The two lead stories in Der Spiegel are both about the UK. One about the supposed epidemic of girls being drugged in clubs "since Boris Johnson's 'Freedom Day'" and one about how there's a shortage of bus drivers because they are being attracted by higher salaries driving lorries. They seem somewhat obsessed.
The third story also says that British grandmothers are only heating their homes when their grandchildren visit.
Let’s be honest they are not going to say the U.K. is a success because they then have to explain why they are still so restricted.
Germany's a bit of a patchwork, isn't it? The States individually set restrictions, so some have very few restrictions while others still have mask mandates.
I wonder if you get ultra federalist types whining about states not their own taking actions just to be different or neurotically comparing differences in COVID stats between individual Länder?
The Bavarians seem to have stopped whingeing about Indy and how those nasty northerners don’t understand them though.
Just as well, given what happened last time they got a bit carried away over that.
We will see, the Bavaria Party still got 36,748 votes in September and the likely new SPD government in Germany was rejected in Bavaria which still voted overwhelmingly CSU
My distinct impression - which could be entirely wrong - is that Bavarian independence is like Welsh independence. A sizeable chunk think it might be quite nice to tell all those pigignorant Uitlanders to feck off, but aside from a few fanatics most of them are far too appreciative of the money flowing in to actually take it seriously.
32% of Bavarians against 39% of Welsh willing to consider independence is even quite a similar proportion.
Apart from the slight difference that Bavaria is the second wealthiest state in Germany
The two lead stories in Der Spiegel are both about the UK. One about the supposed epidemic of girls being drugged in clubs "since Boris Johnson's 'Freedom Day'" and one about how there's a shortage of bus drivers because they are being attracted by higher salaries driving lorries. They seem somewhat obsessed.
The third story also says that British grandmothers are only heating their homes when their grandchildren visit.
Let’s be honest they are not going to say the U.K. is a success because they then have to explain why they are still so restricted.
Germany's a bit of a patchwork, isn't it? The States individually set restrictions, so some have very few restrictions while others still have mask mandates.
I wonder if you get ultra federalist types whining about states not their own taking actions just to be different or neurotically comparing differences in COVID stats between individual Länder?
The Bavarians seem to have stopped whingeing about Indy and how those nasty northerners don’t understand them though.
Just as well, given what happened last time they got a bit carried away over that.
We will see, the Bavaria Party still got 36,748 votes in September and the likely new SPD government in Germany was rejected in Bavaria which still voted overwhelmingly CSU
My distinct impression - which could be entirely wrong - is that Bavarian independence is like Welsh independence. A sizeable chunk think it might be quite nice to tell all those pigignorant Uitlanders to feck off, but aside from a few fanatics most of them are far too appreciative of the money flowing in to actually take it seriously.
32% of Bavarians against 39% of Welsh willing to consider independence is even quite a similar proportion.
Apart from the slight difference that Bavaria is the second wealthiest state in Germany
So is Scotland in the UK. Even if we take London and the South East as two separate ones, it’s still third (possibly just fourth, depending on how you reckon it).
London and the South East are two separate areas, though I accept while I oppose Scottish independence Scotland is relatively wealthy, helped by North Sea oil of course. Though it also spends far more than it raises in tax with the UK Treasury funding the difference
So why do you advocate UDI for Northern Ireland?
I don't, I want the whole of Northern Ireland to stay in the UK but if under the GFA there was a border poll and NI voted for a United Ireland with Antrim voting against then culturally Antrim would never accept Dublin rule. So in that case it would declare UDI
I don't, I want the whole of Northern Irelandthe United Kingdom to stay in the UKEU but if under the GFAEuropean Union Referendum Act there was a border pollReferendum and NIthe UK voted for a United Irelandto Leave the European Union with AntrimScotland voting against then culturally AntrimScotland would never accept Dublin ruleLeaving the EU. So in that case it would declare UDI
Scotland cannot declare UDI without Westminster approval as Westminster has been sovereign over Scotland since 1707, Holyrood is merely a creation of Westminster.
If Northern Ireland voted to leave the UK however under the GFA UK law would no longer apply to Antrim and it could and would declare UDI before it had to submit to Dubin rule.
Much as Iain Smith's Rhodesia declared UDI in the 1960s during decolonisation over a disagreement over UK PM Wilson's proposed terms of independence with the support of the Tory right, only in Antrim Protestant Unionists are the majority while whites were only ever a minority in Rhodesia
Er, anyone can declare UDI. It's unilateral.
However if the mother country still legally retains the powers over that country it will be swiftly overruled, see Madrid's response to Catalonia's UDI
And Ireland would retain those powers over Antrim. 🤦♂️
They'd also have if needed the military, the police, and the recognition of the entire world.
It wouldn't as Antrim would declare UDI before Ireland took over sovereignty.
If Ireland wanted to fight a counter terrorism war for decades against loyalist paramilitaries however that would be up to Dublin
You keep forgetting poor old County Down which is MORE PROTESTANT and LESS CATHOLIC than County Antrim.
County Down is not all DUP MP unlike Antrim and is south of Belfast which is now majority nationalist so not realistic for it to declare UDI unlike Antrim.
NI Protestants who wanted a still Protestant majority state would all move to Antrim once it declared UDI if NI as a whole voted for a united Ireland
The two lead stories in Der Spiegel are both about the UK. One about the supposed epidemic of girls being drugged in clubs "since Boris Johnson's 'Freedom Day'" and one about how there's a shortage of bus drivers because they are being attracted by higher salaries driving lorries. They seem somewhat obsessed.
From speaking to my female friends and colleagues there is a really big worry about going out late. More than normal, however I don't think this is isolated to the UK. It's a trend I think every country is facing because of social media poisoning the minds of young people.
There is a protest going on this Wednesday night across a lot of University cities in the UK. The plan is to boycott all clubs that night with further action planned going forward until the clubs do something to improve security for women. It is centred on Nottingham but Edinburgh, Sheffield and Exeter are also involved along with other cities. One of the things they want - quite rightly - is that if anyone is caught trying to spike drinks they are held by security and the police called. Given spiking is a serious crime one would think this would be happening anyway but apparently a lot of clubs are worried about getting into trouble with the licencing authorities and so just throw the scumbags out rather than getting the police involved. So of course they can just move on elsewhere and try again.
My daughter is at Nottingham and works in one of the local bars/cafes and she says the students are really worried about this fairly new development of injecting. There have been 12 injection cases reported in the last 2 weeks and 44 spiking cases in total since the start of term.
Its a very old problem and clubs have never got to grip with it. If the security catches a problem and reports it to the Police then that should be something that's congratulated and not something they're worried about. Security throwing a criminal out onto the streets should be what they get into trouble with licencing over.
I'm mentioned it before but back in my clubbing days I was assaulted by a complete stranger on the dance floor of a club. CCTV showed he just walked across the floor and one-punch hit me in the eye and I fell to the floor. Security grabbed the guy and chucked him out. It was only when I didn't stand up and then someone turned me over and saw the amount of blood on the floor that a couple of my friends ran out onto the street and flagged down a copper who arrested my attacker. I suffered a shattered eye socket, broken nose, was nearly blinded in that eye and it could have been worse and the bouncer threw the guy out onto the streets. 😡
I doubt that nightclubs - in the way we think of them - will be around for much longer. Most people would agree that both the incident you experienced and the reports of spiking drinks (including injections) are intolerable. But the police cannot be called in to deal with every fight or allegation of unlawful behaviour. This is because they don't have the resources, and on a practical level the whole nightclub cannot be locked down whilst witness statements are taken from everyone in the room; it would kill the whole night for everyone involved.
Most likely, the bad behaviour will move, along with the excitement which inevitably attracts young people, to places that that are unlicensed and even less safe. I don't know what the answer to this problem is.
There's no reason the Police couldn't attend to incidents like mine decades ago, or what women are complaining about today. In most towns and cities nightclubs will tend to be on certain streets that at night Police will be automatically stationed outside at night - which they can be funded for no doubt by the taxes and duties on the sales in those clubs.
As I said, when I was attacked and they realised the severity of it a couple of my friends ran out, flagged down a copper and pointed out the offender to him and the copper nicked him. Why couldn't the bouncer have done that instead of chucking out the offender so that he nearly got away?
If a club were to call or radio in to the Police that they had trouble there could be cops there in a couple of minutes, if that. No need to shut everything down, just need security to hold onto the offender until the Police arrive.
Its a choice by clubs to have security throw offenders onto the streets instead of getting the Police to take them into custody.
The police have to work in a different way to the ambiguous justice dispatched by nightclub bouncers. Once they are involved, then it has significant consequences. Unless a case is absolutely clear cut, it really isn't just a case of calling them in for a few minutes to sort out a problem. You have mentioned your assault before, and it seems like a random, unprovoked attack. But most fights are not like that. If you have something like GBH, a very serious crime, then the police would really need to shut the music down, turn the house lights on, and interview everyone in the room to establish the truth of what went on, who started the fight etc. They might need to get forensics in and a crime scene set up. Otherwise people will complain that they aren't doing their job. It is the same with this spiking thing; if the police are being called in, then there is a public expectation that they will do everything they can to secure a conviction. So that might well mean going through a similar process, with all the disruption caused. It all goes down to the adversarial nature of our justice system, and the need to prove something beyond reasonable doubt.
As I said the Police were involved with my assault, thanks to my friends not security. I have no idea if they shut the club down since I woke up in hospital, I don't believe they did instead I think they took the CCTV. Which was enough to get a conviction.
But if the security aren't calling the Police when a crime is committed because they're worried being a crime scene may hurt sales then that absolutely proves my point that they're choosing not to get the cops involved and that should lead to a loss of a licence. The licencing authorities should reward those who ensure justice is done and strip the licence of those who attempt to cover up or trivialise law breaking.
This comment seems to support my view that nightclubs won't be around for much longer; and the action will move to unlicensed spaces.
The two lead stories in Der Spiegel are both about the UK. One about the supposed epidemic of girls being drugged in clubs "since Boris Johnson's 'Freedom Day'" and one about how there's a shortage of bus drivers because they are being attracted by higher salaries driving lorries. They seem somewhat obsessed.
The third story also says that British grandmothers are only heating their homes when their grandchildren visit.
Let’s be honest they are not going to say the U.K. is a success because they then have to explain why they are still so restricted.
Germany's a bit of a patchwork, isn't it? The States individually set restrictions, so some have very few restrictions while others still have mask mandates.
I wonder if you get ultra federalist types whining about states not their own taking actions just to be different or neurotically comparing differences in COVID stats between individual Länder?
The Bavarians seem to have stopped whingeing about Indy and how those nasty northerners don’t understand them though.
Just as well, given what happened last time they got a bit carried away over that.
We will see, the Bavaria Party still got 36,748 votes in September and the likely new SPD government in Germany was rejected in Bavaria which still voted overwhelmingly CSU
My distinct impression - which could be entirely wrong - is that Bavarian independence is like Welsh independence. A sizeable chunk think it might be quite nice to tell all those pigignorant Uitlanders to feck off, but aside from a few fanatics most of them are far too appreciative of the money flowing in to actually take it seriously.
32% of Bavarians against 39% of Welsh willing to consider independence is even quite a similar proportion.
Apart from the slight difference that Bavaria is the second wealthiest state in Germany
The two lead stories in Der Spiegel are both about the UK. One about the supposed epidemic of girls being drugged in clubs "since Boris Johnson's 'Freedom Day'" and one about how there's a shortage of bus drivers because they are being attracted by higher salaries driving lorries. They seem somewhat obsessed.
The third story also says that British grandmothers are only heating their homes when their grandchildren visit.
Let’s be honest they are not going to say the U.K. is a success because they then have to explain why they are still so restricted.
Germany's a bit of a patchwork, isn't it? The States individually set restrictions, so some have very few restrictions while others still have mask mandates.
I wonder if you get ultra federalist types whining about states not their own taking actions just to be different or neurotically comparing differences in COVID stats between individual Länder?
The Bavarians seem to have stopped whingeing about Indy and how those nasty northerners don’t understand them though.
Just as well, given what happened last time they got a bit carried away over that.
We will see, the Bavaria Party still got 36,748 votes in September and the likely new SPD government in Germany was rejected in Bavaria which still voted overwhelmingly CSU
My distinct impression - which could be entirely wrong - is that Bavarian independence is like Welsh independence. A sizeable chunk think it might be quite nice to tell all those pigignorant Uitlanders to feck off, but aside from a few fanatics most of them are far too appreciative of the money flowing in to actually take it seriously.
32% of Bavarians against 39% of Welsh willing to consider independence is even quite a similar proportion.
Apart from the slight difference that Bavaria is the second wealthiest state in Germany
So is Scotland in the UK. Even if we take London and the South East as two separate ones, it’s still third (possibly just fourth, depending on how you reckon it).
London and the South East are two separate areas, though I accept while I oppose Scottish independence Scotland is relatively wealthy, helped by North Sea oil of course. Though it also spends far more than it raises in tax with the UK Treasury funding the difference
So why do you advocate UDI for Northern Ireland?
I don't, I want the whole of Northern Ireland to stay in the UK but if under the GFA there was a border poll and NI voted for a United Ireland with Antrim voting against then culturally Antrim would never accept Dublin rule. So in that case it would declare UDI
I don't, I want the whole of Northern Irelandthe United Kingdom to stay in the UKEU but if under the GFAEuropean Union Referendum Act there was a border pollReferendum and NIthe UK voted for a United Irelandto Leave the European Union with AntrimScotland voting against then culturally AntrimScotland would never accept Dublin ruleLeaving the EU. So in that case it would declare UDI
Scotland cannot declare UDI without Westminster approval as Westminster has been sovereign over Scotland since 1707, Holyrood is merely a creation of Westminster.
If Northern Ireland voted to leave the UK however under the GFA UK law would no longer apply to Antrim and it could and would declare UDI before it had to submit to Dubin rule.
Much as Iain Smith's Rhodesia declared UDI in the 1960s during decolonisation over a disagreement over Wilson's proposed terms of independence with the support of the Tory right, only in Antrim Protestant Unionists are the majority while whites were only ever a minority in Rhodesia
LOL at the notion that Antrim has more of an ability to UDI than Scotland.
If Northern Ireland voted for reunification with Ireland then under the GFA the entire island of Ireland would be recognised as within the rule of Ireland. Ireland would claim rule over all of Ireland including Antrim and that would be recognised by the UK, the whole of the EU and the USA and more.
Antrim could go into rebellion against Ireland, but they'd be put down quite easily.
Rhodesia was a self-governing nation that had been self-governing for 42 years prior to its UDI. Even then no countries recognised Rhodesia's UDI, and it led to war and the country eventually returned eventually to a period of direct British rule before it became legally independent as Zimbabwe instead.
Antrim would lose any rebellion. Easily.
Every MP in Antrim is DUP, not every MP in Scotland is SNP, Antrim would therefore have more of its population behind it.
The UK and EU and Ireland can say what they want if there was a United Ireland vote in NI, Antrim would still have voted against and Antrim would still never accept Dublin rule. The alternative of course if it was imposed on Antrim without its consent is inevitably the resumption of a paramilitary terrorist campaign in Ireland by loyalist paramilitaries.
Ireland's government could send troops into Antrim if it wanted to try and restore order but it would face a terrorism campaign as long as the UK government faced from the IRA in nationalist parts of NI until the GFA in opposition to direct rule from London. Antrim would not surrender and it would be naive to expect otherwise.
Rhodesia managed to be self governing for 14 years after its UDI with just 10% support of its population and support only from the Tory right in the UK. Antrim would have the support of most of its population and much of the Tory right too
Rhodesia was self-governing for decades. Antrim has never been self-governing.
Any terrorism campaign in Antrim would be short-lived. The IRA had the support of much of America and others around the globe, nobody would support Antrim.
The idea Conservatives are suddenly going to support terrorism is laughable. Anyone that did would quite rightly be expelled from the Party.
County Antrim is one place in the world where yours truly has walked more than a few miles, admittedly in my own shoes, hiking and (mostly) hitch-hiking from Giant's Causeway to Belfast Lough. In sectarian terms, the places at either end (Bushmills & Larne) were staunchly Protestant, while in-between (Glens of Antrim) was predominantly Catholic. Got rides from lovely folks from both persuasions, in some of the world's most beautiful scenery.
Protestants comprise solid majority countywide, with Unionist of whatever hue dominating politics since Gladstone was in short pants. But Antrim UDI? Reckon that's a Giants Causeway too far!
The two lead stories in Der Spiegel are both about the UK. One about the supposed epidemic of girls being drugged in clubs "since Boris Johnson's 'Freedom Day'" and one about how there's a shortage of bus drivers because they are being attracted by higher salaries driving lorries. They seem somewhat obsessed.
The third story also says that British grandmothers are only heating their homes when their grandchildren visit.
Let’s be honest they are not going to say the U.K. is a success because they then have to explain why they are still so restricted.
Germany's a bit of a patchwork, isn't it? The States individually set restrictions, so some have very few restrictions while others still have mask mandates.
I wonder if you get ultra federalist types whining about states not their own taking actions just to be different or neurotically comparing differences in COVID stats between individual Länder?
The Bavarians seem to have stopped whingeing about Indy and how those nasty northerners don’t understand them though.
Just as well, given what happened last time they got a bit carried away over that.
We will see, the Bavaria Party still got 36,748 votes in September and the likely new SPD government in Germany was rejected in Bavaria which still voted overwhelmingly CSU
My distinct impression - which could be entirely wrong - is that Bavarian independence is like Welsh independence. A sizeable chunk think it might be quite nice to tell all those pigignorant Uitlanders to feck off, but aside from a few fanatics most of them are far too appreciative of the money flowing in to actually take it seriously.
32% of Bavarians against 39% of Welsh willing to consider independence is even quite a similar proportion.
Apart from the slight difference that Bavaria is the second wealthiest state in Germany
So is Scotland in the UK. Even if we take London and the South East as two separate ones, it’s still third (possibly just fourth, depending on how you reckon it).
London and the South East are two separate areas, though I accept while I oppose Scottish independence Scotland is relatively wealthy, helped by North Sea oil of course. Though it also spends far more than it raises in tax with the UK Treasury funding the difference
So why do you advocate UDI for Northern Ireland?
I don't, I want the whole of Northern Ireland to stay in the UK but if under the GFA there was a border poll and NI voted for a United Ireland with Antrim voting against then culturally Antrim would never accept Dublin rule. So in that case it would declare UDI
I don't, I want the whole of Northern Irelandthe United Kingdom to stay in the UKEU but if under the GFAEuropean Union Referendum Act there was a border pollReferendum and NIthe UK voted for a United Irelandto Leave the European Union with AntrimScotland voting against then culturally AntrimScotland would never accept Dublin ruleLeaving the EU. So in that case it would declare UDI
Scotland cannot declare UDI without Westminster approval as Westminster has been sovereign over Scotland since 1707, Holyrood is merely a creation of Westminster.
If Northern Ireland voted to leave the UK however under the GFA UK law would no longer apply to Antrim and it could and would declare UDI before it had to submit to Dubin rule.
Much as Iain Smith's Rhodesia declared UDI in the 1960s during decolonisation over a disagreement over UK PM Wilson's proposed terms of independence with the support of the Tory right, only in Antrim Protestant Unionists are the majority while whites were only ever a minority in Rhodesia
Er, anyone can declare UDI. It's unilateral.
However if the mother country still legally retains the powers over that country it will be swiftly overruled, see Madrid's response to Catalonia's UDI
And Ireland would retain those powers over Antrim. 🤦♂️
They'd also have if needed the military, the police, and the recognition of the entire world.
It wouldn't as Antrim would declare UDI before Ireland took over sovereignty.
If Ireland wanted to fight a counter terrorism war for decades against loyalist paramilitaries however that would be up to Dublin
You keep forgetting poor old County Down which is MORE PROTESTANT and LESS CATHOLIC than County Antrim.
County Down is not all DUP MP unlike Antrim and is south of Belfast which is now majority nationalist so not realistic for it to declare UDI unlike Antrim.
NI Protestants who wanted a still Protestant majority state would all move to Antrim once it declared UDI if NI as a whole voted for a united Ireland
Aggregate 2011 data for all wards comprising the historic area of County Down:
60.3% Protestant 31.3% Catholic 1.0% other 7.5% none/not stated
Analogously, for the historic area of County Antrim:
53.1% Protestant 38.7% Catholic 1.2% other 7.0% none/not stated
The two lead stories in Der Spiegel are both about the UK. One about the supposed epidemic of girls being drugged in clubs "since Boris Johnson's 'Freedom Day'" and one about how there's a shortage of bus drivers because they are being attracted by higher salaries driving lorries. They seem somewhat obsessed.
The third story also says that British grandmothers are only heating their homes when their grandchildren visit.
Let’s be honest they are not going to say the U.K. is a success because they then have to explain why they are still so restricted.
Germany's a bit of a patchwork, isn't it? The States individually set restrictions, so some have very few restrictions while others still have mask mandates.
I wonder if you get ultra federalist types whining about states not their own taking actions just to be different or neurotically comparing differences in COVID stats between individual Länder?
The Bavarians seem to have stopped whingeing about Indy and how those nasty northerners don’t understand them though.
Just as well, given what happened last time they got a bit carried away over that.
We will see, the Bavaria Party still got 36,748 votes in September and the likely new SPD government in Germany was rejected in Bavaria which still voted overwhelmingly CSU
My distinct impression - which could be entirely wrong - is that Bavarian independence is like Welsh independence. A sizeable chunk think it might be quite nice to tell all those pigignorant Uitlanders to feck off, but aside from a few fanatics most of them are far too appreciative of the money flowing in to actually take it seriously.
32% of Bavarians against 39% of Welsh willing to consider independence is even quite a similar proportion.
Apart from the slight difference that Bavaria is the second wealthiest state in Germany
So is Scotland in the UK. Even if we take London and the South East as two separate ones, it’s still third (possibly just fourth, depending on how you reckon it).
London and the South East are two separate areas, though I accept while I oppose Scottish independence Scotland is relatively wealthy, helped by North Sea oil of course. Though it also spends far more than it raises in tax with the UK Treasury funding the difference
So why do you advocate UDI for Northern Ireland?
I don't, I want the whole of Northern Ireland to stay in the UK but if under the GFA there was a border poll and NI voted for a United Ireland with Antrim voting against then culturally Antrim would never accept Dublin rule. So in that case it would declare UDI
I don't, I want the whole of Northern Irelandthe United Kingdom to stay in the UKEU but if under the GFAEuropean Union Referendum Act there was a border pollReferendum and NIthe UK voted for a United Irelandto Leave the European Union with AntrimScotland voting against then culturally AntrimScotland would never accept Dublin ruleLeaving the EU. So in that case it would declare UDI
Scotland cannot declare UDI without Westminster approval as Westminster has been sovereign over Scotland since 1707, Holyrood is merely a creation of Westminster.
If Northern Ireland voted to leave the UK however under the GFA UK law would no longer apply to Antrim and it could and would declare UDI before it had to submit to Dubin rule.
Much as Iain Smith's Rhodesia declared UDI in the 1960s during decolonisation over a disagreement over Wilson's proposed terms of independence with the support of the Tory right, only in Antrim Protestant Unionists are the majority while whites were only ever a minority in Rhodesia
LOL at the notion that Antrim has more of an ability to UDI than Scotland.
If Northern Ireland voted for reunification with Ireland then under the GFA the entire island of Ireland would be recognised as within the rule of Ireland. Ireland would claim rule over all of Ireland including Antrim and that would be recognised by the UK, the whole of the EU and the USA and more.
Antrim could go into rebellion against Ireland, but they'd be put down quite easily.
Rhodesia was a self-governing nation that had been self-governing for 42 years prior to its UDI. Even then no countries recognised Rhodesia's UDI, and it led to war and the country eventually returned eventually to a period of direct British rule before it became legally independent as Zimbabwe instead.
Antrim would lose any rebellion. Easily.
Every MP in Antrim is DUP, not every MP in Scotland is SNP, Antrim would therefore have more of its population behind it.
The UK and EU and Ireland can say what they want if there was a United Ireland vote in NI, Antrim would still have voted against and Antrim would still never accept Dublin rule. The alternative of course if it was imposed on Antrim without its consent is inevitably the resumption of a paramilitary terrorist campaign in Ireland by loyalist paramilitaries.
Ireland's government could send troops into Antrim if it wanted to try and restore order but it would face a terrorism campaign as long as the UK government faced from the IRA in nationalist parts of NI until the GFA in opposition to direct rule from London. Antrim would not surrender and it would be naive to expect otherwise.
Rhodesia managed to be self governing for 14 years after its UDI with just 10% support of its population and support only from the Tory right in the UK. Antrim would have the support of most of its population and much of the Tory right too
Rhodesia was self-governing for decades. Antrim has never been self-governing.
Any terrorism campaign in Antrim would be short-lived. The IRA had the support of much of America and others around the globe, nobody would support Antrim.
The idea Conservatives are suddenly going to support terrorism is laughable. Anyone that did would quite rightly be expelled from the Party.
Randolph Churchill : Ulster will fight and Ulster will be right
Interesting piece in The Guardian from Burnley. A Trouble Town. Decades of mismanaged town politics which led to people voting in fascists 20 years ago. Then LibDem. Then Brexit. Then the Tories. And no matter who they vote for and what they try, the town keeps getting reamed.
At some point red wall voters will realise the pot of gold they voted for isn't there. But they know that Labour councillors and MPs and government didn't help either. And the fascists they elected 20 years ago? Catastrophically ineffective. So what is the point?
So, basically, we will have a large group of voters who are politically homeless and for whom voting is a waste of time as nothing ever changes.
Labour have taken these areas for granted, as they did with Scotland, for many years and now don’t speak to them or even want to understand what they want.
The Tories, at least, offered hope and if that fails where do they go ?
Back to being labelled as thick, stupid and racist and voting against their own interest by online labour activists based in big cities.
I recall a fascinating conversation with a group that included a French trade unionist. She maintained that Switzerland wasn't "A proper democracy".
A bit of discussion later and it became clear that her issue was that in Switzerland, matters that should be only decided as fundamental human rights could be voted on. The specific point of the cow-bell lady* came up.
What I find interesting is that the idea that various pieces of public policy have been moved into something which resembles medieval notions of the power of the Church. These questions have been reserved to the judgement of the (not-very) elect(ed) - the great and good will decide these matters and deliver their Judgement. And it is Hersey to demure.
So you have a situation where people, on the one hand, celebrate freedom, voting rights etc and then say that, actually, *this* stuff is reserved for the Upper 10,000 to decide upon.
I think this is the problem at the heart of modern "populism" - the people have been repeatedly told they are sovereign. Democracy! rules! ok! Then comes a laundry list of things where you are not allowed to have an opinion.
Mr HUYFD, not too far from your home in Essex is Canvey Island. The population has, for several years, consistently voted for independence, with CIIP councillors holding most of the local district council seats allocated to the island, and gets most of the votes in the County Council elections. Why hasn’t the locally ruling Conservative party conceded the right of the islanders to independence?
The two lead stories in Der Spiegel are both about the UK. One about the supposed epidemic of girls being drugged in clubs "since Boris Johnson's 'Freedom Day'" and one about how there's a shortage of bus drivers because they are being attracted by higher salaries driving lorries. They seem somewhat obsessed.
The third story also says that British grandmothers are only heating their homes when their grandchildren visit.
Let’s be honest they are not going to say the U.K. is a success because they then have to explain why they are still so restricted.
Germany's a bit of a patchwork, isn't it? The States individually set restrictions, so some have very few restrictions while others still have mask mandates.
I wonder if you get ultra federalist types whining about states not their own taking actions just to be different or neurotically comparing differences in COVID stats between individual Länder?
The Bavarians seem to have stopped whingeing about Indy and how those nasty northerners don’t understand them though.
Just as well, given what happened last time they got a bit carried away over that.
We will see, the Bavaria Party still got 36,748 votes in September and the likely new SPD government in Germany was rejected in Bavaria which still voted overwhelmingly CSU
My distinct impression - which could be entirely wrong - is that Bavarian independence is like Welsh independence. A sizeable chunk think it might be quite nice to tell all those pigignorant Uitlanders to feck off, but aside from a few fanatics most of them are far too appreciative of the money flowing in to actually take it seriously.
32% of Bavarians against 39% of Welsh willing to consider independence is even quite a similar proportion.
Apart from the slight difference that Bavaria is the second wealthiest state in Germany
The two lead stories in Der Spiegel are both about the UK. One about the supposed epidemic of girls being drugged in clubs "since Boris Johnson's 'Freedom Day'" and one about how there's a shortage of bus drivers because they are being attracted by higher salaries driving lorries. They seem somewhat obsessed.
The third story also says that British grandmothers are only heating their homes when their grandchildren visit.
Let’s be honest they are not going to say the U.K. is a success because they then have to explain why they are still so restricted.
Germany's a bit of a patchwork, isn't it? The States individually set restrictions, so some have very few restrictions while others still have mask mandates.
I wonder if you get ultra federalist types whining about states not their own taking actions just to be different or neurotically comparing differences in COVID stats between individual Länder?
The Bavarians seem to have stopped whingeing about Indy and how those nasty northerners don’t understand them though.
Just as well, given what happened last time they got a bit carried away over that.
We will see, the Bavaria Party still got 36,748 votes in September and the likely new SPD government in Germany was rejected in Bavaria which still voted overwhelmingly CSU
My distinct impression - which could be entirely wrong - is that Bavarian independence is like Welsh independence. A sizeable chunk think it might be quite nice to tell all those pigignorant Uitlanders to feck off, but aside from a few fanatics most of them are far too appreciative of the money flowing in to actually take it seriously.
32% of Bavarians against 39% of Welsh willing to consider independence is even quite a similar proportion.
Apart from the slight difference that Bavaria is the second wealthiest state in Germany
So is Scotland in the UK. Even if we take London and the South East as two separate ones, it’s still third (possibly just fourth, depending on how you reckon it).
London and the South East are two separate areas, though I accept while I oppose Scottish independence Scotland is relatively wealthy, helped by North Sea oil of course. Though it also spends far more than it raises in tax with the UK Treasury funding the difference
So why do you advocate UDI for Northern Ireland?
I don't, I want the whole of Northern Ireland to stay in the UK but if under the GFA there was a border poll and NI voted for a United Ireland with Antrim voting against then culturally Antrim would never accept Dublin rule. So in that case it would declare UDI
I don't, I want the whole of Northern Irelandthe United Kingdom to stay in the UKEU but if under the GFAEuropean Union Referendum Act there was a border pollReferendum and NIthe UK voted for a United Irelandto Leave the European Union with AntrimScotland voting against then culturally AntrimScotland would never accept Dublin ruleLeaving the EU. So in that case it would declare UDI
Scotland cannot declare UDI without Westminster approval as Westminster has been sovereign over Scotland since 1707, Holyrood is merely a creation of Westminster.
If Northern Ireland voted to leave the UK however under the GFA UK law would no longer apply to Antrim and it could and would declare UDI before it had to submit to Dubin rule.
Much as Iain Smith's Rhodesia declared UDI in the 1960s during decolonisation over a disagreement over Wilson's proposed terms of independence with the support of the Tory right, only in Antrim Protestant Unionists are the majority while whites were only ever a minority in Rhodesia
LOL at the notion that Antrim has more of an ability to UDI than Scotland.
If Northern Ireland voted for reunification with Ireland then under the GFA the entire island of Ireland would be recognised as within the rule of Ireland. Ireland would claim rule over all of Ireland including Antrim and that would be recognised by the UK, the whole of the EU and the USA and more.
Antrim could go into rebellion against Ireland, but they'd be put down quite easily.
Rhodesia was a self-governing nation that had been self-governing for 42 years prior to its UDI. Even then no countries recognised Rhodesia's UDI, and it led to war and the country eventually returned eventually to a period of direct British rule before it became legally independent as Zimbabwe instead.
Antrim would lose any rebellion. Easily.
Every MP in Antrim is DUP, not every MP in Scotland is SNP, Antrim would therefore have more of its population behind it.
The UK and EU and Ireland can say what they want if there was a United Ireland vote in NI, Antrim would still have voted against and Antrim would still never accept Dublin rule. The alternative of course if it was imposed on Antrim without its consent is inevitably the resumption of a paramilitary terrorist campaign in Ireland by loyalist paramilitaries.
Ireland's government could send troops into Antrim if it wanted to try and restore order but it would face a terrorism campaign as long as the UK government faced from the IRA in nationalist parts of NI until the GFA in opposition to direct rule from London. Antrim would not surrender and it would be naive to expect otherwise.
Rhodesia managed to be self governing for 14 years after its UDI with just 10% support of its population and support only from the Tory right in the UK. Antrim would have the support of most of its population and much of the Tory right too
Rhodesia was self-governing for decades. Antrim has never been self-governing.
Any terrorism campaign in Antrim would be short-lived. The IRA had the support of much of America and others around the globe, nobody would support Antrim.
The idea Conservatives are suddenly going to support terrorism is laughable. Anyone that did would quite rightly be expelled from the Party.
Antrim has its own councils.
You can find guns on the darknet now, you do not need to smuggle them though plenty of criminal networks who would supply them for funds which could be raised from the local population, loyalist paramilitaries have weapons stores secretly stacked away in various rural parts from the Troubles era and plenty have drugs criminal networks for funds.
Lots of rightwing Tories would support Antrim in its wish for self-determination in such circumstances including me if it voted against a United Ireland even if a majority of NI did vote for Irish unity, even if we would not go so far as to support terrorism. You are a liberal not a rightwing Tory anyway
The two lead stories in Der Spiegel are both about the UK. One about the supposed epidemic of girls being drugged in clubs "since Boris Johnson's 'Freedom Day'" and one about how there's a shortage of bus drivers because they are being attracted by higher salaries driving lorries. They seem somewhat obsessed.
The third story also says that British grandmothers are only heating their homes when their grandchildren visit.
Let’s be honest they are not going to say the U.K. is a success because they then have to explain why they are still so restricted.
Germany's a bit of a patchwork, isn't it? The States individually set restrictions, so some have very few restrictions while others still have mask mandates.
I wonder if you get ultra federalist types whining about states not their own taking actions just to be different or neurotically comparing differences in COVID stats between individual Länder?
The Bavarians seem to have stopped whingeing about Indy and how those nasty northerners don’t understand them though.
Just as well, given what happened last time they got a bit carried away over that.
We will see, the Bavaria Party still got 36,748 votes in September and the likely new SPD government in Germany was rejected in Bavaria which still voted overwhelmingly CSU
My distinct impression - which could be entirely wrong - is that Bavarian independence is like Welsh independence. A sizeable chunk think it might be quite nice to tell all those pigignorant Uitlanders to feck off, but aside from a few fanatics most of them are far too appreciative of the money flowing in to actually take it seriously.
32% of Bavarians against 39% of Welsh willing to consider independence is even quite a similar proportion.
Apart from the slight difference that Bavaria is the second wealthiest state in Germany
The two lead stories in Der Spiegel are both about the UK. One about the supposed epidemic of girls being drugged in clubs "since Boris Johnson's 'Freedom Day'" and one about how there's a shortage of bus drivers because they are being attracted by higher salaries driving lorries. They seem somewhat obsessed.
The third story also says that British grandmothers are only heating their homes when their grandchildren visit.
Let’s be honest they are not going to say the U.K. is a success because they then have to explain why they are still so restricted.
Germany's a bit of a patchwork, isn't it? The States individually set restrictions, so some have very few restrictions while others still have mask mandates.
I wonder if you get ultra federalist types whining about states not their own taking actions just to be different or neurotically comparing differences in COVID stats between individual Länder?
The Bavarians seem to have stopped whingeing about Indy and how those nasty northerners don’t understand them though.
Just as well, given what happened last time they got a bit carried away over that.
We will see, the Bavaria Party still got 36,748 votes in September and the likely new SPD government in Germany was rejected in Bavaria which still voted overwhelmingly CSU
My distinct impression - which could be entirely wrong - is that Bavarian independence is like Welsh independence. A sizeable chunk think it might be quite nice to tell all those pigignorant Uitlanders to feck off, but aside from a few fanatics most of them are far too appreciative of the money flowing in to actually take it seriously.
32% of Bavarians against 39% of Welsh willing to consider independence is even quite a similar proportion.
Apart from the slight difference that Bavaria is the second wealthiest state in Germany
So is Scotland in the UK. Even if we take London and the South East as two separate ones, it’s still third (possibly just fourth, depending on how you reckon it).
London and the South East are two separate areas, though I accept while I oppose Scottish independence Scotland is relatively wealthy, helped by North Sea oil of course. Though it also spends far more than it raises in tax with the UK Treasury funding the difference
So why do you advocate UDI for Northern Ireland?
I don't, I want the whole of Northern Ireland to stay in the UK but if under the GFA there was a border poll and NI voted for a United Ireland with Antrim voting against then culturally Antrim would never accept Dublin rule. So in that case it would declare UDI
I don't, I want the whole of Northern Irelandthe United Kingdom to stay in the UKEU but if under the GFAEuropean Union Referendum Act there was a border pollReferendum and NIthe UK voted for a United Irelandto Leave the European Union with AntrimScotland voting against then culturally AntrimScotland would never accept Dublin ruleLeaving the EU. So in that case it would declare UDI
Scotland cannot declare UDI without Westminster approval as Westminster has been sovereign over Scotland since 1707, Holyrood is merely a creation of Westminster.
If Northern Ireland voted to leave the UK however under the GFA UK law would no longer apply to Antrim and it could and would declare UDI before it had to submit to Dubin rule.
Much as Iain Smith's Rhodesia declared UDI in the 1960s during decolonisation over a disagreement over Wilson's proposed terms of independence with the support of the Tory right, only in Antrim Protestant Unionists are the majority while whites were only ever a minority in Rhodesia
LOL at the notion that Antrim has more of an ability to UDI than Scotland.
If Northern Ireland voted for reunification with Ireland then under the GFA the entire island of Ireland would be recognised as within the rule of Ireland. Ireland would claim rule over all of Ireland including Antrim and that would be recognised by the UK, the whole of the EU and the USA and more.
Antrim could go into rebellion against Ireland, but they'd be put down quite easily.
Rhodesia was a self-governing nation that had been self-governing for 42 years prior to its UDI. Even then no countries recognised Rhodesia's UDI, and it led to war and the country eventually returned eventually to a period of direct British rule before it became legally independent as Zimbabwe instead.
Antrim would lose any rebellion. Easily.
Every MP in Antrim is DUP, not every MP in Scotland is SNP, Antrim would therefore have more of its population behind it.
The UK and EU and Ireland can say what they want if there was a United Ireland vote in NI, Antrim would still have voted against and Antrim would still never accept Dublin rule. The alternative of course if it was imposed on Antrim without its consent is inevitably the resumption of a paramilitary terrorist campaign in Ireland by loyalist paramilitaries.
Ireland's government could send troops into Antrim if it wanted to try and restore order but it would face a terrorism campaign as long as the UK government faced from the IRA in nationalist parts of NI until the GFA in opposition to direct rule from London. Antrim would not surrender and it would be naive to expect otherwise.
Rhodesia managed to be self governing for 14 years after its UDI with just 10% support of its population and support only from the Tory right in the UK. Antrim would have the support of most of its population and much of the Tory right too
Rhodesia was self-governing for decades. Antrim has never been self-governing.
Any terrorism campaign in Antrim would be short-lived. The IRA had the support of much of America and others around the globe, nobody would support Antrim.
The idea Conservatives are suddenly going to support terrorism is laughable. Anyone that did would quite rightly be expelled from the Party.
Randolph Churchill : Ulster will fight and Ulster will be right
There's a difference between the 19th century and the 21st, between Ulster and Antrim.
The UK has accepted as law, guaranteed by the USA, that the whole of NI stays in the UK unless there's a border poll won by nationalists - and if there is the whole of Ireland is unified. Repartition is not an option. No Tories will support Antrim terrorists if NI democratically votes for unification.
The two lead stories in Der Spiegel are both about the UK. One about the supposed epidemic of girls being drugged in clubs "since Boris Johnson's 'Freedom Day'" and one about how there's a shortage of bus drivers because they are being attracted by higher salaries driving lorries. They seem somewhat obsessed.
The third story also says that British grandmothers are only heating their homes when their grandchildren visit.
Let’s be honest they are not going to say the U.K. is a success because they then have to explain why they are still so restricted.
Germany's a bit of a patchwork, isn't it? The States individually set restrictions, so some have very few restrictions while others still have mask mandates.
I wonder if you get ultra federalist types whining about states not their own taking actions just to be different or neurotically comparing differences in COVID stats between individual Länder?
The Bavarians seem to have stopped whingeing about Indy and how those nasty northerners don’t understand them though.
Just as well, given what happened last time they got a bit carried away over that.
We will see, the Bavaria Party still got 36,748 votes in September and the likely new SPD government in Germany was rejected in Bavaria which still voted overwhelmingly CSU
My distinct impression - which could be entirely wrong - is that Bavarian independence is like Welsh independence. A sizeable chunk think it might be quite nice to tell all those pigignorant Uitlanders to feck off, but aside from a few fanatics most of them are far too appreciative of the money flowing in to actually take it seriously.
32% of Bavarians against 39% of Welsh willing to consider independence is even quite a similar proportion.
Apart from the slight difference that Bavaria is the second wealthiest state in Germany
So is Scotland in the UK. Even if we take London and the South East as two separate ones, it’s still third (possibly just fourth, depending on how you reckon it).
London and the South East are two separate areas, though I accept while I oppose Scottish independence Scotland is relatively wealthy, helped by North Sea oil of course. Though it also spends far more than it raises in tax with the UK Treasury funding the difference
So why do you advocate UDI for Northern Ireland?
I don't, I want the whole of Northern Ireland to stay in the UK but if under the GFA there was a border poll and NI voted for a United Ireland with Antrim voting against then culturally Antrim would never accept Dublin rule. So in that case it would declare UDI
I don't, I want the whole of Northern Irelandthe United Kingdom to stay in the UKEU but if under the GFAEuropean Union Referendum Act there was a border pollReferendum and NIthe UK voted for a United Irelandto Leave the European Union with AntrimScotland voting against then culturally AntrimScotland would never accept Dublin ruleLeaving the EU. So in that case it would declare UDI
Scotland cannot declare UDI without Westminster approval as Westminster has been sovereign over Scotland since 1707, Holyrood is merely a creation of Westminster.
If Northern Ireland voted to leave the UK however under the GFA UK law would no longer apply to Antrim and it could and would declare UDI before it had to submit to Dubin rule.
Much as Iain Smith's Rhodesia declared UDI in the 1960s during decolonisation over a disagreement over Wilson's proposed terms of independence with the support of the Tory right, only in Antrim Protestant Unionists are the majority while whites were only ever a minority in Rhodesia
LOL at the notion that Antrim has more of an ability to UDI than Scotland.
If Northern Ireland voted for reunification with Ireland then under the GFA the entire island of Ireland would be recognised as within the rule of Ireland. Ireland would claim rule over all of Ireland including Antrim and that would be recognised by the UK, the whole of the EU and the USA and more.
Antrim could go into rebellion against Ireland, but they'd be put down quite easily.
Rhodesia was a self-governing nation that had been self-governing for 42 years prior to its UDI. Even then no countries recognised Rhodesia's UDI, and it led to war and the country eventually returned eventually to a period of direct British rule before it became legally independent as Zimbabwe instead.
Antrim would lose any rebellion. Easily.
Every MP in Antrim is DUP, not every MP in Scotland is SNP, Antrim would therefore have more of its population behind it.
The UK and EU and Ireland can say what they want if there was a United Ireland vote in NI, Antrim would still have voted against and Antrim would still never accept Dublin rule. The alternative of course if it was imposed on Antrim without its consent is inevitably the resumption of a paramilitary terrorist campaign in Ireland by loyalist paramilitaries.
Ireland's government could send troops into Antrim if it wanted to try and restore order but it would face a terrorism campaign as long as the UK government faced from the IRA in nationalist parts of NI until the GFA in opposition to direct rule from London. Antrim would not surrender and it would be naive to expect otherwise.
Rhodesia managed to be self governing for 14 years after its UDI with just 10% support of its population and support only from the Tory right in the UK. Antrim would have the support of most of its population and much of the Tory right too
Rhodesia was self-governing for decades. Antrim has never been self-governing.
Any terrorism campaign in Antrim would be short-lived. The IRA had the support of much of America and others around the globe, nobody would support Antrim.
The idea Conservatives are suddenly going to support terrorism is laughable. Anyone that did would quite rightly be expelled from the Party.
Antrim isn't going independent. More chance of Man U winning the Premier League 👍
Mr HUYFD, not too far from your home in Essex is Canvey Island. The population has, for several years, consistently voted for independence, with CIIP councillors holding most of the local district council seats allocated to the island, and gets most of the votes in the County Council elections. Why hasn’t the locally ruling Conservative party conceded the right of the islanders to independence?
Canvey Island Independents want a separate district council from Castle Point, not to be an independent nation
The two lead stories in Der Spiegel are both about the UK. One about the supposed epidemic of girls being drugged in clubs "since Boris Johnson's 'Freedom Day'" and one about how there's a shortage of bus drivers because they are being attracted by higher salaries driving lorries. They seem somewhat obsessed.
The third story also says that British grandmothers are only heating their homes when their grandchildren visit.
Let’s be honest they are not going to say the U.K. is a success because they then have to explain why they are still so restricted.
Germany's a bit of a patchwork, isn't it? The States individually set restrictions, so some have very few restrictions while others still have mask mandates.
I wonder if you get ultra federalist types whining about states not their own taking actions just to be different or neurotically comparing differences in COVID stats between individual Länder?
The Bavarians seem to have stopped whingeing about Indy and how those nasty northerners don’t understand them though.
Just as well, given what happened last time they got a bit carried away over that.
We will see, the Bavaria Party still got 36,748 votes in September and the likely new SPD government in Germany was rejected in Bavaria which still voted overwhelmingly CSU
My distinct impression - which could be entirely wrong - is that Bavarian independence is like Welsh independence. A sizeable chunk think it might be quite nice to tell all those pigignorant Uitlanders to feck off, but aside from a few fanatics most of them are far too appreciative of the money flowing in to actually take it seriously.
32% of Bavarians against 39% of Welsh willing to consider independence is even quite a similar proportion.
Apart from the slight difference that Bavaria is the second wealthiest state in Germany
So is Scotland in the UK. Even if we take London and the South East as two separate ones, it’s still third (possibly just fourth, depending on how you reckon it).
London and the South East are two separate areas, though I accept while I oppose Scottish independence Scotland is relatively wealthy, helped by North Sea oil of course. Though it also spends far more than it raises in tax with the UK Treasury funding the difference
So why do you advocate UDI for Northern Ireland?
I don't, I want the whole of Northern Ireland to stay in the UK but if under the GFA there was a border poll and NI voted for a United Ireland with Antrim voting against then culturally Antrim would never accept Dublin rule. So in that case it would declare UDI
I don't, I want the whole of Northern Irelandthe United Kingdom to stay in the UKEU but if under the GFAEuropean Union Referendum Act there was a border pollReferendum and NIthe UK voted for a United Irelandto Leave the European Union with AntrimScotland voting against then culturally AntrimScotland would never accept Dublin ruleLeaving the EU. So in that case it would declare UDI
Scotland cannot declare UDI without Westminster approval as Westminster has been sovereign over Scotland since 1707, Holyrood is merely a creation of Westminster.
If Northern Ireland voted to leave the UK however under the GFA UK law would no longer apply to Antrim and it could and would declare UDI before it had to submit to Dubin rule.
Much as Iain Smith's Rhodesia declared UDI in the 1960s during decolonisation over a disagreement over Wilson's proposed terms of independence with the support of the Tory right, only in Antrim Protestant Unionists are the majority while whites were only ever a minority in Rhodesia
LOL at the notion that Antrim has more of an ability to UDI than Scotland.
If Northern Ireland voted for reunification with Ireland then under the GFA the entire island of Ireland would be recognised as within the rule of Ireland. Ireland would claim rule over all of Ireland including Antrim and that would be recognised by the UK, the whole of the EU and the USA and more.
Antrim could go into rebellion against Ireland, but they'd be put down quite easily.
Rhodesia was a self-governing nation that had been self-governing for 42 years prior to its UDI. Even then no countries recognised Rhodesia's UDI, and it led to war and the country eventually returned eventually to a period of direct British rule before it became legally independent as Zimbabwe instead.
Antrim would lose any rebellion. Easily.
Every MP in Antrim is DUP, not every MP in Scotland is SNP, Antrim would therefore have more of its population behind it.
The UK and EU and Ireland can say what they want if there was a United Ireland vote in NI, Antrim would still have voted against and Antrim would still never accept Dublin rule. The alternative of course if it was imposed on Antrim without its consent is inevitably the resumption of a paramilitary terrorist campaign in Ireland by loyalist paramilitaries.
Ireland's government could send troops into Antrim if it wanted to try and restore order but it would face a terrorism campaign as long as the UK government faced from the IRA in nationalist parts of NI until the GFA in opposition to direct rule from London. Antrim would not surrender and it would be naive to expect otherwise.
Rhodesia managed to be self governing for 14 years after its UDI with just 10% support of its population and support only from the Tory right in the UK. Antrim would have the support of most of its population and much of the Tory right too
Rhodesia was self-governing for decades. Antrim has never been self-governing.
Any terrorism campaign in Antrim would be short-lived. The IRA had the support of much of America and others around the globe, nobody would support Antrim.
The idea Conservatives are suddenly going to support terrorism is laughable. Anyone that did would quite rightly be expelled from the Party.
Antrim has its own councils.
You can find guns on the darknet now, you do not need to smuggle them though plenty of criminal networks who would supply them for funds which could be raised from the local population, loyalist paramilitaries have weapons stores secretly stacked away in various rural parts from the Troubles era and plenty have drugs criminal networks for funds.
Plenty of rightwing Tories would support Antrim in its wish for self-determination in such circumstances including me, even if we would not go so far as to support terrorism. You are a liberal not a rightwing Tory anyway
You should seriously consider referring yourself to the government's Prevent programme.
Mr HUYFD, not too far from your home in Essex is Canvey Island. The population has, for several years, consistently voted for independence, with CIIP councillors holding most of the local district council seats allocated to the island, and gets most of the votes in the County Council elections. Why hasn’t the locally ruling Conservative party conceded the right of the islanders to independence?
Canvey Island Independents want a separate district council from Castle Point, not to be an independent nation
My question stands. What objection does the Conservative party have?
Mr HUYFD, not too far from your home in Essex is Canvey Island. The population has, for several years, consistently voted for independence, with CIIP councillors holding most of the local district council seats allocated to the island, and gets most of the votes in the County Council elections. Why hasn’t the locally ruling Conservative party conceded the right of the islanders to independence?
Canvey Island Independents want a separate district council from Castle Point, not to be an independent nation
My question stands. What objection does the Conservative party have?
I don't have an objection but it is not seeking to be an independent nation
Interesting piece in The Guardian from Burnley. A Trouble Town. Decades of mismanaged town politics which led to people voting in fascists 20 years ago. Then LibDem. Then Brexit. Then the Tories. And no matter who they vote for and what they try, the town keeps getting reamed.
At some point red wall voters will realise the pot of gold they voted for isn't there. But they know that Labour councillors and MPs and government didn't help either. And the fascists they elected 20 years ago? Catastrophically ineffective. So what is the point?
So, basically, we will have a large group of voters who are politically homeless and for whom voting is a waste of time as nothing ever changes.
Labour have taken these areas for granted, as they did with Scotland, for many years and now don’t speak to them or even want to understand what they want.
The Tories, at least, offered hope and if that fails where do they go ?
Back to being labelled as thick, stupid and racist and voting against their own interest by online labour activists based in big cities.
I recall a fascinating conversation with a group that included a French trade unionist. She maintained that Switzerland wasn't "A proper democracy".
A bit of discussion later and it became clear that her issue was that in Switzerland, matters that should be only decided as fundamental human rights could be voted on. The specific point of the cow-bell lady* came up.
What I find interesting is that the idea that various pieces of public policy have been moved into something which resembles medieval notions of the power of the Church. These questions have been reserved to the judgement of the (not-very) elect(ed) - the great and good will decide these matters and deliver their Judgement. And it is Hersey to demure.
So you have a situation where people, on the one hand, celebrate freedom, voting rights etc and then say that, actually, *this* stuff is reserved for the Upper 10,000 to decide upon.
I think this is the problem at the heart of modern "populism" - the people have been repeatedly told they are sovereign. Democracy! rules! ok! Then comes a laundry list of things where you are not allowed to have an opinion.
That's an interesting story. It strikes me as quite healthy that those who know you and have to live with you get to decide your citizenship. Personally, this wouldn't be an issue on which I'd deny someone citizenship. But who knows - perhaps there's more to the story than is revealed here. OF COURSE there's more to the story than revealed here.
The two lead stories in Der Spiegel are both about the UK. One about the supposed epidemic of girls being drugged in clubs "since Boris Johnson's 'Freedom Day'" and one about how there's a shortage of bus drivers because they are being attracted by higher salaries driving lorries. They seem somewhat obsessed.
The third story also says that British grandmothers are only heating their homes when their grandchildren visit.
Let’s be honest they are not going to say the U.K. is a success because they then have to explain why they are still so restricted.
Germany's a bit of a patchwork, isn't it? The States individually set restrictions, so some have very few restrictions while others still have mask mandates.
I wonder if you get ultra federalist types whining about states not their own taking actions just to be different or neurotically comparing differences in COVID stats between individual Länder?
The Bavarians seem to have stopped whingeing about Indy and how those nasty northerners don’t understand them though.
Just as well, given what happened last time they got a bit carried away over that.
We will see, the Bavaria Party still got 36,748 votes in September and the likely new SPD government in Germany was rejected in Bavaria which still voted overwhelmingly CSU
My distinct impression - which could be entirely wrong - is that Bavarian independence is like Welsh independence. A sizeable chunk think it might be quite nice to tell all those pigignorant Uitlanders to feck off, but aside from a few fanatics most of them are far too appreciative of the money flowing in to actually take it seriously.
32% of Bavarians against 39% of Welsh willing to consider independence is even quite a similar proportion.
Apart from the slight difference that Bavaria is the second wealthiest state in Germany
So is Scotland in the UK. Even if we take London and the South East as two separate ones, it’s still third (possibly just fourth, depending on how you reckon it).
London and the South East are two separate areas, though I accept while I oppose Scottish independence Scotland is relatively wealthy, helped by North Sea oil of course. Though it also spends far more than it raises in tax with the UK Treasury funding the difference
So why do you advocate UDI for Northern Ireland?
I don't, I want the whole of Northern Ireland to stay in the UK but if under the GFA there was a border poll and NI voted for a United Ireland with Antrim voting against then culturally Antrim would never accept Dublin rule. So in that case it would declare UDI
I don't, I want the whole of Northern Irelandthe United Kingdom to stay in the UKEU but if under the GFAEuropean Union Referendum Act there was a border pollReferendum and NIthe UK voted for a United Irelandto Leave the European Union with AntrimScotland voting against then culturally AntrimScotland would never accept Dublin ruleLeaving the EU. So in that case it would declare UDI
Scotland cannot declare UDI without Westminster approval as Westminster has been sovereign over Scotland since 1707, Holyrood is merely a creation of Westminster.
If Northern Ireland voted to leave the UK however under the GFA UK law would no longer apply to Antrim and it could and would declare UDI before it had to submit to Dubin rule.
Much as Iain Smith's Rhodesia declared UDI in the 1960s during decolonisation over a disagreement over Wilson's proposed terms of independence with the support of the Tory right, only in Antrim Protestant Unionists are the majority while whites were only ever a minority in Rhodesia
LOL at the notion that Antrim has more of an ability to UDI than Scotland.
If Northern Ireland voted for reunification with Ireland then under the GFA the entire island of Ireland would be recognised as within the rule of Ireland. Ireland would claim rule over all of Ireland including Antrim and that would be recognised by the UK, the whole of the EU and the USA and more.
Antrim could go into rebellion against Ireland, but they'd be put down quite easily.
Rhodesia was a self-governing nation that had been self-governing for 42 years prior to its UDI. Even then no countries recognised Rhodesia's UDI, and it led to war and the country eventually returned eventually to a period of direct British rule before it became legally independent as Zimbabwe instead.
Antrim would lose any rebellion. Easily.
Every MP in Antrim is DUP, not every MP in Scotland is SNP, Antrim would therefore have more of its population behind it.
The UK and EU and Ireland can say what they want if there was a United Ireland vote in NI, Antrim would still have voted against and Antrim would still never accept Dublin rule. The alternative of course if it was imposed on Antrim without its consent is inevitably the resumption of a paramilitary terrorist campaign in Ireland by loyalist paramilitaries.
Ireland's government could send troops into Antrim if it wanted to try and restore order but it would face a terrorism campaign as long as the UK government faced from the IRA in nationalist parts of NI until the GFA in opposition to direct rule from London. Antrim would not surrender and it would be naive to expect otherwise.
Rhodesia managed to be self governing for 14 years after its UDI with just 10% support of its population and support only from the Tory right in the UK. Antrim would have the support of most of its population and much of the Tory right too
Rhodesia was self-governing for decades. Antrim has never been self-governing.
Any terrorism campaign in Antrim would be short-lived. The IRA had the support of much of America and others around the globe, nobody would support Antrim.
The idea Conservatives are suddenly going to support terrorism is laughable. Anyone that did would quite rightly be expelled from the Party.
Antrim has its own councils.
You can find guns on the darknet now, you do not need to smuggle them though plenty of criminal networks who would supply them for funds which could be raised from the local population, loyalist paramilitaries have weapons stores secretly stacked away in various rural parts from the Troubles era and plenty have drugs criminal networks for funds.
Lots of rightwing Tories would support Antrim in its wish for self-determination in such circumstances including me if it voted against a United Ireland even if a majority of NI did vote for Irish unity, even if we would not go so far as to support terrorism. You are a liberal not a rightwing Tory anyway
No Tories would, since anybody who openly supported terrorists would be expelled from the party and no longer a Tory. They'd be referred to the Police and the authorities.
Its farcical to suggest. May as well suggest Scotland can UDI.
Mr HUYFD, not too far from your home in Essex is Canvey Island. The population has, for several years, consistently voted for independence, with CIIP councillors holding most of the local district council seats allocated to the island, and gets most of the votes in the County Council elections. Why hasn’t the locally ruling Conservative party conceded the right of the islanders to independence?
Canvey Island Independents want a separate district council from Castle Point, not to be an independent nation
My question stands. What objection does the Conservative party have?
I don't have an objection but it is not seeking to be an independent nation
Don’t be pedantic. What objection can there be to a separate Canvey Island Council? Not a Parish Council.
City break in York with the family today and tomorrow. It is absolutely packed. I've never seen it so busy, not even when the races were on. Went out for tea at 6 - all the restaurants were fully booked. Ended up eating in a perfectly adequate fish and chip shop, which probably saved us about £40. Anyway, everyone up for having as good a time as possible. Almost no sign of masks. National rail museum tomorrow. Very excited...
Interesting piece in The Guardian from Burnley. A Trouble Town. Decades of mismanaged town politics which led to people voting in fascists 20 years ago. Then LibDem. Then Brexit. Then the Tories. And no matter who they vote for and what they try, the town keeps getting reamed.
At some point red wall voters will realise the pot of gold they voted for isn't there. But they know that Labour councillors and MPs and government didn't help either. And the fascists they elected 20 years ago? Catastrophically ineffective. So what is the point?
So, basically, we will have a large group of voters who are politically homeless and for whom voting is a waste of time as nothing ever changes.
Labour have taken these areas for granted, as they did with Scotland, for many years and now don’t speak to them or even want to understand what they want.
The Tories, at least, offered hope and if that fails where do they go ?
Back to being labelled as thick, stupid and racist and voting against their own interest by online labour activists based in big cities.
I recall a fascinating conversation with a group that included a French trade unionist. She maintained that Switzerland wasn't "A proper democracy".
A bit of discussion later and it became clear that her issue was that in Switzerland, matters that should be only decided as fundamental human rights could be voted on. The specific point of the cow-bell lady* came up.
What I find interesting is that the idea that various pieces of public policy have been moved into something which resembles medieval notions of the power of the Church. These questions have been reserved to the judgement of the (not-very) elect(ed) - the great and good will decide these matters and deliver their Judgement. And it is Hersey to demure.
So you have a situation where people, on the one hand, celebrate freedom, voting rights etc and then say that, actually, *this* stuff is reserved for the Upper 10,000 to decide upon.
I think this is the problem at the heart of modern "populism" - the people have been repeatedly told they are sovereign. Democracy! rules! ok! Then comes a laundry list of things where you are not allowed to have an opinion.
That's an interesting story. It strikes me as quite healthy that those who know you and have to live with you get to decide your citizenship. Personally, this wouldn't be an issue on which I'd deny someone citizenship. But who knows - perhaps there's more to the story than is revealed here. OF COURSE there's more to the story than revealed here.
She talked to international press and used Twitter to trash Swiss traditions
She also complained about being woken up by church bells.
City of Seattle ballot returns for 2021 general election as of Friday 10.22 = 40,293 (8% of active reg) > which accounts for 15% of projected final turnout of 55% of 490k total active registered voters
Seattle Times ($) - Black leaders call on Seattle mayoral candidate M. Lorena González to pull ‘racist’ ad saying Bruce Harrell sided with sex abusers
With a little over a week remaining before votes are counted, Seattle’s mayoral race exploded into vitriol Saturday as rivals Bruce Harrell and M. Lorena González traded accusations of racism and enabling sexual abusers.
The spark was a new attack ad aired by González’s campaign, which accuses Harrell of siding with sexual abusers including ex-Mayor Ed Murray — a late hit that was blasted as desperate and racist by Harrell and allies including Black community leaders.
. . . [T]he commercial, which juxtaposes images of Harrell with media accounts of the Murray sex-abuse scandal. The ad features a white rape survivor who says she could never vote for Harrell. . . .
The 30-second ad seeks to contrast González, who was the first member of the Seattle City Council to publicly call for Murray to consider resigning several months into the 2017 scandal, with Harrell, who made no such public demands and at times defended the mayor from calls for him to step down.
The new commercial opens with the woman, identified only by her first name and initial, saying she’d been raped five years ago, and that the rapist was never prosecuted.
“It was horrifying to me to hear Bruce Harrell defend Ed Murray saying people shouldn’t be judged by what they’ve done in the past,” she says in the ad, adding later, “Bruce Harrell has repeatedly sided with abusers. As a survivor, I could never vote for him.”
Harrell and his allies Saturday called the ad blatantly racist . . .
“It was more than a dog whistle. It was blatant,” said Harrell.
Gerald Hankerson, regional president for the NAACP . . . compared the ad to the “Willie Horton” ad in the 1988 presidential campaign, which stoked white fears of crime by showing a photo of a Black man who raped a white woman while on prison furlough.
. . . Lincoln Beauregard, the attorney who represented Murray accuser Delvonn Heckard in the April 2017 lawsuit that broke the scandal into public view, defended Harrell at Saturday’s event and called the attack ad a dishonest and inflammatory portrayal. . . . .
González declined to pull the ad and doubled down in a statement from her campaign Saturday afternoon.
“Bruce Harrell has a troubling history of discrediting survivors of abuse and harassment. As Council President, he used his position to defend Ed Murray, even after multiple, credible accusations of child rape. His response to this ad is another example of him denying the facts and discrediting a victim,” the statement sent by campaign manager Alex Koren said.
The two lead stories in Der Spiegel are both about the UK. One about the supposed epidemic of girls being drugged in clubs "since Boris Johnson's 'Freedom Day'" and one about how there's a shortage of bus drivers because they are being attracted by higher salaries driving lorries. They seem somewhat obsessed.
The third story also says that British grandmothers are only heating their homes when their grandchildren visit.
Let’s be honest they are not going to say the U.K. is a success because they then have to explain why they are still so restricted.
Germany's a bit of a patchwork, isn't it? The States individually set restrictions, so some have very few restrictions while others still have mask mandates.
I wonder if you get ultra federalist types whining about states not their own taking actions just to be different or neurotically comparing differences in COVID stats between individual Länder?
The Bavarians seem to have stopped whingeing about Indy and how those nasty northerners don’t understand them though.
Just as well, given what happened last time they got a bit carried away over that.
We will see, the Bavaria Party still got 36,748 votes in September and the likely new SPD government in Germany was rejected in Bavaria which still voted overwhelmingly CSU
My distinct impression - which could be entirely wrong - is that Bavarian independence is like Welsh independence. A sizeable chunk think it might be quite nice to tell all those pigignorant Uitlanders to feck off, but aside from a few fanatics most of them are far too appreciative of the money flowing in to actually take it seriously.
32% of Bavarians against 39% of Welsh willing to consider independence is even quite a similar proportion.
Apart from the slight difference that Bavaria is the second wealthiest state in Germany
So is Scotland in the UK. Even if we take London and the South East as two separate ones, it’s still third (possibly just fourth, depending on how you reckon it).
London and the South East are two separate areas, though I accept while I oppose Scottish independence Scotland is relatively wealthy, helped by North Sea oil of course. Though it also spends far more than it raises in tax with the UK Treasury funding the difference
So why do you advocate UDI for Northern Ireland?
I don't, I want the whole of Northern Ireland to stay in the UK but if under the GFA there was a border poll and NI voted for a United Ireland with Antrim voting against then culturally Antrim would never accept Dublin rule. So in that case it would declare UDI
I don't, I want the whole of Northern Irelandthe United Kingdom to stay in the UKEU but if under the GFAEuropean Union Referendum Act there was a border pollReferendum and NIthe UK voted for a United Irelandto Leave the European Union with AntrimScotland voting against then culturally AntrimScotland would never accept Dublin ruleLeaving the EU. So in that case it would declare UDI
Scotland cannot declare UDI without Westminster approval as Westminster has been sovereign over Scotland since 1707, Holyrood is merely a creation of Westminster.
If Northern Ireland voted to leave the UK however under the GFA UK law would no longer apply to Antrim and it could and would declare UDI before it had to submit to Dubin rule.
Much as Iain Smith's Rhodesia declared UDI in the 1960s during decolonisation over a disagreement over Wilson's proposed terms of independence with the support of the Tory right, only in Antrim Protestant Unionists are the majority while whites were only ever a minority in Rhodesia
LOL at the notion that Antrim has more of an ability to UDI than Scotland.
If Northern Ireland voted for reunification with Ireland then under the GFA the entire island of Ireland would be recognised as within the rule of Ireland. Ireland would claim rule over all of Ireland including Antrim and that would be recognised by the UK, the whole of the EU and the USA and more.
Antrim could go into rebellion against Ireland, but they'd be put down quite easily.
Rhodesia was a self-governing nation that had been self-governing for 42 years prior to its UDI. Even then no countries recognised Rhodesia's UDI, and it led to war and the country eventually returned eventually to a period of direct British rule before it became legally independent as Zimbabwe instead.
Antrim would lose any rebellion. Easily.
Every MP in Antrim is DUP, not every MP in Scotland is SNP, Antrim would therefore have more of its population behind it.
The UK and EU and Ireland can say what they want if there was a United Ireland vote in NI, Antrim would still have voted against and Antrim would still never accept Dublin rule. The alternative of course if it was imposed on Antrim without its consent is inevitably the resumption of a paramilitary terrorist campaign in Ireland by loyalist paramilitaries.
Ireland's government could send troops into Antrim if it wanted to try and restore order but it would face a terrorism campaign as long as the UK government faced from the IRA in nationalist parts of NI until the GFA in opposition to direct rule from London. Antrim would not surrender and it would be naive to expect otherwise.
Rhodesia managed to be self governing for 14 years after its UDI with just 10% support of its population and support only from the Tory right in the UK. Antrim would have the support of most of its population and much of the Tory right too
Rhodesia was self-governing for decades. Antrim has never been self-governing.
Any terrorism campaign in Antrim would be short-lived. The IRA had the support of much of America and others around the globe, nobody would support Antrim.
The idea Conservatives are suddenly going to support terrorism is laughable. Anyone that did would quite rightly be expelled from the Party.
Antrim has its own councils.
You can find guns on the darknet now, you do not need to smuggle them though plenty of criminal networks who would supply them for funds which could be raised from the local population, loyalist paramilitaries have weapons stores secretly stacked away in various rural parts from the Troubles era and plenty have drugs criminal networks for funds.
Lots of rightwing Tories would support Antrim in its wish for self-determination in such circumstances including me if it voted against a United Ireland even if a majority of NI did vote for Irish unity, even if we would not go so far as to support terrorism. You are a liberal not a rightwing Tory anyway
No Tories would, since anybody who openly supported terrorists would be expelled from the party and no longer a Tory. They'd be referred to the Police and the authorities.
Its farcical to suggest. May as well suggest Scotland can UDI.
Supporting a recognition of Antrim UDI would actually be the best way to avoid terrorism.
Because if Dublin imposed direct rule on Antrim without Antrim's consent and refused to recognise an Antrim UDI a paramilitary war is what would result as much as the IRA war in NI in nationalist areas against direct rule from London
City break in York with the family today and tomorrow. It is absolutely packed. I've never seen it so busy, not even when the races were on. Went out for tea at 6 - all the restaurants were fully booked. Ended up eating in a perfectly adequate fish and chip shop, which probably saved us about £40. Anyway, everyone up for having as good a time as possible. Almost no sign of masks. National rail museum tomorrow. Very excited...
Have you walked atop the city wall yet? Above the madding throng. And VERY well aerated!
Interesting piece in The Guardian from Burnley. A Trouble Town. Decades of mismanaged town politics which led to people voting in fascists 20 years ago. Then LibDem. Then Brexit. Then the Tories. And no matter who they vote for and what they try, the town keeps getting reamed.
At some point red wall voters will realise the pot of gold they voted for isn't there. But they know that Labour councillors and MPs and government didn't help either. And the fascists they elected 20 years ago? Catastrophically ineffective. So what is the point?
So, basically, we will have a large group of voters who are politically homeless and for whom voting is a waste of time as nothing ever changes.
Labour have taken these areas for granted, as they did with Scotland, for many years and now don’t speak to them or even want to understand what they want.
The Tories, at least, offered hope and if that fails where do they go ?
Back to being labelled as thick, stupid and racist and voting against their own interest by online labour activists based in big cities.
I recall a fascinating conversation with a group that included a French trade unionist. She maintained that Switzerland wasn't "A proper democracy".
A bit of discussion later and it became clear that her issue was that in Switzerland, matters that should be only decided as fundamental human rights could be voted on. The specific point of the cow-bell lady* came up.
What I find interesting is that the idea that various pieces of public policy have been moved into something which resembles medieval notions of the power of the Church. These questions have been reserved to the judgement of the (not-very) elect(ed) - the great and good will decide these matters and deliver their Judgement. And it is Hersey to demure.
So you have a situation where people, on the one hand, celebrate freedom, voting rights etc and then say that, actually, *this* stuff is reserved for the Upper 10,000 to decide upon.
I think this is the problem at the heart of modern "populism" - the people have been repeatedly told they are sovereign. Democracy! rules! ok! Then comes a laundry list of things where you are not allowed to have an opinion.
That's an interesting story. It strikes me as quite healthy that those who know you and have to live with you get to decide your citizenship. Personally, this wouldn't be an issue on which I'd deny someone citizenship. But who knows - perhaps there's more to the story than is revealed here. OF COURSE there's more to the story than revealed here.
She talked to international press and used Twitter to trash Swiss traditions
She also complained about being woken up by church bells.
All in all sounds like a PITA
Yes, she does. I used to be a (church) bellringer. There was a surprising number of incidents of people moving to an area and getting the hump because of bells being rung twice a week. The argument that the bells predate the incomers always cut puzzling little ice.
ITV report on the govt’s new plan to get convicts to fill lorry driver shortages going very viral on Tik Tok… “Here’s Dean, he’s on day release from jail working in haulage. His offence was importing drugs, involving a lorry” https://twitter.com/alexwickham/status/1452366526560997380
The two lead stories in Der Spiegel are both about the UK. One about the supposed epidemic of girls being drugged in clubs "since Boris Johnson's 'Freedom Day'" and one about how there's a shortage of bus drivers because they are being attracted by higher salaries driving lorries. They seem somewhat obsessed.
The third story also says that British grandmothers are only heating their homes when their grandchildren visit.
Let’s be honest they are not going to say the U.K. is a success because they then have to explain why they are still so restricted.
Germany's a bit of a patchwork, isn't it? The States individually set restrictions, so some have very few restrictions while others still have mask mandates.
I wonder if you get ultra federalist types whining about states not their own taking actions just to be different or neurotically comparing differences in COVID stats between individual Länder?
The Bavarians seem to have stopped whingeing about Indy and how those nasty northerners don’t understand them though.
Just as well, given what happened last time they got a bit carried away over that.
We will see, the Bavaria Party still got 36,748 votes in September and the likely new SPD government in Germany was rejected in Bavaria which still voted overwhelmingly CSU
My distinct impression - which could be entirely wrong - is that Bavarian independence is like Welsh independence. A sizeable chunk think it might be quite nice to tell all those pigignorant Uitlanders to feck off, but aside from a few fanatics most of them are far too appreciative of the money flowing in to actually take it seriously.
32% of Bavarians against 39% of Welsh willing to consider independence is even quite a similar proportion.
Apart from the slight difference that Bavaria is the second wealthiest state in Germany
So is Scotland in the UK. Even if we take London and the South East as two separate ones, it’s still third (possibly just fourth, depending on how you reckon it).
London and the South East are two separate areas, though I accept while I oppose Scottish independence Scotland is relatively wealthy, helped by North Sea oil of course. Though it also spends far more than it raises in tax with the UK Treasury funding the difference
So why do you advocate UDI for Northern Ireland?
I don't, I want the whole of Northern Ireland to stay in the UK but if under the GFA there was a border poll and NI voted for a United Ireland with Antrim voting against then culturally Antrim would never accept Dublin rule. So in that case it would declare UDI
I don't, I want the whole of Northern Irelandthe United Kingdom to stay in the UKEU but if under the GFAEuropean Union Referendum Act there was a border pollReferendum and NIthe UK voted for a United Irelandto Leave the European Union with AntrimScotland voting against then culturally AntrimScotland would never accept Dublin ruleLeaving the EU. So in that case it would declare UDI
Scotland cannot declare UDI without Westminster approval as Westminster has been sovereign over Scotland since 1707, Holyrood is merely a creation of Westminster.
If Northern Ireland voted to leave the UK however under the GFA UK law would no longer apply to Antrim and it could and would declare UDI before it had to submit to Dubin rule.
Much as Iain Smith's Rhodesia declared UDI in the 1960s during decolonisation over a disagreement over Wilson's proposed terms of independence with the support of the Tory right, only in Antrim Protestant Unionists are the majority while whites were only ever a minority in Rhodesia
LOL at the notion that Antrim has more of an ability to UDI than Scotland.
If Northern Ireland voted for reunification with Ireland then under the GFA the entire island of Ireland would be recognised as within the rule of Ireland. Ireland would claim rule over all of Ireland including Antrim and that would be recognised by the UK, the whole of the EU and the USA and more.
Antrim could go into rebellion against Ireland, but they'd be put down quite easily.
Rhodesia was a self-governing nation that had been self-governing for 42 years prior to its UDI. Even then no countries recognised Rhodesia's UDI, and it led to war and the country eventually returned eventually to a period of direct British rule before it became legally independent as Zimbabwe instead.
Antrim would lose any rebellion. Easily.
Every MP in Antrim is DUP, not every MP in Scotland is SNP, Antrim would therefore have more of its population behind it.
The UK and EU and Ireland can say what they want if there was a United Ireland vote in NI, Antrim would still have voted against and Antrim would still never accept Dublin rule. The alternative of course if it was imposed on Antrim without its consent is inevitably the resumption of a paramilitary terrorist campaign in Ireland by loyalist paramilitaries.
Ireland's government could send troops into Antrim if it wanted to try and restore order but it would face a terrorism campaign as long as the UK government faced from the IRA in nationalist parts of NI until the GFA in opposition to direct rule from London. Antrim would not surrender and it would be naive to expect otherwise.
Rhodesia managed to be self governing for 14 years after its UDI with just 10% support of its population and support only from the Tory right in the UK. Antrim would have the support of most of its population and much of the Tory right too
Rhodesia was self-governing for decades. Antrim has never been self-governing.
Any terrorism campaign in Antrim would be short-lived. The IRA had the support of much of America and others around the globe, nobody would support Antrim.
The idea Conservatives are suddenly going to support terrorism is laughable. Anyone that did would quite rightly be expelled from the Party.
Randolph Churchill : Ulster will fight and Ulster will be right
IIRC, Lord Randolph was playing what he called "the Orange card" in a VERY high stakes game for power in Westminster, hoping that it would prove to trump his (mostly Tory) opponents.
Something less than a holy vow, leastways from his own point of view.
City break in York with the family today and tomorrow. It is absolutely packed. I've never seen it so busy, not even when the races were on. Went out for tea at 6 - all the restaurants were fully booked. Ended up eating in a perfectly adequate fish and chip shop, which probably saved us about £40. Anyway, everyone up for having as good a time as possible. Almost no sign of masks. National rail museum tomorrow. Very excited...
Have you walked atop the city wall yet? Above the madding throng. And VERY well aerated!
We have! It had been a few years since I'd done so. Never fails to surprise me how exhilarating it is. It doesn't look all that high from street level. Above the madding throng is very well put.
The two lead stories in Der Spiegel are both about the UK. One about the supposed epidemic of girls being drugged in clubs "since Boris Johnson's 'Freedom Day'" and one about how there's a shortage of bus drivers because they are being attracted by higher salaries driving lorries. They seem somewhat obsessed.
The third story also says that British grandmothers are only heating their homes when their grandchildren visit.
Let’s be honest they are not going to say the U.K. is a success because they then have to explain why they are still so restricted.
Germany's a bit of a patchwork, isn't it? The States individually set restrictions, so some have very few restrictions while others still have mask mandates.
I wonder if you get ultra federalist types whining about states not their own taking actions just to be different or neurotically comparing differences in COVID stats between individual Länder?
The Bavarians seem to have stopped whingeing about Indy and how those nasty northerners don’t understand them though.
Just as well, given what happened last time they got a bit carried away over that.
We will see, the Bavaria Party still got 36,748 votes in September and the likely new SPD government in Germany was rejected in Bavaria which still voted overwhelmingly CSU
My distinct impression - which could be entirely wrong - is that Bavarian independence is like Welsh independence. A sizeable chunk think it might be quite nice to tell all those pigignorant Uitlanders to feck off, but aside from a few fanatics most of them are far too appreciative of the money flowing in to actually take it seriously.
32% of Bavarians against 39% of Welsh willing to consider independence is even quite a similar proportion.
Apart from the slight difference that Bavaria is the second wealthiest state in Germany
So is Scotland in the UK. Even if we take London and the South East as two separate ones, it’s still third (possibly just fourth, depending on how you reckon it).
London and the South East are two separate areas, though I accept while I oppose Scottish independence Scotland is relatively wealthy, helped by North Sea oil of course. Though it also spends far more than it raises in tax with the UK Treasury funding the difference
So why do you advocate UDI for Northern Ireland?
I don't, I want the whole of Northern Ireland to stay in the UK but if under the GFA there was a border poll and NI voted for a United Ireland with Antrim voting against then culturally Antrim would never accept Dublin rule. So in that case it would declare UDI
I don't, I want the whole of Northern Irelandthe United Kingdom to stay in the UKEU but if under the GFAEuropean Union Referendum Act there was a border pollReferendum and NIthe UK voted for a United Irelandto Leave the European Union with AntrimScotland voting against then culturally AntrimScotland would never accept Dublin ruleLeaving the EU. So in that case it would declare UDI
Scotland cannot declare UDI without Westminster approval as Westminster has been sovereign over Scotland since 1707, Holyrood is merely a creation of Westminster.
If Northern Ireland voted to leave the UK however under the GFA UK law would no longer apply to Antrim and it could and would declare UDI before it had to submit to Dubin rule.
Much as Iain Smith's Rhodesia declared UDI in the 1960s during decolonisation over a disagreement over Wilson's proposed terms of independence with the support of the Tory right, only in Antrim Protestant Unionists are the majority while whites were only ever a minority in Rhodesia
LOL at the notion that Antrim has more of an ability to UDI than Scotland.
If Northern Ireland voted for reunification with Ireland then under the GFA the entire island of Ireland would be recognised as within the rule of Ireland. Ireland would claim rule over all of Ireland including Antrim and that would be recognised by the UK, the whole of the EU and the USA and more.
Antrim could go into rebellion against Ireland, but they'd be put down quite easily.
Rhodesia was a self-governing nation that had been self-governing for 42 years prior to its UDI. Even then no countries recognised Rhodesia's UDI, and it led to war and the country eventually returned eventually to a period of direct British rule before it became legally independent as Zimbabwe instead.
Antrim would lose any rebellion. Easily.
Every MP in Antrim is DUP, not every MP in Scotland is SNP, Antrim would therefore have more of its population behind it.
The UK and EU and Ireland can say what they want if there was a United Ireland vote in NI, Antrim would still have voted against and Antrim would still never accept Dublin rule. The alternative of course if it was imposed on Antrim without its consent is inevitably the resumption of a paramilitary terrorist campaign in Ireland by loyalist paramilitaries.
Ireland's government could send troops into Antrim if it wanted to try and restore order but it would face a terrorism campaign as long as the UK government faced from the IRA in nationalist parts of NI until the GFA in opposition to direct rule from London. Antrim would not surrender and it would be naive to expect otherwise.
Rhodesia managed to be self governing for 14 years after its UDI with just 10% support of its population and support only from the Tory right in the UK. Antrim would have the support of most of its population and much of the Tory right too
Rhodesia was self-governing for decades. Antrim has never been self-governing.
Any terrorism campaign in Antrim would be short-lived. The IRA had the support of much of America and others around the globe, nobody would support Antrim.
The idea Conservatives are suddenly going to support terrorism is laughable. Anyone that did would quite rightly be expelled from the Party.
Antrim has its own councils.
You can find guns on the darknet now, you do not need to smuggle them though plenty of criminal networks who would supply them for funds which could be raised from the local population, loyalist paramilitaries have weapons stores secretly stacked away in various rural parts from the Troubles era and plenty have drugs criminal networks for funds.
Lots of rightwing Tories would support Antrim in its wish for self-determination in such circumstances including me if it voted against a United Ireland even if a majority of NI did vote for Irish unity, even if we would not go so far as to support terrorism. You are a liberal not a rightwing Tory anyway
No Tories would, since anybody who openly supported terrorists would be expelled from the party and no longer a Tory. They'd be referred to the Police and the authorities.
Its farcical to suggest. May as well suggest Scotland can UDI.
Supporting a recognition of Antrim UDI would actually be the best way to avoid terrorism.
Because if Dublin imposed direct rule on Antrim without Antrim's consent and refused to recognise an Antrim UDI a paramilitary war is what would result as much as the IRA war in NI in nationalist areas against direct rule from London
Bullshit. The only way to avoid terrorism would be to respect the democratic vote of Northern Ireland and the Good Friday Agreement recognising unification in full.
Anyone who attempted to spark terrorism making Antrim independent would be ostracised and destroyed.
Interesting piece in The Guardian from Burnley. A Trouble Town. Decades of mismanaged town politics which led to people voting in fascists 20 years ago. Then LibDem. Then Brexit. Then the Tories. And no matter who they vote for and what they try, the town keeps getting reamed.
At some point red wall voters will realise the pot of gold they voted for isn't there. But they know that Labour councillors and MPs and government didn't help either. And the fascists they elected 20 years ago? Catastrophically ineffective. So what is the point?
So, basically, we will have a large group of voters who are politically homeless and for whom voting is a waste of time as nothing ever changes.
Labour have taken these areas for granted, as they did with Scotland, for many years and now don’t speak to them or even want to understand what they want.
The Tories, at least, offered hope and if that fails where do they go ?
Back to being labelled as thick, stupid and racist and voting against their own interest by online labour activists based in big cities.
I recall a fascinating conversation with a group that included a French trade unionist. She maintained that Switzerland wasn't "A proper democracy".
A bit of discussion later and it became clear that her issue was that in Switzerland, matters that should be only decided as fundamental human rights could be voted on. The specific point of the cow-bell lady* came up.
What I find interesting is that the idea that various pieces of public policy have been moved into something which resembles medieval notions of the power of the Church. These questions have been reserved to the judgement of the (not-very) elect(ed) - the great and good will decide these matters and deliver their Judgement. And it is Hersey to demure.
So you have a situation where people, on the one hand, celebrate freedom, voting rights etc and then say that, actually, *this* stuff is reserved for the Upper 10,000 to decide upon.
I think this is the problem at the heart of modern "populism" - the people have been repeatedly told they are sovereign. Democracy! rules! ok! Then comes a laundry list of things where you are not allowed to have an opinion.
That's an interesting story. It strikes me as quite healthy that those who know you and have to live with you get to decide your citizenship. Personally, this wouldn't be an issue on which I'd deny someone citizenship. But who knows - perhaps there's more to the story than is revealed here. OF COURSE there's more to the story than revealed here.
She talked to international press and used Twitter to trash Swiss traditions
She also complained about being woken up by church bells.
All in all sounds like a PITA
Yes, she does. I used to be a (church) bellringer. There was a surprising number of incidents of people moving to an area and getting the hump because of bells being rung twice a week. The argument that the bells predate the incomers always cut puzzling little ice.
I used to drink in a 17th C pub. About 30 years ago a house was built next door. The first occupants, and indeed their successors, used to complain about the noise on a Saturday night.
ITV report on the govt’s new plan to get convicts to fill lorry driver shortages going very viral on Tik Tok… “Here’s Dean, he’s on day release from jail working in haulage. His offence was importing drugs, involving a lorry” https://twitter.com/alexwickham/status/1452366526560997380
Fantastic to see people who are reaching the end of their sentence and getting released from jail are able to get work.
As we all know employment is the best way to defeat recidivism. Its great to see you highlighting a government success in driving down recidivism here.
Oh good, @HYUFD is talking about crushing secessionists again like he's playing a computer game. Nevermind.
Not this time actually, he's talking about talking up secessionists.
Only this time its his favoured successionists that for some reason magically won't be crushed despite having the whole of their government (Ireland), the UK, the EU and the USA against them. 🤦♂️
The two lead stories in Der Spiegel are both about the UK. One about the supposed epidemic of girls being drugged in clubs "since Boris Johnson's 'Freedom Day'" and one about how there's a shortage of bus drivers because they are being attracted by higher salaries driving lorries. They seem somewhat obsessed.
The third story also says that British grandmothers are only heating their homes when their grandchildren visit.
Let’s be honest they are not going to say the U.K. is a success because they then have to explain why they are still so restricted.
Germany's a bit of a patchwork, isn't it? The States individually set restrictions, so some have very few restrictions while others still have mask mandates.
I wonder if you get ultra federalist types whining about states not their own taking actions just to be different or neurotically comparing differences in COVID stats between individual Länder?
The Bavarians seem to have stopped whingeing about Indy and how those nasty northerners don’t understand them though.
Just as well, given what happened last time they got a bit carried away over that.
We will see, the Bavaria Party still got 36,748 votes in September and the likely new SPD government in Germany was rejected in Bavaria which still voted overwhelmingly CSU
My distinct impression - which could be entirely wrong - is that Bavarian independence is like Welsh independence. A sizeable chunk think it might be quite nice to tell all those pigignorant Uitlanders to feck off, but aside from a few fanatics most of them are far too appreciative of the money flowing in to actually take it seriously.
32% of Bavarians against 39% of Welsh willing to consider independence is even quite a similar proportion.
Apart from the slight difference that Bavaria is the second wealthiest state in Germany
So is Scotland in the UK. Even if we take London and the South East as two separate ones, it’s still third (possibly just fourth, depending on how you reckon it).
London and the South East are two separate areas, though I accept while I oppose Scottish independence Scotland is relatively wealthy, helped by North Sea oil of course. Though it also spends far more than it raises in tax with the UK Treasury funding the difference
So why do you advocate UDI for Northern Ireland?
I don't, I want the whole of Northern Ireland to stay in the UK but if under the GFA there was a border poll and NI voted for a United Ireland with Antrim voting against then culturally Antrim would never accept Dublin rule. So in that case it would declare UDI
I don't, I want the whole of Northern Irelandthe United Kingdom to stay in the UKEU but if under the GFAEuropean Union Referendum Act there was a border pollReferendum and NIthe UK voted for a United Irelandto Leave the European Union with AntrimScotland voting against then culturally AntrimScotland would never accept Dublin ruleLeaving the EU. So in that case it would declare UDI
Scotland cannot declare UDI without Westminster approval as Westminster has been sovereign over Scotland since 1707, Holyrood is merely a creation of Westminster.
If Northern Ireland voted to leave the UK however under the GFA UK law would no longer apply to Antrim and it could and would declare UDI before it had to submit to Dubin rule.
Much as Iain Smith's Rhodesia declared UDI in the 1960s during decolonisation over a disagreement over Wilson's proposed terms of independence with the support of the Tory right, only in Antrim Protestant Unionists are the majority while whites were only ever a minority in Rhodesia
LOL at the notion that Antrim has more of an ability to UDI than Scotland.
If Northern Ireland voted for reunification with Ireland then under the GFA the entire island of Ireland would be recognised as within the rule of Ireland. Ireland would claim rule over all of Ireland including Antrim and that would be recognised by the UK, the whole of the EU and the USA and more.
Antrim could go into rebellion against Ireland, but they'd be put down quite easily.
Rhodesia was a self-governing nation that had been self-governing for 42 years prior to its UDI. Even then no countries recognised Rhodesia's UDI, and it led to war and the country eventually returned eventually to a period of direct British rule before it became legally independent as Zimbabwe instead.
Antrim would lose any rebellion. Easily.
Every MP in Antrim is DUP, not every MP in Scotland is SNP, Antrim would therefore have more of its population behind it.
The UK and EU and Ireland can say what they want if there was a United Ireland vote in NI, Antrim would still have voted against and Antrim would still never accept Dublin rule. The alternative of course if it was imposed on Antrim without its consent is inevitably the resumption of a paramilitary terrorist campaign in Ireland by loyalist paramilitaries.
Ireland's government could send troops into Antrim if it wanted to try and restore order but it would face a terrorism campaign as long as the UK government faced from the IRA in nationalist parts of NI until the GFA in opposition to direct rule from London. Antrim would not surrender and it would be naive to expect otherwise.
Rhodesia managed to be self governing for 14 years after its UDI with just 10% support of its population and support only from the Tory right in the UK. Antrim would have the support of most of its population and much of the Tory right too
Rhodesia was self-governing for decades. Antrim has never been self-governing.
Any terrorism campaign in Antrim would be short-lived. The IRA had the support of much of America and others around the globe, nobody would support Antrim.
The idea Conservatives are suddenly going to support terrorism is laughable. Anyone that did would quite rightly be expelled from the Party.
Antrim has its own councils.
You can find guns on the darknet now, you do not need to smuggle them though plenty of criminal networks who would supply them for funds which could be raised from the local population, loyalist paramilitaries have weapons stores secretly stacked away in various rural parts from the Troubles era and plenty have drugs criminal networks for funds.
Lots of rightwing Tories would support Antrim in its wish for self-determination in such circumstances including me if it voted against a United Ireland even if a majority of NI did vote for Irish unity, even if we would not go so far as to support terrorism. You are a liberal not a rightwing Tory anyway
ITV report on the govt’s new plan to get convicts to fill lorry driver shortages going very viral on Tik Tok… “Here’s Dean, he’s on day release from jail working in haulage. His offence was importing drugs, involving a lorry” https://twitter.com/alexwickham/status/1452366526560997380
Fantastic to see people who are reaching the end of their sentence and getting released from jail are able to get work.
As we all know employment is the best way to defeat recidivism. Its great to see you highlighting a government success in driving down recidivism here.
The people,up,in arms over this are exactly the sort of people,who would support this in the normal course of events.
I don’t see reintegrating criminals back into society As being a bad thing.
It’s not like,they’d let Peter Sutcliffe do,it if he was still alive.
City break in York with the family today and tomorrow. It is absolutely packed. I've never seen it so busy, not even when the races were on. Went out for tea at 6 - all the restaurants were fully booked. Ended up eating in a perfectly adequate fish and chip shop, which probably saved us about £40. Anyway, everyone up for having as good a time as possible. Almost no sign of masks. National rail museum tomorrow. Very excited...
Have you walked atop the city wall yet? Above the madding throng. And VERY well aerated!
On cold mornings there's little better to be done than explore these things. Any attack would have certainly taken place in the morning. I'd not fancy it.
Following the ways of the weekend so far, I thought I should look at -gism words.
An obvious one to start with is neologism. It seems clear that this is something @DuraAce would love to have made. Obviously it's a neo- 'new', +logos 'word'. Our very own JizzJunky might have to wait.
We also have syllogisms and paralogisms. These are words about logic; the start of syllogism is derived from syn- meaning 'together', and it's a combination of two logical statements to prove a third one. In paralogism, the para- comes from Greek meaning 'contrary to', hence a paralogism is "a piece of illogical or fallacious reasoning". Which I'm sure we've all seen here.
There's 'agism', which is a bit dull etymologically. Similarly dull in their origin, but a bit more spicy in their current trans-centred battle, are biologism, the belief that human nature is defined by biology; and psychologism, the belief that that our nature is defined by our psychology - as separate, or at least different, from our biology.
There's also 'priggism', meaning being a prig, which might either have derived from the same word meaning a 'dandy', or a 'thief', or from the word prick. Quite amusingly for here, quislingism is a word. Meaning an act of treachery, working for an occupying force. And finally savagism. This has its origin from the Latin word for 'of the woods', silvaticus.
Trisha Greenhalgh @trishgreenhalgh · 9h If UK government decide they need extra scientific help to deal with the Covid-19 crisis, I’m available. Unlike some Oxford professors, I’ve never been asked my opinion on pandemic policy. Unlike some, I’ve never been catastrophically wrong in my predictions either. Just saying.
ITV report on the govt’s new plan to get convicts to fill lorry driver shortages going very viral on Tik Tok… “Here’s Dean, he’s on day release from jail working in haulage. His offence was importing drugs, involving a lorry”
ITV report on the govt’s new plan to get convicts to fill lorry driver shortages going very viral on Tik Tok… “Here’s Dean, he’s on day release from jail working in haulage. His offence was importing drugs, involving a lorry” https://twitter.com/alexwickham/status/1452366526560997380
How judgemental
He is on day release and contributing to his life post jail
Following the ways of the weekend so far, I thought I should look at -gism words.
An obvious one to start with is neologism. It seems clear that this is something @DuraAce would love to have made. Obviously it's a neo- 'new', +logos 'word'. Our very own JizzJunky might have to wait.
We also have syllogisms and paralogisms. These are words about logic; the start of syllogism is derived from syn- meaning 'together', and it's a combination of two logical statements to prove a third one. In paralogism, the para- comes from Greek meaning 'contrary to', hence a paralogism is "a piece of illogical or fallacious reasoning". Which I'm sure we've all seen here.
There's 'agism', which is a bit dull etymologically. Similarly dull in their origin, but a bit more spicy in their current trans-centred battle, are biologism, the belief that human nature is defined by biology; and psychologism, the belief that that our nature is defined by our psychology - as separate, or at least different, from our biology.
There's also 'priggism', meaning being a prig, which might either have derived from the same word meaning a 'dandy', or a 'thief', or from the word prick. Quite amusingly for here, quislingism is a word. Meaning an act of treachery, working for an occupying force. And finally savagism. This has its origin from the Latin word for 'of the woods', silvaticus.
Is there a reason, why we hardly ever hear or read about "Shiitism"?
ITV report on the govt’s new plan to get convicts to fill lorry driver shortages going very viral on Tik Tok… “Here’s Dean, he’s on day release from jail working in haulage. His offence was importing drugs, involving a lorry” https://twitter.com/alexwickham/status/1452366526560997380
How judgemental
He is on day release and contributing to his life post jail
Actually I think that tweet is out of order
Putting his skills to use for a legitimate purpose? This sort of thing should be celebrated, not sneered at.
ITV report on the govt’s new plan to get convicts to fill lorry driver shortages going very viral on Tik Tok… “Here’s Dean, he’s on day release from jail working in haulage. His offence was importing drugs, involving a lorry”
ITV report on the govt’s new plan to get convicts to fill lorry driver shortages going very viral on Tik Tok… “Here’s Dean, he’s on day release from jail working in haulage. His offence was importing drugs, involving a lorry”
Presumably you agree that convicts getting a job when they leave prison, so that they get drawn back into a life of crime, is the best way to rehabilitate prisoners and ensure a reduction in recidivism?
So presumably you're congratulating the government on this policy?
ITV report on the govt’s new plan to get convicts to fill lorry driver shortages going very viral on Tik Tok… “Here’s Dean, he’s on day release from jail working in haulage. His offence was importing drugs, involving a lorry” https://twitter.com/alexwickham/status/1452366526560997380
How judgemental
He is on day release and contributing to his life post jail
Actually I think that tweet is out of order
If he’s on day release, tescos taking 4 hours (unpaid for the driver) unloading the van is going to create great problems if he isn’t home by 7pm.
ITV report on the govt’s new plan to get convicts to fill lorry driver shortages going very viral on Tik Tok… “Here’s Dean, he’s on day release from jail working in haulage. His offence was importing drugs, involving a lorry”
The two lead stories in Der Spiegel are both about the UK. One about the supposed epidemic of girls being drugged in clubs "since Boris Johnson's 'Freedom Day'" and one about how there's a shortage of bus drivers because they are being attracted by higher salaries driving lorries. They seem somewhat obsessed.
The third story also says that British grandmothers are only heating their homes when their grandchildren visit.
Let’s be honest they are not going to say the U.K. is a success because they then have to explain why they are still so restricted.
Germany's a bit of a patchwork, isn't it? The States individually set restrictions, so some have very few restrictions while others still have mask mandates.
I wonder if you get ultra federalist types whining about states not their own taking actions just to be different or neurotically comparing differences in COVID stats between individual Länder?
The Bavarians seem to have stopped whingeing about Indy and how those nasty northerners don’t understand them though.
Just as well, given what happened last time they got a bit carried away over that.
We will see, the Bavaria Party still got 36,748 votes in September and the likely new SPD government in Germany was rejected in Bavaria which still voted overwhelmingly CSU
My distinct impression - which could be entirely wrong - is that Bavarian independence is like Welsh independence. A sizeable chunk think it might be quite nice to tell all those pigignorant Uitlanders to feck off, but aside from a few fanatics most of them are far too appreciative of the money flowing in to actually take it seriously.
32% of Bavarians against 39% of Welsh willing to consider independence is even quite a similar proportion.
Apart from the slight difference that Bavaria is the second wealthiest state in Germany
So is Scotland in the UK. Even if we take London and the South East as two separate ones, it’s still third (possibly just fourth, depending on how you reckon it).
London and the South East are two separate areas, though I accept while I oppose Scottish independence Scotland is relatively wealthy, helped by North Sea oil of course. Though it also spends far more than it raises in tax with the UK Treasury funding the difference
So why do you advocate UDI for Northern Ireland?
I don't, I want the whole of Northern Ireland to stay in the UK but if under the GFA there was a border poll and NI voted for a United Ireland with Antrim voting against then culturally Antrim would never accept Dublin rule. So in that case it would declare UDI
I don't, I want the whole of Northern Irelandthe United Kingdom to stay in the UKEU but if under the GFAEuropean Union Referendum Act there was a border pollReferendum and NIthe UK voted for a United Irelandto Leave the European Union with AntrimScotland voting against then culturally AntrimScotland would never accept Dublin ruleLeaving the EU. So in that case it would declare UDI
Scotland cannot declare UDI without Westminster approval as Westminster has been sovereign over Scotland since 1707, Holyrood is merely a creation of Westminster.
If Northern Ireland voted to leave the UK however under the GFA UK law would no longer apply to Antrim and it could and would declare UDI before it had to submit to Dubin rule.
Much as Iain Smith's Rhodesia declared UDI in the 1960s during decolonisation over a disagreement over Wilson's proposed terms of independence with the support of the Tory right, only in Antrim Protestant Unionists are the majority while whites were only ever a minority in Rhodesia
LOL at the notion that Antrim has more of an ability to UDI than Scotland.
If Northern Ireland voted for reunification with Ireland then under the GFA the entire island of Ireland would be recognised as within the rule of Ireland. Ireland would claim rule over all of Ireland including Antrim and that would be recognised by the UK, the whole of the EU and the USA and more.
Antrim could go into rebellion against Ireland, but they'd be put down quite easily.
Rhodesia was a self-governing nation that had been self-governing for 42 years prior to its UDI. Even then no countries recognised Rhodesia's UDI, and it led to war and the country eventually returned eventually to a period of direct British rule before it became legally independent as Zimbabwe instead.
Antrim would lose any rebellion. Easily.
Every MP in Antrim is DUP, not every MP in Scotland is SNP, Antrim would therefore have more of its population behind it.
The UK and EU and Ireland can say what they want if there was a United Ireland vote in NI, Antrim would still have voted against and Antrim would still never accept Dublin rule. The alternative of course if it was imposed on Antrim without its consent is inevitably the resumption of a paramilitary terrorist campaign in Ireland by loyalist paramilitaries.
Ireland's government could send troops into Antrim if it wanted to try and restore order but it would face a terrorism campaign as long as the UK government faced from the IRA in nationalist parts of NI until the GFA in opposition to direct rule from London. Antrim would not surrender and it would be naive to expect otherwise.
Rhodesia managed to be self governing for 14 years after its UDI with just 10% support of its population and support only from the Tory right in the UK. Antrim would have the support of most of its population and much of the Tory right too
Rhodesia was self-governing for decades. Antrim has never been self-governing.
Any terrorism campaign in Antrim would be short-lived. The IRA had the support of much of America and others around the globe, nobody would support Antrim.
The idea Conservatives are suddenly going to support terrorism is laughable. Anyone that did would quite rightly be expelled from the Party.
Antrim has its own councils.
You can find guns on the darknet now, you do not need to smuggle them though plenty of criminal networks who would supply them for funds which could be raised from the local population, loyalist paramilitaries have weapons stores secretly stacked away in various rural parts from the Troubles era and plenty have drugs criminal networks for funds.
Lots of rightwing Tories would support Antrim in its wish for self-determination in such circumstances including me if it voted against a United Ireland even if a majority of NI did vote for Irish unity, even if we would not go so far as to support terrorism. You are a liberal not a rightwing Tory anyway
ITV report on the govt’s new plan to get convicts to fill lorry driver shortages going very viral on Tik Tok… “Here’s Dean, he’s on day release from jail working in haulage. His offence was importing drugs, involving a lorry”
Interesting piece in The Guardian from Burnley. A Trouble Town. Decades of mismanaged town politics which led to people voting in fascists 20 years ago. Then LibDem. Then Brexit. Then the Tories. And no matter who they vote for and what they try, the town keeps getting reamed.
At some point red wall voters will realise the pot of gold they voted for isn't there. But they know that Labour councillors and MPs and government didn't help either. And the fascists they elected 20 years ago? Catastrophically ineffective. So what is the point?
So, basically, we will have a large group of voters who are politically homeless and for whom voting is a waste of time as nothing ever changes.
Labour have taken these areas for granted, as they did with Scotland, for many years and now don’t speak to them or even want to understand what they want.
The Tories, at least, offered hope and if that fails where do they go ?
Back to being labelled as thick, stupid and racist and voting against their own interest by online labour activists based in big cities.
I recall a fascinating conversation with a group that included a French trade unionist. She maintained that Switzerland wasn't "A proper democracy".
A bit of discussion later and it became clear that her issue was that in Switzerland, matters that should be only decided as fundamental human rights could be voted on. The specific point of the cow-bell lady* came up.
What I find interesting is that the idea that various pieces of public policy have been moved into something which resembles medieval notions of the power of the Church. These questions have been reserved to the judgement of the (not-very) elect(ed) - the great and good will decide these matters and deliver their Judgement. And it is Hersey to demure.
So you have a situation where people, on the one hand, celebrate freedom, voting rights etc and then say that, actually, *this* stuff is reserved for the Upper 10,000 to decide upon.
I think this is the problem at the heart of modern "populism" - the people have been repeatedly told they are sovereign. Democracy! rules! ok! Then comes a laundry list of things where you are not allowed to have an opinion.
That's an interesting story. It strikes me as quite healthy that those who know you and have to live with you get to decide your citizenship. Personally, this wouldn't be an issue on which I'd deny someone citizenship. But who knows - perhaps there's more to the story than is revealed here. OF COURSE there's more to the story than revealed here.
She talked to international press and used Twitter to trash Swiss traditions
She also complained about being woken up by church bells.
All in all sounds like a PITA
Yes, she does. I used to be a (church) bellringer. There was a surprising number of incidents of people moving to an area and getting the hump because of bells being rung twice a week. The argument that the bells predate the incomers always cut puzzling little ice.
But don’t you know how much they paid for their houses?
ITV report on the govt’s new plan to get convicts to fill lorry driver shortages going very viral on Tik Tok… “Here’s Dean, he’s on day release from jail working in haulage. His offence was importing drugs, involving a lorry”
ITV report on the govt’s new plan to get convicts to fill lorry driver shortages going very viral on Tik Tok… “Here’s Dean, he’s on day release from jail working in haulage. His offence was importing drugs, involving a lorry”
The two lead stories in Der Spiegel are both about the UK. One about the supposed epidemic of girls being drugged in clubs "since Boris Johnson's 'Freedom Day'" and one about how there's a shortage of bus drivers because they are being attracted by higher salaries driving lorries. They seem somewhat obsessed.
The third story also says that British grandmothers are only heating their homes when their grandchildren visit.
Let’s be honest they are not going to say the U.K. is a success because they then have to explain why they are still so restricted.
Germany's a bit of a patchwork, isn't it? The States individually set restrictions, so some have very few restrictions while others still have mask mandates.
I wonder if you get ultra federalist types whining about states not their own taking actions just to be different or neurotically comparing differences in COVID stats between individual Länder?
The Bavarians seem to have stopped whingeing about Indy and how those nasty northerners don’t understand them though.
Just as well, given what happened last time they got a bit carried away over that.
We will see, the Bavaria Party still got 36,748 votes in September and the likely new SPD government in Germany was rejected in Bavaria which still voted overwhelmingly CSU
My distinct impression - which could be entirely wrong - is that Bavarian independence is like Welsh independence. A sizeable chunk think it might be quite nice to tell all those pigignorant Uitlanders to feck off, but aside from a few fanatics most of them are far too appreciative of the money flowing in to actually take it seriously.
32% of Bavarians against 39% of Welsh willing to consider independence is even quite a similar proportion.
Apart from the slight difference that Bavaria is the second wealthiest state in Germany
So is Scotland in the UK. Even if we take London and the South East as two separate ones, it’s still third (possibly just fourth, depending on how you reckon it).
London and the South East are two separate areas, though I accept while I oppose Scottish independence Scotland is relatively wealthy, helped by North Sea oil of course. Though it also spends far more than it raises in tax with the UK Treasury funding the difference
So why do you advocate UDI for Northern Ireland?
I don't, I want the whole of Northern Ireland to stay in the UK but if under the GFA there was a border poll and NI voted for a United Ireland with Antrim voting against then culturally Antrim would never accept Dublin rule. So in that case it would declare UDI
I don't, I want the whole of Northern Irelandthe United Kingdom to stay in the UKEU but if under the GFAEuropean Union Referendum Act there was a border pollReferendum and NIthe UK voted for a United Irelandto Leave the European Union with AntrimScotland voting against then culturally AntrimScotland would never accept Dublin ruleLeaving the EU. So in that case it would declare UDI
Scotland cannot declare UDI without Westminster approval as Westminster has been sovereign over Scotland since 1707, Holyrood is merely a creation of Westminster.
If Northern Ireland voted to leave the UK however under the GFA UK law would no longer apply to Antrim and it could and would declare UDI before it had to submit to Dubin rule.
Much as Iain Smith's Rhodesia declared UDI in the 1960s during decolonisation over a disagreement over Wilson's proposed terms of independence with the support of the Tory right, only in Antrim Protestant Unionists are the majority while whites were only ever a minority in Rhodesia
LOL at the notion that Antrim has more of an ability to UDI than Scotland.
If Northern Ireland voted for reunification with Ireland then under the GFA the entire island of Ireland would be recognised as within the rule of Ireland. Ireland would claim rule over all of Ireland including Antrim and that would be recognised by the UK, the whole of the EU and the USA and more.
Antrim could go into rebellion against Ireland, but they'd be put down quite easily.
Rhodesia was a self-governing nation that had been self-governing for 42 years prior to its UDI. Even then no countries recognised Rhodesia's UDI, and it led to war and the country eventually returned eventually to a period of direct British rule before it became legally independent as Zimbabwe instead.
Antrim would lose any rebellion. Easily.
Every MP in Antrim is DUP, not every MP in Scotland is SNP, Antrim would therefore have more of its population behind it.
The UK and EU and Ireland can say what they want if there was a United Ireland vote in NI, Antrim would still have voted against and Antrim would still never accept Dublin rule. The alternative of course if it was imposed on Antrim without its consent is inevitably the resumption of a paramilitary terrorist campaign in Ireland by loyalist paramilitaries.
Ireland's government could send troops into Antrim if it wanted to try and restore order but it would face a terrorism campaign as long as the UK government faced from the IRA in nationalist parts of NI until the GFA in opposition to direct rule from London. Antrim would not surrender and it would be naive to expect otherwise.
Rhodesia managed to be self governing for 14 years after its UDI with just 10% support of its population and support only from the Tory right in the UK. Antrim would have the support of most of its population and much of the Tory right too
Rhodesia was self-governing for decades. Antrim has never been self-governing.
Any terrorism campaign in Antrim would be short-lived. The IRA had the support of much of America and others around the globe, nobody would support Antrim.
The idea Conservatives are suddenly going to support terrorism is laughable. Anyone that did would quite rightly be expelled from the Party.
Randolph Churchill : Ulster will fight and Ulster will be right
IIRC, Lord Randolph was playing what he called "the Orange card" in a VERY high stakes game for power in Westminster, hoping that it would prove to trump his (mostly Tory) opponents.
Something less than a holy vow, leastways from his own point of view.
Churchill was only ever a power player in his own head
Interesting piece in The Guardian from Burnley. A Trouble Town. Decades of mismanaged town politics which led to people voting in fascists 20 years ago. Then LibDem. Then Brexit. Then the Tories. And no matter who they vote for and what they try, the town keeps getting reamed.
At some point red wall voters will realise the pot of gold they voted for isn't there. But they know that Labour councillors and MPs and government didn't help either. And the fascists they elected 20 years ago? Catastrophically ineffective. So what is the point?
So, basically, we will have a large group of voters who are politically homeless and for whom voting is a waste of time as nothing ever changes.
Labour have taken these areas for granted, as they did with Scotland, for many years and now don’t speak to them or even want to understand what they want.
The Tories, at least, offered hope and if that fails where do they go ?
Back to being labelled as thick, stupid and racist and voting against their own interest by online labour activists based in big cities.
I recall a fascinating conversation with a group that included a French trade unionist. She maintained that Switzerland wasn't "A proper democracy".
A bit of discussion later and it became clear that her issue was that in Switzerland, matters that should be only decided as fundamental human rights could be voted on. The specific point of the cow-bell lady* came up.
What I find interesting is that the idea that various pieces of public policy have been moved into something which resembles medieval notions of the power of the Church. These questions have been reserved to the judgement of the (not-very) elect(ed) - the great and good will decide these matters and deliver their Judgement. And it is Hersey to demure.
So you have a situation where people, on the one hand, celebrate freedom, voting rights etc and then say that, actually, *this* stuff is reserved for the Upper 10,000 to decide upon.
I think this is the problem at the heart of modern "populism" - the people have been repeatedly told they are sovereign. Democracy! rules! ok! Then comes a laundry list of things where you are not allowed to have an opinion.
That's an interesting story. It strikes me as quite healthy that those who know you and have to live with you get to decide your citizenship. Personally, this wouldn't be an issue on which I'd deny someone citizenship. But who knows - perhaps there's more to the story than is revealed here. OF COURSE there's more to the story than revealed here.
She talked to international press and used Twitter to trash Swiss traditions
She also complained about being woken up by church bells.
All in all sounds like a PITA
Yes, she does. I used to be a (church) bellringer. There was a surprising number of incidents of people moving to an area and getting the hump because of bells being rung twice a week. The argument that the bells predate the incomers always cut puzzling little ice.
I used to drink in a 17th C pub. About 30 years ago a house was built next door. The first occupants, and indeed their successors, used to complain about the noise on a Saturday night.
It depends what you mean by “complain”
Saying “please keep it down in the garden after midnight” to the landlord is fine.
Whinging to your neighbours about the noise is fine
ITV report on the govt’s new plan to get convicts to fill lorry driver shortages going very viral on Tik Tok… “Here’s Dean, he’s on day release from jail working in haulage. His offence was importing drugs, involving a lorry” https://twitter.com/alexwickham/status/1452366526560997380
Fantastic to see people who are reaching the end of their sentence and getting released from jail are able to get work.
As we all know employment is the best way to defeat recidivism. Its great to see you highlighting a government success in driving down recidivism here.
The people,up,in arms over this are exactly the sort of people,who would support this in the normal course of events.
I don’t see reintegrating criminals back into society As being a bad thing.
It’s not like,they’d let Peter Sutcliffe do,it if he was still alive.
Another word I've had to enjoy reading on here amongst the polite discourse today is 'wank'. Its deliberately offensive use earlier wasn't sanctioned, so I hope I can get away with its etymology!
It's uncertain, but it seems to be derived from the word whank.
The word seems to have developed its modern meaning in the late 19C, and has been found to have been used in that sense earliest by military. Possibly unrelated to this usage, wank was used synonymously to wonk to mean a novice sailor in the navy. But whank or wank have been found used in around 1920, mostly from the air force.
Amongst the terms that seem to have come from the RAF are whank-pit ("A bed: R.A.F.: since ca. 1920"), whanker ("a masturbator: low" late C. 19–20), whanker's colic "An undiagnosed visceral pain: R.A.F/: since early 1920's"), whanker's doom ("Debility: R.A.F.: since ca. 1925"), and whanking-pit ("the Army's form of whank-pit: since early 1920'")
The two lead stories in Der Spiegel are both about the UK. One about the supposed epidemic of girls being drugged in clubs "since Boris Johnson's 'Freedom Day'" and one about how there's a shortage of bus drivers because they are being attracted by higher salaries driving lorries. They seem somewhat obsessed.
The third story also says that British grandmothers are only heating their homes when their grandchildren visit.
Let’s be honest they are not going to say the U.K. is a success because they then have to explain why they are still so restricted.
Germany's a bit of a patchwork, isn't it? The States individually set restrictions, so some have very few restrictions while others still have mask mandates.
I wonder if you get ultra federalist types whining about states not their own taking actions just to be different or neurotically comparing differences in COVID stats between individual Länder?
The Bavarians seem to have stopped whingeing about Indy and how those nasty northerners don’t understand them though.
Just as well, given what happened last time they got a bit carried away over that.
We will see, the Bavaria Party still got 36,748 votes in September and the likely new SPD government in Germany was rejected in Bavaria which still voted overwhelmingly CSU
My distinct impression - which could be entirely wrong - is that Bavarian independence is like Welsh independence. A sizeable chunk think it might be quite nice to tell all those pigignorant Uitlanders to feck off, but aside from a few fanatics most of them are far too appreciative of the money flowing in to actually take it seriously.
32% of Bavarians against 39% of Welsh willing to consider independence is even quite a similar proportion.
Apart from the slight difference that Bavaria is the second wealthiest state in Germany
So is Scotland in the UK. Even if we take London and the South East as two separate ones, it’s still third (possibly just fourth, depending on how you reckon it).
London and the South East are two separate areas, though I accept while I oppose Scottish independence Scotland is relatively wealthy, helped by North Sea oil of course. Though it also spends far more than it raises in tax with the UK Treasury funding the difference
So why do you advocate UDI for Northern Ireland?
I don't, I want the whole of Northern Ireland to stay in the UK but if under the GFA there was a border poll and NI voted for a United Ireland with Antrim voting against then culturally Antrim would never accept Dublin rule. So in that case it would declare UDI
I don't, I want the whole of Northern Irelandthe United Kingdom to stay in the UKEU but if under the GFAEuropean Union Referendum Act there was a border pollReferendum and NIthe UK voted for a United Irelandto Leave the European Union with AntrimScotland voting against then culturally AntrimScotland would never accept Dublin ruleLeaving the EU. So in that case it would declare UDI
Scotland cannot declare UDI without Westminster approval as Westminster has been sovereign over Scotland since 1707, Holyrood is merely a creation of Westminster.
If Northern Ireland voted to leave the UK however under the GFA UK law would no longer apply to Antrim and it could and would declare UDI before it had to submit to Dubin rule.
Much as Iain Smith's Rhodesia declared UDI in the 1960s during decolonisation over a disagreement over Wilson's proposed terms of independence with the support of the Tory right, only in Antrim Protestant Unionists are the majority while whites were only ever a minority in Rhodesia
LOL at the notion that Antrim has more of an ability to UDI than Scotland.
If Northern Ireland voted for reunification with Ireland then under the GFA the entire island of Ireland would be recognised as within the rule of Ireland. Ireland would claim rule over all of Ireland including Antrim and that would be recognised by the UK, the whole of the EU and the USA and more.
Antrim could go into rebellion against Ireland, but they'd be put down quite easily.
Rhodesia was a self-governing nation that had been self-governing for 42 years prior to its UDI. Even then no countries recognised Rhodesia's UDI, and it led to war and the country eventually returned eventually to a period of direct British rule before it became legally independent as Zimbabwe instead.
Antrim would lose any rebellion. Easily.
Every MP in Antrim is DUP, not every MP in Scotland is SNP, Antrim would therefore have more of its population behind it.
The UK and EU and Ireland can say what they want if there was a United Ireland vote in NI, Antrim would still have voted against and Antrim would still never accept Dublin rule. The alternative of course if it was imposed on Antrim without its consent is inevitably the resumption of a paramilitary terrorist campaign in Ireland by loyalist paramilitaries.
Ireland's government could send troops into Antrim if it wanted to try and restore order but it would face a terrorism campaign as long as the UK government faced from the IRA in nationalist parts of NI until the GFA in opposition to direct rule from London. Antrim would not surrender and it would be naive to expect otherwise.
Rhodesia managed to be self governing for 14 years after its UDI with just 10% support of its population and support only from the Tory right in the UK. Antrim would have the support of most of its population and much of the Tory right too
Rhodesia was self-governing for decades. Antrim has never been self-governing.
Any terrorism campaign in Antrim would be short-lived. The IRA had the support of much of America and others around the globe, nobody would support Antrim.
The idea Conservatives are suddenly going to support terrorism is laughable. Anyone that did would quite rightly be expelled from the Party.
Randolph Churchill : Ulster will fight and Ulster will be right
IIRC, Lord Randolph was playing what he called "the Orange card" in a VERY high stakes game for power in Westminster, hoping that it would prove to trump his (mostly Tory) opponents.
Something less than a holy vow, leastways from his own point of view.
Churchill was only ever a power player in his own head
You may have a point.
Sort of a 19-century forerunner to George Brown . . . an odd couple in more ways than one.
Brilliant in some ways, flawed in many others, but generally well-intentioned. And NEVER dull.
ITV report on the govt’s new plan to get convicts to fill lorry driver shortages going very viral on Tik Tok… “Here’s Dean, he’s on day release from jail working in haulage. His offence was importing drugs, involving a lorry”
ITV report on the govt’s new plan to get convicts to fill lorry driver shortages going very viral on Tik Tok… “Here’s Dean, he’s on day release from jail working in haulage. His offence was importing drugs, involving a lorry”
For those who think the jizz sack's antics are just a bit of harmless fun.
It’s nothing to do with anything Boris has said.
She’s a hostage. That’s all.
You think saying she was teaching journalism had no bearing on her current predicament?
It may not have done, we don't know. But the laziness, inattention to detail and insouciance about outcomes for brown people are telling.
Yes it had absolutely no bearing whatsoever on her current predicament.
She was already in prison and already being held hostage long before the PM spoke. The Iranians were already increasing her sentence before he spoke too.
That's why he was asked about the situation. Because it had already happened. Unless the Iranians have a TARDIS her being in this predicament has not a scintilla of a relationship to what happened after she ended up in this predicament.
But if you find it easier to blame the PM of the UK instead of the Iranians holding her hostage, then that's on you. 🤷♂️
They plan to dump raw sewage cos they can't get the chemicals to treat it.
Thanks to Brexit.
It's literally a shitshow
The only shit I smell is bullshit coming from you.
The link before you shared simply said the Tories had voted against a proposed amendment to outlaw what is already legal and long been happening. Nothing to do with chemicals or Brexit.
Do you have a source saying that this is happening due to Brexit? Not delusional Twitter idiots or EU fanzines like the London Economic or New European?
They plan to dump raw sewage cos they can't get the chemicals to treat it.
Thanks to Brexit.
It's literally a shitshow
The only shit I smell is bullshit coming from you.
The link before you shared simply said the Tories had voted against a proposed amendment to outlaw what is already legal and long been happening. Nothing to do with chemicals or Brexit.
Do you have a source saying that this is happening due to Brexit? Not delusional Twitter idiots or EU fanzines like the London Economic or New European?
That wasn’t what the amendment AIUI. It put a legal duty on water companies to prevent *any* pollution into waterways. Including by other actors.
Another word I've had to enjoy reading on here amongst the polite discourse today is 'wank'. Its deliberately offensive use earlier wasn't sanctioned, so I hope I can get away with its etymology!
It's uncertain, but it seems to be derived from the word whank.
The word seems to have developed its modern meaning in the late 19C, and has been found to have been used in that sense earliest by military. Possibly unrelated to this usage, wank was used synonymously to wonk to mean a novice sailor in the navy. But whank or wank have been found used in around 1920, mostly from the air force.
Amongst the terms that seem to have come from the RAF are whank-pit ("A bed: R.A.F.: since ca. 1920"), whanker ("a masturbator: low" late C. 19–20), whanker's colic "An undiagnosed visceral pain: R.A.F/: since early 1920's"), whanker's doom ("Debility: R.A.F.: since ca. 1925"), and whanking-pit ("the Army's form of whank-pit: since early 1920'")
As soon as the coast is reasonably clear, I invite all PBers (regardless of personal politics or sanity) to visit the great Pacific Northwest!
AND while your here, make sure to check out the Wankers's Corner Country Store AND the Wanker's Corner Saloon & Cafe both located just south of Portland in the charming hamlet of . . . wait for it . . . Wankers's Corner.
Glad I'd already quit the party as this would be another deal-breaker for me.
What's next, if someone wants to open an Aldi supermarket give the existing Morrisons, Tescos and Waitrose a vote on whether to allow the competition to open up or not?
They plan to dump raw sewage cos they can't get the chemicals to treat it.
Thanks to Brexit.
It's literally a shitshow
The only shit I smell is bullshit coming from you.
The link before you shared simply said the Tories had voted against a proposed amendment to outlaw what is already legal and long been happening. Nothing to do with chemicals or Brexit.
Do you have a source saying that this is happening due to Brexit? Not delusional Twitter idiots or EU fanzines like the London Economic or New European?
That wasn’t what the amendment AIUI. It put a legal duty on water companies to prevent *any* pollution into waterways. Including by other actors.
I know. That's why I'm saying that Scott is spreading bullshit.
Voting against forbidding water companies from allowing any pollution into the waterways (which would be a significant change in how they operate) is not the same as voting to allow something that wasn't allowed before.
ITV report on the govt’s new plan to get convicts to fill lorry driver shortages going very viral on Tik Tok… “Here’s Dean, he’s on day release from jail working in haulage. His offence was importing drugs, involving a lorry” https://twitter.com/alexwickham/status/1452366526560997380
Fantastic to see people who are reaching the end of their sentence and getting released from jail are able to get work.
As we all know employment is the best way to defeat recidivism. Its great to see you highlighting a government success in driving down recidivism here.
The people,up,in arms over this are exactly the sort of people,who would support this in the normal course of events.
I don’t see reintegrating criminals back into society As being a bad thing.
It’s not like,they’d let Peter Sutcliffe do,it if he was still alive.
That could have made for a 1,500 word Guardian editorial, on how we were rehabilitating offenders back into society.
Ditto with pay rises for drivers and hospitality staff, but becuase of the “B-word”, these are now seen as bad things by people who would have been natural supporters only a few years ago.
Interesting to note which Tories did not vote to allow dumping raw sewage.
Sadly Tissue Price doesn't make the cut
There was no vote to "allow" anything that isn't currently allowed. You're a liar and shouldn't smear Tissue Price who isn't here to defend himself from your dishonest lies.
Interesting to note which Tories did not vote to allow dumping raw sewage.
Sadly Tissue Price doesn't make the cut
There was no vote to "allow" anything that isn't currently allowed. You're a liar and shouldn't smear Tissue Price who isn't here to defend himself from your dishonest lies.
Maybe Scott should get his whanking spanners off the keyboard, and have a torque with himself instead.
Another word I've had to enjoy reading on here amongst the polite discourse today is 'wank'. Its deliberately offensive use earlier wasn't sanctioned, so I hope I can get away with its etymology!
It's uncertain, but it seems to be derived from the word whank.
The word seems to have developed its modern meaning in the late 19C, and has been found to have been used in that sense earliest by military. Possibly unrelated to this usage, wank was used synonymously to wonk to mean a novice sailor in the navy. But whank or wank have been found used in around 1920, mostly from the air force.
Amongst the terms that seem to have come from the RAF are whank-pit ("A bed: R.A.F.: since ca. 1920"), whanker ("a masturbator: low" late C. 19–20), whanker's colic "An undiagnosed visceral pain: R.A.F/: since early 1920's"), whanker's doom ("Debility: R.A.F.: since ca. 1925"), and whanking-pit ("the Army's form of whank-pit: since early 1920'")
As soon as the coast is reasonably clear, I invite all PBers (regardless of personal politics or sanity) to visit the great Pacific Northwest!
AND while your here, make sure to check out the Wankers's Corner Country Store AND the Wanker's Corner Saloon & Cafe both located just south of Portland in the charming hamlet of . . . wait for it . . . Wankers's Corner.
Also, while I couldnt add to the earlier discussion about Bavaria's wealth, I do know it is home to the mountain Wank near Garmisch.
Another word I've had to enjoy reading on here amongst the polite discourse today is 'wank'. Its deliberately offensive use earlier wasn't sanctioned, so I hope I can get away with its etymology!
It's uncertain, but it seems to be derived from the word whank.
The word seems to have developed its modern meaning in the late 19C, and has been found to have been used in that sense earliest by military. Possibly unrelated to this usage, wank was used synonymously to wonk to mean a novice sailor in the navy. But whank or wank have been found used in around 1920, mostly from the air force.
Amongst the terms that seem to have come from the RAF are whank-pit ("A bed: R.A.F.: since ca. 1920"), whanker ("a masturbator: low" late C. 19–20), whanker's colic "An undiagnosed visceral pain: R.A.F/: since early 1920's"), whanker's doom ("Debility: R.A.F.: since ca. 1925"), and whanking-pit ("the Army's form of whank-pit: since early 1920'")
As soon as the coast is reasonably clear, I invite all PBers (regardless of personal politics or sanity) to visit the great Pacific Northwest!
AND while your here, make sure to check out the Wankers's Corner Country Store AND the Wanker's Corner Saloon & Cafe both located just south of Portland in the charming hamlet of . . . wait for it . . . Wankers's Corner.
Also, while I couldnt add to the earlier discussion about Bavaria's wealth, I do know it is home to the mountain Wank near Garmisch.
Glad I'd already quit the party as this would be another deal-breaker for me.
What's next, if someone wants to open an Aldi supermarket give the existing Morrisons, Tescos and Waitrose a vote on whether to allow the competition to open up or not?
I think this is Steve Baker and another MP not party policy
For those who think the jizz sack's antics are just a bit of harmless fun.
It’s nothing to do with anything Boris has said.
She’s a hostage. That’s all.
You think saying she was teaching journalism had no bearing on her current predicament?
It may not have done, we don't know. But the laziness, inattention to detail and insouciance about outcomes for brown people are telling.
It provided the Iranians with a convenient excuse plus additional leverage (personal embarrassment).
But they would have found another excuse if he hadn’t said it
My presumption was that she *was* teaching journalism and that admitting it was thought (incorrectly) to be likely to improve her position.
The worst possible case for people to bring up.
She’s an Iranian citizen, who committed offences in Iran and was arrested in Iran.
There’s a huge misunderstanding as to the law on dual citizenship, deliberately so on the part of her British supporters - the UK government can do precisely nothing under international law, and the Iranians are going to enjoy rubbing their noses in it, no matter who is the British representative trying to negotiate on her behalf.
City break in York with the family today and tomorrow. It is absolutely packed. I've never seen it so busy, not even when the races were on. Went out for tea at 6 - all the restaurants were fully booked. Ended up eating in a perfectly adequate fish and chip shop, which probably saved us about £40. Anyway, everyone up for having as good a time as possible. Almost no sign of masks. National rail museum tomorrow. Very excited...
If you have time and inclination, the pub in the station next door (York TAP) has a very good range of beers
City break in York with the family today and tomorrow. It is absolutely packed. I've never seen it so busy, not even when the races were on. Went out for tea at 6 - all the restaurants were fully booked. Ended up eating in a perfectly adequate fish and chip shop, which probably saved us about £40. Anyway, everyone up for having as good a time as possible. Almost no sign of masks. National rail museum tomorrow. Very excited...
If you have time and inclination, the pub in the station next door (York TAP) has a very good range of beers
It has a belting selection. Owned by the same group who have the equally excellent Newcastle Tap.
I like (I think) that "likes" are tabulated on PB.
Question - is there any tabulation (actual or possible) for number of times that a posters posts are "quoted" as per the system?
Possibly a preferable portrait of a PBer's posting prowess, perhaps?
Yeah, I see posts that have no likes but get about twenty replies.
They're obviously more interesting posts than the repost of a funny tweet that gets twenty likes.
But a deliberately offensive post can get a lot of responses without being interesting, and hopefully wouldn't get likes.
Perhaps powers-that-be could provide buttons for range of responses, in addition to tabulating sheer # of quotes. Would be more useful than the "off topic" button which seems to get pushed mostly by mistake, certainly NOT every time someone strays off into the ozone somewhere - which is large part of the charm (if that's the word) of PB.
Comments
NI Protestants who wanted a still Protestant majority state would all move to Antrim once it declared UDI if NI as a whole voted for a united Ireland
Any terrorism campaign in Antrim would be short-lived. The IRA had the support of much of America and others around the globe, nobody would support Antrim.
The idea Conservatives are suddenly going to support terrorism is laughable. Anyone that did would quite rightly be expelled from the Party.
Protestants comprise solid majority countywide, with Unionist of whatever hue dominating politics since Gladstone was in short pants. But Antrim UDI? Reckon that's a Giants Causeway too far!
60.3% Protestant
31.3% Catholic
1.0% other
7.5% none/not stated
Analogously, for the historic area of County Antrim:
53.1% Protestant
38.7% Catholic
1.2% other
7.0% none/not stated
Randolph Churchill : Ulster will fight and Ulster will be right
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Loyalist_Anti-Repeal_Union
A bit of discussion later and it became clear that her issue was that in Switzerland, matters that should be only decided as fundamental human rights could be voted on. The specific point of the cow-bell lady* came up.
What I find interesting is that the idea that various pieces of public policy have been moved into something which resembles medieval notions of the power of the Church. These questions have been reserved to the judgement of the (not-very) elect(ed) - the great and good will decide these matters and deliver their Judgement. And it is Hersey to demure.
So you have a situation where people, on the one hand, celebrate freedom, voting rights etc and then say that, actually, *this* stuff is reserved for the Upper 10,000 to decide upon.
I think this is the problem at the heart of modern "populism" - the people have been repeatedly told they are sovereign. Democracy! rules! ok! Then comes a laundry list of things where you are not allowed to have an opinion.
https://eu.usatoday.com/story/news/world/2017/01/14/swiss-citizenship-woman-denied-cowbells/96398518/
Why hasn’t the locally ruling Conservative party conceded the right of the islanders to independence?
You can find guns on the darknet now, you do not need to smuggle them though plenty of criminal networks who would supply them for funds which could be raised from the local population, loyalist paramilitaries have weapons stores secretly stacked away in various rural parts from the Troubles era and plenty have drugs criminal networks for funds.
Lots of rightwing Tories would support Antrim in its wish for self-determination in such circumstances including me if it voted against a United Ireland even if a majority of NI did vote for Irish unity, even if we would not go so far as to support terrorism. You are a liberal not a rightwing Tory anyway
The People's Republic of Epping Forest.
Leader: HYUFD, PB.
The UK has accepted as law, guaranteed by the USA, that the whole of NI stays in the UK unless there's a border poll won by nationalists - and if there is the whole of Ireland is unified. Repartition is not an option. No Tories will support Antrim terrorists if NI democratically votes for unification.
Its farcical to suggest. May as well suggest Scotland can UDI.
Must be akin to following the Crimean War by reading the the London Gazett
Anyway, everyone up for having as good a time as possible. Almost no sign of masks.
National rail museum tomorrow. Very excited...
She also complained about being woken up by church bells.
All in all sounds like a PITA
City of Seattle ballot returns for 2021 general election as of Friday 10.22 = 40,293 (8% of active reg)
> which accounts for 15% of projected final turnout of 55% of 490k total active registered voters
Seattle Times ($) - Black leaders call on Seattle mayoral candidate M. Lorena González to pull ‘racist’ ad saying Bruce Harrell sided with sex abusers
With a little over a week remaining before votes are counted, Seattle’s mayoral race exploded into vitriol Saturday as rivals Bruce Harrell and M. Lorena González traded accusations of racism and enabling sexual abusers.
The spark was a new attack ad aired by González’s campaign, which accuses Harrell of siding with sexual abusers including ex-Mayor Ed Murray — a late hit that was blasted as desperate and racist by Harrell and allies including Black community leaders.
. . . [T]he commercial, which juxtaposes images of Harrell with media accounts of the Murray sex-abuse scandal. The ad features a white rape survivor who says she could never vote for Harrell. . . .
The 30-second ad seeks to contrast González, who was the first member of the Seattle City Council to publicly call for Murray to consider resigning several months into the 2017 scandal, with Harrell, who made no such public demands and at times defended the mayor from calls for him to step down.
The new commercial opens with the woman, identified only by her first name and initial, saying she’d been raped five years ago, and that the rapist was never prosecuted.
“It was horrifying to me to hear Bruce Harrell defend Ed Murray saying people shouldn’t be judged by what they’ve done in the past,” she says in the ad, adding later, “Bruce Harrell has repeatedly sided with abusers. As a survivor, I could never vote for him.”
Harrell and his allies Saturday called the ad blatantly racist . . .
“It was more than a dog whistle. It was blatant,” said Harrell.
Gerald Hankerson, regional president for the NAACP . . . compared the ad to the “Willie Horton” ad in the 1988 presidential campaign, which stoked white fears of crime by showing a photo of a Black man who raped a white woman while on prison furlough.
. . . Lincoln Beauregard, the attorney who represented Murray accuser Delvonn Heckard in the April 2017 lawsuit that broke the scandal into public view, defended Harrell at Saturday’s event and called the attack ad a dishonest and inflammatory portrayal. . . . .
González declined to pull the ad and doubled down in a statement from her campaign Saturday afternoon.
“Bruce Harrell has a troubling history of discrediting survivors of abuse and harassment. As Council President, he used his position to defend Ed Murray, even after multiple, credible accusations of child rape. His response to this ad is another example of him denying the facts and discrediting a victim,” the statement sent by campaign manager Alex Koren said.
Because if Dublin imposed direct rule on Antrim without Antrim's consent and refused to recognise an Antrim UDI a paramilitary war is what would result as much as the IRA war in NI in nationalist areas against direct rule from London
I used to be a (church) bellringer. There was a surprising number of incidents of people moving to an area and getting the hump because of bells being rung twice a week. The argument that the bells predate the incomers always cut puzzling little ice.
https://twitter.com/alexwickham/status/1452366526560997380
Something less than a holy vow, leastways from his own point of view.
Anyone who attempted to spark terrorism making Antrim independent would be ostracised and destroyed.
As we all know employment is the best way to defeat recidivism. Its great to see you highlighting a government success in driving down recidivism here.
Only this time its his favoured successionists that for some reason magically won't be crushed despite having the whole of their government (Ireland), the UK, the EU and the USA against them. 🤦♂️
Maybe get a cup of tea
I don’t see reintegrating criminals back into society As being a bad thing.
It’s not like,they’d let Peter Sutcliffe do,it if he was still alive.
An obvious one to start with is neologism. It seems clear that this is something @DuraAce would love to have made. Obviously it's a neo- 'new', +logos 'word'. Our very own JizzJunky might have to wait.
We also have syllogisms and paralogisms. These are words about logic; the start of syllogism is derived from syn- meaning 'together', and it's a combination of two logical statements to prove a third one. In paralogism, the para- comes from Greek meaning 'contrary to', hence a paralogism is "a piece of illogical or fallacious reasoning". Which I'm sure we've all seen here.
There's 'agism', which is a bit dull etymologically. Similarly dull in their origin, but a bit more spicy in their current trans-centred battle, are biologism, the belief that human nature is defined by biology; and psychologism, the belief that that our nature is defined by our psychology - as separate, or at least different, from our biology.
There's also 'priggism', meaning being a prig, which might either have derived from the same word meaning a 'dandy', or a 'thief', or from the word prick. Quite amusingly for here, quislingism is a word. Meaning an act of treachery, working for an occupying force. And finally savagism. This has its origin from the Latin word for 'of the woods', silvaticus.
Trisha Greenhalgh
@trishgreenhalgh
·
9h
If UK government decide they need extra scientific help to deal with the Covid-19 crisis, I’m available. Unlike some Oxford professors, I’ve never been asked my opinion on pandemic policy. Unlike some, I’ve never been catastrophically wrong in my predictions either. Just saying.
He is on day release and contributing to his life post jail
Actually I think that tweet is out of order
He is on day release working his way to a new future
Shame on you and all those who try to politicise this story
So presumably you're congratulating the government on this policy?
For those who think the jizz sack's antics are just a bit of harmless fun.
https://twitter.com/home?lang=en-gb
Saying “please keep it down in the garden after midnight” to the landlord is fine.
Whinging to your neighbours about the noise is fine
Taking the pub to court wouldn’t be
She’s a hostage. That’s all.
https://twitter.com/paullewismoney/status/1452321285841866756/photo/1
It's uncertain, but it seems to be derived from the word whank.
I've found two early dialectic uses of this word. First from Jameison's Dictionary Of Scottish https://www.google.co.uk/books/edition/Jamieson_s_Dictionary_of_the_Scottish_La/wHIrAAAAMAAJ?hl=en&gbpv=1&dq=whank&pg=PA610&printsec=frontcover meaning "A stroke; the act of striking, properly with the fist". Which does seem to tie up the etymology to me!
But I love the Northern/Yorkshire usage too much not to mention it!
In the North, a "whank" meant a large portion. It seems to be mostly related to cheese in the written examples, but I think you could equally ask your butcher for a whank of his meat!
https://www.google.co.uk/books/edition/The_Yorkshire_Anthology/fL9PAAAAcAAJ?hl=en&gbpv=1&dq=whank&pg=PA113&printsec=frontcover
The word seems to have developed its modern meaning in the late 19C, and has been found to have been used in that sense earliest by military. Possibly unrelated to this usage, wank was used synonymously to wonk to mean a novice sailor in the navy. But whank or wank have been found used in around 1920, mostly from the air force.
Amongst the terms that seem to have come from the RAF are whank-pit ("A bed: R.A.F.: since ca. 1920"), whanker ("a masturbator: low" late C. 19–20), whanker's colic "An undiagnosed visceral pain: R.A.F/: since early 1920's"), whanker's doom ("Debility: R.A.F.: since ca. 1925"), and whanking-pit ("the Army's form of whank-pit: since early 1920'")
But my very favourite, which I'm going to use, is the brilliant "whanking-spanner" ("An imaginary tool like a 'sky-hook'" and "The hand: low: since ca. 1920")
https://english.stackexchange.com/questions/142491/where-does-the-word-wankers-come-from
Sort of a 19-century forerunner to George Brown . . . an odd couple in more ways than one.
Brilliant in some ways, flawed in many others, but generally well-intentioned. And NEVER dull.
It may not have done, we don't know. But the laziness, inattention to detail and insouciance about outcomes for brown people are telling.
Its already happening and long has been. Its the existing law that it can happen and does happen already and long has been. 🤦♂️
But they would have found another excuse if he hadn’t said it
Thanks to Brexit.
It's literally a shitshow
She was already in prison and already being held hostage long before the PM spoke. The Iranians were already increasing her sentence before he spoke too.
That's why he was asked about the situation. Because it had already happened. Unless the Iranians have a TARDIS her being in this predicament has not a scintilla of a relationship to what happened after she ended up in this predicament.
But if you find it easier to blame the PM of the UK instead of the Iranians holding her hostage, then that's on you. 🤷♂️
https://www.theguardian.com/society/2021/oct/24/tory-mps-back-plan-to-give-people-a-vote-on-new-housing-in-their-areas
The link before you shared simply said the Tories had voted against a proposed amendment to outlaw what is already legal and long been happening. Nothing to do with chemicals or Brexit.
Do you have a source saying that this is happening due to Brexit? Not delusional Twitter idiots or EU fanzines like the London Economic or New European?
AND while your here, make sure to check out the Wankers's Corner Country Store AND the Wanker's Corner Saloon & Cafe both located just south of Portland in the charming hamlet of . . . wait for it . . . Wankers's Corner.
Glad I'd already quit the party as this would be another deal-breaker for me.
What's next, if someone wants to open an Aldi supermarket give the existing Morrisons, Tescos and Waitrose a vote on whether to allow the competition to open up or not?
Voting against forbidding water companies from allowing any pollution into the waterways (which would be a significant change in how they operate) is not the same as voting to allow something that wasn't allowed before.
Ditto with pay rises for drivers and hospitality staff, but becuase of the “B-word”, these are now seen as bad things by people who would have been natural supporters only a few years ago.
Sadly Tissue Price doesn't make the cut
Question - is there any tabulation (actual or possible) for number of times that a posters posts are "quoted" as per the system?
Possibly a preferable portrait of a PBer's posting prowess, perhaps?
She’s an Iranian citizen, who committed offences in Iran and was arrested in Iran.
There’s a huge misunderstanding as to the law on dual citizenship, deliberately so on the part of her British supporters - the UK government can do precisely nothing under international law, and the Iranians are going to enjoy rubbing their noses in it, no matter who is the British representative trying to negotiate on her behalf.
They're obviously more interesting posts than the repost of a funny tweet that gets twenty likes.
But a deliberately offensive post can get a lot of responses without being interesting, and hopefully wouldn't get likes.
Allie Hodgkins-Brown
@AllieHBNews
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Monday’s Daily MIRROR: “Get Booster & Save Xmas” #TomorrowsPapersToday
So does the maltings just over the road.
The House of Trembling Madness is also excellent.
https://twitter.com/thelma_dwalker/status/1452221671591534595?s=21