(I have serious business people reading this blog so I’m turning my back on saying “fuck off” in blog posts.) *
First they tried to do it with 3G phones as part of the DCMNR. Fell through. Then they were worried about terrorists I think. Now it is scumbags in prisons who are using these phones. Nevermind the wardens who helped them sneak the phones in. As well as budgies and flatscreen TVs. Ever get the feeling there is a company out there that is just waiting to run this “registry” that is a friend of someone? Noooo, that could never happen. The Civil Service always want to put as little trust in the people as they can, just in case one day they rise up and demand a reduced place in Government for them. Now they want to issue licences to use mobiles? If you’re against the idea then you are against freedom or for terrorism, drug dealing, fearinducingissueofthedayforDailyStartReaders etc. That’s what the new Minister for not dealing with drug issues in any real way says. What would the Minister do to deal with FF councillors snorting coke and it being on YouTube? I’d ban YouTube for glorifying drugs/politcs.
TJ has some good things to say about the latest act of stupidity and even quotes an official Govt email which says the idea is too difficult to police. Daithà makes sense too. Fergus too. Update: Adam too. Antoin freisin.
Reminds me of Yes, Minister or maybe the latest clone of it: The Thick of It:
This is definitely a : Minister says “I need a new iniative. I need a spectacular like Micheál’s smoking ban or Noel’s plastic bag tax, what have you got on file lads?” “Er, cracking down on dole scammers?” “No, nobody is unemployed any more” “Oh I know, a registry …”
Here’s an old gem:
* Actually Twenty already used the blog post title I wanted.
[…] Also see posts by Fergus, Damien, Antoin, Daithà and TJ. […]
I wonder if the idea of registering pay-as-you-go phones came from watching US crime shows like Law and Order — not being able to identify a caller because the phone was prepaid is a fairly standard plot device to add tension.
“ The Civil Service always want to put as little trust in the people as they can, just in case one day they rise up and demand a reduced place in Government for them”
I wonder where the boundary between “the civil service” and “an idiotic civil servant who had a dumb idea” lies.
hehee this is funny, what makes them think that people or at least the ones using these phones for illegal purposes will give accurate details?
I mean seriously, cop on like, all this will achieve is making life more frustrating for the average consumer and giving the crims a good oul laugh.
Being that you can tract any GSM phone via the sim, and hence anyone via a registry tied to a sim. You can tract anyone, including ministers, or civil servants, or meetings between briber and bribed. The possibilities are endless…
So what do we do to stop this?
Mabye Pat Carey, who works in an area badly affected by crime (Finglas), is trying to do something to make up for the failings of Govt. and the prison service.
It won’t work, as foreign SIMS will still make it possible to go unregistered. The DCENR has done the research and it has drawn this conclusion. He definetely should have checked with the department responsible. He’ll get some egg on his face, and there won’t be much more said about it.
Vodafone and O2 separately have my details, and I couldn’t give a shite about that. And I’m not worried about SIM tracking as it actually isn’t possible barring the use of fancy equipment and portable GSM base stations (Robert Holohan in Cork). So where exactly is the issue with this idea, that will go nowhere anyway?
[…] Damien has a few words to say on the matter […]