Weekly column
W/e 9th July 2005
W/e 9th July 2005
I see the cricket club is having a good whinge about how badly they have been treated by the Town Council.
The letter in the local press complains about how successful they are, how they let all and sundry use the club for various events for nothing, how the football team is doing well. Football team, what’s football to do with a cricket club?
I seem to remember that the very successful (both numbers and financially) ‘Coopers’ social club was decamped to the cricket club, but due to an ‘attitude’ problem, lost an awful lot of members - thus money.
Passing reference is made about their landlord, who no doubt, are doing everything they can to help, but I have a feeling in my water that a school bought that land some 7 or 8 years ago for their own use - but the cricket club had no-where else to go.
I mean, it would be great to have it for their own use so that the current playing fields could be used for something else - like housing.
On the national front, ‘Railtrack’ shareholders are taking the government to court as they believe they have evidence to show that the ‘liquidation’ was engineered by political motives. I could say, that most large businesses are actually trading fraudulently, but no-one does anything about it. The Channel Tunnel springs to mind and that would make life so much easier if it just closed and got filled in. The illegal immigrant problem would be so much easier if they had to swim over here.
Meanwhile, for those who are interested, I spotted this report on ‘the Register’ web site.
“The head of the UK’s passport agency has confirmed that a tightening up of passport standards, including the inclusion of biometric information, will not eliminate sophisticated fraud or terrorism.
Bernard Herdan, chief executive of the UK Passport Service, told the Financial Times that tighter passport standards “will make a huge difference” in combating organized crime and illegal immigration.
But, he said, "when you get into the domain of terrorism and really sophisticated fraud I'm not saying this will stop everything from ever happening... It is less evident that tougher passport standards are going to prevent terrorism.”
Herdan was pretty candid on forgers’ ability to circumvent new security measures, saying the agency would have to keep changing designs and would have to change its technology “more frequently than every ten years” as it races to keep ahead of forgers.
Herdan’s comments come as the US continues to stampede the rest of the world into including biometric information in their passports even as further flaws are revealed in America’s own passport strategy.
The International Herald Tribune reports that a Government Accountability Office investigation has revealed lax oversight by the State Department means determined criminals, illegal immigrants and potential terrorists are able to obtain US passports if they put their mind to it. Undesirables were able to secure US passports because applications were not routinely checked and the government was not cracking down on the supply of dodgy supporting documents the paper said.”
More July 2005 comment
The letter in the local press complains about how successful they are, how they let all and sundry use the club for various events for nothing, how the football team is doing well. Football team, what’s football to do with a cricket club?
I seem to remember that the very successful (both numbers and financially) ‘Coopers’ social club was decamped to the cricket club, but due to an ‘attitude’ problem, lost an awful lot of members -
Passing reference is made about their landlord, who no doubt, are doing everything they can to help, but I have a feeling in my water that a school bought that land some 7 or 8 years ago for their own use -
I mean, it would be great to have it for their own use so that the current playing fields could be used for something else -
On the national front, ‘Railtrack’ shareholders are taking the government to court as they believe they have evidence to show that the ‘liquidation’ was engineered by political motives. I could say, that most large businesses are actually trading fraudulently, but no-
Meanwhile, for those who are interested, I spotted this report on ‘the Register’ web site.
“The head of the UK’s passport agency has confirmed that a tightening up of passport standards, including the inclusion of biometric information, will not eliminate sophisticated fraud or terrorism.
Bernard Herdan, chief executive of the UK Passport Service, told the Financial Times that tighter passport standards “will make a huge difference” in combating organized crime and illegal immigration.
But, he said, "when you get into the domain of terrorism and really sophisticated fraud I'm not saying this will stop everything from ever happening... It is less evident that tougher passport standards are going to prevent terrorism.”
Herdan was pretty candid on forgers’ ability to circumvent new security measures, saying the agency would have to keep changing designs and would have to change its technology “more frequently than every ten years” as it races to keep ahead of forgers.
Herdan’s comments come as the US continues to stampede the rest of the world into including biometric information in their passports even as further flaws are revealed in America’s own passport strategy.
The International Herald Tribune reports that a Government Accountability Office investigation has revealed lax oversight by the State Department means determined criminals, illegal immigrants and potential terrorists are able to obtain US passports if they put their mind to it. Undesirables were able to secure US passports because applications were not routinely checked and the government was not cracking down on the supply of dodgy supporting documents the paper said.”
More July 2005 comment
