The Wardman Wire

You are browsing the archives of 2008 July.

As our acquaintances increase, accelerated by email, Facebook and group texts, it’s possible that we trade quality for quantity. We take our time to build networks, instead of friendships, and occasionally feel quite alone.

ASBO Jesus is hopping mad, as well…

A cartoon from ASBO Jesus.

Reuse note: see Jon’s license here. Basically you can reuse the image, but you must give an attribution. You can donate to support Jon at the above link (right hand margin).

I’ll be adding this cartoon to the resources page.

When the informal coalition cum network coalesced around the “Usmanov Affair” in autumn 2007, a number of actions happened within the first few days.

At the time Evgeny Morozov, who writes the Daily EM blog about “about the future of technology, media, globalisation and other issues”, put together some reflections under the heading “Cyberactivism 101″ - documenting the lessons that could be learnt by susequent campaigns.

In this post I am recalling his tips for coalitions where an opponent is attempting to close down debate. This is a summary - Engeny’s original article has more detail, and relates the comments to the specific example of the Usmanov case.

A weekly roundup of publications, reports, events & articles from the leading UK think tanks.
Don’t let the mention of that lazy trope ‘political correctness’ put you off this weeks ‘must read’ piece -the CPS report ‘Through the Looking Glass’ on Western foreign policy and the sometimes erroneous attitudes that frame it. No roundup next week [...]

Dave Walker is a cartoonist who runs a popular website, which includes the blogs We Blog Cartoons, Cartoon Church and The Cartoon Blog.

On the morning of July 22nd 2008 he received a cease and desist letter threatening legal action unless he removed 75 posts from his Cartoon Church blog by lunchtime - i.e., half a day’s notice.

These 75 posts had reported the deterioration and alleged mismanagement over a 2 year period in a UK book chain called SPCK, which had been taken over by a company run by Mark Brewer. Dave Walker’s was the main published source reporting the situation, asking questions about the management of the chain, and highlighting the treatment of the employees.

We do not think that reasonable comment should be closed down like that, and we are working to support him.

This article is aiming to help Media Reporters and anybody else find the key information quickly.

Labour have lost Glasgow East. A seat where they had a huge 13,507 majority and gained more than 60% of the vote at the last election now lost to the SNP, with a swing of more than 22%.
When Labour is losing a seat like Glasgow East, which they really should be able to hold easily, [...]