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Score one for democracy

Posted: Wed Nov 09, 2005 6:19 pm
by aldo

Posted: Wed Nov 09, 2005 6:56 pm
by pyro-manic
=D> Good stuff.

Posted: Wed Nov 09, 2005 7:58 pm
by karajorma
I was very happy to see this. I meant to post about it but Aldo beat me to it :D

Posted: Wed Nov 09, 2005 10:52 pm
by Kopax
I can't help but notice how biased your media is :p


Though its not much better here.

Posted: Wed Nov 09, 2005 10:57 pm
by karajorma
Bias? Where?

Posted: Wed Nov 09, 2005 11:16 pm
by Robo
Nothing in this world is unbiased.

Posted: Wed Nov 09, 2005 11:34 pm
by Flipside
Well, it does quote both sides of the story both regarding the laws and the leadership position, and in the UK, the opposition parties tend to call for resignations if the PM so much as forgets to tie his shoelaces. There will always be slight bias, but personally I don't really see much.

But then, in all honesty, this is the result I wanted, so maybe I'm the one who's biased ;)

Posted: Thu Nov 10, 2005 12:40 am
by Goober5000
So, would you guys still say "Score one for democracy" if it had gone the other way?

After all, that's democracy in action too. :D

Posted: Thu Nov 10, 2005 1:28 am
by Flipside
Indeed, but it didn't go the other way, despite the whips being out in force (whips are 'cronies' of the PM who make sure all his MP's vote the way he wants them to, a truly non-democratic idea imho).

This was vastly unpopular in the UK, it went against our constitution in every way possible, and, to my mind, went completely against what we are trying to represent. If we get bombed for trying to be fair, equal and without bias, then at least we kept hold of our values and our respect for freedom, which already makes us far far more than those who did the bombing.

It's one of those conundrums, 'How commited to your cause are you?'. If your life is threatened and you are a person of peace and freedom, do you remain who you have chosen to be, or do you throw it all away and drop to the level of the person threatening you?

Not an easy question to answer, but, if there IS a God, I'd rather stand before Him knowing that, no matter what the world did to me, I did not allow it to corrupt what I myself felt was 'right'.

Posted: Thu Nov 10, 2005 1:48 am
by Goober5000
Oh I completely agree with you; I'm just taking a potshot at the thread title. ;)

And a very good point in the fourth paragraph too. :)

Posted: Thu Nov 10, 2005 3:21 am
by vyper
Put basically, my viewpoint: Freeeedoooooooom

Posted: Thu Nov 10, 2005 5:40 am
by Grug
Flipside wrote:... if there IS a God...
Big 'if'. :p ;)

I think one has the right to defend oneself against perpetrators. Though the 90 day law sounded a bit extreme.

Congrats to you guys for your system working, if that was presumadly the majority feeling... :)

Posted: Thu Nov 10, 2005 10:27 am
by Flipside
Though this, however, reminds me of the picture of Ms Rice as a Go'Auld...

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/4420350.stm

Posted: Thu Nov 10, 2005 11:03 am
by Rand al'Thor
Hurrah, now the police can only hold you for 28 days instead of 90. Thats up from what? 2 days? If even that. What evidence do they need exactly, to hold you on terrorist suspicion?

"the proposals were not "at the core" of the government's counter-terrorism plans"

Ah yes, those would the ones that curtail basic human rights. I'm just glad that Britains term as head of the EU has been considered uneventful so far because I far as I've heard that the angle they'd be taking otherwise.

Posted: Thu Nov 10, 2005 11:06 am
by Flipside
It was originally a 14 day limit (and this was doubled from 7 days only 2 years ago, for exactly the same reasons) before permission had to be required from a judge. What the police wanted was permission to hold someone for up to 3 months before needing to get permission to extend that date, and that is purely for the purposes of investigation, i.e, 'We Fink you dun a bad fing' and then lock you up for 3 months while they try and figure out what bad thing you did.

Edit : Any Pratchett fan would know what I mean when I say 'Detritus thinking' was starting to prevail. And for those that don't...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Detritus_%28Discworld%29