Friday 25 January 2008

Peter Hain Resigns Pending Police Enquiry

Peter HainThe UK Prime Minister, Gordon Brown, said it was the right and proper thing to do.

Who do these people think they are and just how many times do they think they should get away with their rule breaking.

The right time to go was when he found out about the lapses. If he went at that time, then we could be satisfied that the man had integrity. However when he hangs on as long as possible to see if he is going to get away with these breaches, then it begins to appear sleazy.

The British public deserves better and should demand better. It is right that the Electoral Commission have passed the matter to the police for a criminal investigation. It is an extremely serious offence as it directly affects the governing and democracy of our country.

If a burglar gets caught breaking and entering does he get let off simply because he was incompetent? “I am sorry your honour, but my friend who was in charge of disabling the burglar alarm did not notice that extra circuit”. Should you reasonably expect such an excuse to stand up in court? If you think not then you will probably agree that our politicians should not get away with similar excuses.

Monday 21 January 2008

Labour MP Ronnie Campbell in a bind over National Fetish day


Honestly, some of our MPs need to get out more. The former miner and Labour MP for Blyth Valley, was approached and asked to wear something purple to support national fetish day. He said he would wear a purple shirt.

Unfortunately for Ronnie, he did not really know what a fetish was.

Now I am sure that there must be a few honourable members who could enlighten him, maybe someone from the Tory benches could come to his aid.

Sunday 20 January 2008

MoD latest Government Department to commit “an incompetence”

The department charged with providing the security for our country is the latest to commit (what the government euphemistically calls) an incompetence.

Des Brown’s wooden tops in the Ministry of Defence (MoD) have lost a laptop containing the personal details of over 600,000 people. The data included National Insurance Numbers, Passport Details and banking information.

The information commissioner, Richard Thomas said “We will require satisfactory answers from the Mod about their data protection practices and a firm assurance that steps will be taken to improve these practices before deciding on the appropriate action to take.”

Good luck to you Richard. This is the same department who send our soldiers into battle without ammunition and without the necessary protection to save their lives. The same department who think our shores can be guarded by ancient flying death traps (Nimrods), and the same department who have never given a satisfactory answer to anyone in their entire history.

Saturday 19 January 2008

Gordon Brown says Peter Hain guilty of “an incompetence”

The Prime Minister said that Mr Hain had made a mistake which he had readily admitted to.

There are several issues here which give rise to more than a little concern:

1. Mr. Hain, if admittedly incompetent, how can we trust him to competently run a Government department?

2. Why do we bother having these rules and these expensive enquiries when there appears to be no consequences when the rules are broken?

3. Spending over £100,000 on the deputy leadership campaign and coming in fifth does appear to be more than just a little incompetent.

The Prime Minister has said that he has full confidence in this “incompetent minister”, after all his department, the department of work and pension has not lost any data. Indeed their data records have been found …twice…

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/devon/7197048.stm

Documents from the department of Work and Pensions (Yes, Peter Hain’s Department) containing sensitive personal data, including details of benefit claims, passport photocopies, and mortgage payments were found dumped on a roundabout in Devon. This is the second time in the last three months that this has occurred.

No one at Downing Street has admitted, what everyone is thinking. As well as having no more money to spend on new jails, the government has also run out of financing for storage space. Therefore a new policy of dumping unwanted data and storage materials has been initiated by the former chancellor.

Friday 18 January 2008

NHS Patient Medical records lost in Stockport, England UK

Again we are told of the events that happened in the past rather than immediate notification of more civil and public servant incompetence.

The Stockport Primary Care Trust (PCT) lost a memory stick containing patient medical details, which includes patient names, dates of birth, NHS Numbers, and GP details.

The data has been missing since December.

According to those responsible for the loss, the information cannot be used by identity fraudsters. Yea Right! We trust these morons to be the experts on what is possible and what is not. And you will like this, also according to those responsible for losing the data in question, “The loss was an accident rather than any systemic failing in management”. Yea Right Again!

Oh! And just in case you may be willing to give them the benefit of the doubt, maybe just a one off incident. No, sorry. The Stockport PCT also had to admit that they lost diaries containing patient’s names and addresses, apparently stolen from staff cars, in two separate incidents last June.

Government Incompetence, public servant incompetence, should we trust these people with anything? There is a danger that this site is becoming a Public Data Lost and Found blog. Unfortunately, we do not find too many stories about data being found. Gordon Brown, who is also head of the British Civil Service, must love this.

Sunday 6 January 2008

Woman, 84, discharged in nightie



As you will no by now, we are completely unsympathetic to the excuses made by public servants when they do something dumb, thoughtless and uncaring. So when some unthinking moron discharges and elderly lady from hospital at 3am then we must speak out in the name of common sense and decency.

In fact, we think that the only way to remedy these situations is for the person making these descisions to take responsibility and suffer the consequences.

So whoever made this diabolical descision at Herfeford hospital should suffer the consequences. They are definitely not able to make descisions that affect people's lives.

Do you want this person to be making descisions affecting the care and health of your loved ones? Of course you don't.

The person or persons are not fit for the post and should be removed immediately before anyone dies.

Thursday 3 January 2008

Stomach bug sweeping the country (UK)



Wash your hands!

I was lucky enough to be on the Ocean Villager 2 cruise ship this summer, and I was very impressed by their safeguards to prevent an outbreak of the NoroVirus.

At each entrance to any dining hall there was a member of staff who stood in your way with a hand wash gel for you to wash your hands before entering the dining hall.

The gel itself was a much better solution than I have seen in any of our hospitals. I think hospital managers could look at what the Ocean Villager did and use this to ensure that all hospital STAFF and VISITORS wahsed their hands BEFORE entering the hospital.

This should be supplemented by washing the hands of all patients and staff before each meal. Simply carry the gel around with the meal tray.