The UK continues to slide into authoritarianism. This is not something the people have asked for. Not looking forward to how this plays out if they get a Reform (far right) government next election, like all the polls seem to think.
blibble•3h ago
the problem is it IS something people have asked for
the average British voter likes the authoritarianism
OgsyedIE•3h ago
The polls are sharply delineated by age group, however. Giving the members of cabinet the direct power to order arbitrary criminal inquiries to be shut or created polled very well with over-40s and very poorly with under-40s.
kevin_thibedeau•1h ago
There has been a legitimate issue with local police not having the resources to investigate crimes that exceed their jurisdiction or expertise. Most notably the case with computer-based crimes. This is the response. Do you have a better suggestion?
rayiner•1h ago
Reform isn’t even close to “far right.” Are they trying to defund the NHS? Get rid of government pensions? Immigration restriction isn’t “far right.” The sharp curtailment of immigration from Britain’s colonies was enacted in 1968 under a Labour government. In the U.S., sharply restricting immigration was a policy that prevailed during FDR, who was the most liberal U.S. president in history. “Far right” is someone like Margaret Thatcher or Ronald Reagan who thought the private sector could fix everything.
tialaramex•56m ago
I think Reform is best understood as the Temu Tory Party. What if you couldn't afford an actual Tory Party, but you saw this advertised for £0 on your phone ?
I think it'll be interesting to watch Tories who could never put together a PM bid that worked wriggle inside Reform to push out Farage. Farage is naturally the leader of an outfit like UKIP, actual Nazis in the trenches, led by a few people you can put in a suit who know not to do the salute and who make sure not to say the wrong thing on camera. But, he doesn't want to lead UKIP, he wanted to be Prime Minister, and that's a harder lift.
rayiner•4m ago
[delayed]
rich_sasha•1h ago
It's weird. I would say politically, the UK has no aspirations towards authoritarianism. ANPR has been around for ages, but the state can barely enforce road tax payment. The police have no ambitions for a brutalised US style culture. Reform is a bit of an unknown, but even they started making murmurs about how Trump is taking it a bit too far.
And yet undoubtedly the UK keeps introducing these privacy-hostile mechanisms, and it's not even clear what for. There is no obvious reason, not a pragmatic one, not a nefarious one (IMO).
ronsor•44m ago
> the UK has no aspirations towards authoritarianism
I would say they're aiming more for a boring authoritarian dystopia than a bombastic one.
bloqs•3h ago
Paywall
janmalec•2h ago
Reader mode in Firefox worked for me, one click.
gertrunde•3h ago
"British FBI"...?
And what exactly do they think the NCA is?
[National Crime Agency]
On digging further: OK, this is not really creating anything at all, it's just merging the NCA and various existing regional organised crime outfits together into one body.
unethical_ban•1h ago
Epoch Times is not news.
direwolf20•2h ago
Is it legal for a private individual to roll out nationwide facial recognition in the UK? Asking for a friend.
spants•1h ago
"Roll Out Nationwide Facial Recognition" - so that is why waste-of-space starmer is in China
Eddy_Viscosity2•2m ago
Given the ubiquitous CCTV coverage the UK has and has had for some time, I would suspect they've had nationwide facial recognition for a while already. Just on the down-low.
everyday7732•4h ago
blibble•3h ago
the average British voter likes the authoritarianism
OgsyedIE•3h ago
kevin_thibedeau•1h ago
rayiner•1h ago
tialaramex•56m ago
I think it'll be interesting to watch Tories who could never put together a PM bid that worked wriggle inside Reform to push out Farage. Farage is naturally the leader of an outfit like UKIP, actual Nazis in the trenches, led by a few people you can put in a suit who know not to do the salute and who make sure not to say the wrong thing on camera. But, he doesn't want to lead UKIP, he wanted to be Prime Minister, and that's a harder lift.
rayiner•4m ago
rich_sasha•1h ago
And yet undoubtedly the UK keeps introducing these privacy-hostile mechanisms, and it's not even clear what for. There is no obvious reason, not a pragmatic one, not a nefarious one (IMO).
ronsor•44m ago
I would say they're aiming more for a boring authoritarian dystopia than a bombastic one.