Tuesday, December 13, 2005

Hey - I've got a great idea! Why don't we compile everyone's most important details on one vast central database and issue them one single form of ID in card format that allows them to demonstrate who they are for pretty much every important transaction they'll ever undertake? Nothing could possibly go wrong!
"Up to 13,000 Job Centre staff may have had personal details stolen by criminals making fraudulent claims for tax credits..."
HOw have these details been stolen? Well, they were on a central database, and it rather looks like someone with access to it flogged the whole bloody thing to some dodgy types.

But, of course, the national database backing up the ID cards scheme could never ever ever (cross my heart and hope to die) be compromised in a similar way. Oh no.

11 Comments:

Blogger Justin said...

With respect, this system exists exists to prevent proles from starving. I think you'll find that a system with the potential to inconvenience, say, the editor of The Sun newspaper, will have a whole sheet of A4 devoted to its design rather than the usual fag packet.

12/13/2005 07:56:00 pm  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

there is an irony here.

the government wants id cards

j/c civil servants work for the government

their ids have been stolen

to defraud government issued benefits

probably by people that worked for the j/c who sold them to people that would never be issued an id card

reality... the government needs id cards to protect id theft by their own workers.... which will actually be easier to do when a national id database is in place.

stark reality... if we have id cards we will be at risk of id theft from the very same government that introduced them!

12/13/2005 08:24:00 pm  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Dear Nosemonkey,

The majority of your posts are underlined with the not so subtle air of someone who quite desperately wants employment from their political ramblings.

May I suggest you take a look at the way you right, drop the holier-than-thou condescension and put your obviously intelligent mind to better use. You're more than capable.

Your sarcasm, and your humour, reflect pretty bad on you and make you annoying to read - which is a shame because you're potentially one of the best bloggers out there.

Stop writing things, and doing things on blog with the sole intention of finding employment, it's too vapid an attempt, you look silly.

Relax, take a break - write when the passion is there for the subject and when you know what you're saying, which recently isn't very often.

Good luck. Forget the i-wanna-write-for-the-times-or-maybe-the-daily-star needy crapness and just write for writings sake, then we'll all enjoy your blog again and your readership will rise.

bry

12/13/2005 11:12:00 pm  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

the way you *write. I never said I could spell. I don't want to be a writer.

12/13/2005 11:13:00 pm  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

bryan, are you mad? have you gone stark raving tony-blair-in-leather-thong-shocker bonkers???

actually forget that question. just turn around, walk out the door, close it behind you quietly and we'll all just forget that you were ever here....

12/14/2005 02:17:00 am  
Blogger Justin said...

Seconded, Anonymous. Don't let it hit you on the arse on the way out, Bryan.

12/14/2005 08:18:00 am  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Don't forget this is the second major inside job on a government computer system in the life of this "government". They had to shut down the Individual Learning Accounts (which were actually not a bad idea) because some bunny huggers in the Education Dept. were syphoning off the moolah to finance digging up peoples' grannnies or something. At this rate it'll be about eighteen months from the introduction of id cards to when the whole country collapses into a state of chassis, as Synge so eloquently put it.

12/14/2005 08:20:00 am  
Blogger Steve Smith said...

I would love to see the newspaper that would print this headline
Far too sweary for the children

On the subject at hand the Government also sell your information to anyone that asks

Scotsman Article

12/14/2005 09:31:00 am  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Justin - good point. There will be a special system for governemnt, MPs, senior civil servants & celebrities. The existence of the parrallel system will only come out when some Z list pop singer gets his ID scanned following a drink driving incident, and some junior bod tells the press about the result - about 10 years from now. I'm putting money on this at Ladbrooks.

12/14/2005 09:47:00 am  
Blogger Jonn Elledge said...

Serious question: has anyone ever seen the government justify why it wants ID cards? There must be some reason but since they've been (I think) discredited as protection against terrorism and identity theft, then what's the bloody point of them? Why waste the political capital?

12/14/2005 10:05:00 am  
Blogger Nosemonkey said...

To be fair on Bryan, he's got a point.

Not sure about the "holier than thou" bit (that's proably just because I'm so much more skill than everyone else in the entire world), and he's slightly misinterpreted the whole me wanting work thing. That'd simply be nice, as I'm in sore need of earning more money than I am, and I know that when I'm on form I'm better than the vast majority of people regularly employed by the papers to churn out mindless dross.

But he's right about me not knowing what I'm talking about a lot of the time. When it comes to things like global tarriff reform - or most other aspects of economics, for that matter - I'm largely lost. But that's as one of the few things that's tickling any interest for me at the moment I've occasionally been blathering on about it in a vague attempt to understand the bloody thing. And that was why I started this blog in the first place - to understand aspects of politics about which I hadn't much of a clue.

Most other things going on at the moment honestly don't spark too much interest. David Cameron? No opinion. Extraordinary rendition? Sounds bad, but I'm not surprised or too fussed for some reason. The NHS about to collapse in on itself? That's been the case for the last 30 years at least. The EU's still chugging on with various bits and pieces about which nobody cares, and it's very hard to get het up about it - especially as I have no desire to get into tedious arguments with Eurosceptics again.

Government ministers are still being crap, and I long ago ran out of any genuine bile - that usually stemmed from disappointment; now I simply expect it. It's hard to be angry with a bird for insisting on flying, after all - this lot's lying and incompetence is just part of what they are.

Add to that the fact that I've been busy as a bastard for the last month, was out of the country for three weeks before that, and busy as a bastard for the month before I left as well, and I reckon the quality round here most likely has slipped. Certainly it has if you compare my output for the last couple of months to the stuff in the "Best of" section on the right.

Meh...

12/14/2005 10:05:00 am  

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