...and your inside leg measurement too!

An irate ballet lover emailed me about her attempt to see Scottish Ballet at An Lanntair.

Proffering her crisp £20 notes, she was told that the new ticketing system would only issue her tickets if she provided her title, name, address, gender(!) & phone number.

The justification from the staff member was simple: this was information required by the funding bodies to provide information about the type of customers buying tickets; but you could still opt out of receiving marketing information and avoid the inevitable deluge of fliers.

Mrs Irate knows a thing or three about the assimilation of data and pointed out that:

• To obtain reasonable statistical details about the type of visitors to the shows, you only need gender, postcode and age
• The phone number might be requested in case the show is cancelled, but is really, really, not necessary
• Why are An Lanntair not registered with the Information Commissioner if they are collecting and processing all this data?

Her spleen duly vented, Rev Lady Smith of Penzance will be using the home phone numbers of Directors of An Lanntair as her contact details until the situation improves or the database is so inaccurate as to be useless.

Data Protection Act and Storas Uibhist

Shouldn't Storas be registered with the Information Commissioner if it keeps details of members and supporters to whom it can email or post?

The answer is, of course, yes it should.

And the answer to the next questions is: No it isn't.

Compulsory ID scheme scrapped

The unthinkable, proposed by the unthinking, supported by the idiotic, espoused by the moronic and scrapped by the unelectable.

Strike one for common sense and people power.

Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act

Anyone in two minds about how the 42 days detention time will be (mis)used by the Government need only look at RIPA, which was brought in to give better possibilities for surveillance against organised crime and international terrorism.

I have already listed some of the bodies who are entitled to use these powers in defence of the realm, and how it is important that The Intervention Board for Agricultural Produce are able to tap your phone with impunity.

A timely report in the Sunday Herald today expands on exactly how Councils have used their powers under RIPA.

The Western Isles only employed the Ripa powers three times, twice for what is described as "anti-smoking" purposes and once because of the alleged misconduct of an employee.

So, the most wide-ranging powers available to the state to track you, spy on you, and track your movements have been used to catch someone having a fag.

This is actually quite serious, and has wide-ranging implications for what has been done. As the offense was being committed (I would guess) in a pub or a hotel, just what powers have actually been used by the Council? Video cameras filming the building? Recording telephone calls? Intercepting emails?

Are you on file somewhere walking out of your local?

I was involved in disputing the application of the legislation on behalf of a client* so were my phone calls to the client about the matter recorded? Was the privileged legal advice received by the client intercepted by the Council?

All of this smacks of overkill, and I hope some Councillor will let us know just who authorised these applications, and what the outcome was.

Staff in the Comhairle should also be wary: is it alleged misconduct, or an attempt to railroad an employee out of the building?

Read the article to see the (mis)uses of RIPA and please support No2id, who are trying to stop the extension of the database state and us all being automatically tagged and recorded as we move around the country.

* It was a funny issue. A derelict vehicle owned by a third party but located on the hotel grounds was being used as a smoking shelter by customers. The Council tried to claim that it was either part of the hotel or controlled by the hotelier despite the factual evidence. It ended in a score draw, when another solution was identified.

The joy of blogging

One of the few downsides to being in the public domain, and inviting comment, is that you attract the nutters, wierdos and those with a huge axe to grind, who often try to subvert the blog.

Just yesterday, a friend let me know that I had received some repeated adverse comment on a "Rate-this-site" site, and that it looked like someone was having a go.

As Silversprite has said, the comment pages are not for the faint hearted, and I deliberately encourage and permit 'vigorous debate' i.e. general abuse, to be cast at all and sundry, in a constructive manner.

A quick scan at the log files indicated that in the space of a couple of hours the same group of IP addresses had logged on to the blog, jumped straight through to the rating site, and not returned. Strange, but it got more interesting when the IP addresses resolved to a very large and prominent public sector organisation, which does not have 'public' computers.

A quick search on the particular computers concerned confirmed that all the machines had visited the blog on numerous occasions previously.

Where it got really, really, interesting was that these civil servants had been posting comments anonymously. Not just defending their employers, but actively criticising others who were questioning Government actions and policies.

And then: it looks like these computers are responsible for a series of very offensive, and I believe wholly untrue, comments on the Labour candidate in the Western Isles, which I feel sure exceeds by a very large margin their permitted political activity as civil servants.

I have retained the IP logs, in case of anyone disputing these facts, and with two sets of logs giving the same information, I'm very happy that what I say is absolutely correct.

Data Protection Act (3)

From: Duncan Ross [duncan.ross@snp.org]
Sent: 20 March 2007 20:20
To: Ian McCann
Cc: alasdair.allan@snp.org
Subject: Re: FW: attack in Gazette

Absolutely. As agreed yesterday. let's get him out. He invalidated his membership by proposing to stand as an independent.


Duncan

Ian McCann wrote:
>Having held off, I think that's the final straw
>
>-----Original Message-----
>From: Dr Alasdair Allan [mailto:alasdair.allan@snp.org]
>Sent: 20 March 2007 16:37
>To: ian.mccann@snp.org
>Subject: attack in Gazette
>
>Hi
>
>Gazette have just told me Angus nicolson has made clear to them he
>will not be voting for me. Presumably means he will be voting for a unionist.
>
>I have tried as best i can to continue to brush this one off, but I am
>being asked "is he an SNP member or not"?
>
>He is also, they have reminded me, the convener of the SNP council group.
>
>Do we continue to hold off longer before getting HQ to clarify situation?
>
>Cheers
>
>Alasdair
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>

Data Protection Act (2)

From: Ian McCann [ian.mccann@snp.org]
Sent: 05 March 2007 09:24
To: 'Duncan Ross'
Subject: FW: nicolson - independent candidate?

I think this is probable enough to start proceedings. Though we might have to wait a day and square it with the other SNP Councillors

-----Original Message-----
From: Dr Alasdair Allan [mailto:alasdair.allan@snp.org]
Sent: 04 March 2007 13:37
To: ian.mccann@snp.org
Subject: nicolson - independent candidate?

Ian

surely he has done it now - as far as I can see this says he intends to run as an independent. read to bottom. he also praises the lib dems and has a go at the SNP.

A

----

I've inserted a hyperlink to the post which is cut-and-pasted after the message. BTW, as I am fairly sure I changed the "alt" attribute on the picture some time after the posting was made, the fact that the email is 3 hours before the blog posting is not the doctoring.

Data Protection Act (1)

Presciently, on Friday I received a DVD at the office from the Information Commissioner entitled "The lights are on...." which providing training and understanding for everyone involved in the application of the DPA.

On Saturday I received the response to the DPA request that I submitted to the SNP in August.

Seven pages, comprising a covering letter (2 pages), 3 emails (4 pages) and my expulsion email (I've never received a hard copy, or even one with the right name on it!).

So what were the SNP hiding that they were so slow in responding - allegedly 'due to pressure of work' - to my request? Well, I think I spotted a forged email, and I'm going to copy the emails exactly and precisely for others to judge. One day at a time.

Firstly, an email I never received (bear in mind I had a year previously intimated I was not going to stand as an SNP Candidate in May 2006):

From: Ian McCann [ian.mccann@snp.org]
Sent: 01 March 2007 11:05
To: angus@nicolsonca.co.uk
Subject: Blog

Angus

I’ve just been looking at your blog. While I recognise that there is a light-hearted element to many blogs, I am afraid that there are still certain expectations that we have from SNP councillors. Most particular amongst these is these is you offering the possibility that you may run as an Independent MSP. Clearly to do so would invalidate your membership of the SNP, so even speculating about that possibility offers our opponents the notion that you are intent on leaving the Party.

Can I ask you to either remove that element from your online poll, or if it is your intention to leave the SNP, to advise me of that.

Yours for Scotland

Ian McCann
Party Clerk

Scottish National Party
Tel: 0131 525 8903 Fax: 0131 525 8901
Email: ian.mccann@snp.org

Skype In: 0131 208 1984
Skype: ianmac1970

An open letter...

4 October 2007

Data Protection Officer
Scottish National Party
107 McDonald Road
Edinburgh
EH7 4NW

Dear Sir

On 17 August I submitted a request under S.7(1) of the Data Protection Act 1998, a copy of which is enclosed.

As you will be aware, you have 40 days in which to respond, which have now expired.

If I do not hear from you within seven days, I intend to lodge a complaint with the Information Commissioner and take such other action as may be appropriate.

In light of the current postal strike, I am faxing this document to you.

Yours sincerely

-------

17 August 2007

Data Protection Officer
Scottish National Party
107 MacDonald Road
Edinburgh
EH7 4NW

Dear Sirs

Please send me the information which I am entitled to under the Section 7(1) of the Data Protection Act 1998.

If you need further information from me, or a fee, please let me know as soon as possible.

For the absence of doubt, I specifically seek inter alia copies of all documents, emails, notes of meetings or telephone calls relating to my expulsion from the SNP.

Yours sincerely