a lot of stuff and nonsense from eclectech

Hysterical new site online today from Phorm, a corporation behaving like a small child in a playground calling people names. The people they're calling names include the Open Rights Group, Alexander “The Angry Activist” Hanff and, well, have a look yourself here... phoolish anti-anti-Phorm site.

I don't have time to have the full rant I'd like to have here, but how a company that gathered information about individuals' web activity without getting their permission can call those complaining about it 'privacy pirates' is incomprehensible to me.

There was some research done recently* which showed that you could identify a large number of people from their surfing habits and searches; you don't need their IP address or other standard personally identifiable information, you just need to know that the web sites were visited and searches were performed by one individual. Think about what you search for and where you go online... do they give hints about who you are? I'll put my hand up here and say I Google my own name (both real and online pseudonymns) and look for information about local events and shops and a ton of other stuff that could tell you alot about me. Tie that together with a Facebook or similar profile and you're away...

Anyhow, more reasoned pieces will appear elsewhere I'm sure but in the meantime have some related links...

EC starts legal action over Phorm
Home Office 'colluded with Phorm'
Phorm: Does its stroppy campaign site signal the beginning of the end?
Phorm chief labels critics 'serial agitators'
What the Open Rights Group have to say about Phorm.

* reference will follow when I can find the thing, sorry!**

** Found it. De-anonymizing Social Networks. There's a news report about it at the BBC too.

Labels: disgruntled, news links, open rights group

I'm making a new animation about the UK government's frenzy to put every bit of information they can get their hands on in a database before leaving it scattered around the country, so it seems like a good point to clear out my bookmarks on this topic.

First up, can I just point out how irritated I am that just as we put together a spoof site (assuming that a site the government spent 70-odd grand on would be around for a while) the original site gets pulled. Apparently the community has now finished. Pfft!

So, now a few examples of why I don't trust them with my data...

UK gov't loses 4 million citizens' personal info
‘Fakeproof’ e-passport is cloned in minutes
Firm 'broke rules' over data loss
Personnel records stolen from MoD
Probe into data left in car park
Malicious gossip could cost you your job
The verdict is out on DNA profiles

However, despite all the data losses and incompetence apparently people 'can't wait for ID cards'*. Yes dear, of course. Let's hope that fingerprints aren't replied on too much, because it looks like Jacqui's are about to become public. Arf!

Finally, US elections and all that. Splendid. Have a dancing Obama to represent my cautious optimism.

* Update: I rather like the Daily Mash's take on this.

Labels: disgruntled, news links, NO2ID, open rights group

I discovered today that I'm the #1 Google hit for foolish and misguided plans. This pleases me, particularly as it's referring to my animation about Charles Clarke and his foolish and misguided plans rather than plans of my own devising.

I've been stumbling across a few reports related to this particular brand of Government IT related foolishness, so now seems a good time to clear those bookmarks out into a blog post.

You might remember* my moaning about the e-voting going on in the May elections - the Open Rights Group
produced an interesting report following their involvement in reviewing the process, and there's currently a Newsnight special about the particular cock-up involved in the Scottish elections. Not at all happy about what seems to have happened up here. Very poor show.

Given my current status as mum-to-be I've also been watching with concern at the government IT ID plans for kids. Senior social workers are warning of the dangers of the in-progress children's database, and the admission that "information about the children of celebrities and politicians is likely to be excluded from the system" fills me with particular fury. If it's not secure enough for them, it's not secure enough for me. I think it's time to contact some MPs and find out if they'll be asking for the details of their offspring to be excluded. I'm also in the rather odd position of hoping my kid ends up in a school without too many funds to fling about, as I really wouldn't be happy at the biometric information some schools are storing. School computer systems are not, I fear, secure enough to be using this kind of information. More about all this available at the ARCH blog.

Oh, and the DNA database our politicians and police are so proud of, they reckon it contains a good half a million errors. And 'they' aren't a campaigning group, or some numpty blogger having a whinge, it's the Government. Oh my.

And finally... spEak You're bRanes! A terrifying record of some BBC News 'Have Your Say' comments. I'm quite a fan of some of the terminally bewildered ones.

* although I suspect not, it's worrying enough that I remember my moans.

Labels: disgruntled, news links, open rights group

... but apparently a bishop in the church of England is claiming that our "moral degradation" is causing the current floods across the UK.

"One diocesan bishop has even claimed that laws that have undermined marriage, including the introduction of pro-gay legislation, have provoked God to act by sending the storms that have left thousands of people homeless."

Oh my.

Floods are judgement on society, say bishops.

In cheerier news they've discovered that there used to be giant tropical penguins roaming the planet. How ace is that? I wasn't sure about the illustration on the BBC article though, so I've made my own.

There's also a giant sized tropical desktop wallpaper version.

In unrelated news I've been getting some of my animation up at YouTube, a bit of an experiment to see how it goes, but it does give people an easy way to embed my pieces in their blogs. It will only be certain pieces that go up, but you can check them out if it's of interest.

Labels: disgruntled, flash animation, news links

... but I decided to focus on the one on his way out with my new animation, My Way (the Blair version).

I expect this is my last animation featuring Blair. As you can imagine I'm welling up.

The really disturbing thing for me at the moment is that I'm not sure what I want the result of the current elections to be and I suspect I'll be making the final call about who to vote for in the voting booth.

Possibly holding my head in my hands and sobbing quietly to myself.

This year our voting papers are rather reminiscent of the Life of Brian and the Judean People's Front / People's Front of Judea silliness. We have two socialist parties (bickering publicly in their leaflets), two Christian parties (one of which delivered a very offensive leaflet) and two nationalist parties.

On the plus side at least I can still vote the proper way and head over to a local polling booth and make my cross on a bit of paper. Very unsure about electronic voting, and the fact that everyone I know with knowledge about how such things work refuses to use them makes me think I have a point.

E-voting as secure as an insecure thing
Doubts raised over e-count system
Vote early, vote often
Government cancelled e-vote schemes amid security fears
Hacking the online ballot box

Some other news stories that have been of interest recently...
US war on terror is a war on tourists, too
No medals for UK Government over London Olympics security
Kid wrongly imprisoned for bomb threat - error due to Daylight Savings Time

And before I head away I realised I missed Blogging Against Disablism Day 2007 this year so time to pop over to the Goldfish and catch up.

Labels: disgruntled, flash animation, news links

There is an inclination to think that people who go on about the dangers of ID cards and biometrics and Big Brother and the value of privacy are, well, paranoid nutters. I know people find it odd that I'm so sceptical given my love of computers and t'internet. Here's a few links that might help to explain why...

How to clone a biometric passport while it's still in the bag

Pensioners receive secret details

Woman gets 75,000 bank statements

Go-ahead for Net voting as ministers ignore watchdog

The blatant incompetence of our government to reliably manage data makes me think the proposed website to 'shame' absent parents is an accident waiting to happen. Imagine being the person they incorrectly list.

I was amused by the attempt by McDonalds to redefine McJob. Fighting a losing battle I think, as is the person who attempted to launch a petition to "stop school for people who dnt want o go". Heh.

And finally, boo to Flickr for stopping my old account working. Boooo I say.

I don't use it much but liked being able to track photos of a couple of contacts and I've just discovered that in order to log in I now have to register with Yahoo. I don't have (and don't really want) a Yahoo account.

My annoyance at having to sign up for something I've been signed up to for years was topped off with a set of fabulously recursive links. The page where I'm instructed to sign in with Yahoo has a massive WHY? link. As a curious person I clicked on it and found links to help files and a place to 'speak up' if I had a comment about the change. Both took me back to the sign in page. Arf! It seems I'm too late to do anything other than comply. Well, that or leave the account to slowly whither away of course, pining for the old days of the net.......

Oh dear, I'm such a moaning minnie at times. Have a nice serene picture of a pretty sunset and birds to compensate.

* I have nothing to add to this statement really. It's just the most bizarre thing that's happened to me since my last post and I didn't have a title.

Labels: disgruntled, news links

Oh. They are. Unfortunately despite my best animated efforts and the fine songsmithing of Mr JonnyB it looks like the government is poised to close thousands of them. Bah! Bad government!

Save the Post Office, that's what I say! I don't care if nobody listens*.

JonnyB is currently up for the best UK blog at the weblog awards. As suspicious as I am of any award where they encourage you to vote every day I encourage you to vote for him here.

I'm off to scribble some pictures so have an 'and finally' link... a 1938 fire alarm that conveniently traps the person using it. Splendid.

* Not true, obviously.

Labels: disgruntled, flash animation, neat links, news links, post office

There is a current frenzy of activity around fingerprinting. School kids having to give prints to take a book out of the library or sign in, consumers having to give prints to hire a car, police carrying mobile devices to check prints remotely...

It's a shame they're so easy to fool isn't it?

Beau Bo D’Or provides his usual high standard of commentary on the issue. As an aside it's good to see Beau Bo D'Or's images being published by both the Guardian and Channel 4 in regular spots. Top notch.

So, fingerprinting frenzy. Police trying to target criminals before they're criminals. Evidence that the new secure passports are easily cracked. Reports from the information commissioner that we're adopting uncomfortably high levels of surveillance... surely it can't really be that bad. I mean, the people in authority who have access to this data won't abuse it will they? People given power must be responsible, level headed and able to keep things in perspective?

Bah. Sometimes I just want to run away to the hills and pretend the rest of the world doesn't exist. Then I remember that it's only a wee bit of the world that drives me crazy, and that I should stop being so overly dramatic.

The annual reports from the Privacy Commissioner of Canada are a fine example of someone talking sense on these issues, and contain a nice response to the "if you have nothing to hide you have nothing to fear" brigade.

The truth is that we all do have something to hide, not because it's criminal or even shameful, but simply because it's private. We carefully calibrate what we reveal about ourselves to others. Most of us are only willing to have a few things known about us by a stranger, more by an acquaintance, and the most by a very close friend or a romantic partner. The right not to be known against our will - indeed, the right to be anonymous except when we choose to identify ourselves - is at the very core of human dignity, autonomy and freedom.

Quite right.

There's some upbeat news on the release the music front too. A "well placed Government source" has told the BBC that the Gowers report won't be supporting an extension to the copyright term of musical recordings. Although, as the BPI kindly point out, the Government can ignore this report, and that of the Institute for Public Policy Research that came to the same conclusion, but frankly that would just be wrong. And silly.

Neil McCormack, a music journalist quoted in the BBC article commented

"You can make a record in 1955 and have been getting royalties .... Suddenly they're gone."

Suddenly!

So, someone records a song in 1955. The law states that they can receive income from it for 50 years before the recording enters the public domain. They get income from it for 50 years. Income stops after 50 years*. Apologies if this seems harsh but surely that's only "suddenly" a problem if they're an idiot?

Fran Nevrkla, chief executive of rights societies the PPL and the VPL, is quoted in a Guardian article as saying

"I sincerely hope this government ... will not duck this critical issue by conveniently hiding behind academics and other 'thinkers'"

Oh my! I love that. Pesky thinkers eh?

Thinkers are obviously trouble though. For example someone with an obvious tendency towards thought pointed out that Fran, in his role at the PPL** earned £487,000 last year, over 0.6% of all performance income in the UK. Not bad eh? The FT has a great column about the impact of the proposed extension; breaking the deal and on a related note Suw Charman of ORG has started an e-petition up at the number 10 petition site to request the right to private copy. Worth putting your name to if you want to be able to turn your music CDs into MP3s without breaking the law. I'm interested to see how the petition site goes, and pleased with the number of people signing up to scrap ID cards anyhow.

Oh dear. I've rambled on far too long. Have a look at this superb collection of souvenir photos while I disappear and stop reading articles about things that make me explode.

* As an aside, if they composed the song they retain those rights for life plus 70 years; the 50 years is for recordings.

** a music industry organisation collecting performance royalties in the UK

Labels: disgruntled, neat links, news links, NO2ID, open rights group

I wish I had some exciting story to connect the title, but I'm afraid it's 4 separate things.

1. Fish! Famous fish in fact, discussing the benefits of marine reserves in an animation we made for Greenpeace; it's Pulp Fishin!

2. Post offices! I was interested to see that a 4 million name petition has been handed in to Downing Street in a call to save rural post offices. The vigilant amongst you will be aware I have been involved in a related campaign with the fine Norfolk blogger JonnyB; I am wondering if I should send a DVD with our campaign offering as musical and bunny orientated backup to the petition.

Save our post offices!

As an aside I am pleased to see the BBC article contains a favoured proverb, "fine words butter no parsnips". It's not used enough these days.

3. Despotic Powers. I mentioned this briefly in my last post but, well, it's a big one. Interesting video up at Crooks and Liars on the day habeus corpous died. People should be shouting in the streets about this, but they probably don't want to as they can be locked up without trial at the whim of their president.

4. Russian hands! A recent email exchange led to the team at Russian FHM sending me photos of their hands and faces to make into, well, photos of faces on hands. They sent me a copy of the piece to show me how they used the creatures. While I'm waiting for a translation any suggestions for what they're saying?
Needless to say you can find more Russian handpeople on my site.

Labels: disgruntled, flash animation, news links, post office

Too busy to do anything at the moment, which makes no sense at all.

I get to a point where I have so much to do I don't know where to start, and I skirt round the edges doing lots but achieving nothing. Not good for my state of mind.

Anyhow, I was away and now I'm back. If I'm lucky my brain will catch up with me shortly.

To avoid this being a thoroughly self indulgent post about why I've not posted anything (good grief, I'm at the top of a terribly slippy slope here) have a few links of interest.

Rather depressing news from the states (via Miss Prism).

Outstandingly cheeky news from the UK, where the Government plans to exclude details of celebrities' children from a new national child database. They're confident about its security then? Heh.

A few new photos from my whistlestop tour of London. Not much time for photos as I was there for a work meeting but I managed to catch steely eyed stares given to me by the household cavalry, a pigeon and an enormous number of CCTV cameras. They're getting a bit intrusive aren't they? Unpleasant things.

And now I must away; back when I've stopped going round in circles.

Labels: blether, dance, disgruntled, news links, photos

It's time to share a few links again. First up, the Annoying Stuff
ID card fears as staff hack into Home Office database
Oz 'pseudo-ID card' database racked by identity fraud claims
It's not always good to share
UK biometric passports hacked
IBM researcher slams UK ID card scheme
Arabic T-shirt sparks airport row

The Good Stuff albeit with an annoying cause
Parliament protesters fight ban
Lots of write ups and photos from the protesters online; some good starting points at:-
Rachel from North London - nice summary of the protests
Mark Thomas
Bloggerheads
Interview with Mark Thomas and Brian Coleman in Parliament Square.
Splendid point from Mark Thomas about how Coleman, protesting about the protesters, is the only one there breaking the law as he hadn't got permission from the police.

As an aside I'm thoroughly bemused by his attack on the protestors as people who 'couldn't get enough votes to be an MP'. I had no idea that the only way you could express a political opinion was to be an MP. Silly me, thinking that MPs are there to represent our political opinions.

The 'and finally' headline
ICE arrests 15 aliens in Roswell working for U.S. military contractor

Edit: Blimey. Two posts in one day. That's a rarity, even when they're at either end as these are.

Labels: blether, disgruntled, news links, NO2ID

I am ridiculously busy at the moment but my bookmarks are overflowing so time for a little link dump.

I was touched by this thought provoking post at Stranger Than Fiction. Thanks to Dana Shalash for commenting on here, leading me to nose around her site.

Interesting article about how only traitors try to make us afraid of terrorists, particularly given the recent declaration from Reid that terror 'may force freedom curbs'.

And that was before the alleged terror plot of a couple of days ago.

A depressing addition to these pieces is this quote from Hermann Goering, at the time of the Nuremberg trials.

"People don’t want war [...] the people can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders. This is easy. All you have to do is tell them they are being attacked, and denounce the pacifists for lack of patriotism and for exposing the country to danger. It works the same in every country."

Hmm. Anyhow, onto lighter things at YouTube.

I don't use YouTube for my personal stuff as I prefer to keep control over it on my own web site, am not entirely happy with the terms of use and remain generally unsure about it all. That said, one of my animations is up there at the moment; Chained to My PC. Originally created for the TUC's WorkSmart site this new version was adapted for the Communications Workers of America.

Hopefully it will continue to go down well, although I see I'm accused of 'poor taste' and vulgarity. Heh. I can't get excited about a dog peeing I'm afraid. I did fume when I was informed that there was a company down the road with call centre staff unable to go to the loo without putting their hands up and asking a supervisor, which I feel is more important. Fortunately it seems a few folk agree.

While I'm at YouTube I did find this amusing; Python's Camelot interlude, by Kirk and crew. A very nice ludicrously silly mashup. Hooray.

There's the 95 theses of geek activism post over at science addiction that's a fine read. Good points well made, and some interesting links.

I was both amused and irritated at the news that a website for Mums has had to request all users avoid discussing Gina Ford, allegedly a childcare guru, after she attempted to get their entire site taken offline for people slagging her off in the forums, although the powers-that-be were removing the offending posts. I don't know if she understands kids (although from what I've read over the last week I don't think I'd have a great deal of time for her) but she certainly doesn't seem to understand the net. A ridiculous overreaction to a site that was doing so much that she requested. Thanks to John for the tip.

And finally my random Pants Pirate Message of the day, because it tickled me.

/link dump

Edit: The observant will notice that this claims to have been posted on Friday, but appeared on Monday. That'll be the 'chained to my desk' problem interfering with my blether, although being more accurate I was chained to a model of an alternate world and my camera. More fun than a desk at least.

Labels: blether, disgruntled, flash animation, flash toy, neat links, NO2ID

My software has an attitude problem.

I have just put together another silly video and decided to make a page for videos on my site. The quickest way for me to make the icons was to play the source video, grab a frame and make the icon from that. But I couldn't.

My software assumed that I didn't own the video I was playing. It accused me of stealing. I'm insulted.

On the plus side I now have animated icons on the page as I couldn't be as lazy as I intended.

On the down side my software is apparently allowed to defame my character and deny me the presumption of innocence* on the basis, I assume, that some people would screen grab something they shouldn't. If that's the case prosecute them, don't pester me and my penguins.

I mentioned them a couple of posts ago, but again, we really need ORG.

Anyhow, the video. If you've waded through my moaning you deserve it.
If you've skipped to the bold text have a gold star for initiative, I'm sure you deserve it too.

Penguins!
30 seconds of penguin joy (the sequel). 790KB Flash.

* I accept I could be seen as overstating the issue here. But it is what it was saying, deep down. They are wrong.

Labels: disgruntled, open rights group, penguin joy, video

I realise that this doesn't sound like a great achievement but it happens maybe twice a year and is such a pleasing sight. Ahhhh. Lovely.

Moving swiftly on from my rather pathetic indication of achievement it's time for some links as my bookmark folder needs emptying.

Following my whinge about banks and security the other day I was interested to see that Shell has suspended chip-and-pin payments after more than £1m was siphoned out of customers' accounts. So that's reassuring, particularly as "Shell's chip-and-pin solution is fully accredited and complies with all relevant industry standards."

There's been movement on the Guantanamo Bay issue as well, as the Supreme Court has ruled that "the military tribunals at Guantanamo violated both US military law and the Geneva Conventions." Well, quite. As an aside I rather liked this edit of George Bush singing 'Sunday, Bloody Sunday', if you've not seen it.

In other news, whilst I find non-disabled people parking in disabled spaces inconsiderate beyond belief I thought painting the disabled bay after the person had parked there a trifle unfair.

And finally, every now and then I have a trawl through the messages being sent through my Pants Messengers and I was embarrassed at how much this made me giggle. Shockingly bad joke. On a related note, if the person who keeps trying to link to a pr0n site through my pants squirrel is reading this - it doesn't work. Give it up. They don't parse HTML links, they're not about to start and they're not going to be shown on the random message page. Thank you.

Oh, the cute kitty above is available in desktop wallpaper size if you like.

Labels: blether, desktop wallpaper, disgruntled, flash toy, neat links, news links

I got annoyed in the bank today.

I was paying my credit card bill from my current account. Both accounts have the same name and address on them and I've handed my bank card over for the payment. Before making the payment the bank insisted I tell them my date of birth (which I did without protest or hesitation) then the details of the direct debits on my current account.

I said I'd rather not have to release any more of my so-called 'security information' in a public space. I offered to enter my PIN for them in the magic box*. But no. They insisted on the direct debit information.

I said I wasn't happy that this meant everyone in the room** would know both my birthday and direct debit details, and it was countered with "but it's only the company name they'll know, not the full details".

I pointed out that this was apparently enough information to withdraw money from my account without knowing my PIN and it went momentarily quiet followed by "I'm sorry, but I need the direct debit details to pay this bill". Grrrr. Pointless.***

I did tell them in the end. I needed to pay the bill. I requested that it be pointed out to whomever was responsible for the procedures that it really wasn't security. She duly wrote "Not happy" on a print out of my details. Pffft! I'm fairly sure that within 30 seconds of me leaving the words "Mad woman with a bee in her bonnet" were added after "Not happy".

In order to make this post more than simply a whinge about my bank can I point you in the direction of Chip and Spin, a site summarising the investigations into the Chip and PIN technology and pointing out, in a far more useful and informative way than I do, that banks aren't always right.

* I suspect this is not what it is formally known as, but you know what I mean... the keypad thing.
** Sorry people-in-the-queue, but it only took a minute longer than it would have anyway.
*** I acknowledge that my pointing out the issue was probably pointless as well. But apparently I was grumpy and particularly intolerant of stupidity today.

Labels: blether, disgruntled

Yesterday I had my head in my hands over the US response to the suicides at Guantanamo Bay and elendil at Bloggers Against Torture alerted me to Torture Awareness Month.

I've just had an email from a friend that has emphasised the importance of this. A few months ago DogHorse and I made an animation about the current UK policy of deporting people to countries where they know there is danger; my friend informs me that her Iraqi Kurdish pal is being returned tomorrow.

We need to stop our government deporting people to countries abusing human rights. We need to make sure that we are not abusing human rights, and that our associates aren't either. The disgrace of Guantanamo Bay can't be dismissed as an anomaly.

As my friend writes, "it is a sad time".

Labels: disgruntled, flash animation

Two silly things that please me

Spin DJ is a god (short film)

The Extreme Diet Coke & Mentos Experiments

Two serious things that anger me

US response to the Guantanamo suicides
"I believe this was not an act of desperation, but an act of warfare waged against us" (Rear Adm Harry Harris, Camp commander) and a "good PR move to draw attention" (Colleen Graffy, Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Public Diplomacy).

UK DNA database is shared overseas
So on top of containing information on 24,000 children never cautioned, charged or convicted of anything and having no real safeguards in place to protect against misuse, the misuse is international.

Labels: disgruntled, neat links, news links

1. I got an email from Amnesty about their new campaign, irrepressible.info. I like Amnesty and I don't mind them emailing me but they should be emailing me from their own domain, not from c-f-1.com (registered to leighton management limited, about whom I can find very little). If they email me a link they should include the proper URL, not a tracked link through c-f-1.com. If they insist on doing that they shouldn't try to hide it behind html, that's what phishing scams do and Amnesty should be better than that. Bah.

2. Whenever I upgrade Firefox* it reinstates all the default engines onto my toolbar and I don't want them. Now, I love Firefox, I just want an 'Edit engines' option below 'Add engines' because I'm lazy, picky and always forget where to go to delete them.

3. People using their blogs to whinge pointlessly about.... oh.... quite....

Right, some good things then.

1. I got my new passport today. No RFID. No entry into the catastrophe-waiting-to-happen National Database. A saving of £40 or so compared to waiting until it ran out and they didn't even penalise me for renewing nearly a year early, so the new one lasts until 2017. And it actually arrived, unlike over half a million others over the last couple of years. Splendid.

2. Something that has been a worry is getting better**.

3. I am going to spend a couple of days playing with pictures for the first time in around 3 weeks. This will be combined with drinking Pimms in the sunshine. Hooray!

* Ha. I've just updated to v1.5.0.4 and it didn't do it. I should definitely stop moaning.
**This is a much bigger thing than that sentence indicates.

Labels: disgruntled, NO2ID

Today is Blogging Against Disablism Day. I wasn't sure what I was going to write when I signed up, but a couple of things have popped into my head so.....

... a memory of what happens when you're the wrong kind of statistic. When I worked for a training organisation one of the services offered was advice on finding jobs. Someone turned up at the office one day and said "A friend suggested I come along here. She said you'd help me put a CV together and get some applications out".

Now, everyone who came to us for help was officially referred by other organisations; it was all tied up with how we were funded. I explained this to the woman at the door and asked if she could get referred by the job centre, as she was unemployed.

"Oh I tried that, but they won't help. It doesn't matter to them if I have a job or not".

If you've had dealings with the job centre this will, I'm sure, surprise you. They have targets to meet, boxes to tick. But the woman in question was registered blind, she was getting a disability benefit, and the job centre weren't expected to help her get a job. And because they weren't expected to get her a job, they wouldn't spend any of their time or money trying to help.

We provided the same help that we provided to hundreds of people each month, but it was all off-the-record and had to be hidden because no-one funding us got a benefit from it. That's just wrong. It wasn't malicious, but it was wrong.

Secondly, a wee observation that I thought I'd share, although I am slightly concerned that not everyone will approve. I think David Blunkett has made one really useful contribution to the world.

No, really.

He might think that civil liberties are 'airy fairy' but he has helped people to realise that people with disabilities are people first and foremost.

There was a time when I, as a slightly wishy washy liberal type, would feel a hint of concern that people would think I was being prejudiced if I called someone with a disability an idiot (let alone the wide and varied selection of rude words I've called Blunkett).

Not anymore.

If I insult Blunkett NO-ONE thinks it's because he has a visual impairment. It's because they know he's a ****.

In its own weird way I think this is a positive thing.

Labels: blether, disgruntled

Demonstrating their continuing hopelessness with IT systems the government has admitted that tax credits are still being overpaid. Over £2billion, the same as 2003-4. EDS have apparently agreed to refund £70m, but there are strings attached to part of that, relying on them gaining more Government projects. Well, that's alright then.

And people wonder why I worry about the potentially catastrophic ID cards system.

By the way, if you like the wallpaper on the screen in my wee animation you can download it here.

Labels: desktop wallpaper, disgruntled, news links