Posts by David Haywood
Last ←Newer Page 1 2 3 4 5 Older→ First
-
Southerly: A Blog on Behalf of an…, in reply to JonathanM,
One might get an estimate of how effective it would be by repeated random sampling from the proposed age groups about “controversial” legislation before the final reading.
That would be a very sensible investigative approach, it seems to me...
The GSCB, Gay Marriage and Electoral Finance Act bills would have been interesting ones to see. My guess is that the first two would pass. Not sure about the latter.
That would be my guess, too!
-
Southerly: A Blog on Behalf of an…, in reply to Warren Clark,
the concept of being governed entirely by a council chosen totally at random feels like a good concept to me but I fear unlikely to work in reality with human nature being what it is.
Oh dear, now I'm wondering if I have made a good translation from the Glaswegian!
The idea is *not* that you would be "entirely governed" by the parliamentary juries -- the current House of Representatives with its elected MPs carries on exactly as it does now.
But on top of that are the two juries, which act as a double-check on the legislation produced by the House of Representatives. If a majority of jurors in both the juries thinks that the legislation sucks then they can block it.
So the theory is that you get the best of both worlds: the legislation is developed by elected professional politicians as now, but the randomly selected jurors (who therefore don't have the motivations of professional politicians) keep an eye on the elected politicians. And you deliberately set up the two randomly chosen juries to be as dissimilar as possible so that they also act as a partial check on each other, and minimize the chances of paralysing reasonable legislative programmes from a government.
I hope this explanation makes things a little clearer?
-
Southerly: A Blog on Behalf of an…, in reply to Jeanette King,
But I wonder what the time commitment would be and whether there would be any recompense. Did your grandfather indicate whether being one of these juries would be a fulltime job? And would the jury members get paid (particularly relevant for the younger ones …).
Yes, my grandfather intended the parliamentary jurors to be paid at the same rate as ordinary elected MPs (and provided an equivalent support package in terms of access to researchers and administration).
As I recall, his idea was that -- when not sitting on the parliamentary jury -- the individual jurors would be boning up on the legislation and coming to a decision as to whether they would support it or not.
-
My own addition to the proposed system would be to suggest that any increase in parliamentary salaries would also have to be approved by the upper houses; but that the increase would only take effect after the jurors' term of service is over, i.e. the jurors would have no incentive to increase parliamentary salaries in terms of their own personal enrichment.
-
Yes, I’m aware that the word “jury” only normally applies to trials, but I am using the terminology developed by my grandfather.
I’m also aware that appointing an upper house by sortition has recently been proposed for the House of Lords and the Canadian Senate (but without the double-upper-house twist developed by my grandfather).
Oh, and I’m also aware that in the second numbered section, Number 5 is incorrectly labelled as Number 1! I’m dodging all blame; something is wrong with SuperModel, alas!
-
Southerly: Continuing After A Short Interruption, in reply to Mary Hutching,
I'm glad I read this piece. Not only was it entertaining but I have found an explanation for the odd heel pain I've been experiencing over the last few weeks. Thanks everyone for all the tips.
Glad to help, Mary -- at Public Address we aim to be a full service organization!
Hebe wrote:
Foot note for David: Beloved says Brufen is the top-of-the-tree anti-inflammatory.
Thank you, Hebe -- will certainly get some...
Have been enjoying this comment thread (particularly Dalziel's entrepreneurial attempts) as I lie in bed with my foot elevated.
Walking again today -- a bit painful but no longer agony.
New hypothesis: I am rather allergic to milk and had accidentally been "dosed" an hour or so prior to foot problem. Turns out that the improvement of my foot has tracked the improvement of my other allergic symptoms. I'm wondering if the milk somehow induced a sort of body-wide inflammation, which made slight PF (that was hardly noticable) into agonizing affliction.
-
I was friendly with the family who lived in the vandalized house.
The husband and wife were great enthusiasts for living beside the river. Like us, they could hardly believe that it was still so affordable to live in such a beautiful spot.
They used to feel quite aggrieved about the rubbish that ended up in the river (as I did myself), and every year they'd organize the neighbourhood to get together and clean up the river. We'd end up with a giant mountain of cans and bottles (plus the occasional shopping trolley and bicycle).
Given their love of the neighbourhood and their sense of pride in keeping it clean and tidy, it is ironic that their home has ended up in that state. Hope they haven't come back to see it looking like that.
-
Thanks, people -- although that's slightly alarming...
-
Thanks, Bart -- much appreciated!
-
Southerly: Continuing After A Short Interruption, in reply to Deborah,
In similar fashion, one of our daughters once found that shaving takes considerable skill.
Ouch!