3. My more general point, apart from the utter cant from tories about this, is that PR can give undue power to minority fringe groups leading to the tail wagging the dog.
Do you have examples of where this has happened?
I've been travelling to Ireland quite often since meeting my wife in 2007, and have talked to her about Irish politics, and it isn't a description that fits the experience of small parties in Ireland.
To give just one example, the Green Party are the third party in a three-party coalition government at present in Ireland. So weak is their influence over policy that they couldn't even manage to achieve a ban on turf-cutting, probably the most damaging activity to the environment that it is possible to imagine.
Consequently they will likely be obliterated at the next general election. Just as they were the last time they were in government.
Looks like the most back breaking activity imaginable too.
Arguably the Greens in Scotland were more successful in wagging the SNP dog.
Israel is an example where tiny parties of nutters make and break coalitions….
OT, I think I was, like TSE, one of the few Tories (yep I used to be one back then) that voted in favour of AV. It seems obvious to me that it is a far better system than FPTP. The reality is that the Conservative Party had the opportunity to do electoral reform and flunked it. Now Labour will do it, and like their gerrymandering of devolution (which went slightly wrong for them), they will try to make sure it favours them and them alone.
I'm not categorising you as a Conservative, Mr F, although I suppose it's arguable that one can, noways, differentiate between Conservatives and Tories, but I think the current Government and it's supporters have a nerve when they complain about possible Labour gerrymandering. During the past eight years we';v seen efforts to making voting more difficult for young people, altered the size of constituencies on a basis which assists the Conservatives and enfranchised overseas voters who, it was thought, would be more likely to vote the 'Right' way. We've also seen attacks on Parliament when it refused to do what the (Conservative) Government wanted.
Edit: and of course the change of system for the Mayoral and PCC elections!
I don't disagree with your criticism of Tory misdemeanours Mr C, but it pales when compared to the blatant gerrymandering of devolution. Devolution as an idea was good IMO, but it was clearly designed to favour Labour (and as @Carnyx mentioned the Libs too) in perpetuity. The fact that it backfired for a while does not make it forgivable. IMO any constitutional change needs to be subjected to genuine and balanced scrutiny by a cross party independent constitutional panel. Problem of course is how you ensure that lack of bias.
I agree about Labour's devolution 'arrangements'; as you say there should be agreement between all parties, or as near agreement as can be managed.
3. My more general point, apart from the utter cant from tories about this, is that PR can give undue power to minority fringe groups leading to the tail wagging the dog.
Do you have examples of where this has happened?
I've been travelling to Ireland quite often since meeting my wife in 2007, and have talked to her about Irish politics, and it isn't a description that fits the experience of small parties in Ireland.
To give just one example, the Green Party are the third party in a three-party coalition government at present in Ireland. So weak is their influence over policy that they couldn't even manage to achieve a ban on turf-cutting, probably the most damaging activity to the environment that it is possible to imagine.
Consequently they will likely be obliterated at the next general election. Just as they were the last time they were in government.
Looks like the most back breaking activity imaginable too.
Arguably the Greens in Scotland were more successful in wagging the SNP dog.
Israel is an example where tiny parties of nutters make and break coalitions….
You think their current politics would be better with FPTP ?
That seems hugely optimistic, shading on delusional to me.
Electoral systems don't decide a nation's politics, but they do affect how representative of sections of the electorate it is.
Looked like it was working fine on Lewis’s car down the straight.
You're not watching the cricket between England and South Africa?
Oh crap, I was watching the F1 practice.
(Grabs coat and heads to the pub).
Coat in Dubai?
Okay, metaphorical coat. Actually a cap and sunglasses!
Safely arrived at the pub (it’s two buildings down the road), watching F1 on one screen, cricket on another, and about to be football on a third. Cheers!
Off thread: wife and daughters are off to see Taylor Swift in London tomorrow so have 48 hours free of parental responsibility and the nicest weekend of the year so far to do it in. The amount of choice has been paralytic. But my decision was sort of made when I noticed there is a train from Manchester Victoria at 8.15 which goes to Ribblehead via Clitheroe, and a nice day with a strong westerly wind forecast. I'm going to try to cycle from Ribblehead (or Kirkby Stephen) to Northallerton. There is so much that can go wrong. First off, you can't book bikes on Northern, but nor can you board if there are two other bikes there before you. Still, feel I'm planning to do three new things I've long wanted to in one day: crossing the Pennines by bike*, going out for a day by bike and train, and going on the Settle and Carlisle railway. Oh, and also going on the secret Clitheroe-Hellifield route. I am so far out of my comfort zone it is quite dizzying.
All within Margin of Error and 22% remains an historically low number for the Conservatives. The split of 58-35 between Lab/LD/Green and Con/Ref is straight down the line.
Yet we have some polls showing the Conservatives and Reform tied (and one with Reform ahead) while others keep the gap between 9-11 points which is ridiculous variation.
I wonder if the gap is between pollsters who prompt for Reform (and all parties) versus those who don't.
We'll no doubt have another profusion of polling over the weekend and with 12 days to go there's still time for things to change but not much.
It’s sadly common that people just don’t understand how heat affects you and how easy it is to get lost/into trouble in landscapes like this. We are very lucky in this country that our weather is mild and our countryside generally quite pastoral, accessible and easily navigable.
And yes phone coverage can be patchy too. But in this instance I believe the teenager’s phone battery died.
Looked like it was working fine on Lewis’s car down the straight.
You're not watching the cricket between England and South Africa?
Oh crap, I was watching the F1 practice.
(Grabs coat and heads to the pub).
Coat in Dubai?
Okay, metaphorical coat. Actually a cap and sunglasses!
Safely arrived at the pub (it’s two buildings down the road), watching F1 on one screen, cricket on another, and about to be football on a third. Cheers!
Is Mercedes just about to get their shit together just as Hamilton jumps ship ?
(Though I've put a couple of quid on Norris this weekend.)
Tenerife guy said in his last call his battery was dying I believe
Soon we will have direct to satellite on cell phones. Batteries will still die though and the better plan is not to go hiking in heatwaves
People not used to actually hot weather, hotter than body temperature, that can get you really quickly if you’re not careful. Don’t go out in the middle of the day, wear a big floppy hat, and take as much water as you can carry, as you’ll drink a litre an hour. Tell someone where you’re going and what time you expect to return, and keep your phone switched off if you’re not using it.
Looked like it was working fine on Lewis’s car down the straight.
You're not watching the cricket between England and South Africa?
Oh crap, I was watching the F1 practice.
(Grabs coat and heads to the pub).
Coat in Dubai?
Okay, metaphorical coat. Actually a cap and sunglasses!
Safely arrived at the pub (it’s two buildings down the road), watching F1 on one screen, cricket on another, and about to be football on a third. Cheers!
Is Mercedes just about to get their shit together just as Hamilton jumps ship ?
(Though I've put a couple of quid on Norris this weekend.)
It looks like there’s genuinely four teams that can win this weekend. First time that’s happened in a long time, since 2011 perhaps?
(Now watch MV go and qualify half a second quicker than anyone else).
@Annaisaac New: The Guardian has seen internal Labour documents, confirmed by senior sources, which scope radical changes to capital gains and inheritance tax:
💸The proposals include increases in capital gains tax (CGT), first revealed by the Guardian two weeks ago, that could raise £8bn.
💰 Also in drafts are BIG potential changes to inheritance tax that could generate £2.3bn a year.
💳⌛️New measures would make it much more difficult to “gift” money and assets, such as farmland, tax free. It effectively scraps much of the relief used for passing on agricultural and business assets.
Looked like it was working fine on Lewis’s car down the straight.
You're not watching the cricket between England and South Africa?
Oh crap, I was watching the F1 practice.
(Grabs coat and heads to the pub).
Coat in Dubai?
Okay, metaphorical coat. Actually a cap and sunglasses!
Safely arrived at the pub (it’s two buildings down the road), watching F1 on one screen, cricket on another, and about to be football on a third. Cheers!
Is Mercedes just about to get their shit together just as Hamilton jumps ship ?
(Though I've put a couple of quid on Norris this weekend.)
It looks like there’s genuinely four teams that can win this weekend. First time that’s happened in a long time, since 2011 perhaps?
(Now watch MV go and qualify half a second quicker than anyone else).
The McLaren telemetry from first practice looked pretty good - but you're probably right.
3. My more general point, apart from the utter cant from tories about this, is that PR can give undue power to minority fringe groups leading to the tail wagging the dog.
Do you have examples of where this has happened? .
Hi LP, I’d really like to answer this properly and systematically but I just don’t have the time right now. Please don’t take that as a cop out. It would take me an hour or so to compile a series of examples and just haven’t got that space.
But one example which comes to mind is the Netherlands where extreme right wing groups have had disproportionate influence from a supposedly proportional system. e.g. https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/epdf/10.1080/713601617
Clearly PR almost always leads to coalition and that hasn’t been a bad thing in this country, although a lot of people have deep-seated and understandable complaints about the 2010-5 iteration.
In countries like Italy, Belgium, and Israel it has often led to chaos.
I don’t think there’s a perfect democratic system but I’d prefer to keep FPTP. The idea of Farage’s populist and (in my view) extreme right wing party controlling the Conservatives in Gov’t fills me with horror, as I suggest it should most decent people.
@Tweedledee ’s argument that we should reform the HoL with an elected chamber under PR, and then see how it goes with a possible roll out to the HoC after, seems to me like an excellent working compromise. +1
@Annaisaac New: The Guardian has seen internal Labour documents, confirmed by senior sources, which scope radical changes to capital gains and inheritance tax:
💸The proposals include increases in capital gains tax (CGT), first revealed by the Guardian two weeks ago, that could raise £8bn.
💰 Also in drafts are BIG potential changes to inheritance tax that could generate £2.3bn a year.
💳⌛️New measures would make it much more difficult to “gift” money and assets, such as farmland, tax free. It effectively scraps much of the relief used for passing on agricultural and business assets.
Oh great, so half the farm has to be sold off every time one farmer passes on to the next generation. So in three generations, only an eighth of the farm is left, with the rest likely to be some big agri-business set up to take advantage of the situation.
Tenerife guy said in his last call his battery was dying I believe
Soon we will have direct to satellite on cell phones. Batteries will still die though and the better plan is not to go hiking in heatwaves
People not used to actually hot weather, hotter than body temperature, that can get you really quickly if you’re not careful. Don’t go out in the middle of the day, wear a big floppy hat, and take as much water as you can carry, as you’ll drink a litre an hour. Tell someone where you’re going and what time you expect to return, and keep your phone switched off if you’re not using it.
It’s probably better to just turn data & wifi off, unless you’re headed out into a no-mobile signal area. Or just put the phone into battery saver mode. You want to be reachable if necessary & a phone will be able to send & receive texts even when the signal is extremely poor.
The battery will last multiple days in this state in my experience - it’s the regular polling of the network for data updates & scanning for available wifi networks that reduces your phone battery to a single day of use.
3. My more general point, apart from the utter cant from tories about this, is that PR can give undue power to minority fringe groups leading to the tail wagging the dog.
Do you have examples of where this has happened? .
Hi LP, I’d really like to answer this properly and systematically but I just don’t have the time right now. Please don’t take that as a cop out. It would take me an hour or so to compile a series of examples and just haven’t got that space.
But one example which comes to mind is the Netherlands where extreme right wing groups have had disproportionate influence from a supposedly proportional system. e.g. https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/epdf/10.1080/713601617
Clearly PR almost always leads to coalition and that hasn’t been a bad thing in this country, although a lot of people have deep-seated and understandable complaints about the 2010-5 iteration.
In countries like Italy, Belgium, and Israel it has often led to chaos.
I don’t think there’s a perfect democratic system but I’d prefer to keep FPTP. The idea of Farage’s populist and (in my view) extreme right wing party controlling the Conservatives in Gov’t fills me with horror, as I suggest it should most decent people.
@Tweedledee ’s argument that we should reform the HoL with an elected chamber under PR, and then see how it goes with a possible roll out to the HoC after, seems to me like an excellent working compromise. +1
Some people we're already there, and we don't have PR.
Yep I think you have a scenario where that situation evolved during the 2019-2024 Parliament. Boris’ majority was gradually eroded but the main issue was the factionalism with the Conservative Party. It’s no secret that Sunak did a deal with Braverman and lurched to the right. The policies pursued these past couple of years have been reprehensible imho. Under PR this could be 100x worse.
Tenerife guy said in his last call his battery was dying I believe
Soon we will have direct to satellite on cell phones. Batteries will still die though and the better plan is not to go hiking in heatwaves
People not used to actually hot weather, hotter than body temperature, that can get you really quickly if you’re not careful. Don’t go out in the middle of the day, wear a big floppy hat, and take as much water as you can carry, as you’ll drink a litre an hour. Tell someone where you’re going and what time you expect to return, and keep your phone switched off if you’re not using it.
It’s probably better to just turn data & wifi off, unless you’re headed out into a no-mobile signal area. Or just put the phone into battery saver mode. You want to be reachable if necessary & a phone will be able to send & receive texts even when the signal is extremely poor.
The battery will last multiple days in this state in my experience - it’s the regular polling of the network for data updates & scanning for available wifi networks that reduces your phone battery to a single day of use.
That will definitely help, but what happens is that the phone turns up its own power, reducing battery life often substantially, when it goes into an area of poor network or loses signal completely. SMS is indeed great if you have spotty coverage.
3. My more general point, apart from the utter cant from tories about this, is that PR can give undue power to minority fringe groups leading to the tail wagging the dog.
Do you have examples of where this has happened? .
Hi LP, I’d really like to answer this properly and systematically but I just don’t have the time right now. Please don’t take that as a cop out. It would take me an hour or so to compile a series of examples and just haven’t got that space.
But one example which comes to mind is the Netherlands where extreme right wing groups have had disproportionate influence from a supposedly proportional system. e.g. https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/epdf/10.1080/713601617
Clearly PR almost always leads to coalition and that hasn’t been a bad thing in this country, although a lot of people have deep-seated and understandable complaints about the 2010-5 iteration.
In countries like Italy, Belgium, and Israel it has often led to chaos.
I don’t think there’s a perfect democratic system but I’d prefer to keep FPTP. The idea of Farage’s populist and (in my view) extreme right wing party controlling the Conservatives in Gov’t fills me with horror, as I suggest it should most decent people.
@Tweedledee ’s argument that we should reform the HoL with an elected chamber under PR, and then see how it goes with a possible roll out to the HoC after, seems to me like an excellent working compromise. +1
The reason Geert Wilders and his party are entering government is that they received nearly a quarter of the votes, are the largest single party, and the other parties decided not to form a coalition to exclude them.
These are not inevitable consequences of the voting system, but the result of choices made, and, given they are the largest party, not an example of a small party tail wagging the dog of a large party.
It's more likely to work out as the opposite - the requirement of Wilders' party to form a coalition with other parties will moderate it, compared to it forming a majority government of its own under FPTP.
I look forward to you replying in more depth in the future when you are able.
Mercer has had a real bee in his bonnet about Thomas. Mercer and Mrs Mercer have been reported questioning Thomas’s service when all I’ve heard is that Thomas’s military exploits might well (but we will never know) put Mercer’s into the shade.
Not clever in a military constituency to have taken that attack line especially as Thomas is Marines in a Navy town.
Oh my fur and whiskers, all the more so as Mr Mercer is Army. Acc to Wiki:
"Mercer passed the All Arms Commando Course and served mostly with 29 Commando Regiment Royal Artillery and 3rd Regiment Royal Horse Artillery. He served three tours in Afghanistan:[11][12] as a liaison and training officer with Afghan forces; attached to a Special Forces unit; and as a co-ordinator of artillery and air strikes in support of ground operations. Mercer retired from military service in December 2013 with the rank of captain.[13]"
Most systems for selecting a single position do not allow the voter to express the fact that they really do not want a candidate, that as long as X or Y does not get in, they are less (but not) concerned about who of A, B, C, etc does win.
There are ways of devising a system that allows repugnance to be expressed more insistently than putting candidates last, or not at all, in order of preference.
I would still prefer STV to yield a collective who would select a leader; I suppose directly electing mayors (if we must) would be an example of a natural single person position.
I would not be surprised if Labour become keen on electoral reform during the next parliament. The assumption is that a huge majority will mean they love FPTP for ever. But the forces at play on the Tories now will be at play against Labour next time around. As they inevitably become less popular PR may begin to look much more attractive. My reason for supporting PR is different to most. I dislike FPTP because it forces people to vote negatively, PR would require people to vote positively for what they want and require politicians to work together. Both of those would be very positive. Given the poor quality of some of our politicians, having a few parties having to work together would be good for the UK.
That story is several months old now. Ms Owens got fired from her job with the Daily Wire for it. I think she got fed up with the job and went every week for a more bonkers conspiracy theory until they let her go. Raging anti-Semite as well.
Off thread: wife and daughters are off to see Taylor Swift in London tomorrow so have 48 hours free of parental responsibility and the nicest weekend of the year so far to do it in. The amount of choice has been paralytic. But my decision was sort of made when I noticed there is a train from Manchester Victoria at 8.15 which goes to Ribblehead via Clitheroe, and a nice day with a strong westerly wind forecast. I'm going to try to cycle from Ribblehead (or Kirkby Stephen) to Northallerton. There is so much that can go wrong. First off, you can't book bikes on Northern, but nor can you board if there are two other bikes there before you. Still, feel I'm planning to do three new things I've long wanted to in one day: crossing the Pennines by bike*, going out for a day by bike and train, and going on the Settle and Carlisle railway. Oh, and also going on the secret Clitheroe-Hellifield route. I am so far out of my comfort zone it is quite dizzying.
Amazing. I've done most of those roads - it's glorious all the way to Leyburn and pleasant enough after that.
Wasn't Mercer complaining about claims he was a combatant? He could have had a glorious seven years behind a desk.
No, senior special forces bods have vouched for Thomas’ service and it wasn’t behind a desk.
You have to wonder why Mercer is repeating this claim then. Pretty low.
Firstly he is desperate and secondly he knows that Thomas cannot come out and say, “actually I did this, this and this” etc which is why it’s pretty despicable of Mercer to call him a Walter Mitty as he knows what the rules are.
Low IQ Leon was pushing this bullshit a few weeks ago.
Thinking about it all fits together now, the moon landings, pizza parlours, covid labs and Macron marrying a man and getting him to pretend to be his ex teacher when he was underage and 25 years older to avoid any embarrassment.
Thats the final piece of the jigsaw I needed to join Team Leon.
Wasn't Mercer complaining about claims he was a combatant? He could have had a glorious seven years behind a desk.
No, senior special forces bods have vouched for Thomas’ service and it wasn’t behind a desk.
You have to wonder why Mercer is repeating this claim then. Pretty low.
Firstly he is desperate and secondly he knows that Thomas cannot come out and say, “actually I did this, this and this” etc which is why it’s pretty despicable of Mercer to call him a Walter Mitty as he knows what the rules are.
Perhaps trial by combat may settle which one of them is hard enough?
Low IQ Leon was pushing this bullshit a few weeks ago.
Thinking about it all fits together now, the moon landings, pizza parlours, covid labs and Macron marrying a man and getting him to pretend to be his ex teacher when he was underage and 25 years older to avoid any embarrassment.
Thats the final piece of the jigsaw I needed to join Team Leon.
Wasn't Mercer complaining about claims he was a combatant? He could have had a glorious seven years behind a desk.
No, senior special forces bods have vouched for Thomas’ service and it wasn’t behind a desk.
You have to wonder why Mercer is repeating this claim then. Pretty low.
Firstly he is desperate and secondly he knows that Thomas cannot come out and say, “actually I did this, this and this” etc which is why it’s pretty despicable of Mercer to call him a Walter Mitty as he knows what the rules are.
Seems to be digging in, unless I have got the sequence wrong?
Mercer has had a real bee in his bonnet about Thomas. Mercer and Mrs Mercer have been reported questioning Thomas’s service when all I’ve heard is that Thomas’s military exploits might well (but we will never know) put Mercer’s into the shade.
Not clever in a military constituency to have taken that attack line especially as Thomas is Marines in a Navy town.
Oh my fur and whiskers, all the more so as Mr Mercer is Army. Acc to Wiki:
"Mercer passed the All Arms Commando Course and served mostly with 29 Commando Regiment Royal Artillery and 3rd Regiment Royal Horse Artillery. He served three tours in Afghanistan:[11][12] as a liaison and training officer with Afghan forces; attached to a Special Forces unit; and as a co-ordinator of artillery and air strikes in support of ground operations. Mercer retired from military service in December 2013 with the rank of captain.[13]"
Yes RM are the dogs bollox in those parts HQ in Plymouth. Mind you All Arms Commando Course at Lympstone is a Marines thing. Don't know if doing it is as good as being the real deal. But this is disgraceful from mercer.
Low IQ Leon was pushing this bullshit a few weeks ago.
Thinking about it all fits together now, the moon landings, pizza parlours, covid labs and Macron marrying a man and getting him to pretend to be his ex teacher when he was underage and 25 years older to avoid any embarrassment.
Thats the final piece of the jigsaw I needed to join Team Leon.
Low IQ Leon was pushing this bullshit a few weeks ago.
Thinking about it all fits together now, the moon landings, pizza parlours, covid labs and Macron marrying a man and getting him to pretend to be his ex teacher when he was underage and 25 years older to avoid any embarrassment.
Thats the final piece of the jigsaw I needed to join Team Leon.
Sorry but AV was put to a referendum in 2014 - so given the requirement for things to be once in a generation we can have another referendum about it in 2032 for implementation in the 2036 election...
In 2021 the average age of mothers was 30.9 years, and of fathers 33.7 years, so a generation length is currently 32.3 years.
That would place the next AV referendum in 2043. The Scottish IndyRef was in October 2014, so we can pencil in another for early 2047...
@Annaisaac New: The Guardian has seen internal Labour documents, confirmed by senior sources, which scope radical changes to capital gains and inheritance tax:
💸The proposals include increases in capital gains tax (CGT), first revealed by the Guardian two weeks ago, that could raise £8bn.
💰 Also in drafts are BIG potential changes to inheritance tax that could generate £2.3bn a year.
💳⌛️New measures would make it much more difficult to “gift” money and assets, such as farmland, tax free. It effectively scraps much of the relief used for passing on agricultural and business assets.
This all sounds positive, and as we were saying the other day they are things that need a long-term service / overhaul.
It would have been nice if it had not come out now, though.
Sorry but AV was put to a referendum in 2014 - so given the requirement for things to be once in a generation we can have another referendum about it in 2032 for implementation in the 2036 election...
In 2021 the average age of mothers was 30.9 years, and of fathers 33.7 years, so a generation length is currently 32.3 years.
That would place the next AV referendum in 2043. The Scottish IndyRef was in October 2014, so we can pencil in another for early 2047...
On topic, why would a party about to win possibly 75% of the seats on 40% of the vote, thanks to a split opposition, be interested in reforming the electoral system?
Wasn't Mercer complaining about claims he was a combatant? He could have had a glorious seven years behind a desk.
No, senior special forces bods have vouched for Thomas’ service and it wasn’t behind a desk.
You have to wonder why Mercer is repeating this claim then. Pretty low.
Firstly he is desperate and secondly he knows that Thomas cannot come out and say, “actually I did this, this and this” etc which is why it’s pretty despicable of Mercer to call him a Walter Mitty as he knows what the rules are.
Mercer will potentially be in a spot of bother should he win narrowly in July. Many here will recall Phil Woolas being unseated by an election petition in 2010, due to making false statements about a candidate's character and conduct contrary to section 106 of the Representation of the People Act, and the result being close enough conceivably to have been decisive.
Quite apart from any defamation issues, he's potentially given himself quite a big problem.
@Annaisaac New: The Guardian has seen internal Labour documents, confirmed by senior sources, which scope radical changes to capital gains and inheritance tax:
💸The proposals include increases in capital gains tax (CGT), first revealed by the Guardian two weeks ago, that could raise £8bn.
💰 Also in drafts are BIG potential changes to inheritance tax that could generate £2.3bn a year.
💳⌛️New measures would make it much more difficult to “gift” money and assets, such as farmland, tax free. It effectively scraps much of the relief used for passing on agricultural and business assets.
This all sounds positive, and as we were saying the other day they are things that need a long-term service / overhaul.
It would have been nice if it had not come out now, though.
I wonder if the CGT and IHT changes have been [edit] designed in liaison, to rationalise?
Mercedes have reported to police an email sent to members of the media last week, which purported to be from a team member and claimed Lewis Hamilton was being sabotaged.
Hamilton, the seven-times world champion, is leaving the team next season to join Ferrari, leading to some suggestions his team-mate George Russell, who will remain at Mercedes, is being favoured. Hamilton has been outqualified by Russell in eight of the nine races so far.
The email, sent in the days after the Canadian Grand Prix on June 9, claimed the sender was “unhappy about the systematic sabotaging of Lewis, his car, his tyre strategy, his race strategy and his mental health”. It also used disparaging language towards Russell, 26.
It is understood that Mercedes believe the email could have originated from a superfan who had managed to discover the same mailing list that was used to distribute alleged WhatsApp messages from the Red Bull team principal Christian Horner earlier in the season, and strongly deny that it was a team member as the email alleges. They have attempted to investigate the IP address of the sender themselves, but could not find its source, and have now contacted the police.
Toto Wolff, the Mercedes team principal, said those who believed the content of the email should “see a shrink”.
Sorry but AV was put to a referendum in 2014 - so given the requirement for things to be once in a generation we can have another referendum about it in 2032 for implementation in the 2036 election...
In 2021 the average age of mothers was 30.9 years, and of fathers 33.7 years, so a generation length is currently 32.3 years.
That would place the next AV referendum in 2043. The Scottish IndyRef was in October 2014, so we can pencil in another for early 2047...
Blindingly obvious thing is reform HoL which needs doing anyway and play around with alternative electoral systems for its replacement if we are having one. If that's a success change the commons to match.
I like the idea of replacing the HoL with a (series of) citizens assemblies on important stuff. That way you get representation from all parts of the political spectrum but their ideas have to stand up to the scrutiny of real people, not filtered through favourable media outlets.
I don't like Citizens' Assemblies.
IMO they give far too much weight to the 'appointed experts' advising.
I an sure the people who support Citizens' Assemblies would change their tune when one comes up with an answer they don't like.
On topic, why would a party about to win possibly 75% of the seats on 40% of the vote, thanks to a split opposition, be interested in reforming the electoral system?
I tend to agree they won't... but the election you want to worry about really isn't the one just gone, but the one to come.
Wasn't Mercer complaining about claims he was a combatant? He could have had a glorious seven years behind a desk.
No, senior special forces bods have vouched for Thomas’ service and it wasn’t behind a desk.
You have to wonder why Mercer is repeating this claim then. Pretty low.
Firstly he is desperate and secondly he knows that Thomas cannot come out and say, “actually I did this, this and this” etc which is why it’s pretty despicable of Mercer to call him a Walter Mitty as he knows what the rules are.
Mercer will potentially be in a spot of bother should he win narrowly in July. Many here will recall Phil Woolas being unseated by an election petition in 2010, due to making false statements about a candidate's character and conduct contrary to section 106 of the Representation of the People Act, and the result being close enough conceivably to have been decisive.
Quite apart from any defamation issues, he's potentially given himself quite a big problem.
Plenty of Booties and matelots in Guz. That'd make a good start for a 10% of electors to sign any recall petition.
Yes, every journey made is essential for whoever is making that journey for whatever reason they are making it.
We should be wanting to increase mobility and ensure more journeys can be made for whatever reason than they are now.
As we head into a cleaner, electric, future the cost of motoring ought to be a tiny fraction of what it is today and we ought to see many more journeys made. Cleanly.
Your definition of 'essential' appears to be one not found in any dictionary.
No matter how clean electric cars are we should not be encouraging more journeys. Going electric does not magically increase the capacity of the roads, it does not reduce parking problems, and it actually increases road maintenance costs. There's a strong (IMO) argument that more cars reduces overall mobility - if you doubled the number of cars on the road there would be gridlock, electric or not.
Actually improving ease of mobility for most people will involve a mix of better public transport, improved provision for cycling, increased use of light vehicles like motorcycles and scooters, and eventually hire-by-the-hour self driving electric cars.
In the village where I live traffic is often completely choked at busy times because far too many people get out their huge SUVs to go shopping. This in a place where you can literally walk from one end of the village to the other in 10 minutes. My neighbour always gets out her car to go shopping, even though we live a 3 minute walk from the shops. I can walk there, buy what I need and be home before she's even found a parking spot.
There needs to be an attitude change where cars are seen as a last resort when no other means of transport is suitable, or all of the current issues are just going to get worse.
Every journey everyone is making is of the utmost importance to them at the time they are making it. That is why they are making it, if it wasn't, they'd be doing something different.
As for capacity, build more roads, problem solved. Good for your neighbour for taking her car shopping with her, that means she can put the shopping into her car.
If there's not enough roads for the volume of cars, build more. Our road capacity hasn't kept up with our population growth in recent years so it is a major thing we need to invest in.
Yesterday evening, to mark the summer solstice, we drove to a viewpoint near the summit of a hill overlooking Bantry. I enjoyed the view, and, though the viewpoint is on the Sheep's Head walking trail, it wasn't practical for my wife to walk to the top instead of driving.
However, it's definitely a trip that I would classify as non-essential, but I disagree that frivolous journeys should necessarily be discouraged. Life is for fun as well as for necessity.
I think taking some time to do something fun is of critical importance for people's emotional, physical and mental wellbeing.
Was your going to Bantry necessary? On the strictest, Covid-regulations definition of necessity perhaps not.
But is your looking after your wife's and your own mental, physical and emotional wellbeing necessary? Yes, it absolutely is. Did your trip to Bantry help with any of that? Yes, it probably did. So was it necessary? Yes, in a way it was.
This is the problem, by the end of Covid only doing what was "necessary" a lot of people's mental health was deeply damaged. I know mine was too. Because so many non-necessities are actually necessary for a well-rounded, healthy life. Mentally and physically, we need those connections.
They may be lower down (or higher up, depending upon viewpoint) the hierarchy of needs than the barest of necessities such as food and shelter, but they're still there.
Don't underestimate the importance of mental health.
The point is, though, that by satisfying our needs at the apex of the pyramid, we may be denying the satisfaction of more basic needs to future generations. That's the heart of the issue. Should we be prepared to undergo any sort of hardship at all in order to spare our descendants greater hardship? You say no; I say yes.
No, that's not the point.
We should be, and are, transitioning to adopting clean technologies to ensure the world is better for our descendents.
The boring truth is we're doing the right thing already.
It takes time to implement technological changes. But TINA applies.
There is no reason whatsoever for anyone today to sacrifice their economic, physical or mental wellbeing on the grounds of future generations - the only thing that makes a difference to the future is a simple binary choice - do we transition to clean technologies or not?
If we do transition to clean technologies, then you can have as much clean transport or clean consumption as you want.
If we don't transition to clean technologies, then the world is f***ed.
Consuming marginally less, moving marginally less, makes all the difference as pissing into the ocean or farting into the wind.
As ever, you simplify to the point of absurdity. It is not a matter of binary choices, but sliding scales. The more we reduce our emissions, the less the likelihood of harm coming to our descendants. Some emissions can be reduced by improved technology, which is great, but some will likely require lifestyle changes, which you apparently refuse to countenance. That seems selfish to me.
No, emissions will not require lifestyle changes. Its technology or nothing.
We are but a tiny cog in the world economy, but a bright one. We can take a leadership role in developing, embracing and leading the way in adopting clean technologies - and the rest of the world can follow.
Or we can act like Medieval flagellants, beating ourselves up but achieving nothing, and the rest of the world will ignore us and do their own thing as they will.
Self-flagellation didn't work in the Medieval ages and it doesn't work now.
Embrace the science and technology. Science is the way forward, not ignoring it.
Off thread: wife and daughters are off to see Taylor Swift in London tomorrow so have 48 hours free of parental responsibility and the nicest weekend of the year so far to do it in. The amount of choice has been paralytic. But my decision was sort of made when I noticed there is a train from Manchester Victoria at 8.15 which goes to Ribblehead via Clitheroe, and a nice day with a strong westerly wind forecast. I'm going to try to cycle from Ribblehead (or Kirkby Stephen) to Northallerton. There is so much that can go wrong. First off, you can't book bikes on Northern, but nor can you board if there are two other bikes there before you. Still, feel I'm planning to do three new things I've long wanted to in one day: crossing the Pennines by bike*, going out for a day by bike and train, and going on the Settle and Carlisle railway. Oh, and also going on the secret Clitheroe-Hellifield route. I am so far out of my comfort zone it is quite dizzying.
Enjoy it.
I went on the Settle-Carlisle when I was in my teens.
The train to get me to the start of it broke down in Sheffield for hours.
But I did get to see the Evening Star stopping at Appleby Station.
I would not be surprised if Labour become keen on electoral reform during the next parliament. The assumption is that a huge majority will mean they love FPTP for ever. But the forces at play on the Tories now will be at play against Labour next time around. As they inevitably become less popular PR may begin to look much more attractive. My reason for supporting PR is different to most. I dislike FPTP because it forces people to vote negatively, PR would require people to vote positively for what they want and require politicians to work together. Both of those would be very positive. Given the poor quality of some of our politicians, having a few parties having to work together would be good for the UK.
Certainly, whatever your views on the necessity and desirability of austerity, the reign of the Coalition looks like a golden age of stability and common sense relative to all that followed. Look what a total mess Cameron made of everything once he was rid of Clegg.
I very much doubt Labour will let go of FPTP though. Neither they nor the Tories will ever let go of it until they're completely convinced that they can never win another majority. The only way you're getting PR is if the Liberal Democrats replace the Tories as the main Opposition, in which case they're very likely to get a Buggins' Turn crack at Government once the public gets bored with Labour.
If the Conservatives have retargeted their campaigning efforts into seats with majorities of over 20,000 in 2019 to ensure that they come 2nd in the number of seats won, what evidence is there of a shift in the other parties changing their priorities?
The Greens appear to be focusing on North Herefordshire and Waveney Valley, but what about Labour and the Lib Dems?
3. My more general point, apart from the utter cant from tories about this, is that PR can give undue power to minority fringe groups leading to the tail wagging the dog.
The DUP in 2017-2019 being a classic example. Oh, wait ..
Sorry but AV was put to a referendum in 2014 - so given the requirement for things to be once in a generation we can have another referendum about it in 2032 for implementation in the 2036 election...
In 2021 the average age of mothers was 30.9 years, and of fathers 33.7 years, so a generation length is currently 32.3 years.
That would place the next AV referendum in 2043. The Scottish IndyRef was in October 2014, so we can pencil in another for early 2047...
It's a shame the media's got bored of the Post Office inquiry because today's witness really took the biscuit in terms of having a bad attitude towards the questioning he was facing.
I bet some supporters of AV voted against it in 2011 in order to spite the Con/LD coalition which they didn't like.
I voted against AV because it's not proportional.
You let the perfect be the enemy of the good.
No, I didn't vote for AV because AV is crap, even fewer people would get who they voted for than under FPTP.
Oh, so now you want a curry? When I asked you a decade and a half ago whether you wanted cheesy wedges and coleslaw you just said no. You can't keep changing your mind every few years, that's not how democracy (or ordering fast food) works.
It's a shame the media's got bored of the Post Office inquiry because today's witness really took the biscuit in terms of having a bad attitude towards the questioning he was facing.
Not so much bored surely, it's just that the election has taken over.
@Annaisaac New: The Guardian has seen internal Labour documents, confirmed by senior sources, which scope radical changes to capital gains and inheritance tax:
💸The proposals include increases in capital gains tax (CGT), first revealed by the Guardian two weeks ago, that could raise £8bn.
💰 Also in drafts are BIG potential changes to inheritance tax that could generate £2.3bn a year.
💳⌛️New measures would make it much more difficult to “gift” money and assets, such as farmland, tax free. It effectively scraps much of the relief used for passing on agricultural and business assets.
Oh great, so half the farm has to be sold off every time one farmer passes on to the next generation. So in three generations, only an eighth of the farm is left, with the rest likely to be some big agri-business set up to take advantage of the situation.
Is that really what we want?
I wouldn't jump to conclusions unless or until such proposals are actually published. I am not a tax accountant so don't know if the purchase and gifting of assets are commonly used by the very wealthy as mechanisms to avoid death duties, but it might simply be that the intention is to target that kind of activity, not small family businesses.
More than thirty years ago, a 14 year old me was sat in a Design Technology class (no idea what they'd be called now) and the teacher decided to go well off topic.
He explained patiently how, with the current situation, it might be possible for there to be 100 seats in the country. Each seat could be even, with 100,000 people in it.
In 51 of them, 51,000 voted Conservative and the remaining 49,000 voted Labour. In the other 49, all 100,000 people voted Labour.
He set out the numbers and explained how the Conservatives had just won the election, not just with less votes than Labour but barely more than 25% of the vote.
Sure, it was a lesson about gerrymandering, as well as PR, but I've never forgot that lesson that day by Mr. Grundy.
I haven't always voted Lib Dem from 1997, but it's a near clean sheet. It's my number 1 priority and any party that promises reform[1] to the voting system has a chance of getting my vote.
[1] No pun intended - I'm not voting for Nigel's lot.
Both Lib Dems and Reform are immune from the “don’t give Labour a supermajority” nonsense, in fact they might even benefit from it if people reply “fair enough, we won’t. But we’re not voting for you lot”.
3. My more general point, apart from the utter cant from tories about this, is that PR can give undue power to minority fringe groups leading to the tail wagging the dog.
Do you have examples of where this has happened?
I've been travelling to Ireland quite often since meeting my wife in 2007, and have talked to her about Irish politics, and it isn't a description that fits the experience of small parties in Ireland.
To give just one example, the Green Party are the third party in a three-party coalition government at present in Ireland. So weak is their influence over policy that they couldn't even manage to achieve a ban on turf-cutting, probably the most damaging activity to the environment that it is possible to imagine.
Consequently they will likely be obliterated at the next general election. Just as they were the last time they were in government.
Looks like the most back breaking activity imaginable too.
Arguably the Greens in Scotland were more successful in wagging the SNP dog.
Israel is an example where tiny parties of nutters make and break coalitions….
You think their current politics would be better with FPTP ?
That seems hugely optimistic, shading on delusional to me.
Electoral systems don't decide a nation's politics, but they do affect how representative of sections of the electorate it is.
3. My more general point, apart from the utter cant from tories about this, is that PR can give undue power to minority fringe groups leading to the tail wagging the dog.
Do you have examples of where this has happened?
I've been travelling to Ireland quite often since meeting my wife in 2007, and have talked to her about Irish politics, and it isn't a description that fits the experience of small parties in Ireland.
To give just one example, the Green Party are the third party in a three-party coalition government at present in Ireland. So weak is their influence over policy that they couldn't even manage to achieve a ban on turf-cutting, probably the most damaging activity to the environment that it is possible to imagine.
Consequently they will likely be obliterated at the next general election. Just as they were the last time they were in government.
Looks like the most back breaking activity imaginable too.
Arguably the Greens in Scotland were more successful in wagging the SNP dog.
Israel is an example where tiny parties of nutters make and break coalitions….
You think their current politics would be better with FPTP ?
That seems hugely optimistic, shading on delusional to me.
Electoral systems don't decide a nation's politics, but they do affect how representative of sections of the electorate it is.
I think the rise of the religious extremists in Israeli politics could have been blocked in another structure - such as the German minimum vote requirements.
I am looking forward to the suggestion by the opponents of the nutters in Israel - ok, you don’t have to do military service. But anyone who doesn’t do military service doesn’t get the right to possess weapons.
@Annaisaac New: The Guardian has seen internal Labour documents, confirmed by senior sources, which scope radical changes to capital gains and inheritance tax:
💸The proposals include increases in capital gains tax (CGT), first revealed by the Guardian two weeks ago, that could raise £8bn.
💰 Also in drafts are BIG potential changes to inheritance tax that could generate £2.3bn a year.
💳⌛️New measures would make it much more difficult to “gift” money and assets, such as farmland, tax free. It effectively scraps much of the relief used for passing on agricultural and business assets.
This all sounds positive, and as we were saying the other day they are things that need a long-term service / overhaul.
It would have been nice if it had not come out now, though.
Good evening
I actually support those measures so why isn't Reeves just honest and announce them
@Annaisaac New: The Guardian has seen internal Labour documents, confirmed by senior sources, which scope radical changes to capital gains and inheritance tax:
💸The proposals include increases in capital gains tax (CGT), first revealed by the Guardian two weeks ago, that could raise £8bn.
💰 Also in drafts are BIG potential changes to inheritance tax that could generate £2.3bn a year.
💳⌛️New measures would make it much more difficult to “gift” money and assets, such as farmland, tax free. It effectively scraps much of the relief used for passing on agricultural and business assets.
Oh great, so half the farm has to be sold off every time one farmer passes on to the next generation. So in three generations, only an eighth of the farm is left, with the rest likely to be some big agri-business set up to take advantage of the situation.
Is that really what we want?
I wouldn't jump to conclusions unless or until such proposals are actually published. I am not a tax accountant so don't know if the purchase and gifting of assets are commonly used by the very wealthy as mechanisms to avoid death duties, but it might simply be that the intention is to target that kind of activity, not small family businesses.
It would be pretty much impossible to separate the two. Even in intention. I can think of a couple of people where death duties and time has eroded the rest of the family holdings, but the land has remained. Is that tax evasion, or keeping the family farm on one piece?
Candace Owens is a strange person because I've heard her say sensible things on some topics, and then she supports conspiracy theories at other times.
She’s a total enigma. I don’t think she actually holds consistent views on anything, but is simply saying what she thinks the audience wants to hear, or whatever will generate more click, likes, views, coverage etc. She’s just playing the ‘new media’ game.
America's extremism is in large part driven by 3 things we don't have.
1: A directly elected President outside of Congress, not answerable to their Representatives, our PM is part of the Commons. 2: A directly elected Upper House that often conflicts with their President and or their Representatives, our Upper House knows its place and the Parliament Act can override it. 3: An appointed for life SCOTUS that can set laws as it deems appropriate that elected Representatives can not change. Our Supreme Court can issue rulings, but our Commons can then change the law if it wants to.
Our MPs in the Commons are mightily powerful compared America's Representatives. If the PM or the courts get out of line too far, the Commons can (and do) course correct rather than having decades-long battles to corrupt those institutions because elected representatives have no say in them.
America's separation of powers is its downfall. It is a mistake.
Comments
My minimum prediction now is a Labour majority of 30 seats.
That seems hugely optimistic, shading on delusional to me.
Electoral systems don't decide a nation's politics, but they do affect how representative of sections of the electorate it is.
Safely arrived at the pub (it’s two buildings down the road), watching F1 on one screen, cricket on another, and about to be football on a third. Cheers!
The amount of choice has been paralytic. But my decision was sort of made when I noticed there is a train from Manchester Victoria at 8.15 which goes to Ribblehead via Clitheroe, and a nice day with a strong westerly wind forecast.
I'm going to try to cycle from Ribblehead (or Kirkby Stephen) to Northallerton.
There is so much that can go wrong. First off, you can't book bikes on Northern, but nor can you board if there are two other bikes there before you.
Still, feel I'm planning to do three new things I've long wanted to in one day: crossing the Pennines by bike*, going out for a day by bike and train, and going on the Settle and Carlisle railway. Oh, and also going on the secret Clitheroe-Hellifield route.
I am so far out of my comfort zone it is quite dizzying.
Soon we will have direct to satellite on cell phones. Batteries will still die though and the better plan is not to go hiking in heatwaves
Yet we have some polls showing the Conservatives and Reform tied (and one with Reform ahead) while others keep the gap between 9-11 points which is ridiculous variation.
I wonder if the gap is between pollsters who prompt for Reform (and all parties) versus those who don't.
We'll no doubt have another profusion of polling over the weekend and with 12 days to go there's still time for things to change but not much.
And yes phone coverage can be patchy too. But in this instance I believe the teenager’s phone battery died.
Anyway, Tenerife need to build more masts as the UK do.
(Though I've put a couple of quid on Norris this weekend.)
(Now watch MV go and qualify half a second quicker than anyone else).
(Linked to fall detection.)
@RpsAgainstTrump
Trump ally Candace Owens is now pushing a new conspiracy theory: Brigitte Macron, the wife of French President Emmanuel Macron, is a man.
This is MAGA"
https://x.com/RpsAgainstTrump/status/1802347141974602087
New: The Guardian has seen internal Labour documents, confirmed by senior sources, which scope radical changes to capital gains and inheritance tax:
💸The proposals include increases in capital gains tax (CGT), first revealed by the Guardian two weeks ago, that could raise £8bn.
💰 Also in drafts are BIG potential changes to inheritance tax that could generate £2.3bn a year.
💳⌛️New measures would make it much more difficult to “gift” money and assets, such as farmland, tax free. It effectively scraps much of the relief used for passing on agricultural and business assets.
https://x.com/Annaisaac/status/1804173522291286382
But one example which comes to mind is the Netherlands where extreme right wing groups have had disproportionate influence from a supposedly proportional system.
e.g.
https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/epdf/10.1080/713601617
Clearly PR almost always leads to coalition and that hasn’t been a bad thing in this country, although a lot of people have deep-seated and understandable complaints about the 2010-5 iteration.
In countries like Italy, Belgium, and Israel it has often led to chaos.
I don’t think there’s a perfect democratic system but I’d prefer to keep FPTP. The idea of Farage’s populist and (in my view) extreme right wing party controlling the Conservatives in Gov’t fills me with horror, as I suggest it should most decent people.
@Tweedledee ’s argument that we should reform the HoL with an elected chamber under PR, and then see how it goes with a possible roll out to the HoC after, seems to me like an excellent working compromise. +1
Is that really what we want?
Not far off, though - and your watch is less likely to be out of charge through carelessness like a mobile can be.
Everything I wanted.
Chuffed to bits.
The battery will last multiple days in this state in my experience - it’s the regular polling of the network for data updates & scanning for available wifi networks that reduces your phone battery to a single day of use.
These are not inevitable consequences of the voting system, but the result of choices made, and, given they are the largest party, not an example of a small party tail wagging the dog of a large party.
It's more likely to work out as the opposite - the requirement of Wilders' party to form a coalition with other parties will moderate it, compared to it forming a majority government of its own under FPTP.
I look forward to you replying in more depth in the future when you are able.
"Mercer passed the All Arms Commando Course and served mostly with 29 Commando Regiment Royal Artillery and 3rd Regiment Royal Horse Artillery. He served three tours in Afghanistan:[11][12] as a liaison and training officer with Afghan forces; attached to a Special Forces unit; and as a co-ordinator of artillery and air strikes in support of ground operations. Mercer retired from military service in December 2013 with the rank of captain.[13]"
There are ways of devising a system that allows repugnance to be expressed more insistently than putting candidates last, or not at all, in order of preference.
I would still prefer STV to yield a collective who would select a leader; I suppose directly electing mayors (if we must) would be an example of a natural single person position.
https://nypost.com/2024/03/22/business/candace-owens-out-at-daily-wire-after-months-of-israel-controversy/
This is almost certainly the nicest route, though if you're tired after Bedale you may want to save a few miles and blat it down the main road to Northallerton: https://cycle.travel/map?from=&to=&fromLL=54.205791,-2.360666&toLL=54.340469,-1.434655&via=ortqfBzqdqB
Thats the final piece of the jigsaw I needed to join Team Leon.
Have we had @Leon all over that for some time?
Here she is reported about taking legal action in 2021:
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-59753535
It comes up from the far right before political elections.
Warning to anyone who clicks: Incoming Piers Morgan alert.
Qualifying tomorrow is going to be fun.
https://x.com/JohnnyMercerUK/status/1804135371153809673?ref_src=twsrc^google|twcamp^serp|twgr^tweet
https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/politics/tory-johnny-mercer-blasted-disrespectful-33081349
Watch season 4 of The Boys.
It's all in there.
Excellent strangle by the England bowlers.
Can the batters keep it up ?
Disappointing.
It would have been nice if it had not come out now, though.
Looks at the US.
Quite apart from any defamation issues, he's potentially given himself quite a big problem.
Well, that and the high probability of losing his seat in a fortnight.
Mercedes have reported to police an email sent to members of the media last week, which purported to be from a team member and claimed Lewis Hamilton was being sabotaged.
Hamilton, the seven-times world champion, is leaving the team next season to join Ferrari, leading to some suggestions his team-mate George Russell, who will remain at Mercedes, is being favoured. Hamilton has been outqualified by Russell in eight of the nine races so far.
The email, sent in the days after the Canadian Grand Prix on June 9, claimed the sender was “unhappy about the systematic sabotaging of Lewis, his car, his tyre strategy, his race strategy and his mental health”. It also used disparaging language towards Russell, 26.
It is understood that Mercedes believe the email could have originated from a superfan who had managed to discover the same mailing list that was used to distribute alleged WhatsApp messages from the Red Bull team principal Christian Horner earlier in the season, and strongly deny that it was a team member as the email alleges. They have attempted to investigate the IP address of the sender themselves, but could not find its source, and have now contacted the police.
Toto Wolff, the Mercedes team principal, said those who believed the content of the email should “see a shrink”.
https://www.thetimes.com/sport/formula-one/article/mercedes-report-lewis-hamilton-sabotage-email-police-qlvsl50mc
Girls!
We are but a tiny cog in the world economy, but a bright one. We can take a leadership role in developing, embracing and leading the way in adopting clean technologies - and the rest of the world can follow.
Or we can act like Medieval flagellants, beating ourselves up but achieving nothing, and the rest of the world will ignore us and do their own thing as they will.
Self-flagellation didn't work in the Medieval ages and it doesn't work now.
Embrace the science and technology. Science is the way forward, not ignoring it.
I went on the Settle-Carlisle when I was in my teens.
The train to get me to the start of it broke down in Sheffield for hours.
But I did get to see the Evening Star stopping at Appleby Station.
Here's a short account of a gent who did the length of the Settle-Carlisle.
https://pedalnorth.com/settle-to-carlisle-cycling-route/
There also seem to be a few Youtube vids around, which are always useful.
He's a seasoned batter who cuts the mustard.
I very much doubt Labour will let go of FPTP though. Neither they nor the Tories will ever let go of it until they're completely convinced that they can never win another majority. The only way you're getting PR is if the Liberal Democrats replace the Tories as the main Opposition, in which case they're very likely to get a Buggins' Turn crack at Government once the public gets bored with Labour.
The Greens appear to be focusing on North Herefordshire and Waveney Valley, but what about Labour and the Lib Dems?
TVA4 - the code sending chills down spines of Tory canvass teams.
It's what their Vote Source software says are Reform waverers.
But hearing endless reports that when those doors are knocked they are not just wavering but almost always GONE.
South is very, very bad for the Tories, troops say.
Not just Reform either... but Liberals.
Sources say totemic seats like Sevenoaks and Tunbridge Wells are in "freefall".
https://x.com/MrHarryCole/status/1804186446447755523
CON 19 (-)
LAB 39 (-2)
LDM 12 (+1)
GRN 6 (-)
RFM 20 (+3)
More than thirty years ago, a 14 year old me was sat in a Design Technology class (no idea what they'd be called now) and the teacher decided to go well off topic.
He explained patiently how, with the current situation, it might be possible for there to be 100 seats in the country. Each seat could be even, with 100,000 people in it.
In 51 of them, 51,000 voted Conservative and the remaining 49,000 voted Labour. In the other 49, all 100,000 people voted Labour.
He set out the numbers and explained how the Conservatives had just won the election, not just with less votes than Labour but barely more than 25% of the vote.
Sure, it was a lesson about gerrymandering, as well as PR, but I've never forgot that lesson that day by Mr. Grundy.
I haven't always voted Lib Dem from 1997, but it's a near clean sheet. It's my number 1 priority and any party that promises reform[1] to the voting system has a chance of getting my vote.
[1] No pun intended - I'm not voting for Nigel's lot.
Still think Tories end up above 26% though.
I am looking forward to the suggestion by the opponents of the nutters in Israel - ok, you don’t have to do military service. But anyone who doesn’t do military service doesn’t get the right to possess weapons.
I actually support those measures so why isn't Reeves just honest and announce them
https://x.com/johnnymerceruk/status/1804183998135980139
America's extremism is in large part driven by 3 things we don't have.
1: A directly elected President outside of Congress, not answerable to their Representatives, our PM is part of the Commons.
2: A directly elected Upper House that often conflicts with their President and or their Representatives, our Upper House knows its place and the Parliament Act can override it.
3: An appointed for life SCOTUS that can set laws as it deems appropriate that elected Representatives can not change. Our Supreme Court can issue rulings, but our Commons can then change the law if it wants to.
Our MPs in the Commons are mightily powerful compared America's Representatives. If the PM or the courts get out of line too far, the Commons can (and do) course correct rather than having decades-long battles to corrupt those institutions because elected representatives have no say in them.
America's separation of powers is its downfall. It is a mistake.