All-purpose news and politics thread

[Iangould]

Pretty much. I think people were expecting 20 at most but 50 is remarkable, and the fact it's so heavily weighted in favour of the Tories cries out 'fix'. Of course Milliband has done fuck all showing again that the current opposition are utterly useless.

Wasn't the previous system heavily weighted towards Scotland though?

I recall hearing that as part of the Act of Union, Scotland got extra MPs in London to make up for losing their own Parliament. IIRC Scotland has about 20 more seats than would be justified solely on the basis of population.

[Iangould]

UBS loses $2 billion due to a rogue trader

[Gryphon]

I just had the oddest phone survey.

I honestly dont know if the connection was bad or if the person was just really awkward and making mistakes but..

I got a call from the campaign office for the local liberal MPP and was asked who I would vote for in the upcoming provincial election. I said the conservative party, and the whole time, the person on the phone was stumbling through the questions and when I answered, she sounded confused for a second and said, "oaky not voting thanks" I then said I was voting conservative and she sounded emberassed and said there was a bad connection.

Im thinking phone surveys for elections arent such a good thing.

[dupersuper]

Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE)

Shouldn't that be OOBE?

[Iangould]

Denmark's right-wing coalition government has lost power after a decade.

The Social Democrat-led Red Bloc coalition won on a platform of higher taxes and higher public spending.

Seeing as Denmark's economic growth is about half that of Norway and a third that of Sweden, both of which have left-wing governments which have resisted budget cuts, that result is unsurprising.

[Iangould]

Malaysia will abolish laws dating back to British colonial times which permitted government to detain people without trial almost at will and which required media outlets to obtain a government publishing license each year.

The moves come ahead of early elections expected next year and months after unprecedented anti-government protests that led to 1,600 people being arrested.

link

[Iangould]

Egyptian Copts protest ... the Coptic Church?

Egypt's apostasy laws, while widely ignored, mean that people can't change their religion and their religion determines their rights in matters such as a divorce and remarriage.

Because the Coptic church only permits divorce and remarriage in very limited circumstances, hundreds of thousands of Copts want to be allowed to leave the church so they can get divorces or, if divorced, can remarry.

link

[Paul McEnery]

Egyptian Copts protest ... the Coptic Church?

Egypt's apostasy laws, while widely ignored, mean that people can't change their religion and their religion determines their rights in matters such as a divorce and remarriage.

Because the Coptic church only only permits divorce and remarriage in very limited circumstances, hundreds of thousands of Copts want to be allowed to leave the church so they can gt divorces or, if divorced, can remarry.

link

I am so beyond laughing my arse off at this.

[the4thpip]

Denmark's right-wing coalition government has lost power after a decade.

The Social Democrat-led Red Bloc coalition won on a platform of higher taxes and higher public spending.

Seeing as Denmark's economic growth is about half that of Norway and a third that of Sweden, both of which have left-wing governments which have resisted budget cuts, that result is unsurprising.

And their new prime minister will be Neil Kinnock's daughter-in-law! What a soap opera!

[inferno]

The current Democratic government still proves to be much more successful in fighting al qaeda than the Republican administration preceding it:



http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/...78E4E820110915

LOL. A "senior al-qaeda leader" and/or "Al-Qaeda's number three" have been reportedly killed every other week for ten years. Fear-based gullibility is one thing, but laced with partisan delusion as well... that's something else. Some people will believe anything!

[7thangel]

Some people will believe anything!

lmao.

i fell off my chair reading this.

inferno, you are a trip. don't stop being you.

[Charles RB]

UBS loses $2 billion due to a rogue trader

And it turns out they didn't notice until he confessed to them. Which has made the pro-banking reform MPs very happy: the investment banks just did an argument for them!

[Charles RB]

North Belfast's Alexandra Park is going to open a new gate in the 'peace wall' that seperates the Catholic and Protestant areas. This is a pilot scheme for the rest of the country.

-

Speaking of Ireland, I'm sorry, I'm so sorry.

Sinn Fein has announced that Martin McGuinness will be the party's candidate for the Irish presidency.

[Iangould]

And it turns out they didn't notice until he confessed to them. Which has made the pro-banking reform MPs very happy: the investment banks just did an argument for them!

A UBS representative actually said something along the lines of "well we try to make it impossible to breach the internal security systems but then we go and hire really, really smart people who keep thinking up ways around them,"

Of course, no-one's yet gotten around a system that separates the order-taking, order-execution and book-writing functions but that would mean hiring more staff

[Iangould]

The US Navy is seriously considering deploying the X-47B drone on carriers in place of some of the F35's they were planning to order.

link