Tootfinder

I think the government is stretching the understood meaning of "upskilling" in making people use AI, given the underlying promise of the AI industry.
https://www.gov.uk/government/news/tech-giants-join-government-to…

Tech giants join government to kick off plans to boost British worker AI skills
Leading tech firms have partnered with government to deliver AI skills training to 7.5 million UK workers.

Grenfell survivor urges government to speed up firms’ contract ban ahead of eighth anniversary | Morning Star
https://morningstaronline.co.uk/article/grenfell-survivor-urges-government-speed-firms-contract…

UK and partners unite to sanction ministers inciting West Bank violence - GOV.UK https://www.gov.uk/government/news/uk-and-partners-unite-to-sanction-ministers-inciting-west-bank-violence

UK and partners unite to sanction ministers inciting West Bank violence
UK sanctions Israeli government ministers Itamar Ben-Gvir and Bezalel Smotrich in response to their repeated incitements of violence against Palestinian communities, alongside partners Australia, Canada, New Zealand and Norway

Public Service Announcement: If you've worked in the UK, and you've changed the UK number that you use for accessing Gov.UK services, it is impossible to restore access because the default recovery workflow requires UK-issued photo ids: either a UK passport, or a UK driving license, are mandatory, even if you never had one or provided one in the first place.
Happily enough, as long as you keep your National Insurance Number, you can create a new Gateway ID, but this time follow…

the3million | Proving identity on Government websites with a non-UK passport | Giving a voice to EU citizens in the UK
HMRC, DWP and other government services have changed the way in which people sign in to access these services. This is a step-by-step guide for EU citizens and other non-UK passport holders to be able to access the Government Gateway, to see your tax records, pension records and other finance information, even if you do not have a British passport.

Will Cathcart says WhatsApp plans to support Apple in its legal case against the UK Home Office over weakening encryption, which may "set a dangerous precedent" (Zoe Kleinman/BBC)
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cgmjrn42wdwo

WhatsApp backs Apple in its legal row with the UK over user data
The messaging app says the UK government's demands over data access could set a "dangerous precedent."

Starmer's Labour government complicity.
Fury as minister admits Britain is still training Israeli troops amid Gaza genocide | Morning Star
https://morningstaronline.co.uk/article/fury-minister-admits-br…

UK cyber agency pushes for 'strategic policy agenda' as government efforts stall https://therecord.media/ncsc-pushes-uk-government-create-strategic-cyber-policy-agenda

HM Govt is flushing another **fourteen billion pounds** down the toilet that is Sizewell C, a plant which will certainly never generate a kilowatt hour of unsubsidised electricity, probably never generate a kilowatt hour of needed electricity, and certainly cost our descendants far more to decommission than it costs us to build.
At the same time as stealing money from tidal and wave installations we urgently need.

Sizewell C nuclear plant gets £14.2bn government investment
The chancellor calls it a "landmark decision" but critics say the cost of the project is still unclear.

Amend Investigatory Powers Act: bar Govt from protected, private customer data
Amend the Act to specifically and completely bar any Government from attempting to compel any company to give them access to customers' data, which we think undermines privacy. We don't want any companies to pull privacy features from the UK market, potentially as a result of the Act and its use.

«GitHub is Leaking Trump’s Plans to 'Accelerate' AI Across Government»
Don't tell the UK government, otherwise Starmer and his AI lackies will just copy and paste that playbook 😂
https://www.404media.co/github-is-leaking-trumps-plans-to-accelerate-ai-across-government/

A coalition of seven leading civil society organisations has called on the European Commission to revoke the United Kingdom's data adequacy status, citing what they describe as a sustained and systemic erosion of privacy and data protection standards in the UK.
https://www.

Europe urged to revoke UK's data adequacy status
Government's practices are increasingly diverging from the EU's data protection framework, argue civil society groups

"Campaigners hail plan to ban bottom trawling in half of England’s protected seas"
#UK #UnitedKingdom #Environment

Happy & Glorious: Coronation art exhibition goes on show https://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/about/news/happy-glorious-coronation-art-exhibition-goes-on-show/

Happy & Glorious: Coronation art exhibition goes on show - The National Archives
Stunning new artwork commissioned by the Government Art Collection to mark the Coronation of Their Majesties King Charles III and Queen Camilla has gone on show in our Happy & Glorious exhibition. The free exhibition includes work by artists from across the UK created in response to the Coronation on 6 May 2023. For the […]

Good news. It looks like Flamingo Land will not now be built on the banks of Loch Lomond.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c23mxr2vg0ko

Ministers stall plans for Loch Lomond Flamingo Land resort
The Scottish government had been set to give permission for the park after overturning the decision of the national park authority.

Nice. Now do Netanyahu, the rest of the israeli government, and everyone in the IDF. You know, the folks perpetrating the genocide of the Palestinian people.
Oh, and maybe stop running surveillance flights to help israel commit genocide.
#israel #genocide

Fiona Hill’s argument is that
in a time of profound uncertainty,
Britain needs greater internal cohesion if it is to protect itself.
“We can’t rely exclusively on anyone any more,” she said,
arguing that Britain needed to have “a different mindset” based as much on traditional defence as on social resilience.
Some of that, Hill said, was about a greater recognition of the level of external threat and initiatives for greater integration,
by teaching first a…

I guess directed-energy weapons are real now, since they're a billion pound line item.
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/spending-review-2025-document/spending-review-2025-html#:~:text=Directe…

Spending Review 2025 (HTML)

WhatsApp moves to join Apple’s encryption fight with UK government https://therecord.media/whatsapp-uk-encryption-fight-apple

Ask your MP to support a ban on the import and sale of fur in the UK #AnimalRights

Ask your MP to urge the government to legislate to ban the import and sale of real fur and foie gras as soon as possible
Please write to your MP straight away ask them to support a ban on the import and sale of fur and foie gras. Thank you

This sounds great.
Former senior politicians, including Sir Ben Wallace, Jack Straw and Amber Rudd, play a fictional British government pitched against an imagined Kremlin.
The Wargame: New Sky News and Tortoise Media podcast series simulates a Russian attack on UK

Do the #BBC hand over website news stories to the work experience kids at the weekend, or something? This is embarrassingly bad.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cn7zngr6jn5o

Spending Review to include £86bn for science and tech
The government says every corner of the country will benefit, but research backers call for a long-term plan for science.

Hey, #UK government: you should really send an aircraft carrier group to clear out that nest of pirates in the Eastern Mediterranean.

"Fossil Fuels and Fake LTNs: Reform’s Five Biggest Climate Clangers Since Local Elections"
#UK #UnitedKingdom #FossilFuels

Fossil Fuels and Fake LTNs: Reform’s Five Biggest Climate Clangers Since Local Elections
In the local elections on 1 May, Nigel Farage’s Reform UK took control of 10 councils and two regional mayoralties. The party vowed to scrap climate initiatives in the authorities, and has reportedly already set up an Elon Musk-inspired “DOGE” (Department of Government Efficiency) at Kent County Council in order to identify potential cuts to […]

"They ran the bare job titles through GPT, without looking at the details of the specific jobs, and got the chatbot to guess what those titles would have meant. Then they decided the chatbot could do most of the jobs. They were, after all, using the chatbot to do their job."
Rule: your job can successfully be taken over by a chatbot if it comes with no accountability.

Data privacy experts are calling on the government to urgently tighten regulation around facial recognition technology, amid growing concerns over its unregulated use by police forces and private companies across the UK.
https://www.computing.co.uk/news/202…

Government urged to tighten regulation around facial recognition technology
Data privacy experts are calling on the government to urgently tighten regulation around facial recognition technology, amid growing concerns over its unregulated use by police ...

"A new government of austerity and war, in a deteriorating international situation, after 17 years of economic slump and stagnation, unable to confront crises from genocide to climate change to housing shortages and preparing the way for far-right rule, would warrant sustained opposition from the left under any circumstances."
The Times They Are-a-Changin: #Labour is no longer the de…

A UK government trial with 20K civil servants using Microsoft's Copilot AI for three months found a 26 minute average daily time saving, or two weeks per year (Melissa Heikkilä/Financial Times)
https://www.ft.com/content/7c2aa19d-4c92-490d-bb35-f329a246fe5b

UK civil servants who used AI saved two weeks a year, government study finds
Staff used Microsoft’s Copilot to help draft documents and summarise meetings

Red Dead Redemption: completed!
While looking for beaver furs in the Northern regions, I noticed a new stranger mission open in Blackwater. I met a government man who told me that Edgar Ross was living in a shack overlooking a lake. Suddenly the lack of a previous ending made sense. Don't read if you've not played ...

My question about the PTSN switch-off campaign is: can BT not already *detect* (over the course of a year) which customers are using alarms or telecare devices likely to be impacted?
https://www.ispreview.co.uk/index.php/2025

Government Hails Start of National Campaign for UK Digital Phone Switch
The UK government has today hailed the start of a new national campaign, funded by broadband giants BT and Virgin Media, which aims to help support and encourag

"Stephen Fry and Theo James to star in film about marine bottom trawling"
#Oceans #Environment

With most apps, "[feature] enable push notifications" is just a line in the changelog, not a segment on BBC News.
https://www.gov.uk/government/news/patients-to-receive-reminders-and-test-results-via-the-nhs-app

Patients to receive reminders and test results via the NHS App
Millions more patients will receive appointments, screening invitations and other important information via the NHS App, as part of £50million upgrade.

DCMS announces new members of public records advisory body https://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/about/news/dcms-announces-new-members-of-public-records-advisory-body/

DCMS announces new members of public records advisory body - The National Archives
Seven new members have been appointed to the Advisory Council on National Records and Archives, the independent body which advises the government on access to public records. The appointments were made by Lisa Nandy, Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport. The council advises her on historical public records when they are being transferred […]

UK 2025 #Publication
Severe Space Weather Impacts on UK Critical National Infrastructure
A Space weather instrumentation, measurement, modelling and risk (#SWIMMR) Project Report
Priority Recommendation CS6 : "That government and other policymakers ensure that s…

"Everyone in the UK must prepare for missile attacks, warns top general"
Here we go again.
It's the 80s again
"Protect and Survive"
Or
"Protest and Survive"?
The first was a government pamphlet that included the advice to whitewash your windows in the event of an imminent nuclear attack.
The second was an EP Thompson pamphlet that helped launch the new wave of demonstrations and other actions against, among other things, …

Everyone in the UK must prepare for missile attacks, warns top general
Britons should learn how to shelter from air raids, possibly in drills with sirens, says ex-military chief Sir Richard Barrons who co-wrote the Strategic Defence Review

"UK must consider food and climate part of national security, say top ex-military figures"
#UK #UnitedKingdom #Climate

"Parents say a non-charging Clean Air Zone (CAZ) - confirmed by the government earlier this year - ‘lacks ambition and won’t go nearly far enough to cut illegal levels of pollution’ plaguing the city."
Andy Burnham defends scrapping Clean Air Zone charges after parents slam 'epidemic' - Manchester Evening News
It's the parents who are right, of course. The evidence from other cities, including London is clear.

Andy Burnham defends scrapping Clean Air Zone charges after parents slam 'epidemic'
The number of children admitted to Manchester hospitals with breathing problems has soared by hundreds in just one year

Another of the supposed "defence experts" (aka #warmongers) advising Labour. The article identifies 2 others, "Lord Robertson, a former Nato secretary general, and the retired general Sir Richard Barrons".
Any experts on #peace,

#LGBTQIA #TransRightsAreHumanRights #HumanRights #TransRights

Lol, how did I miss that the UK military named its AI trial WINTERMUTE?
https://www.gov.uk/government/news/largest-ever-uk-defence-ai-trial-conducted-across-land-sea-and-air

Largest ever UK defence AI trial conducted across land, sea and air
Sailors and air crews are set to benefit from new artificial intelligence (AI) capabilities following the UK's largest ever multi-domain AI trial, bringing together land, sea and air equipment.

England's water crisis needs more than just new reservoirs—here's what will help #England

England's water crisis needs more than just new reservoirs—here's what will help
England is facing a water crisis. The UK government has just announced plans to fast-track two massive reservoir projects in Cambridgeshire and Lincolnshire, warning that without them, we could run out of drinking water by the mid-2030s. But as a hydrologist who studies Britain's often erratic weather patterns, I believe these reservoirs alone won't solve our water problems.

US government corruption is blatant at the moment. UK government corruption is (slightly) less blatant. Which is worse? It seems to me that more blatant corruption encourages more corruption across society, but do you agree?
More dangerous for society:

Literally just watched a Mission Impossible movie about this.
https://www.gov.uk/government/news/uk-announces-new-action-to-detect-hostile-state-activity-using-ai-on-visit-to-the-arctic

UK announces new action to detect hostile state activity using AI, on visit to the Arctic
The UK is stepping up its efforts to safeguard national security by leveraging AI to detect hostile state activity in the Arctic.

"Reform’s Clean Energy Crackdown Would Cost 60,000 Jobs and Raise Bills, Says Study"
#UK #UnitedKingdom #Climate

Reform’s Clean Energy Crackdown Would Cost 60,000 Jobs and Raise Bills, Says Study
Reform UK’s policies to “scrap net zero” would cost more than 60,000 jobs and wipe £92 billion off the UK economy, according to a new study. Nigel Farage’s party — which took control of 10 councils in the recent local elections — this week claimed that the government could save £45 billion every year by […]

I think that by not even commenting on the interception of the Madleen (Barcarole), the UK government may have damaged the value of the UK Ship Register.
https://www.marinetraffic.com/en/ais/details/ships/shipid:9599795/mmsi:232057367/i…

Keir Starmer has called Israel’s recent actions in Gaza “appalling, counterproductive and intolerable”, as the UK government comes under mounting pressure to take stronger action after the killings of dozens of civilians at food points in recent days.
The prime minister told MPs the UK was considering imposing sanctions on members of the Israeli government, but is so far resisting growing calls for a complete ban on arms sales and immediate recognition of Palestine.
https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2025/jun/04/keir-starmer-calls-israels-recent-actions-in-gaza-appalling-and-intolerable?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other

And this is deeply disappointing from #Unite's Sharon Graham
“Given the global challenges we face it is right that defence spending is increasing."
‘If government cared about security, it would end child poverty and pursue peace’ | Morning Star

Prof Anthony Costello on the UK's flawed covid policies
"UK decision not to suppress covid raises questions about medical and scientific advice"
"Early in the covid pandemic, evidence emerged from several East Asian countries that suppression could lead to successful control. Yet the UK did not adopt the approach. ... Why was suppression not recommended, and what can be done to improve advice in future?"
Currently looks like it'd go the same way in the next pandemic too:
"Five years on, many of the people who developed the UK’s flawed response are still in post; they have not changed their views on suppression, and little has been done to improve government pandemic advice committees or to introduce detailed governance rules for the UK’s future pandemic response and resilience."
#covid #history #UKPol #pandemics

The UK government should publish the full underground map of cables etc (NUAR) below Royal Mint Court (OS grid TQ338806)

"Heat pump rollout under threat if Government cuts £7,500 boiler upgrade scheme"
#UK #UnitedKingdom #Energy #HeatPumps

Heat pump rollout under threat if Government cuts £7,500 boiler upgrade scheme
Government has not yet confirmed funding for the boiler upgrade scheme and broader 'warm homes plan' beyond next year

"New UK planning rules for heat pumps come into effect, one meter rule scrapped"
#UK #UnitedKingdom #HeatPumps #Energy

New UK planning rules for heat pumps come into effect, one meter rule scrapped
Change to planning law could simplify heat pump installation process for thousands of households in England. Limits on the size and number of heat pumps that can be installed have also been raised. The changes have been introduced as the UK government pursues 600,000 installations per year by 2028 target.

"Bonuses banned for 10 English water bosses over sewage pollution"
#UK #UnitedKingdom #Sewage #Pollution

"Scottish government scraps plan for new national park in Galloway"
#UK #UnitedKingdom #Scotland #Environment

Scottish government scraps plan for new national park in Galloway