Im really not that keen on the sharing all my sons details, considering how bad they are at keeping ANY data safe, it worries my ever so slightly

...that any ol' bugger can print it and chuck it on a dump?

"Where's the IT angle", because it's our government and they know feck-all about IT.

When they're all finally posted to Wikileaks, some guy's Blog, or mailed to a member of the general public in two "password protected" DVDs, maybe we'll finally stop whinging about the Government's problems with data security on internet forums and ACTUALLY GO OUTSIDE AND STAND BEFORE PARLIAMENT, AND MAKE THE PUBLIC'S VOICE HEARD.

I'd go down there myself, but hey, there's a new episode of Mock the Week on iPlayer, and of course there's plenty of Dragon's Den...

Sorry, Ash, it's too late to stand outside parliament. It is already illegal to stand outside parliament. Now when did THAT happen? I really must... oooh, Paris...

"ACTUALLY GO OUTSIDE AND STAND BEFORE PARLIAMENT"

I don't think that you are allowed to do that anymore. Zanu NuLabour decided that the threat of terrorism was so great that they banned public demos outside the mother of all parliaments.

There is one lone man there still protesting against the invasion of Iraq; they've tried to stop him, but because he started his protest before the new law came in being, he is still allowed to protest - although the Mets finest have now successfuly restricted the amount of space that he can take up.

'You don't know what you've got 'til it's gone...'

called the Child's Unique Name Tagging System

Unfortunatly you are no longer allower to stand before parliament. The Serious Organised Crime and Police Act bans demonstrations within a half-mile radius of Parliament without police permission.

Actually, the Mother of Parliaments is England.

Who the father is we have to leave to ContactPoint to find out.

... could be banned long before the Serious Organised Crime and Police Act was enacted. It's sad that so many people are prepared to make such misleading comments without even a cursory examination of the facts. Sessional Orders have been used for nearly three centuries to keep the streets clear for MPs on days when the House was sitting, by a Sessional Order that read as follows:

“Ordered, That the Commissioner of the Police of the Metropolis do take care that during the Session of Parliament the passages through the streets leading to this House be kept free and open and that no obstruction be permitted to hinder the passage of Members to and from this House, and that no disorder be allowed in Westminster Hall, or in the passages leading to this House, during the Sitting of Parliament, and that there be no annoyance therein or thereabouts; and that the Serjeant at Arms attending this House do communicate this Order to the Commissioner aforesaid.“

So they have run afoul of the labyrinthian assorted privacy child protection data control and strict access privacy control laws that abound in the land of nod , I see !

Oh well , we were truly warned about this idiocracy of self appointed bureaucrats propensity to be both stupid , incompetent and totally dumb at the same time way back in 1969 , if truth be told(thank you Lawrence) .

Some people never learn .

Of the PEBCAK variety, perchance?

Much as I agree with banning protest outside Westminster being A Bad Thing (and if you get an opportunity to listen to Mark Thomas' record-breaking protest, take it), it's worth pointing out that those sections of SOCPA are on the way out, and aren't even being prosecuted any more: http://publish.indymedia.org.uk/en/2008/07/404526.html

Does this stop you joining an already existing protest. If not I'm for joining that bloke protesting the Iraqi war.

I actually know about about this area- having worked in Local Government and dealt with Social Workers. I can confidently predict that this is all for naught, as the problem was never a technology one.

A large chunk of social workers are, of course, loverly folks who are committed to their jobs, dilligently record notes, and work with other agencies on a regular basis.

An equally large chunk are arrogant, slapdash and utterly unable to objectively assess problems and come up with solutions to them. This chunk fears and loathes any other agency wirking with a child or young person, as they see themseves as possessor and purveyor of all knowledge. Many of them make the Dell support call centre staff look like lateral thinking genius', such is their slavish following of process, irrespective of whether it makes sense, is of benefit to the child, etc.

The majority of social workers are also IT illiterate.

Am I allowed to posit that an IT system isn't a great way of addressing what is fundamentally a people problem?

Paris: because she does it for the kids too.

"Sessional Orders have been used for nearly three centuries to keep the streets clear for MPs on days when the House was sitting, by a Sessional Order that read as follows:"

No, you're trying to mislead. You were not allowed to *surround* Parliament so the MPs could get in. You were always allowed to protest. One is protesting, the other is surround it (i.e. laying siege to the place).

The new Blair law made it a crime to protest without permission outside of parliament, regardless of whether you were preventing MPs getting to parliament or not.

Well what would they do if the 2 million people who marched against the Iraq war had decided to turn up and block the houses?

Hell, with that many, they could wander in, pick up any drunken sot who's sitting in there and heave them out. Madam Speaker be damned.

It is getting close to that stage, I feel.

I wonder if the database is being delayed so that it can be properly equipped with worms, trojans, etc. and well hacked into or for when so much data is lost that it becomes unnecessary as its all 'in the public domain' anyway.

I hear you. Lets hear some more.

What for example is the recruitment policy that allows the latter chunk to infest social services and run amok? Would it be high level poltical patronage from the likes of Blears and her cronies for example? Does the job interview include the question "What paves the road to hell?".

About 150 of us tried it during the first march after the Iraqi war started.

We where met at Westminster bridge by a phalanx of police dressed in riot gear and brandishing what appeared to be some sort of semi automatic sub machine gun.