Hellfire!

The Avengers creator Brian Clemens is speaking at a special BFI screening of 'A Touch of Brimstone' in July. I managed to book over the internet in spite of the internet. The infamous S&M episode was banned in the US but is considered rocking good fun in the UK. The Hellfire Club, Emma Peel waving a snake around, the guy who played Jason King: sometimes London gets it right.

At the contrasting end of the personal liberty spectrum the UK government has passed the Digital Economy Act, which will allow copyright holders to trace and disconnect file-sharers and fuck off everybody else. Commentators are concerned about privacy:

Once the state decides that it has a duty to police the internet to maximise the profits of a few entertainment companies (no matter what the public expense), it sets itself on a path of ever-more-restrictive measures.

Which is true, but ever-more-restrictive is how they like it (e.g. Emma, above). Users concerned about increasing levels of government control may be reassured by the UK's built-in checks and balances system of officials who lose lap tops, a regular occurrence which has nothing whatsoever to do with also being part of the biggest drinking culture on the planet. The government's "electronic eavesdropping center" recently admitted losing 35 computers containing sensitive information:

A GCHQ spokesperson today said there was no evidence that any of the material on the laptops had "got into wrong hands", but admitted: "Given the state of the records, there is no way of confirming that".

Get some sleep, Pam - you're looking tired.