Month: October 2015

A ‘mature debate’ on surveillance? Yes please!

Standard

Paul Bernal's Blog

Andrew Parker, the head of MI5, has said in a speech that he is hoping for a ‘mature debate’ on what he calls ‘intercepting communications data’ rather than surveillance: I’m sure that most people working in the area would very much welcome such a call. I know that I do. Mature debate is exactly what is needed. The question that immediately springs to mind is whether what Andrew Parker means by ‘mature debate’ is the same as what I would understand by the words. The record of the intelligence and security services and the government in relation to such a debate is not a very convincing one: it has been those who challenge surveillance powers who have shown more desire and willingness to debate than the services and their masters in government.

To suggest otherwise – indeed to hint that those challenging them have behaved like petulant, hyperbolic children –…

View original post 839 more words

Redcar steelworkers pay UK tax. Chinese Steelworkers don’t.

Standard

Think Left

Redcar steelworkers pay UK tax. Chinese Steelworkers don’t.

By Peter Martin Twitter: @petermartin52

An economic and political discussion usually and rather quickly gets around to a discussion on “the deficit”. Of course what everyone means is the Government’s deficit rather than the deficit neo-liberal politicians have created in our spending power in recent years. The other less mentioned deficit is the one the UK runs in its trade and financial dealings with the rest of the world. There are various terms used in connection with this such as current account deficit, balance of payments deficit. Then there is the capital account which includes the sale of gilts. To keep things simple I’ll just use the term external deficit for the net flow of ££ out of the economy. So we can think of this as the Surplus the Rest of the World has in its dealing with the UK in £ terms.

If we…

View original post 692 more words