I’m Mike, I’m putting myself forward to be your Labour Parliamentary Candidate. I believe I can win this seat back for Labour and ensure the people of Ilford North will get the best deal from a future Labour government. 

Ilford North needs a candidate who will bring home the 7,000 voters who stopping voting Labour here between 1997 – 2000. A candidate with personal integrity, who has fought corruption and worked hard to solve complicated problems. 

I would be an MP who gets things done. I took on 4 international banks and forced them to stop selling the government bonds of a vile dictatorship that tortured and murdered people (BBC). I’ve campaigned against the lobbyists who undermine our democracy. I also secured cross-party support to ensure we saw a new Defamation Act pass in the last session of Parliament, ensuring big corporations and ruthless oligarchs can no longer silence free speech in this country. 
I have a track record of campaigning and more importantly, winning for the Labour Party. During the local elections in 2010, I built up our local party so voters came home to us. Labour took 45% of the vote up from 30% the election before, one of the top 5 swings in London. Ilford North needs a candidate who will do this again. 

More importantly, I will stand up for your values. Whether ensuring the Royal Mail stays in public hands, campaigning to build more council housing or getting behind small businesses.

I will speak to you over the weekend and hope to meet you in the coming weeks. Please feel free to call me directly on 07974 838468. 

Mike Harris

Protest near “November 7 Square”, Tunis. While liberal Tunisians remain concerned over the government’s often heavy-handed behaviour, huge improvements have been made. Public protest is tolerated, in stark constrast to the Ben Ali regime. NGOs are not only allowed registration but increasingly active in civil society. And the internet is more free, although concerns remain over online surveillance and the impact of old unreformed laws.

I spoke to the Europe Correspondent, Philip Williams, on ABC News (Australia) alongside Buckingham University’s Anthony Glees on the #PRISM intelligence leaks debate.

You can watch the slightly heated video of our debate here.

NGOs and charities often find themselves pursuing activities in direct contradiction to the rules of sovereign states. Whether NGOs that seek to foster political change in authoritarian states, to charities closer to home that seek legal changes or legal redress where fundamental rights have been challenged.

So it’s odd that so few charities accept Bitcoins (a currency devised precisely to go beyond the parameters of sovereign states) even after its general acceptance elsewhere.

The one exception is the Electronic Frontier Foundation that has accepted donations worth $102,000 in Bitcoins in recent weeks.

The EFF say:

Recently, EFF announced that we will resume Bitcoin donations on our website, using an intermediary service called BitPay. Gavin Andresen then returned all of these remaining bitcoins to us, stating:

I’m satisfied to see these bitcoins will be used as they were intended – as a donation to support the work of the Electronic Frontier Foundation. The Bitcoin Faucet was happy to receive the funds, but we are particularly glad to see them used as they were originally intended.

It’s very possible other NGOs in challenging environments will increasingly use Bitcoins as a method to circumvent restrictive financial laws devised to stop their work.