e petitions

I have signed several e-petitions on the 10 downing street e-petitions site, I have got a response :-)

Freeinformation - epetition reply

28 February 2007

We received a petition asking:

"We the undersigned petition the Prime Minister to Reject the restrictions on the Freedom of Information Act proposed by the Department of Constitutional Affairs."

Details of petition:

"The proposed changes will restrict the number of requests individuals and organisations can make, and allow Government Department to include 'reading time' in fees calculations, greatly increasing the scope for obstruction of legitimate requests. As the Constitutional Affairs Select Committee concluded, there is no need to change the existing fees regime. Indeed, the cost of the Freedom of Information Act is less than was originally projected by the Government, and the transparency provided by the Act can only benefit efficient government."

• Read the petition
• Petitions home page

Read the Government's response

The Government recognises the importance of public participation and understanding of the functions of Government. The intention of the changes proposed is not to hinder legitimate requests for information or to reduce the effectiveness of the Act. An independent review commissioned by the Secretary of State for Constitutional Affairs to look at the impact of the Freedom of Information Act showed that a small minority of requests and a small minority of requestors account for disproportionate amounts of the cost of answering FOI requests. The proposals are designed to address this issue and to ensure public authorities can balance access to information for all with the delivery of other public services.

On 14 December 2006 the Secretary of State, Department for Constitutional Affairs, opened a public consultation on the draft fee regulations. The Government is keen to engage as many stakeholders aspossible in this consultation. The consultation paper is available at: http://www.dca.gov.uk/consult/dpr2007/cp2806.htm. Responses should be sent by 8 March 2007 to:

Department for Constitutional Affairs
Information Rights Division
6.16 Selborne House
54-60 Victoria Street
London
SW1E 6QW

basicaly it means, blah blah blah blah. oh well.

Newsbites

(this is slightly old now, I wrote it for something else but will post it here now)
This is a section of lots of short news items (on this occasion on data protection) that I though warranted a brief mention.
The taxman now has the power to listen to your phone calls, read your mail, place bugs in your house and car. Apparently this is something to do with fighting serious organised crime, something that apparently the Serious Organised crime Agency SOCA cannot do – it has these powers and more.
If you fly to the USA your plane company has to give them your credit card details. I know the US has a lot of debt but I don’t think many people would be happy if they started paying for it using peoples credit cards.
If you get a passport/ID card with a RFID chip in it the only way to stop people walking off with your personal details just because you walked within 25cm of their scanner is to hit the chip with a hammer (this will break it) and they will no longer be able to steal it. It is illegal to do this with US passports and although the passport would still be valid, the UK Passport agency would probably not be too happy either).
Some people want to use the NHS national database to get accurate results on obesity, apparently people are not telling the truth about how much they weigh when responding to surveys so instead the people want to take the data without your consent. It is of course vital for your health that the national obesity level can be reported.
The police have the DNA of over 1 million innocent people on record just because they can.
CCTV cameras may have microphones installed so that the security people can listen to your conversation as well as watch it.

And a Happy New Year

To all of you.
May you make more of a difference in the coming year than you did in the last.
May the route to peace be found.
And the road towards the saving of the world be trod upon.
May life succeed where death has failed.
And may the love of God shine upon you.

my namesake

I chose my pen name surname from that of a character in a very good book that I read ages ago by Douglas Hill the character appears in the Last Legionary series and is called Keil Randor.
Someone was asking about my name so I went and looked and so here you have it.

Merry Chirstmas

A very Merry Christmas to you.
Have fun, sing carols and remember its true meaning.

Creative commons licence

Everything on this blog which I hold the copyright for is now available under the Attribution-ShareAlike 2.0 Creative Commons (cc) licence.

be Free! :-)

World's biggest offshore wind farm approved for Thames estuary site

From The Guardian
Plans to build the world's largest offshore wind farm off the coast of south-east England were approved by ministers yesterday in a move that could eventually bring 341 turbines to the Thames estuary.

Nanowelding

Nano-welds herald new era of electronicsNew Scientist
Tom Simonite
The world’s smallest construction site is taking shape in a laboratory in Switzerland, thanks to the development of new welding techniques that work at scales of a billionth of a metre.

Worldforge Screenshots

I have uploaded many more worldforge screenshots to my picasa webalbums and you can find them here.

Expansion at Heathrow and Stanstead.

Guardian article
The government has approved expansion of Heathrow and Stanstead. This is bad, air travel needs to be reduced not increased. Hypocrites, *sigh*.
What can I say.
STUPID POLITICIANS PUTTING MONEY BEFORE LIFE.
There now I feel a bit better. :-)

Post offices closure

Guardian article
Ministers unveiled plans to close 2500 Post offices.
My local post office may be among that number. But even if I still lived in London I would despair at this. thousands of people rely on these post offices, some places have terrible public transport (like around here) some people cannot drive and have no one who can drive them, these people are unlikely to be able to afford a taxi regularly(few people can).
All the profitable work that post offices and the royal mail did has been taken by other companies in the name of a free market and so it only has the unprofitable stuff left and so looses money because it HAS to do the unprofitable stuff if it is asked to.
Pensioners used to et their pensions from post offices but they were (almost) forced to have it sent to bank instead - and banks are even less common than post offices, especially in rural areas, many of those who need post offices are not computer literate and would be confused by telephone banking.
It is very Sad to see all these post offices being closed.
and that the post offices are loosing £200 million a year.

Back To Blogging

It is the Christmas holidays now
I have more time.
I can blog again with no fear of being caught and blocked from blogging.
And there is news that definetly needs blogging about
there has been some very bad news recently and I must stand up and be counted.