Richard's Kingdom

Privacy, security and politics in the digital era

Tag archive for ‘media’

Re-tweeting the revolution

The war on terror is over. We lost. The tell-tale signs are everywhere. You can see them in our buildings and our transport networks. You can read them in your morning paper. You can hear them echoing down the corridors of Whitehall. Galvanised by fear whipped up by the media, to which our politicians pander [...]

Quantifying compromise

Yesterday the Government announced a “Freedom or Great Repeal Bill” to undo the worst excesses of Labour authoritarianism. If many of the policies therein seem familiar it’s because they seem to have been cherry-picked from the Freedom Bill that the Liberal Democrats put together for the Convention on Modern Liberty last year. After the publication [...]

That light at the end of the tunnel? It’s liberty.

The new Conservative-Liberal coalition Government today announced it intends to pass a “Freedom” or “Great Repeal” Act. This will: Scrap the ID card scheme, the National Identity register, the next generation of biometric passports and the ContactPoint Database. Outlaw the finger-printing of children at school without parental permission. Extend the scope of the Freedom of [...]

Sheffield MPs should be ashamed

Despite massive public opposition the Digital Economy Bill was voted into law last night. Here’s how Sheffield MPs behaved: Constituency MP Party At 2nd reading? At 3rd reading? How they voted Attercliffe Clive Betts Labour No No FOR the Bill Brightside David Blunkett Labour No No ABSENT Central Richard Caborn Labour No No FOR the [...]

Gagged Geeks versus the Digital Economy Bill

The Gagged Geeks protest against the Digital Economy Bill in Sheffield yesterday exceeded all my expectations. Around thirty protesters handed out 300 leaflets – our entire stock – in less than 20 minutes. We were joined by Paul Scriven, leader of Sheffield Council and Lib Dem PPC for Sheffield Central, who handed out leaflets and [...]