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Probably42 News - October-2022
Welcome to our October Newsletter!
Dear oh dear! It’s almost beyond belief.
Our August/September topic was Is this any way to run a country?, held during the lengthy Conservative Leadership election. The subsequent answer is obviously a resounding NO. Our discussion took the opportunity to build on our previous ideas for change in our document Transforming our Democracy and Political System for the 21st Century and this has been updated with our latest thinking.
Over the last two months we’ve also had some interactions with individual politicians and political parties. In particular our document Majority Plus Voting System - Proposal for a new UK Voting System has been sent and passed on to the policy making units of Reform UK and of the Labour party. We were prompted to send this by hearing reports that both these parties were considering endorsing Proportional Representation in the next election and we felt we should make them aware that we had designed a system which is a hybrid: Producing a guaranteed majority, plus fairer allocation of MPs to the smaller parties. Spurred on by this we also posted about MPV in a Facebook Group devoted to promotion of PR. Despite being somewhat defensive of our upstart proposals (not perfect PR), we have managed to have some interesting discussions which are on-going. The exercise has confirmed to us that we really have the starting point for something very worthwhile with MPV.
Recent and Forthcoming Discussion
Our most recent discussions were Growing the economy Economy - Growing the economy in the face of Inflation and other Crises and the one already mentioned Is this any way to run a country?
This month our topic is a fairly lofty one Values and Principles for Society what should they be, to guide our future decision-making and to steer the country in the right direction over the next 20 years?
Government Information that may interest you
As usual we highlight more examples of information on Parliament activity and outputs which may interest you. Whether they will survive in current form is another matter.
One of the remaining policies from the mini-budget: Reversal of the Health and Social Care Levy Factsheet – GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)
A short and very readable plan of the Government’s intentions for the NHS and Social Care Our plan for patients – GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)
Why not join a Group?
If you’d like to join one of the Probably42 discussion groups held via videoconferencing, just email in response to this newsletter and we’ll send you more details. We very much want a diversity of viewpoints, so you can be sure your views will be welcomed. Remember it’s about relaxed discussion and having an enjoyable time, with hopefully some useful ideas identified.
We also want to encourage face-to-face real world discussion groups, as feeders into the main online discussions. If you’d like to find out more about the one in Berkshire, or if you’d like to see one start in your area, just email in response to this newsletter and we’ll send you details.
Feedback
We always welcome any feedback, thoughts, ideas or questions about Probably42. Simply reply to this newsletter and you’ll receive a personal reply.
All the best
Tony