Some more festive fun for you, ie. I'm feeling too lazy to do a proper post. If Britain had to abandon its democracy tomorrow (OK, semi-democracy, semi-aristocracy), what system should we replace it with? The options are...
1) Marxist-Leninist one-party state
2) Fascist one-party state
3) Dominant-party state
4) Authoritarian presidential republic
5) Jackie Baillie
6) Theocratic state
7) Absolute monarchy
8) Military rule
9) Anarchy
You can find the voting form at the top of the sidebar (desktop version of the site only). Voting for multiple options is enabled, in case anyone is feeling particularly indecisive. But for heaven's sake don't abstain because you don't like any of the options - we can't let fascism win by default, can we? Hilary Benn will be having a stern word with you, and quite possibly dropping a bomb on your mother-in-law's cottage.
No autonomous collective :-(
ReplyDeleteSurely #9 should be an anarcho-syndicalist commune where we all take it in turns to be executive officer for a week.
I don't believe it - only eleven votes in, and somebody has already voted for fascism. Take a bow, GWC.
ReplyDeleteIt's the uniforms.
Deletenever mind that 12 have voted for Jackie Baillie, surely even fascism is better than that. And no, I voted for neither.
DeleteSarcastic votes, surely.
DeleteNice wan James. I prefer wee Nicola with the shoulder pads. Something tae hing oan tae. I could give her a sermon on the mount. She could dictate anything she wishes tae me.
DeleteWho are you again?
DeleteIf he were an honest man,he'd probably describe himself as a "sasenach" among "jocks"(his description of his ahem fellow scots.
DeleteConservatives are the party of small government, right?
ReplyDeleteSo if we take that to it's logical, extreme conclusion, then conservatives are the party of no government, right?
So conservatives are anarchists :)
Or maybe it's the other way around, and anarchists are conservatives?
DeleteYou know number three is a democracy - just one where one party keeps on winning fairly and no one can imagine anyone else getting their act together. I'm not sure if that's the point you're trying to make...
ReplyDeleteMy interpretation of dominant-party state is present-day Zimbabwe, or Mexico in the old days - ie. a system that allows other parties to stand for election, but not to win power.
DeleteI'm impressed. 42 votes in and 19 including mine have voted for Anarchy. There's hope for Scotland after all.
ReplyDeleteThe good thing about Anarchy is no one agrees about anything and they keep killing each other.
DeleteSticks and stones GWC.
DeleteI have my supply ready.
It's a front for the Judean People's, erm... Well, Jackie Baillie could be the back.
ReplyDeleteI think you may be able to vote multiple times.
ReplyDeleteI was tempted by anarchy - an age thing cos I was a teenager at the right time. But since it was "fun" I decided to vote for Jabba. You do know if she wins it will be lead item ( suitably spun) on the MOT news?
I couldn't help voting for Jackie Baillie.
ReplyDeleteGod knows why; was just drawn to that novel concept of governance. Anarchy is old hat. Baillieism is the new anarchism.
All hail princess Baillie, dear leader!
We used to have a dominant party state. Then people discovered that they no longer had to shurrup n vote fur the Laybur maan.
ReplyDeleteA process of elimination.
ReplyDeleteTheocracy, Military rule and absolute Monarchy are potentially the same thing---when King Brigadier Willie become Head of the CofE, then we are there.
Fascism/Marxism----the same tarnished coin.
Presidential Republic,..Straun the farmer-savant---him?
Baillie is a safe choice. When she can no longer travel by sedan chair-----her Rule is finished!
Anarchy......Glesca council??????
It leaves Dominant Rule, just as now!
Yup dominant rule till we obtain Independence.
DeleteWe can obviously forget wee Stuan Stevenson, El Presidenti of the EU/Iraq "follow the money brigade".
DeleteWhat we DO need to beware of is ----
Rule by Brit Nat Journalistic Oligarchs. Gardham and Co.
Voted for Jacqui.
ReplyDeleteShe deserves to get some support this year.
Poor wee thing.
She is a big wummin David with a strange accent. Sounds Scottish with a jawry in her mooth.
Delete"Strange accent"---she sounds like a Scottish Labourite trying to sound Tory.
DeleteOr....a Scottish Tory trying to sound Labourite.
Strange accent - like yours, English?
ReplyDeleteCivic.
DeleteTrump in the US of A. Whacky Baillie here. Gideon in Englandshire.
ReplyDeleteWhat could possibly go wrong?
The charisma! the positive decision making! The incisive Political debate! It's got to be Jackie.
ReplyDeleteSurely the presence of Jackie Baillie and anarchy on the same ballot paper is a tautology.
ReplyDeleteNot sure what an 'anarchic dictatorship' would look like...
ReplyDeleteI'll resist the obvious comment about the Shadow Cabinet.
DeleteNot obvious to me. How's it a dictatorship?
DeleteAh. There's nothing quite so revealing in this world as a joke that hits a nerve...
DeleteNot really. I've only got time for about 10% of the Shadow Cabinet.
DeleteYou should broaden your horizons, Niall. There's got to be more to life than Lucy Powell and Charlie Falconer.
Deletegavin. You need tae qualify what Tories you are babbling on aboot. Is it the English Tories, the new nat si Tartan Tories or the Old Scottish Tories. So many to choose from. Same policies.
ReplyDeleteGlagow Working Class,
DeleteYou seem to have, inadvertently, missed out the Labour Party.
I can see slight difference between your chums the English Tories and your true home, The Labour Party of Brigadoon.
Y'know what that difference is? Btween us and you?
Try a quiz.
Bomb Iraq, = Yes / No?
Bomb Syria, given the above = yes or no?
Trident replacement = yes or no?
Austerity = yes or no?
Just for you;
Trolley buses = yes or no?
On the basis of the above:
Labcrims to the Hague = yes or no?
It is not something I want associated with. Your mileage may vary.
And then there is the real World. Perhaps you can convince others outwith the the UK and USA not to pursue their interests. And austerity is in the hands of the Nat sis in Scotland. And the Labour Party are not and have never been associated with the various Tories in Scotland.
DeleteReally? Explain working side by side with the blue Tories in Better Together during the indyref, if you please...
DeleteEven your dense brain should know the answer to your own question.
DeleteCharmless troll. Don't like being reminded of your chumming up with the blue Tories, do you? Thanks for avoiding the question.
DeleteGlasgow troll----all Tories are alike to normal people, whether Red or Blue. North or South.
DeleteAs for your nat sis meme---learn some history.
Hess didn't come to talk to the SNP. Mosely or the Prince of Wales or Lord Halifax etc. They were more to his taste.
It was the Anglo-German Fellowship, or the January Club or any of the other pro Nazi outfits that so attracted Princes, Lords, Earls, MP's etc. There were many Scots among their ranks, none of them SNP.
Indeed the 8th Earl of Glasgow was one such---any relative of yours?
'chumming'. Sounds like English private schoolboy to me.
DeleteShows how little you know. Besides, that's deflection from the raw nerve I obviously struck.
Deletegavin. Your imagination knows no bounds.
DeleteAs I said, learn some history.
DeleteBut then, education is wasted on some people.
You are a prime example of Glasgow's education system after decades of Labour control.
gavin, clearly wasted on you. Insulting and verbal bile probably cost you Nat sis the referendum.
DeleteAnd Hess allegedly came to Scotland to contact the Duke of Hamilton. But who really knows. So do carry on being a smug B and keep the laughter going.
Still ducking my question, then. How's that raw nerve? Would you like salt and vinegar on that?
DeleteStill waiting for an answer to my question of two days ago, GWC. Do try to answer without calling me dense or a Nazi...
DeleteJames,
ReplyDeleteNow you know your readers. Given all options, we are largely anarchists, myself included.
What do you make of that?
Jackie Baillie is the obvious answer. She is far and away the most annoying creature in Scottish public life and the most reliable trigger of a counter-revolution.
ReplyDeleteThat's why she got my vote, Alasdair!
DeleteIt might as well be unabandoned anarchy, and it sounds more equal, no?
ReplyDeleteI happened to have lunch with a couple of friends yesterday, one who is Chinese. She was telling us about a bizarre and horrendous situation in China, where no one helps anyone in a crisis in the street for fear of litigation. I wondered how this can have come about, China having been a communist country and all. I am obviously naive or something, Anyway, how incredibly counter productive, because it applies to the very people who won't go help someone in trouble, ie been run over, had a heart attack etc. Apparently it is also expected you leave the good samaritan stuff to the paid professionals, if that is not an oxymoron. Apparently in Russia if you fall over they just walk over you as they think you are drunk, it happened to a friends aunty in Moscow. Though that was a few years back.
I do wonder whatever happened to the whole idea of the good samaritan, was it just an idea, filling in a gap until the emergency services were set up? We may never know.
Admit it, you all love Jackie Baillie really. She's an absolute star.
ReplyDelete[Disa}star
DeleteI'd prefer TRUE DEMOCRACY to any other system.
ReplyDeleteI would prefer a dictatorship controlled by artificial intelligence, programmed to be beneficial to the majority rather than any self serving human. Failing that as a choice I opted for Jackie Ballie as the least human among the list!
ReplyDeleteAnd yet, and yet,.......its YOU who polute these threads night after night, with your smears, cheap asides and ugly trolling.
ReplyDeleteIt's YOU who gets abusive in the face of facts.
The Anglo-German Fellowship is the true face of British Nationalism.
Begone Troll!
That is really a desperate statement filled with useless emotion.
DeletePot,Kettle,Black?
DeleteAre you on the ten tae six shift Anon whoever, whichever.
DeleteActually,GWC,I am a retired pensioner who is comfortably off,knowing that my pension is safe in the hands of an SNP government.I have no need to work shifts nor do I need to resort to a fake Glasgow-type argot to get my point across.
DeleteDid not know the Nat sis had a pension scheme for the plebs. They do for themselves you muppet.
Delete...and we're back to the Nazi trope. Big surprise there.
DeleteActually,GWC,I am a retired pensioner who is comfortably off,knowing that my pension is safe in the hands of an SNP government.
DeleteYour sense of safety may be somewhat misplaced. Might want to double check on that one.
The 2015 Private Eye Annual, page 7 sums up the greedy Jock of the North - by Ben MullofKintyre.
ReplyDeleteDespite your previous snarking about English private schoolboys, I can't say I'm surprised at your getting your lazy, disconnected "satire" from Private Eye. They're as clueless about Scottish matters as your pals at the Daily Wail.
DeleteScottish matters are UK matters.
DeleteAw, how sweet. Who told you that?
DeletePrivate Eye???
ReplyDeleteDoes anyone with a brain still read that rag - particularly in relation to anywhere outside Lunnin Tan?
Hyslop's mob are too busy playing with each other's teddies and swapping bedtime stories about being boys better together.
SNP appointed Guru Naomi Eisenstadt says the rich are getting better off to the detriment of the poor. Tartan Tory/Tory Yellow/Blue whats the difference.
ReplyDeleteAnd the Nat sis are considering giving public funds to loonie tune religious groups to set up Private Schools. Sounds like Tony Blair all over again. And we are supposed to be skint. You pretend silent leftie Nat sis must be boakin.
Perussi vestri ientaculum
DeleteNaomi Eisenstadt seems surprisingly right wing? Is she advocating a neoliberal means testing model instead of left-wing / social democratic universal benefits? It's all I can gather from one paywall article in the pro-union centre-right Labour backing Daily Herald.
DeleteIf so, the SNP are right to resist that. Would be playing into the hands of the neoliberal Tories/Labour/Libs.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Welfare_state#Three_worlds_of_the_welfare_state
Was Labour that, for example, introduced right-wing fees for education, 'work for your benefits' (good old socialist brown) and the bedroom tax.
Not like the Nat si mob tae appoint a right winger as the positions are full of them. Maybe the Nat sis
Deletemade a mistake with this appointment and did not obtain a Yes wummin. The truth is the Nat sis have no historical association with the working classes and are lying deceitful baskets. At least the Tories are truthful about fooking the poor.
Skier, a simple lesson for you is if you want to help the less well of you do not subsidise the better of and deprive the less well of. Not rocket science. And no doubt you will try the throwing the mud tactic against this woman for speaking out. Other than that what happened to all those lefties allegedly that joined the Nat sis. Hoots Mon Ra Noo.
DeleteI see the alcohol is taking over once again. Ah well,why change the habits of a lifetime.
DeleteYour lifetime seems wasted but that is your choice. I do like a bevvy but wake up sober. Anything else tae offer Anon!
DeleteYeah - knock off the fake Glasgow accent, you're fooling no-one. Also, you're doing yourself no favours with the constant Nazi nonsense.
DeleteDo get it right for once I have a Glesga East End accent and the mandatory walking stick. You really are a saddo. But do have a good New Year Nat si.
DeleteYour back did the lodge close early or did your bowler hat or flute get damaged?
DeleteOr did the zombies get beat again?
All I'll say on the topic of means testing is the below. It is surprising how even some lefties get caught in the means testing trap. In principle, it can sound sort of fair. The better off paying for things the poor don't have to right? Yet that's you charging the better off twice. In fact more than twice; can be many times over as they are the ones filling the pot the most, yet taking the least out of it. If you keep doing this to them by taking away what little they do get back, good chance they'll start voting Tory for lower taxes. Hence the Tories just love means testing...
ReplyDeletehttp://users.ox.ac.uk/~chri3110/Details/Universalism%20McKee%20Stuckler.pdf
The assault on universalism: how to destroy the welfare state
...such vilification of the undeserving poor is not new. What is
changing in the United Kingdom is the progressive exclusion of the middle classes from the welfare state through incremental erosion of universal benefits. The logic is appealing, but highly divisive: Why should the state pay for those who can afford to pay for themselves? Why should “ordinary working people” pay for “middle class benefits”?
The economic crisis has given the government a once in a lifetime opportunity. As Naomi Klein has described in many different situations, those opposed to the welfare state never waste a good crisis. The deficit must be reduced, and so, one by one, benefits are removed and groups are pitted against each other, as the interests of the middle class in the welfare state wither away.
The first cut was to universal child benefit...
...The next thing to go was affordable university education...
...The direction of travel should now be clear. More and more, the middle classes will ask why they are paying into a system that gives them little back. The idea that the state is an insurance system, from which they can benefit if they are in need, is steadily eroded...
...Who benefits from this progressive degradation of the welfare state? Obviously not the lower classes. But nor do the middle classes, as the new, complex, and individualised systems are more expensive than what existed previously, often of poorer quality, and invariably far more complicated. The real beneficiaries are the very rich, who no longer have to pay for services they never used anyway...
I would certainly warn Nicola Sturgeon about hurting the poor and helping the rich by going for means testing over universalism.
There should not be such a thing as the welfare state. Benefits should be paid to those that need help. Scots are obsessed with welfare. It was hard wurkin Scots that built the Empire and we are the saft belly now.
DeleteNo a Labour man then I see. Thatcher would be proud.
DeleteWhy do you continue to use the term "WE" when talking about Scots?
DeleteYou are not Scottish.
He means we as in royal we, as the rest of his orange lodge buddies say it.
DeleteI always look forward tae the annual 12 July parade in Glesga. It tends to annoy some people which is a bonus.
DeleteSkier, is that Nicola Thatcher?
DeleteAnd the award for the shittiest electoral year goes to UKIP.
Deletehttps://twitter.com/britainelects/status/679942112696115200
65% of council seats lost in by-elections takes them to the top of the failure pile. Or bottom. Och, you get what I mean.
Carswell was right; Farage must go. Now.
Makes my new hogmanay all the happier. Cherry on top of 58% SNP if you like (which is 58x the UKIP vote in the same poll incidentally) :-)
Happy Hogmanay all!
I see GWC is still coming away with that faux-Glasgow accent.Wait till after midnight,he starts to slabber a bit and it gets worse.
ReplyDeleteI see GWC is still coming away with that faux-Glasgow accent.Wait till after midnight,he starts to slabber a bit and it gets worse.
ReplyDeletehootsmon, you need tae get help with that stammer.
ReplyDeleteYour issues, by contrast, are beyond help...
DeleteAnarchy but that is the total opposite to Dictatorship to me. You closed the poll before I got chance to vote - Dictator!!!!
ReplyDeleteHappy New Year to all except Brit Nats as they don't believe in any kind of holiday except the idolatrous capitalist splurge that is Xmas.
Absolute monarchy. Some of our greatest achievements were made under absolute monarchs - Henry VIII and Elizabeth I being the most prominent.
ReplyDeleteAldo