UK - England, Wales, N.Ireland, Scotland

[Azastan]

The world awaits.

It's the best way to make mushy peas.

[RTH10260]

Liverpool bomber had been planning attack since April
Published 23 hours ago


Counter-terror police said Iraq-born Emad Al Swealmeen rented a property in the city seven months ago.

He had suffered from periods of mental illness which will "form part of the investigation", they added.

Earlier police extended a cordon at an address linked to the asylum seeker.

Christian convert Al Swealmeen, 32, was a passenger in a taxi when his homemade device exploded outside Liverpool Women's Hospital shortly before 11:00 GMT on Remembrance Sunday.

A post-mortem found he died from injuries caused by the explosion and fire.

The driver David Perry escaped seconds before his car was engulfed in flames and has since been discharged from hospital.
l
Details of Al-Swealmeen's immigration legal history provided to the BBC by court officials show he had a long and complicated series of applications and appeals to remain in the country.

It remains unclear whether the Home Office tried to remove him after his first failed application to stay more than six years ago and why his final appeal was unresolved.

According to court records provided by officials, Al Swealmeen was first refused asylum in 2014 and also lost further appeals in 2015.

The records show in August 2015 he began seeking to convert to Christianity and adopted a new name, Enzo Almeni, as part of the conversion.

They also document that he renewed his immigration appeal under this alternative name in January this year.

His submissions were under review at the time of his death and the Home Office has refused to discuss the case with BBC News.




https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-59317136

[RTH10260]

New bill quietly gives powers to remove British citizenship without notice
Clause added to nationality and borders bill also appears to allow Home Office to act retrospectively in some cases

Haroon Siddique Legal affairs correspondent
Wed 17 Nov 2021 13.34 GMT

Individuals could be stripped of their British citizenship without warning under a proposed rule change quietly added to the nationality and borders bill.

Clause 9 – “Notice of decision to deprive a person of citizenship” – of the bill, which was updated earlier this month, exempts the government from having to give notice if it is not “reasonably practicable” to do so, or in the interests of national security, diplomatic relations or otherwise in the public interest.

Critics say removing citizenship, as in the case of Shamima Begum, who fled Britain as a schoolgirl to join Islamic State in Syria, is already a contentious power, and scrapping the requirement for notice would make the home secretary’s powers even more draconian.

Frances Webber, the vice-chair of the Institute of Race Relations, said: “This amendment sends the message that certain citizens, despite being born and brought up in the UK and having no other home, remain migrants in this country. Their citizenship, and therefore all their rights, are precarious and contingent.

“It builds on previous measures to strip British-born dual nationals (who are mostly from ethnic minorities) of citizenship and to do it while they are abroad, measures used mainly against British Muslims. It unapologetically flouts international human rights obligations and basic norms of fairness.”

Home Office powers to strip British nationals of their citizenship were introduced after the 2005 London bombings but their use increased under Theresa May’s tenure as home secretary from 2010, and they were broadened in 2014.



https://www.theguardian.com/politics/20 ... out-notice

[Lani]

Am I misreading this, or is the UK determined to destroy itself?

[Uninformed]

Am I misreading this, or is the UK determined to destroy itself?

No, all indications are that you are correct.

[Lani]

Am I misreading this, or is the UK determined to destroy itself?

No, all indications are that you are correct.

So like the GOP?

[Uninformed]

Am I misreading this, or is the UK determined to destroy itself?

No, all indications are that you are correct.

So like the GOP?

Only in their shared lack of compassion for those less well off. The current government is a mix of elitists, some born into it and an awful lot of aspiring assholes.There are a few with a conscience but almost the first you hear of them is when they resign.

[Lani]

So both of us countries are failed democracies?

[Foggy]

Yeah, maybe not totally failed yet, but a slow-motion train wreck in progress.

I've always been an optimist. I think we have time enough to turn things around. I have faith in the human race, for some unknown reason.

We make horrible mistakes, and then we fix them.

And overall ... in the grand sweep of time ... the good overcomes the bad, and history only moves in one direction, and that's forward.

I insist on living another three hundred years to see how things develop.

[RTH10260]

the bginning of the end of this clown car?

Last ditch? Car-crash fortnight shakes Tory faith in Boris Johnson
Morale low as scandals and doubts on policy delivery add to worries about PM’s competence

Heather Stewart
Sat 20 Nov 2021 07.00 GMT

Ashame-faced Boris Johnson told his own MPs this week that he had “crashed the car into the ditch” by misjudging the Owen Paterson scandal. As he heads to his country retreat of Chequers this weekend, some at Westminster have begun to wonder if he has what it takes to get the show back on the road.

As well as exposing Johnson’s lax approach to probity in public life, the Paterson debacle highlighted what those who have worked with him say is one of his most maddening characteristics – the impetuous style of decision-making and tendency to sudden reversals cruelly caricatured by Dominic Cummings as “like a shopping trolley”.

And it played into wider worries about his competence and whether the Downing Street machine is working as it should. “No 10 is a really difficult job and he doesn’t have the skillset to run it, he just doesn’t,” said one senior Tory. “He’s a great campaigner; a terrible administrator. But he doesn’t trust anyone to run it for him.”

Johnson’s longtime adviser Ben “Gazza” Gascoigne was recently persuaded to return to his side, in a sign that all was not well with the post-Cummings setup.

One Conservative MP likened the impact of the events of the past fortnight to a hurricane hitting the government. “Obviously morale is low, and people have felt dispirited,” he said. “I think it’s completely up to him to turn it around.”



https://www.theguardian.com/politics/20 ... is-johnson

[RTH10260]

New homes will come with rescue rafts?

More than 5,000 homes in England approved to be built in flood zones
Insurers raise alarm but builders say housing crisis leaves them with no choice

Gwyn Topham and agencies
Mon 22 Nov 2021 05.01 GMT

More than 5,000 new homes in flood-risk areas of England have been granted planning permission so far this year, as local authorities try to tackle the housing shortage.

Researchers analysing 16,000 planning applications lodged between January and September discovered about 200 had been approved, for a total of 5,283 new homes, in areas where more than 10% of homes were already at significant risk of flooding.

Insurers said they were concerned about the numbers of homes being built where owners were at risk of experiencing “traumatic and devastating losses”.

But builders said that the need for new homes meant even flood-risk areas would have to be used – and with the climate crisis leaving more homes exposed, more defences and mitigation measures would have to be put in place.



https://www.theguardian.com/society/202 ... lood-zones

[RTH10260]

One would hope that new buildings are built raised above local projected flood levels.

[RTH10260]

The next dreamfart of Boris while his policies will hinder the brightest minds to come to the UK

The next giant leap: why Boris Johnson wants to ‘go big’ on quantum computing
Opportunities for business, health and the environment offered by superfast processors are huge – and so are the hurdles

Dan Milmo
Sun 21 Nov 2021 16.00 GMT

The technology behind everyday computers such as smartphones and laptops has revolutionised modern life, to the extent that our day-to-day lives are unimaginable without it. But an alternative method of computing is advancing rapidly, and Boris Johnson is among the people who have noticed. He will need to push the boundaries of his linguistic dexterity to explain it.

Quantum computing is based on quantum physics, which looks at how the subatomic particles that make up the universe work. Last week, the prime minister promised the UK would “go big on quantum computing” by building a general-purpose quantum computer, and secure 50% of the global quantum computing market by 2040. The UK will need to get a move on though: big steps have been taken in the field this year by the technology superpowers of China and the US.

Peter Leek, a lecturer and quantum computing expert at Oxford University, says “classical” computing (the common term for computing as we know it) has been an incredible 20th-century achievement, but “the way we process information in computers now still doesn’t take full advantage of the laws of physics as we know them”.

Work on quantum physics, however, has given us a new and more powerful way of processing information. “If you can use the principles of quantum physics to process information then you can do a range of types of calculations that you cannot do with normal computers,” says Leek.



https://www.theguardian.com/technology/ ... -computing

[Uninformed]

…Last week, the prime minister promised the UK would “go big on quantum computing” by building a general-purpose quantum computer, and secure 50% of the global quantum computing market by 2040…

That is so unbelievably ridiculous, even for Boris. The boy is losing it.

ETA.

“CBI conference: Boris Johnson veers off road in speech to business leaders”:
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-59373237

‘After saying government "cannot fix everything" and that "the true driver of growth is not government but the energy and dynamism and originality of the private sector", Mr Johnson turned to CBI chief Tony Danker and said: "Yesterday I went, as we all must, to Peppa Pig World."’

[RTH10260]

"... to Pig World ..."

to consume EU pork or UK pork packaged in the EU

[tek]

After saying government "cannot fix everything"

But it apparently CAN break everything.

[RTH10260]

‘Embarrassing’: Boris Johnson criticised for rambling speech to CBI
Business leaders and Conservative MPs criticise speech in which PM extensively praised Peppa Pig World and imitated car

Aubrey Allegretti, Joanna Partridge and Rob Davies
Mon 22 Nov 2021 17.59 GMT

Boris Johnson has been criticised by senior business leaders and Conservative MPs for a “rambling” speech to top industry figures that saw him extensively praise Peppa Pig World, compare himself to Moses and imitate the noise of an accelerating car.

The prime minister’s sprawling address to the Confederation of British Industry (CBI) was accused of lacking seriousness and professionalism. Johnson lost his place during the speech and spent 20 seconds repeating “forgive me” as he shuffled the printed pages on his podium.

Some hoped the speech would be a chance for Johnson to announce proper policy in the pursuit of his “levelling up” agenda. However, the speech at the Port of Tyne near South Shields only contained an announcement about changing building regulations to ensure all new homes and buildings in England have electric vehicle charging points installed from next year.

One of Johnson’s lengthier tangents was about his recent trip to Hampshire’s Peppa Pig World – an amusement park dedicated to a children’s cartoon character, which he opined on in an apparent dig at civil servants and the BBC.

He said that “the true driver of growth is not the government”, but the private sector, whose energy and originality the prime minister praised. To illustrate this, he explained: “Yesterday I went, as we all must, to Peppa Pig World. Hands up if you’ve been to Peppa Pig World!

“I loved it. Peppa Pig World is very much my kind of place. It has very safe streets, discipline in schools, heavy emphasis on new mass transit systems. Even if they’re a bit stereotypical about Daddy Pig.”

Johnson explained that the “real lesson” he learned on the visit was that the popularity of the main character – who he said resembled a “Picasso-like hairdryer” – was evidence of “the power of UK creativity”. Johnson said the TV show “was rejected by the BBC and has now been exported to 180 countries” and now worth £6bn. “I think that is pure genius, don’t you? No government in the world, no Whitehall civil servant, would conceivably have come up with Peppa.”

Johnson also imitated the sound of an accelerating car with grunts that the official Downing Street release transcribed as “arum arum aaaaaaaaag”. He also compared himself to Moses over his plan to help business invest in tackling climate change. The prime minister said: “I said to my officials the new 10 commandments were that ‘Thou shalt develop industries like offshore wind, hydrogen, nuclear power and carbon capture.’”


https://www.theguardian.com/politics/20 ... ing-speech

[keith]

The last time the UK promised to 'go big' on anything even closely related to computing they got plowed under by Honeywell, CDC, GE, and DEC (over ICL) (IBM didn't even notice the bump in the road, and CDC wasn't even really in the same market).

Rethink... or maybe it was Apple, Tandy, and Compaq (over Sinclair) - I don't think the UK Gov really backed Sinclair heavily, but they certainly did ICL.

So who are the players in Quantum computing?

Well Google claims superiority but I think they are working with specialists:

Eight leading quantum computing companies in 2020

• Atom Computing (Berkeley CA)
• Xanadu (Canada)
• IBM (USA) but important research labs in the UK
• ColdQuanta (Boulder, Co) but offices in Oxford U.K. Has grants from UK government - is this a UK project?
• Zapata Computing (Boston, MA) - Platform Infracture tools to enable QC applications. Works with IBM, Honeywell, and Amazon
• Azure Quantum (Microsoft) - Platform Infracture tools to enable QC applications. Works with 1QBit, Honeywell, IonQ, and QCI.
• DWave (Canada) claims the first commercial Quantum Computer
• Strangeworks (Austin Texas) - another set of development tools

There are dozens of other startups working on QC stuff of course, and some of them are bound to be UK based, but the guys listed have a big head start on putting everything together. There will be a lot of consolidation one of these days, but folks like IBM and Azure are unlikely to be swallowed up (I once said that about CDC and DEC too, so take it for what it is worth).

For Johnson to bet the country's future on QC domination is a BBBBIIIIIGGGGGG stretch. They can pour money into IBM and ColdQuanta, but that doesn't make it UK domination. Australia gave General Motors truckloads of cash to build electric cars for world domination. GM took the money and promptly closed down all manufacturing in Australia (Ford did the same, by the way).

[RTH10260]

Exclusive: A fast-track visa route for Nobel prize laureates and other award-winners in science, engineering, the humanities and medicine has failed to attract any applicants

22 November 2021
By Jason Arunn Murugesu

Not a single scientist has applied to a UK government visa scheme for Nobel prize laureates and other award winners since its launch six months ago, New Scientist can reveal. The scheme has come under criticism from scientists and has been described as “a joke”.

In May, the government launched a fast-track visa route for award-winners in the fields of science, engineering, the humanities and medicine who want to work in the UK. This prestigious prize route makes it easier for some academics to apply for a Global Talent visa – it requires only one application, with no need to meet conditions such as a grant from the UK Research and Innovation funding body or a job offer at a UK organisation.

The number of prizes that qualify academics for this route currently stands at over 70, and includes the Turing Award, the L’Oréal-UNESCO for Women in Science International Awards, and various gongs awarded by professional or membership bodies both in the UK and elsewhere.

“Winners of these awards have reached the pinnacle of their career and they have so much to offer the UK,” said home secretary Priti Patel when the prestigious prize scheme launched in May. “This is exactly what our new point-based immigration system was designed for – attracting the best and brightest based on the skills and talent they have, not where they’ve come from.”

But a freedom of information request by New Scientist has revealed that in the six months since the scheme was launched, no one working in science, engineering, the humanities or medicine has actually applied for a visa through this route.

“Chances that a single Nobel or Turing laureate would move to the UK to work are zero for the next decade or so,” says Andre Geim at the University of Manchester, UK. Geim won a Nobel prize in 2010 for his work on graphene. “The scheme itself is a joke – it cannot be discussed seriously,” he says. “The government thinks if you pump up UK science with a verbal diarrhea of optimism – it can somehow become a self-fulfilling prophecy.”



https://www.newscientist.com/article/22 ... lications/

[RTH10260]

To note that any such great minds would be invited by a UK institution to join some research project, they don't just turn up out of the blue, and said institution would be smoothing the visa application path.

[qbawl]

The last time the UK promised to 'go big' on anything even closely related to computing they got plowed under by Honeywell, CDC, GE, and DEC (over ICL) (IBM didn't even notice the bump in the road, and CDC wasn't even really in the same market).

Rethink... or maybe it was Apple, Tandy, and Compaq (over Sinclair) - I don't think the UK Gov really backed Sinclair heavily, but they certainly did ICL.

So who are the players in Quantum computing?

Well Google claims superiority but I think they are working with specialists:

Eight leading quantum computing companies in 2020

• Atom Computing (Berkeley CA)
• Xanadu (Canada)
• IBM (USA) but important research labs in the UK
• ColdQuanta (Boulder, Co) but offices in Oxford U.K. Has grants from UK government - is this a UK project?
• Zapata Computing (Boston, MA) - Platform Infracture tools to enable QC applications. Works with IBM, Honeywell, and Amazon
• Azure Quantum (Microsoft) - Platform Infracture tools to enable QC applications. Works with 1QBit, Honeywell, IonQ, and QCI.
• DWave (Canada) claims the first commercial Quantum Computer
• Strangeworks (Austin Texas) - another set of development tools

There are dozens of other startups working on QC stuff of course, and some of them are bound to be UK based, but the guys listed have a big head start on putting everything together. There will be a lot of consolidation one of these days, but folks like IBM and Azure are unlikely to be swallowed up (I once said that about CDC and DEC too, so take it for what it is worth).

For Johnson to bet the country's future on QC domination is a BBBBIIIIIGGGGGG stretch. They can pour money into IBM and ColdQuanta, but that doesn't make it UK domination. Australia gave General Motors truckloads of cash to build electric cars for world domination. GM took the money and promptly closed down all manufacturing in Australia (Ford did the same, by the way).

Back in the day ('80s - '90s) there was a time when IBM and Apple collaborated on several projects two of which were named Taligent and Pink. At that time there was some talk of a merger between the two companies. The joke question of course became “if IBM and Apple merge what would be the name of the new company?” The answer? IBM.
Today if the same conversation was repeated of course the answer would be Apple. As of today Apple is the largest Company in the world by market cap. In fact the difference between Apple's market cap and number two Microsoft's market cap (close of Market 11 23 21) is more than IBM's market cap.
So what's my point? Never say never things change.

[RTH10260]

Boris Johnson as a failing diplomat

Channel deaths: Priti Patel disinvited to meeting with France
Boris Johnson’s public letter to Emmanuel Macron on Channel drownings deemed ‘unacceptable’

Rajeev Syal and Jon Henley
Fri 26 Nov 2021 08.25 GMT

Talks with the home secretary, Priti Patel, about the Channel boats crisis have been cancelled by France’s interior minister after Boris Johnson called on France to take back people who crossed the Channel to the UK in small boats.

In an escalation of the political crisis after the deaths of 27 people in the Channel, Patel’s counterpart, Gérald Darmanin, said France was disappointed by the demand.

“Making it public made it even worse,” he said.

Johnson had set out five steps in his letter to President Emmanuel Macron to avoid a repeat of Wednesday’s tragedy. In a message seen by the AFP news agency, Darmanin told Patel the letter from Johnson to Macron, suggesting France take back people who cross the Channel, was a “disappointment”.

Referring to Johnson’s posting of the letter on social media, he added: “Making it public made it even worse. I therefore need to cancel our meeting in Calais on Sunday.”

The French government’s official spokesman, Gabriel Attal, added to Darmanin’s criticism of Johnson’s letter on French television calling it “mediocre in terms of the content, and wholly inappropriate as regards the form”.

Attal told BFM TV the letter was “medicore because it does not respect all the work that has been done by our coastguards, police, gendarmes and lifeboat crews … It basically proposes a ‘relocation’ agreement, which is clearly not what’s needed to solve this problem.

“We’re sick and tired of this double talk and outsourcing of problems.”

France was planning to host ministers from all states with Channel coasts, including Patel, for a meeting on the refugee crisis in Calais on Sunday.



https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/202 ... ith-france

Note: over the weekend a rubber dinghy with 30+ migrants capsized in the Channel on its way to the UK in French waters. All but two drowned.

[Volkonski]

UK health trusts suspend home birth services as midwives shortage deepens
‘Crisis’ in maternity care leaves expectant mothers facing difficult births in hospital or without support at home

https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyl ... 1638081048

A severe shortage of midwives has led to home birth services being closed or reduced by a number of hospital trusts across the UK, with pregnant women frequently left in limbo as to where they will be able to give birth.



Midwives are being driven out of the NHS by understaffing and fears they cannot deliver safe care, according to a recent survey published by the Royal College of Midwives (RCM).

Maria Booker, programmes director at the charity Birthrights, said: “Staffing pressures in maternity services are very real right now. But for many women the option to give birth at home is not a luxury but the only option that feels safe to them.

“Some know they will labour better at home while some do not want to visit hospital during a pandemic. Others have a had a previous traumatic hospital birth. We cannot just accept that home birth and other choices go out the window every time a maternity service is squeezed.”

[RTH10260]

where have we seen this before?

Boris Johnson ‘ignored’ my plan to tackle deadly Covid variants – senior official

Former head of vaccine taskforce says No 10 has not acted on his blueprint to prepare UK for new strains

Michael Savage
Sat 27 Nov 2021 20.30 GMT

Boris Johnson has been accused of ignoring a senior official’s plan to prepare Britain for the emergence of vaccine-resistant Covid variants, the Observer can reveal.

With the government announcing on Saturday that the first UK cases of the Omicron variant had been detected, the former head of the government’s vaccine taskforce said he could see no evidence that his blueprint for tackling the most worrying variants – submitted in the spring – had been acted upon.

In an interview with the Observer, Clive Dix, a leading figure in drug development who chaired the taskforce until April, said that he believed the UK was no longer “on the front foot” in tackling the pandemic. “I wrote a very specific proposal on what we should put in place right now for the emergence of any new virus that escaped the vaccine,” he said. “That was written and handed into the [vaccine taskforce] at the end of April when I left. I haven’t seen a sign of any of those activities yet.

“I sent a note to No 10 [in May] saying I think this is still an emergency and it should be dealt with urgently – and I want it on public record that you’ve got my proposal. But I didn’t even get a response to that. I prodded the government and said, ‘What’s going on, because we need to do this’. I don’t see any of that going on.”

He added: “I think it’s time to ask the vaccine taskforce and the government, what is your plan for an escape variant? What is your plan for resilience for the future? Let’s see it because I think the country needs to know.”

His criticisms echoed those of Kate Bingham, the first chair of the vaccine taskforce, who warned in a speech last week: “Had we relied on the existing machinery of government, the outcome [of the vaccine programme] could have been very different.” Dominic Cummings, the prime minister’s former chief adviser, has also called on the government to publish its plans for tackling vaccine-resistant Covid variants.



https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/ ... r-official

[Foggy]

Boris is bizzy making certain that Brexit is a big success.