An Expenses Problem
Jun2
Everybody within Britain who isnt living under a rock knows all about the MPs expenses cock-up, but for those of you not graced with coverage Ill summarise:
MPs in the UK have been claiming a variety of things on their expenses which common sense would suggest you shouldnt really claim for. Things like dry-rot treatment for second homes, large-screen TVs, duck houses and in one case a donation to a collection at church service. Amazingly, nobody seemed to notice this – not MPs, not the accountants they employed (and sometimes claimed for) and certainly not the fees office – until a request under the Freedom of Information Act sought to release details of what MPs were claiming for. Shockingly enough MPs and even the Speaker of the House made moves to block this request, eventually culminating in a release where numbers would be included but not details of what was being claimed for.
Fortunately for the country somebody leaked the entire list to the press, who promptly set upon it, published it, and upturned the entire MPs expenses system.
One key thing which has been seen again and again is MPs saying that they accidentally claimed for something and would of course repay the money. Another common theme has been that claims were errors of judgement, and that again MPs would of course repay the money as an apology. The thing that I dont understand is that nobody has spotted that several expenses claims were obviously bollocks. If a claim was a mistake then by definition it shouldnt have been claimed for, and if it shouldnt have been claimed for then the fees office should not have allowed it.
MPs have been banging on about we need a change of culture and there should be new regulations, but it seems strangely coincidental that this need for a change of culture and new regulations happens at the same time that the public take their first look at some of the crap which has been claimed for and decide almost unanimously (sorry Mr. Fry, I agree that everybody fudges their expenses at some point but not everybody fudges their expenses to buy a flatscreen TV with public funds, tries to stop details of that claim being made public, then apologises and says it was a mistake when trapped in a corner about it) that its just not on.
Heres an idea which I saw elsewhere and cant remember where (somebody remind me and Ill attribute it) – make all expenses claims automatically public and submit them to a publicly-visible clearing house as open data and let the public watch for unacceptable things. Were obviously better at it than the fees office.
Smearing Emails Across Politics
Apr1
As you will no doubt have heard over the past week (unless you’re one of those under-a-rock type people) there has been Yet Another Scandal revolving around so-called ’smear’ emails sent by Labour adviser Damian McBride, containing unfounded allegations involving members of the Tory party.
This in itself was a generally stupid thing to do, and his resulting firing a necessary step to be taken. The trouble is that in the traditional style of the British press the story has been dragged around, beaten, pinned up against the wall, dragged down again, rubbed in various heaps of hyperbole, slander, disgust, outrage and bile and generally overused. What is even more annoying – although not unexpected – was that the Conservatives involved demanded an apology from Gordon Brown himself for the actions of somebody else.
Blackout
Feb0
Nick Jackson is blacked out:
Stand up against “Guilt Upon Accusation” for New Zealand
http://creativefreedom.org.nz/blackout.html
You might have noticed the header image on this blog going entirely black (apart from the text) along with my Twitter avatar. The reasoning for this is explained above – the New Zealand government seem to think it’s fine to assume guilt as soon as someone is accused of copyright infringement. No evidence needed, no trial necessary.
Anyone else spot a problem with this? Quite a few people seem to, including the current star of the internet Mr. Stephen Fry and nearly 7,000 over 10,000 petition signers. Details on how to get involved are at the Creative Freedom website linked above, but there’s also a nice group on Facebook you might want to join.
The Great Broadband Surcharge
Jan0
Apparently our favourite government is considering changes which would basically levy a £20 per broadband connection surcharge to help prop up the inherently failing business model of the music and film industry.
Whilst this isn’t a tax which goes straight to the content producers, its purpose is to fund an agency:
The agency would act as a broker between music and film companies and internet service providers (ISPs). It would provide data about serial copyright-breakers to music and film companies if they obtained a court order. It would be paid for by a levy on ISPs, who inevitably would pass the cost on to consumers.
Given that all my music, films and TV episodes are legally purchased via the wonderful iTunes store, can I earn exemption from this? Or by paying this can I somehow get given a complementary £20 worth of content from iTunes?
This is of course in addition to the upcoming almost certain announcement that every house has a legal right to broadband internet connectivity (huh?), no doubt another place for taxes to vanish in providing a government-subsidised internet service for people who don’t want it.
Why are governments even allowed to contemplate things involving technology?
Too Many Graduates
Jan0
Apparently there are so many graduates leaving university that the government has had to work out a plan to deal with them all.
Now, I may not understand the intricacies of the world and how it all balances but it strikes me that this wouldn’t be a problem if the current government didn’t try to get every man and his dog who happened to take media studies at AS level through university.
Just a thought.
Rate This
Dec1
According to the BBC, Culture Secretary Andy Burnham has said that websites having age ratings should be considered. You can see what everybody else’s comments on this are (BBC), but I’d like to take a moment to explore a few alternative solutions which don’t rely on the government setting up a system which is bound to fail.
OpenDNS is a fantastic system which everybody should use anyway. It can manage DNS controls for your whole network, and includes über-efficient filtering and parental controls, complete with community-driven categories. It’s really easy to use, and only suffers a downfall if your child is intelligent enough to change the DNS servers, in which case most filtering tools are useless anyway. It’s quick, easy and efficient.
Both Windows Vista and OS X Leopard have comprehensive parental controls, allowing you to limit time, block websites, use filters, ban activities, limit time doing certain activities and so on. These are included with any version you’re likely to have on a home PC, and are easy to set up.
NetNanny is the most common installable utility for parents to restrict web browsing, for Windows or OS X. It costs, but a lot of people associate cost with quality so it should keep those who don’t know better happy.