Where can we hide in the now increasingly likely event of a Trump presidency?
If you start digging now there's still enough time to get a pretty decent bunker together.
Liked by:
Other Kyoto
Ask @Rev_Stu
Here's a thing. In the indyref we spent a lot of energy arguing that FPTP produces a 'democratic deficit'; a reason to vote yes. I think its a bit rich after that to start criticising PR at Holyrood.
Um, that's not a question. But I haven't criticised PR. I'm all in favour of PR. I'm talking about tweaking one aspect of it which wouldn't affect the proportional representation of parties at all, just the specific individuals who were elected from each party.
Have you seen the Little Bleu Book? Can email you a copy in pdf if you want.
I haven't - please do :)
Related users
Who weirds you out more: literalist Bible-thumping bigots, who are ghastly but at least understand the implications of what they believe, or soppy liberal-type Christians who don't actually seem to take what they consider the "Word of God" seriously?
Well, I suppose the latter are less likely to do anyone any harm. But I suppose being hardcore in your adherence to the letter of the Bible makes more logical sense, if that's not entirely the wrong way to describe it.
The 'hope over fear' campaigning for Indie Ref 1 by definition, was about a positive campaign which arguably restrict half of your options. We lost. Next time as well as the positive messaging, should we be emphasising the many negative aspects of the UK historically, post referendum and future?
Yes. You need a little of both.
The European Union: Remain or Leave?
Still undecided. Was firmly Remain all my life, but TTIP and what happened to Greece have severely undermined my faith. Could go either way at this point.
Liked by:
Other Kyoto
I'm an SNP member and am going to give my first vote to the party, if I give my 2nd vote to them it'll be wasted. Would it be worth giving either RISE or the Greens my list vote?
Will you be my friend? I have sweets.
What kind of sweets?
Why don't the English get that their fave song "Jerusalem" is about how their nice country was ruined by capitalist greed?
I don't know, but I'll start asking them.
What will the UK government do if Holyrood blocks the fiscal framework?
There isn't a lot they can do. They'll whine about it, obviously, but that's about it.
Have you ever beaten the Dark Aeons in Final Fantasy X without Yojimbo and his Zanmato attack?
I have never played Final Fantasy X and I never intend to.
Would you agree there is some irony that Songs of Praise followed EK v Celtic when all the 'best fans in the world' could do was boo their team off after a win?
I think booing the Premiership champions for only being able to put two goals past East Kilbride - and one of those a handball - is an entirely legitimate response from paying customers.
How much did your packet of "crisps" cost?
Pardon?
I was a Sega fan back in the day, my Megadrive, was my all time fav console. I even had a Saturn! I always fancied a Dreamcast but never managed to get one... Do you think it's worth getting one nowadays? I'm especially tempted given announcement of Shenmue 3 - I'd love to play the first two on DC.
I have a real soft spot for the Dreamcast. If you like arcade games it's a fantastic machine, and the Shenmue games are lovely. For the peanuts it's likely to cost nowadays, NOT buying one would be a bit mad. Frankly I'd get one just for Bangai-O.
Have you played Space Giraffe, if so what level are you stuck on? I mean that game is impossible and all the people who have got the long march achievement must have cheated, no?
According to my Xbox Live profile I finished level 100 on 20 October 2007. No cheating. You just have to get in The Zone, man.
Why do you keep calling the list vote as subsidiary to the constituency vote? Surely the list vote is MORE fair and important as it is PR and doesn't have tactical voting so is a more genuine show of support than FPTP? I don't like Labour but they deserve PR seats just as much as the SNP did in 1999
I don't think I *have* ever done that. I have no objection to Labour or anyone else getting MSPs through the list whatsoever - I fully support PR and AMS is a decent enough method.
Where there's an issue with the list vote is when it's used for the wholesale election of MSPs who've been expressly and personally rejected by the electorate in constituency votes. When someone's come 4th in a constituency election and gets forced on voters anyway, I think it's unarguable that that person has a question mark over the legitimacy of their mandate.
It's almost like the Lords - members who can be put into power despite the electorate going "No, we absolutely do not want this specific person making our laws". I get why parties want it as a backup, but I'm not sure that's a good enough reason to override the expressed wishes of the voters.
Maybe there should be a limit on the number of rejected constituency candidates a party can have elected on the list in each region - if you put four candidates up for constituencies and they all lose and they're all also on the list, only the first (say) two get list seats, then you have to go down to the next person on the party list who DIDN'T stand for a constituency.
Where there's an issue with the list vote is when it's used for the wholesale election of MSPs who've been expressly and personally rejected by the electorate in constituency votes. When someone's come 4th in a constituency election and gets forced on voters anyway, I think it's unarguable that that person has a question mark over the legitimacy of their mandate.
It's almost like the Lords - members who can be put into power despite the electorate going "No, we absolutely do not want this specific person making our laws". I get why parties want it as a backup, but I'm not sure that's a good enough reason to override the expressed wishes of the voters.
Maybe there should be a limit on the number of rejected constituency candidates a party can have elected on the list in each region - if you put four candidates up for constituencies and they all lose and they're all also on the list, only the first (say) two get list seats, then you have to go down to the next person on the party list who DIDN'T stand for a constituency.
Liked by:
Dawn Finlayson
Are you a pacifist? If not, under what circumstances would you ever support military force?
I have no problem with military force where clearly merited and properly directed, and accompanied by an exit strategy and a post-exit strategy. In the case of Syria none of those criteria seems to be fulfilled.
Is feeling depression and anxiety, at the same time, an oxymoron? I struggle to better express my emotions in any other way but I don't want to appear foolish if I speak to my GP.
No. Anxiety is often a symptom of depression. But I'm not a medical professional - go and see your GP. They won't think you're foolish.
Which powers do you think should be devolved to Holyrood as a priority?
I don't really care about devolution. The powers that would really make a difference are the ones that would never be devolved (and arguably never CAN be).
I think devolution has just about reached its practical limits, which is why the Scotland Bill proposals are so feeble. They're the result of a UK government scrabbling around to find any remaining scraps it's willing to hand over that won't have any real effect on anything.
I think devolution has just about reached its practical limits, which is why the Scotland Bill proposals are so feeble. They're the result of a UK government scrabbling around to find any remaining scraps it's willing to hand over that won't have any real effect on anything.
Is it wrong to be irked when you see journalists (masters of the English language, one would have thought) fail to capitalise their own names on Twitter? If they can't be bothered to do that, should one place any faith in their accuracy generally?
There's never any excuse for a professional writer using sloppy, lazy grammar. If they're not going to set an example, who is?
Are Labour politicians really as stupid as they appear at face-value, or are they happy to appear so to those paying attention as long as they managed to con everyone else into believing their lies? Or is it a mix of the two?
I honestly think it's mostly the first one. It's one thing to be an arse when you're still winning elections, but when you keep battering away with the same tactics when you've been on a catastrophic slide for the best part of a decade, it looks a lot like just plain stupidity.
Ever get any misty-eyed nostalgia about the 90s? I do (for the good stuff), and I was barely alive then.
I have lots of fond memories about lots of different times. The 90s were pretty awesome - I worked on Amiga Power and for Sensible Software and had a ball at both, and the Britpop era was musically wondrous.
But then the 80s were pretty ace too, first for the golden era of arcades and then coming of age and going to uni and forming a band and being young during the Madchester period and being an Aberdeen fan when Ferguson was manager and whatnot.
Basically I feel very lucky to have been born when I was. Musically I was just old enough to catch punk and have some slight inkling of how significant it was, then stuff like Adam And The Ants and Frankie Goes To Hollywood, then the heyday of indie guitar pop, then "baggy" and so on.
With tech I was there at the birth of videogames, and I remember the days before there was an internet or mobile phones so I still marvel at having the world's knowledge in my pocket. With sport I saw Aberdeen in their pomp, and Scotland when they qualified for tournaments. And all the way through I got to meet fantastic people and call them friends.
Even now, as my physical form disintegrates, amazing stuff is happening - I never dreamed we'd see an independence referendum, and it was an incredible time to be alive. I still think I'll live to see us win one. But music seems dull and sport is mainly depressing, so I do sometimes allow myself a fond reminisce about older days. But it's never any particular time over others.
But then the 80s were pretty ace too, first for the golden era of arcades and then coming of age and going to uni and forming a band and being young during the Madchester period and being an Aberdeen fan when Ferguson was manager and whatnot.
Basically I feel very lucky to have been born when I was. Musically I was just old enough to catch punk and have some slight inkling of how significant it was, then stuff like Adam And The Ants and Frankie Goes To Hollywood, then the heyday of indie guitar pop, then "baggy" and so on.
With tech I was there at the birth of videogames, and I remember the days before there was an internet or mobile phones so I still marvel at having the world's knowledge in my pocket. With sport I saw Aberdeen in their pomp, and Scotland when they qualified for tournaments. And all the way through I got to meet fantastic people and call them friends.
Even now, as my physical form disintegrates, amazing stuff is happening - I never dreamed we'd see an independence referendum, and it was an incredible time to be alive. I still think I'll live to see us win one. But music seems dull and sport is mainly depressing, so I do sometimes allow myself a fond reminisce about older days. But it's never any particular time over others.
Which TV shows should be taken off the air and removed from the depths of television history?
Anything with Keith Lemon in it. Anything where people text in with their votes. Those two simple steps would solve an awful lot of problems at a stroke.
Liked by:
Chris Bridgeford
Why haven't you sued a certain tedious cretin (whose surname rhymes with Bothersall) for libel already? I remember him directly accusing you, on a public forum, of being a misogynist and homophobe. This is obviously defamatory.
Because he's not worth the time and effort and he probably hasn't got any money anyway. He spends all day ranting on Twitter, goodness knows when he gets any work done.
Thanks, I have a Windows phone (try not to laugh to muchwhat are the chances of you doing a windows version of your phone app?
We haven't got round to any sort of app yet, mainly because I still haven't really identified any benefit from having one. All it would really do would be take traffic away and the site's totally readable on mobile formats as it is - on a phone all you have to do is double-tap on the text column and it automatically fills the screen, and you can't make it any clearer or simpler than that.
Next
