j
Member of DD Central
Penguins are very misunderstood!
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Post by j on Jun 11, 2014 18:03:42 GMT
UKIP is not the same as say a BNP or EDL. I support none but I think to compare the former (even if I don't particularly subscribe to some of their policies) with the latter two is inappropriate (though I'm sure that wasn't the aim). Again, nationalism/loving your country is OK to an extent (as long as racism/discrimination is not involved) & regional governance is OK provided everybody chips in a fair amount & also help carry each other during hard times. It's the people that make politics & governance corrupt, not the principle of either.
We don't live in an idealistic world & I'm sure some will agree & some will disagree
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Post by GSV3MIaC on Jun 11, 2014 20:14:49 GMT
As soon as someone gets to spending someone else's money, things go pear shaped .. and the greater the 'distance' between the money source and the money spenders, the worse it gets (IMO). You can throw (some/many) company executives in the same pot as politicians with respect to that particular sin.
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james
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Post by james on Jun 12, 2014 4:26:48 GMT
If Scotland becomes independent, would UKIP rename themselves EIP and campaign to get England out of the EU? No need. UK would still be correct without Scotland. Here's how it works, with ISO country/region codes in brackets: England (ENG): England. Add Wales (WLS) : Britain (EAW) . Add Scotland (SCT): Great Britain (GBN). Add Northern Ireland (NIR): Great Britain and Northern Ireland (GB, GBR, by exception also UK). So remove Scotland and all that changes is a move to "United Kingdom of Britain and Northern Ireland" without the Great bit that signifies the Scotland part. The ISO country code, used in web URLS and other places, for us is actually GB or GBR not UK, so that might need to change even though UK doesn't. Ukraine is UA and UKR so that limits the alternatives a little. However, UK is reserved for UK use by the ISO and is the one that is in practice used for UK web sites, so we could just switch to UK and some other three letters, or keep GBR, since NI is technically declared as a province, not a country, unlike England, Scotland and Wales (was "principality" until December 2011), accepting the "Great" part error. Or we could just accept the error of including the G and not change anything. Probably the best option at least while NI is part of the package, since that could also have been used to get the great component if Scotland's addition hadn't done it.
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Post by yorkshireman on Jun 12, 2014 19:38:27 GMT
But I do know that I was being grossly unfair. No offence taken CC. 
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Post by oldnick on Jun 14, 2014 9:01:59 GMT
I quite agree that we English lack the same regional representation, but I'm reluctant to ask for another tier of government - perhaps it could be in place of county councils? As for the Labour party, I can't help thinking they're ultimately a spent force, having achieved their original 19th centuary aims and now reduced to just disagreeing when in opposition and then apeing the Tories when in power. It's their constituancy that is least likely to bother to vote, for the simple reason that they are now housed, fed and clothed, with generous employment rights, and don't need to fight anymore. One of the problems with regional representation be they local or county councils or regional assemblies is that people don't take them seriously and use their votes to send a protest to the national government. As a result in the recent local authority elections we had candidates from a range of national parties all with policies relating to the local area and we had a UKIP candidate whose sole policy was to leave the EU and to get rid of all the foreigners. Any guesses who got elected? You got it the UKIP candidate who had no local policies. True, local elections provide a platform for flakey one policy parties which couldn't run the whole country, but they can nudge the national parties into action when they're pretending not to hear public opinion. Local elections are also the birthing ground for new parties who would otherwise never get off the ground if they had to campaign at national level from the beginning. Political evolution must continue if democracy is to survive. Do we really want just two views on how the country should be run? Not keen on the Italian model where no concensus can be reached though.
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Post by batchoy on Jun 14, 2014 12:25:26 GMT
One of the problems with regional representation be they local or county councils or regional assemblies is that people don't take them seriously and use their votes to send a protest to the national government. As a result in the recent local authority elections we had candidates from a range of national parties all with policies relating to the local area and we had a UKIP candidate whose sole policy was to leave the EU and to get rid of all the foreigners. Any guesses who got elected? You got it the UKIP candidate who had no local policies. True, local elections provide a platform for flakey one policy parties which couldn't run the whole country, but they can nudge the national parties into action when they're pretending not to hear public opinion. Local elections are also the birthing ground for new parties who would otherwise never get off the ground if they had to campaign at national level from the beginning. Political evolution must continue if democracy is to survive. Do we really want just two views on how the country should be run? Not keen on the Italian model where no concensus can be reached though. Whilst there is no problem with local politics being the birthing ground for new parties, the big problem is that people in general have no concept of the power split is between local government, national assemblies, Westminster, the European parliament, and the European commission and so vote to send a message to Westminster by voting in the wrong to the very organisation that has the power. A classic example being Wales where the majority of the population apparently don't realize the the Welsh Assembly are responsible for the NHS in Wales.
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Post by jevans4949 on Jul 3, 2014 9:32:44 GMT
Looking on the bright side, if Scotland does go independent, we won't have to worry about Andy Murray being knocked out of Wimbledon.
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Post by GSV3MIaC on Jul 3, 2014 16:17:28 GMT
Nice try, but I'm sure he'd decamp to south of the border ('down Monaco way'? No maybe that's only F1 drivers). Does Scotland HAVE an LTA?!
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Post by phoenix on Jul 3, 2014 17:51:05 GMT
Nice try, but I'm sure he'd decamp to south of the border ('down Monaco way'? No maybe that's only F1 drivers). Does Scotland HAVE an LTA?!
Does England? (Hint: no.)
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Post by rudry2677 on Jul 3, 2014 18:00:56 GMT
Nice try, but I'm sure he'd decamp to south of the border ('down Monaco way'? No maybe that's only F1 drivers). Does Scotland HAVE an LTA?!
Does England? (Hint: no.) No, but they do have a soccer team. Full of pretty young ladies.....
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Post by rudry2677 on Jul 8, 2014 20:59:14 GMT
Talking of soccer, Germany 5 Brazil 0 at half time. Now that's professional soccer. What a great demonstration of controlled sportsmanship. Maybe at least one European team in the W C final.
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