{"id":1500705,"date":"2024-11-06T10:00:00","date_gmt":"2024-11-06T15:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/?p=1500705"},"modified":"2024-11-06T10:00:00","modified_gmt":"2024-11-06T15:00:00","slug":"just-how-dystopian-can-starmers-britain-become","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/just-how-dystopian-can-starmers-britain-become\/1500705\/","title":{"rendered":"Just How Dystopian Can Starmer’s Britain Become?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Just How Dystopian Can Starmer’s Britain Become?<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

Authored by Nick Corbishley via NakedCapitalism.com,<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n

After his landslide election victory in July, Keir Starmer\u00a0promised<\/a>\u00a0that his new Labour government would \u201ctread more lightly\u201d on the lives of voters. <\/strong>It is one of a multitude of pledges Starmer has broken in just his first four months in office, during which time his approval rating has suffered the\u00a0biggest post-election fall<\/a>\u00a0of any British prime minister in the modern era.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s worth recalling that his government\u2019s massive parliamentary majority represents just about 20 per cent of the eligible electorate.<\/strong><\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n

As the\u00a0Middle East Eye<\/em>\u00a0journalist John Obourne\u00a0warned<\/a>\u00a0in 2023, \u201cyou would be very unwise to believe a word Starmer ever says.\u201d<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

Last week, he and his Chancellor, Rachel Reeves, broke their pledge that they wouldn\u2019t raise taxes on working people \u2014 by raising national insurance contributions for even the lowest-earning workers. The impact will be felt most keenly by small businesses, many of which are already struggling. As Richard Murphy\u00a0notes<\/a>\u00a0on his blog, \u201cBig businesses can afford to pay, but small businesses rarely pay their owners a great deal (contrary to common perceptions), and they will suffer, as will employment prospects for many people who are on lower pay.\u201d<\/p>\n

The latest broken promise came yesterday with the announcement of a hike in student tuition fees, from \u00a39,250 to \u00a39,535 a year<\/strong>. It is the first hike in seven years, and it comes after a period of persistent high inflation. Starmer\u00a0had pledged<\/a>\u00a0to abolish tuition fees altogether when he ran for the leadership of the Labour Party in 2020, saying the Labour Party \u201cmust stand by its commitment to end the national scandal of spiralling student debt and abolish tuition fees.\u201d Once in power, he did the exact opposite.<\/p>\n

And there will be no \u201ctreading lightly\u201d on voters, either. On the contrary, as Starmer\u00a0told<\/a>\u00a0delegates at the Labour Party conference in September, under his government, the State would take more \u201ccontrol\u201d in people\u2019s lives. None of this should come as a surprise, of course. The Labour leader\u2019s ruthless purge of the left and pro-Palestine voices in his party as well as his role in the British State\u2019s persecution of Julian Assange were all clear warning signs,\u00a0wrote<\/a>\u00a0Oborne and Richard Sanders, two of the journalists behind\u00a0Al Jazeera<\/em>\u2018s \u201cThe Labour Files\u201d, in 2023:<\/p>\n

In the Labour party, not only is the right in control, it is brutally pummelling the left into the dirt, determined that it will never again wield so much as a shred of meaningful influence within the Labour movement.<\/em><\/p>\n

At the start of the first programme in The Labour Files, a Merseyside activist, Paul Davies, posed a question:<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cIf a small group of secretive people manipulate and control one of the two great parties in Great Britain, what will they do when they have control of MI5? When they have control of all the levers of the state? Are they suddenly going to believe in justice and proper investigations and fairness? Or are they going to be the same as they are now? Or even worse?\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

A New, Orwellian Government Office<\/strong><\/h2>\n

One of the main ways the British State plans to exert greater control over people\u2019s lives is through the rollout of digital surveillance technologies.\u00a0As we\u00a0predicted<\/a>\u00a0would happen four months ago, the Starmer government is pushing hard to make digital identity a reality. Last week, as the country\u2019s attention was focused on the government\u2019s first budget announcement, Downing Street quietly\u00a0launched<\/a>\u00a0a new government office to oversee the UK\u2019s digital identity market: the so-called \u201cOffice for Digital Identities and Attributes\u201d, or ODIA (which, I suppose, could be pronounced, fittingly, as \u201coh dear\u201d).<\/p>\n

First launched in 2022 by the Rishi Sunak government as an interim governing body for digital IDs, ODIA is now officially part of the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology (DSIT). Its\u00a0responsibilities<\/a>\u00a0will include developing and maintaining the UK Digital Identity and Attributes Trust Framework (DIATF), which\u00a0outlines standards<\/a>\u00a0that digital ID providers must follow, maintaining a register of certified organisations, and issuing a trust mark to identify registered services.<\/p>\n

As the industry news site Biometric Update\u00a0reports<\/a>, another key task for the new government body will be liaising with international partners to promote interoperability of digital ID platforms among jurisdictions:\u00a0\u201cIndustry experts have\u00a0noted<\/a>\u00a0that the UK is behind other nations in digital ID\u201d \u2014 including, first and foremost, the EU and Australia.<\/p>\n

But both the UK government and its private-sectors partners are determined to catch up, notes the website\u00a0Think.Digital Partners<\/a>, an industry association whose \u201ccontent partners\u201d include seven UK government departments and tech companies like AWS, Microsoft and Solar Winds:<\/p>\n

In a panel discussion on the\u00a0future of digital wallets and identity strategies<\/a>, industry leaders outlined both the opportunities and challenges facing the UK as it looks to become a global leader in the rapidly evolving space.<\/em><\/p>\n

They were speaking at the recent\u00a0Think Digital Identity and Cybersecurity for Government<\/a>\u00a0event in London\u2026<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re conflating payments with wallets, but what a wallet will be in the future is likely to be much more than just payments,\u201d explained Jim Small, head of identity at\u00a0Hippo<\/a>. \u201cIt\u2019ll be a secure repository where we can own our own data, our own information, things like verifiable credentials and decentralised identifiers.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

Small pointed to initiatives around the world, from the US tech giants\u2019 digital wallets to the EU\u2019s eIDAS-based ID schemes, as examples of the diverse approaches being taken. However, he emphasised the need for a more centralised, ecosystem-focused framework to drive widespread adoption\u2026<\/em><\/p>\n

With regulatory clarity, user-centric design, and a focus on high-value use cases, the experts agreed that the UK can emerge as a global leader in digital identity, transforming how citizens interact with both government and businesses.<\/em><\/p>\n

This would be a dream come true, not only for the tech companies involved but also for Starmer\u2019s mentor, Tony Blair, who has repeatedly called for the development of a digital identity system in the UK, after trying but failing as prime minister to introduce an identity card system in the country.<\/strong> In his speeches, Blair routinely\u00a0emphasises<\/a>\u00a0how a digital identity will be connected to one\u2019s vaccine status.<\/p>\n

\u201cMore Dangerous Than You Think\u201d<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Digital identity systems may help streamline bureaucracy and reduce fraud, but they are also fraught with risks. As Brett Solomon, the then-executive director of Access Now, warned in a 2018 Wired\u00a0op-ed<\/a>\u00a0titled \u201cDigital IDs Are More Dangerous Than You Think\u201d, digital ID, writ large, \u201cposes one of the gravest risks to human rights of any technology that we have encountered.\u201d<\/p>\n

Those risks include\u00a0massive breeches<\/a>\u00a0of personal data, including biometric identifiers; hacks and system outages; function creep as more and more basic services require digital identification; unparalleled government and corporate surveillance; the near-total exclusion of people who don\u2019t have access to mobile devices or the internet as well as those who do but choose not to comply with governments\u2019 increasing demands.<\/strong><\/p>\n

As the WEF itself candidly admitted in a 2018 paper on digital identity, digital ID (emphasis my own) \u201copen up (or close off<\/em>) the digital world for individuals.\u201d They can also close off vast swathes of the analogue world, too, as tens of millions of Indians\u00a0have learnt<\/a>\u00a0since the rollout of Aadhaar, the world\u2019s largest digital identity program, roughly a decade ago.<\/p>\n

On October 1, the Kuwaiti government\u00a0suspended<\/a>\u00a0electronic banking services, including cash withdrawals and payment transfers, for 60,000 people who had failed to submit their biometric data for the country\u2019s e-ID program by the stated deadline. A few weeks later, those still in noncompliance had their electronic bank cards deactivated. Visa, MasterCard, and K-Net all complied with the government\u2019s rules.<\/p>\n

Like the EU, Australia, Canada and all the other Western \u201cdemocracies\u201d that are rolling out digital ID programs, the UK insists that digital identity will not be mandatory. But that\u2019s exactly what India\u2019s government said about its Aadhaar program. Yet as Kiran Jonnalagadda, an Indian digital rights activist,\u00a0explains<\/a>\u00a0in Deccan Herald, enrollment in the program, while optional, \u201cas repeatedly stated everywhere,\u2026 has been made mandatory in practice, via both illegal coercion and unconstitutional law, much of which is still being litigated in courts\u201d:<\/p>\n

The stated goal of Aadhaar is noble, of giving every individual an identity, but everything about it \u2014 the way it was proposed, budgeted, designed and implemented \u2014 has been inverted and used as a means to identify an individual for the convenience of the government.<\/em><\/p>\n

Tip of the Iceberg<\/strong><\/h2>\n

The Keir Starmer government is not only accelerating the development of digital identity. In the last four months, it has also:<\/p>\n

Unveiled<\/strong><\/em><\/a>\u00a0plans to further expand the use of live facial recognition technology<\/strong><\/em>, on the same day that\u00a0an EU-wide law largely banning real-time surveillance technology came into force;<\/p>\n

Called for<\/a>\u00a0the creation of digital health passports for NHS patients<\/strong><\/em>, prompting a backlash over concerns about digital privacy and the possible sale of patient data to third-party companies \u2014 a policy that Tony Blair and former Conservative Party leader William Hague\u00a0lobbied for<\/a>\u00a0just before the elections.<\/p>\n

Resurrected<\/a>\u00a0old Tory plans to grant inspectors at the Department of Work and Pensions increased powers to snoop on claimants\u2019 bank accounts<\/strong><\/em>. Big Brother Watch warned that the increased powers could be used to spy on not only the accounts of pensioners and welfare claimants but ALL bank accounts. It was one of 18 NGOs and charities that signed a letter to the government warning that \u201cimposing suspicionless algorithmic surveillance on the entire public has the makings of a Horizon-style scandal \u2013 with vulnerable people most likely to bear the brunt when these systems go wrong.\u201d<\/p>\n

Announced\u00a0plans<\/a>\u00a0to pilot a Central Bank Digital Currency by 2025<\/strong><\/em>, carrying on Rishi Sunak\u2019s controversial Digital Pound plans, with a \u201cblueprint\u201d expected by Christmas. As we reported last week, the proposal is not just opposed by most members of the British public,\u00a0according to one<\/a>\u00a0of the few public surveys conducted on the matter, but also prominent figures within the City of London.<\/p>\n

Launched a crackdown on lawful speech<\/strong><\/em>. After the riots in the summer, the Home Office is\u00a0planning<\/a>\u00a0new non-crime \u201chate\u201d measures. Again, this was a policy that was eventually dropped by the Tories, out of fears it would curtail free speech, but is now being resurrected by Starmer\u2019s Labour Party.<\/p>\n

That is just the tip of the iceberg.\u00a0According to<\/a>\u00a0a recent expose by Matt Taibbi and Paul D Thacker, Starmer and his political circle are waging a war on misinformation far beyond British shores, and their ultimate goal is to destroy Elon Musk\u2019s twitter:<\/p>\n

\u201c[I]nternal documents from the\u00a0Center for Countering Digital Hate<\/a>\u00a0\u2014 whose founder is British political operative Morgan McSweeney, now\u00a0advising the Kamala Harris<\/a>\u00a0campaign \u2014 show the group plans\u00a0in writing\u00a0<\/em>to \u201ckill Musk\u2019s Twitter\u201d while strengthening ties with the Biden\/Harris administration and Democrats like Senator Amy Klobuchar, who has\u00a0introduced<\/a>\u00a0multiple<\/a>\u00a0bills to regulate online \u201cmisinformation.\u201d<\/p>\n

The documents obtained by\u00a0The DisInformation Chronicle\u00a0<\/em>and\u00a0Racket\u00a0<\/em>show CCDH\u2019s hyperfocus on Musk \u2014 \u201cKill Musk\u2019s Twitter\u201d is the first item in the\u00a0template\u00a0<\/em>of its monthly agenda notes dating back to the early months of this year.<\/p>\n

The\u00a0Center for Countering Digital Hate<\/a>\u00a0is the anti-disinformation activist ally of Prime Minister Keir Starmer\u2019s Labour Party, and a messaging vehicle for Labour\u2019s neoliberal think tank, Labour Together. Both the CCDH and Labour Together were founded by Morgan McSweeney, a Svengali credited with piloting Starmer\u2019s rise to Downing Street, much as Karl Rove is credited with guiding George W. Bush to the White House.<\/p>\n

Lastly, while Starmer\u2019s government is trying to massively expand the powers of the State, even beyond what it inherited from the Tories, it is using 0powers it already has \u2014 namely its anti-terror laws \u2014 to arrest and intimidate pro-Palestinian journalists and activists. As an op-ed in\u00a0Middle East Eye<\/em>\u00a0reports<\/a>, \u201cprotesters with placards with the \u2018wrong\u2019 slogans have been arrested and prosecuted, sometimes under anti-terror laws.\u201d<\/p>\n

In August, British journalist\u00a0Richard Medhurst<\/a>\u00a0was arrested by anti-terror police as he disembarked from his plane at Heathrow airport.<\/strong> He was held incommunicado for 24 hours and his phone and laptop were confiscated. Since then, a string of activists and journalists have been arrested, including the human rights activist and reporter Sarah Wilkinson; Richard Barnard of Palestine Action; University of Portsmouth academic Amira Abdelhamid; Asa Winstanley, the associate editor of online news publication The Electronic Intifada; and, most recently, retired Jewish professor\u00a0Haim Bresheeth.<\/p>\n

Retired Jewish professor Haim Bresheeth, a child of Holocaust survivors and founder of the Jewish Network for Palestine, was arrested under a UK anti-terrorism law after speaking at a recent Palestine solidarity protest in London. pic.twitter.com\/q2I27eIfYS<\/a><\/p>\n

\u2014 Al Jazeera English (@AJEnglish) November 4, 2024<\/a><\/p>\n

At the same time, Declassified UK has\u00a0revealed<\/a>\u00a0that the Starmer government has ordered 100 spy flights over Gaza to assist Israeli intelligence<\/strong> \u2014 equivalent to more than one a day since taking office \u2014 while 13 out of Starmer\u2019s 25 cabinet members have\u00a0received donations<\/a>\u00a0from Pro-Israel lobby groups and individuals.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Of course, most of these policies and practices \u2014 particularly the crackdowns on protests and free speech \u2014 represent a continuation, and at times intensification, of policies and practices already well under way under the Tories.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Since decoupling from the EU, both Tory and now Labour governments have taken the UK in an increasingly authoritarian direction.<\/strong>\u00a0This is, of course, a generalised trend among ostensibly \u201cliberal democracies\u201d \u2014 as broad economic conditions deteriorate and AI-enabled technologies advance, the temptation among governments to exploit these new surveillance and control systems is irresistible while the potential benefits for Big Tech are huge \u2014 but the UK is most definitely at its leading edge. Moreover, it is a trend that shows no sign of slowing, let alone stopping, especially given the size of Kier Starmer\u2019s majority parliamentary majority.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Tyler Durden<\/a><\/span>
\nWed, 11\/06\/2024 – 05:00<\/span><\/p>\n

\u200bhttps:\/\/www.zerohedge.com\/political\/just-how-dystopian-can-starmers-britain-become<\/a>\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Just How Dystopian Can Starmer’s Britain Become? Authored by Nick Corbishley via NakedCapitalism.com, After his landslide election victory in July, Keir Starmer\u00a0promised\u00a0that his new Labour…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":1500706,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1500705","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","wpcat-1-id"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1500705","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1500705"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1500705\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1500706"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1500705"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1500705"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1500705"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}