Gaza

went demonstrating today. Robin passes me this message from Mats Gilbert, a Norwegian doctor who works
at a hosital in Gaza: “They are bombintg the central market square in Gaza city during the two latest hours. 80 injured, 20 killed there, all coming here to Shifa hospital. This is Hades! We wade in dead,  blood, amputations. Many children. Pregnant woman. I have never experienced anything so terrible. Now we hear tanks approaching. Please SEND ON. DO SOMETHING. Vi are living in the historybook now, all of us” There are many other voices from Gaza too.

There’s a petition you can sign on avaaz - fast becoming the essential tool in global campaigns.

Blog own

The consumerist blog out of the USA (shopper’s revenge) has been taken over by Consumers Union.

Consumers Union is the grandaddy of consumer testing organisation and their Consumer Reports is the largest paid for online subscription in the world.

Post Modern

After thousands of closures, there is one Post Office in the country that has now re-opened. It could be a model for others to follow, though like all pioneers, it was far harder for those involved, Essex County Council and the postmaster Prful Chavda, than it ought to have been. The Guardian today carries a feature on this sliver of a silver lining in the Post Office network.

Digital rights

Good news that Jonathan Zittrain, Professor of Internet Governance at Oxford and Harvard and author of ”The Future of the Internet: and how to stop it” has signed up to the call for digital rights I have been putting together.

New Year Jill!

Happy New Year – and a particularly happy one for Jill Johnstone.

Jill is International Policy Director at Consumer Focus and has been awarded an OBE in the New Years List for services to consumers. We are lucky to have Jill as a colleague and she deserves every bit of the medal for her track record of campaigning for consumers, from the early work on the Common Agricultural Policy, challenging the rules on international trade through to her current work including on opening up intellectual property.