Diary

http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2013/jan/10/hugh-muir-diary-nigel-farage

Version 0 of 1.

• I am a bit odd, Nigel Farage said the other day, and Ukip's generalissimo recruits in his own image. He may have sacked the chair of his youth wing, whose sins include endorsement of gay marriage. But he seems content with the stewardship of Lord Monckton of Brenchley, king of climate change sceptics and all-round controversialist, who doubles up as Ukip's president in Scotland. But then, Farage does like odd. And after Monckton's stunt last year, when he gatecrashed the climate change summit in Doha to tell delegates that it wasn't happening and that they were wasting their time, what does the peer have planned for this year? Well, he's off to Australia again, where his rubbishing of climate change causes much amusement. On his last visit it emerged that he had likened the views of the government's chief climate-change adviser to fascism. Headline writers and gossip columnists can't wait.

• Lord Oddball has also been pencilled in to make a keynote address at the launch of a new and controversial party, Rise Up Australia, spawn of a fiery evangelical church. And he'll be welcomed, for its leader Danny Nalliah might also qualify as odd. Where to start? With Nalliah's reported suggestion that the Queensland floods were really God "trying to get our attention" after former premier Kevin Rudd criticised Israel? Or the idea that bushfires in Victoria might be linked to that state's stance on abortion? Or his plea that society "protect children from homosexuality as it creates health problems"? Some might feel a bit queasy in such company, but Monckton probably won't for he is a man of impregnable constitution. They are both odd, and on those terms alone, they'll probably hit it off.

• In this data-rich world it's vital to stay vigilant about security. Last year bosses at Vodafone's Berkshire HQ resolved never to let employees forget it. When they lifted up the lid of the toilets there was a big message stuck to the underside of the seat, saying: "If you're not careful with customer and employee information, your career could be going down here." Some staff inevitably felt that was a bit much. "This is just an example of how little Vodafone actually feels about us. This happened just a couple of months after they fired 90 employees," one told the local paper. But the company was delighted with its "eye-catching campaign". Another oasis captured by the barbarians.

• But then data in the wrong hands can be abused. Companies worry. Governments worry. Just consider what happened in Croydon, south London. A clutch of voters there were targeted by election literature seeking the re-election of London mayor Boris Johnson. Many were puzzled, especially those whose obvious allegiance was to Labour. Why me, they asked. One of them, David White, a retired solicitor, decided to find out. He realised that many of those so canvassed had at some point emailed their MP Gavin Barwell, the Conservative member for Croydon Central. And after a long, frustrating inquiry, White discovered that the MP's office had – in clear breach of data protection rules – sent their details to the election mothership, a central Conservative database. All a mistake, Barwell told the information commissioner. Won't happen again. Of course it won't. But a toilet seat reminder might help.

• Just when it seemed safe to assume that all the opportunities on Iain Duncan Smith's prank-plagued Universal Jobmatch website are bogus, along comes an apparently genuine one. Wanted: a wolf boy or girl to join the Circus of Horrors. Type "wolf boy" into the search engine. Couldn't be easier. "All applicants must be genuine, people with beards or wearing masks will not be accepted, although a woman with a beard may be considered under different job opportunities," the ad says. "All applicants must also have circus skills to a high standard." They need "a minimum of 60,000 hairs growing on their face & linking up with the hairline; hair on the head is not included in this specification." Apparently the circus had a wolf boy raring to go but he was from Mexico, and new government rules say all positions must be advertised in this country. That's where Universal Jobmatch comes in. Invaluable.

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