The Brexit Countdown Echochamber of Exasperation

[Largi]

This is the thing that gets me..

 

Trump - 59,027,971 votes

Clinton - 59,163,675 votes

 

Trump - 278 Seats

Clinton - 218 Seats

 

There is also the Age breakdown based on exit poles showing that the majority of under 35s voted for Clinton.

[Dan]

Not sure how that's different to our system?

 

If you win by a landslide where you win, and your losses are close, then this happens.

[Tiran]

This nytimes article has some good graphs showing support in different groups over time based upon exit polls from the various elections.

http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2016/11/08/us/elections/exit-poll-analysis.html

[Buachalla]

Help, I need oxygen

https://youtu.be/WwsQ_5Wm4oo

Edited November 21, 2016 by Buachalla

[Brynneth]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-38051933

[Dave]

Ahahahahahahaha, fuck you Zac Goldsmith

[Maz]

Sure was a good thing to wake up to

[Fyria]

Funnily enough, I'm not actually really all that disappointed by this one. I really went off Zac during the terribly run mayoral campaign that was frankly just embarrassing and there are things I disagree with him on anyway (including stuff like Heathrow/EU stuff, but that's a side point) but his "standing down" wasn't really much of a standing down when he decided to run as an independent and it meant that there was no point in fielding a Conservative candidate because he would probably align his vote that way in the HoC and it would split the vote, which tbf was a little annoying in my view. Regardless, from the pro-Remain point of view, the result was a very positive one! Nice work!

Also lol Labour lost their deposit.

 

Edited December 2, 2016 by Fyria

[Nacey]

Fuck you Goldsmith, don't play games with the electorate, that's two dumb campaigns you've run this year. Good bye. I used to like the guy until I discovered how inexplicably anti-EU he is. It doesn't seem to fit the rest of his politics as he's otherwise fairly progressive.

[NATO]

9 hours ago, Fyria said:

Also lol Labour lost their deposit.

While it's still an awful turnout for Labour, they have historically struggled to maintain 10% of the vote in that seat so its not that surprising they did poorly.

Edited December 2, 2016 by NATO

[NATO]

 

[Welsper]

That seems about as well-staged as the "miliband gives to the poor" picture

[Dave]

So jezza loses one of the by-elections to the current sitting government. Good for him.

[dangphat]

As someone who has center-right politics, I would much prefer a genuine opposition. Without a counter balance the tory party can continue to move further and further right unchecked. If only there was an alternative third party with a moderate liberal view on politics.

[Maz]

Last night's Any Questions was recorded in my family's home town of Buntingford. In which Arron Banks declared during the discussion of Trump's visit that he'd rather have a misogynist than an IRA sympathiser (referring to John McDonnell also on the panel). That particular speech is a teenager now!

[Nacey]

Why does NI even exist? What a fucking stupid tax. It's only purpose seem to be to make budgets confusing and to make Income Tax threshold changes look better than they really are.

Also lol @ contractors getting fucked on their dividends.

[Kryton]

I had a meeting pushed back so it covered the budget. Reading up now...

[Kryton]

I'm only reading the key points document and I'll know more later today/tomorrow but...

NI is supposed to be being phased out but we'll see how that goes. The only change on the summary is to class 4 NI which I doubt is paid by anyone who reads this. Is there something not listed?

The dividend change for small contractors (allowance from £5k to £2k) will need to be very carefully worded to actually catch the correct people (unlike recent changes to employment allowance and the mess that is pensions) so who knows who it will catch. It'll also only cost them £225 per year anyway even if they are caught.

[Brynneth]

I'm contracting at present but it's through an agency and an umbrella company so I'm just getting classed as an employee of the umbrella and paying Class 1 rates. Although I have to pay both personal and employers contributions.

[Tim]

Greatly looking forward to the childcare changes. 2 days a week at Nursery currently costs us £400 a month and neither of our employers offer childcare vouchers so the 20% Government contribution will be very nice.

30 free hours a week for 3 and 4 year olds will be a huge saving in a few years time as well

[dangphat]

Our turn.

[NATO]

so;

1) Oh god we're all going to die.

2) The situation in Syria is unsustainable, *something* needs to happen, I have no idea what that is and I'm unsure if this will pan out to be a good or bad thing.

3) I feel for Trump this is more about his approval rating than the situation on the ground.

4) AFAIK there's no official deceleration of war between the US and Assad's Government ... so isn't that technically a warcrime?

[Lagrosh]

It isn't a warcrime when it's a western power.

[Nacey]

The idea of a "war crime" always seemed somewhat laughable to be anyway.

No, you aren't allowed to kill people like that! You must only kill people by first declaring that you are going to do kill them and then by shooting them or blowing them up.

Ah yes, because of course, that's not a crime at all.

Lovely.

[Grym]

As far as I'm aware a declaration of war is not necessary. This is normally just a means of clarifying rules of engagement and is for the benefit of the aggressor and not the defender. So no, it isn't a war crime to specifically target military equipment being used to themselves commit war crimes, in fact there are terms of the Security Council that compel nations to do just that.

What is illegal under international law is a 'war of aggression' i.e. we're going to attack you for no good reason. Sadly what is a good reason has never been defined and that's why no one has ever gotten in trouble for it.