After over 2 months in purdah, Mole Valley Liberal Democrats have returned to the world wide web with a major face lift to their site. Based on a template from Prater Raines Ltd, a few wrinkles have been smoothed away with a little air brushing, a video from the new party leader Nick Clegg, a promo for the new LibDem Parliamentary candidate for Mole Valley and of course, a blast at the Mole Valley Conservatives. So normal service has been resumed in every way.
The site can be accessed in the right hand side bar under the “Mole Valley Politics” category.
Checking out the new MV Libdem website prompted me to check out the MV Conservatives site (in the interest of balance!) which has a much more stripped down, minimalist design. Interesting “triangulation” of all the political colours (blue, red & yellow) captured in their home page banner………..very subliminal! Their web site can be also be found under the Mole Valley Politics category in the side bar.
Roll on the May elections!
Categories: Local Goverment · Local Politics · Web
Tagged: Conservatives, LibDems, Mole, Valley
Further to the last post on the Norton Online Living report a colleague asked what the main UK conclusions are. I’ve summarised these below:
- UK adults spend an average of 40 hours per month online, almost double that of their children who spend 24 hours online. The average Chinese adult spends a reported 100 hours online.
- The UK is ahead of the rest of the world when it comes to shopping online, with 96 per cent of adults responding that they shop online at least sometimes.Compared to their parents, the UK’s children have significantly less confidence in shopping online with just 32 per cent feeling confident or very confident shopping online.
- People in the UK are by far the largest users of online travel sites, with 81 per cent booking their travel online. Australia is second to the UK with 67 per cent.
- One in ten UK online adults have had someone use their credit card online without approval – the highest in the world.
- Thirteen per cent of UK adults have experienced someone trying to break into their computer remotely compared to 43 per cent in China and 23 per cent in Australia.
- Just half of UK adults use complex passwords to protect their Internet security
- Email has usurped the telephone as the major source of communication but, online users in the UK and China are most likely to use their phone (rather than computer) to send text messages.
- 40 per cent of UK children have created an online avatar versus just 21 per cent of adults.
- Online gaming has become enormously popular, with 97 per cent of online children and 65 per cent of online adults in the UK playing games online.
- 54 per cent of Brits manage financial investments online.
- Just 37 per cent of UK online parents have set parental controls on their family computer
- Almost a quarter (20 per cent) of British parents have ‘spied’ on their child’s online usage and only eight per cent have caught their child doing something they don’t approve of.
- There is a disconnect between the number of British adults who think their child has received requests for personal information online (just four per cent) and the number of children who say they have been approached with such a request (25 per cent). Almost one in ten (eight per cent) UK children have received inappropriate materials via the Internet that made them feel uncomfortable.
- Nineteen per cent of UK children say they do things online that they know their parents would disapprove of.
Categories: Family · Security · Technology · Web
Tagged: Avatar, Banking, Controls, e-mail, Fraud, Gaming, Hacking, Information, Internet, Online, Parenta, ShoppingTravel, Strangers, Text
Symantic, the company who sell the Internet Norton Internet protection products such as Norton Anti Virus have just published the results of their global survey (Norton Online Living Report) of internet habits. The key findings are reproduced below:
Communicating:
• Many online adults spend at least one hour per month sending text messages from their mobile phones
• 41% of U.S. online adults (constantly, frequently or sometimes) and 46% of U.S. online kids use the Internet to download or watch movies
o A whopping 97% of Chinese online adults and 96% of Chinese online kids do the same
Socialising:
• Nearly half of online adults in the U.S. have made friends online, of those users, approximately 60-80% have translated these online friendship to their offline world
• About half of online adults in the U.S. prefer their online friendships the same amount or more than their offline friendships
• As many as 4 in 10 (10-44% varying by country) online adults around the world feel confident socialising with strangers online
• As many as 88% of online children in China have made friends online; nearly three-quarters (74%) of online children in Brazil report the same
Living:
• Online gaming is enormously popular, with nearly three-quarters (74%) of online adults in the U.S. and more than 9 in 10 (96%) online children in the U.S. playing games
o Nearly all adults and children online in China (95% and 99%, respectively) play online games
• China and Brazil lead the countries surveyed in downloading music
o 97% of adults and 98% of children in China download music
o 88% of adults and 89% of children in Brazil download music
• About two-thirds (66%) of online adults, and 7 in 10 (70%) online children in the U.S. visit video sharing web sites
Informing:
• Most online adults spend at least one hour per month both reading news from online sites/blogs
• More than 9 in 10 online children in the U.S. (94%), Germany (93%), France (93%) and China (93%) research via the internet
Buying:
• Almost all online users report shopping online at least sometimes
Global users have a high degree of confidence making purchases online
• Nearly half of users in China feel confident sharing personal information; only 5% of online users in Japan feel confident sharing personal information
Banking:
• Personal finance falls behind commerce as a standard internet activity, but the majority of global online users have handled some of their most basic financial transactions online
o About 4 in 5 online adults bank or pay bills online at least sometimes
o China has the highest number of users who bank or pay bills online with nearly 9 in 10 (87%), the U.S. has nearly 8 in 10 (79%) users
Exploring:
• The majority of online adults (85%) and children (52%) have been a victim of some level of cyber attack (from minor spam emails to major hack attempts) and express concern about online safety
• More than 8 in 10 online adults are not confident using the internet without security software
• More than a third (34%) of users in the U.S. have shared credit card information—the highest number globally—while just a little more than 1 in 10 (13%) users in Brazil divulge this information
• The majority of adult users worldwide have installed security software but few go beyond basic steps, such as changing passwords frequently and surfing only on trusted sites
• More than a third of adults in all countries visit adult or pornographic web sites, with more than half in Brazil and China doing so
Protecting:
• While the majority of parents recognise online threats to their children, most underestimate the prevalence of these threats and far fewer are taking actionable steps, such as setting parental controls
• Many parents and children talk openly about what children are doing online, which perhaps results in their overconfidence that their children are being protected online
• Most parents believe the internet is not as safe for children as for adults and most children believe the internet is not as safe for themselves as for adults
• The U.S. and Australia have the highest number of parents who believe the internet is not as safe for children as it is for adults
• Parents underestimate how often their children are approached by strangers online and encounter cyber pranks, with the U.S., UK and France having the highest number of unaware parents
o U.S. parents believe that 6% of their children have been approached online by a stranger, yet 16% of children in the U.S. report they have been approached by a stranger online
Categories: Internet · Research
Tagged: Banking, Buying, Communicating, Exploring, Informing, Norton, Onine, Protecting, Purchasing, Surfing, Survey, Symantic
Cheshire County Council have just spent ₤60,000 to relocate 4 Great Crested Newts a few yards because of a new pathway near a school. This species is protected under EU regulations and fines can be imposed for non compliance. A local Councillor said: ” in Cheshire we have in the order of 16,000 ponds and newts are widespread and locally abundant”.
Of course the media sees this as a wonderful anti EU story. But, no one seems to be asking how on earth the Council spent ₤60k…what did they build for these little critters that could have possibly cost that much? Did anyone think of getting a bucket & taking these four slitherers to one of the other 16,000 ponds?
Pictures Below of the Great Crested Newt
Categories: Environment · European Union · Local Goverment · Media · News · Pictures
Tagged: Crested, Great, Newts, Pond Life, Protected, Species
After over 2 months in purdah, Mole Valley Liberal Democrats have returned to the world wide web with a major face lift to their site. Based on a template from Prater Raines Ltd, a few wrinkles have been smoothed away with a little air brushing, a video from the new party leader Nick Clegg, a promo for the new LibDem Parliamentary candidate for Mole Valley and of course, a blast at the Mole Valley Conservatives. So normal service has been resumed in every way.
Checking out the new MV Libdem website prompted me to check out the MV Conservatives site (in the interest of balance!) which has a much more stripped down, minimalist design. Interesting “triangulation” of all the political colours (blue, red & yellow) captured in their home page banner………..very subliminal! Their web site can be also be found under the Mole Valley Politics category in the side bar.
