By Sarah Left, 18 December 1998 17:23
COMMENT So it's true: the UK government is trying to stifle Gwynneth Flower, director general of Action 2000. Flower has been candid and open about the need for contingency planning in the face of a national emergency. But no one else, neither in Action 2000 nor the government, seems willing to face the possibility of disruption to public services. Flower made some comments to UK newspaper, the Observer recently. It made the front page - yet all she said was that people should stock up on essentials like canned goods and candles. This is simple common sense hardly the stuff of this screaming headline: "Millennium bug panic warning". The Prime Minister himself referred to the situation as an "emergency" back in March. So why is Margaret Beckett unable to accept Flower's completely reasonable statements? Even Action 2000 is keen to douse the flames of "panic". A spokeswoman insisted: "Stockpiling would be an over-reaction." The Cabinet Office has also distanced itself from Flower's comments. The heart of the matter is that no one can agree on what will happen come the next millennium. The varied predictions from Action 2000, the Cabinet Office and Taskforce 2000 simply don't add up. At his year-end review this week, Action 2000 chairman, Don Cruickshank was cagey about the nation's infrastructure. "Overall I believe that those aspects of the national infrastructure that need to be ready will be ready." What exactly does that mean? For an organisation that's been harping on about openness for over a year, it's not doing a very good job at wringing detailed information out of public service providers. Patience among the business community for the government's "trust me" approach is wearing thin. Action 2000's own figures show that 40 per cent of businesses are frustrated by the lack of information from utilities and public services. Ian Hugo, editor of Millennium Watch, reported on the state of the government's preparedness recently - and his findings were hardly reassuring. It leaves several government departments, including the Ministry of Defence, with no hope that they'll do more than fix "mission critical" systems. And the definition of mission critical is narrowing by the day. Both Flower and Beckett have stated publicly that it's too late to fix everything. It's a matter of getting as much right as possible. Setting aside some baked beans and batteries is a reasonable precaution given that the impact of the millennium bug is so unpredictable. The government is creating panic by refusing to own up to this. Gwynneth Flower is one of the best-informed millennium experts in the nation. Let's hear her uncensored opinion.
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