Wednesday, February 27, 2019

How Brexit has created four new political factions


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The Guardian Data Visualization – How Brexit has created four new political factions – Analysis of Commons voting patterns show how Europhobe and Europhile rebels from both main parties are forming new parliamentary blocs
“Our study clusters MPs by the similarity of their voting patterns: if two MPs always vote the same way, the chart groups them tightly together. The patterns on key Brexit votes reveal the emergence of four cross-party political factions that are wrangling for control of the negotiations. A cross-party group of pro-European MPs usually votes with each other, with or against their own frontbenches, while Europhobe Conservatives now constitute a party within the party. Search for your MP to see which faction they were most closely aligned with as the Brexit votes unfolded…”

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The Minister and the Official, a report from a UK Parliamentary Inquiry on the relationship between ministers and the Civil Service explains that the relationship between ministers and their officials is the “fulcrum” of the Westminster system of government.


After the funerals, the friends and family stood around looking at the ground. We assured each other that there was nothing anybody could have done for the ­deceased. It’s true, but it’s cold comfort. We play back the last moments, the last time we spoke, our last interactions. Were there signs? Maybe. Even if we knew, what could anyone do? Addiction is a sneaky disease, and addicts can get very good at hiding the fact that they are afflicted.
The range of the afflicted has expanded. My friend was a college graduate with parents who loved her. These kinds of details shouldn’t matter when we talk about people who die young, but for so long we were able to dismiss this epidemic as something that happens to other people — the ones alone, without family, without love. The last few years have exploded this misconception. The epidemic has been moving ever closer to us all.



To be effective, it is a relationship in each case that must quickly develop to one of strong mutual trust. In the absence of trust, this fulcrum can become a fault line or fracture point.


Under these circumstances, honest conversations do not take place and this affects the atmosphere throughout the whole department. In the end, policy and delivery suffer.


2. A study from The Aspen Institute, which shows there is a crisis of trust in American democracy, offers findings equally applicable to Australia.

Why is there a loss of faith in democratic institutions?

  • Government appears gridlocked and unresponsive amid large-scale global shocks and serious domestic challenges
  • Politics is sharply polarised
  • The gap between the wealthy and the poor continues to grow, with declining prospects for upward mobility
  • The public lacks faith that the news media are accurate and unbiased, and show declining trust in news media as a category
  • Technology is overwhelming individuals’ ability to find trustworthy news
  • Misinformation and disinformation are spreading virally, sometimes by innocent sharing, sometimes with malice
An inability to agree on facts with unwelcome facts is labeled as ‘fake’.




Poynter: “In mid-March, a European Commission high-level group published its final report on misinformation, drawing upon the input of experts from around the world who gathered over several weeks to help the European Union figure out what to do about misinformation. The report created by the high-level group — announced in November to help the EU craft policies to address growing concern about misinformation in Europe — contains an inclusive, collaborative approach to addressing misinformation around the world (Disclosure: Poynter attended the meetings as one of the experts). The report, while imperfect, explicitly recommends not regulating against misinformation — but the EU is only one of many governing bodies that have sought to stem the flow of online misinformation over the past few months. Spanning from Brazil to South Korea, these efforts raise questions about infringing free speech guarantees and are frequently victims of uncertainty. The muddying of the definition of fake news, the relative reach of which is still being studied, hinders governments’ ability to accomplish anything effective. In the spirit of this confusion, explained in detail in a recent Council of Europe report, Poynter has created a guide for existing attempts to legislate against what can broadly be referred to as online misinformation. While not every law contained here relates to misinformation specifically, they’ve all often been wrapped into that broader discussion. We have attempted to label different interventions as clearly as possible. Since these efforts seem to be announced weekly, this article will be updated on an ongoing basis. If you catch an error or know of an update in one of our summaries, email dfunke@poynter.org or use the Google Form at the bottom of this page and we’ll update as soon as possible.”