The Politics Thread

Anyone reckon Spain will be a block to a potentially independent Scotland? They don't recognise Kosovo and apparently they're worried that if Scotland were to declare independence via a referendum, and they could try to block Scottish membership of the European Union to prevent Catalonia from attempting such a move.

Exit polls showing they might have a majority, so could be interesting.

Anyone reckon Spain will be a block to a potentially independent Scotland? They don't recognise Kosovo and apparently they're worried that if Scotland were to declare independence via a referendum, and they could try to block Scottish membership of the European Union to prevent Catalonia from attempting such a move.

Let's say Spain did did block Scotland's independence, what would that mean for Scotland? Could one country prevent them from becoming a member of the European Union?

I'm not totally familiar with what voting procedure the EU uses, but I feel pretty certain that they don't require an absolute majority for something to pass.

when one government does something, the next government tears it and swears on the previous government how wrong they did, how expensive it was, and blah blah.

All democracies work like that.

I personally find the representative model optimal for the gradual reform of society, rather than misguided revolution and dictatorship. It's not perfect, but you can eventually correct the faults where you find them and continually improve.

Pretty much. I'm a libertarian though I don't really identify as one. A lot of libertarians say a bunch of shit that would make no sense or only work if libertarianism was the only thing people knew. It also either assumes that people won't be either selfish or lazy, or if you're Ayn Rand then if they're selfish or lazy (or unlucky) then fuck them. It's one of those terms, like most political terms, which doesn't really mean anything.

As for me, I basically just think Noam Chomsky is a cool guy.

Cameron wants to 'renegotiate' Britain's relationship with the EU, essentially more opt-outs for directives that "affect British sovereignty", the working time directive, fishing quotas, etc. How on earth France, Germany, etc, will let the UK opt-out of so many things but reap the benefits of EU membership, I have no idea.

And presumably yes, we'll need a visa to get across to France or Ireland, or elsewhere in mainland Europe, unless there are visa exemptions for British citizens. Personally, I'm not the EU's biggest defender, but full withdrawal does worry me.

Then again, I doubt we'll even get to the referendum. It's contingent on there being an agreed 'new settlement' for Britain in the EU, and a Conservative majority government in 2015, given that neither Labour nor the Liberal Democrats want a referendum.