Labour talking stalking

“Stalking must be a crime”, says Yvette Cooper ( link).

I absolutely agree with her on that. I also agree with Jason Hunter who said that Labour had 13 years to do it. Why didn’t they make it happen?

Labour made up 3000 new crimes while in power.  ‘Impersonating a traffic warden; selling a grey squirrel; detonating a nuclear bomb’ (link) and protesting outside of Parliament without permission.

Yet no one thought of making stalking a crime?! So many people have suffered from it and now with the internet, it is easier than ever.

Yet another reason not to trust Labour! They might sound good at times out of office but when in power the only thing they deliver is authoritarianism and not actual protection of people and their liberties.

On Putin’s presidency

Today ‘Mr Putin and current President Dmitry Medvedev backed one another to switch roles.’

It is the top news story on the BBC.

It is not even news for me.

As a Russian, I find it very depressing to say that it feels like it really does not matter who is the president at the moment or in the next 20 years, Putin will be in charge of the country. That’s how most people I speak with feel.

The parts of the country that are still like the third world will remain like the third world. The billionaires who are in power now will remain in power.

The word ‘democracy’ is like a joke in Russia, only no one is laughing.

When I was 22 I..

1. Started my own small business (consulting law firms)
2. Got married
3. Bought a house
4. Was the election agent for the first time
5. Was a Director of Political Development for a charitable trust
6. Went to the Royal Garden Party
7. Finished Diablo 2 (normal)  in hardcore level (without dying once) with my Rawr the Barbarian
8. Made new friends

Thanks to all lovely people who made this year so good I hope that next year is even better and more productive.

Decisions are made by those who get permission from the police.

As most of you already know, libdem members now can’t go to conference without being accredited by the police.

It ‘requires party members to disclose personal data to the police and which is designed to enable the police to advise that certain party members should not be allowed to attend. ‘

I can’t think of more eloquent way to describe it other than just crazy.

We are the party who live and breathe liberal values and already delivering some of them in government – such as banning ID cards. Why don’t we apply those to our own conference?

I decided not to partake in this nonsense and watch the conference on TV.

I don’t however encourage others to stay home because as President Bartlett said ‘Decisions are made by those who show up’.  Or in this case by those who get permission by from the police. So those of you who do decide to go please vote on the motion that Gareth Epps and others are proposing against these crazy illiberal rules.

I would go just for this motion but don’t have funds to afford such gesture.

Sorry to all my dear friends who I won’t see this year but I just can’t get myself to go through with it – it is against everything I believe in.

On referral fees ban

According to BBC  The government is to ban referral fees in personal injury claims in an attempt to curb the “compensation culture”.

This is a topic close to my heart as despite my tutor’s advice ‘don’t work for dodgy lawyers’ I very briefly was an intern at one of those ‘personal injury firms’.

One of the things I was helping with was finding Russian-speaking clients so I was coming up to people and saying something very similar to: ‘if your friend, colleague or family member had an accident, you can earn 200 pounds for referring him/her to us’.

Response was very interesting. Some people, rightly, looked down on me. They said that if something was to happen to their loved one, calling people like me would be the last thing they would want to do.

But some were very excited with the opportunity of earning extra cash. So we signed lots of people up.

I left that firm after three days because I hated the concept and didn’t want to be one of those ‘ambulance-chasers’.

When I first saw this news on BBC, I was delighted – I really don’t like this system. However, not long after, my liberal instincts kicked in. I am against banning anything unless it harms others. The rise of insurance prices and annoying text messages trying to sign people up don’t constitute sufficient harm as far as I am concerned.

Also some people actually have series accidents and injuries (caused by asbestos for example) and those personal injury firms with their referral system raised awareness of those health risks and helped a lot of people.  Maybe that is enough of justification for their aggressive marketing and sending out troops of annoying people like I was for three days.

I would welcome a discussion and will wholeheartedly support the ban if I was presented with a case on how this system can seriously harm anyone.

But for now: there you go: this is just another example of things that should not be banned just because we don’t like it.