Nick Clegg has invited fellow Britons to help cut red-tape by urging Brits to complain endlessly about unnecessary and excessive laws.
A new government website has been launched, called Your Freedom, which wants you to get involved with issues by commenting, rating or even submitting the things you want to see changing. The site has been relatively slow to respond all day, probably under the might of those people who are wanting to legalise cannabis (which could be taxed of course, you can’t get away that easily).
One interesting and potentially positive result of this new campaign to weed out the legacy of Labour, is that now there is a platform for the public and tech-geeks to criticise the Digital Economy Bill (as recommended by Boing Boing) and get it repealed or replaced.
Today is the day that the British media went into enthusiastic overdrive with reporters and anchors frothing at their mouths and going completely insane over the many countless revelations in the mess that is the General Election. That was mouth full, now breathe.
David Cameron swooped in to claim victory as the new Prime Minister, whilst Gordon Brown earlier made a dignified resignation. One lesson we learned is that the conservative media still decided to ruthlessly rip right into Gordon, even when he was giving them what they wanted by resigning.
Let’s not forget the metaphorical pillow in the form of Nick Clegg, who is cushioning the blow of Cameron as PM. Cameron bizarrely announced that Clegg would be also acting as a leader, with both parties in power in the interest of the nation (putting aside differences).
I’m sure a lot more will happen tonight, but the big inditement on this country is that most people were more bothered about Eastenders being pushed to a later time due to the news.
For us Brit’s, it is election day. I’ll personally be voting Liberal Democrats but I know a few people who are voting for various different parties.
I’d admit that in terms of policy – it is very competitive (although Labour seem to have a good policy on the economy, the rise in National Insurance next year worries me slightly).
Of course, we can all expect to a reasonable degree, that a hung parliament will probably happen.
The historic British Election Debate is kicking off tonight and it is going to be extremely interesting or extremely tedious.
I do hope that the Liberal Democrats are able to keep in the spotlight a little bit, it could give them a boost and appeal to a new wave of TV voters. That could be a good thing or a bad one, we shall see.
Astonishingly, the Digital Economy Bill passed and it is a heavy punch to the face for democracy. I’ve touched on the bill before (Dan Bull notably made fun of it when it was first proposed) and I don’t feel the need to go over everything again.
How things have changed… Even on the 2nd of April, my MP, Mark Todd (a notable opponent of the bill) was sure that it wouldn’t go through immediately and doing so would be undemocratic and pretty much bat-shit insane.
Peter Mandelson has the music industry’s cock swirling around in his mouth and I hope the music and movie industry are very happy.
Our digital freedoms are at risk, but it has also now emerged that the government will potentially be able to read our postal mail without our permission or knowledge.
Every day something new comes out and it seems to me that us Britons are rapidly losing our rights and freedoms.
On an unrelated note, I am current reading ‘Nineteen Eighty Four’ by George Orwell.
Despite the fact that we supposedly live in a free democracy and that a large portion of people have angrily opposed this law coming into effect, it seems that every phone call, email and web search you make will be monitored.
This data will be stored for a year and available to 653 public bodies and they will be able to do so very easily, without requiring a judge.
In case you have become numb to the growing lack of civil liberties in Britain, this is a disgusting abuse of power and it is both undemocratic and representative of the failing nanny state we live in.
Dan Bull makes another open letter song, it’s entertaining and raises some very important points, a few that I touched upon earlier in the week. Don’t forget to sign the petition (Britons).
We live in an alleged democracy and one of the key elements of this wonderful political system is that we are innocent until proven guilty. However, it seems that the Internet isn’t subject to this fundamental democratic rule that we are all entitled to.
So it’s bad. £50,000 fines if someone in your house is accused of filesharing. A duty on ISPs to spy on all their customers in case they find something that would help the record or film industry sue them (ISPs who refuse to cooperate can be fined £250,000).
But that’s just for starters. The real meat is in the story we broke yesterday: Peter Mandelson, the unelected Business Secretary, would have to power to make up as manynew penalties and enforcement systems as he likes. And he says he’s planning to appoint private militias financed by rightsholder groups who will have the power to kick you off the internet, spy on your use of the network, demand the removal of files or the blocking of websites, and Mandelson will have the power to invent any penalty, including jail time, for any transgression he deems you are guilty of. And of course, Mandelson’s successor in the next government would also have this power.
That’s not just bad, that’s a political fist fuck to anyone who even gives a damn about the internet and anyone who wants to protect net neutrality.
Of course, file sharing shouldn’t be illegal, sharing illegal files specifically should be, but even if you remove that debate, being accused of doing something is not good enough in the ‘real world’; why would anyone with an ounce of sense believe it is good enough online?
What the government effectively appear to be doing, is simply giving one big blow-job to the entertainment industry. After all, capitalism triumphs over freedom.
I recommend you read the full Boing Boing article (see source below) and then sign the petition if you are a British resident.
In the New Year, Gordon Brown is going to apologise for an often overlooked part of British history, one of the few disgraceful atrocities against human rights of the 20th century, the crimes involving compulsory child migration.
Up until only forty years ago (1930′s – 1970′s), children were secretly sent to former British colonies. Parents didn’t know about it until it was too late and children were falsely told that their parents were dead and that they were going to live a more ‘abundant’ life in Australia (or Canada). They were then shipped off to live in orphanages or in-care in another country, where many of them were under educated, suffered physical & sexual abuse and made to work long days as labourers.
Gordon Brown is expected to apologise for the past governments failings and crimes against humanity, in the new year, after ongoing discussions and research with those affected. Australia is also due, on Monday, to apologise for the mistreatment and abuse that British migrants suffered.
