Interesting Links for 28-06-2013

[andrewducker]

• Pandora Pays Over $1,300 for 1 Million Plays
  (tags: streaming music business )
• One tweet sums up Labour’s new, confused stance on cuts
  (tags: politics uk labour )
• What does Windows 8.1 offer to desktop die-hards?
  (tags: windows microsoft )
• Spending Review explanation 'was woeful', IFS says
  (tags: politics uk money )
• What happens if you run a 4

Comments

[gonzo21]

So Labours policy seems to be to go into the next general election shouting that they're exactly the same as the Tories only slightly less evil purely and simply because they're not called 'tories'?

[andrewducker]

That's all they have to do in a two-party system, position themselves as slightly better than the only alternative.

[gonzo21]

Have the lib dems made any sort of statement regarding the whole PRISM thing, or are they towing the line that it's all for our own good?

[andrewducker]

There's movement from the ones in the European Parliament.
http://libdemmeps.com/?p=1042

Oh, and this:
http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/2013/06/10/julian-huppert-prism-gchq_n_3414821.html

Nick Clegg will no doubt have to go along with Cabinet Responsibility:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-22887093

[cartesiandaemon]

Don't laugh, it works :(

[gonzo21]

I'm only laughing because otherwise I'd be crying.

[a_pawson]

That's precisely it. The less policies they have the better.

[gonzo21]

It's all very depressing innit.

I mean this whole PRISM spying thing that has somehow vanished from the UK news media. A genuine party of opposition would have leapt on that and used it to beat the government repeatedly, and almost certainly have won a resounding victory at the next election. But Prism was probably set up under New Labour.

[a_pawson]

I suspect it has been going on far longer than just the past 3 years. I don't think that sort of operation is setup quickly. I also don't know how much influence the government has over what MI6 & GCHQ do.

[gonzo21]

I can remember back in pre-digital days, back in the mists of time, you could sometimes hear the click of the tape machine starting if you started having a conversation on the phone involving keywords like IRA, AK47, and Semtex.

So yes, it's almost certainly been going on longer than 3 years. The difference now I think is the scale of information capture.