44 thoughts on “Monday’s Papers

    1. ian-oG

      Glad to see it, should be said and highlighted again and again. MBS should be a global pariah at this stage but with that amount of cash morals get quite flexible for many.

      1. goldenbrown

        Ken Early is doing some fine work around this topic

        tis paywalled….but worth it imho for quality journalism

  1. Nigel he raps of

    Johnson putting facial recognition tech in schools. Struck again by the disparity between the supposed totalitarian agenda behind the pandemic and the actual behaviour of those in power who demonstrate time and again that they don’t need covid as a pretext for blundering about and doing whatever horrible authoritarian thing they want.

    1. StevieP

      The schools in question are in North Ayrshire and education in Scotland comes under the remit of the devolved Scottish administration.
      Shouldn’t you be blaming Nicola Sturgeon rather than Johnson ?

          1. Nigel

            Mille And The Chi-Phone And Himself – A Pandemic Love Triangle.

            It’s precisely because I don’t want my phone to fall in love with me that I don’t use the facial recognition.

          1. Micko

            Only in a vote Tom and the statement that 97% of parents agree with this idea may be total fabrication from a press release.

            And besides, that still doesn’t negate that fact that anyone thinking that it’s a good idea to stick their kids in a government sponsored facial recognition system is not really thinking about how that data could be used in the future.

          2. Micko

            We’ll I suppose they could just talk to the school.

            To each their own, but it’s the same reason that I don’t put pics of my kid in social media.

            Once the images are out there it’s easy for third party companies to use facial recognition to crawl the web.

            It might not be the case now, but an undesirable photo taken of your kids now and then shared online, may be the reason they don’t get a job in the future.

            Keep em “off grid” as much as possible.

      1. Nigel he raps of

        Such a weak and transparent pretext for that kind of surveillance in a school, especially since they haven’t bothered much with other covid measures, suggests literally any excuse would serve.

        1. StevieP

          What else would you have them do at this stage seeing as they haven’t bothered much with other Covid measures?

          1. Nigel

            They could always circle back and try the other covid measures? ‘We’ve tried absolutely nothing so we’re left with no option but an expansions of the state’s security surveillance apparatues into schools’ might work on your average Brexit voter, I suppose, but it seems equally cynical and incompetent to me. Say what you will about masks, they at least have the side benefit of negating Big Bruvver somewhat.

        2. Micko

          Absolutely Nigel

          I wonder if parents can opt their kids out of this?

          Or would that leave them unable to buy lunch

          1. Nigel

            The idea that the Tories love their high tech securty surveilance apparatus and basically do whatever they want while saying the stupidest stuff about it and shovelling money to themselves, their families or their chums doesn’t really qualify as a conspiracy theory since it happens right out there in the open, all the time.

          2. StevieP

            When Gardai secure the conviction of a murderer based on CCTV and mobile phone tracking evidence do you complain about Big Bruvver then?

          3. Nigel

            Do you expect a lot of murder convictions to rely on surveillence images of children queuing for lunch at school?

          4. StevieP

            The technology is being used in US schools to try to prevent shootings.
            Not much opposition to it from parents there either.
            Just the usual bonehead conspiracy nutjobs.

          5. goldenbrown

            The 20 most surveilled cities in the world (cameras per person)

            1) Taiyuan, China – 465,255 cameras for 3,975,985 people = 117.02 cameras per 1,000 people

            2) Wuxi, China – 300,000 cameras for 3,315,113 people = 90.49 cameras per 1,000 people

            3) London, England (UK) – 691,000 cameras for 9,425,622 people = 73.31 cameras per 1,000 people

            ….

            https://www.wsj.com/articles/a-billion-surveillance-cameras-forecast-to-be-watching-within-two-years-11575565402

          6. Nigel he raps of

            The US are doing any number of incredibly dumb and eerily heartbreaking things about school shootings with the notable exception of any kind of gun control.

            If I were feeling conspiracy-minded I might actually link the Tory policy of no masks in schools to the Tory policy of facial recognition in schools, but surely that’s too wild even for Bodger.

  2. Verbatim

    Hard not to notice, and to put two and two together, on the F.T. article concerning the facial recognition technology, is the big advertisement for the Chinese Construction Bank – he who pays the piper calls the tune.

  3. johnny

    Colin Powell’s family statement on the passing away of the former Secretary of State, and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.

    Powell “passed away this morning due to complications from Covid 19,” according to the statement,he was fully vaxed and….

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