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[martinuzz]

The German government will discuss a new 'Civil Defense Plan' tomorrow, which is to prepare the nation for massive cyberattacks, terrorist attacks, or invasion by enemy forces.

In it, German citizens are encouraged to start hoarding food and water. The recommendations are to stock food for at least 10 days, and water for 5 days.
Theres also a paragraph included about reinstating draft service, when a NATO member is attacked.

The opposition accuses the government of scaremongering.

The government denies this is the case, and says the decision to update the plan stems from 2012 already.
The last time a similar plan was updated was after the cold war ended, in 1995. The government says that today's threats are no longer comparable to the threats faced back then, especially considering cyberterrorism, and that it is no more than logical to update.

The opposition critisizes also that the plan is called 'civil defense plan', instead of sticking to the old name, which was 'civil protection plan'. They say the new title reeks of warmongery.

If the government can agree with each other internally on the contents of the plan, it will likely be presented to the public during tomorrow's afternoon.
German media reports that already, people have been spotted hoarding food with overloaded shopping carts.

[WealthyRadish]

Better to have a plan. Never know when things will escalate and you'll need to send your civil defense panzer divisions into Belgium and Poland, as part of a preemptive strike on the global threat of ISIS cyberbullies.

[martinuzz]

In Italy, the devestation of yesterday's earthquake is becoming more clear. So far, 247 dead have been pulled from under the rubble of collapsed villages, and over 400 wounded. Numbers are still expected to rise as rescue workers continue to search. For example, from a collapsed hotel in Amatrice, that housed 70 tourists at the time of the earthquake, only 7 people have been found so far.

[Loud Whispers]

I think his point about Scotland may have been that they might want another referendum now that the main reason they stayed (that I know of) is gone.

The polls don't bear that out I'm afraid.

And Rolepgeek, what did you mean in your last post? I thought Erkki's comments about morality were thoughtful and well-written. What were you implying when you quoted them?

Well this thread has dried of bants

So I'm gonna make a serious reply to a very old post I missed

Most Scots are not in fact Sturgeon, and would rather not die for the EUrocats; they voted for the UK because they didn't want to dissolve the Union. Reason being a mix of shared history, devomax, and the fact that Scotland was incapable of surviving independent - what with the Scotnats plan being rely on oil. If they had got independence from the UK, they would have ended up subservient to an even further away, unaccountable and foreign bland bureaucracy where their votes counted for shit, and their economy would be utterly broken and they would currently have become bankrupt with the saudi oil dumps. Sturgeon is deliberately hiding the fact that many Scots voted to remain because they were told by Cameron's project fear, if they voted to leave the EU, then the UK would explode. A very convenient fact to ignore is that the Scots voted to leave the Common Market when England voted to stay, it is utterly delusional to think a party platform that campaigned on the sole basis that it would get its country into the EU was desperately trying to keep the United Kingdom in order to access the EU... It was already campaigning for.
And the 1,000,000 who voted to Leave, I wonder if they were tacvoting too. Fuck knows, but at this rate, it's all ogre anyways

So what we get is Londonistaners having to pay for Scots who get free education, free healthcare, unemployment benefits, transport and development, and also get to have their cake too, complaining that Londonistaners are eating their oil money, whilst Sturgeon is literally paid with Londonistaner money
When the Scottish economy is shocked, the United Kingdom absorbs the impact

The average Englishman has quite a sour deal in all this, but politically for those who support Britain, it is obviously not a desirable goal to have Britain explode. Thus everyone is in the situation where it's more effort than it's worth, which is just the sort of lacklustre British enthusiasm which becomes impossible to dislodge and ensures eternal status quo until we spin off into the fucking sun and vaporize

On the bright side all the politicians who have no humility have no more careers, now replaced by politicians that more resemble the pantheon of chaos
Tzeentch has taken the forefront with sorcerer May, the blood God has taken the backseat with Tony Skulls for the Peace Throne Blair having been defeated by May and her alliance with Nurglite champion of jolly cooperation Bojo, and I suppose across the pond Sweden is hard at work trying to summon Slaanesh to finally nuke western civilization

[hector13]

Scotland's votes already count for shit.

Scotland also generates more tax income per head than the rest of the UK, though I will accept that's 'cause of the oil, and the oil price decline did mess that up a bit.

It would be nice if they could use the revenues to invest in other things. Alas, the purse strings are controlled elsewhere...

[Loud Whispers]

Scotland's votes already count for shit.

U wot

Scotland's votes are disproportionately powerful, they have their own parliament and they get to have a say in what affects Englanders but not them

Heck, if the Scotnat party had done a better job and Londonistaners not been so lazy, a very small number of Scots would have made 16 million more people lose the brexit run

Last general election it took just under 4 million votes to get 1 UKIP seat
300,000 votes per libdem seat
40,000 votes per Labour seat
34,000 votes per Tory seat
25,000 votes per scotnat seat

How the bloody hell is it possible to call the most valuable votes shite, literally the Kingmaker with the most powerful votes in every election

Scotland also generates more tax income per head than the rest of the UK, though I will accept that's 'cause of the oil, and the oil price decline did mess that up a bit.

A bit? That's a bit of an understatement innit though lol

f Scotland had declared independence on 24 March – the day chosen by then SNP leader Alex Salmond before he lost the 2014 referendum campaign, its population would be facing an overall deficit of £2,850 per head in the 2016/17 financial year compared with £850 per head across the UK, the IFS said.

With the recent collapse in oil prices, its analysis showed that if Scotland’s geographical share of oil tax receipts was included, the black hole in its annual accounts would reach £12.2bn in 2020 and then to £12.8bn in 2021, some 6% of its GDP.

So obviously what happens? Do the Scots cut their public spending? Lol no, the English foot the bill. I don't think anyone would give a shit if the likes of Sturgeon wasn't then going on to say fuck the English, they're gits and all, what with all those taxes they're giving Scots :|
Seriously cheeky to say we're taking more when it's simple maths. You spend more than you make, it's your m8s who pay the toll

“I don’t believe Nicola Sturgeon wants to see a referendum again any more than I do,” he said. “The economic case two years ago was threadbare. It’s now shot to bits and there’s absolutely no denying it.

srsly

It would be nice if they could use the revenues to invest in other things.

Scots want to cut education, healthcare and police funding? Never seen that in Scottish parliament nor seen that from Scots in Westminster

What are these "other things" that Scots can't choose to fund? If they want their own fleet of nuclear submarines it will never be, that always has to be in unity with the UK

Alas, the purse strings are controlled elsewhere...

You got evidence to back up conspiracies m8, cos I don't think Westminster would especially favour 5 million people over 60 + 5 million people

[hector13]

Scotland's votes already count for shit.

U wot

oh my goodness how wrong are you let me count the ways

Heck, if the Scotnat party had done a better job and Londonistaners not been so lazy, a very small number of Scots would have made 16 million more people lose the brexit run

All the following stats 'til the economic bit are from the BBC results pages for the various things.

You would've required an extra 634,751 Scots to have voted Remain in order for that to have influenced the result to have the slimmest margin of 2 people, a result everyone would've accepted I imagine.

Doesn't sound like much, but it would've meant 85% of Scots would've voted Remain. When was the last time 85% of anyone in the UK on political matters agreed? Even had 100% of Scotland voted Remain, the majority would've been 767,142, which is a little over half of what the result was, so it would've been ~51/49 split.

It's a bullshit argument anyway. If half as many Scots had voted Yes in 2014, we wouldn't be having this talk. Don't see you saying that's a problem though amirite?

Scotland's votes are disproportionately powerful, they have their own parliament and they get to have a say in what affects Englanders but not them

Due to the quirks of the Barnett formula - which is funny since Westminster could literally decide tomorrow to say "fuck that shit" and it would be entirely legal - pretty much any change in spending in England is going to affect funding for every other UK nation. However indirectly, English matters are going to affect them.

Instead of being sensible and setting up a separate English parliament though - like the aforementioned Scottish, Welsh and N. Irish ones, which deal solely with matters in those nations - the Tories have decided the best way to deal with this issue is to make non-English MPs second-class by denying them access to matters which solely affect England in the British parliament. Fantastic.

all teuchters, micks and sheep-shaggers welcome

Last general election it took just under 4 million votes to get 1 UKIP seat
300,000 votes per libdem seat
40,000 votes per Labour seat
34,000 votes per Tory seat
25,000 votes per scotnat seat

I like the way you set this out, failing to mention that the SNP only stood in 59 constituencies in Scotland - meaning they had access to an electorate of 4,094,784, of whom 71.1% voted, a little over 2.9m, of whom ~50% voted for the SNP - whereas UKIP stood in 624 seats, having access to... uh... more of the electorate.

But then that's not how the system works, is it? It's the results in the individual constituencies that matter. The Tories received 37% of the overall vote and received just over 50% of the seats, and a majority in parliament. They won 1 seat in Scotland. Kingmakers in their own fuckin' right there eh?

Then we could consider that Scotland has voted Labour every year since 1959 until the last GE in 2015. Their status as kingmaker meant there was an unprecedented 56 year long Labour reign, right? Oh wait, Labour were only ever in power when England voted for them. Right, sorry.

Let's look at things as a whole, though. There were 46,420,413 registered voters in the UK in 2015, for 650 parliament seats.

Scotland 9.07% of the seats, for their 8.8% share of the electorate, England has 82% of seats for their 83.59% of the electorate, Wales get 6.15% seats for their 4.9%, and N. Ireland 2.7% for 2.66%. Things seem to be alright in terms of proportion of votes.

English democratic will still outstrips that of the other three though. Still think Scotland is the kingmaker?

How the bloody hell is it possible to call the most valuable votes shite, literally the Kingmaker with the most powerful votes in every election

In conclusion:

wtf r u smoking i want sum

Scotland also generates more tax income per head than the rest of the UK, though I will accept that's 'cause of the oil, and the oil price decline did mess that up a bit.

A bit? That's a bit of an understatement innit though lol

f Scotland had declared independence on 24 March – the day chosen by then SNP leader Alex Salmond before he lost the 2014 referendum campaign, its population would be facing an overall deficit of £2,850 per head in the 2016/17 financial year compared with £850 per head across the UK, the IFS said.

With the recent collapse in oil prices, its analysis showed that if Scotland’s geographical share of oil tax receipts was included, the black hole in its annual accounts would reach £12.2bn in 2020 and then to £12.8bn in 2021, some 6% of its GDP.

So obviously what happens? Do the Scots cut their public spending? Lol no, the English foot the bill. I don't think anyone would give a shit if the likes of Sturgeon wasn't then going on to say fuck the English, they're gits and all, what with all those taxes they're giving Scots :|
Seriously cheeky to say we're taking more when it's simple maths. You spend more than you make, it's your m8s who pay the toll

Er... so does England. And N. Ireland. And Wales. And, if you'll excuse me, most of the effin' world.

What's your point? Scotland does it worse than the rUK?

The Tories were elected in 2010 when they said they were going to make massive cuts to gub'ment spending, while the SNP made no such promises, indeed quite the opposite, so you're comparing apples to oranges a wee bit there.

It would be nice if they could use the revenues to invest in other things.

Scots want to cut education, healthcare and police funding? Never seen that in Scottish parliament nor seen that from Scots in Westminster

What are these "other things" that Scots can't choose to fund? If they want their own fleet of nuclear submarines it will never be, that always has to be in unity with the UK

wishful thinking leave me to muh fantasy

alternatively: link

Scotland having access to that trillion squid would be quite beneficial to them in the long run, I imagine. Could invest it in anything they bloody wanted. Like not paying for those lovely nuclear subs in the Clyde.

Unfortunately folk shat it in 2014, so they can wave that goodbye.

Alas, the purse strings are controlled elsewhere...

You got evidence to back up conspiracies m8, cos I don't think Westminster would especially favour 5 million people over 60 + 5 million people

Thank you for so succinctly making my point.

[Dozebôm Lolumzalìs]

Don't argue with the bot. It's not funny.

[Sergarr]

Black Lives Matter protesters close London City Airport runway.

Black Lives Matter UK said: "Whilst at London City Airport a small elite is able to fly, in 2016 alone 3,176 migrants are known to have died or gone missing in the Mediterranean.

"Black people are the first to die, not the first to fly, in this racist climate crisis.

"We note, however, that the UK is willing to charter special flights to remove black people from the country based on their immigration status."

It added: "This action was taken in order to highlight the UK's environmental impact on the lives of black people locally and globally.

"As the largest per capita contributor to global temperature change, and yet among the least vulnerable to its deadly effects, the UK leads in ensuring that our climate crisis is a racist crisis."

I see USA movements have already started to occupy post-Brexit Britain.

[hector13]

I don't think climate change is very high on the list of things that adversely affect black people.

[hops]

Black Lives Energy

[Sheb]

I don't think climate change is very high on the list of things that adversely affect black people.

Actually, it is. The Sahel isn't exactly full of whites.

[Culise]

I don't think climate change is very high on the list of things that adversely affect black people.

Actually, it is. The Sahel isn't exactly full of whites.

Quite so.  That said, I'm not seeing the link between British airplanes and over-farming, over-grazing, or natural soil erosion in an land area over its carrying capacity.  Also, it's more a function of poverty, again; poor countries have fewer options to deal with climate change than rich countries, so they're disproportionately affected.  That's as true of Mauritania as it is Bangladesh.

[Sheb]

Well, yeah, BLM-UK sounds a lot like a movement in search of a cause, and they're just mish-mashing a bunch of stuff.

[Helgoland]

Hashtag without a cause?