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A bank holiday thread on the Scottish Govt track and protect system. With a caveat that this experience is now over 2 years old.
Question: how much money does Scotland get from the EU Regional Development fund?
Anyone? All those projects with the
https://abs.twimg.com/emoji/v2/... draggable="false" alt="🇪🇺" title="Flag of European Union" aria-label="Emoji: Flag of European Union"> on signs? How much?
Zero.
Question: how much money does Scotland get from the EU Regional Development fund?
Anyone? All those projects with the
Zero.
We get zero. Or we did.
Why?
Because the Scottish Govt& #39;s spectacular incompetence in being able to claim it. Businesses apply for funding from the scheme and that funding comes from UK taxation up front, we then have to remit that from the EU. But SG have an awful system
Why?
Because the Scottish Govt& #39;s spectacular incompetence in being able to claim it. Businesses apply for funding from the scheme and that funding comes from UK taxation up front, we then have to remit that from the EU. But SG have an awful system
I will happily go into the geekery of it if asked but the headline is that SG provide a Web enabled claims system for LA and other funding bodies to claim against the EU via them. This is/was prone to failure, required multiple calls to process a single transaction...
and a blame based process for amending any claims with errors in them where you had to *write* to them to explain your mistake.
Net result? Circa £5m of claims that have been stuck going nowhere. For the best part of 6 years when I was involved.
Net result? Circa £5m of claims that have been stuck going nowhere. For the best part of 6 years when I was involved.
Now the same people that brought you that have placed our route out of lockdown in a "tracking app" that I would expect a Higher student to design, but not a student hoping for an A.
The UK app may be a mess but at least it is a mess working towards the understood best practice
The UK app may be a mess but at least it is a mess working towards the understood best practice
The Scottish solution, such as it is, is basically if you get a positive covid test you will be sent a link to a website where you will be asked to list everyone you& #39;ve been in contact with.
Doesn& #39;t sound too bad does it?
Doesn& #39;t sound too bad does it?
OK, but we& #39;re talking here about a virus that has an incubation period of, what? 14 days? So that will be 14 days of contacts you will have to list. You! You will have to remember them all.
Oh, there is a £5k fine for deliberately withholding contact information from the system
Oh, there is a £5k fine for deliberately withholding contact information from the system
I am not saying that accidently forgetting a contact would result in a fine, but are you willing to place a £5k bet that you won& #39;t be made an example of? Think of a standard 2 week period pre-lockdown, how many entries do you think you& #39;d make? How many would you be confident of?
So as you& #39;re going man down the Scottish Govt will be demanding you accurately detail everyone you have been around under threat of a fine (oh, or 12 months in prison).
You know what wouldnt result in a fine? Not seeking out a test if you felt a bit covidy!
You know what wouldnt result in a fine? Not seeking out a test if you felt a bit covidy!
The Scottish Govt that has been so bad at getting back money owed to it by a supranational funding body that it has been placed on the naughty step by them, and told they are subject to a 100% document check, are placing our continued liberty on a website that has no automation
I am going to assume that they have done this because they don& #39;t have the skills to develop iOS and Android in-house but they are driven by an overwhelming urge to be seen to be doing something distinct and Scottish, regardless of the repercussions. They& #39;re determined to put https://abs.twimg.com/emoji/v2/... draggable="false" alt="🏴" title="Flag of Scotland" aria-label="Emoji: Flag of Scotland">
Now ask yourself this: what is the bigger threat to public health? Dominic Cummings driving to his parents 2 months ago or the potential collapse of a Scottish tracing system due to the primitive nature of the technology involved? Because this system *cannot* work, it will fail.
We see many SNP M(s)Ps (including my own, my friend @GavNewlandsSNP) making a big deal of the DC issue. But this track & trace system, *this* is the existential threat to Scot lives & economy. This& #39;s what constituents should be worried about & what you should be laser focused on
If your M(s)P isn& #39;t publicly voicing concerns about this proposed solution ask them to explain why they& #39;re confident in it, I would genuinely like to know if I have made a mistake in my remote analysing of this solution. Is the correct function of this site on the critical path?
It may sound trite, but Cummings is in the past. This process is in our future, it may even directly influence the level to which unemployment reaches in Scotland.
We need answers around this system, no later than Thursday please @NicolaSturgeon/ @JeaneF1MSP
/ends
We need answers around this system, no later than Thursday please @NicolaSturgeon/ @JeaneF1MSP
/ends
