Other Reckonings - 5th August 2010

• Millennium tears Wedgie a new one.
• Anthony Barnett on the difference between "Fair votes" and "Fairer votes".
• Luke Akehurst cautions Labour that the pendulum will not swing back towards them on its own.
• Nick Lane writing on Lib Dem Voice suggests a cheeky idea for how Labour could cause real problems for the coalition on the electoral reform referendum.
• Emma Burnell writes an open letter to the Labour leadership candidates.

Other Reckonings - 21st July 2010

• Jonathan Kay writing for The National Post thinks that conservatives global-warming sceptics are a liability to their cause.
• Eaten by Missionaries asks if Labour is having a reverse Clause 4 moment. Is that in the Karma-Sutra?
• Tom Harris reckons that David Miliband poses the biggest threat to the coalition. I'd say he poses a bigger threat to Labour.
• On an historic day blog guru Mark Pack ((c) Channel 4) gives us the history of PMQs.
• Caron Lindsay on two tales of law enforcement activity.

Other Reckonings - 28th June 2010

Just one tonight:

• If you played games on a ZX Spectrum in the 1980s then you almost certainly played at least one written by Jonathan "Joffa" Smith. His titles included Cobra, Green Beret and one of my all time favourites Hyper Sports. He frequented an online forum where I am also a regular and I got to know him a little through that in the last few years. Sadly Jonathan died a couple of days ago. Matty on Games has a fitting tribute to him here.

Other Reckonings - 16th June 2010

• The Fink singles out Dawn Primarolo as a candidate for Labour's worst minister. I can think of a few contenders for that title. Maybe we should have a vote...
• Alex Massie on how Obama's pragmatism is his strength and also his weakness.
• Emma Burnell writes about what socialism means to her.
• John Stossell suggests that despite claims to the contrary, "The War on Drugs" is far from over. In fact if anything the latest "crackdowns" by the Obama administration show the "War" is very much alive and kicking.

Wednesday bonus is coverage of how senior BP management dealt with a recent coffee spill in the boardroom:

Other Reckonings - 14th June 2010

• Will Straw on Left Foot Forward has some utterly terrifying figures. Well terrifying if you work for a newspaper.
• Charlotte Gore explains how the banking crisis came to pass and how public and private borrowing are two very different animals.
• Iain Roberts on Lib Dem Voice challenges us to think of issues upon which we have changed our view due to evidence.
• Caron Lindsay thinks the reaction to Rob Green's "hand of clod" slip-up on Saturday is way, way over the top. Amen!

Monday bonus is World Cup related. I think the football song attempts this time round have been pretty poor so here's the best football song ever recorded. Teh Mighty Black Grape from 1996 featuring Teh even Mightier Joe Strummer (and Lily Allen's dad) with England's Irie...

Other Reckonings - 1st June 2010

• Charlotte Gore bids farewell to David Laws and pops down to Ikea for a pitch-fork.
• Mick Fealty on why the anti-Laws campaign was ill conceived and anti-democratic. Amen.
• Tom Harris thinks Gordon Brown should take his share of the blame for the formation of the coalition and specuates about what could have happened if he had resigned 4 days earlier.
• Hopi Sen cautions against the idea that Labour will automatically return to power after the next election. The historical precedents suggest otherwise.

Monday bonus. Via @ChristianJMay, here is an exclusive first picture of Danny Alexander's reaction when first shown the real state of the nation's finances.

Other Reckonings - 27th May 2010

• Caron confesses to having iPad envy.
• Lib Dem Voice reports on Tim Farron's bid for the Lib Dem deputy leadership - I think Tim would be brilliant in that role.
• High praise for Iain Duncan Smith from an unlikely source - Labour blogger Hopi Sen.
• And a second happy blog birthday to Tory MP and blogger Douglas Carswell. Given how many of his (and Daniel Hannan's) ideas seem to have ended up as government policy he must feel like every day is his birthday at the moment!

Thursday bonus is David Laws' masterful performance at the dispatch box this week dealing with the spending cuts debate. It's like he was born to be a minister!

Other Reckonings - 25th May 2010

• Charlotte Gore seems to have a problem with Ikea tables.
• Lib Dem Voice have details of the 23 Lib Dem policies that have made it into The Queen's Speech. Or 22 if you discount the referendum on AV which was not actually Lib Dem policy, but still, 22 aint bad for a kick-off.
• The Fink wonders why some Labour leadership candidates are holding back with their nominations and I am inclined to agree. Have they not heard of the Big Mo!?
• Alix Mortimer has a suggestion for a future attendee at Lib Dem Conference which I second.

Tuesday bonus: Whilst I was working today I was listening to some music on Spotify and one of the tracks I heard reminded me of this gem from a couple of years ago which is a version of Aha's "Take on me" with the lyrics changed to match exactly what is happening in the classic but when you actually watch it, rather bizarre video. Enjoy:

Other Reckonings - 24th May 2010

• Guy Shrubsole on Left Foot Forward talks up the economic benefits of renewable energy.
• Matt Wardman decides to launch his own version of Orange's digital campaign awards.
• Paul Waugh reports on the increasingly ridiculous behaviour of Mid-Narnia MP Nadine Dorries. Now she refuses to shake the Speaker's hand at her swearing in ceremony.
• Mike Smithson on Political Betting asks how long the current government can go on blaming the previous Labour government. Well, I would suggest if the previous Labour government is any yardstick looking at how long they continued to blame the previous Tory administration, at least 13 years.
• Cruella writes about the new Marie Stopes abortion advert and a recent experience debating the subject on the radio.

Monday Bonus: In the wake of the end of "Ashes to Ashes" (stunning final episode by the way, never saw that coming) I thought it was appropriate to link to 5 Childhood Heroes from the 80s That Let Me Down from Cracked.com.

Other Reckonings - 25th April 2010

• Alex Massie thinks that Cameron's "six month rule" idea is a daft gimmick.
• John Rentoul draws our attention to something that keeps getting forgotten. Labour are pretty consistently in third place in the polls.
• And in fact as Mark Pack write on LDV, Labour might actually get their worst share of the vote not just since 1983, but 1918!
• Ewan Hoyle points out that the Telegraph's "expose" of Nick Clegg's previous eminently sensible comments on drugs policy simply echo what their own political darling David Cameron said around the same time.

Other Reckonings - 24th April 2010

Just one today:

• In a post which is surely destined for the shortlist for Lib Dem Blogpost of the Year, James Graham utterly destroys Polly Toynbee's argument for tactical voting in order to achieve the ultimate goal of electoral reform.

Other Reckonings - 20th April 2010

• Alex Massie reports on the beginning of the Conservative backlash.
• Alix Mortimer on LDV asks who exactly are Vote for a Change?
• Bracknell Blog reports on the latest campaign from Don Haycocks, the man behind "Goodbye Mackay".
• And I wouldn't normally link to a comment on another blog but John Q. Publican has some very interesting ideas about what is happening with the Lib Dem/Clegg phenomenon in a comment he left on the "Though Cowards Flinch" blog which could be a blog post itself!

Tuesday bonus is an amusing "Wonder Woman" spoof of Nadine Dorries, the MP for Mid Narnia. I mean Bedfordshire.

Other Reckonings - 19th April 2010

• Heresy Corner has a counterfactual exploring what could have happened had we have had a proportional electoral system in 2005. His main message is that we have nothing to fear from such a system. Amen.
• LDV explains how Linda Jack wants your help to defeat Nadine Dorries. Please Jeebus make it happen!
• Craig Murray asks if there's been something funny going on with recent polling.
• Political Betting has the figures that suggest the Lib Dem surge shows no sign of abating.

Monday bonus. Just to show that even though we are in the midst of an election campaign I can still be non-partisan, here is the inimitable Conor Pope with his pitch for why you should vote Labour. I personally think "Build me up Buttercup" by The Foundations is the best one:

Other Reckonings - 18th April 2010

Lib Dem surge special:

• Cicero's Songs on why Labour and the Conservatives are slipping and how the Lib Dem policies will stand up to scrutiny.
• Stephen Tall writes an open letter to the Labour Party asking why they are saying the Lib Dems will team up with the Tories in one communication, and in another making it clear they don't think that will happen.
• Iain Dale says that the stupid personal attacks on Nick Clegg, such as those surrounding his "Britishness" from the Mail on Sunday (which frankly to me seem to come close to the sort of nonsense you see from the US Obama "Birther" movement) should stop. In a related post, Alex Massie suggests that the MoS could actually be Clegg's best recruiting Sergeant.
• Liberal Conspiracy asks if The Independent is about to come out for the Lib Dems.
• Political Betting asks if the poll boost is down to Clegg's height!

Sunday bonus is a music video by The Cameron Girls who are bigging up the Camster good styley. Or something. It's so bad that it goes past being good and all the way back to bad again:

Other Reckonings - 14th April 2010

• Charlotte Gore on the blinkered attitude of Brillo.
• Chrisjw133 reviews the Lib Dem Blackberry app. Other platforms are available.
• Dean Whitbread interviews Bridget Fox on Lib Dem TV.
• Sadie spends a bit of time away from her Tavern on balloon duty.
• Tom Griffin writing on OurKingdom highlights how the Tories are learning about the perils of the First Past the Post voting system in Northern Ireland.

Wednesday bonus is a presentation on Apple's iPad which has recently launched in the US and will launch here soon. There are lots of questions about whether it will take off in the same way as the iPhone and exactly what it will be used for but until now nobody had answered the most important question. Will it blend?

Here is the answer:

Other Reckonings - 5th April 2010

• Alex Massie discusses what he describes as the political consultancy racket.
• The Futility Monster suggests that Chris Grayling is a shining example of The Peter Principle in action.
• Strange Thoughts has something to say about Margaret Moran's strange behaviour.
• Bracknell Blog thinks that Tories are forgetting James Carville's famous maxim.
• Fred Kaplan writing in The Slate thinks he knows why suicide bombers have not struck US subways.

Easter Monday bonus is a handy cut-out and keep guide to the major milestones in the incipient election campaign (assuming Gordon Brown as expected visits Her Majesty tomorrow) courtesy of Sam Coates off of The Times:

April 6 Gordon Brown asks Queen to dissolve Parliament

April 15 ITV Leaders debate in north west

April 7-9 Parliamentary "washup", passing remaining bills

April 12 Parliament dissolved, MPs lose their jobs

April 12/13/14 Parties launch their manifesto

April 12/13 Anti-nuclear summit in Washington - will Gordon go?

April 20 Nominations close, last day to register to vote or request postal vote

April 22 Sky Leaders debate in the south west

April 23 Office of National Statistics release Q1 growth stats

April 29 BBC Leaders debate in the Midlands

May 6 General election polls open 7am-10pm

Other Reckonings - 28th March 2010

Apologies for the lack of posting in the last few days. Work has been mad busy and is not likely to ease at all for another couple of days at least.

In the meantime here are things that in my small amount of spare time have piqued my interest in the last few days:

• The Heresiarch thinks Cameron should sack George Osborne. I couldn't agree more.
• Blunt & Disorderly on Democracy and Power to the People. I don't think that's a reference to any 1970's Robert Lindsay sitcom either.
• An essay from Sunder Katwala from 2007 examining the practicalities of reforming the electoral system. I don't agree with all his points but it is an interesting read. Well, for an electoral reform obsessive like me anyway!
• Iain Roberts on Lib Dem Voice examins when people think the "Golden Age" was. A week last Thursday was pretty good for me...

Sunday bonus is an opening monologue from veteran of the UK alternative comedy circuit and now US chat show host Craig Ferguson. This is from 2007 around the time that Britney Spears was going through a rough patch. As a recovering alcoholic, Ferguson can identify only too well with those sort of problems and at the start of this edition he dispenses with the usual jokes and spends 12 minutes discussing his past experiences with a searing honesty. I don't know if this won him any awards but it should have done:

Other Reckonings - 25th March 2010

• Dick Puddlecote reports on something that could lead to speed cameras becoming obsolete.
• Transform Drug Policy Foundation think mephedrone is on the fast track to banned status, probably before the election.
• Political Betting has some fascinating data showing that only a quarter of people in marginal seats realise that fact. Could that have an impact on the outcome?
• And good luck to Jennie Rigg who is standing in a council election.

Thursday bonus is this astonishing footage of David Cameron going into meltdown under questioning about his party's attitude to gay issues. He seems to not understand whether it should be a conscience issue and eventually confuses himself to the extent that he asks for the interview to be stopped. I don't really understand why this has not had wider coverage. If he does anything like this in the live leaders debates he is toast.

Remember, this man wants to be Prime Minister in a few weeks time:

Other Reckonings - 23rd March 2010

• Alix Mortimer has a wonderful post today where she outlines her ideal parliament. Consisting of 646 astronauts. She makes it make sense, honestly!
• Helen Duffett on why the obsession with the leader's wives is missing the point.
• Byrne Tofferings explains why he is a part of the Conservative party.
• Andrew Hickey has a review of the latest show from one of my favourite comedians, Richard Herring, "Hitler Moustache". I really must book tickets for that.

Tuesday bonus: Richard Herring's erstwhile partner, the sublime Stewart Lee on Joe Pasquale and plagarism:

Other Reckonings - 20th March 2010

• Charlotte Gore comes out of semi-retirement to give us a glimpse of Gordon Brown's wedding vows.
• Millennium Dome's Daddy has a letter to Labour.
• Mr Eugenides has some breaking news about racist sharks in South Africa.
• Max Chambers writing on CiF says that mandatory testing for drugs in prison is actually exacerbating the problem.

Two bonuses tonight for Saturday:

An article from Science News that explains how virtually nobody understands the significance of statisitical significance.

50 incredibly weird facts about the human body care of The Nurse Nut.