April 28, 2009

WINNER OF FIRST-EVER BLOG PRIZE GOES TO ...






















... Nightjack (http://www.nightjack.wordpress.com/) and politics - inseparable bedfellows that they are) and yet who, ironically, is simultaneously hanging up his virtual truncheon and cuffs - to write … yes, you guessed, fiction!

Well, you couldn’t make it up, could you? And, hopefully, the blogosphere’s loss is fiction’s gain ...

Part of me can’t help musing though, a tad cynically I know, if Nightjack is choosing to retire just as HMG plans to record ALL our internet habits?

Spain, as far as I’m aware, doesn’t share HMG’s surveillance plans re emails, phone calls and internet activity (though the EU will doubtlessly soon be in hot pursuit with its own overarching diktats). How are the U.S. and Canada dealing with this issue, I wonder…

And to return to Orwell and Big Brother, he was only 25 years out …

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

And in Vancouver, which is preparing to host the 2010 winter Olympics, there is much consternation about the possibility of installing CCTV cameras all over the place. London is often cited as an example of where it has worked well and the citizens are happy with it. How Orwellian is THAT?

Lola said...

Pinklea: Am slightly in rant mode at present! Must get off the soapbox and out a bit more ...

Yes, Vancouver plastered in CCTV cameras does sound a tad Orwellian. But, on a positive note, just think how all those cameras will be able to track any stray Canuck flags in future...!

Anonymous said...

Ooooh - never thought of that! Okay, I want those cameras EVERYWHERE!

Lola said...

Pinklea:
btw I discourteously and shamefully omitted to ask how the Canucks fared? Also whether it's ever possible to catch the action on YouTube - for those of us poor souls living here on the edge of sanity…

Anonymous said...

Right - yes - I'm back again.

The Canucks will be just starting Round 2 of the playoffs in about a half-hour, and I have money and pride riding on this! If they win this best-of-seven series, they will be in yet another round for division champion. If they win THAT, the final round is for the Stanley Cup and then it's the end of June.

YouTube? I don't know. You'd have to google them and see. I'd be surprised if whole games were available, though - but you never know!

Lola said...

Pinklea: Thanks for this. Ooh, the suspense! Am googling YouTube as I write. In the meantime, do keep deprived souls everywhere posted!