Tsaedje posted:

Plus it means they already have the experience when their tour of duty ends

Jose posted:

Jose posted:

Jose posted:

MikeCrotch posted:

Labour are beating the Tories in every age group except the retired

Mu. posted:

https://twitter.com/andylines/status/875311424444260352

Darth Walrus posted:

Dent Coad is on the warpath.

CoolCab posted:

one of the more bitter ironies of this whole wretched mess is that there likely were more then 20 labour voters who died in that loving thing

Baron Corbyn posted:

uhh wtf

(armed SAS deployed on streets disguised as homeless people)

quote:

BAE 'secretly sold mass surveillance technology to repressive regimes'

BAE, Britain’s biggest arms company, secretly sold mass surveillance technology to six Middle Eastern governments that have been criticised for repressing their citizens, the BBC has reported.

The sophisticated technology can be used to spy on a huge number of people’s emails and mobile phones, triggering accusations from human rights campaigners that it is being used to silence or jail dissidents.

According to documents obtained by the BBC, the equipment has been sold in recent years to the governments of Saudi Arabia, UAE, Oman, Qatar, Algeria and Morocco.

The documents also reveal official concerns that the export of the technology could backfire and imperil the security of Britain and its allies, the BBC said.

BAE said it was unable to comment on specific contracts “due to the strict national security and confidentiality regulations we operate under”. The manufacturer disputed some of the BBC’s claims without specifying which ones. It added that it was committed to “operating ethically and responsibly”.

According to a BBC investigation published on Wednesday, the sales of the controversial technology were made through a Danish company that BAE bought in 2011.

The firm, now known as BAE Systems Applied Intelligence, sells a surveillance tool that, according to the BBC, can collect, catalogue and analyse millions of people’s electronic communications.

The BBC quotes an anonymous individual who it says used to work for the firm, describing the technology: “You would be able to intercept any internet traffic. If you wanted to do a whole country, go ahead. You would probably need something to narrow your search down, either by a specific person, a specific email address, specific IP address or specific keywords to search for.”

The individual said the technology – which has been called Evident – can be used to pinpoint people’s location based on the data emitted by their mobile phones.

According to the BBC, the technology is capable of breaking communications that have been encrypted, although no details are specified.

This has worried Whitehall officials, according to the emails recording discussions between Danish and British departments responsible for overseeing exports.

In 2015, a British official wrote that if the UK had been asked to approve the export of this technology, it would have refused on the grounds that it could damage the security of the UK and its allies. It was feared that the technology could be used decrypt and read the UK’s own sensitive communications.

However, the Danish government approved the export, partly because its own intelligence service and foreign affairs advisers had not objected.

The BBC reported that it had located two men who were employed to operate the Evident surveillance system in Tunisia during the dictatorship of President Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali. Many opponents were locked up, and tortured, by his regime – one of the Arab world’s most repressive – before he was overthrown in 2011.

One of the men is quoted telling the BBC that his job was to monitor Tunisia’s internet using an Evident system that had been installed in the basement of one of Ben Ali’s houses. “The tool works with keywords. You put in an opponent’s name. You will see all the sites, blogs, social networks related to that user,” he said.

According to the BBC, the second man was part of a specialist intelligence unit that worked closely with Ben Ali. “Sometimes they would ask me to get information about specific people … some information used to go directly to the president. Most of this was about his opponents.”

The BBC said that during its investigation, conducted by its Arabic service in collaboration with the Danish newspaper Dagbladet Information, it had approached the Middle Eastern governments for a comment and received no response.

BAE said: “Our technology plays a crucial role in enabling the UK and its allies to combat the threat of international terrorism, supporting law enforcement and helping to keep the public safe, both in the UK and abroad.

“We have robust policies and procedures in place to ensure our international exports to overseas governments are all fully compliant with international export regulations as well as our own strict criteria to evaluate every potential contract.”

https://www.theguardian.com/business/2017/jun/15/bae-mass-surveillance-technology-repressive-regimes

Darth Walrus posted:

Dent Coad is on the warpath.

quote:

She believes she won the election for Labour for the first time in the constituency’s history because even Conservative voters were fed up with the way the council treats its poorer residents. “We have a very rich council which spent £26m repaving Exhibition Road for tourists at the same time as it was closing nurseries, pruning youth clubs, closing older people’s lunch clubs, not investing in social care. I found that absolutely sickening. We have very large reserves, of around £300m.”

CoolCab posted:

one of the more bitter ironies of this whole wretched mess is that there likely were more then 20 labour voters who died in that loving thing

CoolCab posted:

one of the more bitter ironies of this whole wretched mess is that there likely were more then 20 labour voters who died in that loving thing

Gort posted:

So, how about : "Here's the new fire safety code with sprinklers, non-flammable cladding and multiple fire escapes a must. If you're not up to code in a year, we repossess your building, bring it up to code, and turn it into council housing."

Adam Vegas posted:

loving hell, I was just thinking that. It's a horrible thought, but if this had happened a week ago, Kensington would now be seeing a Tory MP talk about how they're 'very concerned' and then brushing the whole thing under the carpet.

Junior G-man posted:

In other news you might miss because there's other stuff going on:


This is the strong and free, buccaneering spirit of the UK's after-Brexit free trade deals. Hooray!

Junior G-man posted:

BAE, Britain’s biggest arms company, secretly sold mass surveillance technology to six Middle Eastern governments that have been criticised for repressing their citizens, the BBC has reported.

The sophisticated technology can be used to spy on a huge number of people’s emails and mobile phones, triggering accusations from human rights campaigners that it is being used to silence or jail dissidents.

According to documents obtained by the BBC, the equipment has been sold in recent years to the governments of Saudi Arabia, UAE, Oman, Qatar, Algeria and Morocco.

JosefStalinator posted:

Question to the UK goons:

If May can't get a deal together by the 21st, what happens? Can she not give a Queen's speech without a solid (or as solid as it can be) deal with the DUP? What's her deadline to get her poo poo together or force a new election?

Julio Cruz posted:

Erm...

Jose posted:

i think the fire would have had a substantial impact on how people voted had it occurred before the election

Baron Corbyn posted:

She can give a Queen's Speech, there's a week of debate and then Parliament votes on it. If it's defeated, that's tantamount to a vote of no confidence and Parliament is dissolved.

JosefStalinator posted:

Gotcha. So she could give the speech even if negotiations are ongoing/not going well on the 21st, and gets a week to have the DUP vote with the Tories on the speech, and if they don't, new election.

Seems unlikely to me that the DUP would pass up their one chance to be in government, or that the Tories would stomach another election given that it'd probably make them even more hosed than they already are.

JosefStalinator posted:

Gotcha. So she could give the speech even if negotiations are ongoing/not going well on the 21st, and gets a week to have the DUP vote with the Tories on the speech, and if they don't, new election.

Seems unlikely to me that the DUP would pass up their one chance to be in government, or that the Tories would stomach another election given that it'd probably make them even more hosed than they already are.

MikeCrotch posted:

Labour are beating the Tories in every age group except the retired

Flayer posted:

The DUP don't care about being in power in England. If they had to make unpopular concessions to partner with the Torys it could devastate their vote in Northern Ireland, where they actually have and care about power. There is a lot the DUP could lose from this.

His Divine Shadow posted:

I read this as 'retarded' and wondered how they could be their own age group.

quote:

The optics of Jeremy Corbyn’s visit to the scene were very different from those of the visit of the prime minister.

Theresa May was photographed on a long lens talking to senior figures from the emergency services. She was criticised for not meeting residents, whereas Corbyn was seen chatting to residents and volunteers.

Corbyn visited St Clements Church, where volunteers have set up a refuge centre.

He met volunteers and community leaders as they showed him the donations that have been pouring in since the disaster.

“It’s great that you’re in place,” he told them. Labour has called for an inquiry into the disaster and emergency Commons statement from a minister. Corbyn said: “The truth has got to come out and it will.”