SpankyMcFarland

MPs should not be dual citizens for obvious reasons. Scheer should have known that and should have immediately proceeded with the renunciation of his foreign citizenship at the very latest when he became party leader. Even today, do we know what his citizenship status is? It’s a comical situation.

These coaches should count themselves lucky. In future, rants and insults will be published on social media within minutes rather than years. The Franzen episode also brings up the more serious issue of concussion and its consequences. Has Bettman responded yet?

This is part of a general change in elite sport. We’ve already seen such a transition in soccer. The old style is not going to cut it any more.

You’re going to have to give us more detail on the Pahlavi dynasty. Wiki does not make them sound great on the democracy/human rights front: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Human_rights_in_the_Imperial_State_of_Iran Like the Czars, they look better in retrospect because of their even more appalling successors but let’s be honest here - they were bad hombres all the same. Iran has always been a relatively advanced society compared to its neighbours. It’s up to educated, urban Iranians to convince their fellow citizens that the Western model is worth following. No other nation is going to force our system upon them. Unfortunately, as religious fervour ebbs, a military dictatorship may follow the mullahs.

I saw the flip side of this in Britain in the Nineties and Ireland in the Noughties where property prices did crash. In Ireland, Dublin, a market favoured by the high tech firms, recovered but the rest of the island has lagged way behind. That may be the model globally for the future.

Economics has a large retrospective element to it. I have no understanding of these things but I can appreciate that when one brings in billions of new people into a market outcomes may change in a fundamental way. We’ve seen the prices in places like Walmart stay low year after year on all those items made in China.

Globalization, automation and immigration have kept interest rates down and property prices booming in places like Vancouver and Toronto. Who knows when a trend based on such massive forces will end? Could be next year or decades away.

Being barely legal is not good enough for a prince on a whopping income from the state. Damn near any parent would agree that no middle-aged man, let alone a member of the royal family, should be having sex with seventeen year old girls. Agreed? It’s no coincidence that Maxwell and Epstein preferred girls from troubled backgrounds where the fathers were unlikely to turn up and be a problem: “trash” as Maxwell is alleged to have called them. For years, Andrew associated with a man he knew or should have known was a sexual predator. That is simply not acceptable. On this one issue at least, I’d say myself and Andrew Scheer are in agreement.

The Mummers are an example of a similar cultural transfer from the British Isles to North America. https://www.classicalpursuits.com/mummers-in-newfoundland/ They are very much a going concern in Newfoundland at Christmas.

It’s a fairly minor example of what is happening across the world. Many languages will disappear in the next few decades as globalization proceeds.

The roots of Halloween go way back to your Celtic friends.

Historically, Australians were more British culturally than Canadians were, right down to their sports and their accent, although I’m not sure I’d dare to call them a British outpost these days. Two reasons why republicanism was more hotly debated in Oz - it meant a lot more because of the stronger links to Britain (not always happy ones) and there was no massive republic next door that one didn’t want to imitate too much. The country that used to be in Canada’s shoes down there, overshadowed by a similar but much larger neighbour, was New Zealand. Now both of them are dealing with the soft power of Hollywood, Google and Facebook, and the considerably darker influence of China.

Free trade deals are negotiated by governments, not companies.

Does ‘globalism’ include free trade? Many so-called conservatives seem to oppose free trade these days. You may be in for a disappointment on Scheer’s replacement who could well be less conservative than he is, esp. on social issues.

He is a waste of space. I suspect he first met Epstein much earlier than he claimed in the interview, something the members of his security detail could easily clear up if they were allowed to.

I can’t imagine MI6 trusting Andrew with any task, as he’d be bragging to all and sundry about it five minutes later. One issue that arose in the interview is when Epstein and the Duke first met. Andy’s former bodyguards could probably resolve this matter if they were allowed to do so.

American versus British culture; pagan traditions versus an ancient Christian dispute in a post-Christian country. There’s only going to be one winner.

Post-QEII, the monarchy is going to look a lot sillier.

Countries change from monarchies to republics all the time. It wouldn’t affect ordinary life very much.

When QEII dies we should just ignore that event and leave her in the job. That way there’ll be no problems with scandals or sudden changes in British laws on succession etc.

Altai is at the 'we good you bad' level. Discourse is futile.

I agree about Baden. He is 85.

My money is on Epstein. The evidence points that way.

Some info on the original Captain Boycott, a rather unsavoury individual: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Boycott Another row over land.

Iran is more a civilization than a mere country and will survive its current vicissitudes. Iranians have to initiate the process of reform themselves on a large scale basis. Once that happens, everyone else will row in. The sort of slaughter required to impose democracy is really not worth thinking about.