Archive for October, 2010

“The power of forecasting is not something that I have”

Posted at Sunday, October 24th, 2010 by andrew

Matt Chorley interviewed the Chief Secretary to the Treasury, LibDem MP Danny Alexander, in the Independent on Sunday. John Rentoul has posted the whole transcript of the interview on the newspaper’s web site: Q: Another key themes of the Lib Dem manifesto was the rolling back of the surveillance state but in the defence review [...]

Full disclosure can make some citizens uneasy

Posted at Saturday, October 23rd, 2010 by andrew

Nigel Hawkes writes in the Independent: Next March’s Census will ask a lot of personal questions. As well as finding out who lives where, it will record religious belief, long-term illness, relationships, country of origin, ethnicity, employment and any overnight visitors. Filling in the 32-page form is compulsory, but in 2001 many people managed to [...]

Anti-paedophile vetting scheme to be ripped up

Posted at Friday, October 22nd, 2010 by andrew

Tom Whitehead and Andrew Porter write in the Daily Telegraph: An anti-paedophile vetting scheme that would have forced nine million people to undergo checks is to be ripped up under a review to be announced today, The Daily Telegraph can disclose. The controversial Vetting and Barring Scheme (VBS) will either be scrapped altogether or dramatically [...]

Every email and website to be stored

Posted at Wednesday, October 20th, 2010 by andrew

Tom Whitehead writes in the Daily Telegraph: Every email, phone call and website visit is to be recorded and stored after the Coalition Government revived controversial Big Brother snooping plans. It will allow security services and the police to spy on the activities of every Briton who uses a phone or the internet. Moves to [...]

Government to save £1.2bn in IT

Posted at Tuesday, October 19th, 2010 by andrew

Gareth Morgan writes in Computing: In promising to “leave no stone unturned” in the search for efficiency savings, Cabinet Office minister Francis Maude has revealed the latest figures for cutting public sector IT spending. Maude claims to have saved the public purse £402m this financial year by scrapping the controversial national identity scheme. He expects [...]

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