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6:00 am, March 2nd, 2026 - 23 comments
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Open mike is your post.
For announcements, general discussion, whatever you choose.
The usual rules of good behaviour apply (see the Policy).
Step up to the mike …
What does the Green victoryin England mean for Ireland and Northern Ireland?
The uncertainty caused by a Green/Reform standoff in England will have huge ramifications for other parts of the country as Labour and Conservatives with government experience and steadier economic manifestos are rejected by the voting majority.
There is a Holyrood Election on the 7 May in Scotland, a short NINE weeks away. SNP will win and Scottish Greens* will get a big bump from the English Greens’ success. Pro-Scottish independence parties will have a strong majority in Holyrood. John Swinney will use that to move closer to a fully independent Scotland. England will attempt to stymie this with various devices but the Union will be the loser on 7 May again.
Northern Ireland Unionists (and Continuity Northern Ireland ) supporters very rarely acknolowedge the steady momentum towards Scottish Independence. The last WM GE returned many Labour MPs in Scotland, but that was only about ejecting the Tories because independence was not on the menu that week.
When the SNP triumphs on 7 May, the question of independence will be on the table again. When that debate recommences, it will not happen in isolation. The sizeable contribution made from Scotland in oil and Crown Estate revenue is in stark contrast to the 10 billion Westminster pays to support Northern Ireland.
The current turmoil in English politics will never cease until they get a Proportional Representation system, a Constitution and an identity that acknowledges their past and give them a shared future. Not happening soon.
A Northern Ireland Border poll is surely a tempting proposition for a Westminster government that is short of funds and Northern Ireland risks becoming the quick answer to some of Westminster’s problems. When Scotland commences the separation process Northern Ireland will become a political football in Westminster.
* Scottish Greens and English Greens are separate parties. Scottish Greens have always been strongly pro-Independence. The English Greens support an Independence Referendum.
What is the Reform position on Scottish independence?
Presumably they want a pure England, which will enable Scotland to join the EU and Ireland to unify?
That would make England a minor Balkan-scale state economically constituted of Parliament, the Royal Family, and an awful lot of Russian capital propping up City of London.
From the always interesting Chris Dillow – here on 'the economy' as an abstraction and a metaphor:
“When we confront abstractions such as the economy, politics, nature, or moral questions, we use metaphors to try to make sense of them. Asking us to forego all metaphors is a counsel of perfection. Metaphors are like models (in fact, models are metaphors): all are wrong, but some are useful in some contexts.
On the basis that it takes a metaphor to kill a metaphor, but subject to that caveat, I’d suggest an alternative – to regard the economy and society not as a machine but as a garden.”
“Both gardening and policy-making are forms of guided emergence.”
I enjoyed reading that, thanks.
Are we witnessing the end of the USA? Not immediately, not dramatically. But, slowly with the destruction of the institutions the USA's wealth is based on?
Justin Wolfers makes sone good points. 10 minutes long.
The very obvious thing for Iran to do is to keep firing a couple of dozen balistic missiles and drones at the airports in Dubai and Doha every day, pretending to target US bases, or lobbing a few missiles at these as well as cover.
This will mean it will be impossible to open the airports there. Not only does this inconvenience hundreds of thousands of well off people but it also causes major freight disruption.
The war will end in week.
The most obvious thing is regime change with free and fair elections 🙂
I cannot see that happening.
You mean regime change and free and fair elections in the United States, obviously.
The USA needs regime change.
Don't underestimate the hostility the Gulf states have towards Iran. The Iranians think the Gulf Arabs are soft rich pricks who'll panic and demand the Americans call off the attack if Iran makes things unpleasant for them, but that's a dangerous strategy – it's just as likely to bring the Gulf states into the war.
Well done to whoever got it that smart phones could allow to post on here
Sorry I can't use reply Pukish as I'm still in South America, but when you talk about the need for regime change and the need for free and fair elections I assume you are talking about NZ?
And another obvious tactic from the very smart Iranians will be in the Strait of Hormuz.
Listening to Al Jazeera tonight apparently Iran has plenty of shore to ship missiles along the shoreline. The tactic suggested is to target non-Iranian ships while allowing Iranian ships through ..much better than closing the entire waterway.
Maybe Trump hasn’t thought this through.
As with the airports above, this will cause chaos in the world economy.
Just another, needed, step towards peace in the middle east
You are humourous!
Intended, or not?
This from Scoop NZ. Close scrutiny of power reality in the world – extract.
https://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/HL2602/S00065/the-other-lizard-people-why-the-epstein-files-are-shattering-global-theory.htm
[copypasta deleted]
Fancy you deleting the very points that I thought were primary for learning and consideration. The link I put is for reading further and verification. You are so uptight that you limit learning and discussion. Without opening our minds we cannot face and mediate the unprecedented future which however, has been seen in part for centuries. But we have not understood our cycles of motivation, each one slightly different; rather knowledge has been suppressed or passed by. I don't think we can understand that the ship is sinking and why till it is too late, if ever. And you will observe and make wise comment like the buttoned-down sages that you are.
More than 700,000 flights cancelled at the Middle East hubs. Trump will agree to a truce/peace deal in a couple of days.
Rich people hate their holiday plans being wrecked.
Global freight will be suffering.
Great tactics by Iran.
You're assuming Trump is a rational human being. He isn't.
Come on back BG before it gets harder to fly in planes generally.
I'm at AKL domestic airport now Ad. Nice to hear Kiwi accent.