London Elections 2006 Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

London Elections 2006 - Essay Example These two incidents virtually sealed the fate of the Labour party, as it were. In the city of London especially, a meltdown in the support for the Labour party was almost certain. Since the Labour party came to power in 1997, the Tories have been showing better and better performance at local elections. The Tories had a bigger share in the local government than the Labour, and they have been putting in some good performance. Hence the Toreis naturally had an upper hand. Still, it was a tough fight for everyone involved, and the key battleground for the three major contesting parties - the ruling Labour party, their main opposition the Conservative party, and the steadily rising Liberal Democratic party - was of course the city of London with its 32 boroughs. London accounted for 40% of the 4,361 seats contested across England (Woodward 2006).While the Tories and the Libs aggressively pushed for positive gains, the Labour assumed more of a defensive stance, desperately bent upon doing damage control. The Labour braced up to face heavy pressure, while the Tories were poised to win a string of councils in the London suburbs from the Labour (Sherman et al. 2006). As it turned out, the Labour lost Crawley, ... That the Labour government was able to secure 2012 Olympics for London seems to have counted for nothing. The whole tide was against them. It may have to do with cost of living or "quality of life" issues, broadly speaking, or with more particular areas like crime and transport where the Labour government seems to have fared bad. Some say the Labour failed to protect the working man. According to another view, their wavering educational policy distanced them from many of their potential supporters (Sanderson 2006). The heavy losses the Labour party took necessitated a serious analysis on its part as to the reasons behind such depressing defeat, and while some are obvious others are not. But the most obvious, almost luridly obvious, were the sleazy sex scandal involving the Labour MP John Prescott that erupted shortly before the election day, and the row over a decision executed by the home minister Charles Clarke to release a number of serious offenders, all of them being prisoners o f foreign origin, on tenuous and unjustifiable grounds. The Conservatives too performed poorly in the northern cities like Machester, Liverpool, Sheffield, and Newcastle. However, they have been able to compensate for their losses by securing a strong foothold in London, as well as in some areas of South. Overall, the Conservatives came out with the biggest percentage of election results - nearly 40 percent. The Labour and the Liberal Democrats found themselves lagging behind at about 27 per cent each (Webster, Sherman 2006). In all, Labour lost 19 councils and 298 seats (Woodward 2006). It was a disaster alright for the Labour, though not quite

Design and security of a small businness network - case study Essay

Design and security of a small businness network - case study - Essay Example The network layout of I.T soft requires an expandable and efficient network that will fulfill the requirements of the company. Advanced security features are also required in order to protect the VoIP traffic and preserve network availability. Project Scope and Objectives As I.T soft has decided to implement a new network. The network will use the latest technology in terms of both hardware and software, however cost considerations cannot be ignored as the company is an SME . The implementation of software technology includes the new innovative network that will support the following: Centralized Database access for sales/customer databases Email Internet access Company Website and Intranet VOIP They intend to run a local DNS server probably on their main domain server. They wish to provide a location for all users to store any company data Accounts and payroll data should only be available to the relevant staff. The customer database should be accessible to all staff, however they o ften have visitors to site who require network access, but the company are concerned about the integrity of their databases. Implementing a wireless environment to provide access to visitors They also require a training room, with networking and access to the internet. protect the integrity of their email and VOIP systems They need to provide access to internal data to staff working off-site. Requirement for tools and Suggestions in order to optimize network performance Requirements for monitoring the provision of their core services such as the availability and performance of their servers and VoIP system Tools to warn of any significant network changes Monitor any attacks on their systems Providing redundancy and failover Network Topology Star topology is recommended for the wired local area network. It is the most widely adopted topology. The star topology supports the centralized provision of network resources and services. The support staff can manage the network administrative and troubleshooting tasks centrally. Star topology helps to implement centralized security architecture for improved and enhanced security of the network. The network implementation cost can be saved by provisioning the core systems located centrally. The security controls and backup systems are also located centrally for better troubleshooting and management. Example of the star topology is available in Fig 1.1. Network Cables For deploying the local network for Camden site, CAT 5 cable is the best option. It supports both voice and data transmission. CAT-5 is in the form of twisted pairs. This cable consists of four copper wire pairs, connecting the network node with RJ 45 connectors.CAT-5 supports up to 100 to 1000 MHz speeds in a ‘full duplex’ mode (Category 5 Cable. 2007). The Camden site will corresponds to request related to internet applications, voice and video transmission, file transfer protocol and Emails. CAT 5 can support these features with ease. However , CAT 5 cable can support up to 300 feet equal to 100 meters in distance. A requirement of the switch is mandatory for every 300 feet. Routers A router is a core computing and packet processing devices in the computer network. Router connects two or more networks with different subnets, enabling the networks to expand on an enterprise level. Logically the router builds a routing table, where it stores all the route addresses. For example, the data packet