American texting while driving ban a good idea

I'm in favour of anything that will reduce the risk of drivers losing concentration, and so I support the national ban on texting promoted by American senators Chuck Schumer,Robert Menendez,Mary Landrieu and Kay Hagan.

CNN Wire reports that the proposed legislation would prohibit any driver from sending text or e-mail messages while driving a vehicle, which I am surprised isn't already part of American law.

I would also hope this would apply to cyclists. I don't know how people cycle in the United States (with difficulty, perhaps, given how congested many American cities are with cars), but in London they often zip past Liverpool Street Station.

The Virginia Tech Transportation Institute discovered that lorry drivers who texted while driving were 23 times more likely to crash or almost crash than undistracted drivers.

This seems slightly obvious to me, but may be worth highlighting for anyone who still believes it is okay to text while you drive.

ICCE should not be regarded as similar to A-levels

While I respect religous teaching, I find it alarming that the International Certificate of Christian Education (ICCE) is regarded as comparable to A-Levels, given some of its teaching.

I wonder how many students who have studied the ICCE would be able to go on to study science at university, for example, given that the course claims that the Loch Ness Monster helps disprove evolution, according to the Times Education Supplement.

The Guardian also reports on this story, highlighting the exam's positive portrayel of apartheid in South Africa, claiming that segregated schools "made it possible for each group to maintain and pass on their culture and heritage to their children".

I am not a fan of the idea that pupils can learn about subjects differently to other children because of the religious views of their parents. I believe that private schools should be required to adhere more closely to the content of GCSE's and A-Levels.

There is of course the fact that this can make teaching rather rigid, but the answer to this is to scale down the amount of content that might actually examined and let teachers devote more time to educating children on other areas of the subject, not for religious schools (of any religion) to use religious curriculum and religious exams.

Evolution is still the most widely accepted method of how humans and animals came into being, and deserves to be learnt by all children. By all means, teach children about what creationists believe and encourage a debate, but don't tell them that those who believe in evolution are "anti-biblical". After all, even secular schools have Religious Education.

I believe that people come to religion when the time is right. It should not be drummed into them at school when they are still learning about the world. Indeed, this may make them hate religion in later life. Faith cannot be taught in the classroom, it is what is inside people.

Homophobic comments in schools blamed for rise in calls to Childline about sexuality

Pinknews.co.uk reports that six per cent of calls to Childline in 2007/8 were regarding their sexuality, three times the amount in 2002/3.

Concerns included what friends and family would think.

An NSPCC spokesman told PinkNews.co.uk: "Unfortunately, many children and young people use the word 'gay' as an insult. This makes it extremely difficult for a boy to be confident about his own sexuality, and it is therefore not surprising that sexuality is the sixth-largest reason for boys calling ChildLine."

Let's hope that Ed Balls' recent comments will be followed by action.

If you need someone to talk to and are a child or teenager, call 0800 1111 or visit the Childline website.

Happily, morons who need celebrity magazines to tell them what to think may come one step closer to accepting homosexuality after celebrity and Harry Potter star Daniel Radcliffe explained how he hated homophobes.

It seems that the sub-editor on The Celebrity Cafe cannot tell the difference between Harry Potter and Daniel Radcliffe.

I also find this comment by journalist Lindsey Weedston: "Before you jump to any conclusions, Daniel Radcliffe is straight and is currently dating Laura O’Toole" rather disturbing. It is almost like she is reassuring readers that Daniel Radcliffe is not gay.

Dbtechno.com and Radar Online.com also want to make it clear that Daniel Radcliffe is not gay, in case any of the airheads who read their celebrity news think that he is gay just because he hates anti-gay views.

Andrew Gilligan on council newspapers in the London Evening Standard: fantastic article

Must-read article in the London Evening Standard from Andrew Gilligan on council newspapers, which he describes as contributing to the death of local papers.

Gilligan highlights their free delivery and subsidised advertising rates, enabling them to survive at a time when local papers are cutting back staff.

He also focuses on the bias towards the ruling group on the council and their activities, giving the East End Life from Tower Hamlets, Greenwich Time for Greenwich and H&F News for Hammersmith and Fulham as examples: "In H&F News, it is the Labour Party that does not exist and the Tory councillors who get all the quotes...In H&F News, crime is nearly always falling, even when it isn't."

The article reports an outrageous comment by Tower Hamlets' head of commercial operations, Chris Payne,regarding the council removing East London Advertiser display boards at a Sheffield forum.

Chris Payne claimed that local papers "churn out a negative diet of crime and grime, often attacking their local council and generally creating a negative impression" while council papers "help create a positive place-shaping agenda, talking up an area and its residents' achievements, celebrating diversity and opportunity for all".

East End Life, when public sector advertisments are included, cost taxpayers £1.1 million in 2008. The paper's reporters, unlike those from the East London Advertiser, were allowed to cover the most recent borough elections.

Roy Greenslade is a fan of the Andrew Gilligan article, saying "This is why independent publishers and editors call council papers the Pravda press."

Greenslade wrote about H&F news last week, contrasting the difference between their coverage of a West Kensington development with the Fulham & Hammersmith Chronicle's.

Personally I agree with Andrew Gilligan and Roy Greenslade that these council papers are a waste of taxpayers' money, a danger to objective journalism and a way for the councils to make themselves look good.

More needs to be done to oppose this use of taxpayers' money.

Perhaps a demonstration outside your local council offices where people push copies of the council paper through their letterbox, while the media film.

I'd welcome suggestions on how to get a campaign going.

In the meantime, I'll keep putting the Waltham Forest News in the recycling box unopened, and I'll keep reading the Waltham Forest Guardian.

Over 600 antisemitic incidents in first six months of 2009

According to the Jewish Community Security Trust, which monitors antisemitism, there were 609 incidents,77 of which were assualts, between January and June 2009.

The BBC reports that the incidents included hate mail to synagogues and an attempt to run someone over.

Harry's Place links to the pdf of the report on antisemitic incidents, which is well worth a read.

The post also contains photographs of antisemitic protestors during various rallies.

People are entitled to have whatever views they want on Israel's actions, including its foreign policy, but this can never be a justification for antisemitism.

There is a huge difference between the government of Israel and Israeli citizens, just as with other countries around the globe.

On a slightly lighter note, as someone who has seen a lot of Monty Python, I find it amusing that the red banner saying "Murderer Israel will be made to pay" is from the People's Front In Britain.

They don't seem to have a website and the only other mention of them I can find is on the excellent my london diary website, where Peter Marshall documents various protests and events in London.

Gang warfare in Walthamstow?

A couple of hours ago I met one of my friends at Walthamstow Bus Station. As we walked north on Hoe Street we saw a gang of around thirty youths chasing after ten boys running towards the bus station, the former screaming at the latter to come and fight.

Walking up Howard Road, we saw a huddle of fifteen youths, with two more standing on the corner informing the rest what was going on. I was not sure which of the two groups of youths they belonged to.

Later, we took the 257 back to the bus station as it was raining, and saw a police riot van on the pavement near the HSBC with six youths being questioned by ten yellow-jacketed police officers.

Not sure if these boys were from one of the notorious postcode gangs, or whether this was a simple argument that developed into a fight and caused some youths to call for reinforcements.

I saw an ambulance with blue lights flashing speeding away from the area, so there must have been some injuries.

Most wanted email service highlighting local criminals?

The most recent edition of Waltham Forest council's tedious newspaper Waltham Forest News actually had some news value on the front page, with details sought for four thugs from the area.

You can also view this article, entitled "Get them off our streets", as a PDF via this link, but I am wondering if local councils, working with borough commanders and Safer Neighbourhoods officers, could offer "Most Wanted" emails where the public are sent weekly newsletters highlighing cases and people that the police want more information on, a kind of localised Crimewatch.

This would be of more interest than a council newsletter which mostly ends up in the black recycling box for collection (or in some cases on the streets of Walthamstow, judging by the rain-sodden pages in the gutters of Hoe Street).

Local newspapers can also play a valuable role in this.

Mine is the Waltham Forest Guardian, published by the Newsquest Media Group.

Global Day Of Action for Human Rights in Iran on Saturday July 25

Around the world tommorow, tens of thousands of people will be taking part in rallies supporting the people of Iran and opposing the rule of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

You can find details of the nearest demonstration at United for Iran.

In London, a rally will take place from 1pm to 4pm outside the Iranian embassy in 16 Prince's Gate, London SW7 1PT (near Hyde Park). The nearest tube station is Knightsbridge on the Piccadilly Line.

Youtube message from Archbishop Desmond Tutu:



Iranian opposition leader Mir Hossein Mousavi has stated he has plans to form a new political front with a legal political framework for the protest movement.

Google Reader's "person liked this" service doesn't grip me

I'm not sure what the point is of Google Reader's "person liked this" service.

I really don't care that 2 people liked Al Jazeera's news story on Pakistan's opposition leader Nawaz Sharif being cleared of hijacking the plane of former President Pervez Musharraf.

It gets slightly morbid when 1 person likes a BBC News story about Bristol tourist Stuart Urquhart being attacked by a buzzard in Helford, Cornwall.

All a bit like Facebook, except that people will already be aware of these stories as they will have them in their Google Reader. It's not highlighting new content.

Besides, we already have the ability to star content. How does this differ?

However, I do like the fact that one can now find people publically sharing items by searching on Google Reader. I'm sharing a few but need to add more.

I suppose that you can click on the profiles of people who like items in your Google Reader and view their shared items, but why not just use the search function to find people?

Having said that, I did find the below Youtube video of a toy train floating using a liquid nitrogen-cooled superconductor, posted to BoingBoing and shared by the buzzard attack fan*.



*sounds like a tedious indie band.

New dawn for public interest reporting after investigative journalism bureau grant?

Fantastic news from Press Gazette that the Bureau of Investigative Journalism, which aims to uncover and sell independent public interest stories that newspapers cannot afford to write in house, has recieved a £2 million grant from the Potter Foundation.

Press Gazette claim the bureau will launch "in the coming months".

Stephen Grey, who launched the Investigations Fund last month, will be the bureau's acting editor.

Reporters will include Nick Davies, Heather Brooke, Phillip Knightley, Martin Bright, Misha Glenny, Mark Hollingsworth, Andrew Jennings and David Leigh, according to Roy Greenslade in the Guardian.

Centre for Investigative Journalism director Gavin Macfadyen told Press Gazette: "We will experiment with all the techniques available to us from crowdfunding to crowdsourcing and provide content across the media spectrum.

"But there is no substitute for first rate reporters being given time and resources to deliver great stories, which hold the powerful to account.

"The bureau will offer investigative journalists both proper funding and the support of senior and experienced editors and researchers to carry out important investigations that are in the public interest."

Despite the commercial pressures on newspapers, I hope that this will mean a rise in public interest stories in the coming years, and less tedious product placement pieces and soft news on celebrities, which seems to make up most of the free papers distributed by hordes in Central London.

Via Martin Stabe.

Help put Jacqui Smith on trial with the Sunlight Centre for Open Politics

Former Home Office civil servant Christopher Galley, now the research director of the Sunlight Centre for Open Politics, is trying to raise enough money to prosecute former Home Secretary Jacqui Smith for fraud.

While she maintained that her sister's spare bedroom in London was her main home, allowing her to claim £116,000 for her second home,Galley claims that she spent most of her time at her alleged second house in Redditch,north-east Worcestershire.

According to Tim Shipman in the Daily Mail, the group has also made Freedom of Information requests for Jacqui Smith's appointments diary and details of her movements from the Whitehall car service.

Christopher Galley, who had access to Miss Smith's diary between January and November 2008, told the Mail: "From what I know having seen Jacqui Smith's diary and having watched her daily routine, I saw that she came in on Monday afternoon and left on Thursday evening.

"From what I can see Redditch was her main home and London was her second home."

Guido Fawkes reports that the Sunlight Centre raised £7000 the first day it asked for donations. Tens of thousands of pounds are needed to fight this case.

You can donate money to the Sunlight Centre for Open Politics here.

Let's have the truth in court, no matter how embarressed Jacqui Smith or the Labour Party might be. And let's do the same for all MP's, whether Labour, Tory, or Liberal Democrat, against whom a case could be brought for expenses fraud.

There must not be one law for the powerful and wealthy and another for the rest. Consider how hard Department for Work and Pensions are on alleged benefit cheats (ironic, given how greedy James Purnell and Yvette Cooper were!)

Print editions of newspapers should have poster-style photos

For those media outlets who want to carry on producing a print edition, I suggest a poster of a single photo like the Guardian carries each weekday as the newspaper centrefold.

Today, myself and other staff members ate a semi-working lunch together in a chili restaurant in Dray Walk, just off Brick Lane near where we all work.

The restaurant provided copies of the Guardian to read while one ate, and flicking through today's copy I noticed a beautiful photo of the fifteen mile Petermann glacier in Greenland by Nick Cobbing.

I had to have this photo for my sparsely decorated room, and so while going to the Selbourne Walk Asda in Walthamstow tonight for a carton of orange juice and gum gel, I purchased a copy of the Guardian just for the poster (although the Italian language guide is also useful).

Posters are a rip-off in most shops, and if people know that a newspaper has a nice poster each day they may buy it just for that.

Of course, red top tabloids such as the Sun use Page 3 in the same way, though not having read the paper for years I am unaware if they have a pornographic centrefold. I reckon the Daily Star and Daily Sport do. More unpleasent, but the principle is the same.

MP's right to highlight disgraceful state of Britain's public toilets

Too many of Britain's public toilets are disgusting, in a dangerous area, badly lit or simply closed.

Thankfully, 26 MP's have signed a a House of Commons motion arguing that the recent closure of public toilets has been damaging.

In London, the Great Portland Street area is terrible for a lack of public toilets, while ironically the best public toilets I have visited are outside nearby Baker Street underground station.

Thankfully, Walthamstow, where I currently live, at least has decent toilets in the bus station (nice blue lights, classical music).

When I go to Oxford city centre, I usually use the Debenhams store toilets , as the public toilets near the Ashmolean museum seem pretty disgusting.

If you are concerned about the lack of decent public toilets, you can join the British Toilet Association.

This organisation campaigns for appropriate legislation for provision of public toilets by local authorities and for clean, safe secure toilets that specialist groups such as the elderly are able to use.

Thoughts on Sacha Baron Cohen's film Bruno

Saw the comedy film Bruno last weekend. This post will contain spoilers for those who have not seen the film.

I do wondering if Bruno needed to be quite such a ridiculous caricature, one assumes he was a send-up of the image some people have of gay men. Of course, he was also partly used to send up the materialistic fashion industry.

Highlights were the greedy parents of babies used in fashion shoots, the Republican senator Ron Paul being used as a possible seductee for a sex tape, the reaction of hotel staff to a chained up Bruno and his assistant and the talking penis.

The talking penis was fantastic. In fact, I wonder if they will bring out a talking penis screensaver for the computer or the mobile phone. It would certainly be popular.

I'm not sure if the film had elements of homophobia.

It could be interpreted by homophobic morons watching the film as how all gay men act, and I am concerned about the pack mentality of homophobic schoolchildren deciding that the one gay (or possibly gay) child in the class is like Bruno.

The section where Bruno and his then boyfriend take part in bizarre sex rituals, including using a exercise-bike powered dildo, shoving the large end of a champagne bottle up the boyfriend's bottom and spinning his boyfriend round while penetrating him, was probably the one that did most to reinforce homophobic stereotypes.

A.O. Scott in the New York Times goes further, claiming "The film demonstrates, at a fairly high level of conceptual sophistication, that lampooning homophobia has become an acceptable, almost unavoidable form of homophobic humor, or at least a way of licensing gags that would otherwise be out of bounds."

I would have liked to see less focus on Bruno himself (who isn't very interesting) and more on how people react to Bruno.

It would also be interesting to see how people on the left reacted to Bruno, including some of the hypocrites on the far left who only support gay rights when it suits them.

Bouncy castle record?

I wonder if the fair in Walthamstow town centre has broken the record for the most bouncy castles in a small space. There are at least three of them on the small green near the huge television that nobody watches (waste of power) and the Selbourne Walk shopping centre.

Also some teacup ride in a pink castle.

Voteforachange launch on Thursday 9th July: Towards a new voting system

To the Methodist Central Hall in Westminster, London this Thursday to attend the launch of a campaign, as advertised by Polly Toynbee in the Guardian, to obtain a refernum on our voting system.


The problem with First Past The Post, which Britain currently uses, is that it disproportionatly favours the two main parties, Labour and the Tories. Since 1945, every government has been elected with a minority of the overall vote.

There was music from Billy Bragg (check out Between the Wars or You Thatcherites By Name) and, bizarrely, someone called KT Tunstall, who sang a couple of songs that didn't seem to be related to the event. A nice singing voice though.

Messages of support were given via video from Martin Bell, John O'Farrell and Matthew Taylor.

The highlight was the panal, with the wonderful Peter Tatchell (a hero of mine) and Chuka Umunna, who seems to be more sensible than many of his front-bench collegues. In fact, looking at his Wikipedia entry, he'd probably get my vote, and I don't care if he is Britain's Barack Obama or whatever meaningless soundbite people attach. The panal was chaired by Mehdi Hasan of the New Statesman.

Gerard Batten MEP from the United Kingdom Independence Party (who seemed charming) and Jo Swinson (disappointing, and seemed insincere) were also talking.

A nice campaign and a clever if rather pushy idea to get people to text messages about the campaign to their friends, but I would have preferred a one hour rally without poetry or songs, especially as this was after work. Reasonable attendance though.

It seemed like the panalists were determined to force change, and even if the Tories did not appear (which John Denham MP used to make a party political point in his overlong speech), maybe some UKIP, Liberal Democrat, Green and Labour activists will start to promote proportional reprensentation among their local parties.

One point made by Gerald Batten was that we might need two referendums, one to decide which system of PR we use. Other panalists disagreed, saying this could be a ballot paper question.

I feel the campaign is important, but did regret it clashed with another event that was mostly badly publicised. Polly Toynbee, who spoke from the audience at the debate,says "If you can't make it – and the reason had better be good – then I shall be there and if you have questions you want answered, or points you want made, I'll do my best to get them to the panel."

One good reason would have been to attend a rally in support of Iranian dissidents, which I only saw on Harry's Place.

Oppression of artists in Russia and Turkey

Russian artist Alexander Shchednov was arrested on June 11 by the Federal Security Service(FSB or ФСБ in Russian) for a collage depicting the head of prime minister Vladimir Putin on a woman’s body, captioned: "Oh I don't know ... a third presidential ... it's too much, on the other hand ."

Shchednov was charged with "uncensored swearing in a public place", according to human rights organisation Article 19 in their June 2009 Artist Alert.

The organisation also reports that the trial of curators Yury Samodurov and Andrey Erofeev has resumed.

The pair are facing five years in prison on charges of inciting religious and ethnic hatred under Article 282 of the Russian Penal Code, including an artwork of a crucified Lenin.

In Turkey, Article 19 reports that Turkish author Nedim Gursel is on trial for his novel "The Daughters of Allah" , which depicts a fictional interpretation of the Prophet Mohammad and his life.

Earlier this year, "The Daughters of Allah" was accused of insulting Turkishness, and Gursel was charged with insulting religion and inciting hatred.

First bus strikes this month in South Yorkshire and Aberdeen

First buses will be disrupted by strike action in South Yorkshire and Aberdeen this month.

South Yorkshire bus drivers will be holding a one day strike on Friday 10 July after talks between First management and Unite officals did not end the pay dispute, with a 2.95% offer rejected.

Sheffield City Council have published information on routes that are still running during the First bus strike.

Updates will be posted on Travel South Yorkshire, and you can also call Traveline on 01709 51 51 51.

Unite's regional industrial organiser Steve Clark told the BBC: "First Group made £122m in 2008 but there is a group mandate of no pay awards for bus workers.

"This is unacceptable, our members are right to expect a reasonable pay increase and the company is wrong to offer nothing to its employees."

Deputy managing director for First Brandon Jones said: "Due to the economic recession, which has seen unemployment in the Yorkshire region increase by 13% in the last three months, First has no available extra money to fund a pay increase.

"We have however said we are willing to review our current pay rate, subject to productivity improvements."

Aberdeen bus drivers, maintance staff and cleaners will be on strike on 16 July, and there will be an overtime ban and work to rule from July 17.

Unite wants a 4% rise but First are proposing a wage freeze.

Operations director at First in Aberdeen Duncan Cameron told the BBC: "The union needs to recognise the economic realities facing First in Aberdeen and many other businesses such as negative inflation, rising unemployment and job losses."

Tommy Campbell of Unite told STV "If this company wasn't making money we would certainly not be balloting on industrial action and we would be acting reasonably in those circumstances.

Earlier this month, First Aberdeen angered Unite by placing adverts claiming that staff were seeking a 52% pay rise. One wonders why this money wasn't used to improve services instead of win a public relations fight.

Sadly, First Aberdeen do not have any more information on the strike at this time.

The Aberdeen Express and Echo claims that the work to rule from July 17 will mean that "all Aberdeen services are expected to be up to 30 minutes late and passengers dumped off buses."

Meanwhile in London, Underground engineers and electrical workers will be balloted for industrial action. Any strike by engineers and electrical workers would close all the Tube, as they are responsible for safety.

Looks like summer 2009 is going to be full of strikes.

America and Russia agree nuclear cuts

I am glad to hear that America and Russia have agreed cuts in their nuclear warheads, though it is a shame that either side has any at all, given the Cold War is over.

Watching footage of former presidental candidate Hilary Clinton and her specialy made "Peregruzka" nuclear button for Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, after seeing how confident Barack Obama was with Russian President Dmitry Medvedev, I realised how glad I am that Barack Obama won.

While the use of the Russian word for overcharge was a tiny mistake, and not the fault of Clinton, Obama came across as more statesmanlike.

Well done Ed Balls!

I am pleased to hear that Schools Secretary Ed Balls is keen to stamp out the use of the word gay as an insult.

This sort of homophobia is endemic in British schools, fuelled by the vileness of popular culture.

Balls rightly says "Even casual use of homophobic language in schools – such as the worryingly prevalent use of the word "gay" as a derogatory term – can create an atmosphere that isolates young people and can be the forerunner for more serious forms of bullying.

"Homophobic bullying creates an ugly climate of intimidation and can make it harder for young people to come out. 'Whether it's directed at lesbian, gay, bisexual or heterosexual young people, our guidance makes clear that such bullying should be challenged."

A survey by Stonewall released in mid March found that nine in ten secondary school teachers and two in five primary school teachers said pupils experience homophobic bullying, even if they are not gay.

Stonewall are also right to highlight that comments like Jonathan Ross' joke on boys wanting Hannah Montana-themed MP3 players, which the BBC seemed to believe was not offensive as it was "light-hearted". So, jokes never offensive then?

In 2005, Rachel Shabi wrote a harrowing account of homophobic bullying in schools.

The bullying of Andrew Keats began when he was 13, after his two best friends outed him. He had just told them about his sexuality and asked them to keep it secret. But they didn't, and soon the whole school knew. It was great gossip, Keats being gay - but not great for him. Friends he'd known since he was a toddler started phoning, calling him a "fucking faggot" or saying, "Don't come near me - I've seen the way you look at me in the changing rooms."

That's how the bullying began, with a tirade of insults: "faggot", "queer", or shouts of "Backs against the wall - gay boy's coming" as Keats passed through the school corridors. There was graffiti about him, on his locker, on desks, on the toilet walls. "I'd see 'For gay sex, phone this number' next to my mobile number etched into desks," he says. Then he started to receive hate mail, graphic illustrations of anal sex with his name scrawled all over them. And one day, coming out of a science lesson, Keats was beaten to the floor by one of his tormentors. The teacher managed to pull the attacker off, but by then Keats had been badly injured, his glasses smashed into his face, cuts all over his hands, wrists, face and arms. The boy who launched the attack was expelled, but for Keats, now 19, the bullying didn't stop until he left school.

Greenwich (SE10): A Good Place To Go In London

If you're tired of the crowds in Oxford Street or the skyscrapers of Canary Wharf, why not head for Greenwich in South East London for a wonderful day out?

I visited this magical area with one of my friends today. We looked round the fascinating Royal Observatory, at the top of a picturesque hill, and had a wander through the goregeous Greenwich Park.

One can stroll along the Thames or even under it using the Greenwich Foot Tunnel, which took us to a rather nice tea rooms on the other bank, and Millwall Park just beyond Island Gardens Docklands Light Railway station, which is next to Mudchute farm.

According to Greenwich Council, the tunnels are used by 1.5 million people per year.

There are many nice resturants and pubs in Greenwich, but have a look around first as some are rather pricey. The takeaway stalls vary in quality.

Greenwich has two Docklands Light Railway stations, Cutty Sark and Greenwich (Cutty Sark is nearer the pier and the Royal Observatory. One can take the DLR from Stratford, Tower Hill or Bank, changing at Poplar if need be.

New scam warning by City of London police

The City of London police are warning people to avoid a scam where people are asked to transfer cash into a bank account in order to buy non-existant electrical goods.

Adverts have been placed in local and regional papers in Britain using fake company names such as Arash Ltd, The Gadget Company, Gadget Limited, Office Bits Warehouse, Office Supplies Cabin and Office Brands Megastore.

The only contact details are telephone and fax numbers, and sometimes an @easymailorders.com emailaddress.

The scammers are also posting cards from the fake companies Parcel Express UK and Network Link Courier through doors, which inform the householder that they have missed delivery of a parcel, asking them to phone a number and pay for a customs charge of the product by credit or debit card. The credit or debit card details are later used fraudulently.

The Barnet Times reports how one Edgware resident discovered that Network Link Courier was a scam.

Steve Gardiner, special investigations unit manager at Devon's Trading Standards, told the Exeter Express and Echo: "This is a complex and sophisticated scam in which the company has placed ads throughout the UK under a variety of different names and phone numbers.

"It is not advisable to pay money directly into a bank account when placing an order."

Any victims should contact the City of London police by emailing ophukkaATcityoflondon.police.uk (replace AT with ampersand). Further advice can also be found from Consumer Direct by calling 08454 04 05 06.

The best little train ride in London: National Express East Anglia to Liverpool Street

Although the journey from Walthamstow Central to Liverpool Street via the Victoria Line is not as bad as my previous sardine can ride on the Central Line, changing at King's Cross is still an unpleasent experience.

A far better way to travel into Liverpool Street is to take the National Express East Anglia from Walthamstow Central station.

One can use Oyster Cards in between Walthamstow Central and Liverpool Street. Sadly, National Rail have not bothered to let the people of Chingford use Oyster Cards to travel. Why not?

The train ride is much more pleasent, with views of Hackney Marshes and Bethnal Green instead of grim tunnels and graffiti (once one changes to the Metropolitan Line at King's Cross). It is also quicker, only seventeen minuites.

However, one should have at least £8 on one's Oyster Card if using pay as you go, as an entry charge of either £4 or £5 will be deducted from at the start of your journey, adjusted when you ‘touch out’ at the end of your journey so that you pay the correct advertised fare.

The trains are also far less frequent than the Victoria Line, every fifteen minuites or so. That's still better than London Overground, which stops nearby at Walthamstow Queen's Road.

I will miss National Express East Anglia when the ISEAL office moves to Angel on the Northern Line.

Honeywell International job application scam

If you recieve an email from honeywell2008@live.co.uk entitled "Accounts Receivable Officer (honeywell)‏", delete it. It is a vile scam.

Aside from the use of a free email address, the opening line is pretty generic for job offer scams

"Dear Sir/Madam,

If you have access to a computer, and have up to three hours spare time per-week. you can get paid, would you like to work part or full time online from home and get paid weekly? If yes,then please read carefully."

Note the poor sentence structure and lack of a contact name.

The fact that a US company is sending emails to a hotmail.co.uk email address also signifies that this job application is a scam.

Also, the idea that the job only requires 1-3 hours per week yet will make the Accounts Recievable Officer $700-$2000 is daft.

Don't reply to the given email address (honeywelluk@aol.com), delete the email instead. As if Honeywell International need to rely on a free aol.com address.

4ondemand service to be replaced by streamed content on channelfour.com

Just a note to those who like to watch Channel 4 programmes online, the 4ondemand application is being replaced by programs streamed embedded directly on the Channel 4 website.

This is a welcome step forward, given that installing an external application takes time, and it is far easier to visit a website than right click on the taskbar and open an application.

There has been very little annoucement of this, and I only learnt of this a couple of days ago when the "40D team" sent me an email.

Sadly, unlike for the BBC's iplayer, which is covered on the BBC Internet blog, I cannot find a blog covering 4ondemand.

It will be interesting to see how this new service compares in terms of variety of programmes to 40ndemand.

Are their advantages of an external application?

Daily Mail columnist Harry Phibbs is wrong on homosexuality

So I was reading the Daily Mail online last night (yes, I know, not a recommended pasttime!) and found a rather scary column by Harry Phibbs on Section 28, which is entitled "Councils should NOT be spending your money on promoting homosexuality."

Now, I haven't seen any leaflets from Waltham Forest Council encouraging me to take up homosexuality.

I haven't seen any banners strung from buildings, nor have I seen any display boards in Walthamstow Library promoting homosexuality. So I think it is fair to say that my local council is not promoting homosexuality.

This would doubtless come as a great relief to Harry Phibbs, who seems to believe that any positive promotion of homosexuality by local councils would lead to a mass forsaking of heterosexuality.

If this is true, there must be millions of people who are wavering on heterosexuality.

Does Harry Phibbs, as well as the backward Baroness Knight who helped draw up the law, really belive that people decide their sexuality on what they read in books such as the over-hyped Jenny lives with Eric and Martin, which "included pictures of Eric and Martin naked in bed", implying full nudity when in fact the picture with the Daily Mail story is tasteful?

People's sexual desires aren't ruled by propeganda. You don't choose to love someone of the same sex, it happens.

Most people understand this, unlike Baroness Knight who belives the video "How to Become a Lesbian in 35 Minutes" was shown to "intended to be shown in a school for mentally handicapped girls, some of whom were extremely young".

In fact, according to Lord Harris of Haringey, the area where the film was shown, it was shown to a lesbian youth group which happened to meet at the Blanche Neville school building in Tottenham.

As for the tedious comments of Daily Mail readers, Patrica Maugham says "councils should not be spending our money in promoting anything. that is not their job".

This is rated Yes by 5 people. Does this mean that anti-knife crime schemes and museum days don't deserve money spent on promotion?

Simon from Hampshire says "Section 28 is perfectly right. How we can possibly discussion homosexuality when we cannot even get heterosexual sex education right?" as if sex education can be seperated into hetereosexual and homosexual.

In Simon's world, the stork is the way to tell children about sex education.

Anthony Townsend from London says: "I was at school when section 28 came in, and it left me feeling isolated, confused, depressed and with no self esteem whatsoever. That is a good thing, is it? It took years to come through that. But guess what, I'm still gay."

Getting back to the vile, Stuart from Virgina, USA, seems to believe that there are "left wing councils" pushing a "Marxist agenda" and that "However there is a much higher percentage of private and home schooling and guess what? These kids aren't the ones getting pregnant or catching STD's."

Perhaps the latter point has to do with the different social pressures and parental attitudes rather than what is taught in sexual education.

I'm not going to go through thirty-eight comments, but I think it's fairly sad that people still believe that children are at risk of being "turned gay". No doubt many of these people are worried about "turning gay" themselves.

Harry Phibbs and his Daily Mail readers should visit some of the people bullied for being gay due to the difficulty teachers had informing children there is nothing wrong with homosexuality.

Pride London this Saturday 4th July

This Saturday is Pride London, where thousands of people will celebrate gay rights and gay culture.

The Pride Parade will leave Baker Street at 1pm and will arrive at Trafalgar Square at 3pm.

Performers at Trafalgar Square will include Heather Small of M People, the cast of Avenue Q and the Dame Edna Experience.

Various parties will take place in the evening, as well as Sunday night at Ministry of Sound.

Participants will include London Lesbian and Gay Switchboard, UNISON Greater London LGBT Group, the Liberal Democrats (am not sure which ones though) and the Metropolitan Community Church of North London.

I urge as many people as possible, wherether gay or straight, to take part in the Pride march and send a message to homophobes such as Democratic Unionist Party MP Iris Robinson and Chris Moyles that they are in the minority.

Although I'm not gay myself, I am considering coming along.

Iris Robinson recently was cleared of breaking the Northern Ireland Assembly code over remarks about homosexuality to the Belfast Telegraph, where she compared homosexuality and paedophilia and Radio Ulster, where she claimed homosexuality could be cured.

One wonders if David Cameron's gay-friendly signals, including a long overdue apology for Section 28, are any more than electioneering.

It should be noted that those taking public transport to Pride London should check the Transport for London website for track closures, which are affecting parts of the Circle Line, the District Line, Jubilee Line, Metropolitan and Northern Lines, as well as much of London Overground from Gospel Oak to Barking.

Guardian newspaper documents dead and detained Iranian opposition supporters and journalists

The Guardian newspaper has created a moving interactive display of the dead and detained Irananian opposition supporters, journalists and protesters.

Click on a picture to find out more about the person, including name and occupation. Green graphics indicate there is no picture of the person.

You can also download the information as a spreadsheet, useful for reporting or academic study.

Clicking on Find Out More allows one to highlight profiles according to age, occupation or current status.

Via Harry's Place.