You might have heard of a campaign to move the UK onto the same timezone as Central Europe. There are a number of groups campaigning for this (see, for example, Lighter Later) and the proposals are going to be discussed in parliament on December 3rd. Now, I don’t have any particularly strong feelings either way… Continue reading Berlin Time
Tag: media
Complicated Voting System
The Daily Mail never misses an opportunity to push its agenda, does it. Writing about the Labour Leadership election today, Nicola Boden says: Once regarded as the dark horse in the competition, the energy spokesman, 40, took the crown thanks to the party’s complicated voting system. “Complicated”? How can you possibly describe the single transferable… Continue reading Complicated Voting System
Unelected Prime Ministers
Over the last few days, there’s been a lot of nonsense talked about “unelected Prime Ministers”. It started off as scaremongering by the Murdoch press, but it soon started to be repeated by Tory supporters like Iain Dale. I’ve even heard people like Michael Gove and William Hague use the phrase in interviews. Of course… Continue reading Unelected Prime Ministers
Alice in Wonderland
I’ve just got back from seeing Alice in Wonderland and I’m now feeling rather depressed and am starting to despair for the future of the film industry. Let’s get the positive aspects out of the way first. The cast is wonderful and the acting impressive. I particularly enjoyed the little comedic touches that Anne Hathaway… Continue reading Alice in Wonderland
Homeopathic Dilutions
Like many press outlets, the Daily Mail pre-empted the publication of the Science and Technology committee report and published a story yesterday summing up the MPs’ findings. Of course the Daily Mail is the home of the gullible reader and a good number of the comments on that story are attempting to defend the woo-mongers.… Continue reading Homeopathic Dilutions
The Pod Delusion
I’ve never really been a fan of podcasts. It’s related to the reason why I rarely listen to talk radio – I think that audio is a really inefficient way to absorb information. I could take in the information at three or four times the speed if I could read it. But there’s an exception… Continue reading The Pod Delusion
PCC: An Important Update
Last week I pointed you at a petition that you could sign to support our suggestions for reforming the PCC. Things went fine for a day or so and the number of signatures easily sailed past 500. Then, for reasons we still haven’t understood, the petition vanished from the site where it was hosted. Despite… Continue reading PCC: An Important Update
Press Complaints Commission
One of the major topics on this blog is the nonsense that is printed by a significant proportion of the British press. The press in this country is “controlled” by the Press Complaints Commission, but in the majority of cases the PCC either can’t or won’t adjudicate effectively. Every year the PCC invites interested parties… Continue reading Press Complaints Commission
He Blinded Me With Science
The story so far: In January 2004, in an astonishing display of common sense the government downgraded cannabis to a class C drug. This didn’t play well in the shires and in January 2009 it was reclassified as Class B. Last week, Professor David Nutt, head of the government’s Advisory Council on the Misuse of… Continue reading He Blinded Me With Science
The Power of Social Media
In the future, we may well look back on the past week and describe it as the week that the power of social media became apparent to pretty much everyone in the UK. This week social networks have allowed the powers of light to win three victories over the powers of darkness. It started on… Continue reading The Power of Social Media