As the sun rises on a new day and businesses across the country count the cost of the nights violence we awake to a new phenomena. The technology and social networking that brought us the Flash Mob have now brought us the Flash Loot. When you start hearing some of those involved talk about their [...]
Archive of posts tagged politics
Move along, nothing to see here.
It’s been a while since I’ve last posted. I make a conscious effort not to post general household news in favour of things that stimulate debate and comments. I hope that my writings end up being interesting to someone even if it is only me reviewing these posts in the future. However the gap between [...]
Pensions
A number of public sector unions are striking today over changes to their pension arrangements. As a result Fliss has gone into London today rather than working from home, hopefully balanced out by a slightly less insane commute. Before she left for her train we listened to Mark Serwotka debating with Francis Maude on the [...]
Self-indulgence
I was thinking of twining about how hard my life was especially as I haven’t been able to get my CoD on for the last two weeks due to the extended PSN outage. However I was reminded this morning that it’s voting day tomorrow and given the current polling is rather disheartening for the Yes [...]
Desperation and Mud slinging
It’s unfortunate as we roll towards the referendum in May that the debate has become one framed around mud slinging and pandering to fears without actually discussing the system itself. Item one for the prosecution was the “No to AV” campaigns leaflet that arrived on my doorstep claiming that they believed in “One Person, One [...]
That would be a psephological matter
One of the most annoying aspects of our current electoral system is the issue of tactical voting. This is where voters feel compelled to vote for someone over their preferred candidate as otherwise someone they really don’t want might sneak in thanks to the split vote. It’s something that’s sadly very common with the current [...]
Memories of 1989
I remember the fall of the Iron Curtain in 1989. It seemed rather surreal as dictatorship after dictatorship fell in relatively quick succession. Some passed with little bloodshed, some went through more violent phases but in the end it changed the face of Eastern Europe. It was certainly exciting for a 16 year old boy [...]
Politicians don’t quite trust their erstwhile political opponents shock
I can’t quite believe the amount of hot air expended on the latest “revelation” that some Lib Dem MPs don’t quite like some Tories in government. It’s on a par with the “news” regarding Ursidae and woodland defecation. About the only news worthy piece from the Telegraph’s sting operation was the thing they tried to [...]
The Students are Revolting
I’m not entirely unsympathetic to the travails of modern students. I was one once myself and I was in part subsidised by the state for my education. Despite this I still walked out of university owing student loans, the bank and my parents money. However at some point you have to stop complaining about the [...]
Data Tsunami
The government has done another public spending data dump today. It’s one of the policies that I was really in favour of before the election and it’s good to see the coalition holding to it’s word with this release. The raw data is available from the Cabinet Office and should soon appear on the government’s [...]
