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Author Topic: Sheb's European Megathread: Remove Feta!  (Read 1771643 times)

Owlbread

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Re: Sheb's European Politics Megathread
« Reply #16860 on: May 26, 2015, 10:23:57 pm »

The Tories are the rough equivalent of the right wing of the Democrats in the US.
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MetalSlimeHunt

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Re: Sheb's European Politics Megathread
« Reply #16861 on: May 26, 2015, 10:47:17 pm »

Republicans?
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smjjames

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Re: Sheb's European Politics Megathread
« Reply #16862 on: May 26, 2015, 10:50:26 pm »

Or maybe southern Democrats? sort of the more religious side of the Democrat party. Or Texas even.....
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Frumple

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Re: Sheb's European Politics Megathread
« Reply #16863 on: May 26, 2015, 10:52:42 pm »

Probably roughly equivalent to blue dog democrats. Which kinda' doesn't sound too far off, really. Tories're still further left than republicans, by and large. Just... seemingly trying to dig their way into the same foxhole.
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Bohandas

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Re: Sheb's European Politics Megathread
« Reply #16864 on: May 26, 2015, 10:55:01 pm »

Tories're still further left than republicans, by and large. Just... seemingly trying to dig their way into the same foxhole.

Even the Republicans haven't tried to privatize our police force
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Nick K

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Re: Sheb's European Politics Megathread
« Reply #16865 on: May 26, 2015, 10:56:58 pm »

We worse than the USA now? I mean, they have private prisons, but as far as I know not private security firms replacing police.

That article is from 2012 though, so this private police thing should already have been happening for two years now, according to the dates it gives. It's still the top search for "police privatisation" on google though, which makes me think this maybe didn't get off the ground
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Graknorke

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Re: Sheb's European Politics Megathread
« Reply #16866 on: May 27, 2015, 02:18:43 am »

That article is from 2012 though, so this private police thing should already have been happening for two years now, according to the dates it gives. It's still the top search for "police privatisation" on google though, which makes me think this maybe didn't get off the ground
2012 when the LibDems were around. Now that they're not, the Tories have already made massive strokes towards their utopia for the rich. I wouldn't be surprised if they had another pop at it but with a majority to push it through this time.
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Sheb

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Re: Sheb's European Politics Megathread
« Reply #16867 on: May 27, 2015, 02:56:41 am »

Who knew the devil had such a chubby face?
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Loud Whispers

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Re: Sheb's European Politics Megathread
« Reply #16868 on: May 27, 2015, 04:02:57 am »

Personally I'll still give #1 prize to Obama, for his 'you will hear voices warning you of tyranny, reject these voices' speech.
What was he speaking about?
General speech to Ohio grad students.

Personally I'll still give #1 prize to Obama, for his 'you will hear voices warning you of tyranny, reject these voices' speech.

I've completely missed that. You got one-a them links?

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We, the people, chose to do these things together — because we know this country cannot accomplish great things if we pursue nothing greater than our own individual ambition.

Unfortunately, you’ve grown up hearing voices that incessantly warn of government as nothing more than some separate, sinister entity that’s at the root of all our problems; some of these same voices also doing their best to gum up the works. They’ll warn that tyranny is always lurking just around the corner. You should reject these voices. Because what they suggest is that our brave and creative and unique experiment in self-rule is somehow just a sham with which we can’t be trusted.
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Owlbread

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Re: Sheb's European Politics Megathread
« Reply #16869 on: May 27, 2015, 05:12:07 am »

Republicans?

As Frumple says I was going after the Blue Dogs.
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notquitethere

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Re: Sheb's European Politics Megathread
« Reply #16870 on: May 27, 2015, 06:17:42 am »

Yeah, on the surface at least the Tories are commited to the NHS (our socialised health care system), they pushed through gay marriage (though a lot of them were against it) and they're in favour of the strong gun control laws, so in many ways due to the nature of UK politics, they're marginally to the left of the Republicans.
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Owlbread

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Re: Sheb's European Politics Megathread
« Reply #16871 on: May 27, 2015, 06:59:42 am »

A crowdfunder to take lying Northern Isles MP Alistair Carmichael to court has reached over £30,000. Yesterday at 1pm it was at £1000. This is the link if anyone wants to check.
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lijacote

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Re: Sheb's European Politics Megathread
« Reply #16872 on: May 27, 2015, 07:15:31 am »

Yeah, on the surface at least the Tories are commited to the NHS (our socialised health care system), they pushed through gay marriage (though a lot of them were against it) and they're in favour of the strong gun control laws, so in many ways due to the nature of UK politics, they're marginally to the left of the Republicans.
On the surface, maybe. The tories represent the capitalists' interests, despite whatever they might say, whatever the common misconception might be. Privatisation is definitely on the neoliberal agenda, and that's what they're going to do if they're allowed to.

And I would say the same about the US democrats, even if they aren't the worst of the worst. They're still not our friends.
« Last Edit: May 27, 2015, 07:17:04 am by lijacote »
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martinuzz

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Re: Sheb's European Politics Megathread
« Reply #16873 on: May 27, 2015, 09:21:57 am »

The new Mayor of Barcelona, Ada Colau, wrote this letter to our Dutch newspapers (and I think to a lot of other newspapers in countries around the world):

"Somewhat less than a year ago, a group of activists and progressive organisations proposed a plan to let the population regain control over city policy.
We are the civilian platform "Barcelona Comú (Barcelona together). Past sunday, we succeeded in sending mayor Xavier Trias home, and we want to restore the city administration's purpose, to serve it's people.

From the beginning, we felt that our movement has greater significance than just the city of Barcelona. Some of the problems we are working on are specific to our city, like the disgracefully large number of home evictions, and the negative side effects of mass tourism running out of control. But a lot of our concerns are shared by citizens all over Europe, and in large parts of the world. I am specifically talking about the growing inequality, and the coming into power of a class of professional politicians who have estranged from daily reality, and are besmeared with corruption.

We are told that we live in a democracy; yet a lot of the more important descisions that shape our lives have been taken out of our control. We are being told that we do not know what is good for us, and that we better can leave important things to experts.
The Spanish government denies citizens of Catalonia the right to partake in shaping the future of Catalonia; The EU is negotiating under strict confidentiality about TTIP, and international financial institutions are playing Russian roulette with our economies.

We canot sit idly by this state of affairs. It is time to reclaim sovereignty for the people, to create a democracy that is worthy of it's name.
We, the people at Barcelona Comú, believe that this democratic reform can best be shaped, not top-down, but bottom-up, coming from our cities.

We are strenghtened in our convictions, by the fact that we are not the only ones thinking like this. I visited Greece shortly before their national elections; I was impressed by what Syriza had managed to accomplish on a local scale, to improve the conditions of people in cities like Attica.

Over the past week, Barcelona Comú has recieved over a hundred international statements of support, coming from intellectuals like Noam Chomsky, and Slavoj Zizek, from activists and writers like Nawal El Sadaawi and Zakes Mda, and from political leaders like Natassa Theodorakopoulou from Syriza.
They are all convinced that Barecelona Comú's victory in Barcelona can become an inspiration for similar movements in cities around the world.

But what does it actually mean, to have citizens demand the governance of their city?
The answer will vary from place to place, but one thing is certain:
It is not enough to just win the elections; it has to be about completely changing the rules of the game.
One of the first things we did in Barcelona, was organize a crowdsourcing campaign to formulate a code of ethics for civil servants.
This will make sure that we will keep ourselves to high standards, and can be confronted with our responsibility if we do not.
The ethic code will encompass, amongst others, the salary, the maximum terms of office, and a complete closing of to the revolving door that swings back and forth between politics and corporate boards of directors.
It is ethcis like such that must prevent us from becoming like those we want to replace.

The retaking of a city also means, that ordinary people will get a say in descision making processes. This does not just mean that they will be allowed to vote on descisions that have been thought up by higher administration, but it also means that they will be given the opportunity to shape new initiatives from the bottom up.

Barcelona has been named 'Smart City'. So it is an intelligent city. But this only has meaning if we can truly harness the collective intelligence of it's inhabitants.
We created our election manifest in an open, participative way. Over 5000 people participated in the process. The result is a program, that guarantees civil rights, aims for making the city more liveable, and will democratisize public institutions. It is a document that is alive, and is the beginning of a deep conversation with the citizens, that will go on in the coming years.

Finally, reclaiming the city also means, that women will have a central part to play in it. Women in Barcelona are hit harder by poverty, and job uncertainty. This has to stop. Just like the exclusion of women in circles of political and economic power must stop. I am very proud. Not just, because more than half of our election list of political candidates were women, but also, because our program is based on feminist principles, and combating inequality between the sexes will be a central point in our politics.

We are proud on Barcelona's history, as a laboratory for new citizens' movements, and as a global city, with an internationalistic perspective. Now, we want to turn Barcelona into the focus point for a network of just, and democratic cities. Barcelona is just the first step!"
« Last Edit: May 27, 2015, 09:24:48 am by martinuzz »
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Owlbread

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Re: Sheb's European Politics Megathread
« Reply #16874 on: May 27, 2015, 09:34:54 am »

What was it he did, out of curiosity?

I will try to give a summary, but it may end up being partisan.

Spoiler: *Takes a deep breath* (click to show/hide)

This article explains the mechanism some Orcadians and Shetlanders are planning on using to take Carmichael to court and overturn the result. They (the crowdfunders) have until Friday to do so due to a deadline. It's the same sort of thing that got Phil Woolas unseated after he won his seat in 2010.


In my opinion though this isn't really about overturning the result and getting another SNP MP. It would be nice, yes, but the most important thing here is getting Carmichael in the dock so he can explain himself under oath. If he does that he could implicate other high profile politicians in the matter, e.g. David "Fluffy" Mundell MP, the current Secretary of State for Scotland. When the leak occurred Mundell shared an office with Carmichael due to the coalition arrangements and he has recently failed to deny any involvement in the leak. If Mundell goes, the entire Scotland Office could end up being abolished because there would be no Tory MPs left up here. Right now Mundell is basically just a colonial governor, he really needs to go.
« Last Edit: May 27, 2015, 09:46:08 am by Owlbread »
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