Why Vote Labour?

The Economy Every time Labour have been in power they’ve left the economy worse off How’s it going to be paid for? Most arguments supporting Labour policy focus on the humanitarian aspects — a fairer society, lifting children out of poverty, for the many not the few — and they are good arguments. The last …

The Anonymity Debate

Response to Extending anonymity to sexual crime suspects is a bad idea – here’s why (full text reproduced here) by Laura Bates in The Guardian A group of high-profile men, including singer Sir Cliff Richard and broadcaster Paul Gambaccini, have launched a campaign to change the law so that people accused of sex crimes would …

Efficiency and Privatization in the NHS

On Question Time this evening (2015-11-26) the ‘Should we privatise the NHS?’ question came up again. It was stated that the German and French health services are more efficient (whether this is true is open to endless debate) and that the reason was private sector involvement. Despite the fact that many people in an audience …

Unprincipled Short-termism

The role of a politician … is to persuade the people through good reasoning.

Protect our BBC

Reducing the funding and challenging the independence of the BBC is a step towards its privatization. UK commercial TV and radio is good because it exists in an environment that contains the BBC. Making the BBC commercial would be like turning the principal predator in an ecosystem into a vegetarian and expecting everything else to …

2014 Longitude Prize

Poverty is not only a tragedy for each affected individual, it is a tragedy for us all: how many great thinkers, great achievers, die before they reach adulthood or spend their life living hand-to-mouth, never able to even begin to realize their potential? In the developed world our greater health and longevity has little to …

The AV Referendum Campaign

Best of the Best: Dan Snow’s simple explanation (2m54s): ‘Dan Snow’s Alternative‘ (YouTube v=TtW3QkX8Xa0) More detailed (4m27s): ‘The Alternative Vote Explained‘ (YouTube v=3Y3jE3B8HsE) Debunking the myths: http://avlies.com/ Printable A4 PDF version: avlies.com.pdf Printable A5 PDF booklet version: avlies.pdf

2010 United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP16)

Some quotes from The Now Show (2010-12-04) regarding COP16 It’s about as relevant to most western governments and news organizations as brown people dying in a country with no oil. — Steve Punt (The Now Show) 53% of all Republicans don’t believe climate change is happening at all. — (The Now Show) On the subject …

Always Too Late [1]

The recent protests by students over tuition fees is an example of how the public are always too late to complain. When football clubs floated on the stock market, fans jumped for joy at the prospect of more money for the club. Now they complain about foreign owners and over-paid players. When the banks were …

University Tuition Fees [1]

The attitude of the Labour party to the rise in tuition fees is arrogant duplicity of the first order: it was Labour that introduced the University of Bums on Seats and the consequent tuition fees. And they ruined the economy (2010 debt interest will be £43bn). Students should be attacking Labour, not the Lib Dems. …

US rightsholder lobby group puts pressure on EU Commissioners in attempt to stifle open standards policies

Email received today (2010-10-12) Dear signatory of the OOXML petition, last week a U.S. rightsholder lobby group Business Software Alliance (BSA) got hold of confidential EU pre-release drafts of the European Interoperability Framework (EIF) 2.0. They put pressure on several EU-Commissioners in an attempt to stifle once again “open standards” policies. The European Interoperability Framework …

Raoul Moat [1]

Yesterday (2010-07-14) David Cameron said It is absolutely clear that Raoul Moat was a callous murderer, full stop, end of story. We may have seen the end of Raoul Moat’s story but, unless we learn and think, the story will repeat itself. Imagine a warehouse that is not only full of valuable goods but which …

Expert Advice [1]

“…we’re putting amateurs into really important positions and people are getting killed as a result…” Lieutenant-General Sir Frederick Viggers. BBC News – Army chief lambasts ‘amateurs’ in post-invasion Iraq The most important fact for elected politicians to accept is their own ignorance. Almost all of them got elected by standing for the right party in …

Brevity [1]

An essay is only complete when there is nothing left to delete If you had a formal education in the UK during the past few decades, you will doubtless have been assigned essays with a stipulated minimum number of words. And you may well have been marked down for using bullet points, or for starting …

Gary McKinnon [1]

Two possibilities: 1) The US government uses easy-to-hack decoy computers as a first line of defence. 2) Gary McKinnon really did break into Pentagon, NASA and US Navy computers, altering and deleting files, immobilising sensitive systems and causing $800,000 worth of damage. In which case the other NATO member nations should sue the US Government …

Standards [1]

Being unable to rely upon the impartiality of the World standards organization is of great concern…

MPs’ expenses [1]

In general, the response by the British public to the MPs’ expenses affair is a chronic over-reaction in contrast to their attitude to, say, the Iraq war. Iraq war Over one hundred thousand innocent civilians dead; 7.8 billion pounds spent (to date); perfect recruiting sergeant for terrorists Current global financial crisis Unknown human cost; financial …

Everyone is entitled to their opinion [1]

This principle excuses people from thinking, which leads to bad government, bad decisions, and ruined lives. Unsupported opinions and beliefs are accepted by the majority when they are won-over by a good orator, or by someone who has previously gained their respect. Every time a politician (professional or amateur) expresses a view, someone should say …

Recession [1]

Who should apologise for the economic mess? Democracy is not just a right, it is also a responsibility; your right to vote entails your responsibility to understand what you are voting for. The voters who have elected profligate governments owe an apology to this generation’s children and grandchildren for the debt and diminished opportunity that …

House of Lords reform [1]

Politics is perhaps the only profession for which no preparation is thought necessary. Robert Louis Stevenson Democracy is necessary for a well-functioning society, but it is not sufficient. Would you elect your surgeon or a structural engineer from a bunch of untrained, inexperienced candidates? The second chamber could (and often does) provide what the first …