danieldwilliam (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
danieldwilliam) wrote2019-10-07 02:59 pm
danieldwilliam) wrote2019-10-07 02:59 pm
Entry tags:
On Friday Fives - Misc
Here are some Friday Five Answers
If you were President of the United States, what would be your top 3 things that you would like to change?
If I were President of the United States I'd have a bit of a problem because I'm not eligible to be elected President. So I guess I'd better change that bit of the constitution.
Three things I'd change
1) the electoral system for Federal and State representatives from largely First Past the Post to the Single Transferable Vote, or Instant Run-Off Voting for single positions. That should solve the tribal nature of US politics, gerrymandering and the influence of money in politics.
2) single-payer health care
3) I'd cut military spending and spend the money instead on single-payer health care and the electricity transmission network.
In the more likely situation that I become the British Prime Minister my top 3 legislative priorities would be
1) Resolving the Brexit process. I would revoke Article 50 and start again from scratch with a multi-referendum process drawing on experiences with deliberative and direct democracy in New Zealand and British Columbia.
First - a Royal Commision to establish a baseline of fact about our relationship with the EU
Second - a separate Royal Commission to explore options for changing our relationship with the EU, what is possible, what is likely, what are the timescales, what are the mutual contradictions.
Third - a Royal Commission to look at the conduct of the campaigns in the previous referendum and recommend rules for the conduct of future referendums.
Fourth - a series of Citizens' Assemblies and Citizen Juries to sort the input of the above Royal Commissions in to approximately a dozen different proposals for leaving the EU - each of which must be internally coherent. Happy to take more than dozen if there are more than a dozen discrete ways of being outside the EU. Those proposals should include very explicit failsafe points e.g. if the proposal requires some sort of border arrangement between Gibraltar and Spain then that needs to be agreed by X point and if not agreed then Y happens and if Y fails we go back to the begining of the process.
Fifth - a nation wide STV ballot to reduce the number of options to 4.
Sixth - an Instant-Run Off ballot to pick one of the options for stage Seven.
Seventh - Remain vs the Final Leave Option. If the Final Leave Option wins steps 8-11
Eighth - attempt to delivery the Final Leave Option
Ninth - Royal Commission on whether the goverment's negotiated position with the EU matches the Final Leave Option
Tenth - confirmatory ballot on the Withdrawal Agreement
Eleventh - leave the EU in accordance wtih the Withdrawal Agreement
2) UK drugs policy - I would move to place recreational drugs on largely the same footing at tobacco and alcohol.
3) A deliberative and direct process (similar to the Brexit process above) on a new, codified constitution for the UK
If you had to survive off of one specific type of food, what would it be and why?
Type is a little vague here. Are we talking
1 actual food item
1 cuisine
1 dish
If 1 actual food item it would some form of pizza - that probably gives me the best chance of dying of malnutrition
if 1 cuisine - then probably Spanish. Lots of food options and I like the base flavours.
if 1 dish - a Ploughman's Lunch - similarly worried about malnutrition.
If your life were a play, what would it be (tragedy, comedy, drama, etc.)?
My life could be any sort of play that you like other than Victorian melodrama. Seriously, away with that nonsense. Seriously, I've been on the run from gangsters in the Australian bush and met the Prime Minister (not at the same time). What do you want, I can do it for you.
Personally, I think I'd choose an improvisational sex comedy. Who doesn't want more improvised farcical sex? If we could include a Gilbert and Sullivan patter song in there so much the better.
What community is your favorite and why?
I like the Edinburgh drama community. It's full of characters and seems to operate with an aspiration of doing good work.
When did you realize you were finally an adult and how did it make you feel?
I was 10, when I was told we were immigrating to Australia. I've had better days.
If you were President of the United States, what would be your top 3 things that you would like to change?
If I were President of the United States I'd have a bit of a problem because I'm not eligible to be elected President. So I guess I'd better change that bit of the constitution.
Three things I'd change
1) the electoral system for Federal and State representatives from largely First Past the Post to the Single Transferable Vote, or Instant Run-Off Voting for single positions. That should solve the tribal nature of US politics, gerrymandering and the influence of money in politics.
2) single-payer health care
3) I'd cut military spending and spend the money instead on single-payer health care and the electricity transmission network.
In the more likely situation that I become the British Prime Minister my top 3 legislative priorities would be
1) Resolving the Brexit process. I would revoke Article 50 and start again from scratch with a multi-referendum process drawing on experiences with deliberative and direct democracy in New Zealand and British Columbia.
First - a Royal Commision to establish a baseline of fact about our relationship with the EU
Second - a separate Royal Commission to explore options for changing our relationship with the EU, what is possible, what is likely, what are the timescales, what are the mutual contradictions.
Third - a Royal Commission to look at the conduct of the campaigns in the previous referendum and recommend rules for the conduct of future referendums.
Fourth - a series of Citizens' Assemblies and Citizen Juries to sort the input of the above Royal Commissions in to approximately a dozen different proposals for leaving the EU - each of which must be internally coherent. Happy to take more than dozen if there are more than a dozen discrete ways of being outside the EU. Those proposals should include very explicit failsafe points e.g. if the proposal requires some sort of border arrangement between Gibraltar and Spain then that needs to be agreed by X point and if not agreed then Y happens and if Y fails we go back to the begining of the process.
Fifth - a nation wide STV ballot to reduce the number of options to 4.
Sixth - an Instant-Run Off ballot to pick one of the options for stage Seven.
Seventh - Remain vs the Final Leave Option. If the Final Leave Option wins steps 8-11
Eighth - attempt to delivery the Final Leave Option
Ninth - Royal Commission on whether the goverment's negotiated position with the EU matches the Final Leave Option
Tenth - confirmatory ballot on the Withdrawal Agreement
Eleventh - leave the EU in accordance wtih the Withdrawal Agreement
2) UK drugs policy - I would move to place recreational drugs on largely the same footing at tobacco and alcohol.
3) A deliberative and direct process (similar to the Brexit process above) on a new, codified constitution for the UK
If you had to survive off of one specific type of food, what would it be and why?
Type is a little vague here. Are we talking
1 actual food item
1 cuisine
1 dish
If 1 actual food item it would some form of pizza - that probably gives me the best chance of dying of malnutrition
if 1 cuisine - then probably Spanish. Lots of food options and I like the base flavours.
if 1 dish - a Ploughman's Lunch - similarly worried about malnutrition.
If your life were a play, what would it be (tragedy, comedy, drama, etc.)?
My life could be any sort of play that you like other than Victorian melodrama. Seriously, away with that nonsense. Seriously, I've been on the run from gangsters in the Australian bush and met the Prime Minister (not at the same time). What do you want, I can do it for you.
Personally, I think I'd choose an improvisational sex comedy. Who doesn't want more improvised farcical sex? If we could include a Gilbert and Sullivan patter song in there so much the better.
What community is your favorite and why?
I like the Edinburgh drama community. It's full of characters and seems to operate with an aspiration of doing good work.
When did you realize you were finally an adult and how did it make you feel?
I was 10, when I was told we were immigrating to Australia. I've had better days.