I heard someone on the radio advocating road pricing. I'm in favour of this, so I've added an article on road pricing to the Political Manifesto. My twist is that the money should go to maintenance of the road network, and any left over should be divided up equally between …

Well I was boiling some red cabbage and potato and I was about to pour away the juice. Then I thought, 'Hugh Fearnly-thingamygig wouldn't have thrown it away'. So I saved it to drink and it's actually really nice, and probably quite good for one.

The UK government has given permission for companies to build nuclear power stations. The government say that they will not be subsidised by the taxpayer. As long as they really aren't subsidised (including insurance) then that's okay with me, and I'll explain why.

Some complain that, 'the UK doesn't have …

An excellent film that brought up all sorts of moral questions. Boringly, the solution to the problem of conflict diamonds is good regulation. Since the diamond trade is international, it covers many jurisdictions and this makes regulation more difficult. So the meta solution is supra-national political entities such as the …

The Illearth War, the second book after Lord Foul's Bane is a bit more violent, but Covenent continues his tortured existence. I wonder if the author, Stephen Donaldson was beset by such angst? I think if I were in such a state I couldn't settle down and write a book …

An interview with William Poundstone convinced me to update the manifesto to say that my preferred voting system is Range Voting.

Btw, I remember William Poundstone from reading a book of his in the mid-eighties. Good book.

Tony, no disrespect to you, but I think you find it very difficult to question the difficulties of the system we live under, and use abstract unreal concepts like "free trade" " democracy" etc to avoid actually recognising and talking about them. It means we will never make any progress.
All …

I've made a new release of the Own-Id code. There's no single big change, just an accumulation of small things. At the suggestion of John Murray I've changed the 'about' page to a FAQ. Let me know what you think.

Own-Id fact: there are now 88 OpenIds on Own-Id.

I read the article, but I have to admit I didn't really understand it!

But to answer your question, I think that democracy is the most important, then state funding of political parties supports democracy. Free markets are a good idea that democratic governments should implement.

Possibly the last time I read a book in the fantasy genre was at school in the 4th and 5th year when I'd go to the library to escape the rough bullying types, and congregate with the weedy misfits. David Eddings was one author I remember. From what I see …