Lothar
lotharschmid.bsky.social
Lothar
@lotharschmid.bsky.social
At least in some cases implementation will probably be left to well-funded private entities, with the state only providing political cover.
December 8, 2025 at 12:25 PM
Having seen the evolution of the German greens, it feels inevitable to me that the UK greens will go the same way, if they want to have a chance to actually govern.
Even with a hypothetical move to proportional representation I don't see much of the UK electorate going for a pacifist left party.
December 7, 2025 at 11:12 PM
What they didn't tell you is that the porridge pieces were for the horse, not the rider
December 2, 2025 at 11:00 AM
I wonder whether the treasury just sees this as a stealth tax - and did not see the colateral damage, or worse, did not care...
November 28, 2025 at 11:11 PM
And when banks set up "Low Risk Money Funds", what i+is the point of the ISA rule change?
If the government moves to restrict "cash-similar" investments, they will create problems for e.g. existing "lifetime strategy" funds which rebalance towards bonds as the investor nears pension age.
November 28, 2025 at 10:28 PM
Coming from Germany, I have no particular preference to jury trials per se, but I see their abolition as part of two worrying trends:
1. Exclusive focus on cost-free/cost-saving measures to fix a struggling justice system
2. Removal of checks on government power
November 26, 2025 at 11:25 AM
In Germany lay judges (Schöffen) are involved in addition to professional judges in all criminal trials with >2 years expected sentence. It's different to the jury system in the UK, but has a similar aim.
November 26, 2025 at 10:33 AM
Who schedules trials and assigns judges in the UK, and how much leeway do they have?
In Germany, there must be a assignment plan published in advance and judges cannot be assigned ad hoc, in order to prevent the scheduler taking any influence. Is there no such provision in the UK?
November 25, 2025 at 5:52 PM
If only they had "confiscated" the money in the course of a anti-moneylaundering "special military operation"
November 25, 2025 at 9:13 AM
I blame the cat
November 23, 2025 at 11:20 AM
What are the rules here?
1. Should a jury only vote on the whole package instead of each count separately?
2. Was the foreman supposed to report each vote, or just a nay to the pachage?
3. And would it be OK to reconvene the jury the next day to deliberate and vote on a revised (2+3) indictment?
November 19, 2025 at 11:55 PM
Will the catholics file for Habeas Corpus Christi?
November 8, 2025 at 7:21 PM
It's a bit like choosing to hang out in a bar which has a clientele you vibe with.
November 4, 2025 at 5:55 PM
Die Union ist nicht meine politische Heimat, aber ich wünsche Ihnen viel Erfolg mit dieser Initiative.
Eine konservative Partei mit einem demokratischen und sozialen Wertefundament ist wichtig für unsere pluralistische Demokratie.
October 29, 2025 at 6:00 PM
But that's a countrywide average, that's not how people in their constituency (=district in the US) vote.
The winning candidate usually gets >40% of the vote in their constituency. See below an example from the last election for the Labour Party.
Source: election2024.electoral-reform.org.uk
October 28, 2025 at 9:20 AM
When Starmer was elected Labour leader in 2020, the party published a full breakdown.
Back then there were 553k members and 231 affiliates/supporters eligible, a total of 784k.
And now it's 970k eligible in total? Despite membership falling?
(2020 results here: web.archive.org/web/20200404...)
October 26, 2025 at 12:59 PM
Media not doing their job, which is, ahem, scrutinising the details of Tory draft legislation, so the Tory MPs don't have to?
October 23, 2025 at 7:12 PM
Und als Abschluss dann bitte: Die Gespenster die ... rief, die wird ... nun nicht los.
October 23, 2025 at 11:46 AM
This will end up like Brexit, where the proponents made contradictory promises to different groups to achieve a majority.
October 23, 2025 at 8:14 AM