Archive for January, 2008


Ever have trouble connecting to the Net?

January 31st, 2008 by Roger Darlington

Weeks go by and my Internet connection works like a dream. Then one day – like this morning – it takes ages to obtain a connection. And I never know why. Spare a thought then for the tens of million in the Middle East and Asia who are having trouble now connecting to the Net […]

Posted in Internet | Comments (1)


What have the unions ever done for us?

January 30th, 2008 by Roger Darlington

As someone who was a national trade union official for 24 years and is a fan of the film “Monty Python’s Life of Brian” [my review here], I really enjoyed this Ozzie video:

Posted in Miscellaneous | Comments (1)


Starting a new role

January 29th, 2008 by Roger Darlington

Just days after the Government announcement of the membership of the New National Consumer Council on which I will serve for the next four years, we had our first Board meeting today – almost five hours discussing over 100 pages of papers. A really great team of colleagues – but a lot of complicated procedural […]

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The American presidential election (8)

January 28th, 2008 by Roger Darlington

My favoured Democratic candidate Barack Obama won a decisive victory in South Carolina and the fight now moves to Super Tuesday, when 22 states vote, in a week’s time. Meanwhile you can hear Obama’s inspiring victory speech here.

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I’ve seen the future – and it’s Dutch (2)

January 26th, 2008 by Roger Darlington

I mentioned in an earlier posting that I’ve just returned from a two day visit to a small town called Nuenen in the south of The Netherlands which is outstanding for having wired up all its 8,000 households with optical fibre providing up to 100Mbit/s. I’ve now produced a report on the Nuenen scheme which […]

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My new public appointment

January 25th, 2008 by Roger Darlington

On 30 September 2008, three statutory consumer bodies – energywatch, Postwatch and the National Consumer Council – will cease to exist. They will be merged into a body currently called the New National Consumer Council which will come into effect on 1 October 2008. At the end of July 2007, advertisements were placed seeking applicants […]

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The American presidential election (7)

January 25th, 2008 by Roger Darlington

As regular readers of NightHawk will know, I’ve been a big fan of Democratic presidential hopeful Barack Obama since even before he entered the US Senate. Today’s “Guardian G2” section devotes no less than nine pages to the man – examining the theme of what African-Americans think of Obama. The main article is by author […]

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I have seen the future – and it’s Dutch (1)

January 23rd, 2008 by Roger Darlington

I’ve just returned from a two day visit to a small town called Nuenen in the south of The Netherlands which is outstanding for having wired up all its 8,000 households with optical fibre providing up to 100 Mbit/s. The workshop was organised by Close The Gap which facilitated the building of Ons Net (Our […]

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Your place in the scheme of things

January 21st, 2008 by Roger Darlington

Put your speakers on and click here.

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The American presidential election (6)

January 20th, 2008 by Roger Darlington

It can be hard – especially for non-Americans – following the fortunes of the various candidates in the US Democratic and Republican primaries. When all is said and done, though, it is all about delegates to the national conventions – so where do the main candidates stand on actual pledged delegates? These are the latest […]

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