This crossed my radar today. It seems that the POWER inquiry, with the support of the Joseph Rowntree Charitable Trust, has convinced London Borough of Harrow to conduct a form of Participatory Budgeting. This is very exciting for those of us who are into democratic innovations.

(The first in a weekly open-mic series, trailed here)
This week’s ranter: The Devil’s Kitchen is the lair of a graphic design agency MD, who blogs mainly about politics, economics, and — occasionally — science and computers, in an entirely free-flowing way. Occasionally, he even writes with a degree of informed opinion, rather than his [...]

I’m in a public service frame of mind this week, so here’s another one: starting soon on The Sharpener will be a regular open-mic guest slot. We might call it The Rant. Or we might not. (There is only one Ranter, after all. ) If I get organized properly, we may even pick a regular [...]

This week I have been mostly watching programmes featuring ghosts. The sudden burst of supernatural series onto TV could indicate that world events are making people more inclined to look for spiritual answers, or it could just imply that enough time has passed since The Sixth Sense was released for TV executives to feel confident [...]

The Sharpener’s new weekend focus on kul-cha has left me in a bit of a bind. I can’t stand opera, loathe ballet and fell asleep the only time I’ve ever been to the theatre. (Macbeth, Stratford, fifth-form Shakespeare trip.) But I do like wine. Even better: free wine.
So, next month I’ll be going to the [...]

From the distinguished to the idiotic, Germany’s election chaos results are getting kicked to death this week by electoral system-conservatives. The anti-PR brigade are sharpening their knives with glee. But why? The German result is irrelevant to the PR debate here in the UK, for at least three reasons:

As the days get shorter and wetter, the cricket season draws to a close and people start spending more time watching things other than Andrew Flintoff on TV. So, ever alert to public demand, the TV companies decide this is the time to start throwing new programmes at us, which means this week is a [...]

Lance Price, formerly Number 10’s deputy communications adviser, publishes his memoirs soon.
Among the fragrant stories, including Tony Blair’s love for the valleys (”Fucking Welsh”), we have this touching encounter:
Asking his assistant about his sexuality - Price is gay - the prime minister said: “I hope you don’t mind me asking, but when you see [...]

I knew this would be a night to remember soon after leaving the subway stop. Less than a block away, the queue started. From the entrance to Mason Hall, it twisted down 23rd Street and onto Lexington Avenue. Its sweaty torso, dripping in the clammy heat of a September evening, reached all the way down [...]

For a little light, late-afternoon time-wasting, why not visit CitizenSpace?
Here’s their welcome note:
“Welcome to our consultation on the Future of Democracy. This consultation is being run on behalf of the POWER Inquiry Commission, and has been set up to explore practical ideas of how political participation could be increased and deepened in Britain. Input [...]

It isn’t just Tories like George Osborne and free-market fundies (pdf) who are interested in flat taxes. As Phil’s recent piece shows, liberal-minded types, including lefties like me, are also keen. Okay, it isn’t an egalitarian utopia, but once we all get over the visceral reaction that a non-progressive tax system must be “unfair”, the [...]

I had my supicions, then noticed a bit more. Earlier today I
dug up a few more leads. Then it came from the horse’s mouth. Charles Clarke’s speech to the European Parliament from this morning. The key quote:
“we argue that internationally consistent and coherent biometric data should be an automatic part of our visas, passports [...]

A flat tax is a single-rate tax on income (and possibly on other things as well). The idea is to have as wide a tax base as possible, so for a given amount of tax revenue collected, the marginal rate will be lower than in a non-flat tax; this is intended to boost economic activity.

Few weeks in modern US history have been as momentous as this last one. It saw two events that are likely to have a huge impact on the way Americans see themselves and how they are governed.
First, there was Katrina. The whole country, the whole world, has watched in disbelief as a great American city [...]