4 ms·

And there I was feeling a little sorry for the LibDems after their euro defeat, hoping that they still had some sense of morality. The main UK parties are sidi

by insky 12y ago

And there I was feeling a little sorry for the LibDems after their euro defeat, hoping that they still had some sense of morality. The main UK parties are siding this and fracking. The political landscape in Britain is looking very bleak.

smackay 12y ago
All the more reason to encourage a vote for an independent Scotland on Sept 18th. You'll be doing Scotland a favour and there will be a friendly place to stay if things get too fucked up south of the border.
- pling 12y ago
  I'm seriously considering that as an option at the moment. England is turning into a surveillance state (something I have been warned many a time to keep one eye on by a good friend who lived through some bad shit in East Germany), half the population is out for the blood of anyone darker than a sheet of A4 paper, military awareness and propaganda is at an all time high and the economic disparity between the rich and the poor is INSANE. It's rife for an explosion of sorts soon. I don't want to be here when it goes. Scotland I believe would survive this if independent.
- peteretep 12y ago
  Yes, this is definitely true. All of the issues that rich countries have with their governments and privacy will certainly not apply to that mystical, magical, tartan land, whose politicians shit rainbows.
  - smackay 12y ago
    It's simply a matter of scale. You can ignore the fantasy economics touted by the politicians. For the most part, unless the country becomes a Banana Republic there simply won't be the resources available (and hopefully the will) to run a surveillance state. I also adhere to the, almost certainly naive, view that smaller European countries (at least in the vicinity of our close friends in Scandanavia) are generally better run with less likelihood of vested interests running amok. EDIT: It can't be any worse than the path we are already on.
    - vidarh 12y ago
      When it comes to surveillance, Scandinavia is not a beacon. Sweden has their notorious law that allows any signal passing the borders to be intercepted by military intelligence. Since most of Norways traffic out of the country goes via Sweden, that's caused a few issues... And Norwegian security services have decades worth of history of blatantly illegal politically motivated surveillance (basically anyone to the left of the Norwegian equivalent of Labour used to be under extensive surveillance - some of it so blatant it was clearly intended to intimidate rather than uncover anything; it was supposedly stopped in the mid 90's, but given that the security services were illegally monitoring the head of the parliamentary committee investigating them while he was investigating them gives me zero confidence anything has changed)
    - insky 12y ago
      Oh come on, digital copying is very, very cheap.
    - peteretep 12y ago
      So your argument is: you hope Scotland will vote for independence, because you think they'll be too poor to do digital surveillance?
- insky 12y ago
  (Well I don't get a vote being south of the border. But I do hope that Scotland does get its independence. (I'm not really sure why I feel like that. I'm not anti-europe. Shouldn't the sum be greater than the parts?) Sadly that will most likely leave England, stuck with the Tories and UKIP. Shudder. I still think Salmond only got in because Blair pooch screwed Labour. The Scottish debate has been pretty pathetic so far from both sides, will watch with interest.)

by insky 12y ago

smackay 12y ago

All the more reason to encourage a vote for an independent Scotland on Sept 18th. You'll be doing Scotland a favour and there will be a friendly place to stay if things get too fucked up south of the border.

pling 12y ago
I'm seriously considering that as an option at the moment. England is turning into a surveillance state (something I have been warned many a time to keep one eye on by a good friend who lived through some bad shit in East Germany), half the population is out for the blood of anyone darker than a sheet of A4 paper, military awareness and propaganda is at an all time high and the economic disparity between the rich and the poor is INSANE. It's rife for an explosion of sorts soon. I don't want to be here when it goes. Scotland I believe would survive this if independent.
peteretep 12y ago
Yes, this is definitely true. All of the issues that rich countries have with their governments and privacy will certainly not apply to that mystical, magical, tartan land, whose politicians shit rainbows.
- smackay 12y ago
  It's simply a matter of scale. You can ignore the fantasy economics touted by the politicians. For the most part, unless the country becomes a Banana Republic there simply won't be the resources available (and hopefully the will) to run a surveillance state. I also adhere to the, almost certainly naive, view that smaller European countries (at least in the vicinity of our close friends in Scandanavia) are generally better run with less likelihood of vested interests running amok. EDIT: It can't be any worse than the path we are already on.
  - vidarh 12y ago
    When it comes to surveillance, Scandinavia is not a beacon. Sweden has their notorious law that allows any signal passing the borders to be intercepted by military intelligence. Since most of Norways traffic out of the country goes via Sweden, that's caused a few issues... And Norwegian security services have decades worth of history of blatantly illegal politically motivated surveillance (basically anyone to the left of the Norwegian equivalent of Labour used to be under extensive surveillance - some of it so blatant it was clearly intended to intimidate rather than uncover anything; it was supposedly stopped in the mid 90's, but given that the security services were illegally monitoring the head of the parliamentary committee investigating them while he was investigating them gives me zero confidence anything has changed)
  - insky 12y ago
    Oh come on, digital copying is very, very cheap.
  - peteretep 12y ago
    So your argument is: you hope Scotland will vote for independence, because you think they'll be too poor to do digital surveillance?
insky 12y ago
(Well I don't get a vote being south of the border. But I do hope that Scotland does get its independence. (I'm not really sure why I feel like that. I'm not anti-europe. Shouldn't the sum be greater than the parts?) Sadly that will most likely leave England, stuck with the Tories and UKIP. Shudder. I still think Salmond only got in because Blair pooch screwed Labour. The Scottish debate has been pretty pathetic so far from both sides, will watch with interest.)