Tories Propose to Enhance Public Participation In Government Through The Internet

British politics are fascinating to watch. It is rather amazing when one realizes that the Brits have no written constitution and no bill of rights. So much of what goes on in the the UK is based on long standing tradition and common law supplemented by modern statutory law, EU treaties and conventions.

At any rate, David Cameron, leader of the opposition conservative Torries, has announced several proposals to change government in advance of Britain's next major election cycle. The most interesting change proposed is an exercise in direct democracy - a bill to allow members of the public to create on-line petitions asking the House of Commons to debate the topic specified in the petition:

David Cameron said if enough people signed an online petition, MPs should discuss and vote on the issue in the Commons to connect Parliament to the "MySpace generation".

. . . Of the e-petitions idea, Mr Cameron accepted there could be "difficulties" about issues some people might want discussed, such as football results.

He said a new legislative business committee would act as a "filter" to frivolous petitions.

But he said it was "depressing" at the moment for MPs to present a petition on behalf of constituents to the Commons, adding: "You drop this petition in a bag behind the Speaker's Chair and to all intents and purposes it disappears."

Read the entire story here. On its face, this certainly sounds like a fascinating proposal. It is a small first step in tieing the public directly into the government through the internet.

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Girls Gone Wild . . . in Saudi Arabia?

Unless my eyes deceive me . . . Ibn Wahhab must be rolling over in his unmarked grave at the moment. It seems there is an internet sex revolution in Ridyah. See here.

(H/T Instapundit)

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Framin' Fred - & See Fred E-Run. E-Run, Fred, E-Run

Apparently, Fred Thompson, the un-candidate, is getting the attention of his would-be opponents. They have sent a whole bunch of people with white collars and shovels to Nashville to mine for dirt. This according to Instapundit:

Nashville law circles were abuzz last week about professional snoops – either private investigators or opposition research political types - combing public records in Metro buildings looking for potential dirt on Thompson. Property records seemed to be at the top of their list.

And this also from Instapundit on Fred's likely unconventional e-strategy for campaigning:

Thompson, his wife and advisers in Washington and Tennessee also are drawing up plans for a new style of campaign that would rely heavily on technology and his celebrity status to avoid some of the slogging through the snow in Iowa and New Hampshire that is normally required of White House hopefuls.

The advisers say Thompson, who plays District Attorney Arthur Branch on NBC's "Law & Order," is researching ways to use technology -- including the Web, videoconferences and teleconferences -- to harness the enthusiasm for his candidacy among grass-roots bloggers and activists. The campaign also would rely on large events, such as those that have in part supplanted country-store campaigning for some in the Democratic field.

"Well-known candidates can do things a little differently," explained one adviser. "You show up, you're accessible, but you don't have to go to every county seat several times.

Originally, the idea of a late-start campaign for Thompson looked like something of a lark, but the phantom candidacy is accelerating.

This strategy apparently has the Instapundit's seal of approval. I concur.

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Le Censorship

France has just passed major legislation limiting the rights of anyone not an officially licensed journalist to film acts of violence by others and then to broadcast them. Additionally, France is debating whether to impose rules on what may or may not be published on the internet. Fauta's blog has commentary and a round-up of posts on the latest in an ominous move to stifle the free flow of information in France.

The French Constitutional Council has approved a law that criminalizes the filming or broadcasting of acts of violence by people other than professional journalists. The law could lead to the imprisonment of eyewitnesses who film acts of police violence, or operators of Web sites publishing the images, one French civil liberties group warned on Tuesday.

The council chose an unfortunate anniversary to publish its decision approving the law, which came exactly 16 years after Los Angeles police officers beating Rodney King were filmed by amateur videographer George Holliday on the night of March 3, 1991. The officers’ acquittal at the end on April 29, 1992 sparked riots in Los Angeles.

If Holliday were to film a similar scene of violence in France today, he could end up in prison as a result of the new law, . . . And anyone publishing such images could face up to five years in prison and a fine of €75,000 (US$98,537), potentially a harsher sentence than that for committing the violent act.

. . . During parliamentary debate of the law, government representatives said the offense of filming or distributing films of acts of violence targets the practice of “happy slapping,” in which a violent attack is filmed by an accomplice, typically with a camera phone, for the amusement of the attacker’s friends.

The broad drafting of the law so as to criminalize the activities of citizen journalists unrelated to the perpetrators of violent acts is no accident, but rather a deliberate decision by the authorities, said Cohet. He is concerned that the law, and others still being debated, will lead to the creation of a parallel judicial system controlling the publication of information on the Internet.

The government has also proposed a certification system for Web sites, blog hosters, mobile-phone operators and Internet service providers, identifying them as government-approved sources of information if they adhere to certain rules. The journalists’ organization Reporters Without Borders, which campaigns for a free press, has warned that such a system could lead to excessive self censorship as organizations worried about losing their certification suppress certain stories.

See the entire article here.

Besides the obvious problems with limiting information in a free society, it is especially problematic in France, where the Government, in apparent coordination with a complicit major news media, are not addressing France's extensive problems with a restive and radicalized Muslim population, but rather are deliberately ignoring it and minimizing coverage and commentary about the crimes that spring from it. As Fausta explains:

As it was, the French media did their best to not report on, and then underplay as much as possible, the stories about the Halimi murder, the 2006 New Year's day rampage on a train from Nice to Lyon, and the 2005 rioting banlieus, which continued into 2006. . . I expect a full news blackout on anything that doesn't reflect well on La Belle France. Everything else will be whitewashed to an appropriate shade.

That seems a sure recette pour le désastre.

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DEMS MAKING BETTER USE OF THE INTERNET. Instapundit has posted on this issue several times in the recent past. Within this rubric, the Wash Post has a story today that covers the growth of Obamamania -- and Hillary -- on Facenet.

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