Off Topic Political Debate

A typically glib response SH. People voted for different reasons throughout the UK. We know that more Scots voted to remain - but there were still 30% of them who voted to leave - why ? Scotland has a low immigrant population and the issue of British sovereignty is unlikely to move them so why did any Scots vote for Brexit ? Or was it the case that they thought it might bring the case for independence closer ? I agree that lies were told on both sides leading up to the referendum. If not lies that supposed 'facts' based on ignorance. The truth is that no real debate emerged. Why is it, for example, that few people had even heard of Article 50 before the referendum had taken place ? Nobody knew or suspected what exactly the process of leaving would involve.

 

I disagree, there was plenty of debate, some good and dubious on both sides. The decision was made, there should be an effort from all to now make Brexit a success.

 

says the resident egotripper

 

okay, the resident sad afghan coat man

 

I'm more interested if the damned thing will fit easily into my pockets or if we are going back to an annoying oversized cardboard cover? If I could keep my EU Citizenship as well, I would.

 

What we should have had was some proper assessments before the referendum took place. It is unbelievable if true that they haven't still been carried out. 100,000 small companies trade with the EU, yet suddenly it becomes apparent that a change in the VAT rules could have serious effects for their cash flow. The longer this charade staggers on in this make it up as you go along way, the greater damage to the economy.

 

I'm reminded of the scene in "No Country for Old Men" when Tommy Lee Jones' Sherriff and his deputy happen upon the aftermath of a drug deal gone wrong...

Deputy... "Hell they even shot the dog... It's a mess ain't it?"
TLJ... "Well if it ain't, it'll do until the mess gets here..."

 

Turkey joining, the EU about to bring in 2000 laws which nobody wanted, the ability to be as rich as Norway - the list is bloody endless.

 

Debate it was the most inane, pathetic, knuckle headed campaign I can remember - and we are all headed for the soup kitchens because of it. And I don't exclude Cameron and Co or even Corbyn from that criticism as they did not go nearly far enough to convince people

 

Cameron and Osborne telling obvious porkies within their project fear campaign they did a fantastic job of convincing the waverers to vote Brexit. Well done boys.

 

They were leavers FFS - Cameron pretty much admitted it. And it says a lot that 48% still voted for such a poor campaign rather than the land of make believe others supported. The truth will out unfortunately.

 

Can I add the 'narcissist' Barack Obama to that list, oh and don't forget Carney's silly comments.

 

Calls Obama a narcissist and loves Trump. I think the thread can close now can't it?

 

The 'narcissist' description was apparently by Cameron who must have known him fairly well. I cannot recall 'loving' Trump? It is however quite possible that he actually benefits the US more than his predecessor did.

 

You mean the President who got fewer votes than his opponent, but still won because of the electoral college system.

We have first past the post in Jersey, but one advantage of the low turn-outs at elections means that even if we switched to PR, it wouldn't make the slightest difference to the results.

 

Well we all know you like smearing rather than the facts.... level of debate goes down every time we try

 

If you keep trying you will eventually find something worthwhile to contribute.

 

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Nasty AGAIN? Why do you do it???

 

Going off-topic for a moment - and long rant alert...

For a good while now I've been amazed that claims of BBC bias have been either denied or simply ignored, and yesterday presented me with the perfect opportunity to highlight it. Although some will no doubt continue to deny.

It seems that BBC in England have started helping their Scottish counterparts in their media attack on the SNP’s Scottish Government. This amazingly inaccurate story was reported on TV yesterday by Sarah Smith, the daughter of a well-known Labour politician, - a story fed to her by Scottish Labour leader Richard Leonard, presumably safe in the knowledge that she wouldn’t actually question it.

"Last week over one hundred thousand patients waited more than four hours to be seen….. only 78% of A&E attendances across Scotland were seen in the target 4 hours"

Applying a modicum of common sense would surely have made her take a moment to analyse those figures before then checking further. If 78% of A&E attendances were within the target time, then obviously 22% were not – that is simple maths. According to her, that 22% equates to ‘over one hundred thousand patients’. Again using simple maths, she is therefore saying that the total number of A&E attendees last week across Scotland was in the vicinity of 454,500 – or 8% of the population. That alone should have sounded alarm bells in her head, but apparently didn’t.

Apparently unbeknownst to her, NHS Scotland are required to produce a monthly break down of weekly attendance figures by the first Tuesday of each month (since 2007, when SNP came into power) – and this month’s show a somewhat different set of figures - https://www.isdscotland.org/Health-...s/2018-01-09/2018-01-09-ED-Weekly-Summary.pdf For the week in question, A&E attendances across the country totalled an unusually high 25,865 – the ‘over one hundred thousand’ Smith quoted was the figure for the whole of 2017.

BBC Scotland have been guilty of this for some years now – daily attacks on the SNP using unsubstantiated claims/using information from dated FOI requests as 'recent' news/even using downright lies, such as in the recent Doosan Babcock Engineering company redundancy claims - blaming the SNP for 350 workers facing redundancy,when the company hadn't even advertised the positions, nevermind fill them or announce redundancy intentions. But claims of bias have always fallen on deaf ears south of the border.

The fact that BBC in England are now apparently ‘joining in’ the attacks suggests an element of fear, fear that the rumour of another Referendum later this year may be true, and fear well justified given the recent pro-independence upsurge in polling. Four years to the day my sources are telling me.