BBC Blog Network

User Profile

Qrobur

Listed below are comments made by Qrobur between Monday, 21st April 2008 and Friday, 27th November 2009.

«Newer
Older»

Wikipedia on the wane? 07:18am on 27 Nov 2009 I write as an occasional user of rather than contributor to Wikipedia. As far as content is concerned it appears the dilemma it has is credibility versus public editing.

Anybody familiar with resources created by the general public on the internet will be aware that accuracy is not a prime concern of certain highly active groups. For example, any discussion of Israel and Palestine is likely to be hijacked by people whose sole interest is in crowding out viewpoints expressed by their opponents in favour of their own, usually highly selective, views. In my view this is even more damaging than the juvenile vandalism from which Wikipedia also suffers.

Therefore, whilst Wikipedia permits general and public editing it cannot reasonably hope to command trust except, perhaps, upon the most trivial of matters.

Could it make its content more trustworthy? I think that is possible only by limiting contributions to a manageable level and having them peer reviewed. That would cost a large sum of money and likely drive off the amateur enthusiasts, which would completely alter Wikipedia's character. However, if it doesn't it runs the risk that people will use something they are aware they can't really trust to be accurate less and less as time goes by.
Ring out the old 08:12am on 31 Dec 2008 The EU has long been criticised for having a "democratic deficit", which arises broadly from the wishes of the leaders of the major countries not to let their national electorates get in the way of what they want to do.

Whatever one thinks of the Lisbon Treaty, the sight of EU leaders avoiding referendums, on the pretext that a document that is substantially the same as the lost Constitution is not a constitution, has brought the EU into yet more disrepute.

Asking the Irish people to vote again, because they had the temerity to vote the "wrong way", only increases the sense of a set of institutions determined to neutralise the voice of the peoples of Europe.

I believe this contempt for democracy by the EU in turn feeds a contempt for democracy generally amongst the peoples of Europe. I believe that is potentially very dangerous.

It would be good if the Irish reaffirmed their "no". Perhaps then the EU would realise it should turn its attention to building a pan-European democracy instead of trying to stifle the voices of its peoples.
Falling fish stocks 07:23am on 19 Nov 2008 The Common Fisheries Policy probably exemplifies the EU at its most federal. Is it a coincidence that economically this policy is grossly unfair and ecologically has been a disaster?

The majority of fish-bearing waters in the EU are actually British waters. "The Six", as the EU then was, asserted control over these waters in an underhanded, probably illegal, move just before Britain joined in 1973.

What might work is Britain reasserting control over her territorial waters and implementing a policy similar to that of Iceland. The fact that much of the fish we buy in that national favourite, the chippie, is from Icelandic waters shows what could be achieved.

The fishermen of Scotland, the North-East, Cornwall, &c., whose communities have been ravaged by the EU, would be able to make their voice heard.

That might work. What definitely hasn't worked is letting the EU control fishing stocks. It's obvious what Britain should do next if our fish stocks and our fishing fleets are the prime concern.
McCain's lost battle 9:34pm on 05 Nov 2008 I stayed up and heard both speeches. McCain's was aptly conciliatory though wasted on a good part of his boorish audience.

Obama's was dry, technical and almost bereft of of rhetorical power. Far from being an excellent speech, it was a drab and damp squib. Considering how well he had spoken during the campaign that was a surprise.

Not that this really matters. Obama is an unexceptional President-Elect save in one very important respect. I hope that he will have a powerful, positive impact on the attitudes towards and of minorities, not just in his country, but over the world.

He will enter office in the most challenging circumstances, his egregious predecessor having ruined the economy, wrecked America's reputation and illustrated very clearly the limits to her power. I wish Obama luck and he will surely need it.
Catastrophic system failure 08:59am on 30 Sep 2008 Bush's bill has come at a curious time. With elections in November and an angry electorate, 133 Republicans and 95 Democrats decided they didn't want to be tagged as a supporter of a bill perceived to be a bail-out of "greedy fat cats".

That's the political system working as it should, not a breakdown.

If somebody explained to the American electorate why things would be worse without this bill, they might take the pressure off the Congressmen. However, I think American voters would not believe a word coming out of either Washington or Wall Street. Why should they?

Perhaps it's time to jettison the Anglo-American version of capitalism; that is, stop American politicians being bought by people who have power because they can *sometimes* direct the flow of speculative money. That is, remove mere profit as both the highest aim and the fundamental driver of human activity. That is, seek to generate wealth with the aim of improving all of Mankind's lot instead of enriching a very small elite at the expense of most of the rest of the world.

Here we are worrying about stock markets. Around 2 billion people have to get by on less than $2 a day. Viewed from that perspective, the wailing and gnashing of teeth emanating from Wall Street sounds childish.
Man Utd miss chance to break spell 9:05pm on 21 Sep 2008 United were lucky to get a point today. This was an opportunity missed by the Blues, who should have won by two or three.
Will UK rescue banks too? 6:33pm on 19 Sep 2008 Perhaps, if the American version of "capitalism" means that huge losses are "socialised", it's about time the huge profits were also "socialised" — permanently.
Irish No sparks EU crisis 9:25pm on 13 Jun 2008 I object strongly to the biased tenor of the BBC's reports on the Irish rejection of the Lisbon Treaty.

I quote today's reporting.

1. "An earlier, more wide-ranging EU draft constitution failed after French and Dutch voters rejected it in 2005."

No less a person than the architect, Valery Giscard d'Estaing, of the failed EU Constitution said the treaty differs from the abandoned constitution in "approach rather than content".

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/7069181.stm

Our own EU scrutiny committee said the treaty was "substantially equivalent" to the EU Constitution.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/7034052.stm

2. Just over three million Irish voters are registered - in a European Union of 490 million people.

The implication here is that 3 million people are somehow thwarting the aspirations of 487 million other people. Nothing could be further from the truth. The 3 million Irish are the ONLY people who have been permitted to vote on the Lisbon Treaty and thus are by far and away the most important 3 million people in the EU at this moment.

The BBC ought to get its house in order and report EU matters with proper impartiality, something I've seen it fail to do far too often.
Banks' big bailout 12:41pm on 21 Apr 2008 The message here is that if one bank is greedy and incompetent it will be, in effect, nationalised and its senior managers will do very nicely out of that deal, by and large. Yes, the shareholders will squeal too but no-one will be unduly disturbed by that.

However, if a large part of the financial services sector is greedy and incompetent it may rely on the government to exploit taxpayers to protect it, and shareholders, from itself.

Is there any risk a bank can take that would rebound solely on its board, management, regrettably its employees and its shareholders or does the 'law' of the market not apply to them?

How about a large proportion of future bank profits being paid directly to taxpayers in respect of their involuntary goodwill involvement in bailing out the system today?

«Newer
Older»

^ Back to top

BBC MMVI

The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites

BBC.co.uk

BBC Blog Network

Find and talk to the BBC's bloggers.

User Profile

Qrobur