Posts by Ben Austin
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Hard News: Cannabis reform is a serious…, in reply to Simon Armstrong,
Interesting!
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Has anyone started any formal campaign groups for either side yet?
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I will need to look into this!
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Hi Hilary,
Very interesting! Do you have any recommended readings on that topic?
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Greece came up on the campaign trail all the time by Leavers and the Brexiteers. Still does - to this day I get lectured about youth unemployment in Greece by earnest middle aged or retired men who are fanatical Brexit supporters. So I agree with Tom that it was and is a big issue for the campaign either way. My answer is always the same - I care more about dealing with UK issues I can resolve - like youth employment here. Or help provide a welcoming place for Greeks who want to move to UK for work, whether temporarily or for the long term.
However I disagree about Greece for other reasons. It seems accepted by all outside of Greece and probably a lot of Greeks would agree, that the successive governments were the authors of their own misfortune regarding spending, tax taking, good governance and record keeping. Any international bailout would have had to deal with these issues as a core part of the settlement. Otherwise it is an implicit endorsement of the bad behaviour that in part led to the crash. Could have the EU dealt with it better? Certainly. Could have the successive Greek governments dealt with the crash and then negotiations better? Certainly. What bearing did this have on the political position of the large, prosperous G7 member state of the UK & NI, home of one of the world's premier financial centres? Little to none. Our problems were not Greece's problems and they still are not, excepting any solidarity we owe them as fellow EU members and neighbours in trouble.
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Legal Beagle: Questions, but no answers,…, in reply to simon g,
Would be interesting to do a proper search through newspaper/etc records from the era. I mean I do remember it being widely reported - but did newspapers back then have as much as opinion as they do now? I don't recall
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Speaker: The Government lost the election, in reply to Sacha,
That too. Now that I think about it Mapp used to write an early email newsletter too
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Speaker: The Government lost the election, in reply to andin,
If you are referring to Wayne Mapp, I would note that he has long been the kind of guy who writes long pieces and publishes them on various sites, like Pundit and I have noticed that there is some crossover between of the non journo writers.
I'm making the wild assumption that there is a small pool of non journos willing to write opinion pieces for small / no money.
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If it's possible to vote in person I usually do, but it's a bit of a hassle to get to the High Commission at present.
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So far as the three rule goes - it is a bit unjust in the ways pointed out by others already, but is it any more unjust than a comparable rule, like the UK's 15 year hard stop rule. Once you've been overseas for 15 years that's it (although I assume one could shift back to UK as a resident and reset the clock).
Most people I know in UK go back regularly (although appreciate that isn't the norm everywhere), every 1-3 years so most can vote if they want. Although I assume most probably don't anyway.