WTF is happening in the UK?

[OFSO]

I see sterling has done a Liz Truss against the euro before the weekend. Wonder what caused that?

[barkingmad]

Having clocked this exercise of Project Fear Mk 94, I have disabled this feature on my ‘smart’ phone in case I crap myself when the hooter goes off;

https://rumble.com/v2gbtsj-the-emergenc ... nning.html

There are already widely expressed concerns about the safety related distraction this will cause to drivers, for example, and anyone else working in sensitive or hazardous environments where such an alarm surprise may have unintended consequences.

But presumably TPTB think it’s well worth the hassle?

Any interweb search will provide info as to how to strangle this nuisance on both Android & Apple kit, so do it now otherwise you’ll forget…

[Boac]

Golly - it gets worse... https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/articl ... dolls.html

[Fox3WheresMyBanana]

In the years to come, this kind of thing will attain the status of Nero's fiddling whilst Rome burned.

[Boac]

Why wait?

[Fox3WheresMyBanana]

Because at the moment, an awful lot of people still think this kind of thing is a good idea, or at least acceptable, which is why it keeps happening.
Later, of course, they will all claim they thought it was dumb at the time.

[Boac]

I think you are wrong - a very small "awful lot of people still think this kind of thing is a good idea" - you will note it was one "anonymous tip-off" that triggered this and a total over-reaction by an "awful lot of police". I believe the vast majority of British folk would see this a nonsense right now.

[Fox3WheresMyBanana]

Well, they aren't prepared to vote out the politicians who are telling the police to do it.
Same as they aren't prepared to vote for a party that will actually do something about illegal immigration, rather than just lying and saying they will.
The politicians will change tack in a week if they are convinced of that.

[Boac]

But - it IS the government that is telling the police NOT to do it! How do you thing the LIbDems/Greens/Labour would perform? (Don't mention the SNP.........)

[Boac]

But - it IS the government that is telling the police NOT to do it! How do you thing the LIbDems/Greens/Labour would perform? (Don't mention the SNP.........)

[Fox3WheresMyBanana]

There are three possibilities, I think.
1) The Government has lost control of Essex Police
2) Whilst one part of the Home Office is saying one thing, another part of the Home Office is saying another to the police.
Which means the Government has lost control of the Home Office.
3) The politicians are deliberately saying one thing whilst getting the machinery of administration to do another.

My vote is for 3).
If the Government wanted to stop the police arresting people for hate crimes, they could more carefully define what a hate crime is.
They have not done this. It's the same over here.

The simple truth is that the Government wants to be able to arrest whomsoever it doesn't like, and ignore the "crimes" of those it does like.
Essex Police are trying to apply the Law. The Government doesn't want the Law, it wants what IT wants.

And no, I don't think any mainstream party, in UK or here, would do any different. The Lib Dems certainly didn't put pressure when in coalition to stop this, and Labour councils are the worst for this kind of thing.

[Boac]

1) The Government has lost control of Essex Police
2) Whilst one part of the Home Office is saying one thing, another part of the Home Office is saying another to the police.
Which means the Government has lost control of the Home Office.
3) The politicians are deliberately saying one thing whilst getting the machinery of administration to do another.

I cannot see how you read that from the article.

[Fox3WheresMyBanana]

The College of Policing claims to have issued clear guidance last month. The dolls were confiscated last week.
The police sent 6 officers to collect the dolls. I would love to know how they decided to send six officers, other than the obvious purpose of intimidation.The police actions appear to be completely at odds with Home Office "clear" guidance, issued via the College of Policing.
So, I do not see what other possibilities there are. Do please offer your thoughts as to why this happened.

[Boac]

Very simply, we have yet another 'rogue' Police Force which appears to have been stopped by the government? This cannot be laid directly at any government's door, however attacative the option may seem.

[Fox3WheresMyBanana]

Which would appear to be my Option 1).
I do maintain that the government is responsible for such poorly written laws that even make this thing possible.
And, anecdotally at least, the Government has allowed just this sort of thing to go for several years already.

[Boac]

An odd interpretation.You infer that every action by a Police Force (under the control of a Chief Constable) is done with the explicit approval of the government. "Excuse me - is that the Home Office? I want to raid a pub and nick all the Golliwogs". Not in the UK - maybe in Canada? The CC is empowered by the government to control the force, and in this case the government has stepped in to stop the action of which it, and most people, do not approve. (No 4 of 4 possibilities?) A bit like you beating up a friend's house (unauthorised) in your MRCA. Would you then say that the CAS had 'lost control' of the pilot or were you simply being a 'rogue' pilot who required reigning in?

[Fox3WheresMyBanana]

If this were an isolated incident, I'd agree with you, but it isn't.
The Met next door isn't exactly doing what the government wants either.
Yet, also in today's DT, Sir Mark Rowley is saying that he can't get rid of rogue officers because the independent commission keeps reinstating them.
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2023/0 ... -officers/
.and the government set up the independent commission system.
So, the government, whilst directing the CC to control their forces, also seems to have taken away the ability for the CCs to do so.
..and I've seen exactly the same thing happen in UK schools, with both 'rogue' pupils and 'rogue' teachers.

So, I would still come back to my choice of option 3).
The government has set up a system, right across all its employees and agencies, whereby those made responsible are unable to achieve their tasks because the government's other mechanisms (e.g. independent oversight commissions, plus the legal system) make it impossible to do so.
There's been over a decade of basically completely uncontrolled illegal immigration, and the rate of crime solving and prevention has dropped through the floor. The government has its feet on the accelerator and the brake pedals at the same time. And after a decade, it's not accidental.
So all the authorities (and this is true in Canada also) go around mob-handed picking on people they can get a conviction against, which means employed property owners, because they have targets to meet - set by government.

[barkingmad]

Further to my # 5602 this thread it seems TPTB might lock us out of our smartphones unless we acknowledge the warning on Sunday 23/04.

https://rumble.com/v2e572m-march-21-2023.html

Also it is suggested that by so acknowledging there might be some sort of covert download onto the device.

Do we have any geeks here who might be able to clarify or hopefully to squash this rumour?

[Fox3WheresMyBanana]

Canada has had the system for a while.
Certain older phones can't accept the government alerts, and are thus excluded.
I have one of those older phones (3G, I think).
That's not deliberate, I just don't need a new phone.
I am not aware of any way that the government can download anything via the alert system.
In Canada, the phone companies are part of the system - they would have to be.
Therefore, the government can require the public to respond (that is buried in the legislation somewhere) - they call it a 'responsibility' here.
And they can require the phone companies to tell them whether people responded or not.
IF (big if) they have also included sanctions in the legislation, then it's possible they would (or could) lock you out, via your phone company.
I'm afraid you will have to read the 378 pages of fine print (see comment in link) to find out.
This hasn't happened in Canada, or in the USA to my knowledge. Indeed, the governments themselves have screwed up the system far more than the public by both issuing false alerts, and failing to issue them for major emergencies for which the system was designed.

Since the alert system can only put the responsibility on someone to respond if they actually receive the alert, then making it impossible to receive the alert by switching off the phone until the alert is centrally cancelled would be a way around the problem, if you regard it as a problem. The system doesn't know why you didn't receive the message.

Personally, I doubt very much whether the UK government would apply any sanctions for this test, given the amount of public unrest, strikes, etc already in existence.
However, any response or lack of would, like any digital record, be available to the government in future.

[4mastacker]

It's reported that yesterday at Aintree, plod made over 100 arrests in 15 minutes when a bunch of unwashed nutters climate activists tried to disrupt the Grand National. Yet when the same activists cause criminal damage to property and disrupt traffic, preventing people going about their daily business, plod is slow to react and takes hours to move these activists away from the chaos and disruption they have caused. Why?