politics

Photo thanks to: Danny Lawson/PA Wire, iNews I must admit that when it comes to proportional representation, by elections are a fly in the ointment. Yes, it is easy to define a system of PR that would work for a single seat, such as the Single Transferable Vote, but it would be impossible to reflect … Continue reading Batley and Spen, a case for PR?

Another week has passed in the soap opera that is our government. The oddly timed release of Hancock’s indiscretion is just the latest in a long line of illegal, immoral or downright disturbing things that have happened.  It is like watching Soap, the TV series that ran for four years in the late seventies, with … Continue reading Soap

Image thanks to Irish Times Five years on and the Brexit bandwagon still rumbles on. Despite the Prime MInister's protestations that the B word should not be used it is still on the lips of many of us. Indeed a poll out this week puts the country as divided as ever over the issue with … Continue reading A frosty reception

Image thanks to Blasting News How Orwellian has this government become? The Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport has written to publicly funded museums to make it clear that he expected their ‘approach to issues of contested heritage to be consistent with the government’s position.’ A threat of the unveiled kind. It … Continue reading Singlespeak

Image thanks to Evening Standard The latest fad for taking photographs with ministers at suspected crime scenes is cringeworthingly wrong. The Home Secretary has been at the vanguard but there are others. I understand what they are trying to do. The images flashed across the media imply (ironically) that the Conservatives are the party of … Continue reading Nothing to see here

I try to keep an open mind but it’s hard. Apparently it is harder the better read and better educated you are, paradoxically and so perhaps the more I read and try to educate myself about different opinions the more closed I become to my own. For this purpose, and to get a better understanding … Continue reading Time for Reform?

Image thanks to Joseph Rowntree Foundation Now that the dust has settled on the 2021 elections, the government is proposing to clamp down on voter fraud with the suggested introduction of photo ID. I wonder why? After all it was a good day for the Conservative party, at least in my neck of the woods. … Continue reading Where have all the voters gone?

Image thanks to Electoral Reform Society I’ve written about the ails of our first past the post system many a time and explored the possibility of proportional representation as an alternative. I have even suggested my own ideas how PR may work in a way that gives the best of FPTP yet allows parliament to … Continue reading Our thinking about PR is wrong

Image thanks to Northumberland Gazette Ah well, the people have spoken. In Stobhill, they were only local elections but already they have been analysed inside out, backwards and forwards and projected onto the national picture. This has been a really exciting election, in my opinion, leading to very diverse political colours across the nations of … Continue reading Local Election Results – May 6

Image thanks to Represent Today, 40 million of us across the UK are able to cast our vote. In my neck of the woods there are three separate competitions, the County Council, the Police and Crime Commissioner and the Town Council elections. Each may seem insignificant, just as my vote may seem, yet added together … Continue reading What I want on election day