Accidents and Official Secrets

[sobrique]

I guess it'll come as no surprise to some that I had a prang. (Incidentally, I love that word. Bang with a metallic ting to it). For what it's worth, I've done 50k miles, and have spend many, many hours on the road. And I lost it, and ... well the rest is history.

There's none so blind as one that will not see.

Looking back (oh hindsight is clear) I can see that I've had several warnings. Moments when I've thought 'that was close' or have noticed a skid and dealt with it.
And I told myself 'I can deal with it'.

I like driving. It's fun. It's Freedom. Sometimes putting the boot down and giving it some is a very exhilerating rush.

I guess now I'm wrong. I can't deal with it. So far, I've got away with my driving style. 50k miles is good odds right? Well, no. Because there's no guarantee that next time it won't be worse. It won't be a car that I run into, it'll be a person, or it'll be a collision in the middle of the M6 that causes 10 cars to pile up and several fatalities.

I do still enjoy driving. I intend to continue to do so. But I think I'll see about bookin' some track time and a skid pan course.

I've been intentionally blind, and despite saying that one shouldn't lie to oneself, well, I have. Maybe I'll be generous and say that I didn't realise. But that's really no better.

I can continue to lie to myself, or I can wake up and start paying attention. I think I'll aim for the latter.

Anyhow.

The current stir in the news is Clare Short and the Official Secrets act. I remember thinking, yesterday morning, when I heard her say "Oh I've seen transcripts of conversations with the Secretary General of the UN" that it'd be firestorm.

Silly cow. Either it's true, and she's just broken the Official Secrets act (Which is no minor matter. That sort of thing gets real serious). Or it's a lie, in which case she's just a lying weasel who's shit-stirring and needs a good kicking.

I'm not surprised to find that the UN gets bugged. Government's spy on each other? Surely not!
International treaties aside - they're just tools for playing politics anyway - I'm _glad_ my government bugs, spys and gathers intelligence however they can.
It's one of the tenets of warfare that it's not about armour, firepower or manpower. It's about information and logistics. OK, so it's not a war. Because that's a 'legal definition'. But it _is_ a war. We're competing with all the other nations of the world. From some angles, it pays to work together. From others, it does not. But either way, we need the information.

Comments

[mrph.livejournal.com]

Slippery slope, though. There's a line between the country's best interests and the government's best interests.

Spying on Kofi Annan so that GWB and Tony can get the jump on the rest of the UN and (by hook or by crook) get their war? That's a bit dubious.

I don't see a national interest there. I just see a couple of people who are determined to invade Iraq and won't let facts or diplomatic niceties stop them.

[sobrique.livejournal.com]

Yes. That's true. And that's their weakness.

I believe that it's in our country's best interest to spy. I believe that it's important that we know what's going down. I also believe that such information is dangerous and can lead to mistakes.

In my opinion, spying on the UN was 'business as usual'. OK, in the particular incidence, well it might have been misused. How much has it saved?