Guest post on privacy and privilege
11 June 2010An article by Jon Harley, republished here with permission. Some people have legitimate reasons for wanting or needing privacy; others don’t, but that’s not a good reason to dismiss the whole issue on behalf of everyone.
World Refugee Day coming up
7 June 2010World Refugee Day is on Sunday 20 June. Some links to event details and the “Simple Acts” campaign, and a short & sweet animation.
Access at BBFD: update, clarification, apologies, thoughts
15 May 2010A follow-up to my previous post about Big Bi Fun Day, and a response to Ian’s comment there.
Access to vote
6 May 2010A heads-up on Scope’s "Polls Apart" campaign, to remove practical obstacles which may prevent people with disabilities from being able to vote.
Election day
6 May 2010UK elections today. A quote from David Mitchell in the Observer, and some thoughts of my own.
Down the plug’ole (for now)
15 April 2010The section on home-based education from the proposed Children, Schools and Families Bill was ditched in the “wash-up”. Musings on what’s next, including the election, and legislative process in general.
Give me evidence
31 January 2010One flavour of discounting first-hand voices: A theory that our ethics and scepticism are being misconstrued/misrepresented as selfish blinkered naïveté.
You would say that
30 January 2010On the discounting of first-hand voices in favour of external “experts”. This is an obstacle to determining ethical and effective courses of action. Featuring quotes from Marcus Riggs and Charlotte Cooper, and references to the Children, Schools and Families Bill.
Advantages of maintaining ignorance
28 January 2010There’s a saying that “knowledge is power”. But sometimes ignorance has advantages too.
Featuring a quote from Eve Kosofsky Sedgwick, and a couple of extracts from the Children, Schools and Families Bill Committee.
Self-sovereignty for children
25 January 2010Here I quote something Louisa wrote on children’s self-sovereignty, the non-neutral role of the state, and an ethical point of reference for the shape of our activism. This arose out of a discussion about how compulsory school can be used to protect children from being made to work (in the economic/ money-earning/ survival sense).
Dysfunctional news media
4 January 2010The book Flat Earth News gives an invaluable insight into the present-day news media. Highly recommended for all activists. Quotes and discussion here.
The nature of rights
2 January 2010Are rights real? If so, what kind of real? A sort of foundation for any possible future discussions here involving rights.