British Parliamentarians are rebelling against the strictures set by the government's sysadmins, demanding WiFi in the houses of government so they can stop sneaking off to the steps of the cafe next door when they need to get some work done. I agree — the last time I was at Parliament, I ended up sat under a terrible oil portrait of Maggie Thatcher; I sure as hell could have used a unicorn chaser, if only there'd been some connectivity on hand.
Laptops supplied to Parliament members have both wireless and Bluetooth disabled, and the report warned that this "significantly limited" the extent to which a member without an office could work within the parliamentary estate.
"I can work anywhere in the country…if there is a coffee shop next door with a wireless LAN. The only place I was unable to work is here," new Parliament member Adam Afriyie told the committee. "I used to spend afternoons sitting on the steps outside Portcullis House so that I could get a signal from what I think is Caffe Nero next door."
Update: Ian sez, "I guess Mr. Afriyie should be expecting a visit from Plod shortly, if he has been illegally accessing Caffe Nero's WiFi network:
According to "Phil Cracknell, chief technology officer of security firm NetSurity" (quoted in this BBC story), Afriyie is providing cover for paedophiles: 'There have been incidences where paedophiles deliberately leave their wireless networks open so that, if caught, they can say that is wasn't them that used the network for illegal purposes'"
