Politics & Community
Brighton going Green?
Feb 5th
I’m quite excited about this General Election thing. For one thing, struggling to overcome my very British apathy and cynicism, I’m beginning to find politics vaguely interesting. And I find myself in one of the most interesting constituencies for the coming election. A Conservative stronghold from its creation in 1950 until 1997, the Brighton Pavilion seat was gained by Labour in 1997. With the current MP due to retire, many people consider the frontrunner to be Caroline Lucas MEP, the leader of the Green Party. And, for the first time ever for a UK parliamentary seat, the shortlist is going to be all female, with the four major parties all fielding female candidates. Here’s a video about the situation from the Guardian’s Comment is free pages:
Free speech
Nov 12th
Photo by lewishamdreamer
As a Bible-believing Christian, I am deeply committed to freedom of expression and to tolerance (for example, of those with whom I deeply disagree).
I’m talking about the freedom to believe something, and the freedom to express those beliefs – of course, with the proviso that those beliefs are not expressed with the intention to threaten, to cause abuse or to incite violence or any other criminal activity.
But it seems I am in a minority. Certainly I would be, in the House of Commons. The House of Lords previously secured the place of a “free speech” clause in the legislation for the recently-introduced homophobic hatred offence (an amendment tabled by Lord Waddington). This has been vigourously opposed by the Government, who are now trying to remove this clause. Here is the wording the Government finds so objectionable:
In this Part, for the avoidance of doubt, the discussion or criticism of sexual conduct or practices or the urging of persons to refrain from or modify such conduct or practices shall not be taken of itself to be threatening or intended to stir up hatred.
From the government’s determined efforts to remove these words from the statute books, one may conclude that the Government would like it to be the case that if I merely express the belief that certain sexual conduct is wrong, then that may, of itself, be taken to be a “hate crime”.
Just think for a moment about what this means. Does no one believe in freedom of speech any more? Sure, my beliefs may be utterly repugnant, but should it be illegal for me to discuss them with anyone? Seriously?
Thank God for our unelected representatives in the House of Lords, who at least seem to believe in democracy and freedom of expression. But if the government has its way, we’re certainly going to see more cases like this and this.
What do you think? Is freedom of speech worth fighting for? Or are there some beliefs that are so obnoxious that it should be illegal to express them, under any circumstances?
Freecycle Brighton recycled?
Sep 12th
I’ve been using Freecycle Brighton for a few years now. Since I blogged about it in 2006, I’ve successfully used it to get rid of an upright piano, a table or two, a printer, an old drum kit, around 100 chairs, a fridge, a sofa and a few bookcases, as well as obtaining and subsequently getting rid of a bed or two. No idea how I managed to accumulate that much stuff.
Anyway, it seems that Freecycle has not been free from power-hungry leadership, and now the UK groups and moderators seem to be escaping from the heavy-handed control of the Freecycle overlord(s) in the USA.
Or that’s the impression I get from the report in the Guardian, particularly the comments section. More on the Freecycling blog and on the Brighton Freecycle Cafe group…
FreecycleBrighton has worked spectacularly well, but it seems to have suffered a possibly serious blow. The Yahoo! group has been closed down by the moderators, and group members were directed to GreenCycleSussex as the new group. At the last count, this has 494 members. But of the 16,000(?) former FreecycleBrighton members, those 3000 or so who signed up through the “official” Freecycle page are still there, freecycling away, quite possibly unaware of all the rumblings that have taken place. And other groups are springing up, such as freebrighton.
Similar action is being taken by many UK Freecycle groups, reconvening under the name Freegle.
All a bit of a mess really. I’m minded to go with the Green Cycle Sussex group for now, out of principle. But if that doesn’t work out, then I might (very reluctantly) succumb to the official group, this time out of a different principle.
Update 21 Sep 2009: the Freecycle Brighton group page (also available as www.freebrighton.org) now states explicitly that it is “no longer affiliated with the US freecycle network”.
Update 8 Oct 2009: following legal pressure from “The Freecycle Network (TM)”, the Freecycle Brighton Yahoo! group has now been renamed FreeBrighton.
How to vote ethically
Aug 26th
I know nothing about politics. Okay, I know what I think about a few controversial moral issues, but the rest – the other 99% or so – is a complete mystery to me.
But I’m glad I’m not alone, as Joseph Bloggs demonstrates in this promotional video for the Jubilee Centre’s new book, Votewise Now!
Advice to an archbishop
Feb 9th
So in a lecture Rowan Williams, admittedly in a display of “political ineptitude”, makes some carefully reasoned and apparently reasonable (if obfuscatory) suggestions about how a single, unitary legal system (same laws for every citizen) might accommodate a diversity of religious and cultural practices on “certain carefully selected matters”. Then what happens?
For a thoughtful analysis we can turn to David Field. Inane reactions are less difficult to find: “Arch enemy: bash the bishop … in a damning You The Jury poll [b]y last night, 14,683 had called for his dismissal. Just 631 said he should stay”, “barrage of criticism”, “fatuous remarks”.
And we turn up our noses when some Muslims react violently to an academic lecture by the Pope.
So my advice to Dr Williams, if he is reading, is this: keep it simple. If you can’t make your point in half a dozen monosyllabic words, just don’t say anything. Don’t expect us to make an effort really to understand you. We won’t. And be warned: if you get it wrong, we might form a mob and stone you (albeit with sponges).
I am a research fellow in 
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