Politics

  • Argentina introduces Huayra Linux

    Steve WoodsLanguage, Linux, Politics, Tech

    The Argentine state has developed its own Linux distribution based on Debian GNU/Linux, Germany’s Heise reports. Huayra Linux (the word huayra is from Quechua and means wind) is part of the Conectar Igualdad programme, which is aimed at closing the digital divide in Argentina by equipping schools better. Three million netbooks were handed out to pupils and teachers under this programme between 2010 and 2012. Huayra Linux is an important building block for achieving this programme’s goals since it frees users from reliance on proprietary software suppliers, such as Microsoft.

    Huayra Linux logo

  • France’s Elysée Palace makes modest contribution to open data

    Steve WoodsOpen Data, Politics, Social Media, Tech

    Le Monde Informatique reports that the website of the Elysée Palace, the official residence of the French president is taking a step towards open data. In a tweet on 16th September, it announced it was opening up its data in a new open data section of its website.

    picture accompanying tweet announcing Elysée open data site

    At present this open data section consists essentially of the diary of President François Hollande which has been appearing since last December at the top of the site’s home page in the form of a timeline. The data in this timeline are offered in two formats: XML and JSON.

    The Elysée is also releasing the origin of visits made to its website during the previous week in JSON format. Some 41% of its visitors originate from Google, 30% reach the site directly, 8% are referred by Twitter and 4% by the Elysée’s Facebook page. There are also daily statistics for the site’s servers (energy consumption, load) and visits displayed in graphical form: number of visitors, number of pages viewed per hour and the source of visits.

    Since the announcement of the the French government’s open data portal data.gouv.fr in February 2011, several public sector organisations, publicly-owned companies (e.g. SNCF and RATP) and local and regional authorities have opened up some of their data.

  • Switzerland launches open data portal

    Steve WoodsOpen Data, Politics, Tech

    Swiss state coat of armsThe Swiss Federal Government launched its open data portal opendata.admin.ch comprising over 1,600 public data sets, including election results, key figures for cantons and local authorities, as well as demographic information and data at the start of the Open Knowledge Conference 2013 in Geneva, the German technology news site Heise reports. The portal will provide a central point of access for the open data portfolio in Switzerland. The website already features the first applications based on the data made available.

    Open Data currently ranks fairly high up the Swiss political agenda: last week the National Council called for a master plan for open government from the Swiss Federal Council. The Swiss Federal Council in turn announced the development of a national open data strategy by 2014, which, amongst other things, should clear the way for the repeal of restrictive usage rights, as well as the abolition of fees on public data.

  • Language row over new Belgian national stadium

    Steve WoodsLanguage, Politics

    A dispute has broken out in Belgium over the language to be used in the new national stadium just one day after agreement was finally reached to build it, Reuters reported at the end of last week.

    The planned 60,000 capacity stadium will be the centrepiece of Brussels’ bid to host matches during the 2020 European football championships and replace the current 45,000 seat King Baudouin Stadium (formerly known as the Heysel Stadium).

    The venues are only about 1 kilometre apart, but while the King Baudouin Stadium is in Brussels (which is officially bilingual but largely French-speaking), its planned successor is in the Dutch-speaking region of Flanders.

    Flemish politicians are indignant of Brussels extending its francophone to Flanders. Flemish Sports Minister Philippe Muyters has stated that language rules must be respected.

    “One of the underlying elements should be an agreement on the use of Dutch there,” said Muyters on a television programme last Wednesday.

    Language is a frequent source of controversy in Belgium. The 6.23 mn. Flemish majority fiercely protects its Dutch language and culture and is constantly alert to encroachments by French speakers, who comprise some 3.32 mn. of the Belgian population.

  • Made redundant? No, I was ‘catalyzed’

    Steve WoodsBristol, Language, Politics, Social Media

    For decades, managers have been trying to come up with anodyne terms for dismissing people and making them redundant.

    Some of the more common ones are: give someone their notice, get rid of, discharge, terminate; lay off; sack, give someone the sack, fire, boot out, give someone the boot, give someone their marching orders, show someone the door, can, pink-slip; cashier.

    Following this trend, bosses at Bristol City Council have now come up with another, ‘to catalyze’, as evidenced by a mole down the Counts Louse (since renamed ‘City Hall’ by Mayor Red Trousers (posts passim). Ed.) who tweeted the following yesterday.

    screenshot of BCCDisgruntled tweet

    I’m sure all employees of the council are reassured that the management has their best interests at heart by not wanting to hurt their feelings as they’re unceremoniously handed their P45s and shown the door.

  • Felix Road petition collects 3,500 signatures

    Steve WoodsBristol, Politics

    I’ve received an email from my local councillor Margaret Hickman informing me that the petition to save Felix Road Adventure Playground from closure (posts passim) collected 3,500 signatures.

    This means its future will now have to be debated in full council by Bristol City Council.

    Well done to all who signed!

    Update 13/09/13: The final total number of signatures for the petition was 3,660, as reported by Bristol 24/7.

  • Absent interpreters delay 642 court cases in 2012

    Steve WoodsLanguage, Politics

    image of gilded statue of Justice on top of Old BaileyThe Independent reports today that more than 500 court cases are being thrown out or delayed each week due to failings by prosecutors or in the court system.

    Government figures reveal that a total 106,859 cases before crown and magistrates’ courts were dropped or delayed in 2012, costing the public purse an estimated £17.4 mn.

    Of this total the absence of an interpreter was responsible for delays to 642 cases in the year in question.

    No doubt Helen Grant MP and her colleagues at the Ministry of Justice will attribute these interpreter absences as “teething troubles” with its contract with Capita Translation & Interpreting, rather than a sign of the latter’s total incompetence and yet more evidence that it was wrong to fiddle with the previous arrangements with interpreting services for courts and tribunals in the first place.

  • Save Felix Road Adventure Playground – the final push

    Steve WoodsBristol, Politics

    This blog has featured the campaign to save Felix Road Adventure Playground from closure before (posts passim).

    image of Felix Rd Adventure Playground
    Felix Rd Adventure Playground

    The email below has now been received from local councillor Margaret Hickman and requires no further explanation.

    Dear All,

    The community around Felix Road Adventure Playground would be so grateful if you could complete the on-line petition which is below. What we are trying to do is collect 3.5k signatures to trigger a debate in the council chamber. We want to ensure that a long term sustainable solution is found for all the adventure playgrounds in the city.

    Can you please sign the petition now on-line and forward this email to all your Bristol contacts.

    Thank you so much.

    Best wishes. Marg

    Here is the link to the e-petition to save Felix Road: http://epetitions.bristol.gov.uk/epetition_core/community/petition/2326

    As the adventure playground has been a valuable local facility for decades, I’ve signed the petition already; have you?

  • YLAL: interpreting outsourcing a lesson for legal aid changes

    Steve WoodsLanguage, Politics

    YLAL logoThere’s a debate on criminal legal aid reforms and price competitive tendering taking place in Westminster Hall on 4 September 2013. The debate has been secured by Labour’s Karl Turner MP and will centre on the Ministry of Justice’s proposed changes to criminal legal aid contained in the consultation paper “Transforming Legal Aid: Delivering a More Credible and Efficient System”.

    Ahead of the debate, Young Legal Aid Lawyers (YLAL), a 2,000-strong group of lawyers committed to practising in areas of law traditionally funded by legal aid, has very helpfully prepared a briefing note (PDF) ahead of this debate.

    The briefing note is not very complementary about the MoJ’s experience with the outsourcing of interpreting services for courts and tribunals to ALS/Capita T&I (posts passim) and makes the following point about this ongoing fiasco.

    Short term “savings” cannot justify the long term cost to the justice system, one which Mr Grayling is correct to describe as “a justice system of which we can be proud and which justly deserves its world-wide recognition for impartiality and fairness”. We should learn the lessons of outsourcing to the lowest bidder and how this leads to the state picking up the tab when providers fail to deliver, for example, the contracting of interpreting services for the court and tribunal system.

    What’s the betting Justice Minister ‘Failing’ Grayling – the first non-lawyer to be appointed Lord Chancellor since 1673 – completely ignores all advice and pushes ahead regardless with his disastrous plans?

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