How this for a sense of priorities? A report in the Financial Times suggests that 4bn pounds is to be spent by public and private bodies in the UK to celebrate the new millennium – but the government is resisting suggestions that it should increase the 1m pound funding it has given to a body designed to raise awareness of the year 2000 problem for computer systems. And just to make life even more interesting, there are now two organizations – with different messages – offering advice on the problem. Action 2000, the official government sponsored body, reckons that the time and money already spent on the problem, will reduce exposure to an acceptable level. But Taskforce 2000, formed by the previous government, thinks this is far too complacent a view and points out that few major software projects are completed on time. Taskforce 2000 lost its government funding after it criticized the complacency of ministers to the problem – an attitude that put them off message the spin doctors’ term for anyone who fails to toe the official line.
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