The problem with PR is that it tends to come with party lists. Representatives become even more slavish to the party line than MPs are now, and independents don't stand a chance (particularly if you have a threshold). In principle, MPs are supposed to represent their constituents over the party.
I always admire the German Bundestagswahl system, with aspects of both. I believe the Scots use it in their parliament. I think the London Assembley operates on the same principle too.
I'm in Hammersmith, a notional marginal Labour/Conservative seat. I would rather have a Lib Dem MP, but they haven't a chance of winning, so I'll probably vote Tory because I'd rather have a Tory government than a Labour one. If we had STV I could codify this vote by voting Lib Dem, Tory, Labour*, or with PR I could vote Lib Dem knowing my vote would be counted. At the moment, voting Lib Dem means my vote has no impact on the governance of the country.
*I'd rather have Labour than UKIP, the BNP, the Greens, the English Democrats etc.
At the moment, we're just winding up Parliament before it is dissolved in a few days time. Any bill that pasts has to have the support of all three main parties, or it could easily be blocked in that time. Also it's a convention not to rush into law something which the next government will immediately chuck out, not least because it'll make the party that does it rather more unpopular.
So the Tories, and indeed the Liberal Democrats, bear some responsibility for allowing this bill to pass, unlike the rest of the year when there'd be nothing they could do to stop it.
Also, realistically, the impact on the average American of the war in Iraq and Afghanistan is nearly nill. It's no wonder that domestic policy gets people more worried; it actually affects their lives.
And it makes some pretty bold claims about those use cases...
Studies have shown that retail sales go up, productivity increases, and school grades improve thanks to natural indoor light. But the biggest gain is in the occupants’ health.
Is this true? I have a kneejerk reaction to "Studies have shown..." I guess there may be some benefit to SADs cases*.
*Though I can never decide if it doesn't exist or if everyone in London has it. Check out the symptoms; "...some people experience a serious mood change when the seasons change. They may sleep too much, have little energy, and crave sweets and starchy foods. They may also feel depressed. Though symptoms can be severe, they usually clear up." [via Wiki]
A good example for me is my dad driving up Remenham hill in a full car. This is a modern Mercedes automatic, and it shifts up too early, slowing the car down. Fortunately it also has manual paddles so you can correct this behaviour, but I'm glad my (tiny little 1.0l) VW Polo is manual. I can't imagine doing pulling out onto a dual carriage way in automatic.
Oh, to explain that last bit; here in England we have roads where traffic speed is 70mph that you can pull onto from a T-junction. No sliproad.
Very true. If you had the accelerator problem when just starting, and got stuck in first gear, and your engine races away, you might reach a peak speed of as much as five, maybe ten miles an hour.
Even if we had guns, we're not exactly going to launch an armed insurrection because the BBC has asked someone to stop running an open-source iPlayer client.
Hell, the Yanks couldn't be bothered to get another revolution together for the PATRIOT act, let alone a TV licensing spat.
As for nukes, they sometimes make sense as a deterrent, but almost never as a defense.
Quite so. Was talking to someone about Switzerland's policy of (heavily) armed neutrality the other day, they asked why Switzerland didn't have the bomb. After all, they have the wealth and the know-how. But what would they do with it? The only possible use for it wpuld hurt the Swiss as much as anyone else.
Entertainingly, I used to date a Chinese girl. We spoke German to each other in England (as well as English) because it was a common language that most other people around us didn't understand.
Links can be a bit weird in Chinese. FIrst example you're likely to come across is ma. Ma (third tone) means horse. Toneless ma is a particle that changes a sentence into a question. The character for the particle is the character for horse with a mouth (kou) next to it, showing that it's a part of speech, and that it sounds like the word for horse.
Several Chinese friends of mine assure me that there are links between meaning/sound and character for all of them, via these 'radicals', but it's a bit too Times-cryptic-crosswordy to be useful for Westerners.
Also, realistically, the bank doesn't care about the pen. I wonder if it's the same here? By the time you've got to New York from London (for example), the last thing your wallet is worrying about is an extra $4 on a cab fare.
In London, TfL does the shafting with the ridiculous pricing scheme for Tube fares, clearly designed to spring tourists for money.
Anyone who's visiting London; if you are going to get more than two single tube journeys in zones 1-2, it's cheaper to buy a day travel card. In fact, it's only slightly more expensive to buy an Oyster and a day travel card, and you can get your deposit on the Oyster refunded when you leave.
And the damn firewall! Every time something goes wrong with something internet related on Windows it blames a firewall that may not even exist! The number of times I've been helping my family and they say "the message says it's something to do with the firewall"...and it never is!
None of the above is still a valid choice in a democratic society. You just can't express it in the US or the UK other than by staying at home*.
His opinion is not irrelevant, except insofar as our crap-arse voting systems have made it irrelevant. Which is no excuse for you to get all high-and-mighty on him.
*In addition, to take the example of the UK, in the last major swing in parliament (1997), 180 seats changed hands out of 659. That means that, assuming people are evenly distributed in constituencies**, 72% of votes made no difference at all to the outcome of the election. So voting in the UK at least is largely a waste of time.
**A bad assumption, especially back in '97 before Scottish devolution.
Indeed. The principle being that we don't have infinite resources, so you have to be able to justify their allocation. In capitalism, this is done on the free market. Socialism advocates political allocation.
It is up to the reader to do some research and decide which is generally more efficient.
You buy it to participate in a cultural phenomenon and interesting concept.
If it were about £20 then I might join in. Hey, that might still happen as the novelty wears off. Just watching the price alone could be an interesting social experiment.
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The problem with PR is that it tends to come with party lists. Representatives become even more slavish to the party line than MPs are now, and independents don't stand a chance (particularly if you have a threshold). In principle, MPs are supposed to represent their constituents over the party.
I always admire the German Bundestagswahl system, with aspects of both. I believe the Scots use it in their parliament. I think the London Assembley operates on the same principle too.
Exactly this.
I'm in Hammersmith, a notional marginal Labour/Conservative seat. I would rather have a Lib Dem MP, but they haven't a chance of winning, so I'll probably vote Tory because I'd rather have a Tory government than a Labour one. If we had STV I could codify this vote by voting Lib Dem, Tory, Labour*, or with PR I could vote Lib Dem knowing my vote would be counted. At the moment, voting Lib Dem means my vote has no impact on the governance of the country.
*I'd rather have Labour than UKIP, the BNP, the Greens, the English Democrats etc.
At the moment, we're just winding up Parliament before it is dissolved in a few days time. Any bill that pasts has to have the support of all three main parties, or it could easily be blocked in that time. Also it's a convention not to rush into law something which the next government will immediately chuck out, not least because it'll make the party that does it rather more unpopular.
So the Tories, and indeed the Liberal Democrats, bear some responsibility for allowing this bill to pass, unlike the rest of the year when there'd be nothing they could do to stop it.
From a list?! What are you doing, judging by name? "Hmm, Black Sheep sounds unpleasant, will give that a miss".
When did this take place? Under Obama or Bush?
Does it matter?
Also, realistically, the impact on the average American of the war in Iraq and Afghanistan is nearly nill. It's no wonder that domestic policy gets people more worried; it actually affects their lives.
I'm in a Polo 1.0 Manual. It's amazing what it can't do at 4500 rpm.
And it makes some pretty bold claims about those use cases...
Studies have shown that retail sales go up, productivity increases, and school grades improve thanks to natural indoor light. But the biggest gain is in the occupants’ health.
Is this true? I have a kneejerk reaction to "Studies have shown..."
I guess there may be some benefit to SADs cases*.
*Though I can never decide if it doesn't exist or if everyone in London has it. Check out the symptoms; "...some people experience a serious mood change when the seasons change. They may sleep too much, have little energy, and crave sweets and starchy foods. They may also feel depressed. Though symptoms can be severe, they usually clear up." [via Wiki]
A good example for me is my dad driving up Remenham hill in a full car. This is a modern Mercedes automatic, and it shifts up too early, slowing the car down. Fortunately it also has manual paddles so you can correct this behaviour, but I'm glad my (tiny little 1.0l) VW Polo is manual. I can't imagine doing pulling out onto a dual carriage way in automatic.
Oh, to explain that last bit; here in England we have roads where traffic speed is 70mph that you can pull onto from a T-junction. No sliproad.
Very true. If you had the accelerator problem when just starting, and got stuck in first gear, and your engine races away, you might reach a peak speed of as much as five, maybe ten miles an hour.
Even if we had guns, we're not exactly going to launch an armed insurrection because the BBC has asked someone to stop running an open-source iPlayer client.
Hell, the Yanks couldn't be bothered to get another revolution together for the PATRIOT act, let alone a TV licensing spat.
As for nukes, they sometimes make sense as a deterrent, but almost never as a defense.
Quite so. Was talking to someone about Switzerland's policy of (heavily) armed neutrality the other day, they asked why Switzerland didn't have the bomb. After all, they have the wealth and the know-how. But what would they do with it? The only possible use for it wpuld hurt the Swiss as much as anyone else.
Yes, to quote Yes Minister;
Sir Humphrey: It sets a dangerous precedent.
Jim Hacker: What, you mean if we do the right thing now we might have to do it again later?
That's actually where our alphabet comes from (via the Greeks and Romans).
Entertainingly, I used to date a Chinese girl. We spoke German to each other in England (as well as English) because it was a common language that most other people around us didn't understand.
Links can be a bit weird in Chinese. FIrst example you're likely to come across is ma. Ma (third tone) means horse. Toneless ma is a particle that changes a sentence into a question. The character for the particle is the character for horse with a mouth (kou) next to it, showing that it's a part of speech, and that it sounds like the word for horse.
Several Chinese friends of mine assure me that there are links between meaning/sound and character for all of them, via these 'radicals', but it's a bit too Times-cryptic-crosswordy to be useful for Westerners.
Also, realistically, the bank doesn't care about the pen. I wonder if it's the same here? By the time you've got to New York from London (for example), the last thing your wallet is worrying about is an extra $4 on a cab fare.
In London, TfL does the shafting with the ridiculous pricing scheme for Tube fares, clearly designed to spring tourists for money.
Anyone who's visiting London; if you are going to get more than two single tube journeys in zones 1-2, it's cheaper to buy a day travel card. In fact, it's only slightly more expensive to buy an Oyster and a day travel card, and you can get your deposit on the Oyster refunded when you leave.
Yeah. They are. Been on the Tube recently?
Yes, that UK.
And the damn firewall! Every time something goes wrong with something internet related on Windows it blames a firewall that may not even exist! The number of times I've been helping my family and they say "the message says it's something to do with the firewall"...and it never is!
Contrary to many IT departments' opinions, the myriad businesses and concerns in this world do not exist solely to support IT departments.
None of the above is still a valid choice in a democratic society. You just can't express it in the US or the UK other than by staying at home*.
His opinion is not irrelevant, except insofar as our crap-arse voting systems have made it irrelevant. Which is no excuse for you to get all high-and-mighty on him.
*In addition, to take the example of the UK, in the last major swing in parliament (1997), 180 seats changed hands out of 659. That means that, assuming people are evenly distributed in constituencies**, 72% of votes made no difference at all to the outcome of the election. So voting in the UK at least is largely a waste of time.
**A bad assumption, especially back in '97 before Scottish devolution.
Indeed. The principle being that we don't have infinite resources, so you have to be able to justify their allocation. In capitalism, this is done on the free market. Socialism advocates political allocation.
It is up to the reader to do some research and decide which is generally more efficient.
You buy it to participate in a cultural phenomenon and interesting concept.
If it were about £20 then I might join in. Hey, that might still happen as the novelty wears off. Just watching the price alone could be an interesting social experiment.