As a five year old in 1977, punks scared me. In the village where I grew up there were only two bits of graffiti that I can recall, one was the anarchy symbol, daubed large by the shoe shop, and the other was the word “sex pistols” enhancing the wall near the public toilets, just [...]

In March, the US federal reserve made a 29 billion dollar investment bailing out the collapsing Bear-Stearns bank. Last month the behemoth mortgage lenders Fanny Mae and Freddie Mac were underwritten to the tune of 200 billion dollars. Yesterday the seven hundred billion dollar bail-out bill on federal intervention in financial markets was rejected by [...]

The experimental petition system that Downing Street is running has generated it’s first 1,000,000 signature petition: it asks the PM to “scrap the planned vehicle tracking and road pricing policy” and it’s a great example of how public opinion is not necessarily good for the public.

There’s an interesting pledge underway at pledgebank which aims to find 646 people (one for every UK constituency) who are willing to purchase and send their local Member of Parliament a copy of The God Delusion, the latest book by Oxford University Professor for the Public Understanding of Science, Richard Dawkins.

The Empire has backed the Jedi Council in its bid to be exempt from laws on adoption by families of fewer than three genders. Jedi leaders from Coruscant to Endor say its teachings prevent its masters placing children with lifeform collectives that only comprise one or two genders and have threatened to close their adoption [...]

When re-reading the International Declaration of Human Rights the other day, I found myself mulling Article 1 repeatedly: “All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights.” Shortly after, I found myself thinking the unthinkable. I found myself thinking Republican thoughts.

The British Government has never been more accessible and the DirectGov website now boasts over three million unique visitors per month, a figure that’s rising by 10% each month. Those users are primarily discovering public service information and not having an active say in government, but something is changing in a small but significant way: [...]

BBC news have been extensively reporting that former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein has been sentenced to death, following his conviction for crimes against humanity. This sentence shows that a respect for human rights is not a part of the freedom that has been offered to the Iraq people by “the coalition of the willing”.

Q: How many Essex girls does it take to change a lightbulb? A: The same number as before, but the lightbulb lasts longer because its used less.

Nuclear Energy is neither carbon-free, nor is it a secure energy, yet our government representatives appear to be drinking in everthing the Nuclear Industry offers them. This morning on the BBC’s Breakfast Television programme we were treated to an interview with Alan Johnson MP, the Trade and Industry Secretary. The interview follows coverage of the [...]

For me, the arguments against nuclear power-plants in their current form are overwhelming; the most significant of these being the collapse of the “nuclear is clean” argument (because of the apparent hidden CO2 costs of preparing the enriched uranium).

I cannot let the landmark events in Kansas go by without a mention. The Kansas Board of Education have introduced Intelligent Design into the curriculum.

So, George W. Bush turns to the Palestinian PM and Foreign Minister and says: “God told me to invade Afghanistan and Iraq”.

I’ve not seen the work of Clay Bennett before today. Beautiful drawings, with biting political observation. Well worth a read.

Chris Samuel, pictured (naturally) with a cup of tea here, has just posted this wonderfully cogent message regarding the importance of open standards in government IT.

The UK General election is now only three weeks away, so the country is awash with billboard adverts and whole pages of newspapers bought for the purpose of swaying the public’s opinion.