Finnish Parliamentary Elections 2011
Okay, it's been a while since I posted anything here. I just neeed to write my thoughts down now and I'll post it once I can. I don't have internet connection right now WHICH SUCKS because I really really would need to talk to people or at least be able to read peoples' comments online. Anything at all. Obviously I can't sleep like this. So I'll
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This post came as a surprise to me; honestly, if you hadn't specifically put 'Finland' in it I really think it could almost pass for the farce British politics are in at the moment. The Conservative-led Coalition we have in power over here at the moment is taking a painfully typical, deliberate (and rather harsh) anti-immigration stance at the moment, linking that to the Welfare State, because of course they're both reasons why we're paying so much money. God, I hate basic Tory policy - privatisation and isolationism, whilst the rich going on taxing the hell out of everything, and the poorer receive less aid than before. *sighs*
I think it'd be interesting to see Finland take more of a place in European politics - the 'big countries' need more counterweights, and it's not like Finland could annoy the place more than the UK does.
[As for the UK rebate: I'll agree that the whole system needs a rehaul. The rebate's proportional to how much the UK puts into the EU budget in the first place, which...wouldn't be a wise idea to slash/adjust without warning, as the UK currently puts in around 13%. The argument in place is that, in the long-term, countries like France make more money paying for the rebate and receiving the benefits of the CAP policy (that the UK took a stance against, not deling so heavily with agriculture, that led to the formation of the rebate) than were the rebate removed, and the UK taking their share of the policy. Although if the rebate were removed and no new policy implemented for the CAP part of the budget, the amount the UK would have to contribute would be crippling.
In the short-term, however, the amount that France and Italy pay towards the cost is astronomical, so cutting that back would probably improve international relations somewhat.
...It is true that the British have very little farming area in proportion to the people it supports, and the money does go towards supporting farmers, among other things (wish I knew what, though), as so many farms are still prone to shut down. Even the sheep farms, and God knows there are more sheep than people in Scotland and Wales.But definitely not education.]
And...I had a point in there, somewhere, but I think I lost sight of it. *shuts up*
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Oh, yeah, I can imagine the Tories are pretty similar... it's just that we didn't used to have a a big conservative right-wing party before so we're kinda going "wtf" right now. xD; Though these guys aren't quite the same thing, I think... Well at least they aren't religious? Plus a lot of their supporters are workers. Not that I know much about the Tories, though, I wouldn't know who support them but I've gotten the idea that it would not be workers. x);
And the TF at least seem to be for the little guy against the corruption of the earlier governments. Which is why I kinda feel sympathy for them, I just think they're totally misguided in their hatred against the foreigners and their isolationism. I mean, sure, isolating Finland from the outer world might help... if it was possible. And if we actually wanted to do it. But it's not and we don't. They're living two centuries in the past or something. And goddamnit, stop hating on gay people! We're doing NOTHING to hurt you so just leave us alone! >__< One thing I seriously don't get is why they're so afraid of the gay. It's not infectious and it doesn't hurt anybody and no, the gay men are not gonna come and rape you. ARGH! Last summer was pretty scary because some people started to do some serious attacks on the LGBT community... Like attacking the pride parade with pepper spray...
Of course the Christian Democrats, who are basically our most conservative and probably most right-wing party, have become huge pals with the TF. They get along just fine. >__> And it's so damn scary to watch their homophobia feeding each other. Finland is really pretty liberal on gay rights. Well, sorta. Not as much as the other Nordics because we're a bit backwards like that but still. But all this hate talk is sort of feeding people with this ridiculous, baseless anger towards us. And just a couple of weeks ago some weird religious group released a campaign targeting young gay people, telling them they can be "cured" by God "because if murderers can get better, then why can't gays?". And after that created outrage, the Christian democrats came out complaining about people discriminating against the group's right to their views. Discriminating against their "right" to discriminate, apparently. I know, MAKES SO MUCH SENSE, DUNNIT?
Okay, enough about that. xD; Argh, apparently I just had to get that out of my system.
But yeah, damn I just can't stand the conservatives... I'm totally with you.
and it's not like Finland could annoy the place more than the UK does.
xD; A fair point there. Oh UK, I love you. ♥
And yeah, the rebate... it's a damn complicated issue. I'm definitely not saying it should just be removed without any other changes to the system, but seriously, I just want to know why the hell haven't they tried to fix the basic issue which is that it makes no sense for the UK to pay more if it receives less. There must be something wrong with the fundamental issues here, I think and they should rethink the whole thing from the start. Now, first the UK pays too much, then the others fix it by paying the UK a rebate, then Germany and some others can't afford to pay the rebate so France and Italy pay a rebate for the rebate, then the new, poorer countries joining the EU can't afford it, so the UK agrees to, idk, pay ITSELF or something. It seems like they're just patching the problem... and then patching the patch and then patching the patch on the patch and so on... Stop it patching and get a new system! That's kind of my point here. orz
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I don't know... does the rebate money go to the farms? I mean specifically the rebate money, not the normal EU benefits? I'm not being sarcastic or anything, I really don't know, I couldn't find any information about that. Maybe I'm just being over-suspicious of the British government, but since apparently they don't have any requirements on what they have to use the rebate money on (or at least I couldn't find any), then are they actually using it for the people or what do they do with it? How does it show in the UK's budget? Basically, are they using it for something that the EU would approve of?
Okay, idk, I might be just being paranoid here. x); And I really can't know any better because I don't know enough about these issues.
Oh, talking about education, I'm actually sort of working on a little project comparing the funding of higher education in the Nordic countries versus the English speaking countries. :D; Dunno if I'll get anywhere with it, though. I already asked SJ about the US system and with Andrea about the Swedish one (which is pretty much the same as the Finnish, though). Actually it'd be cool to get more of you guys online at the same time and discuss it. =3= If you're interested. Or I guess I could come up with a list of questions and have all of you reply separately or something but that's no fun.
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