We should be skeptical of campaigns

Lord Warner:

Some of my puzzlement over hostility to the [Connecting for Health] programme has been removed, since leaving office, by discovering people working together to campaign against this programme. The campaign seems to be made up of the Foundation for Information Policy Research, the Big Opt Out organisation, the Conservative Technology Forum, Computer Weekly, Medix surveys and the Worshipful Company of Information Technologists, which I only recently discovered. …

I have insufficient time to entertain the House with more extracts. I am willing to let them be seen on a private basis by my honourable friend in the other place who chairs the Health Select Committee. In a spirit of bipartisanship, I would encourage Conservative parliamentarians to look closely and sceptically at some of the sources of advice they appear to be using. The Connecting for Health IT programme should not be a political football. Too much is at stake for patients and the NHS.

Is he suggesting we should only listen to people who don’t work together?

See also “How is govt accessing private FIPR e-mail?“

How sinister!

Andrew Miller (Ellesmere Port & Neston, Labour) Link to this | Hansard source
We are dealing with some interesting relationships. Many people who are getting puffed up about the programme have vested interests….it is important that we understand that there is a link between the Big Opt Out organisation, the No2ID people, the NHS IT 23 team and the other people to whom I have referred.

He’s right, there are vested interests and there is a link: they are all interested in privacy!

It’s sooooooo spooky that people who are interested in similar things might freely associate together, isn’t it?