The best question yet

[man in the street]

a clear case of do as i say and not as i do.
 i thought that monty had not taken up the offer of a free blackberrey.
 and was merely reading from a modern day note pad , without the waste of paper.
as for the paperless office , what a load of cobblers that was.

[Dundee]

a clear case of do as i say and not as i do.
 i thought that monty had not taken up the offer of a free blackberrey.
 and was merely reading from a modern day note pad , without the waste of paper.
as for the paperless office , what a load of cobblers that was.

So you would advocate that the States Chamber is not fir for purpose and that we should construct a purpose built chamber that will no doubt cost a considerable sum, I think the cost of a little bit of paper is insignificant in comparison.

[man in the street]

the amount of cash spent on that building is unbelivable, yes it is a historic building, and hope it requires nothng more than a lick of paint for the years to come, and more to the point, only  gets a lick of paint.
sorry dundee, if the unelected person can have a laptop the the elected person should too.
and we will have to agree to differ on this point.

[newmac]

On the Bridget Broadcasting Charterbreakers radio the other morning was an interesting mention of Montfort Tadier being denied the chance to speak in the States because his speech was on his laptop.

Despite there being nothing in Standing Orders banning such a thing, and the AG using a laptop in the chamber, our unelected Speaker took it upon himself to deny an elected representative his chance to speak!

No mention of this outrage on the TV news of course!!

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If the poster is right then nothing in standing orders stops a politician putting in his pennysworth from the back of a napkin, a piece of typed a4 or a lap top. What the hell going on when a young politician is stopped from representing his views and electorate using a laptop to read from.

Why ?

Boatyboy

If the unelected speaker was to enforce current standing orders the use of blackberrys would not be allowed, as they are a mobile phone which I believe are not allowed to be used, Considering that Deputy Tadier has used his laptop in the past for his notes/speeches what was different this time?

[Dundee]

There is of course a simple solution for the elected Deputy and that is a) buy himself a blackberry out of his 12K expenses b) take the matter up with PPC of which he is a member c) bring a proposition to allow the use of PC's in the chamber d) bar the AG the use of a PC and so waste time whilst he searches volumes on law to find an answer or ruling e) find funding for a new chamber f) print his speeches (which should only take one piece of paper at the very most) 

[vlad1m1r]

There is of course a simple solution for the elected Deputy and that is a) buy himself a blackberry out of his 12K expenses b) take the matter up with PPC of which he is a member c) bring a proposition to allow the use of PC's in the chamber d) bar the AG the use of a PC and so waste time whilst he searches volumes on law to find an answer or ruling e) find funding for a new chamber f) print his speeches (which should only take one piece of paper at the very most) 

Interesting suggestions but why would we want to stop the AG looking up points of law on a PC? As for Blackberries it might actually reassure constituents and politicians as they use a form of encryption which can't be read without the correct password. Incidentally, is a mobile with 'flight mode' enabled still a mobile phone for all intents and purposes?

Maybe they should just get a load of PDAs...

V.

[Dundee]

I am fully in favour of the AG having the use of a PC, it is MOTS and BB that have flagged this issue.

[vlad1m1r]

I am fully in favour of the AG having the use of a PC, it is MOTS and BB that have flagged this issue.

My father worked with the Civil Service, he said that most of the Magistracy didn't even know how to use e-mail, however they are apparently competent enough to dispense justice. It would be a shame if our elected officials were similarly technophobic.

Incidentally isn't the ruling not that laptops are forbidden in and of themselves but where they might in the opinion of the AG disrupt proceedings? If so it compounds the situation if he had to halt proceedings and a speech in order to uphold this rule. I could be misquoting the rule of course, if anyone can remember the exact wording...?

V.

[Dylan]

My father worked with the Civil Service, he said that most of the Magistracy didn't even know how to use e-mail, however they are apparently competent enough to dispense justice. It would be a shame if our elected officials were similarly technophobic.

Incidentally isn't the ruling not that laptops are forbidden in and of themselves but where they might in the opinion of the AG disrupt proceedings? If so it compounds the situation if he had to halt proceedings and a speech in order to uphold this rule. I could be misquoting the rule of course, if anyone can remember the exact wording...?

V.

I do, its " You can shut that effing laptop down for a start!"

[vlad1m1r]

I do, its " You can shut that effing laptop down for a start!"

Maybe they could benefit from next generation PDAs with WiFi built in - there's no rule against that. Mind you there's no rule against bringing your pet crocodile into the States Chamber but they might take a dim view of it if you exploited this legal loophole...

V.

[Chevalier Blanc]

Well cut down on the number of members in the states and the saying of money could allow for each member to have a computer in front of them because there would be more room with less members. Also would bring it into the modern world abit more.

[Xenth]

Well cut down on the number of members in the states and the saying of money could allow for each member to have a computer in front of them because there would be more room with less members. Also would bring it into the modern world abit more.

Chev
they all get a laptop allocated to them which is on the states network and its quite ridiculous that they still print every document for each member and send them out via post to each member rather than have them pdf'd to each members email which they are given!!!

The mind boggles in the way in which the States find to spend money!!!

[Deputy Dawg]

My belief is that Tadier should be allowed to use a laptop. The States needs to drag itself into the 20th Century, never mind 2010.  There should be in the states chambers, access to use a laptop (note taking and making speeches, keeping PDF's of relevent information to check against while others may be giving false information etc etc ). There should also be a built in overhead projector that each of the laptops could be connected to to assist with speeches.

Daniel Wimberley walking into a states sitting with boxes of paper and reports must have known that this could not be disseminated to the masses properly. Had he assisted his speech with a powerpoint presentation and PDF's of the important information which could then be posted to a website for all to see would that not have been more beneficial to everyone and may even have cut his speech down to manageable time?

What would be the drawbacks? Other than making the states more transparent by allowing people to see full presentations of speeches it would also allow states members to do a quick Google on important data "hey wait, it says here that Harcourt are being sued in Las Vegas!" Or is that the real point?

[vlad1m1r]

Chev
they all get a laptop allocated to them which is on the states network and its quite ridiculous that they still print every document for each member and send them out via post to each member rather than have them pdf'd to each members email which they are given!!!

The mind boggles in the way in which the States find to spend money!!!

It's interesting you mention that as when I questioned a local politician about it he said the reason for this was data security(!) I ask you what is more secure, a manilla envelope going through the whole postal network before ending up on the doormat of a house shared by several people or encrypting files to send to specific recipients?

Actually while we're on the topic, I don't suppose anyone has heard of the software PGP? It allows anyone to send an encrypted e-mail or file to anyone else using a "public key" i.e without needing to exchange passwords first. It's free and very simple to use - if the UK government had, they wouldn't have had to worry about losing all those CD's of personal data.

Sad to say I think even software as simple as that might be beyond some of them...

V.

[newmac]

What would be the drawbacks? Other than making the states more transparent by allowing people to see full presentations of speeches it would also allow states members to do a quick Google on important data "hey wait, it says here that Harcourt are being sued in Las Vegas!" Or is that the real point?

That's just what they don't want to be.
Why couldn't the AG have looked up about Harcourt