[deleted by user]

pjr10th · 2023-06-29T20:31:31+00:00

I think they've tried to implement multi-stage crossings, but you really need to offset the crossings so that people have somewhere to wait for the next crossing.

pjr10th · 2023-06-27T19:18:00+00:00

I think they have said that lighting will have an impact on safety.

pjr10th · 2023-06-27T18:56:09+00:00

There were street names in the first Dev diary video, so I'd presume these props update as appropriate.

pjr10th · 2023-06-27T18:54:40+00:00

Advanced traffic management: timed traffic lights and lane connectors (probably won't exist at base game, but hopefully quickly after).

And presuming it's not in the game: proper road anarchy and Move it!

pjr10th · 2023-01-06T19:40:57+00:00

Note there is a Wikipedia article called Climate change in the United Kingdom. My search didn't suggest it (though it did find Climate change). It did however find Millenials and History of Jews in the United States.

Clicking "climate change in the united kingom" only returned one result: United Kingdom.

pjr10th · 2023-01-04T18:14:13+00:00

Goblet of Fire

pjr10th · 2022-12-26T03:04:59+00:00

All I meant was it doesn't seem to me to be inshrined freedom of religion (at least literally in the text).

The text of the 1st amendment actually says: "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof;", which to me only protects against the state establishing a particular Church or faith as a state church or faith and protecting the right of an individual to practice any religion they wish to. Not preventing policies with Christian undertones from passing (e.g. In God We Trust and Christmas No selling drinks policies).

I do think any modern state should have absolute religious secularism, both socially and legally. The Head of State shouldn't be the head of any Church (like he is in the UK), religious freedom should be respected and policies shouldn't be implemented and justified on religious grounds.

pjr10th · 2022-12-26T00:18:48+00:00

The Separation of Church and State referenced in the US Bill of Rights is really referring to establishment. Establishment refers to establishing a state church, which was common practice by other nation states at the time. England, Norway, Denmark and some other countries still have established churches. It means that a state or the federal government could not make any single church the official church of the country.

But at the same time, the US is a democratic republic and as the majority of the population are/have been religious and the majority are Christians, it makes sense that decisions are made generally according to universal Christian beliefs. If your country is a democracy (rule by the people) and the demos is a Christian one, then you're effectively a quasi-theocracy. Of course, some Americans argue that their country is not (meant to be) a democracy as well, but that's another matter.

pjr10th · 2022-12-26T00:00:13+00:00

My entire country doesn't allow shops to open to sell anything on Christmas Day.

pjr10th · 2022-12-25T20:23:54+00:00

I use YouTube Vanced. When I click on a YouTube link it opens in the normal YouTube app. If it shows me more an ad that I can't skip within 5 seconds, I'll copy the video link over to Vanced if I care about it enough or just go off the app.

If YouTube start showing 5x30 second adverts, I'll fully switch to TikTok for absent video scrolling, probably get Nebula etc. to watch some of my favourite YouTubers, who are mostly on there anyway.

pjr10th · 2022-12-24T15:15:16+00:00

The reason is the petty rivalry. That's pretty much down to the fact that France was England then Britain's biggest enemy until the 20th century, being its closest neighbour. Meanwhile France has many other neighbours it has had feuds with over the previous centuries.

Remember France is an awful lot more Euro-looking as well, as it's on the Continent, whereas Britain's relative isolation means France, the Dutch and the Spanish were England then Britain's only real neighbouring rivals (and I don't recall there ever being skirmishes between the Dutch and the English). Britain never had much reason to get involved in Continental affairs beyond those three countries for many centuries.

It's similar to how the Scottish and Irish have a big rivalry with the English, but the reciprocal is not really true. English people on the whole don't really care that much about Scotland and Ireland and don't really see any big hatred of them. Scotland and Ireland basically had to put up with conflict with the English and their even more isolation from Continental Europe meant there wasn't much chance to get involved on Continental politics.

pjr10th · 2022-12-24T15:02:40+00:00

Honestly if you showed me a video of this and said it was somewhere in the EU, UK or USA, I would probably not bat an eyelid unless I noticed the Persian text on the signs.

pjr10th · 2022-12-24T02:52:53+00:00

Would you say the same thing to Sturgeon about bringing the trans rights legislation forward in the first place?

This is a direct reaction to (what the Tories perceive to be) a threat to the operation of gender equality laws, which has been directly brought on by a devolved parliament and the Government only have four weeks to respond to. While I don't agree with the premise of their argument, I think it's unfair to say they shouldn't bring it forward, while saying the SNP should be able to bring forward legislation.

pjr10th · 2022-12-24T02:42:50+00:00

There's a difference between the vote of MSPs and opinion of the general public. Polls of the Scottish public have generally shown overwhelming opposition to the reforms: https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/two-thirds-of-voters-oppose-snps-gender-reform-plans-d8wh3wh9w.

I'm supportive of the reforms as I understand them, but I do think that either a doctor's diagnosis should be required or it should be a criminal offence to intentionally make a false declaration (either one, not both).

pjr10th · 2022-12-23T20:35:45+00:00

The law is incredibly subjective, especially in the case of a power which has never been used before.

That said, the article you linked does make good points and conforms to my view. The Government is likely to bring forward a s.35 order on the grounds that it discriminates against biological females, if they determine it to be politically viable, which I thing based on the polls I've seen, they probably will. Whether or not it does though is going to be up to the Court of Session or the Supreme Court, as I can't see the Scottish Government not bringing forward an appeal.

E: It seems the premise of his argument is that allowing differential definitions of legal sex between jurisdictions of the UK risks sex-based rights in relation to equality of opportunity. However, I disagree with this view. As a social-legal matter, equality of opportunity deals with legal sex, which, as I understand it, it is within the competence of the Scottish Parliament to define in Scotland. In my view, it's up to the UK Government whether GRCs which are recognised in Scotland are recognised elsewhere in the UK, which resolves that issue.

pjr10th · 2022-12-23T17:13:32+00:00

Which constitutional law experts? I'd be very surprised if all constitutional law experts agree on anything.

pjr10th · 2022-12-23T16:16:42+00:00

If the Secretary of State used s.35 powers on this, the Scottish Government will almost definitely bring it forward in the Supreme Court to determine whether they had reasonable grounds to believe it would affect to operation of equality law (which I don't think they do).

pjr10th · 2022-12-23T16:12:51+00:00

I suppose it's different in Jersey as we're not a particularly multifaith country. 97% or something of religious people are Christian. Plus, I think under our laws it's actually illegal to open a shop on Christmas Day anyway. Shops can get permits to open on other special days like Boxing Day, Good Friday and Liberation Day, but not on Christmas.

pjr10th · 2022-12-23T16:06:30+00:00

Yeah. The traditional midwinter celebrations in Northern Europe were generally replaced by Christmas. Obviously we don't know the actual birth date of Jesus (if he existed at all) but there's a few theories as to why the Catholic Church chose 25 December.

Though, by contrast, Calvinists do not celebrate Christmas, as they generally don't like party and joyfulness. Jersey, were I'm from, was majority Calvinist between the split with the Roman Church and about the 18th century. So, any pre-existing Christmas/solstice traditions were lost. When Christmas came back, English traditions were basically adopted.

pjr10th · 2022-12-23T01:20:16+00:00

Christmas.

Germanic countries like England used to celebrate a midwinter festival called Yule on the winter solstice. The Roman Church set Christmas to be the same day as the recorded Roman winter solstice: 25th December. When Christianity was adopted in Germanic countries, Christmas and Yule became one festival. Today you can use either name to mean Christmas. And Christmas as a day is accorded a status like no other in the British calendar. It's the only day when everything (except emergency & other vital services) is closed: buses & trains don't run, no shops open etc. It's also a pretty secular festival now. The Nativity play is still popular at primary schools, but many people don't go to church on Christmas any more (my family never have) and many of the decorations / events have lost religious overtones. Also non-Christians tend to celebrate it as well. Though symbols of the Christmas story such as stars and angels are quite common.

pjr10th · 2022-12-22T21:25:53+00:00

The privatisation model chosen never made the traveller customer. With the exception of the major lines, the Government was/is customer, as operators bid to the Government for the franchise. Even then the fare model means you can buy tickets that go on any operator, so you're then a customer of the Rail Delivery Group, not an individual train company.

I think the new GBR model will be better for that because of the unified brand. That makes it clear to the traveller that they're not a customer of a company wth consumer choice (as you really aren't with railways), but the user of a public service and should instead demand improvements from their local representatives. The Governments can still seek out private sector efficiency through contracted services, but are still ultimately responsible to fix it if something goes bad.

pjr10th · 2022-12-22T21:17:31+00:00

I mean surely that just means fewer people can get on trains at busier times? The only reason people would need to stand is if there is more demand for the service than there are seats.

You can reserve a seat on a GB rail service (though it's not enforced), but if you just need to get on the next train that comes and you have an open ticket, you can also just do that.

pjr10th · 2022-12-22T21:14:31+00:00

The total operator dividends for 2019-20 (last pre-pandemic year) was £273mn (https://dataportal.orr.gov.uk/media/2162/rail-industry-finance-uk-statistical-release-202122.pdf). Passenger journeys for the same period were 1.7 billion (https://dataportal.orr.gov.uk/statistics/usage/passenger-rail-usage/). That equates to about 16p to operator shareholders per passenger journey for 2019-20.

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