Europe - The Official Thread

Carbonox
This is probably my biggest fear: terrorist activity in a small town of 5000 people. I used to fancy myself neatly out of that kind of harm's way in my current location "far away from civilization", but not anymore I guess.
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You're in Finland, your entire country has very little to worry about as far as terrorism is concerned, let alone small towns. :lol:
 
TenEightyOne
Not so, unfortunately.
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I did have a dig around and couldn't find any news articles on terrorist attacks before the one last year until 2002. So if they've only had 2 deaths from terrorism in over a decade then I don't really see why they should have much to worry about. Feel free to point me to information of any others that have happened.
 
Spurgy 777
I did have a dig around and couldn't find any news articles on terrorist attacks before the one last year until 2002. So if they've only had 2 deaths from terrorism in over a decade then I don't really see why they should have much to worry about. Feel free to point me to information of any others that have happened.
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Sorry, I misunderstood your statement as referring to there being little threat, not to how many attacks had got through the net. Here's Supo's assessment.
 
Carbonox
This is probably my biggest fear: terrorist activity in a small town of 5000 people. I used to fancy myself neatly out of that kind of harm's way in my current location "far away from civilization", but not anymore I guess.
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That's the target of terrorists, to make people feel unsafe even in small towns.

TenEightyOne
So all those twitbot accounts weren't Russian despite the many independent assessments saying precisely that?
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I heard about that. But even if it's true, is using twitbots a crime?
Like Putin said in an interview with an NBC journalist (when asked about 13 people named guilty in election meddling by the US) - "People in Russia live under Russian laws. If they broke any Russian laws, tell us which, and we will charge them."

Somthing tells me that if Russia decided to prosecute a pro-West twitter troll factory, the US would call it a violation of their freedom of speech.

But, aside from twitbots, they blamed Russia for "hacking" and "cyberattcks", but no evidence was revealed after a year. Who needs it anyway?..
 
Rage Racer
That's the target of terrorists, to make people feel unsafe even in small towns.


I heard about that. But even if it's true, is using twitbots a crime?
Like Putin said in an interview with an NBC journalist (when asked about 13 people named guilty in election meddling by the US) - "People in Russia live under Russian laws. If they broke any Russian laws, tell us which, and we will charge them."

Somthing tells me that if Russia decided to prosecute a pro-West twitter troll factory, the US would call it a violation of their freedom of speech.

But, aside from twitbots, they blamed Russia for "hacking" and "cyberattcks", but no evidence was revealed after a year. Who needs it anyway?..
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I always thought Terrorists target big cities, I mean for terrorists like ISIS or Al Qaeda its more viable in attacking big cities rather than rural towns especially capital cities since they are seat of power of a particular country.

Then again terrorists will do anything to cause pain and destruction where ever they are.
 
Rage Racer
That's the target of terrorists, to make people feel unsafe even in small towns.
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Good for them, but that should be yet another cue, if the other attacks weren't enough, to purge radicals somewhere that the sun doesn't shine.
 
Unable to link on phone. I just heard on the radio, 15 dead 20 injured after someone drove into a crowd in Germany.
 
UKMikey
Dunno if anyone here speaks German but I think it looks like the driver had mental proboems.

http://www.spiegel.de/politik/deuts...laster-was-bislang-bekannt-ist-a-1201760.html
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In belgium media it was reported the guy was suicidal and had some financial/psychological issues.

Those psychological issues are becoming a worldwide fenomena that gets ignored by pretty much every governent as far as I know of.

My opinion why they don't act? Wel' I geuss a lot of peoples issues derive from the pressure society we live in and we keep putting more and more pressure on us, while having smaller and smaller wages compared with prices of general products. Income inequality raising and companies not paying taxes. The list goes on and on but changing anything about that is not plausible with out austerity/neo-liberal governments.

It's a shame though and it should be adressed as the issue it is. I always hrar our (belgian) politicians complain about traffic deaths but suicides are on par with that number yet I've never heard a politician talk about it unless some charity is happrning. At that point they say they will take measures yet the week after they take away money from the institutions combating these issues.

In all honnesty I hold our politicians responsible for a lot of the suicides as they just keep looking the other way.
 
Italy looks set to have a government again after their latest election produced a hung parliament. An unlikely alliance was formed between the far-right League and the 'anti-establishment' Five Star movement, and yesterday they produced an agreement that should pave the way for the alliance to form a government. However, as is getting to be something of a habit these days, the EU are looking on nervously as both sides of the Italian coalition are pretty euro-skeptic, although they have at least scaled back on some of their more anti-EU remarks and demands. One of the most interesting aspects of their agreement (according to the Financial Times in the UK) is the implementation of a Universal Basic Income of €780 per person a month, part-funded through the EU... something tells me that isn't going to go down very well with the EU!
 
Touring Mars
Italy looks set to have a government again
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... or not.

Italy's unlikely coalition was dealt a death blow by the pro-EU Italian President yesterday who vetoed their selection of Finance Minister because he is a known Eurosceptic who would like Italy to withdraw from the Euro - as a result, the newly named Prime Minister (who'd been in charge for a matter of days) resigned, paving the way for another election in Italy.

Markets are waking up to the growing threat to the Eurozone posed by Italy, as although the country has shown little direct appetite for quitting the Euro (which would also see it forced out of the EU entirely), there is the possibility that Italy will attempt to issue new government-backed bonds that would, in effect, become a parallel currency which would undermine the Euro (and the power/influence of the EU on Italy's financial policy) and could pave the way for a showdown between Italy and the EU.

One can't help but feel that there is a growing (and it's already pretty humungous) pile of excrement that is waiting for someone brave (or stupid) enough to throw it at the fan.
 
Touring Mars
One can't help but feel that there is a growing (and it's already pretty humungous) pile of excrement that is waiting for someone brave (or stupid) enough to throw it at the fan.
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Italy has always presented that steaming threat, their economy was grossly overvalued at the beginning of the Euro due to the spending of large, private (and untaxed) cash reserves as Lira reached the end.
 
Touring Mars
One can't help but feel that there is a growing (and it's already pretty humungous) pile of excrement that is waiting for someone brave (or stupid) enough to throw it at the fan.
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You seem to be pretty well read on the situation, what do you think is the best case?
 
baldgye
You seem to be pretty well read on the situation, what do you think is the best case?
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Without wanting to usurp TM my own thoughts are that Italy would benefit most from devolved, regional governments with proportional representation in a capital government. A common feeling amongst my Italian friends (all three of them, not a great sample) is that Italy has had years of mistrust in government and that many parts don't feel represented in the capital. That feeling seems to be borne out by the different political movements we see across the country.
 
TenEightyOne
Without wanting to usurp TM my own thoughts are that Italy would benefit most from devolved, regional governments with proportional representation in a capital government. A common feeling amongst my Italian friends (all three of them, not a great sample) is that Italy has had years of mistrust in government and that many parts don't feel represented in the capital. That feeling seems to be borne out by the different political movements we see across the country.
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Yeah... my fiancé is Italian and I love the country and people. My only inclination is that they’d be better off if they removed 3/4 of the politicians and imposed a cap on salaries.
I think the region my fiancé is from has more politicians than the whole of the United Kingdom (that’s four countries) :lol:

But I’m not terribly well read on Italy and it’s politics
 
TenEightyOne
So what does he think the solution could be?
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She* (maybe I used the wrong spelling (first time using that term ha!)), isn't sure.
For sure an income cap would be nice as among her friends there is a huge disconnect between the political elite and everyone else. Politicians (my understanding) earn 6-7 figure salaries. This money, in turn helps feed the inbuilt corruption, further distancing politicians and the general public.

She mostly just argues with 5 Star Movement supporters on Facebook! haha
 
baldgye
You seem to be pretty well read on the situation, what do you think is the best case?
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Tough one - I think the 'best case' would involve the EU at least preparing for the possibility that Italy might eventually leave the Eurozone - and for that to happen the EU needs to create a mechanism to allow for this possibility. I don't think that it would be best for Italy to leave the Eurozone, but at the present time that isn't even possible without unleashing a horrible mess that could bring about the collapse of the EU itself.

Ironically, the EU is now being driven towards the kind of wholesale reform that David Cameron (and others) suggested, only to be summarily dismissed as contrary to the central aims of the grand EU project - which ultimately is why Brexit is happening. How ironic it would be if the UK ends up leaving the EU just as it begins to implement the changes that could have kept us in - and allows others to leave.
 
Touring Mars
Ironically, the EU is now being driven towards the kind of wholesale reform that David Cameron (and others) suggested, only to be summarily dismissed as contrary to the central aims of the grand EU project - which ultimately is why Brexit is happening. How ironic it would be if the UK ends up leaving the EU just as it begins to implement the changes that could have kept us in - and allows others to leave.
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There might be more impetus for it since the EU now knows that 'we will leave the EU' is not necessarily a bluff.
 
Barra333
There might be more impetus for it since the EU now knows that 'we will leave the EU' is not necessarily a bluff.
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Do either of you (@Touring Mars ) actually think that if the EU did carry out those reforms? I'm still struggling to imagine us leaving with nothing in place or any idea what to actually do, in-regards to anything.

You guys think that if the EU said, we are doing X then politicians could postpone Brexit indefinitely?
 
baldgye
Do either of you (@Touring Mars ) actually think that if the EU did carry out those reforms? I'm still struggling to imagine us leaving with nothing in place or any idea what to actually do, in-regards to anything.

You guys think that if the EU said, we are doing X then politicians could postpone Brexit indefinitely?
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I don't know enough detail about the situation to say much more since I no longer live in Europe, but I think the UK is too far along to turn back on Brexit.
Either way, the wheels of (major) change in the EU parliament seem even slower than any national government, so don't make any short term plans based on something changing in Brussels.
 
Barra333
I don't know enough detail about the situation to say much more since I no longer live in Europe, but I think the UK is too far along to turn back on Brexit.
Either way, the wheels of (major) change in the EU parliament seem even slower than any national government, so don't make any short term plans based on something changing in Brussels.
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Unfortunately, I'm trapped on a nasty little island that's dominated by little-man-syndrome :lol:
 

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