How the British fell back in love with the NHS
By Asavin Wattanajantra in Editorial
Posted in campaign, NHS, Gordon Brown, Twitter, government on
It’s a very British thing to complain, and of things to complain about the NHS is often quite high on the list.
Dirty hospitals, long queues, poor pay for nurses, big money spent on computer systems that don’t work - the NHS usually gets a good kicking.
But when we complain about something, it’s us who complain - we have a mentality where we really don’t like outsiders suggesting that something is wrong with our country.
This seems to have been what has happened with the sudden popularity of the NHS on Twitter and social networks, with even figures like Gordon Brown and David Cameron joining in to defend and praise it.
The background
It really all started when the nationals reported on how some Americans (particularly the Republican party) were waging a campaign against President Obama’s moves to transform their healthcare system.
There’s opposition to the plan - fair enough - it’s a big change and the Americans should decide for themselves.
However, the British started to pay attention when it was found that the Republicans were using the NHS as an example of a ’socialist’ system with waiting lists and treatment rationing.
Among the ‘failures’ of the NHS included an ‘Orwellian’ financial cap on the value of human life, and of leaving elderly people untreated.
The British fight back
Understandably, the British weren’t happy about this. In the Guardian story that I first read about the Republican campaign it reads 916 comments and still counting. Most indeed were saying that they wouldn’t swap the NHS for an American system of private healthcare.
However, it was Twitter that was really the catalyst for a concerted NHS PR campaign that really did work - money could not buy the type of good publicity that the NHS has been getting.
The Twitter NHS campaign
The ‘welovetheNHS’ tag has been one of the top trending topics in the last few days, with it seems thousands of people giving their support to the NHS system and praising it - including government leaders
Dennis publication The First Post said that one of the prime movers behind the campaign was Graham Linehan, comedy writer behind Father Ted and the IT Crowd.
The Republicans may have bitten themselves on the ass with this one as the debate has now penetrated the blogosphere - people are talking about it, people are trying to figure it out - people are trying to make their own judgements.
Instead of trying to reply against the propaganda with expensive advertisements, it is by the means of a social network where the NHS has been defended in a way nobody could have expected
It also shows how powerful something like Twitter is becoming as a tool to motivate the masses - it wasn’t that long ago that Twitter was a big factor in creating a movement against the Iran elections.
Rated: 60% (2 votes)
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Hiring hackers for national security? You’re havin’ a laff!
By Asavin Wattanajantra in Editorial
Posted in national security, hackers, hacking, government, Security on
I wasn’t there to see the first statements of the new Cyber Security minister Lord West, but according to reports he admitted that the government has hired a team of former “naughty boy hackers” for its new Cyber Security Operations Centre.
The BBC quotes him as saying: “You need youngsters who are deep into this stuff… If they have been slightly naughty boys, very often they really enjoy stopping other naughty boys.”
OK - first up these are fine words for a Cyber Security Minister. Naughty boys? - I’ve only been writing on security for the last year and a half, but I already realise that many of the criminals he’s talking about aren’t ‘naughty boys’ - they are hardened criminals fully intent on making as much profit as possible.
I get the feeling he’s one of those people who don’t think that cyber criminals are ‘real’ criminals because they play on the computer. And this is somebody the government has employed to oversee its cyber security. Great.
And he’s employed hackers with criminal records? This is all well and good in a movie, but as security expert Rik Ferguson notes, the government has actually hired a team of people who have committed criminal acts and given them jobs.
He also makes the point that if you’re going to hire hackers to stop hackers, then why employ the naughty crap ones who managed top get caught? - or ’script-kiddies’ as Ferguson puts it - the laughing stock. Yep, Lord West - good choice!
Even if this is just misquoting or taken out of context, it’s a little worrying that the Cyber Security Minister himself seems to be so inept at understanding the real problems of IT security. Last week I wrote a feature on what the basic qualifications a Cyber Security Minister might actually need - I don’t think Lord West ticks any of the boxes.
Maybe it was the case that none of the ministers around Gordon Brown had the technological expertise or IT training for this role. In this case they really should have simply found one. I mentioned John Suffolk, government chief information officer, as somebody who had the technology knowledge for the role.
It might be the case that Neil Thompson, the prospective new director for the Office of Cyber Security, might be the person who really will shape the cyber security of Britain. As security expert Graham Cluley said in my feature, maybe its good to have an unknown person in the role who will knock heads together and do what’s needed.
But hopefully he won’t be listening to the ‘Cyber Security Minister’ Lord West. He may be all well and good when it comes to knowledge of actual physical warfare - but cyber war is a completely different beast. Hope you know what you’re doing Gordon.
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