Posts by YARR

"We sometimes fail to remember this vote will have the most profound impact on Britain's relationship with Europe and the rest of the world. It can be easy to forget what damage has been done in pitting Brit against Brit and the toxic legacy which will endure."

I'm aware how vital Brexit is to our future. There is far more at stake than near-term economic issues - the EU is fundamentally undemocratic, overrules our right to govern ourselves, and has a history of deciding against our interests. A short term economic hit caused by speculators to an otherwise successful economy is a small sacrifice to regain our independence for future generations.

Sometimes those who are well-off forget that what is good for them can be bad for everyone else. The Eurozone has made it's weaker economies dependent on bail outs, while the free movement of workers has widened inequality by increasing profits and undercutting wages. Financial indicators are that a new recession is on the way. The only thing keeping the EU's head above water is the economies of it's stronger members like Britain. After a Brexit, other members will want to leave, so there will be uncertainty for any company thinking of relocating to the EU. Iceland and Switzerland have already withdrawn their applications for membership.

If you think that after a remain vote, Brit wont be pitted against Brit then you are very much mistaken. There will be nothing our government can do to address the fundamental and exacerbating problems caused by EU rules. If we have the misfortune to remain, Corbyn has said there can be "no upper limit on immigration from the EU", and the EU will start fining any member state that doesn't accept the quota of refugees they decide. With a recession coming, this is a perfect storm for chaos.

I do listen to my brain - by every rational argument, there is no reason to surrender British sovereignty to unelected bureaucrats in Brussels.

I have to assume you are joking, or do you really base your opinion on such strawman reasoning? No I don't think the EU are destroying the web, and I don't think the web was a British invention.

Switzerland in not the EU, thus CERN (where the WWW was invented) proves that co-operation between European nations works just brilliantly without the rip-off EU parliament granting us permission from on high to co-operate. I fail to see how prominent scientists with reputations to uphold support the remain camp based on invalid reasoning.

If you vote to remain then you agree that someone who is unlikely to be British or live in Britain should have authority to overrule our parliament and dictate our laws. That viewpoint is contrary to the constitution of our and most other countries, it is treasonous.

How likely do you think it is that Boris Johnson and Nigel Farage are going to protect workers' rights?

I think you are being over presumptive (even prejudging) other's political stance. Anyway, if we get Brexit, UKIP will no longer have a purpose and Nigel Farage will probably retire from politics.

Workers rights are complex issue. IMO exploitative schemes like "Zero hours contracts" should not have been allowed except for a limited time to get the economy out of a recession. OTOH, the EU has enforced other "rights" we never wanted such as unnecessarily long paid maternity leave for partners - which are a problem for small and struggling businesses.

Obviously opinion varies widely on this issue, but if opinion varies across EU "states" then tough - all EU states must implement the same law even if the majority in one "state" don't like it.

"EPO appears to be nothing to do with the EU"

Correct - I didn't say the European Patent Office is related to the EU, but that it's censoring is deceptive LIKE the EU's claim to be democratic and uphold free speech (it does the opposite - the lawmakers are not elected. You are entitled to freedom of speech - caveat "within the law" = any law can override it = you DON'T have freedom of speech).

It is a FACT that the EPO censor internet access.

In my opinion the EU is deceptive because it does not uphold what it claims to be.

"The EPO is F** all to do with the EU."

Correct! It is a European institution as was stated.

"#Brignorant."

I would like to know in what manner you think I am ignorant since what I said is true.

"Tosh. The whole point of human rights conventions is that laws can't over-ride them."

It's a FACT that people are imprisoned in EU countries for expressing their opinion. Please go and research the issue.

And if there are tariffs imposed on UK built Nissans, where do you think Nissan might build its next model?

That depends on where it sells most of it's cars. If the majority are sold in the UK, then it would make economic sense to stay here.

If the EU was mad enough to introduce tariffs the British government could subsidise car exports using the income made from taxing cars imported from the EU. Since we are a net importer of cars from the EU, Britain would make more income from tariffs than the EU.

My favourite.. we can close the borders if we vote out... no, no we can't

Of course any independent country can close it's borders if it so wishes. No post-Brexit government would go that far, but they will have the power to control all migration into the UK.

This idea is only slightly less delusional than the idea that Berlin and Paris will allow Europe financial affairs to be run from outside the EU.

"Berlin", "Paris" and "Frankfurt" will remain subservient to the EU so can't decide anything. The EU's financial affairs aren't run from London. If the EU's answer to Brexit is to issue more red tape it will make the EU even less attractive.

"The arguments of the Pro campaigners just add to the sentiment that I wasn’t welcome in the first place."

Brexit is about our relationship with the political institution of the EU, not with European people or nations.

"when I interject that the former size of your Empire isn’t relevant anymore, your hurt pride"

I don't think many British people are "proud" of Empire or "hurt" by your suggestion.

"How do you justify colonising from Cape to Cairo?"

How can the EU justify seizing political control of member states without a democratic mandate?

Besides most European countries were also colonisers, and were primarily motivated by economic reasons.

"nowadays you seem to hold quite strong views about foreigners and that they should stay in their home countries"

Inside or outside of the EU views would still be divided, but being outside the EU gives Britain control of immigration. This matters more to many voters than having "greater influence in Europe".

"It’s your government, who use cheap rightwing messages"

Actually our government has used taxpayer's money to spread pro-EU propaganda to every household.

There's nothing "cheap" or "uneducated" about wanting independence from a political union that we never voted for (we only voted for a free market), that is anti-democratic and run by a self-serving appointed elite, whose excessive regulations and taxes have made Britain overwhelmingly poorer, and taken away powers to effect change that benefits us.

"Austerity measures and the demise of the NHS have nothing to do with a few million foreigners taking your jobs and benefits"

With the money we spend on the EU, the national budget would go a lot further.

"largely generated by a hasty invasion of Iraq in 2003"

The 2003 invasion did cause a wave of refugees, but the present wave of refugees are caused by recent conflicts that have many causes. The downfall of Libya was assisted by many EU countries.

"Do you still wonder about the success of Polish and Romanian builders?"

Not really - a British wage is worth a lot more to them than a Polish or Romanian wage is to a Brit.

"The lack of social mobility is strong in Great Britain"

How is the EU going to fix this? The EU creates inequality by funding a large and excessively well paid, unelected bureaucracy.

Perhaps if fewer foreign students went to British universities, more British students would have an opportunity?

"a short-term recession would just be an inconvenience"

Why would freeing ourselves from a counter-productive political union provoke a recession, provided we remain open to free trade? The threats seem to come from people with a vested interest in centralising political control. If Britain's economy was more successful outside the EU it would prove to other Europeans that they would also be better off independent.

"At least, there, I won’t be shut up as a foreigner without a right to vote."

This is a nonsensical argument coming from someone educated to PhD level! Fair is fair - we can't vote in your referendum and you can't vote in ours.

You've been granted the opportunity to express your view to a wide audience here. There are many who disagree with you who would relish the opportunity to be read so widely.

"For me, the EU is not about the money ... It is a model how people can work together "

Like it or not, money matters and a grossly inefficient institution should be subject to some competition. The higher goals you mention are global issues not local European issues.

The EU is a hierarchical structure that dictates laws that take precedent over national sovereignty, it's not a forum for equal partner nations to agree common policies.

"Is the Brexit debate yet another move to distract from the real issues in the country?"

As a member of the EU, we are powerless to affect the real issues facing our country. Brexit would take that power back.

"These problems cannot be tackled with national pride and strong emotion. We have all got to look forward, not backward."

Your appeal to abstract emotional concepts is not a valid argument. You appear to suffer from a delusion that the only political path we can choose is to surrender to centralised control. I would prefer to regain more control over my own future in exchange for less influence over others.

"you need to work on yourself"

The feeling is mutual.

Why are Windows 10 updates any different from earlier Windows? Updates don't change the Windows APIs that applications are programmed to.

If they introduced a major revision to Windows that affected application compatibility, they would provide an upgrade tool for checking compatibility, and offer to run older application in compatibility mode.

Is the Pi zero board layout published under an open licence? If the components are all off-the-shelf, what's to stop anyone making compatible variants with ethernet / wifi / 1Gb RAM / extra or full-size USB / HDMI ports etc?

Re: Why is "Call me Dave" Cameron telling me what to think?

You mean you missed it?

The referendum in 1975 (not 1972 - that's when they signed the treaty before consulting the public) was to join a free market ("European Economic Community" / EEC) - not a political union. Since then they have tip-toed towards political union without consulting the public, signing over sovereignty to what has become the EU in stages.

There is more democracy in the EU's little finger than there is in the UK.

I disagree, the roles of the elected members are reversed. In Britain's unelected House of Lords, the Lords cannot propose laws, only debate them and vote to pass or block laws passed by the democratic House of Commons. The EU parliament is the reverse, unelected political appointees draft new laws and the democratic MEPs get to debate and vote on passing/rejecting laws = the equivalent role to the House of Lords.The EU parliament is based on the model of the USSR.

In Britain a member of public can consult their representative MP who can propose a change to the law in the commons. In the EU, you cannot ask your MEP to propose a change to EU law. On top of this, even if the public could change EU laws, they would need substantial influence to convince the majority population of the EU to support the change.

Re: Trump? Who's he?

1) He has enough money of his own that he can't easily be bought.

It used to be that politicians were mostly self-made, independently-wealthy people, meaning they were less likely to be "bought". However that's no guarantee as you have to look at someone's history to see how they came by their wealth and weather it was made by having certain connections. Trump may not be as clean and independent as you think.

... even when written on a back-lit screen? I'd be more concerned about losing the stylus.

If only Cortana would record messages. Then again, listening to your own voice from the middle of the night could be equally incomprehensible.

Re: don't get it

"It also means the whole world will be using the same, open source rendering engine, good for users, good for developers."

The lack of diversity of browser engines would be bad - if a critical bug is found in one browser engine, users would no longer have an alternative.

Are there major changes to browser standards in the pipeline which the Mozilla engine is incapable of supporting? Otherwise why replace a mature and well-supported product?

Please don't confuse matters by taking the branding of a popular existing browser for a new browser - it's not hard to come up with an original name.

DISINFORMATION: the first Europeans to arrive in North America

Archaeological evidence of arrowheads suggests the Solutreans originating from modern day France were the first known Europeans to arrive in North America. They are believed to have skirted the edge of the ice shelf during the last ice age, rather than using ocean-going vessels.

what could possibly go wrong?

I've seen videos of those multi-rotors losing a prop and spining out of control - almost colliding with the operator. With a chainsaw this is just asking for it! They could have made the Darwin awards.

Re: Milankovitch cycles

If the orbit is very eccentric and the average distance from the Sun is 75x Plutos, it's closest approach might affect Earth's gravity significantly.

However I'm confused that an object of that size could have escaped observation for so long, given that astronomers can measure visible light emitted from exoplanets.

Re: Susceptible to optimisation

There are racing quads being released with rotors tilted forward for faster forward flight - I guess this sacrifices the ability to hover though.

If you need the screen real estate, there's an option to shrink the search box to an icon which opens Cortana above the task bar, or you can remove it.

These travel restrictions are a reaction to terrorism, not general immigration. They are xenophobic because there is no proven way to effectively discriminate against terrorists. Trump's idea of a ban on Muslim immigration is more targeted but wouldn't work, because the terrorists would claim to be of a different religion. An alternative might be to require certain visa applicants to wear an electronic tracking device. It's still discriminatory, but it would overcome the inconvenience caused by the present rules.

To those blaming wars on the military, the buck always stops with politicians. Some military generals talk up the threat to justify their budget increases, but they are not responsible for initiating conflict. If military personnel conscientiously object to fight a war they don't agree with, they are liable to be court-marshalled. Given that most wars the US is involved in nowadays aren't motivated by the need to defend the US but instead are geopolitical in nature, then traditional patriots motivated to defend their country should avoid joining the US military. It's ironic that some of the people who advocate US military intervention around the world, and expect US military personnel not to exercise their conscience, are often in support of prosecuting those from other countries who were also just following orders.

Stand up for women's rights: book an abortion.

OK, just vote me down without reason then. I guess I deserve it, as anyone who thinks evacuating the life of an innocent is wrong must be a women hater.