Oxford Bloggers » Government

Chancellor Orders Urgent Fiscal Review

Dungeekin — Mon, 17 May 2010 11:27:00 +0000

Chancellor George Osborne ponders the profit margins in selling David Laws to medical science.Chancellor George Osborne has ordered an immediate financial review, ahead of the new Coalition Government's first emergency Budget on 22 June.In a memorandum...

Sigh. The anarchy ends and a new government is formed

Annie (Lady M) x — Wed, 12 May 2010 19:10:00 +0000

Huzzar! At long last, and after much secret-squirrel negotiation, British citizens now have a government. Yep, last night it was announced that Conservative David 'shiney-face' Cameron is our new Prime Minister, after he managed to forge a coalition go...

The Facebook question: is privacy dead?

Marcus Povey — Mon, 10 May 2010 08:22:09 +0000

The other day I took the decision to delete my Facebook account. There has been a lot about Facebook and privacy in the tech press over the past few weeks – making live chats public, the ABC bug, criminalising violations of their terms of service, etc. Facebook has a clear habit of leaking data, and [...]

Digital Economy (#debill) passes, UK ceases to have one

Marcus Povey — Thu, 08 Apr 2010 10:10:03 +0000

Otto von Bismarck once said: “Laws are like sausages. It’s better not to see them being made.” To my mind, few things could have illustrated this clearer than yesterday’s vote on the Digital Economy bill, where – as the vote was finally called – the room quickly filled with MPs who had completely missed out [...]

The Digital Economy Bill is very bad for musicians. Don’t let it through.

Ben Walker — Sun, 04 Apr 2010 09:14:15 +0000

That’s the subject line of an email I just sent to my MP (Andrew Smith, Labour, East Oxford) urging him not to allow the bill to be rushed through Parliament on Tuesday, when the election is likely to be announced. The Digital Economy Bill gives government the power to cut off internet connections (from homes, [...]

2011 Census

Marcus Povey — Mon, 29 Mar 2010 08:32:39 +0000

On the 27th of March next year all UK households will be compelled by law to fill in a Census. I admit that I get more worked up about this sort of thing more than most people. The arrogant presumption that we are somehow state property, the compulsion to complete it & the sheer impertinence of the [...]

250 words that should not be used by the public sector when providing information to the public

Richard Holden — Thu, 18 Mar 2010 08:43:51 +0000

Produced by the Local Government Association, the list for 2010 [pdf] includes the new additions: Trialogue Wellderly Goldfish bowl facilitated conversation Tonality Webinar Under-capacitated Clienting Disbenefits It’s good to see webinar put in its rightful place. I’d find it hard to even venture a guess about what half the words on the list are actually [...]

#debill passed back to the commons

Marcus Povey — Tue, 16 Mar 2010 15:14:08 +0000

So, it would seem that despite firm opposition by the Liberal democrats the utter abortion that is the Digital Economy bill has made it through the house of lords and has been passed back to the commons. It is the government’s hope that MPs will not exercise their right to debate this bill further, and [...]

Copyright and the Digital Economy

Marcus Povey — Thu, 04 Mar 2010 16:30:26 +0000

Yesterday there was a little bit of excitement in the digital rights world caused by an amendment to the Digital Economy bill proposed by a Tory and Liberal peer. The justification of the amendment does make some good points – particularly about bringing any action under the control of the courts rather than just requiring [...]

Grandparents ‘a Threat to Children’

Dungeekin — Mon, 15 Feb 2010 10:26:00 +0000

An evil middle-class grandparent.

Grandparents are to face new licensing, checking and contact procedures as part of new regulations on child protection, it has been announced today.

The news follows reports that children who regularly spent time with their grandparents were three times more likely to be overweight, and describes grandparents as 'a dangerous influence' on the growth and development of regulation children'.

Under the new rules, grandparents who wish to spend time with their grandchildren will be required to complete a three-week course in Government-Approved In-Loco-Parenting, submit to an extended CRB check and will only be allowed to associate with the offspring of their offspring in specially-sanctioned areas under CCTV and Social Services supervision.

Minister for Fucking Up Families Ed Balls said, "our evidence shows that middle-class children who spend significant time with grandparents have a 15% chance of being overweight for their age, sometimes by as much as 200g. Indications are that this is caused by their habit of occasionally allowing children to have sweets. This is tantamount to child abuse.

"All children should grow up according to Government guidelines, Government height and weight statistics, Government-recommended diets and Government education. Any deviance from this is not down to genetics, but due to the fact that parents and grandparents cannot be trusted to breed to Government standards. This must be stopped."

The Minister pointed out that current legislation and Government education policies had largely ruled out the influence of biological parents on the raising of children. However, he added that the 'pernicious influence' of caring grandparents was a 'threat to Government child-raising that could not be ignored'.

Mr Balls pointed out that the new rules on grand-parenting would only be temporary, and would be withdrawn once the concept of parenting was completely revoked with the introduction of Hatcheries and Conditioning Centres.

Aldous Huxley was unavailable for comment.