Halocene VIP

It’s been a long time (as in, 10-15 years) since I last went to a gig, but last night we went to see Halocene playing a support slot at the Engine Rooms, following their festival appearance at Download. It’s not every day that an unsigned band from Tennessee makes it over to Southampton.

We paid extra for VIP tickets (more than the tickets actually), which were supposed to involve a meet and greet before the show. We were told to turn up at 6 (an hour before doors), so got there about 5:45, only to be left standing outside – and wondering whether we were in the right place – until about 6:30, when the small queue in front of us finally started moving.

Then someone came over and called my name out and took us to one side. He explained that we wouldn’t have the usual meet and greet experience, because we were the only two who’d purchased VIP tickets for this show, so instead he took us over to the band’s tour bus, where we got to sit and chat with Brad and Addie (a short conversation, but covering music we like, things to do in Southampton, and the differences between ducks and geese). Then we got given our exclusive VIP t-shirts and a photo opportunity outside:

I wished afterwards that I’d asked for a photo in the van, but never mind. We were escorted into the venue to wait for the show.

It was a bit of a wait, but when they finally took the stage they blasted through ‘Just Won’t Die’ followed by a cover of ‘Killing In The Name’ – where Addie had the crowd singing along, ironically doing just what she asked. The set was mostly originals, including ‘Repent’, ‘This Is Our War’ (my partner’s favourite), and ‘Maleficent’ though, sadly, they didn’t do ‘Devil Inside Me’ (which is one of my favourites).

They did throw some other covers: ‘Unholy’, ‘The Kill (Bury Me)’ (which was largely Addie solo) and then finished the set with ‘Chop Suey’ during which Addie got down into the crowd.

It was a shorter set than I’d like, since they were only the support act for the night (with Atreyu headlining). They’re playing their own headline show in Brighton tonight, but sadly that’s a bit too far, especially given that I’m off to a conference tomorrow while my partner has exam boards to deal with.

Perhaps one day we’ll get another chance to see them in person but, until then, I guess we’ll have to stick to their regular streams.

Starmer on voting rights - is he consistent?

The Telegraph reports that Keir Starmer has backtracked on an earlier pledge to give voting rights to EU citizens. (This is behind a paywall but, for now at least, reproduced via MSN.)

This isn't entirely new news it seems, because they appear to have run a similar story last year. Although an earlier Guardian story is a bit less clear on plans anyway - suggesting that it's simply being looked at.

What struck me about the original story, however, is his comments (quoted at the end of the piece) about the voting age:

"On the votes for 16 and 17-year-olds, I strongly believe if you can work as you can when you’re 16 and 17, if you can serve in our Armed Forces, if you pay your taxes as you do if you’re a 16 or 17-year-old, you have a right to say how those taxes are going to be used."

If these are his reasons for wanting to lower the voting age, then it seems odd that EU citizens - and, indeed, other immigrants - who are able to work and pay tax shouldn't also be given the vote. Maybe (the right to) military service is more important than this passage suggests.

A House of Citizens?

I don't know whether the Metro letter page is preserved for posterity or not, but there are some interesting comments on the House of Lords in today's letters. This seems to follow on from recent discussion, which includes one call to abolish the HoL entirely. This follows the recent news that at least one peer also wants to abolish the HoL.

I'm not clear whether some replacement is envisioned or whether James Bradshaw from London would prefer a unicameral parliament. However, David Jubb from Devon offers an interesting alternative in today's letters:

"I’d rather have a House of Citizens than a House of Lords, with people from all walks of life contributing, as we do with jury service.

It would bring common sense to Westminster from every part of the UK and could be based on the model of successful citizens’ assemblies."

This idea isn't new (as he perhaps knows, given the reference to citizens' assemblies). Random selection, along the lines of jury service, is generally known as sortition. It has been proposed before, as a way to replace the House of Lords (Amazon affiliate link) or, indeed, even to replace elected representatives (Amazon affiliate link).

Education and rote learning

Apparently this maths problem is doing the rounds. It didn't seem that challenging to me, though I can't comment on how difficult it would be for 10-year-olds.

I post it here mainly for the note at the end, reminding us that "education is not just about rote learning but also about critical thinking and problem-solving." I'm not entirely sure about the phrasing of this claim, since it seems to imply that education is partly about rote learning. Maybe that's truer at lower levels though.

Is social justice left-wing?

I just saw a piece in the Daily Express about the AHRC's plans to fund a Centre for Law and Social Justice. The angle is very much that this is a waste of taxpayer money. They quote an unnamed academic, who says it is shameful "to be using public money to create a research centre with an explicitly left-wing equality, diversity and inclusion agenda."

Of course, the AHRC has been criticised for its political agenda before (see here and here), when it included the 'Big Society' among potential funding topics. In this case, the suggestion is that they are going against the government agenda. As the Daily Express refers to the AHRC doing this "Despite the Conservative Government's concerted war on woke..."

One thing that's not clear to me, though, is why they assume social justice to be a left-wing agenda. The Centre for Social Justice describes itself as independent, but was co-founded by former Conservative leader Iain Duncan Smith. It's described by Wikipedia as 'centre-right' and, according to ConservativeHome, it was influential on Cameron's Conservative government.

JME blog

I've just had a post, about strike ballots, published on the Journal of Medical Ethics blog. You can find it here. 

Readers may recall that I've written about similar themes before. The latest piece is indeed similar, but applied to a new issue (strikes by healthcare workers, rather than UCU).

Toronto Mayoral Election

I saw via the BBC that there are over 100 candidates, including a dog, running for Toronto mayor. Despite looking at a couple of sites that claimed to cover everything one might need to know, I struggled to find the voting system involved. The site just linked mentions that a candidate could win with just 20% of the vote. In fact, it seems that the election uses first past the post - at least, according to Wikipedia, though no citation is given. This means that, in theory, one candidate could win with just 1% of the vote.

FPTP seems pretty undesirable when there are this many candidates. However, while some form of instant run-off could overcome some problems, it would also be burdensome on voters to rank all of the candidates.