As usual my Thursday spot on Casting the net is complete and it's time to share, share, share. I'm busy with work currently but I aim to put a couple of posts on over the next couple of days regarding Boris Johnson and his half a £million "transition team", as well as some more comments on the latest issues of the day!

Remember to check out the following links that didn't quite make it in to my review, or go ahead and click continue reading below to see the full list posted up on Liberal Conspiracy.

Comment is free - Jeremy is very critical of Cameron and two faced Tories. A scathing attack worth a read.
Three line whip - A brief explaination of the history of the word "crap" in parliament.
Schneider Home - Is it bad for Labour? Well to use an oft used Lib Dem argument, it's not as bad as those in Germany.
Kerron Cross - It's always good to know that no matter what the politics of the day, someone is looking for your style mistakes!

I've been added as one of a handful of bloggers helping out at Liberal Conspiracy with their daily "NetCasts", and Thursday (for now at least) is my day in the sun. You can check out my offerings on the last 24 hours best blogs over at Liberal Conspiracy.

However I also wanted to mention a few blogs here that didn't quite make it in to my list of 6 or 7 items, and intend to do so each week here (if the quality of articles is out there!).

Lib Dem Voice - Mark Pack questions the way the Tories are picking their next Henley MP. Read the comments for the wider argument about how the Lib Dems do it too!
Political Betting - In an issue obviously close to Mike's heart, he wonders why it's taken so long to get the transparency needed for a controversial Ken Livingstone poll.
Alisdair's Blog - Get past the garish header and you have a 15 year old that manages to sound sensible on the subject of the new cluster bomb treaty.
Dizzy Thinks - Dizzy takes a look back at the websites of the main political parties as far back as before the 1997 general election. How times have changed...

You can also click below to continue reading and see the full list on this site if you so wish!

Steve Webb, Lib Dem MP, has recently said online that online campaiging such as e-petitions offers a great way to get people involved in campaigning. I completely agree, I think that the more avenues open to people to easily show their disgust, horror, disapproval or disenfranchisement with policy the better. However one area that I don't agree any of this works is E-Petitions.

How would you feel if someone was able to look at every web page you were viewing? How would you feel if they were able to store a record of what you viewed so that they can analyse it? How would you feel if they then used that data to target advertising at you? How would you feel if all of this was done without your consent, without your knowledge, and without your consultation?

Well if you're a BT Broadband customer then welcome to the new age, where your browsing habits are sold off to the highest bidder, in this case a company called "Phorm", in one of the biggest scandals of the year that you almost didn't hear about. For those of you on Virgin and TalkTalk don't think you're safe as you're next, and assuming that Phorm get their way then other major ISPs such as Orange and Tiscali will be following suit in the near future.

Paying for BBC programming twice. It's an interesting subject, and I've commented on another blog that this issue rises because of an ambiguity of what is actually being sold by the BBC, in this case through iTunes. With DVDs and videos before them you were buying the material to own because you loved the series or the show and wanted to own it with all the special features and comedy offcuts. The iTunes plan blurs the world between iPlayer where people are supposed to be able to watch again for free and that same ownership. I can watch something for 7 days but on the 8th I have to buy it to catch up. It's essentially that segment of the population that might hear about something too late to catch it on iPlayer but doesn't plan on waiting for the DVD to see if it's any good and worth watching as it runs on the TV.

I personally think the BBC is perfectly within its rights to sell its content as it always has done, and as long as it's clear about the permanency of such sales, as if they were DVDs for example, then people have little to complain about that practice.

I have a bit of a backlog on news that I wish to write about, though some will probably be kept for a rainy day...but it does mean that there are a few stories here that are small enough to warrant small mention but that I'd like to talk briefly about. The issues are about just who is going to University now and the potential re-emergence of the rich/poor gap in higher education, an update on the idea of ISPs monitoring our internet usage for illegal downloading, and Labour actually making a positive announcement for once. I know, the last bit is actually scarily unreal.

Another day another party deciding there is something else that needs banning or enforcing through extreme prohibition. I thought Labour could get no more idiotic after last week's series of woeful announcements on housing, dental health and internal investigations...yet here we are again, this time with kicking "illegal file sharers" off of the net.

Initially this throws up several questions; How does the government and ISPs intend to tell conclusively that someone is file sharing illegally or legally? What assurances can the consumer have that ISPs won't just "play it safe" when it comes to high bandwidth and kick off anyone with high usage no matter how legitimate? How is this truly enforceable with so many unsecured networks around the UK, and indeed internet Cafes, without truly spying on what every person is accessing on the net? Do we really need to resort to French policy to solve our own issues?