The Spectator unveiled a rather snazzy new website design on Thursday, but one wonders if editor Fraser Nelson hasn’t been spending too much time reading the New Statesman online…
Spot the difference…
The taxi-hailing service Uber is preparing to battle against Transport for London following the leaking of alleged plans to regulate the service more strictly in the capital.
Folks at Uber have put together a petition to block regulatory changes that at the time of writing has amassed 80,000 signatures, with the concerns of the taxi-hailing app detailed as follows:
“Transport for London (TfL) will soon publish proposed new rules for apps like Uber. If adopted, they will mean an end to the Uber you know and love today. There will be a mandatory five minute wait time, even if a car is available just around the corner. You won’t even be able to see the nearest cars when you open the app.
“TfL also wants to restrict carpooling, including new services like uberPOOL. This enables people going in the same direction to share a car – cutting the cost of the trip as well as congestion on London’s streets. And the proposed rules threaten drivers’ livelihoods by forcing them to drive for just one operator.”
Details of the plans, which the Right Dishonourable has been unable to confirm, were first revealed on the Guido Fawkes blog and following mounting pressure on London mayor Boris Johnson from black cab drivers who are more heavily regulated than Uber drivers, who operate under minicab licenses.
Round the world the taxi-hailing service has faced pressure from regulators concerned about the safety of the service for passengers, as well as the rights of the drivers.
Legal battles with Uber are being seen as setting precedents for the so-called “sharing economy”, which has reduced barriers for people who want to rent out their possessions or skills to others. Other pioneering outfits include the room-renting service Airbnb.
Update: At least one person seems happy with the prospect of more regulation (and higher fares) for Uber drivers. None other than Labour’s London mayoral candidate Sadiq Khan:
Welcome news of new proposals to regulate taxi and private hire vehicles. We must ensure we protect Londoners and our historic taxi trade.
— Sadiq Khan MP (@SadiqKhan) September 29, 2015
Image Credit – Southwark Street at Night, January 2013 by Marcus Holland-Moritz
Pure Pwnage, a gaming web series before web series were a thing, is set to be released in movie form in a matter of months.
That at least is the view of Joel Gardiner, the actor behind the iconic FPS Doug character which captured so much of what it was like to play first-person shooters in those days.
Speaking to the Daily Dot, Gardiner said:
“I’m not one to speak on the exact plans for the movie release, as that is [co-creators] Jarett [Cale] and Geoff [Lapaire]’s job, but I have seen clips, and I know it’s going to be released within the next couple of months, and I’m incredibly excited and anxious to see what the fans think.
“It was so much fun reprising those characters and getting back into that universe and the pro gaming scene. It’s nuts when you go to an actual pro gaming event now and see just how huge the industry has grown in the past 10 years.”
For those of you who haven’t seen it, here is a teaser clip from the film:
The full interview can be read here.
Image Credit – FPS Doug from Pure Pwnage Film, via Joel Gardiner
Whilst the commentariat debates among itself just how unelectable the Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn is likely to be come 2020, YouGov is keeping up its research into what the plebs think of the Islington North MP.
The data, at least for those who buy the idea that Labour lost the last election because Ed Miliband was seen as too leftwing, does not make for a pretty graph, with Corbyn far to the left of even Green leader Natalie Bennett and Scottish Nationalist leader Nicola Sturgeon.
On the plus side, David Cameron has been mostly tracking to the right since he ended up as prime minister in 2010, and now stands only a little to the left of Ukip leader Nigel Farage.
Tim Farron, leader of the embattled Liberal Democrats, sits close the centre ground it appears he is coveting these days, though the public see him as quite similar to Charles Kennedy – who presided over the Lib Dems’ greatest electoral success in 2005, and sat on the social democratic wing of the party that Farron also calls home.
The extent to which the left-right distinction matters is less clear than the survey results, and it’s worth pointing out in the full data around 30 percent claimed ignorance on where most of the leaders stood, and even more for Farron and Bennett.
At a Hansard Society event earlier this month analysing May’s general election none of the political scientists on the panel mentioned left and right in great detail, with Jonathan Tongue suggesting that the Tories cleared up on the old tropes of leadership and economic competence.
More information on the data above can be found on YouGov’s website.
Image Credit – Nigel Farage and Jeremy Corbyn, via Gage Skidmore and Global Justice Now
Edward Snowden, the NSA whistleblower responsible for revealing mass snooping by both British and American spies, opened a Twitter account on Tuesday in style.
In his first message Snowden even took the opportunity to mock the spy agency that he used to do contract work for, tweeting:
Can you hear me now?
— Edward Snowden (@Snowden) September 29, 2015
Seemingly the message is a reference to the American telecoms company Verizon, which created a number of adverts flaunting the supposed superiority of its phone network, one of which is below:
The gag is that the first story from the trove Snowden leaked to journalist Glenn Greenwald concerned mass collection of Verizon customers’ telephone data.
In later tweets Snowden shot the shit with astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson, who welcomed the whistleblower onto Twitter as a “patriot”, a term much contested in America where national pride is a more vaunted quality than in Britain.
Ed @Snowden, after discussing everything from Chemistry to the Constitution on #StarTalk, you’re a patriot to me. Stay safe. — Neil deGrasse Tyson (@neiltyson) September 29, 2015
Jack Dorsey, chief executive of Twitter, was equally pleased, but others were not so impressed by the arrival of Snowden.
Yes! Welcome to Twitter. https://t.co/gUBQpET6Gg
— Jack (@jack) September 29, 2015
Some say you have courage, I saw real courage on #Sept11 You are just a traitor who put American lives at risk. https://t.co/RRWtmMzyxE — George E. Pataki (@GovernorPataki) September 29, 2015
Oh, and the only Twitter account Snowden is following? The NSA, naturally.
Image Credit – Edward Snowden, Wired cover, September 2014 by Mike Mozart