Britain’s Tories rail against database

By Jon Dougherty

British Conservative Party members are outraged about the possible
misuses of a government database containing information on British
subjects, and accused the ruling Labour Party leaders of using the
information for partisan political purposes.

The Knowledge Network Project, which was paid for by taxpayers,
stirred emotional accusations on Monday from Tory leaders in Britain’s
House of Commons, who demanded that the Labour government “come clean”
about its powerful new database — a database the government says is
only used to help substantiate its claims about services made to the
public.

Tory leaders, however, said the system was prone to abuse as a
propaganda tool and instead served selfish political ends of the Labour
Party. Also, leaders charged, the information contained in the database
could effectively negate the independence of career civil servants who
ostensibly must remain objective.

“There are now serious concerns that this system will be hijacked for
party political purposes. The taxpayer should not be forced to pay for
Labour’s spin machine,” said Tory frontbench spokesman Andrew Lansley on
Monday.

The new database succeeds the Excalibur system and was first revealed
in January. The Excalibur system was used by the ruling Labour Party to
a devastating effect in 1997 to refute Conservative accusations and
highlight inconsistencies in their statements.

However, Labour leaders said the system is used only to make the
administration of government more efficient and to support claims made
by London about the efficiency of its operations.

The Tories, meanwhile, argued that the system is merely a tool to
keep officials from deviating from the so-called “party line” spoken by
London.

On Monday, sources said that Cabinet Office minister Mo Mowlam told
the House of Commons in March there was no way the system could be used
to undermine opposition because all work contained within the database
would be placed on the Internet.

But, according to a London Times report yesterday, the system has
two-tiered access, with ministers and special advisers having a password
to access sensitive information denied to others.

“This is an astounding U-turn,” Lansley said. “Ministers, and even
political advisers, will have access to restricted information.”

Other government officials have demanded safeguard guarantees that
would ensure the impartiality of career civil servants. The
Conservatives continue to attack Labour Party leaders, accusing them of
bringing in political advisers whose loyalty is to party not government,
to manage the heads of the objective Government Information Service.

In January, the country’s public standards watchdog agency demanded a
new code of conduct to curb the powers of the army of political advisers
and “spin doctors.” Lord Neill, head of the Committee on Standards in
Public Life, said there was some concern about the number of special
advisers now in government.

When the Conservative Party lost power in 1997, it employed 38. Now
there are 74 including 25 in Prime Minister Tony Blair’s Downing Street
office.

Last week, Canadian citizens and lawmakers were outraged over the
discovery of a

government-run database
containing thousands of pieces of information on 33 million-plus citizens, both living and dead.

Federal Privacy Commissioner Bruce Phillips, in his

annual
report,
warned that a newly discovered Human Resources Department database is “tantamount to a citizen profile” and vulnerable to misuse. Worse, the discovery put the lie to earlier government statements indicating that no such database existed on Canadian citizens.

Created in 1985, Phillips characterized the database in Ottawa as “extraordinarily detailed,” and said it contained as much as 2,000 pieces of information about each person’s income, race and ethnicity, marital status, education, mobility, disabilities, employment and social-assistance history.

Statistics Canada — the only government department that regularly gathers such comprehensive information — operates under strict laws with penalties for those who misuse information.

Because there are no similar protections for citizens and restrictions on the Human Resources department, however, Phillips said the database “poses significant risks to our privacy.”

Canada’s Human Resources Department responded to Phillips’ concerns by saying that it depended upon the professionalism of its staff to prevent misuse of the databank and maintained that it had not violated Canadian law.

“All the information is secure; it’s encrypted,” said Human Resources Minister Jane Stewart, adding that the data is used to ensure government programs are working.

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Big Brother snoops Canadians

Jon Dougherty

Jon E. Dougherty is a Missouri-based political science major, author, writer and columnist. Follow him on Twitter. Read more of Jon Dougherty's articles here.