Author: Mike

Looks like government policy is careering off the rails – no apologies for the  the pun – as Labour abandons its sale of Royal Mail.

With the announcements about abandoning part of the National Strategies in education, the scrapping of ID Cards for UK citizens and now the Royal Mail sell off cancellation, I think it’s time for Labour to to face the people in an election, don’t you?

Though I do wonder what the Tories really have to offer.

At last someone is listening. In a massive U-turn, it now appears that ID Cards will not be compulsory for any UK citizen, so says new home secretary Alan Johnson.

However, in line with this governments ongoing love affair with databases, a new national identity database register that captures the personal details of everyone who applies for a passport.

This database will come online from 2011-12 and will be covered by legislation that will allow fines to be issued if ‘you’ don’t keep it updated with personal details such as change of addresses etc.– sounds like another big-brother back door tentacle to keep tracking information on the population to me. – Not much change there then!

One battle against this Big-Brother government may be won, but there are still more to be tackled. Perhaps when the Labour government gets ousted at next year we will be able to get rid of many of the other elements of surveillance Britain.

By the way, well done to the NO2ID campaign.

With today’s crash of an Airbus in the Indian Ocean, it this another Pitot Tube related problem?

Apparently there is one survivor.

What is going on with Airbus planes?

Came across this story in last weeks Telegraph, HMS Poseidon sunk with the loss of 18 crew in 1931 and the Chinese are suspected of salvaging it in the 1970’s to test their recovery capabilities.

Although I did not serve permanently in subs (only had some day trips, not for me I thought) during my time in the Navy.

However, I remember hearing about the history of the incident as it was sometimes used to illustrate that  there was always a chance that people could escape from a sunken submarine using the standard escape apparatus – which had only been introduced two year before – as was the case in this instance.

The big question is why has happened to the bodies of those 18 crewmen?

The Chinese government will have some difficult questions to answer before the truth is extracted from them. Lets hope that make a full disclosure so that any relatives upset by this story can put their memories to rest.

Or does it? Not according to may pundits [1], [2], [3], that have reviewed the plans put forward by the supposed Broadband Czar – Stephen Carter. But as he is soon to head off to other pastures – ITV they say, what should he care if the plans fall massively short on substance – par for the course from this tired government again.

With a general election due next year it is unlikely to me that any but the simplest of the plans have any chance of being implemented.

However, I would think that anything to do with monitoring our activity on the net and getting the proposed £6.00 telephone landline tax in place will be two of the higher priorities!

With regards to the £6.00 tax, what about the person that has satellite TV and Mobile phones with no landline, how will they be taxed? Again another unfair and ill thought out proposal.

Where has all the money gone from selling off the radio frequency spectrum frequencies for Mobile communications and other uses? It’s a bit like Car Tax, how much of that tax goes strength  into the general government pockets and is not spent of the roads!

Will we ever get to reasonable levels of broadband access in this country found in  some overseas countries? I hope so, but it will require a bit more than this report for anything to happen and it will have to be funded the government(s) quickly if we are again not going to fall behind the rest of the world.

What on earth is happening to this country?

Now there is to be a meeting at the BMA to make sure that Doctors have the ability/permission to ask their patients if they want them to pray for them!

Terry Sanderson, president of the National Secular Society, says  that it is not part of a doctors or nurses role to bring up religion with patients.

What I think he really wants is to ban Christianity completely from UK public life and of course the NHS managers, being the PC inclusive lot that they are; are happy to ban NHS staff from offering any kind of spiritual comforting!

What a load of old tosh!!! If someone wants to offer to pray for someone; then they should be able to do that without fear of reprisal or censorship. At the end of the day, last time I looked, the UK was still predominantly Christian country – albeit less so that 20 years ago.

With Brazil calling a halt to the search for any further bodies and debris, speculation is now centring around other similar incidents, including two crashes that seem to have been caused by blocked Pitot Tubes influencing the planes on board computers to initiate manoeuvres that the pilots either struggled to overcome or fatally could not correct .

Being able to understand how fast a plane is flying you would think is fundamental to pilots who have to control the flight! Well it would appear that Air France seems not to have paid as much attention to the air speed sensors (the Pitot Tubes)  as they should have.

Remember the Airbus that went into the trees – although this did not relate to Pitot Tubes – there was no mention of it in the crash report.

With the recent release of MP’s expenses, it makes me wonder just where all the money goes that Government spends on IT.

Although the expenses disclosures were published in PDF format (a reason that easily allowed censorship), which of course is pretty much an accepted standard for delivering printed electronic documents. I think that they could have done a  better job, for example by getting all the information into an online database –seeing at this government is seemingly so in love with them.

Take a look at what the Conservative party has done with some of its expenses disclosure – Front Bench Only – though there has to be some belief that this would not have happened albeit for the whole MP’s expenses scandal in the first place. It’s a much more up-to-date method than PDF.

With plans for more discloser of parliamentary spending, delivery of this  sort information to us tax payers is something that all future governments need to figure out how pretty quickly.

In the meantime, here is a link to the Daily Telegraphs excellent database for all their published information on MP’s expenses including the uncensored information.

Thinking of going abroad and want to know a bit more about the country you’re intending to visit, you can always pick up that last minute travel guide at the airport. Well it seems that the choice your offers may no longer be just that!

In what seems to be a bizarre deal, WH Smiths who seem to be the only book shop at most airports, have signed an exclusive deal with Penguin Books whereby only their (Penguin’s) travel books will be on the shelves. The deal incidentally not only covers Smiths airport shops but will cover all their UK stores!

Sweeping all other travel guides away including those excellent Berlitz mini-guides, WH Smiths airport shelves will now only contain the Rough Guides and Dorling Kindersley travel books.

Seems a very strange decision that will certainly restrict travellers choice and many travel writers are also up in arms about it.

Looks like its off to Waterstones and Amazon for what I need. It’s a cleaver bit of sales strategy from Smiths (from an new business graduate?) that is sure to drive customers away and make me think even more as to what Smiths are really in business for.

At last recognition for some unsung heroes of WWII. People that worked at Bletchley Park are to receive recognition for their contribution during WWII.

Tasked with cracking the Enigma and other codes used by the Germans, they proved that diligent and very hard work resulted in successes that really shorten the length of the war and saved many lives, particularly the many conveys that supplied an isolated Britain.

They also contributed to the early use of computers for analysis of complex problems. However, this work was not carried after the war as all evidence of its use being destroyed or covered up on orders by Churchill and other leaders. Sadly, with hindsight a massive, massive error, that forever cost has this country dearly.

I’ve posted about Bletchley and its use of computers before, however these awards are really about the people behind the technologies and deservedly getting the recognition that they rightly deserved.