Wednesday 4 September 2013

Parliament's Porn Habit

What a rib-tickler. As MPs swan around the House in the short period before another recess takes hold for party conference season, this little gem was reported by the BBC this morning:
More than 300,000 attempts were made to access pornographic websites at the Houses of Parliament in the past year, official records suggest.

It is unclear whether MPs, peers or other staff are responsible, House of Commons officials said.

The figures were not all "purposeful requests" and may have been exaggerated by third-party software and websites that reload themselves, they added.
Now now, it might not be our honorable members who are to blame. After all, Parliament is a vast beast encompassing some 5,000 people. But at the same time it puts Dave's crusade against pornography in an all together different light. Perhaps it's the only way he can get his disaffected and dysfunctional mob to actually do some work.

Please, no jokes about politicians being wankers. Or Big Ben.

2 comments:

Howard Fuller said...

Actively accessing pornography at work is a sackable offence for civil servants and impossible to defend from a TU point of view.

Accidents can (and do) happen as one of my members discovered when he tried to get tickets for the Orient Express and clicked on a website advertising err.. eastern ladies of the night. No action necessary in that particular case.

However at the other extreme I was approached by one individual who had an audit trail of over 2,000 in two months. Resigned before he was pushed.

The high levels reported by Parliament cannot be "accidental". Another example of "one rule for us another rule for them"?

I have to say whilst no prude, I do not and will never understand people who access such material at work.

Phil said...

It's beyond me too. The thrill? Could they have serious addiction issues? The fact MPs cannot be sacked, and so they can abuse their computers with impunity? I cannot see any subordinate staff - unless they have dirt on their employer - accessing the stuff.