How could you resist a headline like that?

A slightly sneaky (on my part) way to introduce two articles from The Adam Smith Institute Blog.

Firstly, voting and does it even matter :

Voting is a civic duty, but does it really make a difference? For anyone living outside about sixty marginal constituencies, clearly no. You are more likely to be run over outside the polling station than your vote changing the balance in Parliament.

Even if it did, would that make a difference to how the country is run, since the main parties seem to share so many of the same metropolitan, nannying, spin-ridden presumptions? Well, yes: however much all politicians claim they will cut taxes and improve state services, it is plain that some believe in more state control of our economic and social lives, and others in less.

The trouble in the UK is that most people do not seem to care who is in charge or what they do as long as the TV stays lit and they have some money to spend.

Secondly, I was going to write about the current news stories doing the rounds on the Child Exploitation and Online Protection Centres efforts to bully Facebook into adding panic buttons everywhere on the site but The ASI blog does an excellent job :

The protection of children is always a sensitive issue and a large responsibility, but the Child Exploitation and Online Protection Centre’s (CEOP) reaction to Facebook’s new safety measures shows to what extent self-righteous bureaucrats feel justified in spreading their remit.

…

As a private company Facebook should not be coerced into fulfilling the egotistical aspirations of a quango, no matter how well intentioned; how they manage the threat of internet predators should be entirely up to them. The drive to remain popular and public concerns will no doubt mean that Facebook remains up to date when dealing with the ‘darker’ side of social networking such as grooming, bullying and exploitation. How they respond to this pressure should be their own choice. Also, many of my friends have had their birthdays changed, or obscene status updates posted as a result of prank. It seems obvious to me that a ‘this person is a pedophile’ button would be taken advantage of to cause mayhem, likely wasting police time.

Too bloody right!

Do go and read both articles – well worth the visit.