Mahmood Needs To Watch Better Sci-Fi Movies...

Tracking devices inserted under offenders’ skin, robots assigned to contain prisoners and driverless vehicles used to transport them were among the measures proposed by technology companies to ministers who are gathering ideas to tackle the crisis in the UK justice system.

Surely we can do better than that?  

Those present included representatives of Google, Amazon, Microsoft and Palantir, which works closely with the US military and has contracts with the NHS. IBM and the private prison operator Serco also attended alongside tagging and biometric companies, according to a response to a freedom of information request.

Given the fact that very little of this tech works as intended are we sure we want to go down this route?

Mahmood told the tech companies she wants “deeper collaboration between government and tech to solve the prison capacity crisis, reduce reoffending and make communities safer”. She invited them to “scale and improve” the existing use of tagging “not just for monitoring but to drive rehabilitation and reduce crime”.

You can onlt rehabilitate those who wwant to change - just what percentage of the offendfer population does? 

Human rights campaigners called the ideas “alarmingly dystopian”...

Of vcourse they did. It's what they do. It's time they were ignored. 

Remember What The Blessed Margaret Said – Sooner Or Later They Run Out Of Other People’s Money

The Labour government’s abrupt U-turn on winter fuel payments – restoring the benefit to more than three-quarters of pensioners – reveals less a change of heart than a sobering realisation in Westminster: after years of austerity, the public no longer gives politicians the benefit of the doubt.

The irony is hard to miss. Labour set out to prove that “grown-up” economics means difficult decisions – only to find that once trust is lost, voters won’t accept vague promises without tangible results.

Sadly, Labour forgot to staff their front bench with grown ups! 

It turns out many are sceptical that sacrifices will produce better results for society. That’s why ministers are struggling to justify cuts to disability benefits as a way to “fund” public services – or to convince the public that Britain can’t afford to lift the two-child benefit cap even as ministers claim they will reduce child poverty.

It’s not for government to do that, though; it’s for prospective parents to do it, by not having children they can’t afford.

Today’s class politics has been built on culture wars and channelled through identity and belonging. The warning by the former Bank of England chief economist Andy Haldane that Nigel Farage is now seen by many as the closest thing Britain has to a “tribune for the working class” should be taken seriously. Citing Reform UK’s surge in the polls, he pointed to a “moral rupture” between voters and mainstream politicians, accusing Labour of fuelling disillusionment through a weak growth strategy and unpopular decisions on benefits.

Those decisions were only unpopular with those dependant on benefits - they were wildly popular with those paying for the benefits! 

Labour’s spending review this week looks like an attempt to reframe its offer around extra cash for frontline services such as health and education. That is welcome. Less so will be the real-terms cuts in unprotected departments that Ms Reeves’s fiscal rules demand to account for such commitments. If this reset is not visible and felt by voters soon, the door swings open wider to Mr Farage and his hard-right politics.

'Hard right politics'? It's pretty soft right politics, at the moment, but keep on with the progressive nonsense, and you'll soon see some real hard right politics!

Enough Is Enough - Knock The Bloody Thing Down!

Angela Rayner has been accused of ignoring the concerns of bereaved Grenfell families over plans to demolish the tower block where 72 people died.

It's still standing? Good grief, the fire was in 2017! Knock the eyesore down and be done with it! 

What should happen to the site of the catastrophic fire has always split opinion, with some bereaved and survivors feeling the tower should remain in place until there are criminal prosecutions over the failings which led to the fire.

You should all know by now that's almost certainly never going to happen.... 

Grenfell United claimed Ms Rayner 'refused to confirm how many bereaved and survivors' had been spoken to about demolishing the tower, saying she was ignoring their voices 'on the future of our loved ones' gravesite.

She does that to everyone, you're not a special case. 

The Government has previously said structural engineering advice remained unchanged 'in that the building (or that part of it that was significantly damaged) should be carefully taken down'. It is expected more details will be set out by the end of the week.

The final report of the Grenfell Tower Inquiry, published in September, concluded the disaster was the result of 'decades of failure' by government and the construction industry to act on the dangers of flammable materials on high-rise buildings.

And like every other failure of government and regulation, no-one will lose their job over it.