Full hard brexit. But at least its red white and blue.
- Thread starter twitchmoss
- Start date
GasBandit
Staff member
If only there was some Europe-centered economic alliance they could have joined that would have facilitated such things, right?
They still feel the Commonwealth should send them their
Of course, there's also the matter of how the EU set limits to what you were allowed to do or demand of people wanting work visa. These temporary work visa really are "we load you on a cargo plane, drop you in the fields to harvest, herd you back on a plane and drop you back in Fuckoffistan". If you're lucky at least they drop you off in the same Fuckoffistan where you came from, but with the UK currently all bets are off on that front. The people being "returned" to Rwanda will agree.
As Bubble said, they had to treat them like actual humans there... now they can just use them as replaceable parts...
The funny thing is about all the idiots that though Brexit meant no more foreigners that Turk Er Jurbs.
There's something amazing about how Truss is handling things. Reminder: she was elected by 81.000 English conservative party members - rich old white men. Her party has been in power for 12 years, and the last elections were won on promises (cfr Brexit) of more money for the people, more money for healthcare, more money for investing in infrastructure, more money for schools. I mean, you'd almost think that's a left-wing programme, but Boris Johnson somehow made it work as slogans for the right.
Truss - with that same majority and no other claim to power - is now going for her vision: lower taxes for the rich, lower taxes for companies, less regulations on the financial market, smaller government, less investing in schools and helathcare, less social services. Thatcher-light. Or Thatcher-dark, I guess, because she's lowering the top tier of taxes to less than half of what it was under Thatcher.
The Pound is crashing, the markets are very nervous, even The Economist claims this is a horrible idea under the current circumstances (y'know, war, trading deficit, budget deficit, labor shortage, 15% inflation, and such fun stuff). She's leaning so far int othe hard-right neoliberal view that even the big corporations are afraid she's going too far.
There's chatter that there's already a petition circling among Conservative MPs to organize a vote of no confidence...but after Johnson's fall and given the currently absolutely disastrous polls (gosh, how come?), that's not going to happen.
This more-or-less unelected person will be left to lead the country off a cliff edge for two more years.
It's a shit show.
In some ways, I mean, it'll be an interesting experiment to see such a big country take such big gambles - if anyone on the right side of the USA cared a whit about what happens abroad, this would be great as an example of Republican policies in practice. But in so many other ways this is just disastrous. People will suffer and die and become poorer.
Truss - with that same majority and no other claim to power - is now going for her vision: lower taxes for the rich, lower taxes for companies, less regulations on the financial market, smaller government, less investing in schools and helathcare, less social services. Thatcher-light. Or Thatcher-dark, I guess, because she's lowering the top tier of taxes to less than half of what it was under Thatcher.
The Pound is crashing, the markets are very nervous, even The Economist claims this is a horrible idea under the current circumstances (y'know, war, trading deficit, budget deficit, labor shortage, 15% inflation, and such fun stuff). She's leaning so far int othe hard-right neoliberal view that even the big corporations are afraid she's going too far.
There's chatter that there's already a petition circling among Conservative MPs to organize a vote of no confidence...but after Johnson's fall and given the currently absolutely disastrous polls (gosh, how come?), that's not going to happen.
This more-or-less unelected person will be left to lead the country off a cliff edge for two more years.
It's a shit show.
In some ways, I mean, it'll be an interesting experiment to see such a big country take such big gambles - if anyone on the right side of the USA cared a whit about what happens abroad, this would be great as an example of Republican policies in practice. But in so many other ways this is just disastrous. People will suffer and die and become poorer.
Yup, banks & building societies in the UK are falling over themselves to announce that they won't offer any new mortgages for the foreseeable future because either they won't make money, or the rates will quickly rise to the point the borrower can't pay. Which means if you already have a mortgage you're fucked.
Not this sure would be worrying if we'd seen evidence in the past that a whole lot of people suddenly unable to pay their mortgages does bad things to a country's economy, hey?
Not this sure would be worrying if we'd seen evidence in the past that a whole lot of people suddenly unable to pay their mortgages does bad things to a country's economy, hey?
Ahh, but thanks to trickle down economics and importing slave labor, and out of the pesky EU who was always annoying the British National Bank annd reigning them in, this will all work out great! You'll see! Somehow.
So that's what that weird feeling of euphoria was....
The 4 Great Offices of State in the UK are Prime Minister, Chancellor of the Exchequer, Home Secretary & Foreign Secretary. In her 43 days as PM Liz Truss has had to sack her Chancellor due to the economic panic his policies (massive borrowing, tax cuts for the rich) caused - even though everyone knew these were actually Truss's policies that she campaigned on.
Now her Home Secretary has resigned, 'because her emails' (yes, seriously). Unofficially everyone believes it's actually because even though she was handed the job to crack down on Immigration & deport as many refugees as possible to Rwanda - she said her dream was "I would love to have a front page of the Telegraph with a plane taking off to Rwanda" (actual real quote) - she was then told to scale her plans back to something the Government could actually achieve.
Also the Labour Party held a vote in Westminster to ban fracking in the UK. The Tories initially told MP's they would treat this as a vote of confidence in the PM - meaning if the Government lost Liz Truss would resign, but also that any Tory MP that didn't vote for the Government position would be expelled from the Conservative Party - and while they did win the vote they stated after that it wasn't a vote of confidence. Labour are now questioning how many MP's that voted against banning fracking would have voted the other way if they didn't believe it would have brought down the Government if it passed.
There were also scenes in the Commons of Conservative Party officials screaming at Tory MP's & physically manhandling them into the lobby to vote against the Labour motion.
People are actually starting to look back at the Boris Johnson Premiership as the good old days when politics were still normal!
Now her Home Secretary has resigned, 'because her emails' (yes, seriously). Unofficially everyone believes it's actually because even though she was handed the job to crack down on Immigration & deport as many refugees as possible to Rwanda - she said her dream was "I would love to have a front page of the Telegraph with a plane taking off to Rwanda" (actual real quote) - she was then told to scale her plans back to something the Government could actually achieve.
Also the Labour Party held a vote in Westminster to ban fracking in the UK. The Tories initially told MP's they would treat this as a vote of confidence in the PM - meaning if the Government lost Liz Truss would resign, but also that any Tory MP that didn't vote for the Government position would be expelled from the Conservative Party - and while they did win the vote they stated after that it wasn't a vote of confidence. Labour are now questioning how many MP's that voted against banning fracking would have voted the other way if they didn't believe it would have brought down the Government if it passed.
There were also scenes in the Commons of Conservative Party officials screaming at Tory MP's & physically manhandling them into the lobby to vote against the Labour motion.
People are actually starting to look back at the Boris Johnson Premiership as the good old days when politics were still normal!
A head of lettuce lasted longer than her.
Just came to post this too.
Good riddance.
I guess we'll now get either Sunak or Hunt, and honestly, neither's any good either.
OR they could show faith in democracy, realize they've goofed up, and hold general elections in November. Which they would disastrously lose according to all polls, so that's not very likely
Good riddance.
I guess we'll now get either Sunak or Hunt, and honestly, neither's any good either.
OR they could show faith in democracy, realize they've goofed up, and hold general elections in November. Which they would disastrously lose according to all polls, so that's not very likely
They should just give leadership over to King Charles.
Yeah, a monarchy isn't very democratic, but at this point, it's a better alternative to this mess.
(I'm 99% joking on this.)
Yeah, a monarchy isn't very democratic, but at this point, it's a better alternative to this mess.
(I'm 99% joking on this.)
As many flaws as the US system has, the fact that the schedule of elections is up to the people in charge is one of the most astoundingly stupid things I’ve heard.Just came to post this too.
Good riddance.
I guess we'll now get either Sunak or Hunt, and honestly, neither's any good either.
OR they could show faith in democracy, realize they've goofed up, and hold general elections in November. Which they would disastrously lose according to all polls, so that's not very likely
I dunno, that most states still put
I was under the impression that the election cycle is still fixed, but they can just call for new elections faster if they fail to actually make alliances to form a working government.
The last one to pull this off was, what, Churchill?
Evidently.
I say the same thing about the US going back to the monarchy as an alternative to the idiots in charge now.
(I'm 95% joking.)
In a monarchy you at least occasionally, accidentally end up with decent leaders.
Two-party "democracy" always brings out the power hungry and sociopaths.
A more fractured democracy with a dozen parties definitely has its issues too - just look at Belgium to see - but I'm tempted to say that at least it provides a measure of protection from whatever the fuck it is going on in all the big "democracies" right now (cfr UK, US, France, Italy and others).
Two-party "democracy" always brings out the power hungry and sociopaths.
A more fractured democracy with a dozen parties definitely has its issues too - just look at Belgium to see - but I'm tempted to say that at least it provides a measure of protection from whatever the fuck it is going on in all the big "democracies" right now (cfr UK, US, France, Italy and others).
Canada is interesting for that, too. It's largely a two-party system with a battle between Liberal and Conservative. But there are three other minor, but significant parties: NDP, Green, and Bloc Québécois. What I find most interesting about that is two of those parties are Liberal minded (and in fact, lean even farther left than the Liberal party itself). Block Québécois is ostensibly Conservative, but have a number of left-leaning policies. They started as a splinter from the Conservative party.
But with Liberal, NDP, and Green combined, it's clear that Canada is largely more left leaning than right. On the one hand, it's too bad NDP and Green splinter those leftist votes, which wind up giving Conservatives more power as a result. On the other hand, I'm glad something like the NDP exist because they drag the Liberal party (sometimes kicking and screaming) away from its center politics comfort zone.
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GasBandit
Staff member
The real problem with the American system is that it bakes in the assumption that there are 2 parties, and we use first-past-the-post. The latter ensures that only the two big parties are ever viable, and the former grants too much power to whichever party has the majority. They get to pick all the committee assignments and stuff (which, it could be argued, is where the REAL legislative decisions are being made), and they just dole them out to whoever they like best without regard to merit, qualification, or service. So they end up being "rewards" for pleasing party membership, and/or as threats for something that can be taken away if you don't toe the party line.
An episode of The West Wing always sticks with me where the staffers are talking to representatives of a new country that want to copy the American constitution and they strongly recommend using a parliamentary system instead, as it will be more stable and less-prone to dictators taking over (or something like that).
Well, no, they didn't, that was kind of the point.
The typical Leave voter was an unhealthy white pensioner with neither a university education nor a passport. These were people who felt left behind and apprehensive about what changing demographics would bring.
They also didn't consume much media over the Internet, which was probably the biggest difference between them and Trump voters.
They also didn't consume much media over the Internet, which was probably the biggest difference between them and Trump voters.
UK net migration hits all-time record at 504,000
The rise is driven by non-EU students and people fleeing conflict and persecution in Hong Kong and Ukraine.
www.bbc.com
