European Politics

Black Wizard said:
More bad news for the Yes campaign this morning: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-scotland-politics-26215963
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The leak today that the UK Government might contemplate effectively vetoing Independence after a (hypothetical) "Yes" vote if Scotland makes impossible demands in Independence negotiations --is playing right into the Yes Campaign's hands. So it's not all good news for the No Campaign.

In regards to Europe, if negotiations after a (again hypothetical) "Yes" vote fail to agree on Scotland being allowed to stay within the EU (as it currently is, as part of the UK) --then the EU is still going to have to negotiate a planned exit for Scotland before the Independence date the following year. I honestly don't think this is as crucial an issue as the No Campaign is making out. Baring in mind the UK itself may vote (is it in 2015?) to exit the EU with Scotland independent or not. To me, this puts the whole "voting Yes is a vote for the unknown" (& permutations) argument down the pan. If voting "Yes" throws up so many unknowable's, why is the UK Government planning to do exactly that, by giving the UK a referendum on the UK leaving the EU? Again, a fundamentally flawed position.
Black Wizard said:
Personally I'm not a massive fan of the EU as it has way too much power and interferes with the British legal system on issues that have nothing to with it. In the last couple of years the EU has been trying to tell Westminster that prisoners should be allowed to vote in elections and that preventing them from voting is a breach of their human rights.
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You misunderstand the EU's stance & their problem with the UK's. The UK Government wants to continue to enforce (for some prisoners) the right to remove their democratic right to vote in perpetuum. The EU states that this is in breach of their human rights i.e. the right to appeal against this at some point. The UK's position is utterly illogical. Anyone who supports universal human rights would not be defending the UK's position.
Black Wizard said:
However, as much as I am sceptical about the EU I think it's an important organization to be part of for economic reasons. An independent Scotland would be a bit of a joke in my opinion and Scotland outside of the EU would be even more of a joke. This morning's news looks like it serves as another blow to the Yes campaign as the message was always that Scotland would automatically become a member of the EU when it becomes independent. There also appear to be no alternatives to the major assumptions on currency and EU membership so, overall, it's been a pretty bad week for the Yes campaign.
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There are plenty of alternatives. The problem, here, is that the SNP simply haven't (for political reasons) chosen to discuss them publically. This doesn't mean you shouldn't open you eyes & ears to the alternatives.
bearfan said:
It pretty much seems like they are saying "We want to be free of UK ... except for the parts of being part of the UK that we like and/or would be a pain in the ass to implement on our own" ... everything from figuring out currency to setting up embassies and a million other details makes this seem like a poor idea from a logistical standpoint and they should not really count on England to help them out.
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Nothing that is being proposed is illogical. I've made my own views on the currency issue clear. Nothing being suggested hasn't been done before &/or isn't in existence right now. You mention embassies; these are assets that the Scottish people own, in part. Why would there not be sensible negotiations over how present shared resources/assets should be managed?

Scotland (the SNP are suggesting) merely wants more control of Scottish matters. Seems fairly reasonable to me. The present Devolution settlement can only deliver so much; or at least, again, this is what the SNP would have us believe. Independence, although truly a "leap into the unknown", is one of only a few options to rectify this undeniable reality (i.e. that we do not have control over everything we'd ideally like to have control over); Devolution "max" could be another, but isn't (for some reason) on the cards. I don't think there is anything illogical about this stance. You either want this, or you don't.

Don't get me wrong, I'm as sceptical of the merits of Independence as anyone else. But most of these arguments are illogical scaremongering.
 
With the latest regulation, the internet censorship in Turkey is officially in the same league as China and Saudi Arabia. All internet users will be profiled one by one, any website can be censored in 24 hours, hosting services will track the users and report to the government, internet service providers will keep the record of the pages visited by users and report to the government.
 
The Flash said:
With the latest regulation, the internet censorship in Turkey is officially in the same league as China and Saudi Arabia. All internet users will be profiled one by one, any website can be censored in 24 hours, hosting services will track the users and report to the government, internet service providers will keep the record of the pages visited by users and report to the government.
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Well, now the Turkish government will be able to work out the exact rankings you've given every Iron Maiden song and they'll have a record of that. :P

You'd better be careful what you say now though. I suggest you edit your post to say how much you love your country and that you think Prime Minister Erdogan is doing a great job.

CriedWhenBrucieLeft said:
Seriously, what in the hell is going on in Kiev right now?! Scenes on the news are hellish looking; 14 people reported dead.
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It's just a taste of what will hapen if we're stupid enough to vote Yes in September.:p
 
Black Wizard said:
Well, now the Turkish government will be able to work out the exact rankings you've given every Iron Maiden song and they'll have a record of that. :p
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I didn't want to make light of the situation, but yes. I'm amused by the idea of government agents sifting through Maidenfans trying to make sense of 100,000 Posts and dissecting Survivor results.
 
Black Wizard said:
Well, now the Turkish government will be able to work out the exact rankings you've given every Iron Maiden song and they'll have a record of that. :p
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There's probably no chance of them making fun of a person posting his rankings of Maiden songs on a Maiden forum, though, so I'm cool with that. ;)
 
Black Wizard said:
You'd better be careful what you say now though. I suggest you edit your post to say how much you love your country and that you think Prime Minister Erdogan is doing a great job.
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Too late.
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No, mate. What the Ukraine is heading for is a full-blown civil war...or 1968-style repression. The President seems unable to decide. How long until Putin decides for him?
 
Europe's largest contiguous country being torn apart by Civil War, with the Russians on one side waiting to come steamrollering in? A provisional government that could demand NATO and EU protections against the official government closer to the Russians? That's...not good.
 
LooseCannon said:
No, mate. What the Ukraine is heading for is a full-blown civil war...or 1968-style repression. The President seems unable to decide. How long until Putin decides for him?
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I meant seperation as the cause of a civil war, anyway. I'd be surprised if no civil war takes place at this point, sadly.
 
The International Olympic Committee has banned Ukrainian competitors in the Sochi winter games from wearing black armbands to commemorate the deaths of protesters and police in Kiev.

The country's Olympic association said in a statement that it had asked the IOC if its competitors could mark the "deep pain over the loss of fellow countrymen" by wearing black armbands. "The answer was received from the IOC that in accordance with the Olympic charter it is not possible to do this," said the statement.

Although sponsor logos are everywhere at the Olympics, the IOC regularly bans anything it deems to be "political". Earlier in the Sochi games, the IOC banned helmet sticker tributes to Sarah Burke, a skier who died in a 2012 accident.
 
That's just completely unsurprising. The Olympics doesn't want any controversy over the Games, except over where they choose to put the Games.
 
Let's not forget that the Ukraine is ethnically divided between Ukrainians and Russians. And let's also not forget that a few months ago, China bought arable land the size of the German state of Brandenburg in the Ukraine.
 
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