Interesting Links for 12-09-2018

[andrewducker]

Societal issues explained (by throwing people down pits)

(tags: society satire )

The EU is betting that Brexit will make a trade deal with India a little easier.

(tags: europe india uk trade )

Why has Brexit become a legal matter when it should be a political matter?

(tags: politics uk Europe law )

Kieron Gillen's new comic looks interesting

(tags: comics roleplaying )

Brexit: Now Conservatives are suggesting the EEA for three years as a stop-gap.

(tags: uk europe doom )

There has been no Corbyn surge in Scotland

(tags: Scotland labour politics )

EA defies Belgian loot box decision, setting up potential gambling lawsuit

If they decide that loot boxes are gambling then I can't see how, for instance, Hearthstone card packs aren't. Or, indeed, Magic: The Gathering card packs. This one could be absolutely massive.
(tags: gambling games belgium )

Which artist do you think draws the most handsome/beautiful/sexiest characters in comics? Any genre. (Nice range of styles in the replies)

(tags: comics art beauty )

'She has to go': Conservative MPs meet over plot to oust Theresa May

I don't actually think she'll lose a vote of no confidence
(tags: conservatives )

Barnier confronts Raab over discovery of Brexit no-deal letters to EU27

(tags: Europe UK doom )

Movie Star's Absence Shows Perils of Show Business in China

(tags: movies China money )

Brexit: EU can 'certainly not' accept Theresa May's single market plan, Juncker warns

(tags: europe uk doom )

‘Super-recognisers’ employed by UK police to hunt criminals may not be identifying people correctly

(tags: faces vision uk police fail )

The Effectiveness of Publicly Shaming Bad Security

(tags: security journalism )

Finding balance in the universe, a short story

(tags: short_story scifi ethics morality )

A single gene mutation may have helped humans become optimal long-distance runners

(tags: humans genetics running )

Tom Watson says Momentum should drop speaker who vandalised Warsaw ghetto

(tags: labour Jews OhForFucksSake )

Comments

[jack]

That raises a good question. We currently have lots of exceptions that were necessary to persuade us to join at all. Lots of those were good for the UK or some parts of the UK, but not really desirable overall, and if we're forced to give them up as part of rejoining in the future, fair enough.

But I am a bit scared of the Euro. Leaving and rejoining would probably mean euro. I always WANTED a single currency. I still WANT a single currency. But it seems to have been premature judging from the pain in southern Europe, if northern europe is not willing to invest a lot more in southern europe without mandating a lot of terrible austerity.

Do we say, well, hopefully it will be ok for us, the downsides are bad but the upsides are worth it and we don't have a choice? I guess so.

Hopefully we'll pay more attention to European politics than we did before. Although I'm not hopeful. The perception that the european government is too remote to influence *is* a problem, which I hope gets better.

[andrewducker]

Yeah. I love the idea of a single currency. But I think it has serious drawbacks. Having the same currency across the UK meant that a prosperous financial centre in London made a northern manufacturing centre much less likely. Having the same currency across Europe seems to be causing all sorts of imbalances there.

I don't think that a single currency can be successful in the long term without much more political union. And the current situation makes things more likely to fracture than unify.

Schengen, on the other hand, will be awesome.

[jack]

I don't think that a single currency can be successful in the long term without much more political union. And the current situation makes things more likely to fracture than unify.

Yeah :(

Schengen, on the other hand, will be awesome.

Yes! Down with borders!

[danieldwilliam]

I think the specific requirement for a currency union to work are suffiently large and timely fiscal transfers and a single market. The EU / Eurozone largely has a single market. The fiscal transfers have been problematic because of the lack of the necessary political structures to decide on them and administer them and a lack of political and social cohesion. The EU is not a nation-state. That seems to be an important aspect of making a single currency work.

I think people in the USA don't much mind that their federal taxes are spent on e.g. maintaining military bases in poor states that they don't personally live in the way that Germans or Brits might mind having to spend "their" money on other countries troops based in Romania or Bulgaria.