Alan Turing - A real British hero that we should all honour

One of the most annoying things about being British is the fact that our government, indeed virtually every government, never lives up to the high reputation that the people themselves deserve. The persecution of people who serve this country, the continued slap in the face our servicemen receive, the lack of gratitude to people who put their lives on the line is never ending. When you read stories of VC holders having to sell their medals to make ends meet, war heroes having the payments challenged by the government or the story of Alan Turing, you have to wonder what they do it for.

I found THIS article from the Independent which highlights how Alan Turing, the man who broke the enigma code, a man who should be lauded as the person with the greatest single contribution to saving Britain in WW2 was persecuted by the UK government because he was gay, and eventually killed himself as a result. The Pink News reports also on the petition that has been signed by nearly 5000 people already.

It is a shameful blot on the history of this country that a man who did so much to preserve the freedoms we love was treated so badly. So I would support any move to pardon him and feel a more permanent reminder of his contribution to British freedoms should be recognised.

Tories can't stop ID cards - Says Labour Minister

It is quite astonishing to read and hear the arrogance of a failing labour government and it's ministers who are insisting on a "full steam ahead" programme of trying to force people to accept ID cards before Labour lose power.

It appears Labour's latest ruse is to indoctrinate teenagers in to using them and taking them before they know better.

The most worry aspect of this issue is that Labour minister Meg Hillier claims that ID cards would be so integrated in to government policy by 2010 that any future government would be unable to unpick them from the system.

As the BBC reports

"But Ms Hillier said the Tories would find it difficult to "devalidate" the cards that had already been issued and scrap the database that was also being used for passports. "

Obviously Ms Hillier is unaware that any Tory government, no doubt with the full support of all other parties who oppose ID cards, could simply pass a law stating that ID cards would no longer be issues and they would no longer be valid.

Sadly, this smacks again of Labour caring little for civil liberties, the law and democracy.

When the Tories had a chance to prove they were changing ... they bottled it

How utterly disappointing the Tories have shown themselves to be in the last 24 hours. Whilst not entirely unpredictable, the Tories have made the astonishing decision to back Gordon Brown and the government's wish to prevent courts from challenging government decisions to stop criminal investigations.

The courts on Thursday were clear in their condemnation of the government's decision to abandon the Serious Fraud Office investigation in to bribes and corruption involving the Saudi government and BAE. Yet despite this, the Tories appear to be backing those who believe that bribery and corruption are legitimate parts of a democratic system of government.

In their ruling, the judges said: "We fear for the reputation of the administration of justice if it can be perverted by a threat ... No one, whether within this country or outside, is entitled to interfere with the course of our justice. The rule of law is nothing if it fails to constrain overweening power."

The key words there are "No one, whether within this country or outside, is entitled to interfere with the course of our justice". Surely this statement is one we should all want to stand by, except that is, if you are a Labour minister or a Conservative MP.

Shame on the Tories. Despite their claims to stand up for civil liberties, when actually called upon to make a stand 0n an important issue they instead choose to vote for secrecy and allow people to get away with corruption.

The rule of law should be paramount in this country. It will be interesting to see what some Tories bloggers have to say about the appalling way the Tories have backed the government on this issue.

Update - To be fair to Tony Sharp, he has a good go at trying to justify the Tory position HERE although I think Tony's own arguments are clearer than the Conservative Party's. Where I disagree is that it appears that in a week where we are urging people to stand up to a dictator in Zimbabwe, we will kow tow to the Saudis who themselves are not elected. It is hardly consistent.

Also, fair play to Iain Dale who is also unhappy with the "national interest" arguments employed by the government.

I wish they made a mosquito alarm for bad parents

The current debate about the use of shops and shopping centres using the mosquito, a high pitched sound only audible to most under 25 year olds seems to be getting some civil libertarians hot under the collar.

Personally I think it is entirely reasonable to expect that groups of youths should not be stood togather intimidating people in shopping centres. When I was a teenager I didn't feel the need to do it, and I didn't use the excuse of a lack of things to do as an excuse to commit random acts of violence and vandalism around where I lived. Why is that ? Because I was brought up well. My parents cared about where I had been and I know they would have taken very seriously any "pratting around".

Now if they could come up with a device that could be set off to urt the ears of bad parents, then that would be something worth investing in.

Take for example the table sat near us in Frankiie and Benny's in Norwich last night. A table with two sets of parents and two pairs of kids was sat near to us. The kids, aged around 8 to 13 years of age, were acting up, showing off, shouting, and generally lacking in respect for other tables. What did the parents do ? They split their table off and moved it about a foot further away from thir kids so they could have a little more quiet. Not once did they say anything to their kids by way of getting them to act responsibly. Only when the children started spitting fizzy drinks at each other through straws did a rather lame "now cut that out" eminate from one of the parents.

Any decent parent would have let their kids know in no uncertain terms that there behaviour was out of order right from the start and would have done something about it, not moved away and ignored it.

So whilst civil liberties groups might object to the mosquito, whilst we have useless parents around who teach their kids no responsibilities to go with their rights, we will need to continue to have the options available to disperse kids.

I'm sure many people would remember a few decades ago we used to ahve something that would disperse kids easily. The threat of your parents knowing what you were up to or a policeman who would "cuff" you round the ear. In many ways the mosquito is just taking their place.

In which league table is Britain level with Russia, China, The USA, Thailand, Malaysia and Singapore ?

Unfortunately the league table mentioned in the title is not one that shows economic growth, not life expectancy or even per capita income. No, the sad state of affairs is that the league table that puts Britain level, at the bottom, with those states mentioned in the title of this posting, is the one that list endemic surveillance societies.

It comes to something that we are listed alongside Russia, China and the US, which has the abysmal affront to civil liberties called "The Patriot Act".
Mr Eugenidies, from whom I found this story write about it really well HERE.