Last week we brought you the news that in advance of his first annual report, Sir Joseph Pilling - the UK Identity Commissioner - had given an interview to our old friend on the Manchester Evening News, Angela Epstein. As you will see from my blogpost, I was somewhat unhappy with the easy ride Pilling was afforded.
So, massive credit is due to Nicole Kobie at ITPRO Magazine for the pearls she has gleaned from her interview with the Commissioner, some of which I include below for your entertainment:
Q: You admit yourself in the report that you didn't know that much about the subject when you were picked for the job. Why do you think they picked you?
A: Who wants to drop what they're doing to take on a role that is only going to last for a matter of months? They were forced to have somebody as the ID commissioner, because by law they couldn't issue a card until they had a commissioner.
They solved the problem by coming to somebody like me, who wasn't actually looking for a job and didn't mind if the job actually continued or not. I'm so old and so past it that I didn't apply for the job and wouldn't have been willing to do it on a full-time basis, because I've got other things that I am committed to.I think one of the great joys of retirement is you have time to spend poking around in things you didn't have time for when you were working.
An old man who has chosen to spend his retirement presiding over the most intrusive and expensive system allowing our government to control its population ever conceived in Britain.
Do have a read of the full interview and realise just how much peril we are in!
By Dylan Sharpe
It sounds good but actually 20 people applied for his job and six were shortlisted -
http://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/recruitment_process_for_identity
So why did they then approach an old colleague of the Home Office?
Posted by: James Elsdon-Baker | 03/03/2010 at 02:19 PM