Ed Dowding

The transcript of the introductory video at www.elected.in, as requested by a few folks:

Hello.

My name’s Ed Dowding and I’m running to be an independent MEP, because I’m bored of politics.

I’m bored of the short term thinking, I’m bored of the arguments about people and not about issues, and I’m bored by the way all the truly important problems are ignored.

We seem to have forgotten that the way we live is a CHOICE. It can seem at times that there is so much history shaping the way we do things that it would be impossible to change now. It can seem that we live in two worlds: the one we know in our daily experience, and the one we read about and see on TV. It can seem that no matter what we do or how hard we try, the bad guys still sneak away to safety, and the good guys never get a break.

Today, I’m asking you to give me a break. Today I’m asking you to vote for me so that I can try to make a difference in Europe.

Europe started as an idea for peace, progress, and trade, and then quickly moved into the public realm and started influencing our lives in more direct ways. In the 90s I used to think that they should stop, just wind it back to a free trade area and leave it at that.

But over the last 15 to 20 years, we have grown increasingly aware of emerging global problems. Not only problems born of globalisation like fair trade, and huge companies throwing their weight around, but also the big problems:

SARS and bird flu have shown us how quickly disease can spread in a connected society; climate change evidence mounted and we had storms and HUGE floods. We have had wars about religion and oil .. oil, a commodity which underpins our entire economy — an economy which has become untethered from value, and been shown to have severe flaws, not just if left unregulated, but also inherent in its very structure and operation.

And in response to these problems what do we get from our party politicians? We get… well … not enough. Some nice work against price fixing in the medicinal drugs market, disproportionate amount of chat about a constitution (which I’m against, by the way), and pressure on mobile phone manufacturers to all use the same charger. Which is neat and will save a lot of waste, but leaves me with the feeling that many of them are fiddling, whilst Rome burns.

Does the EU not understand that trust is earned? Do they not understand that if they do the job we WANT them to do, and confront these problems head on, THEN we will see that the EU can be a thing of value?

THEN we will see ourselves as part of an amazing organisation that is solving mankind’s problems together, because there is no way that we can solve these problems on our own.

Well it turns out that the EU DOES know this. If you read the research and ideas coming out of the EU, many of them are BRILLIANT. Marvellous solutions for making transport zero-carbon, large funds for energy research and implementation, some excellent work in early identification of pandemics, and much more. You should take a look at europa.eu.

So if we know what needs to be done, why aren’t we doing it?

Because the people who make the choices, the politicians, lack the vision to see the solutions; and those who do are allied to parties which work on vote chasing and short term appeal. They are frightened to deal with the problems, because they think you are not ready to face them.

You’re not stupid. You know there’s an energy crisis. You know there’s a population crisis. You know there’s climate crisis. You know that something really needs to be done about these.

But it’s also a lot easier if you can make it someone else’s problem. So you did that. You assigned politicians to represent you in this representative democracy.

But they haven’t. Even given the scale and immediacy of some of problems they’re supposed to fix they have stuck to party lines and old solutions based on a fundamental misapprehension of the problems: aid policies based on the same system which created the need for aid, a war on terror which creates more terrorists, farming methods which create famine, legislation which is aimed to help businesses, but ends up ruining them; a currency which is supposed to bring stability but which magnifies the financial shocks. In the words of Einstein, ‘we can not solve problems using the same thinking used when they were created’

What we need in Europe – what we need in ALL politics – is people who don’t care about politics. We need people who care about getting the best long term solution. We need people who are strong enough to stand up for what is right, — even if it’s painful.

People who can talk with honest urgency about fish stocks and agricultural policies, who will campaign loudly and effectively about the overwhelming need for transparency and openness in Europe, people who will represent your DISGUST that we can bail out banks but not find money for public transport and energy; people who will work tirelessly to bring you the answers you deserve.

It is not overstating the situation to say that humanity faces a choice right here, and right now, about how we deal with the century to come.  — About how we deal with problems which simply can not be adequately dealt with at the national level. Problems which require us to all pull together if we’re going to see the next century.

Not only does humanity face a choice, but YOU face a choice. This is YOUR economy, YOUR country, YOUR Europe, YOUR world, YOUR life, YOUR future, YOUR vote… this is YOUR moment to make a difference.

Here’s what you can do, right now, to make change happen:

Please vote for me before midnight today, Friday 24th April, by text EDDOW01 to 86837.

Learn more about the issues at www.electEd.in, or by googling ‘Ed Dowding MEP’

And put it in you diary to vote in the elections on 4th June. If you are not yet registered to vote, you can get a form online at www.aboutmyvote.co.uk

If we work together, we can do this.

It you don’t already know the amazing phenomenon that is the TED event (Technology, Education, Design) you’re in for a two treats. Firstly TED ranks up there with Skype as one of the best things to happen for communication of ideas across the world. Secondly, it’s supporting local events, too.

What happens at a TEDx event?

What happens at each TEDx event depends greatly on the individual organizers. Events can be held in homes, workplaces, schools, universities or public theaters. Events may last just an hour or extend to a full day, consisting of a dozen people or several hundred. Some TEDx events will focus solely on recorded TEDTalks. Others will include short talks from live speakers.

What all TEDx events have in common:

+ TED’s format of short, carefully-prepared talks on a wide range of subjects to foster learning, inspiration and wonder — and to provoke conversations that matter
+ Inclusion of at least two recorded TED talks
+ Lack of a commercial, religious or political agenda
+ Free admission (although a small contribution toward costs is permitted)
+ A short introductory video in which TED Curator Chris Anderson explains the TEDx program (see below)

http://www.ted.com/tedx

This is going to mean a lot of GREAT ideas being talked about!

1. It permits lazy policing

If you have someone’s record on file, you’re more likely to assume he’s a criminal. And if that DNA matches a sample which has been discovered during the investigation… well it’s jolly tempting to think that you might have your man.

A connected spate of lazy policing happened recently. Having a suspect reduces the search for other explanations and will lead to more evidence being found against the individual (eg no alibi) since we search to validate opinions more readily than we seek to refute them.

Additionally it leads to inquisitorial moments such as this example when the police asked – or is that threatened? – 4,000 men local to a murder to give their DNA ‘voluntarily’, but “if someone does refuse then each case will be reviewed on its own merits.”

Now of course that’s also an argument to put EVERYONE on the DNA database instead… so read on, because you’ll like the bit about facial recognition.

2. It does not aim to reduce crime, only to make it easier to solve

The Home Office* website says that “the national DNA database is a key police intelligence tool as it helps to: quickly identify offenders, make earlier arrests, secure more convictions, provide critical investigative leads for police investigations.” Which is to say that police-work takes less time, and more people are convicted. This is jolly good (notwithstanding the ‘lazy policing’ observations above), but this is not the same as bringing the much more useful social benefit of reducing the amount of crime committed.

But could a DNA database reduce crime? Well there’s some deterrence for minor crimes, but bigger crimes are born of passionate intent, and the perpetrator only thinks of the consequences later, if he cares about them at all.

It’s early days with DNA, so let’s look at the promises of another great idea which was going to keep us all safe, only only the very slightest cost to our wallets and liberty, CCTV.

It’s been an utter fiasco: only 3 per cent of crimes were solved by CCTV. There’s no fear of CCTV. Why don’t people fear it? (They think) the cameras are not working.

Detective Chief Inspector Mick Neville, head of the Visual Images, Identifications and Detections Office at New Scotland Yard

• Fewer than 1 crime in 30 is solved through CCTV
• Dover council introduced CCTV in 1993. After 12 years, they found that burglary in the areas covered had halved, car crime was down 87 per cent, but public disorder and crimes of violence had almost trebled.
• A study in Gillingham concluded that crime in the High Street had fallen by a third five years after CCTV was installed, while it was static in areas where there was no CCTV.
• A study for the Home Office in 2004 examined 14 CCTV systems, and found that only one had really cut crime. That was in a car park. The others, they concluded “had no overall effect on crime.”
  Source: Independent.co.uk

So does CCTV reduce crime? Yes, but not by much. And on occasion, by removing the very human desire (even need) for a low-harm crime, it displaces it in into a more serious and socially harmful category. CCTV rarely works for the public benefit, even if judged solely on it’s ability to do its intended job.

*This conjures a completely different image in this teleworking age.

3. We do not know as much about DNA as we’d like to think we do

Not only are our ideas about the uniqueness of DNA false, but as the aforementioned discovery of a 6th nucleotide shows, we do not know what DNA is responsible for. There have been studies claiming correlations with depression, alcoholism, and homosexuality. We don’t have to look too far back in our history (uh oh), or too far in our future, to ponder what kind of rules well-meaning governments will abstract from that.

“We found that 98% of people with this nucleotide on this gene are disposed to violent crime, Sir.”

— “Really? That’s more evidence that we had in Guantanamo! Round ‘em up!”

“And how about this one for alcoholism, Sir?”

— “Three compulsory group sessions per year for awareness training and evaluation!”

4. If they lose it, you can’t request a new PIN

This one’s quite simple. If someone leaves your bank data on a train you can change your PIN number and your bank details can be assigned new random numbers. This is embarrassing and potentially very expensive, but easily fixed.

(As an aside on this same topic, have you noticed how many CCTV cameras film you when you tap in your PIN? Isn’t that therefore open to massive abuse? Because now we have a lot of valid data (correct PIN numbers) which are easily accessed and abused if the intent is there.)

But if they lost your biometric data (retina scans, fingerprints etc) or DNA… well, you can’t change that. If someone can use your genetic and biometric information to pretend to be you, it’s a lot harder to deny. It may seem far fetched to suggest the criminals might leave fake samples around (though they have); but if DNA is too abstract and distant, think on biometrics. We now store and use biometric data in more places, to get in to anything from laptops to buildings. We will most likely be using it more as the technology to do so gets cheaper, because it appears to be more secure. After all, it’s linked directly to me – what could be more unique than my own fingerprint?

There is a logical fallacy here, much like the same one which bought us the arms race. Security can be increased in any number of ways, and the ability to hack that security will increase to compensate. But it is true that better technology can create better security. This is true, but only whilst good, trustworthy people who have access to the technology. People like the police, for example, or the government, who we know never lie or try to cover things up.

So what are we laying on the line for convenience in security? Many measures can be taken to increase security without the need to go biometric.

5. It is financially expensive for the benefits it brings

The social benefits are minimal. But what does it cost? Perhaps the minimal benefits might be worth it.

There are over 4.2 million CCTVs in the UK. Unfortunately I can not find any information about how many of these belong to the government, but it is a lot of them, and public sector ones alone cost billions to install and operate.

As for biometric ID, not only will it cost individuals £72, but on top of that it costs us £5.4 billion (which is more than the ENTIRE POLICE FORCE costs for 1 year). And that’s the conservative estimate. Other studies put it at more like £15-20 billion (which is about the same as the police, the judiciary, prisons, and public safety).

6. It drives a wedge between people and authority, making the problem of security harder to solve

It is the obligation of any government to protect the liberty of its citizens. It should be protecting us from the very laws it is making. Instead, it is alienating us, treating us all as suspects. We should not need to be authorised to exist. We should not need to worry for our safety and our legality if we protest peacefully. We should not need to worry who can track us as we walk through a town.

If you treat someone like a prisoner, they will behave like a prisoner. Resentment will increase against authority, and there will be less cooperation.

The government is collecting the biometric facial data of everyone who applies for a passport. They also have a huge digital CCTV network. Programmers are developing better and better facial recognition systems. How long before this is all tied together? They know who you are, where you are, and can watch what you’re doing. They can watch you protest, and if they don’t like you, they can act. Even against people of conscience who dare to speak up.

Is the government going to come along in the night and round us all up? Well, not yet, we hope. But read this description of plans for a database once upon a time:

The aim is to centralize and analyze data on people aged 13 or above who are active in politics or labor unions, who play a significant institutional, economic, social or religious role, or who are “likely to breach public order.”

The information that can be collected includes addresses, phone numbers, email addresses, physical appearance, behavioral traits, fiscal and financial records, and details about people who have personal ties with the subject.

Nazi Germany? North Korea? China? McCarthy America? Nope. This is the Edvige database from current day France.

Why do they do this? Because they want to protect their citizens, and serve them more efficiently and effectively. So this is not an abstraction into a dark distopian future, nor does it require an act of malice, nor a grand conspiracy. If we allow it to happen, it will be because we have slowly, bit by bit, handed over our liberties for the false promise of greater security.

The nightmares of governments turning nasty seem distant. But it happens. More often than we’d like to think, far more quickly than we expect, and yet far too slowly for us to notice it happening.

I’m not suggesting that Great Britain is going fascist, but why put in place a structure which would make the slide into oppression so very, very easy? Why put in place a structure which is of negligible use to a free society, and terrifying to a suppressed one?

Other countries may use ID cards and biometrics more and more, making it seem inevitable. They may start collecting data from people who travel there, and they may pressure us into having biometric documents, but this is Great Britain. We have long been a free country. Millions of us have gone to war to fight and kill to protect the liberty we take for granted, and millions of Britons have given their lives to give you your freedom today. A freedom many of us seem so willing to give up. Were they wrong to fight and die for this? Or have we just become acclimatised to a culture of powerful governments?

Using biometrics and DNA erodes our liberty, freedom of movement, freedom of protest, right to privacy, and right to security. The small amount of crime we have does not justify gambling these hard fought for rights.

We can increase cooperation with authority by not treating us all as prisoners and suspects, and can increase security without using biometric data.

We can, today, make a simple decision that will save us money, increase our security, preserve our liberty, and bring government and the people it serves closer together. We can, if we so wish, say that biometrics will never be a compulsory part of a government issued document, nor stored longer than is absolutely necessary to serve justice.

I am currently running to be an MEP in the South West. If you like what you read, please text  EDDOW01 to 86837 to show your support. Your votes will make a huge difference to my ability to bring in the future that you would like to see, and steer us away from the future you do not want.

A friend was recently saying he was “puzzled by this Susan Boyle thing. Why all the hoo ha? She can sing but is not young and attractive? It’s just patronising.”

On the one hand it is patronising. The look on Piers Morgans face had prejudiced moron written all over it. And what he said at the end? “When you stood there and said [..] you wanted to be like Elaine Page, everyone was laughing at you.” That was a HORRIBLE thing to say to someone. It was not true, and it is remiss of him to project his bitter emotions onto the rest of us; and even if it were true, that’s just not something you say to anyone – most of all a woman who appears to be loving, kind, and generous; and whom many people would love to see find good fortune, especially if it is the product of her efforts.

But on the other hand it could also be a turning point. It could be the moment when meritocracy is reborn into the entertainment sphere. And the seed of empathy which is nourished in the media – especially social media – can blossom into a flower of renewed pride in public life.

A renaissance in which quality counts more than appearance, ability is more important than age, experience is recognised and appreciated, and the oxygen of authenticity is restored to our gasping souls.

Organic vegetables led the way, and entertainment can follow. We are seeing that our perfect models come at too high a price: they fail to nourish us, do not enrich or stabilise the soil in which they grow, take too much feeding, and leave the other perfectly good specimens which somehow fail to invoke a Platonic ideal to be treated like rubbish.

Piers Morgan was utterly wrong. Through Susan Boyle we see that we want to see everyone succeed, we want to help each other grow, and we don’t have a problem with including everyone in our world.

Only THREE days left to vote! After about a week of your support, we’re currently 8th in the whole of the UK!

If I was standing in most of the rest of the country we’d be winning by a long way. But in the South West, we’re currently 3rd. Bronze? BRONZE?! No! You deserve GOLD, surely? We’ve come this far, this is no place to stop!

Update 2pm: Make that 2nd!! Silver? SILVER?! No! You deserve GOLD, surely? We’ve come this far, this is no place to stop!

When we win on Friday, we’re going to need to find a lot of votes… about 200,000 in fact. Yikes, right? The only way this is going to happen is if the media pick up on this BIG TIME and it goes viral EVERYWHERE.

When 4th June comes, there can not be a person in the South West who hasn’t at least HEARD about what we’re trying to do here: About how we’re trying to bring vision and reason into politics, how we’re no longer satisfied with small minded solutions to global problems, how this is not political game any more.

They need to know that we want to create a future which rocks! Which hits the problems head on and smashes through to the other side knowing that we do so simply because that is what needs to be done, because we know there is no longer time for sidestepping and posturing.

So I really need you to help me, and help me with all you can do in the 48 HOURS, BECAUSE VOTING ENDS ON FRIDAY* — remember we need to tell as many people as we can.

If you’ve not voted yet, please text EDDOW01 to 86837 — that’s all right now!

The lesson from this week is that just sending an email is not enough. People don’t care, it’s just another email. I need to you make this personal.

• Have a quick look at www.elected.in and find a few points you really agree with – that will make this next bit YOUR cause, not mine. I’m not doing this this for me, I’m doing it for all of us. The idea of ‘sliding scale, and human readable legislation‘ is a popular one.(Believe me, I have precious little innate desire to stand up and do this but I have been pushed forward. The main problem is that no one else is saying what we want said — when did you last hear a politician you agreed with this much?)
• Are you in an office? Are you seeing friends today? Tell ‘em – get them to vote! Actually WATCH THEM whilst they text, supporting YOUR cause!
• Are you on a mailing list or discussion group? Please make them aware of the elections and ask them to vote for me. Please pick a point and make it personal! Not just “my mate’s doing this.. ” — OWN IT! This is YOUR cause here!

Get out there be the change you want to see! Don’t do it later, this will take just two minutes — make it happen, and make it happen NOW!

If everyone one of you gets just FIVE votes today, we’ll storm it!

LET’S DO THIS!!

*Sorry for the shouting, but that’s for the skim readers! (And I’M VERY EXCITED THAT WE’RE DOING THIS!)