tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2215553202978284468.post7920100099289874782..comments2024-02-06T16:17:25.826+00:00Comments on THE GRØNMARK BLOG: We salute Jo Swinson, the childless government minister who feels she has the right to tell us what to say to our kidsScott Gronmarkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15118026157459333174noreply@blogger.comBlogger14125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2215553202978284468.post-86701173206778994912013-07-18T17:40:22.972+01:002013-07-18T17:40:22.972+01:00Jo Swinson, after a brief absence, back on our scr...Jo Swinson, after a brief absence, <a href="http://blogs.bis.gov.uk/midata/2013/06/27/56/" rel="nofollow">back on our screens</a>, now offering people the chance to empower themselves by signing up to <b><a href="http://www.dmossesq.com/2013/07/mirelationship-with-midata.html" rel="nofollow">midata</a></b>.<br /><br />What could possibly go wrong?<br /><br />According to Mydex, one of the key players, it could be <a href="https://twitter.com/MydexCIC/status/354584185970757632" rel="nofollow">fatal</a>.David Mosshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12345636878071983416noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2215553202978284468.post-71646840350595820532013-06-16T10:21:36.878+01:002013-06-16T10:21:36.878+01:00C.f. Euphobic? Then try chrematism
... Which bring...C.f. <a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2006/dec/31/politics.politicalcolumnists" rel="nofollow">Euphobic? Then try chrematism</a><br /><i>... Which brings me to my quote of 2006. One of Britain's leading experts on tax credits was asked why the government got into such a pickle in failing to claw back overpayments. 'Simple,' was the reply. 'New Labour didn't realise that the poor have no money.'</i>David Mosshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12345636878071983416noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2215553202978284468.post-17098775416856390782013-06-16T10:18:34.451+01:002013-06-16T10:18:34.451+01:00Is this the end of a rogue trader's dishonest ...<a href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/lifestyle/10122357/Is-this-the-end-of-a-rogue-traders-dishonest-days-work.html" rel="nofollow">Is this the end of a rogue trader's dishonest day’s work?</a><br /><i>6.30am: Hermione Smith, Domestic Superspy woke up. The first thing that caught her eye was her most treasured possession: a signed, framed photograph of her heroine, former business minister Jo Swinson. Thanks to her influence, Hermione’s life had been transformed ...<br /><br />“We had no idea that increasing the price of things made any difference,” a junior minister had explained ...</i>David Mosshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12345636878071983416noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2215553202978284468.post-26638158540686414152013-06-02T18:05:00.532+01:002013-06-02T18:05:00.532+01:00"I want to say thank you for Nelson Mandela f..."I want to say thank you for Nelson Mandela for existing."<br /><br />Almost lost my dinner when the former comedian (Izzard, not Mandela) uttered those emetic sentiments. <br /><br />In the old days, comedians who lost the ability to make people laugh used to take to the bottle or agree to do a series on ITV. Now they swim the Channel or run marathons for cherridy. I suppose it's an improvement. Just.Scott Gronmarkhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15118026157459333174noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2215553202978284468.post-6116958110440266402013-06-02T09:12:29.848+01:002013-06-02T09:12:29.848+01:00Shadow Public Health Minister. How to send the spi...Shadow Public Health Minister. How to send the spirits plummeting in four words. See also Eddie Izzard's Mandela Marathons.ex-KCSnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2215553202978284468.post-89799790866545053442013-05-31T15:24:53.581+01:002013-05-31T15:24:53.581+01:00D.C. Board of Elections and Ethics
Jo Swinson<a href="http://voices.washingtonpost.com/debonis/2010/10/hacker_infiltration_ends_dc_on.html" rel="nofollow">D.C. Board of Elections and Ethics</a><br /><br /><a href="https://twitter.com/joswinson/status/340472864258002944" rel="nofollow">Jo Swinson</a>David Mosshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12345636878071983416noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2215553202978284468.post-70322010313519548122013-05-30T20:43:25.325+01:002013-05-30T20:43:25.325+01:00With the passing of the Electoral Registration and...With the passing of the Electoral Registration and Administration Act 2013 (<a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/news/royal-assent-keeps-individual-electoral-registration-on-track-for-2014" rel="nofollow">ERA13</a>?), from the summer of 2014 onwards we shall all be able to manage our own registration details on-line, using secure links to a trusted third party in the cloud.<br /><br />What could possibly go wrong?<br /><br />This could, for a start. When the Washington DC Board of Elections and Ethics (a rum pair, to be sure) developed a new on-line voting system so that soldiers overseas could vote, they asked the University of Michigan to see if they could crack the security on the system. Which of course they did, causing voting machines to play the University of Michigan fight song (something to do with baseball) whenever a vote was submitted.<br /><br />A word in the right ear and perhaps you could get Mr Maude's (for it is he, again) registration app to play one of the Fulminators' raunchier ditties?David Mosshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12345636878071983416noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2215553202978284468.post-66568856974900731062013-05-30T20:16:13.070+01:002013-05-30T20:16:13.070+01:00DERA, the Defence Evaluation and Research Agency t...DERA, the Defence Evaluation and Research Agency that inspired Ian Fleming's Q, became QinetiQ some time back. They get big contracts in the UK obviously and in the US.<br /><br />The allegedly Chinese alleged hackers stole the designs of the F-22 and F-35 fighter jets from Lockheed Martin and the designs for the remote-controlled bomb disposal robot from QinetiQ.<br /><br />According to Tuesday's <a href="http://www.thetimes.co.uk/tto/news/world/americas/article3776684.ece" rel="nofollow"><i>Times</i></a>, they've also got the designs for the advanced Patriot missile (presumably from Raytheon), and the Black Hawk helicopter and the Littoral Combat ship.<br /><br />Also the "top-secret blueprints" for the Australian intelligence service's new building.<br /><br />While there is a certain amount of support for your assumption, see for example the playful verdict of one US defence contractor whose security systems were taken to pieces by Anonymous – "<a href="http://www.dmossesq.com/2013/05/when-it-comes-to-cyber-security-qinetiq.html" rel="nofollow">When it comes to cyber security QinetiQ couldn’t grab their ass with both hands</a>" – you should remember that the UK's cybersecurity budget of £650 million is in the safe and experienced not to say expert hands of Francis Maude at the Cabinet Office.<br /><br />Even now, in some QinetiQ bunker in Penge, I can see Mr Maude and Ms Swinson gingerly trying out the UK's prototype cybersecurity app, which repeatedly sends the message to the enemy "you are beautiful", "you are perfect", thereby undermining their confidence and causing the invasion to fail in a catastrophic nervous breakdown.David Mosshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12345636878071983416noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2215553202978284468.post-80016852116092024972013-05-30T17:08:53.829+01:002013-05-30T17:08:53.829+01:00Diane Abbott, who is - amazingly - the Shadow Publ...Diane Abbott, who is - amazingly - the Shadow Public Health Minister (!!!), gave a talk earlier this month about the "crisis of masculinity". She mentioned that more men commit suicide than women and are increasingly relying on Viagra. I'm not surprised, as I only have to hear Ms Abbott's voice and I feel a powerful urge to top myself. As for the connection between her frequent public appearances and the increasing reliance on Viagra - well, you get the point (or not).Scott Gronmarkhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15118026157459333174noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2215553202978284468.post-85385270286276170802013-05-30T16:59:15.391+01:002013-05-30T16:59:15.391+01:00Perhaps the government could massage the jobless s...Perhaps the government could massage the jobless statistics by employing proles to monitor our activities via those screens. <br /><br />I actually wrote a post three years ago suggesting the government place a social worker in every family's home (at that family's expense, of course) to let Mum and Dad (or Dad and Dad or Mum and Mum) know when they were making child-rearing errors or being politically incorrect. The Scots have now come up with a proposal to assign a social worker to every child born in their Socialist Republic, so my own modest proposal will probably be implemented within ten or twenty years.Scott Gronmarkhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15118026157459333174noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2215553202978284468.post-36855449871007825292013-05-30T16:53:26.389+01:002013-05-30T16:53:26.389+01:00Sorry, I know I'm behind the times.
Apropos ...Sorry, I know I'm behind the times. <br /><br />Apropos midata, I read an article the other day in Business Insider, entitled "Chinese hackers stole plans for dozens of critical US weapons systems" (here: http://www.businessinsider.com/china-hacked-us-military-weapons-systems-2013-5), which made me slightly dubious about the likelihood of all our personal data stored in a cloud remaining utterly safe from prying eyes (apart from those of the government, of course). I assume we won't have the same level in place as the most powerful military on the planet employs? Scott Gronmarkhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15118026157459333174noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2215553202978284468.post-30442589271799060422013-05-30T06:52:26.760+01:002013-05-30T06:52:26.760+01:00The most irritating female in current politics is ...The most irritating female in current politics is Maria Miller. Blandness made flesh. [Harriet Harman comes a close second]. The most revolting woman is, of course, the great glistening chocolate blancmange, Dian Abbot. Jo Swinney does not really matter because she will be gone and forgotten in 2015 when Yvette Cooper will be running riot. No doubt abley assisted by the glistening-eyed serial bum-hunter... [ That's enough. Ed. Thankyou].SDGnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2215553202978284468.post-1831211723194438472013-05-29T09:17:45.425+01:002013-05-29T09:17:45.425+01:00There should be a 'telescreen'in every roo...There should be a 'telescreen'in every room,but for families not for proles.Mr Charringtonnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2215553202978284468.post-12662367581946165962013-05-28T22:05:55.180+01:002013-05-28T22:05:55.180+01:00OMG.
Come on, Scott, even you can't be that o...OMG.<br /><br />Come on, Scott, even you can't be that old.<br /><br />I just have one word to say to you – "apps".<br /><br />That's what Jo's talking about. Apps. Parenting apps. Every sort of app.<br /><br />She's the minister in charge of <b>midata</b> and <a href="http://www.dmossesq.com/2012/11/midata-false-prospectus-every-time-you.html" rel="nofollow"><b>midata</b></a> is going to make all your decisions for you now, including whether to praise your son.<br /><br />It's all explained in <a href="http://www.dmossesq.com/2012/11/identity-providers-electronic-mary.html" rel="nofollow"><i>Identity providers – the electronic Mary Poppinses</i></a>. Not sure what to wear on holiday? Ask your app.<br /><br />You are an object now, in the <a href="http://www.dmossesq.com/2012/11/midata-nudging-you-into-interactive.html" rel="nofollow">quantified self space</a>, whether you know it or not.<br /><br />I suspect that Jo doesn't really believe she knows how to bring children up. The worry is, though, that she may believe that an app could know. <a href="http://conversation.which.co.uk/consumer-rights/midata-personal-data-jo-swinson-energy-bills-mobile-phone-tariff/" rel="nofollow">She may entertain that possibility</a>.David Mosshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12345636878071983416noreply@blogger.com