Richard's Kingdom

Europe wants to monitor what you search for on the Internet. Under the misleading guise of protecting children against sexual abuse (sigh) Written Declaration 29 calls for the Data Retention Directive to be extended to cover search engines. This would force national Governments to record everything you type into Google, Bing, Yahoo! et al and [...]

Over the last two parliaments the British state has grown ever more authoritarian. Personal liberty has been sacrificed on the altar of public opinion for political ends. The false dichotomy of privacy versus security has been used repeatedly to justify robbing us of the former while failing to deliver the latter. Billions of pounds have [...]

There is an issue about which I care passionately. It doesn’t matter what it is (though if you read the rest of this blog you might be able to guess). In the last six months I have written to retiring MP Richard Caborn half a dozen times urging him to act. I have called his [...]

Dear Harriet Harman I am writing to you in your capacity as Leader of the House of Commons. My MP Richard Caborn may have made representations to you already on my behalf however I wanted to emphasise how important this matter is to me. Please ensure the Digital Economy Bill benefits from the full scrutiny [...]

The Open Rights Group calls attention to a proposed Digital Economy Bill amendment that, if accepted, would allow the Government to censor the web in the name of enforcing copyright law. I have put fingers to keyboard once again, therefore, resulting in the following missive to the noble Lords who came up with the idea. [...]