Category Archives: Current Affairs

Detained without trial: Bad and Wrong

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I was encouraged by the Law Lords ruling today which came down decisively on the side of the foreign terror suspects detained without the prospect of a trial. This quote from Lord Hoffman (paragraph 97, p.53 of the ruling – see below for link) pretty much sums up my feelings on the subject: this kind of draconian measure is tantamount to giving up all that we value about our society, essentially conceding victory to the terrorists. If we can’t defeat them without dangerously compromising our values, what are we fighting to protect?

In my opinion, such a power in any form is not compatible with our constitution. The real threat to the life of the nation, in the sense of a people living in accordance with its traditional laws and political values, comes not from terrorism but from laws such as these. That is the true measure of what terrorism may achieve. It is for Parliament to decide whether to give the terrorists such a victory.

The full text of the ruling is available in PDF format (383kb) from the BBC website.

Blunkett’s gone

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I’ll drink to that, although I don’t really think the recent fuss in itself warrented a resignation – his disregard for our civil liberties is another matter, however. Let’s hope his ill-conceived ID card scheme follows him out of the door. Unfortunately, I don’t hold out too much hope of that, but you never know. (BBC)

Government + IT = Farce

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The BBC headline says it all: “Benefits computer failure chaos”. Do we trust these people to manage the proposed National Identity Register (PDF)? I mean, this isn’t the first time there’s been a complete and utter collapse of a government IT project – in the last week or so the Child Support Agency has also been in the news for similar reasons, and that’s just one example of many. Even if you’re not concerned about the civil liberties implications of the register and card, there are serious questions to ask about the competence of the government to run a scheme like this.

Update: I’ve just read that the catastrophe happened due to a screw-up during a trial upgrade of some of their computers from Windows 2000 to XP. Oh, the joys of Microsoft.

No software patents!

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The proposed European software patent legislation could have some pretty serious effects, not least on the ability of smaller players to compete with software giants like Microsoft. Today three European open source luminaries – Linus Torvalds, Michael Widenius and Rasmus Lerdorf – lent their support to the anti-patents campaign. Let’s hope this helps, and that this short-sighted and foolish legislation is kept out of our legal system. (Via Simon Willison.)

Martian methane

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That methane has been detected in the Martian atmosphere seems to be irrefutable. The next puzzle is to determine its source: although Terrestrial methane is produced primarily by living organisms, it appears that the quantities detected on Mars could have come from other processes.

I’m always happy to see potential evidence for extra-terrestrial life (especially intelligent life), however unlikely it may be. I’ve got a deep-seated hope that we’re not alone in the universe and I suppose that I’m always on the lookout for something to confirm this. Unfortunately, I’ve yet to find anything that doesn’t fall foul of either Occam’s Razor or my built-in bullshit detector. The jury’s still out on this one.

If we do find life on Mars, the next question will be whether or not it’s a long lost cousin, or an unrelated family. Mars and Earth have exchanged matter in the past, so it’s not beyond the bounds of possibility that someone small once hitched a ride. The discovery of ambiguous structures inside a meteorite from Mars some years back fuelled speculation that micro-organisms may have made the crossing, but the evidence was controversial.

Without wanting to reduce the importance of discovering (comparatively) close relatives elsewhere in the solar system, I’d hope that any life discovered on Mars proved to have evolved independently. Although we’d not be greeting our alien peers, this would imply that life is fairly common and would provide support for the more optimistic values assigned to variables in the Drake equation (ne and fl in particular), which in turn would make the Fermi Paradox more mysterious. And I’m a fan of mysteries as well as aliens, so that’s no bad thing in itself.

Indymedia server seizures: it still stinks

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Just a quick follow up on this post: the Register reports on the legal process in the US to find out who actually seized the servers and why. Some fairly complicated legalese essentially boils down to this:

In the specific circumstances of Indymedia, a process that was started in Texas resulted in the removal of servers in London, knocking out numerous Indymedia web sites. According to the US, Inydmedia has no standing to complain about this or to seek redress, or to find out what it was supposed to have been doing, or who said it was doing it. The UK Government insists the whole matter is nothing to do with it, while the US Government says the matter is closed, flashing the T-word to be on the safe side.

Pretty sick.

However, legal wrangles in the US and their hideous implications aside, what really gets to me is the fact that the equipment was seized in the UK by a foreign power on dubious legal grounds and our government doesn’t seem to want to know. It seems that the rest of the world can’t even voice their views over the US election without being told to shut up and mind their own business, but if the FBI wants to waltz over here and help itself to anything it likes they’re welcome and there’s nothing anyone can do or say about it.

NO2ID Petition

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NO2ID, an umbrella organisation campaigning against the government’s proposed ID card and National Identity Register scheme, are running an online petition which I encourage you to sign. The closing date is the 19th November, so don’t delay!

Even if you are not sure about signing this petition, please at least visit the NO2ID website and read through some of the arguments against the scheme to find out a bit more about the proposals. ID cards are more than just a threat to our civil liberties: there are serious questions as to whether the scheme will bring any benefits at all and the sheer cost in terms of both cash and inconvenience is staggering.