U.K Politics: Revenge of the Truss.

[Varysblackfyre321]

8 minutes ago, Maltaran said:

Windfall tax on energy companies 

Lol okay I think I put the standard too low.

[karaddin]

Yeah I'd still be voting Labour if I were in the UK, or probably tactical voting if I was in a seat that could go LD but not Labor. First past the post is too unforgiving.

[Varysblackfyre321]

1 hour ago, mormont said:

The arguments for why we can't simplify and increase benefits are in the same vein as those for why we can't simplify gender recognition.

I honestly do think within the next 23 months this concern will be looked at as for lack of a better word—nostalgic I do think there will be attempts to ban gender affirmative therapy not only for minors but legal adults.

Things can always get a lot worse.

[Which Tyler]

3 hours ago, dog-days said:

Boris Johnson, in league with the crazies in the ERG, has been criticising Sunak's plan to cooperate with the EU on reworking the agreement on Northern Ireland. As opportunistic and unscrupulous as ever. (Boris, I mean. Sunak is actually being sane, and predictably a swathe of his own party hate that.)

I'm not sure what Sunak's plan actually is. As far as I know, NI is still stuck in that both of the below aren't possible given Brexit:

1. No land border with the Republic 

2. No Irish Sea border with Britain

Didn't BJ want to tear up the NI protocol?

[Varysblackfyre321]

50 minutes ago, karaddin said:

Yeah I'd still be voting Labour if I were in the UK, or probably tactical voting if I was in a seat that could go LD but not Labor. First past the post is too unforgiving.

Tbc I don’t fault anyone for doing so—I just don’t think there’s enough to significantly indicate Labor right now would be significantly better on most issues(not to say none https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2023/jan/04/anti-strike-law-could-be-brought-forward-as-government-tries-to-end-disputes ) and potentially significantly worse on some.

 

[dog-days]

2 hours ago, Which Tyler said:

Didn't BJ want to tear up the NI protocol?

Think he wants whatever will polish his brand amongst the gullible idiots that think he means or cares about what he says. 

Re: Labour. I'm hoping that a Starmer government would relax on the centralising/Union Jack agenda of the Conservatives. I want more power moved to Wales, not away. That said, Welsh Labour and the UK party haven't really seen eye-to-eye for a while: Welsh Labour favours more left-wing rhetoric, even if devolution limits on tax powers mean they can't do much to realise it. 

[Werthead]

5 hours ago, dog-days said:

Boris Johnson, in league with the crazies in the ERG, has been criticising Sunak's plan to cooperate with the EU on reworking the agreement on Northern Ireland. As opportunistic and unscrupulous as ever. (Boris, I mean. Sunak is actually being sane, and predictably a swathe of his own party hate that.)

I'm not sure what Sunak's plan actually is. As far as I know, NI is still stuck in that both of the below aren't possible given Brexit:

1. No land border with the Republic 

2. No Irish Sea border with Britain

As far as I can tell, the idea is that at the moment all goods transferred from Britain onto the island of Ireland have to be checked and searched. Sunak's proposal is that all goods shipped from Britain into Northern Ireland should be divided into categories, so that goods bound internally within the UK (so from England or Scotland to Northern Ireland, which is the endpoint) will not have to be checked, and goods bound for Northern Ireland for onward travel into the Republic of Ireland (i.e., the EU) should be checked and searched. I think there may also be ideas for allowing onward transit of goods from the European mainland to the Republic via the UK (the preferred method, as shipping from France around Britain to Ireland is more expensive) without going through lengthy checks, but those are much less developed.

It's one of those ideas that sounds good but it does seem to have significant hurdles to overcome in how it could be gamed.

[karaddin]

3 hours ago, Varysblackfyre321 said:

Tbc I don’t fault anyone for doing so—I just don’t think there’s enough to significantly indicate Labor right now would be significantly better on most issues(not to say none https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2023/jan/04/anti-strike-law-could-be-brought-forward-as-government-tries-to-end-disputes ) and potentially significantly worse on some.

 

But you're used to dealing with FPTP so it's a different vibe for you. With preferential voting I get the luxury of voting how I actually want to, so multi party (ie > 2 parties) FPTP is like the wild west. It looms large over both the voters and the electoral profile Labor need to go for. 

I think it's possible they won't be better on than Tories on... Well I was going to say trans rights, but it could really be a bunch of issues. I don't think they could make things worse in aggregate however.

I also think it's very bad for the Democratic system to put a party back in power after they've been as dysfunctional as the Tories have been and I think that even when it's the left wing party - and it has been here, that's not hypothetical. So they need to get the boot just to show the voters will stomach a lot but not this.

[ants]

On 2/19/2023 at 5:49 PM, dog-days said:

Boris Johnson, in league with the crazies in the ERG, has been criticising Sunak's plan to cooperate with the EU on reworking the agreement on Northern Ireland. As opportunistic and unscrupulous as ever. (Boris, I mean. Sunak is actually being sane, and predictably a swathe of his own party hate that.)

I'm not sure what Sunak's plan actually is. As far as I know, NI is still stuck in that both of the below aren't possible given Brexit:

1. No land border with the Republic 

2. No Irish Sea border with Britain

 

19 hours ago, Werthead said:

As far as I can tell, the idea is that at the moment all goods transferred from Britain onto the island of Ireland have to be checked and searched. Sunak's proposal is that all goods shipped from Britain into Northern Ireland should be divided into categories, so that goods bound internally within the UK (so from England or Scotland to Northern Ireland, which is the endpoint) will not have to be checked, and goods bound for Northern Ireland for onward travel into the Republic of Ireland (i.e., the EU) should be checked and searched. I think there may also be ideas for allowing onward transit of goods from the European mainland to the Republic via the UK (the preferred method, as shipping from France around Britain to Ireland is more expensive) without going through lengthy checks, but those are much less developed.

It's one of those ideas that sounds good but it does seem to have significant hurdles to overcome in how it could be gamed.

Werthead is in line with my understanding, except that I'd add that part of it is having the EU have full oversight of the databases tracking what all of the ships are carrying. They would be able to monitor how realistic the system is and do checks to confirm its accuracy. This would effectively allow them to keep the border in the Irish sea, but significantly reduce the cost (time and manpower) spent checking goods on it. 

It would still be more onerous than existed before Brexit, but a significant improvement on what is there now. 

Ironically, and I do hate to say this, it would be HOI's claimed "technology" which would be improving things. But they would still be worse than pre-Brexit. 

[ants]

18 hours ago, karaddin said:

But you're used to dealing with FPTP so it's a different vibe for you. With preferential voting I get the luxury of voting how I actually want to, so multi party (ie > 2 parties) FPTP is like the wild west. It looms large over both the voters and the electoral profile Labor need to go for. 

I hated how when I was living in the UK so many were accepting the Labour/Tory claims that Australians hated preferential voting during the referendum. I tried telling everyone I knew that it was awesome. If the LD had insisted that the law be passed without a referendum, or had won the referendum, so much would be different. Probably no Brexit to begin with. 

[mormont]

Deep thinking here from a respected former PM.

https://www.politico.eu/article/liz-truss-calls-for-economic-nato-to-stand-up-to-china/

Some sort of union, of mostly European countries, with shared values, combining to exercise their economic power. Hmm. It's a crazy idea but it just might work. 

[Raja]

 

[Heartofice]

28 minutes ago, mormont said:

Deep thinking here from a respected former PM.

https://www.politico.eu/article/liz-truss-calls-for-economic-nato-to-stand-up-to-china/

Some sort of union, of mostly European countries, with shared values, combining to exercise their economic power. Hmm. It's a crazy idea but it just might work. 

*Must include political integration + unlimited freedom of movement. 

[Raja]

Here we go - 98% yes

[Fragile Bird]

53 minutes ago, Raja said:

Here we go - 98% yes

Good luck!

[dog-days]

2 hours ago, Raja said:

Here we go - 98% yes

Wow. And yes, as Fragile Bird says, good luck. 

[Which Tyler]

Good luck Raja and colleagues

[Fragile Bird]

I just had a story pop up on my Google page saying a 22-year old woman in Poland thinks she might be the missing McCann girl. DNA tests are being done. I sure hope she is.

[DaveSumm]

13 minutes ago, Fragile Bird said:

I just had a story pop up on my Google page saying a 22-year old woman in Poland thinks she might be the missing McCann girl. DNA tests are being done. I sure hope she is.

I don’t think they look alike, and she doesn’t have any real evidence other than her past is a bit vague and she thinks they look alike. 

[dog-days]

God, the SNP leadership contenders aren't looking promising. 

There's Finance Minister Kate Forbes who wouldn't have supported the Gender Recognition Bill. (Meaning that she did but regrets doing so...? I haven't found a direct quote yet, just news sources paraphrasing.) And in the short video clip I watched, she was very much a fresh-off-the-production-line factory-made politician with a load of clichés drilled into her by her PR team and no individuality.  

Hamza Yousaf is sort-of the safe choice (supports the GRB, positions himself as the natural heir of Sturgeon). But his online presence is low; Google search results are dominated by stories hostile to him. He has a long record as a minister, and while there's nothing as dodgy as the stuff I became accustomed to with the Johnson government, the unpopular Hate Crime and Public Order Bill and his time as Health Minister will take the shine off and give his opponents plenty of ammunition. His interview manners come across as more friendly and natural than Forbes, but then, so would the Borg Collective. 

Ash Regan quit her government job in protest of the GRB. She timed it rather well – any earlier, and everyone would have forgotten about her. Now she's in a good position to present herself as the major 'alternative' candidate, appealing with her GRB stance and comments on Net Zero ("I will stand up for our oil workers and their communities") to more right-wing or right-curious SNP supporters. She's not at all alarming and doesn't remind me of Cate Blanchett in Mrs America in any way. 

I do support independence for Scotland, but with one of this lot in charge it could be next century or never. If they get someone with charisma in opposition, the SNP will suffer. From the trio on offer, I'd go for Yousaf. 

Sorry for mentioning the GRB so much after this thread had managed to move away from it. It wasn't the plan; I just hadn't been prepared for how big a crater it is in Scottish politics at the moment. Too busy following Welsh news with its second homes crises and Schrödinger's Menai Bridge.