Month: October 2014

I hold two passports, one Canadian, one British. These days, I’m wondering how long it’ll be before I can apply for a Swiss one. I’m profoundly ashamed of the government in both countries.

Harper has been pissing away Canada’s international reputation and his tenure has been marked by one scandal after another. Human rights, native rights, natural resource management, voter fraud, patronage, you name it…

Meanwhile, David Cameron is so afraid of losing ground to UKIP, the UK equivalent of the Tea Party, that he’s going even more to the right to try an reign in the defectors. UKIP’s platform is built on two propositions – that it would be better if we returned to the 1950s and that all that is bad in the UK emanates from the European Union. The two latest gems from Cameron’s government:

Under proposals to be included in the party’s general election manifesto, the Tories would reverse more than half a century’s tradition of human rights authority residing in Europe by giving parliament the right to veto judgments from the European Court of Human Rights. The authority of the court in Strasbourg would be severely curtailed, with parliament given the final say in deciding whether or not to adopt ECHR decisions.

And my favourite:

Schools should teach pupils mainly in imperial and not metric measurements, David Cameron has said. Four decades since metres and litres replaced yards and pints on the curriculum, the prime minister suggested he would prefer to see a return to the old system.

Welcome to England, the most retrograde country in the West.