Every British Citizen To Have a Personal Webpage

Hugh Pickens writes "The Telegraph reports that British Prime Minister Gordon Brown is about to announce that within a year everyone in Great Britain will be given a personalized webpage for accessing Government services as part of a plan to save billions of pounds by putting all public services online. The move could see the closure of job centers and physical offices dealing with tax, vehicle licensing, passports and housing benefits within 10 years as services are offered through a single digital gateway. [This] 'saves time for people and it saves money for the Government — the processing of a piece of paper and mailing it back costs many times more than it costs to process something electronically,' says Tim Berners-Lee, an advisor to the Prime Minister. However, the proposals are coming under fire from union leaders who complain that thousands of public sector workers would be made jobless and pointed to the Government's poor record of handling personal data. 'Cutting public services is not only bad for the public who use services but also the economy as we are pushing people who provide valuable services on the dole,' says one union leader."

Comments

Re:Surveillance.

[WheelDweller]

Saying something sane like this, but being on Slashdot, does that mean you're actually FOR the democrat's "HealthCare" plan?

You'd be surprised how many people hate the government, and can point to it's faults, yet saddle up with the "we'll do it better than the private sector" crowd.

You CAN NOT count on a government...any government...to meet your needs, and in this example, to stay out of your business if they decide to go for more power.

It's the explicit *reason* the American Experiment has reigned supreme for it's people, and it's neighbors for so long now. As soon as it starts being another communist 'also-ran', the world will dim for us all.

This issue comes from the kind of socialism the Brits have embraced. It's not total yet, but it's fairly sad. They were once world-dominators; now they can't keep the Muslims from setting up Sharia law and people cutting off hands inside their borders. :(

I'm a big fan of the Brits, Aussies, even French and Russians...but the socialism *is* the problem. You won't get this kind of government intrusion with American Conservatism. I just hope the republican party permits itself to use it, again.

The government that rules best, rules least. --Ronald Regan