First Past the Post is bad for business and bad for growth...
Fascinating letter from business leaders in the Financial Times condemning the "seesaw of policies" and instability produced by our outdated voting system.
Time for #ProportionalRepresentation
www.ft.com/content/422f...
In an open letter to the Financial Times more than 20 business leaders call for a change to the UK’s electoral system. They state our short-term, unpredictable politics - driven by the volatile ‘first past the post’ - damages business confidence.
www.ft.com/content/422f...
democracy4growth.uk
Fantastic to meet @LibDems.org.uk Leader @EdDavey.libdems.org in #Lewes today, as well bump into some of my awesome #LibDems colleagues.
At a time when our communities feel battered, our country desperate, and the world fearful, it's uplifting to find hope & vision for a brighter future. 🧡
Enjoying this
Welcome to slot-machine Britain! Our cover this week is on First Past the Post, the voting system that turns multi-party politics into a lottery.
Featuring our new modelling of British elections: www.economist.com/interactive/...
The Chancellor missed a lot of opportunities to turn the corner in today's budget. Freezing tax thresholds will hurt families already struggling, Sussex businesses should have been backed, and crucially Brexit damage is still being ignored. My reaction to the budget👇
I'm passionate about working cross-party to achieve a fair voting system with #ProportionalRepresentation so it was a delight to join the Make Votes Matter Sussex stall at Lewes Labour's Ideas Market "Transformations" today.
#ProportionalRepresentationNOW
What a busy day! Thanks to everyone who visited our stall to talk about the urgent need for #ProportionalRepresentation in UK elections - including Stella Creasy MP who stopped for a quick chat on the importance of keeping local representation in the voting system.
#MakeVotesMatter
Happy to be joining the Make Votes Matter Sussex team for our stall at Lewes Labour's Ideas Market - calling for #ProportionalRepresentationNow!
We're all set up at Lewes Labour's Ideas Market #Transformations. Come and have a chat with us and add your voice to our poster on why we need #ProportionalRepresentationNow !
Want to know why we need #proportionalRepresentationNow #makevotesmatter
Come to #lewes town Hall now !
A firework of a flower.
Mast year in Sussex.
Reform's plan for a benefit clampdown Sir, Regarding Reform's plan to ban foreigners from claiming benefits ("Farage visas would make it harder to settle in the UK", news, Sep 22; "Time's Up", leading article, Sep 23), in my small company for the past ten years we have employed, on a yearly average, 32 eastern European people, two of them in senior management positions. They all pay British taxes and have had little or no unexplained absences to date. Sick leave for them is extremely low. As far as I am aware, none of them is claiming benefits for dependants. These diligent people provide compassionate care for their clients, living with them for a few weeks at a time. During the pandemic they were responsible for ensuring zero transmission of the virus to people in their care. I feel utterly ashamed that many of them will be reading about Nigel Farage's plan on their various social media platforms this morning. Chrstina Sell Managing director, Arbour
Our politics and media have become viciously obsessed with immigration. Farage has made sure of it. And in that obsession, they’ve all lost sight of the people they target. Fellow human beings trying to live and belong somewhere.
Shame on everyone responsible for this daily inhumanity
(Letter,Times)
IMPORTANT 🧵
We've been seeing how RFK Jr & anti-vax lobby has been steadily and effectively reducing access to vaccines in the US.
But it could happen in UK too.
It's a threat worth considering given Malhotra's speech at Reform conf & big overlap between anti-vax and RW populsim.
Read on!
1/11
Right now, Donald Trump is at a lavish banquet at Windsor Castle, while in Gaza a genocide is unfolding.
He alone can stop the assault on Gaza City, end the aid blockade and secure the release of hostages - Keir Starmer must make that clear to him before this visit ends.
Over 35,000 women were hospitalised with HG in 2023/24 according to Pregnancy Sickness Support with up to 2,000 pregnancies being terminated due to inadequate care. Yet, the govt is not including HG in its Maternal Safety Review - I am pressing them to change this absurd decision. 5/6
Hyperemesis gravidarum (HG) is extreme pregnancy sickness. It is hugely debilitating and misunderstood. My partner and I spoke about our own experience following my question on it to the Prime minister.
It is time for change. 🧵1/6
www.thetimes.com/article/5e39...
A screengrab from ITV Meridian of Alison being interviewed next to a water leak.
A hosepipe ban has started in Mid Sussex — yet leaks have been running for months in places like Chanctonbury Road in Burgess Hill.
I spoke to ITV Meridian about why South East Water must act
📺 Watch the clip: www.itv.com/news/meridia...
Where's his shadow? @fullfact.org can you help with this one?
Sadly, this is how it feels.
Poignantly observed.
An rainbow arrangement of garden flowers placed on white fabric
Our brains love the colour gradation in rainbows, maybe due to our ancestors searching for sources of water. Looking at plants helps us recover from stress & looking at something we think is beautiful causes dopamine release.
I've posted this photo to alter your brain biochemistry for the better 🌿
Quick COVID update from me discussing latest variants and prospects for summer here.
open.substack.com/pub/christin...
The Beaker People are a warning from history that in thousands of years’ time we’ll be known as The Plastic Bottle People
A reminder that when the Sycamore Gap tree was cut down people immediately started blaming immigrants and teenagers...
It was neither. It was two white Englishmen in their 30s.
“We’re now the biggest APPG in Parliament and the public supports our call for a National Commission for Electoral Reform by a margin of five to one. The government should listen and act.”
💬 @alexsobel.co.uk, Chair of @appgfairelections.bsky.social
🧵 1/3
www.politics.co.uk/news/2025/05...
It is absolutely reckless to continue with First Past The Post, which could hand majority power to a party with a dwindling minority of votes... Especially amidst concerns about electoral interference. Change the system before it's too late.
1. Because this issue is critical, but has received remarkably little coverage, here's a thread pulling out the key themes from my article yesterday, on the Planning and Infrastructure Bill, which puts decades of environmental protections to the torch. 🧵 www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...
