Government Rewarding Failure

[Gromit]

The UKs Track and Trace has been an unmitigated failure. Our world beating App didn’t work, not enough people signed up for it, a proven off-the-peg framework from Apple/Google was initially ignored, and the App was eventually scrapped (no mention of a refund from the App makers - who just happened to be Mr Cummings friends). The replacement App is still not out.

The manual Track and Trace didn’t fair much better. It arrived over two months after the start of the pandemic. It it was outsourced to Serco who recruited inexperienced staff. They failed to find 25% of its targets.

Overseeing this fiasco was Dido Harding. She has now been appointed head of the new National Institute for Health Protection. She should have been sacked months ago, not rewarded with a new role.

https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2020/aug/18/dido-harding-profile-institute-health-protection

[Hopkirk]

She was at the helm of Talk talk when they had a massive data breach.

[jno]

I would have thought a peerage was quite sufficient reward for failure, without going on to give her jobs involving actual responsibility.

Not that taking responsibility for anything is a hallmark of the current government; if she screws up she can always blame Ofqual.

[fiction-factory]

Yes, I got the impression that she tried to find a centralised system when local track and trace would have worked better.
But I think it's unfair to criticise the system because "They failed to find 25% of its targets".
It's not hard to see why people either leave false phone numbers or do not cooperate. I think a fair number of ABers would not want to get a call telling them to self isolate because some stranger in same the restaurant/bar had tested positive.

[fiction-factory]

I thought it was just an interim appointment to this new role though until a recruitment process could be carried out

[dannyk13]

Temporary position, which,of course, Gromit fails to mention.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-53813480

[jno]

what's temporariness got to do with it, dannyk? Either she's fit to do the job or she's not. Her employment record so far suggests she's not.

[Ellipsis]

> https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dido_Harding
> A member of the Conservative Party and a friend of former Prime Minister David Cameron, Harding was appointed as a Member of the House of Lords by Cameron in 2014. She holds a board position at the Jockey Club, which is responsible for several major events including the Cheltenham Festival.


Hmmm ... the Cheltenham Festival, eh?

She must have something on somebody senior, surely.

[ichkeria]

I’m amazed anyone thought any of this would work.
Plainly it was never going to.

[dannyk13]

jno//what's temporariness got to do with it, dannyk?//
The OP is about rewarding failure.I would hardly call a temporary position a reward.

[Peter Pedant]

yeah I noticed Dyed ( short for Dido ) a wash out in one was gonna colour up the other

no head up

In the Lundy Bridge thread when they wondered why there were no prizes for norwhal man or fire extinguisher Fred - I suggested only failures were rewarded and got a certain amount of - - - dissent

[Gromit]

dannyk

She should have been sacked months ago. The whole Track & Trace has been a fiasco.

[AZardoz]

It's not about tracking the bug, it's about tracking [u]you[/u].
Perhaps decades of CCTV have inured you to that.
Not all that useful now, is it ?