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Interesting article. I enjoyed this part in particular: > Pakistan also considered changing to the right in the 1960s, but ultimately decided not to do it. The
by jakub_g 11y ago
Interesting article. I enjoyed this part in particular:
> Pakistan also considered changing to the right in the 1960s, but ultimately decided not to do it. The main argument against the shift was that camel trains often drove through the night while their drivers were dozing. The difficulty in teaching old camels new tricks was decisive in forcing Pakistan to reject the change.
- naner 11y agoPakistan ahead of the curve with self-driving camels. Eat your heart out Google.
- PhantomGremlin 11y agoMy favorite bit has to do with a referendum held in Sweden: In 1955, the Swedish government held a referendum on the introduction of right-hand driving. Although no less than 82.9% voted “no” to the plebiscite, the Swedish parliament passed a law on the conversion to right-hand driving in 1963.
- innguest 11y agoTrue democracy just how the left likes it.
- fao_ 11y agoJust like the 2015 general election, then. (For those who don't know, because of FPTP, the tories won with just ~30% of all votes...)
- roblfrieburg 11y agoSorry but this is nothing like the 2015 election. Tories won with 36.9% because the other parties got even less (30.4%, 12.6%). Even with proportional representation they would have "won" and probably would have formed a majority coalition government with LibDems/UKIP and co.
- Qwertious 11y agoI think you'll appreciate this CGO Grey video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r9rGX91rq5I https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r9rGX91rq5I. You're not wrong, but the system is nonetheless extremely misrepresentative.
- SmellyGeekBoy 11y agoI remember a time when constantly trying to shoehorn politics into completely unrelated online conversations was seen as a very American phenomenon. I'm starting to see more and more of it from my fellow Brits lately though. Sorry to drag the thread even further off topic...
- ChristianBundy 11y agoYou sound like a republican. /s
- seanmcdirmid 11y agoThat is a very strange comment to make if you mean the Irish kind.
- fao_ 11y agoIf that is the case then I agree I was mistaken. However, in that case since neither party had a majority (in this case I mean 'a majority of the british public', not 'a majority in comparison to the other parties') a revote should have been had.
- moogly 11y agoThe referendum held 1980 on the discontinuation of the reliance on nuclear power was not upheld either.
- kryptiskt 11y agoThe winning alternative was to not stop using nuclear power until some point in the future, where 2010 was thrown about but not set in stone. They're not all that far from that schedule seeing that a couple of reactors have been decommissioned. Though I wonder what moral rights the people of 1980 really have to decide to keep nuclear power for themselves while saddling the people of 2010 with the trouble of shutting it down and finding alternatives, when those under 48 y.o in 2010 didn't have a vote in the referendum.
- vacri 11y agoDo parents not have a moral right to look after their children?
- nmcfarl 11y agoCushy set
- deleted 11y ago[deleted]
- Trombone12 11y agoThe early 2000s is when the end of the expected lifetimes of the reactors falls anyway. Really, the ones with the questionable moral are the builders of the reactors, since reactors will always have to be decommissioned due to material fatigue.
- learnstats2 11y ago>when those under 48 y.o in 2010 didn't have a vote in the referendum. Nuclear reactors can't be powered on and off year-by-year, and this was known in 1980 and was factored into the advisory referendum. As such, this referendum is one of the few elections where the voters cannot be accused of voting selfishly in their own self-interest. We should listen to that type of result and learn from it.
- rkowalick 11y agoReading about the actual moment they transitioned from left-hand driving to right-hand driving is also quite entertaining: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dagen_H https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dagen_H
- dummy7953 11y agoDemocracy!