I was away from Belfast, and television, and t’internet for a couple of days. And what happens?

Nothing much, by the sound of it. Belfast seems to be largely ticking over as normal; fuel seems to be flowing despite what must be the best paid picket line in Christendom; the beautiful red cars did rather well and United done fucked up.

Which, frankly, is no good. I need something to get worked up about; something that I can blast a quick rant off about to cover for the fact that I’ve nothing particularly annoying me at the moment. And yet nothing on that there interwab vexed me too much.

Generally, at this point I’d issue a “Thank you” to Mr C Scribe, formerly of Greyabbey, who thoughtfully sent me this link.

Oakgrove College Derry, a secondary school in the north of Ireland has fingerprinted most of its pupils to “help speed up school meals”. Parental consent was not sought before this mass fingerprint piracy was launched. This sneak attack on civil liberties should be opposed by every parent who cares for the personal data of their children.

But I cannot issue said thanks, because this is rather more annoying than I was hoping for. All the arguments against general fingerprinting of the population (which I’ve gone on about more than a little) hold, plus the additional insidious nature of teaching kids that fingerprinting is acceptable for obtaining state services.

In short:

• What the fuck do the school think they’re playing at by bringing this in?
• What the fuck do the majority of the parents think is happening?
• How long do you give the half baked fuckup when people realise the scheme is what it is?