There Is No Possibility of Reading Anything Interesting Here

TL:DR This is a lengthy article, so in summary: The negative and counter-productive comments by the European Commission (EC) are due to it having a public service that has direct policy making power and is unelected and unaccountable. I argue that urgent reform is required to remove those powers and to focus it upon the actual job of a public service organisation; policy implementation. Additionally the EC needs to be removed from the 'Brexit' negotiation process and the responsibility for EU negotiation must be vested with the Parliament and Council alone. The apparent EC view that it should be the pre-eminent power within the EU has resulted in the likelihood that Britons considering either a vote to accept the results of the negotiation or to reconsider membership have hardened their attitude, now being convinced that the last thing they'll do is fall under the effect of these arrogant mandarins. If the intention of the EC was to encourage th...

On the 7th August the UK Government's Department for Digital, Media and Culture (DCMS) published a press release to the effect that they intended to strengthen the UK data protection laws to give individual citizens enhanced rights to determine what happens to their personal data on the Internet. You can read their press release here: https://www.gov.uk/government/news/government-to-strengthen-uk-data-protection-law To quote from the DCMS GOV.UK Website the thrust of the enhancement to the law is: Public to have greater control over personal data - including right to be forgotten. New right to require social media platforms to delete information on children and adults when asked. What Is Proposed Broadly, this will mean that once the proposal is made law then: The Data Protection Bill will: Make it simpler to withdraw consent for the use of personal data Allow people to ask for their personal data held by companies to be erased Enable parents and guardians to give con...

It's been a while since I last posted here for which, I apologise. Unfortunately, chronic health problems have sapped all of my energy (and will to live) recently and it's been difficult to concentrate upon anything other than the things necessary to get through the day. What to talk about? Given that my brain is particularly dull, maybe I should focus upon that old chestnut Brexit. Oh God! Really? Again? Well, yes; this is the topic that just won't lie down. It is the obsession of the country and certainly the chattering classes du jour and it's likely to be until we finally leave in June 2019. The major issue that I've got with it is that it's taking up the entire effort of the UK Parliament to the exclusion of all else. This includes actually running the country. What's staggeringly obvious is that we came into this process gloriously unprepared. The whole Brexit negotiation is rediculously under-rescourced and it seems that the entire Civil Service h...

Note: I had intended to post this article last week, but unfortunately I was unable, due to many appointments that I was obliged to keep. I'm 'late to the party' with this comment, but I hope that you'll consider it anyway. Thank you for your patience. An Historical Introduction Phyrrus of Epirus (c.318 - 272 BC) was a classical Greek General who won a costly victory at the Battle of Asculum. This is now referred to as a "Phyrric Victory" since he was quoted (by Plutarch) as saying: If we are victorious in one more battle with the Romans, we shall be utterly ruined. (Sorry for the hideous paraphrasing.) Phyrric Victories and Losses The General Election on the previous Thursday was labelled as what is referred to as a "snap election", since it was called by the Prime Minister at six weeks notice, which is a very short time as far as General Elections go. The result of the election was bizarre to say the least. To bring in Phyrrus...

Please use your vote this Thursday.  Apologies for the late posting. I was at the UK Games Expo this weekend and I've taken today to 'recover'. Right! If anyone out there in virtual space is actually reading this I was going to post an article on a completely different topic, but I've decided that the upcoming General Election is just too darned important not to spout my piece. So, here goes. The General Election is happening this Thursday, despite some doubt after the horrifying events in London on Saturday. I have one request: Use your vote and have your say. Do this on Thursday, if you do nothing else. I'm not worried about your views, it's just that if you don't vote, you can't have a say and you can't whinge about the result if you don't like it. I guess what I'm trying to say is: Use your vote. As the febrile campaigns have gone on (and on, and on) it's become clear that the result is likely to be far close...

Ever get that feeling of deja-vu? I do and I got it again this week. The reason that I got this distinct and unsettling feeling was the arguments around the need or desire for a second referendum on the whole 'leaving the EU' debacle. The leader of the Liberal Democrats, Tim Farron was the most vocal in calling for a second referendum and announced that this would be a formal policy of his party, if elected to Government. Immediately after this statement the inevitable, let's say, firestorm came his way. The sounds of knees jerking was almost deafening. I'm not going to bore you here with the way that I voted because what has happened, has happened. I put one of the reasons that the leave campaign won is the way that both sides approached the campaign. The leave side of the argument, to me, concentrated upon arguments that focused upon emotion : Vast additional money for the NHS instead of 'wasted' money to uncontrolled EU budgets; "Taking back con...

You have until Midnight  tomorrow to register to vote in the General Election vote on June 8th. Make sure you have a voice. Without it, you have no say in the future direction of this country. From Rize Up UK If you need reasons why, check out Rize Up       The impact of not voting in the last referendum is summarised in this infographic. Although it does appear to assume that all of the non-voters would vote the same way, which they clearly wouldn't, it does quite starkly illustrate the impact of those denied a vote or abstaining. From Rize Up UK. Graphic showing the number of people eligible to vote that did not in the previous referendum.  Please; get up off your butt and register to vote if you haven't done so. Take part in our democracy.

First off; let me state that your political views may well be different than mine. The purpose of this post is not to influence the way you think or vote. Rather, it's to encourage you to vote. Change will be gradual. ---- No doubt many people have urged you to use your vote and have at the same time, bemoaned the fact that by all statistical measures, you don't. Why you don't use your vote, I have no idea. Maybe you aren't interested in general politics and would rather concentrate upon single issues that matter to you. Maybe you're not interested in politics. Maybe you don't particularly care; I don't know. However, I'd urge you to reconsider the reasons that you have for not exercising your right to vote. I do this in your interests, as well as mine. The system that we have in this country is the so-called "First past the post". This effectively translates into "Winner takes all". The candidate with the most votes is the MP...