Voiceless

At a presentation on Data Protection, last week, one speaker expressed the hope that new European Data Protection supervisory authority would establish a sensible compromise on the levels of fine to be made under the GDPR, with the British, Dutch and Irish hanging out for realistic fines and some of the Eastern European countries seeking punitive penalties. Sadly, for those who are relying on British influence on the new board, we may not have a seat. …

Republic

One problem with Facebook (& Twitter) is that they are rivers, once the water has gone by it’s gone and can no longer be seen. I have written this and posted here, because a friend contributed to a thread on Facebook on the Monarchy, which I can no longer find. He suggested that we have a choice between what we have today or an executive presidency like France and the US. It’s not true, most of the European Republics have weak presidencies that do what our Queen does, play a role in the formation of government, a job done mainly by convention and law. This could be done by the Speaker or any other indirectly elected citizen.

Personally I am motivated for a weak presidency within a Republic with a strong Parliament bound by the rule of law. i.e. Parliament must be bound by a rule of law.

I read this line, a long time ago, in “Man & Superman” by George Bernard Shaw,

My rank is the highest known in Switzerland, I am a free citizen

I think I want that! …

Research

Techdirt, providing a public service as ever have posted a piece on confusion in the US Federal Government agencies. Whenever seeking to censor material, one has to prohibit research into the censored material and the techniques used to enforce the censorship. This is equally true in technology, and since encryption is used to ‘protect’ material, in the US they have prohibited research into circumventing “Digital Rights Management” technology which is used by creative capitalism to manage pay-per-view. This has led to the absurd situation that, in the US, unlocking phones was a prohibited technology for a while. The Copyright Office, often seen as creative capitalism’s agents in Government, have come to the conclusion that the copyright laws interference with security research is a bad thing. Whether they’ll repeal those bits of the law is another matter. …

Oi! Brexit No!

The Fleet Street Fox writes on Brexit in the Mirror, it contains this very short quote,

And the arguments for leaving are already moot. There is no more money for the NHS. Immigration can’t be reduced this way. The courts decided parliament already has sovereignty. We can’t avoid EU regulations if we want to trade with them. Every vote we’ve ever held has been overturned by a subsequent one. Migrants don’t weigh down our public services so much as provide them for us.

I thought it was pretty complete, one should add that she also says, “Migrants pay more in tax than they take out in benefits – in other words, they pay for Leavers’ pensions and healthcare”. …

Strike Breaking in Lewisham

Strike Breaking in Lewisham

This is a circular I received from a supporter of the Forest Hill School anti-cuts campaign.


Many of you will have heard of the ongoing dispute at Forest Hill School, Lewisham over cuts and the impact on teacher workload. NUT members have taken 9 days of strike action in total and yet the council or School management are still unwilling to engage seriously with the union or parents to solve this dispute.

On Tuesday 20th June, the school showed outright contempt for staff and broke the law by bringing in agency Supply teachers to cover during the strike.  …

Pre-emption

I am going to say it again. Was the “No deal is better than a bad deal” slogan designed to get us thrown out and avoid a second referendum?  As Brexit negotiations become more detailed, with the EU proposing that the Commission and the EU Court act as the judicial guarantor of the EU27 UK residents rights, it’s proving that actually agreeing to leave on the Tories desired terms is going to be hard. There’s also the point that,

if we negotiate any treaty amending the relationships established in EU treaties, we must have another referendum.

The brexiteers have behaved from the day they won as if they were frightened that we would change our mind. Getting thrown out is one way of avoiding a chance to think again. …