uk general election
Dear Debs
I'm hoping to stand in the uk general election, although I've left it a
bit late and it might all fall through.
Obviously, standing as an Independent I would have little chance of
winning. I need policies, preferably stuff that nobody else is saying,
but will strike people as making sense, and I need to believe in them.
One thing that matters to me is the state of the internet - spam,
cracking, organised crime and the like. Another is the way we allocate
contracts for large computer projects here. Let me tell you about one
such.
The Child Support Agency was set up a while back to deal with absentee
fathers. In theory, it collects money from them and gives it to the
mother and child. In practice, this agency has added to the distress of
single mothers by coming up with apparently randomly-generated support
plans, some of which are way wide of the mark. Even when the money is
taken from the father, it sometimes seems to end up in limbo, rather
than getting to the mother. I believe this agency has cost something
like five hundred million pounds to set up (I heard this figure quoted,
but have not had time to check its accuracy yet), most of this on
computer systems that are still ineffective. Apparently staff began
entering wrong information just to get claims processed. Some files were
deleted erroneously.
This is just one of a string of failures in computer system provision in
the uk. The free market approach is a failure here. I believe we should
have an Agency for Computer System Provision, or some such thing, paid
by the taxpayer. A smallish group of highly-skilled and well-paid
programmers without businessmen creaming off much of the cash.
So, what is the experience in other countries, please? Is this something
that is a problem everywhere? Do other countries contract out on
computer systems, or employ staff directly to implement them? What is
working, and what isn't?
On the internet side, what can I get away with saying about Microsoft?
What should they be told to do, and how can we make them do it? How far
away are we from Linux systems for the less computer-literate user?
I know there are often threads on this sort of stuff here, but they tend
to focus on how the individual should respond. Can countries do more in
this area?
I'm sorry if anybody thinks I shouldn't be bringing this here, but I
need help and expect some will be interested enough to comment. And I'm
a few days behind in reading my emails because of my sudden decision to
try to stand, so if there are relevent current threads on any of this,
please be gentle with me.
Cheers
Geoff Thurman
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