Thursday
Apr292021
2021-5 Power-sharing in Westminster
Thursday, April 29, 2021 PRESS RELEASE IMMEDIATE 29.4.2021 BORIS? POWER-SHARING COULDN’T BE WORSE
Vienna TEDx Talk - October 2017
Here's the YouTube, the PowerPoint, and the text of the speech (more or less).
Thursday, April 29, 2021 Wednesday
Feb032021
2021-4 Adam Smith Seminar, Munich
Wednesday, February 3, 2021 
The de Borda Institute gave the first of this year's Adam Smith Seminars.
A video recording is available here.
Sunday
Jan102021
2021-3 The Lessons of Trump
Sunday, January 10, 2021 THE LESSONS OF TRUMP The Achilles heel of western democracy is its dependence on the usually primitive, often divisive, sometimes inaccurate and always Orwellian binary vote. The two-party system “has perpetrated the most horrid enormities [and] is itself a frightful despotism.” George Washington,
Thursday
Jan072021
2021-2 Decision-making, launches
Thursday, January 7, 2021 Democratic Decision-making, Consensus Voting for Civic Society and Parliaments.
https://www.springer.com/gp/book/9783030528072
was and/or will be launched, virtually:
i) 'in' Belfast: see 2020-12.
ii) 'in' Brno University with Pavel Dufek on 13.11.2020.
iii) Vanessa Liston and Prof. Peter Stone hosted 'in' Trinity College Dublin on 30.11.2020.
iv) 'in' Kent University, with Anna Tulin Brett in the chair and Prof. Hugh Miall introducing, on 14.01.2021.
v) 'in' Munich. The first 2021 Adam Smith Seminar on 01.02.2021, with Profs Shanti Chakravarty (Bangor University) and Manfred Holler of MSSR. See 2021-4.
vi) 'in' the American University of Paris with Professor Hall Gardener on 15.4.2021. https://youtu.be/f0OQv04z3T4
vii) 'in' Derry, 14.6.21, with CfC, Collaboration for Change; see 2021-7.
viii) 'in' Brussels, the European Parliament, on 22.6.2021, with Ciarán Cuffe MEP; see 2021-9.
Wednesday
Jan062021
2021-1 The (English) Times, a letter
Wednesday, January 6, 2021 The world’s first multi-option referendum,
Friday
Nov062020
2020-13 US elections
Friday, November 6, 2020 The USA is divided; but if a country uses binary voting, not only in its decision-making but also in its elections, it will divide. Trump is only the denouement of a divisive politics.
Sunday
Oct182020
2020-12 Launch: Democratic Decision-making
Sunday, October 18, 2020 
Video of the socially-distanced Zoom launch of Democratic Decision-making, 2020, (Springer, Heidelberg) on 7.10.2020. The event was chaired by Professor John Barry, Queen's University, Belfast. The book is a critique of majority voting which, in many instances, produces an outcome which does not accurately reflect the will of those voting, the people in a referendum, or the MPs in a parliament. Instead of such a binary structure, democracy, it is argued, should be based on preferential points voting.
Tuesday
Aug252020
2020-11 Democratic Decision-making
Tuesday, August 25, 2020 Democratic Decision-making, 2020, (Springer, Heidelberg)
Democratic Decision-making is a if not the guidebook for all involved in decision-making, from those in a local community group, via others in regional/national parliaments, to our representatives in the UN Security Council. The message is clear: if a contentious problem isn't binary, don't take a binary vote. If there are more than two options 'on the table', have more than two on the ballot: enjoy pluralism, the diversity of our species, and use a preferential vote, ideally on a (short) list of about five options. Thus can we identify the option with the highest average preference; and an average includes every voter, not just a majority of them.
The end of majority voting as a means of tackling contentious problems could mean the end of binary majority rule and resort to (post-Covid, post-climate-chaos, post-conflict) all-party power-sharing.
Wednesday
Jul012020
