Author Archives: Giolla

A matter of policy

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There is currently a bit of a kerfuffle going on on the platform formally known as twitter. Oddly the source of this is someone asking that a party they might naturally support do a better job of things, now whilst their town might rub some people up the wrong way it’s hardly an unreasonable demand. However this has caused some people who are more strongly aligned with the party in question to declare that asking a party to do better, and pointing out it’s flaws is unhelpful bordering on treasonous. These people could of course just mute, block and generally … Continue reading →

The peoples histrionics

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Yet again we’re told that democracy is under threat, our conditional niceties are being ignored and we’re days away from the death of democracy and people being rounded up into gas chambers (seriously people are actually saying this). The cause this time is Mr Johnson asking the Queen to prorogue Parliament so that she can give a speech explaining what he wants to do now he’s in charge. This is in fact entirely normal, constitutional and legal. “Ah but!”, they cry, “he’s done it to suit his agenda not ours”. To which quite frankly the only response one can give … Continue reading →

Small numbers

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The BBC recently published an article about how few people are needed to make fundamental changes to a society. Titled “The 3.5% rule“, it repeats research which has been around for quite a while. Though it seems to lower the numbers required to precipitate change. One of the observations the article makes is: ” although the exact dynamics will depend on many factors, she has shown it takes around 3.5% of the population actively participating in the protests to ensure serious political change. “ The article then goes on to say: ” Once around 3.5% of the whole population has begun … Continue reading →