When pressed for a reason why it’s worth bothering to vote, you’d find it hard to do better than the response and aftermath of the emerging COVID crisis. If there was ever a cure to the mass apathy and voter lethargy brought on by successive elections then it could be easily found in contrasting responses to the 2020 pandemic. “They’re all as bad as each other” and “it doesn’t matter which one you vote for” are sentiments being proven false…
The world is a terrifying and dangerous place, at least so the saying goes. There are those who would have us believe that daily life is more dangerous today than it has ever been in living history. None of it’s true, of course, and those who would try to convince us it is are almost universally selling right-wing ideology, religion, or newspapers. Occasionally all three. Those selling as if it were, don’t really need it to be true either. A…
One of the most commonly repeated talking points of British politics is the outsized number of voters who didn’t vote for the winning party, leader, or legislation. In the UK, winning candidates don’t hinge on popularity only uniqueness. First Past The Post (FPTP) has been the way elections have been fought and won over the last 70 years. Simple, straightforward, and easy to understand FPTP stands out as being one of the single worst election methods currently in use worldwide….
Lib Dem leader Jo Swinson may have been the last person in the country to catch-on following last weeks general election. The former MP’s outgoing speech spoke of a ‘wave of nationalism sweeping both sides of the border.’ Swinson’s message of dangerous modern politics throughout the campaign seems to be either wilfully or accidentally blind to voting intent. Even Scottish Labour, a branch party which are somehow less politically tuned in than their parental counterpart, are showing signs of coming…
One week into a long old six week election season. Disaster and scandal on a soap opera scale, a sign of things to come?
One of the most voluntarily dysfunctional parliaments of all time will suspend itself on Wednesday, just weeks after it opened. Since the current Prime Minister took office, the house has briefly returned from summer recess, very briefly prorogued itself in a way which turned out to be illegal, and broke again for a semi-serious Queen’s speech shortly after. It’s a wonder Conservative government has had the time to lose as many votes as they have in the brief intervals in…
Campaigners have recently called on the Scottish Government and justice secretary Humza Yousaf to scrap the ‘Not Proven’ verdict which is unique to Scots law. Critics claim the verdict allows guilty suspects to walk free from court where a more acceptable verdict may have been found. Government studies have shown the public has wildly inconsistent views on what the verdict means in law, and how it differs in practice from not guilty. The Justice Secretary has committed to reviewing multiple…
Starting next year, changes to the law mean everyone in the country will appear on the organ donor register unless explicitly making the decision to opt-out. Labelled as a ‘soft opt-out’ option, legislation will assume patients wish to donate their organs after their death unless they have removed their name from the register. The plan hopes to increase the number of organs available for donation by expanding the number of patients from the current opt-in system. The changes will undoubtedly…
Since triggering Article 50, Brexit has been touted as the unsolvable problem. In many minds, there’s no single solution that satisfies the problems of the Irish border, those bloody Scottish and Irish remoaners, and the desire to see the democratic result of the referendum carried out to its complete conclusion. But there is a simple, undiscussed solution that puts to bed all of the secondary consequences of Brexit while carrying out the result. Former Scottish Conservative leader Ruth Davidson laid…
The government has a literal never-ending list of things to do. When they go on summer and winter break, it’s not because the country has been ‘sorted’ and all the work of governing is done with for the time being. Within their, typically four day week, members often handle evergreen topics such as education, health, employment, business, and international relations. Occasionally members debate urgent crises such as the climate change emergency or acute disasters. Most sane individuals recognise that tackling…