Why is Jenni Russell praising Cameron Come Lately?
Jenni Russell has written an article attacking ContactPoint, the much maligned national children’s database that the government are still insisting on trotting out. The only problem is, she has written it as a piece of Tory hagiography.
We might be able to let her off the title – Another invasion of liberty. And only the Tories are alert – as a bit of subbing hyperbole. I’ve written enough articles for newspapers over the years to know this happens. But she can’t blame the sub for the final paragraph:
Labour will not reverse this; only the Tories might. They promise to review CAF database, ditch ContactPoint for a small, targeted database, and invest in strengthening people’s relationships instead. It’s depressing that Labour supporters who believe in liberties, privacy and humanity should find themselves having to cheer the Tories on this issue.
Was the Euro-result a flash in the pan?
There was only one story following the recent elections to the European Parliament – the success of the parties of the far right (UKIP and the BNP). Unlike most contributors and commenters on LC, I have consistently argued that the votes for these parties should be seen as a bloc. Campaigning against the BNP – as the left and indeed the centre-right for that matter have focussed on – probably merely had the effect of shifting a few votes from the party seen as wingnuts to the one seen as (relatively) more respectable.
Some evidence for my view has now emerged in the form of a mega-poll conducted – apparently as the result of an internal commission – by the on-line pollster YouGov. I say “mega poll” because its sample size was over 32,000 – about twenty times that of an “ordinary” opinion poll. This large size was necessary to achieve enough BNP (and UKIP) respondents to make analysis of their views statistically respectable. As with almost all contemporary polls, it has been “weighted” to match the demographic characteristics of respondents to those of the population at large.
Introducing Magna Carta 2.0 – our way forward
You want to know where we go from here? We need a new Magna Carta. Sunny recently said he wanted “an insurgency to take our rights back from the state”. This now includes our right to honest government, though I think we always knew that. The emphasis needs to be on achieving this.
In February the Convention on Modern Liberty in London and across the UK showed a clear public concern with the threat of authoritarian power and a hunger to debate and confront it in an intelligent and democratic way. Guy Aitchison, Clare Coatman and Tom Ash are, from today, launching Magna Carta 2.0 with the aim of taking the spirit and intelligence of the day to the country.
continue reading… »
Report: Govt has lost control of database state
A quarter of all databases are fundamentally flawed and must be scapped, says a landmark study out today.
The first ever comprehensive map of Britain’s database state today reveals how the database obsession of government has left officials struggling to control billions of records of our most personal details and almost every contact we have with the agencies set up to serve and protect us.
continue reading… »
Why we need to protect Congo’s civilians, now
Eastern Congo is aflame again – but so far all we have from the world is talk and precious little action to show for it. It’s time to change that, if we don’t want a repeat of the failures of the Rwandan genocide, ethnic cleansing in Yugoslavia and previous genocides in DRC. In the last three weeks alone, hundreds of thousands have been made refugees, rape, murder and pillage has surged, children have been abducted and pressed into militias… and the situation may be sliding into regional war, with talk of the countries who tore Congo apart before sending forces on either side.
The UN has voted to approve over 3000 reinforcements for its peacekeeping presence. But that force is in disarray, discredited by its failure to protect civilians and its closeness to brutal government troops — and no-one is yet offering to provide reinforcements.
The people of Congo, NGOs and former UN peacekeeping heads agree – only Europe looks able to act fast enough to put in a capable, neutral force to protect the vulnerable.
That’s why we at Avaaz among others have been campaigning with increasing urgency for a European force to protect eastern Congo’s civilians – and it would really help for the blogosphere to pile in.
continue reading… »
‘Communities in Control’ – the bloggers’ consultation begins!
A big thanks to all of you who volunteered to contribute to our series on the ‘Communities in Control’ white paper – it looks like we’re off and running!
Here’s a run-down of who’s been delegated to do what:
continue reading… »
Never mind about Parliament, Hazel: what about actually giving real power to real people?
Forget Hazel Blears’ ill-considered assault on ‘nihilistic’ blogging, in her speech to the Hansard Society this week: let’s consider instead her attack on politicians who live on ‘Planet Politics’:
… there is a trend towards politics being seen as a career move rather than call to public service. Increasingly we have seen a ‘transmission belt’ from university activist, MPs’ researcher, think-tank staffer, Special Adviser, to Member of Parliament, and ultimately to the front bench. Now, there’s nothing wrong with any of those jobs, but it is deeply unhealthy for our political class to be drawn from narrowing social base and range of experience.
Few people will disagree with her analysis. Indeed, ‘The Rise of the Career Politician’ (Peter Riddell, 1993) and ‘The Triumph of the Political Class’ (Peter Oborne, 1997) has been the subject of two (very different) books. Much of the hand-wringing, as ever when hands are wrung, is overwrought: a narrow political class is not a modern political phenomenon. It’s simply that the narrow class which dominates politics has changed over time. continue reading… »
Responding positively to cynicism and Hazel Blears – volunteers wanted!
There has been a concerted outcry online here, there, and everywhere about Hazel Blears’ attack on the the role of the blogging community since her speech to the Hansard Society earlier this week, but it strikes me that this exposes a massive irony in the dumbed-down manner of current political debate and it begins to take on the appearance of another headline-grabbing politician shooting themselves in the foot. How can she ever expect to foster greater engagement through the practical measures she ostensibly advocates, in her white paper ‘Communities in Control’, when she abuses and insults the contribution made by commenters and commentators in the blogosphere – aren’t we actually among the key groups of people to whom she should have made her appeal?
Is this the end of the age of cynicism?
Barack Obama has built enormous levels of goodwill in the manner of his emphatic election victory and claimed in the opening stanzas of his victory speech that it represented a triumph of hope over cynicism (”It’s the answer that led those who’ve been told for so long by so many to be cynical and fearful and doubtful about what we can achieve to put their hands on the arc of history and bend it once more toward the hope of a better day.”)
In the enthusiasm of the moment, some commentators (among them the BBC’s own Matt Frei) went so far as to claim his victory has overturned a political consensus held for a generation: that negative campaigning is the only way to win – the lunatic assassination plot against Obama can be cited as one extreme example of the nature of reactions that may be inadvertently encouraged by negativity, and this may in fact be the best argument against negativism.
Blears on Blogging–Cluelessness or Wilful Ignorance?
Hazel Blears today gave an intriguing, wide ranging speech on a number of topics that I found interesting, thought provoking and mostly agreeable[1]. Unsurprisingly, the media has chosen to highlight the minor area of the speech in which she is both woefully misinformed and completely inaccurate. It is, naturally, the bit in which she talks about blogging [2].
So what was wrong with 42-days?
The real issue with 42 days is that the Government has failed to make a convincing case for extending detention without charge by any number of days, let alone 42 – and its ‘arguments’, such as they are, are equally applicable to indefinite detention, which (strangely) isn’t on the table – yet it continues to press the issue.
Any proposal to extend this period smacks of an attempt to outflank the other parties. Opponents have been accused of “playing politics” and “trivial grandstanding” – well, six weeks detention isn’t trivial, and caring about the rights of suspects isn’t playing politics.
The argument that there are lots of mobile phones, computer disks, paperwork etc to examine seems a little specious: we know from computer analysts that the police aren’t particularly selective, that they seem to prefer fishing expeditions; also, we don’t need to hold someone while we examine their effects, and we don’t need to return this evidence after 28 or 42 days. This seems more of a question of man-hours and being more clever about searches. As for encryption, apparently you can forget about breaking decent encryption in a reasonable amount of time, so that’s equally an argument for 42 years as it is for 42 days.
Northern Ireland women on Northern Ireland and abortion
Before Sunny went to the USA, he and I created a Liberal Conspiracy photo gallery for photo articles and essays on some of the people and issues we’re covering at LC.
I’ve used it to post a collection of pictures of and quotes from some of the Northern Ireland women who are campaigning to have abortion rights extended to Northern Ireland when parliament votes on Abortion Act amendments at the report stage of the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Bill. The women speak for themselves, which is surely at least as good as me ranting.
You’ll see that they are concerned that the great Gordon Brown has already done for their chances of a Yes vote by agreeing to an anti abortion deal with the Demoractic Unionists in exchange for the DUP’s support on 42 days’ detention.
They also talk about the role they expect Westminster to play in Northern Ireland, and about their disappointment in Stormont.
The gallery sits on my hangbitch site at the moment, and with a variety of logos, because we didn’t manage to integrate the gallery at LC before Sunny left. We’ll sort that out when he gets back.
I’ve also added audios of all the speakers at last week’s pro choice lobby at parliament.
Link to Northern Ireland photo gallery.
Abortion rights lobby: meeting notice
Hey all,
Quick reminder re: tonight’s meeting:
Oct 7th, 7pm, Committee room 11, House of Commons
Join Abortion Rights for an update on amendments tabled for the report stage of the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Bill, and to discuss the pro choice campaign.
Speakers: Diane Abbott MP, Annie Campbell – Alliance for Choice, Kay Carberry – TUC Assistant General Secretary, Katy Clark MP, Katie Curtis NUS, Evan Harris MP, Jacqui Lait MP; Wendy Savage – Doctors for a Woman’s Choice on Abortion, Dr Audrey Simpson – fpa Northern Ireland, Polly Toynbee – Guardian commentator.
More at Abortion Rights.
Back on abortion
I had a very useful chat with Abortion Rights campaign co-ordinator Louise Hutchins last week: the time fast approaches for the report stage of the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Bill – and for fighting attendant dingbat anti-choice amendments to the Abortion Act.
And there are plenty of them this time round, people – each more patronising to us girls than the last. What a display they make, too: you rarely see such a memorable range of turds outside of safari.
Floating atop the pile is the legendary Edward Leigh’s proposal to implement a compulsory cooling-off period of seven days for women who want abortions – Ed, I guess, having finally bought into the long-held – if unproven – pro-life theory that when you shriek a faceful of Jesus at a woman for a calendar week, her maternal instinct replaces all her other ones. continue reading… »
Second Life event at Labour Conference
I’ve just had word that one of the SMF’s conference fringe events will be streamed into Second Life on Monday morning. I know that politicians in the US have held events in Second Life, but we think this will be a first in the UK.
The event is titled Public Sector 2.0: How can emerging information technologies improve public service delivery? and will feature contributions from Tom Watson MP and Jerry Fishenden from Microsoft. Watson is the Cabinet Office Minister responsible for E-Government, and of course one of the first MPs to inaugurate his own blog.
Abort Gordon
Evening all. Tremendous to see our comrades in the Green party embracing the notion of extending abortion rights to Northern Ireland when the Human Fertilisation and Embryology bill comes round for its third reading.
The part I’m really looking forward to, though, is watching our comrades in the Labour party try to reconcile any push for Northern Ireland abortion rights with the undoubtedly high expectations of their new and highly reactionary pals in the Democratic Unionist party. Can’t WAIT to see the great Harriet Harman – our very own self-proclaimed champion of women’s rights – pull that one out of her butt. What a result that’ll be for perversion.
You’ll remember the DUP, of course, and the unpalatable details of its recent, greasy love-in with Labour. You’ll remember that DUP MPs agreed to vote with the government on 42 days’ detention, in exchange for – well, in exchange for absolutely nothing apart from job satisfaction if our glorious leader Gordon was telling the truth at the time. continue reading… »
Burnham on Basic Principles
Culture Secretary Andy Burnham calls for regulation of the Internet to protect the “vulnerable, the poor, and the weak.” From the title of the article, “In a Lawless zone, we must protect the vulnerable” one would think he is talking about paedophiles in chat-rooms, or the 180% rise in phishing, but in fact he is talking about copyright theft.
It is also contentious that the poor are being disadvantaged by the ‘lawless’ internet – One great advantage of the medium is that it reduces the financial barriers of entry into any given business. Putting online regulation in place will surely restore those barriers. Indeed, the proposals to introduce some kind of licence fee to download music looks like a revenue generator for record companies, rather than a measure to help young and creative people who are just starting out, and giving away their music free on MySpace.
But for entirely different reasons, it was the following quote hat caught my eye:
Nothing can be accepted as inevitable. Though technology moves quickly, we can’t abandon basic principles that have stood society in good stead for centuries.
Wasn’t this the precise argument against 42 days detention!?
Davis and Greens win big in Haltemprice
David Davis has won the by-election, according to Sky News, with a total of 17,113 votes. The Green Party’s Shan Oakes came second with 1,758 votes, which is also great news.
A BBC News article says turnout was at 35%, much higher than expected and very high for a single-issue election.
Worth noting:
The turnout was comparable to most by-elections.
This was a single issue by-election;
It faced a lot of hostility from the media
It was a very safe seat and Davis had no opponents who could unseat him.
That makes a 35% turnout much higher than expected.
continue reading… »
Public opinion is not behind 42 days
Gordon Brown is on shakier ground than he thinks on 42 days pre-charge detention for people suspected of terrorist offences.
On the eve of the Haltemprice and Howden by-election, a new ICM poll conducted for the Joseph Rowntree Reform Trust shows most people (60%) think terrorist suspects should be held without charge for no more than the current limit – 4 weeks, or 28 days.
The poll questions on which he relies for his populist gesture politics with our civil liberties ask people whether terrorist suspects should be held for up to 42 days, questions that by their very nature do not fully reflect the possible innocence of those held nor the length of time that they may be held in custody.
continue reading… »
Fifth Estate or Democratic Tool?
When we think about blogging and the development of human interactions through the web, it is easy to assume some kind of historical determinism. The Internet is one huge sandbox, with new blogs and campaigning sites being launched all the time. Most peter out (I’ve been involved in a couple of those myself) but others persist, and grow. This trial-and-error approach suggests that we are at least inching towards a more sophisticated and empowering blogosphere, which exercises more influence over politics and therefore the direction this country is headed.
The Blog Nation event earlier this week raised some of the key issues that the Left needs to answer in order to become more effective online. As I crouched in the front row of the event, rubbing my temples and trying to think of answers, the following thought occurred to me: What if this is all there is? By which I mean, perhaps it is impossible to become much more organized. I refrained from articulating this thought at the time, but it did seem a deft, if nihilistic way of avoiding giving an answer to some of the questions posed, above. Perhaps there is no historical determinism to any of this, and we are not destined to develop anything significantly more efficient than what we have now.
Now I don’t know whether I really believe things to be so hopeless, but if its true it may not be such a bad thing. Rather than grandiose ideas of the blogosphere become some kind of Fifth Estate, perhaps we should aspire to nothing more than another tool for the people to use in checking the power of the elite (both elected representatives and others who hold positions of influence).
Of course we should ask how existing bloggers and activists can work better together, but that is just oiling the machine, rather than inventing a new one. A more important focus is to try to increase access to the new information and opinion that is appearing online. Just as increasing literacy strengthens democracy and promote equality, so computer literacy can strengthen it too. So, my suggestion for the next open source campaign – introduce one relative, friend or colleague to blogging each month. This need not mean forcing them to set up their own blog. Instead, just a gentle explanation of the power of RSS, and the suggestion that they bookmark one – just one – of the fine sites listed here.
Ever so slightly longer version cross posted at my own corner.
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» How bad is the feline obesity crisis?
» Why don’t MPs pay back tuition fees instead of increasing ours?
» Obama is right to slam BP – and why capitalists should too
» Why does Phillip Blond see civic cohesion as a security issue?
» So what if the Labour candidates went to Oxbridge?
» Last night’s Labour hustings: will it get interesting or turn to torture?
» It’s now down to Ken to win London for Labour
» The Labour people need
» Blog Nation: what would you like to see discussed?
» The Labour leadership’s token contender.. and it’s not Diane Abbott
» In defence of these fraternal nominations
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