Citizensheep. "Michael Grimes lives in Birmingham (UK). This is his blog about anything that he fancies."

According to new research, most young people aged 14-25 would be likely to vote in an election and would be more likely to if they could do so online. However, they don’t see social networking as particularly useful for furthering a cause, favouring instead an email to their Member of Parliament. A recent YouGov poll [...]

Citizenship Foundation CEO Tony Breslin talks to Futurelab's Cassie Hague about the role of citizenship education, technology, and the need to look for greater opportunities to encourage young people to become active citizens. Visit Futurelab Citizenship podcast

In his Digital Britain Final Report, Lord Carter sets out his plan to keep Britain “at the forefront of the digital revolution”. But a revolution needs revolutionaries, who are driven by passion and not just economic incentive. Has this report overlooked the importance of people as volunteers, and the impact on their social contributions of [...]

Last week I went to hear Lord Carter discuss his Digital Britain Final Report in Birmingham. I took a laptop and tweeted a little. As a crude record of what I wrote, what follows is my Twitter stream for that event. All I’ve done is take the html from Twitter Search and pasted it here [...]

In the same spirit as our friends at the Daily Mail, this poll has no balanced evidence and a clearly biased agenda. Oh, and here’s the disgusting cartoon that accompanies Littlejohn’s inflammatory article about gipsies:

Every year the Birmingham Post polls the region for the top fifty most powerful people in Birmingham. So this year I’m doing the opposite (it’s probably been done before, but who cares). I’m looking for fifty people in Birmingham who are in the public eye but who seem to wield very little power. I’m doing [...]

Jo Swinson, Liberal Democrat MP for East Dunbartonshire, is trying to convince Parliament to allow the posting of parliamentary footage to social media services such as YouTube. She is asking other Members of Parliament to sign her Early Day Motion in support of putting parliamentary procedures online. At the time of writing 28 have done [...]

I sincerely hope this story isn’t true: because if it is, it shows the degree of contempt that Council Leader Mike Whitby has for the people of Birmingham. Two weeks ago a bus of council employees was scheduled to visit the Highgate area of Birmingham. The purpose was to consult local people on the Big [...]

Apparently we may kill but not procreate. Not the most obvious strategy for maintaing a species. This is of course the story that Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas has effectively been banned in Australia because of hidden sex scenes, which can be unlocked by the player. So it’s OK to play at stealing cars, running [...]