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Cat Mattress posted:Probably their position on Ulster is that, if anything, it should rejoin with Ireland. Northern Ireland runs around a £7bn a year deficit. Its a huge money sink. Any relatively recent polls in Ireland show the majority of the population don't want it back, Scotland can have it.
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Mar 9, 2016 13:31
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I liked Finland. Everything works (trains, buses etc) efficiently, crime is low, wages are high etc. Its a well functioning social democracy. Finns themselves don't really do small talk, and are a little odd, but they're friendly enough once they're drunk or you get to know them. Its definitely worth visiting anyway. The weather is atrocious though. I'm not sure how anyone spends entire winters that far North.
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Oct 15, 2016 15:32
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Collateral Damage posted:Every cloud has a silver lining. I can see Trump at the arms fair now, at the Sweden stand. "Do you come with the jet?"
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Nov 18, 2016 13:27
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From a quick reading of the wiki on Le Pen it looks like she has some relatively leftish domestic positions - increased emphasis on corporate tax hitting big businesses, supporting civil servants etc. Whats her position on the working week hours? Ignoring the foreign policy stuff - isolation-ism, immigration etc - it sounds like she wouldn't be half as neo-liberal as Fillon domestically at least. Is that an accurate assessment?
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Dec 6, 2016 17:39
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Freezer posted:My God, how did it come to this? I'm not French, but after doing some quick research I think they would be better off with proto fascist Le Pen than Fillon (except minorities, I guess). That's pretty much the (awful) conclusion I came to too. Figured I'd ask in the thread to see if any Frenchgoons could provide some more in-depth knowledge, though.
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Dec 6, 2016 17:54
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YF-23 posted:I have, and I will continue to. What about the approx 50% of migrants to Europe last year who weren't from Syria or Iraq? The far left position of completely open borders will only serve to damage migrants who are actually deserving in the long-run. Proper vetting of migrants, and acceptance of genuine war zone cases, would be a political stance that would probably resonate with a decent percentage of the population. But the "completely open borders, accept everyone" stance just serves to empower the hard-right, who will completely close the borders when they get a chance.
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Dec 24, 2016 13:48
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I'm sure for the right price somewhere on the European periphery could be convinced to set up a 'holding area' for those stateless convicted illegal immigrant criminals who refuse to admit where they're from. Let them stay there until they admit where they're actually from, then send then home. The Australian system that does this seems to work rather well.
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Dec 25, 2016 14:18
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A Buttery Pastry posted:
BOSS in South Africa used to take political prisoners on scenic helicopter naval tours off the coast. A lot of the guests liked it so much they decided to go for high altitude dive/swims.
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Dec 25, 2016 15:41
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YF-23 posted:You're wrong. Again. A Greek person who doesn't know the Mediterranean currents? Tsssh.  GC is correct. Its the Libyan/Egyptian coasts that will need to install the corpse barriers.
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Dec 26, 2016 00:54
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At least Geriatric Pirate practices what he preaches. His anti-education stance correlates perfectly with his complete lack of understanding of economics or logic.
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Jan 12, 2017 23:06
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Your city sounds exceptionally cheap. Its not just Sweden/Denmark that are massively more expensive than that. The average monthly rental cost for 45m² apartment in the city I grew up in, Dublin, is now 1100eur. And thats not including any bills.
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Jan 26, 2017 23:16
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Flowers For Algeria posted:Yeah but 2 days of extra leave costs something like 4 hours of overtime per week. The extra earnt days of leave is a great concept, I wish that was more widespread. I'd totally put in a few extra hours in the office in winter each week to earn more leave days to use in summer. Though given most people in Europe are guaranteed 30ish days any European leave calendar is better than what an American gets I guess. I know far too many Americans who work 40+ hours a week every week, to maybe get 10 days of leave a year. Its horrifying.
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Jan 27, 2017 17:39
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Flowers For Algeria posted:Jfc French air travel company Air France is complying with Trump's EO about not letting in foreigners from certain countries, by stopping them from boarding their planes All international airlines are. Its always been the case that airlines obey immigration law; if someone has to be deported after being refused entry its on the airline that brought them to the country to return them to their point of origin. What exactly do you expect Air France to do? The only way to change things will be with opposition to the EO that has to come from within the United States.
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Jan 29, 2017 16:00
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Flowers For Algeria posted:I expect Air France to take these people to their original intended destination, and bring them back if necessary. So knowing in advance that the passenger is going to be refused entry Air France should waste their own money, and the passenger's time, on a pointless return journey? The obligation is on the passenger to ensure they have the correct visa to visit their destination of arrival, not the airline. Its completely standard operating procedure for any international airline, to any destination, to refuse carriage to passengers who do not have such.
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Jan 29, 2017 16:52
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If it turned into a Hamon vs Le Pen run-off France would stand a very good chance of having an actual left wing president. That would be amazing. The left just needs to stop splintering its vote and coalescence around one candidate to beat Fillon and Macron. Some hope of that though I guess. Instead with Melenchon splitting the vote it'll probably just end up as Fillon in power.
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Jan 30, 2017 18:13
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Excellent news. Hopefully Sarkozy becomes their candidate of last resort and he bombs badly.
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Jan 31, 2017 17:22
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YF-23 posted:So, the nightmare scenario here is that Fillon manages to go into the runoff in spite of his scandals, isn't it? A Fillon/Le Pen runoff has always been the nightmare scenario I think. Whoever wins, France loses.
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Feb 1, 2017 13:53
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YF-23 posted:Why should he take one for the team instead of PS? Have a look at the poll a few posts up from you. One candidate is polling at 9%, one at 18%. All ideology aside, the lower supported one (ie. Melanchon) would be the most logical to drop out to ensure the best chance of any candidate from the left beating Le Pen/Macron/Fillon.
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Feb 2, 2017 13:07
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Hes slightly hyperbolic but his core substance is right. If rising sea levels flood Bangladesh, climate change wrecks the Middle-East and rapid population growth makes life in Africa even nastier, shorter and more brutish then attempted migrant movements to Europe will rise exponentially this century. All three of those are quite likely to happen, too.
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Feb 4, 2017 13:10
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BabyFur Denny posted:When all that happens we're going to have another ice age in Europe making it a less desirable place to migrate to. I dunno, Finland is pretty much in a permanent ice age by the standards of a normal country's weather and it still gets migrants. European cities would probably just go the Minneapolis route if winters got cold enough and develop miles of skyways to allow their wealthy people to never actually go outside.
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Feb 4, 2017 13:36
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You should be happy you don't live within 50km of a coal power plant. Then you'd actually suffer, instead of just freaking out needlessly over office paper waste-bin level fires. Nuclear power in Europe is incredibly safe and clean in comparison to other sources of power.
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Feb 11, 2017 12:41
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"Anti-fascists" who go around dressed in black physically assaulting those they deem to have the wrong political beliefs always blow my mind. The anti-fascists are far closer to actual historical fascists in their efforts to stifle free speech than the right-wing populists who they're attacking. The right-wing populists are at least engaging in the democratic process peacefully. The way to defeat right-wing populists is by engaging/debating them politically on their awful, unrealistic political goals. And by developing your own left-wing political base, by helping your constituents. Resorting to violence is just childish and unproductive.
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Feb 27, 2017 12:29
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Hambilderberglar posted:There's a word for people like you, you know. And this is exactly why anti-fascists come across as petulant teenagers throwing tantrums almost all of the time. Why engage in the democratic process like an adult, and actually try to change things, when instead you can instead sit on the sidelines assaulting people, calling right-wing parties nazis and left wing parties collaborators? 
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Feb 27, 2017 12:58
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YF-23 posted:Active resistance against fascists is engaging in the democratic process like an adult. Crying that anti-fascists are the real fascists because they don't sit back and let the far-right do its thing, is, in fact, what's childish and immature. Setting up a political party, helping local people in your area with their problems and gaining their support as a result, winning elections to local/national government, and implementing policies that you believe will help people is engaging in the political process like an adult. Throwing paint at buses is behaving like a spoilt child. The former option helps drain support from far right-wing parties. The latter increases it. Refusing to compromise even slightly on your extremist hard-left views is also what lets the neo-liberals and right-wingers take and control power. See for example the current French election, where the split between the left candidates will likely result in Fillon or Macron (or even possibly Le Pen) becoming president.
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Feb 27, 2017 15:40
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Flowers For Algeria (and the recent other thread 'fascism' obsessives) here are a perfect example of what is wrong with the modern European hard left. By dogmatically sticking to their"anti fascist" guns, and undermining the centre left at every opportunity, they will in-fact assure an actual Thatcherite right-winger (or worse) is elected in France. And likewise elsewhere. They'll focus all of their opprobrium on Hamon and his centre left support as being 'collaborators' or 'fascist enablers'. And refuse to engage in any constructive debate or compromise with anyone on the left. And as a result the country will end up with Fillon or Le Pen in power. Good work chaps, cutting off your nose to spite your face in action.
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Feb 28, 2017 00:04
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The traditional left in a lot of Europe, after the fall of communism, felt there was no more electoral pressure from the 'hard left' in the 1990s. So it moved towards the economic centre to gain more middle class votes. After 20 years of being centrist parties economically most traditional left parties have become far more focused on this middle-class vote than their original working class roots. So the working class across Europe are now abandoning them, and moving to populist hard right alternatives who are actually focusing on their desires. The FN, AfD etc are objectively awful, but I can completely see how an (un)employed working class family in Saxony or Auvergne would think they better represent their interests than the now very much Champagne Socialist traditional left parties. The traditional left parties need to re-focus towards economic issues to win this working class support back. Part of that is the migrant issue, actually beginning to ask "what will be the impact on the lowest 20% of our society if we let in 1million migrants to compete with them for jobs/housing/schools/welfare"? But other economic issues also remain. Its a double whammy for the traditional left, because at the same time a lot of their "new" centrist support is also evaporating and moving back towards centre-right Christian Democrat parties. Leaving the traditional left with social issues as their only defining raison d'être, and college educated intellectual social liberals as their only reliable core support. I would gladly support harder left alternatives like Melanchon, but I just don't think they're ever going to be electorally viable unfortunately. The best route for electoral salvation for the left is to move back to its centre-left roots, and rebuild the working class and liberal coalition that usually garners enough support to be electorally successful.
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Mar 3, 2017 12:57
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LemonDrizzle posted:Interesting take on diesel engine pollution and the German economy: http://www.eurointelligence.com/public/ Athens, London and Paris are all talking of or bringing in surcharges for diesel vehicles too. I think in 5 years time diesel in Europe will be limited to heavy goods vehicles, or people who do a lot of long distance rural driving. Anyone buying a new diesel vehicle over the next few years is going to experience a big drop in re-sale value when they try to get rid of it, so it makes sense to see sales figures for new diesel vehicles dropping already in anticipation of this.
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Mar 5, 2017 16:47
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Macron must have spent most of this evening rubbing his hands with glee.
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Mar 5, 2017 21:11
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orange sky posted:OK I keep telling everyone to come to Portugal but I should stop - Gentrification in Lisbon is going loving insane. gently caress golden visas. I've seen small 1 bedroom apartments for €375k. How much does it rent for a month, though? Until it reaches a bargain 1500eur/month for a 1bed in an ok area you haven't really experienced the joys of Northern Europe.
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Mar 6, 2017 13:07
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Namarrgon posted:
It needs a maximum voting age too. If the only people allowed to vote were between the ages of 25-65 we'd have far more reasonable politics in pretty much every country. The 65s+ are reliably "gently caress you, got mine" in nearly every country.
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Mar 8, 2017 13:25
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TROIKA CURES GREEK posted:Which has very little to do with age at all and everything to do with the political climate of when they came of age. But in general you probably shouldn't support democracy if you think only people who agree with you should be able to vote, that's kinda stupid isn't it. I don't mind if someone has different political opinions to me, I do mind if their mental faculties are not 100%. Age limitations would help with that. See for example the over 65s voting record on Brexit. Lots of senile OAPs there no doubt.
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Mar 8, 2017 16:53
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I would unironically be entirely in favour of this system. Its a good system. Though probably better with a minimum voting age of 21 instead of 15.
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Mar 8, 2017 17:52
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Toplowtech posted:It requires the state to know who vote for what to weight the vote which is kinda a big no no if you ask me. Not at all. Just have a unique voting card for each age group. So when you show your ID on the way into a voting booth everyone aged 65+ gets a green one, everyone aged 25-35 a blue one etc. Still completely anonymous, and very easy.
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Mar 8, 2017 18:51
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The neo-liberal wing of the modern left in Europe really are such horrible people. Ditching their own party candidate because hes actually vaguely left-wing... Maybe being optimistic once the PS, Labour etc divide and die new actual left wing parties may rise from their ashes. But more realistically if events to date are any guide their voters will probably just turn to populist fanatics 
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Mar 9, 2017 14:45
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If literally everyone on the graph was moved down one square, and to the right one square, it might be a little closer to reality. Maybe 2 squares down, 2 to the right.
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Apr 9, 2017 14:21
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The FT and Economist both have vaguely panic-y articles up today in fear at the prospect of Melenchon making it into the run-off. Hes the "nightmare option" apparently. This bodes well for him I think, if the mainstream media is starting to see him as a viable candidate instead of a far left-wing no hoper it will hopefully convince more voters to do likewise. http://www.economist.com/blogs/buttonwood/2017/04/nightmare-option https://www.ft.com/content/dc62e780-1e9c-11e7-b7d3-163f5a7f229c I'm still pro-Hamon overall, but that seems a lost cause now. Melenchon would certainly be preferable to Macron/Fillon/Le Pen. Blut fucked around with this message at 19:49 on Apr 11, 2017 |
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Apr 11, 2017 19:47
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Are there any polls showing how the legislative election is likely to go yet?
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Apr 23, 2017 23:22
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axeil posted:Just because this forum has an irrational hate boner about bankers doesn't mean the rest of the world does and his former occupation will have no bearing on his performance as President of France.  I think you'll find even outside of this thread's fascism-accusation-circlejerks in the real world 'banker' has a general negative connotation to quite a lot of people, too. Since the 2008 crash and the spread of 'austerity' its become a synonym for the excesses of capitalism.
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May 7, 2017 23:44
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Ligur you're probably wasting your time using actual facts, and academic studies, to back up your entirely logical arguments. Theres a very vocal minority in this thread who just resort to calling people NAZIS!!! GET OUT!!! when they don't like their dogmatic hard left political beliefs being questioned in any way. They'll try their best to shut down any debate they don't like by screaming abuse at you, rather like the fascists they claim to fight. I can completely respect those on the left who use the argument that migrants need to be let in for humanitarian reasons. But the ones who cling to the "labour shortage" or "its the local racists who keep the migrants from being successful" arguments even in the face of facts showing the complete opposite just succeed in completely undermining the whole pro-migrant position.
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May 8, 2017 22:56
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| # ¿ May 2, 2024 10:00 |
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Pluskut Tukker posted:I don't see where it says he wants to 'increase labour conditions'. Other than that, there's no real contradiction here - if you believe that you get a greater return on investment from spending on infrastructure and green technologies than you get from keeping civil servants employed, then redirecting spending from the latter to the former constitutes a stimulus to the economy (I'm not saying this is the correct analysis though). Anyway, reducing the size of the civil service is apparently supposed to be achieved through not replacing retiring civil servants over the course of Macron's quinquennat, not by mass layyoffs. This was tried in Ireland during the recession years. It works fine at first, but by year 3 or 4 departments start to be crippled by a combination of a lack of staff and plummeting morale levels as workloads just appear to be ever increasing, with no respite in sight. I suppose it works in that in reduces the overall headline wage figure, but productivity nose dived at an even more rapid rate. Which means in the long-run you just end up having to hire back the staff you refused to replace, if you want your departments to actually function.
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May 11, 2017 13:59
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