Tag Archives: internet

Sir Nick Clegg lecture: “The end of global internet”

By Paul Walter | Fri 28th May 2021 - 10:40 am

The Shirley Williams Lectures are now getting well into their stride. On Wednesday evening we had the honour of welcoming Nick Clegg direct from Atherton, California USA.

It was the day of Facebook’s AGM, so a busy one for Nick.

I was very impressed by Nick’s lecture, which was delivered flawlessly from notes.

After paying a very warm and heartfelt tribute to Baroness Williams, Nick outlined how he regards 1989 as the key year in his life. The Berlin Wall fell and Tim Berners-Lee invented the Worldwide Web.

Posted in Events | Also tagged featured, nick clegg, shirley williams lectures and tim berners lee | 22 Comments

The physical network behind surveillance – an extraordinary video about Cornish internet apparatus

By Paul Walter | Mon 9th January 2017 - 9:53 am

The path to the beach at Porthcurno - geograph.org.uk - 1298346

The path to the beach at Porthcurno, Cornwall. The diamond-shaped sign indicates the presence of underground cables, of which there are many buried under the beach, this place being the landfall of many cables under the Atlantic Ocean. The small building houses the terminals of these cables.
Here on Liberal Democrat Voice, we often debate the subject of government surveillance. But do we ever consider the actual physical network of cables and buildings which underpin that surveillance?

Videographer Mark Thomas has published an extraordinary video on You Tube which shows cables, manhole covers, buildings and the like, to give a detailed picture of how the network, which presumably facilitates surveillance of data, works on the ground.

Posted in Op-eds | Also tagged cornwall, edward snowden, gchq and internet surveillance | 7 Comments

Opinion: The final frontier of the electorate

By Guy Russo | Wed 28th May 2014 - 6:30 pm

At the core of the problems we’ve faced over the last few days is the daunting realisation that something has to change. But in the ensuing skirmish over what to change, it has become apparent that it is not the leadership. The #libdems4change movement has not provided a political coup in the party. But it has provided a mental one, a revolution of hearts and minds. Not towards a new way of thinking, but towards a new vigour in pursuing our cause. In many ways, it had to happen.

I …

Posted in Op-eds | Also tagged political campaigning | 12 Comments

The Independent View: Positively fighting back online

By Jonathan Russell | Mon 26th May 2014 - 11:07 am

With the seemingly endless news of global and domestic extremism – whether about the 250 girls kidnapped in Nigeria, the 500 Britons reportedly waging jihad in Syria, or the worrying allegations made against several Birmingham schools – it is rare that a report devoted to countering extremism should fill us with positivity. However, research released last week by Quilliam about the state of online extremism should encourage us all, not …

Posted in Op-eds and The Independent View | Also tagged censorship, civil liberties, extremism and quilliam foundation | 3 Comments

Jenny Willott MP writes…Cracking down on copycat websites

By Jenny Willott | Wed 23rd April 2014 - 11:53 am

The internet has made life a lot easier in many ways for many people – I can hardly imagine a time when I wasn’t able to make online bank transfers, get a grocery shop delivered or book a holiday online. However, as we all spend more time online and use the internet to do increasing numbers of things, new problems and challenges arise which we have to address.

People deserve the same protection online as they get offline, and we need to make sure that we have the ability and resources to ensure this is the case.

Posted in News and Op-eds | Also tagged consumer protection and consumer rights | 1 Comment

Opinion: Cameron’s false porn panacea

By Paul Thompson | Wed 24th July 2013 - 8:52 am

From suggesting that the Blackberry messenger service be shut down during the 2011 riots, to proposing that the food standards agency can monitor your home internet usage It’s clear that Cameron, or those around him, have a limited appreciation of how the internet works.

Yesterday Cameron announced another clanger – default internet filtering for every household in the country, so unless you tell you ISP otherwise, pornographic content would be blocked – or at least some porn, as Cameron was today forced embarrassingly admit that the Sun’s Page 3 topless models wouldn’t be blocked.

So isn’t it a good idea to …

Posted in Op-eds | Also tagged ceop, david cameron and pornography | 15 Comments

Opinion: Cameron’s porn ban – what does it mean?

By Iain Roberts | Mon 22nd July 2013 - 3:55 pm

David Cameron is out to make the world a safer place by tackling what he sees as the problems caused by pornography. We don’t really know the details of the policy yet, but with Cameron doing the rounds on TV and radio today we’ve got a reasonable idea of what he’s got in mind.

Block pornography by default
Web filtering software is very common – most schools and businesses have it installed. It does a passable job of blocking access to undesirable sites whilst allowing others. Inevitably, some sites that you don’t want to block get caught up, but by and large the filters work OK.

Cameron’s concern is that they aren’t being extensively used by parents of younger children, and the suspicion (probably rightly) is that in many cases it’s because parents aren’t tech savvy enough to know they exist or how to implement them.

So this main headline item – that ISPs all implement filtering software for all customers, and that it be turned on by default (with someone in the household having to make a positive decision to turn it off) – is a “nudge” policy.

Posted in Op-eds | Also tagged david cameron, featured and internet pornography | 45 Comments

Can you believe in free speech and moderate comments?

By Paul Walter | Mon 12th November 2012 - 9:53 am

The Telegraph’s assistant comment editor, Tom Chivers, has written a thought-provoking article about moderating comments on web sites. In it he tackles the apparent mismatch between a website advocating free speech while disallowing some comments under its articles:

It’s a funny thing. You write a piece saying that the state shouldn’t outlaw rudeness and insults, and about one

Posted in Online politics | 8 Comments

It’s “Let’s Make Nice Month”: experimental change to LDV’s comments policy

By Stephen Tall | Mon 18th January 2010 - 7:45 am

The Internet is a fantastic place. It can also be an angry place. Lib Dem Voice has a high quality of passionate-but-reasoned debate in our comment threads, with many of our 30,000+ readers contributing their thoughts and enjoying LDV’s role as “Our place to talk”.

However … it’s not unknown for debate on LDV to get heated, for commenters sometimes to get personal with the authors of articles, or with each other. The editorial collective has generally adopted a laissez faire moderating policy: save a handful of exceptional circumstances, comments are left untouched.

Partly this policy has been driven of …

Posted in Op-eds and Site news | Also tagged blogging and featured | 48 Comments

First-Past-The-Post: the ‘safe seats’ system that breeds lazy, corrupt MPs

By Stephen Tall | Thu 14th January 2010 - 10:20 am

Calls for the First-Past-The-Post voting system to be abolished in the UK were given a real kick-start last year after it became clear – thanks to the work of Lib Dem blogger Mark Thompson – that it was MPs with large majorities who were more likely to be implicated in cheating the expenses system.

It’s obvious if you think about it: if you were given life tenure in a safe seat where the Labour/Tory majorities are weighed not counted, how concerned would you be with the irksome business of being transparent and accountable? To put it bluntly – as …

Posted in Op-eds | Also tagged electoral reform, hansard society, Mark Pack, mark thompson, nick clegg and proportional representation | 21 Comments

“Soc-Nets and Web Strategies Can’t Replace Door-to-Door”

By Mark Pack | Fri 28th August 2009 - 10:20 am

An interesting piece from the American Campaigns & Elections site which acts as a salutary reminder that, for all the impressiveness of Obama and his use of the internet, there’s rather more to campaigning:

Two recently released surveys on how Americans perceive brands and make decisions gives us geeky political junkies an idea of how different campaign tactics work to win votes. The first survey, released by Harris Interactive last week, indicates that while adults “use a mixture of traditional media and new media, including those that would constitute ‘push’ (advertising and websites) and ‘pull’ (information from neutral, informal communication),” Americans are persuaded (and informed) most by face-to-face communication.

Posted in LDVUSA and Online politics | Also tagged barack obama | 1 Comment

Opinion: We Must Fight Against the End of Our Internet

By Huw Dawson | Fri 24th April 2009 - 4:34 pm

Our Internet is a place that we, as individuals, have built for ourselves. It is a place where anybody can, with a little bit of money, build their own house and hang whatever curtains they like. It is a place where knowledge, art and music (rightly or wrongly) can be freely shared across the globe, and where we can connect with people of all shapes and sizes and of all walks of life.

I am only a youth, but I know Australians, Americans, Canadians, French, Dutch, Swedes, Finns, and many more nationalities besides. Think back to when you were young …

Posted in Op-eds | Also tagged european parliament | 9 Comments

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Tag Archives: internet

Sir Nick Clegg lecture: “The end of global internet”

The physical network behind surveillance – an extraordinary video about Cornish internet apparatus

Opinion: The final frontier of the electorate

The Independent View: Positively fighting back online

Jenny Willott MP writes…Cracking down on copycat websites

Opinion: Cameron’s false porn panacea

Opinion: Cameron’s porn ban – what does it mean?

Can you believe in free speech and moderate comments?

It’s “Let’s Make Nice Month”: experimental change to LDV’s comments policy

First-Past-The-Post: the ‘safe seats’ system that breeds lazy, corrupt MPs

“Soc-Nets and Web Strategies Can’t Replace Door-to-Door”

Opinion: We Must Fight Against the End of Our Internet

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The Lib Dem General Election review is out..

ALDC’s by-election report 9 January 2025

Defending British sovereignty: A response to far-right Influence

Lib Dem Peer Jenny Randerson dies at 76

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