William Heath’s blog

Waitrose has written to a fellow Godalming Quaker to say it is stopping selling “West Bank” fresh herbs, which are sourced from illegal settlements. The MD writes to say:

‘until recently we have sold herbs sourced from the West Bank. However…the grower has struggled to consistently produce the required quality, so we have now amicable stopped supply and are sourcing from elsewhere

Well done Anna! Thank you to our local MP Jeremy Hunt, who wrote to Waitrose in support of a group of his constituents who queried how Waitrose’s “ethical sourcing ” policy squared with supporting businesses built on illegally seized and occupied land.

And here’s hoping that ancient peoples of various noble religions living in the Middle East relearn how to be good neighbours to each other. They’ll be an example to us all yet.

I’ve always wondered what ones rights are if stopped and searched (not that it’s likely to happen if I’m sitting at home watching TV and surfing the net, as I now am). Now Privacy International points to a useful crib sheet: text below:

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Martha Lane-Fox & William Heath

Originally uploaded by paul_clarke

Man, it was freezing. But we saw David Cameron and I finally got to meet Martha Lane-Fox. She and I spoke on a panel, she about the digital inclusion agenda on which she’s remorselessly focussed, and me about the shift in control over personal data to the individual (see text below).

If the PBA theme is coherent it’s not yet universally understood; we often lapsed into talking about release of public data (which has aftre all well and truly started). But it seems HM loyal oppo have got the appetite for some Freedom of Data legislation to expand the Freedom of Information Act. They’ll need stronger data protection and much else besides.

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A propos today’s story that the next census may be the last, Helen Bray from ONS recently sent me a thoughtful second letter in response to my concerns about privacy and the 2011 national census (census web site).

The concern of privacy and human-rights groups like FIPR and PI about this is also shared by the Quaker civil liberties group, who are further affronted that the contract to handle this enormous amount of our personal data was won by the world’s largest weapons manufacturer Lockheed Martin.

Helen Bray makes some powerful points (see pdf here)
She asserts strongly ONS take this very seriously (where from other bits of government we get at best lip service). Unusually, she states that ONS has never been asked for data by the intelligence services, where normally one would expect a woolly “neither confirm nor deny”. And she’s robust in saying ONS redirects law enforcement to other administrative sources, and resist pressure to disclose to the greatest possible extent.

The present privacy statement on the web site is here; the letter promises ONS will strengthen that.

If there is a loss of trust in ONS’s census (and I for one am in no mood voluntarily to submit to government any more than the vast amount of data it grabs, scrapes, buys and captures about me already) one feels it will be the fault of the wider laissez-faire privacy policy of Transformational Government and the toxic cross-fertilisation of public services with the security agenda.

Of course, those in the VRM community see a far better way to do censuses and much else besides. If we all used Mydex or The Mine we could submit whatever data we felt necessary whenever we wanted or it was legally required. Then we could have far better public services more closely attuned to real needs. You could do a census every hour. People could opt in or opt out. People could get paid for some data. If society wanted it, you could legislate that submitting some data was a legal requirement.

It’s the clunkiness as well as the intrusiveness of the present approach which is bothersome. If doing a census is important, why are we filling out 25m forms and scanning them all? The country’s broke, and we’re shelling out £500m to do it in this hybrid C19th way? And the arms dealer getting paid for it, of course. Feels all wrong.

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In the “longest suicide note in history” 1983 Labour manifesto Michael Foot promised the UK a national, broadband network. But Mrs Thatcher won of course. Now, in an article in the Daily Telegraph, Gordon Brown promises:

targeted, strategic action by government…to bring super-fast connections to households and businesses to every corner of the country

Of course we want better broadband in our village. But – hang on – we didn’t have any power here for last two days, and so no heating. The trains aren’t running. The road isn’t gritted; only tractors and 4×4s cab make it through. The country isn’t fit for weird weather.

And even when the snow clears, the nearest school won’t take children from our side of the parish boundary (and is overcrowded anyway). You’d have to go miles and miles to find a state school place, or an NHS dentist. And the country’s broke: massively in debt. It makes you yearn for “back to basics”.

Reflecting on the Pope’s new year message (and having offended one or two friends with an intemperate Tweet) I now have to ask – why do I feel uneasy about Papa Ratzi?

It’s said (though last year contradicted by his spokesman) that Benedict XVI was conscripted into the Hitler Youth. If so, it’s correct to say “he was a Nazi”, given he belonged to a Nazi paramilitary organisation. But nothing suggests he supported Nazi ideology then or now, so I accept that it’s irrelevant and provocative to call him “a former Nazi”. After all Hans Scholl of the White Rose movement was also in the HJ, and we do not diss his memory for it.

As my new-year hostess – a keen Tablet reader – briskly says, Benedict XVI is authoritarian, doesn’t get it on interfaith relations, and makes ill-advised remarks about Muslims. More broadly (as The Tablet argues this month) the Catholic Church has a serious problem with endemic clericalism.

He has described homosexuality as a

strong tendency ordered toward an intrinsic moral evil; and thus the inclination itself must be seen as an objective disorder

He’s ready to call for mutual respect between people regardless of ethnicity or faith, but finds it “not unjust discrimination to take sexual orientation into account”. This is a serious moral shortcoming, guaranteed to increase suffering and conflict in society, which suggests to me a flawed spiritual process underlying it.

Furthermore, if I read this right, as Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (formerly the Inquisition) since 1981 he has been responsible for jurisdiction over clerical sexual misconduct, including maintaining confidentiality of internal Church investigations which has allowed such additional unnecessary suffering. On a 25-year performance review he gets low marks for this: straight gamma.

My friend Adriana found Catholicism an indispensible bulwark against totalitarian Communism. It strikes me as an incredible religion, capable of extraordinarily profound insights (though I see Benedict formally denounced the writings of my favourite Jesuit thinker Antony de Mello as incompatible with the Chritian faith and capable of causing great harm). Catholicism has also been the foundation some fabulous artistic achievements, so there’s something pretty powerful going on in there.

But for me the present Pope isn’t the opposite of communism at all. He still embodies some of the unattractive aspects of concentration of power in a bureaucracy. He’s not oppressive to the same degree as a dictator, but there’s something distinctly stifling in his Weltauffassung, and a significant amount that is wrong and damaging.

I once met JPII. The immediate impression was of an overpowering personal warmth, and a hand like sandpaper. But I’ve never been able to shake off the feeling that a God who moves the body of Cardinals to declare his present successor the infallible spiritual leader of the one true church is moving in a pretty damn mysterious way.

I’d far rather call Joanna Lumley, more or less any Buddhist, even Barack Obama for a moral steer on big tricky issues. If I had to choose on whose knee to see my child bounce the present Pope would be at the same level as Gordon Brown wearing his fake smile; narrowly above convicted prisoners like Jonathan Aitken, but well below Stephen Fry, Stevie Wonder or the late Jimi Hendrix.

As for Beardie, he’s just in a different league. The CofE is luckier than it realises.

[I updated the language a bit to try to say what I really meant. Also: article on Ugandan "death to gays" law - http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/04/world/africa/04uganda.html?partner=rss&emc=rss Frightening how fast religious support for (protestant-evangelical in this case) discrimintation as "not unjust" leads to this end point: lynching or state-sanctioned execution. Religion is a great responsibility...]

Personal data: Professionally I want to contribute real broad progress to empowering people online. I see two ways: work with Mydex to put tools in people’s hands for informational self-determination, and build Ctrl-Shift’s work helping organisations understand and benefit from the enormous implications.

UPDATE
Milestones:
- Mydex live service this year (funded, designed, developed) by Dec 2010
- treble number of Ctrl-Shift paying research clients by Dec 2010

Government IT: Semi-professionally I’d like “one last heave” towards better vision and implementation of government IT, which I’ve worked on and done well out of in the UK for the last 20 years. I’ll continue to work with DXW to develop the public sector’s ideal IT supplier. Sir Bonar and I will stay in close touch. And I’ll work with CTPR and CPS to get a crowdsourced “Ideal Government IT Strategy” together which we present to the three main political parties. This will take the form of the “courteous and mutually respectful dialogue” (#CMRD) which has so long eluded us.

UPDATE
Milestones: ideal goverment IT strategy completed and launched by April
Co-housing: I’d like to re-form or relocate domestic life into something participative, social and sustainable. This means securing a site for a co-housing project, and getting the project going with full professional team and the right participants. We wanted to be settled in time for autumn 2010: this is now looking tough.

UPDATE
Milestone: secure site by May 2010
Also: secure back-up London basis by August 2010

In doing that I want to
- set aside enought time for family and holidays
- live within my income
- stay tolerably fit & healthy

I’ll continue to base this on Quaker faith & practice, because it’s so clear and helpful, though not always easy.

Amazon mail me to say

Dear Mr Heath,

Thank you for contacting Amazon.co.uk

We can confirm that sales of MP3s from Amazon.co.uk, including ‘Killing in the Name’ by Rage Against The Machine, count towards the Official UK Charts.

The Official UK Download Charts are compiled by The Official UK Charts Company. For more information, please visit their website:

http://www.theofficialcharts.com

Thank you for your interest in Amazon MP3 downloads.

Did we answer your question?

If yes, please click here:
http://www.amazon.co.uk/rsvp-y?c=qhfabrbh3276542686

Seems pretty cut & dried to me. But it seems to conflict with official guidance that only sales costing 40p or more count. My guess is that Amazon know their oats, but if they’re right they most have done some special deal. Any other ideas?

You can buy the track for 29p from Amazon here; MP3 with no DRM.

From my perspective in Sweden (where I just spent last week) the proposed new UK Digital Economy bill looks decidedly ill-advised.

Our concern should be for the issues, of course, not based on personal reservations about the people involved. It’s tempting to dismiss Lord Mandelson as a twice-disgraced now unelected somewhat sinister political schemer eternally open to seduction from wealthy businessmen and seduced in this specific case over lunch with David Geffen in Corfu.

We may never know. And if they’re voted out next election we might not care.

Except that my own MP Jeremy Hunt, shadow lead on the same issues, takes the same line and supports making ISPs responsible for carrying out warnings, restriction and evential disconnection for suspected filesharers. He’d like to see it happen faster.

Here’s the nub of a letter I just wrote to Jeremy, attaching the Open Rights Group’s briefing on illegal filesharing (pdf):

I spent last week in Sweden where I met finance minister Mats Odell and also young activists from the Pirate Party, which now has over 50,000 members.

Of course illegal sharing of copyright content is wrong. But there are market solutions to bring rightsholders new revenues in an Internet age. And an open and neutral Internet is essential for all, for social life, education, work, culture and participation in public life.

Supporting measures to snoop on it, restrict it and eventually cut people off is a proven way to alienate young voters on a massive scale. The pivotal moment for the Pirate Party was evidence of Swedish government collaboration with the RIAA/MPAA prior to the guilty verdict in the Pirate Bay trial.

The established parties in Sweden did not know what had hit them, and are now recalibrating their world view urgently.

I wonder what it’s like being on the receiving end of sickly-sweet overtures from corporate lobbyists defending an outmoded view of the world? Maybe he’ll tell me; I’m seeing him 4 Dec (about the Quaker Waitrose concern).