Interesting Links for 09-07-2014

[andrewducker]

• SSRIs: Much More Than You Wanted To Know
  (tags: depression drugs )
• Apparently we now have sniffer dogs trained to detect electronic circuitry...
  (tags: dogs technology )
• I'm gonna open up a retail store called KickstartMart
  (tags: kickstarter funny comic )
• A list of things which are accidentally Turing Complete
  (tags: turing algorithms computers )

Comments

Scotland leaving

[alitheapipkin]

"Rather, the momentum for independence is being produced by a general anti-politics mood"

Funny that most of the 'Yes' supporters I know are hugely swayed by the idea of having better democracy...

I'm amused that this article is basically saying that if Scotland leaves, the remains of Britain will be regarded in much the same way as I expect we already are in many corners of the world... And the fact that he seems to think arguing that leaving will put an end to the UK's war mongering should make us want to stay!

Oh look, he writes for the Mail too, why am I not surprised!

Re: Scotland leaving

[andrewducker]

Yup. It's the awful politics in Westminster that makes me think that Scotland can do better.

Re: Scotland leaving

[momentsmusicaux]

It somehow seems wrong to me that because of historical lines on a map, we get to jettison the democracy we currently have and get a new one. It feels like a cheat.

Re: Scotland leaving

[andrewducker]

It's more expanding the democracy we already have to contain more areas of control than it currently does.

And it's only a cheat because other geographical areas don't have the option of increasing their local control, which frankly I think they should.

In any case, there aren't any "rules" here, there's just historical happenstance. Scotland's lucky that its happenstance is working for it, other places are less lucky. Czech Republic and Slovakia have been similarly lucky in the past, and Belgium may undergo something similar in the future.

34 countries have come into existence since 1990:
http://geography.about.com/cs/countries/a/newcountries.htm
it's not like it's something that Never Happens because Countries are Invioliable.

Re: Scotland leaving

[momentsmusicaux]

No, but it's something that say the North of England doesn't have at its disposal. If we split the UK based on the fact that London's economy messes us up and the South votes Tory -- which is the reason a lot of people are giving as their main one for voting yes -- then we should not be drawing the line where we are!

Re: Scotland leaving

[cartesiandaemon]

Yes, I think other areas *should* be able to secede, but the inconvenience (not having a ready-made identity, not having a ready-made parliament, etc) is large, so it may take a lot longer.

In fact, I'm a bit torn, because I like more local control on some things, but I like globalisation on other things (free trade, free movement, greater international agreement about human rights and corporation taxes, etc), and I'm not sure how to get both...

Re: Scotland leaving

[momentsmusicaux]

Doesn't an EU of small states go some way towards satisfying that? An independent Scotland that's an EU members would have free trade and movement across the whole of Europe and human rights laws. Not so much the corporation taxes though...

Re: Scotland leaving

[cartesiandaemon]

Yeah, I like an EU of small states for those reasons!

However, there are still some things which I'm not sure how to deal with. That having a single currency is a lot better for trade, but is a disaster if one region's economy tanks, it can't devalue its currency, and the central government can't or won't inject enough investment. And some other things, like although small states makes it easier to change things like planning permission, local taxes, infrastructure, etc, pollution, taxing internet companies, banning things, etc, only work on a wider scale.

Re: Scotland leaving

[andrewducker]

True - but I suspect that corporation taxes are going to be tricky to manage at a federal level.

Either you apply them where the company is "based" (and leave yourself open to companies all basing themselves in Luxembourg), or you apply them where the customer is (and then any company in the EU that sells things online has to calculate corporation taxes in every state that buys for them, which is a massive burden for small companies).

Possibly there's a middle way, but I don't think anyone has suggested it yet.

Re: Scotland leaving

[cartesiandaemon]

Yeah, it's a big problem, but I think we have to try to tackle it somehow

Re: Scotland leaving

[momentsmusicaux]

Well it's already the case that if you're a company that sells to customers, you need to charge different rates of VAT based on where they live. I was building an e-commerce site and we had to deal with customers outside the UK (or the EU? I forget) not being charged VAT on their orders.

Re: Scotland leaving

[momentsmusicaux]

They all do it with computers nowadays.

Re: Scotland leaving

[andrewducker]

http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/vat/managing/international/exports/goods.htm#2

Selling to other countries in the EU (when they're not VAT registered) counts as a "distance sale", and you just charge VAT at UK rates.

Unless you're over a limit of some kind - once you're doing large quanitities it becomes different.

Re: Scotland leaving

[momentsmusicaux]

Hmmmm there was definitely some cases where we had to sell without VAT. Could have been to countries outside the EU then.

Re: Scotland leaving

[newandrewhickey]

Yes, and in the unlikely event that Scotland does vote Yes, I'll be begging for a Scottish invasion of Manchester...

Re: Scotland leaving

[momentsmusicaux]

A friend of mine who lives in Oxfordshire begged me to take him with us.