Mark Pack

It’s Sunday. It’s 9am. It’s time for photographs of bollards, but first the news. 2 Must-Read Blog Posts What are other Liberal Democrat bloggers saying? Here are two posts that have caught the eye from the Liberal Democrat Blogs aggregator: The Mood at Lib Dem Conference: Nick Thornsby takes the pulse The Saturday List: Lib Dem Constituency Songs: Will [...] »

In amongst all the heat and not very much light over the Gordon Brown and bullying story, I was disturbed by this claim from the National Bullying Helpline's Christine Pratt: Ms Pratt added: "Over recent months we have had several inquiries from staff within Gordon Brown's office. "Some have downloaded information; some have actually called our helpline [...] »

There are two major problems with Lord Mandelson's desire to crack down on illegal file-sharing by using an awful lot of stick and no carrot. First, it means he's come up with proposals that avoid the boring old-fashioned stuff like innocent until proven guilty and no punishment without a fair process. Second, though, it also takes [...] »

The Digital Economy Bill currently going through Parliament would give Peter Mandelson huge powers to rewrite the country’s copyright laws in future – and all without much in the way of Parliamentary scrutiny or checks and balances. But Liberal Democrat peer Tim Clement-Jones has tabled an amendment to the Digital Economy Bill to delete the controversial Clause [...] »

I support the campaign by the Open Rights Group and others against Peter Mandelson's proposed crackdown on illegal file-sharing. (You can support the campaign yourself here.) But in agreeing to call the proposals "three strikes and you're out", I think the campaign has ceded an important advantage to Peter Mandelson & co. That is because, taken on its [...] »

Leaving aside the extremely hard-line nature of Peter Mandelson’s proposals for a crackdown on illegal file sharing, there is a more fundamental question about what the impact of illegal file sharing really is on the music industry. To what extent does the distribution of songs this way take money away from sales and to what [...] »

Peter Mandelson’s proposals to introduce harsh penalties for people suspected of making illegal file downloads have come in for much criticism, particularly for the low standard of proof that would be required and for deploying too much stick and not enough carrot in an attempt to change people’s behaviour. So it was the main topic [...] »

Following his speech to the Progress conference earlier today, Peter Mandelson answered a question about electoral reform. After defending the existing system, he went on to say: Now, does that mean to say that there is no change that could be made in our voting system in our country so that people really feel that it’s [...] »

Peter Mandelson’s desire to introduce stringent penalties for internet piracy look to be heading for deep trouble, with heavy criticism coming from senior businessmen, internet service providers and key parts of the music industry. First there’s this from paidContent:UK: The government’s revised, tougher plans to tackle online piracy have been dismissed as “grossly unfair” and “misconceived” by [...] »

The question of pay audits has been one of the big areas of contention within the Government ahead of the publication this week of the Equality Bill. Should firms be required to carry out an audit to see if they are paying men and women the same rate for equivalent jobs? Should small firms be [...] »