General Politics Thread

[GNU_Linux]

Canadian elections are today. Mon the Rhinoceros party.

Edited September 20, 2021 by GNU_Linux

[Billy Jean King]

The various local Facebook groups for the Falkirk area are full of utter wallopers convinced that every other medium-sized town in Scotland has its very own Oxford Street that is chock-full of shoppers 24/7.
These same folk blame the council for why Falkirk High Street is an absolute shambles, usually citing rents / rates as the main factor, despite how many times it’s pointed out that local councils control neither rents or rates.

Ditto almost verbatim the Ayr online forum type groups. They also think the Council should be able to compulsory purchase / demolish every empty property in the town irrespective of ownership.

[BFTD]

On 17/09/2021 at 08:06, Day of the Lords said:

Same in Forfar and Dundee. Facebook is full as absolute moonhowlers raging at the Cooncil because the High Street is all hairdressers, bookies and charity shops but they completely fail to understand this is largely caused by them shopping off Amazon over the last 10 years and ignoring the local cafes and coffee shops to go to shiteholes like McDonalds and KFC. 

It is rather worrying how many people seem to think there's a queue of high-end fashion outlets and deceased chain stores of yesteryear that are desperate to get into their high street, if only the bloody charity shops would pack up and leave.

Presumably they also think that Hugh Jackman and Brad Pitt would be at the door to service them nightly, if only they hadn't tied the knot with Bill from the Nag's Head thirty years ago.

[senorsoupe]

7 hours ago, GNU_Linux said:

Canadian elections are today. Mon the Rhinoceros party.











 

If they had a candidate in my riding, I would seriously consider voting for them.  As it is I had to choose one of the boring mainstream parties.

[senorsoupe]

One more Rhino Party fact, their candidate in the Prime Minister's Riding is legally named Znoneofthe Above.  He changed his name that way because it would guarantee that his name would be at the bottom of the ballot so people could vote for "None of the Above" and it would be accurate!

[senorsoupe]

Well that was a colossal fucking waste of everyone's time and money.  We have ended up with yet another Liberal party minority government (Hung parliament), they gained maybe one or two seats on last time and all the other parties ended up with pretty much the same number of seats

[Torpar]

I was hoping for an NDP win but knowing they had pretty much no chance Liberals were my second choice as I read they supported the $10 a day childcare plan, wasn't till this morning they plan to have it in place "within 5 years" Just in time for my wee one to start school anyway. 

[Kejan]

I watched a wee bit last night, and seems like Atlantic Canada was a bit of an outlier? Amazingly, that O'Toole guy is one year younger than Trudeau! 

I don't know enough about Canadian politics, but seemed like there was a lot of NDP supporters were shiting their breeks at their early scores, and whilst the Greens vote tanked - did they not gain a seat by the end of it all?

I've only lived in 'wee' countries with one time zone, but its pretty bizarre really that they can make projections and stuff like they do in the USA when large parts of the country etc are still voting. 

I take it the PP?! are the UKIP/Trumpsters of Canada? Also, heard the pundits saying that the Bloc Quebecois' leader did well in the English debate? What did they say or do to 'win' that or was it just he was the least worst of them all?

Take it the NDP won't be as daft as to go in to a coalition with the Liberals? PS Have the Bloc ever supported a (for want of a better word unionist) party, or do they have no interest in Canada outside Quebec or governing it?

[Torpar]

35 minutes ago, Kejan said:

I've only lived in 'wee' countries with one time zone, but its pretty bizarre really that they can make projections and stuff like they do in the USA when large parts of the country etc are still voting. 

I take it the PP?! are the UKIP/Trumpsters of Canada? Also, heard the pundits saying that the Bloc Quebecois' leader did well in the English debate? What did they say or do to 'win' that or was it just he was the least worst of them all?

 

The voting times are a bit different in Canada, as below; 

Time zone	Voting hours (local time)
Newfoundland Time	8:30 a.m.–8:30 p.m.
Atlantic Time	8:30 a.m.–8:30 p.m.
Eastern Time	9:30 a.m.–9:30 p.m.
Central Time*	8:30 a.m.–8:30 p.m.
Mountain Time*	7:30 a.m.–7:30 p.m.
Pacific Time	7:00 a.m.–7:00 p.m.

So they kind of line up with Pacific only closing half an hour after the Eastern Time zone

And yes the People's Party are right wing, they have a real problem with immigrants, ironic considering they are all probably the children/grandchildren/great grandchildren of immigrants themselves.  Good to see they got absolutely zero seats  

 

[flyingscot]

Not entirely surprised at Canada's results. The elections seemed entirely pointless and they have proven to be so. Conservatives just not popular in the metropolitan areas really. 

[senorsoupe]

1 hour ago, Kejan said:

 

I take it the PP?! are the UKIP/Trumpsters of Canada? Also, heard the pundits saying that the Bloc Quebecois' leader did well in the English debate? What did they say or do to 'win' that or was it just he was the least worst of them all?

 

Pretty much, 

This guy was the spokesperson they sent out to talk to the media last night so yeah

[tamthebam]

21 hours ago, senorsoupe said:

One more Rhino Party fact, their candidate in the Prime Minister's Riding is legally named Znoneofthe Above.  He changed his name that way because it would guarantee that his name would be at the bottom of the ballot so people could vote for "None of the Above" and it would be accurate!

21 hours ago, senorsoupe said:

One more Rhino Party fact, their candidate in the Prime Minister's Riding 

 

Boris wants to know more about this "Prime Minister's riding". Just don't tell Carrie....

[Kejan]

7 hours ago, senorsoupe said:

Pretty much, 

This guy was the spokesperson they sent out to talk to the media last night so yeah

Haha, I caught him on CBC yesterday on what looked like a farm/scrapyard. Fav comment I seen online was ´´A frat boy who forgot to take his Adderall, a stuttering mess!"

CBC's coverage reminded me a lot of BBC Scotland's Holyrood election in May. Then again, imagine most countries follow the same format these days with the graphs, charts, swingometer etc.

I really should Google this, but what is the reason for the voting regions (what we'd call constituencies) being called Ridings? Also, I seen a few comments online about middle Canada (Alberta etc) won't be happy. I take it, that's the Tory heartlands in Canada much like the Borders are in Scotland.

And a very last thing, to my untrained ears, Trudeau speaks both French and English brilliantly.

 

Edited September 22, 2021 by Kejan

[Baxter Parp]

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-58638229.amp

'No clear end to HS2 cost and delays' say MPs

"This project cannot simply keep sinking more taxpayer funds without greater clarity on the later phases. The development of Euston is a real challenge that must be resolved swiftly now."

The current estimated cost of completing HS2 is between £72bn and £98bn at 2019 prices, compared with an original budget of £55.7bn in 2015 at 2015 prices.

[senorsoupe]

10 hours ago, Kejan said:

Haha, I caught him on CBC yesterday on what looked like a farm/scrapyard. Fav comment I seen online was ´´A frat boy who forgot to take his Adderall, a stuttering mess!"

CBC's coverage reminded me a lot of BBC Scotland's Holyrood election in May. Then again, imagine most countries follow the same format these days with the graphs, charts, swingometer etc.

I really should Google this, but what is the reason for the voting regions (what we'd call constituencies) being called Ridings? Also, I seen a few comments online about middle Canada (Alberta etc) won't be happy. I take it, that's the Tory heartlands in Canada much like the Borders are in Scotland.

And a very last thing, to my untrained ears, Trudeau speaks both French and English brilliantly.

 

I really don't know why we call them "ridings", I think the the legal term is "Electoral District" but that doesn't flow as well when speaking.  I think it was some old English term that we adopted like 200 years ago (when we were just starting out having elections) and haven't bothered to change.

Yah. Alberta and Saskatchewan are Tory strongholds, so they have a habit of getting pissy when things don't go their way (IE the Tories lose).

[Antlion]

11 hours ago, Kejan said:

Haha, I caught him on CBC yesterday on what looked like a farm/scrapyard. Fav comment I seen online was ´´A frat boy who forgot to take his Adderall, a stuttering mess!"

CBC's coverage reminded me a lot of BBC Scotland's Holyrood election in May. Then again, imagine most countries follow the same format these days with the graphs, charts, swingometer etc.

I really should Google this, but what is the reason for the voting regions (what we'd call constituencies) being called Ridings? Also, I seen a few comments online about middle Canada (Alberta etc) won't be happy. I take it, that's the Tory heartlands in Canada much like the Borders are in Scotland.

And a very last thing, to my untrained ears, Trudeau speaks both French and English brilliantly.

 

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Riding_(division)

[tamthebam]

22 hours ago, Kejan said:

 

I really should Google this, but what is the reason for the voting regions (what we'd call constituencies) being called Ridings? 

 

Ayup Canucks, 'appen thee's electoral system was invented in Yorkshire. And bloody good thing too.

[German Jag]

Bundestag elections (plus some local ones) coming up on Sunday. Polling card received a couple of weeks ago.

End of an era with Angela Merkel stepping down after 16 years as Chancellor.

Will, as usual, be a coalition government. Still no certainty as to what the make up will be. As in the UK, shit loads of parties taking part (in some constituencies at least). Full list, in English, here. My favourite is the du, Die-Urbane, an anti-colonial & critical of power Hip-Hop Party.

As regards the 3 candidates for Chancellor, all 3 are a bit of a step-down from Merkel.

Only the main parties standing in the constituency where I live. Haven’t yet made a decision as to who to vote for (mixed member PR system, so one candidate vote and one party list vote).

The AfD can p!ss fücking off!

[Baxter Parp]

Exclusive: Queen spends millions to privately fund Prince Andrew’s fight against sex abuse allegations
Financial intervention was considered a necessity, as Duke has no discernible income, and means Buckingham Palace is updated on developments

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/royal-family/2021/10/01/exclusive-queen-spends-millions-privately-fund-prince-andrews/

Gawd bless 'er majesty!

[williemillersmoustache]

15 minutes ago, Baxter Parp said:

Exclusive: Queen spends millions to privately fund Prince Andrew’s fight against sex abuse allegations
Financial intervention was considered a necessity, as Duke has no discernible income, and means Buckingham Palace is updated on developments

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/royal-family/2021/10/01/exclusive-queen-spends-millions-privately-fund-prince-andrews/

Gawd bless 'er majesty!

Would be nice if someone at Holyrood had the testicular fortitude to chin the NonceMother on this today but I doubt it.

I mean she visited the irn bru factory earlier this year so she's really just one of us and we should be grateful she's spending our cash on hiding her paedophile son in Deeside. GSTNM