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Post by spaceflower on Sept 22, 2014 0:56:59 GMT
A swedish doctor who has moved to Scotland says in an interview:
"I am voting no to independence. Scotland offers excellent healthcare and unlike in England and Wales, university fees are free for Scottish students. Even though the Scottish National Party has said it wants to keep these things in place, we don't know for sure if there would be the money if the country became fully independent. Financial experts have definitely swayed me during the campaign.
I also believe in a closer Europe, not a more divided one, and so I don't support Scotland splitting off and trying to become a separate member of the EU.
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In Scotland you can already sense much hatred for the English."
Is that true? I can't see any rational reason for this hatred. It is a long time since the battle at Culloden. Scottish and English people bot speak English (how many speak Gaelic nowadays?). But there seem to be a wish for many to exagggerate differences in order to hava someone to hate. The risk of "balkanization" as our prime minister calls it.
"I think it would be really difficult to transform Scotland to become more like Scandinavia. Having lived in both Scotland and Sweden, I think the socioeconomic structure is so different and would be tough to change. I love both countries but I just don't think it would work."
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Post by whollygoats on Sept 22, 2014 2:44:19 GMT
If you vote at home, how can they know that it is you voting? Or that the voting is private and secret? There is no way for them to know. The biggest criticism is that the dominant household personality will skew voting in those households, usually through undue control. The return envelope does require a voter signature, but other than that, one person in the household could fill out all the ballots, seal them, and then have the registered voters sign off on the envelopes. Does it happen? Probably. Does it make a significant difference in the electoral outcomes? I doubt it. Our biggest problem is not ballot interference, but voter apathy. |
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Post by juju on Sept 22, 2014 8:23:12 GMT
Now, we vote by mail. Our home is our polling station. But that's not the case for everyone, is it? I thought they still had polling stations in the US? Here you can apply to vote by mail if you need to (I think if you are disabled maybe, or going to be away, or some other reasons). |
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Post by Alvamiga on Sept 22, 2014 9:24:46 GMT
There has been proven to be a lot of rigging of the postal voting over here. I heard a documentary about it a couple of months ago. There was even controversy when one of the parties got hold of a list of people who voted for them, thanks to the serial numbering of the ballot slips. Anyone who thinks it is an anonymous process is very mistaken!
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Post by whollygoats on Sept 22, 2014 13:07:39 GMT
Now, we vote by mail. Our home is our polling station. But that's not the case for everyone, is it? I thought they still had polling stations in the US? Here you can apply to vote by mail if you need to (I think if you are disabled maybe, or going to be away, or some other reasons). Everyone? No. So far as I'm aware, the state in which I live, Oregon, is the only political unit within the US to use wholesale mail-in voting. The population of that state represents about 1% (at most) of the national population. Elsewhere in the US, physical polling stations prevail. Voting methods may vary by political district from paper and pencil ballots, through machine voting, and now, electronic voting, but the voter needs to show at the poll in order to cast their ballot (unless, of course, they go through a bureaucratic process to cast an 'absentee' ballot). |
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Post by tangent on Sept 23, 2014 18:43:16 GMT
Voting without an id? That sounds very offhandedly to me. There is an implication we are trustworthy and generally we are. If you vote at home, how can they know that it is you voting? Or that the voting is private and secret? The authorities know it is you who has voted because you are given a secret number. It is up to you to decide whether to vote in private or in a YouTube video. The state doesn't care if you tell everyone how you've voted. |
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Post by ProdigalAlan on Sept 23, 2014 20:21:21 GMT
There never can be a 100% legitimate national ballot, but the UK does have an electoral commission who impartially investigates any allegation of voter fraud. It has brought to light many examples (particularly regarding West Midlands postal voting) and taken action. Even the bad old days of the "vote early, vote often" Protestant voting scandals in norther Ireland have been thwarted. If you're looking for a 100% legitimate poll you're wasting your time but the elections in the UK are about as good as it's going to get, in practical terms.
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Post by Moose on Sept 24, 2014 4:02:21 GMT
Re the anti English thing - I do not know. My friends in Scotland say no - both the English born and the Scots. But I suspect it does exist on some levels.
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Post by ProdigalAlan on Sept 24, 2014 9:12:11 GMT
Maybe it does in Glasgow, maybe. My eldest boy has lived in Dundee for years and wouldn't live anywhere else
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Post by Moose on Sept 24, 2014 17:23:51 GMT
That's quite close to the border isn't it?
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Post by whollygoats on Sept 24, 2014 17:39:18 GMT
Not really; it's north of Edinburgh. Unless the coast is considered a border. It's right smack on the coast on some inlet. Saltwater, for sure.
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Post by ProdigalAlan on Sept 24, 2014 21:02:54 GMT
He doesn't know it yet but he's going to be hosting his dad for Hogmanay
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Post by Moose on Sept 25, 2014 0:30:15 GMT
Well there's my geography out of the window.
We always used to do the first foot thing at my parents' house. Coal, bread .. something else and something else (salt? whisky?).
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Post by ProdigalAlan on Sept 25, 2014 15:02:14 GMT
It was always cigarettes, scotch and ladies of dubious virtue (which was a large section of my aunties) in our house  |
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Post by Moose on Sept 26, 2014 18:26:19 GMT
We had those too  |
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Post by whollygoats on Sept 26, 2014 19:54:37 GMT
Dubious virtue runs strong in my aunties, too.
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Post by jayme on Sept 26, 2014 20:41:14 GMT
Same here. One of my aunties, who is in her 70's, has a restraining order against her because she is a nympho and was stocking her poor, 20 or 30 something postman.
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Post by Moose on Sept 26, 2014 23:37:53 GMT
lol I should point out that I have only one aunt and she is very virtuous actually |
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Post by kingedmund on Oct 2, 2014 17:12:11 GMT
Anything to be opposed to the rest of the world! Typical of Russian Politics! |
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