doris
Well-Known Member
I posted this on the last eborders thread but it will probably get lost there. I do feel we should all bang on our MPs on this, probably won't do any good but there is just a chance.....
As I struggled through the whole eborders thread I nicked a few bits and sent the following to my MP Greg Hands. Greg is a shadow Treasury minister and will be expecting a middle level goernment role should his lot win the election. I do feel that the more MPs get kicked about this the more they are likely to get nervous about staying with a scheme which can only pi$$ people off, cost money and achieve zip.
Hi Greg
The whole question of the implementation of the E Borders project lurches from plain incompetent planning to bizarre promotion. The forcing of this system onto leisure boating is alienating so many people who are, by nature and instinct, supporters of law and order that it will finish up as yet another huge and expensive government disaster.
The problem with finding computer solutions is that the efficiency of the solution is entirely dependant on the quality of the definition of the problem. If you don't understand the problem (& they clearly don't) then it is simply a case of "Garbage In = Garbage Out" - remember that ?
At the London Boat Show the UKBA have a stand. Sadly the staff seem to be shipped in simply to press the flesh as, in their own admission, they have little or no knowledge of the scheme.
Do you remember games in the Defence world called DERA and the F.I.S.T. (Future Infantry Soldier Technology) project? I remember a great TV expose 20 years ago (panorama) where a junior minister expounded confidently about how great this (then simulated) system would be for the soldier, integrating microwave TV, radio comms, gps, etc., into an integrated battlefield system. They also interviewed the chief designer, a slightly mad bloke who admitted he'd been inspired by the kit they had in the ALIENS movie, and wondered if they could do the same.... Not surprisngly, it couldn't and didn't work, and the project was scrapped
Now it seems that the entire Eborders thing is another example of the same, a theoretically wonderful (if you're a Security wonk) way of sieving out the nasty guys from the rest, and all sounds great and easy on paper. I think that Serco took the theory to a junior minister in need of a Headline project, and oversold their capacity to deliver whilst not actually having a clue about the real parameters of the "problem". Having seen some of this administration working from the inside, is it any wonder that this project is in the mess that it is?
Did you hear the chap on the radio the other morning? German, thick accent, saying something along the lines of 'The trouble with England is that they apply the letter of the law so firmly. In Germany and other places on the continent we are sensible about how we use the laws to guide us'
Last time I bought this up you stated the a conservative government supports this plan. If this is still the case, may I quote you? It is the subject of a great deal of comment in the boating fraternity, particularly as it appears that the implementation is about to be bought forward to next year. You can probably gather that I have yet to encounter any article or internet posting that expresses a view that this scheme will either work at all or even scratch the surface of the problem. Are you listening, as a Shadow Minister, or are you chaps going to repeat all the cock ups of the last 12 years.
Best regards
As I struggled through the whole eborders thread I nicked a few bits and sent the following to my MP Greg Hands. Greg is a shadow Treasury minister and will be expecting a middle level goernment role should his lot win the election. I do feel that the more MPs get kicked about this the more they are likely to get nervous about staying with a scheme which can only pi$$ people off, cost money and achieve zip.
Hi Greg
The whole question of the implementation of the E Borders project lurches from plain incompetent planning to bizarre promotion. The forcing of this system onto leisure boating is alienating so many people who are, by nature and instinct, supporters of law and order that it will finish up as yet another huge and expensive government disaster.
The problem with finding computer solutions is that the efficiency of the solution is entirely dependant on the quality of the definition of the problem. If you don't understand the problem (& they clearly don't) then it is simply a case of "Garbage In = Garbage Out" - remember that ?
At the London Boat Show the UKBA have a stand. Sadly the staff seem to be shipped in simply to press the flesh as, in their own admission, they have little or no knowledge of the scheme.
Do you remember games in the Defence world called DERA and the F.I.S.T. (Future Infantry Soldier Technology) project? I remember a great TV expose 20 years ago (panorama) where a junior minister expounded confidently about how great this (then simulated) system would be for the soldier, integrating microwave TV, radio comms, gps, etc., into an integrated battlefield system. They also interviewed the chief designer, a slightly mad bloke who admitted he'd been inspired by the kit they had in the ALIENS movie, and wondered if they could do the same.... Not surprisngly, it couldn't and didn't work, and the project was scrapped
Now it seems that the entire Eborders thing is another example of the same, a theoretically wonderful (if you're a Security wonk) way of sieving out the nasty guys from the rest, and all sounds great and easy on paper. I think that Serco took the theory to a junior minister in need of a Headline project, and oversold their capacity to deliver whilst not actually having a clue about the real parameters of the "problem". Having seen some of this administration working from the inside, is it any wonder that this project is in the mess that it is?
Did you hear the chap on the radio the other morning? German, thick accent, saying something along the lines of 'The trouble with England is that they apply the letter of the law so firmly. In Germany and other places on the continent we are sensible about how we use the laws to guide us'
Last time I bought this up you stated the a conservative government supports this plan. If this is still the case, may I quote you? It is the subject of a great deal of comment in the boating fraternity, particularly as it appears that the implementation is about to be bought forward to next year. You can probably gather that I have yet to encounter any article or internet posting that expresses a view that this scheme will either work at all or even scratch the surface of the problem. Are you listening, as a Shadow Minister, or are you chaps going to repeat all the cock ups of the last 12 years.
Best regards
