Category: Politics
-
How You Can Use Parliamentary TV Coverage…
…or not. I’d completely forgotten this, but then I saw last week’s edition of Have I Got News For You presented this week by Alexander Armstrong. The MPs’ expenses scandal is the gift that keeps on giving as far as satirical programmes go, but when illustrating the resignation of the Speaker, Armstrong pointed out that…
-
The Oxygen of Publicity
The Home Office has been having a hard time recently – and the Home Secretary, Jacqui Smith, especially so. Yesterday, they came out all guns a blazing, with a list of people “named and shamed” who are to be excluded from entering Britain. Obviously this is by no means a list of the only people…
-
Keep Calm
Inspired by the ridiculously popular WWII poster, and The IT Crowd. Personally I think another poster in the series – Freedom Is In Peril – is equally as relevant.
-
The Convention on Modern Liberty
On Saturday I attended what I genuinely believe was an important event – The Convention on Modern Liberty in London. Satellite events were taking place all over the country, with the plenary sessions and keynote addresses. It was a great day with a vast array of speakers. We had to pick and choose which sessions…
-
MPs Expenses Defeated
Great news! The vote called last week by the government to exclude MPs’ expenses from falling into the Freedom of Information act, which was to take place tomorrow, has been cancelled. This superb news almost certainly follows the vast amount of emails that MPs have been receiving, the Tweets and the Facebook group. All inside…
-
Write To Your MP Today!
The government is trying to renege on publishing details of MPs expenses. They introduced some new legislation last week to remove their obligation under the Freedom of Information Act. This comes after over £1m had been spent collecting the information. And let’s not forget that they’re public servants. So write to your MP today. Get…
-
Digital Britain
One of the most interesting documents likely to be published in the UK in the next few months is Lord Stephen Carter’s Digital Britain report. The draft report is due to be published by the end of this month, and it’s likely to cover things like public service, broadband and digital radio. The recent DRWG…
-
Copyright Extension
In just four days, we could begin to see the first of Cliff Richard’s singles re-released without Richard himself either profiting or having any say over what’s released. That could happen, although as I write, I can’t see any forthcoming releases at Amazon. Indeed he’s recently released a celebratory 50 years anthology, and gave away…
-
To Publish Or Not To Publish?
A simple one first of all. It seems that the names of the people allegedly responsible for the death of Baby P are being passed around quite freely via electronic media. But for legal reasons, they’ve not been named publicly in the mainstream media. It can obviously lead to a lynch-mob mentality that says that…
-
Help Me, Wolf Blitzer, You’re My Only Hope
CNN’s Election Night “hologram” was truly the most pointless graphical mechanism I’ve ever seen on any type of broadcast. I say get Max Headroom as a pundit for 2012.
-
US Election Night 2008
You’ll get better, more accurate, and more timely information in a thousand other places online tonight, but I’m still blogging the election. 10:21 GMT So after I watched Obama speak, I did finally go to bed. But here’s the map as it now stands with two states still to be added. 4:57 GMT Still awaiting…
-
Election Viewing
As America votes, there were a couple of fascinating films on TV recently which had well-timed screenings. On Friday there was a cracking film on BBC Four which isn’t available to watch on the iPlayer, so I can only recommend picking up the DVD instead. CSNY Deja Vu followed Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young on…
-
CNN Graphs
In his Guardian column today, Charlie Brooker says that he watched the third presidential debate live on CNN because they had a fancy graph along the bottom showing what some undecided voters thought about what the candidates were saying as they said it. Now I haven’t yet seen the third debate. It’s still on my…