Brown looks to Bezos

Wow...how often does working on a retail website give you the opportunity to influence public policy?

People in England will get more online powers to rate GPs, police, childcare and councils, Gordon Brown has said. He said it was wrong that consumer websites such as Amazon...had "higher standards of transparency" than those for public services.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/7934042.stm

Takeaway: always do your best...you never know who may be watching!

The Flipside of Diversity

Another US expat blogger had an interesting experience in London this weekend:

...suddenly a group of police officers in their bright yellow jackets appeared out of nowhere. They were running towards me and the ten or so other people standing outside the tube. They were screaming “Run! Move!”...

...An old woman standing near me was confused and a policewoman grabbed her arm and screamed that there was a mob coming and that if she didn’t move quickly, she’d be trampled....the policewoman started yelling “You’re almost there! Keep running! You’ll be safe soon!"...

...They were moving very quickly and chanting. One group walked by screaming “Down with Israel!” over and over again. At this, the pregnant woman standing next to me in the park started to cry...

http://www.anglofille.com/2009/01/05/the-accidental-protestor

We, um, haven't encountered that aspect of London just yet, but it's nice to know we have more to look forward to :-/