Lack of a Post « Myself, Coding, Ranting, and Madness

Lack of a Post

28 Mar 2012 8:00 Tags: None

Silence has somewhat fallen over the blog due to the combination of the end of term, running out of buffer and — contrary to what first thoughts might tell you — far too much of interest going on. So, today, we have a brief overview of what's been happening politically in (roughly) chronological order:

11th March — Bill of Rights commissioner Dr Michael Pinto-Duschinsky resigns for not entirely clear reasons. The Bill of Rights is tangentially related to the reclamation of power from Europe, specifically related to the interpretation of the Human Rights Act, the European Convention on Human Rights, and (naturally) the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. The interplay between all of these is interesting, especially given that the latter is barely a legally binding document.

13th March — Richard O'Dywer's extradition is approved by the home office1. He has since made an appeal to the High Court appealing2. Whilst in America, David Cameron raises the extradition treaty during talks with Barack Obama3.

14th March — US ISPs have agreed to become actively involved in IP protection from the beginning of July4. It was always coming...

16th March — Iran is removed from SWIFT's databases5, effectively taking out a large chunk of its ability to trade, and be traded with, in foreign countries as part of sanctions over the nuclear programs. Not sure if it'll actually work and causes a businessmen uprising, but it's still a rather impressive feat.

17th March — Sheer stupidity6.

19th March — First Commencement Order on the Welfare Reform Act7 (I still haven't read the act...)

21th March — Budget day. Very few surprises this year, to the point that there were even murmurings about the number of rumours flying around being rather too high and them all being a little too accurate. I've had some problems with the way things have been phrased in the media (the idea that they were “axing the 50p tax rate”, whilst technically accurate, doesn't put one in the mind of it being replaced with a 45p tax rate).

23rd March — Announcement of minimum price per unit of alcohol.

23rd March — Facebook moves to block employers asking for your facebook password8. I must say, I wasn't really aware this was a problem until I found out facebook were moving against it. US Senators appear to be backing the move9, but my instincts are telling me to keep an eye on how this ends up being worded in law.

23rd March (still...) — Details begin to emerge of the welfare database10, with some...worried reactions11.

27th March — US Supreme court start 3 day hearing over the Obama Healthcare Law12, including a day set aside to determine if they even have the right to rule on the issue; if the compulsory purchase of insurance with a fine as the alternative would be considered as a tax then, as it is not yet collected, the court could not rule on its constitutionality. Reminds me, a little, of a money bill.

I don't know what I'll end up writing about (unless someone jumps in with a suggestion); hopefully, they'll be some programming (LaTeX, at the very least) posts around too!

Myself, Coding, Ranting, and Madness

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