vivweb01

There has been much talk in the press and on social media recently about the Government’s intention to roll out electronic digital personal identification  (eID) in the UK. As yet, the fine detail of the eIDs themselves, and the process of their implementation, hasn’t been presented. Reading between the lines, I suspect the leadership are wary of imposing yat another far-reaching measure in their usual 'bull in a china shop' fashion, and are testing the water before revealing any concrete plans or timescales.  Here are some thoughts regarding the practicability and implications of such a scheme, assuming that the end result is some sort of smartphone-based personal ID product. First, let’s consider its desirability for the average UK citizen. We are told that a personal ID card will assist us in allowing quicker access to all manner of benefits and other state provisions, as well as removing the cumbersome requirements for paper documents that are needed to prove ID an...

  We in the UK are undoubtedly a nation of dog lovers..... While I’m all in favour of the benefits of owning one of ‘man’s best friends’, and there are undoubtedly many, keeping a dog is no mean task, and really must be taken on responsibly….. When you aspire to dog ownership and actually take the plunge, you are effectively becoming that animal’s sole guardian, and are then legally responsible for its actions during its whole lifetime.  In one sense, this a more onerous responsibility even than adopting a young child, since in that case you would only be responsible for his or her well-being and actions until they are 18; and as individuals, they will become legally responsible for their own actions at age 16 under current UK law. A dog will never be legally responsible for anything it does…you are - until it dies, or you transfer its ownership to someone else. It has to be said that most dog owners are responsible people and ensure that their dogs are kept firmly on...

  Two new Covid sub-variants have recently been identified as responsible for a surge of new Covid infections round the world. These are giving rise to some concerns in UK, in that a comparable surge here could also lead to a significant rise in hospitalisations this autumn and winter. According to WHO data , Europe seems to be ‘leading the pack’ on rises in case numbers . We might reasonably expect this, now that we’re well into the N. Hemisphere Autumn quarter ,   when seasonal respiratory infections traditionally tend to start increasing again after the summer hiatus, and we're also one of the most population-dense continents on the planet. The good news is that the new variants, named Nimbus and Stratus , don’t appear to be significantly more lethal than previous variants. They do, however, seem to be even more efficient at infecting us than their predecessors. Stratus, also known as Omicron sub-variant XFG , and Nimbus ( Omicron NB.1.8.1 ) now have the stat...