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Tag Archives: Politics
The minor issue of scaling up by 267 million percent
Julian McCrae at the Institute for Government PWC citizens’ jury in Coventry recently. His take on the key points:
“Firstly, people can accept the case for difficult decisions when they are engaged in a meaningful discussion about the options. Continue reading
Your Freedom should be supporting users more
The Tumblr site YourFreedumb might be devoted to picking stupid or offensive content out of the Your Freedom consultation, but that doesn’t mean they can’t write a perceptive critique of why it hasn’t taken off in the way I hoped it might. Continue reading
Posted in NIBs
Tagged Consultations, Current affairs, Other projects, Politics, Web/Tech
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When is £14,000 more than £50m? When one's in a press release and one isn't
High-impact campaigning organisation the Taxpayers’ Alliance are in a right old tizz about EU flags. Yes, those bits of cloth with the blue and gold are an outrageous affront to the British taxpayer, costing £14,003 over five years – an outrageous £2,800.60 per year.
In case you are wondering, £2,800.60 per year is 0.00002% of the UK’s annual budget deficit.
But of course it’s the thought that counts, and in this case the thought is the usual mystical mishmash of Churchill complex, free market dogma and nationalism that could be called “Euroscepticism”, if sceptic weren’t a word that implied rationality and logic.
If the Taxpayers’ Alliance were really serious about European-level financial waste, they might look into the question of how much it costs the British Government to appease the Daily Mail by staying out of the Schengen agreement and maintaining our internal border with other EU countries. Continue reading
Bishops in da House: Lord help us
Here’s a bad argument about the reform of the House of Lords: “Does the ‘Big Society’ include bishops in the Lords?“.
I don’t want to be mean to Paul Woolley, director of Theos, whose argument it is, but it is pretty much identical to every other argument against full democratic reform of the Lords. It runs “democracy isn’t just about electoral mandates, it’s about [people I agree with] having a say over legislation”. Continue reading
Your Freedom: Government asks well, but can it answer well?
The Government today launched Your Freedom, a discussion site where people can make suggestions on civil liberties issues and legislation they want to see repealed. good site, but can Government live up to its rhetoric and answer as well as it asks? Continue reading
Posted in Uncategorized
Tagged Consultations, Current affairs, Local Government, Politics, Web/Tech
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Messages change, opinion polls change
Little thing I noticed today. In the Sunday Telegraph, 52% of people questioned in an ICM poll thought the recent budget cuts were necessary (although of course detail on what they will be is not yet clear). Compare that with the 75% of people before the election, as often mentioned by Ben Page, who thought that the deficit could be reduced by efficiency savings alone. Continue reading
Welcome to the Thinktank Roundup
Welcome to the Talk Issues ‘Thinktank Roundup’ – your one-stop review of all the best publications, research, commentary and events from leading UK think tanks. Not surprisingly two themes dominate the output this week – the arrival of the UK’s first coalition … Continue reading
What a hung parliament means for local government
Andy Sawford, chief executive of the Local Government Information Unit, recently spoke to TweetyHall – a site dedicated to helping residents and local politicians come together through social media – about what a hung parliament means for local government in … Continue reading
Posted in NIBs
Tagged Andy Sawford, Executive, Government, Hung parliament, Local Government, Local Government Information Unit, Localism, Politics, Uncategorized
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Election first reaction
So after a few hours’s sleep, time to reflect on the irony that this most presidential of general elections has resulted in a slew of unpredictable local results, many based on individual candidates’ records, and will now be followed by … Continue reading
Posted in Commentary
Tagged Conservatives, electoral reform, Hung parliament, Labour, Lib Dem, Liberal Democrats, Minority government, Politics, Uncategorized
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Winter of what?
Lots of shouting about trade union influence in the Labour party today.
In thinking about how people respond to stories of union-led chaos, it’s worth remembering that the Winter of Discontent is outside the political memory of most people of voting age (though, due to differential voter turnout, not quite outside the memory of the majority of voters).
In 2015, when the next election is due, potential voters who were sixteen or over during the winter of discontent will be outnumbered 62:38 by those who were younger or weren’t born. Continue reading →