The most fascinating political system in the world is, I think, that of Sweden. In Sweden, MPs are elected on multi-member lists in a proportional system. There are a variety of major political parties, ranging from the far-left to the nationalist right, with moderate social democrats, conservatives and liberals in between. So far so good - but where it gets really interesting is in their alliance system. Almost all of the major parties are members of either the "Centre Left" or "The Alliance". The Centre Left group includes the Social Democrats and the Greens, while the Alliance includes Conservatives, Liberals ...
Part 1 appeared yesterday, so on with part 2. April Sergey Karjakin, I explained was Vladimir Putin's challenger for the world chess title. (He was to lose his match with the reigning champrion Magnus Carlsen later in the year.) Helped inadvertently by a passing cyclist who startled them, I took a striking photo of some pigeons by the canal in Leicester. I explained why Why Twitter doesn't work, Labour won't win and the Lib Dems are irrationally cheerful: Political activists do tend to make their political affiliation central to their identity. More than that, they find their social life, their ...
York's daily paper The Press reports: The Sun has come under fire today after claiming that York was this week facing flood misery ... The blunder was on page 12 of Wednesday's edition of the newspaper, in a wider report about weather. It said: "York yesterday bore the brunt of weather chaos as floods wrecked homes and shops, a year after similar devastation last Christmas." A photograph of Walmgate during the 2015 floods was used in the newspaper, captioned: "Flood misery... York yesterday."I like this comment below the story: The Daily Mail has gone one further and attributed the current ...
Second paragraph of third chapter:Meanwhile Captain Jamie fretted his head off and prepared for the night, while Winwood passed the word along to the forty lifers to be ready for the break. And two hours after midnight every guard in the prison was under orders. This included the day-shift which should have been asleep. When two o'clock came, they rushed the cells occupied by the forty. The rush was simultaneous. The cells were opened at the same moment, and without exception the men named by Winwood were found out of their bunks, fully dressed, and crouching just inside their doors. ...
Brace yourselves, Tom Scott is about to get into some serious detail about telephone systems.
Wed 28th
14:15
The best satire of media and politics that you've probably never watched: A Face in the Crowd
Its satirical bite is still highly applicable, from the way media titans influence politics right down to a throwaway comment about dodgy product placement.
People who know about how the government and civil service operate have been expressing concern about the challenges Brexit poses for months. Back in November, the Telegraph reported a leaked memo saying 30,000 extra civil servants would be needed to cope. The following week, the former head of the civil service Bob Kerslake had this to say: It's not possible to do that at a point when the civil service is at its lowest numbers since the second world war and continuing to fall. "I think it is pretty essential for the government to pause, review, take stock of what ...
I got the first six albums of Ken Broeders' epic saga of the life of the Emperor Julian the Apostate, who I previously knew really from Chapters XXII, XXIII and XXIV of Gibbon. It's great stuff, taking some liberties with the actual historical facts (with added prophetesses of varying accuracy and usefulness) but conveying a rollicking story of the young man, plucked unwillingly from relative obscurity to take on leadership, and equipped with a vision of turning back the adoption of Christianity to restore the old gods. It's a little sketchy in places - all deformed characters seem to be ...
Can't post-date entries, can't see comments, can't choose userpic, can't select multiple spam comments for deletion; preparing my backup options... Maybe 2017 will be the year I finally abandon ship and find a new home for blogging.
Wed 28th
12:02
Changing the mood music of politics: Let's get angry about poverty and refuse to stand by while pape...
I remember the feeling of sadness when I saw these figures from a Scottish Lib Dem freedom of information request. In Christmas 2015, 26,320 adults and 11,200 children were homeless. Those figures are up 8% and 16% respectively in two years. As the party's housing spokesperson, I wanted to highlight this and, as the photo shows, the story was picked up by the Sun. I said: It is absolutely heart-breaking to learn that more than 11,000 children were homeless last Christmas. It is intolerable that the number of families without a permanent roof over their head continues to rise. Across ...
[IMG: Bootle Crest. This version is fixed to the wall of the Council Chamber in Bootle Town Hall.] Bootle Crest. This version is fixed to the wall of the Council Chamber in Bootle Town Hall. The Liverpool Echo has the story on its web site – see link above Quote from the Echo article – 'More people are struggling to pay their debts in Bootle than anywhere else in the north west. New research reveals the scale of the debt crisis facing the town, which has the fifth highest levels of insolvency in Britain'. Debt must be up there ...
[IMG: 12-days-4] On the fourth day of Christmas, ALDC and Election Workshop gave to me... 100 free posters with every order of our Three Leaflet Election deal. We all know how important leaflets are to let voters know what you've done and to get our message out there. We all know, as well, how important posters are [...]
My colleague Councillor Vivienne Parry is calling a public meeting to discuss the revised plans for a superstore and petrol filling station at Rocks Green on the outskirts of Ludlow. The meeting will take place from 6pm at the Women's Centre in Ludlow town centre on Tuesday, 3 January. The centre is off Church Walk adjacent to the Rose and Crown. Everyone is welcome. Please park in the car parks. Shropshire Council is currently consulting on the revised plans. Comments must be submitted by 12 January. The proposals are expected to be considered by the South Planning Committee in February ...
From a post on the London Review of Books blog by Inigo Thomas: What a career. Cameron was elected to Parliament in 2001, became leader of the opposition in 2005, prime minister in 2010, won re-election in 2015, and then after 23 June gave up to go back to pheasant shooting in Gloucestershire - no post at Harvard's Kennedy School for him. The rise to the top was swift, but what other British political leader has so swiftly vanished?
Holyrood Magazine has been asking Scottish political leaders what they would do to tackle poverty. Here's his ambitious answer to a question about whether the Scottish Government's child poverty targets (less than 10% in relative poverty and 5% in absolute poverty by 2030) were acceptable: Any child in poverty is unacceptable and any government should be working towards eradicating poverty altogether. Obviously, that is quite a challenge but we should set ourselves to be that ambitious. And if we had to pay more taxes to ensure that? His answer isn't surprising given that he's the only Scottish leader to ...
On Monday 2nd January at 11am and until 1pm there will be a 5k fun run around the paths of the University Botanic Garden to get yourself in shape for the New Year. The event caters for all ages and ambitions, just walk or break the record! Your reward, as well as a good time, will include seasonal refreshments in the glasshouse at the end of the run. We look forward to welcoming you to the Garden where we feel sure you will enjoy its tranquil and beautiful space. We recommend you register at StrideInto17.eventbrite.com to ensure our catering is ...
Portions of the Left are up in arms about a trial the Tories plan to roll out at the next local elections during which British voters will be asked to present identification if they wish to vote. Or more to the point, people in certain parts of the country will be momentarily disenfranchised should they fail to produce photo ID. To clarify: when I say "portions of the Left" what I really mean is The Guardian and a few other left-leaning outlets; the Labour leadership office is too busy worrying about how to get bankers to drown in their own ...
Most powerful photographs of 2016 @tball's choice for @PoliticoEurope. (tags: photos ) Garry Kasparov on why Vladimir Putin hates chess. Grim. (tags: russia uspolitics ) Nominate for the BSFA Awards Hurry! First round closes on 31 December! (tags: sf ) FirstSounds.ORG The earliest surviving sound recordings - for @grandfarugi (tags: historyofscience )
In the Guardian Tim Farron quite rightly challenges the latest fantasies from the pro-leave group Change Britain, who have failed to learn lessons from the lies told during the referendum campaign and are claiming that a "clean Brexit", leaving both the single market and customs union, could save Britain £450m a week. The paper says that Change Britain, the successor organisation to Vote Leave, which is backed by former cabinet minister Michael Gove, Labour's Gisela Stuart and the former Conservative chancellor Nigel Lawson, released research on Tuesday arguing that a clean break with the EU would be more beneficial to ...
