First Minister Of Scotland On Daily Show

Comedy Central

On Monday, June 8th, the First Minister of Scotland Nicola Sturgeon discussed the Scottish National Party’s election victories and reasons for wanting independence from the U.K.

Wikipedia states:

“Nicola Ferguson Sturgeon (born 19 July 1970) is the fifth and current First Minister of Scotland and the Leader of the Scottish National Party, in office since 2014. She is the first woman to hold either position. Sturgeon represents Glasgow Southside as its MSP.” (Member of the Scottish Parliament – ed.).

“A law graduate of the University of Glasgow, Sturgeon worked as a solicitor in Glasgow. She was first elected to the Scottish Parliament in 1999, and served successively as the SNP’s shadow minister for education, health and justice. In 2004, she announced that she would stand as a candidate for the leadership of the SNP following the resignation of John Swinney. However, she later withdrew from the contest in favour of Alex Salmond, standing instead as depute (deputy) leader on a joint ticket with Salmond.”

Russell Brand Looks At Tory Election Propaganda

Trews

Earlier this month, Britain was in an election cycle, and Russell Brand looked at the Conservative (Tory) political election propaganda.  The Tories ran a host of political campaign ads, including on Facebook. One in every £17 pounds the Tories spent on the last general election campaign goes towards drumming up support on Facebook.

Brand analysed their policies, past promises and election tactics as well.

In the video, Brand mentions Quantitative Easing (QE), an economic maneuver governments can take in an attempt to improve the economy. What is Quantitative Easing?

Investopedia states that QE is an “unconventional monetary policy in which a central bank purchases government securities or other securities from the market in order to lower interest rates and increase the money supply.”

“Quantitative easing increases the money supply by flooding financial institutions with capital in an effort to promote increased lending and liquidity.”

Tories also ran attack advertisements that featured a famous note from a former Chief Secretary to the Treasury that implied that a Labour government would run the country to ruin by not controlling the budget.  The note reads “Dear Chief Secretary, I’m afraid there is no money.”

(Updated article)

http://www.investopedia.com/terms/q/quantitative-easing.asp#ixzz3bRRskhEV

Highlights Of British Parliamentary Elections

According to the British publication The Telegraph, David Cameron – the Leader of the right-of-center Conservative Party (also called the Tories) – won a surprise landslide majority and will be the Prime Minister for another term.

Cameron’s top team remained as he reappointed several cabinet-holders to the positions they held beforehand.

Ed Miliband resigned as the Leader of the (left-of-center) Labour Party after the worst Labour result since 1987.

The Labour Party’s “Shadow Chancellor of the Exchequer” Ed Balls lost his seat in a “shock result” to the Conservatives’ Andrea Jenkyns.  This was apparently an important post and a hard blow for Labour.

After huge losses for the centrist Liberal Democratic party, the Leader of that party, Nick Clegg, resigned.

The Liberal Democrats were hit particularly hard, and the party has been reduced from 57 seats in Parliament in 2010 down to just eight now.

Nigel Farage, the leader of the smaller right-wing nationalist party UKIP (U.K. Independence Party) also reportedly will resign.  The party only got one MP into Parliament.

The Scottish National Party (SNP) was a winner, taking 56 out of 59 Scottish seats possible.

The Mayor of London, Boris Johnson, proposed that England make a “federal offer” of more autonomy to Scotland.

FTSE (a London stock exchange indicator similar to the Dow Jones or S&P 500) rose by £50 billion pounds as markets cheered the result of the elections.

So the take-away from the suspenseful election seems to be that the big winners were the Tories (Conservatives) and SNP.

(Updated article)

http://www.bbc.com/news/health-32633388

Brawl In Turkish Paliament

Turkish lawmakers got into an fight during the first day of debate over a homeland security bill, with people throwing office chairs and gavels, leaving five people seriously injured.

The fighting took place early on Wednesday, February 18th, during a closed-door session as opposition political parties proposed motions to delay the beginning of their debate, the state-run Anadolu Agency reported.

Lawmaker Mahmut Tanal, who was hit, described the fighting as unprecedented.

According to lawmaker Ertugrul Kurkcu, the fighting legislators threw chairs and used the assembly’s gavel and bell to hit others.

The brawl comes amid tensions between the opposition and the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) over the security bill that the government is pushing for an approval, according to Press TV.

Press TV: “Under the bill, which was presented to the parliament last month, the prime minister of the country and other cabinet ministers would be able to shut down websites for reasons including ‘national security’ without a court order.

“The legislation would also expand certain powers of the police, which would allow officers to conduct searches during protests and to detain people for up to 48 hours without a prosecutor’s authorization. In addition, the police would be permitted to use firearms to prevent an attack in public against people using Molotov cocktails or other similar weapons.”

Secular Talk