We’ve been pretty horrified by the UNICEF report on child well-being. Despite our relative affluence, it seems this is the worst country in the developed world to be a child in. Partly this is down to the large rich-poor gap – 16% of UK children are living in relative poverty Read more…
The Royal Society (founded 1660, ‘the oldest learned society still in existence’) have just launched a blog. Maybe this could give some impetus to our newer institutions such as local authorities. It also made me think about what other science blogs are out there. Now there are plenty of ‘fun Read more…
We received a cautionary tale this morning about what not to put into emails: "My wife recently had her email address blocked by the school where her sister teaches because she put three kisses at the end of a message, the filter obviously understood this to be relating to adult Read more…
One of the nice things about travelling by train is the opportunity to meet new people. Last year I ended up sitting next to an old house mate from 10 years previously who now has a couple of pubs in Bath. Last week I sat down opposite a fellow called Read more…
According to the Guardian at Davos: Gordon Brown said today that the days of the "smoke-filled room" were over and that politicians had to involve the public in decision-making in order to win the arguments for free trade, globalisation and the fight against terrorism. I think some of the lower Read more…
The UK and Ireland e-Democracy exchange mailing list has recently reached a membership milestone of 100 members. The group consists of many if not most of the more vocal members of the e-Democracy community in these parts. It was originally set-up by Steven Clift and is currently hosted by Tom Read more…
David Miliband tells in his blog how India: "now plans devolution beyond the 29 states to local government, where he explained that some 3 million people are elected councillors, over one million of them women (more elected women than the rest of the world put together)" Fabulous statistics. I wonder Read more…
Richard Pope has released a Beta version of a site I’ve wanted to produce for a while. www.planningalerts.com uses planning application data published by local councils to alert people to planning application within a specified radius of their home (or other postcode they specify). The radius can be checked on Read more…
Cllr Martin Mullaney from Moseley and Kings Heath Ward, Birmingham has a thing with taggers. He has recently made a film about the tagging on a sports pavilion in his ward and posted it to YouTube. Amazingly it has had over 2000 views and over 200 comments mostly from taggers Read more…
…which almost never last past January. Instead I’ve got a new job, working full time for Gallomanor, which means changing nearly everything in my life, so who needs resolutions to create change? I’ve been freelancing for Gallomanor off and on for three years. My main job during that time has Read more…