Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

UK to depart from GDPR

lawgazette.co.uk

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

321–330 of 659 posts

Re: UK to depart from GDPR

#321

Post by [deleted] »

hackeraccount wrote: post #281
carmen_sandiego wrote: post #122

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have no idea why but the EU/Brexit is one subject where HN comment quality falls apart. I would have assumed most people here are Americans, so not really emotionally invested in their 'side'. But this comment section is full of Twitter hot take type stuff.

Foreigners and foreign countries can be proxies for domestic arguments. My favorite example is how the ancient Romans would talk about the non-Roman "barbarians." It might be they described them as they were but it's more likely they used them to make a point about what was wrong with their contemporary Roman society. The barbarians are good, loyal and brave. They don't spend their time with cultural frivolities like…

[deleted]

Re: UK to depart from GDPR

#322

Post by Nursie »

CodeGlitch wrote: post #313
thinkingemote wrote: post #249

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The same argument has been heard from Trump and his followers. Stolen votes, manipulated people. What we need is respect for democracy.

When Trump was first elected, the Democrats were calling foul play and blamed Russian influences saying it wasn't a valid election.

I may be wrong, but hasn't Russian interference been more or less proven now? Trump couldn't be tied to it, but it seems like it was there.

Re: UK to depart from GDPR

#323

Post by tim333 »

mytailorisrich wrote: post #224
arethuza wrote: post #130

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Nigel Farage made it clear that he wouldn't accept 52-48 as being decisive: "In a 52-48 referendum this would be unfinished business by a long way. If the Remain campaign win two-thirds to one-third that ends it." https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-eu-referendum-3630668...

Of course, and that would have been absolutely fine. Democracy is to be able to campaign for what you believe in. But equally, politically, and democratically, it is not tenable to call a referendum (which is something quite rare in the UK) and then to ignore the result. So the reality is that the government and Parliament had to abide by the result even if the referendum was legally not binding. Now people are of co…

With hindsight I think there should have been two parts. 'Do you want to leave?' and then having looked into the details "ok here's the deal - you still want to go ahead?" I don't think many people were really voting for the present mess.

Bit like buying a house - you want it? Ok, well do a survey... it has a bit of dry rot - you still want it or shall we look at other options?

Re: UK to depart from GDPR

#324

Post by colourgarden »

thu2111 wrote: post #314
pydry wrote: post #302

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>For example you think everyone else thinks the NHS is awesome, because left-wing journalists Or because 87% of Britons polled said that they are very proud of it. >you'd be shocked at how little support rail nationalisation would end up having. 56% in favor. 15% actively against. Majority support even by members of the party that was most against it. >The NHS is a socialist anachronism This is a popular view among i…

56% in favor. 15% actively against. Majority support even by members of the party that was most against it. When Cameron first called the referendum Remain was in the lead. When topics are debated thoroughly in the public sphere and serious campaigns are run, people's opinions can shift pretty dramatically. That's why politicians campaign. Nobody has ever spent time campaigning to keep railways privatised in the UK b…

> Please don't use Hacker News for political or ideological battle. It tramples curiosity.

Re: UK to depart from GDPR

#325

Post by hnlmorg »

Nursie wrote: post #259
hnlmorg wrote: post #73

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is the thing that pissed me off the most about the referendum. The result was touted as an overwhelming majority but in fact the percentages are well within the margin for error on a poll that wasn't very well defined from the outset (ie what "leave" meant was different for different people). The only thing the EU referendum conclusively demonstrated was how easily manipulated people are by the media they consum…

> within the margin for error What do people mean when they say this? The referendum wasn't a statistical exercise that sampled a subset, so the idea of "error" seems really oddly applied here.

Good question. There's a few reasons I use that phrase and I agree with you that, from a statistical perspective, it isn't the correct usage of the term:

- There was a lot of misinformation spread (on both sides of the debate). So people were voting for issues that didn't apply.

- There were a lot of protest votes from people who assumed "Remain" would win and who also did want to remain but wanted to voice disagreement with the government and/or concern about unconditional relationships with the EU.

- There options were too vague. "Remain" largely meant keeping the status quo but some read it to mean including countries like Turkey (who were extremely unlikely to ever join the EU anyways). Likewise "Exit" meant different things to different people. Some people wanted a "hard exit" (no EU trade deal). Some people wanted to stay connected to the EU but to have a revised deal. People were voting for the same options but expecting different outcomes.

And as a result of this there had been a high number of people voice regrets about the vote they had cast in post-referendum opinion polls.

Sadly we will never know just how accurately the results reflected peoples true opinions because all calls for a follow up vote had been literally laughed at. However subsequent general elections have demonstrated just how far from settled the debate was.

Re: UK to depart from GDPR

#326

Post by Nursie »

dane-pgp wrote: post #310
bb123 wrote: post #226

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My point wasn't that COVID was handled well, although I think there are more factors than government at play (It would be pretty hard to argue that the US govt has handled COVID better than the UK, so why is there death rate so much lower?). My point was that it is plain to see that the vaccine roll out in the EU has been mired by competing interests and slow bureaucracy, which is exactly what the eurosceptics were c…

Much of the delay that the EU experienced can be attributed to the stricter scrutiny and liability conditions it applied to the vaccines, and the fact that the UK paid more per dose in order to jump to the front of the queue. If anything, this vindicates the Remainers who claimed that the UK government would become more deregulated and more beholden to corrupt interests. The EU was faced with an almost impossible set…

The UK got a several-week headstart on the EU, announcing various partnerships, particularly with Oxford/AZ, before the EU even began their process. (Yes, I am aware that purchase orders were signed at different times, but the UK secured funding and supplies back in May last year, when the EU didn't begin its process until June)

Talking about "queue jumping" or "corruption" really seems to be rooted in bitterness or just anti-UK sentiment.

Re: UK to depart from GDPR

#327

Post by CodeGlitch »

Nursie wrote: post #322
CodeGlitch wrote: post #313

Earlier quoted context omitted.

When Trump was first elected, the Democrats were calling foul play and blamed Russian influences saying it wasn't a valid election.

I may be wrong, but hasn't Russian interference been more or less proven now? Trump couldn't be tied to it, but it seems like it was there.

Perhaps - I'm not American so I've not been following it that closely.

My point was that the first side which started claiming faulty elections wasn't Trump.

Re: UK to depart from GDPR

#328

Post by corobo »

aembleton wrote: post #294
corobo wrote: post #244

Now we got rid of the EU protections the Tory govt is going to stripmine the country for cash. Imagine the desire for wealth and power at the expense of others being defined as a mental illness that needed treating instead of giving these cunts more power.

What did the EU stop the Tory government from stripmining?

Data, did I comment on the wrong thread?

Re: UK to depart from GDPR

#329

Post by sofixa »

dash2 wrote: post #234
Mauricebranagh wrote: post #214

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Oh and second amendment style gun rights too

I find it very hard to believe that that would be a popular policy in the UK. Got evidence?

Yeah, even policemen rarely have guns in the UK, allowing everyone to have one would be lunacy.

Re: UK to depart from GDPR

#330

Post by Nursie »

hnlmorg wrote: post #325
Nursie wrote: post #259

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> within the margin for error What do people mean when they say this? The referendum wasn't a statistical exercise that sampled a subset, so the idea of "error" seems really oddly applied here.

Good question. There's a few reasons I use that phrase and I agree with you that, from a statistical perspective, it isn't the correct usage of the term: - There was a lot of misinformation spread (on both sides of the debate). So people were voting for issues that didn't apply. - There were a lot of protest votes from people who assumed "Remain" would win and who also did want to remain but wanted to voice disagreem…

I can accept that there were confounding factors which may have affected the result and how enduring a picture of UK attitudes it might be. I wonder if any referendum could be 100% free of those factors?

I just object to the use of the phrase - there is no margin for error here, it forms the full picture of how the population voted, not an estimate.

People use this phraseology, and I've even seen the term "not statistically significant" bandied around as well, to try to say that no conclusions could be drawn, as if it's a scientific paper with a sample in it.

Post reply on HN