Original graphic published at www.reachinglight.com.
Hmm, esoteric content? web forums? This is a huge attack on free thinking and any type of organisation or collaborative endeavour. It will probably include geeky tech and alternative politics.
What will the web be like without conspiracy theories and conspiracy theorists?
This post subject to change
A few links to UK political news stories accompanied by a few comments.
Inventor of the world wide web Tim Berners-Lee warns that … “a growing tide of surveillance and censorship now threatens the future of democracy.”
“Bold steps are needed now to protect our fundamental rights to privacy and freedom of opinion and association online.”
There’s a good account of Labour party / Unite / selection / membership troubles in Falkirk here. Looks like all sides are calling on Labour’s inquiry to be published.
Bankers’ clients make millions from dirt-cheap taxpayer-robbing sale of Royal Mail.
West Yorkshire police said a man aged 63 had been arrested on Thursday night in the Merseyside area in connection with an ongoing drugs supply investigation.
“He has been taken to a police station in West Yorkshire where detectives will continue their inquiries,” the force announced.
The escalating controversy surrounding Flowers after a video allegedly showed him handing over money for cocaine has prompted turmoil in the Co-operative Group and prompted its overall chairman, Len Wardle, to announce he will retire early from the job.
Allegations have emerged during the week, including claims surrounding Flowers’s resignation from Bradford council after pornography was found on his work laptop. Flowers is a Methodist minister and has been suspended by the church.
Conservatives are targeting Labour, which has a close relationship with the Co-op, claiming that senior party figures must have known of Flowers’s chequered past. Flowers was a Labour member and has been suspended since the allegations against him came to light, as well as being suspended from his role as a minister in the Methodist church.
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Former Co-operative Bank Chairman Paul Flowers was a Methodist minister, took shovel-fulls of drugs, resigned as a councillor after gay porn was found on his official laptop and had gay orgies with expensive young rent-boys. Quite a colorful character.
Prime Minister David Cameron is trying to profit politically from the revelations about Paul Flowers because the Co-operative Group supports the Labour Party and sponsors Labour MPs and the Co-operative Bank makes ‘soft’ loans to the Labour Party.
Countless – five or six – inquiries have been initiated into the appointment of Paul Flowers and the running of the Co-op bank. A rescue deal to save the Co-op Bank by getting finance from nasty US hedge funds is intended. [24/11/13 http://www.conservativehome.com/thetorydiary/2013/11/three-reasons-for-the-conservatives-to-be-careful-with-their-co-op-campaigning.html “Indeed, there are now no fewer than seven inquiries under way into aspects of the Co-op’s woes …”]
There is no need for these inquiries because I know how Paul Flowers was appointed Chairman of the Co-op bank after ten minutes online research. He rose through the active membership side of the Co-op and was appointed as a titular Chairman on condition that two able Vice-Chairmen were also appointed.
Paul Flowers is linked to dead paedo Cyril Smith. Money, drugs, religion, expensive young rent-boys … I want to know what contacts he had with Tony Blair.
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Andrew Lansley, the Leader of the House, earlier this month told the Commons that there was “no truth” to allegations that ministers had approached Tory MPs on the public accounts committee to ask that its report name and shame his department’s permanent secretary, Robert Devereux.
The PAC report said that £140million had been squandered on the flagship welfare reform and accused the Government of “alarmingly weak” management.
Mr Duncan Smith denied allegations that he had attempted to have anyone blamed in the report.
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However, Margaret Hodge, the committee’s chairman, has now cast doubt on those claims and said that senior figures in the Department of Work and Pensions (DWP) had sought to influence her report.
In comments to students on November 11 – four days after the publication of he committee’s report – Mrs Hodge said: “I can’t tell you how much inappropriate talking there was to me and other members of the committee, by both ministers and civil servants, either to get me to blame the permanent secretary in the DWP and therefore transfer blame away from Iain Duncan Smith or to put the blame on Mr Devereux and to ensure ministers escaped blame.”
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http://www.theguardian.com/society/2013/nov/21/universal-credit-benefit-training-cost-millions
Equipping benefit claimants with the digital and financial skills to use the government’s new universal credit welfare system is likely to cost hundreds of millions of pounds, unpublished research commissioned by the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) has found.
The study, carried out by three London councils using DWP data and a methodology agreed with Whitehall officials, found they would each need to spend about £6m over a two-year period to support vulnerable claimants to get online, help them open bank accounts and manage monthly budgets.
The research, seen by the Guardian, , reveals the extent to which socially excluded claimants will struggle with the huge cultural and behavioural changes demanded by universal credit, and warns that without help, those who fail to get to grips with the new welfare system will face debts, arrears and eviction, leading to a rise in homelessness.
It suggests councils, charities and private companies will be required to deliver millions of hours of specialist training and support face-to face and over the telephone to ensure claimants are confident and technically proficient enough to use the system.
Around one in 10 users of the system are likely to need intensive or ongoing support, it finds.
The scale and cost will unnerve ministers, who are struggling to roll out the beleaguered £2.4bn universal credit system, and have admitted that they have already written off at least £140m on failed IT systems for the project. Ministers are expected to decide by Christmas whether to write off universal credit altogether and start again, or reduce it in size and complexity to make it more manageable.
Those behind universal credit see it as an opportunity to tackle digital and financial exclusion for up to 8m households. Iain Duncan Smith, the work and pensions secretary, has called it a chance for claimants to “get back in to the 21st century“.
But while they anticipated that this would require some investment, they are understood to be taken aback by the potential size of the support bill – which could reach £100m for London alone – and have ordered departmental analysts to see if it can be reduced.
Under universal credit, six existing benefits will be rolled into a single monthly payment, out of which claimants will be expected to pay rent, spread living costs over a four-week period, and provide regular online updates marking changes in their income and job status. Unemployed claimants will also have to search for jobs online.
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The Guardian and Channel4 – in a joint investigation – have released documents sourced by whistleblower Edward Snowden. The documents reveal that US intelligence agencies were given far greater powers to spy on UK citizens by UK intelligence agency GCHQ in 2004. It is extremely unlikely that this move would be taken without treasonous ministerial approval by Tony Blair’s government.
GCHQ and the cabinet office are not commenting.
US and UK struck secret deal to allow NSA to ‘unmask’ Britons’ personal data
Documents show Blair government let US spy on Britons
1pm update: The important issue about these revelations is that UK allowed US authorities to spy on UK subjects who are not guilty or even suspected of any crime. Further, the scale of those subjected to such spying without any legal oversight is astonishingly wide. While it is reported as contacts-of-contacts or friends-of-friends of suspects it may be more practical to just consider it as being all UK subjects. [2.20pm Most news sources are reporting contacts-of-contacts. The Guardian say that it’s ‘”three hops” from its targets — who could be people who talk to people who talk to people who talk to you.’ That does look like all UK subjects. ]
This post subject to change