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A scrounger. Photo credit flickr user Eurritimia
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WATCH: Talking to the Directors of the Austrian Horror Film 'Goodnight Mommy'
Maybe I'm being too cynical and Philip Chalmers is some kind of genius. So who is he?In 2000, he was a Scottish Labour Spin Doctor, in charge of strategic communications. He quit the job after being arrested twice in Glasgow's Red Light District. Chalmers, who helped launch Scotland's anti-drink-driving message, was arrested while drunk behind the wheel of a stationary car, allegedly with a 21-year-old prostitute as a passenger (he apparently denied this, but accepted that the woman was not his wife, leaving quite a lot of questions unanswered). In 2005, he began working for Atos, working on their proposals for the abortive ID Card.Chalmers put forward the idea at a Tory Conference fringe meeting on a panel with Tory Minister Francis Maude—although Maude rushed off to catch an airplane before he could hear Chalmers launch his bizarre plan.While Maude wasn't present to hear the Sims plan, he did happily listen to Chalmer's talk about the "softer experience" Atos believed in for health services. Maude cheerfully spoke about the government "mostly using a burgeoning eco-system of innovative providers" for services, without making any criticism of Atos's very public failures. Atos has already been heavily criticized for their government welfare contracts: The firm exited early from their £500 [$768] million contract to run Work Capability Assessments—testing the sick and disabled to see if they could be judged "fit for work" for the DWP—after public protests. Atos were accused of judging the manifestly unable to work as job-ready, leading to benefit cuts for the vulnerable. Horror stories of people dying of terminal diseases shortly after they were judged "fit to work" abounded.Atos still have a contract to test disabled people for how much "Personal Independence Payments" they should receive. The government rewarded the contract with an intention of reducing the payments.With their large government contracts, the French IT firm has a strong interest in keeping close to the government. Paying for the conference meeting, organized by Conservative-linked think tank Policy Exchange, is one way of keeping that relationship ticking over. Policy Exchange was founded by Nick Boles, currently a Local Government Minister and one of the modernizing "Cameroons." Atos Vice President Philip Chalmers was joined on the platform by Maude and by Mark Thompson, formerly George Osborne's Senior Adviser for IT.VICE asked Atos if their Senior Vice President's scheme for exposing individual spending on the frail and sick was their official policy. Their spokesperson said, "This was a debate on the role digital advancements can play in government and how good use of data can provide better and more efficient services to the citizen. The particular future use of big data Philip was discussing was how it can allow community groups to link with social care and NHS services in order to provide the best care. A fictional example was used to illustrate this idea, it was not based on any policy we deliver and was in no way intended to cause offense and we apologize if it has."Follow Solomon on Twitter.