Richard's Kingdom

Dear Lords and Ladies of the House of Lords Science and Technology Committee
I’m writing to ask you to represent the voice of UK citizens during the passage through the House of Lords of the Government’s Digital Economy Bill.
I am deeply concerned by the measures this Bill would introduce, and given that my MP seems unwilling [...]

Flying in the face of reason, evidence, society, human rights, Europe and the conclusions of its own Digital Britain report, the Government yesterday announced legislation to disconnect from the Internet anyone accused of copyright infringement online.
No, that isn’t a typo, you read correctly: accused. Not guilty. Accused.
There’s more: today Cory Doctorow claimed on his blog [...]

Dear Richard Caborn MP,
In recent days the Home Secretary has announced that airside workers at Manchester and City airports will no longer be compelled to enroll with the National Identity Register as a condition of their continued employment. This news has been presented as a pledge that Identity Cards will never be compulsory for UK [...]

Jacquie Smith is to step down as Secretary of State for the Home Department in the cabinet reshuffle that Gordon Brown is planning to make after the European elections on Thursday.
While the door to the Home Secretary’s office has revolved ever more rapidly since 2001 the authoritarian brief of its occupants has hardly wavered.
Somewhere in [...]

Last year I wrote about the ineffectiveness of mass CCTV surveillance and suggested that we should fix the broken way in which CCTV is used in the UK. Now a report funded by the Home Office has reached the same conclusion. It turns out that CCTV has almost no impact on crime. Except in car [...]