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On March 23 2018 21:28 Velr wrote: Have you watched the Video? How could you possibly mistake this for glorifying naziism?
And btw. no one took it seirously, the scottish police just went in. There was no one complaining, there was no one offended or anything of that sort calling the police. FFS the Video is still on Youtube because even YouTube seems to think its ok...
Free speech/hate speech is a relatively thorny issue in the UK at the minute because we had a huge spate of Muslim hate preachers doing the rounds for years, until we passed legislation to shut them the fuck up. As in they were openly telling people to kill all non-Muslims in the UK.
Once that legislation got passed, unfortunately, marginal cases like this one started falling under the auspices due to either improperly worded or overly broad wording.
It's an unfortunate situation and I hope the guy doesn't go to jail.
On March 23 2018 21:40 Sent. wrote: Was the guy really convicted for a crime (like murder or assault) or just fined like you can get fined for parking in the wrong place?
He has been found guilty. No sentence yet, that will come in April I believe.
It would be a pretty easy bit of good PR if the governor would just pardon the guy. Does the UK have a pardon system for some related government official?
On March 23 2018 22:27 Sermokala wrote: It would be a pretty easy bit of good PR if the governor would just pardon the guy. Does the UK have a pardon system for some related government official?
Heh. Don't think they use royal pardons for that. Think the last person to receive a royal pardon was Alan Turing (post-humously, so fat lot of good it did him).
It's ridiculous to convict the person who made that video of anything. If the law says he must be convicted for nazi glorification, then the law must obviously be changed to allow for fucking humor. But then again I've been banned from here for making an obvious joke about Jews and people seem to think that was a good thing.
Besides, there was nothing "glorifying" about the video. The joke did not cast any judgments on the concept of nazism. It simply did not specifically condemn or make fun of the nazis, which is - according to my feelings - not the same as glorification. It "made light of" nazism, perhaps, but that also falls short of glorification as far as this person's feelings are concerned.
So be offended, and feel free to share your feelings about being offended. But if you think the law should be on your side to protect your precious feelings in this case, I think you're a dumb-ass. Whether its jokes about gays, jews, muslims or nazis I don't give a shit. There's plenty of material that I think is offensive - supporting American military efforts and so forth - but I don't think it should be made illegal to make jokes about what I perceive to be a bunch of murderous scumbags who'll volunteer to travel halfway across the world to commit genocide.
Frankly, I think people who feel the need to convict others for something that is obviously meant to be funny should be gassed.
On March 23 2018 22:27 Sermokala wrote: It would be a pretty easy bit of good PR if the governor would just pardon the guy. Does the UK have a pardon system for some related government official?
American style pardoning is utterly ridiculous. Either you set up a decent justice system or you don't. Most countries have the option for pardons but they barely ever use them because it deligiminates an entire branch of goverment.
On March 23 2018 22:27 Sermokala wrote: It would be a pretty easy bit of good PR if the governor would just pardon the guy. Does the UK have a pardon system for some related government official?
American style pardoning is utterly ridiculous. Either you set up a decent justice system or you don't. Most countries have the option for pardons but they barely ever use them because it deligiminates an entire branch of goverment.
I mean yeah but at the same time it allows the justice system to operate outside of more political pressure when the end result can be called for by the people to be changed. look at Obama's usage of the pardon to set free slaves that were imprisoned for minor drug offences that weren't violent. The nation needs a few more years before serious decriminalization but the pardon can be used to alleviate the issue a little.
On March 23 2018 22:27 Sermokala wrote: It would be a pretty easy bit of good PR if the governor would just pardon the guy. Does the UK have a pardon system for some related government official?
American style pardoning is utterly ridiculous. Either you set up a decent justice system or you don't. Most countries have the option for pardons but they barely ever use them because it deligiminates an entire branch of goverment.
I can see valid reasons when someone could be pardoned. It just depends on use cases.
On March 23 2018 22:27 Sermokala wrote: It would be a pretty easy bit of good PR if the governor would just pardon the guy. Does the UK have a pardon system for some related government official?
American style pardoning is utterly ridiculous. Either you set up a decent justice system or you don't. Most countries have the option for pardons but they barely ever use them because it deligiminates an entire branch of goverment.
I mean yeah but at the same time it allows the justice system to operate outside of more political pressure when the end result can be called for by the people to be changed. look at Obama's usage of the pardon to set free slaves that were imprisoned for minor drug offences that weren't violent. The nation needs a few more years before serious decriminalization but the pardon can be used to alleviate the issue a little.
That sort of thing is less of a problem in the UK. Our laws might occasionally be a little dumb (like this one) but public pressure usually has little influence on sentencing. When the pressure's high the courts tend to close up and allow no information to get out, and so as much of the business as possible behind closed doors to avoid bias affecting the proceedings.
In other words; sometimes the laws are stupid and people are imprisoned/fined for stuff they shouldn't be, but that's not the fault of the courts and it's not due to the public jumping up and down and shouting.
This is the speaker of the house accusing Boris Johnson of sexism. Its like accusing the Pope of catholicism if you ask me.
Every time I watch the British Parliament I am left wondering how cathartic it would be for Americans if the House of Representatives functioned this way. It would likely do the representatives some good too. I am envious of a goverment that handles these things in the chamber, rather than the on cable news.
This is the speaker of the house accusing Boris Johnson of sexism. Its like accusing the Pope of catholicism if you ask me.
Every time I watch the British Parliament I am left wondering how cathartic it would be for Americans if the House of Representatives functioned this way. It would likely do the representatives some good too. I am envious of a goverment that handles these things in the chamber, rather than the on cable news.
Yeah I think cathartic is the right word. They are putting on a show while attempting to hold each other accountable.
This is the speaker of the house accusing Boris Johnson of sexism. Its like accusing the Pope of catholicism if you ask me.
Every time I watch the British Parliament I am left wondering how cathartic it would be for Americans if the House of Representatives functioned this way. It would likely do the representatives some good too. I am envious of a goverment that handles these things in the chamber, rather than the on cable news.
And your country REALLY needs Prime Minister Question Time.
Its absurd that Trump is allowed to go this length of time without ever having to be publically questioned by ANYONE.
Our system definitely has its flaws, but it's very hard for our party leaders to hide their character flaws if they're no good at PMQs. In fact that's always been Corbyn's problem; he's awful at PMQ, while David Cameron was good at them.
This is the speaker of the house accusing Boris Johnson of sexism. Its like accusing the Pope of catholicism if you ask me.
Every time I watch the British Parliament I am left wondering how cathartic it would be for Americans if the House of Representatives functioned this way. It would likely do the representatives some good too. I am envious of a goverment that handles these things in the chamber, rather than the on cable news.
And your country REALLY needs Prime Minister Question Time.
Its absurd that Trump is allowed to go this length of time without ever having to be publically questioned by ANYONE.
Our system definitely has its flaws, but it's very hard for our party leaders to hide their character flaws if they're no good at PMQs. In fact that's always been Corbyn's problem; he's awful at PMQ, while David Cameron was good at them.
Its one of Corbyn's many problems. TBH I think he would be hated regardless of his PMQ performance, just due to his evil socialism /s But then, if you think Corbyn is bad, remember Milliband?
This is the speaker of the house accusing Boris Johnson of sexism. Its like accusing the Pope of catholicism if you ask me.
Every time I watch the British Parliament I am left wondering how cathartic it would be for Americans if the House of Representatives functioned this way. It would likely do the representatives some good too. I am envious of a goverment that handles these things in the chamber, rather than the on cable news.
And your country REALLY needs Prime Minister Question Time.
Its absurd that Trump is allowed to go this length of time without ever having to be publically questioned by ANYONE.
Our system definitely has its flaws, but it's very hard for our party leaders to hide their character flaws if they're no good at PMQs. In fact that's always been Corbyn's problem; he's awful at PMQ, while David Cameron was good at them.
I was completely unaware Prime Minister Questions existed and this sounds the best part of goverment. We should have this in the US in some format. Keep is hilarious and have the President and either majority or minority leader of the house do the questions. They could swap off just to make sure everyone has to answer questions. Although we are huge and would likely need to break it down by region or something to keep it manageable.
Is it confirmed that the agent used is the so-called "Novichok". I've been reading different information from the british and other media outlets. I read somewhere that that his daughter brought it with her in her luggage, after that the poisoning happened in some restaurant, now at Skripal's home. First there was information that it was Fentanyl or some other drug acting on the central nervous system.
I still can't buy this yet, it's not that Russia doesn't have the capability or history of doing this, but the timing, immediate accusations of Russia even before there was any information and lack of coverage and details on Skripal's current state other then critical condition. I think by now there should be enough information, normally people either die to this kind of attacks or they get stabilized or at least given more information. Also Skripal's daughter is supposedly out of danger, Isn't this Novichok supposed to be lethal?
This is the speaker of the house accusing Boris Johnson of sexism. Its like accusing the Pope of catholicism if you ask me.
Every time I watch the British Parliament I am left wondering how cathartic it would be for Americans if the House of Representatives functioned this way. It would likely do the representatives some good too. I am envious of a goverment that handles these things in the chamber, rather than the on cable news.
And your country REALLY needs Prime Minister Question Time.
Its absurd that Trump is allowed to go this length of time without ever having to be publically questioned by ANYONE.
Our system definitely has its flaws, but it's very hard for our party leaders to hide their character flaws if they're no good at PMQs. In fact that's always been Corbyn's problem; he's awful at PMQ, while David Cameron was good at them.
I was completely unaware Prime Minister Questions existed and this sounds the best part of goverment. We should have this in the US in some format. Keep is hilarious and have the President and either majority or minority leader of the house do the questions. They could swap off just to make sure everyone has to answer questions. Although we are huge and would likely need to break it down by region or something to keep it manageable.
If you've never seen it - and now I think about it I imagine it's tough-ish to do in the US - every week the government meets in the House of Commons and the leader of the opposition + all his little wizards get to ask the PM anything that's on their mind, which usually takes the form of 'why the fuck is this thing that you said would be unfucked, still fucked?' And then the PM has to come up with an explanation. They often frame the questions in the form of 'will you commit to x or y', so there's a real, consistent effort to pin the PM down either on something they said they'd do and haven't, or something they claim to want to and haven't got round to yet for one reason or another. Good PMs can evade or distract from issues they don't want to tangle with and directly, convincingly answer or counterpoint the ones they do, but either way you get a proper look at who got your vote and what they're doing with it.
I suppose the easiest way to do it in the US would be a monthly - allowing for how big and complex America's government is and how busy the President is - visit to both houses by the President, and all the sitting senators in those houses got to ask him anything they wanted related to their own department or represented state for a couple of hours.
On March 29 2018 21:53 Dangermousecatdog wrote: What would you rate Theresa's May PMQ performance? Robotic with with a spin on technical speech.
British Hilary Clinton, with a side order of 'I never wanted this job, fuck you all, I voted to remain, I'm the one person here who knew this would be a disaster, ARRRRRRRRGH'. She's a policy wonk and she's good at policy, but she's not very relatable at all (Maybot is an accurate nickname). But she's a policy wonk who has no idea how to navigate effectively through these troubled times, in a position where she literally has to, or seem to, and doesn't know how to do that. Because she's PM, she has to put a brave face on it, when before she would have been privately telling the PM 'this isn't going to work, you know.' She's definitely not a natural liar.
She's also got none of David Cameron's vision or easy charm. He had several definite goals and was working towards them (and alas led us into disaster by underestimating his party), she's really picking up his pieces; bearing in mind she was one of his biggest loyalists.
This is the speaker of the house accusing Boris Johnson of sexism. Its like accusing the Pope of catholicism if you ask me.
Every time I watch the British Parliament I am left wondering how cathartic it would be for Americans if the House of Representatives functioned this way. It would likely do the representatives some good too. I am envious of a goverment that handles these things in the chamber, rather than the on cable news.
And your country REALLY needs Prime Minister Question Time.
Its absurd that Trump is allowed to go this length of time without ever having to be publically questioned by ANYONE.
Our system definitely has its flaws, but it's very hard for our party leaders to hide their character flaws if they're no good at PMQs. In fact that's always been Corbyn's problem; he's awful at PMQ, while David Cameron was good at them.
Its one of Corbyn's many problems. TBH I think he would be hated regardless of his PMQ performance, just due to his evil socialism /s But then, if you think Corbyn is bad, remember Milliband?
Milliband had all of May's flaws and none of her positives. He was goofy in that Boris Johnson way that made it very hard to take him seriously, and he genuinely seemed to have no clue. The thing is, though, he actually DID, he just didn't know how to express it. I don't know where the fault lies there.
Corbyn's only problem is that he's a bit of a rubbish public speaker. He's got vision in spades, which is actually what Labour needs right now.