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Prime Minister’s computer-generated staff!
Virtually bonkers11 May 2011
by Huw Collingbourne
This is a very odd story.
According to a report on the BBC, the British Prime Minister uses ’computer generated’, non-existent people to answer his letters.
Labour MP Sir Gerald Kaufman received a reply to a letter sent to the Prime Minister’s office signed by a "Mrs E Adams". But when he phoned to speak to Mrs Adams, he was told she didn’t exist. The name was, in fact, "computer generated".
‘Raising a point of order in the Commons he said: "What extraordinary events are taking place in 10 Downing Street whereby they send letters from somebody who doesn’t exist and expect one to accept this?" Commons Speaker John Bercow said it seemed "peculiarly unfortunate" that the MP’s query had been dealt with in this way.’
So does that mean that it’s OK to have non-existent people communicate with members of the public? Not sure if this counts as Orwellian or Philip K Dick-ian. Either way, it’s completely nutty.