Sandwell Councillor, Bob Piper, has a good post here about his recent trip to Bruges, raising questions about graffiti. It seems there may be a case for a high level of short-term investment to make the problem go away? “One aspect of the City that distinguished it from so many places I have visited in [...]
Posts under ‘Representation’
Minarets, trade offs and direct democracy
The recent outcome of a Swiss referendum in which a majority have voted in favour of a minaret ban has helped to highlight a few important issue around the question of direct democracy. Dan Hannan says that – while direct democracy is a great idea, this particular result is regrettable. Make of that what you [...]
The Slugger O’Toole Awards – blogs and politics
Tonight in Belfast, we’re running the second in what I hope will become the annual ‘Slugger Awards‘. These awards – previewed here on the Amnesty blog – are something of a departure for political weblogs. It would be fair to say that politicians are – for the most part – less than thrilled by the [...]
Transparency for lobbyists
Like a minority of people who have watched what will surely be 2009′s official leitmotif – the demand for full disclosure from MPs – play out, I’ve wondered when similar demands will be applied to those who rival MPs for power. This phrase of Larry Elliot’s – explaining the roots of the current economic crisis [...]
Niall Connolly – democracy expert
Niall Connolly appears to regard himself as an expert on democracy. Wonder if he’ll stand for election?
Does twitter damage the quality of parliamentary debate – or improve it?
Kerry McCarthy MP tweeted last night that she will be going in to bat for tweeting MPs on Radio 5Live later today. Her adversary on the show will be John Pugh MP – and Torcuil Crichton explains the background: Dr John Pugh, the analogue Lib Dem MP for Southport, has a motion down condemning the [...]
Why bringing politicians and the public closer to each other is important
Here’s Peter Levine on the study of deliberation: “The other main source of evidence in Neblo et al is a field experiment, in which people were offered the chance to deliberate with real Members of Congress. They were more likely to accept if they had negative attitudes toward elected leaders and the debates in Washington. [...]
Open primaries
Mike Smithson of Political Betting has a report of an open selection process that the Conservative Party ran in Bedford the other night. I’m not sure of Mike’s political affiliations (I have my suspicions though). I am more certain of the evening’s chair, Iain Dale. I suspect that both of them are being kinder about [...]
Open minds – the councillor-curator?
Kevin Harris has forwarded this article about the role that councillors are obliged to adopt in relation to planning. Nothing in it will come as a surprise to anyone familliar with the role of a modern councillor, but it’s a nice round up of an issue that will continue to perplex anyone with an interest [...]
