Jon Bright (London, OK): The headline that most of the papers didn't go with today was the launch of the Risk and Regulation Advisory Council, an independent body which has been formed from the last will and testament of the Better Regulation Commission. The commission, whose many achievements included this advice to climate change policy makers:
if it isn't working, change it
itself grew out of the Better Regulation Task Force (not, under any circumstances, to be confused with the Better Regulation Executive, whose role in this whole affair is slightly mysterious to me). The RRAC "signals the opening of a different chapter in better regulation" said the BRC report (even if it will be composed entirely of people who were in the BRC).
The RRAC is to advise the government on how it can tone down a culture of risk aversion that has lead to safety goggles becoming mandatory for conker fights, hanging baskets being banned because they were hanging over people's heads, and the above mentioned warning appearing on packets of nuts. They have a number of priorities - including the government's overbearing campaign on obesity - but it does feel, to coin a phrase, as if they are going to do little more than rearrange the safety signs on the Titanic.
Meanwhile, the Times reports that Microsoft, in what can hardly be described as a publicity coup, is trying to patent "spy-software" which will allow remote monitoring of employees:
Microsoft submitted a patent application in the US for a “unique monitoring system” that could link workers to their computers. Wireless sensors could read “heart rate, galvanic skin response, EMG, brain signals, respiration rate, body temperature, movement facial movements, facial expressions and blood pressure”, the application states.
The system could also “automatically detect frustration or stress in the user” and “offer and provide assistance accordingly”. Physical changes to an employee would be matched to an individual psychological profile based on a worker’s weight, age and health. If the system picked up an increase in heart rate or facial expressions suggestive of stress or frustration, it would tell management that he needed help.
Too early to jump to conclusions, of course, though automated offers of assistance in Microsoft programmes are not generally famous for reducing frustration or stress in the user. Will the RRAC, or any of its many successors, drive nanny out of the state just in time for her to be employed in the private sector? Either way, I expect someone to be telling me that peanuts may contain nuts for some time to come.
