I cannot really contribute to the analysis of what is happening today and what will happen next. There are a lot of people reporting that in a lot of detail.
Democracy is all very well, but sadly the only qualifications required to vote are that you survived to your 18th birthday, can find the polling station, and can spell "X".
P.S. Someone took this post as insulting. I was not trying to be insulting, sorry. I think that most people voting on this issue, myself included, lack the necessary experience or qualifications in politics, or economics, to have been able to make a remotely informed decision. We all went on gut feeling or propaganda. That is a problem with democracy, but it is the best we have at the moment.
Spelling 'X' isn't a requirement. The electoral commissions guide to verifying votes states that "a ballot paper on which the vote is marked in the following ways must not be rejected if the voter’s intention is clear" ... otherwise than by means of a cross
ReplyDeleteSo you could write 'YES' next to your choice and 'NO' next to all the others, and it would still be valid. However, anything that identifies the voter will result in the paper being rejected as this violates the secrecy of the ballot.
When you get a chance and things have calmed down and become clearer, can you elaborate on what Brexit means for Voice(EU) SIMs?
Presumably it means practically nothing as far as things such as RIPE is concerned as RIPE covers many countries not in the EU too, but there are probably countless ways, especially where services are provided across current EU borders such as data centre colocation, that are could become a very large can of worms opened up by this vote.
The brexiteers got what they asked for, however time will tell whether this will be what they wanted.
Jim (A Remainian)
The guidance means that you could even write "LEAVE" right across the ballot and it would be ok. If you think about it then it makes sense - eg. a partially sighted person could place a ballot without assistance if they can just write their vote down.
DeleteSo far, I'm seeing a huge gap between reality and rhetoric about the impact. Lots of "Waaaah! What about $thing?" - usually answered by "no, that's not EU-related in the first place, so no impact. I dislike the EU for the extent to which it interferes, but it's becoming obvious there are people here who seem to believe it's involved in even more than it really is! (Understandable in a way: it had aspirations of becoming a government rather than an interfering trading bloc.)
DeleteRoaming charges? My contract already has lower roaming fees than the EU limit, so no change there - and indeed has cheaper roaming to some non-EU countries than within the EU, so nothing lost. Colocation? My VPSs are in London and the US, so no impact on that either. (My company and I do use some AWS services hosted in the EU, but that doesn't matter; maybe it'll affect prices a bit, but EU and non-EU resources don't differ anyway otherwise.)
You know the best (worst) bit? We get to pick a new PM, and our choices will be Boris, or Skeletor (Theresa May).
ReplyDeleteIt's probably good that you've done your drone course. If she gets in, there will be lots of call for people to pilot the surveillance drones that will follow every member of the public 24-7, and as an ISP, the telemetry data for the facial expression cameras that attempt to monitor for evidence of thought crime will probably increase demand for connectivity.
We don't get to pick a PM. The Conservative Party, currently on a rush of right-wing sentiment, gets to pick a new PM. :(
DeleteThough they'll probably want to trigger a general election fairly quickly so as to legitimise it; not doing so was a mistake Gordon Brown made.
We don't get to choose a new PM, that will be imposed upon us by the Tory party.
DeleteThey can only call a general election if there's a successful vote of no confidence in the government or if there is a two thirds majority in the house in favour of a general election.
DeleteSorry, by "We get to pick" I meant, Tory party members get to pick. Although, I ended my membership a while back so that's not me anymore!
DeleteAny chance of bringing AAISP up to Scotland? We'd love to have you. At this rate we'll be in the EU and free of Theresa May and her ilk forever.
ReplyDeleteDon't worry, I'm sure you'll develop your own set of vile politicians, every other country has them so why should Scotland be any different?
DeleteWe did, and he lost the referendum in 2014
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