Psychoactive Substances: Rolling UK Politics in The Neo-Con Era

That's a classy-arsed polling station, Koogs.

there were people handing out "i'm in" stickers at my train station, all along the streets. i couldn't take one as i'm not allowed to have an opinion about this referendum, as a civil servant. whichever outcome happens will be the best outcome.

all for the best in the best of all possible worlds

i couldn't take one as i'm not allowed to have an opinion about this referendum, as a civil servant.

really? I thought the rules were pretty relaxed about civil servants political involvement

My civil servant friend won't stfu about the referendum on fb

Garda must be a pretty hi rolla

they won't be wearing stickers to the office

I filled in a YouGov poll on an iPad outside mine. It only asked for things like Gender, Age, Work status etc and not how I'd actually voted.

i'm not a high roller at all - but it was made really clear, repeatedly, to me*, that i can't express an opinion about the referendum on any form of social media. so a sticker in the office is presumably beyond the pale too.

(*and to others)

Not even afterwards?

i've turned the dictaphone off garda, you can speak with candour

I just noticed that Cameron had his sleeves rolled up again yesterday, hence the odds on brexit going way out obv.

seems a bit overzealous and intrusive to tell you you can't say anything on social media - I thought the real restrictions on political activity only kick in above a fairly high grade like you should be allowed membership of a party and to campaign even and certainly express opinions in your personal life

Yeah, but in general Rules are for the Lower Downs. Wherever you happen to work...

i think it's strange and possibly not even legal, it feels to me like something the government is doing that may not actually be allowed. to me i don't see a difference, for this purpose, between me saying what i think to a friend in the pub, and me saying what i think on social media. i'm not even permanent, i'm a contractor.

i think after purdah ends i am allowed to express an opinion, i mean i think so, i guess i still would feel wary though. even if my twitter handle didn't link to the organisation i work for, i follow people from work and vice versa, i guess it would feel risky to be really vociferously political.

so instead i just hit them with my deranged/unique blend of tweets about my wildly disparate interests.

my wariness is in part because i really like my job, it seems a fluke that i somehow ended up doing it and finding it, and hence i live in fear of it somehow going away.

based on the entirely unscientific anecdotal "evidence" of my mum reporting that the queue at the polling station of the village she lives in was stretching way out of the door which she has never witnessed at any other election, turnout might be quite high. she voted 'remain' apparently due to 40 years working as a nurse in the nhs and her disdain for michael gove.

i probably would have voted 'leave' but it's my day off and i don't really care enough to make the effort to leave the house.

you know if we leave the eu watching the bundesliga will be criminalised right

at this point i think people voting leave just hate all migrants/anyone who looks like a migrant, and that everyone voting to remain, just dont want to be seen to be hating migrants/anyone looking like a migrant. the people spoiling their ballots or not voting are the only ones you can trust.

nobody at the BBC's allowed to express an opinion anywhere, basically entirely down to stopping the the Daily Mail from running a story embedding 25 tweets from employees and screaming LOOK HOW BIASED THEY ARE

if anyone has an argument for brexit I'm a curious bag of ears

Brexit
???
Profit!

the once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to see nigel farage achieve screaming orgasm live on television

also less foreigns in the uk (somehow)

to fuck off sanctimonious Remain campaigners?

In the same boat (and building) as Garda, and yeah they've been clear and active on this - one colleague got told to take a 'remember to register to vote' tweet down.
This is the law in question:
http://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2000/41/section/125
and I think our bit is taking a very tight reading of it.

xp
like stabbing yourself in the eye with a fork to upset your mum

not really, but that's the kind of tone

if anyone has an argument for brexit I'm a curious bag of ears

― ogmor, Thursday, 23 June 2016 11:54 (40 minutes ago) Permalink

It isn't very democratic. I'm voting remain but that seems to me to be the best argument for leaving

It isn't very democratic.

what is?

The Scottish Parliament

not really, but that's the kind of tone

― Noodle Vague, Thursday, 23 June 2016 13:36 (5 minutes ago

Nope, defines your tone only, and i think you know that's true

I'm just being honest

in the further interest of honesty I think I might avoid this thread and Facebook for the rest of the week because jaysus

The Scottish Parliament

hmmmmm nope

this brilliant and popular referendum is pretty democratic.

If the UK votes leave I really hope we get indyref 2

I agree the EU is lamentably undemocratic, but not uniquely so, and leaving wouldn't make anything any more democratic, it would just shrink the demos. after the referendum would be an opportune moment to raise reform of the EU but I haven't seen much talk about that either

pound (and remain odds) surging fwiw

yeah my brother works in hedge funds (sorry) and he said markets spiking.

labour needs to make the tories pay for this for the next 20 years

"because their own party couldn't agree on the EU, they played with the livelihoods and future of everyone in this country"

but they never do, do they

NV, fwiw, I am taken by how you came to a decision today (if it holds). It's a personal, humane choice. Basing a decision on yer gut feeling has gotten a bad rep it seems in this whole sordid Brexit affair. How emotions shouldn't override 'facts'. Truth is no one knows how either outcome will play out. Given that uncertainty, and the fact that the harsh noise of pundits, politicians and experts - from both camps - are only making things worse, I don't envy any British citizen tomorrow. Feels to me like voters are set adrift on a sea of uncertainty and then asked: well, how are you going to safe yourself? How are you going to make the 'right' decision? You're on your own. Everyone is. 'Weighing' pros and cons in this seems like such a draining exercise. Not trying to sound like an old hippy, but you can only vote going by the heart, which is what you seem to do.

This wasn't following his heart though - by his own admission, he wasn't that bothered about it until he was hit by the Damascene revelation that the people who were going to be fucked over by this are technically humans.

Truth is no one knows how either outcome will play out.

There is a huge gulf between "We can't tell you the value of the FTSE in a year's time" and "We don't know whether immigrants will be better or worse off after a vote on their validity on these shores". Anyone who tells you otherwise is trying to scuff some dirt over the shitty thing they've done.

Oh I agree with that last part.

Good luck today, Britishers.

(Woman). (Hitler). (Hitler). (Hitler). (Noodle Vague). (Hitler). (Hitler). (Hitler).

^ gave me a small lol

Similar to others here, I just haven't come across a single "red brexit" argument that outweighs the likely shit effect it will have on the lives of my friends. Def wanna mute Facebook but even taking into account the complete lack of sanctimony and bad celebrity endorsements on the Leave side I wasn't tempted to change my position

i find everyone saying the same thing on social media is generally annoying, regardless of what it is.

like it is hard to think of people as special snowflakes when you're deluged with the same "look i have a brain" wordings. i feel like this is an impulse to be resisted but i can understand it for sure.

I'm staying off social media until the meme about the 93-year-old woman in the polling queue loses steam. BORED NOW.

lol what is that?

labour needs to make the tories pay for this for the next 20 years

"because their own party couldn't agree on the EU, they played with the livelihoods and future of everyone in this country"

but they never do, do they

OTM I'm just thinking about the intolerable level of smugness in Cameron if the remain vote comes through. After all the shit he's put people through on account of his dreadful party and limp leadership skills.

Never realized till now that Corbyn votes at the same polling station as me.

the total lack of responsibility in this dirty power struggle writ large is astonishing, as is the fact that so little will be made of it.