Peter Bye

Archives for Political structures

Kakistocracy revisted

September 8, 2020

In September 2017, I posted a blog called The rise of the kakistocracy[1] . As I explained there, the word means government by the worst, the most stupid, ignorant and unqualified people. It wasn’t hard to find examples then, such Venezuela and Zimbabwe, to name just two; it’s even easier today, unfortunately. In 2017, I… » read more

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Covid-19 pandemic, Defending democracy, Political structures, UK in Europe, Uncategorized

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A sense of perspective

November 11, 2019

As I write, the political parties in the UK are beginning their campaigns for a general election, to be held on the 12th December. It’s the first December general election since 1923; December elections are generally avoided because of the weather and small amounts of daylight. The past few weeks have seen the government agree… » read more

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Global Europe, Political structures, UK in Europe

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Is liberalism obsolete?

July 23, 2019

In an interview with the Financial Times[1], Vladimir Putin claimed that liberalism was obsolete: ‘…the Russian president said “the liberal idea” had “outlived its purpose” as the public turned against immigration, open borders and multiculturalism’. He made the following statement. ‘This liberal idea presupposes that nothing needs to be done (about immigration). That migrants can… » read more

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Global Europe, Political structures, UK in Europe

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Governing the UK

February 20, 2019

In September 2017, I posted a blog called ‘The rise of the kakistocracy’. Kakistocracy means government by the worst[1]: the most incompetent people are in power. When I wrote the piece, there was no shortage of candidate kakistocracies; Venezuela and Zimbabwe provided two rather extreme examples out of many. But what about the western democracies?… » read more

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Political structures, UK in Europe

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The rise of the kakistocracy?

September 5, 2017

I was recently looking around for a word to describe government by the incompetent, rather as, for example, kleptocracy is government by thieves. I googled ‘government by the incompetent’ and was rewarded with the magnificent word in the title of this piece. Kakistocracy means government by the worst[1], from the Greek kakistos meaning worst and… » read more

Posted by pbye

Political structures, UK in Europe, Uncategorized

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Peter Bye

Promoting respect for facts and numbers.

Making decisions, especially about strategy, requires respect for facts. A long career in IT around the world has reinforced this view, particularly recent work I have done on cost/benefit analysis. Yet all too often, we see facts ignored or misrepresented if they are inconvenient to governments, political parties and business organisations. The consequences are serious. I’d like to promote evidence-based policy, not the other way round.


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