WRITTEN ON September 9th, 2008 BY William Heath AND STORED IN Data nitwittery, Foundation of Trust, Identity, What do we want?
Oh look – the Scottish government has done something sensible:
An expert group has been set up to help public bodies protect individuals’ privacy.
A group of leading experts has been established to help increase public confidence in IT-enabled public services, including online council tax payments, using cards in libraries or paying for parking on a mobile phone.
Reporting to Ministers, the group includes both private and public sector members. The group will develop a draft set of guiding principles for public bodies to ensure that they properly protect individuals’ privacy when handling their information. Once developed, a consultation on the draft principles will follow.
That lot should keet them honest: Charles Raab, Gareth Crossman, Jerry Fishenden, Gus Hosein. Hey – most of them aren’t Scots! Hey – can you lend them to Whitehall once in a while please?
Wibbi we swapped the Scotish politicians running Whitehall for the non-Scottish privacy experts soon to be advising the Scottish government? No! That’s just what Alex Salmond is trying to make us think, messing with our brains by being extremely annoying!
Try again:
Wibbi the Whitehall administration followed the excellent example of the Scottish devolved administration and appointed a panel of the best privacy experts it coud find. (No! not a management consultant and a drug salesman who know between them next to nothing about informaiton security! proper privacy experts.)
and
Wibbi Whitehall brought to the top of the pile the best politicians in Britain regardless of the region of their birth?
and
Wibbi Alex Salmond managed to do his level best for Scotland without stirring up animosity or appearing anti-any-other-region of the British Isles. Man he’s annoying. But if I put myself in the most constructive possible frame of mind I manage to rise above it, and quite admire him.
[Thought: is a possible break-up of the union the best possible opportunity in half a millenium to kick Britain’s fatal addiction to the arms trade? If they banned nukes from Scotland we might seize the chance to press for a neutral, non-violent England. After all, who wants boring old “England & Wales” in the UN Security Council? No-one’s scared of us militarily unless we threaten them with bagpipes and haggis.]
2 Responses to “Scotland sets up privacy expert group”
Oh. Do there have to be warring parties for one to be neutral? I simply meant non-violent, which doesnt have to be defined by others actually being at war.
But maybe your question is: what are the likeliest sources of conflict in any foreseeable future world (at the fringes of which the UK might break up without anyone paying much attention).
I dont know. Oxford Research suggests the greatest threats we face globally are
1. climate change
2. competition over resources
3. marginalisation of the majority world
4. global militarisation
So our best chance of being non-violent is to tackle those rationally in that order.
And between whom would your ‘non violent England’ be neutral?
Do tell.