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

[aidan mcguire]

Apologies wrong link pasted ...

Not   http://blog.scraperwiki.com/

should be... http://blog.thestraightchoice.org/


Aidan


Begin forwarded message:

> From: aidan mcguire <aidan at scraperwiki.com>
> Date: 11 January 2010 10:22:24 GMT
> To: Liverpool Linux User Group <liverpool at mailman.lug.org.uk>
> Cc: Francis Irving <francis at flourish.org>, Julian Todd  
> <julian at goatchurch.org.uk>
> Subject: Re: [Liverpool] Open Rights Group : Digital Economy Bill -  
> Manchester, 23rd Jan
> Reply-To: Liverpool Linux User Group <liverpool at mailman.lug.org.uk>
>
>
> 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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>> Liverpool at mailman.lug.org.uk
>> https://mailman.lug.org.uk/mailman/listinfo/liverpool
>
> Aidan McGuire
> Blue Fountain Systems Ltd
> 1 Alie Street
> London E1 8DE
> Tel 020 7680 8950
> Mob 0777 5858 565
>
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