Laws to silence bloggers...

This article is based on another written by me entitled: UK council member banned from blogging. In that article I reported how Thanet District Council had silenced councillor David Green for the simple act of blogging.

The power to do such a thing comes from something called the Standards Board for England. This will go some way to explaining the appearance of this post at the councillors blog:

The full text of The closure notice

This blog is closed for the time being.

The author is under threat by the administration at Thanet District Council of referal to the Standards Board for England over certain remarks made that were critical of the Council and its actions.
These were:

Remarks on this blogsite that criticized the proposals for Ramsgate and Margate Libraries.

The "tone" of an email that criticized the actions of the Chair of Council in refusing to allow questions to Cabinet members at Council meetings.

Remarks on another blogsite cricizing failure to publish the detailed reasons behind the collapse of Turner Offshore.

The author belives that these were nothing more than acceptable political comment, but is obtaining advice.

If you look to the wikipedia for any input it will tell you this (and a bit more no I've added a few edits).

The Standards Board for England was set up under the Local Government Act 2000. It enforces the code of conduct for English local authority councillors, which all local authorities are required to have. Members of the public can complain to the Board if they believe a councillor has breached the code.wikipedia

However, I think you will find this bloggers description just a little more enlightening.

what is the Standards Board of England, well this is a piece of nonsense ironically by that highly respected Labour figure, John Prescott, which to be honest I had never heard of, and is meant to police ethical standards in local government, outlawing as an example car owning councillors from discussing parking schemes.
Big News Margate

It boils down to a way to cripple local councils and to remove every elected representative who stood on a particular issue.

Effectively if I seek election on the issue of parking fines the one thing I can not vote on is parking fines.

This is indeed a fine way to remove all opposition by radical "independent candidates" and those with well established views.

The Deputy Prime Minister is accused today of undermining local democracy and stifling free speech by imposing "draconian" rules on thousands of councillors.
telegraph.co.uk

To abuse a quote: They take our votes and we fall back, they take or freedom and we fall back, they take our right to free speech and we "fall back"! No more! The line must be drawn here. This far and no further!

It is rumoured that Cllr Green directly accused the Council of corruption (something that I have been saying on my Thanet related blogs since 2004). So they invoke the Standards Board and silence him.

It seems while we were all napping the UK government has taken the same path as the US into anarchy but with an added form of paranoid dictatorship.

There is particular concern about the board's belief that councillors should not be allowed to debate a subject if they have already made up their minds on the issue — the crime of "predetermination."
telegraph.co.uk

Once it was the UK that was the leading example of democracy for half the world. Now we are an example of power gone mad.

In another example, John Pickersgill, a member of Derwentside council in Co Durham, organised a local referendum on plans to build more wind turbines in his ward. His survey found that four out of five local people opposed the proposals.
telegraph.co.uk

I have no shame in saying the UK government scares the **** out of me.

Fortunately I was able to announce at thanetcouncil.info the return of Mr Green to blogging but without another word on the gagging. I wonder if his right to speech is not so free as it should be.

Further reading: here

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Update: Next Labour Leader Poll

Just a reminder about the poll we are running which allows you to have your say about who should be the next leader of the Labour party. So far Gordon Brown is in the lead with 67% of the votes. If you disagree and would prefer someone else, or you are a big Gordy fan and want to keep him on top then cast your vote, you will find the poll in the sidebar. And if you want to comment on the matter, you will find the original post here.


Technorati Tags: labour+party+leader+poll, gordon+brown, labour+party+leadership

World Flags/World Problems

I spotted this on A Blog About Nowt, go and have a look, it's a really clever way of demonstrating some pretty stark facts. The page contains some largish images so may take a moment to load, but be patient, it is worth it.


Technorati Tags: Charung+Gollar, UN, the+power+of+stars

Legislative and Regulatory Reform Bill and the Germans...

The "Legislative and Regulatory Reform Bill" bares an uncanny resemblance to another bill passed prior to World War 2.

The Enabling Act (Ermächtigungsgesetz in German) was passed by Germany's parliament (the Reichstag) on March 23, 1933. It was the second major step after the Reichstag Fire Decree through which the Nazis obtained dictatorial powers using largely legal means. The Act enabled Chancellor Adolf Hitler and his cabinet to enact laws without the participation of the Reichstag.

-- Enabling Act, wikipedia

Having written to Mr R. Gale (my MP) I have gotten a reply. I asked him for his views on the subject but instead I got copies of the current paperwork on the topic.

I shall have to assume that this means that he is calling a safety and not voicing an opinion.

"...you will note that Her Majesty's opposition - which of course I am a member - made stringent efforts to oppose the offensive sections of the Bill but the government has of course used its majority to force many measures through..."
Roger Gale MP

He claims that the Labour party used it's majority to force the issue. This "majority" is so slight that they require the support of the Conservative party to be sure to get a bill through (especially if the "back benchers" revolt).

So what's going on here? Have Labour suddenly found power that commentary has over looked or are the big three secretly in favour of this bill?

Mr Gale voted against the Bill during it's third reading on 16 May 2006 (He also voted against ID cards on 16 & 21 Mar 2006).

I doubt, then, that this issue of what is happening on a party political scale reflects directly on Mr Gale but it gives me cause to worry nonetheless.

Catch up on the issues here and here. This article contains substansive text taken from another article by the same author found here.

Who should be the next Labour leader? Have your say

Spadger recently posted about the question of who should be the next leader of the Labour party, and therefore the next PM, at least for a while anyway. At the moment, Gordon Brown is the favourite to succeed Blair, but is he necessarily the best man for the job? Is he your choice, or would you prefer someone else? Maybe, you would like to see a younger candidate, or do you think a more mature politician would serve us best?

If you have an opinion about the subject why not vote in our latest poll, you will find it in the sidebar on the right. If your choice isn't mentioned, pop back to this post and leave a comment.

Update: the poll is displaying a little oddly, but it seems to work ok.


Technorati Tags: vote+for+next+labour+leader, gordon+brown, labour+party, labour+leadership+elections

Darfur - it must not become another Rwanda

In 1994 the world watched in horror as approximately 800,000 Rwandans were massacred in less than three months. Tragically, watch is all the world did, and little attempt was made to actually bring about an end to possibly the worst case of genocide in recent memory. You would think we would have learnt something from those days, but sadly it seems we haven't, and a similar scenario is playing itself out in Darfur, with little intervention from the outside world.

We can not stand idly by and let a man made tragedy of this magnitude happen again. Up until now, troops from the African Union have managed to keep some kind of grip on the situation but due to a lack of resources and manpower they will be pulling out of the region at the end of the month, leaving many, many vulnerable people at risk of rape, robbery and murder. The UN have agreed to send in a peace-keeping force, but only with the permission of the Sudanese government - the very people who are responsible for the atrocities! This is a ludicrous idea, to use an analogy, it's comparable to asking Hitler's permission to liberate the concentration camps!

Tomorrow is the Global Day for Darfur, if you visit the site you can find out details of events in your area, even if you can't attend such an event, visit anyway and add your name to the petition which will be sent to your elected representatives and also the UN. You could also pop over to Pip Wilson's blog and read about an interesting idea he has for using technorati to raise awareness of the situation.

Technorati Tags: rwanda, darfur, un, african+union, global+day+for+darfur

PM is a job, not a title!

Prime Minister Blair. If I hear/read those words once more I think I will scream. He is not Prime Minister Blair. PM is his job not his title. If he were a baker or a newsagent he wouldn't be known as Baker Blair, or Newsagent Blair, so why do some people insist on giving him a presidential style title. (OK we all know he would probably like one, but he doesn't have one.)

He is not the head of state, he is the (current) leader of the Labour party and due to the success of said party in recent general elections, he is the PM. When he steps down as leader, the Labour party will still be in power because the British public did not vote for Prime Minister Blair, but a significant number did vote Labour.

Oh, I feel so much better now :-)


Technorati Tags: tony+blair, prime+minister+blair, the+labour+party, uk+politics, uk+government

So who should be the next PM?

It seems that President (sorry Prime Minister) Blair is on his way out so who would make a good successor?

At first it seems obvious that Gordon Brown will walk any Labour Party election. But will he?

Firstly there will be some who will find his behaviour at the moment appalling. Doesn't he remember the disunity that brought 18 years of Conservative rule? There is no point winning the leadership election if he leads the party to oblivion. Brown loyalists are obviously out to oust Blair and with their Masters connivance.

Secondly Brown is Scottish. Now that we have devolution will it be acceptable to have a PM introducing laws on one part of the country when his own constituents will be exempt? The current cabinet is Scot heavy.

Thirdly Brown is heavily associated with Blair. New Labour is as much his idea. Will the public believe it a change?

Anyway I'm not convinced by Brown. Everything that happened in Iraq happened with his full knowledge and consent.

The alternatives? John Reid, well he's not Brown. Ok he's Scottish but he is different to Blair and Cameron. Gruff abrasive. Jack Straw? OK was the foreign secretary, Iraq and all that BUT has openly opposed military action in Iran. Seen by some as deposed by Bush.

I reckon they should skip a generation, how about Hilary Benn the Development secretary? Alan Johnson at Trade & Industry? David Milliband?

Milliband and Benn have left wing parents. Johnson is a former postman. All are modernisers.

If it was down to me Brown's behaviour would not be rewarded.

What Tony Blair Could Learn From Alan Shearer

You really know you are unpopular when people leave a party because of your presence. However, our illustrious leader doesn't seem to think so, and desperately clings to his post despite a batch of resignations over his refusal to announce the date he intends to step down as PM. The resignations follow the publication of a letter from back-benchers demanding to know said date and stating that in the opinion of signatories his evasiveness is damaging both the Labour party and the credibility of the government. Mr Blair has responded by stating that his critics are 'disloyal, discourteous and wrong'. The truth is they are more in touch with popular opinion (about the PM) than he is.

Blair no longer has the huge level of public support that he enjoyed in the late 90s. His 'friendship' with the president of the US has damaged his reputation beyond repair. In addition some of his more recent policies have left the public feeling that he has become too big for his boots. He may believe we still see him as some kind of golden boy capable of rectifying the worst mistakes of Tory policy, a kind of political Alan Shearer, talented, able, trustworthy and reliable, but we don't. Smarmy and insincere are the words I hear most often used to describe him. Sadly, unlike Alan Shearer, Mr Blair does not seem to realise that his time is up, and that he should bow out gracefully. Instead he clings to power and deludes himself that deep down we all really like him, that he is still the man of the people he once was.


Technorati Tags: tony+blair+resignation, alan+shearer

A point for discussion

The War in Iraq is illegal. Millions of people marched against it.

But by definition the Nato action in the former Yugoslavia was illegal. It had no UN mandate.

So why were there so few complaints?

Point for discussion?

Oh and Spadgers Chirps is now open for business.

The al-Jazeera report.

I must have been napping because this one slipped right past me and didn't even get a mention at the fix the law wiki.

PRESIDENT Bush planned to bomb Arab TV station al-Jazeera in friendly Qatar, a "Top Secret" No 10 memo reveals.

But he was talked out of it at a White House summit by Tony Blair, who said it would provoke a worldwide backlash.
-mirror.co.uk

This raises fresh doubts that the suspicious US claims that previous attacks against al-Jazeera staff were "military errors" are anything more than lies.according to blairwatch

After Blair's threat to jail any editor who reports the Bomb Al-Jazeera memo, we thought there would be an outcry. Who would stand up for press freedom, or at least the freedom not to be bombed to buggery?

Not really surprising then that I learn that requests for the publication of the memo have been turned down.

And so if Mr Blair is threatening jail time for publication of this document just get me a copy. I'll sign my full name to the bottom and publish it to every free hosting server on ever continent in the world. I'll use every free portal so that Blair has to suppeona Google, Yahoo, AOL, Slashdot, BoingBoing and Godaddy. I'll (ab)use my opensource development access to upload copies to servers of every university in the world and future participation be damned.

I'll post it in every forum I can get to so that the UK must address companies big and small to get a takedown from definitive-hosting to Microsoft themselves.

While I'm at it I'll post it to everyone in my address book and ask that they hide a copy too. While that's sending I'll add it to bittorrent and as many peer-2-peer systems as possible.

If I have time I will then foobar the PC so that they can't even track where it might be.

When they come to drag me away it will be too late. Far too late.

Blair has broken too many laws and breached too many human rights in his quest to a police state and I, for one am now one really pissed off blogger.

They can torture me for all I care and I will never say who leaked the document to me.

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Pippa Retires

Pippa, a regular contributor to this blog and publisher of Philippa's Daily News Planet has retired from blogging. I'm sure I speak for all of us when I say how sorry I am to see her go, her posts here have been interesting and well argued, and I have enjoyed reading her thoughts on current events over at her own blog.

Good luck with your studies Pippa!

Hello Everyone

Hello Everyone :-) Just a quick post to let you know I am back. I've had a few ideas about the blog during my break, but I'll let you know more about them tomorrow. Off now to catch up with email, comments etc.