Comments on: Lords debate “Personal Internet Security” http://www.lightbluetouchpaper.org/2008/10/13/lords-debate-personal-internet-security/ Security Research, Computer Laboratory, University of Cambridge Fri, 10 Feb 2012 17:31:40 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.9.2 hourly 1 By: Clive Robinson http://www.lightbluetouchpaper.org/2008/10/13/lords-debate-personal-internet-security/comment-page-1/#comment-29894 Clive Robinson Tue, 14 Oct 2008 17:00:22 +0000 http://www.lightbluetouchpaper.org/?p=422#comment-29894 @ Richard, "It still seems as if the penny hasn’t dropped in Whitehall" It almost never does. Senior Civil Servants are so much a law unto themselves that it is easy for them to effectivly ham string a minister so that, by selectivly controling the information they recieve. On a number of occasions I have been left thinking "which end of the dog is wagging which". A case in point is National ID cards. For many many years a group of Civil Servants has felt that the UK should have one like most other Europen Countries. Every time there is a change of Government they get their plan down off the shelf dust it off and stick it under some ministers nose. The electorate of the UK have untill now been lucky in that ministers in prior Governments have independently realised that a National ID card was a non starter both politicaly and technicaly. However not so with the current Government. It appears that this time it was not stuck under a ministers nose but shoved into No 10's Technology think tank... Aside from the fact that the Civil Servants have never taken a fair or impartial attitude on the matter (ie evidence base shows ID cards have no worth in an open society). The Civil Servants should not have been using the Think Tank to present their ideas. Further it is highly likley that quite a few of the Senior Civil Servants have "networked" themselves director or equivelent postitions with the companies that are biding to do the work... Only time will tell if Gordon Brown gets a grip on this revolving door system of employing consultants to do Civil Servants work and alowing Civil Servants to jump ship to companies to whom they have effectivly awarded major contracts. There may be a small silver lining in the current credit crunch in that as he has no financial reserves (due to GB blowing it all) Alister Darling will not realy be able to finance the National ID scheme unless there is a very clear indicator it is going to be a revenue earner in the very short term. And probably the only way that is going to happen is "compulsory carrying" which is probably political suicide prior to an election. @ Richard,

“It still seems as if the penny hasn’t dropped in Whitehall”

It almost never does.

Senior Civil Servants are so much a law unto themselves that it is easy for them to effectivly ham string a minister so that, by selectivly controling the information they recieve.

On a number of occasions I have been left thinking “which end of the dog is wagging which”.

A case in point is National ID cards. For many many years a group of Civil Servants has felt that the UK should have one like most other Europen Countries. Every time there is a change of Government they get their plan down off the shelf dust it off and stick it under some ministers nose.

The electorate of the UK have untill now been lucky in that ministers in prior Governments have independently realised that a National ID card was a non starter both politicaly and technicaly.

However not so with the current Government. It appears that this time it was not stuck under a ministers nose but shoved into No 10’s Technology think tank…

Aside from the fact that the Civil Servants have never taken a fair or impartial attitude on the matter (ie evidence base shows ID cards have no worth in an open society). The Civil Servants should not have been using the Think Tank to present their ideas. Further it is highly likley that quite a few of the Senior Civil Servants have “networked” themselves director or equivelent postitions with the companies that are biding to do the work…

Only time will tell if Gordon Brown gets a grip on this revolving door system of employing consultants to do Civil Servants work and alowing Civil Servants to jump ship to companies to whom they have effectivly awarded major contracts.

There may be a small silver lining in the current credit crunch in that as he has no financial reserves (due to GB blowing it all) Alister Darling will not realy be able to finance the National ID scheme unless there is a very clear indicator it is going to be a revenue earner in the very short term. And probably the only way that is going to happen is “compulsory carrying” which is probably political suicide prior to an election.

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