Why the Alternative Vote system is proving awesome once more

Why the Alternative Vote system is proving awesome once more

America’s in a bad place and democracy is under attack from Trumpian forces in a way American democracy has seen since the concluding days of the presidency of James Buchanan. The relentless optimist in me sees some hope for America, as The Economist notes that America is using ranked choice voting in some states and election, ranked choice voting is what we call the alternative vote, The Economist observes There are few parts of America where the migration of salmon…

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Putting the interest in interest rates

Putting the interest in interest rates

With inflation running rampant and Andrew Bailey, a man so inept he pays full price for a DFS sofa, I suspect following his 0.5% increase last month Bailey will be under further pressure to combat the prediction of inflation peaking at 13.3% next year. Tradition and history suggest the optimal way to combat the scourge of inflation is to increase interest rates, with Liz Truss ‘say[ing] she will change the mandate of the BoE to toughen its focus on inflation,…

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Could Liz Truss be replaced before the election?

Could Liz Truss be replaced before the election?

Is Parris right about her shortcomings? There’s a very powerful piece by the former Tory MP Matthew Parris in the Times this morning raising doubts about Liz Truss – the woman who looks set to be the next CON leader and PM. He writes: In Times columns I’ve offered my first impressions of this candidate. They were that she was intellectually shallow, her convictions wafer-thin; that she was driven by ambition pure and simple; that her manner was wooden and…

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Can Truss lead the Tories to a general election victory?

Can Truss lead the Tories to a general election victory?

The big question that really has not been looked at much during the Conservative leadership campaign is how much the winner will actually help the party at the next general election. Currently on the betting markets it is less than a 25% chance that the Tories will get another majority with similar odds on Labour. The overwhelming betting at the moment is that we’re going to have a hung Parliament. In that context the most likely post election Prime Minister…

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Getting the tone of an ad completely wrong

Getting the tone of an ad completely wrong

If the Republicans fail to win back control of the Senate in the elections on November 8th it could be that the above ad is partly responsible. The commercial for their candidate for the Senate seat in Pennsylvania has been getting widespread coverage because of the apparent tone deafness of the approach. The rising cost of food is clearly something that that they can exploit but it’s the use of the term crudité by their multi millionaire candidate that is…

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Trump back as favourite to win WH2014

Trump back as favourite to win WH2014

After the raid on his Florida home and all the other developments relating to ‘Trump he is now back as favourite to win the Presidency back at WH2014. We saw the power of the Trump machine in this week’s Wyoming primary to select a House nominee when the Trump-favoured contender beat the incumbent, Liz Cheney, by a huge margin for the state’s nomination for the House of Representatives. This came only a few days after the FBI raid and emphasised…

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