TheNewTeddy

I drew this myself. It's not very good, but it might help people understand where in Northern Ireland these things are taking place. Note that Belfast is, by far, the largest city in NI, while the Foyle Area is the second largest, being about a quarter the size of Belfast. No other towns even come close to this in terms of size.

ITALY A graph from wikipedia This: http://en.wikipedia...._electoral_list is a great page to follow. Only one new poll, so I won't update the projection just yet. ISRAEL 34 Conservative 18 Labour 14 Jewish 11 Lapid 11 Arab 10 Shas 10 Liberal 6 Torrah 5 Progressive

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-northern-ireland-20982800 A bit of a backgrounder. In Stormont, there is a rule that when one community declares something of critical interest (IE, Nationalists or Unionists) there needs to be a double-majority vote on the issue. Not only a majority of the entire parliament, but a majority from both communities as well. It seems, from the link above, the DUP is claiming a similar stance on the flags issue in Belfast. Given the protests they, using simple logic, seem to have a pretty solid case.

I, for one, can't see NI just "joining Ireland". It's far too different to just be some random part of Ireland. It's also far too different to just be some random part of the UK, which, for all intents and purposes, it what it is today. I see the "end" state of NI being somehow 'shared' between the UK and Ireland, so that it is a part of both and yet, part of neither.

So in other words: the only reason you have to be upset is pure and simple racism.

That does not answer why it is wrong for me to want to know what the f**k I am supposed to be?

I'm not quite sure why my wanting to know who the government thinks I am is so offensive to people.

FTR two of my heroes are Ian Paisley and Gerry Adams. Two men who once wanted to quite literally kill one another were able to sit down at the same table and decide they wanted peace. To me that is the best symbol for hope you can have. Also FTR I side with the Catholics on the issues.

If I was the laywer, I'd try something like "My client was pressured into doing it by the others" or even "My client did not partake" etc

A few more things about NI politics, as this has the potential to become the NI thread. NI had a Parliament from it's creation in 1921, to that parliament's abolition in 1973. (It should be noted that NI sends MPs to Westminster) The elections during this period were nearly identical. They used the same map, and always produced the same results, with a few variations of course. The UUP won an overwhelming majority, with the Nationalists taking just under 10 seats, and Labour scraping a few from Belfast. Things started to change after Terence O'Neill was elected as Prime Minister. He started to open up to the Irish community. During his reign there was an incident in 1968 where another "banned" protest took place. This resulted in the severe an unwarranted beating of many protesters - including many politicians - at the hands of the police force the RUC. This was broadcast on the media worldwide. O'Neill introduced many reforms in response, but not the electoral reforms demanded by the Catholics. The marched on Belfast, and were met by a group of Loyalists who savagely beat them while the RUC looked on and watched. This sparked rioting. During this time period, a dozen UUP MPs from the NI Parliament quit due to opposition to O'Neill, and a snap election was called, where O'Neill nearly lost his own seat to a man named Ian Paisley. The election itself: http://en.wikipedia...._election,_1969 was inconclusive with many anti O'Neill members elected, depriving him of his majority. O'Neill resigned as a result. Brian Faulkner took over as Prime Minister. He invited in a Labour member into government, and tried to change the committee system as well. At this time, Labour formed the more united Social Democratic and Labour Party, or SDLP, taking in many Labour and Nationalist members. After two youths were shot by soldiers in the Foyle area, the SDLP refused to partake in Parliament. During his reign, in 1972, the Bloody Sunday events occurred and this was the effectual death of Faulkner's government. The UK Prime Minister decided to remove security powers from the NI Parliament, and in response, Faulkner prorogued the Parliament, and the UK PM decided to introduce "Direct Rule" - or in other terms, the UK Parliament would now run NI, and the NI Parliament, was no more. (Note: the Flag went out the window as well at this time) In 1973, there was an attempt to set up an Assembly in NI to replace the Parliament. This Assembly would be based on First Past The Post, and thus eliminate any possible gerrymandering to prevent Catholics from electing members. The results were shocking to many. UUP - 24 || SDLP - 19 || DUP - 8 || UUP(A) - 7 || Vanguard - 7 || Alliance - 8 || Labour - 1 || Loyalist Independent - 3 || Ind Unionist - 1 || The DUP, lead by that Ian Paisley fellow, managed to secure 3rd place. 7 UUP members opposed to the assembly were elected. Vanguard also elected 7, they were, like the DUP, another anti-UUP Unionist party. The Alliance managed to tie the DUP with 8 members. This assembly produced a power-sharing deal, where the UUP, SDLP, and Alliance would form a coalition government. This lasted just a few months, after which protests from unionist forces forced the assembly to collapse. In 1975, they again tried the assembly method. UUP - 19 || SDLP - 17 || Vanguard - 14 || DUP - 12 || Alliance - 8 || "Union Party" - 5 || Others - 3 The UUP, Vanguard, and DUP managed a majority of seats. These parties were opposed to the idea of power sharing with the Catholics, and thus assembly thus fell apart very quickly. In 1982 they figured the third time's the charm and held yet another election to the assembly. UUP - 26 || DUP - 21 || SDLP - 14 || Alliance - 10 || Sinn Fein - 5 || Others - 2 The SDLP and SF decided to boycott the election, and the UK government felt to continue would be pointless, thus, no executive was elected from this assembly. Ian Paisley had to famously be dragged out of the assembly, quite literally kicking and screaming. It was not until 1996 that another attempt was tried, this time, to elect a "Political Forum" for NI. The results were as follows: UUP - 30 || DUP - 24 || SDLP - 21 || SF - 17 || Alliance - 7 || UKU - 3 || PUP - 2 || UD - 2 || Womens - 2 || Labour - 2 The forum 'worked' and resulted in the Good Friday agreement of 1998. As a result of said agreement, elections were scheduled for 1998 to the new Assembly known as Stormont. While past assemblies have been called Stormont, I will call only the current assembly "Stormont" to prevent confusion. The results were as follows UUP - 28 || SDLP - 24 || DUP - 20 || SF - 18 || Alliance - 6 || UKU - 5 || PUP - 2 || Womens - 2 || IndUnionist - 3 The rules were that each party would identify as Unionist or Nationalist (or neither) and that the top Unionst and top Nationalist parties would each pick the First Minister and deputy First Minister. Any parties over a certain threshold of seats would be allowed to chose members to the cabinet. A Grand Coalition was thus formed with the 4 largest parties, the UUP, SDLP, DUP, and SF. The DUP and SF hated one another however. This assembly had some trouble but did some good. In 2003 further elections were held. The results were trouble. DUP - 30 || UUP - 27 || SF - 24 || SDLP - 18 || Alliance - 6 || Others - 3 The DUP refused to support a SF deputy First Minister, and SF refused to support a DUP First Minister. The assembly thus fell apart right away, and "Direct Rule" was re-introduced. In 2007 they tried the election thing again. DUP - 36 || SF - 28 || UUP - 18 || SDLP - 16 || Alliance - 7 || Others - 3 Well that helped. The DUP and SF both realized that they'd rather give each other the dreaded FM posts than have the UK rule over them for another 4 years and so finally came to an agreement. Ian Paisley became First Minister, and SF's Margin McGuninness became deputy First Minister. They would go on to become known as "The Chuckle Brothers" as they apparently got along quite well with one another on a personal level. This assembly then did something no Parliament within NI had done since the 60's. It managed to complete it's full term without interruption. Another election was held in 2011 DUP - 38 || SF - 29 || UUP - 16 || SDLP - 14 || Alliance - 8 || Others - 3 The Alliance finally managed the threshold to elect members to cabinet. They were put in charge of the Police, the first time someone from NI would rule over the police politically. The police had changed much from it's RUC days, now the new PSNI (Police) had minimum quotas for hiring Catholics to ensure that the discrimination of the past would not happen again. The odd thing is during the past number of years, it's been the UUP and SDLP complaining that the DUP and SF are working "too" well together, and that, in their words, at cabinet meetings it's almost as if the DUP and SF had already talked about proposals and agreed on how to proceed Both parties have and are debating pulling out of cabinet to become opposition parties, but this has yet to happen.

link: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-northern-ireland-20940126 I'll give a backgrounder since I've been following this rather close for the past few weeks. In mid to late December, Belfast City Council held a vote, and they voted to remove the union jack on all but certain days ...actually a bit more background is needed. Northern Ireland has 5 main political parties. Sinn Fein is the party of Republicans. They want to join with Ireland, care not for the British or the British system, and were once the political wing of the IRA, a terrorist organization that organized killings during "The Troubles" in NI. The SDLP is Nationalist. They also want to join with Ireland, but are more moderate about it. They focus on Labour and Social Democratic issues (hence the name) and are generally seen as on the left. They sit with Labour in Westminster on most issues. The UUP is Unionist. They have some weak ties to the Conservative Party, and are right-wing on the issues. They are also strongly pro-UK and want NI to remain a part of the UK. The DUP is also Unionist, but has been able to attract some support from Loyalists. Their leader once 'invaded Ireland' with other drunken teenagers, and "took over" a local town hall and raised the union flag before heading home. The Alliance is a moderate centrist party. They once had minor ties to the Liberals. Their membership and voter base is mostly Protestant and Unionist, but their policies are such to avoid splitting between Unionist/Nationalist and rather the party focuses on being a bridge between the two sides. A few things to know about history in NI: From apx 1100 to apx 1970 the British (mostly Protestant) treated the Irish and Northern Irish pretty poorly. In the latter part of this time period (60's) many municipalities in Northern Ireland had drawn their ward boundaries in such ways that Catholics could not gain a significant number of seats, even in areas where they were the overwhelming majority. Eventually, they got pissed off and wanted to march, so they asked for a permit to protest and it was denied. Another, this time Protestant group, asked for a permit and were granted. So the Catholics decided to march anyway. They were met by the army, and some trigger happy army fellow decided to start shooting, eventually the entire army was shooting and many died. This is known as "Bloody Sunday" Following this, Catholics in NI decided to fight back, quite literally. They joined the terrorist IRA in large numbers and thus began "The Troubles", a terrorist campaign against British rule on the island of Ireland. The IRA was not only up against the UK Army, but against the UVF, a terrorist group on the side of Protestants and Unionists. The two sides battled it out in terrorist/sniper campaigns until the mid 90s when the two sides agreed to peace. The road to peace was a very bumpy one, and it's only been in the past 5 or so years that peace has really taken grip. Anyway, back to this December. The Union Jack is seen as offensive to many in the nationalist and republican community because of it's connection to the oppression of the past 9 centuries. SF and the SDLP had been demanding that Belfast City Hall take down the flag and fly only the city flag (NI itself no long has a flag) This, of course, was opposed by unionists. In December, the Alliance proposed a compromise; that City Hall would do what Stormont (the Legislature) does, and only fly the flag on certain days (celebration days mostly) They had a vote and this passed. This is when the protests began. For most of the end of December, and, for most of so far in January (with a break for the holidays), every night, Loyalists have been protesting on the streets. Recently it has become increasingly violent and the police have been attacked. Ties to the UVF have been found and the situation is getting a bit dicey. Bullets have been sent in the mail to various politicians, and a few homes of politicians have been attacked. Today is one of the designated days to fly the flag and it remains to be seen how this will impact the situation. My take: I think that this, despite being terrible, is very important. For the past 5 years, most of the complaints have been about IRA like groups and the threat they pose. Now it's very clear that Loyalist extremists also pose a real threat. It's not a one-sided issue any more.

Links: http://worldnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2013/01/07/16388812-india-gang-rape-case-accused-duo-offer-to-testify-against-others?lite - http://www.cbc.ca/news/world/story/2013/01/09/india-gang-rape-case-lawyer.html In short, a woman was raped on a privately owned public transit bus in Delhi, the capital of India. She was with a friend, and the two were attacked. Passengers, including the driver, took turns raping the woman over and over, this took hours. She later died in hospital. Lawyers for the accused are saying it was her fault for not being a "respectable" woman and for riding the bus in the evening. The case is showing the problem women have in India, where this sort of thing is more common than one might expect. It will be interesting how it turns out. My take: This issue won't just "go away" once the trial is over. This will be a real tipping point for society in India. What remains to be seen if it will result in more rights for women, or, a push back and less rights.

Italy: FD is out and LN is in the Conservative Coalition. LN was in last time, so this is not a huge "OMG they are working with the Bloc" sort of deal. Current poll averaging is as follows: 39.40% Socialist (344 seats at current levels) 26.06% Conservative (139) 13.86% Moderate (74) 13.80% Populist (73) 3.95% Progressive (0) And over is Israel: 34 Conservative 18 Labour 15 Jewish 11 Shas 11 Lapid 11 Arab 8 Liberal 6 Torrah 5 Progressive 66 for a coalition with the Conservatives and all Religious parties. And on Israel; remember that politics is different in different countries. An Obamacare supporting Democrat in the US would be so far to the right-wing here in Canada on healthcare, they'd have trouble fitting into the CPC. Israel is a very right-wing country, and a Labour member, when all the issues are taken into account, would probably fit better into the Liberals than into the NDP.

Can someone help me? I want to know if I'm indian today. My grandmother's grandmother was Mi'kmaq and I'm wondering if I'm an indian now lol. I'm serious too - does anyone know if that makes me qualify?

My Israeli friend suggested the same (calling Likud the nationalists) but I'll stick with Conservative for now. He also recommended against calling Hatunah Liberal, but withdrew that after I explained our own Liberals to him.

Lower Saxony (Germany) The Ministerpräsidenten of Landes Niedersachsen in Germany - that is, head of the Christlich Demokratische Union Deutschlands in that state, his name is "David James McAllister" McAllister leads the Conservative CDU government and is currently in coalition with the Liberals. Stephan Weil is the Socialist leader, and only other person with a realistic chance of being elected as Premier (Minister President) of the state. Recent polls have been bad for the smaller parties. The Liberals, the Left-Radicals, and the Pirate Party have all failed to meet the 5% threshold since September. It is thus likely that only three parties, the Conservatives, Socialists, and Greens will win seats. Every poll taken within the past year shows the Greens and Socialists would have enough seats to form a governing coalition. If the Liberals, or the Radicals, or the Pirates win seats, it likely would not be enough to disrupt any Socialist-Green majority; however, if two of these parties manage to win seats, it would probably be enough. What happens remains to be seen.

Italy Polling Update: 40.00% - IBC - Socialist (PD+SEL+PSI+CD) -Bersani- 21.00% - ??? - Conservative (PdL+LD+FdI+FD+GS) -Berlusconi- [no coalition name chosen yet] 16.00% - M5S - Populist (No coalition allies) -Grillo- 11.00% - AMI - Moderate (UdC+FLI+VTR+PLI) -Monti- 4.00% - RC - Left-Radical (Unified List) -Ingroia- 4.00% - LN - North Seppy (No coalition allies) -Maroni- This is our 2013 starting point. From here on in all further updates will be complete mathematical averages. Israel: http://www.haaretz.com/news/israeli-elections-2013 An interesting graphic here. I will summarize: the Nationalists are clearly the most right-wing party in Israel. They are also quite Religious, but, there are other more religious parties. These include the Jewish party, Shas, and the Torrah party. Shas is listed as more to the right of the Torrah Party, but both are very religious. The Torrah Party meanwhile comes out close to the centre on the left-right spectrum, but still on the right. The Conservatives meanwhile straddle the Religious-Secular divide, but are also on the right. Kadima is all but dead, but was in the middle. It's support has gone to Lapid, which is slightly more secular, and the Liberals, which are even more secular and to the left. Labour is to the left of this, but is a bit more religious in fact. The Progressives are listed as the most left-wing jewish party, but, not quite as secular as the Liberals. The arab parties crowd the far left side of the spectrum, with the UAL-Ta'al being listed as potentially the most religious party in the country, while Balad and Hadash are the most secular parties.

NOTE For clarity, I'm going to start using different names The Likud-Yisrael Beitenu coalition shall now be called the "Conservatives" The National Union and Jewish Home coalition (AKA the Religious Coalition) will now be called the Jewish Union, or, Jewish Party. Meretz, is a left party. Considering the Zionism in Israeli politics, Meretz is the only Jewish party that can be compared to left-wing views from outside of Israel. I've classified it as "Progressive" to avoid confusion with just using "left" Otzma will now just be called the "Nationalists" as that is what they are in short. Yesh Atid, which is a party based around it's leader, Lapid, and his views on the issues, will be just called Lapid. Hatnuah will be called the Liberals UTJ will be called the Torrah Party Shas, however, is keeping it's name. The name is simple enough to remember and spell, and, it is too unique to simply classify otherwise. Note that all 3 Arab parties are different. One of them, for example, has a huge number of Jewish members, and is in effect a mixed Jewish-Arab Socialist party. Another could be classified as "Islamist". All three, however, are firmly on the left of the spectrum, more left than Meretz in fact. (This is a separate post, so I can link to it) Thus, current standings projections: 34 - Conservatives 17 - Labour 15 - Jewish 11 - Shas 11 - Arab 9 - Lapid 9 - Liberals 6 - Torrah 4 - Progressive 2 - Nationalist PS - a special thanks to a friend of mine from Israel for helping me with this post! In addition, a bit more about the Arab parties. Hadash is a Socialist front. They have Communist elements. They are more concerned with being left-wing than they are with supporting Arab causes. This is the party with a large number of Jewish members. Balad is far more Arab focused, but still left-wing. The party has similar stances to Hadash on the Palestine issue, but, on other issues are not as left-wing. United Arab List and Ta'al are two parties that run a single list. The latter is focused on it's leader, while the former is an Islamist party. The biggest difference between the three is where their support comes from geographically. UAL gets a lot of support from the south while Balad and Hadash gain support from various towns in the rest of Israel. It is not unusual to see one small Arab town with over 80% support for, say, Balad, while the small Arab town next door has given 80% of it's support to Hadash. UAL can get in on this action as well from time to time.

Poll Averaging produces different results. 34 for Likud (and allies) 17 for Labour 15 for the Religious coalition 11 for Shas 9 for Yesh Atid 9 for Hatnuah 6 for UTJ 4 for Meretz 2 for Otzma 11 for the Arab parties. COMBOS 49 for Likud and the Religious coalition. 49 for Likud and Labour 60 if either of the above combine with Shas. Note 61 is needed for a Majority. 18 combined for the Liberal parties 34 for the 3 Religious lists 68 for the 3 Religious lists + the Likud lead coalition 39 for the centre left of Labour, the Liberals, and Meretz 50 (for the above if they combined with) with Shas 56 with UTJ In short, at this time, the most plausible result is a Likud-Religious coalition. The only way the other parties could manage a coalition is to invite Arab parties in, and that won't be happening.

The latest polls put the two main governing parties down from their pre-election 42 to a current 35 seats. The two radical right-religious parties are far up from their current 5 seats to 18, and could thus finish in second place. Labour is up from 8 to 18 The Arab parties are stable at 11 Kadima is expected to lose all 21 seats Yesh Atid is expected to win 5 Hatnuah is expected to win 6 Meretz is expected to win 7 Otzma polled at 6 but this seems to be an outlier UTJ sits at 7, up from 5 and Shas is at 8, down from 10

Upcoming elections: JANUARY 12th - http://en.wikipedia...._election,_2013 Czech (President) 20th - http://en.wikipedia....eferendum,_2013 Austria Referendum 20th - http://en.wikipedia...._election,_2013 Lower Saxony (Germany)* 22nd - http://en.wikipedia...._election,_2013 ISRAEL FEBRUARY 3rd - http://en.wikipedia...._election,_2013 - Liechtenstein 3rd - http://en.wikipedia...._election,_2008 - Monaco 17th - http://en.wikipedia...._election,_2013 - Cyprus 17th - http://en.wikipedia...._election,_2013 - Ecuador 18th - http://en.wikipedia...._election,_2013 - Armenia 25th - http://en.wikipedia....eneral_election ITALY Countries in ALLCAPS will get focus by me, while those with an asterisk* after them will get a "minor focus" (similar to Romania or Ghana) Other big elections this coming year http://en.wikipedia....ederal_election GERMANY http://en.wikipedia....ederal_election AUSTRALIA http://en.wikipedia...._election,_2013 Iceland* http://en.wikipedia...._election,_2013 Lebanon* http://en.wikipedia...._election,_2013 Nepal* http://en.wikipedia...._election,_2013 Pakistan* http://en.wikipedia...._election,_2013 Palestine* http://en.wikipedia....eferendum,_2013 Zimbabwe Referendum http://en.wikipedia...._election,_2013 Zimbabwe Presidential

Israel: Things really seem to be shaking themselves up, here is a bit of a backgrounder. Last Election (Current Knesset) - Party - Stance - Canadian Equal 28 (21) - Kadima - Liberal - Liberal 27 (27) - Likud - Conservative - Conservaive 15 (15) - Yisrael Beiteinu - Right-Conservative - Canadian Alliance 13 (8) - Labour - Labour - Moderate NDP 11 (10) - Shas - Religious - Christian Heritage Party 5 (5) - UTJ - Very Religious - No equal 4 (2) - National Union - Very Religious - No equal 4 (4) - UAL Ta'al - Arab - Bloc? 4 (4) - Hadash - Arab - Bloc? 3 (3) - Jewish Home - Very Religious - No equal 3 (3) - Meretz - Green - Green 0 (7) - Hatnuah - Kadima defectors - Liberal 0 (2) - Otzma LeYisrael - Far right - No equal 0 (1) - Am Shalem - Moderate Religious - Moderate CHP 0 (0) - Yesh Atid - Liberal - Liberal Likud and Yisrael Beiteinu have formed a coalition for this election. National Union and Jewish Home have also formed a coalition for this election. The Arab parties, though not in coalition, are often counted as one for simplicity sake. So what's the difference between all the religious parties? That's harder to figure out. Shas has been the big player for decades. It is almost a race-based party, but that is not true. Those who follow orthodox religious traditions are called Haredim, and they form the base of the entire party. Even among them, there are moderates, and Shas takes up the moderate 2/3rds of these voters. Shas has quite often been a coalition partner to both Left and Right governments. Shas finds most of it's support among non-european jews. UTJ is somewhat similar to Shas but finds it's support more from the 'brass' of the religious clerics than from the 'people'. It is more focuses on mysticism. National Union and Jewish Home differ from the above two in that they have a right-wing position on the Palestinian issue. While the above two parties are more focused on what the Torrah actually says, these two want to apply it in a right-wing manner. National Union especially wants to create a theocratic state.

Italy update 39.00% - IBC - Socialist (PD+SEL+PSI+CD) -Bersani- 20.00% - ??? - Conservative (PdL+LD+FdI+GS) -Berlusconi- [no coalition name chosen yet] 16.00% - M5S - Populist (No coalition allies) -Grillo- 10.00% - AMI - Moderate (UdC+FLI+VTR+PLI) -Monti- 4.00% - RC - Left-Radical (IdV+FdS+MA+FdV) -Ingroia- 5.50% - LN - North Seppy (No coalition allies) -Maroni- 3.00% - FD - Libertarian Lite (No coalition allies) -Boldrin-

LIV's should be encouraged to stay home and not vote. All this drive for more turnout is what is really destructive. People who do not care or know enough to vote should be encouraged to exercise their option to not vote.

If you want things that do not exist within this universe, try Gravity.