UK Tory party pledges 'digital' charter, wants Verify to back online gov

The Conservatives have pledged to introduce a digital charter in the party's manifesto today, which also rehashes a number of familiar-sounding ideas about “digital by default” government and backs the failing identity authentication platform Verify. Under the section entitled “Prosperity and security in a digital age”, the …

[wolfetone]

One must ask ones self

If they're promising all this now, why haven't they done it for the last 7 years?

[Aladdin Sane]

Re: One must ask ones self

Must one? One would rather one didn't.

[Zog_but_not_the_first]

Re: One must ask ones self

"Hello", lied the politician.

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: One must ask ones self

One has to surmise that the only way Government will do anything it is elected on is to have elections once a year or pass a law that promises must be fulfilled with reasonable exceptions.

I also see that Chancellor May is also not to be outdone by a previous PM known as the milk snatcher by taking away primary school kids lunches harming the lowest in society who already have to use food banks even while working.

[Hollerithevo]

Re: One must ask ones self

My missus was the recipient of free milk in schools and said they dreaded it as there was no refrigeration in the school and so the milk was always warm and just about going off. Gave her a hatred for milk every since.

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: One must ask ones self

@Hollerithevo

I'm from the north so it was always cold. I remember the blue crates it came in, I also remember getting a good hiding off the teachers in the catholic school I went to for nicking the milk and taking it home.

Happy days?

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: One must ask ones self

I was a recipient of free milk too, and loved it! Never had any problems with milk being off, and I always volunteered to deal with any extras left over, sometimes consuming thee or four bottles of the stuff. Just about the only happy memories I have of school, outside of science lessons.

[Nattrash]

Re: One must ask ones self

Aaaah, now I understand the luke-warm British beer! And they always told us (outside UK) that it was due to Lucas refrigerators...

[jof62]

Re: One must ask ones self

Naughty naughty

[PNGuinn]

Lucas refrigerators

Wasn't that where we kept the warm smoked beer?

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: One must ask ones self

In Australia, in summer, the free milk was dreaded. It sat all morning non-refrigerated. Consumption was mandatory except for two kids who only drank goats milk.

Invariably there were calls for the 'bucket of sand'....to cover the { barf }

Probably why I only like my milk ICE cold.

[Rich 11]

Re: One must ask ones self

My missus was the recipient of free milk in schools and said they dreaded it as there was no refrigeration in the school and so the milk was always warm and just about going off.

Never had that problem. The delivery bloke left the crates stacked up against the north wall, permanently in the shade and where the gentle breeze wafting off the North Sea kept it at a perfect drinking temperature.

[monkey mouth]

Re: One must ask ones self

So your point point is our poorest should be glad their lunches are being withdrawn, they must've been nearly spoilt and were probably putting them off food in general? :O

[Dan 55]

Re: One must ask ones self

Because if you announce something enough times, it'll get done eventually. Usually the last time you announce it.

[IamStillIan]

Re: One must ask ones self

"Usually the last time you announce it."

Do you have evidence to back that up? We often see already assigned funding being reannounced under new guises again and again...

[macjules]

Re: One must ask ones self

Because one must realise that one is about to experience a General Election and in the run up to said election criminals politicians tend to forget their promises, where they left the microphone and occasionally where they left their trousers.

As for the "right to be forgotten", didn't the Tories already do that to the rest of the UK that isn't a part of the Home Counties?

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: One must ask ones self

"right to be forgotten"

That's a good point, does it just apply to social media or will it also apply to the great and not so good Investigatory Powers Act?

I think not.

[Moog42]

Re: One must ask ones self

By the magical power of inference, I can determine that you milk drinkers were clearly all from the South. Us northern milk drinkers never had such problems. I'm pretty sure the average ambient temperature of Cumbria in the 70's never got above 5c (even in '76).

[Aladdin Sane]

Dangers of the internet

Rather than getting students to see how far around the globe a message will get on Facebook (other advertising social networks are available), how about they just do this in a class?

[graeme leggett]

Hardware

Is the digital charter going to specify a strong and stable platform?

[PNGuinn]

Re: Hardware - Is the digital charter going to specify a strong and stable platform?

scaffold Linux?

Coming soon to a hill near you.

[Anonymous Coward]

Uncle Rupert gets his Reward

"The manifesto also cancels the second part of the Leveson enquiry into phone hacking by the media."

All those un-documented private meetings between the PM and the head of the media group...

[a cynic writes...]

Re: Uncle Rupert gets his Reward

Not just Rupe...that nice Mr Hislop will be rather chuffed at not having to pay the other sides costs on the rare occasions that Private Eye wins. In fact most of the press will like that one, even the non-Tory bits.

Not that that would have been a calculation...

[wolfetone]

Re: Uncle Rupert gets his Reward

At least Private Eye lampoons near enough every side in politics. Some drivel like The Daily Fail only kiss the arse of one or two parties and dumps all over the others.

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: Uncle Rupert gets his Reward

Dropping the investigation into media misdoings doesn't affect the press control, err arbitration, rules - the government can activate those any time it likes, so I think we can assume they wont be giving that up in a hurry.

[a cynic writes...]

Re: Uncle Rupert gets his Reward

It's the next sentence. "We will repeal s.40 of the Crime and Courts Act...etc" p.80

So yeah they've gone out of their way to keep the press onside.

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: Uncle Rupert gets his Reward

Why do you think the media are backing the Tories with so much gusto?

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: Uncle Rupert gets his Reward

Why do you think the media are backing the Tories with so much gusto?

Well they'd be a laughing stock if they supported IRA supporting Jezza (he'd be a laughing stock if he wasn't so vile)

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: Uncle Rupert gets his Reward

Rupert wants to take over 100% of Sky TV perhaps? The government review is on hold until after the election. How convenient eh?

[Ralph the Wonder Llama]

Large pictures of The Maybot

Could you just not, please? Thanks.

[macjules]

Re: Large pictures of The Maybot

Be thankful. The other picture was one of her gnawing on a migrant's thighbone.

[Anonymous Coward]

"to create a comprehensive geospatial data body within government, in order to maximise its value for when we again try to flog it off in three years' time"

Finished that sentence for you.

[Anonymous Coward]

"Local government will also be expected to publish data in open formats, anonymised and aggregated where necessary."

The other day, I was unlucky enough to download a copy of the minutes of a local council meeting in PDF. In the expenses section, was the clerk and deputy clerk's monthly salary, nicely blacked out. Which of course rendered it impossible to read. Until I tried highlighting it and copy pasting into a text document.

Trivial example, but the point being, I don't trust their ability to protect their own data, let alone other people's.

[Captain Hogwash]

Dangers of the internet

All your face (book, time, etc) are belong to us?

[Steve Davies 3]

Is that it?

Have we had all the manifestos released now?

They are works of fiction, full of good intentions and waffle with a slightly longer shelf life than the Daily Wail.

[CrazyOldCatMan]

Re: Is that it?

They are works of fiction, full of good intentions and waffle with a slightly longer shelf life than the Daily Wail.

But less use than the Daily Facist since (being all shiny) they don't soak up cat and dog pee..

[Anonymous Coward]

To be slipped into the bill by the backdoor at a later date:

Anyone found guilty of copyright infringement will have both hands amputated.

[swampdog]

One year later..

..the law becomes unenforceable due to the fact nobody's got any digits left. I'm buying shares in foot operated amputation devices now!

[ArrZarr]

A new Data Protection act, huh?

"All your data are belong to us and there'd not a damn thing you can do about it, sincerely, the Tories"

[Anonymous Coward]

"We read the manifesto so you don’t have to…"

Actually I don't have to read the manifesto because bitter experience suggests that whoever wins will mostly do things that weren't in the manifesto anyway.

[Alastair Dodd 1]

Optional

"Should the Conservatives win the election, they will create a Data Use and Ethics Commission to advise regulators."

An Ethics commission created by May and herr troops? They haven't a clue what ethics is apart from owning most of the county... (apologies to Smith & Jones...)

[John Smith 19]

"and ensure people can control their own data "

How they going to do that, given May and her predecessor Home Secretaries have provided over such a massive and ongoing theft of voters data already.

Or the DPA, whose quality is so s**t that an FOIA request to explain how s**t it is would "Endanger Brexit negotiations."

British readers. Go tactical. If you like your MP, vote for them. If you don't, find out who was the runner up party last time and vote for their candidate. Remember you can vote for nobody, but you'd better not start bi**hing about their policies afterward.

[Anonymous Coward]

ID for voting

There's also a mention in the manifesto of requiring ID to vote.

Bearing in mind there is the poorest people don't have driving licenses and many do not have passports - what is this ID going to be?

Am I being paranoid in thinking the Home Office has disinterred an ID card 'consultation' document from the same crypt where they keep former Home Secretaries and is bringing it lurching back to life?

Or is it a good old American-style disenfranchisement exercise where you make it practically impossible for the wrong sort of people to vote?

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: ID for voting

7.5% of the electorate being denied a vote according the the piece in the independent. 7.5% who are not likely to vote Tory. They won't care enough to force ID cards onto us.

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: ID for voting

See also:

-Ending automatic registration of students in university halls

-Ending automatic registration of children coming of age in the run up to an election

-Ending the ability to register a whole household in a single form

All of these things, like the voter ID proposals, disproportionately impact people who don't vote tory. Make of that what you will.

[Wandering Reader]

Re: ID for voting

"Bearing in mind there is the poorest people don't have driving licenses and many do not have passports - what is this ID going to be?"

It will be pretty much identical to the Northern Ireland system, I expect - that system has been running smoothly for a couple of decades now. Simply put, people without a Passport or a driving licence can apply for an a electoral identity card. People in that situation would apply for the card when they first register to vote.

[Wandering Reader]

Re: ID for voting

http://www.eoni.org.uk/Electoral-Identity-Card/Electoral-Identity-Card-FAQs

[Brangdon]

Re: the Northern Ireland system

The Northern Ireland system offers free ID cards. There are no plans for that mentioned in the manifesto.

[Anonymous Coward]

In related news

The government's secret public consultation on encryption ends tomorrow. You still have time to tell the Home Office where to stick its keys:

https://www.openrightsgroup.org/press/releases/2017/secret-consultations-have-no-place-in-open-government

You can mail the Home Office consultation at:

[e-mail].

(They'd really rather you didn't - especially if you know more about encryption than the Home Secretary*)

* You know more about encryption than the Home Secretary.

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: In related news

* You know more about encryption than the Home Secretary.

There are lost tribes in the Amazon that have never seen a computer but know more about encryption than the Home Secretary.

[twellys]

Compulsory Relationships and Sex Education classes

Monty Python:-

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ejaWq2TXRXE

'Nuff said...

[Anonymous Coward]

Is there anything in the manifesto about broadband speeds?

It's not much to ask for a strong and stable connection.

I do note the following though,

Increase the amount levied on firms employing migrant workers.

So if my maths is right, I need to employ a decent coder and it's going to cost me £60k in the UK but £30 from say India and the current levy is 1k rising to 2k. So rather than saving 29k I'm only going to save 28k.

Realistically it's just a policy to look good to voters who have an issue with immigration and companies are going to laugh at it as a bit of comedy.

[Anonymous Coward]

Regulators will have the power to remove material which breaches UK law.

Oh look, the UK trying to police the rest of the world. There's a fucking shocker.

[Alt C]

Regulators will have the power to remove material which irritates T. May.

FIFY

[Jason Bloomberg]

Right to be forgotten

Which presumably does not extend to DNA which will be kept even if not found guilty of any crime or wrongdoing, nor anything else the government considers it just has to keep. Which would be everything, if only they could find a way and enough storage to do it.

[Christoph]

By 2020 people will be able to identify themselves on all government online services via the Verify ID portal. It hopes to make the platform more widely available, so that people can safely verify their identify to access non-government services such as banking.”

Oh joy. A single point of failure, so that when it (inevitably) gets compromised it's the key to everything.

The Tories promise to reduce duplication personal data held by government in order to follow the “Once-Only” principle for central services by 2022 and wider public services by 2025.

So they can easily tie together everything that each department knows about you (and promptly have it hacked - see above).

[Alt C]

Down with the Kids?

I like this from page 82

...

help create the most comprehensive digital map of Britain to date. In doing so, it will support a vibrant and innovative digital economy, ranging from innovative tools to help people and developers build to virtual mapping of Britain for use in video games and virtual reality.

looks like that postgrad minecraft project is getting dusted off again - because 'look we're hip'.

https://www.ordnancesurvey.co.uk/innovate/developers/minecraft-map-britain.html

[Camilla Smythe]

Well Done Mrs May...

I assume this means you will remove all third party tracking devices from websites hosted on gov.uk and nhs.uk

Oh silly me. It's not so much that you do not know your arse from your elbow but in the battle for control of your mouth the bit that should have known the difference turned into a desiccated walnut and the elbow won.

Just in case... most peoples arses are more intelligent than their elbows but you still manage to spout shit with your elbow in control.

[Anonymous Coward]

New DPA

So just after announcing we are going to continue with GDPR after brexit we will then have another data protection law after that? Love it when a plan comes together..

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: New DPA

>So just after announcing we are going to continue with GDPR after brexit we will then have another data protection law after that? Love it when a plan comes together..

Am I missing something, or isn't the right to be forgotten part of GDPR anyway? Or they just promising us something that we will get next year without them doing anything so that they can claim to have kept one manifesto promise.

[CrazyOldCatMan]

Re: New DPA

Am I missing something, or isn't the right to be forgotten part of GDPR anyway?

Sort of.

https://ico.org.uk/for-organisations/data-protection-reform/overview-of-the-gdpr/individuals-rights/the-right-to-erasure/

"The right to erasure does not provide an absolute ‘right to be forgotten’. Individuals have a right to have personal data erased and to prevent processing in specific circumstances:"

Said circomstances are:

Where data is no longer needed for the purpose for which it was originally collected

Where you withdraw consent

Where you object to the processing and there is no over-riding legitimate need for the data

Your data was improperly collected or processed

There is a legal requirement

Where the data is about IT services offered to a child

There are limitations to the right for your data to be erased:

Freedom of expression

You have a legal requirement to keep it

Public health

Archiving for public interest or scientific use

Defending legal claims.

So - not an all-encompassing "Right to be forgotton".

[Winkypop]

Meanwhile.....

Sales of pitchforks and flaming torches are UP!

[Roj Blake]

Communication Service Providers

So if I read it right, CSPs will not only have to provide the government with data at their own cost (as per the IPA), but will in future have to pay a levy for the privilege?

[Anonymous Coward]

But what I want to know from their manifesto is...

How many more secret laws and secret courts are they planning to bring in to safeguard our** democracy, so we can all feel safer.

/sarcasm off.

**when Supreme Chancellor May refers to we or our, she really means I or my.

[Anonymous Coward]

Aaaand it got worse.

http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/gadgets-and-tech/news/theresa-may-internet-conservatives-government-a7744176.html

[Anonymous Coward]

And the other things...

It's a sad day when the "I" seems more on top of IT developments in politics than the Reg. Has anyone noticed that there are far more newspaper sites coming up in search results than ever before?

More things I'm expecting:

Google adding Newspeak to Google translate, then removing the other languages one by one. Then it turns out that it's not Google doing it but the swivel-eyed loons the public put in charge with a mandate to do this sort of crap.

Harmonisation of our laws with the land of the free from sense rolls towards completion so we can subjugate ourselves to becoming airstrip one. So much for Farage's independence day.

Future historians (of whom there are now only two because of the drastically reduced population) trace the cause of WW3 back to a referendum in 2016.

Everyone is happy because not being so carries the death penalty.

Future policy to be inspired directly from episodes of Black Mirror ("Some people think this has already happened" - DNA).

Things I'd rather have:

An extra option on all voting forms so I can vote for a coalition.

Every government policy must highlight clearly what's in it for the right wing, what's in it for the left wing and what's in it for the intelligent. (see what I did there?)

A government which announces e.g. it will balance the books in 5 years and then takes 7 to tell us it will actually take 15 is called out by every project manager in the land. At the rate that is slipping (more than 2 years every year) who can possibly believe they know what they're doing (unless the plan is to fix it by having a proper big war)?

An opposition who actually want to win an election rather than hope the apocalypse the other side bring on will make them electable by the survivors.

I know this last one is more far fetched than the others, but someone in government who actually has a clue about technology and what the right thing to do with it is.

Also, "Anonymous cowards cannot choose their icon"?! WTF?