lewisroberts.com

If you are as horrified as me by the following article, please write to your MP.

First trial without jury approved

I don’t care how dangerous or frightening these men and their cohorts are, they have a human right to a trial by a jury of their peers. If the case goes ahead I can assure the Lord Chief Justice God Of UK Law And Almighty Ruler Of All Things Law Related that the case will be nullified by the European Courts of Human Rights and these men will get a do-over.

-Lewis

So…  the Digital Britain report is here and with it comes a new tax. Is that really a massive surprise? To me, no. To others, perhaps. Another shining example of this Government’s thinking. “Hey it’s *only* 50p!” I hear you cry.

Yes, it’s 50p to hand over to companies like BT and Virgin so that they can lay cables or put the infrastructure in place to provide circa 2Mbit connections to mainly rural areas with high populations of elderly people who have absolutely no interest in broadband Britain. And need I point out that the reason BT and Virgin have avoided laying cables to these areas is because it isn’t commercially viable to do so. Why should the tax paying population of a country hand money to telecoms providers to expand their network in to areas that weren’t commercially viable before, only for them to be able to reap the rewards (profit) from the sale of products on infrastructure which WE have paid for?!

Granted, those subscriptions may not number in the thousands like they would in cities but if there’s no risk/cost implications for BT and Virgin to lay their cables then sure, they’ll lay the cables and start charging customers for the privilege of having broadband in remote areas.

I’m all for a digital Britain but seriously, if you want fast Internet access, don’t choose to live in the middle of nowhere and expect the rest of the country to pay for your broadband connection. Nobody subsidised mine when I was paying £35 a month for 512k back in 2000.

-Lewis

Oops, looks like the BBC are having a few issues at the moment…. no suitable nodes are available to serve your request

Ouch, let’s hope they get that one fixed as soon as possible.

EDIT: Looks fixed now. If you  visit the article I was trying looking at, you can have a chuckle.

-Lewis

Ex GCHQ head security honcho George Pepper thinks the best way to stay safe is to monitor and record every single thing every human being does in the UK. I have one quote for you George..

They who can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety, deserve neither liberty nor safety. – Benjamin Franklin.

While I know I’m not American, I agree with Benjamin Franklin. The more we are frightened in to giving up our freedom for so called extra security, the less free we are and the more at risk we become.

The more this government and police force erode our civil liberties, the more we remove our freedoms. The more we are tracked, logged, recorded and watched, the more controlled we are and the more power we place in the hands of an already interfering police and nanny state.

I see more and more “Night Cops” and “UK Street Crime” television shows in which people are purposefully intimidated and antagonised by the police and when the copper is told to go forth and prosper, the “criminal” is arrested under “Section 5 – Public Order” which basically means you can be arrested for swearing or doing something the cop doesn’t like. You don’t even have to swear at them, it can be just part of your everyday language. Any swear word deemed offensive to the officer is fair game for an arrest. Tell me, who brought that law in and how much time is wasted by coppers who arrest someone under “Section 5″ just because they don’t like the person’s language? Cops are arresting people for being disrespectful to them. They’re wearing the uniform so we must bow down and kiss their arses is what “Section 5″ is all about, nothing more.

Why should our lives be ruled by fear? Why should we have to listen to so called experts telling us that we are in terrible danger from terrorists and unless we surrender to being monitored like cattle, we are part of that threat? WHY?! I have never seen a terrorist and I do not live in fear of being killed by one. If it’s going to happen, there is nothing I can do about it and there is no way I would willfully give up my freedoms to let an incompetent government or security service offer me no more security than I can offer myself. How can they prove that if the entire population gave them access to every part of their lives that they can make it totally safe from terrorists? Answer: They can’t.

If you want to be monitored and controlled by the state George, go and retire in China – don’t gab on about technology that you know most of the population, including you by the sounds of things, don’t understand. It’s clear to me that the purpose is to keep them frightened about things they don’t understand just so they will give up their freedoms to someone that tells them they do understand it.

-Lewis