Wikipedia Blackout

Here is an excellent article from the BBC's technology correspondent about Wikpedia's "blackout" yesterday in protest about proposals for new American Anti-Piracy laws, SOPA (Stop Online Piracy Act)and PIPA (Protect IP Act).  Apparently 162 million people experienced the blackout in the last 24 hours (including Nonsuch HP) which has led to some of the politicians who had previously backed the bills becoming rather more reticent. Meanwhile Rupert Murdoch (via twitter) has commented, "Seems blogosphere has succeeded in terrorizing many senators and congressmen who previously committed. Politicians all the same." - make of that what you will!


What's your opinion on the blackout? Was it successful? Please let us know.

Pressure Groups: AS Examples and Comments

Please add to this post any good examples or comments to assist with the Pressure Groups section of the AS Politics Unit 1 paper.

Pressure Groups

Year 12 politics students have been researching pressure groups in the UK. This is the place to add brief comments about the chosen pressure group, their main areas of interest, operating methods, and effectiveness. Please complete this by Friday 25 March

This Wikipedia article has a list of a few UK pressure groups to choose from, although the list is by no means complete. There is a useful diagram here, Tutor2U has plenty of good info here, and there are some BBC clips here.

The Mumsnet Mafia

Two interesting articles with a similar parenting themes have appeared over the weekend. Bagehot in the Economist examines the phenomenon that all three of the party leaders, plus many of their significant advisers, all have children aged 9 or under. This is partly because they are all younger than their predecessors, generally in their early 40s, and have chosen to have their children later. All have committed to spend quality time with their families, and Bagehot asks how else they might be affected.
"The Tory party of ten years ago was slow to grasp the importance of social policies," he writes. "For today’s leadership, children are the “ultimate nudge”, he says, a reference to the Cameron camp’s zeal for “nudging” people into changing behaviour. At its simplest, parenthood exposes even the affluent middle classes to public services, from hospitals to day-care centres or libraries."

Meanwhile The Guardian has an interview with Justine Roberts, the founder of the Mumsnet parenting website. This site has attracted a huge amount of political attention and media interest, as its forthright contributors are seen as having considerable influence on political opinion, particularly with the current obsesssion with the "Squeezed middle" group. Gordon Brown's refusal to reveal his favourite biscuit in an online interview caused a brief controversy in 2009, but more recent issues, such as criticism of the recent EastEnders baby-swap plot, and the Riven Vincent case, show that the site's influence is continuing to grow. What's your opinion?

Electoral Reform

Here is a useful article on electoral reform for AS revisers. If you see any other helpful stuff like this, please let us know and we'll add the links.

More good stuff here at the Electoral Reform Society, including its links to the Take Back Parliament pressure group, which is using methods from Twitter to mass demonstrations to get its message across.

Amnesty and Stop the Traffik

There is now a new section of links on the blog marked "Political Action", noting campaigns and pressure groups that are trying to encourage political or social change for the better. There is a link to Amnesty International, particularly because of the excellent work the Amnesty Society has done within school to raise awareness of human rights issues. There is also a link to Stop the Traffik, a coalition of international groups working together to raise awareness of human trafficking and exploitation. Both of these organisations are certainly worthy of your attention - are there any other groups that you would like to see us linking to?

PS: Have a good RAG Week!

The politics of US companies

A great interactive guide here to how some famous US brands try to influence the political process through their donations. Have a look to see which party your favourite donates to and how much money they have given over the last 4 years. Does this change your opinion of them? How much influence do you think they have?

Guns in national parks?

An interesting story for those needing proof of the power of the NRA... see here.