-TSS-

If only the EU obeyed its own rules and applied the Dublin-rule this kind of nonsense wouldn't happen about refugees travelling through countless countries until they find the one they prefer the most.

At the risk of repeating myself I'll say this again: The US political system is not very good. Too much centered around the person of the President. When the President is in trouble the system is paralysed, which happened in the 90's with Clinton.

Having a meaningful professional army like that of the UK requires a large enough population-base where to choose from the recruits. Military career is a very respected career choice in the UK and their army can reject those whom it sees unfit for the purpose. In smaller countries they dont have that luxury if they want their army to have any significance whatsoever. I must tell you from my own experience in the Finnish army as a conscriptee over 20 years ago that the professional trainers there have to this day been easily the stupidest adult people I have come across. Only a half-brain chooses that career in Finland anyway.

In many former Warsaw-pact countries people who went to university avoided conscription, which of course sent a message that if you have to go to the army it means it is because you are stupid. Not all university-graduates avoided conscription as even the army needs smart people too but they were straight promoted as officers thugs avoiding the humiliating rookie-period.

The disadvantage of PR is that small cliff-hanger parties often have undue influence compared to their size. Similarly, while the main parties alternate there may be parties which are always in the government like the German Liberals until the 90's.

As recently as only 10-15 years ago all across Europe it was very common that the left were very anti-EU or at least very critical of it. The EU was seen as a capitalist-plot to suppress the rights of the workers. In the referenda on the EU-treaties in France, Denmark and Ireland it was the left which campaigned for the alternatives which were against the wishes of the EU. Since then a strange 180-degree turnaround has happened. At some point in time the left has changed its stance and these days by some twisted logic being anti-EU is equated with fascism and people who are anti-EU are treated like as if they are fascists. It would be interesting to know what has caused this turnaround.

Now it is official; Sweden will reintroduce conscription.

If Sessions has to go I wonder is it the shortest cabinet-career ever.

Trump seems to have invited all his billionaire-buddies to his cabinet.

I wonder are older people in Haiti nostalgic for the days of Duvalier. Things don't seem to have got any better after the Duvalier-dynasty was overthrown.

The site doesn't seem to allow it.

Referendums are never binding when the political elite don't like the outcome. However, one must give credit to Theresa May as she is pushing Brexit forward even trhough she supported remain but she respects the outcome of the referendum.

What on earth is this nonsense I heard of that the Canadians aim that the population of Canada is 100 million by the year 2100? Simply ridiculous! For one thing, Canada is a semi-arctic country which already is overcrowded in relation to its latitudes. For another thing, why is a certain population-level considered to be a priority?

All in all, I believe in the idea that there does not need to be more layers of government than the central government and the local government. For me the very idea of federalism is totally alien. If unitary countries establish an extra layer of government between the central and the local that is simply wasteful. If a country is very large and too large to work on my idea of there being a central government and a local government only then it is too large.

I'm not sure if I understand your question but one must be a party-member to be able to vote for a party-leader in a party-conference. Namely, there is a party-conference coming up with the True Finns, a junior coalition-party in the current government, and a lot of people have joined the party just to be able to vote in the leadership-election to oust the current party-leader. That conference will be later this year and remains to be seen if the party-leader will be kicked out.

The traditional left/right-division has become obsolete. New dividing lines are forming and changing all the time depending on the circumstances and previously unthinkable alliances are formed.

There is a new thing about the refugees from the islamic countries that they tell you that they have abandoned islam and therefore you can't send them back to their own countries because the penalty for apostasy is death. There you wonder then whether you believe them or is that another occasion of taqiya. Thiose who don't know what taqiya means just google it.

In an answer to your question about how big I think the Finnish parliament should be my answer is that since about 80% of our legislation is emanating from the EU and the rest must not be uncompatible with the EU-legislation I really don't see any point in there being a Finnish parliament at all. Therefore, I would abolish it altogether. A total waste of time and money and a useless talking-shop for mediocre backwater-politicians which all of our politicians are. Nobody would notice any difference if Finnish parliament were abolished except those fat-cat politicians.

In Finland the main problem people have with refugees is that they have travelled through 8-10 countries, all of which perfectly safe, but have refused to register in any of those and are heading towards Britain, Germany, Sweden and some of them to Finland.

I wouldn't favour the kind of system used in Germany and New Zealand. That would create two tiers of MP*s; those with the constituency-mandate and those from the party-lists. Those who have been elected from the single-member constituencies never stop reminding about it. Those who are defeated in the constituency-vote are the ones who sneak in through party-lists.

Pot calling kettle black. Each other's fiercest opponents are often just the flip-sides of the same coin.

If being productive means passing as many new laws as possible I prefer unproductive goverrnments.

I believe the feeling is mutual; they don't want to stay in Mexico either.

I wonder who is the person after whom most buildings, rivers, lakes, cities or anything else have been named. My guess is Victoria.

Politicians in every western country seem to be puppets these days. Who's the one pulling the strings of the puppets? I wish I knew but even though I don't take tinfoil-hat stuff seriously but having said that what is going on everywhere in Western-Europe these days is far too consistent to be co-incidental. Soros or Bilderberg or whoever but someone is running the show.