Slashdot Mirror

..."thing" in any government position?

Claire Votes on things

She is part of what is slowly becoming wrong with the UK.

FYI: The Digital Economy Bill (third reading) at The Public Whip

David Davis =/= The Conservative Party
 
He voted against the Digital Economy Bill, which was nice of him, and rebelled over some of the anti-terrorism bills too. However, he also voted against equalising the age of consent for homosexual and heterosexual acts, and doesn't have a great record on gay rights. His complete voting record is available. (Warning, page is slow and huge.)

However it may have been removed, today freedom dies a little more.

Also to stress - this was passed by a minority of MPs in haste during a time when people are not likely to notice due to dissolution of parliament. The process is very clever as they get together and decide how many it takes to get it passed, they then tell those in precarious constituencies to not show up so as not to be on record as voting either way.

Brought to you by the same individuals who voted for a less transparent government.
http://www.publicwhip.org.uk/policy.php?id=996&display=motions

His work as an MP http://www.davidlammy.co.uk/da/15560 and his works as a Minister of State http://www.publicwhip.org.uk/mp.php?mpn=David_Lammy&mpc=Tottenham & http://www.theyworkforyou.com/search/?s=David+Lammy&p=4 - indeed a busy man.

There is a similar thing for UK parliament here. Seems they've opened up the source too.

I have always been fascinated by automated data analysis techniques applied to politics, are your results available anywhere?

BTW there are some interesting studies on the web, for instance:

http://www.politicalcompass.org/usprimaries2008

http://www.publicwhip.org.uk/ is very interesting (and open source based) but unfortunately is uk only...

If you are interested in the topic, take a look here http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parliamentary_informatics (notice the absence of any U.S. initiative)

like the sites

http://www.publicwhip.org.uk/
http://www.theyworkforyou.com/
http://www.politicalfriendster.com/

are good sites for any freedom fighter today :)

e.g.
http://www.publicwhip.org.uk/

is better, some examples both for UK.

http://www.theyworkforyou.com/
http://www.publicwhip.org.uk/

Speaking of what MPs are voting for, have a look at the voting record for this bill on wednesday:

Identity Cards Bill - 29th March 2006 at 14:30

Labout MPs all voted aye (with the exception of 9 rebels), and the Conservatives and Lib Dems *all* voted no.

The result was still 305 for to 251 against. How on earth is such a representation meant to be democratic? The vast majority of the population do NOT want ID cards!

http://www.publicwhip.org.uk/mp.php?mpid=1418&dmp= 230&display=motions
And there's Dr Jones's voting history. I would fax her myself, but I'm never one to preach to the converted.

The Tories may have avoided the issue in their manifesto, but Michael Howard is personally in favour of ID cards and tried to introduce them in 1995, while Ann Widdecombe voted for them in 2005.

Unfortunately the government absolutely loves CCTV. They are continually rolling out new CCTV projects all over the country - The management of which is controlled by councils not the government IT quagmire. A system that improves the effectiveness of CCTV is likely to be lapped up by the British government

In Manchester, they've spent millions to blanket the city in CCTV cameras over the last few years with next to zero reduction in crime as a result. The police have started using mobile video units to supplant the existing system. Other councils are doing the same, and some are already trialling facial recognition software.

David Blunkett's current plans show no signs of backing away from a surveillance society, and with the government easily passing so-called 'anti-terror' legislation, I can't see CCTV with the cherry of recognition being a problem for them.

The Register covers this in more detail, stating that parliamentary questions have been tabled asking "what recent discussions [The Home Secretary] has had with US law enforcement agencies concerning the seizure of material from UK-based internet hosting providers; and if he will make a statement."

I'd expect we'll see his evasion^h^h^h^h^h^h^hanswer appearing on the excellent theyworkforyou.com

This page gives a graphical indication of where MP's stand based on their voting record in the current parliament.
Blunkett is a long way out from the vast majority of the Labour party.