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Posts Tagged ‘Government IT Projects’

The other day there was an article concerning scrapping the huge NHS IT project that had got under way whilst Blair and his “Wild Bunch” were in power. The whole project just like the one on ID Cards was totally flawed from outset and before a Penny had been spent.

As a result, many experienced people from the IT Industry did warn the Government about both but their warnings fell of deaf ears the article that explains the story is as follows: http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/health-and-families/health-news/nhs-pulls-the-plug-on-its-11bn-it-system-2330906.html

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As I contemplate my personal future and at the age of 65, had discounted going back into IT as a possibility and would have to seek a different ‘trade’, but then I was taken aback yesterday to realise that perhaps I should not have been so hasty, there are still idiots out there complete with loon pants on ! On reflection, I thought that perhaps, I was far too quick on ‘discounting’ the knowledge that I have built up over the years and should review that.

The reality is simply determined by the “business goals” and translating those into ‘business outcomes’ is what IT is all about, the technology is very much secondary. What occasioned this was me writing some comments against an article in the “Indy” on the Coalition Governments Freedom Bill:http://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/leading-articles/leading-article-a-victory-for-civil-liberties-ndash-and-a-challenge-for-labour-2209670.html#comment-144334168

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Apparently, the WikiLeaks web site has obtained a lot of internal documents from a major Bank and intends to publish them in the New Year, for now they are content to drip feed American diplomatic documents and rely on their press friends like The Guardian to try and ‘sensationalise’ any contents that they come up with.

In parallel with this though and as the American Government has tried to put the ‘squeeze’ on the WikiLeaks operations, we have seen a group of hackers called ‘Anonymous’ launch cyber attacks, against Mastercard, Visa, Amazon and PayPal. The problem is that taken together, these events contradict the ‘Anonymous’ claims that they are trying to keep the Internet open and free because they bring into play another unelected, self appointed and unaccountable group, THEMSELVES so that if there is tyranny, all they seek to do is replace one tyranny with another, their own which makes them less freedom fighters than would be Hitlers.

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There was an interesting article written by a former soldier in the Independent calling on the public to have a vote on going to war or not: http://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/commentators/crispin-black-voters-must-decide-when-we-go-to-war-1830423.html

However it is nonsense because if Parliament is in thrall to the Executive, which given the rise of the “Career Politician” it is, we need to look at the Separation of Powers and a strengthening of the role of the MP and Parliamentary Committees as a check on the Executive and, other sanctions the electorate can directly impose on sitting MPs if they fail in their duties not, specific decisions.

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As this boring “MPs Expenses” saga goes through its death rattle, every idiot and their Mother is trotting out their pet ideas which are motivated by either personal interest or just plain ignorance, in the latter case the National Tooth Fairy would do them just as well, Boogie Woogie have a sixpence Click Clack !

If you are Nick Clegg and a Libdem, the fact that the Liberals lost their “Radical Party Crown” to the Labour Party a hundred years ago and haven’t managed to reclaim it back from them because of the Liberals own lack of imagination and drive, clearly needs Proportional Representation to make up for their past failures under our “first past the post system” – “Change the system to suit us and our total lack of competence is their cry…” Enchanting and I think not !

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The main problem with all this lies in the type of justification given for it, “To prevent terrorist outrages” which could as equally apply to sanctioning the use of torture. I do not think that the Government, Police or Security Services are “evil” but they are all clearly incompetent as the Bob Quick incident at the time he was in charge of the Anti-terror Unit demonstrated.

There is a complete lack of basic “awareness” which is frightening as for example Heather Blears doing exactly the same thing as Quick, a week later. To be fair to the Midlands Dwarf, she did at least show some humility over it and in her case it wasn’t a security issue but as a Member of the Cabinet – she still did it !

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There are rumours coming from the Cabinet that a majority of them want to scrap the ID Card Scheme as doing so would save money and they have finally realised that the public – ie. the voters, have turned against it.

Personally and as Gordon Brown believes that stubbornness equals strength plus the Tories have already said that they will scrap it if elected, Brown won’t on principle. Blair wanted to join the Euro, Brown invented rules but truthfully, if Blair wanted it…it would never happen so, Cameron will scrap ID Cards…Brown will defend them to the grave.

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I read an amusing article in the Independent today which centred around Tony Blair pushing his candidacy for the post of the first full time EU President which is based upon the Lisbon Treaty finally being ratified by Ireland voting Yes on the second or third time of asking, the EU will not accept NO under any circumstances. It must really frustrate the “High & Mighty” of Brussels that anything as unimportant as democracy should thwart their evil plans.

What was particularly amusing was the assertion that however begrudgingly, Gordon Brown endorsed Blair, Sarkozy had finally agreed and Merkel, sort of except…If she loses the next German Election and is therefore out of a job, she would want the EU Presidency for herself…

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Perhaps one of the most outrageous and yet ever continuing events is Government Agencies, including the Military, losing laptops and data containing all kinds of personal, even classified information. Perhaps the most ridiculous being an “Intelligence Officer” leaving classified documents on a train that should not have left Downing Street in the first place, just how intelligent was that ?

However it doesn’t just stop there because there are other “security issues” to consider such as keeping IT Systems free of virus and malware attacks which means keeping them fully “patched” and in this regard, the private sector seems to do as badly as the public sector does.

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Today Philip Johnston wrote a “concerned” article in the Daily Telegraph with regard to the “Ministry of Justice 1984 Straw” publishing something called the “Data Sharing Review” which will effectively enable them to by-pass any legal constraints to accessing database information from any person or organisation, including one assumes from the private sector, they pick upon and without giving any reason.

Should we be concerned ? The answer is very much that we should but not because of an Orwellian State the Labour Government is far too incompetent for that but simply because neither the Government nor the Civil Service, have a clue what they are dealing with and that is dangerous.

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