Off Topic Politics Thread

I agree with that in principle (as do many, even Nigel Farage has in the past suggested remaining in the EEA as a transitional arrangement) but the problem is that you don't just need to agree a deal between Remainers and Leavers in the UK. You also need a deal that will be agreed by the rest of the EU and so far they don't appear to be very willing to compromise. Free movement of people and the single market being the obvious example where they saying it's a binary choice.

This is completely understandable of course. I think EU leaders are genuinely concerned that other countries may follow the UK out of the door and lead to the whole project collapsing.

 

WASHINGTON — President-elect Donald J. Trump has selected Scott Pruitt, the Oklahoma attorney general and a close ally of the fossil fuel industry, to run the Environmental Protection Agency, a transition official said, signaling Mr. Trump’s determination to dismantle President Obama’s efforts to counter climate change.

Mr. Pruitt, a Republican, has been a key architect of the legal battle against Mr. Obama’s climate change policies, actions that fit with the president-elect’s comments during the campaign. Mr. Trump has criticized the established science of human-caused global warming as a hoax, vowed to “cancel” the Paris accord committing nearly every nation to taking action to fight climate change, and attacked Mr. Obama’s signature global warming policy, the Clean Power Plan, as a “war on coal.”


Mr. Pruitt, 48, who has emerged as a hero to conservative activists, is also one of a number of Republican attorneys general who have formed an alliance with some of the nation’s top energy producers to push back against the Obama regulatory agenda, a 2014 investigation by The New York Times revealed.

At the heart of Mr. Obama’s efforts to tackle climate change are a collection of E.P.A. regulations aimed at forcing power plants to significantly reduce their emissions of planet-warming carbon dioxide pollution. It will not be possible for Mr. Trump to unilaterally cancel the rules, which were released under the 1970 Clean Air Act. But it would be possible for a legally experienced E.P.A. chief to substantially weaken, delay or slowly dismantle them.

As Oklahoma’s top law enforcement official, Mr. Pruitt has fought environmental regulations — particularly the climate change rules. Although Mr. Obama’s rules were not completed until 2015, Mr. Pruitt was one of a handful of attorneys general, along with Greg Abbott of Texas, who began planning as early as 2014 for a coordinated legal effort to fight them. That resulted in a 28-state lawsuit against the administration’s rules. A decision on the case is pending in a federal court, but it is widely expected to advance to the Supreme Court.

As Mr. Pruitt has sought to use legal tools to fight environmental regulations on the oil and gas companies that are a major part of his state’s economy, he has also worked with those companies. For example, the 2014 investigation by The Times found that energy lobbyists drafted letters for Mr. Pruitt to send, on state stationery, to the E.P.A., the Interior Department, the Office of Management and Budget and even President Obama, outlining the economic hardship of the environmental rules.

Industries that Mr. Pruitt regulates have also joined him as plaintiffs in court challenges, a departure from the usual role of the state attorney general, who traditionally sues companies to force compliance with state law.

The close ties have paid off for Mr. Pruitt politically: Harold G. Hamm, the chief executive of Continental Energy, a North Dakota oil and gas firm that also works in Oklahoma, was a co-chairman of Mr. Pruitt’s 2013 re-election campaign.

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/12/07/us...ype=collection

 

The planet needs Trump and all his cronies to fall into a very deep hole as soon as possible. This puts all his other terrible appointments in the shade, possibly the worst thing ever to happen in the world's history. And I'm really not exaggerating!

 

I think every pick he has made apart from one, have been completely mental. He has picked the worst person for each position. LGBT+ are screwed, minorities are screwed and the enviroment is screwed.

Oh and so is their health system.

 

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-38243500

Good.

 

When Teresa May has agreed the terms concerning the UK's Brexit, she is duty bound to hold another referendum to let the people decide if they agree with them. If they don't we stay in the EU which would be the best possible outcome. Failing that she has to negotiate to have accesss to the single market as Nissan and Honda, BMW will want to continue to have this, otherwise the UK economy is going to go belly-up as they up sticks and go to the Czech Republic or Portugal, backed by a massive EU grant to set up there.

 

Why is she duty bound? The public voted to leave the EU.

 

The referendum was given to satisfy those clamouring to leave the EU in the first place. Now she should have a second referendum to see how many want to remain. And a third until we get the right result. I don''t give a **** about those who want to leave. I want my right to remain a citizen of the EU honoured. My passport says that I am one and it has another 9 years run.

 

Theresa May doesn't have to hold another referendum. The decision has been made.

 

Until it becomes invalid in 2 years time.

 

Or those of us who want to are allowed to have dual nationality as citizens of both the UK and the EU. A lot of support growing for this.

 

Then the Government are going to have to issue millions of new passports as the present ones become invalid.

 

The funny thing is that the referendum result was only advisory and not binding. I think our PM is totally gutless in caving in to her eurosceptic MPs, and UKIP and papers like the Sun, Mail and Express which continuously whip up messages of hate. She should have invited Corbyn to form a National Government to ensure the UK stays in the EU. And she would have got massive support for this measure.

 

I never know if you are joking or not. Theresa May joining up with Jeremy Corbyn!

 

They did tonight!!

 

This will explain it better than I could: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Proportional_representation

Opponents of PR in all its forms tend to be from parties who have sufficient votes to form governments on their own, if they're going through a good patch. Not exactly a democratic way of thinking, is it. They're often open to changing their tune when they're not going through said good patch. Opponents also say PR leads to undynamic government. Actually, it leads to thoughtful and representative government - which I would have thought was a good thing. Countries that have PR as a voting system are doing fine, thank you very much. They tend not to have a clue why we continue with an outmoded adversarial system.

You may also remember that we had a referendum on one form of PR which the Tory Government at the time pooh-poohed the hell out of and laughed into extinction. I'm not sure anyone actually noticed. Yet another opportunity lost by the working people to actually obtain some democracy in their own country, largely through ignorance.

 

Turns out my dad has kept a copy of his dad's Irish birth certificate, so I will have a fall back position if required.

Edit; I'm at least as Irish as Tony Cascarino and Ray Houghton.

 

I'm impressed.

I'm an IT geek and do all sorts of things with servers etc for a living and at home. (just spent an hour with a raspberry pi and an Amazon echo and got it to talk to the kettle, so I can say "Alexa, put the kettle on"). My other half is 53 and can barely turn on the TV, let alone know what a VPN is or a torrent. Not a criticism or a talk down or being condescending, just genuinely impressed

 

I know what a torrent is. It's when you use Hive to run a bath, then forget it's running.

VPN is something to do with visible panties I believe?

 

I believe that would make you more Irish than Tony Casvarino..