Policy formation can be the product of vested interests persuading politicians, or their delegates, with no knowledge of the subject to adopt measures that sound plausible to a public with as little comprehension.
Is solar power really green?
Have compulsory seat belts or crash helmets really saved lives? At all?
This website is a response to a media that does not want to hear.
Calls to raise the minimum age for driving a car occur when there is media attention on high profile accidents involving the young. Evidence is usually ignored and obvious questions remain unanswered. This article examines the effects of raising the driving age using lessons learned from raising the motorcycling age in 1972.
As a member of the Political Studies Association, I presented a paper at this specialist group conference on the difference between the public understanding of the passage of legislation in the House of Commons and the reality. This includes the amount of legislation passed with a tiny proportion of members voting or ‘on the nod’ because a quorum is not present.
As a further development of my conference paper at Warwick University in 1999, I presented this paper at Sussex.