How can an opinion poll that samples 'only' 1,000 people be larger enough to tell us the views of the whole country? Soup explains the answer.
Second paragraph of third chapter:I've been steering BeiBei from one quiet game to another so that he would not overwhelm XX the second he returns. I did not grow up in a nurturing household. Now that Hann has given me a taste of that, I want to create that feeling for my son. For all of us. I crave it like food and water.One of the Chinese SF books that was recommended to me last spring. In a near future China, polyandrous marriages are the norm thanks to the legacy of the gender imbalance caused by the One Child Policy; ...
Second frame from third sin ("Sloth", by Neil Gaiman and Bryan Talbot): One of the Neil Gaiman Humble Bundle books that I have almost finished working through, a 1989 collection of short takes on the Seven Deadly Sins by comics writers and artists. The only woman of the fourteen is Roz Kaveney. The best is Neil Gaiman and Bryan Talbot's take on Sloth. You can get it here. This was the shortest book acquired in 2015 still on my unread shelves. Next on that pile is Peter Davison's Book of Alien Planets.
The history of reform is replete with proposals for change, so it is with some trepidation that I propose yet another system: single-member proportional representation (SMPR). All electoral systems have merits, and I did not set out to make (nor could I!) the academically 'best' system. Instead, I used only one criterion: maximum feasibility. I sought to design a system that would have a fighting chance of gaining a majority both in Parliament and with the people in a referendum, while also delivering true PR. The well-studied failure of the AV referendum (and general apathy to reform in general) indicated ...
We can only imagine what, David Owen (83), infamously styled Dr Death by Dennis Skinner, made of the Social Democratic Party's 2021 conference, from his lonely perch in the House of Lords where he sits as an independent social democrat, estranged from the other survivor of the gang of four, Bill Rogers (93) who is still a loyal member of the Liberal Democrats. The recent SDP plenary featured an address from Baroness Claire Fox, the only peer in history to include membership of the Revolutionary Communist Party and being a UKIP MEP on her curriculum vitae. Owen should perhaps be ...
Normally, reports of the Commons Select Committee on Standards are approved without much drama but, in what turned out to be a catastrophic misjudgement, Conservative MPs were whipped on an amendment to a report which would, effectively, let Owen Paterson off the hook for breaching Parliamentary rules forbidding paid advocacy. He was as guilty as all hell in the eyes of many, despite his aggressive campaign to prove otherwise. Instructions had come from the very top, with suggestions that the Prime Minister was attempting to nobble the independent Parliamentary Commissioner for Standards. It worked, sort of, with the vote won. ...
Mon, 16:36: RT @DWOnThisDay: On this day 1971 - Season 8 of Doctor Who began with @ManningOfficial making her debut as Jo Grant alongside Roger Delgado... Mon, 16:43: Black Orchid, by Ian Millsted (and Terence Dudley) https://t.co/Zo57WIb3AA Mon, 17:33: The first ever science fiction convention was held on this day 85 years ago, 3 January 1937, in Leeds. (With thanks to @ansiblemag for pointing this out.) https://t.co/YUF4SkhhUQ Mon, 20:48: RT @BadWolfArchives: This is by far my favourite Yasmin Khan scene. Absolutely stellar performance from Mandip. Felt it in my heart. #Doc...
With omicron cases continuing to rise across the UK, it remains incredible that Boris Johnson is still not taking the most rudimentary steps to try and reduce its spread, measures that are already in place in Wales and Scotland. From the start, he has been disengaged from the process of controlling this pandemic: failing to attend Cobra meetings; undermining public confidence in actions his government is taking by operating a one rule for us, another for them regime; delaying decisions on public health measuress; and failing to get a grip on the supply of key PPE or on the issues ...
Residents will have read recently about projects to create wildflower meadows in various parks across the city. One of these is to be at Lochee Park and I asked the City Council for clarification about what is proposed here. The council's greenspace team leader has advised me as follows : "At Lochee Park the area of biodiversity grassland will have yellow rattle seed sown into the existing grassland. This will help to reduce the vigour of the grass and encourage wildflowers to establish naturally. This project is currently being implemented as the Yellow Rattle needs several days of frost to ...
