Paul H Griffiths

STV prioritises voter choice. That it also tends to increase proportionality is a welcome consequence.

I think a lot of voters would be uncomfortable with compulsory preferencing: "You mean I *have* to vote for the Leopard Face-Eating Party?"

I think I'm right in saying that with the exception of 2001 the Liberal Democrats' manifesto commitment to STV has never mentioned the requirement for a referendum. (2001 was complicated by Jenkins' 1998 AV+ proposal.)

Agree that abstaining PR purists were not enough to make the difference, but perhaps not widely appreciated at the time that AV could have served as a step towards STV (by amalgamating adjacent constituencies).

I'm going to keep saying this: Lib Dems need to make the case for STV now. Consensus on electoral reform is emerging and that's fine but you need to be directly advocating for STV rather than just PR. Before it's too late.

Two sides of the same coin.

Don't let Trump's America become Farage's Britain.

Reform UK are reportedly intending to replicate 2025's results by spending £5 million on this year's local elections. I can't match that but I have donated to the Liberal Democrats to try and level the playing field.

The LibDems were not able to simply demand everything they wanted in 2010. A temporary minority government quickly folllowed by a fresh election was always the Tories' fall-back position. Clegg did get a referendum on AV which is one step away from the LibDems' preferred solution of STV.

Even worse if you're doing all that and the dog never left the house.

Clowns to the left of me, jokers to the right.

🤷 shroogs

Thank you, this brightened a dull morning!

Stasis, sanctimony and the liberal paradox. New post on my Brexit & Brexitism Blog with such Brexit news as there is, but mainly analysis of what 'responsible Farage' tells us about the tensions in Reform and what the BBC row tells us about Brexitism: chrisgreybrexitblog.blogspot.com/2025/11/stas...

Is that Peabody or a female Digby?

The BBC belongs to Britain, but Trump wants to tear it down.

We can’t allow the Trumpification of our politics or our media.

Deeply saddened by the passing of Dick Taverne. He will be missed by all of us, including his colleagues in the House of Lords.

His life of public service is an inspiration and a reminder of what politics can be.

My thoughts and prayers are with his family.

We must love the country we are How to make the most of an ageing society

Loving your country means loving it as it is — not as you wish it were.

Britain is getting old. Instead of fearing it, we should lead the world in how to live longer, better.

My new piece on making the most of an ageing society is out.

howtorunacountry.substack.com/p/we-must-lo...

Maybe CIL is doing something that in a saner world would be accomplished by LVT.

Well, this is fun.

Robert Jenrick holds up a judges wig like a puppet during his speech to the Conservative Party Conference.

We have an independent judiciary in this country. Robert Jenrick wants puppet judges.

The Conservative Party once believed in the rule of law and our shared British values - no longer.

These four features, consciousness, intentionality, subjectivity, and mental causation are what make the mind-body problem seem so difficult. Yet, I want to say, they are all real features of our mental lives. Not every mental state has all of them. But any satisfactory account of the mind and of mind-body relations must take account of all four features. If your theory ends up by denying any one of them, you know you must have made a mistake somewhere. John R Searle, Minds, Brains and Science (1984)

John R Searle (1932 – 2025)

I'm ambivalent about ID cards, but the argument that "plenty of our democratic neighbours have them so why not us" could also be applied to armed police. Perhaps our old aversion to both springs from the same instinct.

Ed Davey's strategy of spreading joy could be Liberal Democrats' secret weapon In a system addicted to anger, Ed Davey’s insistence on absurd joy feels alien

Ed Davey's strategy of spreading joy could be Liberal Democrats' secret weapon

I have never been in @waterstones.bsky.social and found a second book I want on the Buy One Get One Half Price table.

I'm beginning to think they do it on purpose.

Select and Respect How to create a UK immigration policy that can command public support

Well I foolishly promised it two months ago, so I had to write it... Behold my analysis of UK immigration policy and my attempt at coming up with some principles that could command public support. It's long (7,000) words because, well, this is complex stuff. So here's a thread... 1/n

Celebrating Ukrainian Independence Day in the Ukrainian Carpathians, with my friend Inna.
I’m grateful that #Ukraine is an ally and friend of the UK. Ukraine resists Russia not just for themselves but also the whole of Europe including the UK.

Lucy Connolly isn’t a hero. Justice isn’t always the verd... Lionising a woman who pleaded guilty to stirring up racial hatred is a moral failure by the right

“Free speech is too important an issue to leave to be hijacked by those who imagine that Lucy Connolly is any kind of moral exemplar.” My ‪@theobserveruk.bsky.social column: observer.co.uk/news/opinion...

Two CentreForum publications by Giles Wilkes: "A Balancing Act" and "Fiscal Rules OK?".

I have dozens of these old CentreForum / Centre for Reform pamphlets cluttering up my shelves. Take your pick.

I intend to stay off social media, indeed all media, tomorrow. The last time I did this was Friday 8th May 2015, for similar reasons.

The Lib Dems’ stealthy advance Ed Davey’s party is winning more Labour voters than any of its rivals.

Which party is taking the most votes off Labour? The Lib Dems.

I look at their quiet progress in today's Morning Call. www.newstatesman.com/politics/lib...