Wow, these huge decision changes are coming thick and fast now. FormerHome Secretary David Blunkett, after years of pushing the “We must have ID cards to prevent terrorism” button has suddenly decided that since everybody should have a passport anyway, and the law requires these to be biometric digital things these days maybe an additional card system as well is just an enormous waste of time and tax payers money.
Well done David, you only started wasting cash on this idiotic scheme in 2001. So today’s question is:
How much did it cost the British Taxpayer for Labour to decide that ID Cards are not a good idea?
Last October Jaqui “Big Brother” Smith wanted to force the monitoring and storage of all internet and communications traffic into a single government database. The plan was described at the time by the BBC as “Giant database plan Orwellian”. Industry and politicians spoke out, liberty groups clamoured in concern, and those of us working in the tech industry wondered how the hell it could be done without creating a single point of failure that would be the dream target for hackers world wide.
Over the last few weeks we’ve seen interest in this topic rise again, when desperate to make up for a flotilla of failed policies, poor management, and economic idiocy the Labour bandwagon decided to keep pushing the “It is to keep you safe from terrorists” button (after all it worked so well for George Bush).
Fortunately for the people of Great Britain this new half baked plan has failed, and Jaqui Smith has launched a dramatic U-turn (The Telegraph – Jaqui Smith scraps plan for email database) but don’t start cheering yet. She is instead suggesting that the communications companies keep these records for her (BBC News – Plan to monitor all internet use). So look forward to higher internet and phone bills as the firms have to invest in massive data storage facilities to securely hold all the details of your phone conversation with Aunty, or your emails to your school friends.
We’ve moved one point of failure to many privately owned points. Will the phone company hold your records safer than the Government, who knows, possibly they are less likely to leave laptops in trains or taxis, but that is only because you’d get fired for that kind of idiocy in the private sector. That being said, if Jaqui Smith faced the wrath of Donald or Alan on “The Apprentice” she’d have been fired in week 1!. This “save everything” solution doesn’t address the real problem, that intelligence gathering is becoming more complex in the digital age and without serious investment in both technical solutions and sensible legal checks and balances you rapidly create more problems than you solve.
Question: Why are these records really being kept?
If it was phrased as
“the British Government plans to tap every phone in the UK“
there would be far more outrage, but this is indeed what they are suggesting. The only differences are they’ll be bugging your email too, and they’ll let the private sector keep the tapes! What happened to innocent until proven guilty?
I was fortunate enough to be invited to see Gordon Brown address the Congress of the United States today, and amongst the pomp and ceremony of such an event I got to see the Prime Minister in a different light.
The green ticket that gets you in!
Now I will state up front that I consider myself as a moderate conservative as far as British politics are concerned, and so I am not a fan of New Labour or the Tony Blair/Gordon Brown paternership that has helped lead the country where it is. However, today I actually saw the PM address a foreign government, and I have to say that he is a confident orator, and delivered the speech with feeling.It is interesting to note that even with the center-left position of New Labour, the PM does tend to speak and gesture to the left of the hall in preference to the right.
In his speech he managed to address directly the hot topics of international banking regulations and the dangers of protectionist attitudes. His attack on the teaching impact of madrasahs on the 3rd world was outspoken, and was possibly the most confrontational moment of his address. I wonder if those words, targeting a type of school synonymous in the media these days with certain radical aspects of religious teachings, will come back to haunt him in the coming weeks.
Overall, I don’t think the British people, or their politicians and media will be impressed by this speech. It seemed crafted for a global audience rather than for consumption at home, and unfortunately it is at home where Mr Brown’s troubles lie.
I’ve just seen the John McCain advert where people claim that they are ‘Joe the Plumber’ and that they will suffer higher taxes if Barak Obama wins the US election. I’m not sure if I should be offended, or just keep laughing. I’m a British ex-pat who won’t be voting as a green card holder, and even I’m wondering how deserate a campaign must be getting if they are falling back on portraying the population of the United States as an unqualified, tax-evading, water and waste repairman.
I’m a skilled worker in the field of Information Technology, and I’m not ‘Joe the Plumber’ because before making an opinion I do a basic amount of research and look at the claims and proposals made by the candidates. I also then compare their candidate’s promises with past performance. I consider the global economy as it stands today (probably worse tomorrow) and I look at how I want to be treated next year, as well as in 4 years time, and in a decades times. I do all this, and then I wonder “who would want to be Joe the Plumber?”
I don’t want 15 minutes of fame, I don’t want to fall into a campaign that makes adverts that look like the pissing contest between Apple and Microsoft, and I really don’t want to be associated with some poor schmuck that got pulled into a world of global politics that he was in no way prepared for. I want a candidate that has stood in 3 debates and said he will try to maintain or lower the taxes of 95% of Americans, even when the global economy states that anyone would have to raise taxes. I want a candidate that will allow everyone to recieve medical care without facing crippling bills, regardless of their job. I want a candidate that doesn’t rely on McCarthyism to try and force voters away from reform just because it might not favour the rich.
As I said earlier, I’m an ex-pat, and I won’t be voting, but I really hope America doesn’t become more isolationist than it is already viewed on the world stage. I don’t want to live in a region where we joke about being a target and I don’t want to watch a proud nation slip back to a time of “reds under the bed” and “if you’re not with us, you’re against us” policies.
So if anyone from the McCain camp is reading this, you missed your target with that advert. Have a long think about who you are reaching for and try again, because unless you come up with a new message it will be a quiet and lonely evening for you on November 4th.
—update—update—update—
Looks like I’m not alone, Obama has drawn attention to the misleading, negative campaigning too:
As an ex-pat I’m good at spotting the difference between English towns and the U.S. named equivilants. However, unfortunately Birmingham (UK) City Council are not as good at realising there is more than 1 Birmingham and they have printed 360,000 (BBC News have increased this number to 720,000!!!) showing the skyline of Birmingham, Alabama!
