From: tim@powys.org   
      
   On 14/06/2018 11:23 pm, Jenny M Benson wrote:   
   > On 14-Jun-18 10:37 PM, J. P. Gilliver (John) wrote:   
      
      
      
   >> (I also don't understand why we had - have - to have an NHS number   
   >> _and_ an NI one; surely a common one would have been better. The only   
   >> reason I can _think_ of is some "I am not a number, I am a free man"   
   >> thinking, which would be silly: I'd much rather be one number than   
   >> several!)   
   >   
   > I have been asking for years why we couldn't be assigned a single number   
   > at birth which went with us for life and served for every purpose where   
   > an "ID number" is required.   
      
   But some MPs think this is immoral and would lead to gevernment   
   departments thinking they could conveniently correlate information and   
   discover misdeeds or other horors.  Think what the STASI tried to do in   
   East Germany, and what George Orwell thought and what the North Korean   
   have been doing to their citizens.   
      
   And then some people think it is legitimate and proper that they conduct   
   their exchanges in private and use heavily encrypted coding.  And Apple   
   thinks they should support this.   
      
   It takes all sorts...   
      
   --   
   Tim Powys-Lybbe                                           tim@powys.org   
                 for a miscellany of bygones: http://powys.org/   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)