few years. Ditto, most temporary workers.
Also, in most professions, a couple of years post-grad experience in London sets up CV rather well for when people go home or elsewhere later.
They (almost) certainly didn’t marry British subjects!
/dull pedant
I wonder if the slogan “dementia tax” will catch on? That’s a policy that may well have negative consequences for the Tories.
You are, of course, correct, but it still averages out over the longer term.
In theory, since the SNP have a broader platform than just Scottish independence one may wish to support that platform even if one isn’t in Scotland, particularly if the other parties are failing to support whatever issues float your boat. And it’s not like there aren’t even less plausible choices on the ballot every election. At least the Monster Raving Loonies knew their platform was stupid, unlike some of the local nutters; the SNP is a beacon of sanity by comparison.
I suppose, but I doubt I’d get my deposit back.
They really don’t, or at least it isn’t terribly apparent after the decade they’ve been in charge of the Scottish (sorry for mentioning the S-word, up_the_junction 
) Parliament. It’s all indy, all the time.
I’m a Very Silly man myself: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kJVROcKFnBQ
They’re probably the biggest anti-austerity, anti-Brexit party in Westminster at the moment. So there’s that. Actually, that’s about it.
Jesus wept, she’s called an election and hasn’t even costed her manifesto. WTF is going on with the Tories … bonkers!
p.s. it’s a massacre on Newsnight.