Oolite Bulletins

I think I'd prefer a zombie apocalypse to this campaign going on any longer. Both the official campaigns have been absolutely, utterly atrocious.

kanthoney wrote:

I think I'd prefer a zombie apocalypse to this campaign going on any longer.

Indeed – there would still be the ghastly, shambling wrecks of decayed humanity all over the place, but at least a zombie apocalypse would have slightly more emphasis on brains ...

<sniggers>

In other news, Neanderthals in France were building stone structures in caves!

The European Union should abandon its "utopian dreams" of ever-closer integration to combat rising Euroscepticism, Donald Tusk has said.

Are the Eurocrats running scared? Will they avert the zombie apocalypse? Confused? You will be after this week's episode of Soap!

Ah yes, the Martini generation - one of my old GFs was an 'anytime, anyplace, anywhere' girl.

After much pondering and soul-searching, I've decided that the only logical choice for England is to drop Rooney!

Cody wrote:

After much pondering and soul-searching, I've decided that the only logical choice for England is to drop Rooney!

He's not a striker anymore, at his age he should be using his experience further back setting up the shots for the bright young things.

Just a reminder to Brits that Tuesday 7th is the last day to get on the electoral register if you actually want to vote in this thing.

https://www.gov.uk/register-to-vote

I am unsure whether to be pleased or disappointed that Elite (/Oolite) government descriptions have made few appearances in this thread.

Would the UK become an anarchy, feudal, a corporate state (and so on) were it to vote either way? (See, here I am trying to combine serious debate with Ooniverse-silliness).

That might be because the UK doesn't fit very well with the Oolite government types. Ostensibly, we're a democracy - but a democracy where a party that gets 37% of the votes cast gets 100% of the power, and where an enormous number of senior positions - in government, in the armed forces, in the judiciary, in the civil service - are filled by people who went to a very small list of private schools who select their pupils on their parents' ability to pay. A democracy with an unelected head of state, who inherited the position, holds it for life, and who will pass it on to her offspring. A democracy where the entire upper house of our legislature is unelected, where people can still have seats for life because of who their great-great-great-great-great-great grandmother shared her affections with, and where it is so normal for seats (again, for life) to be awarded to people who write large cheques to one of three political parties that it doesn't even attract comment.

Democratic only for a given value of "Democracy", then. In many respects, we're still quasi-feudal: class and patronage, birth and upbringing are much more important than talent and ability (does anyone think that former schoolchums David Cameron and Boris Johnson reached their elevated positions in our society on merit?). Europe isn't exactly a bastion of democracy either, of course: I'd say its tendencies were rather more towards a Corporate State, although since it's not a polity in its own right it would probably be better to think of it as a nascent Confederacy.

The UK is already the second most unequal developed nation (only the USA has greater levels of wealth disparity); if you're born poor here, you are much more likely to live poor and die poor than you are in any other country in Europe. If the UK withdraws from the EU, I'd see that as being likely to reinforce its exclusionary, feudal tendencies.

Disembodied wrote:

A democracy with an unelected head of state, who inherited the position, holds it for life, and who will pass it on to her offspring.

<spits> No comment! As for Boris and Dave and their ilk... [rant deleted]


In other news, bookies have adjusted their odds - the zombie apocalypse looms large on the horizon!

Good stuff, Disembodied.

The deadline for getting on the electoral register if you want to vote in the EU referendum has been extended to midnight tomorrow. No doubt hundreds of people will still be trying at one second to midnight, since there are a lot of idiots around, but if you actually want to vote and haven't already registered I'd suggest trying ASAP.

https://www.gov.uk/register-to-vote

There's only one thing for it! Resurrect...