Monday, 12 January 2009
Update . .
I see that a Downing Street Petition has been started to object to the spying proposal without warrant. If you want to sign it you can do so HERE
Big Brother hits Rock Bottom
This from blog.wired.com on January 05, 2009
"The UK's Home Office is supporting a proposal that would allow British police or MI5 agents to hack home, office and other private computers without a warrant to intercept e-mail traffic and monitor a user's other computer activities.
The proposal, initiated by the European Union council of ministers, calls for British police to install spyware on personal computers at the request of other European nations that suspect UK residents of involvement in criminal activity".
I have long since ceased to be surprised by the total disregard the Home Office shows for personal privacy and individual rights - indeed all of government for that matter - but what is really bewildering about this is that it appears to be at the behest of the EU. I have absolutely no problem with law enforcement agents using all the technology at their disposal to track child molesters, terrorists or criminal masterminds - and this authority is only supposed to be available if the people being monitored are suspected of offences punishable by three years inside or more.
What is really deeply disturbing about this is the lack of judicial supervision. It speaks volumes about the way this has been carefully preplanned to be open to abuse. The law of conspiracy kills the three year safeguard stone dead. It is a licence to spy on anything and anybody. But far worse than that, it is a clear indication that there is one thing government fears more than anything else - accountability. Why else would the Home Office proposal bypass judicial scrutiny? Because, like the criminals they claim to be watching, the one thing they really fear is justice. When society has reached the point where government is afraid of the judiciary, it has sunk about as low as it can go.
(Read the whole piece HERE)
"The UK's Home Office is supporting a proposal that would allow British police or MI5 agents to hack home, office and other private computers without a warrant to intercept e-mail traffic and monitor a user's other computer activities.
The proposal, initiated by the European Union council of ministers, calls for British police to install spyware on personal computers at the request of other European nations that suspect UK residents of involvement in criminal activity".
I have long since ceased to be surprised by the total disregard the Home Office shows for personal privacy and individual rights - indeed all of government for that matter - but what is really bewildering about this is that it appears to be at the behest of the EU. I have absolutely no problem with law enforcement agents using all the technology at their disposal to track child molesters, terrorists or criminal masterminds - and this authority is only supposed to be available if the people being monitored are suspected of offences punishable by three years inside or more.
What is really deeply disturbing about this is the lack of judicial supervision. It speaks volumes about the way this has been carefully preplanned to be open to abuse. The law of conspiracy kills the three year safeguard stone dead. It is a licence to spy on anything and anybody. But far worse than that, it is a clear indication that there is one thing government fears more than anything else - accountability. Why else would the Home Office proposal bypass judicial scrutiny? Because, like the criminals they claim to be watching, the one thing they really fear is justice. When society has reached the point where government is afraid of the judiciary, it has sunk about as low as it can go.
(Read the whole piece HERE)
Wednesday, 7 January 2009
New Year Blues
It is seriously cold here in Budapest - and possibly about to get a whole lot colder. This is not a weather forecast. Natural gas is the fuel of choice for large numbers of people for heating. It is clean, relatively environmentally friendly and it works. Works, that is, until a bunch of idiots somewhere a long way east of here decide to play politics with it. It is interesting to see the elaborate exchanges of rhetoric between Kiev and Moscow about who is to blame but they are playing a very dangerous game indeed. Their problem is that the gas has been bought and paid for. It is fair to say that we do not particularly care who is to blame. We want it fixed and we want it fixed now. Medium term, Europe will undoubtedly seek alternative sources (Turkey has already done a deal with Iran). Long term, we will move to more credible and environmentally friendly solutions. Russia will lose business either way and if it transpires that Ukraine has been ripping off the western supply, they can wave goodbye to any credibility as a candidate for EU membership. Time, I think, for them to sort it out.
In the meantime, we observe what the good judges meant at Nuremberg when they said 'never again'. They meant never again - unless it is in the defence of Israel. The argument is that something has to be done to stop Hamas from lobbing rockets into Israel. Amen to that. What the argument does not say is that it is OK to indiscriminately target civilians in this or any other conflict. The Israelis will, of course, deny that they are doing this but the bottom line is that 40 civilians in a UN school compound do not die unnecessarily unless someone takes the decision that civilians do not matter when wider political issues are at stake. Nothing may have been learned at Nuremberg but a great deal was learned from the Nazi persecution of civilians. They learned how to do it.
Talking of the democratic process, I note that Britain's descent into mediocrity and confusion continues apace. Mr. Brown and his fellow deluded control freaks continue to believe - in the face of all evidence to the contrary - that creating a siege mentality by encouraging a climate of fear will somehow save the Union. Ironic that the one thing New Labour might just be able to claim credit for (although all the donkey work was done by the previous government) is the Northern Ireland peace agreement. Now they risk undermining the whole thing with ridiculous internal border controls. The one remaining hope for the Union is federation. I suspect the SNP is about to lead the way towards an end to the union and once that process has started, it will become unstoppable. All strength to their arm, say I. In the meantime, a cloud of uncertainty continues to hover over it's component parts - all that is except Northern Ireland where 'the future is bright, the future is orange'.
This rambling post might suggest that there is nothing much to be cheerful about for the New Year but I have hopes. A decent turnout for the EU parliamentary elections, a major breakthrough for the SNP and a new dawning in Washington might - just might - turn it all around but I am not optimistic. A general election in the UK would raise a smile though. Time to go Gordon.
Special thanks to PTTP for his greeting, warmly reciprocated
In the meantime, we observe what the good judges meant at Nuremberg when they said 'never again'. They meant never again - unless it is in the defence of Israel. The argument is that something has to be done to stop Hamas from lobbing rockets into Israel. Amen to that. What the argument does not say is that it is OK to indiscriminately target civilians in this or any other conflict. The Israelis will, of course, deny that they are doing this but the bottom line is that 40 civilians in a UN school compound do not die unnecessarily unless someone takes the decision that civilians do not matter when wider political issues are at stake. Nothing may have been learned at Nuremberg but a great deal was learned from the Nazi persecution of civilians. They learned how to do it.
Talking of the democratic process, I note that Britain's descent into mediocrity and confusion continues apace. Mr. Brown and his fellow deluded control freaks continue to believe - in the face of all evidence to the contrary - that creating a siege mentality by encouraging a climate of fear will somehow save the Union. Ironic that the one thing New Labour might just be able to claim credit for (although all the donkey work was done by the previous government) is the Northern Ireland peace agreement. Now they risk undermining the whole thing with ridiculous internal border controls. The one remaining hope for the Union is federation. I suspect the SNP is about to lead the way towards an end to the union and once that process has started, it will become unstoppable. All strength to their arm, say I. In the meantime, a cloud of uncertainty continues to hover over it's component parts - all that is except Northern Ireland where 'the future is bright, the future is orange'.
This rambling post might suggest that there is nothing much to be cheerful about for the New Year but I have hopes. A decent turnout for the EU parliamentary elections, a major breakthrough for the SNP and a new dawning in Washington might - just might - turn it all around but I am not optimistic. A general election in the UK would raise a smile though. Time to go Gordon.
Special thanks to PTTP for his greeting, warmly reciprocated
Tuesday, 23 December 2008
Polar Regions
Following some of the BBC's regular blog contributors can sometimes be a fascinating journey but it can also become very tedious to watch certain contributors descending into rants and raves in defence of strongly held positions. All strength to the arm of those willing to defend their corner and come out fighting but a pox on the houses of those who attempt to do so by simply flailing blindly about in the wind. They will be decked by the first well aimed blow but sadly many will not have the sense to stay down.
Nowhere is this more evident than in Mark Mardell's Europe Blog. Almost every thread, however remote the connection, seems to end up being about Britain's role in the EU, the Lisbon treaty and the whole question of whether the European Union is worthy of pursuit or, in the elegant phraseology of one poster, a crock of shit (how did that get by the mods?). It matters not how hot under the collar any of us gets, none of us - except the Irish - will have a direct say on whether or not Lisbon goes forward. Yet, somehow the whole question of the rights and wrongs of Lisbon have morphed into the general European debate I mentioned before. There are more questions than answers. Firstly, is the Treaty so radically different - some would say watered down - from the original proposed constitution as to not to be a constitution at all? That you can judge for yourselves. The Original draft constitution is HERE and the text of Lisbon HERE. Perhaps more important at this stage of the game is whether the differences are significant enough for 26 of the 27 to back away from the referendum undertaking (as Prodi seems to think)or if it is simply a subterfuge to avoid a vote and is effectively the same document (as Giscard d'Estaing suggests).
The implications of this question are serious. If the politicians are right, then we bloggers from both sides of the argument have allowed ourselves to be be wound up into a full blooded debate over something we cannot influence. But if the original architects of the project are right, then one would have to infer that there has been a conspiracy amongst the collective leadership to circumvent the democratic process and that would be a very serious matter indeed. Whatever the answer, the debate has changed character. What began as a case of 'the devil being in the detail' has become a debate about the credibility of the current EU leadership. Subtle skirmishes on the fringes have become trench warfare and posters are heading for the trenches leaving vast areas of no mans land wherein this debate should be taking place if it is to have any real meaning.
So is this really a great moral issue, a major turning point, a 'make or break' moment? Or is it simply another staging post on the way forward? Do we go on or do we turn back - because one thing is for sure, we cannot just stand there waiting for something to happen?
What do you think?
Nowhere is this more evident than in Mark Mardell's Europe Blog. Almost every thread, however remote the connection, seems to end up being about Britain's role in the EU, the Lisbon treaty and the whole question of whether the European Union is worthy of pursuit or, in the elegant phraseology of one poster, a crock of shit (how did that get by the mods?). It matters not how hot under the collar any of us gets, none of us - except the Irish - will have a direct say on whether or not Lisbon goes forward. Yet, somehow the whole question of the rights and wrongs of Lisbon have morphed into the general European debate I mentioned before. There are more questions than answers. Firstly, is the Treaty so radically different - some would say watered down - from the original proposed constitution as to not to be a constitution at all? That you can judge for yourselves. The Original draft constitution is HERE and the text of Lisbon HERE. Perhaps more important at this stage of the game is whether the differences are significant enough for 26 of the 27 to back away from the referendum undertaking (as Prodi seems to think)or if it is simply a subterfuge to avoid a vote and is effectively the same document (as Giscard d'Estaing suggests).
The implications of this question are serious. If the politicians are right, then we bloggers from both sides of the argument have allowed ourselves to be be wound up into a full blooded debate over something we cannot influence. But if the original architects of the project are right, then one would have to infer that there has been a conspiracy amongst the collective leadership to circumvent the democratic process and that would be a very serious matter indeed. Whatever the answer, the debate has changed character. What began as a case of 'the devil being in the detail' has become a debate about the credibility of the current EU leadership. Subtle skirmishes on the fringes have become trench warfare and posters are heading for the trenches leaving vast areas of no mans land wherein this debate should be taking place if it is to have any real meaning.
So is this really a great moral issue, a major turning point, a 'make or break' moment? Or is it simply another staging post on the way forward? Do we go on or do we turn back - because one thing is for sure, we cannot just stand there waiting for something to happen?
What do you think?
'Tis the Season . . .
. . . to batten down the hatches, accept the fact that credit transfers might pass through your bank - assuming it is still solvent - some time early next year, understand that there is only one service engineer is on duty who can only do one thing at a time and recognise that your call has been placed in a queue and will be answered as soon as someone is sober enough to be bothered. What makes Christmas so special? Customers service managers take Christmas off so you do not have to cope with lame brain excuses for the excruciating level of service you have been accustomed to throughout the year. The collective sigh and the rustle of shirtsleeves as customer advisers the length of the land shrug simultaneously - well, what do you expect at Christmas?
It is also the time of year for surprises and the biggest one for me has been the realisation that others has stumbled upon this blog. I have always believed I was whistling in the wind and that nobody was taking the blindest bit of notice. So greetings to all. It also blows clean out of the water any idea that I can treat this as some kind of personal diary. Regulars will see that my life is so exciting there have been no fewer than two posts in five months. It just won't do. Regulars deserve better service and content than this. The time has come to put this blog to work as a forum where people with similar interests and varied ideas can give relatively free rein to their thoughts and ideas. There will be minimal moderation - grutiotously insulting or obscene posts will be given the order of the boot - but feel free to drift off topic at will.
In the meantime, what I need is a customer service manager - but where the hell do I find one of those at Christmas? Yes, I know, down the pub! For now, you are stuck with me - so here goes.
It is also the time of year for surprises and the biggest one for me has been the realisation that others has stumbled upon this blog. I have always believed I was whistling in the wind and that nobody was taking the blindest bit of notice. So greetings to all. It also blows clean out of the water any idea that I can treat this as some kind of personal diary. Regulars will see that my life is so exciting there have been no fewer than two posts in five months. It just won't do. Regulars deserve better service and content than this. The time has come to put this blog to work as a forum where people with similar interests and varied ideas can give relatively free rein to their thoughts and ideas. There will be minimal moderation - grutiotously insulting or obscene posts will be given the order of the boot - but feel free to drift off topic at will.
In the meantime, what I need is a customer service manager - but where the hell do I find one of those at Christmas? Yes, I know, down the pub! For now, you are stuck with me - so here goes.
Saturday, 2 August 2008
Booze, Bottle and the Beeb
So much for persistence and application.
I had thought to revisit this blog occasionally, post my thoughts to it maybe a couple of times a week and generally keep track of life's little and not so little events. It is now nearly a month since this idea first crossed my mind and this is my first return visit. This is not because my enthusiasm for blogs evaporated as quickly as it formed. Quite the contrary. Truth to tell, I have become quite addicted to them - especially the BBC blogs which have had a curiously addictive edge to them lately. Sometimes, this is because they are engaging and interesting but, quite often, it can be for exactly the opposite reason.
Take the extraordinarily tedious rubbish that is currently occupying the minds of contributors on Justin Webb's America. Webb is, it has to be said, a quite personable television presence if perhaps a bit cuddly and lacking in edge but his recent holiday on the Isle of Wight seems to have catapulted him into a mindset of obsession with trivia which is characteristic of small insular societies. As someone who lived for some years on the Island, I know how easily this can happen.
It all began with the handshake. You know the one - Obama shaking hands with the old bill outside number ten. Now any reasonable human being, I would have thought, might have reacted with a 'good on him, now let's move on', the odd stuffed shirt might momentarily have raised an eyebrow but, to put is crudely the overwhelming response would be - or ought to be - 'so bloody what?'. But, oh no! We had not one but two threads on the same subject which, needless to say, dragged out all the familiar claptrap about the British class system, the repressed English mentality and so on. It came close to a rerun of the American Revolution. It was very much a 'curate's egg', good in parts, but it originated from a thread about absolutely nothing. Now if Mr.Webb sees his blog as the place where he can express his own views outside of the restrictions normally imposed on BBC journalists, that's fine. We are all free to move on elsewhere. But if he sees it as a tool of his trade, he really needs to do better.
There were pleanty of words about 'the handshake' but they were mostly vacuous and uninteresting. So Webb moved on. He came up with a theory to explain the cultural differences between Britain and America. It seem that the British, all of us, are permanently pissed. We do not start the day with a nice cuppa any more. Oh no, we grope around in the desperate hope that there may be a few drops left in the bottom of last night's bottle, stagger into the bathroom to rinse off the blood from the previous night's brawling, crawl out to the car and somehow make it unscathed to our places of employment where we dose up on AlkaSelza and make a half hearted attempt to look busy until it's time to fall back into the pub again and pick up where we left off. In short, we are a nation of total dypsomaniacs for whom any view of the world which is not seen double is less than perfect. This has, of course, prompted a lively debate about the inadequacies of the Brits in all fields of endeavour, a complete lack of life skills and a total irrelevance to the rest of the world in general and the States in particular.
Why, you might well ask, would a reputable British journalist with a brief to cover the USA want to promote a devisive agenda on such spurious grounds? Well Justin has written a book the basic premise of which, as I understand it, is that there is a goodly junk of 'anti-Americansim' coursing through our British veins (along with all that alcohol) which needs to be explained. Mr. Webb is not shy about his project and he is pushing it for all it is worth. But what if it all turned out to be a false premise? What if, in spite of his best efforts, it turns out that we actually quite like each other? The book would not be worth the paper it was printed on. So you just keep pouring fuel on the fire Justin. It's great promotion and, if everyone has not died of boredom by the time it comes off the presses, you may even sell a few. The BBC, by the way, does not seem to mind their journalists using blogs to promote their books, but it certainly watches carefully to make sure the public do not get too heavy handed in their reaction. Moderation in all things - except of course booze.
So I will say here what I cannot say over there on the off chance that somebody stumbles on it - it is complete and unutterable shit.
I had thought to revisit this blog occasionally, post my thoughts to it maybe a couple of times a week and generally keep track of life's little and not so little events. It is now nearly a month since this idea first crossed my mind and this is my first return visit. This is not because my enthusiasm for blogs evaporated as quickly as it formed. Quite the contrary. Truth to tell, I have become quite addicted to them - especially the BBC blogs which have had a curiously addictive edge to them lately. Sometimes, this is because they are engaging and interesting but, quite often, it can be for exactly the opposite reason.
Take the extraordinarily tedious rubbish that is currently occupying the minds of contributors on Justin Webb's America. Webb is, it has to be said, a quite personable television presence if perhaps a bit cuddly and lacking in edge but his recent holiday on the Isle of Wight seems to have catapulted him into a mindset of obsession with trivia which is characteristic of small insular societies. As someone who lived for some years on the Island, I know how easily this can happen.
It all began with the handshake. You know the one - Obama shaking hands with the old bill outside number ten. Now any reasonable human being, I would have thought, might have reacted with a 'good on him, now let's move on', the odd stuffed shirt might momentarily have raised an eyebrow but, to put is crudely the overwhelming response would be - or ought to be - 'so bloody what?'. But, oh no! We had not one but two threads on the same subject which, needless to say, dragged out all the familiar claptrap about the British class system, the repressed English mentality and so on. It came close to a rerun of the American Revolution. It was very much a 'curate's egg', good in parts, but it originated from a thread about absolutely nothing. Now if Mr.Webb sees his blog as the place where he can express his own views outside of the restrictions normally imposed on BBC journalists, that's fine. We are all free to move on elsewhere. But if he sees it as a tool of his trade, he really needs to do better.
There were pleanty of words about 'the handshake' but they were mostly vacuous and uninteresting. So Webb moved on. He came up with a theory to explain the cultural differences between Britain and America. It seem that the British, all of us, are permanently pissed. We do not start the day with a nice cuppa any more. Oh no, we grope around in the desperate hope that there may be a few drops left in the bottom of last night's bottle, stagger into the bathroom to rinse off the blood from the previous night's brawling, crawl out to the car and somehow make it unscathed to our places of employment where we dose up on AlkaSelza and make a half hearted attempt to look busy until it's time to fall back into the pub again and pick up where we left off. In short, we are a nation of total dypsomaniacs for whom any view of the world which is not seen double is less than perfect. This has, of course, prompted a lively debate about the inadequacies of the Brits in all fields of endeavour, a complete lack of life skills and a total irrelevance to the rest of the world in general and the States in particular.
Why, you might well ask, would a reputable British journalist with a brief to cover the USA want to promote a devisive agenda on such spurious grounds? Well Justin has written a book the basic premise of which, as I understand it, is that there is a goodly junk of 'anti-Americansim' coursing through our British veins (along with all that alcohol) which needs to be explained. Mr. Webb is not shy about his project and he is pushing it for all it is worth. But what if it all turned out to be a false premise? What if, in spite of his best efforts, it turns out that we actually quite like each other? The book would not be worth the paper it was printed on. So you just keep pouring fuel on the fire Justin. It's great promotion and, if everyone has not died of boredom by the time it comes off the presses, you may even sell a few. The BBC, by the way, does not seem to mind their journalists using blogs to promote their books, but it certainly watches carefully to make sure the public do not get too heavy handed in their reaction. Moderation in all things - except of course booze.
So I will say here what I cannot say over there on the off chance that somebody stumbles on it - it is complete and unutterable shit.
Sunday, 6 July 2008
Dear Diary . . .
It is probably in the nature of things that the important events in life ultimately have only a passing effect whereas the seemingly trivial may prove life altering. This first entry is a case in point. It is a glorious July day and the city will be basking in the sunshine, the street cafés buzzing with conversations in myriad languages. I surmise this because I have not set foot outside the apartment all day. I am fixed firmly in front of my computer and the pleasure of Sunday afternoon in Budapest will have to wait.
It all began with a phone call from my partner in England.
"How do I make a blog?"
"I don't know, how do you make a blog?"
It's a joke, I tell myself. Take three meters of plastic guttering, the yolks of two eggs, half a cup of engine oil - it's a joke, please tell me it's a joke.
"I am serious"
Oh my God!
"I don't know", I reply honestly. "What do you want a blog for anyway? Who is going to read it? Who is even going to know it's there?"
I am clutching at straws.
"I need your help".
The rest of the conversation descends into tedium but essentially walking someone through a computer task in simple enough when you do it regularly yourself but when you have not done it before, there really is only one way. You do the same thing yourself. The result is that we both now have blogs. What the hell to do with them is an entirely different matter. Which brings me back to trivial things which can change your life.
I have never really seen myself as the Dr. Johnson sort. The idea of putting pen to paper day in, day out to record the mundane events of life against the possibility that a future generation might find it an important social document or possibly even a literary masterpiece has never really crossed my mind. To start with, I am too lazy. Keeping a regular diary takes discipline and dedication, qualities which have never been particularly obvious even in my limited catalogue. If I scratch around for some redeeming feature in my makeup, it possibly is that I hate waste. I am not a hoarder. If something really is useless, I will happily consign it to the rubbish, but if I have the sense that the day may dawn when I am glad I kept something, I tend to keep it.
Well now I have a blog. Will anybody read it or even know it is there? I don't know and, to be honest, I don't care but it might come in handy one day.
It all began with a phone call from my partner in England.
"How do I make a blog?"
"I don't know, how do you make a blog?"
It's a joke, I tell myself. Take three meters of plastic guttering, the yolks of two eggs, half a cup of engine oil - it's a joke, please tell me it's a joke.
"I am serious"
Oh my God!
"I don't know", I reply honestly. "What do you want a blog for anyway? Who is going to read it? Who is even going to know it's there?"
I am clutching at straws.
"I need your help".
The rest of the conversation descends into tedium but essentially walking someone through a computer task in simple enough when you do it regularly yourself but when you have not done it before, there really is only one way. You do the same thing yourself. The result is that we both now have blogs. What the hell to do with them is an entirely different matter. Which brings me back to trivial things which can change your life.
I have never really seen myself as the Dr. Johnson sort. The idea of putting pen to paper day in, day out to record the mundane events of life against the possibility that a future generation might find it an important social document or possibly even a literary masterpiece has never really crossed my mind. To start with, I am too lazy. Keeping a regular diary takes discipline and dedication, qualities which have never been particularly obvious even in my limited catalogue. If I scratch around for some redeeming feature in my makeup, it possibly is that I hate waste. I am not a hoarder. If something really is useless, I will happily consign it to the rubbish, but if I have the sense that the day may dawn when I am glad I kept something, I tend to keep it.
Well now I have a blog. Will anybody read it or even know it is there? I don't know and, to be honest, I don't care but it might come in handy one day.
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