Posts by Ben Austin
Last ←Newer Page 1 2 3 4 5 Older→ First
-
David, please accept my sympathies to both you and your family.
-
I went to see the stage version of Yes Prime Minister in Chichester on Saturday. It certainly was rather odd to see an early 1980s tv show transferred to the stage for the 2010 political world.
While I did enjoy the production I do think it has lost a little in the effort to modernise it for current political realities. Although they were able to get the boot into the hung parliament, which was amusing.
-
I do understand that both a very large Japanese commercial interest has a 'display' centre on Willis Street and the embassy of that great nation is also located nearby. Some might say that this points to a worrying CBD axis of commercial, government, press and militerism
-
It could just be that the Dominion Post hosts a nest of Japanese militarists or their sympathisers.
Time to get Ian Wishart on the case I think
-
Plenty of older National members have long campaigned internally for a review of MMP, I imagine their long efforts were in part responsible for the review and referendum, not just so called rich elites.
-
I agree with Graeme.
AV is flawed in my opinion and perhaps those flaws are equally as bad as FPTP however I've only done the most superficial of reading to justify my opinion and that is because I voted on the basis of electoral reform. I will need to do a lot more before I am certain on that matter. Most people in the UK/England have not thought about the issue deeply as despite what the media or commentators say, electoral reform was not an issue this election was fought on. Even the Liberal Democrats barely discussed the issue outside of their Manisfesto, instead, they ocassionally mentioned "political reform" in the debates or interviews and instead focused on other issues, like tax or Trident or not being one of the big two parties. So there is a profound ignorance on the topic of electoral reform at this point in time.
The referendum or parliamentary debate will change all of this. We will have several months of in depth discussion at the national (UK) level that the voters and other groups will not be able to ignore and even if AV loses, which is quite likely this discussion and debate phase cannot be undone.
We will finally have a wider UK voting population that has been exposed to discussion of electoral reform - and I am certain the debate will be wide enough to include the merits of PR and its many variants. Hopefully we will achieve a high degree of electoral system literacy as well and so no more will this kind of thing be brushed off as Liberal Democrat lunancy or something similar.
So if we do lose on AV then at least we have some hope that the electorate will in the future demand that the issue be revisited, because they understand the debate
-
Apparently the 9/11 Was an Inside Job crew were there too and almost got their banner in the background of BBC News
-
Have any commentators or people who might know spoken up about how likely it is Clegg & Co will get the party to agree?
-
Well it isn't just the LD's fault the Rainbow Coalition didn't work out - many Labour Party figures have spoken out in the last 3 days against it. I don't think the Party leadership could be certain they could rely upon the entire parliamentary party, whips be dammed
-
So, I guess things go quiet for an hour two while we all wait to see if a broad heads of agreement is going to be inked tonight.
I think I need a drink