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[TD1]

* Tries to decide whether or not to reapply gag. After contemplation of things varying from the nature of the universe to the colour of said gag he decides to remain impartial

[Owlbread]

Here's a pretty good 9 minute video-documentary by the Guardian on our old friend Gorgeous George Galloway and his own little anti-independence campaign, run and funded by himself (apparently). The rest of the video is about the Radical Independence Campaign, the Socialists on the other side of the coin.

George's tour is colourfully titled "Just Say Naw", with a little bit of Scottish dialect thrown in there with the word "Naw" to highlight his working class Scottish heritage, thereby allowing him to relate more to idiot Labour-voting Fifers in towns like Glenrothes. This is despite his strong contempt for the very idea of a distinct Scottish culture. He has very clearly stated on several occasions that there is no such thing.

He's incredibly self centred and virtually every sentence he begins will include the word "I" and is usually related to "his fight" to create a "real Labour government", apparently run by him. The video doesn't really show it but George was the first to bring Sectarian tension into the independence debate with heavy accusations of historic anti-Catholic sentiment in the SNP. He continues to cast it up from time to time in an attempt to court the historic pro-Labour Catholic Irish vote and brings the debate into the gutter every time he does it. He's a truly despicable, misogynistic man who seems to have been frozen in the year 1984 and rethawed in the modern era.

By the way, someone really ought to tell him it's bad manners to wear a hat indoors.

[olemars]

I'm hoping for some decent turmoil after Scotland gains independence so that Norway can swoop in with our dozens of soldiers and annex the Orkneys back. Christian I never intended to hand it over as dowry in 1468 anyway, it was just security for payment in gold and the invoice got lost in the mail.

[scriver]

Yes. Yeeeeees.

Now excuse me while I go over here and definitely don't plan how to use that situation to re-annex Norway and her oil money.

[Owlbread]

I'm hoping for some decent turmoil after Scotland gains independence so that Norway can swoop in with our dozens of soldiers and annex the Orkneys back. Christian I never intended to hand it over as dowry in 1468 anyway, it was just security for payment in gold and the invoice got lost in the mail.

Joking aside over the last few years the Westminster government has been trying to drum up support for a Crimean-style secession/annexation process in Shetland and Orkney in the event of independence.

There would be no point of course because under international law (or so I hear) the bulk of oil exploitation rights tend to go to the mainland, not the islands. It's just an attempt to scare Scots again and create division; divide and rule and all that. Same thing as in Northern Ireland to an extent except there's no religious differences involved.

[Descan]

I'm still bloody curious on what the NorthIrish will do if the Scots secede. Aren't most of them Scots themselves? Would they want to go with Scotland, join in Ireland, some sort of Celtic Union, be independent themselves?

[Owlbread]

I'm still bloody curious on what the NorthIrish will do if the Scots secede. Aren't most of them Scots themselves? Would they want to go with Scotland, join in Ireland, some sort of Celtic Union, be independent themselves?

This is the question. It's very hard to tell at this stage - the Ulster Scots will probably feel quite vulnerable for a while and tensions may rise. They would never join Scotland even though there's such strong links. The main problem for them is the Scottish government would probably turn around and suggest they rejoin Ireland or repartition.

Ulstermen tend to see "Celtic" stuff as Irish and therefore undesirable.

I've noticed though that a lot of Northern Irish people of all stripes are starting to call themselves "Northern Irish", not British or Irish. They are pretty much a foreign country to the Irish now and there can sometimes be a wariness in the South about having them back.

[10ebbor10]

Anyway, the power might go out this winter.

Two of Belgium's largest power plants shut down, and there's a significant possibility that they'll never be restarted. Two other, smaller reactors might be decommisioned next year as well. Considering the governement hasn't done anything at all to make up for the planned loss of nuclear generation capacity, there really isn't any reserve.

Meanwhile, cheap coal power from Germany, and heavily subsidized green power have made it unlikely for the private sector to do anything.

[Owlbread]

Liberal Democrat MP Alastair Carmichael, the UK government's Secretary of State for Scotland, is asked on the BBC about the failures of the Better Together campaign and the recent rise in support for Scottish independence.

[Dutchling]

European Parliament passes strong net neutrality law, along with major roaming reforms

[Chaoswizkid]

/Jealous of the EU

What's the significance of the bird?

[XXSockXX]

Continued from the other thread:

Actually that is exactly the opposite conclusion of what mainstream economics tells us.

American mainstream economics that is. Of course you can just print money and pile up debt if you have the economy to eventually get out of debt at some point.

And that's not remotely a characterization of American mainstream economics.  Nor is what I'm talking about an American invention, I'm talking about ideas in the English tradition that are used in every successful economy in the world, including Europe up until recently.  The US is actually notable for being half hearted in it's approach.

With the demographic changes in Europe however, going farther and farther into debt is going to make things far worse in the future, as our welfare systems become increasingly less sustainable, with less people having to pay for more (including the increasing debt and interest).

Try looking at the Japanese for a moment.  Their demographic shifts are far worse but they recently made a strong move to implement vanilla mainstream new-Keynesian thought and it's having exactly the effects that the mainstream has predicted.

It's not like Germany is completely averse to any kind of stimulus, not at all. The problem is that if you just keep paying for countries debts, but have no influence on their policies, you can't make sure the stimulus is even working. Greece has massive problems with corruption and tax evasion, but that is not going to change if you just keep giving them more money. And it's not like they aren't getting any money, they will get another 8-10 billion Euro just before summer. Just raking up more and more debt is not a solution, if you don't have a perspective on coming to a point where you don't need any new debt, not even thinking about paying it back.

Japan has just started with some economic reforms, how they are gonna work is another question, that's too early to tell. Also the comparison doesn't really work, as Japan is just one country, not 28 very different ones.

[Owlbread]

"I am a nationalist" - an interesting take on the concept of nationalism, specifically Scottish nationalism, and the strong repulsive reaction so many have to it.

[XXSockXX]

"I am a nationalist" - an interesting take on the concept of nationalism, specifically Scottish nationalism, and the strong repulsive reaction so many have to it.

BTW I recently saw this and thought it was pretty funny. Probably lucky nobody beat him off the stage, considering this was recorded in Glasgow.

[mainiac]

Okay so you don't want stimulus.  Whatever, I think it's stupid and the reasons are shallow but that's okay!  There are still different options here!

1) Fix the monetary policy.  Hitting a 4 percent inflation rate for a couple years would be within the supposed mandate of long term price stability after years of coming short and would go a long way towards fixing the trade imbalances
2) Be complete utter bastards, forcing the other countries to grinding deflation for an indeterminate period of time

We can get tied down in arguing over the details of 1, there's a lot of plausible sounding reasons that don't actually have a lot behind them.  But the alternative is 2!  What could possibly be worse then 2?

Reform will not help Greece.  Spain has none of those problems and it's not helping them.  It's just an attempt to shift blame.