Tuesday, 18 December 2007
"The sensible thing to do was to wait"
Stephen Ladyman, who was transport minister at the time, defends his decision not to go public back in May when 3 million learner drivers' records went missing, but instead leave it for the blessed Ruth to announce, a full nine months later:
"Given that it looked in no possible way that this data had got into the wrong hands, the sensible thing to do was to wait until we had the results of the investigation.
"This was immediately before the reshuffle and before they could come back to me and tell me the results of their investigation, the reshuffle had taken place and I left office. My assumption was that they would come back and tell the minister who replaced me."
Ladyboy's excuses are as self-serving as they are risible: merely a long-winded way of admitting that he was demob happy, too busy groping the secretaries and trying to perch his arsecheeks on the DoT photocopier to give a shit about the emerging fiasco in Iowa. In an ideal world he would be reappointed to the Government and then sacked again, just to make a point.
I repeat what I said last month when a slew of revelations about lost data came hard on the heels of the child benefit discs fiasco. Are we to believe that "junior officials", who up till November were following procedures to a tee, have all of a sudden become incredibly sloopy? That mail and data transfer systems that had been working fine are now suddenly going haywire at the rate of one a week?
No, the only conclusion any sensible person can draw is this: that this has always been happening and it happens all the time, that government has always been cavalier with our data, and that our names, addresses and bank account numbers have been lost in the post, gone missing in transit or thrown in the bin for years now. The only difference is that previously nobody in government could be fucked to tell us about it, whereas now, in the wake of the child benefit fiasco, they have no choice but to do so - and, even then, reluctantly and nine months after the event.
It matters not a jot whether these details were lost by a government office or a private contractor, nor whether in Iowa, Islington or on the fucking moon. It's not Ladyboy's fault that this data went missing, of course, but it is his responsibility, and that of his colleagues, because it is they who insist on the collection and retention of huge swathes of information about the citizens of this country, the vast majority of which is quite simply none of their fucking business.
Government is an incredibly blunt tool; and politicians who ignore that simple truth, who believe that the state has the answers to all of society's ills, and who preside over a massive expansion in its size and remit, must be held accountable when that apparatus fucks up.
Labels: Burning our money, Cock-ups, Nu Lab
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Mr Eugenides writes: "... nor whether in Iowa, Islington or on the fucking moon."
I beg to differ. It is much better if national secrets, valuable/critical national infrastructure, etc are kept within the territory within which we have legal jurisdiction and so set the criminal law.
Otherwise, I'm largely in agreement. This is especially now that computer databases are all-pervasive and are easily stored, copied and transported.
Best regards
I beg to differ. It is much better if national secrets, valuable/critical national infrastructure, etc are kept within the territory within which we have legal jurisdiction and so set the criminal law.
Otherwise, I'm largely in agreement. This is especially now that computer databases are all-pervasive and are easily stored, copied and transported.
Best regards
They should write the damn things out on huge pieces of wood then at least only a few could be stolen.
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