Posts by Big Softie

Re: MPs on a jury duty style system

Nailed...

Re: The Apple car

Not to mention the bespoke charging cable...

Re: Safety

Don't start on the fish puns...they're never ending and just a red herring as far as the main story is concerned. There's a time and plaice for everything, this was just a sole incident

Re: s/unable/unwilling/

"I'm slightly confused by the difference between the Parliamentary Committee and the Statutory Inquiry. A summary of the evidence for the Inquiry should be good enough for the Committee...

I believe one difference between a Statutory Inquiry and a Parliamentary Committee is that witnesses take an oath for the former once they take the stand, swearing that their evidence will be the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth. Thus if they lie they are committing the crime of perjury. The same does not apply for a hearing in front of a Parliamentary Committee and people are able to lie profusely without fear of prosecution. I believe it is correct to say that evidence exists proving Paula Vennells and her sidekick did that at a former hearing but apart from being judged in terms of character and reputation they will not incur criminal charges.

Nick Read is an utter disgrace and his public appearances continue to be widely lambasted on social media as shameful and appalling. The only thing he has said so far at any of these hearings where there is no doubt that he is telling the whole truth is that he is very well paid. Obscenely so, in fact. £800K per year of taxpayers money. One has to question the recruitment process behind appointing such an individual and the justification for such a huge burden on the public purse.

Re: A scandal of epic proportions

Spot on.

The consequences of people doing a job for which they lack the requisite levels of skills, ability, knowledge, training and experience to do competently.

Once you add arrogance, greed and the primal instinct to deny wrongdoing and cover one's own backside at all costs to the mix you end up with a horribly tragic disaster like this one.

I'm sure a lot of the early erroneous decisions that were made which resulted in Horizon being deployed were the result of a widespread level of ignorance. Ignorance of software technology, how a software product is specified, developed, deployed and maintained. That is understandable and forgivable to an extent. What cannot be forgiven is the fact that once it became clear that Horizon was unfit for purpose, resulting in accounting errors and people being falsely charged and convicted, a whole group of people conspired to cover it up and misappropriated huge sums of public money to do so. Which continues to this day.

The religious aspect is well covered...you only have to say you're sorry and appear remorseful and you are forgiven

As would a few P45s issued with no chance of re-employment elsewhere in the force. The same approach should be applied across the whole Public Sector

Re: Easy win but challenging keep.

The problem is top down as always....

It appears at the top of the Civil Service you get obscenely rewarded, a job for life, a gold-plated pension and no accountability whatsoever. When you screw up big time there's an enquiry funded by the taxpayer which is a complete whitewash. The key summary is "yes, we made a mistake, we are deeply sorry, we know we have to do better, lessons have been learned..." and then on we go. If you are high enough in the pyramid and manage to screw up on a consistent basis you can eventually be sure of an honour in the New Years List...

Re: The UK is the opposite

People paid on the public purse are in a no lose job for life. When they ####-up the organisation says "We sincerely apologise...we know we have to do better...lessons have been learned...". Then the organisations get fined, which is also paid from the public purse. Onwards and upwards...

Re: Human Error?

Then you can expect lifelong salary increases far beyond your value whilst consistently claiming you could earn even more in the private sector. No-one will challenge this and call your bluff. If you're really lucky you belong to one of those special public sector clubs allowed to collectively set their own rewards. Like MPs for instance.

If you screw up really bad, you will be promoted and moved sideways so that you can screw up in a whole new area.

Ultimately you can get a reward in the New Year Honours list for serial failure.

What's not to like?

Re: How was this made possible?

He also said ""We regret that sufficient protections were not in place .."

So that's alright then. "We apologies...we sincerely regret our mistake...we know we have to do better...lessons have been learned.." Off to collect my bonus....yawn...etc.

It is truly stunning how widespread incompetence is becoming. It must be one of the fastest growing Corporate attributes in the modern world.

Re: BBC investigation

All are well worth reading - there is much which simply isn't being reported by the media in general, and even where they are doing so, they are not going into sufficient depth to really convey the full horror of it all.....

It's clear that the media has been soundly threatened into near silence over the course of this travesty by the Post Office's thugs [expensive lawyers] funded by the taxpayer

Re: I'm a bit torn

It doesn't exist, she spent it on expensive lawyers to keep people from telling the truth, and a lavish lifestyle befitting such a successful CEO...

You are spot on and sadly this happens all the time...

People employed to ride the publicly funded gravy train rarely if ever face the consequences of their misconduct and/or incompetence.

In cases where there is a lot of public dissatisfaction the response is to launch a public which takes an inordinately long time and again costs the taxpayers a fortune. And the result is usually:

- we're very sorry for the inconvenience

- we know we have to do better

- mistakes were made

- lessons were learned

Jobs are kept, bonuses are paid, and on we go...until the next ****-up

Re: my B.S. dector just exploded

...with fax machines

Re: "the right thing to do"

Spot on !!

Re: "No, Virginia, ..." [Nominet's handing of EGM voting data to a market research agency, Savanta]

You are so right in your observations and analysis. The older and wiser you become, the more evident it is. But why does this happen…? Because our species is fatally flawed and, in any situation, “looking after no.1” and greed enter the picture. And the more affluent, rich, civilised, and successful we become as a species, the more extreme the behaviour to lie, cheat, and cover-up the screw-ups.

Nowhere is it more visible than in the Public Sector where incompetent buffoons head up the activity and are handsomely rewarded for failure on the grounds “I could earn much more in the Private Sector….”

When I share this with other people, I often get labelled as cynical. However, it was the great George Bernard Shaw who famously said, “The power of accurate observation is commonly called cynicism by those who haven’t got it.”.

Re: Another UK Government IT Procurement

True, but when it goes horribly wrong in the Public Sector it's our taxes which are constantly footing the bill, and nobody is held accountable. So the rhetoric about "...mistakes were made" and "...lessons will be learned" is complete garbage and nothing ever changes

The Public Sector has a good track record of appointing special kinds of fuckwits to massively overpaid positions.....

Re: At last!

Let's hope Jenkins and Chamber were smart enough to keep copies of any documents which reveal the pressure they were under. It will be contrary to their employment agreements and possibly inadmissible in a court but it'll make great reading in the public domain.

Re: Why opt out ?

Exactly...we need a policy of zero tolerance on this.

Anyone, absolutely anyone found accessing records they shouldn't be, or leaving USBs on trains etc. should be dismissed instantly with no chance of re-employment in the health system ever. Applied to all, from the lowliest support staff up to the best brain surgeon in the country.

Re: And still...

But it's ok...God will forgive you if you are sorry...

Re: How is he going to pay that back?

Good question...here in the UK they would simply deduct £1 a time from his jobseekers allowance until the debt is paid.....

Re: The scams will continue until things change....

But banning Directors doesn't work....

I came across someone who was kicked off the Directors List and banned from starting another company and then went straight ahead and did it with absolutely no problem.

You only have to look on companies house and search for this guy Roberto Milanesi to see that he has multiple profiles on there, and a history of repeatable failure. The database is a shambles....

https://find-and-update.company-information.service.gov.uk/search?q=Roberto+Milanesi

Re: Records, permanent removal thereunto

I believe you could argue long and hard about whether it's their job or not. There is, however, no debate that it is what they do....and lie about

...or he's one of those smoke & mirrors guys who only last until the people who work for him twig their new manager is completely inept, wonder how on earth he got hired in the first place, but unfortunately by their own heroic efforts hide the awful reality until he moves on (again)...

Re: Lynch isn't the criminal here.

It's clear all parties involved are culpable of misdoing in this sorry saga, although in different ways. Lynch unsurprisingly pumped up Autonomy’s perceived value as much as he could with the usual smoke, mirrors and possibly even falsehoods that many in his position do daily. But, blatant lying, dishonesty and spouting BS are not in themselves criminal offences which is just as well as the jails would be bursting at the seams.

For their part, it seems incomprehensible that such a supposedly professional company such as HP could make such an abysmal mess of the due diligence process. However, I've personally witnessed and lived through similar occurrences close-up before. It’s because large organisations consistently operate with people in senior positions who simply shouldn't be there. They lack the skills, the experience and the knowledge required for the position but somehow still manage to get magically appointed. Usually their incompetence and cock-ups are hidden or compensated for by the marching army below them in the hierarchy, but every once in a while the chickens will come home to roost. Cue massive embarrassment in a case like this.

Deloitte’s part in this was woeful but they have already been handed down justice for “serious and serial failures” in auditing Autonomy prior to the buyout.

It would be unfair in the big picture for Lynch to carry the can for the whole lot, but such is life. All too often the winners are the guys with the deepest pockets to pay for the most expensive legal representation.

Now, let’s check what’s happening with Elizabeth Holmes and Theranos….

Re: Obvious

Spot on...