Tag: politics

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 BNP on Question Time

Here’s what I think. Nick Griffin is an odious little toad of a man. Everything that the British National Party stands for is abhorrent to all sane people. However, there are enough irrational people on the electoral register that the BNP are an elected party. Question Time is supposed to be politically neutral. An unfortunate… Continue reading The BNP on Question Time

Extending Number 10 Petitions

Like many people I’ve signed a few petitions on the Number 10 Downing St web site. Although I like the idea of this site, signing a petition is almost always a disappointing experience. To be more accurate it’s not the signing that’s the disappointment, it’s the response from the Government that turns up by email… Continue reading Extending Number 10 Petitions

Competition is Good

For over two years, I’ve been running Planet Westminster. It’s a simple site which aggregates blog postings from all UK MPs. I built it in an afternoon (based on my software Perlanet) and have tweaked it here and there since then. I always thought that it would good to have it working well before next… Continue reading Competition is Good

Who Is To Blame?

Last night I dreamt that the BNP had won seats in the European Parliament. This morning I woke up and it was true. Across the country, 6% of the electorate (well, ok, 6% of the 35% who could be bothered to vote) had decided that they were best represented by racists. In two regions the… Continue reading Who Is To Blame?

Voting Dilemmas

There’s a European Parliament election on Thursday. I’ve been trying to work out who to vote for. That’s not normally a problem for me. I’m a natural Labour voter and have been for most of my life. Voting for any other party feels strange. But I’m so disillusioned with the government right now that it… Continue reading Voting Dilemmas

Unsaying Things on the Internet

I think that one of the reasons that a certain type of politician is wary of the internet is that once you’ve said something on the internet, it becomes very hard to unsay it. If you’re used to dealing with the world of newpapers and broadcast media where everything is ephemeral then it must be… Continue reading Unsaying Things on the Internet

Overcomplicating Matters

It is, of course, a truism that the larger and more complex a project is, the less likely it is to come in on budget, on spec or in time. When the project in question involves IT, the chances of any of the original targets being met approach zero. This is why one of the… Continue reading Overcomplicating Matters

Petition Approved

The petition I mentioned yesterday has been approved and is now on the Number 10 petitions site. Please consider signing it. And please forward the address to as many people as you can. http://petitions.number10.gov.uk/DoYourRealJob/