About

My name is Jonathan Rothwell. I’m a student living on the cruddy end of Surrey, and studying in the slightly-less cruddy part of Surrey that’s clustered around Woking railway station.

I’ve written my blog, Crashed Pips, since 2007, and also write the odd bit of code (badly).

I like minimalism, statistics and public transport (except coaches). Usually, I welcome change with open arms. I enjoy science-fiction (reading and writing – badly), but not fantasy (with exceptions). I have the bad habit of leaving my computer on all the time, and losing my iPod spontaneously.

Where I Stand Politically

I sit somewhere on the left of the centre of the left of the left of the right of the left of the left of the centre of the left.

I used to put up the political compass here, but I removed it. It’s worth noting that practically every political compass test on the Internet is biased in some form: the one I was using appears to be left-biased, as with people who identify as conservatives will testify that they find themselves lumped into the top corner of the lib-left quadrant.

My beliefs include:

• The separation of church and state
• The freedom and rights of the individual
• The concept of capitalism, with regulation—both communism and laissez-faire capitalism have been disasters
• The availability of healthcare and education on the state
• The abolition of upfront tuition fees: i.e. that people should get in to college/university depending on how intelligent they are, not how rich their parents are or how much debt they are willing to get in to
• Equal rights for all, regardless of age, gender, race, religious belief (or non-belief), sexual orientation, etc.
• Freedom of speech without censorship – even if that means cretins like Nick Griffin get invited on Question Time

In short, you could probably describe me as a paradoxical socialist libertarian. If I were to vote in a general election tomorrow, it would probably be for the Liberal Democrats, as the Greens are perhaps too euro-sceptic (in my opinion, we should have joined the Euro years ago, along with France, Germany et al) and Labour are becoming far too authoritarian.

I agree with the views of various human rights organisations, such as Amnesty International and Liberty, but that’s not to say I don’t find Shami Chakrabarti annoying.

Getting in touch with me

E-mail

You can e-mail me at jonathan@notspotroswell.com, providing you’ve removed the name of Data the android’s cat first to prove you’re human and not a spam harvester.

I do read my e-mails, and I try to reply to them. Bear in mind, though, that I am not a computer repair man, doctor or lawyer. I don’t offer technical support over e-mail.

Other methods

Alternatively, you can leave a (relevant) comment on my blog, or contact me with one of these instant messaging protocols (I’m not online often, though, so… use e-mail, unless you absolutely must hear my voice or speak to me in real time.)

Protocol	Name/address
XMPP/Jabber (Google Talk)	jrothwell97 [at] gmail.com
Skype	jrothwell97

I can also be found on Facebook, although I will only add you as a friend if I actually “know” you, as in, I have had significantly more contact with you than once sitting in the same maths class as you nine years ago.