If you’ve been following British politics at all recently, then you’ll have seen the stories of bullying in Number 10. Obviously bullying is totally wrong and shouldn’t be tolerated in any circumstance (blah, blah, blah, standard ‘I’m not a right-wing reactionary disclaimer), but this whole story has strong whiffs of orchestration to it.

The latest incarnation is perfectly timed to counter Labour’s nicked campaign slogan (we were fair first!). People will apportion far more of their attention to a bit of scandal than to a plain vanilla campaign launch. The timing is being followed up by the story being divided into tasty, bite-size portions, ready for thorough digestion by the media (new and old alike).

Anyway, it’s just speculation with no solid evidence, but is this the first shot in a negative campaign running up ’til the election? Isn’t politics nice.

I thought I should take a quick moment to highlight a fairly new and brilliant blog by a group of Scottish Green Party members. Bright Green Scotland is well worth a read, even if you’re not into Scottish politics.

Gordon Brown might have everyone (by which I mean, electoral-system-obsessed-politics-geeks of the sort who will happily engage in a passionate discussion down the pub of the merits of different forms of PR—and I would include myself in there) talking about electoral reform in the UK right now, but in terms of actual impact on the machine of politics, I’d be willing to bet that Article 11, paragraph 4 of the Treaty on European Union will be bigger, more significant, and, if we can tear ourselves away from d’Hondt versus Sainte-Laguë for long enough, subject to more geek analysis.

I like Article 11, paragraph 4, but I’m annoyed with it as well. Why am I annoyed? I’m annoyed because I signed a petition calling for the EU to raise its carbon emissions reduction targets from 20% to 30%; while that’s all well and good (why not head on over to the petition yourself?), it could be so much better if I was signing the form of petition found in Article 11: a citizens’ initiative.

A bit of digging revealed that the European Commission has consulted on implementing the initiative, and will be drawing up a regulation this year, before actually unleashing this little bit of direct democracy in 2011. I know it takes time to make laws, and it isn’t a job to rush, but Lisbon has been around for ages, surely the fleshing out of the text of the article* could have happened sooner?

*4. Not less than one million citizens who are nationals of a significant number of Member States may take the initiative of inviting the European Commission, within the framework of its powers, to submit any appropriate proposal on matters where citizens consider that a legal act of the Union is required for the purpose of implementing the Treaties.

Article 11, paragraph 4, Treaty on European Union

Why, oh why, is Gordon Brown trying to get a referendum on proportional representation? Is it perhaps because he wants to be seen to support a nice progressive constitutional change relating to Parliament, without any danger that he will have to implement it?

The problem with a referendum is that it doesn’t work unless the voters are accurately informed about what they are voting on. It works for issues such as devolution, where people are familiar with the question; it doesn’t work with arcane, indecipherable, and soporific matters like electoral reform.

Oh well, it was nice for a while to think we might get an ever so slightly better system.

With lines like “We need a commander-in-chief, not a professor of law”, its clear to see that Palin is back, and the anti-intelligence, populist, and over-simplified world-view, is back with her. It was nice to have a little break from that for a year, but I suppose nutters will always be around to try to wreck any progress that might be made, especially in US politics.

But how much danger does Palin pose? Considering that the audience for her speech were paying $500 to attend the conference, I’m guessing that they aren’t totally representative of the entire ‘low-tax-small-government’ group; though if those attending are what is hideously termed ‘thought-leaders’, they don’t need to be completely representative. Scott Brown’s election to the Senate was another sign that there might be a shift back to the comfort of conservatism.

I’m not hugely familiar with US politics, but I watch enough of The West Wing, read enough newspapers, and know enough about the generic game of politics, to conclude that Americans aren’t necessarily turning Republican, rather they are reacting to the perception that President Obama hasn’t lived up to expectations. This isn’t an original idea of my own, but Obama needs to do something populist but sensible, while keeping up the dull, but essential, work of governing. In short, he needs to remind people of the idea of “Hope” from his campaign. But as I said, US politics is not my forté.