Author Archives: James Graham

Welcome to the thirteenth edition of Lib Dig Pig, being a roundup of non-Lib Dem oriented gems on the internet, as voted by Lib Dem members using Lib Dig (if you aren’t one, and are a Lib Dem member, sign up here: http://libdig.co.uk).

You can now get twitter updates of stories which appear on libdig – simply “follow libdig” to sign up.

This week has a very clear theme – and I don’t mean Tony Hart:

1. ID cards database breached by nosey council staff (Computer Weekly). Submitted by me: ‘”They haven’t even fully launched it yet, but our worst fears are being confirmed (see the NO2ID Take Jane page.)”

2. Publication of ID cards reviews would jeopardise support for the scheme, claims government (Computer Weekly). Submitted by me: “IGNORANCE IS STRENGTH! FREEDOM IS SLAVERY!”

3. Morph ‘flashmob’ at Tate gallery (BBC News). Submitted by me again: “Does using the internet to come together to make plasticine models give you cancer?”

4. To politicians, we’re little more than meaningless blobs on a monitor. Bring on the summer of rage (Guardian). Submitted by Alix Mortimer: “Yay! @charltonbrooker, welcome to our world.”

5. Bagehot’s notebook: Shami’s frog and Tory splits (The Economist). Submitted by Martin Tod: “Bagehot’s review of the Convention on Modern Liberty: ‘My main conclusion, however, was this: the Conservatives are heading for a big and not-too-distant bust-up over this whole agenda'”

6. ‘Obscene’ Gravity must be repealed, says Harman (Daily Mash). Submitted by Will Howells: “Ordinary families are dreading September and the prospect of millions of ripe, juicy apples bouncing off their hard-working skulls.”

VIDEO OF THE WEEK

No popular video this week, so I’m going to bombard you with more civil libertarian propaganda:

Welcome to the twelfth edition of Lib Dig Pig, being a roundup of non-Lib Dem oriented gems on the internet, as voted by Lib Dem members using Lib Dig (if you aren’t one, and are a Lib Dem member, sign up here: http://libdig.co.uk).

You can now get twitter updates of stories which appear on libdig – simply “follow libdig” to sign up.

We had an encouraging increase in both digs and diggers this week – honestly, it almost makes me compiling this list each week worthwhile. Not much of a pattern this week, so without further ado:

1. Brian Gould: I disown this government (Comment is Free). Submitted by Nigel Ashton: “‘I have watched Labour compromise its principles, embrace greed and take the UK into war and recession. Torture is the last straw’, says former Labour leadership contender Bryan Gould.”

2. Straw hit by internet fraudsters (BBC News). Submitted by Will Howells: “Hahahahahahahahahaha. Ahem.”

3. An Immodest Proposal (The Life and Opinions of Andrew Rilstone). Submitted by Liz Williams: “Andrew Rilstone skewers the hypocrisy of tabloid-style morality.”

4. Racism 101 for White Cartoonists (In Contempt):  Submitted by Liz Williams: “How not to draw a racist cartoon (and how to recognise one when you see it).”

5. Watchdog probing Tory donations (Yahoo! News). Submitted by Andy Williams: “The official elections watchdog has launched an inquiry into donations to the Tory Party made by the company of wealthy party backer Lord Ashcroft, it was disclosed.”

6. Frank Field: Tear it up. Labour’s New Deal isn’t working (Times Online). Submitted by David Heigham: “That title from a Labour MP says it all.”

7. Ken Macdonald: Give us laws that the City will respect and fear (Times Online). Submitted by Iain: “Ex-DPP talks sense on crime.”

8. David Brooks: The Big Test (New York Times). Submitted by David Heigham: “Maybe the Obama regime is like a competent version of New Labour – but still thinking that imagimative central government can do everything.”

Top Video

No popular video this week, but this one entertained me:

Welcome to the eleventh edition of Lib Dig Pig, being a roundup of non-Lib Dem oriented gems on the internet, as voted by Lib Dem members using Lib Dig (if you aren’t one, and are a Lib Dem member, sign up here: http://libdig.co.uk).

You can now get twitter updates of stories which appear on libdig – simply “follow libdig” (http://twitter.com/libdig) to sign up.

This week, predictions of a dark future: a police state run by Noel Edmonds and Labour Spin Doctors in which everyone is forced to morris dance five times a day. Or something.

1. The sorry state of Labour on the internet (jackthurston.com). Submitted by Mark Pack: “Excellent post from a former Labour insider, even if he overall doesn’t rate the potential of the internet as highly as I would. (Oh, and he has one or two things to say about Derek Draper.)”

2. Sleepwalking towards a police state (Obsolete). Submitted by Helen Duffett: “Surveillance does not equal security (but does make for a proper freaky bus stop poster).”

3. Charlie Brooker on Noel’s HQ (Screen Burn). Submitted by Alex Foster: “Noel Edmonds as dictator. A scary thought.”

4. Ex-spy chief Dame Stella Rimington says ministers have turned UK into police state (Times Online). Submitted by me: “If anyone else used language as strong as this they would be denounced for being too alarmist.”

Video Of The Week

Morris: A Life With Bells On is an ultra-low budget film with no distribution deal.  The producers have taken the unusual step of promoting the film online in an attempt to spread word of mouth.  It worked for Mark Pack (although I’ve always had my suspicions about Dr Pack’s pig-bladder tendencies): “Morris dancing meets the internet in a bonanza of all that is very best of British. Or something like that.”

Welcome to the tenth edition of Lib Dig Pig, being a roundup of non-Lib Dem oriented gems on the internet, as voted by Lib Dem members using Lib Dig (if you aren’t one, and are a Lib Dem member, sign up here: http://libdig.co.uk).

You can now get twitter updates of stories which appear on libdig – simply “follow libdig” (http://twitter.com/libdig) to sign up.

1. Henry Porter: The horror of the ID card system (Comment is Free). Submitted by me: “Welcome to your future: a world were bureaucrats screw up your data and then you have to sort it out.”

2. Er, “help”. Legal Chill from LBC 97.3 and “Global Radio” over Jeni Barnett’s MMR scaremongering (Bad Science). Submitted by Mark Pack: “LBC vs Ben Goldacre. This one is likely to run.”

3. George Monbiot: Just what exactly do you stand for, Hazel Blears – except election? (Comment is Free). Submitted by me: “He’s mad as hell and not taking it any more!”

4. Barack Obama is tired of your motherfucking shit (April Winchell). Submitted by Will Howells: “The child in me is so, so happy.”

Top Video

Welcome to the ninth edition of Lib Dig Pig, being a roundup of non-Lib Dem oriented gems on the internet, as voted by Lib Dem members using Lib Dig (if you aren’t one, and are a Lib Dem member, sign up here: http://libdig.co.uk).

It’s a pretty random list this week:

1. Charlie Brooker to focus on news in BBC4 Screenwipe spin-off (Media Guardian), submitted by Stephan Tall: “’Guardian columnist Charlie Brooker is to take a satirical look at the news media in a spin-off from his BBC4 show Screenwipe.’ Yay 🙂 If you missed the 2007 Screenwipe news episode, you can glimpse its brilliance here: http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=5RRmE0_n0K4”

2. Brian Coleman’s interests – the wordle’s out (vickim57), submitted by Alex Foster: “Fat cattery via Wordle ”

3. Manchester ‘could pilot ID cards’ (BBC News), submitted by Nigel Ashton: “Manchester could be one of the testing grounds for the government’s ID cards scheme, Home Secretary Jacqui Smith has said during a visit to the city.”

4. Confidence In Blog Postings Over Time (SlideShare), submitted by Iain: “It’s like there’s someone in the room with me. ”

5. Chart Porn: Create Your Own Original Star Trek Story (io9.com), submitted by me: “40 years too late sadly.”

Top Videos

We didn’t have a video this week. So as an alternative, I thought I’d pick out a random vlog. This one has a certain inspired genius, don’t you think?

Welcome to the eigth edition of Lib Dig Pig, being a roundup of non-Lib Dem oriented gems on the internet, as voted by Lib Dem members using Lib Dig (if you aren’t one, and are a Lib Dem member, sign up here: http://libdig.co.uk).

I thought I’d try a slight change of format this week: less snark, more links. Also, to encourage you to explore Lib Dig more, I’m including the name of the person who submitted each item along with a link so you can see what other things they’ve been “digging.”

So without further ado, the top links this week are:

1. Revealed: Labour lords change laws for cash (Times Online). Submitted by me: “We’ve won (at least for now) transparency for MPs’ expenses – it’s time we had greater transparency in lobbying!”

2. The Coroners and Justice Bill – destroying data protection (Program Your Own Mind). Submitted by Helen Duffett: “Lee Griffin opens up the Trojan Horse that is the Coroners and Justice Bill.”

3. Why is the Labour Party spamming bloggers? (Bloggerheads). Submitted by Alix Mortimer: “Tim Ireland gets spammed by a government breaking its own data protection rules (Chicken Yoghurt is on the list too).”

4. Libby Purves: Try this for comedy: prison policy run by clowns (Times Online). Submitted by Alex Foster: “An all too brief look at Labour lunacy on prisons.”

5. Twitter meetup spawns global charity event (TechCrunch). Submitted by Alix Mortimer: “One for Twitter fans.”

6. How I Made a 1,474-Megapixel Photo During President Obama’s Inaugural Address (David Bergman – All Access). Submitted by Will Howells: “Hyouge panoramic photo.”

Top Videos

What would happen if a 50km asteroid crashed into Earth, submitted by Alex Foster: “Don’t bother campaigning, the end of the world is nigh.”

Hearty apologies to James Graham who faithfully submitted his copy for Lib Dig Pig well in advance of his deadline despite his hellish week.  Unfortunately an editor who shall remain nameless didn’t press the right button and it languished in LDV’s “Unpublished drafts” folder until much of the content had been superseded by current affairs.

Welcome to the seventh edition of Lib Dig Pig, being a roundup of non-Lib Dem oriented gems on the internet, as voted by Lib Dem members using Lib Dig (if you aren’t one, and are a Lib Dem member, sign up here: http://libdig.co.uk).

This is going to be a spectacularly brief Lib Dig Pig as I am hellishly busy. Thankfully, you’ve made my life easy by, erm, digging my day job. Yes indeed, this week’s edition is: all about me.

Well, actually it isn’t. What it is really about is what an execrable Government we have right now and the urgent need to do something about it. It is with that in mind that your joint story of the week is the Guardian’s revelation that Harriet Harman had sneaked out the Freedom of Information (Parliament) Order last Thursday while everyone was fuming about the Government’s decision to build the Third Heathrow Runway (including John McDonnell, but we won’t link to his story as his mace-swinging antics didn’t get enough digs).

David Hencke – already a bit of a hero of mine – deserves full credit for breaking the story. If he hadn’t we might still be playing catch up. As it happens, a number of organisations were able to launch campaigns against this move over the weekend, including Unlock Democracy – which you also dug this week.

If only the great MP’s expenses cover up was the only example of EPIC FAIL in British politics. The other big story you dug this week is Henry Porter’s call to arms for civil libertarians everywhere to participate in the Convention on Modern Liberty.

Related to that, you dug the Independent’s coverage of the same issue and event and, ahem, the launch of the Carnival of Modern Liberty on Liberal Conspiracy.

Sadly, the FAIL even extends to the European Parliament, as your video of the week demonstrates:

Welcome to the sixth edition of Lib Dig Pig, being a roundup of non-Lib Dem oriented gems on the internet, as voted by Lib Dem members using Lib Dig (if you aren’t yet a Lib Digger and are a Lib Dem member, sign up here: http://libdig.co.uk).

This week’s Lib Dig Pig is brought to you by the theme of technology-gone-bad: a bad thing in Labour’s hands (except when they are taking the mickey out of the Tories) and something the Daily Mail doesn’t seem to approve of very much.

Welcome to the fifth edition of Lib Dig Pig, being a roundup of non-Lib Dem oriented gems on the internet, as voted by Lib Dem members using Lib Dig (if you aren’t one, and are a Lib Dem member, sign up here: http://libdig.co.uk).

I didn’t write this column for the Christmas period, so have three weeks to catch up on.

This week’s Lib Dig Pig is brought to you by the theme of identity. Governments, banks and companies are rather careless when it comes to protecting your identity, politicians seem to be rather confused about their own and Mac users seem to think their’s is something they can buy in the shops for £500. Without further ado, here are this week’s slices of fried gold…

Welcome to the fourth edition of Lib Dig Pig, being a roundup of non-Lib Dem oriented gems on the internet, as voted by Lib Dem members using Lib Dig (if you aren’t one, and are a Lib Dem member, sign up here: http://libdig.co.uk).

The rules for inclusion here are simple: they must have been “dug” for the first time in the last seven days and they can’t be Lib Dem-related or come from a Lib Dem blog. The top rated article of each category will be listed here, along with three runners up. For the purposes of this column, my votes will be discounted. Finally, I may bend or break any of these rules as I see fit (this is absolutely terrible and I am dreadfully sorry about it).

Themes for this week’s Lib Dig Pig: internet censorship, oil (lack thereof) and why the Queen hates liberals.

Welcome to the third edition of Lib Dig Pig, being a roundup of non-Lib Dem oriented gems on the internet, as voted by Lib Dem members using Lib Dig (if you aren’t one, and are a Lib Dem member, sign up here: http://libdig.co.uk).

The rules for inclusion here are simple: they must have been “dug” for the first time in the last seven days and they can’t be Lib Dem-related or come from a Lib Dem blog. The top rated article of each category will be listed, along with three runners up, will be listed here. And finally, for the purposes of this column, my votes will be discounted. Finally, I may bend or break any of these rules as I see fit (this is absolutely terrible and I am dreadfully sorry about it).

This week’s Lib Dig Pig is brought to you by Karen Matthews, Twitter, Jacqui Smith, Peter Cook and John Barrowman (well, part of John Barrowman anyway).

Welcome to the second edition of Lib Dig Pig, being a roundup of non-Lib Dem oriented gems on the internet, as voted by Lib Dem members using Lib Dig (if you aren’t one, and are a Lib Dem member, sign up here: http://libdig.co.uk).

The rules for inclusion here are simple: they must have been “dug” for the first time in the last seven days and they can’t be Lib Dem-related or come from a Lib Dem blog. The top rated article of each category will be listed, along with three runners up, will be listed here. And finally, for the purposes of this column, my votes will be discounted. Finally, I may bend or break any of these rules as I see fit (this is absolutely terrible and I am dreadfully sorry about it).

What trends do we see this week? Well, it is clear that most Lib Dig users are a godless bunch of science geeks who enjoy drinking themselves into oblivion. So they are pretty representative of the wider party then. This is what you voted for this week:

Having shouted the loudest over the summer for someone (not me, you understand) to set up something like Lib Dig, it is inevitable that Lib Dem Voice would ask me to write a round up of the weekly digs. So here is my first attempt.

For those who don’t know, Lib Dig is a “social bookmarking” tool which allows Lib Dem members to share with other members (and the world) items on the internet that they feel deserve to get wider exposure.

Each week I will highlight the best of the non-Lib Dem related interwebs out there, as voted by LibDig users (if you aren’t one, and are a Lib Dem member, sign up here: http://libdig.co.uk). The rules for inclusion here are simple: they must have been “dug” for the first time in the last seven days and they can’t be Lib Dem-related or come from a Lib Dem blog. The top rated article of each category will be listed, along with three runners up, will be listed here. And finally, for the purposes of this column, my votes will be discounted (you can see my personal LibDig feed by going here: http://libdig.co.uk/users/4/james.graham/1.html).

Without further ado, here are this week’s top digs: