It's an interesting one. It was using guided aerial bombs on Zaporizhia, something that has happened frequently in recent months. So why was this one shot down?
Either the Russian pilot made a mistake, and strayed within range of Ukrainian air defences, or the Ukrainians improved their air defence coverage. If it's the latter it might mean that Zaporizhia is now protected from these guided bomb attacks, which would be great.
Some options
- SAM trap. Provide an inviting target. The Ukrainians kept the search radar off, and fired a SAM on a lofted trajectory. They used other sensors to detect the SU-34. Either the missile homes in using its own active radar, or the Ukranians switched on the missile battery guidance radar at the last second. - The max range of SAM missiles varies by versions. A newer version of Patriot than they previously had? - They got an SA-5 working ( very long range) - Mix of the above plus cobbling together a bigger booster stage on the missile to throw it further.
I think it was last year that the Ukrainians shot down a Russian jet or two over Bryansk, because they'd temporarily moved a Patriot battery much closer to the border. So it could simply be that they've received more Patriot supplies and have been able to deploy extra air defences in the south.
If Melenchon won the next French Presidential election and his left block remained largest group in the National Assembly he would likely introduce that
Pb scooped the BBC (and the government?) by a week or so.
The speed with which the government has acted on this is lamentable. We are probably within 10 days of production restarting and we are still talking about possible support. Many of the suppliers will have been without work for weeks already and for some it is probably too late.
I think the government needs to give much more serious consideration to cyber attacks, both in prevention and amelioration when they occur. We have seen a few major UK companies very badly damaged by this already. It is unlikely to stop. The economic effects are sufficiently large to engage the national interest.
They are just getting around to working that out, too.
The idea for JLR is to pay the suppliers to stockpile parts. That's not a thing which would be practical for more than a few weeks at most, and risks leaving them with a glut of stock which they'll then struggle to sell.
I think the reality is that there's no great way to mitigate a very lengthy disruption to a large company's business, other than to prevent it.
IANAE on this but it seems to me that developing the skills at GCHQ to both prevent and repair cyber attacks is something we really ought to be quite good at. And very much in the national interest.
I'm sure GCHQ has very in depth cyber attack prevention skills: I'm not expecting a successful attack on them any time soon. The problem is that that costs money, and makes using systems for their intended purpose much harder, and you need people locally in the IT department keeping on top of a lot of things and with the clout to say "no" to lots of stuff the wider business would like to do. And the attackers only need to be lucky once, to quote the cliche. And repair is hard too because every company's system will be different and have grown up gradually with likely various underdocumented interdependencies, and if you literally just stand it back up again as a duplicate of what you lost the attacker can probably get back in through the same hole they used the first time.
Pb scooped the BBC (and the government?) by a week or so.
The speed with which the government has acted on this is lamentable. We are probably within 10 days of production restarting and we are still talking about possible support. Many of the suppliers will have been without work for weeks already and for some it is probably too late.
I think the government needs to give much more serious consideration to cyber attacks, both in prevention and amelioration when they occur. We have seen a few major UK companies very badly damaged by this already. It is unlikely to stop. The economic effects are sufficiently large to engage the national interest.
They are just getting around to working that out, too.
The idea for JLR is to pay the suppliers to stockpile parts. That's not a thing which would be practical for more than a few weeks at most, and risks leaving them with a glut of stock which they'll then struggle to sell.
I think the reality is that there's no great way to mitigate a very lengthy disruption to a large company's business, other than to prevent it.
Presumably JLR have a maximum rate at which they can use parts. So stockpiling them now just mean a lower requirement in the future.
So the economic loss is the same, albeit spread over a longer period. Does that help much?
Is there much information on what exactly got hacked and how? I'd be really interested to know. I do hope they haven't been outsourcing everything, like various banks did, and then finding that the people who really knew how everything worked have left.
Pb scooped the BBC (and the government?) by a week or so.
The speed with which the government has acted on this is lamentable. We are probably within 10 days of production restarting and we are still talking about possible support. Many of the suppliers will have been without work for weeks already and for some it is probably too late.
I think the government needs to give much more serious consideration to cyber attacks, both in prevention and amelioration when they occur. We have seen a few major UK companies very badly damaged by this already. It is unlikely to stop. The economic effects are sufficiently large to engage the national interest.
I agree - but constantly bailing out companies like JLR is classic privatise the profits, socialise the costs. The price should be a UK Government share in the business. We're seeing it all the time whether it's Grangemouth or Thames Water or whatever.
I understand the national interest angle but if companies what protection from cyber attacks provided by GCHQ I want taxpayers to get some value for money too.
Certainly unless Burnham wins a general election then talk of him replacing Starmer as PM is just that.
Eh ?
He needs to win a by-election then gain for the support of 80 MPs to challenge Starmer then win the leadership election to replace Starmer as PM. He can't replace Starmer by winning a General Election, it only follows in the completely implausible scenario of Burnham setting up his own party and defeating Labour, Reform and everyone else at the next GE.
What a shame that Radio 3's morning programme is becoming more and more indistinguishable from Classic FM's. Under Tim "Pepsii" Davie, BBC Radio's distinctiveness may start to go the way of BBC TV's.
I am unashamedly fond of Bach before 7, though. Not least because it's timed just right to avoid the R4 trailers for their own programs.
Or BBC TV programmes. That one for The Guest (which is shite anyway, my partner wanted to watch the first episode) is doing my nut in.
Pb scooped the BBC (and the government?) by a week or so.
The speed with which the government has acted on this is lamentable. We are probably within 10 days of production restarting and we are still talking about possible support. Many of the suppliers will have been without work for weeks already and for some it is probably too late.
I think the government needs to give much more serious consideration to cyber attacks, both in prevention and amelioration when they occur. We have seen a few major UK companies very badly damaged by this already. It is unlikely to stop. The economic effects are sufficiently large to engage the national interest.
They are just getting around to working that out, too.
The idea for JLR is to pay the suppliers to stockpile parts. That's not a thing which would be practical for more than a few weeks at most, and risks leaving them with a glut of stock which they'll then struggle to sell.
I think the reality is that there's no great way to mitigate a very lengthy disruption to a large company's business, other than to prevent it.
I wonder how much cyber protection and cyber insurance JLR had.
Minimal with insurance companies to ensure the CFO had ticked their boxes. Maximal from HMG to ensure shareholders don't miss out.
I see no path for Burnham to PM, but what this is doing is creating division and angst within labour and no 10
Their conference is going to be all about Burnham and Farage, and the media will be entirely focused on their perceived 'gotchas'
In fairness to Burnham he has been an excellent mayor for Manchester, and he is a Northern MP challenging the London centric labour
There is a path, @rottenborough set one out a few posts back.
Here’s the reality check - it almost doesn’t matter if it’s Burnham or not. We have all moved onto who replaces Starmer and how it happens.
Starmer is done.
Very few politicians give up power voluntarily. Starmer will desperately try and hang on and I expect will be ruthless against those trying to oust him .
This could do him some good. Nothing works like a common enemy. When the mildly disaffected understand that the choice isn't between the over anbitious Burnham and Starmer but between Starmer and the Farage/Robinson fascist combo then minds might finally become concentrated
If there is one thing we have learned is that there is nothing that goes pear shaped for Labour that Starmer isn’t on record mocking whilst the Tories were in power.
“ Keir Starmer has hit out at the “ridiculous, chaotic circus” of the Conservative leadership contest, as he pitched Labour in contrast as the party of sound money.”
“ Starmer barely needed to come up with his own attack lines, relying almost entirely on the bitter criticism directed by Tory leadership candidates against their own colleagues.”
What I am finding amusing is that both of the candidates for Deputy Leader are anxious to be perceived as the one Starmer doesn't want. Philipson has strongly been rejecting that poisoned chalice and went so far as to accuse Starmer of misogyny and sexism yesterday. The idea that the leader and deputy leader might form a coherent team seems very far away.
Here's an idea. Labour should announce scrapping Council tax for a 0.5%ish charge on property values, subject to a referendum.
Send every house in country info on how much they pay now and what they would pay in future. Make sure that 75% will see lower tax bill.
Tories and Reform will inevitably oppose and 75% of people will see that Labour lowered their tax bill.
It's not just 75% of all households - I'd wager that more than 75% of PBers would get a tax cut. I know that both Big_G_NorthWales and I would both get one, and he has a property worth around £400k (I think).
Boris Johnson accuses Nigel Farage of 'extremely dangerous' stance on Ukraine war
Meanwhile, Farage is repeating the Eastern Europeans eat swans thing.
A Royal Parks spokesperson said yesterday this is untrue. Farage has made a series of absolute howlers over the last fortnight. Fortunately there have only been reported by a limited number broadcasters, so no harm done.
A quick google finds some old swan stories, for example:-
As I suggested yesterday, this is side of the bus stuff rather than a gotcha that will kill off Farage's chances. Sure, he has got the details wrong but ordinary voters will vaguely remember these stories from the past, or find them if they search. For them, Farage speaks the truth, or at least the truthiness, while his opponents prevaricate.
There was a story on Emmerdale Farm a couple of decades back about an immigrant taking ducks from the village pond.
Perhaps more relevantly its pretty common to see people openly flouting 'no fishing' signs on park lakes.
Which would add into the general social breakdown meme the BBC is reporting on:
We’ve had issues in our town with similar behaviour. I’ve mentioned it before. Durham has problems too with aggressive begging and drunks pissing in the street. A PSPO was proposed for Durham but was objected to by ‘charities’ who deal with these people.
The Police aren’t bothered. It’s outrageous decent people building businesses and trying to keep high streets alive are abandoned.
A local cafe run by two enterprising Poles had its display vandalised. Youths have gone into a travel agents and abused staff and customers. There’s other stuff. It puts you off going in and spending money. The roadmen on sur-Ron’s with safety balaclavas aren’t spending
Typical of the BBC too to try to portray these kids in a good light making excuses for them
I don’t have a strong view on Andy Burnham. I did have a thought of a Government of all the Mayors - the idea of Burnham, Khan and Houchen all at the Cabinet table has a certain value, I think.
By the way, I don’t see any Conservatives arguing for Houchen to be brought into the Parliamentary Party via a by election (I know) and become leader but he has plenty of time on his side.
I see Farage is up to his usual old nonsense - swans being eaten by Eastern European migrants, it’s probably happened at some point but not a general occurrence. He could talk about dogs and cats being abducted and eaten and he might be on firmer ground - perhaps he should do a tour of the kebab shops in East Ham High Street and ask for the Special Shawarma.
On weightier matters, the potential for cyber disruption - once branded “inconvenience terrorism” - has been known for decades and most organisations should have some sort of plan or protocol to counter a malware or ransomware attack. I worked for organisations which suffered DDOS attacks or whose email servers were flooded with spam and the security measures in place were usually effective.
Pb scooped the BBC (and the government?) by a week or so.
The speed with which the government has acted on this is lamentable. We are probably within 10 days of production restarting and we are still talking about possible support. Many of the suppliers will have been without work for weeks already and for some it is probably too late.
I think the government needs to give much more serious consideration to cyber attacks, both in prevention and amelioration when they occur. We have seen a few major UK companies very badly damaged by this already. It is unlikely to stop. The economic effects are sufficiently large to engage the national interest.
I agree - but constantly bailing out companies like JLR is classic privatise the profits, socialise the costs. The price should be a UK Government share in the business. We're seeing it all the time whether it's Grangemouth or Thames Water or whatever.
It's not JLR that need the support in any case, it's JLR's suppliers. They could have robust IT security and be insured themselves but not insured for their customers' IT security risk. I wouldn't be putting any faith in JLR reassurances about the speed at which this will be resolved.
Pb scooped the BBC (and the government?) by a week or so.
The speed with which the government has acted on this is lamentable. We are probably within 10 days of production restarting and we are still talking about possible support. Many of the suppliers will have been without work for weeks already and for some it is probably too late.
I think the government needs to give much more serious consideration to cyber attacks, both in prevention and amelioration when they occur. We have seen a few major UK companies very badly damaged by this already. It is unlikely to stop. The economic effects are sufficiently large to engage the national interest.
They are just getting around to working that out, too.
The idea for JLR is to pay the suppliers to stockpile parts. That's not a thing which would be practical for more than a few weeks at most, and risks leaving them with a glut of stock which they'll then struggle to sell.
I think the reality is that there's no great way to mitigate a very lengthy disruption to a large company's business, other than to prevent it.
IANAE on this but it seems to me that developing the skills at GCHQ to both prevent and repair cyber attacks is something we really ought to be quite good at. And very much in the national interest.
It's also a matter for large corporates, who ought also to be working out how to set up their systems so that they can be far more quickly restored after this kind of attack. That's likely to cost them quite a lot, but orders of magnitude less than an event like the M&S or JLR attacks.
Pb scooped the BBC (and the government?) by a week or so.
The speed with which the government has acted on this is lamentable. We are probably within 10 days of production restarting and we are still talking about possible support. Many of the suppliers will have been without work for weeks already and for some it is probably too late.
I think the government needs to give much more serious consideration to cyber attacks, both in prevention and amelioration when they occur. We have seen a few major UK companies very badly damaged by this already. It is unlikely to stop. The economic effects are sufficiently large to engage the national interest.
They are just getting around to working that out, too.
The idea for JLR is to pay the suppliers to stockpile parts. That's not a thing which would be practical for more than a few weeks at most, and risks leaving them with a glut of stock which they'll then struggle to sell.
I think the reality is that there's no great way to mitigate a very lengthy disruption to a large company's business, other than to prevent it.
I wonder how much cyber protection and cyber insurance JLR had.
Insurance does nothing to help for the knock on effects. And the money could arguably be better spent on prevention.
If there is one thing we have learned is that there is nothing that goes pear shaped for Labour that Starmer isn’t on record mocking whilst the Tories were in power.
“ Keir Starmer has hit out at the “ridiculous, chaotic circus” of the Conservative leadership contest, as he pitched Labour in contrast as the party of sound money.”
“ Starmer barely needed to come up with his own attack lines, relying almost entirely on the bitter criticism directed by Tory leadership candidates against their own colleagues.”
What I am finding amusing is that both of the candidates for Deputy Leader are anxious to be perceived as the one Starmer doesn't want. Philipson has strongly been rejecting that poisoned chalice and went so far as to accuse Starmer of misogyny and sexism yesterday. The idea that the leader and deputy leader might form a coherent team seems very far away.
Starmer might be better under a bit of tension from his deputy rather than someone overly respectful. It appears whilst he feels safe he simply dawdles along. Of course, he may just continue to dawdle regardless.
Pb scooped the BBC (and the government?) by a week or so.
The speed with which the government has acted on this is lamentable. We are probably within 10 days of production restarting and we are still talking about possible support. Many of the suppliers will have been without work for weeks already and for some it is probably too late.
I think the government needs to give much more serious consideration to cyber attacks, both in prevention and amelioration when they occur. We have seen a few major UK companies very badly damaged by this already. It is unlikely to stop. The economic effects are sufficiently large to engage the national interest.
They are just getting around to working that out, too.
The idea for JLR is to pay the suppliers to stockpile parts. That's not a thing which would be practical for more than a few weeks at most, and risks leaving them with a glut of stock which they'll then struggle to sell.
I think the reality is that there's no great way to mitigate a very lengthy disruption to a large company's business, other than to prevent it.
I wonder how much cyber protection and cyber insurance JLR had.
Apparently none, they were "in the process of" negotiating the coverage according to BBC this morning.
What a shame that Radio 3's morning programme is becoming more and more indistinguishable from Classic FM's. Under Tim "Pepsii" Davie, BBC Radio's distinctiveness may start to go the way of BBC TV's.
I am unashamedly fond of Bach before 7, though. Not least because it's timed just right to avoid the R4 trailers for their own programs.
Through even with that, I perceive some of the more imaginative dips into the cantatas have been replaced by predictable extracts from the Brandenburgs.
I've heard some stuff I'd never come across before, FWIW. But now they also have "Classic Unwind", whatever that is, there ought to be less need to dumb down.
Pb scooped the BBC (and the government?) by a week or so.
The speed with which the government has acted on this is lamentable. We are probably within 10 days of production restarting and we are still talking about possible support. Many of the suppliers will have been without work for weeks already and for some it is probably too late.
I think the government needs to give much more serious consideration to cyber attacks, both in prevention and amelioration when they occur. We have seen a few major UK companies very badly damaged by this already. It is unlikely to stop. The economic effects are sufficiently large to engage the national interest.
They are just getting around to working that out, too.
The idea for JLR is to pay the suppliers to stockpile parts. That's not a thing which would be practical for more than a few weeks at most, and risks leaving them with a glut of stock which they'll then struggle to sell.
I think the reality is that there's no great way to mitigate a very lengthy disruption to a large company's business, other than to prevent it.
I wonder how much cyber protection and cyber insurance JLR had.
Insurance does nothing to help for the knock on effects. And the money could arguably be better spent on prevention.
If we are to start regularly paying out hundreds of millions to maintain UK firms (and perhaps we should) then lets add a levy to the biggest companies profits to cover those costs.
Boris Johnson accuses Nigel Farage of 'extremely dangerous' stance on Ukraine war
Meanwhile, Farage is repeating the Eastern Europeans eat swans thing.
A Royal Parks spokesperson said yesterday this is untrue. Farage has made a series of absolute howlers over the last fortnight. Fortunately there have only been reported by a limited number broadcasters, so no harm done.
A quick google finds some old swan stories, for example:-
As I suggested yesterday, this is side of the bus stuff rather than a gotcha that will kill off Farage's chances. Sure, he has got the details wrong but ordinary voters will vaguely remember these stories from the past, or find them if they search. For them, Farage speaks the truth, or at least the truthiness, while his opponents prevaricate.
There was a story on Emmerdale Farm a couple of decades back about an immigrant taking ducks from the village pond.
Perhaps more relevantly its pretty common to see people openly flouting 'no fishing' signs on park lakes.
Which would add into the general social breakdown meme the BBC is reporting on:
We’ve had issues in our town with similar behaviour. I’ve mentioned it before. Durham has problems too with aggressive begging and drunks pissing in the street. A PSPO was proposed for Durham but was objected to by ‘charities’ who deal with these people.
The Police aren’t bothered. It’s outrageous decent people building businesses and trying to keep high streets alive are abandoned.
A local cafe run by two enterprising Poles had its display vandalised. Youths have gone into a travel agents and abused staff and customers. There’s other stuff. It puts you off going in and spending money. The roadmen on sur-Ron’s with safety balaclavas aren’t spending
Typical of the BBC too to try to portray these kids in a good light making excuses for them
I nearly got hit by two balaclava e-motorcycle kids last night on my run, who followed up with a threat to "smash my **** in'. I report it each time on the Police Scotland website - I know they can't do anything for the particular incident but we now have regular police bike patrols on the path network as a result of people like me making a fuss.
The BBC are kinda right though. These kids grow up in poverty in places like Muirhouse, Niddrie. The difference is that they are much more mobile than before so suddenly middle-class people like me are confronted with their arseholery for the first time.
If there is one thing we have learned is that there is nothing that goes pear shaped for Labour that Starmer isn’t on record mocking whilst the Tories were in power.
“ Keir Starmer has hit out at the “ridiculous, chaotic circus” of the Conservative leadership contest, as he pitched Labour in contrast as the party of sound money.”
“ Starmer barely needed to come up with his own attack lines, relying almost entirely on the bitter criticism directed by Tory leadership candidates against their own colleagues.”
What I am finding amusing is that both of the candidates for Deputy Leader are anxious to be perceived as the one Starmer doesn't want. Philipson has strongly been rejecting that poisoned chalice and went so far as to accuse Starmer of misogyny and sexism yesterday. The idea that the leader and deputy leader might form a coherent team seems very far away.
Starmer might be better under a bit of tension from his deputy rather than someone overly respectful. It appears whilst he feels safe he simply dawdles along. Of course, he may just continue to dawdle regardless.
I can’t imagine Rayner was respectful or made him feel safe - she was there as an obvious reminder from the membership about the other side of Labour to Starmer. So we have already seen that tension didn’t make him good or not dawdle.
Is the SU-34 the Russian equivalent of AWACS? I remember one of them being hit when Ukraine took out a load of planes on the ground but can't remember the name.
Boris Johnson accuses Nigel Farage of 'extremely dangerous' stance on Ukraine war
Meanwhile, Farage is repeating the Eastern Europeans eat swans thing.
I had dinner with a political strategist last night, he's identified one thing problem for Reform/Farage.
They are getting high on their own supply, they are acting like they have the support of the majority in the country, when if there were an election tomorrow, Farage would likely end up with a lower vote share/votes than Starmer in 2024.
Very much my impression too when I attended a presentation to investors by a senior Reform bod. Seemed extremely confident but spoke in generalities and populist cliches, frequently said stuff that was just plain factually incorrect and didn't do well under serious scrutiny. They will absolutely fall apart in the heat of a general election campaign imho.
Pb scooped the BBC (and the government?) by a week or so.
The speed with which the government has acted on this is lamentable. We are probably within 10 days of production restarting and we are still talking about possible support. Many of the suppliers will have been without work for weeks already and for some it is probably too late.
I think the government needs to give much more serious consideration to cyber attacks, both in prevention and amelioration when they occur. We have seen a few major UK companies very badly damaged by this already. It is unlikely to stop. The economic effects are sufficiently large to engage the national interest.
They are just getting around to working that out, too.
The idea for JLR is to pay the suppliers to stockpile parts. That's not a thing which would be practical for more than a few weeks at most, and risks leaving them with a glut of stock which they'll then struggle to sell.
I think the reality is that there's no great way to mitigate a very lengthy disruption to a large company's business, other than to prevent it.
I wonder how much cyber protection and cyber insurance JLR had.
Insurance does nothing to help for the knock on effects. And the money could arguably be better spent on prevention.
If we are to start regularly paying out hundreds of millions to maintain UK firms (and perhaps we should) then lets add a levy to the biggest companies profits to cover those costs.
I agree. I am not suggesting HMG do this for free. But if GCHQ have identified how to deal with certain classes of malware, for example, or how to quickly identify weaknesses in cyber security then it would be unfortunate if they are keeping this to themselves. I would suggest that firms should be invited to pay for a simulated attack from GCHQ on a regular basis to ensure that their systems are up to scratch. As I said earlier this is a problem that is not going to go away.
Boris Johnson accuses Nigel Farage of 'extremely dangerous' stance on Ukraine war
Meanwhile, Farage is repeating the Eastern Europeans eat swans thing.
A Royal Parks spokesperson said yesterday this is untrue. Farage has made a series of absolute howlers over the last fortnight. Fortunately there have only been reported by a limited number broadcasters, so no harm done.
A quick google finds some old swan stories, for example:-
As I suggested yesterday, this is side of the bus stuff rather than a gotcha that will kill off Farage's chances. Sure, he has got the details wrong but ordinary voters will vaguely remember these stories from the past, or find them if they search. For them, Farage speaks the truth, or at least the truthiness, while his opponents prevaricate.
There was a story on Emmerdale Farm a couple of decades back about an immigrant taking ducks from the village pond.
Perhaps more relevantly its pretty common to see people openly flouting 'no fishing' signs on park lakes.
Which would add into the general social breakdown meme the BBC is reporting on:
We’ve had issues in our town with similar behaviour. I’ve mentioned it before. Durham has problems too with aggressive begging and drunks pissing in the street. A PSPO was proposed for Durham but was objected to by ‘charities’ who deal with these people.
The Police aren’t bothered. It’s outrageous decent people building businesses and trying to keep high streets alive are abandoned.
A local cafe run by two enterprising Poles had its display vandalised. Youths have gone into a travel agents and abused staff and customers. There’s other stuff. It puts you off going in and spending money. The roadmen on sur-Ron’s with safety balaclavas aren’t spending
Typical of the BBC too to try to portray these kids in a good light making excuses for them
The report I saw on the BBC certainly didn't portray them in a good light. Admittedly the worst light was the copper who implied we shouldn't get involved as they are just kids, at least the police and crime commissioner made it clear she disagreed with that.
I don’t have a strong view on Andy Burnham. I did have a thought of a Government of all the Mayors - the idea of Burnham, Khan and Houchen all at the Cabinet table has a certain value, I think.
If there is one thing we have learned is that there is nothing that goes pear shaped for Labour that Starmer isn’t on record mocking whilst the Tories were in power.
“ Keir Starmer has hit out at the “ridiculous, chaotic circus” of the Conservative leadership contest, as he pitched Labour in contrast as the party of sound money.”
“ Starmer barely needed to come up with his own attack lines, relying almost entirely on the bitter criticism directed by Tory leadership candidates against their own colleagues.”
What I am finding amusing is that both of the candidates for Deputy Leader are anxious to be perceived as the one Starmer doesn't want. Philipson has strongly been rejecting that poisoned chalice and went so far as to accuse Starmer of misogyny and sexism yesterday. The idea that the leader and deputy leader might form a coherent team seems very far away.
Starmer might be better under a bit of tension from his deputy rather than someone overly respectful. It appears whilst he feels safe he simply dawdles along. Of course, he may just continue to dawdle regardless.
I can’t imagine Rayner was respectful or made him feel safe - she was there as an obvious reminder from the membership about the other side of Labour to Starmer. So we have already seen that tension didn’t make him good or not dawdle.
I think she was a bit too timid and respectful to Starmer which didn't suit her own personality. All her ire was consistently directed at the Tories.
Pb scooped the BBC (and the government?) by a week or so.
The speed with which the government has acted on this is lamentable. We are probably within 10 days of production restarting and we are still talking about possible support. Many of the suppliers will have been without work for weeks already and for some it is probably too late.
I think the government needs to give much more serious consideration to cyber attacks, both in prevention and amelioration when they occur. We have seen a few major UK companies very badly damaged by this already. It is unlikely to stop. The economic effects are sufficiently large to engage the national interest.
They are just getting around to working that out, too.
The idea for JLR is to pay the suppliers to stockpile parts. That's not a thing which would be practical for more than a few weeks at most, and risks leaving them with a glut of stock which they'll then struggle to sell.
I think the reality is that there's no great way to mitigate a very lengthy disruption to a large company's business, other than to prevent it.
I wonder how much cyber protection and cyber insurance JLR had.
Insurance does nothing to help for the knock on effects. And the money could arguably be better spent on prevention.
If we are to start regularly paying out hundreds of millions to maintain UK firms (and perhaps we should) then lets add a levy to the biggest companies profits to cover those costs.
It’s not as simple as maintaining UK firms, JLR doesn’t need to have manufacturing here, it doesn’t need to use UK parts suppliers. JLR are losing (according to Today’s two different guests this morning) between £50m and “hundreds of millions” per week.
As we are seeing with the life sciences industry, if you make the financial environment trickier for companies, especially global companies, they actually do vote with their feet.
Is the SU-34 the Russian equivalent of AWACS? I remember one of them being hit when Ukraine took out a load of planes on the ground but can't remember the name.
Here's an idea. Labour should announce scrapping Council tax for a 0.5%ish charge on property values, subject to a referendum.
Send every house in country info on how much they pay now and what they would pay in future. Make sure that 75% will see lower tax bill.
Tories and Reform will inevitably oppose and 75% of people will see that Labour lowered their tax bill.
It's not just 75% of all households - I'd wager that more than 75% of PBers would get a tax cut. I know that both Big_G_NorthWales and I would both get one, and he has a property worth around £400k (I think).
On 0.5% I would also get a small cut, and I'm in London.
Boris Johnson accuses Nigel Farage of 'extremely dangerous' stance on Ukraine war
Meanwhile, Farage is repeating the Eastern Europeans eat swans thing.
I had dinner with a political strategist last night, he's identified one thing problem for Reform/Farage.
They are getting high on their own supply, they are acting like they have the support of the majority in the country, when if there were an election tomorrow, Farage would likely end up with a lower vote share/votes than Starmer in 2024.
Very much my impression too when I attended a presentation to investors by a senior Reform bod. Seemed extremely confident but spoke in generalities and populist cliches, frequently said stuff that was just plain factually incorrect and didn't do well under serious scrutiny. They will absolutely fall apart in the heat of a general election campaign imho.
The lesson from Trump is just doesn't really matter. We are dependent on either the sensibilities of the UK public rejecting all this stuff about vaccines, swans and "Tylenol", or else a very strong turnout/tactical game by the more centrist parties.
Is the SU-34 the Russian equivalent of AWACS? I remember one of them being hit when Ukraine took out a load of planes on the ground but can't remember the name.
Boris Johnson accuses Nigel Farage of 'extremely dangerous' stance on Ukraine war
Meanwhile, Farage is repeating the Eastern Europeans eat swans thing.
A Royal Parks spokesperson said yesterday this is untrue. Farage has made a series of absolute howlers over the last fortnight. Fortunately there have only been reported by a limited number broadcasters, so no harm done.
A quick google finds some old swan stories, for example:-
As I suggested yesterday, this is side of the bus stuff rather than a gotcha that will kill off Farage's chances. Sure, he has got the details wrong but ordinary voters will vaguely remember these stories from the past, or find them if they search. For them, Farage speaks the truth, or at least the truthiness, while his opponents prevaricate.
There was a story on Emmerdale Farm a couple of decades back about an immigrant taking ducks from the village pond.
Perhaps more relevantly its pretty common to see people openly flouting 'no fishing' signs on park lakes.
Which would add into the general social breakdown meme the BBC is reporting on:
We’ve had issues in our town with similar behaviour. I’ve mentioned it before. Durham has problems too with aggressive begging and drunks pissing in the street. A PSPO was proposed for Durham but was objected to by ‘charities’ who deal with these people.
The Police aren’t bothered. It’s outrageous decent people building businesses and trying to keep high streets alive are abandoned.
A local cafe run by two enterprising Poles had its display vandalised. Youths have gone into a travel agents and abused staff and customers. There’s other stuff. It puts you off going in and spending money. The roadmen on sur-Ron’s with safety balaclavas aren’t spending
Typical of the BBC too to try to portray these kids in a good light making excuses for them
The report I saw on the BBC certainly didn't portray them in a good light. Admittedly the worst light was the copper who implied we shouldn't get involved as they are just kids, at least the police and crime commissioner made it clear she disagreed with that.
Yes the copper did sound like he could do with spending less time on fluffy courses and more time nicking people who are committing crimes. The PCC said the right things but then again it’s sad we should be surprised a PCC says the obvious.
If there is one thing we have learned is that there is nothing that goes pear shaped for Labour that Starmer isn’t on record mocking whilst the Tories were in power.
“ Keir Starmer has hit out at the “ridiculous, chaotic circus” of the Conservative leadership contest, as he pitched Labour in contrast as the party of sound money.”
“ Starmer barely needed to come up with his own attack lines, relying almost entirely on the bitter criticism directed by Tory leadership candidates against their own colleagues.”
What I am finding amusing is that both of the candidates for Deputy Leader are anxious to be perceived as the one Starmer doesn't want. Philipson has strongly been rejecting that poisoned chalice and went so far as to accuse Starmer of misogyny and sexism yesterday. The idea that the leader and deputy leader might form a coherent team seems very far away.
Starmer might be better under a bit of tension from his deputy rather than someone overly respectful. It appears whilst he feels safe he simply dawdles along. Of course, he may just continue to dawdle regardless.
I can’t imagine Rayner was respectful or made him feel safe - she was there as an obvious reminder from the membership about the other side of Labour to Starmer. So we have already seen that tension didn’t make him good or not dawdle.
I think she was a bit too timid and respectful to Starmer which didn't suit her own personality. All her ire was consistently directed at the Tories.
Rayner (unlike Starmer) is good at politics, albeit not very good at arranging her own domestic commitments. She is a proper Labour loyalist to Starmer and previously to Corbyn and Miliband. She doesn't seem interested in party feuds.
Pb scooped the BBC (and the government?) by a week or so.
The speed with which the government has acted on this is lamentable. We are probably within 10 days of production restarting and we are still talking about possible support. Many of the suppliers will have been without work for weeks already and for some it is probably too late.
I think the government needs to give much more serious consideration to cyber attacks, both in prevention and amelioration when they occur. We have seen a few major UK companies very badly damaged by this already. It is unlikely to stop. The economic effects are sufficiently large to engage the national interest.
They are just getting around to working that out, too.
The idea for JLR is to pay the suppliers to stockpile parts. That's not a thing which would be practical for more than a few weeks at most, and risks leaving them with a glut of stock which they'll then struggle to sell.
I think the reality is that there's no great way to mitigate a very lengthy disruption to a large company's business, other than to prevent it.
I wonder how much cyber protection and cyber insurance JLR had.
Insurance does nothing to help for the knock on effects. And the money could arguably be better spent on prevention.
If we are to start regularly paying out hundreds of millions to maintain UK firms (and perhaps we should) then lets add a levy to the biggest companies profits to cover those costs.
It’s not as simple as maintaining UK firms, JLR doesn’t need to have manufacturing here, it doesn’t need to use UK parts suppliers. JLR are losing (according to Today’s two different guests this morning) between £50m and “hundreds of millions” per week.
As we are seeing with the life sciences industry, if you make the financial environment trickier for companies, especially global companies, they actually do vote with their feet.
Carrot rather than stick is needed, for now. But the big corporates need to be out on notice to get their houses in better order, at the same time as they are offered assistance.
Very low level trivia, but two Labour councillors in Stockport have left the party in despair at SKS, appearing to support Burnham (they are mother and son - local politics is a funny place). There are now, I think, at least 5 ex-Lab independents on Stockport Council.
Here's an idea. Labour should announce scrapping Council tax for a 0.5%ish charge on property values, subject to a referendum.
Send every house in country info on how much they pay now and what they would pay in future. Make sure that 75% will see lower tax bill.
Tories and Reform will inevitably oppose and 75% of people will see that Labour lowered their tax bill.
It's not just 75% of all households - I'd wager that more than 75% of PBers would get a tax cut. I know that both Big_G_NorthWales and I would both get one, and he has a property worth around £400k (I think).
You don’t need a referendum - it would be part of the Finance Bill legislation. For Stodge Towers, a 0.5% tax on what I think would be a realistic valuation comes out close to what we pay now in Council Tax. You could go for 0.5% below a certain value and perhaps up to 1% for properties over £2.5 million. The key is to ensure the amounts raised in each area meet the demands of each area and reduce the amount Government has to put in to make up the difference.
Pb scooped the BBC (and the government?) by a week or so.
The speed with which the government has acted on this is lamentable. We are probably within 10 days of production restarting and we are still talking about possible support. Many of the suppliers will have been without work for weeks already and for some it is probably too late.
I think the government needs to give much more serious consideration to cyber attacks, both in prevention and amelioration when they occur. We have seen a few major UK companies very badly damaged by this already. It is unlikely to stop. The economic effects are sufficiently large to engage the national interest.
They are just getting around to working that out, too.
The idea for JLR is to pay the suppliers to stockpile parts. That's not a thing which would be practical for more than a few weeks at most, and risks leaving them with a glut of stock which they'll then struggle to sell.
I think the reality is that there's no great way to mitigate a very lengthy disruption to a large company's business, other than to prevent it.
I wonder how much cyber protection and cyber insurance JLR had.
Insurance does nothing to help for the knock on effects. And the money could arguably be better spent on prevention.
If we are to start regularly paying out hundreds of millions to maintain UK firms (and perhaps we should) then lets add a levy to the biggest companies profits to cover those costs.
I agree. I am not suggesting HMG do this for free. But if GCHQ have identified how to deal with certain classes of malware, for example, or how to quickly identify weaknesses in cyber security then it would be unfortunate if they are keeping this to themselves. I would suggest that firms should be invited to pay for a simulated attack from GCHQ on a regular basis to ensure that their systems are up to scratch. As I said earlier this is a problem that is not going to go away.
There was a rare success story this week too. The government created an AI tool that has reclaimed £500m of covid fraud so far, and we are now licensing that tool out to other countries, with US, Canada, Australia all expected customers.
Perhaps we can do something similar with cyber attacks and it will eventually be winner, winner, chicken dinner.
Pb scooped the BBC (and the government?) by a week or so.
The speed with which the government has acted on this is lamentable. We are probably within 10 days of production restarting and we are still talking about possible support. Many of the suppliers will have been without work for weeks already and for some it is probably too late.
I think the government needs to give much more serious consideration to cyber attacks, both in prevention and amelioration when they occur. We have seen a few major UK companies very badly damaged by this already. It is unlikely to stop. The economic effects are sufficiently large to engage the national interest.
They are just getting around to working that out, too.
The idea for JLR is to pay the suppliers to stockpile parts. That's not a thing which would be practical for more than a few weeks at most, and risks leaving them with a glut of stock which they'll then struggle to sell.
I think the reality is that there's no great way to mitigate a very lengthy disruption to a large company's business, other than to prevent it.
I wonder how much cyber protection and cyber insurance JLR had.
Insurance does nothing to help for the knock on effects. And the money could arguably be better spent on prevention.
If we are to start regularly paying out hundreds of millions to maintain UK firms (and perhaps we should) then lets add a levy to the biggest companies profits to cover those costs.
It’s not as simple as maintaining UK firms, JLR doesn’t need to have manufacturing here, it doesn’t need to use UK parts suppliers. JLR are losing (according to Today’s two different guests this morning) between £50m and “hundreds of millions” per week.
As we are seeing with the life sciences industry, if you make the financial environment trickier for companies, especially global companies, they actually do vote with their feet.
I'm extremely sceptical of the pharma companies on this. They are effectively threatening to cancel investment in research facilities in the UK because we won't adjust NHS drug pricing. The Eli Lilly article in the FT just came across as rent-seeking behaviour, special pleading.
Boris Johnson accuses Nigel Farage of 'extremely dangerous' stance on Ukraine war
Meanwhile, Farage is repeating the Eastern Europeans eat swans thing.
I had dinner with a political strategist last night, he's identified one thing problem for Reform/Farage.
They are getting high on their own supply, they are acting like they have the support of the majority in the country, when if there were an election tomorrow, Farage would likely end up with a lower vote share/votes than Starmer in 2024.
Very much my impression too when I attended a presentation to investors by a senior Reform bod. Seemed extremely confident but spoke in generalities and populist cliches, frequently said stuff that was just plain factually incorrect and didn't do well under serious scrutiny. They will absolutely fall apart in the heat of a general election campaign imho.
The lesson from Trump is just doesn't really matter. We are dependent on either the sensibilities of the UK public rejecting all this stuff about vaccines, swans and "Tylenol", or else a very strong turnout/tactical game by the more centrist parties.
Yeah I was going to add, as long as voters care. Maybe they don't. Time to bring forward the retirement to sunnier climes perhaps!
You could go for 0.5% below a certain value and perhaps up to 1% for properties over £2.5 million. The key is to ensure the amounts raised in each area meet the demands of each area and reduce the amount Government has to put in to make up the difference.
You know full well these sentences are completely contradictory.
Pb scooped the BBC (and the government?) by a week or so.
The speed with which the government has acted on this is lamentable. We are probably within 10 days of production restarting and we are still talking about possible support. Many of the suppliers will have been without work for weeks already and for some it is probably too late.
I think the government needs to give much more serious consideration to cyber attacks, both in prevention and amelioration when they occur. We have seen a few major UK companies very badly damaged by this already. It is unlikely to stop. The economic effects are sufficiently large to engage the national interest.
They are just getting around to working that out, too.
The idea for JLR is to pay the suppliers to stockpile parts. That's not a thing which would be practical for more than a few weeks at most, and risks leaving them with a glut of stock which they'll then struggle to sell.
I think the reality is that there's no great way to mitigate a very lengthy disruption to a large company's business, other than to prevent it.
I wonder how much cyber protection and cyber insurance JLR had.
Insurance does nothing to help for the knock on effects. And the money could arguably be better spent on prevention.
If we are to start regularly paying out hundreds of millions to maintain UK firms (and perhaps we should) then lets add a levy to the biggest companies profits to cover those costs.
It’s not as simple as maintaining UK firms, JLR doesn’t need to have manufacturing here, it doesn’t need to use UK parts suppliers. JLR are losing (according to Today’s two different guests this morning) between £50m and “hundreds of millions” per week.
As we are seeing with the life sciences industry, if you make the financial environment trickier for companies, especially global companies, they actually do vote with their feet.
Carrot rather than stick is needed, for now. But the big corporates need to be out on notice to get their houses in better order, at the same time as they are offered assistance.
It might not be a bad idea to make insurance covering this compulsory, deductible against tax but the insurers can insist that, as someone suggested above, the companies pay to have an arm of GCHQ* test their defences randomly, the cost covering the operation but also helping to develop better cyber security for the nation.
* if this starts making money it cannot be sold to Meta etc.
If there is one thing we have learned is that there is nothing that goes pear shaped for Labour that Starmer isn’t on record mocking whilst the Tories were in power.
“ Keir Starmer has hit out at the “ridiculous, chaotic circus” of the Conservative leadership contest, as he pitched Labour in contrast as the party of sound money.”
“ Starmer barely needed to come up with his own attack lines, relying almost entirely on the bitter criticism directed by Tory leadership candidates against their own colleagues.”
What I am finding amusing is that both of the candidates for Deputy Leader are anxious to be perceived as the one Starmer doesn't want. Philipson has strongly been rejecting that poisoned chalice and went so far as to accuse Starmer of misogyny and sexism yesterday. The idea that the leader and deputy leader might form a coherent team seems very far away.
Starmer might be better under a bit of tension from his deputy rather than someone overly respectful. It appears whilst he feels safe he simply dawdles along. Of course, he may just continue to dawdle regardless.
I can’t imagine Rayner was respectful or made him feel safe - she was there as an obvious reminder from the membership about the other side of Labour to Starmer. So we have already seen that tension didn’t make him good or not dawdle.
I think she was a bit too timid and respectful to Starmer which didn't suit her own personality. All her ire was consistently directed at the Tories.
Rayner (unlike Starmer) is good at politics, albeit not very good at arranging her own domestic commitments. She is a proper Labour loyalist to Starmer and previously to Corbyn and Miliband. She doesn't seem interested in party feuds.
I'd say that was very helpful in opposition and a good starting point in government. However she should have put some pressure on as it became clear the government was moving too little and way too slowly. Not for the sake of a feud but for the sake of delivery.
Pb scooped the BBC (and the government?) by a week or so.
The speed with which the government has acted on this is lamentable. We are probably within 10 days of production restarting and we are still talking about possible support. Many of the suppliers will have been without work for weeks already and for some it is probably too late.
I think the government needs to give much more serious consideration to cyber attacks, both in prevention and amelioration when they occur. We have seen a few major UK companies very badly damaged by this already. It is unlikely to stop. The economic effects are sufficiently large to engage the national interest.
They are just getting around to working that out, too.
The idea for JLR is to pay the suppliers to stockpile parts. That's not a thing which would be practical for more than a few weeks at most, and risks leaving them with a glut of stock which they'll then struggle to sell.
I think the reality is that there's no great way to mitigate a very lengthy disruption to a large company's business, other than to prevent it.
I wonder how much cyber protection and cyber insurance JLR had.
Insurance does nothing to help for the knock on effects. And the money could arguably be better spent on prevention.
If we are to start regularly paying out hundreds of millions to maintain UK firms (and perhaps we should) then lets add a levy to the biggest companies profits to cover those costs.
I agree. I am not suggesting HMG do this for free. But if GCHQ have identified how to deal with certain classes of malware, for example, or how to quickly identify weaknesses in cyber security then it would be unfortunate if they are keeping this to themselves. I would suggest that firms should be invited to pay for a simulated attack from GCHQ on a regular basis to ensure that their systems are up to scratch. As I said earlier this is a problem that is not going to go away.
I think it's worth remembering that the weak link in cyber security is almost always people.
This is why a recovery plan is almost as important as trying to prevent an attack. Some attacks are always going to work, so you need to be able to recover from one.
While we're talking about large British companies here, the really big risk to Britain would be a cyber attack on, say, railway infrastructure, HMRC, or DWP. Is anyone confident about Network Rail's ability to rapidly recover from a cyber attack?
Pb scooped the BBC (and the government?) by a week or so.
The speed with which the government has acted on this is lamentable. We are probably within 10 days of production restarting and we are still talking about possible support. Many of the suppliers will have been without work for weeks already and for some it is probably too late.
I think the government needs to give much more serious consideration to cyber attacks, both in prevention and amelioration when they occur. We have seen a few major UK companies very badly damaged by this already. It is unlikely to stop. The economic effects are sufficiently large to engage the national interest.
They are just getting around to working that out, too.
The idea for JLR is to pay the suppliers to stockpile parts. That's not a thing which would be practical for more than a few weeks at most, and risks leaving them with a glut of stock which they'll then struggle to sell.
I think the reality is that there's no great way to mitigate a very lengthy disruption to a large company's business, other than to prevent it.
I wonder how much cyber protection and cyber insurance JLR had.
Insurance does nothing to help for the knock on effects. And the money could arguably be better spent on prevention.
If we are to start regularly paying out hundreds of millions to maintain UK firms (and perhaps we should) then lets add a levy to the biggest companies profits to cover those costs.
It’s not as simple as maintaining UK firms, JLR doesn’t need to have manufacturing here, it doesn’t need to use UK parts suppliers. JLR are losing (according to Today’s two different guests this morning) between £50m and “hundreds of millions” per week.
As we are seeing with the life sciences industry, if you make the financial environment trickier for companies, especially global companies, they actually do vote with their feet.
I'm extremely sceptical of the pharma companies on this. They are effectively threatening to cancel investment in research facilities in the UK because we won't adjust NHS drug pricing. The Eli Lilly article in the FT just came across as rent-seeking behaviour, special pleading.
The government should call their bluff on this.
Plenty of global senior academics and bright students will be very wary of working or studying in the USA for the next decade. So I strongly concur.
The JLR issue is a microcosmic demonstration of this Government's tardy inaction and useless comms.
Yesterday's Government statement was on the lines of, "Ooh we are having a bit of a meeting with JLR and their suppliers, we will report back in November when all the suppliers have gone to the wall", instead of "after a hostile hack on JLR, most likely on behalf of a rogue power, we are underwriting bridging loans at the base rate to JLR suppliers who require our support until this issue is resolved".
Here's an idea. Labour should announce scrapping Council tax for a 0.5%ish charge on property values, subject to a referendum.
Send every house in country info on how much they pay now and what they would pay in future. Make sure that 75% will see lower tax bill.
Tories and Reform will inevitably oppose and 75% of people will see that Labour lowered their tax bill.
It's not just 75% of all households - I'd wager that more than 75% of PBers would get a tax cut. I know that both Big_G_NorthWales and I would both get one, and he has a property worth around £400k (I think).
You don’t need a referendum - it would be part of the Finance Bill legislation. For Stodge Towers, a 0.5% tax on what I think would be a realistic valuation comes out close to what we pay now in Council Tax. You could go for 0.5% below a certain value and perhaps up to 1% for properties over £2.5 million. The key is to ensure the amounts raised in each area meet the demands of each area and reduce the amount Government has to put in to make up the difference.
1% would be a slightly bonkers amount of cash on some Edinburgh propertied. 0.5% on a Barton Avenue property would be £12,000 per year, up from £3,800.
Pb scooped the BBC (and the government?) by a week or so.
The speed with which the government has acted on this is lamentable. We are probably within 10 days of production restarting and we are still talking about possible support. Many of the suppliers will have been without work for weeks already and for some it is probably too late.
I think the government needs to give much more serious consideration to cyber attacks, both in prevention and amelioration when they occur. We have seen a few major UK companies very badly damaged by this already. It is unlikely to stop. The economic effects are sufficiently large to engage the national interest.
They are just getting around to working that out, too.
The idea for JLR is to pay the suppliers to stockpile parts. That's not a thing which would be practical for more than a few weeks at most, and risks leaving them with a glut of stock which they'll then struggle to sell.
I think the reality is that there's no great way to mitigate a very lengthy disruption to a large company's business, other than to prevent it.
I wonder how much cyber protection and cyber insurance JLR had.
Insurance does nothing to help for the knock on effects. And the money could arguably be better spent on prevention.
If we are to start regularly paying out hundreds of millions to maintain UK firms (and perhaps we should) then lets add a levy to the biggest companies profits to cover those costs.
I agree. I am not suggesting HMG do this for free. But if GCHQ have identified how to deal with certain classes of malware, for example, or how to quickly identify weaknesses in cyber security then it would be unfortunate if they are keeping this to themselves. I would suggest that firms should be invited to pay for a simulated attack from GCHQ on a regular basis to ensure that their systems are up to scratch. As I said earlier this is a problem that is not going to go away.
I think it's worth remembering that the weak link in cyber security is almost always people.
This is why a recovery plan is almost as important as trying to prevent an attack. Some attacks are always going to work, so you need to be able to recover from one.
While we're talking about large British companies here, the really big risk to Britain would be a cyber attack on, say, railway infrastructure, HMRC, or DWP. Is anyone confident about Network Rail's ability to rapidly recover from a cyber attack?
I'd be more worried about another leaf attack to be honest. Do Network Rail use computers yet?
Pb scooped the BBC (and the government?) by a week or so.
The speed with which the government has acted on this is lamentable. We are probably within 10 days of production restarting and we are still talking about possible support. Many of the suppliers will have been without work for weeks already and for some it is probably too late.
I think the government needs to give much more serious consideration to cyber attacks, both in prevention and amelioration when they occur. We have seen a few major UK companies very badly damaged by this already. It is unlikely to stop. The economic effects are sufficiently large to engage the national interest.
They are just getting around to working that out, too.
The idea for JLR is to pay the suppliers to stockpile parts. That's not a thing which would be practical for more than a few weeks at most, and risks leaving them with a glut of stock which they'll then struggle to sell.
I think the reality is that there's no great way to mitigate a very lengthy disruption to a large company's business, other than to prevent it.
I wonder how much cyber protection and cyber insurance JLR had.
Insurance does nothing to help for the knock on effects. And the money could arguably be better spent on prevention.
If we are to start regularly paying out hundreds of millions to maintain UK firms (and perhaps we should) then lets add a levy to the biggest companies profits to cover those costs.
It’s not as simple as maintaining UK firms, JLR doesn’t need to have manufacturing here, it doesn’t need to use UK parts suppliers. JLR are losing (according to Today’s two different guests this morning) between £50m and “hundreds of millions” per week.
As we are seeing with the life sciences industry, if you make the financial environment trickier for companies, especially global companies, they actually do vote with their feet.
I'm extremely sceptical of the pharma companies on this. They are effectively threatening to cancel investment in research facilities in the UK because we won't adjust NHS drug pricing. The Eli Lilly article in the FT just came across as rent-seeking behaviour, special pleading.
The government should call their bluff on this.
That won't work. I really do not think that it is a bluff.
The pharmacy sector has been an outstanding success for the UK economy. The UK share of the industry is already in sharp decline against international competitors, and we risk making that worse.
Boris Johnson accuses Nigel Farage of 'extremely dangerous' stance on Ukraine war
Meanwhile, Farage is repeating the Eastern Europeans eat swans thing.
A Royal Parks spokesperson said yesterday this is untrue. Farage has made a series of absolute howlers over the last fortnight. Fortunately there have only been reported by a limited number broadcasters, so no harm done.
A quick google finds some old swan stories, for example:-
As I suggested yesterday, this is side of the bus stuff rather than a gotcha that will kill off Farage's chances. Sure, he has got the details wrong but ordinary voters will vaguely remember these stories from the past, or find them if they search. For them, Farage speaks the truth, or at least the truthiness, while his opponents prevaricate.
It’s so half arsed British isn’t it.
America - Migrants are going to rape your pets and murder your family then force their corpses to speak Spanish.
Pb scooped the BBC (and the government?) by a week or so.
The speed with which the government has acted on this is lamentable. We are probably within 10 days of production restarting and we are still talking about possible support. Many of the suppliers will have been without work for weeks already and for some it is probably too late.
I think the government needs to give much more serious consideration to cyber attacks, both in prevention and amelioration when they occur. We have seen a few major UK companies very badly damaged by this already. It is unlikely to stop. The economic effects are sufficiently large to engage the national interest.
They are just getting around to working that out, too.
The idea for JLR is to pay the suppliers to stockpile parts. That's not a thing which would be practical for more than a few weeks at most, and risks leaving them with a glut of stock which they'll then struggle to sell.
I think the reality is that there's no great way to mitigate a very lengthy disruption to a large company's business, other than to prevent it.
I wonder how much cyber protection and cyber insurance JLR had.
Insurance does nothing to help for the knock on effects. And the money could arguably be better spent on prevention.
If we are to start regularly paying out hundreds of millions to maintain UK firms (and perhaps we should) then lets add a levy to the biggest companies profits to cover those costs.
I agree. I am not suggesting HMG do this for free. But if GCHQ have identified how to deal with certain classes of malware, for example, or how to quickly identify weaknesses in cyber security then it would be unfortunate if they are keeping this to themselves. I would suggest that firms should be invited to pay for a simulated attack from GCHQ on a regular basis to ensure that their systems are up to scratch. As I said earlier this is a problem that is not going to go away.
I think it's worth remembering that the weak link in cyber security is almost always people.
This is why a recovery plan is almost as important as trying to prevent an attack. Some attacks are always going to work, so you need to be able to recover from one.
While we're talking about large British companies here, the really big risk to Britain would be a cyber attack on, say, railway infrastructure, HMRC, or DWP. Is anyone confident about Network Rail's ability to rapidly recover from a cyber attack?
If there was a cyber attack on Network Rail, how would we know?
Pb scooped the BBC (and the government?) by a week or so.
The speed with which the government has acted on this is lamentable. We are probably within 10 days of production restarting and we are still talking about possible support. Many of the suppliers will have been without work for weeks already and for some it is probably too late.
I think the government needs to give much more serious consideration to cyber attacks, both in prevention and amelioration when they occur. We have seen a few major UK companies very badly damaged by this already. It is unlikely to stop. The economic effects are sufficiently large to engage the national interest.
They are just getting around to working that out, too.
The idea for JLR is to pay the suppliers to stockpile parts. That's not a thing which would be practical for more than a few weeks at most, and risks leaving them with a glut of stock which they'll then struggle to sell.
I think the reality is that there's no great way to mitigate a very lengthy disruption to a large company's business, other than to prevent it.
I wonder how much cyber protection and cyber insurance JLR had.
Insurance does nothing to help for the knock on effects. And the money could arguably be better spent on prevention.
If we are to start regularly paying out hundreds of millions to maintain UK firms (and perhaps we should) then lets add a levy to the biggest companies profits to cover those costs.
It’s not as simple as maintaining UK firms, JLR doesn’t need to have manufacturing here, it doesn’t need to use UK parts suppliers. JLR are losing (according to Today’s two different guests this morning) between £50m and “hundreds of millions” per week.
As we are seeing with the life sciences industry, if you make the financial environment trickier for companies, especially global companies, they actually do vote with their feet.
Carrot rather than stick is needed, for now. But the big corporates need to be out on notice to get their houses in better order, at the same time as they are offered assistance.
It might not be a bad idea to make insurance covering this compulsory, deductible against tax but the insurers can insist that, as someone suggested above, the companies pay to have an arm of GCHQ* test their defences randomly, the cost covering the operation but also helping to develop better cyber security for the nation.
* if this starts making money it cannot be sold to Meta etc.
Cyber insurance is a cost that is deductible against tax.
The thing is, cyber insurers want to check your systems, to make sure you are doing things right. If you're not, then it is prohibitively expensive.
Here's an idea. Labour should announce scrapping Council tax for a 0.5%ish charge on property values, subject to a referendum.
Send every house in country info on how much they pay now and what they would pay in future. Make sure that 75% will see lower tax bill.
Tories and Reform will inevitably oppose and 75% of people will see that Labour lowered their tax bill.
It's not just 75% of all households - I'd wager that more than 75% of PBers would get a tax cut. I know that both Big_G_NorthWales and I would both get one, and he has a property worth around £400k (I think).
You don’t need a referendum - it would be part of the Finance Bill legislation. For Stodge Towers, a 0.5% tax on what I think would be a realistic valuation comes out close to what we pay now in Council Tax. You could go for 0.5% below a certain value and perhaps up to 1% for properties over £2.5 million. The key is to ensure the amounts raised in each area meet the demands of each area and reduce the amount Government has to put in to make up the difference.
1% would be a slightly bonkers amount of cash on some Edinburgh propertied. 0.5% on a Barton Avenue property would be £12,000 per year, up from £3,800.
A bit too far imo.
High value property owners have done well for decades out of the current scheme - if I pay nearly £2k a year on a house worth, let’s say, £500k, how can someone owning a house worth £2 million pay less than £4k? The failure to account for high value property is one of the biggest flaws in the Council Tax system and has pushed the costs disproportionately on to lower value homes which are often those owned by those with lower income.
Pb scooped the BBC (and the government?) by a week or so.
The speed with which the government has acted on this is lamentable. We are probably within 10 days of production restarting and we are still talking about possible support. Many of the suppliers will have been without work for weeks already and for some it is probably too late.
I think the government needs to give much more serious consideration to cyber attacks, both in prevention and amelioration when they occur. We have seen a few major UK companies very badly damaged by this already. It is unlikely to stop. The economic effects are sufficiently large to engage the national interest.
They are just getting around to working that out, too.
The idea for JLR is to pay the suppliers to stockpile parts. That's not a thing which would be practical for more than a few weeks at most, and risks leaving them with a glut of stock which they'll then struggle to sell.
I think the reality is that there's no great way to mitigate a very lengthy disruption to a large company's business, other than to prevent it.
I wonder how much cyber protection and cyber insurance JLR had.
Insurance does nothing to help for the knock on effects. And the money could arguably be better spent on prevention.
If we are to start regularly paying out hundreds of millions to maintain UK firms (and perhaps we should) then lets add a levy to the biggest companies profits to cover those costs.
It’s not as simple as maintaining UK firms, JLR doesn’t need to have manufacturing here, it doesn’t need to use UK parts suppliers. JLR are losing (according to Today’s two different guests this morning) between £50m and “hundreds of millions” per week.
As we are seeing with the life sciences industry, if you make the financial environment trickier for companies, especially global companies, they actually do vote with their feet.
I'm extremely sceptical of the pharma companies on this. They are effectively threatening to cancel investment in research facilities in the UK because we won't adjust NHS drug pricing. The Eli Lilly article in the FT just came across as rent-seeking behaviour, special pleading.
The government should call their bluff on this.
Plenty of global senior academics and bright students will be very wary of working or studying in the USA for the next decade. So I strongly concur.
Academics are not the pharma industry.
A good illustration is the invention and development of the therapeutic monoclonal antibody. British Nobel prize winners pioneered the field, and one of the most commercially valuable drugs in history (Humira) was developed in the UK.
It was licensed to a US manufacturer, and the UK's Cambridge Antibody, which pioneered both the drug and the underlying drug development platform, ended up with a very small percentage royalty from the $250bn or so revenue that it has generated since. CAT ended up being purchased by AZN for around £1bn.
CAT's exact contemporary, and a small biotech US competitor in the early development of antibody therapeutics, Regeneron Pharmaceuticals, stayed independent and is now worth around $60bn.
I see no path for Burnham to PM, but what this is doing is creating division and angst within labour and no 10
Their conference is going to be all about Burnham and Farage, and the media will be entirely focused on their perceived 'gotchas'
In fairness to Burnham he has been an excellent mayor for Manchester, and he is a Northern MP challenging the London centric labour
I'm reminded of another guy who became an MP, crashed and burned, and then used a big city Mayoralty to redeem himself. (As currently configured, it is politics on easy mode- all the fame but few of the painful tradeoffs.)
However, the ambition still burned with the fire of a thousand suns. And the press loved him for providing a story on a quiet day. And the party in the country loved him for telling them what they wanted to hear.
So he half-wrecked his party in order to get the leadership. And then (because he wasn't really up to the job, which is why he crashed and burned in the foothills) he fully wrecked his party while he had the leadership.
History, tragedy, farce and all that.
To be fair he also faced a once in a century medical crisis and the first significant European war since (arguably) 1945.
Pb scooped the BBC (and the government?) by a week or so.
The speed with which the government has acted on this is lamentable. We are probably within 10 days of production restarting and we are still talking about possible support. Many of the suppliers will have been without work for weeks already and for some it is probably too late.
I think the government needs to give much more serious consideration to cyber attacks, both in prevention and amelioration when they occur. We have seen a few major UK companies very badly damaged by this already. It is unlikely to stop. The economic effects are sufficiently large to engage the national interest.
They are just getting around to working that out, too.
The idea for JLR is to pay the suppliers to stockpile parts. That's not a thing which would be practical for more than a few weeks at most, and risks leaving them with a glut of stock which they'll then struggle to sell.
I think the reality is that there's no great way to mitigate a very lengthy disruption to a large company's business, other than to prevent it.
I wonder how much cyber protection and cyber insurance JLR had.
Insurance does nothing to help for the knock on effects. And the money could arguably be better spent on prevention.
If we are to start regularly paying out hundreds of millions to maintain UK firms (and perhaps we should) then lets add a levy to the biggest companies profits to cover those costs.
I agree. I am not suggesting HMG do this for free. But if GCHQ have identified how to deal with certain classes of malware, for example, or how to quickly identify weaknesses in cyber security then it would be unfortunate if they are keeping this to themselves. I would suggest that firms should be invited to pay for a simulated attack from GCHQ on a regular basis to ensure that their systems are up to scratch. As I said earlier this is a problem that is not going to go away.
I think it's worth remembering that the weak link in cyber security is almost always people.
This is why a recovery plan is almost as important as trying to prevent an attack. Some attacks are always going to work, so you need to be able to recover from one.
While we're talking about large British companies here, the really big risk to Britain would be a cyber attack on, say, railway infrastructure, HMRC, or DWP. Is anyone confident about Network Rail's ability to rapidly recover from a cyber attack?
If there was a cyber attack on Network Rail, how would we know?
Boris Johnson accuses Nigel Farage of 'extremely dangerous' stance on Ukraine war
Meanwhile, Farage is repeating the Eastern Europeans eat swans thing.
A Royal Parks spokesperson said yesterday this is untrue. Farage has made a series of absolute howlers over the last fortnight. Fortunately there have only been reported by a limited number broadcasters, so no harm done.
A quick google finds some old swan stories, for example:-
As I suggested yesterday, this is side of the bus stuff rather than a gotcha that will kill off Farage's chances. Sure, he has got the details wrong but ordinary voters will vaguely remember these stories from the past, or find them if they search. For them, Farage speaks the truth, or at least the truthiness, while his opponents prevaricate.
It’s so half arsed British isn’t it.
America - Migrants are going to rape your pets and murder your family then force their corpses to speak Spanish.
Boris Johnson accuses Nigel Farage of 'extremely dangerous' stance on Ukraine war
Meanwhile, Farage is repeating the Eastern Europeans eat swans thing.
A Royal Parks spokesperson said yesterday this is untrue. Farage has made a series of absolute howlers over the last fortnight. Fortunately there have only been reported by a limited number broadcasters, so no harm done.
A quick google finds some old swan stories, for example:-
As I suggested yesterday, this is side of the bus stuff rather than a gotcha that will kill off Farage's chances. Sure, he has got the details wrong but ordinary voters will vaguely remember these stories from the past, or find them if they search. For them, Farage speaks the truth, or at least the truthiness, while his opponents prevaricate.
It’s so half arsed British isn’t it.
America - Migrants are going to rape your pets and murder your family then force their corpses to speak Spanish.
Britain - Migrants are eating swans.
But the swans are property of the Monarch dontchaknow, WHICH MAKES THIS EVEN WORSE!
Pb scooped the BBC (and the government?) by a week or so.
The speed with which the government has acted on this is lamentable. We are probably within 10 days of production restarting and we are still talking about possible support. Many of the suppliers will have been without work for weeks already and for some it is probably too late.
I think the government needs to give much more serious consideration to cyber attacks, both in prevention and amelioration when they occur. We have seen a few major UK companies very badly damaged by this already. It is unlikely to stop. The economic effects are sufficiently large to engage the national interest.
They are just getting around to working that out, too.
The idea for JLR is to pay the suppliers to stockpile parts. That's not a thing which would be practical for more than a few weeks at most, and risks leaving them with a glut of stock which they'll then struggle to sell.
I think the reality is that there's no great way to mitigate a very lengthy disruption to a large company's business, other than to prevent it.
I wonder how much cyber protection and cyber insurance JLR had.
Insurance does nothing to help for the knock on effects. And the money could arguably be better spent on prevention.
If we are to start regularly paying out hundreds of millions to maintain UK firms (and perhaps we should) then lets add a levy to the biggest companies profits to cover those costs.
It’s not as simple as maintaining UK firms, JLR doesn’t need to have manufacturing here, it doesn’t need to use UK parts suppliers. JLR are losing (according to Today’s two different guests this morning) between £50m and “hundreds of millions” per week.
As we are seeing with the life sciences industry, if you make the financial environment trickier for companies, especially global companies, they actually do vote with their feet.
I'm extremely sceptical of the pharma companies on this. They are effectively threatening to cancel investment in research facilities in the UK because we won't adjust NHS drug pricing. The Eli Lilly article in the FT just came across as rent-seeking behaviour, special pleading.
The government should call their bluff on this.
Plenty of global senior academics and bright students will be very wary of working or studying in the USA for the next decade. So I strongly concur.
Academics are not the pharma industry.
A good illustration is the invention and development of the therapeutic monoclonal antibody. British Nobel prize winners pioneered the field, and one of the most commercially valuable drugs in history (Humira) was developed in the UK.
It was licensed to a US manufacturer, and the UK's Cambridge Antibody, which pioneered both the drug and the underlying drug development platform, ended up with a very small percentage royalty from the $250bn or so revenue that it has generated since. CAT ended up being purchased by AZN for around £1bn.
CAT's exact contemporary, and a small biotech US competitor in the early development of antibody therapeutics, Regeneron Pharmaceuticals, stayed independent and is now worth around $60bn.
Feels like a significant but separate issue. In terms of location of any elite research that requires leading global talent, academic or commercial, the US is self harming and that should benefit the UK.
Boris Johnson accuses Nigel Farage of 'extremely dangerous' stance on Ukraine war
Meanwhile, Farage is repeating the Eastern Europeans eat swans thing.
A Royal Parks spokesperson said yesterday this is untrue. Farage has made a series of absolute howlers over the last fortnight. Fortunately there have only been reported by a limited number broadcasters, so no harm done.
A quick google finds some old swan stories, for example:-
As I suggested yesterday, this is side of the bus stuff rather than a gotcha that will kill off Farage's chances. Sure, he has got the details wrong but ordinary voters will vaguely remember these stories from the past, or find them if they search. For them, Farage speaks the truth, or at least the truthiness, while his opponents prevaricate.
There was a story on Emmerdale Farm a couple of decades back about an immigrant taking ducks from the village pond.
Perhaps more relevantly its pretty common to see people openly flouting 'no fishing' signs on park lakes.
Which would add into the general social breakdown meme the BBC is reporting on:
We’ve had issues in our town with similar behaviour. I’ve mentioned it before. Durham has problems too with aggressive begging and drunks pissing in the street. A PSPO was proposed for Durham but was objected to by ‘charities’ who deal with these people.
The Police aren’t bothered. It’s outrageous decent people building businesses and trying to keep high streets alive are abandoned.
A local cafe run by two enterprising Poles had its display vandalised. Youths have gone into a travel agents and abused staff and customers. There’s other stuff. It puts you off going in and spending money. The roadmen on sur-Ron’s with safety balaclavas aren’t spending
Typical of the BBC too to try to portray these kids in a good light making excuses for them
The report I saw on the BBC certainly didn't portray them in a good light. Admittedly the worst light was the copper who implied we shouldn't get involved as they are just kids, at least the police and crime commissioner made it clear she disagreed with that.
Like any right-thinking male - and also like any right-thinking urban Metropolitan - I abhor the Trafford Centre and its clones across the country. But whisper it, they do a lot of things right which those who care about town centres could and should learn from. There's the free parking and the easy highway access. But that's not really what I'm talking about, and, I'd suggest, not the most important thing. What I think they do really well is present a safe, clean, grot-free environment that is easy and pleasant to walk around. Imagine if city centres could be presented and policed to the same standard as the Trafford Centre and the like. Why don't we care about our public spaces?
Europe turning its back on Musk - Tesla sales down 43% year on year in first eight months of 2025. Meanwhile sales of Chinese BYD cars rocketing - notice them a lot in Dublin, not so much in the UK. Full details here in Guardian business blog.
Europe turning its back on Musk - Tesla sales down 43% year on year in first eight months of 2025. Meanwhile sales of Chinese BYD cars rocketing - notice them a lot in Dublin, not so much in the UK. Full details here in Guardian business blog.
Europe turning its back on Musk - Tesla sales down 43% year on year in first eight months of 2025. Meanwhile sales of Chinese BYD cars rocketing - notice them a lot in Dublin, not so much in the UK. Full details here in Guardian business blog.
Europe turning its back on Musk - Tesla sales down 43% year on year in first eight months of 2025. Meanwhile sales of Chinese BYD cars rocketing - notice them a lot in Dublin, not so much in the UK. Full details here in Guardian business blog.
Europe turning its back on Musk - Tesla sales down 43% year on year in first eight months of 2025. Meanwhile sales of Chinese BYD cars rocketing - notice them a lot in Dublin, not so much in the UK. Full details here in Guardian business blog.
Pb scooped the BBC (and the government?) by a week or so.
The speed with which the government has acted on this is lamentable. We are probably within 10 days of production restarting and we are still talking about possible support. Many of the suppliers will have been without work for weeks already and for some it is probably too late.
I think the government needs to give much more serious consideration to cyber attacks, both in prevention and amelioration when they occur. We have seen a few major UK companies very badly damaged by this already. It is unlikely to stop. The economic effects are sufficiently large to engage the national interest.
They are just getting around to working that out, too.
The idea for JLR is to pay the suppliers to stockpile parts. That's not a thing which would be practical for more than a few weeks at most, and risks leaving them with a glut of stock which they'll then struggle to sell.
I think the reality is that there's no great way to mitigate a very lengthy disruption to a large company's business, other than to prevent it.
I wonder how much cyber protection and cyber insurance JLR had.
Insurance does nothing to help for the knock on effects. And the money could arguably be better spent on prevention.
If we are to start regularly paying out hundreds of millions to maintain UK firms (and perhaps we should) then lets add a levy to the biggest companies profits to cover those costs.
It’s not as simple as maintaining UK firms, JLR doesn’t need to have manufacturing here, it doesn’t need to use UK parts suppliers. JLR are losing (according to Today’s two different guests this morning) between £50m and “hundreds of millions” per week.
As we are seeing with the life sciences industry, if you make the financial environment trickier for companies, especially global companies, they actually do vote with their feet.
I'm extremely sceptical of the pharma companies on this. They are effectively threatening to cancel investment in research facilities in the UK because we won't adjust NHS drug pricing. The Eli Lilly article in the FT just came across as rent-seeking behaviour, special pleading.
The government should call their bluff on this.
Plenty of global senior academics and bright students will be very wary of working or studying in the USA for the next decade. So I strongly concur.
Academics are not the pharma industry.
A good illustration is the invention and development of the therapeutic monoclonal antibody. British Nobel prize winners pioneered the field, and one of the most commercially valuable drugs in history (Humira) was developed in the UK.
It was licensed to a US manufacturer, and the UK's Cambridge Antibody, which pioneered both the drug and the underlying drug development platform, ended up with a very small percentage royalty from the $250bn or so revenue that it has generated since. CAT ended up being purchased by AZN for around £1bn.
CAT's exact contemporary, and a small biotech US competitor in the early development of antibody therapeutics, Regeneron Pharmaceuticals, stayed independent and is now worth around $60bn.
Feels like a significant but separate issue. In terms of location of any elite research that requires leading global talent, academic or commercial, the US is self harming and that should benefit the UK.
The two things (pharma and academic research) are separate, but they are linked. A strong academic research basis does spill over into commercial activity, but without large companies to develop inventions further, promising startups tend to end up elsewhere before they generate the big returns. (And note that the CAT story is from the glory days of UK biotechnology research.)
The US self harm on the academic front ought to present us with a large opportunity, but we seem to be simultaneously engaged in self harm to the UK industry which feeds on the research.
Nigel and the swan-eating thing is curious. It seems less of a planned controversy and more of an outburst when he was asked to defend, yet again, the ramblings of Donald Trump. A sore spot was obviously touched and this is turning into a bit of a problem for Nigel. He needs to cut Trump loose and stop acting as his butler. It seems Trump has some weird hold over Nigel that I cannot fathom.
Boris Johnson accuses Nigel Farage of 'extremely dangerous' stance on Ukraine war
Meanwhile, Farage is repeating the Eastern Europeans eat swans thing.
A Royal Parks spokesperson said yesterday this is untrue. Farage has made a series of absolute howlers over the last fortnight. Fortunately there have only been reported by a limited number broadcasters, so no harm done.
A quick google finds some old swan stories, for example:-
As I suggested yesterday, this is side of the bus stuff rather than a gotcha that will kill off Farage's chances. Sure, he has got the details wrong but ordinary voters will vaguely remember these stories from the past, or find them if they search. For them, Farage speaks the truth, or at least the truthiness, while his opponents prevaricate.
There was a story on Emmerdale Farm a couple of decades back about an immigrant taking ducks from the village pond.
Perhaps more relevantly its pretty common to see people openly flouting 'no fishing' signs on park lakes.
Which would add into the general social breakdown meme the BBC is reporting on:
We’ve had issues in our town with similar behaviour. I’ve mentioned it before. Durham has problems too with aggressive begging and drunks pissing in the street. A PSPO was proposed for Durham but was objected to by ‘charities’ who deal with these people.
The Police aren’t bothered. It’s outrageous decent people building businesses and trying to keep high streets alive are abandoned.
A local cafe run by two enterprising Poles had its display vandalised. Youths have gone into a travel agents and abused staff and customers. There’s other stuff. It puts you off going in and spending money. The roadmen on sur-Ron’s with safety balaclavas aren’t spending
Typical of the BBC too to try to portray these kids in a good light making excuses for them
The report I saw on the BBC certainly didn't portray them in a good light. Admittedly the worst light was the copper who implied we shouldn't get involved as they are just kids, at least the police and crime commissioner made it clear she disagreed with that.
Like any right-thinking male - and also like any right-thinking urban Metropolitan - I abhor the Trafford Centre and its clones across the country. But whisper it, they do a lot of things right which those who care about town centres could and should learn from. There's the free parking and the easy highway access. But that's not really what I'm talking about, and, I'd suggest, not the most important thing. What I think they do really well is present a safe, clean, grot-free environment that is easy and pleasant to walk around. Imagine if city centres could be presented and policed to the same standard as the Trafford Centre and the like. Why don't we care about our public spaces?
Clearly a big part of it is the switch of shopping from city centres to first out of town and then online. Throw in working from home and it is clear that what would have been great 30 years ago simply won't fit well now, so I don't think we should find it surprising that this is a challenge for cities and towns currently.
Europe turning its back on Musk - Tesla sales down 43% year on year in first eight months of 2025. Meanwhile sales of Chinese BYD cars rocketing - notice them a lot in Dublin, not so much in the UK. Full details here in Guardian business blog.
I do wonder how many people who want to see Tesla fail were also repeating Jimmy Kimmel’s words about loads of people losing their jobs because of a reaction to what someone has said.
No great fan of Musk but glee over Tesla crapping out and anger over Kimmel production crew losing jobs would be a little hypocritical.
Too early for this imo. Reform in 2028 will have a lot more ex cons in their leadership party. Not sure if that will help them out with tactical voting or make it worse. Also another 3 years of billionaire subsidised media is likely to be significant too.
The rule in any organisation is to undertake one's dirty washing in private. Burnham seems, with his interview with the Labour house journal, the Daily Telegraph to have forgotten this.
Let's not ignore the fact that Starmer has been a poor PM. Continuity Sunak was not what we voted for, but the personal hatred for the man in the press and on here has been obvious from the moment that he was elected LOTO. Granted that was at peak Johnson but who remembers the daily diet of comedy slurs on here, some of which have proven to be appropriate?
I wonder why there is such a visceral hatred of the man since his election as LOTO. Undermining the God that is Jeremy Corbyn or being the Shadow Minister for the second referendum. It's the latter isn't it? A true Brexit traitor.
Tens of thousands of flats in London have planning consent but have no sign off from the building safety regulator. In Q1 2025 357 new homes were started in London compared to 15-18,000 in a typical Q. Disastrous Tory legislation+Labour mismanagement= housing catastrophe! https://x.com/MellonSdp6741/status/1971133479418200349
So safety regulation is actually preventing some upgrades to building safety and killing new development.
(Note this was part of Rayner's brief while she was in office.)
The rule in any organisation is to undertake one's dirty washing in private. Burnham seems, with his interview with the Labour house journal, the Daily Telegraph to have forgotten this.
Let's not ignore the fact that Starmer has been a poor PM. Continuity Sunak was not what we voted for, but the personal hatred for the man in the press and on here has been obvious from the moment that he was elected LOTO. Granted that was at peak Johnson but who remembers the daily diet of comedy slurs on here, some of which have proven to be appropriate?
I wonder why there is such a visceral hatred of the man since his election as LOTO. Undermining the God that is Jeremy Corbyn or being the Shadow Minister for the second referendum. It's the latter isn't it? A true Brexit traitor.
Burnham's being a bit of a shit. Longing to harm, but fearing to strike.
Which is not how you organise a coup at all. A well-executed coup should be largely bloodless, at the point of flagrante delicto, as all the pieces have already been played.
They're eating the swans. They're eating the geese. They're eating the pets, of the people that live there.
That would be a great opening line for a book. I want to know more. How this happened, what happens next. If only we had a writer on the site who could run with it.
Good morning one and all; I'm in a somewhat philosophical frame of mind this morning, and my brain is exercised by two thought, viz a)
When I read of the misdoings of youths I'm reminded of the piece by the late Will Shakespeare in the The Winters Tale, "I would there were no age between ten and three-and-twenty, or that youth would sleep out the rest, for there is nothing in the between but getting wenches with child, wronging the ancientry, stealing, fighting."
In other words, 'twas ever thus!
And b). Donald Trump's grandfather fled to the USA, another European immigrant part of the diaspora dispossessing the local population.
Boris Johnson accuses Nigel Farage of 'extremely dangerous' stance on Ukraine war
Meanwhile, Farage is repeating the Eastern Europeans eat swans thing.
A Royal Parks spokesperson said yesterday this is untrue. Farage has made a series of absolute howlers over the last fortnight. Fortunately there have only been reported by a limited number broadcasters, so no harm done.
A quick google finds some old swan stories, for example:-
As I suggested yesterday, this is side of the bus stuff rather than a gotcha that will kill off Farage's chances. Sure, he has got the details wrong but ordinary voters will vaguely remember these stories from the past, or find them if they search. For them, Farage speaks the truth, or at least the truthiness, while his opponents prevaricate.
There was a story on Emmerdale Farm a couple of decades back about an immigrant taking ducks from the village pond.
Perhaps more relevantly its pretty common to see people openly flouting 'no fishing' signs on park lakes.
Which would add into the general social breakdown meme the BBC is reporting on:
We’ve had issues in our town with similar behaviour. I’ve mentioned it before. Durham has problems too with aggressive begging and drunks pissing in the street. A PSPO was proposed for Durham but was objected to by ‘charities’ who deal with these people.
The Police aren’t bothered. It’s outrageous decent people building businesses and trying to keep high streets alive are abandoned.
A local cafe run by two enterprising Poles had its display vandalised. Youths have gone into a travel agents and abused staff and customers. There’s other stuff. It puts you off going in and spending money. The roadmen on sur-Ron’s with safety balaclavas aren’t spending
Typical of the BBC too to try to portray these kids in a good light making excuses for them
The report I saw on the BBC certainly didn't portray them in a good light. Admittedly the worst light was the copper who implied we shouldn't get involved as they are just kids, at least the police and crime commissioner made it clear she disagreed with that.
Like any right-thinking male - and also like any right-thinking urban Metropolitan - I abhor the Trafford Centre and its clones across the country. But whisper it, they do a lot of things right which those who care about town centres could and should learn from. There's the free parking and the easy highway access. But that's not really what I'm talking about, and, I'd suggest, not the most important thing. What I think they do really well is present a safe, clean, grot-free environment that is easy and pleasant to walk around. Imagine if city centres could be presented and policed to the same standard as the Trafford Centre and the like. Why don't we care about our public spaces?
Clearly a big part of it is the switch of shopping from city centres to first out of town and then online. Throw in working from home and it is clear that what would have been great 30 years ago simply won't fit well now, so I don't think we should find it surprising that this is a challenge for cities and towns currently.
I agree - if town and city centres are presented as safe and clean and pleasant places, that's part of the battle.
There's too much retail (where I live a prominent site has been empty for nearly 20 years) and that needs to be reduced drastically. There needs to be a much greater focus on leisure, which again benefits from a good environment. And get people living in the town centre in all those empty buildings. I used to be in a house that was right next to the town centre - it was so convenient compared to where I live now barely a km away. And then with people living in the town centre you have a bit more demand for some of the retail space for convenience stores and the like. You can see this works in some parts of London where there has been redevelopment; I'm sure there are examples elsewhere too.
Ukraine hit a chemicals plant overnight that, among other things, produces sulphuric acid. Earlier in the week they hit a gas processing plant that produces three-quarters of Russia's sulphur.
Sulphur is a key ingredient for explosives manufacture. I have no idea how hard it would be for Russia to source supplies of sulphur from China, or elsewhere, but I thought it was an interesting development.
Europe turning its back on Musk - Tesla sales down 43% year on year in first eight months of 2025. Meanwhile sales of Chinese BYD cars rocketing - notice them a lot in Dublin, not so much in the UK. Full details here in Guardian business blog.
The rule in any organisation is to undertake one's dirty washing in private. Burnham seems, with his interview with the Labour house journal, the Daily Telegraph to have forgotten this.
Let's not ignore the fact that Starmer has been a poor PM. Continuity Sunak was not what we voted for, but the personal hatred for the man in the press and on here has been obvious from the moment that he was elected LOTO. Granted that was at peak Johnson but who remembers the daily diet of comedy slurs on here, some of which have proven to be appropriate?
I wonder why there is such a visceral hatred of the man since his election as LOTO. Undermining the God that is Jeremy Corbyn or being the Shadow Minister for the second referendum. It's the latter isn't it? A true Brexit traitor.
Burnham's being a bit of a shit. Longing to harm, but fearing to strike.
Which is not how you organise a coup at all. A well-executed coup should be largely bloodless, at the point of flagrante delicto, as all the pieces have already been played.
Not sure who is advising Burnham but I think he’s handling this badly . I hope he crashes and burns and I say this not as a Starmer fan .
Europe turning its back on Musk - Tesla sales down 43% year on year in first eight months of 2025. Meanwhile sales of Chinese BYD cars rocketing - notice them a lot in Dublin, not so much in the UK. Full details here in Guardian business blog.
Europe turning its back on Musk - Tesla sales down 43% year on year in first eight months of 2025. Meanwhile sales of Chinese BYD cars rocketing - notice them a lot in Dublin, not so much in the UK. Full details here in Guardian business blog.
I do wonder how many people who want to see Tesla fail were also repeating Jimmy Kimmel’s words about loads of people losing their jobs because of a reaction to what someone has said.
No great fan of Musk but glee over Tesla crapping out and anger over Kimmel production crew losing jobs would be a little hypocritical.
I don't think I've seen anyone repeating Kimmel's words about loads of people losing their jobs.
Your post is a bit of a strawman: I do no care about Tesla in itself. They're a company that's done some amazing things, but which has a f'load of technical debt and is led by a really nasty man who is calling for chaos in this country. He gets most of his power from Tesla, and a good way of getting him to fail is for Tesla to become less powerful.
If Tesla was run by someone else, and Musk had no influence over it and no shares in it, I might be cheering them along. Still concerned about the technical debt, though...
Comments
So the economic loss is the same, albeit spread over a longer period. Does that help much?
Is there much information on what exactly got hacked and how? I'd be really interested to know. I do hope they haven't been outsourcing everything, like various banks did, and then finding that the people who really knew how everything worked have left.
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/world-news/2025/09/24/greek-farmers-eu-scam-bananas-mount-olympus/ (£££)
I was going to post this as an aid for HIGNFY question-setters but it looks politically significant with Greek government involvement.
It is also quite amusing so here is the gift link to bypass the paywall.
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/gift/1e5a0ae2718877e6
I understand the national interest angle but if companies what protection from cyber attacks provided by GCHQ I want taxpayers to get some value for money too.
He needs to win a by-election then gain for the support of 80 MPs to challenge Starmer then win the leadership election to replace Starmer as PM. He can't replace Starmer by winning a General Election, it only follows in the completely implausible scenario of Burnham setting up his own party and defeating Labour, Reform and everyone else at the next GE.
Maximal from HMG to ensure shareholders don't miss out.
The Police aren’t bothered. It’s outrageous decent people building businesses and trying to keep high streets alive are abandoned.
A local cafe run by two enterprising Poles had its display vandalised. Youths have gone into a travel agents and abused staff and customers. There’s other stuff. It puts you off going in and spending money. The roadmen on sur-Ron’s with safety balaclavas aren’t spending
Typical of the BBC too to try to portray these kids in a good light making excuses for them
I don’t have a strong view on Andy Burnham. I did have a thought of a Government of all the Mayors - the idea of Burnham, Khan and Houchen all at the Cabinet table has a certain value, I think.
By the way, I don’t see any Conservatives arguing for Houchen to be brought into the Parliamentary Party via a by election (I know) and become leader but he has plenty of time on his side.
I see Farage is up to his usual old nonsense - swans being eaten by Eastern European migrants, it’s probably happened at some point but not a general occurrence. He could talk about dogs and cats being abducted and eaten and he might be on firmer ground - perhaps he should do a tour of the kebab shops in East Ham High Street and ask for the Special Shawarma.
On weightier matters, the potential for cyber disruption - once branded “inconvenience terrorism” - has been known for decades and most organisations should have some sort of plan or protocol to counter a malware or ransomware attack. I worked for organisations which suffered DDOS attacks or whose email servers were flooded with spam and the security measures in place were usually effective.
I wouldn't be putting any faith in JLR reassurances about the speed at which this will be resolved.
But now they also have "Classic Unwind", whatever that is, there ought to be less need to dumb down.
The BBC are kinda right though. These kids grow up in poverty in places like Muirhouse, Niddrie. The difference is that they are much more mobile than before so suddenly middle-class people like me are confronted with their arseholery for the first time.
So.last year
Is the SU-34 the Russian equivalent of AWACS? I remember one of them being hit when Ukraine took out a load of planes on the ground but can't remember the name.
As we are seeing with the life sciences industry, if you make the financial environment trickier for companies, especially global companies, they actually do vote with their feet.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sukhoi_Su-34#Specifications_(Su-34)
Used to launch large ballistic missiles at Ukrainian cities, amongst other things.
* Johnson finds himself in a not dissimilar quandary to Burnham, i.e. neither are MPs.
An SU-34 is a fighter-bomber.
My old corporation just planned one scenario from 2022 on.
A recession and act according.
Reduce inventory, extend payment terms, hiring freeze, capital freeze. It was like working for a company in survival mode not a hugely profitable one.
But the big corporates need to be out on notice to get their houses in better order, at the same time as they are offered assistance.
https://www.msn.com/en-gb/news/other/keir-starmer-sleepwalking-to-reform-government-slam-stockport-councillors-as-they-quit-labour/ar-AA1NdQAF?ocid=BingNewsSerp
Perhaps we can do something similar with cyber attacks and it will eventually be winner, winner, chicken dinner.
The government should call their bluff on this.
* if this starts making money it cannot be sold to Meta etc.
This is why a recovery plan is almost as important as trying to prevent an attack. Some attacks are always going to work, so you need to be able to recover from one.
While we're talking about large British companies here, the really big risk to Britain would be a cyber attack on, say, railway infrastructure, HMRC, or DWP. Is anyone confident about Network Rail's ability to rapidly recover from a cyber attack?
Still a tasty target, good for the Ukrainians.
Yesterday's Government statement was on the lines of, "Ooh we are having a bit of a meeting with JLR and their suppliers, we will report back in November when all the suppliers have gone to the wall", instead of "after a hostile hack on JLR, most likely on behalf of a rogue power, we are underwriting bridging loans at the base rate to JLR suppliers who require our support until this issue is resolved".
Rudderless and crap comms!
A bit too far imo.
I really do not think that it is a bluff.
The pharmacy sector has been an outstanding success for the UK economy. The UK share of the industry is already in sharp decline against international competitors, and we risk making that worse.
America - Migrants are going to rape your pets and murder your family then force their corpses to speak Spanish.
Britain - Migrants are eating swans.
The thing is, cyber insurers want to check your systems, to make sure you are doing things right. If you're not, then it is prohibitively expensive.
I might advise that you have a calming drink to hand and a stress ball before listening to this episode, given your opinions on the matter.
A good illustration is the invention and development of the therapeutic monoclonal antibody. British Nobel prize winners pioneered the field, and one of the most commercially valuable drugs in history (Humira) was developed in the UK.
It was licensed to a US manufacturer, and the UK's Cambridge Antibody, which pioneered both the drug and the underlying drug development platform, ended up with a very small percentage royalty from the $250bn or so revenue that it has generated since. CAT ended up being purchased by AZN for around £1bn.
CAT's exact contemporary, and a small biotech US competitor in the early development of antibody therapeutics, Regeneron Pharmaceuticals, stayed independent and is now worth around $60bn.
Interesting data on tactical voting from EC/FoN
But whisper it, they do a lot of things right which those who care about town centres could and should learn from.
There's the free parking and the easy highway access. But that's not really what I'm talking about, and, I'd suggest, not the most important thing.
What I think they do really well is present a safe, clean, grot-free environment that is easy and pleasant to walk around.
Imagine if city centres could be presented and policed to the same standard as the Trafford Centre and the like. Why don't we care about our public spaces?
Tarka the Otter ate a swan.
Just wait for model Y@lisaocarroll.bsky.social
Europe turning its back on Musk - Tesla sales down 43% year on year in first eight months of 2025.
Meanwhile sales of Chinese BYD cars rocketing - notice them a lot in Dublin, not so much in the UK.
Full details here in Guardian business blog.
https://bsky.app/profile/lisaocarroll.bsky.social/post/3lznmgotsvc25
Yet the Tesla share price continue to increase, showing how it is more connected to Musky Baby's connection to Trump than it is to reality.
I'll bet that the two things Musk's betting on: AI and robotics, turn out to be damp squibs as well.
(And note that the CAT story is from the glory days of UK biotechnology research.)
The US self harm on the academic front ought to present us with a large opportunity, but we seem to be simultaneously engaged in self harm to the UK industry which feeds on the research.
No great fan of Musk but glee over Tesla crapping out and anger over Kimmel production crew losing jobs would be a little hypocritical.
Let's not ignore the fact that Starmer has been a poor PM. Continuity Sunak was not what we voted for, but the personal hatred for the man in the press and on here has been obvious from the moment that he was elected LOTO. Granted that was at peak Johnson but who remembers the daily diet of comedy slurs on here, some of which have proven to be appropriate?
I wonder why there is such a visceral hatred of the man since his election as LOTO. Undermining the God that is Jeremy Corbyn or being the Shadow Minister for the second referendum. It's the latter isn't it? A true Brexit traitor.
To get permission to do a refurb in a mid-rise block, a flat owner was required to get special signoff from the Building Safety Regulator.
In theory, this takes 8 weeks. In fact, the decision has been delayed 3 times. It will take 9 months in total - if they stick to the current schedule.
The BSR is charging the flat owner for this. Thousands of pounds. (What are they spending it on?)
And here's the kicker: the refurb would have added new fire doors making the building safer.
https://x.com/Sam_Dumitriu/status/1971122085310120311
Tens of thousands of flats in London have planning consent but have no sign off from the building safety regulator. In Q1 2025 357 new homes were started in London compared to 15-18,000 in a typical Q.
Disastrous Tory legislation+Labour mismanagement= housing catastrophe!
https://x.com/MellonSdp6741/status/1971133479418200349
So safety regulation is actually preventing some upgrades to building safety and killing new development.
(Note this was part of Rayner's brief while she was in office.)
Which is not how you organise a coup at all. A well-executed coup should be largely bloodless, at the point of flagrante delicto, as all the pieces have already been played.
When I read of the misdoings of youths I'm reminded of the piece by the late Will Shakespeare in the The Winters Tale,
"I would there were no age between ten and three-and-twenty, or that youth would sleep out the rest, for there is nothing in the between but getting wenches with child, wronging the ancientry, stealing, fighting."
In other words, 'twas ever thus!
And b).
Donald Trump's grandfather fled to the USA, another European immigrant part of the diaspora dispossessing the local population.
There's too much retail (where I live a prominent site has been empty for nearly 20 years) and that needs to be reduced drastically. There needs to be a much greater focus on leisure, which again benefits from a good environment. And get people living in the town centre in all those empty buildings. I used to be in a house that was right next to the town centre - it was so convenient compared to where I live now barely a km away. And then with people living in the town centre you have a bit more demand for some of the retail space for convenience stores and the like. You can see this works in some parts of London where there has been redevelopment; I'm sure there are examples elsewhere too.
Sulphur is a key ingredient for explosives manufacture. I have no idea how hard it would be for Russia to source supplies of sulphur from China, or elsewhere, but I thought it was an interesting development.
Your post is a bit of a strawman: I do no care about Tesla in itself. They're a company that's done some amazing things, but which has a f'load of technical debt and is led by a really nasty man who is calling for chaos in this country. He gets most of his power from Tesla, and a good way of getting him to fail is for Tesla to become less powerful.
If Tesla was run by someone else, and Musk had no influence over it and no shares in it, I might be cheering them along. Still concerned about the technical debt, though...