Pots and Kettles

Last week I (at least implicitly) criticized the SNP, for condemning a Labour-Conservative coalition in Stirling. In the interests of party balance then, I should mention that today I saw this piece on the BBC, which reveals that Labour were the largest single party in Dumfries and Galloway (15 seats) but have been ousted by an SNP-Conservative coalition (10 and 14 seats respectively). The interesting point is that Labour group leader Ronnie Nicholson is quoted as saying "The Tories lost the election, and the people of Dumfries and Galloway voted to kick them out. But the dead hand of Tory rule has been given the kiss of life by the SNP." The irony is that these words - such as the dead hand reference - echo what the SNP said about the Labour coalition in Stirling.

So, if there is any merit to this claim, then the Labour group from Dumfries and Galloway are implicitly criticizing the Stirling Labour Party, while the SNP from Stirling are criticizing the SNP from Dumfries and Galloway...

Organ Donation in the News

The other day I had an email from Toronto-based journalist Julia Belluz, asking some questions about organ donation (a topic I've previously written on). Her article, featuring quotes from me, has now appeared on her Science-ish blog at Macleans.ca.

The Logic of Proportional Representation

I commented last week on the Scottish local council elections. As it turns out, the results in Stirling were rather interesting: SNP: 9, Labour: 8, Conservative: 4, Green: 1.

No party had a majority (over half of the 22 seats). But in today's news I see that the Labour and Conservative Parties (12 seats between them) have agreed to enter a coalition. (This makes a change from the SNP minority council that's been in charge from 2008 until now.)

I was struck by the reported reaction of the SNP:
"Graham Houston of the SNP ... said: "The people of Stirling will be shocked that the Tories and Labour will get together to form an administration on Stirling Council, despite neither party being the biggest party after Thursday's election ... The real losers will be the people of the Stirling Council area, who after rejecting Labour at the ballot box will nonetheless see Labour entrenched at the helm of Stirling Council ... The people of Stirling will rightly feel betrayed by this treacherous Labour/Tory alliance.""

It seems that this statement is either downright misleading or portrays a lack of understanding of the electoral system. The elections were held under STV, a form of proportional representation. The simple idea is that the party or parties with a majority of seats thereby represent the majority of voters.

Ok, it's true that no one voted for a Labour-Conservative coalition, but the Labour and Conservative councillors between them represent more people than the SNP alone. It's not clear in what sense he can say that the people of Stirling rejected Labour, except in so far as Labour failed to win a majority, but that is true also of the SNP.

Simply being the largest single party does not give one the right to govern. Suppose we had one centre-right party with 40% support and two centre-left parties each with 30% support. Here we should expect the latter two to form a coalition government and, in doing so, they would be representing the majority of the people.

Disclaimer: I don't know the exact breakdown of the vote in Stirling, nor how the redistribution of preferences went to arrive at the final outcome, but the difference between SNP (9 seats) and Labour (8 seats) could be negligible. Even if it's not, the above points still stand. Proportional representation is intended to realize majority rule, whereas non-proportional systems of representation allow sizable minorities to wield disproportionate power.

Paid to Quit

Apparently a study in Dundee found that people who were paid incentives to stop smoking were more likely to succeed in giving up. Since the incentive was not the only help provided, it's not necessarily the case that it was the effective element, but it does seem to do some good. Interesting, I suppose, given that it requires some capacity for delayed gratification.

Electoral System Watch

I've just finished teaching my module on Democratic Theory. When discussing the plurality run-off method, I used French presidential elections as my example, though there voting takes place in two distinct stages. It seems, however, that the London mayoral elections use the plurality run-off method, as the BBC report here:

"With no candidate set to get 50% of votes, the top two go into a second round, where the second choices of those who voted for the five eliminated candidates are reallocated."

In related news, local elections were also held in Scotland, using the STV method (see the end of this report on results or this Q&A).

Readers may remember that I backed the 'Yes to AV' campaign in our recent referendum on electoral reform. Though there are some problems with AV, I think the three main arguments that swung the referendum were: i) under AV the 'loser' wins; ii) under AV some people get more votes; and iii) AV is too complicated/expensive. I don't think any of those arguments are good ones, and the links given will take you to my rebuttals of the first two. But the interesting point is that all of those arguments apply at least as well to STV, but I don't hear anyone round here complaining about it...

Lectureship in Environmental Politics @ Stirling

Fancy being my colleague? Work in environmental politics and policy? More details here.

Stirling Research in the News

We've been thinking lately about REF submissions and impact statements. It's nice to report that I've seen research from the University of Stirling featured in two recent BBC stories: First, research on the Curriculum for Excellence in schools. Second, news that even mild exercise, such as a brisk walk, can help combat depression. Now we just need to encourage the BBC to report more on research in philosophy...

Leiter Philosophy Journals Poll

I've reported before on various journal rankings, so I thought it worth noting that Brian Leiter is running a new poll via his blog (voting form here) seeking to identify the best 'general' philosophy journals. I've been thinking that I should probably send some of my work to such general journals, rather than the specialist political philosophy journals, so I'll certainly be keeping an eye out for the results.

Fish in Trees

I assume many people have seen the Einstein quote about fish climbing trees meme. Well, here's an amusing little feature from The Onion that reminded me of it. According to the (hoax) story, scientists have found that dolphins perform less well in a variety of intelligence tests on land and in fact even exhibit a negative learning curve! Yes, I know dolphins aren't actually fish. Still, in conjunction perhaps these two pieces remind us that a lot of what we consider 'intelligence' is really contextual and that someone who performs well in one set of conditions may not do so well had certain features of their environment been different. The kind of lesson situationist psychology has been teaching, to say nothing of quasi-Rawlsian scepticism about talent and desert.

University Competition

The point of allowing a (limited) market in the higher education sector, I thought, was that competition would drive up academic standards. As those familiar with the US would attest, however, the problem with this is that the consumers in question (students) don't necessarily respond to academic standards in their spending decisions: rather, their money goes to the universities offering the best 'student experience'. Thus, we see universities competing to offer the best accommodation, sports teams, or even nightlife, rather than well-stocked libraries or knowledgeable teachers (things that, even if would-be students were interested in, they would not be in a position to assess). This point is not original to me, but I notice that it seems that these predictions are being borne out as universities seek to build plush campus hotels, at the same time as making cuts to academic budgets and offering staff another below-inflation pay 'rise'...

Joint Sessions

The 2012 Joint Sessions (of the Mind Association and Aristotelian Society) will be held in Stirling this July. This is the UK's biggest professional philosophy conference. The website has just gone live and registration will soon be open (from 1st April). On that note: (fairly hefty) late registration fee will apply after the end of May. I should also encourage delegates to pay by debit, rather than credit, cards where possible: although the cost to the delegate is the same, credit cards incur a processing fee which means we lose money that would otherwise have gone to a registered charity (i.e. University of Stirling - and through us also to the Mind Association and Aristotelian Society).

Hiatus

Eek, it's been over a month since my last post. I've not been abducted by aliens, or given up blogging, but I have in that intervening time bought a house (and moved in to it). Normal service should be resumed shortly...

Lotteries Are Gambling

I happened to glance through the Metro today, whilst waiting for an appointment, and noticed a feature on lotteries. It actually draws on Prof Mark Griffiths, from Nottingham Trent University, to deliver this shocking statement "Prof Griffiths believes lotteries are a form of gambling". I wonder if that counts as impact?

CRGS Tops Table

I'm pleased to see that my old secondary school, Colchester Royal Grammar School, has topped A-level league tables for the sixth year running.

Downsizing Lottery

A US Court once judged that, where there were too many people at sea for lifeboats, places should be allocated randomly (United States v Holmes, reported in this paper by John Broome). No, this post isn't about the recent Costa Concordia disaster - where the captain apparently tripped and fell into a lifeboat, without a lottery - but rather about the recent news that street cleaners in Edinburgh were downsized by lottery. This has, it seems, proven controversial and the workers in question have apparently been reinstated until a more acceptable basis can be found to determine who to lay off. Odd, I think, that a lottery should be a fair way to make life-or-death decisions, but not to decide who suffers the fate of unemployment...

Football B Teams

So Andrea Villas-Boas has apparently suggested that Premier League teams be allowed to field reserve/B teams in the lower leagues. And it seems that David Moyes even tried to register an Everton reserve side in the Conference. Didn't Benitez suggest this kind of thing years ago (to some criticism, even ridicule)? Of course, that several people share an idea doesn't mean it's necessarily a good one, but it seems to work on Spain. Perhaps it's worth some debate...

Selling Votes

John Holbo has an interesting post on buying and selling votes over on Crooked Timber. Not many comments yet, but hopefully it will provoke a debate that's worth following...

Peer Review

I've just been updating my CV and, in the process, took a tally of the number of articles I'd reviewed each year. I didn't keep careful records but, by my reckoning, in 2008 (the year I completed my doctorate) I reviewed one article, in 2009 I reviewed four articles, in 2010 I reviewed 8 articles, and last year (2011) I reviewed 15 articles and a book manuscript. So far this year, I've already reviewed one article and committed to two more. Is this going to be an exponentially growing demand upon my time I wonder?

A Conversation on Philosophy

The blog's been awfully quiet lately, with me being busy with marking and then away for Christmas and New Year (though the fact that it no longer reaches readers via Facebook is also a downside), but here's an interesting report of a conversation about the nature and value of philosophy, pitched towards a 'layperson'.

100% Pie

PHD Comics - which I've previously described as Dilbert for graduate students - doesn't seem to get updated as often these days. Not that it's moribund, but rather than Jorge Cham is busy with various other projects, including a movie based on the comic and international appearances. Bit of a shame really.

Anyway there's a new strip yesterday, which I found deeply dissatisfying. It's not that I don't get the point, but I'm surprised that science PhD students would produce such inept pie charts. This information isn't at all appropriate for pie charts, because the categories aren't exclusive. A show on National Geographic might be debunking myths about dinosaurs, for instance. Even worse, I can't comprehend only 45% of programmes on The Science Channel being either about science or not about science. I'd fail an undergraduate who produced these graphs...