Pragmatist

Thanks to George Orwell 's Nineteen Eighty Four , and the film adaptation , most of us over 20 have grown up with the threat of an omnis...

At last we have a new government and a Coalition Agreement , and a new cabinet . Are they listening ? So far, so good. Here's a summary ...

Having limped in first over the electoral finishing line, and needing support to govern, the Tories have been understandably meek in setting...

In many ways the UK general election has not gone the way anyone wanted. Sure, we have a hung Parliament , 149 MPs from the last scandal-...

Australia is to phase out lawful retailing of cigarettes from 2015, starting with a ban on corporate logos on packaging in 2012. "The...

Gordon Brown's exchanges with a woman from Rochdale today are emblematic of both the decline in faith in our institutions and the root...

Many people would like to have rolled out the tumbrils for the UK Parliament in the past year, but a 'hung' Parliament is of course ...

The despicably secretive, double-dealing frenzy of the UK Parliamentary 'wash-up' is an especially disgraceful and cretinous proces...

The UK election battle is raging. From the plains of Helmand Province to the door of Number 10, where Gordo clings to power like a crazed gi...

I wonder whose problem(s) would be solved by the public sector ' green investment bank ' being touted by both the Tories and Labour....

Funny that Gordon Brown has chosen the last possible minute before his last ditch General Election to announce that  UK banks will finally a...

The Guardian reports on the latest response to the Australian government's efforts to control the internet .

I've literally just finished Gillian Tett's Fool's Gold , an insightful, frank and highly readable account of the credit crunch,...

The United Nations Safe Internet Committee (UNSIC) announced on Thursday that its web filters would no longer accept any Australian conten...

I should start my take on the " Digital Britain report " by making one thing clear: the fact that the government has issued the re...

They've been desperately downing the Kool Aid in Downing Street, those who are left. No more polite chat while queuing for the tea urn ...

Some prescient remarks, made in the context of political donations, which apply more directly to the cash-for-amendments scandal but also s...

I've just seen some patronising rubbish in the Spectator about concern over MP's expenses being overkill and somehow bad for the Br...

It's been a mad week, with my spare time absorbed by an article on the behavioural targeting of internet advertising and responding to...

Last night I attended the lecture by Professor Jonathan Zittrain on " The Future of the Internet: Private Sheriffs in Cyberspace ...