The Millennium Technology Prize has been awarded to Shui Nakamura. Professor Nakamura has developed a new, revolutionary source of light – bright-blue, green and white LEDs and a blue laser. The technology is used in several applications which improve the quality of human life. The world’s largest technology prize, now Read more…
The International Development (Reporting and Transparency) Bill will today be voted on for its third reading by the House of Commons. The bill requires the government to produce an annual report assessing progress toward the 0.7% target, the UN's millennium goals and the effectiveness of aid. As the second-reading debate Read more…
A little-known, but rather impressive, feature of the international development system is process of peer review by which each OECD country submits its development cooperation program to independent scrutiny once every 4 years. The study, which is led by two other countries, is published. The United Kingdom has just be Read more…
The World Development Movement has a handy tool to help the ethical football supporter decide which team to support. As I type, Tunisia is beating Saudi Arabia – according to the WDM, this is good news as it means that the 3rd most supportable team is beating the 29th most Read more…
Summary
A national identity register of unique personal identifiers could make a significant contribution to improving government services. We could introduce such a register without allowing the establishment of a surveillance state.
The following five conditions would help to protect our liberties:
If all these protections were put in place, I would welcome a national identity register. If the Government will not implement any of them, I should like to know why not.
My father writes here about Congressman Pete King, the Europeans and terrorism. As somebody says in the comments, if a European politician had said this about America, there would have been an uproar.
I was critical of Google's decision to operate a censored search engine in China. As I said here, the effect would be to limit access to Google's main search engine, so that the establishment of google.cn would reduce, not increase, access to information in China. And so it has come Read more…
I have just heard Christopher Hitchens tell the BBC Politics UK program that the job of the intellectual is to confront faith. I admire Hitchens for his advocacy of secular, scientific and rational thought. (He calls himself a "anti-theist" rather than an atheist.) Many people of faith regard it as Read more…
There was a fascinating report on today’s BBC World This Weekend (you can hear it here for the rest of the week) about China’s role in Africa. The charge d’affaires at China’s embassy in South Africa, Zhou Yuxiao, gave an interview in said China was just protecting its own interests, Read more…
I have been a vegetarian since I was a teenager, and I wear plastic rather than leather shoes. I do this because I believe that animals have a rights, and that it is wrong to kill animals simply for pleasure. I do not regard this as a purely personal choice: Read more…