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[Hiberno-Britannic Politics] The Future is Bright, The Future is Orange
RMS Oceanic
Registered User regular
Registered User regular
So this archipelago
Has these nations.
These nations are almost completely not unique in that they're run by a system known as Politics!
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland
Run by these folk.
These folk would rather they didn't.
The Issues
Oh snap! Snap Election that is.
After saying she wouldn't, Theresa May called an election. It seemed kind of smart, seeing how the polling indicated she'd have a 1997-style landslide and be completely unstoppable, and buy the Tories another two years to put some distance from the potential fallout of Brexit. But that didn't happen. Against all the odds, she actually lost seats.
Just shy of a majority, she has pursued the not totally destabilising tactic of support from the Democratic Unionist Party, the largest party of Northern Ireland. Many eyebrows are raised at this, not only because of the DUP's even more hardline conservative values - Gay Marriage and Abortion are still banned in NI despite being legal elsewhere in Britain - but how this upsets a neutral British presence needed to resolve disputes at Stormont. Like the one that's been going on for six months.
So that's fun.
Jeremy Hunt still rhymes with something. Paul Nutall is aptly named. Leave Arlene Foster alone, she did nothing wrong (and this will probably be official now).
A spiffing place to keep up to date with the latest developments.
An Poblacht na hÉireann
Okay, as someone who actually lives in the Republic of Ireland Desktop Hippie did an infinitely better job than I did explaining things, so I'm gonna pilfer this goldmine of a post to give you a lay of the land.
And this image probably sums up what Ireland thinks about the world right now
A shockin' good place to see what the feck the craic is.
So, discuss the goings on in the Dail and the Commons!
(Thanks to @surrealitycheck for the thread title)
Has these nations.
These nations are almost completely not unique in that they're run by a system known as Politics!
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland
Run by these folk.
These folk would rather they didn't.
The Issues
Oh snap! Snap Election that is.
After saying she wouldn't, Theresa May called an election. It seemed kind of smart, seeing how the polling indicated she'd have a 1997-style landslide and be completely unstoppable, and buy the Tories another two years to put some distance from the potential fallout of Brexit. But that didn't happen. Against all the odds, she actually lost seats.
Just shy of a majority, she has pursued the not totally destabilising tactic of support from the Democratic Unionist Party, the largest party of Northern Ireland. Many eyebrows are raised at this, not only because of the DUP's even more hardline conservative values - Gay Marriage and Abortion are still banned in NI despite being legal elsewhere in Britain - but how this upsets a neutral British presence needed to resolve disputes at Stormont. Like the one that's been going on for six months.
So that's fun.
Jeremy Hunt still rhymes with something. Paul Nutall is aptly named. Leave Arlene Foster alone, she did nothing wrong (and this will probably be official now).
A spiffing place to keep up to date with the latest developments.
An Poblacht na hÉireann
Okay, as someone who actually lives in the Republic of Ireland Desktop Hippie did an infinitely better job than I did explaining things, so I'm gonna pilfer this goldmine of a post to give you a lay of the land.
Desktop Hippie wrote:Okay then, let's add a little Hiberno to the Hiberno-Britannic Politics thread! Because I've been keeping quiet lately but there's actually a fair bit happening over here.
As @RMS Oceanic Said in the OP, this chap
is Enda Kenny, An Taoiseach, the Irish version of Prime Minister of An Poblacht na hÉireann. However, he's had a pretty bad week and is facing calls to step down, because quitting is all the rage these days.
To understand the situation better, I need to go over the last Irish General Election.
It was a mess.
Here's a rundown of the main contenders:
You had Fianna Gael, who were in power and very unpopular due to their mismanagement of a number of different austerity measures and because they pushed ahead with the EU stipulation that Ireland had to bring in water charges, something most other European countries have (including the UK.) The issue of water charges has been a huge one in Ireland, with many who have been struggling with lower wages, higher taxes and an increased cost of living seeing it as the final straw and refusing outright to pay.
You had Labour, who helped Fianna Gael with all this, despite the fact that they're SUPPOSED TO BE A FUCKING LABOUR PARTY!
You had Fianna Fáil, arch enemies of Fianna Gael and the party who were in power before and during the 2008 financial crisis, who also drove our economy headlong into the worst of it, which lead to all the crap Fianna Gael has done since - something Fianna Gael are very keen to point out.
You had The Green Party, who helped Fianna Fáil to do all this, despite the fact that they're SUPPOSED TO BE A FUCKING GREEN PARTY!
You had Sinn Féin, growing in popularity in working class Dublin and various areas of the country by setting themselves up as the anti-corruption "honest" party, railing against the politicians who took bribes from Ben Dunne while hoping nobody pointed out that they had kidnapped him.
You had the Social Democrats, a small left wing outfit who are quickly becoming the choice for voters sick of the irony of having a right of center Labour party.
You had Renua, who were... honestly, Mrs. Lovejoy pretty much covers it.
You had People Before Profit and the Anti Austerity Alliance. Both parties do exactly what it says on the tin.
And you had independents. Lots and lots and LOTS of independents, who range from this guy...
Shane Ross, voice of the middle-to-upper-middle class who see themselves as the real victims of the 2008 financial crisis. To be fair, they're not entirely wrong. The collapse in the value of bank shares meant that many who had spent their entire lives working and were getting ready for a nice, comfy retirement saw their pensions obliterated overnight and instead find themselves having to grind through their golden years clinging to their jobs and living hand-to-mouth. They absolutely have caused to be pissed off, but they do tend to wear a bit on the nerves of someone who has to sit in a sodden adult nappy in their wheelchair for hours on end because their home care visits have been cut back to two half hours every day.
...to this guy
Mick Wallace, voice of lower-to-middle class who campaigns against austerity, against overpunitive drug policy and against discrimination against women - making him one of the few who will tackle the abortion issue head on - while quietly hoping that nobody remembers that he's a well off property developer.
Oh and you also had these guys
Michael and Danny Healy-Rae, who represent the all important Kerry farmers vote. Because of course they do.
"Gosh, Desktop Hippie!" you say! "What a web of interests and intrigue! Who won the election?"
That's the problem. Nobody.
Well, Fianna Gael juuuuust about managed to keep a majority despite losing a bunch of seats, but it wasn't enough to form a government and while many other parties gained significant ground, none of them had enough to form a government either. After the longest gap between an election and the formation of a government in the history of the Irish State (lasting over 50 days!) Fianna Gael eventually hammered out a deal with Shane Ross and his Independent Alliance, a group of six independent TDs (the Irish version of MPs) who agreed to club together as a sort of minority party in exchange for focus on their various raisons d'être and seats on the cabinet. This is exactly as stable a government as you're probably imagining it to be.
So, the election was in February of this year and we finally got a government at the end of April. What's happened since then?
Well, Fianna Fáil have continued to gain ground with people who are willing to forgive the whole destroying-the-economy thing if they promise to be good TDs and never do it again, especially since Fianna Gael are coming across as dangerously unstable in the fragile post-Brexit days. To tackle Brexit head on, Enda Kenny decided to set up an all-island forum focusing entirely on Brexit and the fallout. However, he sort of forgot to tell First Minister and DUP Leader Arlene Foster about it in advance. Needless to say, this went down like a lead balloon. Adding to this, there was a vote on the hugely controversial issue of abortion (still illegal in Ireland, don't get me started) in which Enda allowed his Independent ministers a free vote, which drew sharp criticism.
The biggest problem though? He fired the Deputy Leader of Fianna Gael, went through a selection process to choose a new Deputy Leader and has decided to go with... the guy he fired.
Feeling better about Theresa May yet?
And this image probably sums up what Ireland thinks about the world right now
A shockin' good place to see what the feck the craic is.
So, discuss the goings on in the Dail and the Commons!
(Thanks to @surrealitycheck for the thread title)
RMS Oceanic on
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I really must update that Irish politics bit. I'll put something together soon.
QEDMF xbl: PantsB G+
Well, aside from Enda deciding he's had it with dealing with those ungrateful fuckers (quite who they are is an exercise best left to the reader), and the competition to replace him being between a vampire and a poor hating biracial gay man, I don't think too much has changed, has it?
Celeste [Switch] - She'll be wrestling with inner demons when she comes...
Final Fantasy XII: The Zodiac Age [Switch] - Sit down and watch our game play itself
Unlike the country under the Thatcherite junta.
pre-debate
we might see some fireworks in a couple of days when the post debate ones come out
nb apparently this is with their old adjustments/method and therefore is probably flawed in a pro labour direction
No, not a whole pile, though I might give a quick run down of the various issues and scandals that keep making our government even rockier than normal. I'll see how long / boring it is.
exeunt omnes
ˌɛksɪˌʌnt ˈɒmneɪz/Submit
phrase of exeunt
ˌɛksɪˌʌnt ˈɒmneɪz/Submit
1.
used to indicate that all the actors leave the stage.
And then make it Brexeunt because pun
Thank you!
I hope someone pledges to legalise whatever YouGov have been taking.
FWIW it was embedded in the Guardian live coverage, where they indicated it used YouGov's old methodology, not the new stuff that produced that other poll.
Two methodologies returning similar results is interesting. Believe it as/when other polls drift to match.
Goodreads
SF&F Reviews blog
its called momentum
geddit
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colorado
Their claim of bias is based on there being people who supported Labour in the audience.
*Audience laughs*
Bonus article: WOMEN! Sort yourselves out, you're a MESS!
MEN! Have a shave and get drunk!
How does the audience influence the debate itself!?
I suspect that they think May appearing in the debate would have gone even worse than this. Certainly nothing about her performance in interviews or press conferences makes me think that she'd have held herself together tonight.
Laughing at Tories is discriminatory against people with no sense of humour like Teresa May. Checkmate BBC.
The BBC is constantly attacked by both the Left and the Right for being biased. Each side is absolutely convinced they support the other and aren't being fair on them. It's why I hold such a high opinion of their attempts to be as impartial as possible.
I still think they make mistakes. They treat UKIP like an actual political party rather than the loose collection of barmy thugs they are, and because they seek to be impartial on every issue they discuss, it means they tend to give equal air time to the opposing view in cases where the opposing view is objectively wrong. Stuff like climate change, non-heteronormative sexuality, stuff where you just don't want to add any breath to the "it's all rubbish!" side.
I think they make up for it somewhat by pouring a good chunk of their cash into creating educational programming for schools and children.
And the Daily Mail has never seen a way to blame Auntie for something that they didn't like.
Celeste [Switch] - She'll be wrestling with inner demons when she comes...
Final Fantasy XII: The Zodiac Age [Switch] - Sit down and watch our game play itself
CBeebies is a gem of a channel; the commercial channels are awful in comparison. It isn't even close.
Then there's all the radio stations, the online stuff, the news, some of its TV shows.
You only have to look to ITV (which does do some quality drama from time to time although it's hard to watch with the amount of adverts they cram in) to see how bad things would be.
Also the BBC like to make fun of the daily mail but the problem with the latter is that they don't have any sense of humour ( they employ Hopkins and Piers Moron so not unexpected).
CBeebies isn't the only stuff they do either. In the early hours of the morning they tend to put on programmes based on the British school curriculum that teachers can set to record to play and use during classes. Not to mention the amount they pour into educating adults with stuff like their groundbreaking science and nature documentaries, everything from Stargazing Live and the Sky at Night to pretty much everything David Attenborough has ever done.
Another reason they get such a hard time is because Murdoch has been gagging for the British Government to privatize large chunks of the BBC and sell it off so he can snatch it up. He's already taken most of the sports they used to show (football, motor racing, golf) and stuck them on his premium Sky channels you have to pay extra to watch, while The Sun prints all sorts of stories about what a waste the BBC license fee is.
I'm thinking 100%. Just a few fill in the blanks for whoever had a good night (and a quick extra paragraph or two to mention that Corbyn went to the debate as well, which just shows that he hasn't got the courage of his convictions, unlike our Brexit Saviour the Prime Minister, who's far too busy to campaign with Brexit negotiations, honestly it's unfair to her that she has to deal with an election on top of everything else... wait).
I'm just going to assume that I'm right, as there's no-one paying me to actually read the Daily Mail.