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Recent political stuff:
- The vote to see if Britain should adopt Alternative Voting has failed.
- Lib Dems lose lots of councils and councillors, whilst Labour make the majority of the gains in England.
- The Scottish National Party do really well in the elections.
A link to the BBC politics page containing relevant information.
Edited by Mrph1 on Nov 3rd 2023 at 11:15:30 AM
It's one of the oldest international peace organisations in the world. It's run by Nobel Peace Prize winners, and has won the Nobel Peace Prize in its own right.
edited 15th Dec '17 11:26:57 AM by Wyldchyld
If my post doesn't mention a giant flying sperm whale with oversized teeth and lionfish fins for flippers, it just isn't worth reading.
The law in the night
Ah the at least you tried prize.
But seriously, Noam Chomsky? This guy only considers massacres a war crime if the US or the European countries are the perpetrators.
Inter arma enim silent leges
Ok, I have to ask: What is the deal with Noam Chomsky? Why is everyone hating him so much? The only thing I know about him is that he is a linguist with some really impressive theories....
Oh, bother.
![[up]](https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/smiles/arrow_up.png "[up]"){kind=icon}
He's a stereotypical anti-Western (read: Anti-American) leftist who tries hard to excuse or deny genocides like the Cambodian genocide, the Bosnian genocide, etc. since they were committed by powers opposed to the USA. Oh, and he apparently doesn't acknowledge why Maoism was so awful. He was also a Chavez fanboy.
Fuck Chomsky, is what I'm saying.
edited 12th Dec '17 2:11:03 AM by M84
Disgusted, but not surprised
The law in the night
His work on Automata language recognition, formal and lexigrams are top notch. The computing world has a lot to thank him for.
His political views, however, belong in a dumpster. He is an apologist for genocidal socialist regimes, keeps whitewashing the issues of the Soviet Union, Chavez/Maduro Venezuela's, Cuba, Assad's Syria,Vietnam, Cambodia Socialist dictatorships. He specially likes to defend the Russian policies with a but the US/Europe excuse and is an outright tanker for why the socialist revolutions kept failing because the Western Powers kept sabotaging it.
I've used to read his editorials in Al Jazeera English. Even when he had some decent points, they were tainted by the amount of bullshit over only focusing on the groups he didn't like.
Inter arma enim silent leges
Just a harmless giant from a foreign land.
Back to topic, according to a Spiegel article (going to hunt for english one once I'm at a computer and not mobile) the German Federal Government called out Theresa May for misrepresenting the deal struck last week.
Apparently May explained it to the UK Government that the Brexit Bill would only be necessary to be paid if a trade deal was struck. Which is not the case, so people on the EU side seem to be pretty miffed...
They really don't realize we have people in Government who's job it is to watch BBC for this sort of shit, do they?
"You can reply to this Message!"
It gets better - EU council to 'toughen stance' by demanding the stage one agreement be written into law... all thanks to David Davis claiming that the agreement was only a 'statement of intent'.
Let me guess: This means that it has to pass parliament which it won't?
edited 12th Dec '17 5:55:23 AM by Swanpride
Actually, the government is actively trying to prevent any step in Brexit being properly put through parliament because the Commons might put forward a vote of no confidence in their handling if any of it.
In short, it's not because it won't pass; they're terrified the whole thing gets thrown out and Brexit gets stopped. Which would trigger a Tory implosion.
It's Party over country.
edited 12th Dec '17 6:30:27 AM by Euodiachloris
Oh, bother.
Here's The Guardian's take on it:
David Davis has damaged trust in UK, says Verhofstadt
The member states will now agree a tougher wording in their guidelines about the next stage of the talks, due to be signed off at a summit of leaders on Friday, Verhofstadt said.
What a fucking shitshow.
Disgusted, but not surprised
It's frustrating the our nation is being dragged through this, even though it's the bloody Tories.
Oh, bother.
It's a shitshow partly because it is being handled by the Tories, a party whose front-bench are a bunch of out-of-touch posh broken sociopaths, and the DUP, a bunch of fucking bigoted terrorists.
Agreed. I'm just annoyed our whole nation is now just being tarred by the EU because of it.
I USED to want a referendum (When I was young and an idiot) but we can never have an honest one here - the populace doesn't educate itself AND the politicians will never present a fair and true answer.
We're all victim of bluster and sheer arrogance. And the old Etonian attitude of "We're all right, Jack"
i don't think that we can blame the Tories alone. Every party which didn't take a clear pro-remain stance is to blame. And yes, that includes Labour. The only difference between them and the Tories is that Labour doesn't have to deliver on their delusions, but they have exactly the same "cake and eat it" stance.
Oh, bother.
The problem with Labour is that it's also divided on what exactly it wants out of Brexit. About the only thing Labour can agree on is that the Tories and the DUP are making a complete mess of it. There's a reason Corbyn is deliberately remaining vague on how exactly he'd handle Brexit negotiations.
The only party that has a clear stance on Brexit are the Liberal Democrats, who want to stop it. Never mind there's no realistic way that's happening barring a second referendum.
edited 12th Dec '17 7:16:44 AM by M84
Disgusted, but not surprised
Er, let's not forget the SNP please, a far bigger party than the Lib Dems and a far more effective opposition than Labour.
Figure of Hourai
This depends on your definition of effective.
Avatar Source
They're doing a lot more than Labour when it comes to actively opposing Tory policies, trying to disrupt/stop Brexit, etc. Independence aside (and that's a dead issue right now, everyone knows that) they are genuinely doing the job of an opposition party. As much as I like Corbyn, the Labour party itself simply isn't effective in that capacity right now.
Of course, I know you hate the SNP and we're never going to agree on this.
Oh, bother.
Labour's strategy so far seems to be to let the Tories hang themselves while they quietly get their own shit together.
Disgusted, but not surprised
Anka Aquila
To then pounce the Tories when the opportunity strikes?
Instead of focusing on relatives that divide us, maybe we should try to find the absolutes that tie us.
Naturally they could have done something. They could have run on a clear anti-Brexit platform. Also, the referendum wasn't binding. There were a number of ways to get out of it, even for the Tories. For example: "We first need to agree on a strategy for Brexit before we can trigger article 50".
edited 12th Dec '17 9:07:18 AM by Swanpride
A procrastination in of itself
No strategy that wins you a majority in the Commons though, hell if both the Tories and Labour ran on a platform of not instantly following though on Brexit we’d have a real risk of a UKIP government with PM Farage.
So much depends on when the next election is, there may be enough time to engage is full discovery theatre for Labour, but there may not be, certainly if Corbyn had done as I’d wanted and voted against Brexit the Tories would have a huge majority right now.
edited 12th Dec '17 9:12:10 AM by Silasw
"And the Bunny nails it!" ~ Gabrael "If the UN can get through a day without everyone strangling everyone else so can we." ~ Cyran
Figure of Hourai
Running on a clear anti-Brexit platform would have been a great way to give Theresa May the majority she was after and get painted as anti-democratic.
Remind me, how did that work out for the SNP? Oh right, we got conservative MP's up here again.
It's a bit hard to oppose the Tories when they don't seem to be standing for anything in particular, though.
Avatar Source
Labour's insipidness goes back beyond Brexit. If they were sufficiently competent to organise a pissup in a brewery we might have avoided Brexit in the first place. Hell their almost deliberate incompetence is how the SNP came to power here in the first place!
Given that nobody has heard of the organization responsible until now, that's probably why nobody else has covered it.
You want people to know your organization, you put in more effort and award it to Kim Jong-un
.
I have disagreed with her a lot, but comparing her to republicans and propagandists of dictatorships is really low. - An idiot