Richard Lack's Blog

Democracy and the Blogosphere event

The Adam Smith Institute is hosting an evening seminar on

Democracy and the Blogosphere

with Stephen Pollard, New Labour journalist and broadcaster
William Heath, Chairman of Kable (publishers of Government Computing)
Perry de Havilland, Chief Editor of Samizdata.net and Partner of the Big Blog Company
and Sandy Starr, Spiked Online

on Tuesday 16 November 2004 at 6:15pm for 6:30pm
at the Institute’s offices at 23 Great Smith Street, London SW1
Dress: jacket and tie

If you would like to attend, please e-mail blogevent@adamsmith.org in order to get a place. We have limited space, so it's important to book. The event will be followed by a champagne reception. Click here for a map.

Here's the blurb...

Much hype surrounds the internet's self-publishing phenomenon known as blogging. Many claim that the blogosphere - the community of millions of blogs - is the key to reinvigorating the political process. Some believe that, using blogs, politicians will better serve their constituents, the disaffected will become involved in politics, and public confidence in the ability of government to solve society's problems will skyrocket.

There are also those who fiercely believe that, if only MPs would all start blogging, public debate would be dramatically revitalised. Is this wishful thinking in the age of spin doctors and party whips? Would more conversation with the public encourage our MPs to follow better policies, or lead to governance by opinion poll?

Does the blogosphere really strengthen the political progress, or is it more anti-Establishment than the Establishment would like to believe? Should the unprecedented ability of citizens to spread criticism of the state, its actions and its employees be cause for governmental alarm? Can our political process withstand such scrutiny? And is the blogosphere the big, equality-driving democracy so many claim that it is, or is it really a meritocracy, where the most interesting, compelling, and worthwhile ideas rise to the top?

A new thing I can't live without...Google Desktop search

Losing things drives me mad. Last weekend I lost my car keys for the duration of the afternoon and my life was put on hold. Wouldn't it have been great if I could have pointed Google search at the problem? Up on the white board in the kitchen it would have displayed:

"Searched 11 rooms for car keys in 0.24 seconds. Results: 1 set found including 7 keys: Kitchen floor>by fridge. 3.56pm"

We just got one step closer to this with the launch of Google Desktop search. If you've ever lost a document, or an email or tried to locate the web page from 2 weeks ago for that Cassoulet recipe then this is for you. Put simply - it's a small application (400kb) which installs on your machine and indexes every document, email or web page you've ever viewed. If you need to find an email from 6 months ago from somebody whose name you don't remember that was about 'wedding plans' then just do a search on the Google Desktop browser and the entire contents of your hard drive will be searched in under a second. You'll see a threaded list of all e-mail neatly arranged alongside and web pages or office docs you might have created or been sent.

Simple, neat, usable and stunningly fast. Requires no further explanation here. Now where was that link I downloaded it from?

Hang on a sec........
1 result stored on your computer
Google Desktop Search: 1:52pm http://desktop.google.com/

Ageing Demoghraphic? - My Arse!

The Government would have us believe that the current pension crisis is down to our ageing demographic and that there aren't enough people of working age to support our 'ever ageing population' To say this is to shove your head so far up your own arse as to be completely blind to reality.

When I hear about the crisis affecting 12m workers I wonder why there are only 12m workers in a nation of 60m. What the heck are the other 48m doing?

For the better part they are either a: 'studying' or b: 'claiming'

There are plenty of people of working age among our ranks, but the Government insists on it's policy of encouraging 50% of school leavers to attend higher education, roping off a few million from paying into the system for several years. We now even pay 16 year old schoolkids to carry on attending classes. Classes for what exactly? It seems most graduates don't even have a basic mastery of spelling and grammar on entering employment. If I get one more e-mail from a graduate which fails to differentiate between 'their' and 'there', I'll force them to read an essay to the rest of the company.

Couple the rise of worthless and time-consuming education with the huge growth in benefits claimants over the last 50 years and you have a simple answer to your question. Increasingly our would-be workers are laying not just economically idle, but are chomping away at YOUR pension; well whatever's left after the thieving Chancellor takes a big bite out of your pension to fund Social Equality and lesbian donkey sanctuaries.

Think about it people. If all our young are studying there's nobody to pay for our old. If they are claiming benefits then the few of us remaining in work have to support both Waynetta and Aunty Ethel. Of course Waynetta isn't an unemployment claimant these days. She's a 'victim of long-term incapacity', and she doesn't 'claim' anything - she has 'entitlements'

The pensions time bomb isn't so much about our baby boomers. It's about our couch potatoes.

Having worked hard all your life you have to ask yourself why you should struggle on for another 5 years to fund a course in media studies or an addiction to Tennants Super and Tricia?