No democracy here

No democracy here

Extraordinary voting result. Why did only eight pro-Beijing-plan lawmakers vote Yes? Worried about their future from both directions?     [update] the answer from Reddit. Bill is taken to vote because nobody requested to speak Pro-gov’t camp...
Wouldn’t have mattered

Wouldn’t have mattered

Jermey Corbyn (a good local MP) was reelected in Islington North by an increased majority, so my vote, had I been able to cast one, would not have changed the result. I’m not sure if I feel good about that or not. Looking forward to a) PR AV or some variant and...

Home grown terror

It really stinks when a government has to engender terrorist plots to keep us worried. The defendants clearly have some unpleasant views, but don’t seem likely to have acted on them until the confidential informant got involved. This has been mentioned before....

Data on terrorism

Very much looking forward to seeing insights coming from a number of projects trying to get a data-driven handle on terrorism around the world. Hopefully this will allow us all to push back on some of the sillier political and media reports. First off, a definition....

Taiwan’s elections and Hong Kong

The recent Taiwanese elections (where broadly pro-independence parties did well versus the ruling party) were mid-term non-presidential election, so should have all the usual caveats about kicking the incumbents when it doesn’t matter so much. The part I...