UK Politics Thread V: Upon This Blasted Heath

[The Nihilistic view]

Why should they? We have a system that works. Works better than most systems in the world and has done for longer than most. As soon as one accepts one can't make direct democracy work one has already abandoned the idea a full democracy. Once one has done the question is not what is most democratic but which balances democracy, executive accountability, the role of the head of state and the set up of the legislature best. I look around the world, I can't see a better system than we have. They all on balance have negatives to the plus points making it all rather spurious.

Because we need a fully codified constitution to remove Royal Prerogative from the PM and have actual listed powers for the Head of Government.
No, because Parliament basically bickers about the simplest of debates. In other European Parliamentary systems elect their PMs through Parliamentary vote or first selection by the speaker then Election of the Parliament.

And we still have a House of Lords that needs to be altered.

If there is to be a balance, separates the executive and legislature, write down the powers of the PM and not take them from a Royal Prerogative and take them from an actual codified constitution. You know, like well developed and modern Parliamentary systems like Sweden, Japan, Germany.

"It's 2016!" And? So what about other countries? What they do is irrelevant. That's not an argument.

[Imperializt Russia]

Close enough.

Though I would say you're now trying too hard

I'm never good enough for you! I'm either not trying hard enough or trying too hard; I want a divorce.

Now I know why you never signed that prenup.

[Geilinor]

But he's literally going HOW DARE THEY NOT DO WHAT I WANT.

No he's saying "How dare they do something for which many Brexit campaigners championed and which many supporters support". He's not the only person to have advocated the points-based system and it's perfectly legitimate of him to criticize May's position.

I mean none of us are elected and we certainly get miffed when they government doesn't do what we think is right or want and vocalize it.

A few people in the government advocated the points-based system but May is PM and parliamentary sovereignty is still a thing. Farage is wrong because voters voted to leave but not for a particular post-Brexit model.

[Napkiraly]

No he's saying "How dare they do something for which many Brexit campaigners championed and which many supporters support". He's not the only person to have advocated the points-based system and it's perfectly legitimate of him to criticize May's position.

I mean none of us are elected and we certainly get miffed when they government doesn't do what we think is right or want and vocalize it.

A few people in the government advocated the points-based system but May is PM and parliamentary sovereignty is still a thing. Farage is wrong because voters voted to leave but not for a particular post-Brexit model.

Did I say that May is not PM or that parliamentary sovereignty is not a thing?

[Napkiraly]

I'm never good enough for you! I'm either not trying hard enough or trying too hard; I want a divorce.

Now I know why you never signed that prenup.

I'm going to take the cat, the house, and your stash of plutonium-238.

[Imperializt Russia]

Now I know why you never signed that prenup.

I'm going to take the cat, the house, and your stash of plutonium-238.

Jokes on you, that's a heat-generating waste! Haha!

[Eastfield Lodge]

I'm going to take the cat, the house, and your stash of plutonium-238.

Jokes on you, that's a heat-generating waste! Haha!

There goes your central-heating source.

[Napkiraly]

I'm going to take the cat, the house, and your stash of plutonium-238.

Jokes on you, that's a heat-generating waste! Haha!

But now you can't build your own private spacecraft. >:3

[Imperializt Russia]

Shit, I'm in Liverpool, aren't I.

[Eastfield Lodge]

Shit, I'm in Liverpool, aren't I.

If you're in a flat, you can still siphon other people's heating!

[Imperializt Russia]

Jokes on you, that's a heat-generating waste! Haha!

But now you can't build your own private spacecraft. >:3

Who needs radioisotope thermoelectric generators when we're riding a shockwave of glorious thermonuclear fire to deliver us to Valhalla I mean Proxima Centauri?

[Balkenreich]

Now I know why you never signed that prenup.

I'm going to take the cat, the house, and your stash of plutonium-238.

Ill take that shit.

Hi, Balk, Divorce lawyer and local life ruiner.

Are you tired of being married? Do you want to enjoy life alone? Well call me at 1-800-Shitlawyer, thats 1-800-shitlawyer.

Your fees pay for my shitty lifestyle and if you lose, you'll still pay out the ass. Literally. *snaps latex glove*. And that check better not bunch or ill call some loan sharks to break your legs, shit in your cars air conditioning unit AND much much more!

Call today!

*warning, Balk is not a real lawyer and will not win you a case, he just got his degree online like a lazy motherfucker would.

[Eastfield Lodge]

I'm going to take the cat, the house, and your stash of plutonium-238.

Ill take that shit.

Hi, Balk, Divorce lawyer and local life ruiner.

Are you tired of being married? Do you want to enjoy life alone? Well call me at 1-800-Shitlawyer, thats 1-800-shitlawyer.

Your fees pay for my shitty lifestyle and if you lose, you'll still pay out the ass. Literally. *snaps latex glove*. And that check better not bunch or ill call some loan sharks to break your legs, shit in your cars air conditioning unit AND much much more!

Call today!

*warning, Balk is not a real lawyer and will not win you a case, he just got his degree online like a lazy motherfucker would.

Funny thing is, I can easily imagine someone calling you up.
On the other hand, why would a Brit phone an American number for a lawyer?

[Napkiraly]

But now you can't build your own private spacecraft. >:3

Who needs radioisotope thermoelectric generators when we're riding a shockwave of glorious thermonuclear fire to deliver us to Valhalla I mean Proxima Centauri?

Orion project eh? The government would like a word with you, citizen.

[Napkiraly]

Ill take that shit.

Hi, Balk, Divorce lawyer and local life ruiner.

Are you tired of being married? Do you want to enjoy life alone? Well call me at 1-800-Shitlawyer, thats 1-800-shitlawyer.

Your fees pay for my shitty lifestyle and if you lose, you'll still pay out the ass. Literally. *snaps latex glove*. And that check better not bunch or ill call some loan sharks to break your legs, shit in your cars air conditioning unit AND much much more!

Call today!

*warning, Balk is not a real lawyer and will not win you a case, he just got his degree online like a lazy motherfucker would.

Funny thing is, I can easily imagine someone calling you up.
On the other hand, why would a Brit phone an American number for a lawyer?

Balk is one of those colonial traitors.

[Imperializt Russia]

Who needs radioisotope thermoelectric generators when we're riding a shockwave of glorious thermonuclear fire to deliver us to Valhalla I mean Proxima Centauri?

Orion project eh? The government would like a word with you, citizen.

#GeneralAtomicsWasRight

[Balkenreich]

Ill take that shit.

Hi, Balk, Divorce lawyer and local life ruiner.

Are you tired of being married? Do you want to enjoy life alone? Well call me at 1-800-Shitlawyer, thats 1-800-shitlawyer.

Your fees pay for my shitty lifestyle and if you lose, you'll still pay out the ass. Literally. *snaps latex glove*. And that check better not bunch or ill call some loan sharks to break your legs, shit in your cars air conditioning unit AND much much more!

Call today!

*warning, Balk is not a real lawyer and will not win you a case, he just got his degree online like a lazy motherfucker would.

Funny thing is, I can easily imagine someone calling you up.
On the other hand, why would a Brit phone an American number for a lawyer?

If they actually call me, i would gladly connect them to our commonwealth affiliate.

[Lamadia III]

This Kieth Vaz sounds very odd.
Caught up in the expenses scandal, thrown out of parliament, a number of other scandals, now seen discussing illicit substances with two male escorts. Not to mention his emphasis on special 'butt-drugs'.
Very unusual. Something not quite right going on there. The entire operation sounds rather peculiar.

[Celritannia]

Because we need a fully codified constitution to remove Royal Prerogative from the PM and have actual listed powers for the Head of Government.
No, because Parliament basically bickers about the simplest of debates. In other European Parliamentary systems elect their PMs through Parliamentary vote or first selection by the speaker then Election of the Parliament.

And we still have a House of Lords that needs to be altered.

If there is to be a balance, separates the executive and legislature, write down the powers of the PM and not take them from a Royal Prerogative and take them from an actual codified constitution. You know, like well developed and modern Parliamentary systems like Sweden, Japan, Germany.

"It's 2016!" And? So what about other countries? What they do is irrelevant. That's not an argument.

So tradition is more important than transforming our insufficient political system to a more encompassing system between Parliament, Government and the people?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r9rGX91rq5I

[Imperializt Russia]

This Kieth Vaz sounds very odd.
Caught up in the expenses scandal, thrown out of parliament, a number of other scandals, now seen discussing illicit substances with two male escorts. Not to mention his emphasis on special 'butt-drugs'.
Very unusual. Something not quite right going on there. The entire operation sounds rather peculiar.

Yes, he's gay (or bisexual) and evidently into kinkier things than you.

For someone so straightedge, I imagine this would seem "very unusual" and "rather peculiar".
What is this, 1952?

[The Nihilistic view]

*Sips tea in room full of union jacks, images of the Queen, and images of Churchill, mumbling about how Top Gear is now shite and how Chris Evans is a nob while looking out into my tiny garden out front where my cat is frolicking*

I'm doing it right, right?

Close enough.

Though I would say you're now trying too hard

I'm actually with Smith on this one. That's good banter.

I disagree that it's "banter" (mostly because I despise the word and the culture", but also, that's not objectively "sexist".
Sexist would be gendered, or with gendered tones.

"Bloody first minister, she should use one of these and learn her place" would be sexist "banter".
The tweet is perfectly ambiguous and could easily be applied to a windbag male politician (no-one would complain had he used it as a slam against Farage, for example) - not to say that the tweet may not have been made based on sexist personal beliefs.

I wish people would remember that this is supposed to be satire.

You can't parody reactionaries.

He was elected to the European Parliament, though, was he not?

Don't tell him that.

Theresa May was elected as an MP, everybody in her Cabinet was elected as an MP, she has the backing of a majority of her MPs which were elected, and polls show a strong support for her administration.
How was her government not democratically elected?

Her government was not.

David Cameron's government was democratically elected. However you try and slice the "well, people vote for the MP of their constituency!", that's not how most people vote. See tribal voters of any persuasion or tactical voters, or swing voters. People overwhelmingly vote nationally, for the national government, and those who vote for their own MP are probably a minority. Otherwise, there wouldn't be a factor 1.5-2 difference in turnout between local and national elections.

I don't know how much you know about UK politics, but we do not elect a PM. We vote for a Party- the Conservative Party won the election, and therefore the Government, regardless who heads it, has been elected. Therefore, the Government is 100% elected.

The people who form government are 100% elected, yes.

The government is not elected.

Irrelevant to me.

In what way do you find it "irrelevant"?

I'm sure you know more about the political machine than I do, but when you're so heavily invested in the opposition campaign for Labour leader, and do so on a belief set largely dictated by what you believe to be "Labour's electability" and "Labour's future", I don't see how you could consider it "irrelevant".

No slight against you is intended in any way in this post.

Indeed, it was an outrage when EU elections in the UK switched from FPTP.

At least we got rid of those elections now.

I don't see how it could possibly work if EU elections in the UK were run on an FPTP basis when they're run on PR elsewhere (or was it a general uniform switch made by the EU from FPTP to PR in all member states?)

When you have views as disparate as all Europe to represent, only PR can work.

Unrelated - not sure if you've said before, how old are you, out of curiosity?

Until a certain point it was the free choice of the member state. Then a directive in the 90s narrowed that down to proportional or STV. I can't think why we did not go to STV to match Northern Ireland only that Labour were in charge and were still in their new government idealist phase. It really screwed them over at the EU election though.

Not to give an exact age but early mid 20s.

[Eastfield Lodge]

This Kieth Vaz sounds very odd.
Caught up in the expenses scandal, thrown out of parliament, a number of other scandals, now seen discussing illicit substances with two male escorts. Not to mention his emphasis on special 'butt-drugs'.
Very unusual. Something not quite right going on there. The entire operation sounds rather peculiar.

Poppers aren't illicit.

[Souseiseki]

unless i have missed something big, the drugs keith vaz is known to use are not illicit. they should be. but they're not. because parliamentarians use them.

[Imperializt Russia]

This Kieth Vaz sounds very odd.
Caught up in the expenses scandal, thrown out of parliament, a number of other scandals, now seen discussing illicit substances with two male escorts. Not to mention his emphasis on special 'butt-drugs'.
Very unusual. Something not quite right going on there. The entire operation sounds rather peculiar.

Poppers aren't illicit.

Well, illicit isn't technically "illegal".

[Lamadia III]

This Kieth Vaz sounds very odd.
Caught up in the expenses scandal, thrown out of parliament, a number of other scandals, now seen discussing illicit substances with two male escorts. Not to mention his emphasis on special 'butt-drugs'.
Very unusual. Something not quite right going on there. The entire operation sounds rather peculiar.

Poppers aren't illicit.

I didn't suggest that they were- only that they sound very odd, and have the sort of name which makes you want to shift uncomfortably. Perhaps it's just me?