Bob's blog - the realm of threalm

For anyone following the story of Labor's policy assault on Internet freedom this development constitutes yet another remarkable backdown by Communications Minister Stephen and Kev Labor : ABC News, 31 December 2007: Conroy announces mandatory Internet filters . The Australian, 26 May 2009: Rudd Government has indicated that it may back away from its mandatory Internet filtering plan Along the journey between these two opposing positions Minister Stephen has vociferously lambasted critics of his proposed intrusive mandatory censorship of ISPs , calling them alarmists and even suggesting that their position was tantamount to encouraging and enabling child porn. Minister Stephen surely deserves to have these criticisms of the opponents of his mandatory censorship regime thrown back in his face, now that he has moved to the position they advocated. Although it's what Stephen deserves, for being so dismissive of legitimate concerns, it's probably better for all of u

. That's a headline which Fairfax publications seem unable to use no matter how severe the provocation from incompetent Labor Governments around Australia for any length of time . They have never found cause to say that, or anything remotely like it, even once about the fantastically incompetent 12 year old "New" Labour government in the UK. We have wall to wall Labor governments in Australia, other than in WA, with equally spectacular levels of incompetence, as Gordon Brown, yet will Fairfax seriously hold any of these Labor governments to account? Let's look briefly at some of the items available just from today's online news services that could easily justify such a banner headline: SMH 25/5/09: Labor PM Rudd interferes personally in diplomatic appointments , preventing important international postings being filled for extended periods. SMH 25/5/09: Labor PM Rudd engages in publicity stunts to fool the electorate into believing he is doing something usef

The UK Home Office yesterday released a press release : "Home Office name hate promoters excluded from the UK 5 May 2009 Individuals banned from the UK for stirring-up hatred have been named and shamed for the first time, the Home Secretary announced today. The list covers people excluded from the United Kingdom for fostering extremism or hatred between October 2008 and March 2009. It follows the Home Secretary’s introduction of new measures against such individuals last year, including creating a presumption in favour of exclusion in respect of all those who have engaged in spreading hate. ... ...In the period from 28 October 2008 to 31 March 2009 the Home Secretary excluded a total of 22 individuals from coming to the United Kingdom. ... 16 individuals are: ... ... Michael Savage Controversial daily radio host. Considered to be engaging in unacceptable behaviour by seeking to provoke others to serious criminal acts and fostering hatred which might lead to inter-community violenc