UK Human Rights Blog surpasses two million hits

Reblogged from UK Human Rights Blog:

Just a quick note to say that yesterday, in the furore surrounding the Conservative Party potentially threatening to take the UK out of the European Court of Human Rights and Angela Patrick's post on secret trials, the UK Human Rights Blog surpassed an all-time total of two million hits. 

The blog was launched on 31 March 2010 and is written by members of 

Read more… 349 more words

Excellent - glad to see more people are paying attention to these vitally important issues.

• Today I have emailed my MP protesting against proposals for Secret Courts, urging him not to support calls for the repeal of the Human Rights act, and calling on him to reject the Lords' amendment to the Libel Reform bill in favour of the original version approved by the House of Commons.

Following a suggestion from friendly twitter chap Richard Ellis, I have also emailed my local district and county councillors as follows (you can do the same - the more pressure points the better):

I know that local councillors are not responsible for the actions of MPs and Lords. However, please may I ask you (as my local councillors) to put pressure on your party colleagues (present and former) in parliament, particularly those in government:

1. to reject Ken Clarke’s illiberal proposals for unjust secret courts
2. to listen to Dominic Grieves when it comes to reform of the Human Rights Act and to reject Chris Grayling's apparent idea that we should repeal it outright
3. to reject the latest Lord’s amendment to the Libel Reform bill (introducing Leveson by the back door without proper debate) and ensure the bill passes in the form originally approved by the House of Commons.

I will be paying particular attention to all these issues.

 

I am not sure what they will make of this letter but it is worth a try - if only to make the point that, if they want my vote they are going to have to adopt a more liberal attitude.

Happy days @HuwSayer

Please share this:

New #VisitNorwich #VisitNorfolk #PaperLi

Not sure why it’s taken me so long (old, slow, busy – take your pick) but I have finally figured out a way to collate many of the wonderful tweets promoting events in Norfolk and Norwich: by setting up a PaperLi. You can see an example by following the link from this blog. The PaperLi system will automatically post updates each evening at 19:00 but you are free to share it with your followers at any time.

Hopefully, you will find it a useful way of keeping up with some of the many events taking place in your community. At the same time, I hope it will encourage more people to visit our fine county and city – which should help give the local economy a boost. But it will only work if you add the right hashtag to your tweets when you post a link to an event.

Here’s why: PaperLi (the free version – I don’t have a budget for Pro, or anything else for that matter) lets you select 25 search terms. So I have selected terms such as #VisitNorwich, #VisitNorfolk, #NorwichLanes, #Norwich + #Art, #Norwich + #Music, #Norwich + #Events. If you post a link on twitter and include one of those hashtag combinations, my PaperLi should pick it up for inclusion in the next edition.

Obviously such an automated system, based on hashtags, is open to hi-jacking. So I will be monitoring the stories it picks up and blocking spammers. However, since most of you are decent people, I doubt there will be many who try to take advantage of this free service.

Happy if you want to leave a comment.

Cheers

Huw Sayer

@HuwSayer

So you want to be a twitter guru?

OK, I’ve now got over 2000 followers – so (in my books) that qualifies me to sound off on how to run a twitter account.

For all of you who ask me (as some – no names – foolishly do) ‘how do you get so many followers and RTs?’, here are my four-ish golden rules of twitter (which I am sure I regularly break):

a) Follow a few people back (not everyone but certainly active supporters and people who are passionate about the things you tweet about) – don’t follow celebrities for the sake of it, only if you are genuinely interested in their banal musing.

2) Use a hashtag (the more unique and memorable the better) – such as #VisitNorwich or #VisitNorfolk or #BrandyCake – to flag tweets about a particular subject (but don’t clutter your tweets with loads of different tags)

iii) Support others (effective tweeting is all part of being a helpful twitter citizen and building goodwill)

Quatre) Say ‘thank you’ to people who mention you or your #hashtag in their tweets.

• (yes I know I said four but then I remembered this one) – If more than 10% of your tweets are about you and what you do, you are being boring and not even your partner will pay attention.

Sixthly and finally – Building an enthusiastic following on twitter is all about generosity, reciprocity and engagement – so be nice, be good and be you.

PS: When blogging, always use a list and stick to conventional numbering for bullet points…or something.

 

Plucking geese – some musings

A Frenchman (whose name escapes me) once said something like: “A good tax system is one that plucks the goose with the minimum of squawking.” My suggestion is that we should leave the corporate goose its feathers.

Consider that this is an economically active goose. She will certainly pay rents and taxes (on land, on property and on labour in the form of wages) in the country where she lives. She will pay consumption tax on the grain she eats and she will pay sales tax on the value of the eggs she lays.

Better yet, whether she is a stockmarket listed or privately owned goose, she will pay a share of her profits from the sale of her eggs to investors. They will in turn invest the income in other geese, so creating more jobs. Or they will pay tax on it when they spend it.

She might also reinvest some of her profits in R&D, creating bigger, better, healthier eggs. The grain growers will employ more people to serve grain to the hungry goose and will pay consumption tax on their inputs. While the consumers of eggs will spend money on the equipment necessary to prepare eggs in numerous ways.

All in all the goose will pay its way several times over during its lifetime without needing to shed a single feather. And when it gets old and inefficient a corporate fox raider will buy the carcass and break it up to sell for glue, gravy and duvets.

Currently companies in many countries find it is easier (cheaper) to squeeze more out of a smaller workforce than to recruit flexible workers to take some of the strain. That is partly because many states seem to regard business as another arm of social security. It is also because most states think seem to think taxing the creators of jobs and wealth is just as efficient as taxing earnings and consumption (even though consumption taxes are harder to avoid and encourage much needed saving).

If governments (of whatever political persuasion) really want a thriving economy, with job creation and wider prosperity, they would do well to scrap corporation altogether, and other taxes hindering start-ups. At the very least, they should cut employment taxes so as to reduce the marginal costs of employing more people (while also reducing the pressure on existing employees). Currently they seem intent on strangling every goose they can find – sometimes before they have hatched.

If the UK does not do this someone else will and they will gain a huge advantage.

Note: this is a revised version of a comment I originally posted on the Economist website in  May 2010.

Elected Police Commissioners – what’s that all about then?

Just came across a discussion on the @EDPBusiness LinkedIn group asking why the election of Police Commissioners has to be a political issue. It puzzles me too – as I posted in reply and am reposting (slightly edited) here because I can’t work out how to share a link to a closed group discussion.

Must confess, I’ve only just woken up to the fact that we are going to elect Police Commissioners (following an article in the Guardian last week about someone being disqualified from running for office because of some childhood conviction)   – and I am not sure it is a good idea.

My fear is that we get the situation you (apparently) find in the USA, where the Commissioner is always playing to the crowd, with their eye on the next election. Rather than focusing on whether the police are operating efficiently, fairly and effectively, the debate becomes a more basic one about how many people they have arrested and had convicted. What you might call the lynch mob mentality (you only have to see the miscarriages of justice that have occurred when the pressure for results is on to understand the risk).

The police have always been democratically accountable, in that elected politicians (local and national) have always been able to question them about their performance (even if only via the Home Secretary). If we want more local accountability, they I don’t see why the role isn’t performed by elected local councillors (as, John Cowan said in an earlier reply, it was until the 90s). For instance, Norfolk County and City councils could appoint a joint ‘select committee’ to perform the role – meaning the debates would be more balanced.

However, I am not sure having a de-facto party-political contest is the right way to recruit someone for such an important role. Like Kevin Maddams (who started the LinkedIn discussion), I fear we will just get a partisan in a suit, who focuses on point scoring against their political opponents and pandering to their own party’s narrow base. As such we might end up with some dreadful caricature, either a member of the tub-thumping “flog ‘em and hang ‘em” brigade or a hand-wringing “the police are wrong, the criminals are victims too” apologist.

The police serve the whole of Norfolk, urban and rural communities, the rich and the poor – we need someone who can speak for the broadest number of law abiding citizens across the county. Who understands that modern policing is as much about good data analysis as “bobbies on the beat” and that targeted prevention involves more than simply locking up more and more people. Most importantly, we need someone who can actually work with the Police to ensure they, as the experts, can get on and do their job without undue political interference.

I don’t know who is running for the post in this area (not even sure what the election timetable is) but I hope (if we must have an elected commissioner) that a good, independent candidate comes forward.

#NorwichArtFair now on Twitter and Facebook – #NaNTwiNk please RT

Norwich Art Fair now has a Twitter account and a Facebook group.

Thank you to Rosie Winn for setting up the facebook page for #NorwichArtFair – only been up for two days and already has 80 likes – and the twitter feed @NorwichArtFair has over 150 followers thank you all for your support.

#NorwichArtFair – the start of a movement – please join

Written in haste (other stuff pressing)…

Thank you to @Rosie_Winn who has just posted this on her blog http://rosiewinnart.wordpress.com/2012/07/23/ideas-from-the-norwich-art-fair-meet-up/ listing all the ideas (many and varied) for an international art fair in Norwich and Norfolk, which came up at our first tweetup (at @SirGarnetPub) last Thursday.

And thank you to everyone who came along and contributed their time and enthusiasm – particularly those who volunteered to help build, design and write a new Norwich Art Fair website. We really appreciate your support – particularly since there is so little in the way of reward, save our appreciation.

It’s important to stress, these are very early days – at the moment we are looking to see who might get behind this idea – how do we mobilise forces in Norfolk to support what we already have (from the glorious productions of #NNFest to your local art gallery’s open day) and help build on it to establish Norwich and Norfolk on the international art scene as a centre for creativity and artistic talent.

You can join our growing list of interested tweeters (see here https://twitter.com/HuwSayer/norwich-art-fair/members)  by simply tweeting me asking to join #NorwichArtFair list.

There are probably lots of people out there who would love to point out why this won’t, can’t, hasn’t or shouldn’t happen – quite frankly, we’re not interested in the why nots – instead we want to hear from anyone who wants to help raise the profile of Norwich and Norfolk. However, if you think you are already doing this or something like it, then please let us know because we would love to support you.

The realisation of all these ideas may well be a long way off – it might take many years to win over sufficient high profile sponsors and artists to stage a world class event. The final shape of that event is not even clear (although I hope for one that is both elitist, to draw the big crowds and big money, and inclusive, so as to support local artists and encourage more people to become involved in the arts) – and whatever we think today is likely to change as ideas develop. That’s not the point – starting on the journey is the most important thing we can do today.

At the very least, I hope we can build a network of like-minded people on twitter and other social media sites who will get behind all the art events in Norwich and Norfolk – who will help build a list of every artist, workshop, gallery and exhibition in Norfolk and Norwich (you can add your suggestions to this post or Rosie’s – or both) and then will help share that information with the world. We need to convince people from far and wide who love art to #VisitNorwich and #VisitNorfolk.

Elsewhere, I have talked about the power of the Norfolk and Norwich Twitter Network (#NaNTwiNk) – I am convinced that if we all pull together to support all the exciting cultural events going on in our community (from the smallest to the largest) then it will benefit all who live and work in the region.

Thank you for your continued help and support – please follow Rosie’s blog for more updates and look out for the new website.

In haste – @HuwSayer

An international art fair for Norfolk and Norwich – can it be done? #NorwichArtFair – Please Retweet

Can Norfolk and Norwich host a world class art fair?

A quick, crazy (half-baked) idea here for Friday – hoping Rosie Winn might write some more intelligent stuff about it on her blog later – have been tweeting Rosie (@Rosie_Winn) today about a vague idea I have* of launching a massive local art fair – something like Frieze London, or the Basle art fair – or the New York art fair.

I know we have lots of art shows in Norfolk – but I think we need something really big and wonderful to draw the international art crowd – and that’s important because, let’s not be ashamed about this, we want very wealthy people to come to the show and buy lots of amazing art. This is about encouraging people to #VisitNorfolk #VisitNorwich.

Open and Local

This needs to be a very open show – it has to embrace all manner of art – visual, audio, tactile, figurative, alternative, abstract and so on. Preferably (because we want to attract collectors) there should be an emphasis on contemporary but we should also welcome more traditional types too – such as classic landscape artists (since Norfolk was home to the famous Norwich School of painters).

Although I hope it would showcase young talent – such as the work of students at NUCA   - there should be no age restriction – the only qualifications should be that artists are talented – and local. Galleries would be welcome too – so long as they were promoting local artists.

Local is important – because this should be about showcasing talented artists living and working in Norfolk and Norwich. They might have moved here from the other side of the world – but if this is where they now live and work then they should be welcome to join the show. It would be great if the show had an international feel – and some high profile guest artists from the outside world might be great – but we don’t want just ‘another big name art show’. This has to be distinctive to the county and the city.

Where next?

*Obviously, when I said “…I have of launching” I did not mean me actually launching this show – for a start I have no idea how to run such a thing and I don’t have the resources (time or money) to organise it. More importantly I know nothing about art. So we need a rich sponsor or two plus a talented team of arts enthusiasts who can weed out the twee, derivative tat from the real stuff – we also need a wonderful, big, beautiful venue.

So do you know anyone who could help – might want to run this – or might know where to start? Perhaps The Forum, perhaps The Sainsbury Centre, perhaps HEART - or maybe the Norfolk and Norwich Festival? Sorry if I have missed you out of this list – rather a rush job this post – just want to get the idea out.

Who knows? Any ideas? Post away – be positive if possible – or simply list all the art shows (however small) currently running throughout the year in Norfolk – that might be a start. At least it might give us some contact names and helps promote them.

Thank you

@HuwSayer

Here’s why @Brays_Cottage is my @VisitEngland #ETW12 Tourism Superstar – #NaNTwiNk Please RT

Dear Readers – your chance to WIN tickets to the new HARRY POTTER studios near London…

As part of English Tourism Week 2012, #ETW12, @VisitEngland is looking for the nation’s Tourism Superstar – you can get more details here. Entries (of no more than 50 words) must be in by 27 Feb (see my note below about the email address – now corrected – thanks @VisitEnglandBiz) – and one lucky entrant will win a pair of tickets to the UK’s newest attraction: The Making of Harry Potter – at Warner Bros. studios London, which open on March 31.

Here’s my submission on why Sarah Pettegree is my Tourism Superstar for #ETW12:

“Norfolk’s Tourism Superstar has to be Sarah Pettegree, founder of Brays Cottage Pies and the monthly Norfolk Diet Farmers’ Market in Norwich. Using Twitter, Facebook and her fascinating blog, she combines humour, passion and expert knowledge to promote the best of Norfolk, particularly its excellent artisan food and drink producers.”

Will the winner be from Norfolk?
You are obviously welcome to nominate your own choice – but if the Norfolk and Norwich Twitter Network #NaNTwiNk really pulls together, we might just ensure a local winner. Now I think such a result would really help boost tourism to our home county.

So please follow the link above and get your entry in today. If you are stuck for words, please feel free to use mine – or amend them as you want.

Your feedback is welcome
Remember to tweet your nomination - either by linking to this blog or your own - and if you are supporting @Brays_Cottage please include the #NaNTwiNk hashtag so other members of the network can find it and RT.

What do you think – is this a good idea? Please share your thoughts (and alternative nominations) here.

Thank you and best wishes

Huw

Infrastructure ideas for long term growth – just dreaming

The UK desperately needs better infrastructure, particularly east-west roads to link the regions and make them less dependent on London. The government should therefore borrow heavily at the current ludicrously low rates for the very long term (50-100 years plus) and get building – fast.

Here are a few ideas to get the ball rolling. A new super-highway/ring-road outside the M25 – call it the MX-100 – linking the ports of Harwich and Felixstowe with Southampton (via Northampton and Swindon).

A new M47 linking the new port at Great Yarmouth with Peterborough, Leicester, Stoke on Trent and Ellesmere Port.

A new M69 linking Newcastle and Carlisle – as well as upgrading the A1 to full motorway status all the way from Cambridge to Edinburgh (connecting with the M90 to Perth and then on to Aberdeen via Dundee).

A new motorway from Manchester direct to Sheffield – and on to Worksop, Lincoln and then Grimsby and Hull.

A road and rail bridge across Morecambe Bay from Fleetwood (linking with the M55/M6) to Barrow (home of BAE).

Finally a canal, to rival the Panama or Suez, linking Grangemouth near Edinburgh with Clydebank and Port of Glasgow (so cutting the journey time from the North Sea to the Irish sea and reviving two major ports).

There are plenty of smaller cross-country routes that would also deliver lasting economic benefit for the whole of the UK if they could be brought up to a standard fit for C21.

Plus we need to build 500,000 new homes every year for the next 10 years – preferably in and around the towns and cities mentioned above, rather than cramming ever more people inside the M25.

Simple really.

@HuwSayer