Off Topic Politics Thread

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I know plenty English folk (and numerous other nationalities) - friends and colleagues - who live in Scotland by choice. If there is another referendum, then it may well be them who swing the vote, as happened last time.

I'm sure there are. I was merely saying that there are equally (if not more) Scots in England that are quite happy here with no intention to move back should they go independent.

I think Sturgeon's insistence on the EU part shows that she doesn't think Scotland can go it alone and needs to be in "a" union. That isn't independence and is much more an "Anti-English" stance (meaning Westminster "rule" not normal English folks) which is much more in line with SNP tradition.
 
Can you imagine in the UK the BNP having 19 out of 150 seats? Europe has a much larger problem on these issues than we do.
Wilders and similar in Europe have seats due to PR a system long overdue in the UK. Its not the seats alone that are the problem, the nationalist movements and the radical versions thereof encouraging racist actions is more of a worry to me. There is an integration problem here in The Netherlands and elsewhere in Europe that needs addressing from all angles.
 
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Can you imagine in the UK the BNP having 19 out of 150 seats? Europe has a much larger problem on these issues than we do.
The extremist problem in Europe is greater than here. But the Dutch have rejected it. And they are a much smaller country, where it is easier for extremes to take a foothold. But make no mistake, we have shifted towards the right with the Brexit disaster.
 
The extremist problem in Europe is greater than here. But the Dutch have rejected it. And they are a much smaller country, where it is easier for extremes to take a foothold. But make no mistake, we have shifted towards the right with the Brexit disaster.

And Mark Rutte hasn't moved to the right? The extremist side hasn't been beaten but the tide has been "stemmed." Making out there is some sort of huge victory over the "bad kind of politics" is not the way to go. They'll end up painting a picture of beating something and then ignoring the problem again.

In the UK the Tories move a bit to the right and it is disaster. In Holland Rutte moves further to the right (he said things last week that a UK PM would not dare to make) and it is victory?

What about if Fillon wins in France? Will that be victory or disaster? Is it just a disaster if it is the Tories?
 
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Theresa May has said now is not the time for a second Scottish referendum. Unfair on Scottish people as they won't have all the information re Brexit to enable them to make an informed decision. Have to say I agree but the SNP won't like it.

Over to you Nicola.
 
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And Mark Rutte hasn't moved to the right? The extremist side hasn't been beaten but the tide has been "stemmed." Making out there is some sort of huge victory over the "bad kind of politics" is not the way to go. They'll end up painting a picture of beating something and then ignoring the problem again.
Vigilance must be maintained there's lots of bad boys out there. Mark Rutte often visits our watering hole the Zwarte Ruiter at the Grote Markt here in the Hague I'll ask him if he agrees as, my Dutch chums do, that he's moved right.
 
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Theresa May has said now is not the time for a second Scottish referendum. Unfair on Scottish people as they won't have all the information re Brexit to enable them to make an informed decision. Have to say I agree but the SNP won't like it.

Over to you Nicola.

She just played into the hands of SNP. Scots will be mightily pissed off that the London PM decides their fate and not them.
 
Vigilance must be maintained there's lots of bad boys out there. Mark Rutte often visits our watering hole the Zwarte Ruiter at the Grote Markt here in the Hague I'll ask him if he agrees as, my Dutch chums do, that he's moved right.

Will be interesting to hear what he says but he has definitely moved right, just like Fillon has and just like the Conservatives have (as seen by the "Tories pandeing to UKIP" statements from some in this thread.)

My point was more that it is being spun as a good thing for Rutte and Fillon fighting against the "far right" yet in the UK we have UKIP which isn;t even a tame version of Wilders or FN yet it is spun as a bad thing.

What do you think Rutte will say?
 
She just played into the hands of SNP. Scots will be mightily pissed off that the London PM decides their fate and not them.

She just played into the hands of the UK. May will push for a referendum after the next Holyrood election and use the "you need a mandate card" to do so just as everybody seems very happy to push this "no mandate" thing at the moment.

Then Sturgeon will be left with accepting that date or pushing for a snap election to get that mandate which will see her (and the greens) lose a few seats making them weaker.

That will then show that the SNP only care about one thing and used a snap election to get it on their terms

And that is one big reason why May did not want to do a snap election over here to push Brexit through preferring to take a hardline stance as things are now to get it through.
 
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Can you imagine the Green Party having 14 out of 150 seats...

touche. I suppose Greens over here are a little different to greens over there. Just like UKIP are not like Wilders lot or FN. Our equivalent of Wilders and Le Pen were BNP and they were properly defeated a long time ago.
 
touche. I suppose Greens over here are a little different to greens over there. Just like UKIP are not like Wilders lot or FN. Our equivalent of Wilders and Le Pen were BNP and they were properly defeated a long time ago.


Aren't Ukip just the BNP in better suits? just as the BNP were the NF with the swastikas hidden? Pretty much the same people are they not?
 
Aren't Ukip just the BNP in better suits? just as the BNP were the NF with the swastikas hidden? Pretty much the same people are they not?

Nope. That's the picture that the politicians and media want to paint though. BNP wanted to stop immigration and deport immigrants. UKIP want neither, they want controlled immigration. BNP talked all the time about natives and indigineous. UKIP don't.

BNP were much more like FN in France. Protectionist and in favour of re-nationalising. UKIP is the opposite on both of these, open to global markets and against re-nationlisation.

BNP and FN are left wing on economics. UKIP is right wing on economics.
 
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Theresa May has said now is not the time for a second Scottish referendum. Unfair on Scottish people as they won't have all the information re Brexit to enable them to make an informed decision. Have to say I agree but the SNP won't like it.

Over to you Nicola.

It's a shame that the same courtesy wasn't afforded to the whole of the UK, prior to the Brexit vote.
 
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Sad start to the day today.

One of my customers is a German professor. He's lived here for years and brought up a couple of delightful kids in Southampton while he carried out cutting edge research. He's on several UK bodies including government advisory boards.

He's off. A large part of the reason is that getting funding is becoming more and more difficult with Britain leaving the EU.

Not a story that's going to be in the papers or that's going to be raised in parliament, just a tiny little corner of a world-class university losing a world-class mind. In future, credit for his work will go to a German university (and probably will be commercialised by a German company).

Still, it'll leave a space for all the unemployed British professors who have been kept out of their jobs by bloody immigrants, so David Davis will be happy.

Vin