joy of the quick crossword

It's only come to me very recently, the joy of doing a quick crossword in the morning on the commute to work, often resulting a few being leftover to tackle either at lunchtime with colleagues or in the evening with whoever happens to be in! I tackle the guardian quick crossword for my sins http://www.guardian.co.uk/.
Most of the time relatively straightforward but every so often there is a solution and i don't recognise the word e.g. of recent days - acrostic and gnomon!
I have never consistently attempted the cryptic puzzles to begin to understand the setter's thinking.
I shall stick to my quick crosswords until i have more time to sit and contemplate the cryptics. Although they are not considered difficult, i do get a little kick out of finishing one, particularly if i haven't had to resort to the dictionary or internet!

BAE, corruption and uk government complicity

The story runs and runs and almost each day brings a new aspect of the issue. It involves the UK Government, BAE, corruption, Saudi Princes, massive payments apparently sanctioned by the UK Government for such things as an airbus for a prince, weddings, call girls, a honeymoon etc, anger by the US Government and likely action by the US Justice Dept and US Congress against BAE (this is partly because US companies may have lost out on lucrative contracts in competition with BAE because they have tougher laws against corruption), involvement of OECD who are also angered that the UK Government has yet to prosecute anyone successfully under the OECD Anti-Corruption Convention, halting by SFO of its investigation into the Saudi / BAE corruption supposedly for 'national interests' a catch all for governments trying to hide something, although the SFO continues, with a few other fraud offices abroad, to investigate other BAE corruption allegations involving other countries.
The Guardian and BBC have done a lot of digging into the mire - http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/thereporters/robertpeston/2007/06/ethics_man_at_bae.html and http://www.guardian.co.uk/baefiles .
This story will run and run well beyond Bliar leaving office. It would be apt if one day Bliar, Goldsmith, Hoon and Browne answered for their deeds in a court of law.

long time no speak

It's been a while since i wrote a blog. Thought it would be good to update on our internet event on 6 june. By the skin of our teeth it was webcast globally, which was great. For those who missed it you can register and watch it here http://www.gginternet1.co.uk/amnesty/irrepressible01/. In addition it would be great if people would visit the campaign website and use the recently launched news hub at http://irrepressible.info/news .
There were a number of great contributions to the evening from the likes of Richard Stallman, Shava Nerad, Ron Deibert, Sami Ben Gharbia, Sina Motelabi, Kevin Anderson, Morton Sklar, Yam Shan-Shackleton, Josh Wolf and others together with podcasts from Jimmy Wales, Cory Doctorow Ethan Zuckerman etc etc. A great evening chaired superbly by Clark Boyd of the BBC!
Many thanks to all those who gave up their time to participate in the event. Also big thanks to the Observer and Guardian for their support for the campaign, which goes on with the Internet Governance Forum in the Autumn. There are a number of media stories about the event and internet repression / censorship on the Guardian/Observer websites http://www.guardian.co.uk/ and http://observer.guardian.co.uk/