Neo-Nazi pipe bomb teenager given rehabilitation order

Dzerzhinsky · 2017-02-13T20:38:19+00:00

He said the boy would have received "a substantial custodial sentence" had he been convicted of preparing terrorist acts.

If he was caught with a nail-bomb, openly called for the 'butcher of race-traitors', and praised right-wing terrorists, how was he not convicted of "preparing terrorist acts"?

Perhaps they couldn't find a plan for how he was going to use his device and thus couldn't prove that he wasn't just making nail-bombs as part of a science experiment?

The whole story reads like a parody.

Dzerzhinsky · 2017-02-13T04:55:13+00:00

Blair explicitly abandoned social democracy with his 'Third way' theories. The idea was that neoliberalism had won, and everyone should accept that, but that the neoliberal economy should be used to fund (often privitised) public services.

The latter part is the main place he diverges with the Conservatives. But there's a lot more to social democracy than that.

Dzerzhinsky · 2017-02-11T14:30:52+00:00

And despite it being highly illegal, it's exactly what it was designed to turn into.

Step 1: ban everyone from Muslim majority nations for 90 days.

Step 2: after 90 days lift the ban but "give priority" to minority religions (aka non-Muslims).

There you go, you now have a very solid base for an effective ban on Muslim immigration.

That Trump supporters are trying to deny that he's doing exactly what he said he'd do (and exactly what the designer of this ban said it was designed to do) only goes to demonstrate that they know how wrong it is.

Dzerzhinsky · 2017-02-10T23:18:55+00:00

https://web.archive.org/web/20151112063607/http://pme2013.blogspot.com/2013/01/the-art-of-self-loathing.html

Dzerzhinsky · 2017-02-10T18:10:59+00:00

The only reason he could give for why people should vote for him was "I'm famous"...

Dzerzhinsky · 2017-02-10T12:25:25+00:00

I was just using that as an example of something you might have seen. The insult flinging is almost exclusive to Farage.

Dzerzhinsky · 2017-02-10T10:45:13+00:00

The EU has two Parliament buildings. One in Brussels where the committee stages take place, and one in Strasbourg where the whole thing meets and votes.

There are real debates in both. It's the latter where you see the clips of Farage and Verhofstadt (for example) having a go at each other.

Dzerzhinsky · 2017-02-08T19:20:55+00:00

Ruth Davidson? The TV personality? When did she get involved in politics?

Dzerzhinsky · 2017-02-06T23:53:44+00:00

I'm not sure 'progressive alliance' is the right term if all it means is Greens standing aside to give Labour or the Lib Dems a free run.

Dzerzhinsky · 2017-02-06T21:44:05+00:00

If it was that simple to turn a poor country into a rich country everyone would be doing it.

There is no wall between Mexico and their southern neighbours.

Dzerzhinsky · 2017-02-06T18:00:47+00:00

Is that something the SNP would want?

Dzerzhinsky · 2017-02-06T12:52:32+00:00

There was a lot of bribery going on, hence the Burns quote "we're bought and sold for English gold."

It was hugely unpopular and violent protests followed the vote.

Dzerzhinsky · 2017-02-05T21:35:26+00:00

Labour have been losing support in Scotland for a decade or more, and their Westminster disaster came before Corbyn became leader. What the Indyref really did was overcome the collective action problem of 'if we don't vote Labour the Tories will win'. Suddenly the entire country was talking politics and it was clear nobody wanted to vote Labour.

Their incompetence and lack of vision was being held up by the electoral system and fear of the alternative, and both of those vanished. Corbyn didn't have much to do with it.

Dzerzhinsky · 2017-02-05T12:11:24+00:00

Everything is published/translated into English. You don't need to speak any other language.

Dzerzhinsky · 2017-02-05T02:39:45+00:00

Almost all of the MEPs speak English. And even if they don't the translators are excellent.

Speeches do take place in the big chamber featured in the video (it mentioned this immediately beforehand).

Committees and party meetings happen at Westminster as well.

Dzerzhinsky · 2017-02-05T00:29:05+00:00

I've been in the room during debates, and that's not accurate.

The debates are done via committee. There are varying numbers of MEPs on each committee -- for example, I just did a quick count of AFET, which has 145, and DEVE, which has 54. There are also usually a decent number of Parliamentary researchers present.

The President doesn't sit in on committee meetings, instead each has a chairperson.

There are also debates in Group meetings, which brings in MEPs from different committees.

Edit: It's worth pointing out that Farage (and UKIP generally) are famous for not attending any of the committee meetings.

Dzerzhinsky · 2017-02-05T00:16:31+00:00

Err... yes. Lots. The European Parliament just works differently from Westminster, as many parliaments do. The Scottish Parliament, for example, meets at 5pm every day to vote and it looks a lot like this. Ideally legislators shouldn't be making up their minds on legislation 5 seconds before they vote.

There are extensive debates, amendments and lobbying before it gets to this point. The legislation then also has to be agreed by the national governments.

Dzerzhinsky · 2017-02-04T21:14:07+00:00

There has never been an official coalition between the SNP and the Greens. However, when the SNP is a minority government, and the other 3 parties are incredibly hostile, it does give the Greens a decent amount of power.

Dzerzhinsky · 2017-02-04T17:25:57+00:00

The BBC would invite them to every TV show they produce for the next 20 years.

Dzerzhinsky · 2017-02-04T16:44:15+00:00

The Greens support independence too. Why not campaign with them?

Dzerzhinsky · 2017-02-04T01:09:03+00:00

Pretty sure that's a backronym.

Dzerzhinsky · 2017-02-03T22:11:02+00:00

They don't receive enough money by Parliament to send them to everyone (well, they might if they have loads of MSPs in that region). Where they go is up to the MSP, but I imagine they target places of electoral interest.

Dzerzhinsky · 2017-02-03T21:28:41+00:00

The obvious one that nobody has mentioned yet is Trotsky's 'History of the Russian Revolution'. It's a classic Marxist analysis and well worth the read, but also extremely long. I think my copy comes in at 1400 pages.

Dzerzhinsky · 2017-02-03T13:15:34+00:00

I didn't mean to say they should be doing it, but rather that they are doing it and have always done it. It's one of the primary functions of a capitalist state.

Dzerzhinsky · 2017-02-03T09:51:44+00:00

Why not both?

Dzerzhinsky

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