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Trying to emulate a previous incumbent, Andy Burnham challenges Tessa Jowell's in the "shit for brains" stakes.
The Director General of the BBC, Mr Mark Thompson once called the government minister responsible for broadcasting and culture Mrs "shit for brains". (Since then, Ms Jowell has been given the job of spending billions of pounds of our money on a two-week jamboree that is the London 2012 Olympics.)
Now Andy Burnham, new to the job, seems to have forgotten that he is in his job because some of the people in this country voted for him or his party. This seems to have gone to his head because now he wants to snoop on everyone's hard drives.
Mr and Mrs Shit For Brains?
He plans that, on the say so of private record companies and television broadcasters you will be banned from the internet. No need to go to court, no police investigation, just on the say of someone at a private company.
It seems that New Labour have taken George Orwell's 1984 Big Brother to heart and want to control your private music, video and photo collections.
So, with just 22 prison places left in the UK today, he proposes "tougher penalties for copyright infringement."
You will go to jail if you listen to your home music at work!
It seems quite possible that using a service such as orb.com or Slingbox will result in being denied the internet for ever and put you in prison.
Orb and Slingbox will get you banned from the net
It seems that should this law be passed we finally have a new totalitarian state under PM Gordon Brown and his moronic ministers.
This is madness. Even Thatcher didn't dare go this far.
Music is my main passion, my record/CD collection has close to 8,000 titles.
I regularly download music...sometimes stuff I already own where the pressing is rubbish, sometimes from bands that allow songs to be downloaded, sometimes stuff that internet friends have sent me of their own music, sometimes when the music isn't available to buy, and yes, sometimes these are naughty ones, but, I then buy the music if/when it gets re-issued. I have downloaded copyright free music.
As well as this, downloading/filesharing/mixes sent in the post are a great way of discovering new bands...I've gone out and bought entire back catalogues after discovering bands in these ways.
Pretty much everyone LEGALLY downloads music. How on earth will the ISPs know who is being naughty without first snooping on our entire web traffic, which as well as loss of privacy could potentially slow up net connections, and then checking up on the copyright status of all the tracks that are downloaded? Would a private company, whose bottom line is PROFIT go to such lengths? I can't see it myself.
This is so DUMB that even George W Bush could see the flaws.
Mark Sunday 24 February 2008 3:13AM Weston-super-mare
I agree with what Mark above says.
This is another New Labour “pie in the sky” scheme. New Labour seems to have forgotten that the government is suppose to work for and represent the citizens of this country. MP's and ministers don't want the voters to know what they spend “their” allowances on (public money), but think that it is okay for all the citizens of this country to be spied on 24 hours a day, every day. Regardless of the rights and wrongs of copyright infringement, it is a civil crime, and no matter what you do, it is impossible in a free country to stop it. The government should stay out of it if they are unable to find a fair and workable solution.
Mark: Thatcher might not have been popular with everyone, but she was a libertarian not an authoritarian by nature. And she did what she said she would, rather than spouting plattitudes and then doing nothing worthwhile.
I will agree tat with Thatcher it did what it said on the tin, even if she played dirty to achieve this sometimes.
As far as being libertarian goes, Thatcher was an economic libertarian, but, on social issues she was only libertarian if you fitted into 'normal'. Anything even slightly non-mainstream, or what was considered 'ordinary', she came down on like a ton of bricks. Clause 28, and the battle of the Beanfield are two examples of this.
Mark: As I recall the miner's strike going on around me when I was going to school, and protested against Clause 28, the CJB, spent tie at "peace camps" outside Menwith Hill and the like, I find it odd defending Thatcher. She got booted out when she went mad and did the Community Charge (aka Poll Tax), there seems no credible alternative to Brown and his dumb henchmen. Perhaps we need a British Gorbachev?
I'm reminded of the phrase "There is a Policeman Inside All Our Head - He Must Be Destroyed" probably needs to be rewritten "There is a Policeman Inside All Our Personal computers...". Gotta love Adam Curtis...
I remember seeing at the time. Brilliant programme.
It shows in a nutshell a lot of what is wrong with the way things are in 'developed western democracies'.
You see it in all walks of life, not just politics, but, music, literature, right down to the way food is processed and sold in the big chains.
Unfortunately, it leaves those of us that are shouting from the sidelines increasingly marginalized (I'm involved with a number of things). The one recent exception being the war in Iraq, where the arguments against the war & continued occupation have been largely won as far as joe public is concerned, if not the politicians.
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on UK Free TV
BBC NEWS - Technology - Europe rejects anti-piracy plans, so it would appear that Andy Burnham has grey, rather than brown, matter in his head after all.
Mrs "shit for brains". (Since then, Ms Jowell has been given the job of spending billions of pounds of our money on a two-week jamboree that is the London 2012 Olympics.)
Show: 
