One of the first rules of setting up a political lobby group is that you should have a name which defies opposition. Who in their right mind would be against "Citizens For Prosperity" or "The People's Democratic Society" or "Ministry of Peace" - why only a violent Communist! That's who! It is this spirit that the "TaxPayers' Alliance" was named. We're all tax payers, aren't we? It's so wide a…
Continue reading →
Eric Joyce MP has written about why he doesn't think the vote should be extended to 16 year olds. While I've admired his stance on digital rights, I disagree with him and his reasoning on this issue. This isn't about whether young people are able to understand the issues, or whether they are taxed without representation, or even if they are somehow "mature". We vote because the direction of…
Continue reading →
As I was driving to work today, I noticed I was being tailgated. The driver seemed distracted by some electronic gizmo and wasn't paying much attention to his surroundings. I started to take a note of the car's numberplate when all of a sudden the front grill exploded with flashing blue lights, a siren started howling, and the vehicle sped off. "Ah," I thought, "so that's what an unmarked…
Continue reading →
A few years ago, I went to a recording of Mark Thomas' "Manifesto" radio show. Members of the audience can suggest humorous changes to the law and society that they would like to see enacted, and the rest of the audience votes on whether they're good enough - or funny enough - to be in a proposed election manifesto. My manifesto suggestion was very simple - every time you visit an MP, it should…
Continue reading →
I wrote this before the Presidential election. I didn't publish it because it looked like Obama was going to win without my help. Also, it feels unseemly to meddle in another country's politics. Recent events have stirred me into posting. I don't know much about Mitt Romney's position on gun control. It doesn't seem to have come up much in the run up to the election. I can, I think, infer…
Continue reading →
One of the most pernicious memes is "If you have nothing to hide, you have nothing to fear." It implies that the only reasons for opposing a law is that you would find yourself guilty under it. The phrases is, I think, a contender for a new form of Godwin's Rule. Any discussion about laws eventually boils down to "Only a criminal would oppose this measure." The annoying thing is, it's…
Continue reading →
In October, I was interviewed in Econsultancy about the BBC's new "responsive" website. I said: The BBC's mobile site is fairly responsive. If you view it on different sized phones and tablets it adapts quite well. But it is an entirely separate site from the main BBC news site. The BBC are doing device detection and redirecting mobile users. It's not a bad strategy per se - but it is not…
Continue reading →
I remarked earlier about Helen Goodman MP and her total lack of technical knowledge. An MP being a bit behind the times isn't the greatest shock - but she's Labour's Shadow Minister for Culture, Media, and Sport - that's a big deal! This year, Claire Perry MP produced an "independent" report into online child protection. By "independent" I mean "produced by vested interests including religious …
Continue reading →
"This Is Not A Film" by Iranian director Jafar Panahi, who is under house arrest in his country for alleged “propaganda against the regime,” will be screened under the Free Jafar Panahi Program of the 13th Cinemanila. The film was smuggled from Iran in a Flash-Drive hidden inside a cake to Cannes for screening a few months back. Manila Bulletin This is a microSD card. Currently on sale in the …
Continue reading →
What if they gave a war and nobody came? Why, then, the war would come to you! -- Bertolt Brecht The current Conservative Government (and their Labour predecessors) are obsessed with the idea of competition. Their theory is that competition lowers prices, improves services, and makes the world more efficient. The free market will arrive at an optimal solution for everything. In some cases,…
Continue reading →
No one would have believed in the first years of the twenty-first century that the online world was being watched keenly and closely by intelligences lesser than man's and yet as mortal as his own; that as men busied themselves about their various blogs they were scrutinised and studied, perhaps almost as narrowly as a woman with a microscope might scrutinise the transient creatures that swarm…
Continue reading →
I want to clear up a small misunderstanding Yesterday, I Tweeted: Terence Eden is on Mastodon@edent#PICONF12 Andy Smith says "never use your real details online" - Martin Hewitt not looking best pleased. Nor the other MP in the room.❤️ 3💬 0🔁 009:50 - Thu 25 October 2012 In the space of a few hours, the story was on the BBC: And Slashdot: I was at the Parliament and Internet Conference yes…
Continue reading →
