Re: UK Election Poll
 

Spot on.

Re: UK Election Poll
 

No it's not drivel, because drug rehabilitation could be provided instead.

If they undergo rehabilitation, then they can have benefits and potentially get a job.

Most of the stuff they take is recreational anyway, so no treatment for cocaine or cannabis use would be necessary. They just wouldn't get any benefits unless they stay clean.


Why should the British taxpayer pay for the recreational drug use of wastes of space?

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So what happens if they can't deal with rehabilitation or relapse? Expect them to scavenge for food? Drug rehab is already provided to many addicts in ine way or another. Stripping away benefits would only make their life harder, and reduce the chance of rehabilitation, which would end up costing society more through crime or hospitalisation.

Why should the taxpayer pay? Well, first, we're talking about a fellow human being; second, in some way society has failed the person to begin with so there is an element of responsibility; third, people need to live while they take time to sort out their problems. My question to you is why do we need to be so nasty to those that are less fortunate than ourselves? Is there some kind of satisfaction gained in imposing punishments for not living up to societies standards?

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Who are you, I, the government or anyone to decide how somebody lives their life? That's a decision for them and them alone.

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You may well be right - as we saw last night things can change dramatically over the course of a few years. My knowledge of Canadian politics is very limited and I don't know a great deal about the situation in Quebec which makes it difficult to analyse your comparison.

However, it would be interesting to know what the demographics were in terms of age who voted for BQ? In Scotland, Labour performed best with older voters, presumably in many cases due to some sense of blind loyalty to the party or sheer habit. The SNP's core support is among younger voters. I don't know if this is the case for BQ, but I imagine the opposite is true.

You also have to take into account that for the SNP 's support to be reduced the Labour party will need to alter its approach. It will need to move to the left (as the SNP has successfully maneuvered itself into Labour's old position). This will, however, be difficult due to the need to move to the right to become electable again in England - the electorates in the two countries are clearly divergent.

Incidentally, quite a few of my English friends (including my flatmate) who voted Yes in the referendum voted for other parties in the election.

Re: UK Election Poll
 

Also, how good was it to see Galloway lose his seat? He blamed racists and Zionists for his humiliation to umm... Naz Shah. A bit awkward.

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I've found it most distressing today reading my Facebook feed from the various Deaf and hard of hearing groups to which I belong. There are frightened, worried people in those groups. Already upset about NHS audiology cutbacks, Access to Work support, and benefit payment assessments they are now anticipating worse.

i hope they are wrong but I doubt it.

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Conversely, at least 3 of the 5 No voters I haven't cut ties with since September voted SNP!

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Not surprised. That's the kind of cuts the people of Britain have voted for.

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Heartless

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Well, they did, but they were hoodwinked into it. The Conservatives managed to evade the detail of the cuts and distract the media with things such as the composition of the TV debates, big bad UKIP, big bad SNP etc. I also think not that many people realise just how enormous 12BN is - especially amongst many that will be directly affected. The only hope is that economic growth is very robust and fewer cuts are actually needed. But with Osborne and IDS at the controls, don't hold your breath.

Re: UK Election Poll
 

I'm in full agreement with you.

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I think anyone who expected anything else from voting for the Conservatives is either incredibly naive or ignorant tbh.

This article is an interesting read btw -

The austerity delusion | Paul Krugman | Business | The Guardian

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Are you saying democracy doesn't work because the party you might have wanted didn't get into power?

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Yes a good read (only read half of it but I'm familiar with Krugman's views). So much of the proposed austerity is indeed ideological (IDS and Osborne) and we will have to wait and see what actually comes about.

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That's clearly not what I'm saying.

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BBC Question Time from yesterday, for non-UK viewers:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GApJKHlIcB8

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It's a very good episode. Quite a witty panel and not much political sniping.

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Poking around the web indicates young voters favour the Bloc Québécois and they went for the NDP in droves last time, so not good news for the SNP.

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The SNP will remain popular so long as it has strong leadership and as long as SLab doesn't appear a credible left-of-centre alternative. It has vast membership, very strong grassroots campaigning and has been around since 1934 (as opposed to BQ being formed in the 90s). It has performed well in every Scottish Parliament election. Before this election the party generally gained around 20% of the Scottish vote in UK elections.

I just think it's a fairly pointless comparison really and there are a large number of factors which would need to change for the SNP's position in Scotland to be weakened. The political environment is really quite different (in terms of Quebec and Scotland).

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I don't think it is, I'd say it's about as close as it gets really.

The problem with separatists is they can't deliver, the SNP lost the referendum so at that point they became a pointless exercise. So they constantly criticize central Govt. to drum up support and that only takes you so far. Eventually you come across as the angry party, look at Giles Duceppe in the leader debates last time, and look at Nicola Sturgeon who also comes across as quite angry (but not as bad as Giles Duceppe, yet).

Eventually one day you end up running out of things to complain about and look silly and voters get tired with you and that means political oblivion.

The SNP almost went down the tubes before, they had to bring back Alex Salmond.

If anything the SNP have more negatives than the BQ, because they don't have the language argument and proportionally, Scotland has a smaller population than Québec so they can't realistically make the same demands the BQ did.

So the Tories will do something to placate the Scottish, Labour will come up with a more charismatic leader and the SNP will lose seats next time. And then there will be some sort of scandal they try and get more votes on, which might work, repeat ad infinitum until there is no scandal, all the political talent will defect to Labour because they're tired of sitting on the backbenches, and bye bye SNP.

I think possibly it's worse for the SNP because the national and local parties are the same party and have the same leader, so any screw-up they make in Holyrood will reflect on them nationally, a problem the BQ didn't have with the PQ.

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Could you answer this ??

Is Scotland not a "Country" ? with a government ? (although limited)
Nothing like Quebec ??

How anyone can compare Quebec to Scotland really baffles me !! To me Quebec is more like the Isle of man !!

:rofl: :sarcasm:

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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Qu%C3%..._nation_motion

Like I said... very similar. And the provincial govt. of Québec sits in the: "National Assembly" in Québec City.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nation...mbly_of_Quebec

In fact if anything I would say Québec is more distinct, because of the large francophone population (how many Scottish people speak Gaelic on a daily basis?) and also the law in Québec originated with the French Civil Code. Scottish law has a different origin as well, but the Supreme Court of Canada for example has to have three members from Québec (out of nine) because of the specialization needed in the civil code. There is less of a difference between English and Scottish law.