I happened upon this at the Computer Weekly UK site. Granted, this is an industry publication, I would like to see more like this in the mainstream press...

http://www.computerweekly.co.uk/cwarchive/news/19981119/cwcontainer.asp?name=E1.html

Issue date: 19 November 1998 Article source: Computer Weekly News "Plans show realism, not defeatism Media alarmism was an inappropriate response to the leaked memo on emergency preparedness for the millennium"

There was a great outcry two weeks ago when a letter from Scottish Secretary Donald Dewar to his Cabinet colleague, Defence Secretary George Robertson, was leaked. The confidential memo, dated early September, concerned proposed cuts in Scotland's Territorial Army. Mr Dewar wrote that these cuts could be seen to be unwise "at a time when millennium bug problems pose a potential threat to key services such as electricity and telecommunications and when, therefore, emergency preparedness should if anything be enhanced."

Shock horror. Big headlines - "Ministers fear millennium chaos" shouted the Daily Telegraph at the top of its front page. And most other broadsheets carried similar messages. Most seemed surprised that the issue might have been discussed in such terms in Cabinet - some seemed to think the Government feared civil disorder.

Yet anyone who understands the problem would regard Donald Dewar's statement as sensible. Given a possibility, even remote, of infrastructure failures, the Government would hardly be doing its duty if it was not making contingency plans - not necessarily considering employing troops to put down the baying mobs, but reviewing how it might help people if basic services were disrupted.

But this incident nicely illustrates a problem encountered by others who are trying to get to grips with contingency planning. Just considering what should be done if things go wrong is viewed by some as giving up - to contemplate the possibility of failure is seen as tantamount to accepting its inevitability.

The fact that there can be an element of truth in this only makes it the more dangerous. Hardly anyone with some understanding of the problem now expects everything to go smoothly. And that includes the Government - Margaret Beckett, the minister with the unenviable job of dealing with the issue, has said she no longer believes a comprehensive solution is possible.

So, for the Government to be considering the possibility that troops might be needed should not be so surprising. Indeed, it should be welcome. But the media seemed to think it was a major and worrying development. Why?

Well, it's the old story - despite the countless articles and a hugely expensive Government propaganda campaign, most people still simply do not believe that it could turn to be all that bad. And, unless we can persuade them that it is a matter for real concern, we are not going to get through this without major problems. Only when the need for action is understood and widely accepted will a reasonably successful outcome be likely.

No one knows - perhaps we will be spared the worst. But perhaps not. And the worst is unacceptable. Scare stories such as the Dewar leak certainly don't help. All I feel I can do is to keep the emerging facts on the public agenda. Any better ideas?

@COMPUTERWEEKLY ) 1998 Reed Business Information Limited

-- pshannon (pshannon@inch.com), November 19, 1998

Answers

Good common sense post.

-- Diane J. Squire (sacredspaces@yahoo.com), November 19, 1998.

I saw that article too. A little realism for once. I found the Australian sites to be straightforward as well. In Canada, I have to give credit to the Ottawa Citizen for their various y2k pieces. Sent an email to one of their writers regarding utility infrastructure and he asked my permission to publish it in their letters to the editor.

Newspapers are part of the business establishment, rather than conduits for the facts. Seems everyone wants to milk the stock market for as long as possible, stave off public mistrust, but when the panic sets in, there will be no stopping the mass psychology. Proper reporting creating public awareness should be paramount just the same as our various governmental leaders who are not touching this issue at all.

-- Rick Reilly (rreilly@shaw.wave.ca), November 26, 1998.