Zompist Bboard Again

I've heard it reported that Boris Johnson will seek an extension from the EU... What are the chances this will actually happen (the asking), and the EU agreeing (if the asking occurs), do you think?

Does result of the court case have any wider impact beyond "Parliament will be sitting tomorrow"? I guess, more specifically, in terms of how the courts and Parliament or the Government interact, or on the idea of parliamentary sovereignty?

Driving back from work with my brother, and happened to spot an unexpected number of people and a camera crew in the outside area of the Heck Food Factory up here in North Yorkshire (a bit north of Ripon off the old A1). My brother, driving, said "is that Boris Johnson?!". Turned round at ...

While I largely agree with Moose-tache in that the apostrophes, and the Dwarfish language of the Discworld in general, is designed to look intensely foreign to English speakers (in the same way that Pratchett's Trollish appears to aim at what might often be considered "stereotypical caveman spe...

What would it profit a politician to characterize an electoral defeat negatively? Everyone shits on Teresa May for saying all the stupid things she has no choice but to say. Of course she has to pretend the Conservative Party represents "strong and stable" leadership. Of course she has to...

Oh for the ever-loving hell! I just found out my brother voted to leave for "bants" and "to see what would happen"... I am... severely disappointed. Not in his decision to vote, but for the lack of thought involved. *le sigh*

Her Majesty must have Opinions about all of this, so absolute monarchy when I have actually expressed this opinion already tonight as it happens. Only problem is that'd probably result in the UK being kicked out, because we'd be breaking the democracy criterion for EU membership. Would we? If it co...

Just went to Wikipedia to check what Baker's other policy positions are. The ones listed include: Returning to the gold standard Austrian economics Climate change scepticism The "denationalisation" of marriage I have no particular objection to the last one since I don't even know what it ...

Can anyone sum up exactly where we stand at the moment? As far as I can tell, we've got: 1) The Commons will not allow the UK to leave the EU with "no deal" 2) The Commons can't agree on what sort of "deal" the UK should leave with (at least as of yet) 3) The Commons has voted to...

Anyway, yes, we had a free vote on eight different options - and through negotiation it was agreed that government ministers would abstain on all of them. And they didn't - five of them refused to abstain, and instead voted for a customs union. Which made no difference other than the government loo...

It is true. You couldn't make it up; anyway indicative votes are on. There's a catastrophic failure to understand that a people's vote is not an alternative to any of the substantive things they might vote on - like Norway, Norway Plus, Norway minus (for those who aren't up that's a customs union b...

Tusk is already sounding conciliatory, though I don't understand how to square a MV3 with Bercow's pronouncement. ETA: Apparently it's only an issue if the government puts forward the legislation again, but if the Parliament votes to vote on it, it's alright? As far as I understood Bercow's address...

Well, we've now voted to postpone Brexit. Some issues here: - we haven't postponed Brexit. MPs have commanded the Prime Minister to seek a postponement from the EU. The EU don't have to say yes. And MPs can't force the PM to try as hard as possible to convince them. The PM may now be ringing up EU ...

I mentioned this here off topic but I think Icelandic is under serious threat of going extinct in a generation or two. For context, I live in the US now. But when I go back and see children speaking one-on-one, they generally do not speak Icelandic. They still use Icelandic to speak to adults and t...

I've recently heard a suggestion that the 48 letter might not be... "solid"? Since they might have been coming in gradually over several months, there's a chance some MPs might have changed their minds, but haven't sent any letters to that effect, so there could be a chance that those that...

My only issue with it so far is, well, why PM you? Either, as a first round, you post something of your own creation or someone just comes along and posts something of their own, i.e. the person who worked on the "language" should be the only one with access to the rules behind it. Takes o...

So, I have a proto-lang with a very constrained root structure of CV(C)CV, and I'm trying to develop contrastive palatalization. Presently, I have palatalization of consonants before front vowels, followed by elision of vowels in the syllable following stress —which turns out to be morphologically ...

Basics Username: Sangi39 Name: Marc Other nicknames (including good stories, if you have any): - Birthplace: Norwich, UK Place of residence: Somewhere in North Yorkshire, UK Any particular reason you live there now? My dad used to work at the nearby RAF base, parents bought a house locally since he...