Hi I'm Brick, ask me anything.

Amyntas wrote: How many beads are there on the meditationchain :laugh:

3 for the Tenets,
5 for the Code,
16 for the Teachings,
21 for the Maxims,

So 45 in total, but you already knew that since you're the one that made it! :laugh:

So this is a thing again?

Brick wrote: So this is a thing again?

No... these are not the droids you're looking for. Move along. :laugh: :laugh:

But seriously, I'm not great with British politics, but I see all of the Brexit stuff and all of the various parties and personalities involved. I'm used to the U.S. mainly two party system, so I don't always know how the multiple parties interact in your neck of the woods. It seems the Northern Ireland situation is kinda weird concerning Brexit as well. Can you give me a crash course? I know it isn't simple, so I'm sorry if I just opened a huge can of worms.

And since I'm doing that anyway... where would you say you land on the Conservative/Liberal scale?

Senan wrote:

Brick wrote: So this is a thing again?

No... these are not the droids you're looking for. Move along. :laugh: :laugh:

But seriously, I'm not great with British politics, but I see all of the Brexit stuff and all of the various parties and personalities involved. I'm used to the U.S. mainly two party system, so I don't always know how the multiple parties interact in your neck of the woods. It seems the Northern Ireland situation is kinda weird concerning Brexit as well. Can you give me a crash course? I know it isn't simple, so I'm sorry if I just opened a huge can of worms.

And since I'm doing that anyway... where would you say you land on the Conservative/Liberal scale?

Oh wow! How do I explain 800 years of political history in a single post?! :laugh:

This is extremely simplified:

Unlike in the US, where you vote for the President, and then also vote for your representative in the senate and in Congress (at least I think that's how you do it). We just vote for the party who we want to run the country,. Whichever party gets the most votes in a constituency wins that seat in the House of Commons, and whichever party wins the most seats becomes the Government. The leader of the winning party then becomes our Prime Minister. So we don't directly elect our Prime Minister. If that makes sense?

Whilst we have a load of parties to vote for (as well as independents) We still have a predominantly 2 party system in the UK. Traditionally there was a Conservative party and a Liberal party much like in the US, then about 100years ago the Labour Party (socialist) became more popular than the Liberal Party (now called the Liberal Democrats).

Every Government we've had in the last 100years has either been a Conservative Government or a Labour Government. Occasionally one party doesn't quite get a majority, and so they'll form a Coalition Government which is where two or more parties join forces (so for example, in 2010 we had a Conservative and Liberal Democrat Coalition Government) but that's maybe too confusing right now lol.

Whilst other 'protest parties' (generally parties that only exist to push one agenda) such as the Green Party (eco friendly) and UKIP (Brexit) get a lot of attention, it's very rare that they ever get a seat in the House of Commons.

With regards to where I fall on the Conservative/Liberal scale, that's a tricky one. For starters, in the UK it's more of a Conservative/Socialist scale. And both are pretty Liberal in terms of social policy. It tends to be on the economic and tax side of things where they differ most strongly. I like to think I'm pretty central, though I am actually a member of the Conservative Party, so I guess I have to claim the Conservative end (though I do support a number of socialist policies too). However, please don't confuse British Conservatism with American Conservatism (nothing wrong with either, they are just very different). Our Conservative Party is more in line with you're Democrat Party. So for example, over here, the Conservatives gave women the right to vote, introduced gun control, and legalised gay marriage (which i think would be classed as more Liberal policies in the US)

Oh boy, Brexit now?! :laugh: that's as divisive over here as Trump is in the states. With regards to Northern Ireland, the issue is about their border with the Republic of Ireland (they're two separate countries for those that don't know).

So Northern Ireland (which is part of the UK) has a long history of conflict with the Republic of Ireland (not a part of the UK). A peace treaty was signed a while back, called the Good Friday Agreement, which helped put a stop to the conflict. At present there is a completely open border between the two countries as they're both part of the EU, which mean they have all the same laws and their citizens have a right called 'freedom of movement' which means that any citizen of an EU country has the right to live and work in any other EU country.

Because Britain is leaving the EU, we will then be able to change our laws, and there will be no right to freedom of movement. Normally that's pretty simple to fix, you simply set up a border control. However, a hard border between Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland would be in breach of the Good Friday Agreement, which could set off the conflict again. So that's the problem there in a nut shell haha.

Hopefully some of that made sense?

Excellent brief introduction! I knew a little of it, but never realized your "conservatives" were very different from the U.S. idea of conservative. Good to know! I knew the Irish situation was a mess based on my Irish side of the family always bringing it up, but you clarified exactly why Brexit could reignite the conflict. So, thank you!

Senan wrote: I knew a little of it, but never realized your "conservatives" were very different from the U.S. idea of conservative. Good to know!

Yeah, a lot of people don't realise that. The term 'conservatism' simply means 'a commitment to traditional values and ideas', so 'Conservatism' as a political ideology varies massively from one country to another depending on the traditional values and ideas in the culture of that country. Britain has always been (relatively) innovative/progressive so our conservatism is too