David Runciman on politics, democracy, the EU, and various other topics. "Keynes readily accepted that democracies were far better at renewing themselves than the supposedly more efficient dictatorships. He just wished they wouldn’t try to do it when they were struggling to stop the world descending into chaos."

"In a tie-up with the Electoral Commission, Facebook users who visit the site over the weekend will be asked if they have registered to vote."

Phil says "John Lanchester's started posting daily about the general election (if you click his name, that page also has an RSS feed just for him)." He's not wrong, but it's a bit of a shame that the feed's not full text. Better than nowt, though.

"A median of 65% in 14 European countries interviewed between March and July of this year say who wins November's presidential election in the United States makes a difference to their country." Which means 27% don't, which amazes me. (Slightly old data.)

Long, but it looks like it should be worth a read. It's always been a bit of a source of bafflement to me that women could not want rights; maybe this will help me understand some of the motivations.

Why? "In the 2005 general election, only 61% of those eligible participated " "Ministers fear that the Commons will [not lay claim to being the] pre-eminent legislative chamber if peers, elected by proportional voting, can claim greater authority"

The link in the Lords of the Blog post is to Hansard, but I much prefer the display of things at They Work For You. Here's the full debate on voting systems from the 13th of March.

Lord Tyler on the need and prospects for electoral reform, after a Lords debate on the same.

Cars with guards after 9pm is the headline-grabbing proposal, but the revamp of the congestion charge is also interesting. I like that it's the whole of London but I'm not sure about the 100% exemption for those living inside.