Mat Bowles - Hazel Blears is shit and should resign (for real this time)

Hazel Blears is shit and should resign (for real this time)

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Hazel Blears is shit and should resign (for real this time)

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17th Jun, 2008 at 4:21 PM

Everyone's favourite insubstantial careerist appears to have made a bit of a cock up:

A personal computer holding sensitive documents relating to defence and extremism has been stolen from Hazel Blears' constituency office in Salford.

The theft may mean the communities secretary has broken rules on the handling of restricted government information, the BBC has learned.

On the one hand, crime, break in, naughty theives, get 'em. On the other, what was she doing leaving a laptop full of confidential data in her constituency office? Oh, wait, smug, complacent, convinced of her own rightness Blears. It didn't occur to her the rules her Govt itself created were there for a fucking reason.

ETA: Oh, what a surprise—it wasn't her fault,t hey were emailed to her by a flunky, and her chief bean counter has taken full responsibility:

Thankfully no damage has been done since the documents sent to her were not classified as secret or top secret. And in any event the computer was password protected ... I take full responsibility for ensuring this is done.

Completely ignored as an issue at PMQs as well FFS.

Via and also.

( Discuss )

doccy wrote:

17th Jun, 2008 15:26 (UTC)

...and does anyone honestly expect her to get called up on it?

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miss_s_b wrote:

17th Jun, 2008 16:43 (UTC)

Not I. I expect her to get away with it scott free. But I'm cynical.

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doccy wrote:

17th Jun, 2008 17:15 (UTC)

Cynicism FTW... Also, phrases like "The government is to review guidance on the storage of restricted information", as opposed to "The government is to restrict Hazel Blears' access to information" does kinda imply that they're using an "Oops, we didn't stress how important it was to keep this information safe" approach.

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miss_s_b wrote:

17th Jun, 2008 17:19 (UTC)

Hazel Blears should just be banned from doing anything more complicated than wiping her own arse. Live by authoritarianism, die by authoritarianism, that's what I say.

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doccy wrote:

17th Jun, 2008 19:20 (UTC)

Oh hush, rules are for other, lesser people. Hazel Blears makes the rules, so therefore logically she can't break the rules.

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miss_s_b wrote:

17th Jun, 2008 19:25 (UTC)

Hazel Blears = Chuck Norris.

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doccy wrote:

17th Jun, 2008 19:51 (UTC)

Hazel Blears once brought a dying lamb back to life by nuzzling it with her beard??

*boggles*

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matgb wrote:

18th Jun, 2008 15:42 (UTC)

Her chief civil service flunky has taken full responsibility (see the edit, the Beeb has updated their story).

So yup, looks like she's off scot free again. Gah!

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doccy wrote:

18th Jun, 2008 21:29 (UTC)

Well, most top government bods are pretty immune (at least until they're not in power, or unless they do something huge and there -has- to be a high-profile scapegoat). Unless I'm confused about the whole thing? They vote for their own pay raises after all, and they've previously voted as to whether the FOI Act even affects them... I half-expect to find out that the official documents say something like "Hazel Blears has tagged her flunky - they are now It. She has also completed the short 'No Returns' form, and she is now Safe. Fortunately, the information was not too important, so with any luck they accused will not have to be O-U-T out."

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mooism wrote:

17th Jun, 2008 15:54 (UTC)

Yes, she should. I hope MPs give Gordon both barrels at PMQs tomorrow.

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matgb wrote:

18th Jun, 2008 15:42 (UTC)

Completely ignored. Not even mentioned. Apparently (although I didn't watch) he came off better than he has for ages :-(

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hano wrote:

17th Jun, 2008 17:13 (UTC)

She's a complete waste of space like most of the Govt front bench atm. 42 days has served merely to alienate thousands of old school labour voters, who, although they're not gonna necessarily vote Tory, won't be coming back to the party any time soon.
Quite where this puts you Lib dems I don't know, you'll pick up a few certainly.

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matgb wrote:

18th Jun, 2008 15:44 (UTC)

The thing is, in a lot of areas the Labour vote has already deserted to either the LDs, the Tories or the BNP. Where we are in Calderdale it used to be Labour/Tory, it's now LibDem/Tory, with the BNP, Labour and the English Democrats competing for last place.

How that'll translate at the next GE is anyone's guess. Fun to watch though.

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anisiriusmagus wrote:

17th Jun, 2008 17:52 (UTC)

Oh, this is great! How many more times is some politician or other going to cause sensitive confidential data to "go missing" or end up where it isn't safe? Is it SO difficult? I'm with

miss_s_b Hazel Blears is going to get off scott free.

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matgb wrote:

18th Jun, 2008 15:46 (UTC)

It's the mentality of the current incumbents—they like technology as it allows for bureaucratic centralism, but they don't understand it at all—Blair apparently never used a computer.

Blears has got away with it, it wasn't her fault...

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rhythmaning wrote:

17th Jun, 2008 18:22 (UTC)

I bet she doesn't resign. She'll fire the civil servant who handed her the computer.

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matgb wrote:

18th Jun, 2008 15:47 (UTC)

Neither—some junior flunky has been told off and the senior civil servant has said it's all his fault, bad training, etc.

FFS.

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hashbangperl wrote:

17th Jun, 2008 18:35 (UTC)

FFS

It's not that hard to secure confidential information, even on a laptop - encrypt the files - use those handy dandy laptop to floor/desk locks, or lock it in a safe.

All or any of those things would have avoided most of the problem.. *sigh*

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matgb wrote:

18th Jun, 2008 15:48 (UTC)

Re: FFS

Or better, run anything really important over a secure VPN and have it all stored somewhere properly secure. I dislike having anything confidential on this laptop, even though it never leaves the house.

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hashbangperl wrote:

18th Jun, 2008 16:08 (UTC)

Re: FFS

Well yes, that would be optimal, but this is a labour cabinet minister, and as we know, senior civil servant, ministers etc can't be expected to deal with trifling stuff like that when they can have confidential information printed out or saved to their windows desktop ;)

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paulgregory wrote:

18th Jun, 2008 13:24 (UTC)

Due to boundary changes, I'm in her constituency from the next election. (Although as it stands she never corrects people who think she's the MP for the whole of Salford rather than just a third of it). I guess I'd better start saving up towards a donation to the Lib Dem campaign now - although at least there's plenty of material for the leaflets.

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matgb wrote:

18th Jun, 2008 15:52 (UTC)

I'm in her constituency from the next election.

Oh, interesting times. Unfortunately I'd put her way into safe territory even with a landslide:
http://ukpollingreport.co.uk/guide/seat-profiles/salfordandeccles

Even I wouldn't call that one as a possible gain. Worth reducing it as much as possible though.

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( Discuss )

I'm Mat Bowles, a Devonshire lad displaced to Yorkshire. I'm an analyst specialising in politics and make a living from IT marketing, please don't hold that against me.

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September 2008