MatGB: Your Relationship And "The State"

So, the Law Commission is investigating the status of marriage. Jonny Nexus:

Why? As far as I'm concerned, any relationship that I'm in is purely the business of me and the other person concerned. If we want the government to get involved in our relationship, then we will go to an office of that government (i.e. a "registry office") and formally register our relationship with the state, with all the rights, responsibilities and limitations that this implies (i.e. "marriage").

Now there might be a case for allowing an alternative type of registration for those who have a problem with the word/concept of marriage. But I really think there is a very important principle here:

The right to get married must also include the right to not get married.

Is he right? Is this just another nannying intervention to help those who refuse to help themselves (or are too stupid, and believe in that "common law marriage" myth)?

On the one hand, I utterly do not care about Melanie Phillips's "undermine marriage" objection, but on the other, I really don't like the idea that it's automatic. The whole thing brought to mined an excellent post on a similar subject by Natalie from awhileback, Why modern marriage is unrealistic, and what should replace it:

I’d suggest that instead, “marriages” should be five-year rolling contracts, to be renewed or adapted at the expiration of each period, by mutual negotiation between the parties. They might allow for periods of living apart (say if one person wants to travel for a year and the other doesn’t; they might allow for someone setting up their own space in the house to be restricted to them for a certain times … whatever works for the couple.)

The terms of what happens at the end of the period should be agreed at the start.

Personally, I much prefer this idea. Let's get the state out of regulating our personal lives, and let us determine how, and who, we want to give the legal status of "next of kin", with all that entails.

Any thoughts?

Technorati tags: marriage, partnerships, nanny state

MatGB: Contact Alastair Campbell, artwork and BNP Cllr Simon Smith

Three more links

1. Alastair Campbell on eBay in order to raise money for Backing Blair
2. A great bit of related artwork from Garry
3. A selection of quotes from Cllr Simon Smith of Sandwell.

That last is a biggie, and very well compiled as well. For those that haven't subscribed to Unity's feeds yet, do so; Livejournallers will find his syndication here. I really have to break my 'block' and try to write something for Liberty Central, so far he's done all the work.

Technorati tags: Alastair Campbell, Backing Blair, NuLab, Racism, BNP, Simon Smith, Steve Freedom

MatGB: Linkdump - England and Nukes

Apart from the posts I linked to yesterday, there's also a fairly good discussion going on here at the CEP newsblog, and Iain has a suggestion as to the possible boundaries for sub-England adminisitrative units here. Iain? The TV regions? No. Especially given that HTV covers most of Wales and also bits of Devon and Somerset. OK, better than the godawful treasury boundaries, but still. Constructaregion is a nice little tool for comparative analysis - personally, I'd like to live in Lyonnesse.

Also, an interesting collection of quotes culled from the New Statesman on Nuclear Power; some dodgy lefty had a habit of making a big fuss about what a bad idea it all is:

"What is unbelievably depressing about the government's response, is that they see, in the evidence about greenhouse gases, not an opportunity to promote environmental concern, but a chance to make the case for nuclear power... Having made a big issue of the greenhouse effect, it became clear that energy efficiency was the best way to deal with it, but... the government's position has been characterised by a malign reluctance to have anything to do with the notion of energy conservation."

The lefty in question? Anthony Charles Lynton Blair. As Jack puts it:

It's amazing how selling out on all the principles you once held dear and having a bunch of mates in the nuclear power business can do for your views on the world, even when everything you said about it came true. Ah Mr Blair, you care not for us, our land, the people or the earth but filling the pockets of your friends, you really are the shadow of man devoid of any moral fiber or shred of integrity.

Personally, I've gone from the "no, no way, not ever" position to the "do we have a choice, we need to cut emmissions somehow" position, but I'm not, currently, in favour. From what I understand, the concrete and transportation costs are going toemit just as much as yer typical gas or coal fired station. But, it's not my area to discuss it any further.

Technorati tags: England, Devolution, English Parliament, Constitution, Reform, Tony Blair, Nuclear Power, U-turns

MatGB: English Devolution: how far?

Bishop Hill has followed up on my post from Friday about the need for reform of how England is governed:

I reckon in fact that the advent of an English Parliament would be good not only for the English but also for the Celtic fringe, in that the loss of their subsidies will force them to embrace business in the way that their brethren in Ireland have done.

How then to square this with the ideas that I have put forward here and at Liberty Central (and that MatGB seems to share) for devolution of power down to the lowest practicable levels? What is the point of an English Parliament if all the power resides at community level? It's hard to think of many areas of policy which would sit naturally at an England level were this kind of constitution to be enforced

He follows up with a discussion of Bondwoman's excellent post at the Sharpener and concludes:

The answer then appears to me to be that there may in fact be no need for an English Parliament, because the constitutional imbalance can be righted and more local government delivered, without it.

This is, essentially, my position; we need to localise power. That it is, as Stuart observed in the comments, "for the English to decide how their country is governed, not the Scots, not the Welsh and not the Northern Irish" is unarguable. Where I disagree with him is his desire to see an English Parliament first. I want a Convention that will discuss how we are governed, followed by a preferendum to the people asking them how they wish to be governed. That has to be an essential cause that all reformers can agree on, regardless of what actual outcome we want, right?

I'm not closing comments on this post, but I'd like to keep them all together either here where I asked the questions or on Bishop's post here if possible? Danke.

Technorati tags: England, Devolution, English Parliament, Constitution, Reform

MatGB: Mememememes

I don't do memes here. Memes are done on my journal. Even when everyone else is doing them. So even though DK, P-G and Katy have all done this one, I've done it elsewhere instead.

Technorati tagsearch: blogging, memes

TaKtiX: Britblog Roundup # 67

The weekly best of British is up at Tim's.

Technorati tags: Britblog, blogging

MatGB: Total Obedience Bill 2006

This is brilliant:

As part of the Total Obedience Bill 2006, the new Home Secretary, 'Dr' John Reid, will be given a shiny leather jacket and sweeping powers to ride around on a Harley Davidson motorbike brandishing a shotgun to deal with any would-be miscreants. Complaints from civil servants will also be dealt with swiftly.

It's not all roses in the Number 10 garden though. Earlier this week, Cherie Blair and Alistair Campbell caused howls of indifference when they auctioned the head of veteran peace campaigner Brian Haw at a Labour party fundraiser. The head, which was still warm, had been autographed by Mrs Blair, Mr Campbell and Bono from U2, and was said to have fetched in the region of �400. Not even enough for a decent haircut but every little helps.

Go read, it's worth it...

Technorati tags: Humour, NuLab, John Reid, Tony Blair

MatGB: This Royal Throne of Kings has a problem

Was just prompted by a friend to pick up my copy of the Complete Works, hadn't looked at it for a few years. I was looking for Macbeth, but there was a page marked. Most certainly not a bookmark, just an envelope addressed to my address before last, keeping a page for reference. Which page?
Richard II:

John of Gaunt:
Methinks I am a prophet new inspired
And thus expiring do foretell of him:
His rash fierce blaze of riot cannot last,
For violent fires soon burn out themselves;
Small showers last long, but sudden storms are short;
He tires betimes that spurs too fast betimes;
With eager feeding food doth choke the feeder:
Light vanity, insatiate cormorant,
Consuming means, soon preys upon itself.
This royal throne of kings, this scepter'd isle,
This earth of majesty, this seat of Mars,
This other Eden, demi-paradise,
This fortress built by Nature for herself
Against infection and the hand of war,
This happy breed of men, this little world,
This precious stone set in the silver sea,
Which serves it in the office of a wall,
Or as a moat defensive to a house,
Against the envy of less happier lands,
This blessed plot, this earth, this realm, this England,
This nurse, this teeming womb of royal kings,
Fear'd by their breed and famous by their birth,
Renowned for their deeds as far from home,
For Christian service and true chivalry,
As is the sepulchre in stubborn Jewry,
Of the world's ransom, blessed Mary's Son,
This land of such dear souls, this dear dear land,
Dear for her reputation through the world,
Is now leased out, I die pronouncing it,
Like to a tenement or pelting farm:
England, bound in with the triumphant sea
Whose rocky shore beats back the envious siege
Of watery Neptune, is now bound in with shame,
With inky blots and rotten parchment bonds:
That England, that was wont to conquer others,
Hath made a shameful conquest of itself.
Ah, would the scandal vanish with my life,
How happy then were my ensuing death!

So, England has a problem that needs solving. It's come up (again) in the comments on the previous post, so I thought I'd open a question for debate.

Squaring the circle. How do you bring power as close as possible to the people, recognise the existence of England as a unit, and ensure that a Parliament of 80% of the population does not destabilise or undermine the British parliament?

How is the need to take power away from the centre helped by creating a new administrative unit that is as big as England? How does this improve the way I am governed?

I ask this in the attempt to have a reasoned debate - can "nationalism" be removed from this discussion? Does "England", in and of itself, matter? England is nearly as big as Britain. If Britain is to continue to exist as an administrative unit, what will the England govt do? I've said before that a medium term objective of all disparate reformers has to be a constitutional convention, and in that, nothing can be ruled out or ruled in. I'm convinced that a Parliament for England is an irrelevence for as long as Britain exists, too distant and remote.

However, can we devolve power from the center into units big enough to be effective but local enough to be responsive? And can such a system also include an "English dimension" in some way?

Technorati tags: England, English Parliament, Reform, Devolution, Shakespeare, John of Gaunt

MatGB: George Galloway approves of murder

Garry Smith:

George Galloway, you are a fucking hypocrite. I'm sure I speak for the majority of people who opposed the invasion of Iraq when I say "shut your stupid indefatigable mouth, you odious egotistical fuckwit".

He doesn't represent my views. At all.

Dont' talk about Iraq and related stories much on here. Simple reason, no need to double up on what Garry's doing. For Galloway to say assasination is justified? No George, just no. I'm not exactly keen on tired Tony either, but still, no. Let's just say that again:

George Galloway, you are a fucking hypocrite.

It's as good a Google Bomb of anything else I've seen recently.

Update

Peter Black:

Galloway is experienced enough and intelligent enough to have avoided an obvious trap. That he didn't says a lot about his lack of judgement. There is no room for personal animosity in politics and there is no justification for violence in any form. Galloway is a disgrace to his profession.

Technorati tags: George Galloway, Tony Blair, assasination, murder

MatGB: John Reid: Dereliction of duty?

Stuart Parr at Wonko's World may be onto something here:

The Home Secretary isn't planning to tell Scottish police forces to merge despite telling us that anything less than 4,000 officers in a police force puts us at risk of terrorism. Obviously this is unacceptable - either there is a risk of terrorism and the Home Secretary is guilty of dereliction of duty or the risk of terrorism is a lie and the merger of police forces is politically motivated.

He's right. Under the terms of the Scotland Act, policing is a devolved matter. But under that same act, Scottish Parliament can be overridden by Westminster. John Reid claims that the police force mergers that his predecessor was planning are partially to "fight terrorism". If it's such a threat to necessitate the merger of the England and Wales police forces, then why isn't it needed in Scotland? If it is needed in Scotland, why isn't it going to happen?

Technorati tags: Home Office, John Reid, Scotland, Police mergers, devolution, Great Britain

MatGB: Admin: Talk to me! - BloggerHacks

Right, I think I've sorted the template, thanks Pete for the analysis, the wrapper was itself the cause of the problem, and it looks better without it.

More importantly though, to the right (on the front page only) is a recent comments box. This is cool and something I was rather keen on when looking at Wordpress options. But, perhaps more usefully, from the same site, I also found a way to have a 'comment' box at the bottom of each post page. It's even got some formatting and link insertion options. Only works if you're running javascript enabled browser, but that's 98% of the readers. I've turned off the letter recognition thing to get it to work properly, but it's pretty cool even with that on; can, um, people test it out and see what they think?

Technorati tagsearch: blogging, admin, blogger, blogger hacks

MatGB: The Constituency Link: Time to Cut the Umbilical?

Must pay more attention. James, who I read regularly, also it seems writes at the New Politics Network blog, which I must have missed despite looking at the site a few times. Got there via Make my Vote Count (which I read at least once a week), and find this excellent article on the merits of multi-member constituencies:

Electoral systems that use closed party lists (such as the one we now use for the European Parliament) are often criticised because they don’t enable individuals to be held accountable. People are forced to choose between parties, not individuals. Yet the hard truth of the matter is, FPTP has the same problem ... the evidence we have from the other side of the Irish Channel suggests that some proportional systems encourage politicians to engage with the community precisely because they allow people a variety of different elected representatives from which to choose. The Single Transferable Vote system used there means that politicians not only compete against candidates from other parties but with candidates within their own: being able to demonstrate that you, personally, are doing a good job is therefore at an absolute premium.

I've said similar things myself here before, but James has summed up the argument incredibly well. One to bookmark for future reference methinks.

Technorati tags: FPTP, electoral reform, STV, New Politics Network

MatGB: John Reid: The Home Office is crap

Yesterday:

"I'm almost always defending the indefensible here. I do not think I have been given a fact or a figure in the past fortnight that has not been revised quickly in a very short space of time."

Today:

Home Secretary John Reid is said to be furious after he had to apologise to MPs for giving them the wrong figures on foreign prisoners

Well, yes John. It's crap. The whole thing is crap. You've inherited a job that may or may not have been

"fit for purpose when I left it in 1997"
-former Home Secretary Michael Howard

but it's most certainly falling to bits now. The more I learn, the more I'm convinced. When I linked to this before, it was with caveats. Now, I agree completely. The Home Office is an all-consuming monster^*, it needs to be broken up.

^*Yes, I am proposing that as a Google Bomb. Because it really needs it.

Technorati tags: John Reid, Home Office, NuLab

MatGB: Brian Haw - raided in the early hours

So, hidden down in recesses of the BBC front page, is the news that Brian Haw was raided this morning and has had most of his placards alongside much of his personal possessions removed and "dumped in a container".

Cllr Ayling is, rightly, outraged, not just at the action itself, but also that the coverage it has been given puts it so far down the headlines that you could blink and miss it (I did until a friend pointed it out to me). I'm not sure I agree, completely, with his take, but it does cause me some concern. Peter Black does, however, pose a much more important question:

If they did not want to give the impression of a Police state why did they not execute this act in broad daylight when we could all see what they were doing?

He's right, this was an ongoing dispute, Mr Haw was not a direct threat to anyone. He lost his case to remain untouched, and now has a very restricted protest allowed to continue. As much as we dislike these restrictions, the police are tasked with upholding the law. So how do they choose to do it? During the day, in daylight, peaceably and with an attempt to keep it amicable? No.

A Metropolitan Police spokeswoman said officers removed the placards at 0235 BST

I'll just say that again

0235 BST

Nice one to the boys in blue there, really making it hard for those of us who want to think that you're doing your job despite concerns over the powers this government has been giving you. 2.35am? For a peaceful, non-violent protest?

Disgraceful.

Updates:

Tim has more on the fiasco, including picture of the confiscation of his bell last week. Spyblog reports it was 25 police officers sent (at 2.35am mind, think of the overtime payments) to do the dirty deed. Tomorrow am, given that Brian has had his bell removed, it seems timed to make sure he can't annoy Tony, there will be a protest as Blair turns up for PM questions, aiming to make as much noise as possible. A little far for me to drive, but if you're in the area?

Technorati tags: Brian Haw, Protest, Freedom, Serious Organised Crime and Police Act

MatGB: Iran, Canada, anti-semitism and damn lies

I don't think there's any doubt that the Government in Iran has a few anti-semitic tendencies. Unfortunately, because we know this, sometimes people who should know better fall for complete bull and swallow it whole. It's not just Chris though, it's also, um, the Prime Minister of Canada.

Iain Weaver has a good selection of links debunking the story. Iran isn't a nice place, the election process is flawed, the Govt plays to the gallery to acheive popular support, and dissenters are subject to serious legal controls. Unlike in Britain, those controls include being killed.

But when the press spreads lies and half truths, it cheapens the debate.

Technorati tags: Iran, Canada, Urban Myths, anti-semitism

MatGB: Test

I've mentioned I hate coding, Microsoft and when I mess things up, in that order, right? Bloody template is shot to hell, but I can't find the fault now seems to have changed completely is now fixed. It's not supposed to all be centered, and the adsence frames appear to be eating up other content instead. Giving up for a bit, at least it's readable.

MatGB: Predicting Scottish elections

Scottish electoral mechanics are always interesting to watch. South of the border, most seats are either safe or two-way marginals. Three-way marginals are rare, and tend to disappear over the course of a few elections, the third party squeeze / ratchet effect caused by Duverger's Law means that it becomes "irrational" as the economists put it to vote for the third place or below candidate. Yet in Scotland? They not only still have three way marginals, they also have some 4 way marginals. One party can gain a seat despite losing votes, as the first place candidate loses votes to the third place, but not enough for third to take the seat. Very difficult to predict results, but very interesting to study. However, as Holyrood (the glorified county council referred to as a Parliament) is up for election next year, Duncan is taking a stab at summarising the current state of play, and has an interesting selection of links, well worth a look over. I especially like this:

Personally, I buy the idea that in Scotland there is a clear anti-Labour vote and that whichever party between the SNP and the Lib Dems is in the best position to halt Labour will pick up the votes.

and my reading of the recent bye-election results leads me to agree with him. Labour's "Scottish Raj" have dominated elections in most of the country at virtually every level for quite some time. Next years campaign will be good to watch. And if, of course, Blair is still in office next May, and they lose Scotland? Especially if the LibDems gain seats as predicted despite being in Govt up there?

As I've said here (nice one Paulie, but a little too early methinks - I agree, once again, with Millenium):

If Blair lasts the year without at least announcing when he's going, I'll be amazed.

Best bet is he announces he's going to stand down next May, there'll be a leadership election to take place sometime over the winter, etc.

If Blair goes before next May, then maybe Labour can start rebuilding their credibility. If they dump some of their obvious stupidities as well, then maybe the "anti-Labour" vote will ebb. But if Blair is still there? Nicol Stephen as First Minister in a LibDem/SNP/Green coalition? Gordon would love that about as much as he likes his own MP...

Technorati tags: Scotland, NuLab, elections

MatGB: In Our Time - John Stuart Mill

BBC - Radio 4 In Our Time - Home Page

Is on now Was on at the time of posting The MP3 is downloadable from the above link, and is very worth it. I listed to it this morning. How can you not like the writer of On Liberty and On Socialism?

Thanks to Chris for the latter link, didn't know that, like the guy even more than I always did now. Liberal and socialist? A believer in markets and equal rights?

I'll do a Great Britons post on him when I've time, in the meantime, turn the radio on, or download the MP3.

Technorati tags: BBC, In Our Time, JS Mill, John Stuart Mill

MatGB: incompetent authoritarian blair - Google Search

Best one of the last few days:
incompetent authoritarian blair - Google Search
Well, yes, he is, I completely agree.

Well, my post midnight tweaks on the template last night seem to have not worked at all well. It's readable, but it hasn't acheived the desired objective and has messed a few other things up. More tweaking to follow over the weekend. In the meantime, if you're using Internet Explorer, and are on a screen resolution below 900px wide, then the main column is, I know, very difficult to read. Apologies. The coding problem is mine, but it wouldn't be an issue if Bill Gates' staff did their jobs properly. Do yourself a favour if it's your PC:

Get Firefox

Seriously. Internet Explorer is (currently) the modern equivalent of an old-style Skoda on the "information superhighway" - the new version is supposed to be quite good, but the one you're currently using, well, isn't. More than 60% of this sites regular readers agree completely, a significant proportion of the rest have no choice at work. Even that's changing though.

Technorati tags: incompetent, authoritarian, blair, NuLab, Google, blogging

MatGB: Admin: New template & layout - Blogger problems?

Blogger playing up?

Since yesterday, I've had no edit icons on my compose window, no preview, and the keyboard shortcuts aren't working. I use the plain text editor, not the WYSIWYG composer. Anyone else having similar? No image upload option either. I thought at first it was a problem with my other id, but it isn't. Also, I'm seeing a new favicon, the 'B' has been replaced by some pink effect blobs. Anyone else?

New site layout

OK, I've been aware for some time that the three column coding I tried didn't work properly in Internet Explorer at lower screen resolutions. I hope I've now fixed it (as requested and promised). Gaaaahhh! I hate hate hate Microsoft. Not only is it just as bad, but the fonts are all wrong as well. When is IE 7 coming out? Plan 'b'. Tomorrow night.

I'd been planning to use this template for awhile, but I hadn't finished it, it's a mix of three different templates and a lot of my own tweaking. Given I don't really know what I'm doing, trial and error is fun. So, firstly, Internet Explorer users, is it better?

Second, colour scheme; yellow headers better that that green that was there before? Sidebar boxes look better? There's a few things I need to finish off; the text padding seems to vary and I've tried to find them all. Also, following Duncan's lead, the vont should now be completely Verdana. I've probably missed something.

Admin point

I've added a new 'user', called TaKtiX. That's actually me, it's the admin account for my new site, and I keep forgetting what I'm logged in as, so posts from me using that are still me. The things we do.

Technorati tagsearch: blogging, blogger, admin

MatGB: Human Rights - prohibition on torture

Sue Welsh is writing a series on the Convention. Today's article is Article 3 - The absolute prohibition of torture

No one shall be subjected to torture or to inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment.

There's no derogation from that one. There's no get out clause. There should never be a need for one. Why is the idea that we can't deport people who are under threat of torture at home controversial? Why is our Government, and it's principle ally, ducking around the issue and trying to justify why certain things aren't torture? What is wrong with the world?

Technorati tags: Human Rights Act, European Convention on Human Rights, ECHR

MatGB: Cameron's little list - Pointless?

The Telegraph:

David Cameron has no power to enforce his A-list of "elite" parliamentary candidates on local constituency associations, the party said last night.

Yup. Thought as much. The Tory party does have some form of local democray.

As many as six would-be MPs are ready to take legal action at being excluded from Mr Cameron's priority list of about 110 candidates.

Um, should I be laughing about this as much? Probably not.

Let's here it for pointless, headline grabbing publicity stunts! Got any policies yet Dave?

Technorati tags: Cameron, the 'a' list, leadership, Tories, parties

MatGB: Legislative and Regulatory Reform Bill - Third Reading

Amongst all the other things going on, had lost track of the Leg / Reg Bill. Fortunately, others have not been so lax. Listening to Today in Parliament I realised that the Bill is going through Reports today (Monday) and tomorrow. Fortunately, the Save Parliament blog has been paying attention, and has today managed a series of posts today liveblogging the debates in the Commons. They can't do tomorrow but will have an open thread for contributions.

It'll also be worth everyone giving the TheyWorkForYou transcript a good going over in their comments when their version of the debate goes live. As before, Save Parliament!

Technorati tagsearch: reform, Parliament, Legislative and Regulatory Reform Bill, Constitution

MatGB: A constitutional note to Tony Blair

Nosemonkey:

The way the British system works is that the legislature makes the laws, and the judiciary then applies them. If, as head of the executive (and therefore the person responsible for ensuring that new laws that pass through the legislature are well-written and clear in intention) you fail in your duty of providing good laws, then blaming the judiciary for applying them in the way set out in the legislation you are responsible for having drawn-up is pathetic buck-passing.

Go read the rest.

Technorati tags: HRA, NuLab, Blair, Human Rights Act

MatGB: The Afghan hijackers - legal and human rights

I've seen a few comments around various blogs hoping for a proper "lawyers" breakdown of the Afghan hijackers case. I don't have the legal knowledge to do such a thing. Fortunately, Tony Hatfield does:

It is often forgotten that the Stansted Nine were acquitted of all criminal charges arising out of the “hijack” of an Ariana Boeing 727 from Kabul in February 2000.

Read the rest, seriously, it's a very good breakdown of the legal case. Brian Barder:

This is dangerous populist grandstanding, deliberately intended to confuse the issues and to give the misleading impression that the legal position can be changed by amending the HRA. In fact there are two separate issues here.

Both highlighted on Unity's excellent post, in which he also observes:

there have been systemic failings in the workings of the Parole Board and Probation service, failings that are the direct result of a wholesale’ lack of competence in the area of Human Rights law compounded by a desire, at seeming all costs, to avoid cases being brought to judicial review, where they can be dealt with appropriately by a competent authority.

Which brings me to this excremental peice of dung:

But instead their kids and their wives have all been told they can come and live here in houses that most Brits earning a decent wage couldn't afford, and all without ever having to dirty their hands with work.

Does anyone have any experience of reporting such columnists to the PCC? I'd research how to do it from scratch but if someone has done it before?

(Thanks to Andrew in comments here for bringing the odious Ms Malone to my heretofore innocent attention)

Technorati tags: HRA, Afghan hijackers, ECHR, Human Rights, Freedom, Carole Malone

MatGB: Admin: new Linklog and Britblog Roundup # 65

OK, Mr Tim has his weekly roundup of the best of British up. In addition, I've been playing (again), and have added a linklog to the left sidebar, powered by del.icio.us, here's the RSS feed and LJ syndication. It means I'll be cutting back on the very short "go here" posts a little, but can link to stuff that I don't necessarily want to blog about.

All in all, very easy to set up (although I need to tweak the styling) and another good reason to use Firefox to read the internet, the plug ins for del.icio.us are very good.

Technorati tags: Blogging, Britblog, Admin

MatGB: Human Rights, Legal Wrongs - incompetent administration

So, Charlie Falconer is thinking of changing the law is he? Why is this? Because it's being criticised. Yet why is it being criticised? For doing exactly what it was designed to do? No. It's being criticised because they failed to train those responsible for enforcement properly.

Lord Falconer said the government did not intend to pull out of the convention but it is considering a programme of education and training or new legislation to make sure it is not wrongly interpreted.

Charlie? The former, that of proper training to make sure people don't get carried away with erroneous concerns? That's good. New legislation? What is it with you lot and new legislation? Why not fully make use of the laws we've already got first? A new law should be the last resort, not the first. Your staff, and other State employees charged with protecting us, etc are failing in their duty out of erroneous concerns. One of the other cases in question:

Appeal judges quashed their convictions in May 2003 but insisted that their decision was "not a charter for future hijackers".

They said a mistake in directing the jury was the only reason the men's appeal had succeeded.

On Wednesday, the High Court ruled the men could remain in the UK until it was safe to return to Afghanistan. The government has said it will appeal ... Tony Blair has said the decision not to return the men to Afghanistan is "an abuse of common sense".

Tony? "Common Sense" to me says that Afghanistan is not currently safe. The ruling is that you can return them there when it is safe. Where, exactly, is the problem here? They fled an evil oppressive regime that you, eventually, went to war in order to depose. You're now saying that their lives weren't under threat? James at Quaequam Blog! has more to say:

Labour seem to think the fact they introduced the HRA means they must now be regarded as immune from it. The problem stems from the fact that the broad coalition that brought Labour to power in 1997 has now been sloughed off, and we are left with an authoritarian, illiberal core that doesn’t quite understand why it did half the things it did in the first three years of power.

The Act was implemented in order to promote a Human Rights culture by Tony Blair's Govt. Now that we've got one? He doesn't like it.

Time to go Tony, your Government is too tired to get anywhere.

Technorati tags: Human Rights, HRA, NuLab, Authoritarianism, Labour, Falconer

MatGB: Human Rights Act not to blame for decision

Telegraph | News | Human Rights Act not to blame for decision

Sue Welsh:

The right question to ask "Dave" and other people who grumble about the Act is, do you approve of withdrawal from the Convention?

If the answer is no, we can stay in the Convention, we just don't want the Act, then I think that means they want the respectability of belonging to a nation which says it does not condone torture, without the sometimes uncomfortable consequences which flow from taking that stance. This is hypocritical in the extreme.

Agree completely.

Technorati tags: Human Rights Act, HRA, Cameron, Blair, Freedom

MatGB: John Reid: disingenuous, stupid or liar?

Atlantic Rift: Two plus two is five

Can we have a public enquiry please?

Technorati tags: John Reid, Iraq, July 7th