Not a death star, nor a nappy bin ... its a floor-standing ashtray.
Posts by Skipraider
13 publicly visible posts • joined 11 Mar 2010
Apple Mac Pro: It's a death star, not a nappy bin, OK?
UK.gov stalks jobless online to axe work refuseniks' benefits
MPs label police IT 'not fit for purpose'
Watchdog disses City of Medway

title?
As a (some would say unfortunate) resident of the Unitary Authority of Medway (Gillingham, to be precise), I wholeheartedly applaud the ASA for taking this action.
Medway council are a bunch of ignorant fools who ride roughshod over the residents at every available opportunity.
Everybody I know who lives here is opposed to the attempt to grant city status to 'Medway' - we all think that Rochester should be reunited with its former status, but that the City Of Medway is a meaningless, empty title.
Sure, we all use 'Medway' to describe the area (Medway Towns), but prefer to keep the distinction of the separate towns that make up the area.
Medway council repeatedly choose to ignore the wishes of the residents to further their own vanity (and, many suspect, personal finances).
So, in response to your title - 'What a waste of money' - yes, but the waste has repeatedly come from the council itself; I doubt that the ASA's costs amount to anything like the money Medway council has wasted on this 'scheme'.
Civil servants touted ID cards to friends, family as flop loomed

Andy Burnham?
Good grief, is that idiot Andy Burnham still around? Still spouting his ill-informed ideas about technologies he clearly has no understanding of?
This is the Andy Burnham who thought internet censorship on a governmental level was a good idea (think of the children!) and entirely feasible.
This is the Andy Burnham who claimed that the 'creators of the internet' (who dey? the US military?) deliberately set about to build The Internet as some kind of anarchist anti-government safe house.
The man is a fool and no importance should be attached to anything he says.
Police complaints body gets a kicking for FOI law-breaking

Re. But
Erm, yes, in theory and on paper the IPCC is 'independent'.
However, the vast majority of complaints received by the IPCC are referred to the police force about who the complaint is being made, for internal investigation.
That's right, the police force being complained about investigates itself.
Very independent.
Microsoft morris dancers upset Soho with Hotmail relaunch
El Reg insults 'millions of Irish Catholics'
Police National Database will have audit trail

Self-regulation rears its ugly head again (and again, and again...)
Oh great - the police once again being entrusted with the task of policing themselves.
I suppose one should take solace from the fact that at least it has been recognised that there is a need for an audit trail, albeit designed more to ensure compliance with the DPA than to combat abuse of the system.
Female porn director turned pol grabs Kent by the ballots

Pedantic grammar nazi alert
"spluttering into their cornflakes Friday morning"
ON Friday morning!
Whilst I recognise that the Reg readership is international, I see no reason whatsoever for the crass Americanisation of copy for what is a very English-centric article on a UK-based website.
3/10 - See me.
NZ internet filter goes live - gov forgets to tell public
Home Secretary swats away calls for Mosquito ban

the other 10%?
"Interestingly the company behind the Mosquito - Compound Security Services - is not opposed to regulation; in fact it has spent the last two years trying to get the Home Office to act.
The company wants to restrict sales to police forces and local councils - which already account for 90 per cent of UK sales."
... erm, so they are currently selling these devices to non-governmental purchasers, but would really rather not be?