Remember the joke about how Obama was the best Republican president the US has had in decades? Near as I can tell, there is no left wing at the national level. Even Bernie would be a moderate saying the bleeding obvious in most Western democracies.
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Umā¦I canāt answer that question not having surveyed the area (!) but the reason that the MP for South Norfolk gets elected is that he is very good at his job - and has consistently voted against wars in the Middle East, consistently demanded that Civil Servants should be selected for ability rather than telling ministers what they want to hear, and consistently criticised giving large contracts to outsourcing companies which then fail. (and yet, oddly, is a Conservative). He is also very supportive of the pig farming industry, and I believe it is that that drives his opposition to the EU, since pig welfare standards are much lower in France and many other EU countries, putting pressure on prices.
TL;DR: it isnāt a one issue matter.
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The assumption that (a) the government will continue to give them subsidies and (b) the perception that the EU dumps cheap food on us. The fact that they donāt realise the likes of Liam Fox plan to make loads of āconsultancyā money getting US junk food into the UK probably has more to do with DEFRA and the NFU than the tabloids. I live on the edge of a farming area, I know a few farmers. They arenāt nearly as stereotypical as you think. The truth is that in some circumstances leaving the EU could be good for farmers. Currently we canāt feed ourselves. When the UK credit rating becomes BBB-, we will need to do so.
Farmers around here employ Italian, Polish, Romanian, Portuguese, Lithuanian, Estonian and any other labour they can get because, itās true, the unemployed locals are almost all unfit for farming work. They are not anti-foreigner. But they have been treated badly by successive Westminster governments and have been told itās because of the EU. Do you really expect them to understand how the Directives have been implemented in national legislation? I doubt many people in DEFRA know that.
(I too am a Londoner but I left over 30 years ago. I now note just how insular many Londoners are in their prejudices and lack of understanding of the rest of the country - and I would say that is a contributory factor in the referendum result. I notice how many Londoners come here now and immediately start trying to take over councils, ban pig or chicken farming near villages because of the smell, etc. etc. They do not do a good job of promoting multiculturalism.)
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No. Only on BoingBoing.
Thatās interesting, because I didnāt hear it on BB.
Also: both parties have been running basically on scare tactics about the other party, rather than an actual platform. As in, vote for us or THEY will take away your rights. Vote for us or THEY will take away your money.
āVote for me because Iām not Bushā didnāt work in 2004. āVote for me because Iām not Trumpā didnāt work in 2016. But theyāre going to do it again and again and again.
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You have it backward, sort of. If you work a corporate job, you constantly hear the dumbest shit from educated suburbanites who should know better but are invested in the rat race. Outside the corporate world, you only hear that shit from blatant assholes too incompetent and outre for the corporate world.
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This.
Thereās also that gap, which has been growing from the 1980s, between education and training. There is so much emphasis on training ā be an engineer, be an accountant, be a doctor ā that being educated takes a back seat. People may have the critical thinking skills to figure out something is wrong with the accounts, but not enough to put together all of the crap coming out of the White House and realise āoh, thatās crapā.
I work with a guy who keeps telling me you canāt tell what Trumpās about from what he says, but from what he does. I asked how that can be an accurate take when heās a documented liar who has passed no major legislation. Then itās, āoh, we shouldnāt talk about politics at workā. Yeah, because thereās no answer for that.
But āTrump is a successful businessman who will help the economy and therefore is beneficial to all of North Americaā is such a heavily invested-in idea, they canāt consider that maybe those premises and that logic may not be realistic.
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A friend of mine works at a theater design company in Manhattan. The gayest sort of corporate work environment ever. And yet a great deal of his workmates are vocal Trump supporters because āheās helping Wall Street thrive!ā Apparently for many educated suburbanites and 'urbanites, the strength of your 401k is more important than your personal freedoms.
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Exactly.
It was the same refrain with Rob Ford: āAt least heās going to drop the congestion charge and not raise taxes! At least heās not going to spend money!ā
And then Iād ask where the money for the subway extension he promised us was going to come from, one of the most expensive things a city can build.
All these promises, and people are remarkably bad at adding them all up to see what the real message is. I wonder if New York theatre is feeling a hit with tourism down since Trump took office.
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If you read the second half of my post you will see that I address that issue.
Exactly. 100% concur. Example: Ben Carson. Neurosurgeon who claims not to believe in evolution.
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Nah. Stateside tourism isnāt down all that much, and itās still impossible to get Hamilton tickets 
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Iāve posted this a few times elsewhere, but the bit of this between 5:30 and 9:30 directly addresses that point. It begins discussing abortion, but expands from there.
Perhaps I should have continued that at the precarious bottom we get as much training and education as we can afford; books are somewhat cheap or free, but we also get exposure to real life outside the corporate fake society.
Again, turnout of the majority is hurt by lame policies by the Dems and suppression by the Reps. The people who take Trump as read in the media are the ones too stunted by comfortable distractions.
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I wonder if he has other reasonsā¦
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Yes, he wants to keep the farming vote.
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FWIW I voted Remain and strongly support continued EU membership.
But it is not logical or correct to say that farmers voted to leave the EU knowing they would lose 50% of their income. The farming subsidy comes out of money returned from the EU budget but it came from taxpayers in the first place as the UK is a net contributor. The farmers not unreasonably assumed that outside the EU either (a) farm gate prices would lead to a sustainable business or (b) the Government would pay subsidies directly.
CAP is the worst thing about the EU, a boondoggle to keep French and Italian farmers onside. Personally I think the EU should have been more protectionist about farming and pushed farm gate prices to sustainable levels. Properly applied it could have benefited poor farmers outside the EU by sensibly applied trade agreements. As we face a resources crunch, eventually food prices will rise due to loss of output in most of the world. The EU is prepared for an energy crisis by levying high taxes on oil, encouraging people to use it economically - we use less than half as much as the average American. A similar approach to food could make the EU more sustainable. As the farm cost of food is often barely 10-20% of shop prices, it is possible farmers could be weaned off benefit culture without a serious short term impact on food prices. No more spending money on anti-smoking campaigns while paying Italian farmers to grow tobacco!
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Bearing in mind that Europeās public transit infrastructure alone can account for a lot of that difference. Low population density begets higher personal vehicle dependency, and a higher chance of an oil-heated home as well.
What infrastructure there is often is just maintained enough to say it exists.
Put it this way: when I was a student in London, Ontario and took the 200km train ride home to Toronto, it was the norm for the train to arrive around the time it was supposed to be reaching its destination. The (diesel) train couldnāt go more than 100km/h, because a lot of the track it was running on was so old. The trip, once the train showed up, took about as long as it did in the late 19th century.
Yeah, I know the trains are late and slow in Europe too. But not like that.
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Per-capita oil consumption in Oz is about 2/3rds of what it is in the US, btw. With about 1/10th the population density.
Density does play a role, but it is very much not the whole story.
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And, mostly, a much warmer climate.