Unthreaded
This from the worlds leading real climate scientist (Prof. Richard Lindzen) h/t to Paul Homewood.
https://notalotofpeopleknowthat.wordpress.com/2024/01/19/what-is-climate-richard-lindzen/
Ross Lea
and talking about 'orrible officials behaving badly on the state payroll
https://twitter.com/aDissentient/status/1747990325405049204
tomo
Robert
ICL were, at one stage a government company
International Computers Limited was formed in 1968 as a part of the Industrial Expansion Act of the Wilson Labour Government. ICL was an initiative of Tony Benn, the Minister of Technology, to create a British computer industry that could compete with major world manufacturers like IBM; the formation of the company was the last in a series of mergers that had taken place in the industry since the late 1950s.
Fujitsu ... - is a *very* tangled web from a business environment quite alien to most Anglos rooted in the Zaibatsu environment. Zaibatsus have huge political clout.....some might claim that government is a Fujitsu department.
Quangos and NDPBs while conjured into existence by politicians can't be "unconjured" if they don't behave - as I said they can only be defunded. Officials cannot be removed by order of "outsiders" like the sponsoring government department.
The structure is inherently susceptible to abuse (invites, even?)
tomo
Agree about the inherent corrupion in "independent" authorities. They're of the same kind, but probably more evil than the EU. Both provide ways for politicians to dodge blame saying my hands are tied.
Besides starving them of funds, politicians can shut them down (it's politicians that create them after all), but I doubt they feel motivated to do so.
That article about Blair having been informed cleared one thing up for me. I've been a little puzzled why Fujitsu would be involved in this purely British system, with reporters talking about "no comment from Japan", etc. This part of Fujitsu is a result of a buyout of ICL who were the original developers of the software. The software's conception and some portion of its gestation is British. That strengthens some possible problems, e.g. disgruntled staff or Japan vs. UK office politics. There might even have been one or two ex-ICL => PO employee/bureaucrat transformations.
Robert Swan
rhoda klapp
the notionally "independent" quangos and NDPBs (e.g. Environment Agency and Highways England) are totally and absolutely *beyond democratic accountability of any sort*.They can - and do - ignore their notional oversight via "government departmental sponsors".
Ministers can't order them to do *anything*, senior mandarins neither - coz they're independent and the only way to control then - the *only* way - is to starve them of funds via their grants from HM Treasury ....
There is supposed accountability for wrongdoing via the ombudsman system - the ombudsman has sweeping investigative powers but f-all teeth and they are increasingly ignored by delinquent (or worse) officials at the sorts of public bodies that inhabit the swamp....
The Post Office is government bureaucrats flying a false flag. - which might as well be the skull and crossbones...
tomo
The concern is not that mistakes were made at Fujitsu or that the PO tried to cover them up. Mistakes are always made, projects go wrong and organisations will ALWAYS cover it up as a first reaction and continue the coverup as long as they can in the hope of getting away with it. The concern is that there ought to be checks and balances. There ought to be an effective way to expose cockups and wrong-doing. That is the real problem because it isn't fixed and it isn't going to be fixed because the same people who are supposed to fix it have a vested interest in not fixing it. If you were to be involved as a victim in the PO, or the infected blood scandal or grooming gangs or vaccine damage there isn't a damn thing you can do to get timely investigation and justice. The route for redress goes via your elected representative to a minister to a department which cocked up and can keep things going indefinitely without resolution. And nobody will be punished, because they are all moved on before any action takes place and that situation suits everybody involved except the occasional MP who is willing to sacrifice any hope of advancement by rocking the boat.
rhoda klapp
Tomo,
The first thing that comes to mind is the good old "nah f88k them...they all signed up to the EU so now they can enjoy the benefits of being under the EU's control".
Mailman
A bit of pushback towards over-promoted and dim grifter Van der Leyen and her totalitarian mates
https://twitter.com/NetZeroWatch/status/1747560251094680029
tomo
Sir Tony Blair was warned the Horizon IT system at the centre of the Post Office scandal could be flawed before it was rolled out, a document shows.A handwritten note from the then-Labour PM, published by the public inquiry on Friday, suggests he raised concerns after being warned the system was "possibly unreliable".
But he said he gave it the go-ahead after being reassured by others.
Among them was Peter Mandelson, who was then his trade and industry secretary.
There was no indication at this stage that the Horizon software would lead to wrongful accusations of theft but there were concerns about its reliability and ballooning cost.
In a letter dated 10 December 1998, Lord Mandelson said he believed the "only sensible choice" was to proceed with Horizon.
He warned that cancelling the contract would cause "political fallout" from post office closures and damage relations with Fujitsu, which he described as a major investor in the UK.
The letter, and the submission to Sir Tony, were both previously shown in hearings at the inquiry, which was launched in 2021, but have now been published in full.
In 1998 Horizon was being developed by a firm called ICL, owned by Fujitsu, as a way of paying welfare benefits through Post Office counters using a swipe card.
Ultimately this element of the project was dropped and the system was rolled out in 1999 for tasks like accounting and stocktaking instead.
More than 900 workers were prosecuted after the faulty software wrongly made it look like money was missing.
from the BBC here which seems to have got lost in the blizzard of CYA - BS misdirection about the Post Office executives antics.
Perhaps if the "bag of shit" quote from a senior developer had got to Blair's desk he might've paid attention....
tomo
https://archive.is/aouHh