| |
19 January, 2008
I FEEL sorry for folk like Ross Smith who glibly accept - nay,
eagerly await - all the rules, regulations, enhanced security
measures, greater ID requirements and photos, in the belief that it
makes them safer when travelling, buying over the internet, applying
for a driving licence/passport or all the other transactions in
life.
It is not only dangerous but irresponsible as well, to believe that
the more complicated the system gets, the more (so called) secure
systems become, the more information kept on file/database etc, the
safer things are. I can only assume Ross doesn't read or watch the
news because in recent months alone there have been several very
high profile cases of lost (so called) secure personal data by
banks, private companies and government agencies resulting in
potentially very serious circumstances for the millions of folk
involved.
On a daily basis hundreds of folk have their identities stolen or
duplicated and their finances raided, bank and credit card accounts
fraudulently accessed etc.
If Ross thinks a photo along with more personal information on a
computer somewhere gives him more safety or security then that's his
choice, but I don't trust any of it and the evidence supports my
stance on this as we have more identity theft and financial fraud
now than ever, despite more security, information and photographs.
As to the P&O thing, I might hark back to the past but the lessons
of life teach us that progress for progress' sake is utter folly,
doesn't often give greatly improved benefits and only guarantees the
need sometimes to reinvent the wheel or to seek a consultant to take
it all to bits and start again, which is usually a complete waste of
time and money. The P&O set up wasn't broken and didn't need
fixing.It just needed some financial help to build new ships just
like NorthLink got. P&O knew what they were doing and had a good
track record, so we got NorthLink who could do it all cheaper and
better, but look how the Scottish Government had to bail them out
with millions of pounds because they got their sums ridiculously
wrong.
As to drink driving, I put my hand up to being guilty of this. I was
a first offender after a serious emotional situation, it was
inexcusable and I am ashamed of myself. So I certainly do not
advocate drink driving and the
suggestion that shops should be broken into because they are closed
is just plain silly. Does Ross think that photo ID cards would stop
drink drivers, shop lifters and all other troublesome people? Oh!
And how would a photo stop freeloaders coming to Shetland for an
easy life when we live in the EU with free right to work and travel
anywhere in the EU? Does a freeloader have a certain facial type
easily recognised in an ID photo? How would a photo ID card stop
folk with pockets full of drugs?
Wake up Ross. Your police state with photo ID cards would not make
things safer at all. It never has and it never will.
Vic Thomas
Hoswick
Shetland
vic.thomas@btopenworld.com
|
|
|
|
