Because I'm dead fancy and know lots of mega-important people, I occasionally get to go to swanky places. A few weeks ago, I was invited to the House of Lords for a high-powered business meeting about important stuff. The best meetings take place in opulent surroundings, so we adjourned to The Woolsack - a bar nestled deep within the Lords. As a prolific user of Untappd - the social network for beer drinkers - I'm always on the lookout for a beer I've never met before. So I was delighted to…
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I was listening to the excellent RHLSTP - because I am one of the cool kids - when the guest, Richard Bacon, made a curious confession about his adventures bringing News Bunny to the State Opening of Parliament. I got a letter from Black Rod - who runs both houses […] and it says that I am banned for life from the House of Commons and the House of Lords. It's at the 7 minute 20 mark on the video - or listen to the whole thing on SoundCloud. "Hmmm…" I wondered, "Who else has been banned fro…
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This is part 1 of a series of blog posts looking at the security of the UK Government's web infrastructure. The UK Parliament website is pretty great. It houses a huge amount of historical information, lets people easily see what's happening in the Commons and the Lords, and is run by some really clever people. That's why it's so depressing to see such a basic error as this XSS flaw in their search engine. What Is XSS? Briefly, some websites will let you display or run arbitrary code…
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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 cost you £5 or £10. If you want to go and speak to your MP you have to hand her a crisp new note. T…
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This weekend, I went to Rewired State's Parliament hackday. I teamed up with amazing front end designer Max Bye and statistician par excellence John Sandall to create a data visualisation of Parliament's Demographics. Are the houses representative of the people in terms of gender diversity? Are the Labour Party younger than the Conservatives? Are the parties in the Lords particularly dissimilar? You can play with the hack or watch a video demonstration. Each bubble represents a…
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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 groups". It makes for pretty tedious reading, however you may get a laugh from the antics of our…
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As part of the Parliament and Internet Conference, there was a panel discussion about 4G networks. These are my notes on the session. I've applied the Chatham House Rule - mostly because I can't remember who said what, rather than any backroom skulduggery. Any errors are mine and mine alone. Neither Vodafone nor EE have signed up to the Network Neutrality pledge. O2 have. (Disclaimer, I work for Telefonica, these thoughts are my own.) The Open Internet Code of Practice is the Government’s n…
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Two years ago I was severely annoyed at Labour's Andy Burnham for his plans to censor the net. Today, I am equally annoyed at the Conservative's Ed Vaizey for a similarly corruptible scheme. I don't have the money to lobby bribe donate to the Conservative party. I'm too scared of the police attempting to kill protesters to go and stand up for my beliefs. What can I do that will make me feel smug and self-righteous yet won't involve me having to go outside in the snow? It is, I understand,…
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