The Government - Don't trust them with your data.

From Hansard:

John Mason: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what property has been lost or stolen from his Department in the last 12 months; and what the estimated cost was of replacement of such property.

Huw Irranca-Davies: Items of DEFRA property lost or stolen are all recorded as ‘losses’. The following table shows losses with an estimated value (at the time of loss) of over £50. Figures are for 2008-09 to date.

This is just from one government department in one year! And they want us to trust them with our data.

PA Consulting - Memory sticks and ID Cards.

It turns out that PA Consulting, the company to blame (according to Jacqui Smith) for the loss of the memory stick containing details of the 84,000 prisoners held in our prisons, are at the heart of the National ID Card scheme. Makes you feel warm all over doesn't it? The company has been paid £100m for their work on ID Cards and they have received over £240m in government contracts in recent years. According to the Telegraph we (that's those of us who pay tax) are paying their consultants £160 per hour to work on the scheme - not bad money if you can get it.

Dominic Grieve, the shadow home secretary, said:

"The public will be alarmed that the Government is happy to entrust their £20bn ID card project to the firm involved in this fiasco, at a cost of millions of pounds to the UK taxpayer. "This will destroy any grain of confidence the public still have in this white elephant and reinforce why it could endanger - rather than strengthen - our security.

"Jacqui Smith cannot continue to abdicate responsibility for this shambles. She must at a bare minimum explain how this failure could happen, when she first knew about it, and what she now intends to do about it. Why did she sit on this information until it was dragged out by the media? When was she intending to tell the public?"

I think it pretty obvious why Jacqui Smith sat on the news of this data loss:

1. This is just another blunder in a long list of data security blunders that she and the government have been responsible for.

2. Would you (as Home Secretary) want the public to know that a company deeply involved in the ID Card scheme has broken security guidelines by downloading sensitive data, only to lose it?

I think we in the general public tend to think it's possible that the ID Card scheme will be scrapped, but it won't, the government are hell bent on pushing this crackpot scheme through. The only way to stop more of our money being wasted on this folly is to get Labour out of power as soon as possible.

Alyson Reeves, PA Consulting's identity management specialist wrote in the Financial Times (18 June 2008):

"The UK National Identity Scheme should not be overlooked. It is coming, and as the UK's 'universal' identity assurance solution, it will become ubiquitous in the next five to 10 years. Don't get left playing catch-up."

The sad thing is that even after losing the prisoner data, PA Consulting will probably keep their ID Card contracts.

Would Winston Churchill agree with David Davis?

Wise words from some bloke called Winston Churchill:

We must never cease to proclaim in fearless tones the great principles of freedom and the rights of man which are the joint inheritance of the English-speaking world and which through Magna Carta, the Bill of Rights, the Habeas Corpus, trial by jury, and the English common law find their most famous expression in the American Declaration of Independence.

All this means that the people of any country have the right, and should have the power by constitutional action, by free unfettered elections, with secret ballot, to choose or change the character or form of government under which they dwell; that freedom of speech and thought should reign; that courts of justice, independent of the executive, unbiased by any party, should administer laws which have received the broad assent of large majorities or are consecrated by time and custom. Here are the title deeds of freedom which should lie in every cottage home. Here is the message of the British and American peoples to mankind. Let us preach what we practise - let us practise what we preach.

March 5, 1946
Westminster College, Fulton, Missouri

Gordon Brown's Monthly Press Conference 12th June 08

Gordon Brown has just started his monthly press conference. He started by talking about the economy - food and fuel prices. This is obviously not what we or the press want to hear and he is clearly trying to hold off the storm he surely knows is coming. He is going to face some very hostile questions from the gathered press. We want to know what bribes he had to offer his own MPs and the DUP to buy his victory in yesterdays vote on 42 days detention.

Nick Robinson got the first question and went straight for the jugular asking if any deals were done. Brown is denying outright that any deal has been done. I'll say right now that I believe he is a bare face liar. This will be the end of Brown if any deal is made public, and I am pretty certain that sooner or later, some some disgruntled MP or civil servant will talk. He will not leave office under his own steam - he will leave under a cloud and become Britain's Nixon.

Brown was asked whether he would cut the tax on fuel seeing as he is now taking a big chunk of money from the recent jumps in price. He waffled on, but did not say that he would cut the tax. He actually came out with what has become to be known as a "Brownie" - he said that the percentage of tax taken on fuel has actually reduced. If anyone can explain that one please feel free to tell me in the comments section.

You know, I'm going to stop now. He is just dodging every question. What's the point? Has anyone else noticed that he does not take follow up questions from reporters? That is a very smart move as he can spout any old rubbish (tractor production figures) and the reporter has to sit there frustrated, knowing that his well prepared question has been dodged.

I'll link to the video of the conference when it's put up on the BBC. That way you can watch him dance for yourself.

Top Secret documents left on a train. Ooops.

Just as Gordon Brown wins on 42 days, the BBC reports that Top Secret documents containing the latest government intelligence on al-Qaeda and Iraqui security services have been left on a train. Ooops.

From the BBC:

The documents belonged to a very senior intelligence official working in the Cabinet Office. A passenger on the train from Waterloo in London to Surrey spotted an envelope the papers were in abandoned on a seat and handed the documents to the BBC. A full-scale search for them had been launched by the Metropolitan Police. Just seven pages long but classified as "UK Top Secret", the latest government intelligence assessment on al-Qaeda is so sensitive that every document is numbered and marked "for UK/US/Canadian and Australian eyes only", BBC security correspondent Frank Gardner said. However, it appears that in a serious breach of the rules, according to our correspondent, the document was taken out of Whitehall and left on a train on Tuesday. 'Damning assessment' When a fellow passenger saw the material inside, which included a top-secret and in some places "damning" assessment of Iraq's security forces, they handed it in to the BBC.

I think the right term for this situation would be: Gordon Brown has found a fiver - only to find out that he's lost a tenner.