What factors are increasing the price of oil, recently over $135 a barrel? Is it the speculative ‘unregulated’ oil trading that William Pfaff, writing in the IHT, criticises? Certainly the black magic of contract trading is a factor, a parasite on the ‘real’ market for the commodity. According to the BBC, OPEC has so far blamed price rises on speculators and says there is no shortage of oil. Likewise, Pfaff considers the present situation with rising prices dissimilar to the 1973 oil crisis, when OPEC announced that they would no longer supply oil to nations that supported Israel in its conflict with Syria and Egypt.

Paul Krugman, also in the IHT, is somewhat naive if he thinks that we are entering merely an era of scarce, expensive oil. This is more than an era. The buried sunlight that we like to burn is running out. Scarcity is the true reality. It’s more than Half Gone. Not only is the raw material that we are critically addicted to becoming more expensive as it becomes increasingly scarce, feeding our addiction in consuming oil is one of the major causes of global warming.

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UK Citizens Online Democracy’s (UKCOD) main activity is running the mySociety project, building websites which “give people simple, tangible benefits in the civic and community aspects of their lives.”

MySociety are the people behind the great web tools TheyWorkForYou, WriteToThem, PledgeBank, HearFromYourMP and FixMyStreet (a project similar to one comwifinet were hacking up in the distant past…)

I’ve just been emailed about mySociety’s ‘Free Our Bills’ Campaign. Please go and add your weight to the call for Parliament to publish these documents which are a crucial part of the process of making law in a way that is sensitive to the electronic use over the internet.

David ‘web’ Cameron has already endorsed the campaign. But I’m not about to give his site linkage, so you’ll have to find the video via The All Seeing Eye.

I’ve also just found the beta test version of whatdotheyknow.com which aims to provide a public searchable repository of Freedom of Information Act requests made to public bodies. GREAT IDEA! Now the information made public in FoI requests is made public in a much wider sense. The site is open and searchable. The site helps people to make Freedom Of Information Act requests of public bodies, reminds you when the request is timing out (not that it will of course, our public bodies are quick of the mark with these sort of things!) and make all the information in the request public.

Praise is due.

For some feature enhancements I’d recommend adding something that will take any attachments and process them so they are readable. These public bodies, especially councils, have a habit of replying to electronic messages in the fashion of material messages. It amuses me greatly to see a properly formatted letter, typed out in a word processor… attached to an email with a message saying ‘please read the attachment’. bonkers. So if whatdotheyknow.com could process attachments and display them in the webpage as well as giving us the files to download, that would be great!

The Government and The Post Office last year announced plans to close around 2,500 Post Offices in the UK, of which up to 169 offices in London are shortlisted. All this was announced in October last year. Now the Post Office has begun a six-week consultation on plans for the capital’s post offices… not that they are making a big thing about it on the website… you’ll find it in small text on the right hand side under ‘network changes’… Ken wants to get the consultation period doubled up to twelve. Brent Lib Dems say that if the proposed closures go ahead Brent will be left with just 24 Post Offices, compared with 40 when Labour came to power.

The Lib Dems are campaigning - I presume that means they will be making representations to the consultation panel on behalf of the citizens of Brent - and have an e-petition that Brent residents can complete in support of local Post Offices and against the Govt. & Post Office Ltd’s proposed cuts.

For Cricklewood and Mapesbury people concerned about the loss of Walm Lane Post Office - click and complete the e-petition.

Remember folks, although Dawn Butler (MP Brent South) may ”call for a rethink”, she ‘’support[s] the Government’s approach of allowing Royal Mail the freedom to respond to future commercial challenges and opportunities, and in particular enabling Post Office Limited to determine the future shape of the network within clear Government rules governing criteria for local access” (Opposition Day Jan 10 2007, Public Whip)

Barry Gardiner (MP Brent North) was previously Minister for Competitiveness at the Department of Trade & Industry and met with Post Watch back in 2006 to discuss Post Office closures. He also voted with the Govt for the euphemistic motion cited above.

What we will see over the coming weeks is a flood of photo opportunities in front of Post Offices… All you need to remember is that Dawn and Barry vote with the Govt on ‘national issues’ then campaign against the Govt on ‘local issues’, even when they are the same issue.

News that Ralph Nader has announced plans to run again for the US presidency got me googling like crazy this afternoon…

Just to share with you the “Beastie Boy Ad Rock’s remix of Green Party Presidential candidate Ralph Nader’s blistering critique of the news media and the current state of American politics.” Posted to the Guerrilla News Network (GNN).

Turn it up.

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With the candidates nominated for the Stonebridge by-election, here’s a little summary of them for you:

• ALADESHE, Funmi The Conservative Party
• COX, Sarah Respect
• ORR, Brian Green Party
• VAN KALWALA, Zaffar The Labour Party
• WILTSHIRE, Sandra Elina Liberal Democrats