General Politics Thread

[StellarHibee]

49 minutes ago, Binos said:

I just don't think the snp are still aware of what the average joe is thinking

Or they are, but realize that there's a distinct difference between doing the right thing and doing the popular thing.

[Salt n Vinegar]

On the odd occasion when I've been driving on the M8 through Glasgow City centre, doing 30 miles an hour would be a considerable improvement. Heading west from before Caly Uni to the Kingston Bridge it's been like a car park. 

[Leith Green]

 

13 hours ago, Binos said:

The snp with green influences,  have completely lost their shit

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-glasgow-west-65178708

I suppose for context, its not like Glasgow is the first city to look at speed restrictions on roads within their city - one difference is that Glasgow has a motorway running through the middle and that brings it some specific problems.

I think that they have been soft trialling this anyway with the "variable speed limits" that are in place during busy periods - wouldnt surprise me if it didnt end as a blanket 30mph, but the VSL was just extended to more hours.

n.b. The section through the city was completed ~50 years ago, when there were far fewer vehicles on the roads and we knew less about the negative side effects. The M8 thru Glasgow simply wouldnt be allowed to be built today, due to the impact on peoples health via emissions, noise, environment etc.

Whether people like it or not, the future - in cities - is (cheap and reliable) mass transport.

24 minutes ago, Salt n Vinegar said:

On the odd occasion when I've been driving on the M8 through Glasgow City centre, doing 30 miles an hour would be a considerable improvement. Heading west from before Caly Uni to the Kingston Bridge it's been like a car park. 

This is the part people also forget - when Edinburgh introduced the 20mph limit, people were losing their shit about it................conveniently forgetting that 20mph as an average through any city is aspirational at best !

(I used to commute by bike from the city centre to the Gyle, and got home quicker than any car at peak time).

[coprolite]

We've got a 50mph limit on large sections of the M4 that go through urban areas. It's to cut pollution levels. Maybe 30mph is an opening bid in the expectation of splitting the difference and ending up at 50?

[thisal]

3 hours ago, coprolite said:

We've got a 50mph limit on large sections of the M4 that go through urban areas. It's to cut pollution levels. Maybe 30mph is an opening bid in the expectation of splitting the difference and ending up at 50?

It is normally 50. Currently 40 due temporary roadworks (4years and counting). 

[Iain]

Hope this doesn't end up with more people taking the M73/74 and clogging it up.

[Binos]

19 hours ago, StellarHibee said:

Or they are, but realize that there's a distinct difference between doing the right thing and doing the popular thing.

They won't have the choice to make the way they're headed

And the right thing would be to subsidise public transport further,  which would actually make it comparable with those in Europe,  and encourage people to use greener transport 

Not big stick style policy

[Binos]

9 hours ago, Leith Green said:

 

I suppose for context, its not like Glasgow is the first city to look at speed restrictions on roads within their city - one difference is that Glasgow has a motorway running through the middle and that brings it some specific problems.

I think that they have been soft trialling this anyway with the "variable speed limits" that are in place during busy periods - wouldnt surprise me if it didnt end as a blanket 30mph, but the VSL was just extended to more hours.

n.b. The section through the city was completed ~50 years ago, when there were far fewer vehicles on the roads and we knew less about the negative side effects. The M8 thru Glasgow simply wouldnt be allowed to be built today, due to the impact on peoples health via emissions, noise, environment etc.

Whether people like it or not, the future - in cities - is (cheap and reliable) mass transport.

This is the part people also forget - when Edinburgh introduced the 20mph limit, people were losing their shit about it................conveniently forgetting that 20mph as an average through any city is aspirational at best !

(I used to commute by bike from the city centre to the Gyle, and got home quicker than any car at peak time).

Try cycling from either city centre to stirling 

[Leith Green]

7 minutes ago, Binos said:

Try cycling from either city centre to stirling 

I have.......

[StellarHibee]

12 minutes ago, Binos said:

And the right thing would be to subsidise public transport further,  which would actually make it comparable with those in Europe,  and encourage people to use greener transport 

That all sounds great on paper. How do they make it work in practice? Where do they pull the funding from in order to further subsidise public transport, a notoriously expensive endeavour?

[Binos]

1 hour ago, StellarHibee said:

That all sounds great on paper. How do they make it work in practice? Where do they pull the funding from in order to further subsidise public transport, a notoriously expensive endeavour?

Ask other European countries how they've done it,  would be my opening gambit

Edited April 5, 2023 by Binos

[StellarHibee]

51 minutes ago, Binos said:

Ask other European countries how they've done it,  would be my opening gambit

Scotland isn't other European Countries. We're an occupied territory with a fixed allowance.

[Guest]

It hasn't stopped them being lumbered with a neoliberal president but it's amazing to see how much more politically educated your average French worker is compared to UK. Here we'd only see scenes like this from fash arseholes storming a refugee centre or something.

[Arch Stanton]

10 years ago already.

 

[Salt n Vinegar]

Just seen film on Sky News of the junior doctors protesting. Special award for creativity goes to the protestor whose placard read "THE ONLY GOOD TORY IS A SUPPOSITORY". 

Not sure I'd go that far, but an interesting view nonetheless. 

[Wee-Bey]

Sticking this in here although it probably could and should have gone in the Normal Island or Far Right threads.

Genuinely thought it was a parody tweet at first.

[Thistle_do_nicely]

3 hours ago, Marlo Stanfield said:

Sticking this in here although it probably could and should have gone in the Normal Island or Far Right threads.

Genuinely thought it was a parody tweet at first.

Assuming its been typed out and they dont just do a ctrl+c from a handy template they keep of threatening messages they want to send out, someone must have gone as far as "We will track you down. We will find you. And we will bring you to justice" - Minister for Disabled People when making that.

I hope they at least had the grace to crack a mitchell and webb "are we the baddies?" joke in the office.

[101]

Obviously the mask wearing is controversial, but there will be numerous people who cover their faces for religious reasons and to not allow them to vote without showing their face seems completely ridiculous, and to my mind is simple discrimination.

 

 

[Bully Wee Villa]

Yep. Even if they have a private booth where a female member of staff can check a person's face, which I doubt, many women won't be aware of that and won't go to vote. 

78% of Muslims voted Labour in 2019...

[BFTD]

People with masks/facial coverings is the least of it.

As they're borrowing ideas from the Republicans, I wonder how long it'll take before polling places in poorer areas of England are reduced and put in inconvenient locations. For security, obviously. "If you can't be bothered travelling a few miles then you don't deserve a vote."