General News/Current Affairs Thread

Considering the turnout in the most recent election before this was 34%, to see that many people engaged in politics is quite remarkable. I hope we can harness that energy for good and make things better for the whole UK.
 
Yay, Owly remains mine!

Congrats to those who voted No and comiserations to those who voted Yes. I just hope everyone up in Scotland can/will get past this and it won't turn into Ireland as they still bloody hate eachother over there lol.
 
I did vote Yes but I'm not going to be going round making a sad face. I respect that the majority want to stay, and that's fine with me. I like that they're saying it's going to be better for all 4 of us, that makes me very happy!

Nothing lost to me, either way somehow things were going to be made better. Much love to everyone here <3
 
Once again what I'm seeing on FB here so possible inaccuracies lol but wasn't there like a surge in younger votes which is why No may of won? Young people won't really understand the weight of what this represented etc? Watch you all flame me going "I'm 18 b*tch" ;) :p hehe.

Owly, at least now there's no CCY change etc dividing us though hehe.

Do you think something like this will eventually come around for Scotland again now?

When will you lot know what happens up there now? Like what Westminster will discuss with your government up there etc?

I'm hoping this spurns change still. Everyone is sick of rich kids in London thinking they know what it's like to live in the UK. Bugger off Labour, Tories and Lib Dems, you know nothing of what it's like living outside of London. We'd all rather our taxes go on things to benefit us, not your agenda, not your wars, US. That's where Scotland got it right so will I guess always make you think what they could of done if left to their own devices eh.
 
I haven't been following the campaigning as the little I saw just annoyed me (on both sides) but I saw the result today and I'm glad that this turned out the way it did. I feel this is potentially win:win as Scotland has shown extremely powerfully that a great deal of people up there are feeling alienated and reforms are needed, and I think that such reforms could benefit everyone in the country so long as the politicians aren't allowed to wiggle away from it and go back to other problems the way they have always tended to. The results clearly show that there are problems with the current system which aren't going to conveniently disappear on their own. At the same time, I'm glad that the UK's trajectory towards complete irrelevance on a global scale has been slowed down a little (for now) ^^;;

As an aside, as someone currently living in the London area - for work, not for pleasure, as I can't imagine the latter - I would be grateful if we weren't all accused of being tory-loving corrupt bankers the way the newspapers like to convince people we all are. As with everywhere in the UK outside of the folks in Westminster itself, there's a diverse mix of people here and I wish we were all given equal respect as people instead of being generalised by our current locations. It doesn't feel good being the villain; I assure you I feel as politically powerless living here as anyone else does elsewhere in the current system. This isn't in response to any specific comment as there have been several over the last few pages.

Maybe I shouldn't say things like that, but I do sigh internally each time people join up and push the blame farther and farther south. I think everyone in the country benefits from a fairer system where the people have more say in decisions, whether they're in the north or the south. The current system sucks.

R

(Personally I don't think the average 40 year old is especially better educated on the ramifications of voting than the average 18 year old; heck the latter probably learns more about the debate in school than the former...)
 
I think the Scots have a very valid point about the domination of Britain culturally and politically by London, but it's as true for a kid in Cornwall, Yorkshire or Cumbria as it is for someone living in Dumfries. At least they have Edinburgh/Glasgow! Why is there a British Museum in London and not British Museums around the country showcasing the best of the collection? Ditto art galleries. Birmingham (where I live now) has a great art gallery but it would be even greater if it had a share of the main collections of Tate and the National gallery. Why is all the interesting, big and new theatre clustered around a group of theatres in a tiny part of London?

On hating the Tories - I know Thatcher wasn't kind to Scotland, but Liverpool and the mining areas have as much (if not more) claim to be hard done by as Scotland.

And as for being a more left-leaning country who don't want Trident than England. Simply not true. The Tories don't even have a majority and there many of us who don't want Trident, or rule by the Bullingdon Club.

Now I'm not arguing against Scottish Independence, simply the use of these things to mark out the Scottish experience as somehow different to the rest of us.

The no campaign should have pointed to the importance of Scottish scientists, engineers, philosophers, writers and politicians to British history, thought and successes, how the Windsors descend from James Stuart king of Scotland, who inherited from Elizabeth I, and how Britain isn't Britain without Scotland (or Wales, or the ancient kingdoms of Wessex, Mercia, etc)
 
-Danielle- said:
"I'm 18 b*tch" hehe.
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I'm 20? Do I count? :lol: I felt a lot of pressure to use my vote, even though I wasn't really feeling either side in particular. I ended up going for Yes, but I felt I wasn't fully invested in either side. It was what I was leaning more towards at the time. I just hope something good comes of it all :( I got seriously stressed out last night watching it all. Ended up going to bed around 4am feeling dizzy with the anxiety!
 
Hehe you are excused from that comment and do not qualify for those "young'uns" being referred to by people on my FB :p

When you see the numbers, it really is a bit of a wow tbh.

I keep mentioning Westminster over London for the most part for a reason, as they're corrupt, small minded and agenda centred, not London. If Parliament was based here in Manchester, we'd get all the hate so there's no targeting of the people who live there, just those who live there and are in Parliament :p ;) hehe.

Burt has made valid points though about London being the centre of the UK universe. I never asked for it to be our Capital City, who did? Who also decided everyting Burt exampled (galleries, museums etc) should be there and be in the spotlight?
 
What we really need is better transport links across the country to some extent; there are loads of places in the UK I'd like to visit more often but it's such a hassle (and so expensive) to get around that most tourists stay put in the same city they flew in to unless they are staying for a while, even though they'd love to head further afield and see some of our more interesting locations. I think I have an easier time visiting mainland Europe by public transport than other parts of my own country.

I agree that the capital city shouldn't be as relevant as it is. I don't think changing it to being a different city would really solve anything (it would be enormously expensive and I wouldn't wish the London Experience on anyone else), but it's daft to have everything shoved into one area when other countries manage to spread their resources out better.

R
 
Yeah I agree on transport. With neither myself nor the OH able to drive, we're limited to where we can go. I think he's going to learn one day. I'd love to visit the lake and peak district, far up north to where my my AUKN babies are etc. What's the latest transport plan they have? Birmingham to Scotland or something like that? The UK bullet train? Eugh.

I don't think anywhere in the UK could of held the Olympics as well as London did, I do enjoy the city but it says a lot when you get uneducated Americans thinking we all talk like Dick Van Dyke over here -_- the UK, hell, England, does not equal LONDON! Grrrrrgle.
 
It's funny how everyone assumes that all Brits speak in RP or with a comical Cockney accent. I was once in Canada for a while and everyone was convinced I was Australian (???) because I have a Yorkshire accent (sadly fading over time).

I don't have a car either; it really shows how inadequate public transport is when you don't have access to a car as a backup plan. When I'm overseas I happily zoom all over the place visiting remote castles but here it feels like an expensive nuisance to travel to the interesting sites outside the big cities (only to find that there's never any bus service to the actual attraction so you have to book a taxi after all).

Having said that, I have had a very positive experience with the trains on the trips I've taken to Scotland in the past. I may have been lucky with the routes I took.

R
 
Yeah you're totally right! I can't even get to bloody Lyme Park here! There's inadequate buses and even then its a walk there after that. Totally ridiculous. Rome was so easy to get to everywhere be it the met or walking!
 
It's worth noting now that Alex Salmond has just resigned his position as First Minister and also his position as SNP leader. People are suggesting Nicola Sturgeon may take over, but obviously it's a bit away from a confirmation yet.
It's not too surprising either, considering he mentioned he may leave soon after a result was announced, but here we go. I only hope Nicola doesn't take charge, i find her far less agreeable than the rest. However i don't know much of the SNP to really judge who else could really stand to take over.
 
To be honest, despite all the uncertainty regarding polls and the "Missing Million", my gut feeling was always leaning towards the majority of the Scottish people voting "No".

Being English, I didn't feel that it was my place to make a decision one way or the other in the discussion. However, as the debate went on, I was admittedly warming up to the idea of an independent Scotland and more importantly, the opportunity it could have given us English people a chance to speak out against Westminster too.
However, the decision of Scotland's future was not mine to make. It was in the hands of the Scottish people and I was always going to respect the decision, regardless of which box on the ballet paper it leaned on.

Personally, I think the biggest thing that cost the "Yes" campaign wasn't the "Better Together" side, because their campaign was pretty terrible to be honest. I think what tipped the favour wasn't so much the "Better Together" campaign, but the uncertainty of the "Yes" campaign's promises.

A part of me saw a lot of the "Yes" campaign's statements as playing a risky game of Poker, with Scotland being put on the table instead of a chip. The "Yes" campaign's plan to obtain a currency union with the United Kingdom and to join the European Union was never communicated effectively to the public in my opinion, with many being told they were never absolute certainties (especially with Spain possibly having their own interest in keeping Scotland out of the EU).
The vote was REALLY close as it is, but if the "Yes" campaign had done a better job of communicating those things, the polls could have easily went the other way.

The stage is now set though and the entirety of the United Kingdom is now more politically aware (at least temporarily anyway). Hopefully this and the promise of more powers to Scotland (let's see if they'll keep THIS election promise - it already looks like they won't), means that everyone in all four nations that make up the United Kingdom can have a louder voice.

Did the Scottish public vote for the right or wrong choice last night? Honestly, I don't think there is a "right" choice or a "wrong" choice and being English, it wouldn't really be my place to say anyway. However, they were asked the question, they answered and we have to respect their decision - just like I would have if they had said "Yes".

Alex Salmond resigning was inevitable to be honest. If his political career was a cheesy action movie, the election was his adrenaline and explosion filled climatic action sequence, with winning being getting the girl at the end. He didn't get the girl and is naturally bummed out. If the vote had went the other way, I would have expected Cameron to stand down.
 
It doesn't surprise me that Salmond is standing down, but it does surprise me that he's doing it so soon. I had expected a 'will stand down at next election' type scenario, but I suppose there's probably feeling that the SNP will need time to build up support for his successor if they're to stand any chance at the next election.
 
RULE BRITANNIA

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Of course the average English voter thinks there are too many immigrants and we should withdraw from the EU, and secretly reads the Daily Fail and wants to vote UKIP. So giving them more power means we're all doomed, Scots and all. And here's one of my favourite bits from the West Wing:

JOSH: Someone said, "The best argument against democracy is five minutes with the average voter."

WILL: Churchill. He also said "Democracy is the worst form of government."

JOSH: See.

WILL: "Except for all the others."
 
Rui said:
I wouldn't wish the London Experience on anyone else

R
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Neither would I, let's keep all that sweet London nectar for ourselves. I believe the words and images of this music video accurately reflect what living in London is like everyday for everyone. You'll notice at 0.24 the guy is wearing a jacket with London on it, this is no coincidence of course:

Sorry, my jokes probably aren't helping anything. Seriously though I agree with Rui, we're not all rich bankers here, and so much about living in London these days just sucks if you're not a rich head. Like I'll be 45 before I'll be able to live anywhere in London not with my family.
 
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Rui said:
What we really need is better transport links across the country to some extent; there are loads of places in the UK I'd like to visit more often but it's such a hassle (and so expensive) to get around that most tourists stay put in the same city they flew in to unless they are staying for a while, even though they'd love to head further afield and see some of our more interesting locations. I think I have an easier time visiting mainland Europe by public transport than other parts of my own country.
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Here's a fun quote on that subject:
Analysis by the think tank IPPR North in 2011 concluded the government's National Infrastructure Plan allocated £2,731 of transport spending per head in London and the South East, in projects where public funding was involved, compared to £5 per head in the North East.
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I'm pretty sure people don't actually hate your city or its inhabitants Rui (and Chaos, and Vash, and any other Londoners), we're simply sick of how London-centric parliament is. That's a hell of a discrepancy, and our infrastructure is in a massively worse state. The trains that run around here were meant to have been withdrawn by the end of this year because they're so old they don't comply with wheelchair access regulations (but it looks like they won't be) yet we still get ridiculous fare increases every year. Our local airport's transport links are so bad that the owners have purposely run it into the ground in order to develop the site. Only TWO TRAINS A WEEK stop at the airport's station, which was used by a total of 8 people last year. And that's after it was helpfully re-branded to carry the name of a place it's nowhere near (Teesside obviously sounds too unappealing a place for anyone to ever want to go). There is no motorway that links Newcastle and Edinburgh, or even the North East of England to the North West.

Meanwhile in London: Bore massive underground tunnels across the whole city for new rail lines? Not a problem. Level entire villages and relocate their populations to expand airport capacity? Get on with it already.
 
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