The instructions were simple:

• For the Scottish parliamentary election, mark one cross (X) in the Regional List column and one cross (X) in the Constituency column.
• For the council election, write numbers (1, 2, 3…) to express your order of preference for one or more candidates.

I don’t think the organisers could have done more to help people, short of asking people to show their completed ballot papers before putting them in the secret box!

• The system was trialled by the Electoral Commission before the election was called;
• There was wall-to-wall media coverage of how to vote;
• Every house received a leaflet on how to vote;
• The instructions were on the back of the polling card;
• When we went to vote, there was a person at the door of the polling station asking if we understood the voting system or would like it explained. And lots of big pictures;
• And the ballot papers had clear instructions.

What more could have been done?

Not only do we have council elections (for the first time using proportional representation) but we will need to vote twice for the Scottish Parliament – once for our constituency MSP and once for our Regional List. And so far on our Regional List we have:

• British National Party
• Scottish Conservatives
• Communist Party of Britain
• Scottish Green Party
• Independent Green Voice
• Independents
• Scottish Labour
• Scottish Liberal Democrats
• Nine Percent Growth Party
• Publican Party
• Scotland Against Crooked Lawyers
• Scottish Christian Party
• Socialist Labour Party
• Scottish National Party
• Solidarity – that’s Tommy Sheridan
• Scottish Senior Citizens Unity Party
• Scottish Socialist Party – that used to be Tommy Sheridan
• Scottish Unionist Party
• Scottish Voice
• UKIP

Politics gone mad?

This mashup from Malcolm Daniel is a great 4-minute summary of the film:

Two things particularly struck me:

Firstly, Gore presents evidence from Antarctic ice cores, showing the atmospheric CO₂ levels over the last 650,000 years. Recently, certain climate-change sceptics have tried to throw doubt on the nature of the human-induced global warming by citing cyclical events through the Pleistocene glaciation. This graph indeed shows such cyclical events with glaciations interspersed with interglacials.

See also 600,000 year graph.

However, look at present-day CO₂ levels, at 380ppm, much higher than the historical maxima of around 280-290ppm. We are not in a cyclical interglacial, but in completely new territory.

The second thing that struck me was the fact that we have the technology, right now, to solve the problem (or at least to mitigate the worst effects). We don’t need mirrors in the sky, we need simple measures, but taken by everyone. These include energy-efficient appliances, industry and transport; renewables; and even carbon sequestration. With these, we can reduce our CO₂ emissions to 1970 levels!

The change of the clock from 7 to 5 minutes reflects increased nuclear proliferation (North Korea, Iran) but also the increased risk from catastrophic climate change.

Previous lows were in 1953 (2 minutes) during the start of the Cold War atomic weapons race and in 1984 (3 minutes) during Reagan’s term in office.

The highest ever was 17 minutes in 1991, just after the signing of the SALT treaty (Strategic Arms Limitation Treaty) at the end of the Cold War. Proliferation since then has led to a steady decline in the time.

In the words of Private Fraser from Dad’s Army:

“We’re dooomed”

Is this what the Union Flag will look like in 2008?

Lots of worrying comment in the media about the seemingly unstoppable rise of Scottish Nationalism, both Scots wanting to be independent from England and the English wanting shot of the Scots.

They all forget that there are two other nations in this union!

• Date: Thurs 10/08/2006 Time: 16:30 Place: Glasgow Airport
  As most London flights had been cancelled, and only passengers were allowed into the airport building, the airport was largely empty. We only had to queue for a short while at check-in (Fast Bag Drop had been suspended), and we were the only people in security! We were not allowed to take any airside purchases (water, newspaper) onto the plane.
• Date: Sun 14/08/2006 Time: 16:30 Place: Southampton Airport
  Unfortunately as FlyBe have suspended their Fast Bag Drop service, so we had to queue for 40 minutes at check-in, and another 10 mins at security. This time, although no books, newspapers or magazines were allowed through security, airside purchases were allowed to be taken onto the plane. The biggest delay of the evening was when all London air traffic was rerouted around thunderstorms, thus blocking our route north.
• Date: Mon 15/08/2006 Time: 13:00 Place: Glasgow Airport
  Shorter queues in Glasgow, and the baggage restrictions had just been relaxed. Unfortunately my bag was too big for the new restrictions, but at least I could take my laptop on board rather than leaving it to the mercy of baggage handlers. This time we could take newspapers, books, mobiles, computers, MP3 players and anything except liquids through security.

They’re talking on Newsnight tonight about passenger profiling. This has been going on for years in Glasgow – all Northern Irish flights are subject to Strathclyde Police checks, so they must be profiling potential criminals as we walk past the officers on the way out of or into the airport.

If it helps to ease the congestion and speed our way through the airport, it has my support.

Like Roger I am angry and depressed at what is happening in the Middle East – the Hizbullah rocket attacks on northern Israel, the disproportionate destruction of Lebanon and the refusal of the US and UK to back UN calls for a cease fire.

So another voice is welcome – and that of the Lebanese Christian community is one that is not often heard. Dr Martin Accad is the Academic Dean of the Arab Baptist Theological Seminary in Lebanon, and was in the US teaching when Israel bombed Beirut Airport. He writes in anger about what has happened his country. Worth a read.

Also worth a read in this thread is a gracious response from David Gushee, who Accad criticised, and a further, more hopeful article from Dr Accad.