Letters From A Tory Daily views on British politics and the Conservative Party from a centre-right thinker who writes letters on his blog to politicians, journalists and many others.

 Dear Kenny MacAskill,
It looks to me as though you, as Scottish Justice Secretary, have spotted a rather unusual loophole in laws designed to protect people from stalking and harrassment.  Ministers in Scotland are currently considering a new law which would help stop people stalking and harassing their victims by text or online.  Currently those who behave in [...]

“VodafoneUK is fed up of dirty homo’s and is going after beaver”
- a message on Vodafone’s official Twitter account, which prompted hundreds of followers to contact the mobile phone company.  The message appeared on their Twitter feed, which is used by the company to deal with customer complaints. Instead of the usual helpful hints on how [...]

Dear Advertising Standards Authority (ASA),
You never seem to stay out of the headlines for long, and many incidents that you are involved in provide plentiful entertainment.  I have just discovered that more than 1,000 people have joined a Facebook campaign to ban billboards advertising for a website that promotes adultery, but thankfully you have shown common sense [...]

Dear Ricky Gervais,
Although it’s normally your film and TV exploits that get you in the newspapers, yesterday you struck a rather different tone by announcing that you had quit Twitter after using it for less than a month, branding the site “pointless” and the adults who use it “undignified”.  It seems as though we share similar opinions [...]

“Social networking sites can be cruel if you’re unloved”
- Leon Hill, the 24-year-old chief executive of a small Australian company called uSocial, who are letting users of Facebook and Twitter who fear they do not have enough friends makes themselves look more popular by buying blocks of 1,000 friends for £125.  Hill added: “People are buying pals so [...]

“The recurring theme among all of the milestones on our list is the Internet’s capacity to circumvent old systems and put more power into the hands of ordinary people.”
- David-Michel Davies, executive director of the ‘Webby Awards’ that were awarded last night by the New York-based International Academy of Digital Arts and Sciences to recognise [...]

Dear Archbishop Vincent Nichols,
After the regular streams of nonsense that pour out of Rowan Williams’s mouth, I don’t often spend time listening to social commentary from other senior members of the Christian community.  Today, however, I will make an exception.  Yesterday, you warned that websites such as Facebook and MySpace encourage teenagers to view friendship [...]

Dear Jennifer Stoddart,
Thank you for finally waking up to the gradual encroachment of Facebook into basic civil liberties.  The advent of social networking has raised a huge number of issues regarding privacy and personal information, but there has been surprisingly little reaction to the way that sites such as Facebook hand out personal details to [...]

“It is not a state secret that he wears Speedo swimming trunks, for goodness sake let’s grow up.”
- David Miliband, Foreign Secretary, who said that photographs of Sir John Sawers, the new head of MI6, that appeared on Facebook are not a threat to national security.  He described Sir John as an “outstanding professional” and denied that [...]

Dear Mary Helen Immordino-Yang,
My initial reaction when I saw the headline suggesting that digital media such as Twitter and Facebook might damage our sense of morality was that it was another bunch of scientists desperate for their 15 seconds of fame who had come up with some crackpot evidence to support their ideas.  While this [...]

Dear Matt Lewis,
Waking up on a Saturday morning is difficult enough for most people, but for you waking up today must be a pretty horrible experience.  Almost every paper has run with the story about your questionable decision to dress up as a dead Madeleine McCann at a fancy dress party, with the Daily Mail [...]

Like many other people, I think Facebook and social networking in general is a great invention.  It can bring people together, join those with common interests and help them to share ideas and information.  The only problem is that uniting people with the same agenda isn’t always a good idea.

I think most people have put something daft on a social networking site at some point.  An embarrassing photo, a stupid wall post, a jokey remark - I’m sure you catch my drift.  I was always a bit more cautious than most, hence my decision to use every privacy setting available on Facebook to make sure [...]

Dear Facebook,
I’m not one of those people who always cries foul whenever a website tries to access my personal information because they legally have to give you a chance of opting out of everything – which I invariably do.  However, Facebook is clearly pushing the boundaries by changing privacy settings without telling anyone in the [...]

Dear readers,
I am not shy about using Facebook at home.  In fact, it’s an absolute revelation when it comes to keeping track of people and events etc.
BUT
Surely employers (especially public sector organisations) should ban Facebook to prevent it eating up their employee’s time?  When you read articles like this, it does make you wonder about [...]