Monday, May 23, 2011

Are we back to being 'squeezed' in public libraries?

We are back having problems publishing pages on our website! The last time this happened, in February, the Network for Church Monitoring site was brought down as Declan was about to publish our first book excerpt from a Nobel Prize winner (see blog of 8 February Website brought down as we are about to publish our first book excerpt from a Nobel Prize winner). This time, our internet connection is so slow I can't put the finishing touches to a fascinating interview with Nobel Laureate Paul Samuelson, by Distinguished Prof William Barnett, from Macroeconomic Dynamics, Volume 8:4, pp 519-542, 2004.

Prof Samuelson, who died in 2009 at the age of 94, has been described by the New York Times as "the foremost academic economist of the 20th century". The interview I am working on is more than 20 pages long and has taken a lot of work, but has been well worth it. Prof Samuelson is more relevant today than ever, if that is possible. In this video, he talks about Wall Street needing regulation, monitoring, and punishing:



The regular download speed on my laptop is 9872 Kbps, and upload speed 487 Kbps:

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Today I'm dealing with a download speed of 280 Kbps and an upload speed 0 Kbps:

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Declan is not doing much better with a download speed of 320 Kbps and an upload speed of 4 Kbps:

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If this is to continue, I will have to bring my laptop to the British Library tomorrow and publish the interview using their free Wi-Fi. Of course, nothing is guaranteed there either (see blog of 2 April 2010 Back to being 'squeezed' in public libraries). In fact, if I search this blog for the word 'squeezed', I get 11 postings!

Friday, May 20, 2011

Central London County Court refuses to commit to taking Declan's case against Highgate Jobcentre Plus

At least this morning the Central London County Court took Declan's case against our jobcentre, Highgate Jobcentre Plus, under the Data Protection Act 1998 (see blog of 26 April Central London County Court refuses to take Declan's case against Highgate Jobcentre Plus). However, they still have to decide whether they will process it and Declan had to come away with an unsealed copy of the papers he attempted to have filed.

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Meanwhile, Declan is still waiting to hear from the List Office in the High Court with a date for the hearing of his case against Highgate Jobcentre Plus pursuant to the Jobseeker's Act 1995 (see blog of 14 April Declan's Notice of Renewal of claim for permission to apply for Judicial Review). Moreover, next week he will be filing another case in the High Court against Haringey Council (his Letter before Claim can be read here; they continue to deduct monies from our rent allowance with apparently no end in sight). And of course the Department for Work and Pensions has threatened to terminate our benefits in three weeks time (see previous blog Department for Work and Pensions threatens to terminate our benefits on 8 June).

On the flip side of all this, we now have a chairman registered in Companies House! Dr Stephen Mumford is the founder and president of the US-based Center for Research on Population and Security. He has been called to provide expert testimony before Congress on the implications of world population growth. Dr Mumford has in fact been funding our Network for Church Monitoring website since last December, after it was removed from the Internet by our former web host Just Host (see About us). Suffice to say that Declan has long considered Dr Mumford his mentor.

Wednesday, May 18, 2011

Department for Work and Pensions threatens to terminate our benefits on 8 June

Last month the Central London County Court refused to take Declan's case against our jobcentre under the Data Protection Act because the Court Manager considered proofs that were good enough for the High Court insufficient for her court (see blog of 26 April Central London County Court refuses to take Declan's case against Highgate Jobcentre Plus). Declan had to write twice to an office in Glasgow to obtain the proof she specified and only today did he receive it, except that it states our benefits are only guaranteed until 8 June.

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By way of comparison, this is what we received last February (no termination date showing):

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Tomorrow Declan will write back to this office in Glasgow requesting a written statement of reasons for the manager's decision, since we have not received one, and on Friday he will again attempt to file his case against Highgate Jobcentre Plus in the Central London County Court. Also today Declan received a letter from our MP, Lynne Featherstone, who is a minister in the Home Office, concerning A4E (see previous blog A4E asks Declan to sign for an unrevealed 'work boost').

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We are not expecting any results in our favour: when Declan wrote to Featherstone more than a year ago regarding the interception of our emails, she said that she would try to prompt a response from the Home Secretary (see blog of 20 June 2010 Interception of communications: Our MP responds); only a few weeks ago she recommended that Declan finds himself a solicitor (see blog of 26 March Interception of emails: Home Office minister advises Declan to find himself a solicitor)!