Live data from Hacker News

British Government loses Article 50 court fight

bbc.co.uk

311–316 of 316 posts

Re: British Government loses Article 50 court fight

#311
hopefully they hold a general election and Mrs May can continue doing her good work unimpeded for the foreseeable future. You may haggle on the terms of a "clear majority" on the referendum but there is no mistaking the majority the tories currently have over their opponents.

Re: British Government loses Article 50 court fight

#312
post #294

Meanwhile for the young tech immigrant in the UK: "Well, time to move to another European country... oh wait, they're all economically f * and have no jobs for me. Well, gonna stay in the UK for a bit longer, see how it goes."

The UK is pretty much slap-bang in the middle of the table when it comes to EU economies. The idea that the UK is an economic powerhouse within the Union is mostly a myth.

I don't know what you mean.

If you're a software engineer, London has many [good] jobs for you. Your home country may not.

Re: British Government loses Article 50 court fight

#313
post #297

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How are voters compelled in practice?

You get a fine if you're on the electoral roll but were not counted as "having voted". Since we have a private ballot system, you can write whatever you want on your ballot (so you can "abstain" by writing "fuck you all" on your ballot and it'll be considered an invalid vote). You don't get fined for placing an invalid vote, you just get fined if you don't show up (and didn't vote by post and so on). We have many dif…

Thank you, excellent explanation. And i don't think i even mind the system. :)

Re: British Government loses Article 50 court fight

#314

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's interesting, I had never heard of the convention before, thanks for mentioning it. However, it is specifically about the house of lords not blocking government manifesto promises. I was more thinking about the opposite, i.e. a government not going ahead with their manifesto promises.

Do you really think any politician would introduce legislation requiring manifesto promises to be implemented? :-)

For what is worth, at least in Italy, MPs are constitutionally not bound by electoral manifesto.

Re: British Government loses Article 50 court fight

#315

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's just how democracies work Not really, no. Especially if it's not clear there's an option to say "idk". Say you care very much but don't know what's best? Does your vote not matter, now? If so, doesn't that make the election wrong? But how do you express that? There may be an answer to this deep inside some legislature chapter XVI section 16 paragraph b, but if people don't know, does that matter? Anyway, not s…

> Especially if it's not clear there's an option to say "idk". There is: you don't go to vote.

That's not the same. It just means the yes/no vote is just proportional to those that voted. 50 people voting yes and 50 people voting no would be split evenly at 50% for both opinions. But if you have 50 people voicing idk, you have 33% yes, 33% no, and 33% idk.

Re: British Government loses Article 50 court fight

#316
post #290

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The 17 million votes for Leave was the largest vote ever cast in Britain for anything at all in the entire history of the UK. Blair swept to power in 1997 with 13 million votes. The Conservatives got fourteen million in 1992. With 16 million voting for Remain, putting it to the courts was a recipe for confrontation. Nothing has ignited the British people as much as this issue. Big trouble ahead.

There's a view that Trump is but a big "f k you" towards the liberal elite that has drifted too far from the blue-collar folks they have failed to support in dire times. The UK situation would seem to be similar. Thus the key question is "did the elite get the message and can/will they do anything about it?" If yes, the society will go back to normal. If no, the rift widens further as the society is divided into radi…

What can be done about it? Rich people funnel money into making poor people fight amongst themselves, poor working people blame people who get money from the government, and immigrants who are willing to have a lower standard of living, to vote for conservative governments, and the immigrants and unemployed to vote for liberal governments, instead of joining together and getting rid of the rich people taking all the money in the first place.
Post reply on HN