Archive for September, 2010


Blog Action Day 2010

September 30th, 2010 by Roger Darlington

Blog Action Day this year is 15 October 2010 and this year’s theme is water. Petitions by Change.org|Start a Petition »

Posted in Environment | Comments (0)


My connected (unborn) granddaughter (we think)

September 30th, 2010 by Roger Darlington

Last week, I met my colleagues on the newly-formed Policy Stakeholder Committee of Nominet.  Those eight people are all intense users of the Net but interestingly none of us chooses to be an active user of social networking sites. But I’m due to become a grandfather in early January and my lovely daughter-in-law has just […]

Posted in Internet | Comments (2)


My international relations course (2)

September 29th, 2010 by Roger Darlington

As explained last week, I’ve just  started a course at the City Lit in central London. The course – which will run for an evening each week for 12 weeks – is entitled “International Relations And World Conflict” and our lecturer is an American called Dr Dale Mineshima-Lowe. Session two this evening was quite heavy […]

Posted in World current affairs | Comments (0)


Ed Miliband’s first speech as leader

September 29th, 2010 by Roger Darlington

I couldn’t listen live to the first speech by Ed Miliband as Labour’s new leader because I was chairing a meeting at Consumer Focus addressed by Lib Dem Minister Ed Davey (he was very good). But I have now heard every minute of the near hour-long speech and, if you haven’t, you can check it […]

Posted in British current affairs | Comments (0)


What we need now …

September 28th, 2010 by Roger Darlington

… is a by-election – ideally in a Liberal Democrat-held seat or at least a Conservative-held seat. In the ‘old days’ of British politics, typically there used to be three or four by-elections a year. These days, Members of Parliament tend to be younger and healthier so there is less death or serious illness. But, […]

Posted in British current affairs | Comments (1)


What Ed needs to do next

September 26th, 2010 by Roger Darlington

I’m reminded of the final scene in a film called “The Candidate” [my review here] where,  after (unexpectedly) winning a hard-fought election, the Robert Redford character turns to his agent and pleads: “What do we do now?”  Now that Ed Miliband has (just) won the leadership of the Labour Party, he has a lot to […]

Posted in British current affairs | Comments (0)


The new Labour leader

September 25th, 2010 by Roger Darlington

Well, that was exciting and soooo close: 50.65% to 49.35% after second, third and fourth preference votes came into play. Just beating his older brother David, the Labour Party has a new leader 40 year old Ed Miliband and, as I explained in this posting, I voted for him in the ballot. While I’m blogging […]

Posted in British current affairs | Comments (7)


Why did the “Titantic” sink?

September 25th, 2010 by Roger Darlington

I was 10 years old when the film “A Night To Remember” – about the sinking of the “Titantic” – was released in 1958.  In a lifetime passion for movies, this was one of the first that I remember seeing and made an indelible impression on my young mind. Indeed, when many decades later I […]

Posted in History | Comments (2)


Why is customer service rubbish?

September 25th, 2010 by Roger Darlington

Most of my professional time is spent sitting on statutory bodies representing the consumer, notably the Communications Consumer Panel and the Board of Consumer Focus. It’s a truism that so much customer service is terrible. It seems that so many companies spent lots of money and time seeking to win you as a customer and […]

Posted in Consumer matters | Comments (0)


My international relations course (1)

September 22nd, 2010 by Roger Darlington

This evening, I started a course at the City Lit in central London. The course – which will run for an evening each week for 12 weeks – is entitled “International Relations And World Conflict”. Our lecturer is an American called Dr Dale Mineshima-Lowe. There are supposed to be 32 students but not all turned […]

Posted in World current affairs | Comments (0)