Scottish Political News

I have a post up at Transport Blog.

Oddly, the spell-checker in the Expression Engine blogging software complained about the word 'blogged'. Blogger's spell-checker doesn't have any problems with it, though.

Holyrood will have final say on school plan Evening Times

MINISTERS are to rule on a controversial plan to build houses next to a new school.

A planning application by housing firm Amec for houses next to Bishopbriggs Academy has been referred to the Scottish Executive.

Bishopbriggs High and Thomas Muir High are merging as part of a £100million PPP plan to build six secondaries in East Dunbartonshire.

Bishopbriggs Academy will be built on the site of the former Thomas Muir High school in Wester Cleddens Road, Woodhill.

But campaigners have voiced concerns over the loss of green space adjoining the site which, they say, should be for sports facilities instead of housing.

However, East Dunbartonshire council leader John Morrison said: "The new Bishopbriggs Academy will have better sports facilities than ever before."

Nice one John - there never has been a Bishopbriggs Academy so how can it "have better sports facilities than ever before?"

No matter how you 'spin it' the land, that is already used for schools, would be better continuing to be used for the new school. But then that wouldn't make MONEY - would it!

Let's see how the figures add up when this PPP project is over.

Time to do to the Liberal Democrats what they have done to Bishopbriggs High School and the children of Bishopbriggs

Visit the exciting new addition to CHRISTINA'S VIEW my very own forum it is full of all the news and topics that matter to the Scottish people, please register and leave your views or add any news stories that you think should be discussed. I am always ready to listen to the views of the Scottish people, see some of the post's below and please leave your comments, thank you.

Twice as many Scots die from drink than in rest of the
Ministers 'failing' to cut class sizes to under 20h
Road tolls a 'replacement tax' not extra cost, claims Tavish
Airgun offences highest for seven years
Straw signals Iraq war inquiry
Stance against independence makes ill-informed CBI a laughing
Winnie a welcome respite
Listening to the voices that relish torturing the English language
labour is too morally bankrupt to pay pensioners what it owes
Blair still in denial about Iraq tragedy
I'm not to blame for Iraq and I don't feel guilty, insists Blair
Gordon's Shadowy Henchmen
Jack Posted Missing. Again
Lib Dem's in deal with BNP
Lib-Dem Voters Think Salmond “Best First Minister

Link to forum http://christinasview.informe.com/index.php?sid=3a79a403258164e1786f53ab76a35205

IT'S TIME FOR A LEADERS' DEBATE

MISSING: MR MCCONNELL MISSES ANOTHER OPPORTUNITY TO DEBATE SNP LEADER

The Scottish National Party's Campaign Director Angus Robertson MP
today [Friday] published a new campaign image from the party
illustrating the fact that the Labour Leader in Scotland, Mr McConnell
has ducked yet another opportunity to debate with Alex Salmond. The
image is attached to this message in pdf format.

During the recording of Question Time in Edinburgh yesterday evening
[Thursday], David Dimbleby stated that the official reason given by
the First Minster's office for him not agreeing to appear on the show
was that he would not debate with a Scottish Liberal Democrat
Minister.

The SNP's new campaign image, in the form of a 'Missing' poster, will
be distributed across the country following the First Minister's
decision not to appear with all the other major party leaders on BBC
Question Time yesterday evening. Mr McConnell has now refused seven
opportunities to debate with Mr Salmond, and the BBC have confirmed
that this is the fifteenth opportunity to appear on Question Time that
Mr McConnell has turned down.

Mr Robertson said:

"The SNP are leading a quality debate on Scotland's future, and about
how we can build a successful future for our country. Labour's
failure to connect with this positive debate means that the Scottish
people are being denied the opportunity to learn of all the political
parties' ideas and policies from their candidates for First Minster.

"Mr McConnell is clearly not being allowed by his party bosses to
debate with Alex Salmond. It is frankly ludicrous for a party leader
to run from open debate in this way.

"Mr McConnell has refused six opportunities to debate with Mr Salmond,
and fifteen opportunities to appear on the BBC's Question Time
programme. Previous First Ministers of Wales, Scotland and Northern
Ireland have all debated on this prestigious programme, so what
exactly is he so scared of?

"If Labour were confident of their arguments they would debate them in
public, and if Mr McConnell believed in what he was saying he would go
head to head with Alex Salmond like his predecessors.

"Alex Salmond is Scotland's choice for First Minister. All the
published polling evidence has shown that he is preferred over Mr
McConnell in every area. Alex Salmond is more trusted, more liked and
more respected than Mr McConnell, and he's on the side of the people
in Scotland on all the major issues like the war in Iraq, keeping
local hospital services open and putting more police officers on the
beat.

"This election gives voters a straight choice over who they want as
First Minster of Scotland. The public should have the chance to make
an informed choice. It's time for a debate between Mr McConnell and
Alex Salmond."

IT'S TIME FOR A LEADERS' DEBATE

MISSING: MR MCCONNELL MISSES ANOTHER OPPORTUNITY TO DEBATE SNP LEADER

The Scottish National Party's Campaign Director Angus Robertson MP
today [Friday] published a new campaign image from the party
illustrating the fact that the Labour Leader in Scotland, Mr McConnell
has ducked yet another opportunity to debate with Alex Salmond. The
image is attached to this message in pdf format.

During the recording of Question Time in Edinburgh yesterday evening
[Thursday], David Dimbleby stated that the official reason given by
the First Minster's office for him not agreeing to appear on the show
was that he would not debate with a Scottish Liberal Democrat
Minister.

The SNP's new campaign image, in the form of a 'Missing' poster, will
be distributed across the country following the First Minister's
decision not to appear with all the other major party leaders on BBC
Question Time yesterday evening. Mr McConnell has now refused seven
opportunities to debate with Mr Salmond, and the BBC have confirmed
that this is the fifteenth opportunity to appear on Question Time that
Mr McConnell has turned down.

Mr Robertson said:

"The SNP are leading a quality debate on Scotland's future, and about
how we can build a successful future for our country. Labour's
failure to connect with this positive debate means that the Scottish
people are being denied the opportunity to learn of all the political
parties' ideas and policies from their candidates for First Minster.

"Mr McConnell is clearly not being allowed by his party bosses to
debate with Alex Salmond. It is frankly ludicrous for a party leader
to run from open debate in this way.

"Mr McConnell has refused six opportunities to debate with Mr Salmond,
and fifteen opportunities to appear on the BBC's Question Time
programme. Previous First Ministers of Wales, Scotland and Northern
Ireland have all debated on this prestigious programme, so what
exactly is he so scared of?

"If Labour were confident of their arguments they would debate them in
public, and if Mr McConnell believed in what he was saying he would go
head to head with Alex Salmond like his predecessors.

"Alex Salmond is Scotland's choice for First Minister. All the
published polling evidence has shown that he is preferred over Mr
McConnell in every area. Alex Salmond is more trusted, more liked and
more respected than Mr McConnell, and he's on the side of the people
in Scotland on all the major issues like the war in Iraq, keeping
local hospital services open and putting more police officers on the
beat.

"This election gives voters a straight choice over who they want as
First Minster of Scotland. The public should have the chance to make
an informed choice. It's time for a debate between Mr McConnell and
Alex Salmond."

"Oh no! I've been waiting all this time for the commercials so that I could go and have a fag*. But this is the BBC isn't it? F****** BBC and its f****** licence fee. Don't they realise that some of us need commercials?"

"Welcome to Britain, Vince."

*Despite being American, he was using the term in its British sense.

I see in the Scotsman today (as far as I can see no reference in the Herald)that their environment correspondent Ian Johnston reports with genuine excitement that ministers will today announce nine wave and tidal schemes.

No doubt once the details of the 9 schemes (including the Orkney scheme highlighted for 2008) are known there will transpire to be genuine debate to be had about the locational and other pros and cons of some or even all of them.

That in no way inhibits me from applauding the excitement expressed by Ian Johnston.

For some years now we in the SNP have been referring to a very simple statistic-Scotland posseses 10% of Europe's wave and tidal energy potential. We have repeatedly said that Scotland could and should be the world leader in this field with massive significance to Scotland's sustainable economic growth.

It is reason for excitement that it at last appears to be being grasped that the combination of Scotland's wave energy resources with her accrued expertise in engineering at sea at least could make Scotland the world leader in the field.

It is reason for excitement that representatives of the Scottish industry are quoted as saying things such as "wave technology for a long time has languished in the lab, we are now putting the technology in the water...", "the information that feeds back will feed into subsequent verions, there will be a process of continual improvement" and, above all, "if we want to follow the Danish model-which became the world leader in wind power-we need to have this sort of step"-in other words get going or you lose the opportunity.

I am not suggesting (nor, I think, is Ian Johnston) that today's announcement and the accompanying statements mean of themselves that Scotland "could be" the world leader becomes Scotland "is" the world leader. However, even as regards creating that position there are some exciting lessons to be learned.

I have always been a firm believer in the old proverb that "necessity is the mother of invention". I have never doubted that Scotland's energy industry could produce the inventiveness, enterprise and skill fully to develop Scotland's renewable energy potential if it was made politically clear that this was what Scotland demanded. Is it so surprising that Scotland's energy industry has been so slow to rise to the challenge in respect of the potential of Scotland's wave and tidal energy resource (and even yet needs an 8 million pounds encouragement to do so)when it could never be sure that the apparent political choice of the large majority of the Scottish community to have no more nuclear electricity generation in Scotland would actually be applied? Why could they never be sure of that?-because the Scottish government is not in a position to assure the industry that it would be applied. The exciting lesson is obvious. Scotland can fulfil her full potential for her own community and as a member for good of the community of nations when she takes the full responsibility for that fulfilment.

There is a second exciting lesson to be learned or rather re-learned. The politics of a nation are not to be restricted to endless debate about the use of resources in static circumstances. They are supposed to be about changing the circumstances for the better. In the course of the past week we have had a stark example of what happens when that lesson is forgotten. There has been general agreement in Scotland for years that dramatic reduction in class sizes is the essential key to Scotland's young people enjoying the school education they deserve. This week it transpired that the Scottish Executive had not only realised that no progress had been made but had given up trying to make progress. To make things happen in your nation you have to do more than shuffle about within "existing circumstances". You have to change the circumstances and you can only really change them if you are determined to change them, plan to change them and above all take responsibility for changing them.

Lachie McNeill

This site can now be downloaded as a Widget...

Keep up-to-date direct on your desktop, customise the look and information.

This free widget is available from Widgetbox

The number of viewers continue to rise and other sites have started to link here - thanks to everyone for their support.

Maybe my brain has been addled by too much wine tonight, but on reading this, I was shocked by this:

In the first government defeat, the Lords voted to rule out using sexuality, criminality and cultural or religious beliefs as grounds for diagnosing a mental disorder.

Naturally, I welcome any government defeat on anything, even a tiddlywinks match, but I'm still rubbing my eyes in disbelief that such criteria for locking people up could even be on the table. Sexuality I could just about understand, although not approve, since we've been there before. (But don't we now live in an era of compulsory tolerance of all sexual tastes that don't involve children or animals?) Criminality? Well, we already lock up criminals regardless of whether they are mentally disordered, so I'm not too bothered by that.

But cultural or religious beliefs? Isn't that tantamount to giving someone with a medical degree a license to have you locked up on the grounds that he thinks you're a bit odd? Or because you disagree with the political ideology that happens to be in vogue at the time?

Somebody tell me that their noble Lordships were merely correcting a mistake that the drafters of the legislation hadn't noticed. But if so, why is this being described as a "government defeat"?

Perhaps I should look at this again with a more sober mind.

UPDATE: It has just occurred to me that blogging whilst inebriated was not ruled out in the government defeat. I'm done for.

Just found your blog and it's amazing.

I lived in the briggs and went to the High school and found the information here totally awesome!

Why are the parents letting this happen?

The new head and the council are like pals and the school move is a lib dem doing!

If Mr Waddell was in charge then this would not happen - maybe that's why the dumped him!

None are so blind as those that cannot see - selling off land and placing the school on the only land that was left as they use the old Thomas Muir for St Ninian's - are you people stupid?

The council then grant planning with loads of condition! Try to get an extension with one thing wrong and see the difference.

As for the school Board - were they appointed by the council? Looks like it to me. The co-chair works for them - how bad is that?

Great blog keep it up. I now live in the US but love my roots.

I cannot believe how stupid the people of Bishopbriggs are to let this happen under their noses.

Thanks James and power to your elbow.

Like any other SNP member I find the Liberal Democrat MSP Jamie Stone's description of the SNP as having "xenophobic tendencies" thoroughly offensive.

The signs are that finding it thoroughly offensive is not confined to SNP members.

I see the front page of the Sunday Herald described Jamie Stone as "more known for his clubbable nature than for his ability" which appears to be a polite way of saying that he is not regarded as very bright .

It is interesting that such comments as there have so far been from Scottish Liberal Democrat "sources" seem to be along similar lines. They appear to be expressing irritation that "even he" could have been so stupid as to make such a statement rather than expressing horror at the offensiveness of it.

Jamie Stone made an offensive statement that was patently contradicted by all the evidence. That indeed was very stupid. But where did the thought come from?

By definition the Scottish National Party believes in the concept of nationhood. We believe that being an inter-nationalist involves first being a nationalist. We believe that Scotland can only make her fullest contibution for good to the family of nations when the community of Scotland claims with joy the responsibility for ensuring that fullest contibution is made. We believe that fully claiming that responsibility can only be achieved with independence and that the community of Scotland wishes the right to choose independence.

It must be assumed that somewhere in Jamie Stone's allegedly not very bright mind there must have lurked the not only grossly offensive but patently absurd and confused notion that holding and proclaiming such beliefs must involve a "tendency to hate foreigners".

Could it be that the apparent difficulty of Scottish Liberal Democrat "sources" or spokespeople in simply expressing disgust at the offensiveness of Jamie Stone's statement is because they are bright enough to realise that they would have some difficulty in expressing why it was so offensive without acknowledging the fundamentally heathy and inspiring vision that the SNP lays and has continually laid before the community of Scotland?

Could it be that they realise that the fact of Jamie Stone's having been so stupid as to make such an offensive statement may simply be symptomatic of their Party having run out of things to say to try to cover up the fact that their alleged "unionism" has nothing whatsoever to do with principles of nationhood or internationalism?

The Scottish Liberal Democrats are, after all, a Party whose spokespeople consistently avoid even acknowledging the concept of nationhood-to them a nation's Parliament is just "an appropriate level of government".

They are a Party that continually witters on about how they have always believed in federalism but are quite incapable of telling Scots as a matter of principle which powers the nation of Scotland ought to give up to a federal government in London.

And they are a Party who continually proclaim their democratic credentials but whose spokespeople are quite incapable of explaining why they refuse to agree that, when more than 80 % of the community of Scotland wish to be asked whether they wish to choose independence, the appropriate course would be to ask them.
Lachie McNeill

MSP Jean Turner is expected to attend the final torchlight vigil opposing plans to sell the so-called 'surplus' land at the still to be built Bishopbriggs Academy.

The following night Councillors will meet to decide the OUTLINE planning application for this land.

The vigil will start at 7 pm and last for around 20 minutes, on Wester Cleddens Road beside St Helen's PS.

Donald Macdonald
Chair
Woodhill Residents Group

Probably the most important meeting with regard to the new Bishopbriggs Academy took place in Tom Johnston House.

Where were the Interim School Board?

Only one member of the Board, Ken Low, attended and only to speak ON BEHALF of the developers.

As for the other members... Your guess is as good as mine - they were NOT at the meeting.

Over fifty members of the public did attend the council planning meeting.

It was important to them - was it important to the school board?

Here is a list of East Dunbartonshire councillors who have applied for severance pay...

Robert Duncan - Castlehill and Thorn - Liberal Democrat
Edward McGaughrin - Hillhead and Broomhill - Labour
Tom Smith - Woodhill West - Labour
Julia Southcott - Bearsden - Liberal Democrat
Pat Steel - Baljaffrey and Mosshead - Liberal Democrat (Provost)

From the list here

From this Wednesday's Evening Times (page 19)

100 residents protest at the sell of the, so called, 'surplus' land at the Thomas Muir site. A bigger school on a smaller site that has over forty conditions before the work can start.

You can see the report here (copyright Newsquest 2007)

Ex- Celtic players Tommy Gallagher and Charlie Gallagher back fight to stop housing plan at school site.

It seems crazy to sell off school land and then to share a pitch

Join the school board... more information here

Liberal Democrat supporter Alastair McPhee puts the question:

I am becoming extremely exasperated by the decisions that our Councillors have taken regarding the major changes in Bishopbriggs. Can they do a John Reid and argue that the East Dunbartonshire officers are not fit for purpose or are is it just that our team are consistently picking the wrong option?

This is in response to the Evening Times article (below) you can read his comments here

More from this blog...

FibDems Scottish Liberal Democrats - you can't trust them This is the proof!

"Lib Dem donor jailed for dishonesty" Read it here

Oh No Jo.... Again Read it here

I am not in the habit of reading The Economist magazine, as I have always believed economists to be a species beneath pity. My mother, Mrs Elder (or Ma'am), on sending me to the Co-operative for morning rolls, would hand me the money with a stern warning that I was not to be diverted by beggars, gamblers or bank managers - these all being persons of the same kidney - and her lecture would end

BUS giant First has joined forces with a group of parents fighting a decision to sell off school land as part of a closure plan.

Councillors have given the go-ahead to a controversial site for the new Bishopbriggs Academy on the outskirts of the town, despite huge concerns raised by parents.

© Newsquest 2007

The new school is to go on the site of the former Thomas Muir High School in Wester Cleddens Road, Woodhill.

But campaigners say some children will be forced to walk too far to get to the new school.

More from Evening Times

Want to know what a trisco is? Here’s a list of the weird jargon I’ve encountered so far in the BBC’s World Service. Thanks to Ruth for the idea and I look forward to comparing vocab . . . Read on to enter the strange world of radio lingo:

• Anno: Announcement. A short sentence or two to provide ‘illustration’.
• Back anno: An announcement that comes after or ‘off the back’ of a piece of ‘illustration.’ Often used by newsreaders when time is ‘light’ and they need to ‘fill’.
• Off the back: Doing anything after something else, e.g. “We can go to Roger off the back of the interview with the PM.”
• Disco: A discussion involving two people on air talking to each other.
• Head-to-Head: A ‘disco’ where both guests hold opposing viewpoints.
• Trisco: A discussion with three people.
• Illustration: Any piece of audio that can be used to add colour or context to a news bulleting, e.g. a report from a correspondent.
• Bed: The section of a programme’s theme tune that is played at low volume at the beginning of a programme while the presenter reads out the main upcoming topics or delivers the ‘trail’.
• Billboard: Typically a 9 - 15 second clip of high-impact audio used at top of a programme to illustrate a particularly compelling piece of upcoming reportage. The idea is to hook the listener into staying tuned.
• Ident: A bit of live or pre-recorded audio that tells the listener who and what they are listening to, e.g. ‘This is Ros Atkins and you’re listening to the BBC.’
• Trail: Trails can be at the top or midway and are often both. They’re live or pre-recorded bits of brief audio giving an opportunity for the presenter to tell the listeners what’s coming up. Ident’s are often used within trails.
• Hard post: An imaginary point in a bulletin when the presenter must pause for a sufficient length of time (2 seconds) for affiliates who do not wish to continue rebroadcasting the rest of a bulletin to cut away. Often an ident will be spoken/played immediately before the hard post, e.g. “This is the BBC World Service” or often more simply, “BBC News.” Common mistakes are missing a hard post or coming to it late which means the rebroadcaster will cut away from your output in mid-speech. Alternatively coming to a hard post early means there is a period of dead air which necessitates some ‘fill’.
• Fill: Anytime the presenter has to deviate from the script to fill dead air. Can happen when a caller unexpectedly cuts off and it takes the studio engineers a few seconds to get them back or when announcing the news bulletin a little faster than your normal reading pace causing you to reach the hard post a few seconds early. Filling can involve saying a ‘back anno’, reading out the programme’s contact details or reading out some texts/e-Mails/comments from listeners depending on how much time you’ve to fill.
• Box office. (c) Richard Bowen. See ‘Gold.’
• Gold. (c) Richard Bowen. Richard ‘Dicky’ Bowen’s term for a piece of particularly good radio. See also ‘Box office’. E.g. “That interview with the crazy mullah was box office man.” Cf ‘And we’re live . . .’
• And we’re live . . . (c) Richard Bowen. A light-hearted sarcastic expression used to draw attention to a particularly embarrassing piece of on-air verbal tomfoolery. Also often used when off-air, e.g. in the pub.
• Quality: Broadcast quality sound such as when interviewing someone in a studio or face-to-face with minidisc equipement or over an ISDN line, e.g. “Can we get him in quality?” Interviewing someone over a standard phone line or SKYPE is not considered quality.
• Simulrec: Simultaneous recording. When a pre-recorded interview is to be conducted over a poor quality line and resources permit, you can send a producer to sit next to the interviewee with recording equipment to obtain his answers in ‘quality.’ The result produces two pieces if audio in quality: 1) the questions posed by the interviewer in the studio and 2) the answers spoken by the interviewee. The producer doing the simlurec must then transfer the answers in quality back to the studio where the two seperate pieces of audio can be mixed together. Failure to understand this final step can often lead to grief when ‘cutting’ audio.
• Cutting: Editing audio to remove unwanted speech or sound.
• De-um: Cutting audio to remove all ocurrences of a speaker saying “um” and “err”. E.g. “It’s a good interview but you’ll need to de-um it first.”
• Ummy: Description of any potential interviewee who tends to take their time getting their point across. E.g. “She’s a good speaker but a bit ummy.”
• Light: Being ahead of yourself in the running order. Can happen when a presenter reads quicker than normal or a piece of audio or ‘package’ you were expecting doesn’t come in or is lost. Being light usually necessitates a ‘fill’.
• Package: A pre-recorded audio feature usually between 3 and 7 minutes in length. Packages are recorded by broadcast journalists and involve mixing down ‘actuality’ with their own reporting. A good package is aurally compelling and because it’s a fixed-length it can be inserted into a running order with reasonable certainty as to how much airtime they will take.
• Actuality, Act: Any audio that is not reporting or comment from the journalist or reporter delivering the story.
• Pot: A point in a script before its natural end where the announcer can finish speaking without losing the overall sense of the piece. Used when you’re overrunning and need to cut stuff out. E.g. with regard to the following text a presenter could be told to “pot it at ‘at least nine’ then go to Alan…”: In Gaza there has been more violence between supporters of the elected government party, Hamas and Fatah, the party of the president. At least nine people have died and nearly a hundred have been wounded in the latest clashes which happened despite a ceasefire agreement. On the line from Gaza city is our correspondent, Alan Johnson
• Doughnut: Any sequence where the presenter goes to a correspondent/speaker who, after a brief bit of illustration, introduces a pre-recorded item after which the correspondent (not the presenter) picks up the theme. I think the idea here is that the pre-rec item is the ‘jam’ in the correspondent’s ‘doughnut’. Very lame, I know.
  

An e-Mail from the depths of Novell, the world’s second largest open source company, wings its way to me on the day Microsoft Windows Vista is released; the author has written to a bunch of folks in his department . . .

The BBC is proposing the following and asking the public to fill out an online form to express their opinions.

The proposed new services

The BBC’s Executive has been developing proposals to offer BBC programmes and content ‘on demand’. They made an application last August for the following:

* Seven-day TV catch-up over the internet

* Seven-day TV catch-up over cable

* Simulcast TV over the internet (streaming of live television networks)

* Non-digital rights management (DRM) audio downloads over the internet (podcasting of selected radio programmes)

Question 5 on the survey asks whether the BBC should restrict this programme to Microsoft only users. Please take a few moments and fill out the survey and express that there are non M$ users out there…

http://www.bbc.co.uk/bbctrust/consult/open-consultations/ondemand_services.html

Thanks, John

There are plenty reasons for restricting one’s apps to MS-only software. One them is the available IT talent you have at your disposal. I know for a fact that the BBC is MS-centric in the skillset it looks for in its IT staff because it’s MS-centric in the technologies it uses.

The bigger the skillbase grows the harder it becomes to wean yourself off onto non-proprietary standards. The more MS-dependent you become in your technology choice, the easier it becomes to recruit the needed skillbase. While comparisons with drug addiction are over-egging the pudding somewhat, it’s a self-perpetuating circle.

Bill Gates is right when in interviews all this week he reminds us that the promise of Java (actually a proprietary system) hasn’t been fulfilled but the facts are undeniable: there are more folks using open source software. As Digital Rights Management starts to become more pervasive and people finally realise that 90p for a poorly-encoded, low quality music track from iTunes that will never play on any other manufacturer’s device, is in fact a bad deal, they will start to turn to non-Microsoft software.

Naturally, the author of the above e-Mail has a vested interest. The more folks use OSS, the safer the future is for companies like Novell and Red Hat. But the competetive eco-system that is the global software industry needs, and is big enough to support, two competing (but interoperating) software systems.

Windows is already the de-facto proprietary software platform of choice for much of the globe but no CEO I ever listened to liked to make big decisions without sussing out alternatives. It’s their job. But when your alternatives are 1) Windows or 2) more Windows then savvy CEO’s know they are failing their employees, customers and, worst of all, their shareholders. The planet is big enough for OSS and windows. Let’s hope the Beeb makes the right decision.

Like the author of the above e-Mail, I urge you to visit the above link.

Yes we've now moved to our new expanded site over on http://www.smallnation.org/drupal come and visit!!!! This blogger account will gradually fade, I'm afraid, but the new site will keep growing. Visit it for selected RSS feeds, polls and discussion. Podcasts are being recorded and edited so watch out for those!

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