Not so high above the law anymore...

Well the inevitable has finally happened. The Government has outlawed yet more "drugs", which as far as yesterday was concerned were called "legal highs". But no, they just can't stand us having any sort of freedom or choice. The now Class C substances, including GBL and BZP, now carry a minimum of 2 year prison sentence and 14 years for supply. Amongst the legal highs to be banned last night were "synthetic cannabis" which is now classed as a Class B.

Police will now start to target dealers of these new illegal substances, diverting their attention away from real crimes. And ofcourse the joke of all this is that these once "legal highs" are manufactured by man made chemicals specifically designed to act like the criminilised drugs, but without the risk of a prison sentence. It is an unstoppable cycle of supply and demand. The solution is simple, if not quite controversial.

Drugs should be a personal choice, legalised by the Government. If an adult wants to destroy their body using substances, then let them. The Government does NOT own your body! YOU own your body!

Liberty in The Commonwealth

Uganda is the latest out of 37 other African Nations to criminalise homosexuality. Uganda's new "Anti Homosexuality Bill 2009" will make it a crime, punishable by death, to "defile homosexuality". Why then? Why now is Africa slipping into pre-1950's Europe? The days when there were death penalties, anti gay laws and Political Extremism . David Bahati, a Ugandan MP, says "The whole intention is to prevent the recruitment of under-age children, which is going on in single-sex schools. We must stop the recruitment and secure the future of our children."

Africa, in my view, is not moving forward. Instead it's Leaders are dragging it backwards into a dark totalarian continent which controls the people. In most cases, I wold argue a country has the full right to do whatever the hell they want, without foreign intervention. However Uganda is a different case. Uganda is a member of The Comonwealth, which according to the "Singapore Declaration of Commonwealth Principles", is there to promote democracy, HUMAN RIGHTS, good governance, the rule of law, INDIVIDUAL LIBERTY, egalitarianism, free trade, multilateralism and world peace.

Human Rights and Individual Liberty? Punishment for expressing your sexuality?
Surely the two do not go hand in hand. Surely The Commonwealth can intervene and talk to the Ugandan Parliament about this new Bill? Something must be done to stop this huge injustice, in my opinion. My respect for The Commonwealth will lower if they do nothing to help Liberty in Uganda.

Which Century is UKIP in?

The first port of call for a huge proportion of the UK population is the internet these days... See something during the day that interests you and you will more than likely either whack out your phone with mobile internet, or google it later on when you get home. First impressions are everything. The UKIP website looks like something straight out of the 90's. This puts UKIP firmly in the Century of the first man on the Moon, the Cold War and Thatcher. UKIP's website should at least attempt to join the Millenium, the Century of personal technology boom, global terrorism and the first black President of USA.

So, as an amateur website designer, what is my first impression of the UKIP website?
(www.ukip.org)

- Too many clashing primary colours. Its like a primary school's paint pallet.

- Too many links on front page. The majority of these links are irrelavent to a first time user. As someone who has never herd of UKIP before, I want to be able to find the party's policies and views quickly and effortlessly (without getting a brain siezure from all the dazzling bright colours)

- The front page doesn't appear to be regularly updated. And when it is, the articles/ features look rushed and thrown together (with some more primary bright colours chucked in, just in case you can't find them amongst all the other shades of the rainbow)

- The navigation and ease of use on the site is probably the worst I've ever seen from a major national website in the UK.

OK- so now lets compare with other UK national political party websites, and see what they're doing right:

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Labour Party
http://www.labour.org.uk/

- Very easy navigation. I can donate, join and find my local branch and events, all on the front page.
- They haven't swamped the front page with party news. I can easily see National and Local Labour Party news.
- They have one nice large graphic picture at the top of the page, representing a news story. However it isn't in my face with bright colours. It just looks smart.
- Labour Party videos are laid out on the page exceptionally well. They're not cluttered and I can see a brief description and send to my facebook.

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Conservative Party
http://www.conservatives.com/

- Lots of innovative media sources to check out here! Conservative Blogs and Videos included.
- A mobile phone number and email address collector at the bottom right hand corner. I can imagine this would be extremely helpful to the Party. It is also the first UK political party website I have seen that collects mobile numbers.
- Not the clearest of navigation on this site, but aesthetically pleasing.

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Liberal Democratic Party
http://www.libdems.org.uk/

- The movement of the article scroller at top of page adds interest to the front page.
- Easy to see what they stand for and to find out more in depth about their policies on specific issues.
- Some very nice, clear graphics have gone into this website.

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Green Party
http://www.greenparty.org.uk/

- I can see instantly what their 6 main policies are on the front page, and can click throught to learn more in depth about each one of them.
- The white background makes the front page look much clearer and makes it easier to use.
- I can join, donate and find my local Green Party easily, all from the front page.

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I believe the UK Independence Party National Website could be good. Heck, it could even be great! But first, whoever is in charge of the site, needs to really look at the other political party websites. They need to find the best bits from each one, drop the bad bits and VOILA.
UKIP will have an easy to use, clear and content rich website, from which the party's online presense can grow and improve.

Burn Cops - Not Coal!

I had a friend attend the Copenhagen protest in London on 5th December with all his hippy mates. Nothing wrong with that. However along with the tens of thousands of climate change protesters that day, there were apparently, a small group of Anarchists joining in. Again, nothing wrong with that. However the slogan they were shouting within this protest somewhat fuddles me.

Their protest call was: "Burn Cops - Not Coal"

Nothing too wrong with that view in my opinion, if anything a little too extreme for my own liking. However I wonder if these Anarchists genuinely realise the true meaning of Copenhagen. In writing a room full of world leaders all sitting down and discussing how to best deal with climate change sounds fantastic. But this is so not the case.

What the Copenhagen Climate Change Conference is all about is actually the world's political elite sitting around hot airing about an awful lot of nothing. Their ultimate aim is to get some sort of treaty between all the nations agreed, to commit governments across the globe to cut CO2 etc.
In the highly unlikely event such an agreement materialises, how will these governments stick to their promises? More Laws. More Regulation. More Government.

The Anarchists got it wrong. Surely they cannot be in favour of more Government control?
Maybe it was just a stunt to get publicity for their cause for "burning cops"... If so, it kind of worked, 'cos theyv'e just had a blog dedicated to them.
Good on 'em.

In Conclusion:

The idea of Copenhagen is not a bad idea. It just doesnt work in practice. The ammount of harmful gases pumped into the atmosphere, including CO2, as a direct result of the Copenhagen Summit far out weighs the benefits that it may produce for the Climate Change cause.

My opinion on how to protect the enviroment, like with alot of subjects, is to start from the bottom up. Rather than the World's Elite making decisions on the enviroment, we the people can do far greater good (or bad). I am not about to preach to you on how to cut your Carbon Footprint, that's just lame. My point is simple. And, I believe, my point is a fair one to make.