My understanding is “affecting of – or attempting to affect – the actions/decisions of the public sector by the private sector“. Clumsy I know but it’s a starting point for discussion. Continue reading →
Thought-Police take on the BNP
After a judge ruled that its constitution could discriminate against non-white people on Friday, the British National Party was banned from accepting any new members. ”I hold that the BNP are likely to commit unlawful acts of discrimination in the terms on which they are prepared to admit persons to membership under their constitution”, said Judge Collins. Continue reading →
Is Obama just bluffing?
Is it just a co-incidence that, now Obama can no longer force through legislation, he’s brought up the issues to deal with the banks? With little chance of getting through, the little people that funded half of his election costs (with their dollar or two) will not feel so aggrieved and the big people who funded the other half will get what they paid for. And if (when?) it fails to become law – it can always be blamed on the nasty Republicans. Continue reading →
No-one to win next UK General Election!
The newly-formed “no-one” Party (New One-Off NonEntities) look set to take the country over in the forthcoming General Election in the UK. In pretty much every previous election, more people have voted for no-one than for any other party. No-one has noticed this – and so it has formed a party so that voters can register their preference. At the launch today, no-one said that “We are the party that gives a shit. Everybody knows that no-one gives a shit – so why not vote for us?” Continue reading →
Why can’t we vote for “none of the above” ?
Simon (one of our founder members) has started a petition here.
“We the undersigned petition the Prime Minister to amend the general election ballot paper to include an ‘abstention’ option in addition to the named local candidates.”
Submitted by Simon Mortimer – Deadline to sign up by: 05 May 2010 – Signatures: 41 to date. Continue reading →
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CONDENSED MANIFESTO REV 0.1
There has been a descent amount of debate and contribution such that we think it is worth while now to skim the cream off the top, boil that down and see what that looks like.
What we are trying to capture here is only the really important society changing stuff.
Detailed debate can continue under the individual manifestos but this space is to capture the fundamental policies that are badly needed.
Continue reading →
Why Nuclear Power is a seriously stupid idea
1) It is bad systems design.
With small decentralised units, when technology advances (as it is doing, rapidly) you can swap in new units.
With nuke you’re stuck with a monolithic system for 50 years.
CHP[12] units are already used extensively by EU/Scandinavian countries, 8% of US power is generated using CHP. This is not rocket-science, though could be with the levels of investment that nuclear will cost… just to deal with its waste.
Continue reading →
LGO Manifesto Topic No.1 : The Constitution and Electoral Reform Rev1.0
The LGO manifesto on the constitution will be developed below.
Suggestions for new points and debate about existing ones is encouraged. The list will be periodically updated according to the consensus view.
As a starting point the following baseline suggestions for debate are offered.
LGO MANIFESTO – THE CONSTITUTION AND CONSTITUTIONAL AFFAIRS
The LGO , following debate recommends the following consensus of constitutional change to be adopted at this point in time:
No.1
The sum total of all elected politicians (Westminster and local bodies) to be reduced by 30%.
No.2
Upon the passing of Queen Elizabeth II, the Royal Family is to become the ceremonial head only of the UK and the Commonwealth. An office of an elected president is to be established to be elected mid parliamentary term.
Note this does not appear popular and will be removed if no support is shown soon.
No.3
Radical reform of the House of Lords is proposed. House of Lords appointees must obtain a 2/3rds majority recommendation from the Commons to enter. The following categories of experience are to be filled in the House of Lords expressed as a percentage of total available seats in the Lords.
- legal background 15%
- Financial background 15%
- Armed forces 10%
- Clergy 15% (spread accross all religions)
- Politics 15%
- Science and Engineering 17.5%
- The arts / special recommendations 12.5%
House of Lords appointees can be de-selected at any time by a simple majority in the House of Lords and require re-appointing by the commons after a maximum 10 years service. life peers will be abolished.
No.4
Suitable and secure accomodation is to be purpose built in London for all politicians who live outside orf reasonable commuter distance. No expenses for second homes will be permitted.
No.5
All politicians administrative staff are to be provided by the Civil Service to a set budget depending on the office held and will not be funded by expenses claims.
No6.
A system of proportional representation or a preference system is to be introduced for all elections….TBC
N07.
Only ministers whom have served in the armed forces are allowed to take the position of secretary for defence.
No.8
Undertake a review of all the honours bestowed in the last 15 years. If you are a knight of the realm and have not been a selfless servant to society or provided some great innovation they should be stripped of all honours. Honours should mean something to aspire to in terms of a descent moral code and a role model. How can Sir Fred Goodwin and numerous knights of the realm in the boardrooms of the banks and elsewhere others be held up as model citizens?
Hopefully that will be enough to get your teeth into..
Got any suggestions ?
Lets start the Debate.
LGO
LGO Manifesto – Topic No.2 – Energy and the Environment Rev 1.0
- green energy for all ?
This is the manifesto area to debate and create key energy and the environment policies.
We have made a start as below to get the ball moving, feel free to add to, debate or suggesrt amendments. The LGO administrators will try to compile the best ideas based on the balance of debate and update this post to reflect them.
No.1
General policy aim to become as self sufficient in energy as reasonably possible using renewable resources and Nuclear energy ? within our own Borders.
No.2
Do we need nuclear at all? See Nick Taylors post . France seem to have made a sucess of Nuclear energy to the extent that they export it here, but what are the hidden costs? Are we being told the truth? Can we get by without it ?
I appreciate the above is not a manifesto point but a list of questions. Nuclear is a critical debating point.
I dont know what the right answer is. just trying to suggest some of the right questions.
No.3
Phased re-nationalisation of energy so the people can exercise some genuine control over acritical service.
N0.4
Huge increase in Gravity harvesting schemes (e.g. the severn tidal scheme) and micro schemes along similar lines. Tidal ranges in the UK are often more than 10m and in the Bristol channel it can be 15m!! Imagine how much energy a 15m high wall of water ( about a 6 story building) crashing down on you would have to give you some idea how much untapped enegy is out there.some habitats will be ineviatable through construction of the Severn barrage and similar projects.
No.5
Bring forward plans to phase out ’standby’ modes on all household electrical equipment. consider other practical measures like turning off street lamps outside city centres between the hours of 1am and 5am….it would be nice to see the stars again don t you think?
No6
Roll back the Environment Agencies (HA!) red tape to set up micro hydro schemes. Such schmes should be granted based upon a simple inspection and common sense not a mountain of red tape and consultancies / permissions required at the moment that costs more to resolve than installing the micro hydro power scheme.
One has to ask if the powers that be are genuinly interested in renewables why does the government make it so proceeduraly difficult? Are the power companies lobbying in the background for this legislation to keep their power profits going?
No.7
All new homes required to meet hugely increased effciency ratings including the use of new car battery technology to store surplus energy from any activity from a sunny day to your exercise bike to a mini bio methane plant for your food scraps could feed into it.
It just seems to me that only lip service is being paid to renewables, there is too much money in other forms of power and I suspect they are stealthyly slowing the implementation of renewable energy down?
Anybody know?
Got any suggestions?
Join the debate..if they are supported they will be added.
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