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Mick Harper
Site Admin
In: London
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It is richer still that Sinn Fein refuses to take their seats in the London parliament on the grounds that it is illegitimate (because it includes Northern Ireland) but takes its seats in the Dublin parliament which it believes to be illegitimate (because it doesn't include Northern Ireland).
Also please remember that Hitler and Mussolini were invited in to show how they would cock it up like all the other parties. Which I suppose they did.
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Wile E. Coyote
In: Arizona
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There is no guarantee you can bring in authoritarian nationalists to the Democratic process. The point is to constantly try.
You cite early examples of failure. Improve, within the paradigm.
Sinn Fein's absenteeism from Westminster, a country they don't want to rule, is logical. The SNP's position is not.
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Mick Harper
Site Admin
In: London
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Some cogent, if enigmatic, points there. I will do my best to elucidate them to people less familiar with Wilese.
| There is no guarantee you can bring in authoritarian nationalists to the Democratic process. The point is to constantly try. |
1. Nobody 'brings in' anybody in the democratic process. The electorate does that.
2. Parties can be authoritarian, parties can be nationalist, parties can be both but are typically either or neither.
3. The point of democracy is that one is constantly trying to reflect the electorate's declared wishes (multivariate) by forming a government (univariate). That is why it is called 'representative democracy'.
4. There are no guarantees with democracy. It is always a case of horses for courses, though I agree that inviting in 'authoritarians' is likely -- though not guaranteed -- to be antithetical to democracy.
| You cite early examples of failure. Improve, within the paradigm. |
Wilco, over.
| Sinn Fein's absenteeism from Westminster, a country they don't want to rule is logical. The SNP's position is not. |
Your bracketing them together in this way is definitely illogical. The government of Northern Ireland will be decided at Westminster. The government of Scotland will be decided at Westminster. Neither party wishes to govern the country currently governed from Westminster. The two parties differ on the tactics as to how the country they do wish to govern might be achieved, absenteeism versus non-absenteeism.
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Wile E. Coyote
In: Arizona
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We will see if the big two are willing to treat Sinn Fein as having a mandate from the electorate, that is if Sinn Fein win, as some polls now predict.
Sinn Fein is open to coalitions. Grab their hand.
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Mick Harper
Site Admin
In: London
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Since you seem to be our Oirish expert, explain to me why Sinn Fein are only standing in some seats. What's that all about?
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Wile E. Coyote
In: Arizona
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No idea. I only start taking an interest when I saw that Sinn Fein was leading in a poll. I regret I was told by by an Irish mate some time back that it was either Tweedledum or Tweedledee, so a vote either way made bugger all difference.
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Mick Harper
Site Admin
In: London
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| it was either Tweedledum or Tweedledee |
Very much not so, though it is true that having two centre-right parties made Ireland pretty unusual (unique?). This arrangement illustrates that our familiar political spectrum is not the only way, and is therefore a lesson to all AE-ists.
Fine Gael were the mob that accepted the Partition Treaty with Britain back in 1921 and started Ireland on the long post-British road to material success. Until Fianna Fail, the losing side in the Civil War over partition, came to power in the thirties. Under the leadership of Eamon de Valera who only escaped execution after the 1916 Easter Rising on account of being American, Ireland was plunged into the most ghastly obscurantist/Catholic/autarkic society imaginable. And the Irish have never been faulted on their imagination. But they seem to like it (the Irish have no imagination) and it wasn't until the 1970's that Fine Gael came back and now Ireland is as rich as everyone else. Though whether they are happy ... ah, to be sure to be sure.
PS The price you have to pay for prosperity is Tweedledum Tweedledee politics. IRA/Sinn Fein under their leader Jeremy O'Corbyn must be kept out at all costs.
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Wile E. Coyote
In: Arizona
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The price you pay for a triple locked prosperous old age, whilst encouraging the young people to attend university to study social science, is Jeremy O'Corbyn.
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Wile E. Coyote
In: Arizona
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Mind you, I actually blame John Atkinson Hobson, not Corbyn.
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Mick Harper
Site Admin
In: London
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This is surprisingly perceptive. The thing that is required for a prosperous anything is stability without ossification. It is a very hard thing to manage and was never managed by anyone until the invention of the nation state. The part of the equation you are alluding to is the need to produce an inventive -- or at any rate flexible -- professional class that does not, at the same time, want to be inventive about who is running the show. If it is ever themselves you can be sure that ossification will set in before you can say 'Oxbridge', 'town guilds', 'armed forces', 'BBC', 'civil service' and any other self-managing elite. Where was I...?
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Mick Harper
Site Admin
In: London
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It has just been pointed out that Leo Varadkar is strenuously denying that Sinn Fein are fit for government a month after brokering a deal that brought Sinn Fein into government in Northern Ireland.
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Mick Harper
Site Admin
In: London
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| The US ambassador to Israel has cautioned the government against unilaterally annexing settlements without America's consent. |
Oh well, if it's being done by consent, that puts quite a different complexion on matters. They should have said that from the get-go.
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Mick Harper
Site Admin
In: London
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This Week's Quiz Question
There are two strategic bridges that could be built in the British Isles and they are comparable in terms of cost. One is between Scotland and Northern Ireland, the other is between England and France. You have to guess which one is being 'seriously considered'.
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Mick Harper
Site Admin
In: London
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Which is currently the poorest and most dangerous country in the world? Yemen
Which country received the most illegal migrants last year? Yemen (138,000 from the Horn of Africa)
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Mick Harper
Site Admin
In: London
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What is the chief source of the above? Ethiopia. Why Ethiopia? Because Ethiopia had Marxist governments for a long time and the two things that Marxist governments are good at are 1) public health and 2) public education. These produce 1) a rocketing population of 2) well educated people but not 3) anything for them to do. So what does a country of a hundred million well educated people with nothing to do, do? Nothing, it's someone else's problem. Currently, the Gulf states.
Last question: how dusty would be the answer you got if you suggested that just maybe health and education ought not to be priorities in developing countries?
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