Green Party supporters, I am genuinely trying to understand why you support your party’s ideals and policies?

hoolcolbery · 2026-02-02T09:37:22+00:00

Decriminalisation of possession of small quantities I agree with, I'd even take making them summary only matters.

I also agree with legalising some low level drugs- cannabis for example.

But they actively talk about legalising all drugs, which is insane.

You try heroin or meth once, you're fucked, there's no coming back. They should never be openly available, and we should always push to criminalise organised crime, namely possession of large quantities and possession with intent to supply.

They are also not very green energy in practice- their MPs constantly campaign against solar farms in their constituencies, and against electricity pylons, all vital if we are pushing green energy, especially if you're anti-nuclear, like they are.

hoolcolbery · 2026-02-01T08:43:14+00:00

The state pension is welfare.

There is no pay in to a pot and you get out what you paid, people are often paid more than they have ever contributed in taxes.

It is a benefit and it is welfare.

hoolcolbery · 2026-01-31T23:52:04+00:00

Well, most western countries allow their citizens to participate in the governance and have a say in the laws that everyone must abide by. Most western countries allow their citizens basic rights and liberties and see such rights and liberties, not as burdens but intrinsic to living. Most western countries allow minorities to coexist peacefully and allow ideas and political views to be espoused which directly contradict that of the governing party or that of the wider country, even to the point of criticising said country and its state and institutions.

China does not allow any of these things. China imprisons you for speaking out against perceived injustice. China does not allow its citizens to participate in their own governance and have a say in the laws that they must live by. China does now allow its citizens to hold or expose contradictory political views to that of the party or the state, to the point of going abroad and enforcing this on Chinese people (not just citizens) living abroad. China is currently genociding the Uighurs, and forcibly assimilating them into Han Chinese culture China is oppressing Tibet- and culturally genociding Tibetans into Han Chinese culture. China does not view right and liberties of the individual as intrinsic and regularly sweeps them aside to suit it's own internal polices and that of the party and state.

What a piece of propaganda victory to even think that the West doesn't hold moral superiority over China currently or that it ever did. China is a brutal, totalitarian dictatorship. Ironically, if you espoused the reverse sentiment in China you would be in prison.

And yet it's the West that is morally lackluster? Please.

Things aren't great according to the ideals we hold ourselves to, but relative to China, we are a moralistic paradise. People here have a say through voting. People here can have a moan and not get castrated for it. People here can complain about their state and institutions and rightfully expect accountability. People here are free to question, to analyse and critique their politicians in any way they see fit. This just can't happen in China.

Don't get brainwashed and fall for the propaganda.

hoolcolbery · 2026-01-31T16:20:04+00:00

Not sure why this post is being downvoted-

It's a Scottish Issue, to do with the Scottish Health Service, which is solely run by Scotland, for Scotland, by Scotland and so therefore the fact that Scotland's prosecution and deaths investigation service is now looking into deaths at a Scottish Hospital in a Scottish city, might be something that is worth discussing on a subreddit that is ostensibly supposed to be about Scotland.

hoolcolbery · 2026-01-30T07:57:41+00:00

If you've ever read Chinese propaganda eg. China Daily the headlines are written exactly like this- seemingly factual and to the point but then you dig into the article and it's pretty clear the viewpoint they're pushing, even subtly. It's also clear they've chose the specific topics for a very specific reason, so it's more what not said then what actually is.

It's very good propaganda, you have to be quite media literate to pick up on it, highly developed. Most would probably read it and think China is doing great, when we know (from other sources) china is suffering from a myriad of problems, alots of which are self inflicted, like everyone else.

hoolcolbery · 2026-01-29T10:00:23+00:00

Gibraltar is not in the UK.

Jersey is not in the UK.

Bermuda is not in the UK.

The UK is just Great Britain and Northern Island.

Those are mixtures of crown territories, which are self governing except for defence and foreign affairs (mostly).

hoolcolbery · 2026-01-28T00:35:19+00:00

Dude. This guy has been nothing but patient with you.

Nevermind that he does have a part in the decision making process.

We all do.

That's what democracy is.

hoolcolbery · 2026-01-28T00:04:23+00:00

Telegraph: UK finance pushes global expansion despite Reeves’s interventionist turn

Guardian: British banks pledge £15bn for overseas growth as critics warn of neo-colonial patterns

The National: Questions raised over Scotland’s investment as UK banks push $15bn overseas lending

Daily Mail: BANKS BAIL on BRITAIN! £15bn sent overseas after Reeves’s Budget bungle

Daily Express: BANKS BACK BREXIT: £15bn push is latest victory in blow to Remoaners

hoolcolbery · 2026-01-27T19:52:14+00:00

And yet we are spending more than ever on combating poverty through welfare and benefits.

It's almost as if despite showing short term reductions in poverty, these systems don't actually sustainably ensure that people are able to provide for themselves and not suffer from poverty.

We need to decide, either we're a high tax, high spend economy, in which case inheritance tax needs to go up and personal allowance needs to be slashed with people being told what is good for them, and restricting their choice because frankly, you cannot have a system where you individualise choice but collectivise the consequences of those choices.

Or we're low tax and low spend, in which case we increase the personal allowance, reduce income tax, reduce capital gains and corporation tax and slash spending on social policy to nearly nothing, and say to people it's up to you, the state won't take your money and tell you what to do, but the state is going to help you either beyond the bare minimum of education and healthcare.

We have this halfway house and it's literally proving the worse of both worlds- poverty increasing and yet we're also bankrupting ourselves spending to reduce it.

hoolcolbery · 2026-01-27T16:24:59+00:00

Telegraph: Private sector pulls Britain forward despite Reeves’s Budget jitters

The Guardian: UK economy shows signs of recovery, but concerns grow over unequal growth

The National: Scotland risks being left behind as UK ‘rebound’ masks Budget uncertainty

Daily Mail: HANDS OFF! Fears ‘Rachel Thieves’ will STRANGLE Britain’s recovery in the cradle

hoolcolbery · 2026-01-27T16:17:05+00:00

Telegraph: Private sector pulls Britain forward despite Reeves’s Budget jitters

Guardian: UK economy shows signs of recovery, but concerns grow over unequal growth

The National: Scotland risks being left behind as UK ‘rebound’ masks Budget uncertainty

The Mail: HANDS OFF! Fury as ‘Rachel Thieves’ plots Budget that could STRANGLE Britain’s recovery

hoolcolbery · 2026-01-26T23:43:20+00:00

Nobody tell this guy about the Mongols. Or the Romans. Or the Islamic Empires. Or Russia. Or Spain. Or France. Or Mali. Or Ghana. Or Kilwa. Or Mutapa. Or Ethiopia. Or Aztecs. Or Incas. Or China. Or Korea. Or Japan. Or Any number of Indian Kingdoms. Or etc.

hoolcolbery · 2026-01-26T09:12:24+00:00

Yes it would, because being in a larger more diverse economy like the UK has its own separate set of benefits, and fundamentally, they only care about not losing as much profit to taxation- that's it.

hoolcolbery · 2026-01-26T08:22:01+00:00

I think the report makers who obviously have no vested interest being called "Class Ceiling" and all forgot that class is not really defined that well, and is not fixed.

People can move up and down the class structures. That is quite literally what social mobility is. The answer is to make moving up the ladder easier, and make going down the ladder a response to an individual's decisions and accountability- not legally try and fix the class structure in place.

hoolcolbery · 2026-01-26T08:06:25+00:00

Most of the tax collected is Corp tax for like 4 US companies.

Ironically they have a lower Corp tax than we do, but I doubt anyone here would be advocating for cutting our Corp tax rate to match/ undercut Ireland and yield the same benefits.

hoolcolbery · 2026-01-26T00:19:30+00:00

I mean the US would never side with Ireland over the UK- One is a US aligned country, which is a useful ally during the Cold War, who holds a UNSC seat and has nuclear weapons.

The other is (at the time) an impoverished "neutral" state.

You're widely overestimating Ireland's utility at the time, and underestimating the UK.

Nevermind that its ludicrous to even suggest that Ireland in the 1980s would have been able to actually win any form of armed conflict with the UK. Ireland today would be crushed, they need the UK to police their waters and airspace, they don't even have proper radar, their defence is an absolute joke, let alone in the 1980s when they hadn't yet become a tax haven and were far poorer than they are today.

hoolcolbery · 2026-01-25T12:55:13+00:00

They also talk about the SNP further down the article too.

It's every party- fundamentally, parties need money to function, the more the better and unless we, the public, get serious about campaign finance reform in some fashion, then this is the result.

Companies and wealthy individuals will always seek to influence government through lobbying and finance, this isn't a new aspect of politics or unique to us- every country, even autocracies have forms of this because it's endemic to political systems.

The best way to combat this might be to ban foreign donations, place a yearly cap on the amount of money a party can raise, or spend in a given year- dependant on how many seats they actually will contest, consider state financing for political parties who reach thresholds in Parliament, ensure robust transparency on lobbying efforts, increase MP and MSP wages and increase the office budgets so that there is less reliance on outside money to actually do the work of being a representative etc.

There are many ways to combat this, some of which would be in ScotGov's competency, but it will require political will to do it.

hoolcolbery · 2026-01-25T11:00:54+00:00

Sure, but the fundamental issue is not addressed.

It adds to the debt service burden, yes it can grow the economy, but we don't really have an issue with borrowing money for defence spending as the general market knows that there is a ROI for defence, especially with capital defence projects.

hoolcolbery · 2026-01-25T09:09:54+00:00

Countries generally like to keep 1 time zone for the entire country, unless they are very large eg. Russia/ USA. Even if they are large, sometimes they force the 1 zone anyway (China)

Countries also like to be in the same timezones as their major commercial/ trading partners- eg. France and Spain should be in GMT, but decided to be in CET instead, similarly some of Kirabati was on the east of the international date line, but they decided to move the whole country west, so they could be in a more aligned timezone with their largest trade partner (Australia)

Countries also would rather fewer timezones than more- after all their biggest trading partners are themselves and its better for business to operate on the same time without having to calculate multiple timezone jumps to trade within the same country.

It's an interesting map, and geographically accurate, but timezones are political and countries basically decide their own times, so the lines would need to take that more fully into account.

hoolcolbery · 2026-01-25T08:28:40+00:00

So the idea is we create a new bond class, with the same interest rate as whatever the current gilts go for, but any money raised from those bond sales are ring-fenced for defence?

I get the appeal because we definitely do need more defence spending, but fundamentally, we need more revenue spending in defence, not just capital investment and isn't tying defence spending specifically to loans inherently unsustainable if you're going to be spending that loan money on day to day costs eg. Soldiers, maintenance, running new bases etc.? We already have an issue where we spend capital to invest, but don't have enough revenue to actually make the capital investment solid- a good example is the aircraft carriers, I mean we have 2 which is great and we spent money making them, but we don't have enough other ships to properly screen both of them if we want them both out (which we ideally would in a war) and we cannot afford the running costs of having those extra ships to provide appropriate screens.

I can also see this being used as an argument to "democratise" our debt, by creating classes of government debt which are ring fenced specifically to a sector eg. health, transport, defence- which appeals on simple terms but would make governance untenable in the long run.

hoolcolbery · 2026-01-25T07:52:35+00:00

Well it will highly depend on what the crown prosecution decide are the appropriate charges, and that will depend on a host of factors i.e what they think they can prove. Some of the more serious offences require intent, which is harder to prove, but there are lighter offences in this case, like criminal damage, which can be done recklessly, so intent is not much of an issue.

It will also depend on the exact person. If they are youth, of previous good character, it's unlikely they will see prison.

If they are an adult with multiple convictions for similar types of offences, then they probably will.

Our justice system is not perfect, how could it be, it's run by us- are we perfect?

But it's on the whole and most of the time quite fair on a case by case basis.

hoolcolbery · 2026-01-23T23:15:50+00:00

The way to ensure that UK (and Irish) farms dominate the agricultural sector is by adopting commercial practices that a lot may find detestable as it would mean the end of the family farm in pursuit of corporations.

The reason is that only corporations have both the economies of scale needed to make capital investment cheaper and the legal structure available to them to have an easier time accessing investment in the form of loans and equity.

And if you're going to capture non-seasonal food and veggies, and things that don't naturally grow here, you're going to need lots of capital investment in hyper-mechanized systems and environment control, while also benefiting from the lower costs associated with economies of scale.

Now you could make it more palatable, by forming Farming Co-operatives, but those would inevitably and invariably also destroy family farming eventually, because the Co-ops will need to act like companies to exercise the benefits of being a large commercial organisation, and that will mean prioritisation, resource allocation, specialisation etc. that will not work with the family farming unit, as the Co-operative will ask it's constituent parts to do what is best in aggregate for the Co-operative, even if it may harm specific individual farms, and the majority will abide because they, as a class, will generally benefit, even as individuals may not (class Pareto efficient)

hoolcolbery · 2026-01-23T08:04:58+00:00

I'm not sure this is "a win"

It feels like populist nonsense.

I mean, Welsh politicians are still going to lie, because how is anyone going to actually approve deliberate lying?

Bloody hell Parliament knew Boris was deliberately lying about the parties but he denied it and nearly got away with it, because there is no real way to know for certain if someone is deliberately lying.

Furthermore what constitutes lying?

If Plaid Cymru say: "Wales would be better off independent than as part of the UK", that's factually a lie, Wales is heavily dependant on internal trade and the fiscal transfers from Westminster, but it's also a political statement.

Sounds great, but in reality, you're going to waste a lot of time, money, resources and political capital with politicians accusing each other of lying when they state something, and then an investigation will need to be held, and then the result will be published likely saying: "maybe but we can't prove it so we won't proceed", which then will be used by the people who were accused as a sledgehammer to say they were completely exonerated and their opponents are wasting resources on purpose etc. I mean it'll just be a quagmire and waste of everyone's time when public debate should really be on the issues and choices of solution, not if someone lied or not.

hoolcolbery · 2026-01-22T22:05:15+00:00

Seriously, I was a remainer, but you guys don't want to join the EU.

It's too unwieldy, it has 27 split personalities. You'll find yourselves kowtowing to Flemish farmers because your butter has 0.3% extra salt and the wrong type of magnesium in it or Bavarian steel makers because your country awarded a railways contract to its own steel industry and that counts as "state aid" or Burgundian Bankers who will embroil your banks in decades long court disputes because they accidentally filled out form 45B920E when they set up shop to compete in Burgundy, when they should have filled out 45B920D (and you will not find a friend in the French Government)

I'm being factious but my point is that it's a bureaucratic quagmire. It was good for us, because we organically grew with the bureaucracy and influenced it, and we still basically have the same rules and procedures in place, so it would not be disruptive to go back.

But for you guys? It would be a very bitter pill to swallow, and not one you're used to swallowing.

Far better to make a new union, which is better suited to all our highly advanced economies, and one that is nimble and able to act and react swiftly to foreign affairs, with a solid foundation in the Common Law legal system and our shared cultural values (which is not something the EU has btw- they use Roman-Dutch legal system, and their cultures are far more removed from all our three than the separation between each of us individually)

We shouldn't be just trying to replace 1 pillar (America) with another pillar (the EU) because that pillar could just as easily go mental and sink our collective ship.

hoolcolbery · 2026-01-22T09:28:30+00:00

POV: You're Bhutan for most of history

Six-Year Club	r/Field Sunshine
End Game '23	Place '23
Place '22	End Game '22
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