Vlad is moving troops home - or so he says...

[Widgetone]

Funny how it's only the losing side are the ones that complsin

Why would the winners ever complain though?

 

[wanton dwarf]

I disagree. The first past the post system time and again produces a parliament which is unrepresentative. The prime examples of this over the past ten years are the over representation of the SNP and the under representation of UKIP. Ignoring 4 million voters cannot be healthy.
Direct government by the people is just impractical on a day to day basis. Under a healthy parliament political parties would put forward a program for government and then be judged on their performance at the next GE. Your point about the disadvantages of coalition can be valid in some circumstances. However I would suggest that the coalition between the Tories and the Libdems was no worse than the preceding Labour or succeeding Conservative governments. Indeed I believe a coalition would have been more representative and not joined GW Bush’s disastrous war on terror as Tony Blair did. Certainly the coalition did a better job than the current government. When it came to an end it took the Tories 18 months to implode.

I would say any such constitutional change would require a referendum.

Whilst it's obvious that you are correct.

The problem with PR is you end with sometimes extreme opinons having political clout which otherwise would never get a majority acceptance - purely to get and keep "Normal" government underway.

I do think the current system is horrific and a change is needed. The problem starts with political parties and ends with politicians - both of which are unrepresentative, clandestine and corrupt.

On an individual level I would like everyone to have the right to control where their taxes get spent. How fine this would be determined I don't know. This would end vanity projects foisted on the population by Ministers and Quangos.

Ultimately I would like to see "working" members of the general public enter public service for 4 years or so - either in executive positions or commitees. Anything that reduces corruption and gains some sanity in UK politics. The media needs to be dislocated from attempting to run the country - far too much sensationalism.

 

[stewart]

Bloody hell, we're back in agreement... and so there is the argument for PR.

The only three, and there are only three real drawbacks of PR, are that it doesn't produce constituency accountable MPs, it can give very small parties disproportionate influence and that it does not necessarily lead to a stable government unless one party has an absolute majority in the country. That has only happened twice in modern times, both in the 1930s, and in a PR system would obviously lead to a government having as much legislative freedom as it does now. That could mean problems, since such an unusual occurrence would probably mean such a government trying to do too much while it had the chance...

Depending on the Proportional system used your first drawback can be much reduced, MMP gives a mix of constitutional MPs and list MPs, it does work well.
The second drawback can also happen in a FPTP electoral system, under PR the balance of power tends to be less effective and can reign the extremes in. Your point that under PR it would "obviously lead to a government having legislative freedom" is misguided, it is the opposite and leads to less.
The big downside of PR is when a government gains more than 50% of the popular vote, they have free reign to push through their policies, as is the current case in NZ with a near marxist government in power.

 

[br jones]

Proportional representation gave us trudeau and ardern

 

[neilo]

Too right I voted Conservative as I thought he’d be different to what has gone before. I was right but for the wrong reasons.

It was surely as clear as day how a Boris Johnson government would go on? He’s is behaving no differently now to how he has in every other job he’s had (& been sacked from).

He is the reason I could not vote Conservative in 2019, for the first time in my life. And before all you ardent Brexiteers jump up and down, that was nothing to do with Brexit. We had already decided to leave and there was no way that was going to be reversed (or what would be the point of the referendum?), although I certainly had concerns over the type of Brexit. Boris, and the type of politics he stands for, was the reason that I couldn’t bring myself to vote Blue. Nothing has happened to change my mind on that, he is simply unfit to govern.

 

[Ashtree]

Under PR every vote doesn't have an equal weight. It gives disproportionate weight to the votes for smaller parties as they often hold the balance of power in a coalition. They can then get policies implemented on the back of a few % of the vote.

Then the other problem with PR is that the major parties often refuse to deal with any of the smaller parties they consider 'extreme'. Thus pushing making the votes for such parties worthless. None of the major parties in Germany will form a coalition with AfD and will prefer to ally themselves with parties far further from their own political position, to the detriment of the voters who voted for them.

PR is just a mass of deals behind closed doors that the voters never get a say in. It gives even more power to the political class that FPTP does.

And your FPTP system also is open to deals in a minority government situation.
How many times over the years have NI unionist party’s propped their forever friends in the Tory’s, to form governments.
Most famously of course when the DUP blackmailed the entire country and Teresa May. Took it and her for a few billion smakaroons and put themselves in the cockpit, to land Brexit right where they wanted. Nobody today can see anything delivered by the dosh Teresa paid over, and of course the DUP crashed the Brexit deal into the Irish Sea, where it now lies serving a very useful purpose in creating a border between NI and the rest of the union.
Oh, the DUP represent practically nobody in the context of the population of the UK, and they still managed to make themselves kingmakers. Shame for them that they managed their kingmaker position so badly, they ended up being kingdom breakers.

 

[Danllan]

Russia claims still to be moving troops and materiel away from Ukraine. Whereas, all int' indicates that more are being brought in. Plus his minions in the separatist areas are causing trouble.. I fear this does not bode well.

 

[The Agrarian]

So hard to know isn't it?

It's really seems a really stupid idea to engage NATO in war, especially if you are a proper nation state using proper old fashioned battle equipment and defined armies (unlike insurgency warfare which is very slow and difficult to kill off).

 

[stewart]

Proportional representation gave us trudeau and ardern

No it didn’t. Canada has a voting system similar to the UK i.e. FPTP. which put Trudeau in power with a minority government, he had a lower percentage of the popular vote yet gained 30% more seats than the Conservatives (you call the system democratic). NZ uses a democratic system of voting with MMP, if we had used FPTP then Ardern would have held more seats than she does now, giving her even more power.

 

[stewart]

Russia claims still to be moving troops and materiel away from Ukraine. Whereas, all int' indicates that more are being brought in. Plus his minions in the separatist areas are causing trouble.. I fear this does not bode well.

Problem being the intel comes from war mongering, Uncle Sam as it did with weapons of mass destruction in Iraq, I wouldn’t trust the Sepos when it comes to “intelligence” it is not their strong point.

 

[Danllan]

Problem being the intel comes from war mongering, Uncle Sam as it did with weapons of mass destruction in Iraq, I wouldn’t trust the Sepos when it comes to “intelligence” it is not their strong point.

No. Lots comes from people on the ground .

 

[Pieces_of_Eight]

No. Lots comes from people on the ground .

It helps that every Russian seems to have a dashcam. Linked with highly effective geolocation software, this gives a very good picture of vehicle/troop train movements near the Ukrainian border.

Specific vehicle markings or particular modifications also give away the regiments of the vehicles, through which their specialisms/roles can be found. For example, yesterday there were some tanks moving in Belarus that were fitted with RPG/Javelin protection screens on the turrets, that had only previously been seen in the South of Russia.

It is still probable that a proportion of these troop movement tiktoks are being released on purpose as a diversion.

 

[robs1]

If someone has a google earth subscription couldnt they see for themselves? Don't believe very much I see or hear on the tv

 

[Danllan]

It helps that every Russian seems to have a dashcam. Linked with highly effective geolocation software, this gives a very good picture of vehicle/troop train movements near the Ukrainian border.

Specific vehicle markings or particular modifications also give away the regiments of the vehicles, through which their specialisms/roles can be found. For example, yesterday there were some tanks moving in Belarus that were fitted with RPG/Javelin protection screens on the turrets, that had only previously been seen in the South of Russia.

It is still probable that a proportion of these troop movement tiktoks are being released on purpose as a diversion.

Dashcams are a necessity there, the police are utterly corrupt and were making a fortune out of 'fines' for fake traffic violations. Now every driver has a cam, they also have websites that allow for a driver to get footage from other vehicles around him if he is stopped. The authorities don't really like it, but can't rationally argue against it because it stops corruption...

 

[Ashtree]

Vlad parking up a few tanks on the border with Ukraine, is a real godsend to both the government and the esteemed membership of TFF.
Boris and Liz, manage to make themselves internationally important, at least in their own eyes.
Partygate gets shifted off the front page.
Brexit black hole, for now at least gets pushed aside. Excellent for the government.
Meanwhile back at the TFF ranch, a whole coterie of geopolitical and military experts and strategists, are war gaming and plotting the destruction of Vlad’s economy and army, as well as redrawing borders from the Ruhr valley to Vladivostok. Field marshal @Danllan is in his absolute element. No doubt he feeds the heifers these days, in full military dress mode.
The thing is though, for most of these TFF armchair generals, the thought of a Red Tractor inspector, checking the worm dose status of the family cat, sends them into a total meltdown. They morph into blubbering nincompoops…..
I hope Vlad isn’t on TFF….. could get very embarrassing…

 

[jendan]

Vlad parking up a few tanks on the border with Ukraine, is a real godsend to both the government and the esteemed membership of TFF.
Boris and Liz, manage to make themselves internationally important, at least in their own eyes.
Partygate gets shifted off the front page.
Brexit black hole, for now at least gets pushed aside. Excellent for the government.
Meanwhile back at the TFF ranch, a whole coterie of geopolitical and military experts and strategists, are war gaming and plotting the destruction of Vlad’s economy and army, as well as redrawing borders from the Ruhr valley to Vladivostok. Field marshal @Danllan is in his absolute element. No doubt he feeds the heifers these days, in full military dress mode.
The thing is though, for most of these TFF armchair generals, the thought of a Red Tractor inspector, checking the worm dose status of the family cat, sends them into a total meltdown. They morph into blubbering nincompoops…..
I hope Vlad isn’t on TFF….. could get very embarrassing…

Very funny,but we still dont know if his"parking a few tanks up" he will actually do the deed and send them in. Could be lot of life lost.

 

[robs1]

Vlad parking up a few tanks on the border with Ukraine, is a real godsend to both the government and the esteemed membership of TFF.
Boris and Liz, manage to make themselves internationally important, at least in their own eyes.
Partygate gets shifted off the front page.
Brexit black hole, for now at least gets pushed aside. Excellent for the government.
Meanwhile back at the TFF ranch, a whole coterie of geopolitical and military experts and strategists, are war gaming and plotting the destruction of Vlad’s economy and army, as well as redrawing borders from the Ruhr valley to Vladivostok. Field marshal @Danllan is in his absolute element. No doubt he feeds the heifers these days, in full military dress mode.
The thing is though, for most of these TFF armchair generals, the thought of a Red Tractor inspector, checking the worm dose status of the family cat, sends them into a total meltdown. They morph into blubbering nincompoops…..
I hope Vlad isn’t on TFF….. could get very embarrassing…

Usual incisive input from the tff resident clown, still I expect the irish government will declare neutrality again, oops that wont work your EU bosses will tell you what to do,


Again,

must be great having a castrated poodle for a government

 

[stewart]

If someone has a google earth subscription couldnt they see for themselves? Don't believe very much I see or hear on the tv

Try watching RT much more informative.

 

[Danllan]

Try watching RT much more informative.

Informative in the Goebbels sense...?

 

[stewart]

Informative in the Goebbels sense...?

That’s how the BBC and CNN report, propaganda as opposed to information.