Well it was nice having you in the EU. Bye bye 
UK General Election 2019
- Thread starter Cornerstone
- Start date
Are you suggesting there is something comical about the gubernatorial genius of Lord Buckethead?Other people’s politics are just funny - our own are just tragic
How dare you
It’s seen as EUseless by lots of Brits, rightly or wrongly. I bet Brexit makes little real difference in the medium term.Well it was nice having you in the EU. Bye bye
Funniest soap opera since Dallas
Honestly all these years of squabble around Brexit proves to me that the problem may not be entirely on the EU side lol.
UK: We should leave the EU! They're corrupt and waste our time and money!
Also UK: *wastes time and money*
Our governments are pretty useless. The main reason thinking people dislike the EU is because it’s undemocratic, and also seems to be designed to transfer wealth from poorer southern countries to rich northern ones through unfavourable exchange rates that mainly benefit Germany. But there’s lots of plus sides too.Honestly all these years of squabble around Brexit proves to me that the problem may not be entirely on the EU side lol.
UK: We should leave the EU! They're corrupt and waste our time and money!
Also UK: *wastes time and money*
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Deleted member 16771
I never gave a fuck about the actual execution of the EU - for me it was about civilizational identity and historical trajectory.
I suppose it would have to be by dismemberment, if it can be executed at all.
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Deleted member 16771
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Deleted member 16771
I'm always curious about how the popular vote breaks down in the context of the peculiarities of our electoral system, so I mocked this up:
View attachment 61271
Broadly, 'The Left' won the popular vote (even just counting Labour, SNP & Lib Dems), highlighting the problems it has in the UK with vote-splitting.
View attachment 61271
Broadly, 'The Left' won the popular vote (even just counting Labour, SNP & Lib Dems), highlighting the problems it has in the UK with vote-splitting.
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Deleted member 16771
First-past-the-post in a nutshell:
View attachment 61272
View attachment 61272
That's interesting, can you expand a bit?
How do you see UK identity in the past and where is it heading now?
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Deleted member 16771
Maybe later, I'm too tired right now.
Let me think about that. Later.
Sure man, whenever you can.
I must admit I have a bit of a soft spot about analyzing countries and mentality of its people on a broad level.
It's not very logically rigorous and often full of simplifications and generalizations, but it's fun.
I must admit I have a bit of a soft spot about analyzing countries and mentality of its people on a broad level.
It's not very logically rigorous and often full of simplifications and generalizations, but it's fun.
You left out Geman hegemony though
Joking aside, I think this issue of identity is very significant, and hasn't been addressed in any of the debates. We should not decide these major consitutional issues on unstable simple majority referendum results - it should need a 2/3 majority to make sure the nation isn't badly polarised by a narrow win on a 50/50 majority.
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Deleted member 16771
I completely agree, John. Fundamental constitutional changes set multi-generational trajectories, and simple majority referenda aren't an appropriate means of deciding them imo.You left out Geman hegemony though
Joking aside, I think this issue of identity is very significant, and hasn't been addressed in any of the debates. We should not decide these major consitutional issues on unstable simple majority referendum results - it should need a 2/3 majority to make sure the nation isn't badly polarised by a narrow win on a 50/50 majority.
A simple way of expressing this is to compare me and my wife with our sons. My wife and I (boomer generation) identify with Britain. Our parents fought in WW2 and our grandparents in WW1 and to them Europe was a place on the other side of the English Channel that was a risk and a nuisance that cost us many, many lives. Our sons - 36 and 41 - see themselves as European, not British and feel that Brexit is resulting in them losing part of themselves and their opportunities. It's more complex than this of course - for example, EU freedom of movement has resulted in a lot of immigration to the UK from Eastern Europe by folks who are happy to take much lower pay than UK people in quite a few of the more mundane types of job. They have concentrated in particular places and the people living there feel they are being displaced by foreigners who are taking their jobs. Whether or not this is a real issue, it's irrational to blame the EU because there seem to me to be more people who have come here from the Indian subcontinent than from the EU even though there is no freedom of movement with those countries and the UK.
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This reminds me of an old UK news headline (alas apocryphal) ‘Fog in Channel, Europe Isolated’