Reasons for electoral reform

In the last two days, I've read two rather good articles on electoral reform. I have a few issues with them, and dispute a few points, but overall, they're very good. Both on the same blog.

Normally, this would be great, right? I just link and get on to writing something substantial. OK, I'll link. Here and here. There, I've done it. I've linked to Neil Harding without taking the piss.

OK, the problems with his analysis.

1. He doesn't define what sort of system he favours
Some electoral systems are better than others; one of the big problems with the reformist movement is that they use 'PR' as a catch all, and as there are some awful examples of countries using some form of Proportional Representation (one thinks of Italy pre-reforms and Israel to date as examples of bad list system PR) that the opposed brigade can use as a stick to beat. You need to define what you are in favour of, not define what you are against. I personally favour STV (the Single Transferable Vote).
2. It's very 'class' based and partizan
Neil is, avowedly, a Labour member. In addition, he's vehemently anti-Tory, in a way that can, at times, cloud his judgement. However, the class element of his analysis are partially valid, however they are dependent (as all class based analyses are) on a two-way model of understanding voters, when we've already established that the 4-way model is now more important. I suspect he's right though to highlight that a more inclusive electoral system also leads to a more inclusive society; I also agree with him about the misplaced fear of BNP support; they're winning elections under FPTP, that is a real worry, however I doubt they'd ever win 50+% of the vote needed to control under a decent system.

To summarise, Neil's argument is:

1. FPTP leads to parties elected with minority support that the majority specifically voted against (Poll tax and ID cards spring to mind)
2. FPTP encourages protests votes, such as for the BNP, whereas under STV all votes count
3. FPTP encourages parties to fight just over the centre grouns, leading to disillusioned core voters, STV allows parties to be distinctive and allows for (indeed encourages) internal party debate
4. FPTP encourages gerrymandering and where the boundary is is incredibly important
5. FPTP is only more stable when you have two parties; Canada has had as many coalition governments as it has had one-party rule in the last few years, and having just had one election, they're already expecting to have another; remember 1974?
6. FPTP advocates say you know what you're voting for; it gives a clear choice, yet manifesto commitments can be dropped easily; his example is the promise of a referendum on electoral reform.
7. STV gives more choice to local people, FPTP and List systems are slaved to party heirarchies equally
8. Reform would lead to a more representative parliament through electoral choice; noneed for all-women or all-EM shortlists

Overall, some very strong arguments.

Help me everyone, I agree with Neil!

Neil; are you a member of the Labour Campaign for Electoral Reform? If not, join, I've read some of their publications, they're good. If you are, can you ask them to do something about the godawful website?

Technorati tags: Electoral reform, PR, reform, constitution

Blog CMS systems?

Before I go too far down the route I've chosen, do any of my more techie and/or more experiences readers know of a blog management software (CMS) that can handle multiple subdomains and multiple users (with different priviledges) without needing more than one MySQL database?

I've come up with a pretty good use for one of my own domains, and will at some point migrate this blog there as well as do more tih other bits of it, but the hosting package I have only supports one MySQL without payment, my reading of Wordpress is it would need a new install and MySQL for each subdomain.

I'd love to be told I'm wrong though.

Technorati tagsearch: Blogging

IQ test thing

Just, well, because...
BrightonRegencyLabourSupporter: I'm not sure I accept a test that says I'm less intelligent.. everyone, Neil?

Your IQ Is 130

Your Logical Intelligence is Below Average Your Verbal Intelligence is Genius Your Mathematical Intelligence is Genius Your General Knowledge is Exceptional

A Quick and Dirty IQ Test

I agree with the commenters in his post, the logical question isn't actually logical. Also, IQ is a piss-poor method of measuring ability; I score high on IQ tests (higher than this normally), but I have to take my car to a mechanic to change a lightbulb in the headlight; completely beyond me.

But, y'know, Genius, Genius, Exceptional, dodgy question. Can't really argue with that ;-)

(Yeah, I know, I don't do thse things here, but, y'know, I've been to the dentists and become an uncle in one day, you expect substantive argument?)

Technorati tags: IQ test, meme

Today is St Patrick's Day

Nosemonkey has an idea; collect some money for some hospices. Details...
Europhobia: Today is St Patrick's Day.

Technorati tags: St Patrick's Day, Charity

I am now an uncle

Completely irrelevent, but I just got back in from the dentists and my mum texts me to say my sister has given birth, 7lb 9oz.

Which brings us toa point, why are babies always in measures I barely understand? We started using metric before I was born. I wasn't taught Imperial measures at school. Why, more than 30 years later, are kids announced in measures that just don't make sense?

Ah well. Just sorting out some paperwork, then off to the hospital.

Technorati tagsearch: Life, Family

Britain needs a constitutional convention

I think it's pretty much established amongst the informed bunch that read this blog that something is rotten in the state of Britain. Liberty Central is a good project aimed at working out a new way of governing the country. Hopefully, it can be used to build pressure to sort the whole mess out.

The big problem is that for many, reformers are a series of disparate, single issue campaigners. We have:

1. electoral reformers
2. civil liberties groups
3. devolutionists of various stripes
4. parliamentary reformers (concentrating currently on the Lords)

My issue with this; all of the problems are interlinked. Each feeds of each other, it's a systemic problem within the British polity.

The "West Lothian Question" is one of vital import to the future of the country

It has come about because a government that was initially radical and prepared to decentralise heavily has acquired cold feet and isn't prepared to address the real issues and concerns of those that haven't (yet) had power devolved from Westminster. Yet, ultimately, very few if any are genuinely calling for the complete break up of Britain, the Scots Nats appear to be losing, not gaining, ground in Scotland and the CEP is adament that they want parity for England within the UK (or Britain, depending on whether the person in question wants to keep the 1800 Act).

You cannot fix the "England Question" independent of the other problems

Virtually every other country of significance that has a bicameral Parliament draws its second chamber members as representatives of the next highest administrative level. US and Australian Senators are elected directly, the German Bundesrat members are sent as representatives of the Lander assemblies, etc.

I favour this approach, in part, for the Lords (or whatever we call the replacement). So, in order to solve the increasingly urgent issue that is the make up of the second chamber, we also need to figure out what level below Westminster we want as well.

The electoral system that we use is outdated

It specifically encourages a two-party system, yet increasingly a market orientated society wants genuine choice at election time as well, two-party politics doesn't cut it any more. So we have a government elected with a fairly substantial majority with much less than 40% of the vote; compare this to 1992, when John Major got the highest number of votes cast since 1945, and a higher vote share than either Maggie or Blair ever acheived, yet had a wafer thin majority.

This leads to a worried government, that plays to a perceived gallery for headline grabbing initiatives, yet one that knows, deep down, that while it has a 'legitimate' mandate, it does not have a popular mandate; protesters are limited and arrested as never before, yet are increasingly likely as what are viewed as traditional liberties are encroached upon as never before.

Part of the recommendations of the Power commission is a new Concordat. Essentially, they are right. As Nosemonkey points out in comments here, the Bill of Rights is effectively irrelevent. Yet any constitutional historian worth their salt can confirm that the Bill of Rights is the founding principle of the modern parliamentary system. If it's no longer relevent, what is?

I am not in favour of a 'written constitution'

A study of the US shows that such exercises in aspic setting can, in later years, come back to bite you; the veneration of their outdated document the Americans show is worrying, let alone damaging. We need a new Bill of Rights, new Acts of Settlement. We need a British solution.

We need, as a nation, to determine, once again, how we are governed.

We, all of us, who are concerned with the constitution, who want to address these issues, need to work together to pressure our rulers to call a new convention. This may be a good place to start.

Technorati tagsearch: reform, freedom, civil liberties, constitution, Electoral Reform, Power Commision, Elect the Lords, Parliament, Democracy

Comment is Free, and so is speech

First, this by Jim at Moore than this:

Free speech means the right to give and take offence, the right to argue your point against others, the right to be wrong, stupid, bigoted, hateful and offensive. There will be a lot of arguing. But if you're on the side of truth, you will eventually win.

Who I encountered after he commented in the excellent post and discussion at Robert Sharp's blog on the new Guardian Comment is Free uberblog, which I'm not sold on yet; more discussion of which is at Europhobia.

Technorati tags: Free speech, freedom, liberty, comment is free, blogging

Einstein says no

Make your own (Via Justin and Chris).

Technorati tagsearch: freedom, civil liberties, NuLab, ID Cards, No2ID

Legislative and Regulatory Reform Bill

Read. Amongst the list of Acts the Government has specifically rejected from a list of proposed immune from the Act Acts?

Bill of Rights 1688

That's right, the founding document. If they get this passed, then they can, and want to be able to, amend pretty much everything by executive order.

We have to stop this bill.

Save Parliament (from itself if need be). If you haven't done so yet, write to your MP. Especially if they're a Labour MP.

Technorati tagsearch: Democracy, Freedom, Parliament, Legislative and Regulatory Reform Bill, Leg Reg, Abolition of Parliament Bill

Buy a (Virtual) Peerage!

I've been planning a substantive article on Lords reform at some point, but in the meantime, I've signed this at Pledgebank:

As an introductory offer, we are currently offering a 25% discount on all Virtual Peerages. But hurry - this offer must end on 22 March!

I'm not, actually, completely sold on a fully or predominantly elected Lords, I'd like us to build on the German Bundesrat model, combine it with the idea of experts drawn from interest groups and campaigning bodies, and get the rest via the old Athenian model; selection by Lot, draw people at random, from across society, in a set length term similar to Jury service but full time and paid for.

Yes, I know it sounds daft. Bear with me, when I've finished it off it'll be here and on Liberty Central. In the meantime, go sign up for a certificate of (in)authenticity. Update: Get them here. I especially like:

* The Elect the Lords campaign regrets that it cannot accept a loan as payment.

Technorati tags: Elect the Lords, constitution, reform, bought peerages

Scrabble score

Pholph's Scrabble Generator My Scrabble© Score is: 18. What is your score? Get it here.

That's not good. Useless selection of letters, that's the problem...

Pholph's Scrabble Generator My Scrabble© Score is: 27. What is your score? Get it here.

That's better ;-)

FA letter intercepted

My intense dislike of football generally, and professional footballers specifically, doesn't stop me from finding this from Gareth. Go read.

Yes, I am working on a substantive post. No, I'm not getting very far; bloggers block has struck, blame the week off work?

Technorati tags: FA, football, England

Ian Blair - do you actually blame him?

The consensus is that recording conversations is wrong (rung a call centre recently?), that he should have told the Attorney General (possibly, but, well, Lord Goldsmith?). Me? I don't know which side is worse. Bookdrunk?:

The second most likely reason is that while Blair might have been willing to publicly take the blame for decisions made under his watch, he wasn't prepared to be fired for having acted on the 'best' legal advice available at that time ( i.e. something emanating not a million miles from the Attorney General's office).

We're talking Tony Blair's Attorney General. You remember, right? The guy who wrote that opinion on the Iraq war legality after some conversations with Bush's team?

You're Ian Blair. Some of your men have just shot someone, you suspect that person was innocent of what he's accused of having been shot for. The Governments chief lawyer is on the phone, you don't have someone available to take notes. Wouldn't you want a record of the conversation and any 'advice' you were given?

It's not illegal to tape a telephone conversation - only to reveal the contents of the conversation to a third party without prior permission of those you have recorded.

Unless I've missed it, there's no allegation that the content of the conversation has been leaked, just that it exists.

I think Blair (both of them) should go. But Ian Blair shouldn't go for this one. I think he was just covering his back. Given Goldsmith's track record, do you actually blame him for that?

Technorati tags: Ian Blair, wiretap, surveillance

Is Charles Clarke is unwell?

Justin has the story:

Fears are mounting for the mental wellbeing of the Home Secretary, Charles Clarke.

Most significant of which is Rachel's post on a meeting the Home Secretary had with her father.

Technorati tags: Charles Clarke, July 7th, Public Enquiry, Terrorism

Save Parliament!

Save Parliament!

(via) - a useful round up and brief summary, with outgoing links to the various info sources. Also, Davide at Nether World has an excellent post on the subject.

Technorati tags: Democracy, Freedom, Parliament, Legislative and Regulatory Reform Bill, Leg Reg, Abolition of Parliament Bill

Tim Worstall: Britblog Roundup # 56

Tim Worstall: Britblog Roundup # 56 is up. Even better, more than half the entries I haven't already read, which is a good sign. For those unaware, Tim takes nomination by email, britblog at gmail dot com, and is looking for anything that's well written and interesting, regardless of topic, as long as it's about Britain, by a Brit or by someone in Britain. That includes posts made on LiveJournal or even (shudder) MySpace.

Two of my nominations in there; anyone care to guess which?

Technorati tags: BritBlog, blogging

Post Punk Unkle: Free Thoughts Of An Aging Man

Clicking on commenter links, I find Free Thoughts Of An Aging Man by Post Punk Unkle:

I came across the following quotation from Ian M Banks today;

“…if in a sizable population there are one hundred rebels, all of whom are then rounded up and killed, the number of rebels present at the end of the day is not zero, and not even one hundred, but two hundred or three hundred or more; an equation based on human nature which seems often to baffle the military and political mind.”

If only Blair /Bush understood this before their ill-conceived invasion of Iraq.

Some good stuff on ID cards and those cartoons. Welcome to the blogroll Unkle.

Technorati tags: blogging, books, Iain M. Banks, Iraq

Atlantic Rift: Something's rising in the east

Jonn Elledge:

I don't understand it either. But I'm guessing it says that you can take our liberty, but you'll never take our freedom to download porn.

Sort of on topic, but very very funny. Or maybe I just need to sleep.

Technorati tags: spam, porn, china, google

Google Search results

How about this for a very nice little referral? protest rights England history.

One of Paul's better articles I think, even if he did get his Machiavelli mixed up ;-)

Technorati tags: Google, blogging

On Westminster Bridge — Falconer

Just got back in from a day trip to London, travelled with friends to see the Imperial War Museum; for some reason had never gone before despite it being both free and 5 minutes walk from where a friend lives.

Will definately go again. Didn't have any time to do stuff around town, except briefly go to Westminster and walk across the bridge — habit, have to walk across if I can when in London, mixture I guess of too much Wordsworth and a love of the buildings there.

Anyway, to a brief blog topic, I understand Charlie Falconer has made an arse of himself; unless anyone has proposed a better Google Bomb, I reckon that one would do. No demand?

Message for Mr Blair's best mate; every time you say there's no demand, when there palpably is, you strengthen their case and their argument by default.

Why don't you do your job as head of the Department of Constitutional Affairs and try to actually solve the West Lothian question? It exists, there's a lot of debate about how to solve it, some ideas are better than others, some have more popular appeal than others. The longer you leave trying to solve it, the worse the problem gets, and the more the justifiable resentment grows.

I, personally, think a Parliament for England is not a good solution to the problem. But to deny the problem exists? Foolish and blinkered. One of the highest paid ministers of the crown should not be foolish and blinkered. So why do I suspect that that is what Charlie is?

Do your job Lord Falconer. Call a Constitutional Convention and let us hammer out how we want to be governed south of the border.

Technorati tagsearch: reform, Lord Falconer, England, English Parliament, constitution, NuLab

Didn't see this one coming...

Honest. Congratulations Justin.

The proper column in a decent paper shouldn't be far off now for a few of the top end, right?

Technorati tags: Blogging

Badger cull consultancy

Steve's random and often belligerent Journal:

If you have time TODAY, and want my undying gratitude, please email ... deadline for consultation on a UK-wide Badger Cull is tomorrow

Follow up to Paul's post on the badger cull from last December

Technorati tags: badger cull, DEFRA

Why are we so badly governed?

Catching up. This:

That we're going to be saddled with ID cards because Home Office ministers don't want to back down and admit what an utterly poorly thought-through idea they are, how ineffectual they will be in fighting terrorism?

Which reminds me, need to get in touch with whoever's running No2ID locally.

Technorati tags: No2ID, Freedom

Rape and Consent

BBC news:

Men should make certain that a woman has consented to sex to avoid being accused of rape, a new campaign launched by the Home Office is to warn.

Good.

I mean, how hard is it to say "are you sure about this" or similar? That's right, it's not. "Passion killer"? Give me a break.

Technorati tagsearch: reform, rape, consent

Left / Right Vs. Up / Down

Would it work?:

Do you think that if we ran a publicity campaign to let people know that the left/right distinction is French, then we could rely on latent British Francophobia to finally abort the distinction?

Well, something has to. "The Lib Dems move Right", "That's a left-wing policy". Um, no. It's neither. left vs right is and ill-defined, misunderstood term that is abused by the commentariat (especially in the MSM) who show little understanding of the history. By the definition of what was meant when the term was coined (ie political reform at the time of the French Revolution) the LibDems are, and always have been, the most extremeyl left-wing of all parties. But these days they mean economic policy only. Outdated terminology used by media types looking for another "split".

Can we please stop calling people "modernisers"

Sorry. Rant over. Still horribly busy, still catching up, haven't even looked at half the blogs I normally read daily, and it's about to turn midnight. Still, Paddy's back.

Technorati tags: LibDems, Left vs Right

Campbell, the Lib Dems and me

I just read Ming Campbell's Conference speech:

A principled liberal alternative has never been more needed than when there are people being abused and held without trial at Guantanamo Bay. The Prime Minister calls it “an anomaly”.

Let me address him directly; Prime Minister, this is not an anomaly - This is an outrage.

But under this government, the “anomalies” are becoming the norm. schemes to keep citizens under house arrest; Identity cards; A Labour party member – a Labour party member - Walter Wolfgang arrested as a terror suspect for daring to heckle at the Labour Party Conference; taken into custody for shouting ‘Rubbish’ at the Foreign Secretary. I hope they don’t introduce that in the House of Commons? otherwise I will be joining him.

And members of the public like Maya Evans arrested outside Downing Street just for reading out the names of British soldiers killed in Iraq; Who knows what this government would have done with Siegfried Sassoon, or Wilfred Owen, if it had been in office during the First World War.

Once Westminster was the cradle of democracy; Under this government it is becoming the graveyard of democracy.

It was going to happen eventually. Membership renewed. I am now, once again a Liberal Democrat.

Not going to change the way I write about stuff though; there remain policies I disagree with, naturally. But, while I like the sounds Dave is making, I'm not convinced it's anything more than spin. I know where I stand with the Lib Dems. On the issues I set the blog up to write about, I pretty much agree with them.

Paul, naturally, remains a separate person, last we spoke about it, he doesn't do partizan. I don't, really. But it's time to stand up and be counted I guess.

We need to get the current Government out of power. To do that, we need to support those parties in a position to do so, and work with those politicians on the right side of the debate. Each of us in our different ways. I've chosen my way (or at least part of it).

Now, I guess, make contact with the local party (rather than just the local MP), and see what needs doing. A decent website would be a good start.

Technorati tags: Campbell, LibDems, Leadership, Liberty

Political Blogging and talking to God

This from Ken at Militant Moderate is a nice analysis of the way blogging could be used by politicians and their supporters in the future. I think, overall, I agree with him; blogging is at its best when talking through policy and ideas rather than personality and gossip (although, let's face it, the latter can be fun(ny) at times). Huhne was very popular amongst the LibDem bloggers precisely because he engaged the policy debate strongly, and has done his future prospects a world of good by running I think.

Also, this on the Snow in Summer. The GOD corporation has a record of its discussions with Tony, but they're protected by client priviledge. Definately worth a read through.

Technorati tags: Political Weblogs, LibDems, Leadership, Tony Blair, God

Millennium Dome, Elephant on Built to Last

Paul's summary made the Guardian, but I think they missed a much better review myself, The Very Fluffy Diary of Millennium Dome, Elephant: Day 1884: PS:

Mr Balloon said he was in favour of NICE things and against NASTY things.

He said he was in favour of saving the ENVIRONMENT because that was NICE

But he was against stopping people from making POLLUTION because that would be NASTY.

My head may be full of wool but this seems sensible to me. I don't know why Daddy is foaming at the mouth!

I have now looked up VACUOUS: Devoid of matter; empty – this is how balloons WORK isn't it!

I'm not quite sure I believe I'm adding a toy elephant to the blogroll, even if the owner isn't anonymous. Dave Cameron = Mr Balloon. Not quite sure yet myself, but then, every politician needs a suitable nickname, right?

Technorati tags: Cameron, Mr Balloon

Give me liberty...

Rachel from north London: Give me liberty...:

My government doesn't care. It has contempt for the ordinary people. My government tells us of a new 'respect agenda' yet it shows us no such respect, even when we turn out protesting in the streets in our millions. It orders dissenting voices a kilometre away from Parliament. Since New Labour came to power, the number of people voting has gone down to the lowest levels ever; meanwhile we have seen the largest public protests ever in this country.

Technorati tags: Liberty Central, Freedom

Dentists, alcohol and Huhne's google ads

Two weeks back, I wrote a post at The Kitchen about my past history with dentists. Well, today was the first follow up visit, and depite it going very well, I'm still all over the place. Weird, I have no problems with most things, but having three fillings has messed my head up. So, no coherence from me tonight, I've had too much whiskey. I've got a bit on electoral systems, tactical voting, Duverger and third party squeeze on the way, summary is that "tactical voting" is a natural phenomena, a bye-product of the system, normal.

Maybe, soon. But we're doing an office move over the weekend, been planning details all week, so I'm busy. In the meantime, can someone tell Huhne that he lost already, and the adwords campaign ought to be cancelled? I may have wanted him to win, but this is silly.

Technorati tags: Dentists, NHS

Election systems: Not a functioning market

A Big Stick and a Small Carrot: Going for Gold:

One for the free marketeers who support first past the post to ponder.

The two party system is non-competitive. It is comparable to a captive, demand constant, oligopoly market in which consumers have a choice between only two approximately equally sized suppliers.

He is, of course, completely correct. The fact that it's bad for democracy and breaks badly when you throw more parties intot he mix is another good reason to support STV.

Technorati tags: Electoral reform, market competition, parliament

Jowell(gate), and owning nine houses.

Question to Labour members/supporters. I openly describe myself as a socialist (with a distinct, small 's'), and technically the Labour party still believes in Socialism (witha big 'S'). So, why are you a member of a party that is so in touch with its principles that Cabinet Ministers own 9 houses and gifts of $600,000 aren't even mentioned between them?

Seriously. Why? Ah, whatever, I know a lot of Labour members are genuine believers in what the party is supposed to stand for. Shame about the leadership. Still, odds of her keeping a job post-Blair?

Oh yeah. Read. Just because, well, it's another gem from Owen.

My predecessor, Robin Butler, cleared both Jonathan Aitken and Neil Hamilton. They both turned out to be lying. Robin was an upper class toff who could not believe that a member of the establishment would lie to him. I have no intention of repeating that mistake.

Update:Missed this one from Craig:

I simply do not believe her. Let me be perfectly plain. I am calling her a liar. Go on, sue me.

Technorati tags: Jowell, Gus O'Donnell, NuLab, Corruption, Mills, Berlusconi

Hello Guardian readers

The article listed is here, written by co-blogger PaulJ. I myself wrote a summary of opinions on Sunday's Observer column from Mr Blair here.

Generally, we're pretty interested int he ways the internet can be used to cover the news better and for communicating between politicians and the electorate, examples here and here, and were very much involved in the creation of the new Liberty Central project, which I recommend you look into if you're at all interested in the way the country is governed.

To the Guardian editorial staff? A little warning would be nice y'know, our contact details are listed openly. Thanks to John for the heads up; swamped in the office today.

Arthur's Seat: Thought for the Day

Arthur's Seat: Thought for the Day:

A bear, a lion and a chicken meet.
Bear says: "If I roar in the forests of America the entire forest is shivering with fear."
Lion says: "And if I roar on the great plains of Africa, the entire savannah is afraid of me."
Says the chicken: "Big deal. I only have to cough, and the entire planet wets itself."

You know when you visit a blog regularly, and you assume that you've linked to them because you read them a lot? Occasionally, you realise you've missed them. Arthur, Bookdrunk and Iain Dale all come into this category; read them regularly, but forgot to add the link. Oops.

I will now be listening to Small Gods. I may come back online when I've stopped laughing.

Technorati tags: Bird Flu, blogging

Power to the People!

Did someone mention Wolfie? Sorry. As usual, Monday means I'm in and out again. Just happens to be the day when one of the more interesting stories come out from under the radar; I had no idea this thing was even going on. Anyway...

POWER - An independent inquiry into Britain's democracy:

After eighteen months of investigation, the final report of Power is a devastating critique of the state of formal democracy in Britain. Many of us actively support campaigns such as Greenpeace or the Countryside Alliance. And millions more take part in charity or community work. But political parties and elections have been a growing turn-off for years. The cause is not apathy.

The report can be downloaded here (I recommend the executive summary, I'm not sure even a constitutional wonk like me can wade through the full thing easily) and they're organising a conference in London at the end of March; I've put my name down, but whether I can afford to get there is another thing entirely.

Read, digest, discuss. Especially, discuss at Liberty Central (rather good timing really, and complete fluke as well).

Technorati tags: Power, Britain, Constitution, Reform

Great Briton: Joseph Rowntree (1836-1925)

Britain has a long history of succesful, radical philanthropists. In the news today is Joseph Rowntree, founder of the Rowntree confectionary company, now, unfortunately, part of Nestlé:

In 1904, aged 68, Joseph Rowntree endowed the three Joseph Rowntree Trusts, giving “about one-half of my property to [their] establishment.” He believed the way to remedy the injustices of the world was not to relieve their ill-effects, but to strike at their roots. This would be the trusts’ work.

Got lots of money? Give it away to make the world a better place. The trusts all have a long history of reports, investigations and campaigns, nice to see them still going and doing his memory proud.

Technorati tags: Rowntree, Great Briton, People

Liberty Central launched

Ladies and Gentlemen...

It is, currently, a shell. Many (many) thanks to Unity for putting all the work in. This is a project, a start. It needs content.

That's for all of us. Write some. Submit it. Contribute.

Technorati tagsearch: reform, freedom, civil liberties, philosophy, nanny state, theory, constitution, Liberty Central, Coalition

Admin: Blogroll update

I've reorganised and updated the blogroll. Nowhere near finished, but I had nearly 200 in "Newly Discovered", which was a little silly.

Some were tough calls as to where to put them, so if someone thinks they're in the wrong place, holler. I've also set it so that on post pages, a much smaller selection appears; the main blogs for each party, and people I read regularly, alongside any aggregators.

I'm trying to have the main blogroll have every UK political blog. I'm pretty sure I'm nowhere near that yet, and the number grows daily. This is good, and bad. If you're not on the big list, let me know; commenting is best in this case.

Technorati tagsearch: Blogging

Quote of the Day: Healey on Blair

BBC NEWS | Politics | Blair should quit now says Healey:

I think Tony's showing he is losing his grip

See, it's not just me who thinks he's tired.

Coalition update: Things are ticking along in the background, however Unity is in need of content for Liberty Central for when it goes live. At first, we can simply reprint good blog articles. So, tell us where they are...

Technorati tags: Healey, Blair, NuLab

Blair on Liberty? He has no idea

Tony Blair has written up his beliefs on Liberty in today's Observer. I want to give it a good going over, and may do so later, but am busy. In the meantime, Charlie at Perfect is on the case:

The prime minister also seems to believe that liberty is a zero-sum game: you can’t have more of it, you can only shift it around. In his view, it’s all about achieving the right ‘balance’. His rhetoric is, likewise, ‘balanced’, although - in this case - bizarre

Go read, both. If anyone else want's to point out the many obvious flaws in Tired Tony's arguments then feel free to go ahead, I'll try to add links in to any others that appear.

Update: This, by Longrider:

No, it is not, you dissembling poltroon. Organised crime has always been ugly - unless Al Capone was pretty? Or, closer to home, the east end gangs such as the Krays, were sweet boys really? Modernity is not an excuse to sweep away our freedoms - only a charlatan would believe it so. There is nothing new here that was not here before.

Update 2: D-Notice (who happens to be a lawyer by trade) here:

He doesn’t mention the Government and other public bodies cannot be stopped from using laws that breach the HRA and that if a law is declared to be “incompatible” with the HRA then it’s up to Parliament to decide whether to amend the law; if so, good; if not, tough!

Update 3: Blairwatch:

IRA terrorism was different in nature and scale... there was a hell of a lot more of it. No muslim group has set off as many bombs as the IRA did, or killed as many people as the Loyalists did. But Tony's trying to change the subject. Notice how he says it's not about civil liberties but about modernity. Utter guff.

Update 4: Garry at Curious Hamster:

What's possibly more worrying is that, while I'm almost certain that Blair doesn't realise it, there are distinct facist undertones here. The state will guarantee your liberty to live your life in the way that the state demands. For the good of the nation.

Blair isn't a facist. He is, I suspect, ignorant as to exactly what facism is. He certainly doesn't understand that a government official with unrestricted power poses a greater danger to our society than a disaffected youth in a hoodie or a terrorist.

That'll be me last update; any more, see comments, etc; if anyone's interested, more will likely pop up in the Bloglines Citations. Update 5: I lied, so sue me. Tim and Tim have more, both rather good, so worth a look as well.

Technorati tags: Blair, NuLab, Liberty, Freedom

Nick Barlow - 404 Not Found

Email from Nick Barlow, his site (What you can get away with) is down due to circumstances beyond his control, he hopes to get it back up Monday.

Technorati tags: Blogging

Lib Dems- internet improvement?

At the beginning of the Lib Dem leadership contest, I wrote a review (well, more of a rant) about the websites of the respective campaigns. I still get a few people reading it, (mostly coming from the Campbell Campaign blog) so I thought I'd do a follow up, as there has been a remarkable improvement in many ways.

At the time, I ranked them as follows:

1. Ming- nice, elegent, functional, not trying to reinvent the wheel
2. Huhne- it's there, it works, it doesn't piss me off
3. Oaten- it's not even there yet, but his personal page isn't ugly
4. Hughes- It's flash driven, I can't link to individual pages, I can copy and paste text but I then can't source it, it annoys me, it's not standards complaint, it won't work in a text browser or on my phone browser (I just checked, Opera Mini, it reads this site and Europhobia fine, has a bit of problem with DK's graphics and loves the Guardian news site), it's just wrong.

So, obviously, Oaten's site was never there.

Ming Campbell

Improved layout and appearance from then, most of it good. Good information out there, and nice use of different sections. On a purely personal level, an article written by Paddy Ashdown was always going to appeal to me, best PM we've never had and all that.

It has flaws; my flashblock tells me the title bar had a flash element (it's designed well enough to have a default alternative for those without flash installed), which, while pretty, adds very little in impact, especially as to read the site you need to scroll down so it disappears. The picture of Ming looks a bit grainy and, to me, is weirdly posed. But overall, an improvement on what was before, kudos to the webteam there.

Chris Huhne

I said it was ugly and looked dated. No longer the case, now redesigned and has a much more graphical web feel. Nice use of "podcasting", a newsfeed, Blog aggregator of supporters, etc. Utility issues, the top logo doesn't link to the homepage when you're on a sub page, and the navigation menu is to the far right, which goes against user expectations, but a masive improvement on what was before, and a good use of technology. Oh, he's changed the acronym so he's not telling a LIE as well.

Simon Hughes

I said: Awful. My new rating: Poor. The content is substantially improved, the look is better, there's no ugly flash to get passed. There's a campaign blog, which currently has this picture of him near the top, um, not the best publicity shot ever, who's he going to hit? So, overall, it should be OK? No, sorry. One, very simple, and so easy to fix technical problem.

No page titles, no site title

In this post, I outlines simple techniques that can improve your sites usability and search engine presence. If I run a site search, the page title tells me what I've found. But if you don't have any page titles?

So, a significant improvement to Simon's site. But that's going from being rated worse than non-existent to merely being poor.

The winner is

I think, overall, that Ming scrapes a win over Huhne on the site front. Just. Both good, Huhne has a bespoke site that works, Ming has a customised Wordpress site that look good. Simon's site is adequate, but isn't actually helping his web presence. If you want a website, it's to get web presence. If you don't help search engines and users of search engines, you may as well not bother.

Still, if the polls are right, it's neck and neck between Huhne and Campbell. I've already said that I'd prefer Huhne to win, so Simon having a poor site doesn't, really, bother me.

However, it is my understanding that as President it's his remit to cover the party website? If so, someone kick him, the Conservative website has been significantly revamped recently, very well done to whoever did that, the Lib Dems need to play catch up there. When the hurly burly's done, Simon goes back to being President, which, from those activists I've heard from, he's considered to be doing a good job. But he needs someone who gets how to use the web properly.

Technorati tags: LibDems, Parties, Leadership, Hughes, Campbell, Huhne, Blogging, Political Weblog Project

Quote of the Day

We are giving the authorities an open invitation to abuse their power:

"In a democracy, personal liberties are rarely diminished overnight. Rather, they are lost gradually, by acts of well-meaning people, with good intentions, amid public approval. But the subtle loss of freedom is never recognised until the crisis is over and we look back in horror. And then it is too late."

-Andrew Napolitano, American judge, just after 9/11

(via)

Technorati tags: Freedom, liberty, NuLab, liberty central, coalition

Belarus: the last European dictatorship?

Sometimes, it's worth remembering that while Blair/Brown/Blears et al may be destroying the freedoms we're rightly proud of in this country, at least they're there to be destroyed.

United 4 Belarus - Home

Technorati tags: Belarus, Freedom, Europe

Samizdata quote of the day | Samizdata.net

Message for the tired man:

Whoever said "there is no such thing as bad publicity" obviously never had their career "Dan Rather'ed" into tiny pieces by the twenty thousand bloggers.

We're coming for you Tony.

Technorati tags: quote, blogging, Blair

E-democracy: tied up in red tape

Or, why politicians should blog

Does it come as a surprise to anyone that I think our elected representatives should use modern technology to engage with their electorate directly? As a strong supporter of the principles of representative, Parliamentary democracy, and also of local democracy and local councils, reading this in the Guardian is disheartening:

Paul Evans, head of the Councillor.info scheme to provide elected members with a web presence, says only a tiny percentage of councillors use their sites to do anything more than list contact details.

Hmm. Paul Evans. I think I know what the problem here is. Councillors know that you should Never Trust a Hippy.

Engagement with the electorate is increasingly needed.

Some politicians do a much better job than others. Some have a very strong web presence, and are learning to use it effectively. Others? Well, improvements could be made. Not, necessarily, by blogging (although I think some sort of 'blog', whether updated daily, weekly, or monthly is good, not least for RSS feeds and similar), but definately by improving the layout and structure of their site.

Very basic web optimisation techniques, correct page titling, the use of Header tags, article pages rather than archive pages, etc. It's important to write for the web and, if republishing newspaper articles, edit them (or get a member of the team/a volunteer) to reformat them to be web friendly. For example, I've just written a dull paragraph about techniques, right?

• Optimise your site for search engines and users
• Ensure each page has full title tags at the top,
• Break the text up using Header tags and ordered lists
• Put every article on a separate page, don't just archive them all on one page
• If republishing print articles from, for example, the local press, reformat them for the web, don't just print big chunks of text

Big chunks of text are dull and lose reader attention

See? Wasn't that better to read?

Most traffic to a website comes from search engines.

Search engine headlines are generated by the title tags at the top of the page. Ergo, every page should have a descriptive title tag to make the site more appealing to a potential visitor. This is especially important for news and opinion articles; search engines (let's be honest, we're talking Google here, the rest don't matter - at the moment) pay attention to header tags, title tags and page structure. Vary basic techniques can make your site and your opinion pieces much more search engine friendly.

By default, it also makes you more user friendly. I want to have a reason to visit your site regularly. You want me to come back regularly, else why have a site? The best bit of all of this? All of the things you need to do to make your site media, search and user friendly is pretty much the default in decent blogging software.

In addition, if you keep the site up to date and approachable, maybe you can cut back on the number of emails you receive asking the same question again and again.

Instead, you'll have a whole lot of new questions, mostly for clarifications.

Hostage to fortune?

Yes, there's a chance something you write can come back and bite you. Yes, there's a chance you can be quoted out of context. But then, you have that with any media.

• "Did you threaten to overrule him?"
• Mr Redwood, would you care to sing a nice anthem?
• Is that an egg in the face
• "Pauline had done her hair"

Every new media, every traditional media, even your choice of car ownership opens you up to attack.

But if people are used to going to your site, seeing your opinions, you can use that as a right of reply. Instantly, if you so wish.

You don't need to publish daily. You don't even need to publish regularly, although that does help. Promote the use of RSS feedreading software, email the updates out, or, better, just email links to the update. Engage in a debate with your voters.

I have a lot more respect for a politician who votes against what I want, but explains themselves well, than I do for lobby fodder aparatchiks, even if they're on my side. Talk to us. Engage with us. If you're not sure how to go about it, ask us. We'll, mostly, be happy to help.

Some blogs are written badly. Some are pathetic. Some are rabid attack dogs out for blood. Others are sedate, reserved, windbags. A bit like the mainstream media really. We don't dismiss newspapers across the board because of Rebekah Wade's Sun, or Paul Dacre's Daily Mail.

E-communication is increasingly the norm. When I started in my job, I spent most of my day on the phone, all over the world. Now, my equivalent in that role barely says a word all day, it's all e-mail. A part of me misses ringing Poland every day. But I welcome the ability I, and others, have, to influence opinion and discuss the news with anyone, anywhere in the world.

What's your local representative doing to talk to you

Reading this and don't know? That means they're probably not doing enough, after all, I'm just a lone nut in a small flat. They work for you, don't you think they should talk to you to? Write to them and tell them so. Politely, of course. More on this general ideal here and sometimes at Paulie's site linked above.

G'night all.

Technorati tags: Paulie, blogging, e-democracy, regulatory stupidity, political weblog project

Non-trivial Solutions: Housesitting

Andrew (whose comment I quoted here) comes on board:

Well, the first thing is to lay down partisan arms, and start talking to the enemy. Evil Liberal Democrat Mat over at Not Little England, and evil Labourite Unity at Talk Politics are starting a coalition of the willing with two broad aims - firstly, some kind of tactical voting jiggery pokery to get the authoritarians of all stripes out of power, and secondly, to create a new constitutional settlement for the British people. You have to at least admire their ambition.

Well, fortune favours the bold and all that. Oh, technicalyly not a LibDem, still not got around to rejoining. Besides, as I've said a few times, on the issues that matter to me, I'm closest to the LibDems on 80% of them. That doesn't mean I agree with the LibDems 80% of the time, it's just that on some things, I don't care what the policy is.

I'm in with them, evilness set aside for the common good, so click those links and pledge allegiance. And cash. We need lots of it.

Good. He's right though, any kind of campaign like this needs to break out of the blogosphere and get press coverage and, eventually, people campaigning on the grounds. Expenses will need to be covered, printing paid for, etc.

I remember one of my earliest experiences with electoral politics was aged 17, Charter 88 organised a series of candidates hustings around the country; I had no vote, but I went because I was interested. Signed up to the charter, but the debate held was interesting and informative (and the Natural Law candidate was hilarious, when asked which politician she most admired, she answered with "Rupert Allason" - the MP for the previous two Parliaments and against whom she was standing).

It would be great to organise that sort of thing for 2009/2010. Publicity of all sorts is needed; we may need to coordinate letter writing campaigns, both to MPs and to local/national papers as well. Anyway...

As for me, I may just come out of blogging retirement. Every time I take a break, the government passes yet more authoritarian legislation. Maybe it's my fault?

Well, we've got to blame it on someone mate ;-)

Blog more. Actually, everyone set up a blog. Go on.

Oh, reminder:

Liberty Blog Round Up

I think a nice summary on a fairly regular basis of the on-topic posts would be good, there are loads of them out there now. First one to go up soon, possibly tomorrow, nominations currently to me using a proxy address, libertyroundup@fuzzyduck.org (no mailto:, but also no spaces, etc, that domain got trawled by spammers ages ago unfortunately).

Technorati tags: coalition, liberty central, freedom

Dear Dad (and other new readers),

My lovely, if at times annoying, sister, tells me you want to have a look at what I've been doing with my spare time for the last few months. Fair enough, I've sent her a link to pass on; I've lost your email address directly after one too many computer crashes I'm afraid.

So, I thought I'd write a brief description of the site and how it works for yourself and any other new readers we've picked up recently. But first Dad, a thank you. We never really talked about politics much when I was a kid, you worked with politicians every day, taught me the importance of being impartial and putting your own views aside when doing a job. You did, however (with Mum), teach me to think for myself, read, learn, research and come to my own conclusions; your refusal to have us inducted into the Church is something I remain grateful for, my atheism is so ingrained I have problems with weddings, christenings and funerals same as yourself. I still can't pay bills on time, and I perpetually forget my head, but I can use it when I put my mind to it, and for that I'm very thankful.

So, what have I been up to

Not sure if you met Paul when we shared the house in Exeter, short curly haired bloke from Shropshire, but together we've been writing a lot about politics; we both studied it at Exeter, and we mostly agree on everything (we sometimes worked to find things we disagreed on in order to debate, we both enjoy it). So I decided I'd have a go at this blogging lark, and asked him to both write a bit and keep me going (always did work better as part of a team).

It's a "weblog". Essentially, an online magazine that we write articles for when we feel like it, and each article has its own, built in, letters (comments) page. Some people come to the site regularly to see if we've written something, others subscribe to our "syndication feeds" (all those coloured button links to the right), methods to subscribe to the site and get regular updates via various types of software, and have recently picked up a few more readers than before.

It's fun to write, and getting feedback on your ideas, especially from those that disagree with you, fores you to think about your opinions. I love doing it, and I'm using the subject of my degree, rather than just the skills I picked up doing it as I do at work. It's going rather well at the moment; we've got a lot of regular readers, We've

1. Won an award
2. Been nominated for the weekly BritBlog roundup (I nearly bought you Tim's book for Xmas as it happens)
3. Lots of other people are talking about what we're saying
4. And I've become involved in a new movement to try and effect genuine changes to the constitution in order to control and repeal the actions of the current government.

Running a site like this is easy, and completely free. Haven't made any money yet from the adverts, but the Amazon links are quite good; if you (or anyone) fancy signing up to their DVD rental scheme (which I'm thinking of anyway), then they'll pay me good money at no cost to you!

Oh, if you're still using Microsoft's Internet Explorer to read websites, can I strongly recommend you get Firefox instead? Button links to the right, it's just so much better, and completely free as well (they'll, eventually, pay me money for doing that too!).

I would promise to come visit you and Mum more often, but I always do, and never get around to it. I'll try to. Much more likely to see you when I get roped in to helping darling sis move house, really good news on that one. And yes, I am slightly scared that I'll be an uncle soon.

There's a lot to read on here (and I try not to swear too often), have a look around.

Your ever loving, but unreliable and forgetful, son,
- Matthew.

Technorati tags: blogging, parents, life

John Reid: Idiot

A Big Stick and a Small Carrot: John Reid: Idiot

Technorati tags: john reid, terrorism, idiot

DMOZ Open Directory

Hmmm, to whoever did our listing here, mind if I nick the description for the next tagline?:

Not Little England - A weblog opposing attempts to destroy the civil liberties and open minded ideals that made Britain great.

I assume the listing is new, and definately a few more established blogs missing from it (read: most of the ones I read regularly), never really used DMOZ but it sounds like a good plan.

Technorati tags: dmos, blogging

My hair, my "crowning glory"?

Yes!:

Two High Court judges ruled that people regarded their hair as their "crowning glory" and could be "intrinsic" to their identity.

My understanding from the brief spot on PM is that this sets a precedent, your hair is now part of your person legally, and anyone who cuts it off without your consent is guilty of an assault, right?

Bloody right too. Number of people that "joke" about cutting my hair off, really gets to me, my choice to wear my hair long is a source of humour, a woman's choice to wear it short goes unmentioned. Why? Nice to see that my (mostly) neatly kept hair is now actually considered part of me and the law will now recognise it.

Serious issue? No, but if I can tell people to piss off when they effectively propose ABH and cite this case, then I'm happy.

Off out now, not that anyone cares, but light blogging this evening from me.

Technorati tags: hair, crowning glory, assault

Fears raised on ministers' power

The Legislative and Regulatory Bill is scaring a lot of people online, it's one of the tipping point moments. BBC News has finally covered it:

For the Tories Ken Clarke said it could "sweep away parliamentary procedure and debate on an astonishing scale".

But minister Jim Murphy insisted the bill would have safeguards built in.

And from an anonymous comment, I'm pointed at Rob Knight's post from Sunday, which I must've missed when I was there yesterday. Go read. If nothing else, EU-Serf's comment there about the need for cross-party opposition to this is something I wholeheartedly endorse.

Technorati tags: Legislative and Regulatory Reform Bill, NuLab, leg/reg, freedom, Parliament

Switzerland to help Poland catch up with Europe

Interesting...:

"Switzerland is not EU member but it has close relations with the union," the Swiss minister said. "We have decided to make a contribution to level economic and social differences between the new and the old EU states and to allocate 1 billion Swiss francs for the purpose," she added.

A non EU state thinks it's a good idea to give money to Eastern reconstruction and catch up? Works with the EU Commission to set up a special fund? I have no idea what to make of this one.

Technorati tags: Europe, Switzerland, EU, Poland

Vote positively

This

Technorati tags: coalition

Linford's Top 10 Political Speeches

Joys of being a proper journalist; people paid him to go report on these. Paul Linford: My Top 10 Political Speeches:

Following the success of my top 10 political books - well, four comments are better than none! - here's my list of the ten best political speeches I have heard during my lifetime.

Lucky git. Have to agree with him on some of them, especially his first choice. Kinnock's blistering attack on Militant gets played every so often, whenever I hear it I stop to listen, and I'm not in any involved, I was a kid at the time. Go read.

Technorati tags: speeches, parties, politics

Talk Politics - Liberty Central

OK, we may have got a little carried away at time in the last week; while I hoped to strike a nerve, I certainly didn't expect to get as many disparate groups on board as fast, or things to grow as quickly as they have. There's a lot of frustration out there with the status quo, and riding that wave isn't exactly easy. Controlling it without getting carried away? Not sure if I could, let alone whether I should.

Re-read my original post, with a view to maybe taking the link out of the tagline. Not ging to, I stand by it completely. I don't want, and did not call for, a partizan, anti-Labour campaign; I called for a campaign against the current Govt, and identified their authoritarian measures as the problem. I have no problem with a politician who rejects attacks on our fundamental liberties, regardless of party; I may disagree with them on policies, but that's a debate worth having. But removing my freedoms for the sake of a few headlines and an appeal to the politics of fear? No thanks.

Politicians in favour of an authoritarian, moralising or state-controlling agenda I oppose, whether they be Thatcherites and Cornerstone Tories with appeals to Victorian Values or "Faith Flag and Family", or New Labour apparatchiks who legislate away fundamental freedoms and declare their intent to catalogue, control and nanny my life.

“Of all tyrannies, a tyranny sincerely exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive. It may be better to live under robber barons than under omnipotent moral busybodies. The robber baron’s cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity may at some point be satiated; but those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end, for they do so with the approval of their consciences.”
C. S. Lewis (via)

The worst thing about our Govt? I'm pretty sure that, when it comes down to it, they genuinely mean well and beleive they're doing the right thing. They're not.

I want to be involved in a campaign to show that, to win the case for liberal values, individual freedoms, constitutional reforms and Parliamentary democracy.

That's why I want you to go here and read what Unity has to say about what comes next.

A tactical voting campaign is being planned. If done in the right way, for the right reasons, it could do some good. But I, personally, am not interested in partizan brinkmanship, back to the post that started it all:

liberal Labour bloggers can work within the party in an attempt to bring the control freaks to heel

That was the first part of my 3-point plan. It remains a central part of it. Authoritarian centralism is something I reject utterly. Unfortunately, the current leadership of the Labour party are authoritarian centralists par excellance.

If the Labour party has, fundamentally, changed by the time of the next election, if the next leader isn't someone who has bought into the project completely, then my opinions may change. I see no signs of this, I see no ministers that give me hope.

But I see Labour members that give me hope. Work from within your party, if you so wish. It needs to change, it has lost its way.

I have almost given up hope for the party I voted for in 2001, the Govt I stayed up to watch win in 1997. There are no lost causes in politics.

If the govt stops attempting to categorise me, rolls back its recent regulations, accepts the basic principles of liberty that we're working on and talking about, then maybe I won't get involved in a massive tactical voting campaign in 2009. Maybe it won't be needed.

For now, however, I'm afraid it is.

Technorati tags: Liberty Central, Coalition, Freedom, civil liberties, Coalition

Admin: Title and colour scheme

Just thought I'd point out, last week when I tweaked the template I finally got rid of the "Great Britain" bit in the title tags. The blog was always supposed to be called simply Not Little England, but Iput the GB bit in because I wanted to explaint he title. It stayed for ages because, well, Google referrals benefitted and people were referring to it as such. Back to just the plain title now, so if you use a "blog this" applet or similar it'll all display right. Of course, those linking to us with the Great Britain bit are helping the Google interpretation, so no need to change anything ;-)

Second, Biodun comments:

I know this is off-topic and probably very different from what most people have been saying...

but I hate your new site colours, especially the grey boxes holding the posts. I think they're ugly.

Can we have a vote to see how many people want it back the old way?
Pleeeeeeeeeaaaaaaaase?

Well, part of why I do this is to teach myself website coding. People didn't like the all black scheme, I didn't like the all murky grey scheme, so I compromised with the boxes. However, I'm open to persuasion for anything that I am actually able to code (or anything someone can explain to me).

Perhaps a three column effect, with black side borders, and grey central column, with no boxes? That was the intent when I last changed it, but, well, my coding with CSS is pretty dismal.

Sticking to a dark background/bright text though, personal preference, high contrast is good.

Technorati tags: admin, blogging, colour scheme, css

Indy: Lawson: Bird Flu, don't panic

Dominic Lawson: I'm not scared of avian flu (and I've had it):

There is not a single recorded proven example of it spreading between humans. Not one

Just an aside. I'm fed up with all the media hype over this non-story. No H2H transmissions yet recorded, minimal deaths compared to normal flu deaths each winter, widespread evidence of immunity and recovery withing Chinese populations, dealt with in Vietnam. First discovered as a strain in Scotland; had forgotten that one. Non-story, MSM scare story, worth watching, but never worth the front page screaming it's getting.

Technorati tags: Bird Flu, h5n1, avian flu, Lawson, Independent, Panic

Indy: Thomas Sutcliffe on Irving and Free Speech

Todays Independent:

If you want to defend David Irving's right to talk nonsense, as I do now, you have to face the fact that you're going to find yourself in ugly company ... Unfortunately those of us who think liberty of expression has had a very bad time just recently don't have a lot of choice. You can't always choose the site of battle, and there's no getting round the fact that those who wish to qualify and trim the principle of free speech occupy what looks very much like the high ground.

He is, of course, completely correct. As Judy eloquently points out, Irving is, not to put to fine a point on it, the type of person I'd rather avoid at all costs. However, banning him from speaking his mind isn't the way to go about it. Sending him to jail for making a speech is counter-productive and potentially even more damaging, as John observes here.

Sutcliffe again:

...free speech has never been defended by protecting the saying of things that nobody minds being uttered. If that was so what kind of liberty would it be?

Iqbal Sacranie made some pretty obnoxious remarks about homesexuality recently. The way to counter this is not to ban him from saying these things, not to arrest him, but to tell him he's wrong. Shout it from every rooftop. Lowri Turner may be an ignorant bigot, but the way to deal with this is to tell the world she is (as this Google search shows was done), not ban her from talking such nonsense. I retain my position that those cartoons were stupid, unfunny and not worth publishing, furthermore, that to do so once was misguided, to continually do so was bloody stupid. But I would not seek to ban a newspaper editor from being a blithering idiot (although I'll happily call them out when they are, especially everyone's favourite traitor). Freedom of speech has to be an absolute. If someone is talking crap, you need to tell them it's so, denounce them, shout it from the rooftops. "No platform" when it comes to groups such as the BNP is counter productive; debate 'em, show them up as what they are.

There's a real danger in moving to a position where the affront a speech might cause governs its admissibility...This particular right is too important to be withheld from the repulsive.

Technorati tags: Independent, Sutcliffe, Irving, Free Speech, Holocaust Denial, Austria

Coalition: Coming on nicely, critique and roundup

Update:Changed a few things and marked them, just to be a little more clear, provisional title very misleading.

Very briefly, I'm in a rush, large amount of discussion out there, not all of it favourable, good summary from the Bloglines Citations facility. Some criticisms, discussed below, likely they'll be ongoing. Some opposition, Bob Piper and Neil Harding being two, I don't think either have fully got the point.

Anyway, Anyone But Labour Tactical Voting Campaign (provisional title) is crystalising, see Bloggerheads for more on that, specifically I agree completely with Tim's call for readers to join in and set upt ehir own blogs. Agree or disagree, blog-spot is free, and getting a domain with all the trimmings isn't that expensive. Many of us out there can help with the basics if you want or need it. The more people we have discussing the issue, linking to each other and telling their real life friends/colleagues, etc the better off we and the campaign are.

I'm thinking maybe a Carnival of Blogs, a lá Britblog, that could rotate around, the best posts, the new blogs, etc? Good idea? Ah, whatever; start nominating anyway; libertyroundup at fuzzyduck dot org until I set up a proper email account for it. Anything on topic, and also any/all well written critiques.

Unity has been posting and working on the other aspect, Liberty Central, see his blog for more on that and the openings of a discussion.

Beyond that, I have a life to lead; keep the feedback and posts coming, even critiques and flaws are worth reading.

Technorati tagsearch: reform, freedom, civil liberties, nanny state, Coalition