Wet Signatures

There are probably lots of people who are getting familiar with Vince Cable's signature as he sends out letters closing qungoes and announcing cuts. He is the new person responsible for Skills and Higher Education amongst other things.It is a large C with a dot strategically placed in the middle.

I had a discussion recently that I have not had for sometime, with some one who was insistng that only a signature is the proper guarantee of authenticity. She is not on her one. We still have various elements of the Adult Funding Agency insisting on what are called 'wet signatures' for funding claims.

It is a difficult argument to sustain when we are prepared to agree numerous financial transactions on the basis of an electronic signature, by which I mean the capacity to link an action back to a person who has been authenticated through the use of a user name and password.

So now we have a Secretary of State whose signature is easily replicable; how much can we trust wet signatures? prehaps it is time to 'move on'.

I wonder whether I can get a copy of Mr Cable's cheque book ? although that will probably be a waste of time because like the rest of us he wont use it and instead rely on electronic transactions. Maybe Department letter headed paper might be more fun?