UK General Erextion

That front page is ridiculous.

Someone in chat rightly pointed out the bullet points would make a bitchin' Grindcore album tracklist

flol

  On 6/9/2017 at 1:02 PM, hello spiral said:

Someone in chat rightly pointed out the bullet points would make a bitchin' Grindcore album tracklist

LOL, very Anal Cunt-esque

so, im hearing a lot of patter about this allegiance with the DUP putting into jeapordy the whole irish peace agreement situation. anyone more enlightened than me have any insight? i was a touch young for having any idea about the troubles and ive never actually heard of the DUP.

They seem like a charming bunch

  Quote

 

Sammy Wilson, East Antrim: Another former finance minister in the Northern Ireland Assembly, this 64-year-old courted controversy in 2016 when he was recorded allegedly agreeing with a member of the public who said “get the ethnics out”. He denied the claim.

David Simpson, Upper Bann: A Free Presbyterian, he has voted against same sex marriage stating: “In the garden of Eden it was Adam and Eve it wasn’t Adam and Steve.”

Gregory Campbell, East Londonderry: Received notoriety for mocking the Irish language during a meeting of the Assembly. He has supported bringing back the death penalty in the case of mass murder.

  On 6/10/2017 at 3:02 AM, messiaen said:

so, im hearing a lot of patter about this allegiance with the DUP putting into jeapordy the whole irish peace agreement situation. anyone more enlightened than me have any insight? i was a touch young for having any idea about the troubles and ive never actually heard of the DUP.

The Good Friday Agreement requires the ministers of the Stormont assembly be made up from the largest parties from both communities, what's known as the power sharing executive, with the First Minister being the leader of the party who won the most seats, and the Deputy First Minister being the leader of largest party of the other community, cabinet members are also split between the two parties. In the last NI election that was the DUPs Arlene Foster as First Minister and Sinn Fein's Michelle O’Neill as Deputy First Minister, but they couldn't come to an agreement to set up an executive (due to a corruption scandal involving the DUP, among other things), and without the support of both parties the whole thing collapses, necessitating either fresh elections, or the return of direct rule from the UK parliament.

So the principle of the agreement is that both communities are protected when it comes to powers devolved to the assembly, the UK parliament is obviously still in control when it comes to certain issues, but either of the parties can't ram anything through on a local level without the consent of the other, and the UK Govt needs to be neutral in such matters.

We currently have a situation where there is no executive in place (but the devolved institutions are still in place, being run by the civil servants), talks on resolving the issues were put on hold due to the general election, and there's now a deadline of June 29th to sort everything out. If they can't sort it out and form an executive there doesn't seem to much desire for another election, so that'll mean direct rule from the UK again, and with the DUP involved in an agreement to prop up the Tory government that might see them have undue influence over policies which previously would have been the remit of the power sharing executive, which would at a minimum go against the principal of the GFA, if not the letter of the law.

If that comes to pass, and the DUP try and bring in legislation that they wouldn't have been able to before, then the Nationalists (and non-aligned parties, like the Alliance party) will start kicking up a stink. I don't think it'll mean a return to violence any time soon, but it could mean an end to the GFA (maybe SF would go back to more directly campaigning for reunification or something).

Hopefully what'll actually happen is that the talks will be successful, and the executive is restored, in which case the UK government won't have to directly pass any legislation for NI, so it won't matter so much that the DUP are propping up the Tories. And seeing as there will be no formal coalition between them, the DUP won't have any influence on other aspects of the GFA (like the British-Irish council).

thanks for the summary. i actually have no clue with regard to irish politics, obviously the umbrella situation of north to south UK union stuff ive been aware of my adult life, but ive never taken the time to actually explore it extensively, unlike scotland where ive resided for a decade. 

wrong hand cable

Those morphing images fuel my cynicism for politicians even more. Truuuuuust in me.

That cabinet. What a joke.

Pathetic.

Yeah it's one massive major exasperating fuck up on a grand scale, can't believe the UK is in such a dire mess with even more dire people in charge of sorting it out

The only thing worth smiling about is Alex Salmond losing his seat to a Tory. Flol. I detest that man rather passionately (not his politics but his smug, arrogant, charmless, patronising, pig of a personality). A true cunt of a man.

Worse than Boris, gove, may, Davis...?

  On 6/11/2017 at 10:15 PM, bendish said:

Worse than Boris, gove, may, Davis...?

Yep

And that's my watmm political views done for six months, I'm outta here!

I like Salmond, he really annoys the English, which is good enough for me.

  On 6/9/2017 at 11:47 AM, azatoth said:

Voter turnout among 18-24 yo was 72%, which is probably why Labour did so well. Hopefully they will keep turning up when there is another vote, when the inevitable new election is up after the May led coalition has a meltdown.

Unfortunately this 72% statistic seems to be plucked out of the air

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/election-2017-40220032

That being said I do remember hearing somewhere that a lot of the Labour swing votes were in areas with increased turnout.

  On 6/12/2017 at 7:37 AM, caze said:

I like Salmond, he really annoys the English, which is good enough for me.

why don't you like the english? bit prejudice isn't it?

Do you really want a list? 

I'm half Irish, half English, don't give a monkeys about saluting flags though there are 5 medals hanging on the wall where my Grandfather put his neck on the line in North Africa and the Middle East in WW2 for scroats like myself. So I guess if push come to shove I'd like to think I would do the same.

Salmonds politics don't bother me (it's hardly a revelation that the Scots want independence) he's just a very smug, sanctimonious, humourless, toad of a man. And in all the mess we seem to be in, him losing made me grin. A lot.

the f is wrong with these people

https://www.facebook.com/BBCPolitics/videos/1826281787388671/

Salmond & Sturgeon's trouncing was long overdue, although the Scots effectively keeping Tory govt in Westminster has to be the irony of all ironies

  On 6/12/2017 at 3:15 PM, BCM said:

 

  On 6/12/2017 at 7:37 AM, caze said:

I like Salmond, he really annoys the English, which is good enough for me.

why don't you like the english? bit prejudice isn't it?

 

its called a siege mentality, the English havent really had that collective experience grounded into their collective memories so empathy is tricky

since the end of the empire the tide has slowly turned a bit the other way, hence why English actors frequently get cast as evil naysayers

the secret is to assimilate behind enemy lines like i did for a couple of decades, work out what makes The English tick and then launch it back at them in choice sporting moments

the English are fine...just a slither of the demograph that ensures cntishness is perceived as a norm.