Lord Patten of Barnes. Chris Patten (Conservative), former MP, Hong Kong governor and European Commissioner.

Has said that a fundamental lack of understanding in government is to blame for a rash of ill-thought-out technology projects and related legislation in recent years. "Politicians have no sound grasp of technology issues — but politicians don't necessarily have a profound grasp of any issue. They rely on advisers for information on how to implement their broad intentions,"

Issues

Identity cards

Lord Patten of Barnes was especially critical of the government's ID card scheme, which is heavily reliant on technology. Speaking at the RSA Conference Europe on Wednesday, Patten said the scheme would not achieve one of its possible objectives of making borders more secure.

"I don't think ID cards make citizens more secure, or frontiers more secure. People would still have been blown up on the Tube last July if they'd had ID cards,"

Links

Lord Patten of Barnes TheyWorkForYou.com
Lord Patten of Barnes Wikipedia
Chris Pattern Archive aims to archive all articles, speeches and material by or about Chris Patten.

News

2006-10-27 - ZDNet - Chris Patten: Politicians have no grasp of technology: Author: Tom Espiner; Summary: Former Hong Kong governor politician Chris Patten has said that a fundamental lack of understanding in government is to blame for a rash of ill-thought-out technology projects and related legislation in recent years. Lord Patten of Barnes was especially critical of the government's ID card scheme, which is heavily reliant on technology. Speaking at the RSA Conference Europe on Wednesday, Patten said the scheme would not achieve one of its possible objectives of making borders more secure. "I don't think ID cards make citizens more secure, or frontiers more secure. People would still have been blown up on the Tube last July if they'd had ID cards," he said.