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mikerobbins

Listed below are comments made by mikerobbins between Tuesday, 29th April 2008 and Friday, 24th July 2009.

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A massive swing 7:30pm on 24 Jul 2009 This isn't really a Tory victory. They got less votes in the constituency than they did in 2005. And, as usual, the vast majority of voters either voted for someone else, or didn't bother voting; the Tories had the support of - what - 20% of the electors? (Ian Gibson had about 44% in 2005.) The election should not even have happened at all; Gibson was effectively sacked by his party, not by the voters (whose decision it rightfully was, and who might well have decided to keep him). All in all, Norwich North has been a lamentable demonstration of the fact that we are now marginal for being called a democracy.
A call for debate 9:35pm on 09 Jun 2009 This doesn't amount to much. So Brown is making noises about "debating" electoral reform; didn't Labour promise rather more than that before the 1997 election? They still kicked it into the long grass when they found they didn't need the Liberals as much as they thought they would. The only way for AV to happen will be to hold the next election using it, before the Tories can come to power and bury the issue for another 10 years. Even Alan Johnson would not be likely to do that. So I'll once again end up with an MP who has the support less than a quarter of the voters in the constituency.

I sense more real intent regarding Lords reform; after all, the process has at least begun. But there is no time for the legislation to be rammed through before the election.

It does seem we are sentenced to many more years of quasi-elected governments with near-complete power and no effective review chamber. This will keep us locked in this spiral of growing public cynicism, leading to falling voter turnouts at elections, leading to even more unrepresentative and unresponsive government, leading in turn to growing public cynicism, falling... You get the picture. Depressing, isn't it?
No nudges, no winks 00:09am on 05 Jun 2009 Getting rid of Brown would be unfortunate. It would defuse the immediate crisis and thus allow the political class to dodge the real question, which is electoral and constitutional reform.
Back-slapping 2:55pm on 20 May 2009 An election might or might not cause chaos, but it would be meaningless as things stand. Without some type of electoral reform, the Commons will remain the cosy club Brown claims to want to end.
A question of when, not if 7:07pm on 18 May 2009 How dare MPs make the Speaker a scapegoat for their wretched greed. They clearly hope that if they offer him up as a sacrifice, they can slip away unnoticed while the baying mob tears him part.

To be sure, he did not handle this well, but the real issue is the fact that MPs who loot the system are not subject to electoral sanction unless they sit for marginals - i.e. only about one in 10. The rest are fairly safe. Even in those marginals, only a few swing voters will really have a voice. We must move to a fairer voting system, perhaps a simple form of STV that keeps the link between the member and their constituency.

But real reform like that would scare MPs witless, wouldn't it? Much easier to distract our attention by bullying and screaming at an older politician on the verge of retirement.
The real green is in our wallets 4:14pm on 25 Feb 2009 After working on a PhD on climate change, I've had to accept that while the market is an unsatisfactory way of regulating carbon emissions, it is the only one that will work. But there must be a fixed supply against which the market can match demand, so that it can set prices.

So it has to know how many tons of permits are available in the world market, and needs an assurance that no more will be issued. This requires a global, enforceable emissions ceiling. Only a Phase 2 of the Kyoto Protocol or a similar global agreement can do this.

Also, the US needs to be on board. The danger here is that we'll do what we did in 1997 - weaken the treaty to get it on board, then have Congress not ratify it anyway. This would be the worst possible outcome.

Better to think outside the box, and have a Kyoto 2 that does not involve the US, but allows Kyoto-compliant credits to be traded against those issued on US markets (and these are developing - the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative in New England, the activities of the California Air Resources Board, etc.) We'd then need only a very basic agreement between the US and the Kyoto countries on certification and the number of tons emitted. After all, the US actually pioneered the first emissions market (in SO2, in the 1990s). I think a looser link between the US and Kyoto could work.
Irish vote on a knife edge 10:23am on 12 Jun 2008 Mr Cowen says the vote is "really about whether we want to be in Europe or not". It's not! But we've heard similar disingenuous comments over here, especially from the Liberals.

I don't want to come out of the EU, I like our neighbours and I value our cooperation very much; but I am very concerned that Europe is trying to acquire the trappings of statehood, and I really do not want the Lisbon treaty. This snarling "you are with us or against us" attitude from the political class is pushing me towards the anti-EU camp, and I bet some Irish voters feel the same way, even though they're probably more pro-Europe than we are.

Just drop this wretched constitution and anti-European paranoia will decline swiftly, just as it did after the original was rejected. Keep trying to shove it down our throats and, yes, it might indeed threaten the future of the EU.
Biofuels: bad for the environment? 11:30am on 29 Apr 2008 The man from the manufacturers' association had a point. It's quite true that the cars on sale in 2012 are already designed -- also that if we want green technology, we will have to pay for it.

But there are still things the industry could do now. They could stop charging a premium for diesel engines. They could stop providing (and charging for) equipment that not everyone wants, and which adds weight and uses power (such as central locking, electric windows and power steering -- especially on small cars). And they could devote more marketing effort to their greener vehicles.

If the motor industry had to account for its products' lifetime emissions under the EU Emissions Trading Scheme, it would do all this quickly enough. The carbon accounting might be complex, but it is for any industry.

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