Re: The Bigger, Badder, Even More Serious Thread [4]

[Pettytyrant101]

Really dont like how things are shaping up in the Ukraine.

'Russian President Vladimir Putin has said he has "a right" to send troops into Ukraine but hopes he will "not have to exercise that right".
Mr Putin warned the Ukrainian authorities of "the abyss they're heading into"
He also admitted for the first time that Russian forces had been active in Crimea, which was annexed by Moscow last month. Previously he insisted that the camouflaged, masked gunmen who took over Crimea were a local "self-defence" force.
He said the Kiev government, which had "seized power", had only spoken to its own appointees in the region, but "not to the people whom locals trust".- BBC

And at the same time NATO are preparing to build up forces on the European side.
This one feels really dodgy.

[azriel]

My dear old grandad said "every life time see's a war"   I do hope he's wrong ! This Russian fiasco is fast turning into something very very frighting    ! Ive never liked or trusted Putin, he's got devious, weasely, eyes for one thing, & that spiteful,bully-boy expression   

[halfwise]

It made him look like an naive idealist more than a religious nutter, I think he realized he was between a rock and a hard place with Bush.

His religious convictions finally make it clear how a liberal politician from Britain could team up with a conservative politician from America. It never really made sense to me before.

[Lancebloke]

The whole Ukraine thing I think is going to be one of those proxy wars that we seem to be having a lot of at the moment. We fund the 'goodies' and Putin the 'baddies.'

I don't think it will turn out too badly... mainly because China, for the first time, is not supportive of Moscow. If they were I think Ukraine would already be in the middle of a full scale war.. albeit a short one.

We won't be dragged in to it for a long while yet... The Chinese aren't ready.

[Mrs Figg]

To quote Leggy. 'Its not our fight'

[Pettytyrant101]

I have been looking at the list of parties I have the option between picking from in the European Elections, are the lists in the rest of the UK this bad too?

Britain First- anti-EU, anti-immigration

British National Party- anti everyone not white and Anglo-Saxon, preferably English only too.

Conservative - Euroskeptic, only not full anti-Europe because Cameron wont let them. And they are Conservatives.

Green Party - Fine on the green stuff, but not on a lot of the rest of their policies.

Labour Party - Betrayed the working class with New Labour. Non-starter.

Liberal Democrats - in bed with the Tories, betrayed their voters last time out.

NO2EU - never heard f them but sounds like yet another loony fringe we hate everyone party.

Scottish National Party - will get my vote but the only reason for that in this instance is look at the rest of the options.

UKIP - the BNP in a better suit.

  

[Eldorion]

Isn't the European Parliament where you guys throw all your crazies so that they can't actually do anything?

[Pettytyrant101]

Those crazies get a fortune out of the tax payer a year   


"The report found that MEPs now enjoy an average income of £182,826 including allowances for attendance and travel."- Telegraph

[Bluebottle]

Yeah, they get an attendance fee which has commonly been dubbed "Sign in and sod off."  

I think the European Parliment is commonly seen as having little influence, general election attendence is therefore low and groups that represent minority opinions see their chance to get their opinion represented.

[Pettytyrant101]

the European Parliment is commonly seen as having little influence- Blue


And right there is where the dangerous catch is, because they actually do have quite a lot of power, especially over agriculture and fisheries in Europe and in subsidies and who gets what and how much.
And the member states all collective pay towards it via their citizens wallet.

[Lancebloke]

Petty - your post is why I generally don't vote for anyone. I might pick a completely random party next time as everyone else is a waste of time.

PMQs is something I actually find embarrassing to watch!

[Mrs Figg]

The Italians are in a very Dangerous situation if Grillo the comic wins lote of votes. It could possibly derail all Renzi's good work. Luckily Berlusconi is in the old folks home being 'punished'. You couldnt make this stuff up.   

[Pettytyrant101]

OK England you are starting to worry me now, Im not sure I like the way things are swinging so far right down there-

'A Tory candidate has resigned from the party after posting anti-Islamic and homophobic comments on Twitter.
David Bishop, a candidate in Brentwood South, Essex, apologised after retweeting messages, including one that claimed Islam was the religion of rape.
Mr Bishop's resignation comes as UKIP council candidate, Harry Perry, who was seeking election in the Offerton ward in Stockport, was suspended by the party on Friday after tweeting that Islam was "evil" and homosexuality was an "abomination".;- BBC

Thats like the fourth or fifth in the last month or so that have been forced to resign or been thrown out their party for this sort of thing from both Tory and especially UKIP's parties.

We've had everything from this to the floods were punishment for gay marriage. What the buggery is going on down there?

[Eldorion]

"Politician makes offensive comment about Islam" (or any other right-wing target) is a pretty regular headline here in the States.  I don't think most of them resign for it, though.  And most of them are pretty low-level, as this guy seems to be too.  Maybe our long-term efforts at cultural colonization have begun to pay off?

(Serious answer: economic crises tend to give support to right-wing populist movements. They can do the same thing for left-wing movements too, but right-wing movements tend to be more popular since they don't ask people to give as much (like notions of the nationhood, which is rooted in very basic human instincts). This is especially the case in countries where even the mainstream tends to lean more to the center-right, as in the case in both America and England.)

[Pettytyrant101]

True, but there seems like a sort of dangerous politic whirlpool going on in England between UKIP stealing hardcore old school Tory voters- antigay, anti johnny foreigner, anti-green, pro capitalist- and the Tories trying to woo them back and not lose more.

And both sides keeping shifting ever more to the right to do it. More so than usual, or more than I have ever observed in English politics since the dark days of the race riots in English cities. But this is the other way round- its not minorities rioting, its a certain type of appeal reinvigorating racist and homophobic ideas as normal and 'what everyone is really thinking'.
And I cant remenber in my lifetime a sitting PM openly using their religion as part of their election strategy.

[Eldorion]

Welcome to our world.

[azriel]

I like Till's voice, like Rammestein   Im in the mood to wap on a CD now Eldo  

[Eldorion]

I got into Rammstein when I was taking German in college and it turned out that like a third of the class only signed up because of the band. I think our professor (who was from Germany) was somewhat bemused by that but she humored us. So now, several years later, I've forgotten most of what I know about the language, but I still like and remember Rammstein.

NB I posted the music video because it was the video I could find quickest, but I tend to prefer their live stuff. The Volkerball DVD in particular is great.

[azriel]

Poor copy but ? From the Triple X film.

[Eldorion]

I've seen the Triple X sequel with Ice Cube (wasn't hugely impressed), but I didn't know Rammstein were in the first one.  I might give it a try now.

[azriel]

Ive seen the 2nd one & I wasnt impressed either Eldo, the 1st film, with Vin Diesel is much better.

[Pettytyrant101]

Looks like the Tories are out to finally kill off any effect power the worker might have through a Union-

'A future Conservative government would introduce a threshold on union ballots for strike action, Prime Minister David Cameron has said.
The PM pledged to take action on the matter if he won a majority in the 2015 general election.
......has called for strikes to be unlawful unless 50% of staff in a workplace take part in a ballot.
Under the current law, a strike can take place if it is backed by a simple majority of those balloted.'- BBC

So a simple majority is good enough to put toffs like Cameron into power and make them PM, but its not good enough for the worker?
Just to put a 50% threshold into perspective at the last General Election the Tories got 36% of the vote, Labour 29% and the Lib Dems 23%

If the rules they want for workers were inforce for politician none of them would have been allowed to be the government.
I am not even sure there has been a one party post war Government which got more than 50% of the vote.

[Eldorion]

I'm not sure I follow, but a bit of poking around on Wikipedia suggests that a different in British and American English may be to blame.  In America, a party winning with 36% of the vote is called a plurality, meaning the most popular option when none of the options crossed the 50% threshold.  A simple majority is defined as 50% +1, or the absolute smallest majority possible, and is used mainly to distinguish from a supermajority (where either 60% or two-thirds of the votes are needed to pass something).  Whereas in British English, it seems that "simple majority" means what we Americans call a plurality, and I'm not sure if there is an equivalent name for the concept we use "simple majority" to mean.

Examples of the divergent definitions can be found here (UK style) and here (US style). [EDIT: Although with further poking around, I'm not sure if the difference is a geographic one because I'm not able to find much rhyme or reason in why different sources use two different meanings for the same term.]

Since this is about British politics, I assume they're going by the British definition of the phrase, but the BBC's choice of words make me question that.  They say that Cameron's proposal requires a majority of all the workers in a workplace, while current rules requires only a majority of those who were balloted.  I could be reading too much into this, but does that mean that the main change is that you can't start a strike with a majority of the people who actually voted (ie, employees who didn't vote would be taken into consideration)?  This system is sometimes (but not always, because that'd be too easy) called an absolute majority.

[Pettytyrant101]

Looks like being a good night for the more extreme parties Europe tonight in he Euro election- France seems to have gone for a far right party, in England UKIP are gaining across the board, and even Germany, the most pro European project country in Europe has seen a 7% rise in the vote for anti-Europe parties.

None of the Scottish results are in yet but UKIP dont like they will do too well, with only the predicted possibility of them wining maybe 1 seat (although one result wont come in until tomorrow- the Western Isles, the islanders are refusing to have the count on the Sabbath!)

update-

'The right-wing anti-EU People’s Party is top in Denmark, Beppe Grillo’s anti-establishment Five Star party is second in Italy (according to test data), far left Syriza are top in Greece and Front National appear to have won in France.'


Not looking good for the Euro project right across Europe. That doesnt worry me too much, but the fact the protest is being lead by some less than savoury parties is.

[Pettytyrant101]

Bad news for pupils studying English in England- as Groves ideological driven reforms have ousted the American authors- two mainstays of the British English exam- Of Mice and Men and To Kill a Mockingbird have been pulled from the curriculum- with Grove wanting more a focus on traditional English authors.

He seems to be missing the point that English literature is any literature written in english- not literature written by the english.

Presumably this policy also rules out Dylan Thomas and Oscar Wilde among many others, or is it just snobbery against American writers?