Stephen Cox Author only more so

@stephencoxauthor.bsky.social

272 followers 348 following 1408 posts

Novelist etc, comms for creatives. London, bi, Quaker, parent. Books Our Child of the Stars/Our Child of Two Worlds. Warm, thoughtful, heartfelt SFF etc, More, short stories

stephencox.co.uk/. news at stephencox.substack.com

Stephen Cox Author only more so @stephencoxauthor.bsky.social
[ View ] Jul 06, 2024 at 10:23 UTC

I am fine that genre is a spectrum (ouch)

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Stephen Cox Author only more so @stephencoxauthor.bsky.social
[ View ] Jul 06, 2024 at 10:22 UTC

Sorry I move in that world - science fiction fantasy and horror. Mind you how conventions name themselves is not precise. There are science fiction panels and writers at Fantasycon for example.

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Stephen Cox Author only more so @stephencoxauthor.bsky.social
[ View ] Jul 06, 2024 at 09:49 UTC

Guest of Honour at a SFFH convention. SFFH is sorting its shit out like lots of other people. I'm writing a book about a world where men just fucking keep it in their pants.

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Stephen Cox Author only more so @stephencoxauthor.bsky.social
[ View ] Jul 06, 2024 at 09:46 UTC

Hard agree. 'speak' will usually be forwarding the letter with some bland covering note. Unless the MP agrees with you.

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Stephen Cox Author only more so @stephencoxauthor.bsky.social
[ View ] Jul 06, 2024 at 09:44 UTC

I think the allegations are worrying and need to be investigated. Even though TERFdom is piling on him. His days as a GOH are over, I hope. We agree not suing doesn't prove guilt.

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Stephen Cox Author only more so @stephencoxauthor.bsky.social
[ View ] Jul 06, 2024 at 09:39 UTC

UKIP got only 1.6% of the vote less in 2015 and were second in more constituencies than Reform was on Thurday.

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Stephen Cox Author only more so @stephencoxauthor.bsky.social
[ View ] Jul 06, 2024 at 08:32 UTC

Public school boys frightened of women and much of Python is unmemorable.

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Elinor ventilation air filtration and high quality masks Predota @epredota.bsky.social
[ View ] Jul 06, 2024 at 07:49 UTC

We are in an ongoing pandemic of a virus which is ridiculously easy to transmit, and which can cause lifelong disablement, and life threatening effects months and years after contracting it. Masks are always necessary.

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Stephen Cox Author only more so @stephencoxauthor.bsky.social
[ View ] Jul 06, 2024 at 07:50 UTC

He absolutely stopped being funny ? twenty years ago and having anything interesting to say shortly after.

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Stephen Cox Author only more so @stephencoxauthor.bsky.social
[ View ] Jul 06, 2024 at 07:47 UTC

I've worked with several good lawyers, and yeah, absolutely. Mrs Beeton is supposed to have said, "There is a terrible curse - may you be involved in a lawsuit where you are right."

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Stephen Cox Author only more so @stephencoxauthor.bsky.social
[ View ] Jul 06, 2024 at 06:41 UTC

I worked for a hospital where two grieving parents promoted a vile conspiracy theory how doctors murdered the child. As the libel QC said, "If that is not libel, nothing is." He then spelled out how much suing would propagate the story (and this was 15 years ago.).

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Stephen Cox Author only more so @stephencoxauthor.bsky.social
[ View ] Jul 06, 2024 at 06:38 UTC

Good thread

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Stephen Cox Author only more so @stephencoxauthor.bsky.social
[ View ] Jul 05, 2024 at 21:11 UTC

Yes, the 'overhang' provision worried some people. Electoral nerds even argued (in wildly odd circumstances) that it could be gamed.

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Dave Underwood @daveunderwood.bsky.social
[ View ] Jul 05, 2024 at 16:34 UTC

It will be lost amongst the comings & goings of the election but North-West Leicestershire ditched their awful anti-vaccine conspiracy theorist MP Andrew Bridgen. Good for them! They deserved better and they chose better 👍

#ukpol #GE2024 #GeneralElection2024

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Stephen Cox Author only more so @stephencoxauthor.bsky.social
[ View ] Jul 05, 2024 at 16:12 UTC

Last poll suggested about a third of the UK agrees we don't need the royals and a fair number above that think the flummery is ridiculous.

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Stephen Cox Author only more so @stephencoxauthor.bsky.social
[ View ] Jul 05, 2024 at 16:10 UTC

We have regulated how unions run very closely. But not parties, apart from how they raise and spend the money.

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Stephen Cox Author only more so @stephencoxauthor.bsky.social
[ View ] Jul 05, 2024 at 14:06 UTC

People make this point all the time inline but I simply don't think political party is defined in law. What we need is German style laws mandating that political parties must be run on democratic lines.

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Stephen Cox Author only more so @stephencoxauthor.bsky.social
[ View ] Jul 05, 2024 at 12:17 UTC

You currently need 100 Tory MPs to nominate a leader

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Stephen Cox Author only more so @stephencoxauthor.bsky.social
[ View ] Jul 05, 2024 at 12:17 UTC

Not so much the 1922 committee as the 122 committee.

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John Bull @garius.bsky.social
[ View ] Jul 05, 2024 at 11:30 UTC

This will be doubly awkward as the number of NOMINATIONS required for a candidate to make the Tory Leadership ballot ISN'T a percentage. It's a fixed number. 100 MPs. I'm sure it sounded reasonable at the time. Good luck getting 100 Tory MPs to agree on something when there are only 121 of them.

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Stephen Cox Author only more so @stephencoxauthor.bsky.social
[ View ] Jul 05, 2024 at 12:14 UTC

very funny.

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Stephen Cox Author only more so @stephencoxauthor.bsky.social
[ View ] Jul 05, 2024 at 12:13 UTC

Bet at least one of the four Reform MPs falls out in next two years.

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Stephen Cox Author only more so @stephencoxauthor.bsky.social
[ View ] Jul 05, 2024 at 12:12 UTC

He was right on Maastrict and Northern Ireland, and didn't have his hand in the till. I prefer him out of office, of course.

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Stephen Cox Author only more so @stephencoxauthor.bsky.social
[ View ] Jul 05, 2024 at 11:24 UTC

Israel.

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Stephen Cox Author only more so @stephencoxauthor.bsky.social
[ View ] Jul 05, 2024 at 11:23 UTC

STV threshold comes from the number of TDs elected. Germany imposes a % barrier.

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Stephen Cox Author only more so @stephencoxauthor.bsky.social
[ View ] Jul 05, 2024 at 11:22 UTC

Yes, that's a ridiculous example to have forgotten. And the London Assembly. Thank you.

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Stephen Cox Author only more so @stephencoxauthor.bsky.social
[ View ] Jul 05, 2024 at 11:21 UTC

Hard agree Also a plug for FurtherEducation - which takes kids and gives them tools to do HE*, which gives them routes into work they enjoy, which gives adults new skills. It is astonishingly important and heavily neglected. FE delivers c 10% of all HE, very effective at reaching hard to reach kids.

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Stephen Cox Author only more so @stephencoxauthor.bsky.social
[ View ] Jul 05, 2024 at 11:16 UTC

There's a threshold to get additional members of (in Germany) 5% of the vote or from memory at least one constituency seat. So if we had this. most Reform and Green MPs would come from lists and most Labour ones in constituencies, given this result.

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Stephen Cox Author only more so @stephencoxauthor.bsky.social
[ View ] Jul 05, 2024 at 11:14 UTC

No, the number of seats is, roughly, decided by the party list vote. You get a vote for a single member as you do in UK and a vote for a party list. Half the seats are decided as the UK, then the party numbers are topped up so each party gets roughly the proportion of the list vote. 1/2

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Stephen Cox Author only more so @stephencoxauthor.bsky.social
[ View ] Jul 05, 2024 at 11:03 UTC

Oh good, utterly tone deaf and idea free, exactly what the party needs.

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Nick Bryan @nickbryan.bsky.social
[ View ] Jul 05, 2024 at 10:57 UTC

Now LIVE at LFCC! With all my comics and much much more! Come see me and, yes, still the big window.

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Stephen Cox Author only more so @stephencoxauthor.bsky.social
[ View ] Jul 05, 2024 at 10:58 UTC

He may have been the Assange Trump gobetween.

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Stephen Cox Author only more so @stephencoxauthor.bsky.social
[ View ] Jul 05, 2024 at 10:57 UTC

The UK treats coalition building as chaos but it isnt. The UK press was hysterical at the ? week it took the Lib-Con coalition to form. That would be considered very fast in many European countries.

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Stephen Cox Author only more so @stephencoxauthor.bsky.social
[ View ] Jul 05, 2024 at 10:56 UTC

Benelux. Belgium has an issue but that's because every ideological flavour has two parties divided over language. Switzerland. Some of these have modest thresholds say 2% of the vote, or voting in large constituencies, which also cuts out some small parties.

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Stephen Cox Author only more so @stephencoxauthor.bsky.social
[ View ] Jul 05, 2024 at 10:54 UTC

Countries which adopt PR generally do so because they had multi-party politics anyway or because say, the Catholic Party always won far more seats than the Protestant Party and there were riots. Some European countries have highly proportional systems but manage fine. I mean, all Scandinavia...

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Stephen Cox Author only more so @stephencoxauthor.bsky.social
[ View ] Jul 05, 2024 at 10:49 UTC

x% of votes, x% of seats.

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Stephen Cox Author only more so @stephencoxauthor.bsky.social
[ View ] Jul 05, 2024 at 10:48 UTC

Worked for the Electoral Reform Society for two years and people who can talk about electoral systems need to wear badges saying "Tell me to stop if you like".

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Stephen Cox Author only more so @stephencoxauthor.bsky.social
[ View ] Jul 05, 2024 at 10:46 UTC

Yes, and if you have smaller seats fewer votes count. If the UK adopts PR it will probably be a variant on the German/NZ additional member system. Which gives some from individual constituencies and some from party lists. I don't love it, but I've seen plans better than what we have

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Stephen Cox Author only more so @stephencoxauthor.bsky.social
[ View ] Jul 05, 2024 at 10:01 UTC

Well, that too. But single constituency party list PR is very fissile even in more usual polities. Under Weimer the Midwives Union won a seat.

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Stephen Cox Author only more so @stephencoxauthor.bsky.social
[ View ] Jul 05, 2024 at 09:51 UTC

And it retains voting for individuals with local ties and responsibilities. Israel style PR positively promotes tiny factions.

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Stephen Cox Author only more so @stephencoxauthor.bsky.social
[ View ] Jul 05, 2024 at 09:02 UTC

Not that I voted Labour in a seat they'd win.

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Stephen Cox Author only more so @stephencoxauthor.bsky.social
[ View ] Jul 05, 2024 at 09:02 UTC

I have a fantasy that we were allowed to vote with coloured pens if we liked, so Labour could see how much of its vote was way to more left, more green or more socially liberal than its leadership.

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Mitildide 🦖 @mitildide.bsky.social
[ View ] Jul 05, 2024 at 08:42 UTC

Les résultats des élections britanniques sont sorties et c'est l'occasion d'apprendre que "Capt'n Beanie", un candidat portant un masque au motif de haricots à la sauce tomate, a fait trois fois plus de voix que Posie Parker, la leader mondiale du mouvement anti-trans.

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Stephen Cox Author only more so @stephencoxauthor.bsky.social
[ View ] Jul 05, 2024 at 07:23 UTC

Allegedly, Rishi briefed the lack of umbrella was deliberate.

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Stephen Cox Author only more so @stephencoxauthor.bsky.social
[ View ] Jul 05, 2024 at 07:21 UTC

Book Helicopter, surely

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Diane Duane @diane.dianeduane.com
[ View ] Jul 05, 2024 at 07:10 UTC

(via @mitchbenn over at the Former Bird Place: “Don’t know who made this”)

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Stephen Cox Author only more so @stephencoxauthor.bsky.social
[ View ] Jul 05, 2024 at 07:10 UTC

Work to do, then writing to my newly relected MP.

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Stephen Cox Author only more so @stephencoxauthor.bsky.social
[ View ] Jul 05, 2024 at 07:09 UTC

It would be hilarious if Labour legislated, as the Germans do, to make all parties have democratic constitutions.

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Stephen Cox Author only more so @stephencoxauthor.bsky.social
[ View ] Jul 05, 2024 at 07:08 UTC

There's a demographic of disillusioned young men they can tap into. Although I'm not sure they want national service.

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Stephen Cox Author only more so @stephencoxauthor.bsky.social
[ View ] Jul 05, 2024 at 07:05 UTC

Labour in power defends a system which has historically favoured the Tories and rarely given Labour a working majority. PR was in the Blair manifesto (ish) but didn't happen.

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