While I'm out on the streets of Regency asking for your votes in the up-coming by-election, back in the world of the web I can also ask for your votes. I'm absolutely delighted that this site has been nominated to the blogs shortlist for the Brighton & Hove Web Awards 07.
You can vote for this site online now. Please vote!
Obvious science: Organic food is healthier
The Soil Association have been saying this for years. It's obvious that industrialised intensive farming leaches the soil of minerals leaving produce that is low in flavour and goodness. Hence the unfortunate need for vitamin supplements even with a balanced diet. What's most galling is the Food Standard Authority's continued insistence in there being no difference between organic and industrially produced food.
A case of the wrong technology applied incorrectly
The Swiss have made a big deal about using 'quantum cryptography' to protect electronic vote tabulation transmissions. This significantly misses the point but I couldn't have put it any better than Avi Rubin so read his post!
This week has absolutely zipped past. On Monday I learnt the sad news that Dr Hermione Roy, a Green Councillor for Brighton's Regency ward had been forced to step-down due to ill-health. We're all wishing Hermione a swift recovery and offer our thanks for her many contributions.
On Tuesday Brighton & Hove Green Party counted the votes for our local executive and I was delighted to be declared the new Chair. Earlier that day a selection process had been begun to choose a candidate for the by-election Hermione's resignation has triggered.
I'm deeply honoured to have been selected by the local party at a very well attended special meeting last night. I'm looking forward to campaigning in the wonderful Regency area over the coming weeks and to working with the ward's other Green Councillor, Sven Rufus. I absolutely love canvassing, though this will be my first winter election so gloves and hat will certainly be needed!
Seven people are charged with conspiracy to defraud the returning officer in Bradford in connection with postal voting in the 2005 general election. (BBC News)
No further information is available but this is continued evidence of the security problems with postal voting that many including myself and the Committee for Standards in Public Life have drawn attention to. It's rather strange that it's taken more than two years for people to be charged, but without further information it's hard to know why this could have been.
I've just published a comment on the ORG blog about the Gould Review of the Scottish Elections this May '07.
Some additional interesting links since I submitted that piece:
This Tuesday, Des Browne MP the current Scotland Office minister, commented on the Gould Review accepting a number of the recommendations including to not have e-counting at future Scottish Parliamentary elections, only at STV-based local elections. Full debate in Parliament
David Cameron has called for Douglas Alexander (previously the Scotland office minister) to be stripped of his role as Labour elections chief. It's a cunning political move which further damages Labours reputation but Gould's review is careful not to name names, so Cameron doesn't exactly have a smoking gun. Guardian report and Times report
Slowness and simplicity are popular themes at the moment, for good reason in my view.
I would love to see the Parliamentary Advisory Council for Transport Safety's recommendation on 20mph speed limits for towns implemented. It would have so many benefits in terms of improving road safety, noise levels from traffic and the very nature of our towns and cities. Roads can feel so hostile when cars and vans are zooming by. It's just not pleasant… which is why I enjoy seeing how cobbled streets slow everyone down to a lovely bumpy pace.
For a good, personal, introduction to the Slow movement (Slow Food, Slow Towns, Slow Sex, Slow everything!) then I can recommend Carl Honore’s book and website “In Praise of Slow”
It's sad to hear the grey parties bleating about who stole who's policy first. Ideas are free, it's putting them into practice that's difficult. The Green Party have also had our fair share of good ideas slip into other parties' manifestos but when it comes to implementing real change that responds to the challenges we face the other parties offer nothing but hot air – and more pollution, more roads and bigger airports.
The current spat over tax reforms strikes me as extraordinary for being so tame. Yes, rising house prices are making inherentance tax increasingly unfair and punitive. But we're not hearing principled debate over the fundamentals of our tax and benefits system. We arguging over thresholds for inheritance tax and how raised thresholds might be funded.
Of course adjusting our tax system to remain fair amidst the changes caused by spiralling house prices is reasonable – but wouldn't it have been better to deal with the causes of house price inflation much earlier than be forced into these changes now?
Green Party policy has radically rethought the basis of our economy with the aim of supporting a sustainable (in all senses) economy with simple measures. A plethora of credits, benefits and allowances would be replaced with one citizens' income whilst taxes would be focused on eliminating carbon from our economy. Simple, effective and costed.
You can read more about our policies here
I was delighted and relieved that agreement was nearly unanimous at the Open Rights Group's party conference fringe events. Attendees did not want to see e-voting and e-counting in British elections and were vocal in expressing their views.
I'd never done all three party conferences in one season before, truly a fascinating but exhausting experience. The events were hugely enjoyable to participate in and we were delighted by the thoughtful contributions our guest speakers and audiences made. You can listen to all the events on the ORG website.
Thanks to these events we've networked with politicians and agents from across the political spectrum. We've also significantly raised the level awareness on the severity of the risk e-voting and e-counting present electoral systems.
Now we wait for the government's response to the Electoral Commission's evaluations…
My friend Anne-Marie Oostveen, a founder of the 'We Don't Trust Voting Computers' foundation and current at Oxford Internet Institute writes:
Just a quick update on the Dutch e-voting situation. The last couple of days have been quite exciting in the Netherlands with regards to the use of voting computers. As you all might know, the foundation 'Wijvertrouwenstemcomputersniet' initiated a serious debate about the risks associated with the use of the voting machines by approximately 98 % of the Dutch population. It wasn't until the foundation showed with a well-documented hack how easy it was to commit fraud that Mr. Atzo Nicolai, the Dutch Minister for Government Reform and Kingdom Relations, decided in December 2006 to set up two committees to investigate the electoral process.
The first committee was led by ex-Member of Parliament L. Hermans and looked back to the early 60s to examine the decisions made surrounding the introduction of voting computers. The second advisory committee was chaired by Minister of State Mr. F. Korthals Altes. The task of this committee was to review the current electoral process in the Netherlands and make proposals to improve or alter it. One point the committee considered concerned the risks of using electronic voting versus paper ballots. The committee issued its 'Voting with Confidence' advisory report last Thursday 27 September 2007 in The Hague. Main conclusions: the ballot paper is preferable to electronic voting since it makes a recount possible and it is more transparent. Internet voting should be limited to people living abroad, citizens resident in the Netherlands will have to cast their ballots in polling stations, making vote selling and coercion very difficult, if not impossible.
The deputy Minister for Interior A. Bijleveld said in a first response that she would accept the committee's advice, and ban electronic voting. She announced that the 'Regulation for approval of voting machines 1997' will be withdrawn forthwith. Elections in the Netherlands will be held using paper ballots and red pencil for a while. After that, citizens will probably be using 'vote printers' and optical scan counting computers.
But this was not all! The icing on the cake came on yesterday 1 October 2007 when a Dutch judge declared that the use of the Nedap e-voting machines in recent Dutch elections has been unlawful. The District Court of Alkmaar decertified all Nedap voting computers currently in use in The Netherlands. The court order is a result of an administrative law procedure started by 'We do not trust voting computers' in March 2007.
More information: http://www.wijvertrouwenstemcomputersniet.nl/English
Articles in English: * http://www.engadget.com/2007/09/27/dutch-government-abandons-e-voting-for-red-pencil/ * http://www.dutchnews.nl/news/archives/2007/09/time_not_right_for_electronic.php * http://www.votetrustusa.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=2594&Itemid=26 * http://politics.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=07/09/28/1216207 * http://www.theregister.co.uk/2007/10/01/dutch_pull_plug_on_evoting/
There will be an English translation of the 'Voting with Confidence' advisory report in a couple of weeks time.
Kind regards, Anne-Marie
Jason Kitcat 