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Rachel · Guest

Electronic tags should be used to keep tabs on the elderly, a Government minister has suggested.

Science minister Malcolm Wicks said devices normally used to track criminals could help families keep an eye on older relatives.

Mr Wicks said many families worried about elderly relatives or "what's happening about an 80 or 90-year-old who may have Alzheimer's", and using the technology could let them know their loved one was safe.

"Satellites currently monitor the planet in a variety of different ways," he said.

"I'm raising this as an issue for discussion. Are there other uses of technology that could benefit society?

"We've got an ageing population with many people frail and many suffering from dementia, including Alzheimer's."

He continued: "How can we get the balance right so that these people have the freedom to live their lives, to go out in the community and go shopping?"

Similar technology is used to "tag" and keep track of convicted criminals who have been released from prison.

Hmmm what if they stand under a tree......?

Highlander · Joined: 12 Feb 2007 Posts: 348 Location: Scotland

This story has been keeping Terry going all morning. Tog Tagging, a new sport Cool

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Over the hill they came....the greatest Army in the World.....The Tartan Army

AndyAndy2 · Posted: Thu Apr 19, 2007 8:55 am Post subject:

Love it !!! I missed this, what a great idea. Will it tell if there's a bunch of 'em getting in my way in Tesco's!! Evil or Very Mad

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Some say he once threw a microwave oven at a tramp and that all his potted plants are called 'Steve'.....all we know is, he's called 'The Stig!'.

Rachel · Guest

the problem as I see it, is that the technology used to track criminals uses phone land-lines and a special unit, that the tag talks to when the criminal is where they should be. ( ie at home) If they're not there - that's all you know ... they're not there .. it doesn't tell you where they are...

Using satellite technology is completely different to the tagging technology used for criminals ... and it just won't work for a whole truck load of reasons , here's just a few, it doesn't work indoors , under trees, on a bus or train, in a car with a roof, down a mine, in a ditch, underwater, in a plane, in Tescos, in the Library. Will it run on batteries? - will they remember to charge the tag up, put it on even. The people would have to be fitted with an aerial on top of their head for it to work, even out in the open..... then of course there's the equipment you would need to locate your granny.

It's a stupid crazy idea from a crazy government saying and doing anything to keep them in the news during the last gasping breaths of their slipping grip on power. It's true ... if you wait long enough every victory turns to into defeat........... ... The minister in question should be put in the stocks for being a complete pleb!

Behind Geddon's Wall · Posted: Thu Apr 19, 2007 11:19 am Post subject:

At last a method for finding out where I am rather than where I should be. Laughing

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Geddon

You simply mustn't blame yourself -- the days were perfect
And so were exactly what I was born to spoil
For I am the Rider to the World's End
Bound across the cinder causeway
From the furnace to the quarry
Through the fields of oil

Natasha · Little Miss Lovely Smile Joined: 09 Dec 2006 Posts: 790

I wish I could have stuck one on that two-faced, lying, AIB ex of mine Evil or Very Mad

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Eternal nothingness is fine if you happen to be dressed for it.