Wednesday 24th June 2020
Posted: Wed 24 Jun, 2020 6:41 am
Morning all.
https://bylinetimes.com/2020/06/23/swee ... oligarchs/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;“”It has to be asked whether Jenrick’s past associates in Moscow form part of the Russia Report, the investigation by Parliament’s Intelligence and Security Committee into whether oligarchs close to the Kremlin have bought influence in British politics.
The Prime Minister sat on the report before December’s General Election and, for the moment, issues about the formation of the committee have prevented its publication, allegedly.
Say what you like about ex-porn baron Richard Desmond, when you ask him about embarrassing connections in his life, the ox does not step on his tongue. The same cannot be said of “Honest Bob” and his master Johnson, whose continuing silence on matters Russian are no longer just troubling but getting close to self-accusation.
The Gambino crime family deny any wrongdoing. “”
https://www.newstatesman.com/politics/u ... en-t-heard" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;Anyway, that row. In January, the papers began reporting that McVey, who by that point had been the second-ranked minister in the housing ministry for all of five months, was clashing with the secretary of state, Robert Jenrick, over how to tackle the housing crisis. McVey, the MP for Tatton, who has always made much of being a working-class Tory, wanted to put more money into social housing, on the grounds it would appeal to new Tory voters from backgrounds like her own. Jenrick, who knows a lot about houses because, by his early 30s, he already owned three of them, thought it more important that the party focus all its attention and scarce housing budget on boosting owner occupation, ostensibly on the grounds that this had worked (citation needed) in the 1980s.
https://bylinetimes.com/2020/06/23/hubr ... acing-app/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;"" The Apps’ Role in Track and Trace
The UK system is a three-legged stool. There is the app. There is a mostly centralised network of 25,000 contact tracers, under the aegis of Baroness Dido Harding and administered by contactor Serco. These feed data in a common format into an AI-based hub. This is enabled by data cleaning and warehousing, and analytics from two other contractors, respectively Palantir and Faculty.
The problem with this architecture is that it imposes an architectural and engineering rigidity upon a system that has already been described as “not fit for purpose” in a lengthy report by the Independent SAGE group of scientists and public health experts.
The effective failure of the NHSX app project illustrates how technology is becoming more of a hindrance than a benefit because of how its objectives have been defined. ""
https://techcrunch.com/2020/06/05/uks-c ... _rXgESTGBS" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;"" Back in March, as concern about the looming impact of COVID-19 on the UK’s National Health Service (NHS) took hold, the government revealed plans for the health service to work with the aforementioned tech companies to develop a “data platform” — to help coordinate its response, touting the “power” of “secure, reliable and timely data” to inform “effective” pandemic decisions.
However the government’s lack of transparency around such massive health data deals with commercial tech giants — including the controversial firm Palantir, which has a track record of working with intelligence and law enforcement agencies to track individuals, such as supplying tech to ICE to aid deportations — raises major flags. ""
Around 1pm: MPs begin a debate on a Labour motion requesting a “humble address” to force the release of papers relating to the decision by Robert Jenrick, the communities secretary, to approve a housing development belonging to the Tory donor Richard Desmond. The vote will come at around 4pm.
Jack Blanchard from Politico Europe has already had a good look at the new guidance (see 9.29am) for his London Playbook morning briefing. For some reason, he seemed to take a keen interest in the rules that would apply for pubs. Here’s an extract from his write-up.
Meet ‘n’ greet: Pubs will be offering hand sanitizer at the door, while “encouraging compliance” among drinkers with the new limits on social gatherings. In other words — staff will be expected to explain to that big gang of lads who came in for some serious drinking on Super Saturday that, erm, sorry about this chaps, but “indoor gatherings should be limited to members of any two households”. It should make for some entertaining conversations about people’s supposed living arrangements, if nothing else.
This is England: Ministers clearly fear sudden rain showers could also be a problem, when beer gardens are packed and access to venues restricted. Pubs should be “planning for maintaining social distancing … in the event of adverse weather conditions,” the government warns, “being clear that customers cannot seek shelter indoors unless social distancing can be maintained.” Again, the conversations at the door with the now half-cut (and half-soaked) lads demanding shelter at the bar should be worth watching.
Hayek may have made the original claim, but I think it was first "popularised" in the US by Randians?RogerOThornhill wrote:Norman Tebbit is now trending on that Twitter because that piece of junk that he wrote with Hitler being extreme left was actually printed in the DT today.
I know it plays well with the readership - I used to see similar claims BTL all the time - all except for one extremely well-read ethno-nationalist whose name I've forgotten who knew exactly where Nazism sat on the right-left scale.
I blame Hayek...
I'm watching this now, it's a damning charge sheet.gilsey wrote:Around 1pm: MPs begin a debate on a Labour motion requesting a “humble address” to force the release of papers relating to the decision by Robert Jenrick, the communities secretary, to approve a housing development belonging to the Tory donor Richard Desmond. The vote will come at around 4pm.
Iain Dale
@IainDale
Boris Johnson is getting the tone all wrong in PMQs today. Keir Starmer is going out of his way to be supportive and is asking perfectly reasonable questions. Party political grandstanding is not what the general public wants at the moment. Nor is bluster.
12:12 PM · Jun 24, 2020·TweetDeck
PMQs - Snap verdict
Andrew Sparrow
Boris Johnson has never won an exchange with Sir Keir Starmer (or anyone?) on a matter of detail. He can survive by changing the subject (as he did reasonably effectively last week), but it does not always work, and it certainly didn’t today. He floundered badly. It was almost dismal.
Up there with Javid's statement last year that Labour were to blame for homelessness. IIRC totally unchallenged by our "fearless truth seeking" media.GetYou wrote:Jenrick now blaming Labour for not building more social housing. You couldn't make this stuff up.
Johnson's response to why the tracing app that he had previously said was "key" has, in a matter of weeks, become merely desirable was to wildly claim that there wasn't a single fully working track and trace app in the whole world (or similar dramatic words to that effect). He looked ridiculously triumphant when he said this. Starmer simply and effectively replied with facts that amply illustrated just how much further ahead Germany were with their app (12m downloads).AnatolyKasparov wrote:Starmer called him out on his fib about tracing systems, apparently.
It's surely a demonstration of how far up the RW media's backside the tories are, that Desmond got this for £12k.AnatolyKasparov wrote:Jenrick now saying he will make available "all relevant documentation". A result of sorts.
And trying to cut costs - hey, you can't do that!Shaun Bailey
@ShaunBaileyUK
Can you imagine the Government needing to sell Parliament because they’d run out of money?
It’s really got that bad in London
Since 2016,
@SadiqKhan
has increased GLA office costs by an eye-watering £527m (320%)
And now Londoners are paying the price.
Khan proposes moving City Hall to cut costs
London's government will move to The Crystal in Royal Docks, under new plans to save £11m a year.
bbc.co.uk
6:51 PM · Jun 24, 2020·Hootsuite Inc.