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Well My Hearties,
Have you all enjoyed the past week, with
HMS Great Britain continuing to career around the icy seas from one
disaster to another? As if the Northern Rock crash weren't bad
enough, one could now be forgiven for believing that, with the
Master Gordon Brown at the helm ill-ably assisted by his First Mate
Alistair Darling, we were actually out searching for icebergs to
hit in some sick attempt to outdo the Titanic. When on taking over
the premiership Gordon talked about "open government", few of us
realised it would be so open as to allow HM Revenue and Customs
(HMRC) to put at risk of exposure to the whole world some of the
most sensitive data imaginable, including the bank account details
of some 25 million people and 7.2 million families.
No doubt you will already have noticed I
did not on opening address anyone as a "Darling" this week - it is
not the best of words to use at the moment, is it? Ministers gasped
in the House of Commons on Tuesday as the Chancellor of the
Exchequer, Alistair Darling, had to confirm and reveal the true
severity of the latest of the three (known) recent security lapses.
In an age where even young children know the importance of security
and encryption of personal data, and where reliable software
enabling this is available and easily affordable by a government,
almost half of the population's most intimate details were sent
unencrypted on two discs across the country by some postal firm at
their bog-standard pop-it-in-Pete rate without even a proof of
delivery being requested. Not noticed to be missing for three
weeks, and the loss not made public for long after that on some
feeble excuse, the potential now exists for every crook and
terrorist organisation in the world to have their very own copy of
this data.
Tuesday was a day on which, I'm guessing,
no Labour MP wished to be recognised as a Brown man - that would
likely have suggested far more about the state of their underpants
than their allegiance! We cannot forget that until quite recently
Gordon Brown was in charge of this incompetent department - and
this is his legacy.
As if losing these two discs containing
all that confidential and sensitive data were not enough trouble
for the government and HMRC, they have also at the same time come
under fire from the BBC's Watchdog programme which has uncovered
cases where, unrelated to the present fiasco, in other mistakes
made by HMRC they have caused potentially damaging personal details
to be sent to the wrong people. Julian Evans, an expert in identity
fraud, has told viewers that with these details wrongly sent out
someone could easily apply for a credit card, loan or mortgage in
another person's name. Should they wish to, they could even access
that person's bank account and withdraw money.
Another day; another crisis. Damage
limitation seems to be the order of the day for the government -
everyday. With this loss of data crisis they have told a deeply
worried nation: "Don't panic, folks - there is no need to rush out
to change your bank account details. There is no evidence the data
has fallen into criminal hands." Hmm . . . Really? We've discussed
this "no evidence" excuse used by authorities before on here. It's
a cop out. If it all goes tits-up they can say: "Well you can't
blame us, there was no evidence, was there?" Pray tell: is there
any evidence then to suggest that this data has NOT fallen into
unsavoury hands? For if there is not, then would it not be far
safer to be acting as if it had, rather than simply waiting in the
hope that the worst won't happen?
Should this data with its whereabouts
unknown, either now or in the future, get into the wrong hands,
knowing that the banks have flagged all those accounts and are
watching them for suspicious behaviour - 7.5 million of them? Yeah,
right! - what is to stop those people sitting on the information
for a couple of years until the heat dies down? I know if I were
directly affected, once I heard those awful words that spread fear
and alarm: "there is no evidence", I would have closed my account
straightaway and opened up another one - and with a different bank
as an extra precaution. Having watched on a television news
programme a similar disc password being cracked within seconds, and
from the data thereon the interviewer's identity profile
discovered to the point of actually being able to use it to trade
as that person within a matter of a few minutes, I make no
apologies for this revelation.
George Osborne, Shadow Chancellor, in
parliament claimed that such incompetence as we have witnessed
should mark the "final blow" for the government's identity card
programme, saying: "They simply cannot be trusted with people's
personal information." Alistair spluttered back an almost
incoherent reply to the effect that information on identity cards
would be much safer as they would be biometric and therefore only
accessible by the rightful owner. This was perhaps the most
ludicrous statement to be heard (so far?) throughout this whole
affair. If the information was really only available to the
rightful owner of the card - and we know that to be untrue! - then
what is the point of the card? Of what use would it be? We all know
that what is on them will quite obviously be checkable against an
enormous government database somewhere. Were it not to be, then it
would it leave it wide-open for any terrorist groups with the
(easily found) right resources to simply make their own cards.
I say we really cannot afford for any more
of our private and personal details to be held by the government.
Large centralised databases are dangerous, and as recent events
have shown: an accident just waiting to happen. The government
already know far more than they need to about us, and yet they are
less safe than we are at holding that information. Where few of us
will give out our personal details to someone who should not have
that knowledge, they appear to have a long record of doing just
that - and yet despite this, and against the advice of top security
experts, they still want to go ahead with identity cards.
Knowing how insecure anything related to
the government or government bodies and computers can be, already
many doctors (six out of ten was reported today!) are refusing to
upload their patients' records onto the NHS database for fear of
making those people vulnerable. After the billions spent on it, and
it was all our money again, they tell us the system is "not fit for
purpose." I think we are hearing "not fit for purpose" a little too
often these days, aren't we? It must be in danger of becoming the
government's catchphrase. Perhaps we are only missing the novel
tune to accentuate it. Bomtiddlyompom-pom-pom! That do? Of course I
could always take out a few bits, a couple of "om"s here and there,
and then merge it with something else, but I shan't do that
because I have enough sense to see it won't work as well - unlike
Gordon Brown with (to name just one) HM Revenue and Customs!
The five disastrous months under Brown's
premiership, with cataclysm after cataclysm, has some people now
actually wondering whether a year is at all achievable with him at
the wheel before the ship finally flounders and goes down. Still
firmly embedded in our stern is the Northern Rock crisis, with the
bank's shares freefalling to an all-time low as Gordon Brown's
puppet Chancellor stood accused in the Commons on Monday of making
a secret loan to it - one which some legal boffins believe will
leave the taxpayers footing the bill. It has now emerged we may
have to prop up this bank for another three years, and that could
yet possibly involve a hell of a lot more public money. That's
nice, isn't it? I don't even bank with them and they want my
money! I'm left to wonder: how many taxpayers does it take to
provide an amount equal to the executive's salaries drawn from the
bank's funds? Having cocked it up, shouldn't these people who
have become rich on the back of other people's money be forced to
work for nothing?
The US private equity firm JC Flowers is
one party said to have made an offer for Northern Rock, theirs
backed to the tune of £15 billion by various banks so they
say, but that would still leave three years before that estimated
£24 billion borrowed from the taxpayer could be repaid, if it
indeed were at all as doubtless they would try for "deals". Plainly
intended to impress, we're told that if successful they have the
former Marks & Spencer chairman, Paul Myners, lined up to be
chairman of the company. Really? Well I have to tell you: the
prospect of this dead-in-the-water hulk going even more pants does
absolutely nothing to impress me!
There are many who believe Alistair
Darling's job should be on the line, he has in a very short time
been the man responsible by office for too many disasters, but at
the moment that appears not to be the case. When challenged about
this the Prime Minister claimed he had "full confidence" in Mr
Darling. At least that is what most people think he said, but when
it is oral you can never be sure, can you? However I'm told it has
been recorded in Hansard spelled as "full", so I guess that must be
right even if it is incorrect.
When a government refuses to learn from
its mistakes and carries on making them, and like some un-listening
stern matriarch pursues policies the public don't want, adamantly
don't want, steam-rolling them through parliament over screams of
horror, then I believe its time in office is limited. I predict
that under Gordon Brown, a man who talks of having a vision but
doesn't and who careers along madly in the dark from one
catastrophe to another, there will be disasters severe enough to
encourage votes of no confidence. We may yet see one quite soon.
MPs of all parties who have any aspirations of continuing in a
political career may need to consider carefully the feelings of the
public. They may be unforgiving of those who attempt to bolster the
government. Where for a long time people have been worried the
Conservatives were not up the job, I have this week sensed a
remarkable change. Such now is the underlying fear and hatred of
this government - and it is of the government, and not of the
Labour Party per se - I believe if push came to shove they would be
willing to risk electing the Conservatives. What is out there being
talked about, and repeatedly appearing on forums and newspaper
feedbacks, suggests nothing short of a complete U-turn on many of
their repressive policies and a change of leadership could save
Labour from total annihilation were there an election today.
Already questions are being asked. How
long can this government stay afloat? Who is going down with Gordon
Brown? Where's the band?
If you enjoy politics, I suspect a lot of
enjoyment is imminent.
"The Bitch!" 22/11/07.
About the Author
"The Bitch!", a weekly UK News Review
column, is hosted by the author and columnist Michael Knell. These
articles appear on the Blackpool Gay Directory website, but are not
usually specifically gay in content. More information on the
author: http://www.michaelknell.com and on the directory:
http://www.astabgay.com.
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