Last week, The Register published my review of e-Borders, a government IT scheme that deserves more attention than it gets. Presumably politicians’ wish to sound tough on immigration stands in the way, but the UK’s system for tracking international journeys has big problems that it is hard to see anyone solving. Continue reading “e-Borders: still over here, still a mess – article for The Register”
Category: ID cards
The secret of getting a self-published book into independent bookshops
My ID cards book Card declined is now available in four more bookshops: Politicos, the online political bookshop, and (appropriately for Independent Booksellers Week) three more independent bookshops in the Cotswolds – The Borzoi Bookshop in Stow, Evenlode Books in Charlbury and Madhatter Bookshop in Burford. Although still available from Amazon in print and Kindle, if you are anywhere near any of the physical bookshops – also including Jaffe & Neale in Chipping Norton and the National Museum of Computing in Bletchley – please buy from them, or Politicos. The NHS isn’t funded by taxes paid in Luxembourg… Continue reading “The secret of getting a self-published book into independent bookshops”
Card declined on sale in Jaffe & Neale bookshop in Chipping Norton
I am very happy to say that my ID cards book Card declined is going on sale at Jaffe & Neale, Chipping Norton’s leading bookshop, tea room, ticket seller and general place to be seen. (It tweets too, as previously noted.)
To suit bookshops, I have produced a new ‘US trade’ format paperback priced at £5.99 rather than the near-A4 version previously on sale. This also includes two articles I have written since first publication in March, on the civil service and ID cards for Guardian Public Leaders and ‘The decline of the great British government IT scandal’ post which appeared on Campaign4Change. Continue reading “Card declined on sale in Jaffe & Neale bookshop in Chipping Norton”
The decline of the great British government IT scandal
Whatever happened to the great British government IT scandal?
In the 2000s, such events kept many journalists gainfully employed. Careers were built around the likes of the NHS National Programme for IT and identity cards. But their numbers have fallen away – both the scandals and the journalists – as this government’s programme of austerity reaches even this area of spending.
In seriousness, despite the fact that there are fewer juicy stories, the apparent decline in the number of government IT scandals is clearly a good thing for Britain. But why has it come about; and is it real, or are there problems below the surface? Continue reading “The decline of the great British government IT scandal”
Remembering ID cards on election day with The Register
The Register covered ID cards as thoroughly as anyone over the years – partly through running stories from Guardian Government Computing (and sometimes we just tipped them off), as well as dozens of its own articles.
I’m proud to say it is serialising my book on the subject, Card declined, to mark three years since the election which brought the scheme to an end. (You can tell it’s election day today – the BBC is leading on interest-only mortgages. Election day is a great day to get attention for non-political news, given politicians are off the airwaves until 10pm.) Continue reading “Remembering ID cards on election day with The Register”