Yes. That’s the whole point.
I agree with the sentiment but someone would probably claim there are freedom of speech issues. Perhaps the solution is to make signs on public property illegal (subject to significant fines) while allowing people to place signs on their (private) property. But that would require local mayors and councillors to have a backbone.
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Yes, of course they would, because everything seems to be a freedom of speech issue these days. But I generally agree with your point that everyone should have the right to display whatever they want on their own property, as long as it breaks no laws.
I just wish the whole culture of political tribalism would go away.
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I don’t know where you live @europlatus but we have GONG who plastered himself literally everywhere during the mayoral election. He also ran in Mississauga and is now a candidate in the federal election. He may never win* but the narcissism may never go away.
*Never say never. Thread is case in point.
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Here in Germany, election ads are tightly regulated in terms of budget, format, and scope. I like that, it keeps a semblance of sanity.
More importantly, we don’t have a winner-takes-it-all system. Instead, politicians and parties need to compromise and negotiate, at least to an extent. I wish we had more of that. It seems to avoid lawn signs, too (at least outside of Bavaria).
On a related note, isn’t it funny, how any binary decision inevitably comes out very close to 50/50? Even theoretically decisive issues such as Brexit come down to the wire in the end. The cynical statistician in me wants to yell “INSIGNIFICANT” whenever that happens. If a binary choice comes out at 50%, it’s really no better than random choice. And if it’s random choice, how is that an expression of “the will of the people”? But a winner-takes-it-all system is automatically always binary, and somehow a binary system seems to always devolve into a 50% result. I don’t understand that last part yet.
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well strictly speaking they have more than 2 parties in the US. Funnily … one of the parties told their supporters to vote for Trump, because he would then pardon one of their members. I am sure that is fine to trade votes for a pardon.
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I really wish that was the case wherever I’ve lived. Having grown up in the UK and now living in Canada, I’ve never not known a winner-takes-all system. It has some advantages, of course, but I’m really not a fan of strategic voting and the inevitable 2-party system it creates.
I was actually living in the UK when Brexit happened, and it was so disheartening from a democratic point of view. It was infuriating to hear it touted as the “will of the people” when, as you say, it was basically 50/50 and not a consensus, at all. That should immediately be tossed out as too contentious, too unpopular to make such a massive change to the country. It was appalling that they didn’t set the threshold at something like 65% before it could be considered a true majority.
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Yes, I should’ve added “viable”.
Still, without the opportunity for voters toward the extreme ends of the political spectrum to vote for parties that somewhat represent their views, the risk is you get insurgency and polarisation within and between the only options there are.
FWIW, the U.K. is increasingly a “European” style multiparty democracy but with a first past the post voting system, like the U.S. Going to make for extremely volatile governing, it seems. Can end up with huge majorities in terms of MPs based on a relatively small proportion of the overall votes, as long as you’re regionally efficient, but then your majority can flip dramatically at a certain tipping point.
My wife is saying that China’s TaoBao online marketplace is offering export products for sale domestically now as overseas orders have been cancelled or turned around at port.
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In Scotland, we use the Single Transferable Vote system for local elections, and the Additional Member system for election to the Scottish Parliament.
Unfortunately, elections to the UK parliament are still “First Past the Post”.
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Wow, that looks remarkably sane!
Much better than England, where voting is FPTP for both local and national government.
The fun with STV is how you rank your votes. Assume that there are candidates from the Scottish National Party (SNP), Labour, Conservative, Liberal Democrats, Greens and Reform (the UK’s far right party). As well as this, the “Monster Raving Loony” and “Count Binface” parties have (frivolous) candidates. You don’t want, say, the Conservatives or Reform to be elected.
You might therefore rank your choices as:
- SNP
- Green
- Labour
- Lib Dem
- Monster Raving Loony
- Count Binface
- Conservative
- Reform
In this way, it is unlikely your vote will ever be transferred to either of the last two candidates.
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Only problem is that demand, particularly at the luxury end, has collapsed on a weak economy and jump in unemployment since the property market bubble burst. There’s now a glut of foreign luxury items like champagne, whiskey, cosmetics and leather goods that used to be way more expensive in China and are now in some cases half European prices.
Hence:
Edit: Unfortunately I have no use for a Louis Vuitton handbag…
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I started writing a longish post about the situation and voting system in Hungary, but got saddened and stopped.
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Is it not improving a bit?
There’s now a guy whose party has a lead on Orbán’s Fidesz. Unfortunately, he is a former member of Orbán’s inner circle. He is the ex-husband of the former minister for justice, who was forced to resign, along with the president (a formal position with no real power, basically a puppet of Orbán) after a paedophile scandal, the two of them being the ones who officially signed the pardon given to the man who committed the crimes.
‘One is nineteen, the other one short of twenty’, or ‘One is a dog, the other a canine’, I’m afraid (Hungarian proverbs). Many hope that is not the case.
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Let us slow the pace of this discussion and focus on on-topic (albeit less cathartic) items.
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Let’s not forget that in these difficult times, a hobby like photography is therapeutical. Just go out and click that shutter. It is much more helpful than following the news very closely.
Do not get new gear unless you are old gear is broken. Most of us have more than enough stuff already. Make do with what you have and purchase new things wisely, as money may come handy later on.
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Yes I went for a walk and made a few not very good photos and felt good. Highly recommended.
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