Thursday, April 30, 2009
Congestion charge reprised
Sufficiently bored to pursue this one (see 25 April). So I find, deep in the system somewhere, a policeman option. If you are a policeman and want to know whether or not someone has been in the zone or to see images from congestion zone cameras, please phone the following number and we will see what you can do to help. So it does seem to be possible to find out. So I phone the help desk. Helpful gentleman explains that yes, you can find out whether you need to pay the charge. There is an option on the congestion charge website, the URL of which he gives me. Which promptly redirects me to the website I was at at the first place. Still no option. So I send a message using the email option which I can find. And, to be fair, get an email reply within a day or so. A reasonably organised reply, so they must get asked this one fairly often. Bottom line, still no.
But there seems to be a flaw in their line. Every charging night, they match the registration numbers of cars who have zoned with the numbers of cars who have paid. Matches are dropped for data protection reasons, leaved the residue to be penalised. Ergo, they say, we cannot tell you whether you have been in the zone. Well no, not exactly, but they could tell you whether you have been in the zone and not yet paid, which is about what I wanted to know. Now when I was little, it was drummed into me that, as a reasonably public person, I should never admit fault. Admit fault and the punters will really get dug in. Much better to deny. Now, in the year of our lord 2009, I am not so sure. The Metropolitan Police would, to my mind, look a lot better if they admitted to the serious mistakes they make from time to time, rather than being in denial. In the same way, I would be much more impressed with TFL if they just said: yes, we cocked up; oversight at design time. Too late to fix now. Rather than all this data protection waffle. I note in passing that the same applies to the decent Brown and/or the greedy Blair. They refuse to admit any responsibility for the mess we are in, that the regulatory regime which they were somewhat, if not largely, responsible for putting in place, failed to blow any whistles. With the distastrous return to blow-hot-blow-cold-blow-something-else which they had been telling us for a decade that they had abolished.
Returning from this diversion, I got to thinking about all this data protection waffle, and maybe they did have a point. Registration on the TFL site was not exactly hard-core. So if the facility to ask TFL whether a vehicle had been in the zone or not was available, I could check up on the wife and found out whether she had been to London or not when she said she had been to Reigate. Or on Mr Jones down the road. So, OK, a minor intrusion of their privacy. But then, in order to do this, I think I had to supply my postcode. It would not be a big deal for TFL to check whether the registration number I was interested in was registered at the postcode I had given, and if it was to allow the query. That would more or less kill off random trawling. If I knew both postcode and registration number they would not be giving so much more away. And if the deviant Mr Jones was prompt about paying his charge, they would not be giving anything away. So, after all due reflection, I remain unconvinced that it would not be better to provide the enquiry facility I was after in the first place.
Yesterday, being a Wednesday, was indulgence day. So I thought to have a shoulder of south downs lamb. Scary the speed with which the butcher detached the thing from the more or less entire sheep it came from. Then slightly alarmed to find that I had five pounds of shoulder and only two hours to cook it in. So whacked the temperature up to 190C - rather than the long slow 175C that I usually do shoulder of lamb at. Leach all the fat out sort of thing. As it turned out, I rather liked the high temperature option. OK, so there was more fat left hanging around the lean, but the lean was moister with more open texture and better flavour, not reduced to succulent but chewy morsels. Accompanying swede not so hot. Must be getting towards their sell by date for last season. But spring cabbage and autumn potatoes fine. Balance of the lamb will find its way into today's sandwiches, in which context that bit of fat provides the lubrication which might otherwise have had to come from additional butter, or, heaven forfend, from the dreaded emulsified vegetable oil (aka Flora original with added omega threes).
But there seems to be a flaw in their line. Every charging night, they match the registration numbers of cars who have zoned with the numbers of cars who have paid. Matches are dropped for data protection reasons, leaved the residue to be penalised. Ergo, they say, we cannot tell you whether you have been in the zone. Well no, not exactly, but they could tell you whether you have been in the zone and not yet paid, which is about what I wanted to know. Now when I was little, it was drummed into me that, as a reasonably public person, I should never admit fault. Admit fault and the punters will really get dug in. Much better to deny. Now, in the year of our lord 2009, I am not so sure. The Metropolitan Police would, to my mind, look a lot better if they admitted to the serious mistakes they make from time to time, rather than being in denial. In the same way, I would be much more impressed with TFL if they just said: yes, we cocked up; oversight at design time. Too late to fix now. Rather than all this data protection waffle. I note in passing that the same applies to the decent Brown and/or the greedy Blair. They refuse to admit any responsibility for the mess we are in, that the regulatory regime which they were somewhat, if not largely, responsible for putting in place, failed to blow any whistles. With the distastrous return to blow-hot-blow-cold-blow-something-else which they had been telling us for a decade that they had abolished.
Returning from this diversion, I got to thinking about all this data protection waffle, and maybe they did have a point. Registration on the TFL site was not exactly hard-core. So if the facility to ask TFL whether a vehicle had been in the zone or not was available, I could check up on the wife and found out whether she had been to London or not when she said she had been to Reigate. Or on Mr Jones down the road. So, OK, a minor intrusion of their privacy. But then, in order to do this, I think I had to supply my postcode. It would not be a big deal for TFL to check whether the registration number I was interested in was registered at the postcode I had given, and if it was to allow the query. That would more or less kill off random trawling. If I knew both postcode and registration number they would not be giving so much more away. And if the deviant Mr Jones was prompt about paying his charge, they would not be giving anything away. So, after all due reflection, I remain unconvinced that it would not be better to provide the enquiry facility I was after in the first place.
Yesterday, being a Wednesday, was indulgence day. So I thought to have a shoulder of south downs lamb. Scary the speed with which the butcher detached the thing from the more or less entire sheep it came from. Then slightly alarmed to find that I had five pounds of shoulder and only two hours to cook it in. So whacked the temperature up to 190C - rather than the long slow 175C that I usually do shoulder of lamb at. Leach all the fat out sort of thing. As it turned out, I rather liked the high temperature option. OK, so there was more fat left hanging around the lean, but the lean was moister with more open texture and better flavour, not reduced to succulent but chewy morsels. Accompanying swede not so hot. Must be getting towards their sell by date for last season. But spring cabbage and autumn potatoes fine. Balance of the lamb will find its way into today's sandwiches, in which context that bit of fat provides the lubrication which might otherwise have had to come from additional butter, or, heaven forfend, from the dreaded emulsified vegetable oil (aka Flora original with added omega threes).
# posted by Jim @ 12:11 AM 
