Tony Banks RIP

Posted on January 9th, 2006 by Andy

My first contact with Tony Banks was as he stood on a makeshift stage on Shepherds Bush green during a strike by BBC staff - he was the BECTU (or was it BETA or ETA back then???) representative in the House of Commoms and he was funny and clever and articulate and really down to earth.

I had a huge respect for him for that but the fact that he was an outspoken vegetarian and animal rights supporter made me appreciate him even more. I was a little disappointed when he descided to move up to the House of Lords because the Labour Party really needed people like him to keep them in check in the Commons and also because I’d hoped that he wouldn;t be a part of an outdated undemocratic institution like that.

But today is a time to pay respects to a rare politician and the man who crossed his fingers while pledging allegiance to the crown

BBC NEWS | Politics | Tributes paid to ex-MP Tony Banks

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Corporate rock sucks #4: I will pledge to never purchase a CD contaning any form of Digital Rights Management

Posted on January 9th, 2006 by Andy

OK - so it requires me to be a little more careful about what I buy as I rarely research beforehand and have been surprised and disappointed by a few of my purchases but I will pledge to never purchase a CD contaning any form of Digital Rights Management (DRM) (via Boing Boing).

I feel dirty when I do so it only makes sense. I think the last DRM CDs I’ll buy are probably the Blue Note CDs I bought last week (they haven’t arrived yet and I know that not all Blue Note discs use EMI’s corruption so I’m crossing my fingers).

I hate saying never but hopefully this one will be able to stick becasue if the record labels want to assume I’m a thief then I’d rather not give them any of my money.

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