Archive for Application

Comparing schools

25 January 2012 Jonathan Bishop No comments

I share the concern raised about the risks of cyber-bullying following the publication of school banding by the Welsh Government (“School banding raises fears over cyber-bullying”, January 23).

As an advocate of New Labour, before leaving the Labour Party when Ed Miliband said it was over, I am strongly in favour of parents being allowed to choose which school their child goes to. The rank and file of Old and Welsh Labour say this won’t work because every parent will want their child go to the best school – well that is the point!

A market in education, such as by removing the unfair catchment areas that partition this market and create geographical ghettos, would mean the best schools would stay open and expand, and the worst ones would close.

In such a market you would need a way for the parents to choose the best school. Government-sanctioned league tables or school banding does not help – parents need to be able to create their own league tables.

Even the “least able” people can go on to websites like GoCompare or MoneySupermarket and select what is important to them about their home or car insurance policy and what is not. If we as citizens can prioritise insurance why not other things? It is not grades that make a school a best school. It is factors such as whether they have special support for your child’s disability, whether they have after-school clubs or extended hours, and whether the school has strong pupil-satisfaction.

So if the Welsh Government is happy to have de facto league tables – why don’t they give parents the choice to have their children educated outside their area so they are not subject to the stigma that they can do little about without “upping sticks”?

Acquisition, Application, Articulation, Info-scientific, Information Technology, JB's Blog, Jon Bishop's EduBlog, Law, Letters and other Op-Eds, Socio-legal

Great idea for internet safety

24 December 2011 Jonathan Bishop One comment

I WAS pleased to read the article in the South Wales Echo about the launch of a scheme to raise awareness of young people in internet safety issues (“New child safety DVDs and website”, December 12).

As a prize-winning author on trolling, the practice of posting messages on the internet to provoke or entertain, I know initiatives such as School Beat are important to raise awareness.

As those who attend my Trolling Academy (www.trollingacademy.org) know, online safety is something that is multi-faceted and needs to be explored from various angles.

The School Beat programme which involves schools is important.

At the Centre for Research into Online Communities and E-Learning Systems in Swansea, I am researching new computer systems that could make discipline in schools easier.

This would involve each student in a class having a laptop and accessing a tailored computer program which monitors them and assigns rewards if they act within the class’s behaviour contract.

I envisage a time in the future where, far from child poverty being tackled by giving parents handouts, that young people will receive vouchers to spend themselves if they show they can be disciplined in the classroom.

I know this works because it is what happened at the specialist private school I attended, and discipline was achieved without resorting to violence, which in SEN pupils like I was would only make things worse.

Acquisition, Application, Articulation, Bestowal, Boundlessness, Consideration, Economic, Info-scientific, JB's Blog, Letters and other Op-Eds, Socio-legal ,

Policy on cannabis and other recreational drugs

14 November 2011 Jonathan Bishop 3 comments

My position on the manufacture and supply of cannabis and other unregulated ‘street drugs’ is now pretty simple. If we are going to allow them to be lawfully used, then regulation and not decriminalisation is the only course of action I’m willing to support.

Decriminalisation of cannabis is, in my opinion, a charter for legalising organised crime, including forced prostitution, organised paedophilia, human trafficking, etc.

Regulation would be the only realistic option, as the manufacture and distribution could be ensured to be made up of lawful activity only and could have the benefit of driving the organised criminals out of the market.

Cannabis, whether the cannabis lobby like it or not, is a potentially dangerous drug. Long-term misuse can result in psychosis – in my view this is because misuse can result in the brain no longer being able to self-regulate dopamine and serotonin levels. But this is why it should be legalised and regulated. I would do it as follows:

  • Apply the same taxation procedures as for cigarettes;
  • Have similar rules on consumption levels as for alcohol; and
  • Have the same point-of-sale advice and restrictions on purchase quantities as paracetamol.

A low dose of cannabis could be safe for recreational use, where as too high a dose could lead to long-term problems, like chronic mental health issues. Same as with alcohol, and in the case of cigarettes the long -term effects can be fatal, often unlike cannabis.

Even so, my fourth way question is – why legalise a millennia old drug like cannabis, which has these well documented risks from long-term use and abuse, when there is potential profit to be made by the pharmaceuticals designing and patenting new and safe recreational drugs? This could drive up innovation in the economy, and mean that the checks and balances in place for medical drugs could be in place for recreational drugs. Pharmaceuticals are unlike to want to develop medicines based on cannabis as they are unlikely to be patentable, meaning they won’t get their money back. So unless the government start letting health mutuals get cheaper licences for proven uses, so old out of patent drugs will be failed to be used for new affordable purposes.

So my policy on recreational drugs is that their design, manufacture and distribution should regulated and they should only be available for sale if they pass what I call the ‘safe sex pill test’. That is, if the risks to the person using them are easily as understandable as the contraceptive pill, and pose no more harm to them than that potentially can do at a safe dose, then it should be available in licenced premises  for recreational use. If the risks of misuse are so high, as with cannabis, then that is more reason to legalise and regulate it and not less!

 

Application, Auto-Wiki, Bestowal, Consciousness, Economic, Info-scientific, Jonathan Bishop's Political Blog, Law, Notices and Announcements

Is it time to call time on the London-based BBC?

15 September 2011 Jonathan Bishop No comments

If ever there was a time Wales needed its own public service broadcaster it is now. While the BBC News Channel was talking about mining in Libya we wanted to know about what was happening in Gleision colliery. BBC Radio Wales cut off the live comments of Shadow Secretary of State for Wales to play a pre-recorded message from a journalist. After a brief token gesture they went on to talk about banking in London! The BBC are no better today than the media and Parliament were in Keir Hardie’s day when in 1894 the birth of the future Edward VIII was put in the headlines above the tragic deaths of 251 miners in Pontypridd.

It was not until nearly 8pm that say that David Cameron made a comment, being too busy patting him and Nicholas Sarkozy on the back in Libya. If it were not for Sky News knowing their profits depended on covering the only story people in Wales cared about that some people were lucky to get up-to-date information and expert not journalistic commentary.

What should have happened is there should be Sky News’s wall-to-wall coverage on a dedicated Welsh terrestrial channel which would have interrupted its programming. A program, perhaps called, ‘Nos Newyddion’ should have been debating with political leaders whether we should open up more greenfield sites to open cast mining or whether closing the mines in the 1980s was right – My grandfather who served in the mines for 5 decades agreed with the latter, knowing many people who fell victim to deep pit mining’s clutches.

As sad is it will be, maybe the Davy lamp, like the one I inherited from my grandfather Ted, should be a thing of the past, as the deaths from underground mining may be a price too high to preserve the many greenfield sites which bury black gold beneath their pastures. Co-operative open cast mining of these is the only option – We should shove the grass and save lives.

Application, Articulation, Boundlessness, Consciousness, Rhondda Ward Election Blog, Socio-legal

Intellectual Property Law – What does the EU Treaty actually say?

22 February 2010 Jonathan Bishop 3 comments

I was once told this joke about how a Catholic priest was asked by his junior to relook at the ancient manuscripts, where he found the word celibate was actually celebrate! My EU law tutor always said primary legislation overrules secondary legislation, so I will look at the primary legislation on intellectual property.
Article 36 of the EU Treaty states that there can be restrictions the protect property of an industrial and commercial character in individual Member States. This is used as a legal base for laws on intellectual property, such as copyright.

Considering this for a moment would suggest for something to be considered intellectual property it would have to be for commercial or industrial purposes. Therefore it could be argued that photographs taken by family members of relatives for personal use are not of a commercial or industrial character so cannot be copyrighted.

Also, consider the term, ‘intellectual property’ itself. The term would seem to suggest that an element of creativity and craftsmanship went into the creation of such property. This would again suggest that a photograph taken with an amateur camera where the person taking the photograph had no special commercial or industrial training also does not carry any copyright. Perhaps if the creator was to combine the photograph with text, it would then become an intellectual/creative work and would carry copyright if it was for commercial or industrial purposes, but not on its own.

At some point I will look at the EU Treaty article that gives rise to Data Protection, to see whether it is possible for those featured in photographs taken commercially to have the rights to use them, but that is for another day.

Application, Law, The Arts

Llantrisant on the Web

1 July 2000 Jonathan Bishop No comments

Ex-Patriots of Llantrisant living in all parts of the world will soon be able to access news and sport from their old town if a University of Glamorgan student gets his way. For 21-year-old Jonathan Bishop, a freeman of Llantrisant who lives in Heol-y-Parc, Efail Isaf. Is building a website dedicated to the town and its history called llantrisant.com.
“It is in its early stages yet”, said Jonathan. “The project is part of my BSc Multimedia Studies degree. I am hoping to include all local news and sport as well as information dating back to the early 1700 so Freemen can trace their roots.”
But for now Jonathan is placing three simple research surveys on the site to find out exactly what the people of Llantrisant want. “There are three different tick box surveys,” said Jonathan. “From the feedback I get I will include the features that people want. As an incentive to get people to help me I will enter those who fill in the survey into a prize draw. “Building the website is a long process, but eventually I hope to establish the site as an important of the internet for Welsh people everywhere.”

Application, Information Technology, News and Public Relations
 

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