Parlez~me~'n~Tory

Rightly wry, satirically right

Back on 25th March I blogged about Ed Balls and the privacy policy on his Website that breached the Data Protection Act.

I made comment that I would seek to report this infringement by 11th March. It is perhaps encouraging that today (2 days before the deadline) I have received the following via e-mail:

—–Original Message—–
From: Ed Balls
Sent: 09 March 2010 11:11
To: Gary Stuart Wicks
Subject: RE: Feedback from Ed’s Website

Dear Gary,

Thanks for your email. We are currently reviewing the site content, and will update it where appropriate.

Best wishes,

Kate

Kate Williams

Office of Ed Balls MP

________________________________

From: Gary Stuart Wicks [mailto:xxxxxxx@gmail.com]
Sent: Fri 26/02/2010 08:18
To: Ed Balls
Subject: Feedback from Ed’s Website

This mail comes from the http://www.edballs.co.uk/index.jsp?t=contactEd page of the website.

Name: Gary Stuart Wicks
Email: xxxxxxx@gmail.com
Telephone No.:
Comments: Good morning.

Last evening whilst viewing your Website I noticed a number of discrepancies within your Privacy Policy and, I believe a number of areas whereby your site breaches the Data Protection Act 1998.

I took the liberty of writing a blog post to highlight the said discrepancies and areas I believe that may cause you problems.

It is extremely important that ALL (especially Government) websites, businesses and those gathering personal data do so with a full commitment to the DPA and that they fully understand their legal obligations.

This is not a partisan witch hunt but the beginning of research to discover how many government affiliated sites fail to meet their own legislation in an endeavour to bring EVERYBODY up to the same standard.

My blog post that relates to this issue can be located at the following URL:

http://www.wicksie.com/blunder/ed-balls-mp-plagiarised-his-mates-homework/

You will notice the 14 day deadline prior to any action being taken such as reporting the issue to the DPA and the ICO to facilitate your work to correct this “oversight”

If you wish to contact me with regards this issue then please do so via the address given or comment directly on the blog post.

I look forward to a swift resolution of these breaches.

Best regards
Gary Stuart Wicks

It would seem we have a partial success on our hands for common sense and more importantly for what is RIGHT.

I am not counting my chickens just yet but rest assured I shall continue to monitor the situation and report back accordingly.

I do cede that Ed’s office has taken the first positive step to rectification of this matter.

UPDATE at foot of post:
Whilst waiting for #bbcqt to begin this evening I was wandering around the darkened corners of the Web and settled upon the Website of Ed (I am a bully) Balls – edballs.co.uk.

It’s not a riveting read to be honest so I do these things so that you don’t have to and if you wish to buy me a beer sometime for that gesture then I shall be most grateful. Anyway, I digress…

Whilst considering Ed’s arrogance and his outright refusal to answer any of my 42 questions I have posed him on Twitter I decided to visit his Privacy Policy to see how “robust” [his favourite word of late] it actually was. What I found is below:

Privacy Policy

IP addresses and log file data

The Labour Party site does not automatically capture or store personal information, other than logging the user’s IP Address or the location of your computer or network on the Internet, for systems administration and troubleshooting purposes. (If you are connected to the Internet you have an IP address, for example an IP address might read “154.198.99.9″). We also use IP addresses in the aggregate to track which pages people visit in order to improve the quality of the site.

Data collection and use

You may be asked for personal information if you complete one of the forms on this site. Please see below the information we ask for and what this information is used for.

In each case we will only use the information about you for the purpose for which you provide it. The Labour Party does not sell or disclose this information to outside organisations or individuals, nor transfer it outside the United Kingdom. You may remove or change your details at any time. You have right of access to your personal information held on our files by written request to the data protection officer (address below) and on payment of an administration fee.

Site registration and email service (to receive Ed Balls newsletter)

When you register onto the site or subscribe for Labour eNews we ask you for contact information (such as your name and e-mail address), geographic information (such as your postcode and constituency), and other details about you and your interests. This is used to help us provide you with information to match your interests. We may also use it to alert you of campaigns you may be interested in and events happening in your area.

You can remove your name at any time from our e-mail subscription list by sending an unsubscribe request.

If you are registered onto the site, you can edit your registration and enews subscription details at any time through your personal on-line form. If you have not registered on the site and you wish to change your contact email address you need to unsubscribe from our mailing list and sign up again using your new information. If you are registered on the site as a member and you use the site to change your registration details (eg. address or email address) this information may also be used to update your membership record on the Party’s membership database to ensure it is up-to-date and accurate.

Cookie

A cookie is a tiny text file that is stored on your computer. We may use cookies in order to tailor your experience on our site according to the preferences you have specified. However we will only access the information that we stored in your cookie file. We will not access any information stored in a cookie by other websites. Our cookies do not contain any personally identifiable information.

Information on children

We do not knowingly collect personally identifiable information from children under the age of 16 without permission.

Links to other sites

Our site contains links to other sites and servers. The Labour Party is not responsible for the privacy practices or the content of such websites.

How we protect your information

Our website has security measures in place to protect against the loss, misuse or alteration of the information under our control. Our server is located in a locked, secure environment.

Choice/unsubscribe

We provide you the opportunity to opt-out of receiving communications from us easily and promptly. Our unsubscribe requests are processed weekly.

Correcting your information

If you need to correct the information you provided us with when you subscibed to our e-mail list, you can do so through your personal form provided on-line. If you need to change your e-mail address, you can unsubscribe from our mailing lists and sign up again using your new information. Or if you have registered with a username and password you may change your details at any time via the login page without needing to re-register.

Contacting us about privacy

If you have any questions about our privacy policy, the information we have collected from you online, the practices of this site or your interaction with this website, send an email to: ed@edballs.com or telephone us on 01924 898158.

You can also contact us at the address displayed on every page of this site.

We will continue to evaluate our efforts to protect your information and will update our privacy policy whenever necessary.

I won’t blame you for not bothering to read that but I shall pull out a few snippets for your delectation:

IP addresses and log file data
The Labour Party site does not automatically capture or store personal information

The Labour Party does not sell or disclose this information to outside organisations or individuals, nor transfer it outside the United Kingdom

When you register onto the site or subscribe for Labour eNews

We may also use it to alert you of campaigns you may be interested in and events happening in your area.[what Normanton???Come on Ed]

If you are registered on the site as a member and you use the site to change your registration details (eg. address or email address) this information may also be used to update your membership record on the Party’s membership database to ensure it is up-to-date and accurate.

Links to other sites
Our site contains links to other sites and servers. The Labour Party is not responsible for the privacy practices or the content of such websites.

Our server is located in a locked, secure environment.[no Ed, it isn't!]

In case you haven’t understand from the above Ed is either pretending to be the Labour Party as a whole or he has stolen the Privacy Policy from the Labour Party Website.

Is he equal to the Party? He may think he is…

I have reproduced the LabourParty.org.uk original Privacy Policy below so you can compare for yourself.

IP addresses and log file data
The Labour Party site does not automatically capture or store personal information, other than logging the user’s IP Address or the location of your computer or network on the Internet, for systems administration and troubleshooting purposes. (If you are connected to the Internet you have an IP address, for example an IP address might read “154.198.99.9″). We also use IP addresses in the aggregate to track which pages people visit in order to improve the quality of the site.

Data collection and use
You may be asked for personal information if you complete one of the forms on this site. Please see below the information we ask for and what this information is used for.

In each case we will only use the information about you for the purpose for which you provide it. The Labour Party does not sell or disclose this information to outside organisations or individuals, nor transfer it outside the United Kingdom. You may remove or change your details at any time. You have right of access to your personal information held on our files by written request to the data protection officer (address below) and on payment of an administration fee.

Site registration and email service
When you register onto the site or subscribe to our emails, we ask you for contact information (such as your name and e-mail address), geographic information (such as your postcode and constituency), and other details about you and your interests. This is used to help us provide you with information to match your interests. We may also use it to alert you of campaigns you may be interested in and events happening in your area.

Joining the Party and renewing your membership online
We collect the required information in order to check you meet the conditions of and help you fulfil the opportunities provided by membership of the Labour Party. At your option, we ask for additional information such as gender, date of birth and trade union membership to help us provide a better membership service to you.

To volunteer (pledge your support)
We ask for your contact details, postcode and information on the type of volunteer work you are interested in. This information helps us identify suitable volunteer opportunities for you within the Party. Your details will be forwarded to the appropriate local or regional party officer who can then contact you.

Donating to the Party
The information we ask for is used to process your donation and, if you donate more than £200, to check that you are on the electoral register. If you donate more than £1,000 to a Labour Party unit (eg. Constituency Labour Party) or more than £5,000 to the Labour Party nationally in the course of a calendar year, your name and the amount of your donation will be reported to the Electoral Commission for publication on their public register of donations to the Labour Party. Donation Information will be stored on our membership database and used to keep you informed of Labour news, campaign and other opportunities to support the Party.

Cookie
A cookie is a tiny text file that is stored on your computer. We may use cookies in order to tailor your experience on our site according to the preferences you have specified. However we will only access the information that we stored in your cookie file. We will not access any information stored in a cookie by other websites. Our cookies do not contain any personally identifiable information.

Information on children

The Labour Party does not process any personal details from individuals under the age of 15 without parent/guardian consent. Details of under 16s are processed for membership purposes only.

Links to other sites
Our site contains links to other sites and servers. The Labour Party is not responsible for the privacy practices or the content of such websites.

How we protect your information
Our website has security measures in place to protect against the loss, misuse or alteration of the information under our control. Our server is located in a locked, secure environment, with a guard posted 24 hours a day. When you contribute online, we use a secure server to protect your credit card number and other personal information during transmission. The details are transmitted through Thawte to ensure absolute security.

Choice/unsubscribe
We provide you the opportunity to opt-out of receiving communications from us easily and promptly. Our unsubscribe requests are processed weekly.

Correcting your information
If you need to correct the information you provided us with when you subscibed to our e-mail list, you can do so through your personal form provided on-line. If you need to change your e-mail address, you can unsubscribe from our mailing lists and sign up again using your new information. Or if you have registered with a username and password you may change your details at any time via the login page without needing to re-register.

Contacting us about privacy
If you have any questions about our privacy policy, the information we have collected from you online, the practices of this site or your interaction with this website, please contacy us by clicking here or telephone our call centre on 08705 900200.

You can also contact us at the address below:
E-campaigns team
Labour Party
39 Victoria Street
London
SW1H 0HA

Our data protection officer can be contacted at the following address:
Melanie Onn
Labour Party
39 Victoria Street
London
SW1H 0HA

We will continue to evaluate our efforts to protect your information and will update our privacy policy whenever necessary

Quite simply Ed Balls has stolen this text and used it on his own site.

Even if he attempts to claim he had permission to use this then it shows that anybody who has given information such as e-mails etc via edballs.co.uk has no legal assurance that their information will be held and used correctly.

I put it to you, Ed Balls, Sir that you MUST change your Privacy Policy to correctly reflect the Website content you present.

Your failure to do this in a timely fashion (and I suggest that timely fashion is 14 days from today so I am putting a deadline of 11th March 2010) will result in both you and your Website administrator being reported to the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) under a breach of the Data Protection Act (DPA).

I welcome your suggestions as to how you propose to do this.

—–
UPDATE: After writing this last night I was amazed when I logged into Twitter this morning to find a number of people seemingly unaware of how important this little find is and how little awareness of the Data Protection Act there is out there and what you can expect of how your data is held and used.

The “Tweets” that awaited me this morning ranged from “when will you get a life” through “a moment to tedium” to “get back to fighting the good fight on the issues that matter” and “absolutely spot on, but what does the DPA do”.

Well, as for fighting the good fight and getting onto the issues that matter, this does matter, this matters a great deal. There are millions of businessmen and women, businesses, civil servants and the like out there slushing around on a daily basis having to ensure their wares meet the regulations set out within the DPA and further constraints set out by the ICO so why not expect that a Crown Minister complies with the law of the land?

If you have given your details via the Ed Balls Website I repeat you have no assurance of how that data is treated, the DPA exists to protect you and your data.

The Privacy Policy on the site is misleading and incorrect. I am prepared to bet good money on the fact that Ed Balls uses a standard commercial host and to make the statements he is making I would like very real proof of evidence, or at least I would had I been churlish enough to give my data over to his site.

I have contacted Ed Balls via his Website to inform him of his non-compliance and await a reply.

I’m sure we all remember LLM Communications (a Lobbying firm which was formed in 1997 by several Labour Party aides) because of its involvement in LobbyGate and the “Cash for access” scandal back in 1998 which featured Derek Draper heavily when he was recorded boasting about how [they] could sell access to government ministers, obtain advance copies of sensitive reports, and create tax breaks for their clients

Hardly the sort you would wish to do business with let alone hand taxpayers money to, eh?

But, that is exactly what the Government did when they sanctioned £38,200 in 2006/07 to LLM Communications in a contract authorised by Ruth Kelly (who is standing down at the next election in an allegedly unrelated move to her claim for £31,000 for decorating her second home), which went about its work in a decidedly dodgy way.

Originally LLM were contracted to highlight the work the Government was doing to showcase their plans to build thousands of extra houses in the South East but things went a little awry when a new group calling itself Campaign for More and Better Homes stepped in to support the Government and attack any group opposed to the plans specifically singling Green Groups to attack in their pro-Government press releases.

All’s well and good you may say until you discover the Campaign for More and Better Homes was being run from the quieter back offices of LLM Communication.

As if that wasn’t proof enough that a PR firm was issuing Government propaganda one Nicola Gilchrist was the Campaign’s press officer who was in actual fact a paid member of staff of LLM Communication.

To compound the problems and potential illegality of this venture Ian Parker, who in June 2009 became special adviser to housing minister John Healey was working for LLM as a senior staff member at the time of the contract.

It seems that it’s good to keep these things in-house so to speak.

Grant Shapps (Conservative Housing spokesman) is in the process of making a formal complaint to the Whitehall Accounting Officer, so let’s see where this goes.

Footnote: LLM was set up in 1997 by Labour backers Neal Lawson, Ben Lucas and Jon Mendelsohn – now Gordon Brown’s chief election fundraiser. LLM is now part of Communications Consultancy FD.

On 2nd October the good people of Ireland will once again have the chance to vote on the Lisbon Treaty.

This is the second time that the unpopular Government has attempted to force the treaty onto its people but following the resounding NO vote in the first referendum last June when Irish voters rejected the Treaty 53.4% to 46.6% the Government cannot afford to take any chances.

At least their Government is letting them have their say; take note #GoBro!

After 12 years of weakened coalition Governments Ireland is still suffering the worst recession of any European Union state and therefore the fate of the treaty is once again finely balanced.

The current tactics employed by Brian Cowen are almost that of a marionette craftilly controlling his puppets; in this case the puppets are high profile businessmen who are only too happy to state the party line and extole the virtues of the YES campaign.

The cynic in me see this as a major problem as the only businessmen who are rich enough to step aboard are those that wish to sit squarely in the pocket of the European Commission. For instance, Michael O’Leary, the chief executive of Ryanair and Jim O’Hara, the chief executive of Intel in Ireland have both made timely reports and pledges to the cause.

Why does that matter? Well, Intel has lodged an appeal to the European Commission against the €1.06 billion (£935m) fine imposed for anti-competitive practices and are currently negotiating this fine downwards, therefore you can see why it would literally pay to be in the Commission’s pocket.

What of Ryanair with its 30% stake in Aer Lingus?

Aer Lingus are already struggling to get a decent court hearing regarding the grossly uncompetitive and damaging situation with Ryanair taking such a large stake that they are seeking to get them removed from the shareholder’s register.

Should that be allowed to occur then another airline could purchase the Ryanair stake and put their profits in jeapordy, another situation whereby it is plainly obvious that it would literally pay to be in the Commission’s pocket.

The problem we have here is that the Irish voters have already said NO so why does the Government think it should have the right to force them to vote again?

Maybe the Coalition should take another look at their constitution, specifically Article 6.1 which states

All power of government, legislative, executive and judicial, derive, under God, from the people, whose right it is to designate the rulers of the state and, in final appeal, to decide all questions of national policy, according to the requirements of the common good

This clearly says it all, from the people and that is where it should have stayed.

There really is only one way to vote Ireland, please use your common sense and do not be fooled by snake oil salesmen.

This post is not going where you think it is, please read on.

Note: There are several versions of the name Gadaffi potentially used within this post deliberately, please see this citation.

A couple of weeks ago I suggested in my Lockerbie bomber al-Megrahi home for Ramadan! post that Mr al-Megrahi would be released, nothing dramatic there as it was widely reported to be a possibility.

I also asked the question

Were this man to be released would he recover dramatically in a Ronnie Biggs style fashion within days of his freedom?

Well, I believe the images that were broadcast of al-Megrahi both boarding the plane and leaving the plane could not be more contrasting, surprise, surprise eh?

I further suggested that

he be paraded on Libyan television as a permanent reminder that British Justice does not mean fairness…

…again, guess what? We’ve all seen the pictures, the mass waving of flags, the huge homecoming support! Simply wrong by anyone’s standards.

There has been much debate as to whether Mr al-Megrahi was actually innocent or whether he was a stooge given up by the Libyan Government in an attempt at satisfying international demands.

There will be further talk in the coming weeks as to whether the decision to release him was part of a trade deal so that British intererests could be dealt with favourably with upcoming oil field contracts.

If either of these things is true then we have the making of a Political scandal that will dog Britain for years to come.

However, there is another scandal that far outweighs the gravity of either the release of Mr al-Megrahi or the potentially seedy manner in which it was orchestrated.

The unsolved murder of WPC Yvonne Fletcher by an unidentified Libyan on 17th April 1984.

WPC Fletcher was on duty in St. James’s Square along with 30 of her colleagues to monitor a demonstration of dissidents opposed to the Libyan leader Colonel Gadaffi; among her colleagues on that fateful day was her fiancé.

It is a day I remember well, when you’re 17 years old major events hit hard and impact on your mind, this was one of those moments in my life.

The protest itself was voicing concern against the execution in Tripoli of two students who had heavily criticised the Libyan leader and for the two months prior to the protest the embassy had undergone a dramatic change from the diplomatic system that would normally staff it instead seeing Revolutionary Committees in charge; all with the quiet nod of the Libyan Government.

It is estimated that approximately 75 protestors arrived on the scene having been transported in whilst the police attempted to keep them separated from the loyalists staffing the embassy.

In the furore of the protest and at 18 minutes past 10 O’clock on the morning of 17th April, several bursts of shots were fired at the group of protestors, striking eleven people, including WPC Fletcher. In those days officers were unarmed and did not have body armour, consequently WPC Fletcher died of a stomach wound within an hour of arriving at hospital.

There has been much debate over the years as to whether the shots were fired from within the embassy though that is the general acceptance.

For the next 11 days the embassy was under siege by armed police with the most poignant reminder being beamed across the world of 5 police officer’s hats on the ground for the duration of the siege, one of those hats belonged to WPC Fletcher.

Colonel Gaddafi made much of his disgust that Libya’s diplomats were not given immunity and in a tit-for-tat act Libyan soldiers surrounded the British embassy in Tripoli.

After 11 long days finally the British Government allowed the embassy staff to depart the embassy and promptly expelled them. From this moment on all diplomatic relations with Libya were suspended. There was some bad planning on the timing of the release of the staff as it coincided with the day of WPC Fletcher’s funeral, I would suggest that was another diplomatic mistake.

10 years ago in July of 1999 the Libyan government formally accepted general responsibility for the murder and agreed compensation for the family.

As I have previously alluded to there are claims and counter-claims that the shots were fired from elsewhere and there has even been conspiracy theorists stating that the CIA amongst other agencies were involved with the shooting. Whilst these have been given much publicity over the years including a televised documentary I believe we have to go with what we know and what the facts can tell us.

There has also been several claims that the murderer was himself executed upon his return to Libya though this is likely to be a smokescreen spouted by the Libyan government.

With the recent release of Mr al-Megrahi it seems that Queenie Fletcher, mother of Yvonne now has even less chance of attaining that justice that has eluded her for over 25 years.

I make an impassioned please to the people of Britain, Please, you have the power to change the ending to this very sad story. DO IT!

On 21st December 1988 exactly 38 minutes after take-off from London 259 passengers who were on board Pan Am Flight 103 were murdered.

Moments later a further 11 people on the ground also died as the wreckage wreaked havoc on the Scottish town of Lockerbie.

Total: 270 men, women and children killed. Countless individuals affected forever.

Since 15th March 2002 Abdelbaset Ali al-Megrahi has been a prisoner at HMP Barlinnie, Glasgow after being found guilty of the atrocity.

24th November 2003 Megrahi’s sentence was increased to a minimum of 27 years in jail after a change in Scottish law.

Less than 6 years after this change and just 7 years after the initial sentence (leaving 20+ years still to serve) it appears that Mr al-Megrahi will be home with his family and a free man in time for Ramadan, just a few short days away.

The Scottish Government are currently denying that any agreement is in force, and whilst that may have been true at the time they made their statement, watch this space. What if that were to change dramatically over the next few hours or days?

On 25th July 2009 after failing to gain the release of al-Megrahi by claiming the evidence was wholly circumstantial al-Megrahi’s legal team have requested he be released on compassionate grounds due to his illness; he is suffering from terminal prostate cancer.

Where was your compassion Mr al-Megrahi when you murdered these people?

Where was your remorse when you were convicted?

Were this man to be released would he recover dramatically in a Ronnie Biggs style fashion within days of his freedom?

Would he be paraded on Libyan television as a permanent reminder that British Justice does not mean fairness?

Britain would once again be portrayed as an easy option, a soft target despite the rhetoric that she shall not negotiate with terrorists. That’s right, she won’t! {Unless it’s a little unfair to them and might hurt their feelings}.

As for Mr al-Megrahi, as a consequence of this announcement today and in the coming days he can begin to pack his bags safely in the knowledge that he will have served less than 9 days per death in prison!

That, by anyone’s reckoning is a national disgrace.