Yesterday, the excellent Open Rights Group (roughly, the British equivalent of the EFF) ran a workshop on talking to your MP face-to-face. There was particular emphasis on opposing the incredibly evil Digital Economy Bill (tl;dr: if anyone in your household is accused of filesharing, they can extrajudicially suspend your 'net connection without ( Read more... )

I just sent this to my MP, using the excellent http://www.writetothem.com.Dear Fred Foobar MP,

I am writing to ask you to please vote against the following bills tomorrow* The Identity Cards Act 2006 (Fees) Regulations 2009 ( Read more... )

It's my viva this afternoon. But that's not what I want to talk about.

Clause 152 of the Coroners and Justice Bill, which receives its second reading in the House of Commons on Monday, contains amendments to the Data Protection Act which would allow ministers (including Scottish, Welsh and Northern Irish devolved ministers) to create "information ( Read more... )

I was at the Heriot-Watt semigroup day on Friday (at which I was one of a surprising number of category theorists).

It was only after I'd got there that I realised I should have been wearing my No2ID T-shirt...

... and occasionally you re-learn something you already knew but had forgotten.

Thursday:

• If you're expecting someone to call you back about some work by a certain time and they haven't, call them before the deadline so problems can be sorted out. Don't rely on minions to pass on messages.
• If presented with the opportunity for paying work, seize ( Read more... )

On Saturday I went to see Taking Liberties, a documentary about the incredible assault on civil liberties that has been taking place under New Labour1. Lest we forget: the various Terrorism Acts of 2000, 2001, 2005 and 2006 and the Criminal Justice Act 2003 which have brought in detention without trial for progressively longer periods, given the ( Read more... )

On the way to a No2ID meeting the other night:

pozorvlak: There was a letter in the paper today, from some guy who reckoned the NHS should be more like the BBC, with a budget and a board of governors but little-to-no direct government interference. I wonder how much more widely that idea could be applied - what would happen if you tried it for the police, ( Read more... )