Home, away, demos, freedom

My parents' house in Winchester currently serves as my HQ - it's where most of my stuff is, where I do my washing, the place where I occasionally sleep in the same place for more than one night in a row. That's where I am right now, but today is the last day I'm going to be here for quite some time. I'm off for a recording session in London this weekend (more on the results of that later) followed by a few weeks gigging around the UK. What this means from a practical point of view is that any orders that come through for demos will get dealt with, but it might take a little longer than usual, so please bear with me. Also, on the subject of demos, if you ordered one and it hasn't arrived for (say) 10 days, or was faulty, please let me know so I can sort it out rather than just calling me a cunt straight away. That'd be nice.

As well as watching with dismay as myspace makes inroads into my time, I've been watching the news with interest recently. It was with great relief yesterday that I saw the Terrorism Bill defeated in the Commons. All the arguments put forward by the police for 90 days (90 fucking days! 3 months!!) imprisonment without charge were total non-sequiturs, and essentially revolved around the argument that it'd be nicer to start an investigation after you've locked someone up rather than before. The essential problem here is the role of the police. They are (in theory) meant to be servants to, rather than masters of, our liberty, something they seem to have totally forgotten. And anyways, whose brilliant idea was it to ask the police if the police would like more powers? Is it any surprise they said yes? It's like asking the army if we should up defence spending; it's hardly likely that they're going to take the wider social view now, is it? So thankfully the bill was defeated, and the UK edged away a little from a state where government suspicion of your activities entitles the state to imprison you without charge for long periods of time. I'll take comfort in that.