On 5 May we will be asked whether we wish to change the system of voting MPs to Westminster. The question is whether we stick with first past the post the system we have used for centuries or adopt the alternative vote (AV) which is more proportionate. Proponents of this change maintain that it is a no-brainer to adopt a more proportionate and thus fairer system of voting. This is not strictly true as it can be argued that proportionate means of voting promote incompetence and stagnation.
BY ALEXANDER REDPATH
It appears everyone in the world is talking about Rebecca Black’s song ‘Friday’. It’s received thirty million hits so far on YouTube, has reached number twenty-five in the iTunes chart and everyone’s united in derision of any merits it could possess. Despite this, Rolling Stone Magazine is praising it saying, “You immediately notice everything that it does “wrong,” but it actually gets a lot of things about pop music right, if just by accident.” It’s a fantastic parody of pop music today.
It’s that time of year again when inhabitants of Hollywood feast on diets comprising solely of green food, the sofa is substituted for the sun-bed, colonic irrigation becomes as frequent as yoga and dozens of identical statuettes are frantically polished gold. For the 83rd year, Hollywood’s finest gather to honour the most talented, unique and deserving of the acting calibre. This year, a stammering king, a technology phenomenon and a disturbed ballerina are characters in the biggest drama of all: the Oscars.