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I thought I might put the famous atheist bus fundraising campaign into context.

Or to put it another way - there’s more that happens in this world than the London-based media (or those atheist organisations who do their work by campaigning in the media and networking in the corridors of power) dream about. Real value is in creating a community, not just in pontificating about how you want it to be run, throwing stones at what you have decided are other peoples’ glasshouses.

I’ll be impressed when I see Secular Halls running something like this (PDF, 3Mb). Until then, I don’t think that they can make much of a difference (and I’d love to be proved wrong on this one).

I wish the campaign luck, but I also hope that they will give away 10% to something that will make a practical impact.

Could the next general election be the last one fought under the current first past the post system?
Within the next eighteen months we know that Gordon Brown is going to call an election – exactly when we are still unsure, but it will be at the time he thinks he has the most chance of [...]

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Front Page Images here and on the Front Page are Courtesy of Sky News.

Things have been a bit quiet here from me for a few days.

What happened to Matt was that the other site I am involved in at present - to do with making sure that the owners who are running down the former SPCK Chain of Bookshops (that readers to the Wardman Wire may well notice but ignore when you visit a Cathedral Town) are held to account - has been going haywire and is taking up several hours every day at present.

That site is the SPCK/SSG News, Notes and Info blog.

That scrutiny campaign involves bringing to light a disgraceful mismanagement process which has resulted in 30+ Employment Tribunal Claims (the number is now 31), an official Charity Commission enquiry, $1.5m of unpaid debts, more than $500k taken out of the same organisation by the management who have not paid the suppliers, and a “bad faith” bankruptcy attempt to avoid those debts - among a whole lot of other things. As happens with these cases, networks turn into hubs and contact points for a lot of different people, especially in this case which is very complex and has been reported for over 2 years now.

We’ve had a lot of brilliant support from bloggers all over, but we are into the real nitty-gritty and it is quite tough and detailed work - especially as most of the media have stayed out due to J Mark Brewer’s habit of making legal threats, or due to the sheer complexity of the whole thing.

So when push comes to shove it gets priority if I’m the only one in the group who can do particular things.

With Parliament rising for their Christmas holidays on Thursday, it is time to present the inaugural Garbo Political Review of the Year Awards! There is nothing scientific about these awards, no one has voted in them and there was no independent adjudicator. The BBC would be proud.
Politician of the Year Award: Eric Pickles
The man [...]

A cartoon from Ben Gallagher.

Last week, Orange launched their report “The Future of Politics”. In the words of the accompanying news release, the reports shows “how British politicians can learn from Barack Obama and embrace technology to bring public involvement back into UK democracy.”
The launch press release picked out five main themes from the report:

* A challenge to UK [...]

What’s the point when no action is ever taken? Both Jack Straw and Peter Hain have been “cleared”, despite obviously breaking the rules by declaring donations extremely late.
Jack Straw declared a £3,000 donation four years late, yet the Electoral Commission said that it would not be “appropriate nor proportionate” to take further action, which is [...]

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Front Page Images here and on the Front Page are Courtesy of Sky News.

Go here for the details.

The governments’ White Paper on welfare reform, Raising Expectations and Increasing Support was published on December 10th. At the core of the proposals is ‘personalised conditionality’: benefits are made conditional on the recipients following a personalised plan for returning to work. Or, as the Executive Summary puts it, the paper is “A vision and a route map for a welfare state where everyone is given the help they need to get back to work, matched by an expectation that they take up that support.”

Launching the paper, the Work and Pensions secretary said “We want virtually everyone who is claiming benefits to be preparing for work or looking for work. It is a fair deal, more support in return for higher expectations.”

Despite the trumpeting of fairness, Gordon Browns mantra (returned to once again in his foreword), there are some serious problems with this legislation. Not least that it is unfair to the most vulnerable.

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Front Page Images here and on the Front Page are Courtesy of Sky News.

There are two referenda in the news today - the EU Treaty in Ireland vote and the Manchester congestion zone vote. Both have got me fuming and both show the pointlessness of referenda. I am not going to express my views on what I feel about Manchester and the EU Treaty, it is [...]

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Front Page Images here and on the Front Page are Courtesy of Sky News.

David Ker is based between the USA and Mozambique, and he likes Hippopotamuses, expecially one called Lingapotamus. He has given us an award for leaving a disemvowelled comment.

“And this week, a special honorable mention LINGY award to the vocalically challenged Matt Wardman at The Wire.

There you have it, folks: the list of LINGY winners for this week. These are fascinating, freaky and fun bloggers who I’ve noticed in the last 604,800 seconds. Congrats on your award. Feel free to print it out and frame it on your wall. Send me a copy with a SASE and I’ll autograph it for you.”

Disemvowelling does have a use, after all - apart from making the people who do it to their commenters look like intolerant loons (yep - I don’t like it as it reminds me of playing white noise to silence hecklers).

The funniest TV advert of all time, apparently…

(Click through on the title)

You really couldn’t make it up. It’s just a pity that he really seems to believe it.

http://www.youtube.com/v/5stftd5qv3M

The National Identity Card database is under development by our Government, and the Non-Disclosure Agreement contractors are required to sign has escaped onto Wikileaks. Since it is in the public domain, I will comment on a couple of the clauses that are eye-openers.

The first clause - “Forced Disclosure” - insists on cooperation with any Court Orders be limited to the absolute minimum extent possible.

The Second Clause (”Audit Rights”) gives the “Authority” the unlimited and unchallengeable right to search the houses and any records and computers belonging to employees “containing any NIS information” to make sure that it has been disposed of or destroyed.

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Front Page Images here and on the Front Page are Courtesy of Sky News.

The Internet Watch Foundation (IWF) blocked a Wikipedia Page for containing an alleged “potentially illegal indecent image of a child under the age of 18? on the album cover of the Virgin Killer album.

After a highly public rumpus, the IWF has backed down and removed its block on the particular image and web page.

This raises a whole series of issues about the integrity, transparency of the Internet Watch Foundation, and the way in which the IWF seeks to avoid publicity for its “decisions”.

It seems to me that there are particular problems:

• The way the IWF attempts to assess what decisions would have been made in a Court of Law, and then implements blocks based on those assessments.
• The fact that allegedly “child abuse” websites are not informed of the decisions, or that an “Appeals” process exists.
• Any monitoring process needs a way of monitoring itself in order to improve and identify mistakes. Where transparency does not exist, this is not possible.
• The semi-official and self-regulated nature of the whole setup. This is a model which is being used more and more; it facilitates government denying responsibility while a process exists which is beyond proper scrutiny.
• The IWF is a “relevant authority”, and these determinations are admissible in court actions.

What moral standing do we have over Mugabe?
The latest cholera outbreak looks set to kill thousands and one of the most vicious and callous dictators in the world today is standing idly by blaming British colonialism and just about everyone else he can. Surely the time for talking is reaching its conclusion and the time [...]

This is a guest post by Paul Canning , reflecting on the furore after the Internet Watch Foundation blocked a Wikipedia Page for containing an alleged “potentially illegal indecent image of a child under the age of 18″ on the album cover of the Virgin Killer album.

Today’s furore over the Wikipedia block by the Internet [...]

I wrote a post a week or so ago asking whether the Lib Dems would go bankrupt after Michael Brown was convicted of being a bogus businessman, thus making his donation of £2.4 million through his company illegal. However, I was just being facetious, and never expected it to be a real possibility since I [...]

How much longer can Speak Michael Martin survive? At least 32 MPs no longer have any confidence in the Speaker, and another 50 MPs thought that he was “culpable” for Green-gate. And these MPs are spread across all three of the main parties.
These results come after being asked by the BBC in a poll of [...]

How much longer can Speak Michael Martin survive? At least 32 MPs no longer have any confidence in the Speaker, and another 50 MPs thought that he was “culpable” for Green-gate. And these MPs are spread across all three of the main parties.
These results come after being asked by the BBC in a poll of [...]