Comments by "Jasper Mooren" (@jaspermooren5883) on "TLDR News EU" channel.

  1. The main reason Ukraine historically (before the war) didn't sell a lot of grain to the EU, is because the EU is largely self-sufficient when it comes to food (the EU exports more food than it imports) , so there is simply very little demand for Ukrainian grain, while North Africa has a serious deficit in food production. Therefore the demand for grain is very large and a good place to export the grain to.
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  2. Really good video! I'm Dutch myself and have been following the news closely and it's fairly accurate. It is indeed basically completely useless to look at current polling for an election in November. The Netherlands is always pretty swingy and almost no party has a large stable voting base. It is not uncommon for polls within weeks before an election to change by 10%-points or sometimes even more. Parties can double or halve in size in the polling simply based on tactical voting and new developments. People who always vote for the same party are the exception rather than the rule in modern politics in the Netherlands. There is also the complete wildcard that is the BBB (farmer's party) that won big in the provincial election as a more or less new party. They could reasonably get anything between 4 and 40 seats.
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  3. ​ @dabi2k a 5 min google search (like I did, I'm not Icelandic) would have told you that that is not true. With some very rare exceptions Icelandic people do not have surnames. The patronym is not a surname, it's a different thing. Icelandic people have different patronyms as their fathers have. It's not a family name like it is in most of the world. So no, it's not 'we do it this way in English', because it has absolutely nothing to do with English, the language used is irrelevant to the convention. "We do it this way in English" is just a massively inconsiderate way of saying I don't care about your culture and am just going to impose my way of thinking on you. Stop it, it's not helpful.
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  4. Yeah, most of Europe is doing absolutely fine. Even France and Germany are, the standards of living are already pretty much the highest in the world for most people in Europe, and it's simply much harder to grow when you're already this advanced. But if you look at figures that actually matter, like the HDI, the top 20 is basically all EU countries. The European Union is still by far the best place to be born in the world. People that say that Europe isn't doing well are stuck in 19th century thinking where growth is everything.
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  5.  @kubilaymendi5439  That is very debatable, at least from a Finnish law perspective. But yeah this agreement is super loose anyway since Finland already joined and as soon Sweden formally joins NATO, the agreement is virtually void anyway, since there is 0 power from Turkey to enforce it. A piece of paper is in the end just that, a piece of paper. It only has meaning as long as that piece of paper is backed up by a power to enforce it, which Turkey looses completely as soon as Sweden joins.
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  6. Yeah calling NATO brain dead was a statement that shows he DOES care about nato and had some big issues with the way it was run back then, and frankly he was right. The only reason NATO has any political unity right now is the war in Ukraine. A common enemy makes people band together.
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  7. @dabi2k  just no... You're just factually incorrect. That's not how it works. Also did you really just openly say you're inconsiderate to an entire culture? That's pretty fucked up bro.
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  8.  @aituk  it's a weird paradox, in poor countries you indeed see that the poor get more children, but in rich countries it's the opposite. There are 2 reasons for this: anti conception is often not readily available in countries with really high fertility, and we see very unsurprisingly that fertility massively declines with a rise in the availability of anti conception. When getting children becomes a choice rather than a fact of life if you want a sexually active life, you do see that people are just not willing to significantly decrease their standard of living, not for themselves and not for their potential children. People compare their standard of living to their neighbours, not people on a different continent or people who lived 100 years ago.
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  9. Yeah the problem is that the government is kinda 20 years too late. Making kids right now is just gonna make the problem even worse for the next 20-25 years (more kids means you need more teachers, more people in childcare etc). But the main problem is that it is almost impossible to have any influence over this in a rights based democracy. Housing is definitely a factor though that the government can do something about: if you can't buy a house you can't afford kids, or at least at the level that people want to.
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  10. Honestly it's fine. I've been saying that for years that most people are whining about nothing. I am working as a waiter part-time living by myself and I can make ends meet very easily. By all accounts I should be poor, but I can still spend 100s of euros on stuff I don't need every month, and build up a savings account in addition to that. Yeah, there's no way at all I can buy a house, but that's a highly unreasonable prospect anyway. Right now is a very good time to live, but for some reason half the country is acting like the world is going to end. The perception of reality and actual reality has never been further apart from each other. The amount of times I've talked to people claiming they can't make ends meet while they were wearing designer clothes is absolutely staggering. Just get your priorities together and really, things are fine. Things have been worse for 99.9% of people in history, even recent history. The world is a much better place in the Netherlands than it is almost anywhere in the world at any time in history.
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  11. I agree, but they are literally called tldr, so yeah, you can't really expect to get 13 years of politics in detail in a single 10 min video.
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  12. If he goes back to his more extreme stances he'd lose all those votes though. That's the only reason he gained those votes in the first place. He became way more moderate in debates and speeches and people fell for it. And of course heavily related is the fact that the VVD didn't exclude them from possible coalition talks, as was the norm for the more than a decade. The moderation in debates at least and the breakdown of the Cordon Sanitaire resulted in the huge rise. If Wilders becomes more extreme again and the Cordon Sanitaire is raised again, all those new votes will be lost for sure.
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  13.  @janickpauwels3792  but Europe doesn't stop innovating. Almost all hardware innovation that matters in the last 20 years is because of a Dutch company (ASML), without it there would be no AI, or anything close to modern hardware. Most European tech companies happen to be B2B companies, so they aren't as well known in the public consciousness as companies like Apple and Google, but that doesn't mean they aren't important or high tech.
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  14.  @angryyordle4640  That's how it works in here in the Netherlands. Which has its upsides (new parties can actually get their foot in the door), but also has the downside of having 20 party parliaments with 4 parties having a very narrow majority (with long complicated coalition talks). There's something to say for both systems.
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  15.  @tremedar  i mean yeah there is always general international relations, but then you're not just acting against Finland and Sweden, but against the whole of the Western world, which is not at all in Turkey's interest.
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  16.  @Homer-OJ-Simpson  yeah, I don't think it's a coincidence that it took Erdogan to agree until after he got reelected.
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  17. yes.
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  18. Iceland actually has a pretty large immigrant community already, about 15% of the population (as of 2021, the most recent data I could easily find). So it isn't even that homogeneous.
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  19.  @hypernewlapse  ah there's the racism. Also factually incorrect. The largest immigrant population in Iceland is from Poland, not a Nordic country (at least as of 2021).
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  20. That's almost a 15% drop. After continuously rising for a very long time, a 15% decline is quite significant.
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  21. ​ @elchotocorazon  yes, but as a top 20 supplier it still only supplies 2% of global demand. Norway almost exclusively sells their oil and gas to the EU (EU pays well and politically Norway is a good choice for the EU and the EU is a good choice for Norway, as well as obvious transportation reasons, with Norway being in Europe), but it's simply not enough to supply European demand. About 25% of European gas imports are Norwegian, but the other 75% still comes from the rest of the world.
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  22. Hungarian politics are quite different from Denmark though. Not that it is a sure bet at all though that Orban will be voted out.
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  23.  @9delta988  well currently the Netherlands is still growing due to immigration, there's even actually a crazy shortage in housing in the Netherlands (even worse than many other places in the world, there are literally people living with their parents because there are no houses available, whether you can afford them or not). So I'd welcome a downfall in house prices.
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  24. I mean quite a few people are in favour of austerity. Austerity is fundamentally not a bad thing, it's just fiscal policy. To not even protest on austerity is quite a weird thing to say, since that is far more acceptable in the west to do basically everywhere than literally deporting a part of your own population simply due to genetic heritage. These 2 things are not even remotely close to being in the same ballpark. I'm not even saying that austerity is the right thing to do for Australia right now, I don't know even remotely enough about Australian politics to say anything on the topic, but phrasing it as obviously worse is weird at best.
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  25. I thought that the pronunciation was actually pretty decent. I mean it obviously wasn't a perfect Dutch pronunciation, but it was very intelligible.
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  26.  @ecnalms851  Yes, but in a 'true' technocracy, the technocrats appoint the new technocrats. What we see in Europe happening is much more of a 'rise' (or really just coincidence at this point, it's not like half of Europe did this) of technocratic democracy. Which is a democracy first and a technocracy second. In the same way that a social democracy is democratic first and socialist second, and something quite different from socialism. Most companies for example are techocratic, the employees (usually will-be managers), and therefore the experts or technocrats (at least in theory) decide who is hired for the position. But in the Netherlands, the Dutch Parliament elected Dick Schoof into the position of prime minister. So he's appointed (albeit through a complicated process) by a democratically appointed organisation, the 2nd chamber, which is directly elected by the Dutch Public. And that same chamber has at any point in time the right to immediately fire him from the position. That's how electing technocrats is different from a technocracy. There's still democratic control on who can be a technocrat.
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  27. Yeah, it's a temporary solution but at least delays the problem by several decades. Automation is the other solution, but that needs to be associated with political and economical reform.
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  28.  @llanieliowe794  gay rights, while ethically super important, have basically no bearing on fertility rates. It's only a few percent of the population, and it's not by making gay sex illegal all LGBT+ people are suddenly getting 10 children. As far as I'm aware even in countries like the UAE you are not forced to have a relationship with someone from the opposite sex, you're 'just' not allowed to have one with someone of the same sex. And even the UAE is indeed not taking the absolutely despotic measures you'd need to take to actually be able to influence fertility to a significant degree. I'm talking about measures like forced fertilisation, which as far as I'm aware not a single country does. These kind of measures of course have some very extreme ethical concerns attached and would almost certainly, and rightfully so, cause massive revolts.
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  29. Everyone keeps saying that but VVD and PvdA have been in tons of coalitions together in the past. 'Purple' governments have been a thing in Dutch politics for decades. A government with GL/PvdA VVD NSC and D66 is very much an option. It is just not the preferred one, so particularly for the VVD they'd much rather have a right wing government. And GLPvdA obviously would prefer a government without the VVD, but that simply isn't an option. New elections will be bad for all talking parties. Since it didn't work because of the PVV, they'll be excluded by practically everyone and lose all the votes they have and go back to being a sizable but marginalized party. VVD caused the whole debacle and will probably collapse even more, maybe only NSC will come out relatively cleanly since they didn't want any of this anyway. And GL/PvdA is never going to be as big as they are now if the threat from Geert Wilders is gone. So both GL/PvdA and VVD have all the reasons to form a government. But all that is based on the current situation, and most of the stuff that determines the election outcome happens during the elections anyway, so really nobody knows. This is just my two cents on the topic. Based on what we know now, it is incredibly unlikely that VVD or GLPvdA will be better off after new elections. And for D66 and NSC this would be basically the perfect government, having a party to the left and to the right of you, means that on most topics you get what you want. That's why people call the VVD right wing during elections and centre during government, since they have always been the most right wing party in a coalition and therefore always have to move in the same direction. A coalition with the PVV would allow them to actually pass stringent immigration laws, something they wanted but haven't been able to do in all the governments they have been in. Or at least that's what they have been saying. Anyone with a brain knows that its terrible for the economy, anti-liberal and basically against everything that big companies want, it is a very weird position to hold for a neo-liberal globalist capitalist party such as the VVD.
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  30. Omtzigt didn't lose seats though, he went from 1 to 20. And GL/PvdA hasn't been in government in the last 6 years. GL actually never has been in government, and PvdA not since Rutte II.
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  31. Ireland supporting a nation that has been systematically disadvantaged over a militarily superior colonial oppresive regime? How curious indeed...
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  32. Everything in the Netherlands suggests that the Israel Gasa conflict wasn't really a part of the voters decision making at all. The main topic was the housing market, and a lot of people blame it on to much migrants. So all anti migration parties were very popular this election. Really only the VVD lost, mainly because they basically created the whole housing problem in most people's eyes. Wilders barely mentioned Israel Gaza in the the whole election campaign. In the end most dutch people view the situation as something the Netherlands has basically no say in anyway. Almost no one believes that this election could even remotely influence the conflict. And particularly amonst PVV voters, which tend to be relatively insular minded and not really caring about geopolitics. Nothing suggests that Wilders opinion on Israel Gaza mattered at all for his election victory.
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  33. ​ @mrvwbug4423 none of them are doing it. There's going to be a kabinet without any of the major party leaders in government. The idea is to create distance between the government and parliament. At least that's what they are saying right now. However, until there is a new government, nothing is set in stone.
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  34. Played a pretty big role in for example the Tunesia deal. In general the EU has had some significant anti-immigration policies in the last few years. Not only due to her of course, but the EU is definitely getting rather strict on immigration.
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  35. I don't know whether to laugh or cry at that news. That the UK is considered an unsafe country. Oh how low the mighty have fallen.
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  36. Yeah, the only way in which I agree with a European army, as someone who considers himself quite federalist and very pro-EU, is if the EU properly federalises, so the army can be democratically controlled (by a proper minister of defense that is properly controlled by parliament). An EU army without a European parliament with full democratic powers is just not an option. It would grant a not so very democratic institution the monopoly of violence, which is a hugely dangerous thing. Federalisation first, EU army second. The other way around is outright dangerous. And that's coming from someone who really believes in the European project, the vast majority of people are far less keen on the EU than I am, and would be significantly less keen on a European army.
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  37.  @NLTops  if you look before WW2 it's not actually a big boom, it's just a massive downturn in 1940 (for obvious reasons) with a huge spike in 1945-1950. But if you average out the entire 40s is actually not that high (compared to today, yes, but it's not really a big boom in that sense). It's just a generation that got kids a couple years later, because if avoidable at all, you don't want to go into labour while worrying your house is getting bombed. You see this trend basically every single war that has lasted years ever. It's just that WW2 is the only war within Dutch borders that some people still lived through. After WW1 there was a similar baby boom, albeit delayed a year due to the spanish flu (and was significantly less noticeable in the Netherlands compared to surrounding countries, since the Netherlands was neutral in WW1). So while the baby boom is a big deal in the cultural zeitgeist (which might influence politics to be fair) it's not significant as a voting block, since it's just a couple of years and unless you are talking about policies for things like education, policies tend to affect much larger age brackets than that (even explicitly age based policies like pensions still apply to 20-30 years of people). It's really disingenuous to imply that somehow boomers are to blame.
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  38. ​ @justuslutter9890  but economic policy is what defines the left right spectrum? Calling anything else left or right wing, is just something you only see in 2 party systems where practically every part of politics is viewed through a singular axis, even though that makes absolutely no sense. Social issues don't exist on the left right spectrum (that would be conservative/progressive), or at the very least they shouldn't. She is, if I understand it correctly, a fairly classical case of a tankie. Which basically left wing fascism (yeah, fascism isn't inherently right wing by any means, it just happened to have been usually true in history).
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  39. An E sport team style logo would look incredibly unprofessional in a political environment. Basically all logos in Europe at least have this style. Almost all party logos are just the letters of their name, or a simple shape. To do anything otherwise would be considered unprofessional by most people.
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  40.  @riichobamin7612  because Ukraine now has very high supply and very little demand (because their main export market has become unavailable due to the war), so the prices are super low. This mean they flood the supply without increased demand in the EU, therefore dropping prices. The problem is that there is no demand, if there would be, everyone would welcome Ukraine grain. Unless the EU starts exporting to North Africa a lot, which could be a solution to the problem.
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  41. ​@Person11068yeah the King has basically no role. And it is not just the left that removed that power, unless you consider neo liberal parties left wing like the VVD. The king only has a ceremonial role. The king is already quite unpopular and if he starts actively messing with the formation of a government he's not gonna be king for long. All he does is put his signature on the document that formalises the new government and a ceremony where the newly appointed ministers swear loyalty to the constitution in front of the king. But the king plays no role whatsoever anymore in politics, since the last role he had as a mediator in forming a government got stripped from him 11 years ago. Formally the power to decide on the kabinet has always been parliament. They in the end have to agree to a new government. And since 11 years ago parliament also assigns the mediators in the government talks.
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  42. ​ @alkazarjkdghjd I'm sorry but saying that a majority of people are against the EU is just objectively false. In literally every country in the EU right now there is a significant majority in favour of the EU, that's just a very well researched fact. And there is such a thing as a European identity, all you have to do is ever leave Europe and you can immediately see it. Literally everyone I've ever met that claims that there is no such thing as a European identity has never left the continent (or have never been to Europe and are just echoing what they heard on the internet). I'm a European, I truly feel as such, and as much as I feel Dutch and Brabander. An identity is not exclusive. Just geographic identities I already have 3. I arguably feel more connected to the continent than the country. That might not be true for everyone, but it is definitely true for a significant part of the population. Particularly the younger and more highly educated population feels that way.
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  43. Because the US is on a completely different continent and has nothing to the with the EU? Why do we need the EU when Saudi Arabia exists would be an equally rediculous question. It's a different country in a different continent that has no jurisdiction over the EU whatsoever.
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  44.  @PhthaloJohnson  I don't know where you are from, but in most European countries they are absolutely short on staff. In the Netherlands for example there have been more job opportunities than people without jobs for close to a decade now (unemployment is at like 3% and that's mostly people that are in between jobs or people that are really hard to employ). The job market I grew up with is not why should we hire you? It's why should I work here?
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  45.  @LudvigIndestrucable  particularly expats are indeed a really big problem in the countries where they originate from, it's called brain drain. The countries where they are going to in principle actually benefits the country, it's people you didn't have to invest in at all (they already had things like basic education, often even university degrees in the case of expats), but are contributing to society. The problem is integration and availability of basic infrastructure (like housing) for the influx of people, but that is a very solvable problem.
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  46. 8:42 "Geert Wilders, D66", you just made a lot of Dutch people angry... That's like confusing Trump with AOC. The voiceover was correct though stating the PVV earlier.
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  47.  @danielwebb8402  problem is cost of living went up so much that most people (or at least a lot of not most) need 2 jobs to be able to live together. A lot of people wish they were able to afford to not have a job. And yes, people were much poorer in the past, but it has almost become impossible to live that way today. Without a smart phone I literally cannot do my job for example. Most people live in a much bigger house than historically, but just try to find a small one, it's nearly impossible and for those that do exist have so much exploded in price that they are barely cheaper anyway. For some people, yes it is a conscious choice to not have children while they could, which is their fundamental human right btw to make that decision. For a lot of people it is also the fact that they couldn't live a modern life (most of those people, at least in Europe, don't even own a car at all, let alone 2) if they got children, and that is a very different equation than in times of the atomic family where a single person working was the norm and more then enough to afford basic necessities like food and a place to live. I'm not saying those times were better, I think you would have a hard time making a case to say they did, but it was significantly easier to run a household on 1 paycheck than it is today, at least for those who make less than modal income, which, by definition, is 50% of the population. You can't just take 1 parameter and say that is the problem, when you are talking about something so complex as human history and culture. What I'm presenting here is also just 1 of the many reasons it's not that simple.
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  48.  @irispettson  Yes, I do think they should either integrate or leave honestly. Also all of the mentioned countries that have those measures have joined in the early days. The EU has made the commitment to not allow any opt outs like that for new members. The reason Sweden and Denmark get away with it is simply historical. Iceland wouldn't have the same benefit. The same way the UK would never be allowed to rejoin the EU under the same deal they had. They'd have to join the EU fully, including adopting the Euro and Schengen.
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  49. My view on this is quite simple: if human rights are not infringed (which they aren't, there is as far as I know no indication that a new Catalan state would infringe human rights any more than the current Spanish government does), the will of the people should be supreme; always.
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  50. ​ @jeffafa3096 to be fair, it happens on the left as well. Both Volt and PvdD are relatively recent additions to the Dutch Parliament.
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