Apologies for my extended absence. My new ISP is due to activate my broadband on Thursday, so I should be fine for this weekend.

There's only so much local government can do without state support. With the current round of spending cuts, UK councils are being squeezed tighter than ever. I read this week in the paper that 2000 jobs in Manchester Council and 700 in Salford Council are being axed, and that's two big cities within a few miles of where I live.


People in general seem to be quite cynical about the national government, whoever happens to be in charge. Governments always do questionable things that the public aren't always happy with, but there are times when the public isn't interested enough and they can get away with more. These days, more and more people are more engaged or at least take an interest in politics, because they are feeling the effects more directly (the recent rise in VAT from 17.5% to 20% on certain items, for example). People take note when a politician says one thing and does another (like Nick Clegg's position on tuition fees).


When it comes to local government however, people are definitely less engaged. Whether its the single issue protestor, the local busybody or just a concerned parent, the people who care about local issues tend to be fewer and generally people with strong wills and beliefs about what should happen, and attempt to get a more direct change from their local government. Of course, the red tape machine doesn't move quickly, so issues tend to need years of determined interest before action is eventually taken.


With the recent political awakening, I suspect more people will look to local government as the first point of call to voice their concerns and attempt to affect a change. There is a general frustration that I suspect is out there though, and with the slow turning cogs of bureaucracy, there will be a move for the public to take more direct action, either through strikes, protests and similar movements, and that has been seen in recent months especially.


All that said, however, we should come back to the matter at hand - how much influence the local governments should have to make decisions, and how much national government should have. Of course, there should be something of a top-down approach in some sense, with the national government setting the laws of the land, but there should be some local government support, and freedom to take care of local issues, which they can more easily do since they are on the 'front line', as it were, of the issues that people genuinely care about. There should also be more avenues for local feedback to improve and optimise efficiency, and to get the general mood (and not through polls, which generally have specifically designed questions to get the sort of answer you want) of the public.


In general, the way governments should aim to work is as invisibly as possible, and intrude as little as possible in people's lives. With the recent moves from the US Department of Homeland Security to install videos in supermarkets, for example, it is certainly not aiming to move in that direction.

Finally got my internet fixed. Turns out one of the cables leading outside this place had been damaged, and allowed rainwater to leak in and corrode the cable. Engineers were awesome and fixed it all within half an hour.

Stupid internet went tits up, I couldnt get online for more than a minute or two before it went down. ISP said there was a problem with the phone line, but whatever it was seems to have fixed itself either last night or sometime within the last 15 minutes. Let's hope I don't miss the next one, stupid thing.

http://www.itnews.com.au/News/242051,un-mulls-internet-regulation-options.aspx

Naturally, once a leak comes out, especially one this large, there will be a push for tighter security. This seems more like a push to limit free speech on the internet, akin to what is happening in China right now. There are ways around things, of course - no computer security is impossible to beat after all, there are some talented hackers out there. Do we really need global regulation on the internet, especially from a practically defunct organisation like the UN?

I sort of enjoy the party dynamic going on. We have Parrap, the eternal goody-two shoes, Gremlian, the belligerent rogue always up for a scrap and to be as irreverent as possible, and Carfal, who is trying to be the Machiavellian manipulator of sorts and getting into even more trouble than the others combined. Gonna be even more nuts when we meet up with the other party members, there's a nice healthy mix of chaos already.

Genasi appear in the Manual of the Planes, and its an easy transition to adapt them for a PC race. Probably have a LA+1 like most planar races though

http://savewikileaks.net/2010/12/wikilekas-hideout-photo/

Interesting to know how well protected the servers are. Pretty awesome if you ask me

http://uk.news.yahoo.com/22/20101209/tpl-uk-wikileaks-guantanamo-81f3b62.html

"He's got the personal files of every prisoner in GITMO," said one person who was in contact with Assange earlier this year.

On Wednesday, Assange's lawyer, Mark Stephens, told Reuters that because WikiLeaks websites were still operating, there was no plan to release "insurance file" at the moment.

So, Assange has a contingency if Wikileaks is ever shut down? I wonder what he's keeping up his sleeve

Just posting to confirm my interest. Not sure what class I want to play yet, but I'm leaning towards bard since I don't think I've played one before. I'll run a few prestige class ideas by you if they are allowed too.

Seems there's a bit of a Chinese Renaissance atm. Currently playing Dynasty Warriors 3: Xtreme Legends, and I have both this and the original DW3, which allows for lots of expanded options. Currently collecting the 5th weapons, which requires the hardest difficulty, and it certainly lives up to its name - this is probably the hardest in the entire DW series.

What else am I playing? Something older skool - Desert Strike: Return to the Gulf. I'm actually doing so in order to plan a TAS speedrun sometime in the future, although I won't actually do the nitty gritty until my current TAS project (Fire Emblem: Fuuin no Tsurugi) is finished.