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ancient woodland - it's up to us?
A few days ago I retweeted a link to this story about planned legislation changes which would permit felling in privately-owned forests. It's been doing the rounds thanks to a fair amount of understandable outrage - there's already a 38 Degrees petition about it ( Read more... ) -
The elephant in the room: web activism and the state
Below is the text of the talk I gave on Saturday at the dotActivist conference, with added hyperlinks. It was a really good day, and great to meet people and listen to the other talks. I was particularly pleased to finally understand the concept of the Pareto Front, and I thought the visionOntv project looked really interesting, although I didn't ( Read more... ) -
can has abstract
Thanks so much to everyone who commented on my last (f-locked) entry, especially biascut whose advice helped me climb down from a serious panic last Friday night. Since reading your helpful reassurance and suggestions, attending ORGCon and making a point of speaking into the mic as much as I could get away with (I felt slightly justified in being a ( Read more... ) -
"Proportional representation" is a bit of a mouthful to chant
I've just posted a report of the Take Back Parliament demo in London today, including live BBC video of Nick Clegg's spontaneous address to the crowd after we demanded he come out and receive our petition in person. Right now I'm feeling an enormous sense of hope and achievement. We made our shout heard. This is what democracy looks like!Of course ( Read more... ) -
I do love John Cleese
John Cleese talks about proportional representation, coalition governments, and why they offer us an improvement on our current system. This dates from the late 80s or early 90s, but is still true today - and even more important.
"Historians used to talk about the British genius for compromise. Well, perhaps we can rediscover that genius. Perhaps ( Read more... ) -
questions for my candidates
I've just sent the following email to all my candidates except Labour, Tory and UKIP (because I am not considering voting for them) through this handy website.
( This got long. ) -
Police State UK: the future of policing, and call for contributions
Last week PSUK were invited to the Westminster Legal Policy Forum Keynote Seminar on the future of policing - accountability, cost and effectiveness. Which was kind of cool, and kind of scary. I went on my own as they could only afford to fund one delegate (and we couldn't afford the £90 concession ticket or whatever it was) and Denny had been to ( Read more... ) -
Ada Lovelace, confidence and the Digital Economy Bill
At Women's Question Time last week the first question was about the lack of statues commemorating the achievements of women. The audience struggled to think of any. Boudicca, okay. Queen Victoria, yes, although the female figures around her representing abstract virtues don't really count. Queen Caroline. Florence Nightingale. Umm ... we ground to ( Read more... )
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