Politicalog

Politicalog — Thu, 26 Mar 2009 10:01:44 +0000

The Government set the surveillance society bar - are you really that surprised when the local councils follow suit?: A survey of more than 180 local authorities found: • 1,615 council staff have the power to authorise the use of Ripa. • 21% (or 340) of these staff are below senior management grade. • Ripa powers have been used [...]

Monitoring Facebook

Politicalog — Wed, 25 Mar 2009 13:15:51 +0000

From the Telegraph: “If national governments and law enforcement organisations truly believe that online criminals and international terrorists don’t know how to hide their online traces, then we have a bigger problem than we thought.” Rik Ferguson, a security expert at Trend Micro Stating the bleedin’ obvious, but sometimes the bleedin’ obvious needs to be stated.

Are you scared yet?

Politicalog — Fri, 17 Oct 2008 12:51:04 +0000

I watched this exchange on Question Time last night completely aghast: Transport Secretary Geoff Hoon has said the government is prepared to go “quite a long way” with civil liberties to “stop terrorists killing people”. He was responding to criticism of plans for a database of mobile and web records, saying it was needed because terrorists used [...]

Blears loses a laptop with restricted data

Politicalog — Tue, 17 Jun 2008 15:39:30 +0000

Very careless indeed (emphasis mine): A personal computer holding sensitive documents relating to defence and extremism has been stolen from Hazel Blears’ constituency office in Salford. The theft may mean the communities secretary has broken rules on the handling of restricted government information, the BBC has learned. The machine contained a combination of constituency and government information which [...]

Irish reject Lisbon Treaty

Politicalog — Fri, 13 Jun 2008 12:14:58 +0000

Early days yet, but the Telegraph has announced the result already: Three hours before the count was expected to be completed, Dermot Ahern, the country’s justice minister, predicted: “It looks like this will be a ‘no’ vote.” Mr Ahern added: “At the end of the day, for a myriad of reasons, [...]

Way to go Mr. Davis!

Politicalog — Thu, 12 Jun 2008 14:08:10 +0000

Hats off to a man who has suddenly made the British political landscape very interesting: But in truth 42 days is just one, perhaps the most salient example, of the insidious, surreptitious and relentless erosion of fundamental British freedoms. We will have, shortly, the most intrusive identity card system in the [...]

Compare and Contrast…

Politicalog — Tue, 03 Jun 2008 12:41:54 +0000

…This: A father-of-four has been left with a criminal record for overfilling his wheelie bin by four inches. With this: Islamic extremists could escape prosecution and instead receive therapy and counselling under new Government plans to “deradicalise” religious fanatics. Now tell me that the Government haven’t completely lost the plot.

Blunkett’s Kiss of Death

Politicalog — Tue, 03 Jun 2008 11:34:59 +0000

Blunkett proves again that there are none so blind as those who will not see: Gordon Brown’s government has “hit rock bottom”, but defeat over anti-terror plans would not be a “knockout blow”, ex-home secretary David Blunkett says. He told Simon Mayo on BBC Five Live that Labour’s present unpopularity meant things could not get any worse. Wannabet? “Things [...]

Mobile Friendly

Politicalog — Fri, 30 May 2008 16:01:37 +0000

Thanks to the wonders of WordPress plugins, the site is now mobile friendly. Just point your mobile device to the normal address and the plugin takes care of the rest.

Emo Demo

Politicalog — Fri, 30 May 2008 08:50:40 +0000

A little light relief for all the Emos marching upon the Daily Mail offices tomorrow