diaTribe » legislation

Rant: Indefensible

Phil — Sun, 20 Jul 2008 19:45:32 +0000

You know it’s funny…every time I think that Sir Humprey’s snivil servants and the Whitehall worms can’t possibly screw up anything else, I read another story which illustrates even more monumental failings.

The recent reluctant admission by the Ministry of Defense, that more than 100 USB memory sticks, some containing secret information, have been lost or stolen from the Ministry of Defense since 2004, is a new low in data protection balls-ups.

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Rant: Planning Palarva

Phil — Thu, 26 Jun 2008 16:38:00 +0000

Last night the Government hammered home the final nails in the coffin of the Planning application process, to ensure that the public no longer had any grounds for objection.

And in their usual chicken-shit style, they have also fobbed off responsibility for the unpopular decisions to an unelected quango, in a vain attempt to shield themselves from a voter backlash next election.

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Farewell Liberty – It was nice knowing you

Phil — Thu, 12 Jun 2008 13:54:00 +0000

No real surprise that last night the government managed to push it’s new anti-terror legislation through Parliament, albeit with the narrowest of margins.

Despite the fact that this bill is likely to be killed before it reaches the statute books (either in the house of Lords unless the government invokes the parliament act, or in the EU human rights commission, which the government can’t influence too much), I can’t help but wonder what the hell the Whitehall worms are thinking.

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Rant: Terrorism Power Abuses – Off and Running

Phil — Fri, 11 Apr 2008 15:03:00 +0000

News this week that Poole council has used legislation designed to combat terrorism, to spy on a family suspected of trying to cheat the school catchment system is the first publicly reported abuse of the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act (RIPA), but I’m sure it won’t be the last…

Civil rights groups such as Liberty (rightly it now appears) have expressed concerns about these powers since the tabloid-led knee-jerk reaction policy frenzy, which followed 9/11 and 7/7 which created acts such as RIPA. They argued that existing anti-terrorist legislation already in place in the UK since the early 1970′s to combat terrorist attacks by IRA cells were still relevant enough to be used to deal with the new threat of Islamic extremism. There was therefore no need to introduce further legislation.

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Victory for Small Businesses Everywhere

Phil — Wed, 25 Jul 2007 10:21:00 +0000

Today’s decision by the House of Lords in the case of the Inland Revenue vs Arctic Systems is a victory for little family run businesses all over the UK.

Both the IR35 and S660 legislation, introduced in late 1990′s have made the process of running a small business far more complicated indeed.

IR35 was supposedly designed to stop permanent staff disguising their working relationship behind the facade of a limited company, in order to avoid paying PAYE and National Insurance.

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