A thread to talk about news and politics affecting Europe as a whole, rather than just politics within specific European countries.
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Edited by Mrph1 on Jan 9th 2024 at 3:24:05 PM
Imagine how it feels from this side of the pond...note
Didn't even vote for Trump. Damn near spit at his name on the machine, and I still feel like I should put a brown paper bag over my head should I ever travel abroad. What the hell did Ross expect would happen?
edited 30th Jun '17 6:39:41 PM by CenturyEye
Look with century eyes... With our backs to the arch And the wreck of our kind We will stare straight ahead For the rest of our livesx4
Considering Bundeswehr intelligence warned her that there were dangerously far-right individuals operating in the Bundeswehr, which was repeatedly ignored by her department until a terrorist act was very nearly committed, I wouldn't call that 'cleaning up' anything.
I'd call that sweeping it under the rug.
Actually, yes! There's a rift between the four parties and the Social Democrats about the construction of new houses along an iconic stretch of beach. The non-SD's want to preserve the site, the Social Democrats want to build the housing. If they can create a bloc around the Social Democrats they will.
edited 30th Jun '17 9:44:03 PM by math792d
Still not embarrassing enough to stan billionaires or tech companies.Where is the beach?
edited 30th Jun '17 9:51:41 PM by Quag15
Somewhere in the Copenhagen municipality.
Correction: Not a beach, but a stretch of meadow near the beach.
edited 30th Jun '17 10:09:17 PM by math792d
Still not embarrassing enough to stan billionaires or tech companies.British officials drop 'cake and eat it' approach to Brexit negotiations according to insiders
Publicly the British officials are denying this of course.
Disgusted, but not surprisedOf course. Anything else would imply the Tories aren't Strong and Stable.
Still not embarrassing enough to stan billionaires or tech companies.Labour is denying it too since that doesn't exactly jibe with their manifesto. But they can afford to deny it since they aren't the ones actually running the government and handling the negotiations. And hey, it wasn't one of them that made that stupid cake comment.
Disgusted, but not surprisedWe all know what the cake was.
Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that.x4
Be careful of that article. It's reading to me as a positioning article: it's creating the impression that Hammond and Davies (especially Davies) are reasonable, flexible, competent negotiators who are pragmatic and open to compromise, while placing the mistakes, buffoonery and self-harming stubbornness onto a scapegoat (in this case, May).
Over the past week, we've started seeing articles and interviews coming out that are grooming certain individuals to be viewed as successors to May — the next Tory leader and prime minister. Davies, in particular, is being rather openly groomed in this way. He was even asked directly last weekend if he was going to run for prime minister and the man does not have a poker face at all — he tried to deny it but the mere act of asking the question resulted in him visibly puffing up in pleasure the same way Trump does when he has one of his 'I'm bathed in the adoration of my lessers' moments.
This is looking like another grooming article.
I'm not saying that there isn't a climbing down behind the scenes among some ministers. I'm saying that, if it's happening, it's not because they're coming to their senses about Brexit: it'll be more about seeing a future for themselves as prime minister and realising that this climb down is part of the process of getting that job.
edited 3rd Jul '17 5:07:51 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.I say, British media seem remarkably active and blatant in their promoting and disparaging of specific politicians.
Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that.Our press is politically active, not neutral. In this particular case, I think the article is a sign that the Tory Party itself isn't bothering with being subtle when it comes to positioning for future leadership challenges.
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.It's also worth remembering that the Tories are well known for applying You Have Failed Me to their leadership if it fails.
"For a successful technology, reality must take precedence over public relations, for Nature cannot be fooled." - Richard FeynmanOh, that's different. Usually it's the left wing that scuttles unsatisfactory leaders, and the right that swears by Undying Loyalty.
Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that.The left parties in South America usually stick with their charismatic leaders to the bitter end, it is the allied parties that usually throw them under the bus when it suits them.
Inter arma enim silent legesAllied?
Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that.South American politics is hardly composed of large monobloc parties, usually it is common to have three or four larger parties and several smaller ones. So if your party wants to govern, it must ally itself with multiple parties, including one of the large ones, to reach the desired levels of governance.
Which results in a few problems, the allied parties when they are big enough can hold you by the balls if they are not pleased enough. Either because if your governor/president/mayor or whoever is holding the executive branch reaches low popularity and support levels to the point that being associated with them becomes a liability and/or because they didn't gain enough strategic positions or favors by the leading party to secure their support.
Of course this leads to a few key problems, that are best explained in the South American Politics thread, but a quick summation is how this enables a lot of corruption, as in you'd need to buy support from the allied parties and distribute positions like being in charge of state run companies or being in charge of the state financial institutions with the clear goal of pilfer and embezzle the living shit out of it.
However, when it comes to charismatic leaderships, our left wing parties show conspicuous amounts Honor Before Reason and Undying Loyalty. Which brings a few political problems, such as not allowing their leaders do be punished for wrongdoing and never admitting that they did any mistakes. Politics as usual but this can reach a political death of character because the public usually ends up Never Live It Down the insistence of the party to stick up with their leaders when in the face of corruption and failed policies.
Inter arma enim silent legesThat's Brazil. Argentina's politics in the current stretch of democracy (1983) can be divided in two periods: pre 2001, where it was a two-party (UCR vs. Peronism) plus minors system (think the UK where you have Labour vs Conservative and other smaller parties that can be relevant but generally don't form government unless it's in a coalition), after 2001 it became a dominant party (first Peronism, Cambiemos might consolidate the position after the mid-terms) vs. everything else system. To quote a couple political scientists, "in Argentina the only national party is the president's party". But the part about left parties applies to Peronism (well, except being left-wing, they are whatever place in the spectrum the current party leader is, if that's far-right, they are, if that's far-left, they are too).
edited 3rd Jul '17 8:38:58 AM by IFwanderer
1 2 We are what we pretend to be, so we must be careful about what we pretend to be. -KVPresident Niinistö: "EU must not be a pawn on the chessboard"
Oh, the right does. What happens with the Tory Party is that a Stalking Horse comes forward. They play the role of toppling the leader and take the rap for their disloyalty. They are punished by ostracism to the backbenches while the real leadership contenders come forward, squeaky clean from any accusations of being involved in the disloyal backstabbing that's just occurred.
A few months to a year down the road, the Stalking Horse gets quietly rewarded for their self-sacrifice.
For now, the political commentators and journalists are struggling to identify who the most likely Stalking Horse will be; it's currently easier to spot who the most likely leadership challengers will be.
edited 3rd Jul '17 11:30:35 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.So The Thick Of It was Truth in Television? That's plainly depressing.
Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that.I've never seen that show; it's on my watch list but, since I only got around to The West Wing this year, you can imagine I've still got a little way down the list to go.
That said, I have seen politicians and the writing staff comment that it does hit close to home.
edited 3rd Jul '17 1:55:17 PM 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.So the Greek coast guard fired on a Turkish merchantile vessel today. Turks are talking up a storm about it, while Greece is "no comment".
X-posting from refugee thread:
Austria ready to deploy army at Italy border
"I expect that very soon border controls will be activated and that a assistance deployment (by the military) will be requested," Hans Peter Doskozil told the online edition of the Krone daily.
He was cited as saying that this move was "indispensible if the inflow into Italy does not ease". The paper said that 750 soldiers were available and that four armoured vehicles had already been sent to the area over the weekend.
Austria introduced checks on its eastern border with Hungary in 2015 and has readied physical measures such as barriers on its Italian border in the south-west, including at the famous Brenner Pass.
Nearly 85,000 migrants and refugees have arrived in Italy by sea this year, the UN refugee agency said earlier Monday. More than 2,000 others have died or gone missing on the perilous crossing.
"This is not sustainable. We need to have other countries joining Italy and sharing that responsibility," Vincent Cochetel, the UNHCR'S special envoy for the central Mediterranean, told reporters in Geneva.
The comments from the centre-left Doskozil come ahead of early elections in Austria in October when the anti-immigration far-right is forecast to do well and potentially emerge as the biggest party.
Good to see such a display of egocentrism and parochiality.
"For a successful technology, reality must take precedence over public relations, for Nature cannot be fooled." - Richard Feynman
The risk for global trade wars rises shortly before the G 20 meeting in Germany.
http://www.spiegel.de/international/world/eu-us-trade-conflict-threatens-to-escalate-ahead-of-g-20-a-1155342.html
Trump has been in power for a few months, but it already feels like a decade.... .