band wagon
Hogan home
Well done to everyone invovled in getting him out, seems Nick hogan got released today
Excellent Stuff, special kudos to Anna Raccoon and Old Holborn for all their work.
Letter to Baroness Buscombe
you may or may not have heard by Baroness Buscombe the new chair of the Press Complaints Commission is pondering if it might not be a frightfully jolly idea for the PCC to also regulate blogs. Regulating blogs seeming to be an idea that governments just can’t let go of, despite the vast numbers of technical difficulties that would prevent it working for anyone with even half a technical clue. So despite this being an even sillier idea than holding ISPs liable for usenet posts made by people that aren’t their customers, it’s probably best to try and kill it as soon as possible. After all they did end up making ISPs liable for usenet posts, and the evidence is they’ve only got dafter since then.
So go and sign this rather well written letter over at Liberal Conspiracy explaining to the powers that be, that it’s a very silly idea and that we’re doing quite well on our own thanks very much and that maybe the PCC should get the hang of effectively regulating the press first before they start worrying about anything else.
Well worth reading
I’m quite behind all the cool kids with this one but it’s worth linking to anyway.
If you’ve got a few minutes go and read The Conservative Challenge by Sean Gabb. There’s a lot in it to think about, and articulates many of the reasons why I’m joining Old Holborn for his little walk, yes it’s only symbolic, yes it won’t achieve much – but symbols are important and exercising our legal rights to look silly in a quiet and peaceful fashion is important. It may make people think, or at least wonder what we’re up to, it may give us a chance to explain some of the stuff we’re worried about to other people, and it will give us the chance to remind a few PCSO’s and real police that people do have rights and that some of us will exercise them.
24 hours left on petition
I know it won’t do any good, but the petition that our glorious leader should resign has only 24 hours left to go.
It’s still the most popular petition on the Number 10 website, but with so little time left if you’ve not signed it yet you’d best hurry. You can sign it here.
Perambulation again
As the season of mellow fruitfulness descends upon us once again, it returns to mind that this is a delightful time for a genteel stroll amongst the imposing architecture of London. With this in mind it seems that Old Holborn will once more be in town on the 5th November partaking of his with a perambulation to the palace of Westminster. Further it seems that once more he’d not be adverse to others of good company in suitable waling garb, joining him in this leisurely endeavour.
So do please feel free to turn up an enjoy the sights and sounds of our fair capital of an autumnal day. Who know you might even get to meet some of the most charming PCSOs and even real police though be warned they seem to get a might confused at groups of people following government advice and going out for some exercise.
Climate Camp comedy
The news tells me that Climate Camp in Greenwich now presumably being in full swing, I don’t know if it is or isn’t I’ve not been down there and have no intention in going. At least not without being heavily armed with non-organic petrochemical based soap to keep the hippies at bay. From their website it seems it’s not meant to be a protest but an educational event, I guess that having it as a camp saves on renting a venue and the publicity and location makes it more likely that bored middle class students will put on posh welly’s and carefully purchased scruffy clothes to go down to be told how guilty to feel and how to “stick it to the man”.
All that aside I must admit I quite like some aspects of what the Climate Camp is doing which from my point of view can be boiled down to just two things:
1) Making use of ancient rights to use common ground, a stroke of utter intelligence on their part , though they might like to recall how the peasants revolt actually ended.
2) It provides a wonderful source of free entertainment, both for those going down there (festivals are so expensive and with climate camp you can experience the same mud and squalor for free*) and for those of us watching from a distance.
Leg Iron provides a rather good summary of how pointless even the alleged softly softly approach the police are taking is. Again the reportedly disorganised “swoop” to the camp was a clever idea for both wrong footing the police and getting maximum attention.
However so far for me the best entertainment has come from this article over at Liberal conspiracy. The article itself is terribly amusing but the arguments between the author and two people they know ** is utter comedy gold. The denials, evasions, melt down and throwing toys out of the pram followed by massive back peddling is wonderful. It’s all of the techniques used by the righteous , as Leg Iron names them, in one easy to digest packet. It should really be preserved as a case study for showing how such arguments work.
Meanwhile I wish everyone down at the climate camp well and whilst you’re protesting about big oil try not to think too carefully about how the plastics in your wellys, phones and the like where made.
*I Don’t go to festivals either so this is utter ill informed prejudice about both things on my part but it makes it al the more amusing for me.
** I also know the people concerned and the author and they’re all three as white privileged and middle class as I am.
The Times and NightJack again
Off to a folk festival tomorrow and with luck I’ll not get stabbed again, though if I do the police in Leicester are wonderful as is the hospital ( Which should be more than enough for the voyeur and hacker Parick Foster to fearlessly expose another unimportant blogger). When I return I’ll update all of the Times links to use a URL shortener to break google linking. In the meantime a few things relating to the whole sorry NightJack affair that I’d hate to go unnoticed. In shock news Tom HarrisMP agrees with Guido that as the Times dislikes anonymous articles so they should cease thier anonymous leader columns, I’m not sure I’m entirely convinced and mr Finkelstein certianly isn’t utterly different a group effort he says. Which I think is possibly a point though I hope that means that the Times will cease to quote all anonymous “sources close to…”, and it’s also worth noting in case of any future legal need that he’d not object to everyone involved in any times leader being exposed.
“Should someone decide that there was a public interest in knowing the precise details of how an individual leader was drafted (similar to the very obvious public interest in knowing the identity of a police officer publishing case details on the web), then they might wish to launch a journalistic investigation into that leader
And should they then print what they found, I wouldn’t object at all.”
Presumably with photograph and all, and I do hope all those involved with such leaders are equally agreeable to such a deal.
Finally via Old Holborn it would seem that Inspector Leviathan Hobbes would quite like to meet those responsible for NightJacks exposure.
For the record if by any strange chance I ever happen to be in the same hostelry as NightJack Inspector Hobbes, Inspector Gadget, PC Bloggs, < ahref="http://coppersblog.blogspot.com/">PC Copperfield or any of our anonymous public service bloggers who let us glimpse inside the establishment, then I owe you a pint.
NightJack update and round up
Following the Times notable victory over decency yesterday they’ve graciously allowed NightJack to respond in an article I can’t help but feel is very reminiscent of a communist show trial where the accused is allowed to publicly confess their sins and misdemeanors. The tactics he describes the Times using are also very reminiscent of those used to expose Girl with a one track mind, so they definitely have form on this one. speaking of having form it would seem that the Mendacious Patrick Foster, that fearless journalist so desperate to move on from the celebrity pages he’s prepared to sacrifice the career of a decent man to do so, also has form for hacking and covertly filming people having sex – which I think clearly tells us his views on peoples privacy. Whilst as many have pointed out no one has a right to privacy and on the internet probably not a lot of expectation of it either, that still doesn’t make the Times actions in any way justifiable. However there is one very slim upside from this as noted by Anna Raccoon there is now some precedent for investigating and publishing identifying material relating to a serving police office as prohibited by the counter terrorism act 2008.
Update
Daniel Finkelstein responds, and another Times journalist expresses mixed feelings.
Round up of other blogs
› Continue reading
Calling “Jacqui Smith a Cunt”
In the best traditions of rigging google and getting heard, Old holborn suggests that everyone so inclined should observe on thier blog that “Jacqui Smith is a Cunt”
Having done so I’d everyone joining in, just to help google and the like pick up on it.
- Old Holborn
- GRumpy old Twat
- Zoomraker
- Norsefire Nemesis
- The Screech
- Cato
- Ranton Rab
- The man who fell back to bed
- Thick Custard
- deliver nothing labour party
- Steve shark
- Al Jahom
- Man in the street
- Apropos of what?
- Let fly the pigs of war
- Delphius debate
- New port city
- Sue
- And there was me thinking
- Reducing crimea
- Crowborough News
- Lets argue the point
- Constantly Furious
- Counting cats
- Bristol Dave
- Salted Slug
- Gigits
- Furious Student
- Plato
- Tom’s midnight garden
- Contempt is total
- Age of Kali
- Oleuanna
- Lancastrian Oik
- Stitch Master
UK terror threat status
- Severe 2010/01/25