Richard's Kingdom

I hope all you UK readers are planning to swing by your polling stations to vote today if there are elections in your area. Polls are open until 22:00 this evening so there’s no excuse for missing out. I’ll be casting my vote after I get back from mountain biking this evening.
I wanted to say [...]

In the film “The Return of the Pink Panther”, the bungling Inspector Clouseau famously admonishes a blind man and his “meunkey” for begging without a license, while failing to notice the armed robbery in progress at the bank behind him.
Meanwhile in the real world, following up the story of Poole Borough Council using the Regulation [...]

When it was unveiled by MySociety in November 2006, the e-petitions system on the 10 Downing Street website promised a new interactive era of communication between Government and the people. In practice, however, talking to the Prime Minister and friends online is more like having a conversation with a parrot.
The Government’s responses to e-petitions are [...]

The Regulation of Investigatory Powers bill was sold as being a vital tool in the fight against child abuse, serious and organised crime, and yes, even terrorism. Now that it’s an Act of Parliament, we find it’s actually being used to enforce school catchment areas and target nuisance dog poo. Is wanting the best education [...]

The BBC is reporting that the Northern Ireland Executive are shopping for new computers:
Thousands of ‘ultra-secure’ computers costing £6m are to be bought by the NI executive following a series of embarrassing losses of personal data. About 4,000 high-security laptops and 10,000 new desktop computers are being bought. The BBC has also learned the Civil [...]