The ever-readable Left Outside has written a response to my post from the other week on Prop 8. It’s well worth a look, but (surprise, surprise) I’m afraid I have some issues with it. His argument, as I read it, is twofold:
First, in order for there to be democracy in a society, there must be [...]
Democracy in Britain leaves a lot to be desired – like actual democracy, for example. Governments secure unconscionable power with 33% of the popular vote; parties run multi-million pound election campaigns, ensuring they owe some millionaire or business, something, sometime; the anachronism of the constituency MP is still firmly in place and not going anywhere [...]
This week’s overturning of Proposition 8 in California is obviously welcome news. Amending California’s state constitution to state that “only marriage between a man and a woman is valid or recognized in California” is nakedly discriminatory and Judge Vaughn Walker’s decision to strike it down should be applauded.
There is, though, something else that’s important to [...]
Well, it happened. Not quite as anyone had been expecting, but it happened. The moment we’ve dreaded for the last three years.
David Cameron is the new Prime Minister.
I can’t say I will be sorry to see Brown go. I can’t say New Labour didn’t deserve to lose this election. I can say I will be [...]
Purdah is the Persian word for curtain. In the far-flung places of the world, it refers to the practice of concealing women from men through segregation or dress. Here in Britain, it is the somewhat curious term applied to the pre-election period in which the government is, more or less, prevented from making major policy [...]
Tom Harris is being silenced. At least according to his latest blog post, entitled ‘Silence those who dare to disagree with us!’. He has taken exception to an advert in the Guardian, posted by constitutional reform activists Power 2010, which attacks 6 MPs for opposing electoral reform. And Tom is deeply aggrieved to be on [...]
Ok, perhaps he’s not wrong about everything, but Reuben wrote an article yesterday with which I have several significant disagreements. My main problem with his assertions stem from this cringe-worthy little paragraph:
In places like Cambridge – where they grabbed a seat last time – they seemed to get the vote of those who treated voting [...]
After 4,500 submissions and 100,000 votes, the POWER 2010 pledge has finally been revealed.
1. Introduce a proportional voting system.
2. Scrap ID cards and roll back the database state.
3. Replace the House of Lords with an elected chamber.
4. Allow only English MPs to vote on English laws.
5. Draw up a written constitution.
I, and others writing for [...]
You may have noticed that the POWER2010 campaign and its supporters have been given a fair amount of air time on The Third Estate. The response from readers and other bloggers has been mixed. Some have argued that the organisation is correct to thow open the question of fixing Britain’s broken democracy to its people. [...]
Guest post by Guy Aitchison
POWER2010 is entering the final stretch of its public vote to find the very top ideas that will fix UK politics.
With over 4,000 ideas submitted, boiled down to a list of 29 by the deliberations of a representative sample of the UK, and then opened up to the public vote, almost 100,000 [...]
