[Liverpool] Open Rights Group : Digital Economy Bill - Manchester, 23rd Jan

[aidan mcguire]

On 11 Jan 2010, at 08:48, Simon Johnson wrote:

> 2010/1/10 Bob Ham <rah at bash.sh>
> On Sun, 2010-01-10 at 01:53 +0000, Simon Ward wrote:
> > On Sun, Jan 10, 2010 at 01:24:05AM +0000, Bob Ham wrote:
> > > > It is about talking to people, and I would expect the  
> training to
> > > > include things such as being polite
> > >
> > > This seems odd to me.  If you have to explicitly tell people  
> who are
> > > effectively volunteering to represent your cause, that they  
> need to be
> > > polite when talking to people, it kind of makes me wonder  
> whether the
> > > campaign is doomed from the start.
> >
> > Some people can be rather “enthusiastic” when advocating  
> something thay
> > are passionate about.
>
> Like I said earlier, it makes no difference how many people talk to  
> their MP.
>
All mps are up for election at the moment so they are more than  
unusually receptive to campaigns asking them to support things.
Also afaik Tom Watson is on the advisory board of ORG.  http:// 
www.openrightsgroup.org/people/advisory
And he was quite close to the PM. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ 
Tom_Watson_MP

So I will write to my local MP as per the request.

Also re the point ..."it makes no difference"  -if this view is  
strongly held then suggest people get active in the coming election  
and do something about improving matters.

For example  the democracy club is still looking for volunteers for  
Bootle, Knowlsley and I think Wigan (most of the other constituencies  
in the North West have already got a volunteer so if people have not  
signed up - it would useful if they would or if you know someone who  
lives in those areas who might be able to devote a small amount of  
time to trying to improve our democracy then can you pass the link  
along. http://www.democracyclub.org.uk/welcome

And if you get election leaflets make sure you upload them to http:// 
www.thestraightchoice.org/ (liverpool story is the blog story this  
week)  http://blog.scraperwiki.com/

If Democracy Club arranged a hustings in the NW - would people be  
willing to come and submit questions????

Aidan


> This bill was changed after a meal Lord Mandleson had with a music  
> executive. This is straightforward corruption. Mandleson has been  
> given a back-hander to introduce this.
>
> You can't get this changed by trying to persuade your MP. Even if  
> you succeed the clout your MP has is practically nil. Most MPs are  
> backbenchers with little or no influence.
>
> Lord Mandleson's grip on power exceeds that of the Prime Minister.  
> He is the most powerful man in the country and he has personally  
> intervened to have this put in the bill.
>
> You can take as many lessons as you want on getting your point  
> across, it won't matter - because they're not listening. They've  
> been paid not to listen.
>
> Computers like to follow rules and geeks like to set those rules to  
> create nice, functional programs. We often make the mistake of  
> thinking the real world works in the same way: if we follow the  
> system and there's enough of us then we'll get the right result.
>
> It doesn't work like that. Our opponents don't care about the  
> rules. Do you think they wrote polite letters to their MP? Do you  
> think they took lessons in how to get their point across and went  
> to their local MPs surgery? Of course not! They bribed the right  
> man and got what they want done.
>
> The right way to get this fixed is to get the telecommunications  
> companys to exert their "influence." They have deeper pockets than  
> the content industry and will be able to out-gun them in the  
> corruption department.
>
> I know such views are not popular on these mailing lists but if  
> we're going to direct our effort anywhere, it should be towards  
> that goal. MPs are a useless distraction.
>
> Cheers,
>
> Simon.
>
>
>
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Aidan McGuire
Blue Fountain Systems Ltd
1 Alie Street
London E1 8DE
Tel 020 7680 8950
Mob 0777 5858 565


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