1. Work is underway on the next phase of the Rational Parliament

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    March 28, 2014 by Adam Smith

    Brief background: we held two pilot sittings last year to test and improve our format, then cancelled our third sitting due to bungled organisation. Now I’m organising the whole project better and splitting tasks up among more volunteer clerks.

    I’ve had around 12 offers from people who’ve said they’d like to help out. I recently met our existing clerks and officers, who are still keen, and we worked out how to organise each sitting better.

    Category: Parliamentary business | Tags: , , ,

  2. Can you help the Rational Parliament and its beleaguered clerk?

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    March 18, 2014 by Adam Smith

    So I’ve had to cancel next week’s sitting of the Rational Parliament, mostly due to low demand. The topic was voted for by our followers, so I have to assign some of the blame to my planning.
    I need your help in planning future sittings. Are you up for it?

    Category: Parliamentary business | Tags: ,

  3. Are wages too controversial? Why we have to cancel tomorrow’s debate

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    March 18, 2014 by Adam Smith

    I have to cancel tomorrow’s sitting of the Rational Parliament. I’m sad about this decision. It was to be our third sitting and we were going to debate how the government should be involved in setting wages, a topic voted on by the Rational Parliament’s friends and followers. I hoped we could cover the minimum wage, which is due to be set at a new level this year; the living wage, which has gained huge political momentum; and the idea of the citizen’s income.

    But it seems that not enough people are interested—we haven’t sold very many tickets. Perhaps more crushingly for the Rational Parliament, no researcher wants to come and debate with us. This is not the end of the project by the way—read all the way to the end 😉

    Category: Parliamentary business | Tags: ,

  4. The politics of pay

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    January 26, 2014 by Adam Smith

    Can you remember your first payslip? I remember picking up mine from the windowless accounts office in the Grimsby branch of WHSmith, where I was working as a temp on the six Saturdays before Christmas. I was 16 years old, and it felt super to earn £3.50 an hour putting books and newspapers through the till over a six-hour shift. Just a couple of years earlier, my elder sister had earnt £2.50 an hour for nine hours every Sunday for staffing a local newsagent without a proper break.

    Category: Playing politics | Tags: , ,

  5. Next debate: how much should a government meddle with wages?

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    January 19, 2014 by Adam Smith

    British voters may not have decided to give a single political party a majority share of the seats in parliament in 2010, but the Rational Parliament’s next debate topic has at least been chosen by a majority.

    With 52 % of the vote, by far the most popular topic for our next debate is the living wage and basic income guarantee (see full results below).

    Category: Parliamentary business | Tags: , , , , ,

  6. Do you know the truth about immigration? Or anything?

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    January 12, 2014 by Adam Smith

    **Update: voting now closed – results here!** The BBC’s Nick Robinson smirked his way through a documentary last week, claiming …
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    Category: Parliamentary business | Tags: , , , , , ,

  7. Motion results from our debate on fracking for shale gas

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    November 30, 2013 by Adam Smith

    The results of the votes from the recent sitting of the Rational Parliament, on 26 November, are in. Our topic …
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    Category: Parliamentary business | Tags: , , , ,

  8. Words and photos from our debate on fracking!

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    November 27, 2013 by Adam Smith

    Last night the Rational Parliament sat to debate fracking for shale gas in the UK. In total, 82 joined in with the debate, with others taking part from outside the chamber via Twitter. There was a great range of perspectives, experiences and viewpoints, including those of several researchers whose work covers different aspects of fracking.

    Category: Parliamentary business | Tags: , , ,

  9. GM debate video now live!

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    November 22, 2013 by Adam Smith

    The abridged video of our first sitting, at which we debated GM food, is now online!

    Category: Admin, Parliamentary business | Tags: , , ,

  10. Scientists on Question Time? Boring!

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    November 18, 2013 by Adam Smith

    The thousands of people who’ve signed a petition asking BBC producers to use more scientists on Question Time are barking up the wrong tree.

    I don’t doubt for a second that the petitioners have good intentions. I don’t doubt they believe that political debate can be improved if relevant scientists and researchers are present—I believe that too. But the campaign, led by the incisive blogger Martin Robbins, is missing the point if it thinks that QT would be improved by the presence of a scientist. Even to argue for “proper representation” of scientists on QT is a bit wacky.

    Category: Playing politics, Political science | Tags: , , , ,

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Rational Parliament debate on fracking, 26 Nov 2013Rational Parliament debate on fracking, 26 Nov 2013Rational Parliament debate on fracking, 26 Nov 2013
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