I had a phonecall today from Oxfam asking for me to donate to their East Africa Disaster Fund. In the past I've had a direct debit thing to Oxfam, but I cancelled it when I became seriously in debt.
Anyhoo, I think its terrible that the worst famine in living memory has hit East Africa, countries like Kenya, and if I could give money I would.
At the end of the call the nice lady who'd phoned on behalf of Oxfam let me know she actually worked for a marketing firm who were paid £40,000 to make these phone calls in the hope of getting £120,000 of donations over the next five years.
Now the thing about aid to Africa is an awkward thing, I've read successful Africans suggesting "trade, not aid" would be more helpful to the continent. Also, Kenya is one of the continent's success stories, after decades of misrule, they've had a bit of stability for the past fifteen years or so. Their GDP growth makes the UK's look like a third world country, and they're one of the relatively less corrupt African nations.
Anyhoo, the UK government gives Kenya tens of millions in aid each year, the Department for International Development kind of ambiguously says £64.2 million or £128 million per year. I'm wondering how come they're not a bit more resilient to famine? Haven't they spend any money on things like food stores and that sort of thing? What have they spent all the money on?
And furthermore, how can a country, any country, not be financially self-sufficient? How can Kenya be a money pit that needs £128 million from the UK alone every year?
Even the UK, is running up an ever increasing budget deficit, but £128 million of that is on behalf of Kenya.
Are both the UK and Kenya spending money on the wrong things?
Sure this current famine is a disaster, but Kenya gets that aid money whether there's a disaster or not.
Elsewhere on the internet, on Occupy London's manifesto thing and their other social media thing, there seems to be an undercurrent of the assumption that a government's role is to extract as much money as possible from the population, and if there is more money there unextracted, it should be prised from the rich, and then spent.
This makes me feel uncomfortable. The government are crap, all governments to greater and lesser degrees are crap, they're never as good at spending my money wisely than I am, and I think that applies to everyone. Individually we can spend our money more wisely than the government, based on what we individually judge is wise.
Then again, I'm a frothing at the mouth centre-left libertarian.
Showing posts with label Libertarian. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Libertarian. Show all posts
Monday, 7 November 2011
Thursday, 29 September 2011
The future silver age of public libraries and their arch enemy Moore's Law
Earlier today a librarian activist who I follow on twitter was being dismissive of the phone box library phenomenon. I have a soft spot for them.
Several months ago, I don't recall whether it was before of after I started blogging regularly about new phone box libraries, but I was having some kind of online exchange with the librarian activist. She was lamenting the growing number of library closures, and I asked if ever there was a golden age of new libraries being built. I don't recall the answer, but the number of libraries in the UK has been in decline for decades.
I'm hopeful that its not going to decline for ever.
Right now, our elected officials and professionals employed for the purpose of providing libraries are failing, libraries are closing. The total number of libraries will bottom out and then begin to rise again. But at some point between now and the flying car and rocket pack future, there will be a new silver age of libraries being built and opened.
Trying to visualise what these libraries of the future is a difficult task, I don't know what they'll look like, it may be fleets of mobile library buses, or plastic dome-shaped prefab units, with moulded desks and shelves, staffed by a catbot terminal like Emma, or a ubiquitous chain of high street shop/libraries run commercially and owned by the state like the Tote betting shops.
But one thing I'm pretty sure of is that they won't be computery technology centres. I've got a theory:-
Moore's Law is the Enemy of the Public Library!!!
Let me remind you, Moore's Law is that one about computing power doubling every eighteen months/two years. For £100 of computer memory now, in two years you'll be able to buy twice as much, a £1000 computer this year is twice as powerful/fast as a £1000 computer from two years ago.
Its not just cutting edge computers, its independent of price point. Bastard Bob's budget computer's are affected too, a £200 net book from two years back is about half as good as a brand new one.
Look at mobile phones, Amazon Kindle, its the same unstoppable progression of technology. And its exponential.
The other week there was a quotation on the internet about how a three-term prime minister will leave office with a mobile phone 64 times more powerful than the one they came into office with. And "it isn't possible with current technology" is no longer an excuse for not doing something, you just have to wait for a few years.
In the Amazon fire launch the other day there was a slide about how the Amazon original homepage from 1994 was about 40Kb of memory, and now its about 800Kb. A ten year old computer would struggle to run modern HTML5 webpages, a twenty year old computer probably wouldn't load them at all.
At some point the diminishing power of old computers gets dangerous. For example in 1984, the BBC, Acorn computers and the European Comission created the BBC Domesday Project, a survey of Britain in computer form, stored on laser disk that ran on special software on BBC Acorn computers and a specially made laser disk player. They were installed in libraries and schools.
Within three years the laser disks were scratched and wouldn't work well, the guy who knew how to use it would have moved to another job. Twenty years later it took another BBC project to un-encrypt all the locked down data in archaic data formats.
Another example is Microsoft's Internet Explorer 6. Still widely in use, governments across the world have issued warning about security vulnerablities in it and urged everyone to upgrade or use alternative web browsers.
If someone's working on a thing on a computer in a library, and wants to carry the data home with them, what format should the computer be kitted with? Floppy disk, 5.25", 3.5", 3", Zip drive, burn to CD, DVD, memory card, usb drive, save to their own 'library hard disk folder', bluetooth it to a smartphone, google drive, or send it into the cloud? What do you do, accept the short-comings or spend whatever the start up cost was every five years to replace the portable storage media?
So in this future silver age of new public libraries being built, would investors in libraries build computery ones, knowing their cutting edge technology will need replacing every five to ten years?
I doubt it.
Whatever the initial investment is, they're going to have to constantly re-invest to keep the library great, and they can't ever stop.
Only fast buck fly-by-night charlatans would invest in things like that.
In the old village library of my youth, there was a wonderful book on origami, long out of print and forgotten by most library users. It was about thirty years old, but contained some of the most elegant and ingenious works of origami in it's pages. Libraries are great for old books.
Take classics such as War and Peace, Lord of the Rings, Pride and Prejudice. A decent hard back copy could last for decades. Sure the cover will need reattaching every few years and maybe book rebound if pages start falling out, but with a bit of care, the books will last for lifetimes.
Anyhoo, back to phone box libraries. I don't know if they are the future silver age of new libraries. What I do know is that whilst brick and mortar public libraries are being closes and centralised, the phone box libraries are springing up in tiny villages across England at an increasing rate.
Their take up has been propelled by BT's adopt a kiosk scheme, where local communities can buy a red K6 phone box for £1 and use it however they like.
They are a low cost, low maintenance, easily maintainable unit, and as the case of the Coed-y-Paen box confirms, strangely resilient to crime. Within a fortnight of all the books being looted by thieves, the community had restocked it and it was back in use. Their size is entirely appropriate for the tiny villages and hamlets which have employed them to date. They don't require specially bred midget librarians, in fact the villages seem to manage quite with them run by locals without the need for specially trained librarians at all.
Most likely such a model wouldn't work for larger towns and cities with greater densities of library users. But, like the Boris Bike scheme in London, a vast distributed book swap scheme with clusters of local units isn't too much of a stretch of the imagination.
Elsewhere I have documented twenty four of these phone boxes, finding new ones now at a rate of three a month. The phone box library sector is one part of the public library sector which is growing. BT have sold around 1,500 phone boxes since the scheme started two years ago, and I'm certain that far more than twenty four have been turned into libraries, its just a matter of finding them.
Several months ago, I don't recall whether it was before of after I started blogging regularly about new phone box libraries, but I was having some kind of online exchange with the librarian activist. She was lamenting the growing number of library closures, and I asked if ever there was a golden age of new libraries being built. I don't recall the answer, but the number of libraries in the UK has been in decline for decades.
I'm hopeful that its not going to decline for ever.
Right now, our elected officials and professionals employed for the purpose of providing libraries are failing, libraries are closing. The total number of libraries will bottom out and then begin to rise again. But at some point between now and the flying car and rocket pack future, there will be a new silver age of libraries being built and opened.
Trying to visualise what these libraries of the future is a difficult task, I don't know what they'll look like, it may be fleets of mobile library buses, or plastic dome-shaped prefab units, with moulded desks and shelves, staffed by a catbot terminal like Emma, or a ubiquitous chain of high street shop/libraries run commercially and owned by the state like the Tote betting shops.
But one thing I'm pretty sure of is that they won't be computery technology centres. I've got a theory:-
Moore's Law is the Enemy of the Public Library!!!
Let me remind you, Moore's Law is that one about computing power doubling every eighteen months/two years. For £100 of computer memory now, in two years you'll be able to buy twice as much, a £1000 computer this year is twice as powerful/fast as a £1000 computer from two years ago.
Its not just cutting edge computers, its independent of price point. Bastard Bob's budget computer's are affected too, a £200 net book from two years back is about half as good as a brand new one.
Look at mobile phones, Amazon Kindle, its the same unstoppable progression of technology. And its exponential.
The other week there was a quotation on the internet about how a three-term prime minister will leave office with a mobile phone 64 times more powerful than the one they came into office with. And "it isn't possible with current technology" is no longer an excuse for not doing something, you just have to wait for a few years.
In the Amazon fire launch the other day there was a slide about how the Amazon original homepage from 1994 was about 40Kb of memory, and now its about 800Kb. A ten year old computer would struggle to run modern HTML5 webpages, a twenty year old computer probably wouldn't load them at all.
At some point the diminishing power of old computers gets dangerous. For example in 1984, the BBC, Acorn computers and the European Comission created the BBC Domesday Project, a survey of Britain in computer form, stored on laser disk that ran on special software on BBC Acorn computers and a specially made laser disk player. They were installed in libraries and schools.
Within three years the laser disks were scratched and wouldn't work well, the guy who knew how to use it would have moved to another job. Twenty years later it took another BBC project to un-encrypt all the locked down data in archaic data formats.
Another example is Microsoft's Internet Explorer 6. Still widely in use, governments across the world have issued warning about security vulnerablities in it and urged everyone to upgrade or use alternative web browsers.
If someone's working on a thing on a computer in a library, and wants to carry the data home with them, what format should the computer be kitted with? Floppy disk, 5.25", 3.5", 3", Zip drive, burn to CD, DVD, memory card, usb drive, save to their own 'library hard disk folder', bluetooth it to a smartphone, google drive, or send it into the cloud? What do you do, accept the short-comings or spend whatever the start up cost was every five years to replace the portable storage media?
So in this future silver age of new public libraries being built, would investors in libraries build computery ones, knowing their cutting edge technology will need replacing every five to ten years?
I doubt it.
Whatever the initial investment is, they're going to have to constantly re-invest to keep the library great, and they can't ever stop.
Only fast buck fly-by-night charlatans would invest in things like that.
In the old village library of my youth, there was a wonderful book on origami, long out of print and forgotten by most library users. It was about thirty years old, but contained some of the most elegant and ingenious works of origami in it's pages. Libraries are great for old books.
Take classics such as War and Peace, Lord of the Rings, Pride and Prejudice. A decent hard back copy could last for decades. Sure the cover will need reattaching every few years and maybe book rebound if pages start falling out, but with a bit of care, the books will last for lifetimes.
Anyhoo, back to phone box libraries. I don't know if they are the future silver age of new libraries. What I do know is that whilst brick and mortar public libraries are being closes and centralised, the phone box libraries are springing up in tiny villages across England at an increasing rate.
Their take up has been propelled by BT's adopt a kiosk scheme, where local communities can buy a red K6 phone box for £1 and use it however they like.
They are a low cost, low maintenance, easily maintainable unit, and as the case of the Coed-y-Paen box confirms, strangely resilient to crime. Within a fortnight of all the books being looted by thieves, the community had restocked it and it was back in use. Their size is entirely appropriate for the tiny villages and hamlets which have employed them to date. They don't require specially bred midget librarians, in fact the villages seem to manage quite with them run by locals without the need for specially trained librarians at all.
Most likely such a model wouldn't work for larger towns and cities with greater densities of library users. But, like the Boris Bike scheme in London, a vast distributed book swap scheme with clusters of local units isn't too much of a stretch of the imagination.
Elsewhere I have documented twenty four of these phone boxes, finding new ones now at a rate of three a month. The phone box library sector is one part of the public library sector which is growing. BT have sold around 1,500 phone boxes since the scheme started two years ago, and I'm certain that far more than twenty four have been turned into libraries, its just a matter of finding them.
Wednesday, 13 July 2011
Bloggers, Google+ Circles, Socialism and Kropotkin
Last night I finished reading Peter Kropotkin's Mutual Aid: A Factor of Evolution, a book I chose to read purely so I could throw late-nineteenth century communist-libertarianism into discussions and blog posts. Last night I also attended a London Bloggers meetup, fifty or so people gathered in a central London pub basement to network, discuss social media, google+ and almost win a new Dell laptop.
London meetup bloggers
I'm not that good at networking events, last night I racked up chatting to eleven people and nodding or otherwise acknowledging the existance of six other people.
Its probably the future, just like Facebook was once when we were all still on MySpace, and FriendsReunited and Friendster before that.
One rather neat thing Google+ has going for it right now is that I can access it at work, rather than it being blocked like other social networks are. Like back when BeBo was the only social network site that local council workers could access.
In a similar way, Google+ isn't blocked in Iran like Facebook is. There are a lot of Iranian folk on those lush prairies.
Keeping friends in tupperware
Google+ uses the concept of circles rather than a friendslists, and borrows the same sort of broadcasting/following thing as twitter. You start off with default empty circles which you can populate with 'friends' 'family' 'acquaintances' 'following', you can also have people in more than one circle. And then when you post status update like things you can decide which circles of people can see them. Then on the other side people only see they updates that you're put up if they've selected you to be in their circles. Also people can't see which of your circles you've put them in, only that they are in a circle.
Its still hard for me to get my head around, but essentially, you only broadcast things to people and groups you select, and they only receive it if they're listening.
When I first starting populating my circles it was using the default titles 'friends' 'family' 'acquaintances' 'following'. It just didn't feel satisfying, one size didn't fits all, so I tried sorting friends and acquaintances into different circles, 'music people' and 'internet people'. I tried having a circles for 'ex-girlfriends', 'potentials' and 'bargepole'.
That kind of worked, but looking at who was side by side in the each circle was just, unrealistic. Circles can be anything, so I tried again with more granularity 'London music people', 'Glasgow scenester of the noughties', 'London bloggers'. This felt better, cos it was a closer map of reality, circles were more like people who'd be stood together in the pub.
You could just recreate your facebook experience, with a bit of faffing about you can export your entire Facebook friendslist to Google+ and just have them all one default 'friends' circle.
Do you want you social network to accurately map reality, or some fiction putting round pegs in square holes?
Invoking Kropotkin
I didn't even realise it was a weakness of Facebook that you only had one friendslist, and although you could tinker with privacy settings for individual people, blocking those you don't like, it was still just one broadcast channel.
Same with Twitter I guess, its just one broadcast channel, all your followers get your updates.
But with Google+ circles its almost like every status update requires mutual consent, so you don't have random strangers (or the ghost of socialism) monitoring your every comment, unless you want that. So there's less risk of getting spammed every time you mention iPad or Kropotkin.
London meetup bloggers
I'm not that good at networking events, last night I racked up chatting to eleven people and nodding or otherwise acknowledging the existance of six other people.
- Aref Adib - blogs about London and photos of it
- Andy bargery - the marketing blagger
- Sophie Une Timide au Londres - blogs about being a French lady in London
- A Lady in London - blogs about being a Californian lady in London
- The Creative Penn - writing and self-publishing
- Blog till you drop - internet culture from London and beyond
- Cristiano Betta - technology and life
- Rax - raxraxrax Rax
- Miss Geeky - reviews of cool stuff
- Shimelle - hardcorn scrapbooking
- Godwyns - justice for gay africans
- Real monstrosities - weird and wonderful animals
- Amit Sodha - the ultimate guide to living consciously
- Movie Moron - Movie news and humour
- Card bored box - custom party pinatas
- Pradeep Kumar Singh - Empowering blogger users
Its probably the future, just like Facebook was once when we were all still on MySpace, and FriendsReunited and Friendster before that.
One rather neat thing Google+ has going for it right now is that I can access it at work, rather than it being blocked like other social networks are. Like back when BeBo was the only social network site that local council workers could access.
In a similar way, Google+ isn't blocked in Iran like Facebook is. There are a lot of Iranian folk on those lush prairies.
Keeping friends in tupperware
Google+ uses the concept of circles rather than a friendslists, and borrows the same sort of broadcasting/following thing as twitter. You start off with default empty circles which you can populate with 'friends' 'family' 'acquaintances' 'following', you can also have people in more than one circle. And then when you post status update like things you can decide which circles of people can see them. Then on the other side people only see they updates that you're put up if they've selected you to be in their circles. Also people can't see which of your circles you've put them in, only that they are in a circle.
Its still hard for me to get my head around, but essentially, you only broadcast things to people and groups you select, and they only receive it if they're listening.
When I first starting populating my circles it was using the default titles 'friends' 'family' 'acquaintances' 'following'. It just didn't feel satisfying, one size didn't fits all, so I tried sorting friends and acquaintances into different circles, 'music people' and 'internet people'. I tried having a circles for 'ex-girlfriends', 'potentials' and 'bargepole'.
That kind of worked, but looking at who was side by side in the each circle was just, unrealistic. Circles can be anything, so I tried again with more granularity 'London music people', 'Glasgow scenester of the noughties', 'London bloggers'. This felt better, cos it was a closer map of reality, circles were more like people who'd be stood together in the pub.
You could just recreate your facebook experience, with a bit of faffing about you can export your entire Facebook friendslist to Google+ and just have them all one default 'friends' circle.
Do you want you social network to accurately map reality, or some fiction putting round pegs in square holes?
Invoking Kropotkin
I didn't even realise it was a weakness of Facebook that you only had one friendslist, and although you could tinker with privacy settings for individual people, blocking those you don't like, it was still just one broadcast channel.
Same with Twitter I guess, its just one broadcast channel, all your followers get your updates.
But with Google+ circles its almost like every status update requires mutual consent, so you don't have random strangers (or the ghost of socialism) monitoring your every comment, unless you want that. So there's less risk of getting spammed every time you mention iPad or Kropotkin.
Thursday, 29 April 2010
A sickly nation, unable to provide for their children
Channel4 have a neat websitey thing called ChoPORNot, where viewers are give a series of choices between two cards representing things that could be cut to reduce the £152,000,000,000 deficit.Choices like Reduce disability benefit or not to renovate social housing.
A lot of the options are a bit, well, crap. Like axing GPs when actually giving thema pay cut might be less destructive (considering their pay tripled in the last ten years)
Anyhoo, a neat thing is that you can see the charts of which items most people have chosen to slash and which items most people have chosen not to cut, to 'cherish'. After 500 or so people have had a go on the website the list of things to cut is like this:
1. Military - Don't upgrade Trident. Stop subbing the subs...The overiding message seems to be that we hate the military, we hate bankers and the government.
2. Military - Withdraw from Iraq. Time to watch our own backs...
3. Religious and other community services - Stop supporting churches. What about their collections?
4. Economic affairs - Plan a bank raid. Reclaim bankers' money.
5. Broadcasting and Publishing services - Cancel all government advertising. Stop ads...
6. Military - Pull out of Afghanistan. Stop digging that hole...
7. Military - Cut navy spending. Waive the rules...
8. Education not definable by level - Learning and Life Skills Council? Who's heard of that?
9. Military - Clip the wings of the RAF
10. Executive and legislative organs, finacial affairs, external affairs - Cut back on government. No such thing as society...
Contrast this we the items most cherished:-
1. Primary and Preprimary education - Shut primary schools. Increased illiteracy? So waht?We love the NHS, schools and old people! Wooh.
2. Social Exclusion - Stop all home help visits. Leave unwell alone...
3. Medical Services - Axe, slash, chop or cut 50% of A&Es...
4. Medical Services - Close 20 hospitals. Keep 'em waiting...
5. Primary and Preprimary education - Sack 2000 teachers. More friends for each classmate!
6. Old Age - Shiver their timbers! Cut winter fuel payments.
7. Secondary Education - We don't need no education... Cut 2000 teachers.
8. Transport - Close branch railways. Everyone's got a car...
9. Old Age - Cut state pensions. No more golden oldies...
10. Secondary Education - Shut 40 secondary schools. Don't teach 'em a lesson...
Personally I'm divided, I thank we should pull out of Afghanistan and Iraq, but other than that the UK should have a strong and well-funded military. But on the other hand, the more right-wing libertarian in me reckons that the government should have little to do with education, health and social care, we she keep our taxes and invest in our own private health insurance, and we should fund our kid's education first hand from our own pockets.
Maybe its just Chop or Not's jaundiced view, that only the state can provide teachers and schools and hospitals and if not the state then these things would cease to exist. In real life, rather than closing 40 colleges or sacking 2,000 teachers, they'd just transfer to the private sector. The jobs would still be there, the potential for educating is still there, its just the state have abandoned that as one of their competencies.
Regardless, the state has demonstrated that it is unable to run its finances adequately enough to fund health, education and social care. It could almost be like the government is to the UK, what Greece is to the EU.
**UPDATE**
Just to clarify and ruminate, this one time at my last job in the soup room, I was asked how old I was, thirtyish, and if I had any kids "nope" and why not, at the time I didn't answer, but the answer would be that culturally I'm unwilling to have kids if I can't provide for them, that is I can't afford kids, I'm thousands of pounds in debt, and either on minimum wage or unemployed. To have kids I'd want to be able to pay for them, to pay for their toys and trinkets and to some degree pay for their education, since I can barely afford these things for myself, I refrain from spawning.
Its part of my self-sufficiency thing, like growing my own potatos or not drawing housing benefit.
Although somewhere out there its an enshrined right to have a family, to have kids, this isn't a free right, its a right that the state has to provide for, so I refrain from taking advantage of that right.
A little bit of me thinks that to have kids and expect the state to provide for them is as bad as living an unhealthy lifestyle and expecting the state to keep you alive. My health is, for the most part within my own hands, however the defence of the nation and upholding law and order, that's for the government.
Thursday, 18 March 2010
Leading Lib Dem Voice
Did I do this?
For almost a fortnight I've been banging on about the Political Compass and wondering where the UK's political parties are located within it, and now Lib Dem Voice have launched a new site:
Well, LibDem Voice haven't actually plotted the y-axis, so I'll do it:-
Its not the most gracefull of bell curves, well,not a bell curve at all, you can clearly see the jackbooted authoritarian hordes on the right of the graph and the anarchistic free-thinking mob at the bottom.
Contrast this with this plot of the y-axis of 200 random folk off of the internet bragging about their political compass score as I've previous harvested.
Different shape graph completely. Is that the effect of whips, or parliamentary democracy, dividing folk so cleanly.
I'm gonna have a go at building this from scratch myself.
For almost a fortnight I've been banging on about the Political Compass and wondering where the UK's political parties are located within it, and now Lib Dem Voice have launched a new site:
How Liberal / Authoritarian is your MP?Interesting stuff, I'm wondering if by going through loads of votes on TheyWorkForYou you could actually plot a fuller compass, rather than just the y-axis as LibDem Voice have done.
Liberal Democrat Voice has identified 10 key votes from the 2005-10 Parliament in order to rank all MPs according to how liberal or authoritarian their record is. All MPs are marked out of 100: the higher their score the more authoritarian they are. The lower their score the more liberal is their voting record.
Well, LibDem Voice haven't actually plotted the y-axis, so I'll do it:-
Its not the most gracefull of bell curves, well,not a bell curve at all, you can clearly see the jackbooted authoritarian hordes on the right of the graph and the anarchistic free-thinking mob at the bottom.
Contrast this with this plot of the y-axis of 200 random folk off of the internet bragging about their political compass score as I've previous harvested.
Different shape graph completely. Is that the effect of whips, or parliamentary democracy, dividing folk so cleanly.
I'm gonna have a go at building this from scratch myself.
Thursday, 3 December 2009
What the future holds
I was going to write a blogpost about my disillusionment with the current tranche of UK political parties:-
I'm always interested in Labour supporters, what they have to support, what can they see in their political party that makes them support that party. Not the mainstream, top Labour blogs like LabourList or Tom Harris.
But the more grass rootsish blogs like Camdenish Labour blogger Luciana Berger, I don't know what they see. Where's the charisma? Where's the flag to rally round? What's the point in voting for that party.
Labour have been in power for twelve years, they've governed the UK since 1995. The UK you see before you is one they've sculpted in whatever image they wanted...
But on reading Dick Puddlecote's post, he's far more eloquent and covers many of the same bases I would have if I was better at this blogging thing.
There's nothing that inspires me to vote for any of the established parties, all of them come with baggage I'd rather travel without.
And whilst the Libertarian party under Devil's Kitchen could be a great deal of fun, in the last local elections they got about as many votes as I did when I ran for president. As Charlotte Gore points out, they're a party for internet nerds, not for the working class voter, and bleating about shoving sharpened cockroaches down pissholes and getting piano wire for lamp posts ain't gonna convince a third generation unemployed chap from Denniston who's voted Labour all his life like his pappy did.
Via Constantly FuriousVote Labour, because the Leader of the Conservatives went to an expensive private school;
Vote Conservative, because the Prime Minister is a poor public speaker, and will never answer a question properly;
Vote independent, because even an elderly TV presenter could do a better job;
Vote Lib Dem, because the Conservatives would change a minor tax rule;
Vote BNP, because you don't like Labour any more
Vote UKIP, because the Conservatives won't promise a referendum about a treaty that has already been signed.
Vote Green, because the BNP are racist
I'm always interested in Labour supporters, what they have to support, what can they see in their political party that makes them support that party. Not the mainstream, top Labour blogs like LabourList or Tom Harris.
But the more grass rootsish blogs like Camdenish Labour blogger Luciana Berger, I don't know what they see. Where's the charisma? Where's the flag to rally round? What's the point in voting for that party.
Labour have been in power for twelve years, they've governed the UK since 1995. The UK you see before you is one they've sculpted in whatever image they wanted...
But on reading Dick Puddlecote's post, he's far more eloquent and covers many of the same bases I would have if I was better at this blogging thing.
Why the stalling, and why the continual marginalisation of those who provide the spine of the country, in favour of politically correct cowardice?
The keys to Number 10 are, as should be fairly obvious, tantalisingly in the gift of the working classes of the country, yet both Labour and Conservative are refusing to take up their cause for fear of a backlash from the professionally righteous.
There are three potential outcomes, in my opinion:
1) The Tories could unveil a 'freedom charter' or some such, which will suck up the working vote and deliver a large majority which is unassailable for a generation.
2) Labour could pre-empt that and promise to deliver some relief for the voters they have increasingly demonised. They will escape electoral obsolescence but who can possibly believe they will deliver on such promises after their previous legal battles against their own manifesto pledges?
or 3) They will both continue listening to vested interests and paid lobbyists, thereby sticking two fingers up at the electorate, and the Tories will sneak it (perhaps with a damaging hung parliament) without addressing some deeply held objections to the political process.
If I were a betting man, I'd go for 3) with the Tories reluctant to hand back the freedoms denied by the control freaks we have been subjected to since 1997.
There's nothing that inspires me to vote for any of the established parties, all of them come with baggage I'd rather travel without.
And whilst the Libertarian party under Devil's Kitchen could be a great deal of fun, in the last local elections they got about as many votes as I did when I ran for president. As Charlotte Gore points out, they're a party for internet nerds, not for the working class voter, and bleating about shoving sharpened cockroaches down pissholes and getting piano wire for lamp posts ain't gonna convince a third generation unemployed chap from Denniston who's voted Labour all his life like his pappy did.
Monday, 20 July 2009
wardro.be
I had this great idea for a website, and it'll make millions if it ever works or gets off the ground or anything. But being the sort of person who shoots himself int he foot as a matter of principle, rather than keeping quiet about it, doing a few years of development and beta testing, I'll just write about it here so someone else can do all the work.
My idea is last.fm for clothes!!!
Is that not a work of genius?
Last.fm is this website that tracks what music you listen to, it lists all your favourite artists and tracks, and recommends similar artists and you can look up what other people are listening to and join groups of fans and now you can stream music for free from last.fm and buy tickets and get regular email updates and all the usual social media sorts of things.
My idea for last.fm for clothes (or wardro.be as I'd call it if someone else hadn't alread parked the url) would be the same sort of thing. The first page for newbies would say "What are you wearing today?" and and on the left you click through different options.
And for each full outfit you do, you can tag it, like 'work', 'goth', 'wedding', 'twee', 'incorrectly labelled twee'.
And its all so much fun that once you've done what you're wearing today, you had scurry away to your wardrobe and drawers and the go through and add all the clothes you own. And they it 'll do its database magic and say which celebrities your fashion tastes most closely match, or who you fashion buddies would be in the world.
And the the next day when you visit the site, and enter what you're wearing you can click from your own wardrobe, and it'll suggest what other people wear, or what matches based on some 'pants stealing gnome' algorithm, and if you click through, it'll have a wee stylised picture of what you could be looking like.
See last.fm is only for people who listen to music, but everyone in the office wears clothes. Heck, you don't even have to do yourself, you can map the girl sitting next to you, and then use wardro.be to say "I think some red shoes would really match that outfit you're wearing".
The gimps who run the website will spend hours and hours adding the clothes of whoever's in the gossip mags each week, building up profiles of celebs. Fashionists can check to see what the latest fashions are. My ma can check if I need any socks, and if I do, which ones will most likely fit my tastes. Gok Wan sponsorship to recommend you try different combinations you've never thought of before.
Advertisers can buy ads for specific types of clothes wearing people. Affiliate linky people let users of wardro.be click through to buy the clothes they most need.
Stats enthusiasts could see who owns the most shoes or the most band t-shirts or the complete range of levi jeans. Marks and Sparks could upload their barcode database, so you can just scan instead of click
So on the back end of things, you've got
But it could work, it could be bigger than last.fm.
So if any computery folk read this and think its great and make it happen and end up being millionaires based on my idea, can you buy me an X-Box 360, cheers.
My idea is last.fm for clothes!!!
Is that not a work of genius?
Last.fm is this website that tracks what music you listen to, it lists all your favourite artists and tracks, and recommends similar artists and you can look up what other people are listening to and join groups of fans and now you can stream music for free from last.fm and buy tickets and get regular email updates and all the usual social media sorts of things.
My idea for last.fm for clothes (or wardro.be as I'd call it if someone else hadn't alread parked the url) would be the same sort of thing. The first page for newbies would say "What are you wearing today?" and and on the left you click through different options.
- Hat
- Shirt
- T-shirt
- Plain
- Black
- Marks&Sparks
- 2008
- other
- H&M
- C&A
- other
- White
- Yellow
- other
- Pattern
- other
- Jeans
- Shoes
- other
And for each full outfit you do, you can tag it, like 'work', 'goth', 'wedding', 'twee', 'incorrectly labelled twee'.
And its all so much fun that once you've done what you're wearing today, you had scurry away to your wardrobe and drawers and the go through and add all the clothes you own. And they it 'll do its database magic and say which celebrities your fashion tastes most closely match, or who you fashion buddies would be in the world.
And the the next day when you visit the site, and enter what you're wearing you can click from your own wardrobe, and it'll suggest what other people wear, or what matches based on some 'pants stealing gnome' algorithm, and if you click through, it'll have a wee stylised picture of what you could be looking like.
See last.fm is only for people who listen to music, but everyone in the office wears clothes. Heck, you don't even have to do yourself, you can map the girl sitting next to you, and then use wardro.be to say "I think some red shoes would really match that outfit you're wearing".
The gimps who run the website will spend hours and hours adding the clothes of whoever's in the gossip mags each week, building up profiles of celebs. Fashionists can check to see what the latest fashions are. My ma can check if I need any socks, and if I do, which ones will most likely fit my tastes. Gok Wan sponsorship to recommend you try different combinations you've never thought of before.
Advertisers can buy ads for specific types of clothes wearing people. Affiliate linky people let users of wardro.be click through to buy the clothes they most need.
Stats enthusiasts could see who owns the most shoes or the most band t-shirts or the complete range of levi jeans. Marks and Sparks could upload their barcode database, so you can just scan instead of click
So on the back end of things, you've got
- one table many columned for items of clothing
- one table for who owns which clothes
- one table for who wore what combinations when and what tags they have
But it could work, it could be bigger than last.fm.
So if any computery folk read this and think its great and make it happen and end up being millionaires based on my idea, can you buy me an X-Box 360, cheers.
Wednesday, 10 June 2009
A month passes
Its been around a month since I posted my stolen list of Libertarian Bloggers (ranked by technorati reactions), and, still being unemployed, I have lots of time on my hands, so here it is again, updated with the latest numbers from Technorati, and how the various blogs have increased in popularity or decreased so.
1. Guido Fawke's Blog (6523 reactions link) (-)
2. Samizdata (2743 reactions link) (-)
3. Burning Our Money (1938 reactions link) (up 1)
4. Devils Kitchen (1838 reactions link) (down 1)
5. Daniel Hannan (1686 reactions link) (-)
6. UK Bubble (1211 reactions link) (up 1)
7. The Adam Smith Institute (1203 reactions link) (down 1)
8. Old Holborn (1162 reactions link) (-)
9. Craig Murray (1028 reactions link) (-)
10. Mr Eugenides (977 reactions link) (new entry on this list)
11. PJC Journal (748 reactions link) (up 1)
12. Obnoxio The Clown (732 reactions link) (up 1)
13. An Englishman's Castle (670 reactions link) (down3)
14. Tim Worstall (633 reactions link) (down 3)
15. Mark Wadsworth (595 reactions link) (down 1)
16. UK Libertarian Party (497 reactions link) (-)
17. Capitalists@Work (454 reactions link) (down 2)
18. Ambush Predator (382 reactions link) (-)
19. Bishop Hill (358 reactions link) (down 2)
20. Douglas Carswell (349 reactions link) (up 3)
21. Looking for a voice (316 reactions link) (up 1)
22. Little Man What Now (316 reactions link) (down 1)
23. Heresy Corner (311 reactions link) (new entry on this list)
24. Nanny Knows Best (285 reactions link) (new entry on this list)
25. The Landed Underclass (276 reactions link) (up 1)
26. The Last Ditch (266 reactions link) (down 6)
27. Underdogs Bite Upwards (265 reactions link) (down 2)
28. Libertarian Alliance: Blog (253 reactions link) (down 9)
29. Freeborn John (245 reactions link) (down 5)
30. A Very British Dude (235 reactions link) (down 3)
31. Is there more to life than shoes (220 reactions link) (new entry)
32. IEA blog (214 reactions link) (down 1)
33. Free market fairy tales (212 reactions link) (new entry on this list)
34. Longrider (210 reactions link) (down 6)
35. Brian Micklethwait (170 reactions link) (down 5)
36. The Appalling Strangeness (166 reactions link) (down 4)
37. The Huntsman (156 reactions link) (down 8)
38. Cynical Chatter (156 reactions link) (new entry on this list)
39. Counting Cats in Zanzibar (156 reactions link) (down 6)
40. Henry North London (150 reactions link) (down 5)
41. UK Liberty (132 reactions link) (down 7)
42. CharlesCrawford.biz (127 reactions link) (down 6)
43. Freedom and Whisky (109 reactions link) (down 6)
44. Curious Snippets (108 reactions link) (new entry on this list)
45. The Anglo Saxon Chronicle (100 reactions link) (down 6)
46. Charlotte Gore (94 reactions link) (up 4)
47. Taking Liberties (91 reactions link) (down 7)
48. Dick Puddlecote (82 reactions link) (down 3)
49. Sinclairs Musings (81 reactions link) (down 11)
50. The Welfare State We're In (77 reactions link) (down 8)
51. Liberty Alone (74 reactions link) (down 7)
52. Neuearbeit Macht Frei (69 reactions link) (down 6)
53. Blognor Regis (62 reactions link) (down 10)
54. Womble on Tour (60 reactions link) (down 7)
55. Anti-Citizen One (57 reactions link) (new entry on this list)
56. John Trenchard (55 reactions link) (down 15)
57. From the Barrel of a Gun (48 reactions link) (down 9)
58. Anna Raccoon (46 reactions link) (down 6)
59=. Shades of Grey (42 reactions link) (down 11)
59=. Resistance is Useless (42 reactions link) (down 8)
61. Mark's Any Musings (41 reactions link) (down 5)
62=. ill and ancient (31 reactions link) (down 8)
62=. Their Contempt for you is Total (31 reactions link) (down 9)
62=. Natalie Solent (31 reactions link) (down 11)
65. Oxford Libertarian Society (28 reactions link) (down 11)
66=. Musings on Liberty (22 reactions link) (new entry on this list)
66=. Robs Blog (22 reactions link) (down 11)
68=. CrozierVision (20 reactions link) (down 12)
68=. Transport Blog (20 reactions link) (new entry on this list)
70. Caligula's Palace (19 reactions link) (down 3)
71. Bella Gerens (18 reactions link) (down 7)
71=. Englands Freedom (18 reactions link) (down 10)
71=. RenegadeParent.net (18 reactions link) (new entry on this list)
74=. Big Brother Britain (17 reactions link) (down 14)
74=. Edinburgh Sucks (17 reactions link) (down 11)
74=. Medworth (17 reactions link) (new entry on this list)
74=. Boateng & Demetriou (17 reactions link) (down 5)
78=. Woking Libertarians (14 reactions link) (down 20)
78=. Public Interest (14 reactions link) (down 15)
78=. AngloAustria (14 reactions link) (down 17)
78=. Constantly Furious (14 reactions link) (up 11)
78=. A neo-jacobin (14 reactions link) (new entry on this list)
83. Voyage of Discovery (13 reactions link) (down 17)
84=. No Borders South Wales (12 reactions link) (down 16)
84=. South West Libertarians (12 reactions link) (down 16)
86=. The One that really is most unhappy about this (11 reactions link) (down 19)
86=. Libertarian Party South East (11 reactions link) (down 16)
88. Ferraris for all (10 reactions link) (down 19)
89. Anomaly UK (9 reactions link) (new entry on this list)
90. Picking Losers (8 reactions link) (down 19)
91=. Panem et Circenses (7 reactions link) (down 18)
91=. Scottish Libertarians (7 reactions link) (new entry on this list)
91=. Paul Lockett (7 reactions link) (down 17)
94. Craggy Island (6 reactions link) (down 23)
95=. Everything I say is right (6 reactions link) (new entry on this list)
95=. Katabasis (6 reactions link) (new entry on this list)
97=. Jerub-Baal's Spleen Vent (5 reactions link) (down 22)
97=. The Pub Curmudgeon (5 reactions link) (new entry on this list)
97=. Towards Mutual Benefit (5 reactions link) (down 19)
100=. A Brief Encounter (4 reactions link) (down 26)
100=. A Libertarian's Perspective (4 reactions link) (down 26)
100=. Mara's Una Musings (4 reactions link) (down 22)
100=. Marmelade Sandwich (4 reactions link) (down 22)
100=. RantinRab (4 reactions link) (new entry on this list)
105=. Life, Liberty and Proper Tea (3 reactions link) (down 27)
105=. North West Libertarians (3 reactions link) (down 27)
105=. Nough.point.zero (3 reactions link) (down 27)
105=. The Idle Pen Pusher (3 reactions link) (new entry on this list)
109=. Disobeying the Whip (1 reactions link) (down 24)
109=. Freedom2Choose (1 reactions link) (new entry on this list)
109=. North East Libertarians (1 reactions link) (new entry on this list)
109=. The Liberty Column (1 reactions link) (down 24)
109=. The North Briton (1 reactions link) (down 24)
109=. The progressive show (1 reactions link) (new entry on this list)
109=. This Observer (1 reactions link) (down 20)
116=. Captain: Ranty (0 reactions link) (new entry on this list)
116=. Obsidian's World (0 reactions link) (down 27)
116=. Think This (0 reactions link) (down 27)
Once again, pangs of anxiety about whether I should be doing this at all, we're all supposed to be on the same side, not fighting dogs pitted against each other.
And aw man, there's thirty, maybe more, 'new entries' compared to last month, more like blogs I didn't know about, and so int he great scheme of things most of the blogs of the list have fallen quite a few positions in the ranking, its so despiriting. Charlotte Gore almost doubled her number of technorati reactions and only went up four places. I thought, maybe if I only put in the changes for new entries and for those who've gone up, it would be less despiriting, but nah, I'll put it all in to be controversial and have folk moaning.
Actually, to save you hunting through the whole list, the rising stars are:-
If there are any British(ish) Libertarian blogs I've missed, ones which are regularly updated, let me know and I'll add them if I do it again next month.
Ooh, if you're reading this and you have vaguely libertarian tendencies and you happen to live near London, you might be interested in attending a meetup thing details here.
1. Guido Fawke's Blog (6523 reactions link) (-)
2. Samizdata (2743 reactions link) (-)
3. Burning Our Money (1938 reactions link) (up 1)
4. Devils Kitchen (1838 reactions link) (down 1)
5. Daniel Hannan (1686 reactions link) (-)
6. UK Bubble (1211 reactions link) (up 1)
7. The Adam Smith Institute (1203 reactions link) (down 1)
8. Old Holborn (1162 reactions link) (-)
9. Craig Murray (1028 reactions link) (-)
10. Mr Eugenides (977 reactions link) (new entry on this list)
11. PJC Journal (748 reactions link) (up 1)
12. Obnoxio The Clown (732 reactions link) (up 1)
13. An Englishman's Castle (670 reactions link) (down3)
14. Tim Worstall (633 reactions link) (down 3)
15. Mark Wadsworth (595 reactions link) (down 1)
16. UK Libertarian Party (497 reactions link) (-)
17. Capitalists@Work (454 reactions link) (down 2)
18. Ambush Predator (382 reactions link) (-)
19. Bishop Hill (358 reactions link) (down 2)
20. Douglas Carswell (349 reactions link) (up 3)
21. Looking for a voice (316 reactions link) (up 1)
22. Little Man What Now (316 reactions link) (down 1)
23. Heresy Corner (311 reactions link) (new entry on this list)
24. Nanny Knows Best (285 reactions link) (new entry on this list)
25. The Landed Underclass (276 reactions link) (up 1)
26. The Last Ditch (266 reactions link) (down 6)
27. Underdogs Bite Upwards (265 reactions link) (down 2)
28. Libertarian Alliance: Blog (253 reactions link) (down 9)
29. Freeborn John (245 reactions link) (down 5)
30. A Very British Dude (235 reactions link) (down 3)
31. Is there more to life than shoes (220 reactions link) (new entry)
32. IEA blog (214 reactions link) (down 1)
33. Free market fairy tales (212 reactions link) (new entry on this list)
34. Longrider (210 reactions link) (down 6)
35. Brian Micklethwait (170 reactions link) (down 5)
36. The Appalling Strangeness (166 reactions link) (down 4)
37. The Huntsman (156 reactions link) (down 8)
38. Cynical Chatter (156 reactions link) (new entry on this list)
39. Counting Cats in Zanzibar (156 reactions link) (down 6)
40. Henry North London (150 reactions link) (down 5)
41. UK Liberty (132 reactions link) (down 7)
42. CharlesCrawford.biz (127 reactions link) (down 6)
43. Freedom and Whisky (109 reactions link) (down 6)
44. Curious Snippets (108 reactions link) (new entry on this list)
45. The Anglo Saxon Chronicle (100 reactions link) (down 6)
46. Charlotte Gore (94 reactions link) (up 4)
47. Taking Liberties (91 reactions link) (down 7)
48. Dick Puddlecote (82 reactions link) (down 3)
49. Sinclairs Musings (81 reactions link) (down 11)
50. The Welfare State We're In (77 reactions link) (down 8)
51. Liberty Alone (74 reactions link) (down 7)
52. Neuearbeit Macht Frei (69 reactions link) (down 6)
53. Blognor Regis (62 reactions link) (down 10)
54. Womble on Tour (60 reactions link) (down 7)
55. Anti-Citizen One (57 reactions link) (new entry on this list)
56. John Trenchard (55 reactions link) (down 15)
57. From the Barrel of a Gun (48 reactions link) (down 9)
58. Anna Raccoon (46 reactions link) (down 6)
59=. Shades of Grey (42 reactions link) (down 11)
59=. Resistance is Useless (42 reactions link) (down 8)
61. Mark's Any Musings (41 reactions link) (down 5)
62=. ill and ancient (31 reactions link) (down 8)
62=. Their Contempt for you is Total (31 reactions link) (down 9)
62=. Natalie Solent (31 reactions link) (down 11)
65. Oxford Libertarian Society (28 reactions link) (down 11)
66=. Musings on Liberty (22 reactions link) (new entry on this list)
66=. Robs Blog (22 reactions link) (down 11)
68=. CrozierVision (20 reactions link) (down 12)
68=. Transport Blog (20 reactions link) (new entry on this list)
70. Caligula's Palace (19 reactions link) (down 3)
71. Bella Gerens (18 reactions link) (down 7)
71=. Englands Freedom (18 reactions link) (down 10)
71=. RenegadeParent.net (18 reactions link) (new entry on this list)
74=. Big Brother Britain (17 reactions link) (down 14)
74=. Edinburgh Sucks (17 reactions link) (down 11)
74=. Medworth (17 reactions link) (new entry on this list)
74=. Boateng & Demetriou (17 reactions link) (down 5)
78=. Woking Libertarians (14 reactions link) (down 20)
78=. Public Interest (14 reactions link) (down 15)
78=. AngloAustria (14 reactions link) (down 17)
78=. Constantly Furious (14 reactions link) (up 11)
78=. A neo-jacobin (14 reactions link) (new entry on this list)
83. Voyage of Discovery (13 reactions link) (down 17)
84=. No Borders South Wales (12 reactions link) (down 16)
84=. South West Libertarians (12 reactions link) (down 16)
86=. The One that really is most unhappy about this (11 reactions link) (down 19)
86=. Libertarian Party South East (11 reactions link) (down 16)
88. Ferraris for all (10 reactions link) (down 19)
89. Anomaly UK (9 reactions link) (new entry on this list)
90. Picking Losers (8 reactions link) (down 19)
91=. Panem et Circenses (7 reactions link) (down 18)
91=. Scottish Libertarians (7 reactions link) (new entry on this list)
91=. Paul Lockett (7 reactions link) (down 17)
94. Craggy Island (6 reactions link) (down 23)
95=. Everything I say is right (6 reactions link) (new entry on this list)
95=. Katabasis (6 reactions link) (new entry on this list)
97=. Jerub-Baal's Spleen Vent (5 reactions link) (down 22)
97=. The Pub Curmudgeon (5 reactions link) (new entry on this list)
97=. Towards Mutual Benefit (5 reactions link) (down 19)
100=. A Brief Encounter (4 reactions link) (down 26)
100=. A Libertarian's Perspective (4 reactions link) (down 26)
100=. Mara's Una Musings (4 reactions link) (down 22)
100=. Marmelade Sandwich (4 reactions link) (down 22)
100=. RantinRab (4 reactions link) (new entry on this list)
105=. Life, Liberty and Proper Tea (3 reactions link) (down 27)
105=. North West Libertarians (3 reactions link) (down 27)
105=. Nough.point.zero (3 reactions link) (down 27)
105=. The Idle Pen Pusher (3 reactions link) (new entry on this list)
109=. Disobeying the Whip (1 reactions link) (down 24)
109=. Freedom2Choose (1 reactions link) (new entry on this list)
109=. North East Libertarians (1 reactions link) (new entry on this list)
109=. The Liberty Column (1 reactions link) (down 24)
109=. The North Briton (1 reactions link) (down 24)
109=. The progressive show (1 reactions link) (new entry on this list)
109=. This Observer (1 reactions link) (down 20)
116=. Captain: Ranty (0 reactions link) (new entry on this list)
116=. Obsidian's World (0 reactions link) (down 27)
116=. Think This (0 reactions link) (down 27)
Once again, pangs of anxiety about whether I should be doing this at all, we're all supposed to be on the same side, not fighting dogs pitted against each other.
And aw man, there's thirty, maybe more, 'new entries' compared to last month, more like blogs I didn't know about, and so int he great scheme of things most of the blogs of the list have fallen quite a few positions in the ranking, its so despiriting. Charlotte Gore almost doubled her number of technorati reactions and only went up four places. I thought, maybe if I only put in the changes for new entries and for those who've gone up, it would be less despiriting, but nah, I'll put it all in to be controversial and have folk moaning.
Actually, to save you hunting through the whole list, the rising stars are:-
Constantly Furious (14 reactions link) (up 11)And 'new entries' that weren't on the list a month ago are:-
Charlotte Gore (94 reactions link) (up 4)
Douglas Carswell (349 reactions link) (up 3)
Burning Our Money (1938 reactions link) (up 1)
UK Bubble (1211 reactions link) (up 1)
PJC Journal (748 reactions link) (up 1)
Obnoxio The Clown (732 reactions link) (up 1)
Looking for a voice (316 reactions link) (up 1)
The Landed Underclass (276 reactions link) (up 1)
Mr Eugenides(its the ability to write lists that sets us apart from the animals, thats what I always say)
Heresy Corner
Nanny Knows Best
Is there more to life than shoes
Free market fairy tales
Cynical Chatter
Curious Snippets
Anti-Citizen One
Musings on Liberty
Transport Blog
RenegadeParent.net
Medworth
A neo-jacobin
Anomaly UK
Scottish Libertarians
Everything I say is right
Katabasis
The Pub Curmudgeon
Rab C Nesbitt
The Idle Pen Pusher
Freedom2Choose
North East Libertarians
The progressive show
Captain: Ranty
If there are any British(ish) Libertarian blogs I've missed, ones which are regularly updated, let me know and I'll add them if I do it again next month.
Ooh, if you're reading this and you have vaguely libertarian tendencies and you happen to live near London, you might be interested in attending a meetup thing details here.
Saturday, 30 May 2009
Theoretically possible right wing libertarians
Oh god, I just can't let it lie.
Over on Craig Murray's blog, he's posted about the libertarian bloggerything and the Political Compass (as I previous covered the other day). He says:-
I found a few.
So, it all depends on Craig's definition of 'significant number'. Including dead celebs such as Ayn Rand and Milton Friedman, I can find amongst bloggery there's Guido, Charles Crawford, Devil's Kitchen, Radioactive Liberty, A Libertarian's Perspective, Mark's Any Musings and Carl-Mikael Teglund and from comments on Craig's post there's Algernon, Guy Herbert, John, Julian Gall and from the comments on Dev's coverage of the same thing last year there's Mark Wadsworth, Longrider, Cleanthes, Roger Thornhill, 'Patrick', John Trenchard.
That's nineteen, how many does he need in order to prove their theoretical existence?
Its kind of like a black swan thing I reckon.
Maybe Charles Crawford is right that the political compass is stupid. But I like to take things at face value and run with them until the wheels fall off. How come there are so few famous folk in the lower right quadrant? Is there something in the nature of frothing at the mouth 9,-9 libertarian right wingers than makes them hide away from fame, success and notoriety?
Over on Craig Murray's blog, he's posted about the libertarian bloggerything and the Political Compass (as I previous covered the other day). He says:-
... right wing libertarians, though a theoretical possibility, do not actually exist in any significant number.So off I scamper to my spreadsheet and google, trying to find the right-wing libertarians, as certified by the Political Compass.
I found a few.
So, it all depends on Craig's definition of 'significant number'. Including dead celebs such as Ayn Rand and Milton Friedman, I can find amongst bloggery there's Guido, Charles Crawford, Devil's Kitchen, Radioactive Liberty, A Libertarian's Perspective, Mark's Any Musings and Carl-Mikael Teglund and from comments on Craig's post there's Algernon, Guy Herbert, John, Julian Gall and from the comments on Dev's coverage of the same thing last year there's Mark Wadsworth, Longrider, Cleanthes, Roger Thornhill, 'Patrick', John Trenchard.
That's nineteen, how many does he need in order to prove their theoretical existence?
Its kind of like a black swan thing I reckon.
Maybe Charles Crawford is right that the political compass is stupid. But I like to take things at face value and run with them until the wheels fall off. How come there are so few famous folk in the lower right quadrant? Is there something in the nature of frothing at the mouth 9,-9 libertarian right wingers than makes them hide away from fame, success and notoriety?
Sunday, 24 May 2009
The libertarian menu
Elsewhere on the internet, Charles Crawford is sticking pins into Craig Murray about his post complaining at the right of the libertarian blogosphere.
Its going to take me a while to duplicate Craig's efforts in this area, there's a lot of blogs, 125, and a lot of blog posts. But hey, this is important.
However, I gotta say, it is a bit, prescriptive and arbitary. I always assumed that libertarianism was a broad church and you didn't have to agree with everyone, just as long as they subscribe to the policy of "Get the hell out of my way".
Also, would you really expect economics blogs like UK Housing Bubble and the Adam Smith Institute to post about Jean Charles Menezes? or are they exempt from that criteria?
It could be, to paraphrase Charles Crawford, that Craig Murray is full of shit.
But bless him, if he's a libertarian, then he's my brother, and if I have a barbeque this afternoon, then he's welcome to come round.
**UPDATE**
Okay, this going through blogs is insanely boring, but out of the top twenty libertarian blogs listed sixteen of them did blog about the Jean Charles De Menezes shooting, the 20% who didn't hardly constitute 'a vast majority'. Maybe when I go through the other hundred blogs, no one else'll have written anything, but its not likely.
So, Craig has given us a list of boxes that must be ticked by each blog in order for it to fulfill his criteria to be 'libertarian'The peculiar thing is, that these neo-con "Libertarians" have, by and large, little or no concern for civil liberties. Very few of these "Libertarians" blogged about the shooting of Jean Charles De Menezes, against detention without trial for 42 days, about police violence at the G20 summit. These "Libertarians" do not want to see Guantanamo closed, and are quite happy with extraordinary rendition and the use of torture. Not only will you search the large majority of them in vain for any condemnation of the use of torture in the "War on Terror", but some of them - like Charles Crawford, for instance - have actively blogged in favour of the use of torture.
Libertarians in favour of detention without trial? Libertarians for Guantanamo?
Libertarians for Torture?
Plainly the word "Libertarian" is being misappropriated by these people, and stretched beyond any natural meaning in the English language. Some of the most prominent "libertarians", like Paul Staines, have not only been completely silent on civil liiberties, but have flirted with racism in the past. Staines' site is very often homophobic, and is not the only one on Mickelthwait's list.
Libertarians against gay rights?
Libertarians against Immigration?
- The Jean Charles De Menezes shooting
- 42 days detention
- Police violence at the G20 protests
- Extraordinary rendition
- Torture
- Guantanamo
- Gay Rights
- Immigration
Its going to take me a while to duplicate Craig's efforts in this area, there's a lot of blogs, 125, and a lot of blog posts. But hey, this is important.
However, I gotta say, it is a bit, prescriptive and arbitary. I always assumed that libertarianism was a broad church and you didn't have to agree with everyone, just as long as they subscribe to the policy of "Get the hell out of my way".
Also, would you really expect economics blogs like UK Housing Bubble and the Adam Smith Institute to post about Jean Charles Menezes? or are they exempt from that criteria?
It could be, to paraphrase Charles Crawford, that Craig Murray is full of shit.
But bless him, if he's a libertarian, then he's my brother, and if I have a barbeque this afternoon, then he's welcome to come round.
**UPDATE**
Okay, this going through blogs is insanely boring, but out of the top twenty libertarian blogs listed sixteen of them did blog about the Jean Charles De Menezes shooting, the 20% who didn't hardly constitute 'a vast majority'. Maybe when I go through the other hundred blogs, no one else'll have written anything, but its not likely.
| Name | Jean Charles Menezes shooting | 42 days detention | |
| Guido Fawkes | link | link | |
| Samizdata | link | link | |
| Burning Our Money | link | link | |
| Devils Kitchen | link | link | |
| Daniel Hannan | link | - | |
| UK Housing Bubble | - | - | |
| Adam Smith Institute | - | link | |
| Old Holborn | link | link | |
| Craig Murray | link | link | |
| Mr. Eugenides | link | link | link |
| Obnoxio the Clown | link | link | |
| PJC Journal | link | link | |
| An Englishman's Castle | link | link | |
| Tim Worstall | link | link | |
| Mark Wadsworth | - | link | |
| UK Libertarian Party | link | link | |
| Capitalists @ Work | link | link | |
| Ambush Predator | link | link | |
| Bishop Hill | link | link | |
| Douglas Carswell | - | link |
Monday, 11 May 2009
Rise of LPUK
This is neat, the Libertarian Party UK has its first electiony candidatey thing coming up
There's a wee bit of controversy over the local newspaper in relevant area, the Wisbech Standard, not giving the LPUK candidate much coverage, the LPUK blog covers it here, and the candidate himself, Andrew Peter Hunt, covers it here.
As part of the Cambridge County Council Elections.I am a big fan of LPUK, a supporter in fact. I'm not sure if I can join them right now so I'll just have to vote for them instead, if I have the opportunity.
Wisbech South Division
Andrew Peter Hunt - Libertarian Party
Simon John Edward King - Conservative
Mark David Plumb - Labour
Verity Jade Colbert Roscoe - Liberal Democrat
William Schooling - UK Independence Party
So if you are in the Cambridge area, and would like to offer Andrew your help and support on the ground, I am sure he will be most grateful, his contact details can be found on his blog HERE.
There's a wee bit of controversy over the local newspaper in relevant area, the Wisbech Standard, not giving the LPUK candidate much coverage, the LPUK blog covers it here, and the candidate himself, Andrew Peter Hunt, covers it here.
Thursday, 7 May 2009
Ranking Libertarians
Elsewhere on the internet Brian Micklethwait has done a second version of his list of UK libertarian blogs. Me, without paid employment, my life is empty and meaningless, which gives me plenty of time for spreadsheets and internetting. So, here's the updated list, ranked by number of blog reactions according to technorati:-
Also to note is Charlotte Gore's blog, she changed servers recently, if we were counting her old blog, Reluctantly Lib Dem, with 321 reactions (link), she'd be ranked 22nd, but as she said previously, its the price you pay for moving domains. That said, ten days ago technorati had new new site on 31 reactions and now its 50, so she's catching up quick.
I have a pang. Whilst I love spreadsheets and graphs and rankings and stuff, its in my blood, it gives me warm fuzzy feelings, this list is ripping off and stealing Brian Michlethwait's hard work in compiling the list. Sure, I'm adding quality information, and enriching the original list, and I give Brian credit for first publishing the list, but I still have this pang of guilt, that well, its essentially just link bait.
On the other hand, my wee spreadsheet says he's got 250 blog reactions compared to my lowly 30, so its not like I'm any kind of competition.
Hmm.
1. Guido Fawke's Blog (7257 reactions link)The following sites are no longer updated or may have mysteriously moved to some other server and without anyone.
2. Samizdata (3352 reactions link)
3. Devils Kitchen (2198 reactions link)
4. Burning Our Money (2083 reactions link)
5. Daniel Hannan (1672 reactions link)
6. Adam Smith Institute (1400 reactions link)
7. UK Bubble (1261 reactions link)
8. Old Holborn (1065 reactions)
9. Craig Murray (948 reactions)
10. An Englishman's Castle (877 reactions link)
11. Tim Worstall (794 reactions)
12. PJC Journal (732 reactions link)
13. Obnoxia The Clown (689 reactions)
14. Mark Wadsworth (636 reactions)
15. Capitalists@Work (545 reactions link)
16. UK Libertarian Party (529 reactions)
17. Bishop Hill (386 reactions link)
18. Ambush Predator ( 385 reactions link)
19. Libertarian Alliance: Blog (334 reactions)
20. The Last Ditch (333 reactions)
21. Little Man What Now ( 326 reactions)
22. Looking for a voice ( 320 reactions)
23. Douglas Carswell ( 314 reactions)
24. Freeborn John ( 291 reactions)
25. Underdogs Bite Upwards (280 reactions link)
26. Lander Underclass (269 reactions)
27. A Very British Dude ( 268 reactions link)
28. Longrider ( 264 reactions link)
29. Huntsman ( 257 reactions link)
30. Brian Micklethwait ( 250 reactions link)
31. IEA blog ( 210 reactions link)
32. Appalling Strangeness ( 182 reactions)
33. Counting Cats in Zanzibar ( 168 reactions link)
34. UK Liberty ( 153 reactions link)
35. Henry North London (144 reactions)
36. CharlesCrawford.biz ( 143 reactions link)
37. Freedom and Whisky ( 134 reactions)
38. Sinclairs Musings ( 124 reactions)
39. Anglo Saxon Chronicle ( 109 reactions link)
40. Taking Liberties ( 98 reactions link)
41. John Trenchard ( 94 reactions link)
42. The Welfare State We're In (89 reactions)
43. Blognor Regis ( 80 reactions link)
44. Liberty Alone ( 79 reactions)
45. Dick Puddlecote ( 76 reactions link)
46. Neuearbeit Macht Frei ( 75 reactions link)
47. Womble on Tour ( 63 reactions link)
48=. From the Barrel of a Gun (52 reactions)
48=. Shades of Grey (52 reactions)
50. Charlotte Gore ( 49 reactions link)
51. Resistance is Useless ( 45 reactions link)
52. Anna Raccoon ( 32 reactions link)
53. Their Contempt for you is Total ( 31 reactions link)
54. ill and ancient ( 30 reactions link)
55. Robs Blog ( 29 reactions)
56=. CrozierVision ( 23 reactions)
56=. Mark's Any Musings ( 23 reactions link)
58=. Woking Libertarians ( 19 reactions link)
58=. No Borders South Wales ( 19 reactions link)
60. Big Brother Britain ( 18 reactions link)
61=. AngloAustria (17 reactions link)
61=. Englands Freedom (17 reactions)
63=. Bella Gerens (16 reactions link)
63=. Edinburgh Sucks (16 reactions link)
63=. Public Interest (16 reactions)
66. Voyage of Discovery (15 reactions link)
67. One that really is most unhappy about this (13 reactions link)
68. South West Libertarians (12 reactions link)
69=. Boateng & Demetriou (11 reactions link)
69=. Ferraris for all (11 reactions link)
70. Libertarian Party South East (10 reactions link)
71=. Craggy Island (8 reactions link)
71=. Picking Losers (8 reactions link)
73. Panem et Circenses (7 reactions link)
74. Paul Lockett (6 reactions link)
75. Jerub-Baal's Spleen Vent (5 reactions link)
76=. A Brief Encounter (4 reactions link)
76=. A Libertarian's Perspective (4 reactions link)
78=. Towards Mutual Benefit (3 reactions link)
78=. Life, Liberty and Proper Tea (3 reactions link)
78=. Mara's Una Musings (3 reactions link)
78=. Marmelade Sandwich (3 reactions link)
78=. North West Libertarians (3 reactions link)
78=. Nough.point.zero (3 reactions link)
84. Digger (2 reactions link)
85=. Disobeying the Whip (1 reaction link)
85=. Liberty Column (1 reaction link)
85=. Marsh Harrier (1 reaction link)
85=. North Briton (1 reaction link)
89=. Constantly Furious (0 reactions link)
89=. Think This (0 reactions link)
89=. This Observer (0 reactions link)
89=. Obsidian's World (0 reactions link)
Natalie Solent ( 43 reactions link)Counting Cats in Zanzibar will be disappointed to learn that he's fallen eleven places since ten days ago, not as disappointed as I am with this blog falling twenty-two places. I guess it'll be fun to try and catch back up.
Bag's Rants ( 37 reactions link)
Oxford Libertarian Society (24 reactions)
Michael Jennings (15 reactions)
Caligula's Palace (14 reactions link)
Don't Hold Your Breath (5 reactions link)
Garner blog (3 reactions link)
Sleepwalking Britain (2 reactions link)
Liberal Bob (0 reactions link)
Also to note is Charlotte Gore's blog, she changed servers recently, if we were counting her old blog, Reluctantly Lib Dem, with 321 reactions (link), she'd be ranked 22nd, but as she said previously, its the price you pay for moving domains. That said, ten days ago technorati had new new site on 31 reactions and now its 50, so she's catching up quick.
I have a pang. Whilst I love spreadsheets and graphs and rankings and stuff, its in my blood, it gives me warm fuzzy feelings, this list is ripping off and stealing Brian Michlethwait's hard work in compiling the list. Sure, I'm adding quality information, and enriching the original list, and I give Brian credit for first publishing the list, but I still have this pang of guilt, that well, its essentially just link bait.
On the other hand, my wee spreadsheet says he's got 250 blog reactions compared to my lowly 30, so its not like I'm any kind of competition.
Hmm.
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