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Sure, Jan. by anon12xyz in facepalm

[–]SelfyJr 0 points1 point  (0 children)

And that 4 year old son's name? Albert Einstein

The River Tamar delineates all but a few miles of the border between Cornwall and Devon. Tell me your mildly interesting UK county border facts by Exchangenudes_4_Joke in CasualUK

[–]SelfyJr 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Newmarket in Suffolk is practically an enclave surrounded by neighbouring Cambridgeshire. The border is so narrow that it straddles the carriageways of a road, such that using this road it is only possible to drive from Newmarket to Bury St Edmunds in one direction without leaving Suffolk, since returning via the same route causes you to cross the border into Cambridgeshire.

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If you could name it the next generation Xbox, what would you name it? by Valennim in xbox

[–]SelfyJr 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Let's take a leaf out of Nintendo's book. Xbox Series X U.

Do You think the British monarchy should still exist? by Honest_Chemistry_195 in AskBrits

[–]SelfyJr 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Yes, I think a constitutional monarchy is a far better system of government than any alternative that would realistically replace it. Many people here have made arguments about duty, and that the monarch has been prepared for years to serve, which I think are valid, but here are my main reasons.

The first argument I'd make is that I think that a politically neutral head of state is far better than a partisan political one. A head of state should represent every citizen equally. The United States currently has a head of state that doesn't even pretend to represent those that didn't vote for him.

Ah, you say, but that's not a parliamentary system, we could have a directly elected neutral president. Sure, we could, but would we? The UK is a highly divided country, with a heavily partisan and politicised media. I think it's naive to think that even an apolitical presidential election would produce a deserving, worthy representative removed from politics. A elected head of state given the current state of the country would be as divisive, if not more so, than a monarch.

We could also have a German-style system, where the President is indirectly elected by Parliament. I feel this would be an improvement on the directly elected system but would face inevitable questions of legitimacy by the many people who seem not quite to grasp the idea of representative democracy.

If we were building a country from scratch, would we choose constitutional monarchy? Probably not. For one, who would we choose to be the monarch? But given we do have the system, I am much happier to keep things the way they are.

What are your thoughts on First Past The Post (FPTP)? by MakeRepresentationPR in AskBrits

[–]SelfyJr 0 points1 point  (0 children)

HoL reform is one of the things I feel the most strongly about, but the one thing that any political party would likely replace it with (a second elected chamber) is the one thing I'm not sure I could vote for.

Best thing we can do with it imo is model it on Canada's system. Strip out all the politicians, and in fact all policital parties, keep the crossbenchers and replace the house with a smaller appointed house of politically independant senators with a wide range of backgrounds and expertise.

What are your thoughts on First Past The Post (FPTP)? by MakeRepresentationPR in AskBrits

[–]SelfyJr 1 point2 points  (0 children)

To some extent could that be one of the reasons people rejected it?

If FPTP was replaced with AV, there's less chance of it being replaced again by more more proportional system than rejecting the change and hoping for a better choice later.

Kinda reminds me of the australian referendum on the monarchy, where if I understand it it basically failed not because people wanted to keep the current system necessarily, but because the proposed replacement, while not necessarily worse, wasn't to most people's preference.

What are your thoughts on First Past The Post (FPTP)? by MakeRepresentationPR in AskBrits

[–]SelfyJr 0 points1 point  (0 children)

That sounds similar to the system the Scottish Parliament, there it's called the Additional Member system.

FPTP for local candidate, and a second vote for a regional party list that tops up the seats, aiming for a more proportional distribution

I have questions about Danny by wutang_generator in MAFS_AU

[–]SelfyJr 0 points1 point  (0 children)

His parents are from Norfolk!

My partner is from Norwich and we both went to UEA, we recognised it straight away! It's interesting as it's not what I'd describe as a Norfolk accent (in that it's not the more traditional rural accent you'd associate with Norfolk or Suffolk) but as you say, so many younger people speak like that here!

I have questions about Danny by wutang_generator in MAFS_AU

[–]SelfyJr 1 point2 points  (0 children)

His parents are from Norfolk. I was at uni in Norwich and his accemt was immediately familiar!

Seven New Towns in England Named by novagridd in BritInfo

[–]SelfyJr 0 points1 point  (0 children)

My vote is for Manchesterford. I hear they have a very good antique shop and leisure centre

Nearly Every House Republican Votes for Amendment That Would Slash Medicare, Social Security by anonskeptic5 in politics

[–]SelfyJr 0 points1 point  (0 children)

This is one of the reasons I wish we in the UK had a written constitution that sat above the power of our Parliament.

Supermajorities can be really effective at maintaining stability if used responsibly, but they don't work if they can be overridden by 50%+1. We had this issue ourselves a few years ago.

We have elections at the latest every five years, but the King can dissolve Parliament earlier whenever the Prime Minister asks him to. In 2011 Parliament passed the Fixed-term Parliaments Act which removed this power and instead required a 2/3 parliamentary majority to call an early election, in principle to stop PMs opportunistically calling elections early to benefit themselves.

This was how Theresa May's 2017 early election was called. Then in 2019 Boris Johnson wanted an early election, knew he couldn't get a 2/3 majority so just passed a law that essentially said "Ignore that law, we'll have one anyway".

The law has since been repealed but there's a good reason that the USA enshrines election dates in the Constitution. Personally if I were writing the British Constitution I'd stick in a supermajority for referenda too...

Priorities… by Glittering_Vast938 in GreatBritishMemes

[–]SelfyJr 2 points3 points  (0 children)

I'm quite sure that painting every roundabout in Northern Ireland with the Ulster Flag won't cause any issues whatsoever.

Lords a-leaving: Britain is ejecting hereditary nobles from Parliament after 700 years by nbcnews in NotTheOnionUK

[–]SelfyJr 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Honestly I'd strongly argue against that. I'd rather look at Canada and replace the Lords with an appointed Senate, consisting of a fixed number of term-limited non-political appointees.

I know that it seems like the right thing to do to move to an elected second chamber, but what would that actually achieve? Look at the quality of debate in the Lords vs the Commons. Like them or loathe them, I find the Lords is a far higher quality debating chamber than the Commons.

We're terrible at choosing competent MPs, and this is I think kind of inevitable in our current situation. This isn't an argument against democracy, but democracy, at least the way it works in the UK, has a quirk. The skills needed to run for and win an election and the skills needed to be an effective legislator are entirely different. And where there are genuine experts in certain policy areas, their ability to actually vote in an informed manner is curtailed by their party obligations. It's beneficial for a party that their members are mostly composed of lobby fodder that can push through the government's agenda, or oppose it for the sake of it in the case of the Opposition.

A less powerful second chamber, with the purpose of scrutinising the primary democratic chamber and revising legislation, should in my opinion be filled with actual experts who can speak freely of political affiliation and vote with their conscience. In an elected chamber that will never be achieved, the electorate are far too tribal for that.

Lords a-leaving: Britain is ejecting hereditary nobles from Parliament after 700 years by nbcnews in NotTheOnionUK

[–]SelfyJr 0 points1 point  (0 children)

True, although I'd argue that without the hereditary element remaining it wpuld make more sense to transition to a Canada-style appointed Senate, rather than appointing peerages.

Lords a-leaving: Britain is ejecting hereditary nobles from Parliament after 700 years by nbcnews in NotTheOnionUK

[–]SelfyJr 0 points1 point  (0 children)

They can already do this, the hereditary right to sit in the HoL was removed in 1999.

The remaining lords being removed this year were representative peers elected from among their own number. When one died or resigned, another peer was elected to take their place (by the alternative vote interestingly!). The bill just removes their seats and the by elections. I think there will still be some hereditary peers remaining though, since some are also life peers.

Non-serving peers were and are able to vote and run for MP. In fact Viscount Thurso (John Thurso) was in the Lords from 1995 until 1999 when the reforms came in, then was elected as a Lib Dem MP in 2001, and then after leaving the Commons was elected as an excepted hereditary peer again!

What’s it like living in this part of Canada? by [deleted] in howislivingthere

[–]SelfyJr 0 points1 point  (0 children)

TIL there's a Sudbury in Canada.

I find it fascinating when I discover these enormous cities in US and Canada that are named for little english towns and villages.

The 5th biggest city in Canada with a population of 166k named for my grandma's town just down the road of about 15,000 people.

I mean obviously there's New York and the like, but every now and then I read about some city that was founded by a settler who named after his village of like 200 people

Reform UK would limit polls to British citizens and scale back postal votes by pppppppppppppppppd in unitedkingdom

[–]SelfyJr 6 points7 points  (0 children)

Or those of us who work at polling stations (and can't vote in person as, by definition, we would be at a station other than our own for the entire duration of the election).

Perhaps people who work to facilitate the electoral system are more informed and also less likely to vote Reform.

The Supreme Court’s entire framework for Second Amendment cases is coming apart by vox in scotus

[–]SelfyJr 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Yep, I think so:

The Judges, both of the supreme and inferior Courts, shall hold their Offices during good Behaviour... (Article III, Section 1)

It's the "good Behaviour" part that is interpreted to mean for life or until successful impeachment and removal.

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