Unaccustomed linkage

[parrot_knight]

I'm not usually one for linkspam, but here are a few items which have distracted me today:

• For sale: Bush House. A landmark of BBC World Service history.
  
  • Christopher Middleton at The Telegraph mourns the end of an era; but how often is 'Lillibulero' played on the BBC World Service these days? Its associations are questionable to say the least.
• Auction

Comments

[daniel_saunders]

Psst, wanna buy a used radio station?

I'm in favour of Lords reform, but I don't like what was proposed at all. I can't really see the point of two elected chambers; I'd rather have a unicameral legislature or, much better, an independently-appointed revising chamber (but appointed how and by whom? Tricky). But then, I've been called an elitist before and I certainly think democracy isn't a flawless concept (I'm of the Winston Churchill school - democracy is the worst form of government except for all the others that have been tried) so Hain saying "this is democractic therefore it must be good" seems question-begging to me.

I think there simply isn't much popular support for Lords reform and AV - to be blunt, most people don't care, they simply accept 'this is how we do things in Britain.' It isn't like manhood suffrage or female suffrage that would make an immediate and tangible difference to lots of "ordinary people" (to use a phrase politicians love and which I find a little Orwellian).

[parrot_knight]

I detest the political jargon of 'ordinary people' and 'hardworking families' too - I find it demeans the very audience the politicians are targeting.

I don't agree with Hain on democracy as a panacea either. I'd rather have a substantially elected chamber or a much smaller appointed revising committee.

I have never supported AV except as an intermediate; I'd like a House of Commons elected by an open list single transferable vote system in multi-member constituencies. I don't think there is much popular support for the existing system, either.

[daniel_saunders]

I don't think there is much popular support for the existing system, either.

Perhaps not, but the status quo always enjoys a massive advantage in a situation where hardly anyone really cares either way.

[parrot_knight]

PR certainly needed a better campaign in its favour than the one it received; and I'd not have bothered the population with a referendum anyway, but legislated without it.