Goodby to 2012, and welcome 2013. A look at the highs and lows of 2012.

The political highlights

Osbourne’s Budget, Pasty Tax, Caravan Tax, Autumn Statement, 1% Cap on Benefits, it’s going to get rough, last year’s announcements have not been executed yet and the local government cuts will be continuing

The May Elections turn to Labour, except for the Mayor of London, but Francois Hollande was elected President of France and Parti Socialiste candidate for London, Alexel Maire was elected to the French Chambre des Deputés

NHS Bill finally became law, paving the way for the privatisation of healthcare

Neverending War

McKinnon not extradited, but May announces that she will abolish the Home Secretaries powers to have the final say on extradition. O’Dwyer is found to have a case to answer in the USA and then negotiates deferred prosecution; we end up with stronger coercive powers on the citizen, in that we now have to obey the laws of the USA and the UK. Judges have changed the Law in that building an index of potentially infringing material, a list of links will render you liable to legal action despite the precedents stating that linking to content was legal.

The European Patent became law. The Pirate Bay has been deleted from the UK’s DNS. Mega-Video is taken down by the US Federal Government actions. Vickerman of Surf the Channel has been sent to Prison for building an index. Most importantly the anti-internet, pro-copyright laws in Europe (ACTA) and the US (SPA/PIPA) were defeated. They’ll be back.

The Olympics

The Olympics came to London; what a fantastic experience. I was worried in advance as to how the transport would cope, but it did well, helped by London’s decision to take the time of and “work from home”. The reporting of the sailing was a bit shit, and I don’t have the time any more but Ainslie’s victory was as exciting as four years ago. The competition was made for me, George Osborne’s welcome to the Olympic Park.

Culture

I am not a very cultured person, I suppose my highlight of the year was watching the Hobbit, so not so good then; although I watched the 2D version. Earlier in the year, I went to Crimfest 2012 and head Lee Child speak about his “Jack Reacher” novels, I then proceeded to read the first six, by which time I had found them a bit samey but looking forward to the film which I am planning to see.

ooOOOoo

I found this while tidying up and posted it in March 2015

Looking back at 2012
Tagged on:                                             

Leave a Reply

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

%d bloggers like this: