General News

Keynote speech delivered to the Commonwealth Telecommunications Organisation conference [Part 1]

A street with fences covered in graffiti or pavement strewn with litter is upsetting to residents. It also makes visitors to the area feel anxious and uneasy about their safety. Indeed I have long argued that the by-product of low-level crime and disorder is a psychological impact on everyone in the community.

Much of the time on the green benches is very mundane. But every now and again we are present as history is made – the day when Margaret Thatcher resigned, Tony Blair’s last question time and so on.

The news has been full of high profile data losses over the last year or so. The instinctive reaction is to say “stop sharing data”. Some commentators suggest that our increasing reliance on technology and computerised data storage systems is at the heart of this security malaise.

Your opinion is important. That is why the Committee on Standards in Public Life on which I sit asks the public for their opinions each year. We publish the “National Survey of Public Attitudes on Standards of Conduct in Public Life”.

Over the past few weeks you could be forgiven for thinking that the whole world order is about to collapse, and that by the end of the week we would all be reduced to burning bundles of worthless banknotes for warmth.

Since my days as a youth and community worker in Cardiff I have been a great supporter of the Citizen’s Advice Bureau. These little offices dotted around towns and cities across the UK are a unique and valuable resource.

There is a lot of truth in ‘parables’ – which are a traditional way of telling truths in the form of a story. When I heard the news about the Government’s plans to bail out major banks by taking large share holdings in some of them, solidifying their position, and the debate about whether the money would reach home-buyers and small-businesses I thought about the parable of the greedy servant.

I have always been intrigued about what makes the news what doesn’t. I suppose that’s what drew me into my first profession as a newspaper reporter before I took up a full-time career in youth work and then entered politics.

Like any organisation, Government benefits from the occasional injection of fresh blood. New people and ideas can revive projects and bring new pressure to bear on previously underappreciated schemes.