Democracy sausage for all

Various links relating to Australian politics (or, more specifically, the Australian electoral system) have come into my orbit in the past couple of days, so I thought I'd gather them in one place, because they touch on things I've been chatting with people here about in the past couple of weeks. (lirazel and kore, in various comment threads, if I recall correctly.)

( Politics and voting systems behind the cut )

Well I get a little scared

And, like much of the rest of Europe, back we go into lockdown. To be honest, given I've been working from home throughout the entire period in which the lockdown was supposedly lifted, and barely left the house, not much in my immediate life will change. What's more worrying is that this second lockdown is happening without the furlough scheme. Don't get me wrong, we absolutely need to go into lockdown — there were more than 20,000 new cases in the past twenty-four hours — but we can't just close the entire retail and hospitality sector with a shrug of the shoulders. (Edited to add that it looks like the furlough scheme is being relaunched for workers in the affected industries, so that's at least one positive.)

I've spent most of this morning prodding at my Yuletide assignment. I think I've written about a third of it, although I was focusing more on just vomiting words out onto the page, so what exists will need substantial editing. I always find it easier to just write as quickly as possible, and focus on the editing later, though, so I feel like I'm moving at exactly the right speed.

In terms of a media roundup for this month, I've not finished very much in the way of TV — just two shows (although Matthias and I have a lot of ongoing series on the go at the moment).

( Two TV shows and a book )

( A video essay about Fury Road costuming, and the latest bizarre real estate listing )

I hope everyone's being kind to themselves in these darkening days.