Brexit and the waning days of the United Kingdom

[mongers]

On the RNLI kerfuffle - they've put out what I think is quite an affecting video on their work:
https://twitter.com/RNLI/status/1420319266746871834?s=20

I think Johnson/Downing Street have very sensibly not stepped into this just noting that the RNLI does vital work. Sajid Javid's also done a post about just making a donation to them and linking to their donations page - which I imagine will be doing very well right now.

No doubt the Farage/Grimes-ist geniuses will now move onto attacking other universally popular institutions like the Battersea Dogs and Cats Home or the WI

Incidentally I did see someone point out that even after Salvini went in on the Italian coastguard/navy over rescuing migrant boats, Italian fishermen were still rescuing people - because I think it is just a thing for maritime-y/coastal communities. They know how dangerous the sea is and if there's someone in danger and they can help, they will. It's like rites of hospitality in desert cultures or something like that.

It's more than that, I think it's enshrined in international maritime law, seafarers are obliged to help those in distress.

[Tamas]

I think Johnson/Downing Street have very sensibly not stepped into this

Very sensible indeed. Moderates can look at Johnson, reassured they are fine to keep supporting the Tories - they are not REALLY that bad!

Meanwhile, far right scum can look at the continuing tirades against people literally saving people's lives, reassured the Tories have proper priorities of pressing down boots on people's heads.

It's basic politics for maximising votess, don't fall for it. Orban has been publicly acting like the a moderating/calming force of his side for a decade, it was always his dogs doing the barking. You can see the results of such "moderation" and staying away.

[The Larch]

Incidentally I did see someone point out that even after Salvini went in on the Italian coastguard/navy over rescuing migrant boats, Italian fishermen were still rescuing people - because I think it is just a thing for maritime-y/coastal communities. They know how dangerous the sea is and if there's someone in danger and they can help, they will. It's like rites of hospitality in desert cultures or something like that.

It is both a tradition and part of international treaties. It is a legal obligation to shipmasters everywhere to provide assistance to people in distress at sea since the 70s or 80s. Everytime you see somebody clamouring for dinghy boats to be left to sink or something like that it's never said by somebody with a maritime background because it's anathema to naval traditions all over the world.

[Sheilbh]

It is both a tradition and part of international treaties. It is a legal obligation to shipmasters everywhere to provide assistance to people in distress at sea since the 70s or 80s. Everytime you see somebody clamouring for dinghy boats to be left to sink or something like that it's never said by somebody with a maritime background because it's anathema to naval traditions all over the world.

Yeah - I didn't know about the international law point but you're right it's something that seems to almost codify the unspoken rules of the sea by mariners everywhere in the world, forever. Might ask for my dad's opinion again to get a lot of expletives from a former sailor.

Obviously this is incredibly nasty and a world away - but it sort of reminds me of when I sometimes read a piece (the Guardian is particularly bad at this) on agriculture or rural environment and it's clearly been written by someone who has never lived outside a major urban centre. It's always something batshit like: "unleash wolves on Hampshire for re-wilding"

[Jacob]

Incidentally I did see someone point out that even after Salvini went in on the Italian coastguard/navy over rescuing migrant boats, Italian fishermen were still rescuing people - because I think it is just a thing for maritime-y/coastal communities. They know how dangerous the sea is and if there's someone in danger and they can help, they will. It's like rites of hospitality in desert cultures or something like that.

The law of the sea requires you to help someone in distress, and that law is ancient and fundamental to humanity.

Besides, if you see some boat in trouble you can't be sure whether or not it's a bunch of migrants until you've rescued them. And absolutely no one on the ocean likes the idea of help being withheld from them if they're in distress because someone decides they might be migrants or have migrants on board.

[crazy canuck]

Only for Americans who are double-vaxxed with a certificate though. Americans without a vaccine certificate will still have to quarantine.

The reason the person in Scotland gave for keeping the restrictions was vaccination programs in the countries they are letting in.  They clearly used another metric because if that was really the metric they used, Canada would have been on top of the list.

Michael Matheson, the Scottish transport secretary, said in a statement that the changes have been made possible due to the success of vaccination programs in Scotland, the EU and U.S.

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/world/article-england-ends-quarantine-requirement-for-fully-vaccinated-travellers/

[crazy canuck]

It is both a tradition and part of international treaties. It is a legal obligation to shipmasters everywhere to provide assistance to people in distress at sea since the 70s or 80s. Everytime you see somebody clamouring for dinghy boats to be left to sink or something like that it's never said by somebody with a maritime background because it's anathema to naval traditions all over the world.

Yeah - I didn't know about the international law point but you're right it's something that seems to almost codify the unspoken rules of the sea by mariners everywhere in the world, forever. Might ask for my dad's opinion again to get a lot of expletives from a former sailor.

Obviously this is incredibly nasty and a world away - but it sort of reminds me of when I sometimes read a piece (the Guardian is particularly bad at this) on agriculture or rural environment and it's clearly been written by someone who has never lived outside a major urban centre. It's always something batshit like: "unleash wolves on Hampshire for re-wilding"

It probably did start out as an unspoken rule back in the mists of time, but failure to come to a vessel in distress is a big codified no no in both international law, and most domestic laws.

[Sheilbh]

According to this study the UK would do rather well if there was a global "de-complexification" event.

Human civilisation has undergone a continuous trajectory of rising sociopolitical complexity since its inception; a trend which has undergone a dramatic recent acceleration. This phenomenon has resulted in increasingly severe perturbation of the Earth System, manifesting recently as global-scale effects such as climate change. These effects create an increased risk of a global 'de-complexification' (collapse) event in which complexity could undergo widespread reversal. 'Nodes of persisting complexity' are geographical locations which may experience lesser effects from 'de-complexification' due to having 'favourable starting conditions' that may allow the retention of a degree of complexity. A shortlist of nations (New Zealand, Iceland, the United Kingdom, Australia and Ireland) were identified and qualitatively analysed in detail to ascertain their potential to form 'nodes of persisting complexity' (New Zealand is identified as having the greatest potential). The analysis outputs are applied to identify insights for enhancing resilience to 'de-complexification'.

https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/13/15/8161/htm

There is something of a Beckett play in the world ending - but the Brits and Irish surviving on and on and on

[garbon]

Now Starmer wants an end to self isolation for double vaxxed sooner?

[Sheilbh]

Drug deaths in Scotland hit a new high - and are, by some distance the highest in Europe:


I don't fully know why. The standard explanation is that it's to do with poverty and de-industrialisation, which makes sense. But in the North-East which has similar issues the rate is higher than the UK average and is over 100 deaths per million but still nowhere near the Scottish figures (the North-West, Yorkshire and Humber and Wales are all also around 100).]

There is specific inequality and poverty issues within Scotland that may exacerbate it - so Scotland as a whole is about the 3/4th richest region in the UK (it's about level-pegging with the South-West). But that doesn't reflect that there is very extreme poverty and wealth in Scotland - probably, I'd guess, more than any region except for London.

But I'm just not sure why the issue is so much worse in Scotland than anywhere else in the UK or Europe.

Edit: Incidentally on Scottish politics - a man has been sentenced for rape threats directed at the former SNP MP Joanna Cherry. You may recognise the name because she's been very involved in the various bits of Brexit negotiations, but this was over her "gender critical" stance on trans issues. She was removed from the SNP front bench over this, but has also received a lot of violent threats including these. This has been a bit of a rising and worrying trend (overwhelmingly directed at women MPs) - so I can think of at least one case of a neo-Nazi being prosecuted for violent threats to a (woman) Labour MP, but I think there's been more prosecutions in this area. And it seems to run the gamut of issues from neo-Nazis, Corbynite ultras harassing a (woman) Jewish MP over the "anti-semitism smears", to this extreme trans rights guy. It's pretty grim and as I say it does seem to focus on prominent women rather than male MPs.

[Josquius]

To look at the rankings I do wonder the extent to which grim weather and winter dark contributes to the "might as well take up smack then" factor.
The norsics for instance are very good vs most of the social problems the UK is awful with....but make up with it by being a fair  bit grimmer in winter.

On the trans rights stuff I recall an article not long ago on jk Rowling getting threats too. I know I'm biased on this but it must be noted the far right does have a very strong recent record when it comes to false flag, if antifa arent actually the threat we need them to be then let's make them so, type stuff. Reichstag lite.

[Sheilbh]

To look at the rankings I do wonder the extent to which grim weather and winter dark contributes to the "might as well take up smack then" factor.
The norsics for instance are very good vs most of the social problems the UK is awful with....but make up with it by being a fair  bit grimmer in winter.

Yeah - I think climate is definitely part of it. That's an unusual group of countries - except maybe for other problem things like alcohol consumption or suicide rates I can't think of many things that would be UK and Ireland plus the Nordic. I think that is partly climate (I also often wonder how many "deaths of despair"/suicides are prevented in this country by gun control).

But that doesn't really explain why Scotland has so many more drug deaths - from a quick Google it looks like Sturgeon blames Westminster (obvs) because drug laws are reserved for Westminster which means they can't have "safe fix" rooms or decriminalisation. But again that's the position in the rest of the UK too.

The Scottish government significantly cut drug rehabilitation funding and there's apparently a low rate of training among police and ambulance crews on dealing with an overdose which are both within Holyrood's control. Although again, I'd be surprised if there's a significant difference with the rest of the UK

One other issue may be methadone. Apparently a large number of these deaths involve methadone and heroin - so typically someone gets their prescribed methadone, but it is a low dosage and so they then get heroin on the street. I wonder if that's an NHS Scotland specific issue?

On the trans rights stuff I recall an article not long ago on jk Rowling getting threats too. I know I'm biased on this but it must be noted the far right does have a very strong recent record when it comes to false flag, if antifa arent actually the threat we need them to be then let's make them so, type stuff. Reichstag lite.

This isn't a false flag though in the sense that there was no action - it's someone sending online threats and I don't think any strand of politics has a monopoly on shitposting

[HVC]

How consistent the the supply up there? Inconstant purity, especially with heroine, is a real killer. And from what I recall heroine is the go to hard drug in Scotland.

[OttoVonBismarck]

I'm going to need the Brits to either explain or apologize for this offense to human dignity:

https://imgur.com/a/rr96ABk

This "attraction" apparently costs £8 to "visit."

[The Brain]

I'm going to need the Brits to either explain or apologize for this offense to human dignity:

https://imgur.com/a/rr96ABk

This "attraction" apparently costs £8 to "visit."

I hear it's closed.