PhotoHunt - Self

This weeks PhotoHunt theme has reminded me that with all my rushing around I have forgotten to do my 52 week flickr self portrait challenge for two weeks running! Ooops! I must get back onto that again now things have settled down...

I am not sure if I like the texture I used for this one or not?

Click on photo for a larger view.

For more of this weeks PhotoHunt pictures check out tnchick.

The West Pier

For SkyWatch Friday

The burnt remains of Brighton's West Pier was a familiar sight last week. I had to walk past it most days and it was easily viewed from my hotel and the conference centre. There was much speculation amongst my colleagues as to why it hadn't been dismantled and we thought it might be because it is a listed building. My colleagues were complaining because they think it is an eyesore. I actually like it, it think it is quite photogenic, but I do also like the glass pyramid entrance to the Louvre and also the controversial Selfridge's entrance in Birmingham. So who I am I to trust on these matters?

When I got back home I did a bit of research and found that Brighton's West Pier Trust have plans to redevelop the site of the west pier. In 2004 both the Heritage Lottery Fund and English Heritage decided against restoring the pier, so no funds were forthcoming. Not deterred by this news the West Pier Trust continued to devise a way to develop the site. The first part of the plan is to construct the i360 (The Brighton Eye). This has been designed by the architects of the London Eye. The structure will be 183 meters in height with it's observation pod rising to 139 meters. It is hoped that the tower will be a huge tourist attraction and raise enough funds to restore parts of the pier such as the Victorian toll booths and seating. The funds will also fund the tidying up of the beach and wreckage of the pier whilst maintaining the wildlife habitat of the area.

You can check out the Brighton West Pier Trust website to see the full proposals for this project.

Internet Connection

Again it seems I am having trouble with my internet connection!!! It is so slow and some pages won't load at all... and to top it all blogger is being a little quirky too!

But according to the latest edition of New Scientist things could get worse:

"IF YOU thought it was hard finding the email address that some other john.smith hasn't already bagged, that's nothing compared with the difficulty you'll have getting and internet connection for your computer after 2011.

As of this month 85 per cent of the 4.3 billion available Internet Protocol (IP) addresses, which identify devices connected to the net, are already in use. Within three years they will all be used up, according to a report by the OECD. 'The situation is critical for the future of the internet ecomony,' it says.

The report urges governments and businesses to upgrade from the current version, IPv4 to IPv6, which effectively has an unlimited number of IP addresses. IPv6 has been available for more than a decade but service providers have been slow to adopt."

Something else to think about...

Civil Liberties

I have been reading the Economic & Social Research Council's report on Britain in 2008. One of the articles touches on an issue that is particularly important to me. I recently blogged about what happened to one of my colleagues who was taking part in a peaceful demonstration.

The article discusses the effect of the September 11th 2001 attacks on the United States and other similar attacks and how this has raised public awareness on issues of national security. The article asks if we would sacrifice freedom for safety? It concludes that at the moment the British public are not prepared to trade off core freedoms in order to feel safer.

"Professor Conor Gearty at the London School of Economic and Alison Park of the National Centre for Social Research uncovered a general commitment to civil liberties. Most people questioned agreed that the right to protest, the right not to be detained by police for more than a week without charge, and the right to keep your private life private from government are important."

We are led to believe that the changes in civil liberties are a direct result of such terrorist attacks but the report reveals that most of the decline in commitment to civil liberties happened in the early 1990s, long before the recent terrorist attacks.

The report goes on to say:

"So what happened in the early 1990s to make us less 'liberty minded'?"

The researchers conclusion:

"This change of mind coincided with a shift in Labour Party Policy, with the Party's leadership and supporters becoming less civil libertarian in their approach to freedom and justice."

The article concludes that we need to be constantly vigilant if we as a nation wish to keep our basic freedoms and liberties intact!

Fringe Meeting - Campaigning to Win

I was asked by Andi how my slideshow went at the fringe meeting.

The fringe meeting was well attended with around 80 people present at the start. It was a bit disorganised at the beginning as no one took charge. Situation normal ;-)

The meeting got underway eventually. The first speaker was quite brief and he was followed by my two colleagues who were supposed to linking in our campaigns to the slide show. It started off quite smoothly, but then they got a bit carried away and talked for quite some time and duplicated the information that was already in the slide show!!! They left the viewing of the slideshow until after the final speaker, by which time most people had gone...

So only about 10 people actually saw it, I was not best pleased after all that hard work. Another of my colleagues turned to me and commented on the fact that the speakers had duplicated what was in the slideshow. I just shrugged and said never mind I am going to reduce it to 10 minutes and you can choose me some good music and we will upload it to You Tube where everyone can see it ;-)

The response was along the lines of, that sounds like a plan to me!

You should be able to view the original via this link on the photodex website, although it will ask you to download a little bit of software to view it (If it asks the password is rally25).

PCS Annual Delegates Conference

Janice Godrich (National President) opening the conference at 9am on Wednesday 21st May 2008.

The opening motion was "Protecting Public Services" it was debated alongside several other motions relating to the same issue. It received a lot of support and the motion was passed. I didn't get to see all the debates because being a trainee delegate meant I had to keep going out of the hall to discuss various issues with the other trainee delegates.

After the Wednesday session was our fringe meeting "Campaigning to win" which was very well attended but could have done with a bit more organisation. More on this in a separate post...

When the meeting had finished our Regional Officers invited a few of us back to their hotel for a drink before we attended a black members function. When we got to the hotel we accidentally gatecrashed the presidents reception. We thought it was a bit odd when we didn't have to pay for the drinks and then we spotted the PCS general secretary and president. There was a large screen on the wall for people to watch the match so our colleagues who chose to go back to their rooms to watch the football aren't too happy with us ;-)

Thursday saw many more debates and more learning for me as a trainee. In the evening I split my time between two groups of colleagues although I did have a little bit of difficulty finding the second group. I was supposed to phone when I was on my way. I always knew this was going to be a bad idea it would be too loud to hear the phone! I was right and they had moved on from the initial meeting place. I knew where they were likely to have gone and it was only just round the corner, but I wasn't quite sure which street it was in. Luckily I found it! When I got there the conversation went something like this...

You're in trouble you said you would wait
Did you phone?
Yes twice
It is quite loud in here

At this stage I am just thinking Aaaagh!!!

From here we attended a couple of functions and never quite managed to meet up with our other colleagues (this was good in some cases and bad in others ;-) ).

The conference wasn't quite so well attended on the Friday morning, too much partying I guess ;-) Then we had our long journey home... I put all my conference papers in my case and I did so wish I hadn't packed the kitchen sink too, my bag was far too heavy!!!

But anyway after a long but smooth train journey home it is all over until next year.

My New Car

For those of you who asked to see ;-) :-)

Click on photo for a larger view.