International Bloggers’ Bill of Rights

We, the inhabitants of the Blogosphere, do hereby proclaim that bloggers everywhere are entitled to the following basic rights:

FREEDOM TO BLOG. FREEDOM FROM PERSECUTION AND RETALIATION BECAUSE OF OUR BLOGS:

1.) If an employer wishes to discipline an employee because of his/her blog, it must first establish clear-cut blogging policies and distribute these to all of its employees.

2.) Blogging employees shall be given warning before being disciplined because of their blogs.

3.) NO ONE shall be fired because of his/her blog, unless the employer can prove that the blogger did intentional damage to said employer through the blog.

Blogophobic companies, who violate the Bloggers’ Bill of Rights, will be blacklisted by millions of bloggers the world over."

[Bloggers' Rights]

I haven't stopped laughing at this. So companies are supposed to have "blogging policies" presumably to deal with errant employees who are dumb enough to criticise their employer publicly. Is it not implicit in an employment contract that you don't publicly criticise your employer? And why do it anyway? If you're so bothered about your employer that you feel the need to reveal its trade secrets or expose some malpractice, LEAVE, and then do it. Grow up.

11:02:21 AM    

The M6 toll route north of Birmingham has dramatically increased the number of vehicles on the very motorway it was designed to unclog, confirming fears that building more roads simply creates more traffic. Since the toll road opened in December 2003, junctions to the south have seen weekday traffic rise by almost 10,000 extra cars and lorries. Junctions to the north show 5,000 more vehicles a day. While traffic flows freely on the toll stretch, 38,000 extra vehicles now use both this and the free M6 each day, a rise of more than a quarter on pre-toll days, parliamentary figures show. Environmentalists will use the figures to show building roads encourages car use. " [The Observer]

The road that should never have been built. I well remember the Labour Party in opposition promising that they would cancel the construction of the M6 Toll. As soon as they were in power they changed their minds.

More information at Transport2000.

1:26:22 AM