Thursday, 09 September 2010 01:17

Dear Editor

I would be grateful if you would publish this open letter to all MHK’s on the Isle of Man and invite any interested party to copy and send the same to their own particular constituency MHK.

Yours truly, Newsnight.

Dear MHK or MLC

I am writing to you to ask that you instigate and support an Amendment to the Representation of the People Act 1995 to have prohibited by Law all Blind Trusts that have been incorporated to provide financial or any other material support to candidates seeking to be elected to political office on the Isle of Man. I suggest an addition to Part 4 section 32, or some other as the Hon House may feel appropriate.

The reasons for wanting to have prohibited any such Blind Trusts are to be found in publications such as that from the Parliament of the . I am providing a link to that documentation here:

http://www.parliament.uk/commons/lib/research/rp2000/rp00-002.pdf

The relevant passage is to be found at; Page 25 2. Blind Trusts. 4.72. The dominant feature of blind trusts is that the beneficiaries purportedly do not know who contributed to them, so eliminating a possible means of buying influence. The Committee rejects the very concept of such blind trusts as being inconsistent with the principles of openness and accountability. Moreover, there must be considerable doubt whether they ensure anonymity. While we do not impugn the integrity of those who administer such funds, the cynical will always be ready to conclude that a donor can easily let it be known to the beneficiary that he or she has made a substantial contribution to the relevant blind trust. Accordingly the Committee recommends that blind trusts should be prohibited.

Mindful of the recent history on the Isle of Man and the finding of the Committee of Inquiry into Mount Murray;  a summary I am providing for your information here: “However, we do find that there was corruption of the system of government by reason of consistent maladminstration and weakness, allied to wrongdoing by officers, and the lack of transparency in government dealings. This did allow a developer in effect to dictate to government, and, without in any way breaking the law, achieve in development terms exactly what it wanted to achieve, notwithstanding the consequential cost to the taxpayer generally, and affected members of the public particularly, in terms of safety, amenity and finance. The primary events which lead to the production of this report occurred over twelve years ago, yet it was only some three years ago that they were truly brought into the public arena. The failure to detect and examine the misdeeds for nine years until the Crow Report was commissioned is as important an aspect of our report as are the original events. This is because the weaknesses and failures by government in the handling of those matters continue in significant degree with a still present belief, in many areas of current influence, that there was really little wrong with the systems of government, and there was simply negligence or misconduct by some limited number of individuals who were operating the systems. Such opinions are seriously misconceived."

I am certain that you will agree with me that the costs of making right such events as happened with the Inquiry were considerable to the taxpayer. It is better to prevent such possibilities happening again.

If at some future time it is discovered that a political candidate had obtained public office out of the funding from a Blind Trust and had committed serious misdeeds as a consequence of acting not in the public interest but for those vested in the providers of funds to the Blind Trust, the electorate would have every good reason to hold accountable not just the perpetrator of such misdeeds, but everyone in the Parliament who had allowed the circumstances of them to occur in the first place.

Therefore, I am asking you to instigate and canvass support for an early debate into the entire matter in the House of Keys and that you will take into consideration the depth of feeling in the electorate against the emergence of Blind Trusts for Political Purposes and will vote to prohibit them on the Isle of Man.

Thursday, 09 September 2010 01:17

The IOM branch of the BCS is delighted to announce they have the privilege of having as their next speaker Tony Collins, author, broadcaster and former Executive Editor of Computer Weekly. Holder of 26 awards for journalism, he has reported, since the 1980s, on what can be learnt from IT-related failures. He has been questioned by several Parliamentary committees and quoted in their reports. He believes that posterity can learn more from failure than success. 

Mr Collins has been at the forefront of investigative journalism in the IT sector for the past two decades. His credits include alerts about the FADEC software problems implicated in the 1994 Mull of Kintyre Chinook crash, the ongoing failings of the £12.7 billion NHS NpfIT programme, and countless other examples of public and private sector IT initiatives that have not worked out as desired. He is probably the single most influential journalist in the arena of Professional IT in the UK, and has uncovered and broken many stories which would otherwise have been unreported or covered up. The scrutiny he has brought to the world of government and corporate IT has undoubtedly raised standards within the IT profession and has stimulated mass-media reporting and parliamentary investigation into the underexposed back office IT functions of government and business that affect the majority of citizens in the UK.

His Computer Weekly IT Projects blog can be viewed at: http://www.computerweekly.com/blogs/tony_collins/

Mr Collins is visiting the Isle of Man as one of the primary speakers at the Commonwealth Parliamentary Association conference on the theme of "Technology and Democracy". He will be addressing delegates from the parliaments of the UK, Isle of Man and many of the other Island members of the Commonwealth; and the Isle of Man BCS are very grateful to have captured some of his time to speak whilst he's here.

The talk is to be held on the 12th May 2010 at the Sanderson Suite, Claremont Hotel, Douglas Promenade, Douglas. Open at 6:00pm for a 6:30pm start. The talk will be approximately 30-45 minutes long and there will be opportunities to ask questions. The event is expected to complete by 8:00pm.There is no attendance charge.

If you intend to attend, please leave a message for Publicity on the BCS contact form to confirm they have enough seating and refreshments.