In the News

[comrade_general]

That's old news.

[comrade_general]

http://www.dailydot.com/lifestyle/pornhub-arbor-day/

[Pentagathus]

Humorous. What exactly is arbor day?

Also, apparently Britain is armadillo http://www.opendemocracy.net/ourkingdom/adam-ramsay/scotland-isnt-different-its-britain-thats-bizarre

I guess I'll go and cry now about how crap my country is.

[comrade_general]

Something about trees, I don't know.

[Othko97]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-27242557

Hilarious.

[comrade_general]

At least he got him. We seem to have a thing with shoes, and GWB had Matrix avoidance skills and Hillary's attacker had terrible aim.

[Clockwork]

Also, apparently Britain is armadillo http://www.opendemocracy.net/ourkingdom/adam-ramsay/scotland-isnt-different-its-britain-thats-bizarre

Damn commies with their perverted views on how to run a country. Scotland can stay the hell away from us and sell itself to France in a couple of years. People aren't alike, yeah we look alike and have the same basic instincts but that's about it, otherwise why even have countries? Might as well just have the United Earth Directorate and be done with it.

[Jubal]

I think it's an excessively negative view of modern Britain and an overly rosy view of the continent, which lord knows has enough of its own problems. I hope Scotland sticks with us, I like the place a lot... but that said, I agree with some of the stuff in the article (like taxpayer funded higher education and not having such a bad wealth gap). In many cases I'd advocate a different way of getting there to classical European social democracy though.

[TTG4]

I think it's an excessively negative view of modern Britain and an overly rosy view of the continent, which lord knows has enough of its own problems. I hope Scotland sticks with us, I like the place a lot... but that said, I agree with some of the stuff in the article (like taxpayer funded higher education and not having such a bad wealth gap). In many cases I'd advocate a different way of getting there to classical European social democracy though.

I do wonder whether an independent Scotland could keep up the free higher education. In the past it used to be a clear gap between pre-degree and post-degree salaries, so the extra taxes you paid would effectively 'pay back' your education fees. But now we've got more people than ever going to university and a high amount of graduate unemployment, so I'm not convinced it's a stable position.

I'd be quite surprised if the Scots do vote for independence, there are so many unknowns that mean it's not clear what Scotland would be like post-independence.

[Cuddly Khan]

[insert 1000 swear words]

http://www.theaustralian.com.au/national-affairs/newspoll-fails-to-deter-tony-abbott-from-pressing-ahead-with-unpopular-budget/story-fn59niix-1226922369013

http://www.smh.com.au/federal-politics/political-news/tony-abbott-brushes-aside-disastrous-polls-saying-people-knew-coalition-would-have-to-make-tough-decisions-20140519-38iu6.html

https://au.news.yahoo.com/world/a/23607132/budget-2014-tony-abbott-says-voters-were-on-notice-for-cuts-before-election-as-state-and-territory-leaders-prepare-to-meet-in-sydney/

GRRRR!!! What does he think he's doing?!?! He'll bringing this country down on top of us!

[Pentagathus]

I do wonder whether an independent Scotland could keep up the free higher education. In the past it used to be a clear gap between pre-degree and post-degree salaries, so the extra taxes you paid would effectively 'pay back' your education fees. But now we've got more people than ever going to university and a high amount of graduate unemployment, so I'm not convinced it's a stable position.

Well if they were to use our system it wouldn't help them at all, we still don't actually require graduates to pay their debts unless they can afford to and unemployed graduates definitely can't afford to. Keeping higher education free but restricting places (particularly to those degree options with low employability) would be a more practical solution. And I think they have had to do that up here already to some extent.
Edit:
Also how the fudge do the EU elections work?

[Othko97]

This isn't depressing at all: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-27599401

[TTG4]

What they don't say in this study is what they class as racial prejudice. Some pyschologists suggest that the majority of people have an innate racist response, which may well be 'pre-programmed' or could be a product of soceity. Ultimately though, if it's a subconscious response there's nothing you can do about it except make an effort not to act on it.

If however they mean people will act on their prejudices then it's a heck of a lot more worrying. That being said we're still far better than, say, 50/60 years ago.

[Jubal]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-28199066

Afghanistan's Ashraf Ghani leads in early vote count

Former Afghan Finance Minister Ashraf Ghani is leading the race to replace Hamid Karzai as president, according to preliminary results.

Mr Ghani won 56.44% of votes in the 14 June run-off, election officials said. His rival Abdullah Abdullah had 43.56%.

Mr Abdullah, who fell just short of an outright majority in the first round, rejected the result.

Both men have alleged fraud in the election. Votes are being re-checked at more than 7,000 polling stations.

They represent nearly a third of centres where votes were cast and correspondents say recounts could significantly alter the result.

Here we have it. Hard to know how much fraud there's been, I just really hope we end up with a result that the Abdullah camp will accept so we get a confirmed, decent resultat the end of this.

[comrade_general]

Allahu akbar!