[mattomac]

I think he should go. I'm not one of those who thinks he's one of the worst people, nor do I think he secretly runs the government, but I feel he's out of his depth, and his strategy isn't working

This is it, I don't know what he does but whatever he is doing its not looking that effective? I think when the back of house become the full focus you have to go, it would also placate some MPs for Labour I reckon.

Miller will end up the same way in the US, though he is a shit bag.

[Abernathy]

Yes it’s odd, isn’t it? Several years ago, I was on my local municipal golf course. I played a decent enough approach shot up onto the green, on a hole that was on the edge of the course, bordering a fairly scruffy council estate. As my playing partner and I walked up onto the green, a lad, about ten or eleven years old, I guess, emerged from the bushes, sprinted over to my ball, picked it up, then made off with it.

I of course pursued him and demanded he give me the ball back . Brazen as you like, he baldly claimed that it was actually his golf ball (he may have been related to the current president of the USA). I of course remonstrated with him in an only slightly threatening manner (I was somewhat enraged) and again demanded, deploying some choice profanity, that he return my ball to me.

In response, he said “I’ll say you touched me.”

I might well have taken a step back in shock. Visions of being detained in a police station interrogation room, suspected of being a kiddie fiddler, flashed through my mind. The kid eventually relented and surrendered the ball, but I was quite genuinely perturbed by what he’d said to me. And about his awareness of such a thing, though that may possibly have been a good thing in certain grim circumstances. But yes, the power of the paedophile accusation. The horrible little scrote that he was.

[Tubby Isaacs]

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/20 ... over-deals

Labour should halt public contracts with the US tech company Palantir, opposition politicians have said, amid growing concern at the lack of government transparency over dealings with the company and Peter Mandelson.

Or contract signed 3 Prime Ministers ago, and which started in 2023, is being treated just like every other contract signed with a contractor. If you've agreed to commercial confidentiality, you can't just ignore that because some politicians later complain about it.

The Green party leader, Zack Polanski, wrote to the health secretary, Wes Streeting, urging him to break a £330m contract between Palantir and the NHS. The deal to run a “federated data platform” has faced opposition from the British Medical Association, with some NHS trusts having raising doubts about its effectiveness.

Polanski said Palantir “has absolutely no place in the NHS, looking after patients’ personal data … I understand there is a break clause in the contract this year and I would urge you not to renew the contract of such a disreputable corporation”.

I've done some reading (OK, reddit) and the IT people commenting seemed pretty clear that Palantir isn't "looking after personal data" and were fairly impatient with some of the public discussion. The NHS has also said that it remains in control of personal data. I still don't think I've seen Zack get anything right.

As we've said before, there's a need to pivot away from US tech (other more recent contracts are mentioned in the article). Breaking this 7 year contract, which this and the previous Government seem to have been happy with, and retendering for someone else to take up the work half way through would not seem to be a good idea.