The Nail in the Coffin

wow

Do a favor for those of us who haven’t added him and screenshot it.

I can't find anything at the link you posted

EDIT: Oh, you have to add him to see it. Okay.

Lorne? Misinformed?? Preposterous!

He hasn't said anything yet, but I look forward to his response.

Here:

midget cripple porn, classic STM

...shit

I can’t tell for sure because I can only see the description of the video he linked, but it looks like Lanning is linking to the video to criticize the Euro bailouts that have been happening, rather than specifically declaring support for this Farage guy.

Yeah. Lorne probably doesn't know anything about his wider politics and didn't care to research them.

To be honest I would rather take my chances with the economy being ruined (which I doubt very much will happen anyway) than to stay with this upcoming dictatorship that is the EU for a second longer. Individual countries no longer have a say over their own immigration rules, quota's or borders. And to top it off we're expected to give the EU a blank check whenever they want one.

The UK made the smartest move of everyone when they decided not to join the Euro Group. I would again find it very smart if they decide to step out of the EU.

Still, the EU bailouts are a whole other argument. On the long term, what's been going on with Spain, Greece and Cyprus, will benefit us. We're at this weird interregnum right now between a more federalised Europe a la the US (which isn't a bad thing) or reversing towards a more relaxed EEC style of control which I prefer simply because I don't like government intervention very much, getting out of the EU all together however, is a very, very stupid and narrowminded move.

So you're saying as long as it benefits the wealthy countries in the EU it doesn't matter we're basically just stealing money from the less wealthier countries? The fact that the EU has the power to do this in the first place is enough reason to jump ship and run as fast as you can. You can have all the money in the world. If the EU decided they need money they can come over and empty your bank account. That's the harsh reality. And saying 'oh it's not affecting us yet so we're good'... THAT is very stupid and narrowminded.

Is this another British thing? You crumpet-eaters confuse me.

@Havoc err...can you point out where I said anything about stealing from the poor to give to the rich?

As per usual, I have no fucking idea what you're basing your argument on but this time I don't even know what your argument is.

@Jbot, you know that if the only think you have to say is really really stupid, you probably shouldn't say anything at all.

STM: You said that what goes on in Greece, Spain and Cyprus wil benefit us. Us = Wealthy EU countries in the north. Greece, Spain, Cyprus are low wealth countries in the south.

The stuff that's going on there that is benefiting 'us' according to you is widespread theft of people's savings and driving people out of their homes because of high taxes and all kinds of financial bullshit that the population isn't even responsible for.

Basically we're sacrificing the low wealth countries so the by definition broken Euro system can continue to exist. I wonder how you feel about the EU when you get a letter saying your money and house have been confiscated.

I said 'us' as in the collective, 'us' as in the whole of bloody Europe. Spain is not a low wealth country, they have industry, a holiday economy in the south which is still flourishing and they speak one of the most powerful languages on the planet which makes them ideal for telecommunications and offices that link with the whole of South America. Their economy crashed because their politicians are stupid and they have the economic knowledge of a peanut. Greece and Cyprus should not have been in the Euro zone in the first place, they bring nothing to the trade community and they are a drain on resources. The fact that both countries have borrowed enormous amounts of money from Germany and other major European powers to finance their government spending because they cannot extract taxes from their lazy populations is a sign of insipid, short-sighted and to be frank, stupid, fiscal policy. Now they are facing the consequences, the only thing that bothers me about this is that they are destroying any vestige of economic security Europe has tried to cultivate since 2011. Moreover, these countries are creating severe hysteresis which is directly affecting my day to day life. Therefore, I don't give two shits that some paltry southern countries are having to repay decades of debt, in the long term everyone will benefit from the actions that are taken over the coming months.

Also, don't be dull, the government won't come for my house because we pay our taxes in this country and we have an ounce of economic sense, see: government cuts, for more information.

To be fair to Havoc, the people in Cyprus would have said the same thing.

Are you living in a different UK to mine?

Debatable, the UK is actually quite lucky in that, although a lot of people don't know it or won't believe it, our economic organisations are not too bad at what they do. For instance, we were significantly shielded from contagion from both the EU and China in 2008-2010, the combination of a rise in wages and raw materials in China led to the complete collapse of the building industry here, if the government hadn't acted as it did a few years ago, it would have been much worse - which is kind of worrying to even think about.

On the tax aspect, contrary to what the Daily Mail would have people believe, most people living in the UK pay their taxes and the councils then go out and do what needs to be done, or they try to, you should see the roads around where I live, looks like they've been teleported from a second world country...but I digress. Cyprus on the other hand, is a tax haven. It has an enormous deficit in trade and imports almost everything it needs from abroad. A country such as this should not be a tax haven. I'm not sure if the inhabitants actually pay any income tax at all, I can't find information that says they do, I know they pay a 15% VAT but even that is the minimum allowed by the EU. They should have seen what happened coming from a mile away and made the appropriate decisions to minimise the damage. Instead they steered themselves into a whopping great iceberg.

Again, although it might not feel like it, the British government is doing an okay job at bringing about recovery. There's only so much they can do to correct market failure before it falls into the hands of the free market to fix things though. I would have done things differently to them (stimulate AD by combating inflationary pressure and cutting welfare whilst incentivising work schemes perhaps), but there is sense in the plan. It does need constant tweaking though. The problem is, the coalition didn't have too much choice about what to do because of good old policy myopia.

e: I also feel I should point out that I'm not one to regularly back up the government, I'm pretty much an anarchist in my political outlook. What I'm saying is I can understand what has happened and I can see why the European governments have acted as they have. Personally I think the only time the government should ever get involved at all is to gently slow down an economic boom but it's a bit late for that now.

Pretty much every single independent watchdog in the world disagrees with you.

Also this and every other government is basing their economic policies on one absurdly bad but terrifyingly influential study.

It's not a full-proof plan, as I said, it needs a fair amount of work and constant fine tuning. The Conservatives want to balance the budget and then bring about growth. Theoretically they could do both and the two would then mutually improve each other as time went on. The only alternative is proposed by Labour though, and they want to focus on growth and allow spending to go back up which would increase the deficit and lower the foreign investment coming into the UK from places like Saudi Arabia and China. Trust me, we really need those contracts. The plan that's in place right now isn't the best plan, it's not fullproof and it could be implemented much better, but no one is proposing a successful alternative so we're stuck until further notice.

That article is quite interesting, I don't think governments are basing their economic policies on that though. It might influence them but 'basing' is a bit hyperbolic.

It's the academic basis for the recent push towards austerity. It intellectually legitimizes their beliefs, giving them the excuse they need to bugger up the economy like they have.

You know what I'd love to see? An independent candidate running for Prime Minister when the time comes with a real economic agenda, I'd vote for 'em in a heart beat just because it would be a much more powerful statement than silent voting. I think that's another worrying factor to take into account on parity with UKIP making such headway, the piss-poor excuse for the voting turnout. (I'm included in that demographic might I add, I don't think the gov know how old I am because I was never given the birthday thing that you send in to register, I forgot to print out my own registration form so I suppose I forfeit my right to moan really.)

We don't elect PMs, we elect parties.

Crumpet eater can't spell.

If only more people recognized the difference and understood what the title 'Prime minister' means and how it is very very different from the title of President.

Margaret Thatcher didn't understand what that meant. She was a democratic dictator.

Lorne Lanning is a stupid faggot. That is my Oddworld Forums contribution for today.

We all know that, it's not a contribution. We know how much you hate the guy. Some of the arguments you've had on Facebook with him and his arse lickers are hilarious.

I've never read any of OANST's legendary arguments with Lorne.

Hudi on the other hand...

Say what you will about Hudi, OANST wouldn't have any material without him.