My latest piece for Stuff explores the current mess that’s being created by the British government regarding UK internet access. In short, political ideology and a certain kind of morality appear to be driving decision-making when it comes to web access more than pesky facts and evidence. Ironically, the day the piece was filed with Stuff, it was widely reported Google would “block child porn” and that the UK government had been instrumental in this (which is a rather dubious claim to say the least).

It was less widely reported that Google blocks child-abuse images already, and that UK organisations and police already dealing with such problems reckon the new changes will make little difference. Almost no-one questioned the nature of the blocking the government wants to introduce by default, specificity, and whether legal material should in fact be blocked by default at all. (Instead, David Cameron said husbands were “going to have a discussion” with their partners if they wish to continue using porn, because women apparently don’t use or watch porn, and family filters by default are the way it should be in ‘his’ Britain.)

Still, it all worked out rather well for Google, now getting some positive column inches, none of which appear to be talking any more about how the company pays bugger-all tax in the UK.