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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
V
EU referendum: Cameron accepts advice to change wording of question
Downing Street has announced that the government will table an amendment to the EU referendum bill to reflect the new wording.
The move by No 10 means that voters will be asked whether Britain should remain a member of the EU or whether the UK should leave the EU. The government had intended to ask voters simply whether the UK should remain a member of the EU, prompting the Electoral Commission to warn that this could favour the status quo in the referendum.
The prime minister’s spokeswoman said: “We will follow the recommendation of the Electoral Commission by tabling an amendment to the bill. The government’s approach has been to follow the Electoral Commission’s advice.”
The move means that, unlike the Scottish referendum, there will not be a yes and a no campaign. Instead, there will be a campaign to remain in the EU and a campaign to leave.
The question currently in the bill that was tested by the watchdog was: “Should the United Kingdom remain a member of the European Union?”
The responses would have been yes or no.
Following its assessment process, the commission has recommended that the question should be amended to: “Should the United Kingdom remain a member of the European Union or leave the European Union?”
The responses would be: “Remain a member of the European Union” or: “Leave the European Union”.
The commission has written to the government and issued a briefing to all M Ps recommending that this change should be made at report stage of the bill on 7 September.
HGW XX/7
Channel 4's excellent documentary about the trial of Nat Fraser is back online on 4od. Can definitely recommend it.
http://www.channel4.com/programmes/the-murder-trial
What does this thread think of cameras in courtrooms?
Watch out though; C4's advertisements are the worst.
edited 2nd Sep '15 2:42:09 PM by Achaemenid
Schild und Schwert der Partei
You mean outside of the cameras we already have in the courtrooms?
"Yup. That tasted purple."
BBC: European court says minimum alcohol pricing 'could break trade rules'
Yves Bot said minimum pricing would only be legal if it could be shown that no other mechanism - such as increasing taxes - was capable of delivering the desired public health benefits.
The Scottish Whisky Association had challenged the proposals.
The court will now deliberate before delivering its final judgement.
That process could take up to six months.
I don't think I like that standard- that no other mechanism can produce the same health benefits- because it destroys the ability to make the concessions to other factors that minimum pricing does. I think that minimum pricing actually does a good job of minimising the impact overall of the policy on the larger population, the market and their freedoms.
But even using that standard, minimum pricing is supposed to be effective because it focuses on a particular part of the market. The health benefits comes directly from that market distortion so if the standard was rephrased slightly- "Is it possible to get these health benefits without distorting the free market?"- it should pass. Otherwise the argument becomes one of which policy, minimum pricing or a tax, feels more "free trade"-y.
And of course, one must point out that the only reason a sellers association would get involved is because they are trying to make it less effective, any solution which they don't rail against is one that won't achieve the aim of getting people to drink less alcohol.
Tief girl with eartude
How would raising taxes be any different to minimum pricing?
TV Tropes's No. 1 bread themed lesbian. she/her, fae/faer
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It would mean shops couldn't get away with running alcohol as loss-leaders.
Keep Rolling On
HGW XX/7
More nanny-state crap from the Scottish government. Unbelievably stupid for a nation whose primary exports include whisky too. Good for the EU.
Schild und Schwert der Partei
![[up]](https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/smiles/arrow_up.png "[up]"){kind=icon}
Our dependency on alcohol really needs to end though, and if that means completely changing our primary exports, then so be it.
Credit where it's due, this is the right thing to do, albeit belatedly. Britain has accepted almost no refugees and that has to change. The backlash against him will be brutal though.
V
Even if it means becoming a tourism-dependant Economy?
I was looking for an explanation for why the London property market hasn't crashed yet, and I came across this.
Anyone have any hypotheses, because I don't believe a word of that (I did find it entertaining)?
Torygraph Op-Ed: Farage tries to convince Corbyn to back him over an EU exit.
A procrastination in of itself
Because property in London is an incredibly limited item, there is such a massive supply shortage and such a high level of demand that the bubble can keep growing, a lot of people don't just want to live in London, they need to, the market is captive and that gives property owners a massive advantage.
What the article gets wrong is the idea that this is in any way a good thing, it's terrible, it's resulted in many people being forced to live either on the street, in squats or in illegal properties, when you can find somewhere legal you have to put up with horrible conditions and landlords who can do whatever they like, it's causing massive gentrification where the only people who can afford to live in London are the hideously wealthy, who often don't live there most of the time anyway. Combine this with the fact that London property is being treated even more like assets rather then homes, people who can afford it are buying property like you would a stock, they don't live there, they simply make an investment.
"And the Bunny nails it!" ~ Gabrael "If the UN can get through a day without everyone strangling everyone else so can we." ~ Cyran
Tief girl with eartude
...I read the comments in the article.
I don't regret it. They're comedy gold.
TV Tropes's No. 1 bread themed lesbian. she/her, fae/faer
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Majority of UK voters favour leaving EU, migration fears weigh - poll
The survey, by polling firm Survation for the Mail on Sunday newspaper, found 51 percent of respondents wanted to leave the EU and 49 percent wanted to remain, excluding undecided voters.
While the results are within the poll's margin of error and represent a statistical tie, the previous comparable poll, carried out in late June and early July, had found support for staying in the EU at 54 percent while 45 percent wanted the country out of the 28-nation bloc.
Prime Minister David Cameron has promised to renegotiate Britain's EU ties ahead of the referendum which is due to take place before 2017.
But the anti-EU UK Independence Party says the government cannot address the freedom of workers from within the EU to come to Britain under one of the bloc's core principles.
Survation said the Mail on Sunday poll was the first time it had found a lead for the "out" campaign since November 2014.
The polling firm also said a "significant minority" of voters who favour remaining in the EU would consider changing their minds should Europe's migration crisis worsen.
The latest online poll was conducted on Sept. 3 and 4 and heard the opinions of 1,004 adults, a smaller sample size than the previous poll.
The result of the Poll might not be statistically significant, but it might indicate a shift in opinion, and a hardening of opinion.
Keep Rolling On
A procrastination in of itself
Thease people are idiots, we'd get more refuges if we leave the EU as we would no longer be protected by Dublin III, now I'm fine with that, but I somehow doubt such voters share me desire to open our country up.
"And the Bunny nails it!" ~ Gabrael "If the UN can get through a day without everyone strangling everyone else so can we." ~ Cyran
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No, I know some want to pull up the drawbridge and still be able to go on holiday abroadnote .
A procrastination in of itself
Thing is that's the current situation, the drawbridge is up and the French are guarding it for us, yet we still get to go on holiday.
But they don't like the current situation, because they are idiots.
"And the Bunny nails it!" ~ Gabrael "If the UN can get through a day without everyone strangling everyone else so can we." ~ Cyran
If you want a fun time - try explaining to these idiots that many more Britons abroad claim benefits from other countries than do migrants to Britain. It's true but they'll never accept it!
A procrastination in of itself
What I'm hoping is that come the referendum we get some big voices joining the "leave" camp and going on about how they want to leave so that we can have a Socialist paradise where the banks are gone and refuges flow freely into the country with nobody stopping them.
"And the Bunny nails it!" ~ Gabrael "If the UN can get through a day without everyone strangling everyone else so can we." ~ Cyran
Nicola Sturgeon has made it clear Scotland will welcome refugees. So, the wall will stop refugees flooding in from England, but they'll be able to ferry across from France. 
At that point it'd be easier to make the trek all the way to Norway and sail from there.
"Yup. That tasted purple."
The UK has never refused dialogue, it's simply refused to have dialogue without the people who's fate is being debated being present.
I'm not sure if the Falklands are sustainable as an independent country, keep in mind that they'd be under blockade if they ever went independent, that's assuming that they don't get strait up invaded, though that does seem unlikely.
But yeah all indications are that if Argentinian ever got the Falklands, the goverment would quickly deport all the locals. As for the Argentine military, it's not any kind of threat to the Falklands at present, but an independent Falklands would have no military at all.
"And the Bunny nails it!" ~ Gabrael "If the UN can get through a day without everyone strangling everyone else so can we." ~ Cyran