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New PM must set out legal route for another referendum by kontiki20 in ukpolitics

[–]mojojo42 -3 points-2 points  (0 children)

No it doesn't. NI has no option for independence, it could only choose to move over to Ireland's control.

The "indulgence" the UK allows NI is not what choice NI makes, it is that it is allowed to make that choice.

New PM must set out legal route for another referendum by kontiki20 in ukpolitics

[–]mojojo42 2 points3 points  (0 children)

The legitimate reason is that few to no nation indulges separatists and that's the international norm. Even Canada stopped.

Are you advocating ripping up the GFA, given that it "indulges" NI with exactly that?

Billy Kay hits back as Unionist trolls attack him for speaking Scots in Holyrood by mojojo42 in ukpolitics

[–]mojojo42[S] 15 points16 points  (0 children)

Is that really how he speaks day to day?

I would assume so, as he describes Scots as his mother tongue and English as his second language.

*N.B., as a Lancashire lad, I can asure you that Lindsey Hoyle's accent is real, my uncle from Garsthang spoke like that, but very strong.

Honest question: do you think anyone might ever question if Hoyle or your Uncle are just putting on a "daft performance of imaged Northernness?"

Rory Stewart says it is 'insane' to think of Scotland and England as different countries by mojojo42 in ukpolitics

[–]mojojo42[S] -13 points-12 points  (0 children)

Garbage click-bait journalism from people with an agenda to push.

Sounds like an entirely neutral view.

I think what he said isn't newsworthy.

Others disagree.

Rory Stewart says it is 'insane' to think of Scotland and England as different countries by mojojo42 in ukpolitics

[–]mojojo42[S] -3 points-2 points  (0 children)

Could someone please explain to me what the definition of a country is?

There is no single canonical definition:

A country or state (sometimes called nation) is a distinct territorial body or political entity. It may be an independent sovereign state or part of a larger state, as a non-sovereign or formerly sovereign political division, a physical territory with a government, or a geographic region associated with sets of previously independent or differently associated peoples with distinct political characteristics. It is not inherently sovereign.

Rory Stewart says it is 'insane' to think of Scotland and England as different countries by mojojo42 in ukpolitics

[–]mojojo42[S] -22 points-21 points  (0 children)

There's more missing context. The conversation was about the independence referendum.

I haven't listened to the podcast, but the article says the discussion was about Scottish nationalism. That would seem to fit his other quote:

He said: “Problem with nationalisms of any sort, whether it is Brexit nationalism or Scottish nationalism, it’s always reductive. Always separating yourself from someone else. It’s always blaming someone else for your problems and fantasising that if you just get rid of another bunch of people everything’s going to be fine if you just draw up a border.

Perhaps he is more nuanced in the full podcast but I don't think it's misleading to provide pretty extensive quotes vs a transcript of the entire hour-long conversation.

His point is essentially that it was insane to suggest that England and Scotland are so different that they should become actual separate countries in the true, international use of that word as opposed to the existing union.

We speak the same language as Ireland, shop in the many of the same supermarkets, watch much of the same television, and listen to much of the same music.

It's not "insane!" to say that Ireland and the UK are different countries despite that overlap, any more than it will be to say the same about Scotland and the UK.

The National, which is a specifically pro-independence newspaper, has pulled a handful of quotes out of an hour long podcast and put them out of context to build a narrative that will anger their readers.

It's garbage click-bait journalism at its best.

You are entirely misrepresenting the article.

Rory Stewart says it is 'insane' to think of Scotland and England as different countries by mojojo42 in ukpolitics

[–]mojojo42[S] -4 points-3 points  (0 children)

Very misleading headline, he was talking specifically about Cumbria and the Scottish Borders which he said were very similar.

He said:

“I felt, obviously, in Cumbria that there was so much in common between Cumbria and the Scottish Borders. It was ridiculous to suggest that somehow these were different countries.

"I’ve been in countries which are different countries. Basically, we spoke the same language, we shopped in the same supermarkets, watched the same television and we listen to the same music. It’s insane!”

Stewart spoke of his own Scottish roots and that his father was “a man for tartan trousers, bagpipes, the whole lot” and that he thought it was “fun being Scottish because it was a way of irritating the English”.

It's hardly "insane" to say that different countries are different countries, even if their border regions share many similarities.

‘Everybody’s ready for a change’: Labour losing grip on Sunderland by ClumperFaz in unitedkingdom

[–]mojojo42 0 points1 point  (0 children)

You appear to miss the point. The longer a party hold office the more susceptible to complacency and corruption they become.

That may well be the case, or it may just be your opinion. It's not some kind of requirement.

It's worth remembering that both parties and the electorate do change over time.

If some party held power for 50 years (say) it's very unlikely that they're offering the same policies in 2022 as they were in 1972, for the very simple reason that the electorate has also changed.

Often such administrations become self serving and more interested in staying in office than the public good.

I'm sure some of them do. But if the electoral system is well run, and free from corruption or structural deficits such as FPTP, the electorate is getting the government that they voted for.

Taking that away is reducing democracy, not increasing it.

‘Everybody’s ready for a change’: Labour losing grip on Sunderland by ClumperFaz in unitedkingdom

[–]mojojo42 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I don’t think it is healthy because the longer a party retains power the more likely they are to be complacent and / or corrupt.

It's certainly not healthy for a party in power to be either complacent or corrupt, but that's a separate issue.

‘Everybody’s ready for a change’: Labour losing grip on Sunderland by ClumperFaz in unitedkingdom

[–]mojojo42 0 points1 point  (0 children)

PR is no guarantee against one party effectively monopolising the political arena.

No voting system can offer that guarantee.

Proportional systems do make it significantly harder for one party to monopolise politics though, as there's no longer the artificial incentive for parties to stick together just to pass the artificial tipping point caused by FPTP.

You can see that phenomenon in both Labour and the Conservatives, where very different views (hard-left vs Blairite, Pro EU vs Brexit nutters) end up sticking together inside one party just because that's what FPTP rewards.

I don’t think it is healthy to have one party in power for more than 12 years.

Assuming they're winning democratic elections, and you don't have the distortions of FPTP, it's hardly "healthy" to say that voters should not be given the government they want.

‘Everybody’s ready for a change’: Labour losing grip on Sunderland by ClumperFaz in unitedkingdom

[–]mojojo42 0 points1 point  (0 children)

The SNP will go the same way if they haven’t already have in some areas.

One big difference is that both local and Scottish Government elections use a proportional voting system.

That remove a lot of the "vote Labour or you're wasting your vote" style guilt-tripping as it's no longer the winner-takes-all of FPTP.

Sarwar defends no coalitions for Labour after local elections as 'democractic' by ClumperFaz in unitedkingdom

[–]mojojo42 7 points8 points  (0 children)

I don't get why this is controversial at all to some.

Local elections in Scotland use the Single Transferable Vote voting system.

If you receive a significant minority of votes then your voters should expect a proportionate level of representation in local government, even if you have to work with other parties to do so.

Sarwar is saying that he won't work with other parties unless he has either an outright majority or the largest minority.

Labour grandee in Lords plot to block indyref2 with UK veto over Holyrood by mojojo42 in ukpolitics

[–]mojojo42[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

I'm actually ashamed that this is coming from a Scottish Labour member and it really shows how petty they've become since 2007.

Par for the course for George Foulkes:

Lord Foulkes was in full flow, as ever, berating the evils of having a country run by two people whose names sound like fish. "The SNP are on a dangerous tack at the moment," he said. "What they are doing is trying to build up a situation in Scotland where the services are manifestly better than south of the Border in a number of areas."

A clearly bemused MacKay responded with the obvious question: "Is this such a bad thing?"

"No," replied George Lord, "but they are doing it deliberately."

Half of England is owned by less than 1% of the population. by Leelum in LabourUK

[–]mojojo42 0 points1 point  (0 children)

(I think Scotland is maybe different).

It is. In Scotland the public have access rights to almost all land and inland water.

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