I'm not keen on ID cards either

[misterdaniel]

songofnewday invited me to blog about politics.

Comments

[larpexiles]

Capitalism is a fundamentally broken system, unfortunately so is socialism. Of the two however socialism tends to be less broken for more people

[irdm]

Monarchism: you know it's right.

[misterdaniel]

That very much and absolutely depends on the monarch.

History is quite explicit on this point.

[misterdaniel]

It does seem that you and I are in roughly the same space.

Taxation isn't evil, but neither is business - which appears to be the divide in some left/right debates. Unfortunately, our UK politics appears to take its template from the US rather than Europe, but then our populations are taking their lead from theirs too.

When recently in Brussels, I very much enjoyed the atmosphere and there were times when things were actually really laid back. I'm sure its not true all the time or for everyone, but the quality of life appears to be different as a consequence.

So, yeah, I'm with you.

[plucky_lass]

Belgium has a very high tax rate - as in, most people are on 50% basic rate. The knowledge that you can rely very heavily on government-run things like transport, police, etc has a lot to do with why people are so laid back. They do pay for that peace of mind.

[ruana1]

...doesn't attract too many nutters

I have doubts about that part's possibiity.

[misterdaniel]

Sadly, so do I.

There are very many 'passionate' people in politics, partly because politics is the way to influence what they are passionate about. There is, in itself, nothing wrong with being passionate - but sadly several passionate people also switch off their objectivity.

Or, in short, politics attracts nutters.