Simon, While I am very sorry I blew your cover, I did not know you were trying to keep it a secret. To be honest, I have never really understood why people use aliases, other than in the case of FRS people, as the FRS have never really rejoiced at free thinking and free speech, so I can kind of see why some of them would not want to be identified.
Equally, if people are making vehement comments or advising all and sundry, I think their angle should be identifiable. I asked a fire service chum months ago if he thought my poisoned finger was alright and he took a look at it and said yeah it should be fine. Now I need to see a specialist next week, as I have a lot of pain in it and a worrying little cyst. But in accepting my chums advice I knew what his level of expertise was, so I dont hold him to account. I am thinking of getting my daughter a new car, and the man from the bmw garage said I should buy a mini from him. He sells good minis and when he said he would advise a mini cooper I knew he might have a bias, though I will probably take his advice (also next week).
The affiliation of most people here is perfectly obvious and it is relevant I feel in some cases that it should be. For avoidance of doubt Kurnal for example, is a fireman turned consultant. Its good to know that cos if he tells me something about the gear ratios of a Dennis, I will probably not bother to check if he is right cos I myself just select gears in a car and know nothing of fire engines. If he tells me the answer to a question on second order differential calculus, I will check it very carefully, as he does not have an honours degree in maths. All of his other views lie somewhere between these two extremes. But if he were to say, for example, all small fire risk assessment companies should only employ ex fire officers from the east midlands I will know where he is coming from.
Tam used to be a fireman too I believe and now spends his time altruistically wanting to help the world. I think Piggie has made it clear where he comes from , not least cos he very courteously asked if it was ok to tell people about his companys cool new product.( It was). graeme is a fire alarm geezer from gods own country and the Buzz is a similar geezer in the country where god goes on holiday. So if Buzz says why do the NI regs not say something (or why did that girl in thomsons garage not give him a second look) we will know we are hearing a legitimate point of view (well not about the girl in the nightclub as she was way too young for him) from someone with a particular perspective.
When I have views about the CLG and the FRS people know its in part cos no one gets consultants in to tell them how well the FRS are doing and arent their enforcing officers lovely chaps, but instead as consultants 10% -20% of our turnover is cos of crap enforcement of crap legislation and crap guidance documents for which I blame crap civil servants with the sole exception of wee b, and he is only not crap cos bre taught him well not to be crap.
If it bothers you that much I am sure you can bribe someone in the passport office to give you a new identity.
