Nico in Medway

The wise men Yesterday I finished a brilliant, informative and monumental book written in1986, it is called “The Wise Men, Six friends and the world they made” by Walter Isaacson and Evan Thomas.

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British businesses need a better deal with Europe Sign our petition to Prime Minister Keir Starmer and demand a better deal for British businesses trading with Europe

I've just signed a petition calling on the UK government to give British businesses a better deal with Europe. Add your name: www.europeanmovement.co.uk/single-marke...

Laugh or cry? It takes a nano second or even shorter to Google “Telegraph, Blair, Iraq, lies” to find endless articles from that tower of truth and journalism about how Tony Blair lied to the world in order to take...

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Made in Europe There is no knowing how it will end but this is an ominous week for the UK car industry.

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Opinion: International Women’s Day: Time to talk about electoral reform On 8 March, International Women’s Day (IWD) will commemorate the women’s rights movement and highlight the progress still to be made concerning gender equality, reproductive rights and gender-based vi...

It will cause unnecessary chaos and destabilise politics.

It's too complicated, people wouldn't know how to vote.

It's not a priority right now.

Those were some of the arguments used over a century ago against giving women the vote. Sounds familiar?

During the Second Reading of the Representation of the People Bill, MP after MP got up to point out what's missing from it: fixing the voting system.

The problems with FPTP can no longer be ignored - and neither can the growing calls for PR. 📣

Here are just a few highlights:

Churchillian, moi? It always used to make we laugh the way that Margaret Thatcher used to refer to Sir Winston Churchill as “Winnie”.

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"If we stick with First Past the Post under an increasingly fractured multi-party political landscape, we have a very real risk of the next general election results looking much like a random number generator."

Well said @rozsavage.bsky.social 👏👏👏

Once more into the breach... The right wing press is, as should be expected, furious that the UK is not invading Iran, or rescuing tax dodgers from the Gulf or sending in the gunboats or some such.

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📜 The House of Commons just debated the Representation of the People Bill

💥 Great to see more Labour MPs joining the call for a National Commission on Electoral Reform

📺 @patrickhurley.bsky.social @catsmithmp.bsky.social @chriscurtis94.bsky.social & @jamesnaish.bsky.social

🌹 #Labour4PR

Rouge male Rogue Male is an excellent British thriller about a posh English gent who tries to assassinate Hitler.

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The time bomb Having torn up a treaty with Iran, then “destroyed” its nuclear weapons programme and then demanding a new identical treaty with Iran, Trump has now launched an all out attack on Iran, with Israeli su...

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A death sentence So the by-election results are in and as predicted the headlines are that this is a disaster for Labour, which it is.

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A simple solution I always find it a bit cynical when parties like the Greens and the Lib Dems ask for Labour to stand aside so that they can beat the Tories or Reform.

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Starmer's Brexit reset must go even further, says European Parliament president. The Telegraph, 24 February.

Europe wants us back in - it's time to listen, and repair our relationship with them to regain our place at the heart of the continent.

AI and the future I am giving a talk at a school on the world of work today.

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The future is orange As someone said on social media, watching Lord Mandelson being arrested is the greatest thing they have seen since Margaret Thatcher was driven away from Downing Street in tears.

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Representation of the People Bill: Ask your MP to attend the debate and speak out for Fair Votes The Representation of the People Bill is a rare chance to renew our democracy - yet it ignores the voting system driving chaos and disillusionment. We need MPs standing up for fair votes in this upco...

The Representation of the People Bill is a rare chance to renew our democracy - yet it ignores the voting system driving chaos and disillusionment.

We need MPs standing up for fair votes in this upcoming debate. Urge your MP to attend: actionnetwork.org/letters/repr...

Delusions I only know of two films about ice hockey.

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On the map I got a little depressed the other day because of a map.

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Happy endings? As more and more money and more and more power is concentrated in the hands of a small group of the ultra wealthy, you have to ask yourself, “ How do they think this is going to end?”

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I did listen. Thank you, Dr Peter! I had all but given up hope before you started speaking, with Claire waffling about her 2 L car.
It’s gold-standard ludditism, isn’t it? Why isn’t she still buying bushels of oats for her pony?

Priced out The news of the latest rise in UK unemployment this morning was immediately followed by some instant analysis from the NIESR, a very reputable economic organisation.

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Compare and contrast Compare and contrast was always one of my least favourite exam questions and that is a very long list.

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Media blast from the past In the early years of the Metrication Programme, which began in 1965, the press was not hostile to metrication. They published articles that sounded supportive or neutral. It was only a couple of d…

In the early years of the Metrication Programme, which began in 1965, the press was not hostile to #metrication ...

Our latest blog article: "Media blast from the past"

#metricsystem #metric

metricviews.uk/2026/02/16/m...

Fight back If Sir Kier wants to fight back politically he could do little better than bringing forward huge levels of increased defence spending, today.

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Yes. The florin and the shilling were replaced by the 10 and 5-penny pieces in 1968, followed by the 50-penny piece in 1969, to replace the 10-shilling note. All the other coins were released on D-day. Except…

Thanks for the reminder.
Happy D-day, everyone!

Five European nations have determined that Russia poisoned Alexei Navalny.

This was a cowardly act from a frightened leader.

Russia has long acted as a terrorist state, relying on terrorist methods.

Poisoning political opponents.
Silencing journalists.
Invading peaceful neighbors.

FPTP is well past its use-by date. The new bill is an excellent opportunity to introduce a modern system of PR before the next general election.