The digital revolution sweeps on. Much  of it is miracle technology that makes lives easier and better. It is transforming shopping, entertainment, media and much else.
Parts of the public sector though are making technology into a  misery machine to spy on us , infuriate us and thwart us. Let us take the NHS CV 19 app and proof of vaccination which we now have to show in order to attend certain events. We all have a perfectly good card with our name on it and the schedule of vaccines administered with dates on them. Why canât I just show that? When I came to print out the computer record as requested I found I could not read and check the computer record because it was encrypted in a scan code.I have no idea what it says and so do not know if it is accurate. I had to go through a duo access procedure which did not work at all on the first two occasions I tried. Eventually I was able to  print out a scan code but the paper also then said it was only valid for two days although the explanatory note said it would be for a month. As I was preparing  diary items a week in advance it meant I had to go through the palaver the night before the event again!I dread to think how much we taxpayers had to pay for such a poor and pointless service.
The other day I had to park in a different Council area to my own in west London. The Council had blocked many of the streets permanently and several temporarily so it was difficult accessing the on street parking  and I like most of the traffic had to spend a long time crawling  and stopping in congestion on the main roads. When I eventually found a surprising three slots empty for two hours next to a ticket machine I was overjoyed, only  to find the machine said it was not functioning. Like others I was too afraid of tow away and of high fines for not paying  so I carried on circulating.
Eventually I found a single slot. It said I had to pay by phone. I rang the number . I was told I had to download an app. I did so. That told me I had to register. I did so answering a range of questions about me and the phone. Then it asked me details about the parking. I supplied those. Then it told me I had not supplied details of the car so I had to go back to registration to do that. It eventually let me specify the parking I wanted to do. The guide to the parking was ambiguous about hours and prices.  I guessed a time I wanted, only then to discover after 10 mins the parking would  be free all evening. I ended up paying  £1 for the ten minutes and had peace of mind that I had complied.All this  had to done on a tiny phone screen which was difficult to read in sunlight. It was so much easier when you simply put coins into a ticket machine.
Wouldnât  it be a good idea if these public services thought more about the convenience  of the users. Will you write in with your examples of bad service from the public sector?
August 15, 2021
Like your experience Sir John it would be very helpful if the machinery put in place actually worked and better still reliable. Is it all really necessary ?
All these machines and on line apps have decreased efficieny of movement and more importantly taken away thousands of jobs. Why and for what end? Control and in the car parking situation to stop people driving?
August 15, 2021
The premise of John’s piece is, I think, fallacious.
It is not the public sector, but the private sector, which spies upon and tracks people’s every behaviour, and the difference is enormous.
It does this by files, by cookies, which it stores on our ‘phones and computers, and which monitor everything that we view, buy or do on line, as well as our location. Some applications have access to cameras and microphones and listen for key topic words of conversations, identify atmospheres of settings, and so on.
Stores etc. tally spending habits with debit card or with loyalty card identifiers.
This information is available to anyone who wants it – at a price.
The public sector in proper open societies does NOTHING remotely like this nor on that general scale on the other hand.
August 15, 2021
MiC
“The premise of Johnâs piece is, I think, fallacious.”
No, it is typical of what people are up against these days.
August 15, 2021
We’re still trying to pay a CGT bill from last September. HMRC won’t confirm the calculations submitted by our accountant
DVLA and passports are the same. Digitised into oblivion.
August 15, 2021
Sir John should have read the âNew ticket machines guideâ available as a .pdf file on wokingham.co.uk at ânew car park payment machinesâ. I doubt very much that the West London machine would not have born some resemblance with the Wokingham ones as they are likely to have been provided by the same or similar private companies.
As for the app, the vaccination certificates (if vaccinated obviously) appear on the NHS app (in clear) not on the NHS Covid-19 app. But both are small blue squares on a mobile phone and one can easily be confused âŠ
Reply I was not confusing the two apps. The vaccination download is a scan code not a written record you can see.
August 15, 2021
Hefner, Why should anyone have to search for, and download, abstruse instructions about how to pay for car parking on a suitable phone? Or have the time to waste doing so? Or be willing to give personal details to obtain apps at all (I won’t, for example)? Although most people have a mobile, not everyone has a suitable phone or knows how to use it to gain access to parking. Then when people have the phone and the knowledge about how to use it properly, the apps do not always work, or don’t work satisfactorily. As JR’s post explains.
August 15, 2021
I accept that John’s particular experiences were time-consuming and exasperating and I’ve had them too.
It seems to be a feature of captive markets per se – for obvious reasons – and the public sector do quite often administer these.
I think that the first factor is probably generally the more influential.
August 15, 2021
Yes it is and most people will agree with his level of frustration at the time we have to waste on this rubbish.
However it certainly not just the public sector. The private sector is every bit as bad.
August 15, 2021
Private business usually makes sure it can relieve the ‘punter’ oops customer of the fee pretty efficiently. Sir John rightly shows an example of what ordinary members of the public encounter all the time. Bureacratic nightmare is what has become everyday activities.
Take my experiences with the Bracknell ‘tip’. In the early days we encountered an amateurish website with all sorts of poor gui (graphic user interface). We could only book a week ahead, limited hours, and it accepted only a handful of bookings each 30 minutes. We then found more employees hanging around than users ever turned up. They needed a printed page, then they didn’t. Mobile display booking was acceptable proof, Photo ID of resident in the area also required. It kept changing but all they needed to do was extend the hours like they used to be. Then for efficiency they had a printout ready to tick off by name, in time slot order. No printouts, no booking number required. Today they tried 2 lanes signed up, but only 1 working when I arrived. Name was wasn’t found, wanted booking ref, told I should have the printout. Finally searching on a rain soaked tablet my name was found. Still had to show ID in the rain.
By now the queue had to be 30 cars…..what a lot of nonsense it all is – no wonder flytippers can’t be arsed.
August 16, 2021
Although you don’t want to publish, I got a survey of my experience from them this morning. I gave them both barrels, but in limited scope as yes/no very restricted.
August 15, 2021
If that’s how you feel about John’s posts then don’t bother to come onto the site. Simple.
August 15, 2021
My thoughts are that many of these sites are not “user friendly”, to make them so may cost more for the software. As a motorist I find our highways are extremely user “unfriendly” these days. In the 1950’s and 60’s much public money was spent on our roadways to increase speed and traffic flows by removing dangerous bends, straightening and widening roads and building motorways and dual carriage ways. Today the roundabout has proliferated and few ordinary toad junctions remain. There is usually an offset and in some cases an adverse camber to these roundabouts which usually now spoil what was a perfectly straight piece of road. Many roundabouts which originally were self controlled by the traffic flows frequently have additional traffic lights, which is useful in rush hour traffic. However many seem to operate full time which infuriates me when typically at night I may be the only vehicle at the roundabout and have to wait for sometime for a green go signal, when I could have continued without hindrance if the traffic lights were off. It seems the authorities are out to harrass the motorist at every opportunity, and only show empathy to cyclists. Not pedestrians or drivers, I have lost count of the number of cyclists I have had to avoid riding on the footpath when I am out walking the dog. The police drive by and ignore them as they have more important matters to attend to.
August 15, 2021
FuS
Our host is not one of us.
If you want proof then write a post explaining how people can save money, better their lives, eat good honest food, save on utility bills, gain control of their finances and above all avoid becoming ensnared by the technology John Redwood moans about……..all without any suggestion whatsoever of breaking the law…..
……….and see what he does with your time and effort.
Reply You are wrong in your allegations. I regularly take up constituents frustrations with public services. I do not drag them and their problem into the public debate. My two personal e.g.s were meant as illustrations of problems constituents regularly face.
August 15, 2021
Steve. My post was to MIC.
August 15, 2021
Well, how comes I can go to my NHS app, put my email address, password, get a passcode on my mobile, type it in the window, then go to âGet your NHS COVID Passâ, then can choose between the âDomesticâ or the âTravelâ version of it, then send the âTravelâ pass to my email address where it appears as two QR codes indeed, but also with my name, date of birth, the dates of my two injections, the name of the vaccine products, of its manufacturer, the batch number references, country of vaccination, the names of the issuer and of the vaccination administrative centre.
And thatâs basically (and fortunately) the information that the EU vaccination pass also requires, which allows the NHS pass to be transferred (almost) effortlessly to the EU Covid pass.
August 15, 2021
Bully for you Hefner. My phone doesn’t have the NHS app. Nor my email. Most people I know with the NHS app (originally) have taken it off. And some that I know, like me, don’t access their emails on their phone. Some people don’t even have a mobile phone capable of downloading anything. Or, like me, refuse to have a Google account, so can’t.
And all that faff to do what we could freely do before 2020. All that faff to give the government control over us. No thanks. Papers please!!
August 15, 2021
This reply was to MIC.
August 15, 2021
@MiC; Our host is talking about two very public services, the NHS and on-street parking, it is not the private sector at fault even if it is the private sector who run these digital only services, someone within the State or public sector has allowed that to happen.
That said, I agree with the rest of your comment, it is amazing just how much personal data someone is willing to give up to supermarkets and their ‘partners’ just to get ÂŁ0.05p of a multi pack of baked beans or whatever.
August 15, 2021
Hell isn’t coming – it is already here. Privacy – – you are not allowed it
August 15, 2021
Martin, Accept the cookies, then use a cookie cleaner. Don’t have Google, Apple, Paypal, or Amazon accounts. Use multiple email accounts.
Accept that if you’re on your computer or mobile you’re doing things in the public square.
Accept that anything electronic won’t last more than 10 years (about the life of electrolytics), or much less if it’s battery powered (phones, cars – note to Andy and Sakara). Accept that quite often phones, computers, and their programs either “say No” or just fail to work at all or properly. Accept that complexity means unreliability.
Accept that in government “services” we have no choice, but for private services we can reject the incompetent.
August 16, 2021
Well, it’s part of a general drift, where companies get their customers to do what ought to be their own employees’ jobs for them, instead of their having to pay said to do them.
It particularly irritates me to see so many mugs willingly become unpaid checkout operators in shops.
August 15, 2021
I recently saw a repeat of Yes Minister called Big Brother. It was made in 1980 and was extremely funny. However the humour had a dark side. Jim Hacker, the Minister for Administrative Affairs, was very worried about the risks to privacy and democracy from digital technology. He was assured that his fears were exaggerated and would never occur.
Every one he suggested has now come to pass.
August 15, 2021
Indeed the government/LEA’s aim is to raise money and inconvenience motorists as much as possible. Must to wonders to reduce productivity and to raise the public’s blood pressures.
August 15, 2021
So when is Rabb (and Boris) finally going to reverse their position on the now (virtual certainty) of the Wuhan lab leak cause – given the extra information in the Sunday Times reports today?
August 15, 2021
There are eventually going to have to be an awful lot of reversals as the very many ghastly consequences of the rigged American election become plain, including the unconditional capitulation to the Taliban.
August 15, 2021
Lets look at this from another perspective. Why do your Government allow Councils to charge for parking? We have already paid, car tax, petrol tax, VAT on car purchase, etc. It’s just another opportunity for Councils to fleece tax payers on top of their inflated Council tax (5% increase this year), whilst most work from home, walking theirs dogs, cutting their grass, reading books in their gardens etc. Why should we have to pay for parking when we’ve paid every conceivable tax to drive on OUR roads. They can’t be asked to fill in pot holes as they’re wasting our money on a religious climate emergency! So why should we be paying them anything? We’ve already paid enough. Attitude and culture need to change against motorists who pay all the bills, whilst receiving a rubbish service.
On another topic, how many illegal boat people have your Government deported this year Sir John? Or is this another secret UN policy of having our share of illegals?? 4* Hotels at our expense whilst our veterans are homeless. Disgraceful and useless Government.
August 15, 2021
All these think tanks and NGOs you would think that all this new way of doing things is time wasting and very costly to the people and the nation, they would start to research (cobble) together some meaningful costs. In the spirit of common thinking it must surely have an effect on the environment. No wonder stress levels and mental insecurity is rising. Gone are the days when you talked with people now it is communicate with machines and all the problems they bring. On line shopping, how much waste in returning wrong ordered goods and materials. Anybody bought an Amazon reject skip yet? You cannot make it up.
August 15, 2021
For skip read pallet
August 15, 2021
@turboterrier; I think you might have been correct the first time… đ
August 15, 2021
I don’t think it’s just the public sector – I have said for some time that there is an assumption by those who are technically/computer-minded (for want of a better phrase), that the rest of the world will understand their language ~ both their terms AND their symbols, and it simply isn’t true.
I am lucky enough to live with my daughter-in-law, who does all her work as a graphic designer on computer and generally has an affinity with how to use them and all associated app and streaming services. This week she attempted to load an app for a new TV streaming company based in the UK, and was completely foxed by its complexity; she then discovered that many other applicants had had the same problems. Oh, and before ‘someone’ says its just oldies who don’t understand, she is 42!
August 15, 2021
SM, Don’t worry about it. There is a nasty snobbery about using technology, such as computers and mobiles, by people who can mimic instructions but usually have no real idea how the electronics and programming actually work.
So ingrained is the belief that knowing how to use something is the equivalent of making it, that some commenters on here think that buying Danish windmills, Chinese nuclear power stations, or Japanese trains, is a demonstration of UK “green” “leadership” or prowess.
August 15, 2021
All the phone based parking “services” I have come across have been commercially operated on behalf of the council/parking supplier. But the council chooses the service provider and the responsible people must have assessed the service in some way, didn’t they?
The problem is that just like public sector services the competitive pressure to improve is not present. The provider’s customer is the council and not the service user so there is nothing driving change except cost saving for the council. The council has a monopoly control over a critical resource and clearly don’t care about how usable a service is so long as they can tick a box.
So how does a lowly rate/tax payer affect change in the quality of a public service…?
August 15, 2021
Exactly dixie. It does not matter if it is Private or Public operated, if it is a monopoly then there is no incentive to improve.
August 15, 2021
It isnât a monopoly. There are several different car parking apps. My local councils mostly use RingGo – which is excellent. It take a few minutes to set up the first time and then paying for parking is really easy. But like Mr Redwood says different councils and different organisations m have different apps. When I park at a TFL station I have to use a different app – which is less good. I recently visited another area which uses a different app entirely so I had to download a new one.
Public convenience would, in this case, mean a single app for all parking. But thatâs then a monopoly right – which you all rage against.
August 15, 2021
You miss the point again, Andy. If any service is a monopoly there is no incentive to improve. Some things – like national defence – are natural monopolies, which is why they need democratic control. But that is not possible for every service, and the more monopoly services (usually government monopolies) there are, the worse it gets. It would be perfectly possible to accept multiple parking apps, and pay with the one you’re signed up to (for those who wish to pay that way) – no monopoly needed.
August 15, 2021
Why use a train, I thought the EV experience left you in ecstasy?
Did you fear running out of charge on London’s congested streets?
August 15, 2021
Public convenience is simply using cash, or perhaps for larger payments a card (although when I lived in the Netherlands, buying things like furniture was paid for cash on delivery, which required a trip to the bank before delivery could be made). I mostly avoid parking charges altogether by including supermarket shopping that entitles me to free parking. In reality, other businesses should be allowed to make use of the scheme to encourage footfall.
August 15, 2021
@Mark B; How would you suggest ‘competition’ (of parking regulation and cost) be brought to on-street parking?!
August 15, 2021
As you say:- The council has a monopoly control over a critical resource and clearly donât care about how usable a service is so long as they can tick a box.
So how does a lowly rate/tax payer affect change in the quality of a public service�
How indeed you vote every few years will not change much. Rather the same in central government.
A question on Any Questions yesterday was:- “Is climate change an emergency or an opportunity?”. It is clearly neither climate change is what the climate does and always has done. The only emergency is caused by the insane, vastly expensive, government’s over reaction to this alarmist religion.
David Cameron’s “get rid of the green crap” is perhaps on of the few sensible things Cameron has said.
The government is so out of step with the public on this subject but Any Answers just skipped the topic – perhaps for this reason.
August 15, 2021
The dire Anna Soubry made much of Thatcher being the first PM to warn about global warming. Yes Anna but that was just one more thing Thatcher got totally wrong – closing many grammar schools, appointing John Major as Chancellor and allowing him to join the the ERM, further burying us into the EU, failing to grant real freedom and choice in education, healthcare… , failing to cut government, regulation and taxes down to size, letting John Major become PM, the poll tax… Net zero is the poll tax times 100 politically one people realise the (entirely pointless) costs.
August 15, 2021
Unless China, India and the US of A actually cut their CO2 which only accounts for 0.04% of the atmosphere, it is a pointless, pointless, pointless gesture politics at its worst ever. We could not have a worst Government and woke/pc civil serpents if we tried. A Government in Office for 11 1/2 years who have achieved………….nothing except highest taxes, worst health and public services ever, whilst allowing us to be invaded legally and illegally. Destroying our culture and well being for what?
August 15, 2021
Exactly Boris & Sunak in step they claim but marching alas in completely the wrong direction to an insane, net zero, tax, borrow and regulated to death socialism. Also Boris/Rabb seem in hock or too scared of China to tell the (almost completely certain now) truth about the Wuhan Lab leak cause of Covid. See the Sunday Times today.
August 15, 2021
Planning ahead for the day when Johnson will permit me to travel EASILY to countries with less of a COVID problem than we have here, I’m contemplating having to buy an expensive (ÂŁ170) ‘smartphone’ for the purpose of displaying my COVID vaccination and a mass of other stuff. I already have a decade-old Nokia C5 that is perfectly functional but that doesn’t support the ‘app’. I could take the letter-option but wonder if we will eventually face a problem where widespread forging leads to that being withdrawn. Anyways, I found myself thinking that an enduring COVID vaccination certificate, in the style of a high-tech banknote, showing my name and passport number, would have met both my needs and those of the Border Force, admirably. Cost? A quid, or less.
I wrote to Johnson yesterday, echoing Gatwick airport’s call for the ending of testing requirements on vaccinated travellers coming in from GREEN and AMBER countries. The airport is only launching an airliner every six minutes or so.
P.S. I too have endured the parking-meter hell described by Sir John.
August 15, 2021
The yellow fever jab certificate is a simple piece of paper, seems that has been good enough for many years worldwide.
The worry now with everything going electronic is if your phone is lost, stolen, breaks or just fails to work, you have lost the ability to not only prove who you are, but a whole lot of very personal information, because it is all kept in one place, the very thing any security expert would tell you not to do.
August 15, 2021
True, but as far as the authorities are concerned, that’s your problem !
August 15, 2021
Exactly right Alan. Our lives are virtually on our phones now. I felt real panic when my battery ran down so goodness knows how I’d feel if it was lost or stolen.
August 15, 2021
+10
August 15, 2021
Then of course there are those of us who live in lovely country-side but cannot get a phone signal, even though we are only 50 miles from the capital. We also suffer from poor quality Freeview and need satellite dishes, and digital radio does not work unless it stays in one spot on the kitchen window ledge. This is in the supposed 5th richest country in the world. It is a disgrace, but of course based purely on the profit motive. Public Service disappeared years ago. We do not have smart phones as they are no use and operate basic phones which only make calls and text, outside our area, so apps and parking paid for by phone is out. I do not wish to go on the internet with a tiny screen, just want to make calls which I cannot unless I travel 4 miles. Now I hear that our landlines are to be taken away by 2025 and everything will be via internet. How will we get internet with no signal? What happens when there is a power cut or the internet fails, which it does regularly. All so that big corporations can make even more easy money. Digital is not all wonderful How many programmes do we hear on the radio, where calls fail or breakdown in mid conversation. Digital telly is good. Digital radio and most else is rubbish.
August 15, 2021
Yes, that bothers me too; especially when 2FA depends upon your phone for banking etc.
August 15, 2021
@S_W; The UK govt does not stop you from travelling to whatever country you wish, they simply impose conditions on your return [1], if you cannot enter (travel to), or have to satisfy certain entry conditions, at the moment it is the govts of those destination countries who are preventing your travel plans..
[1] and so what if their official Covid infection figures are lower than the UK, some are lying, others can not collate a true figure even if they wish
August 15, 2021
It would be easier for vaccinated-me to get into Greece than for me to then get back into the UK. While I would agree that some countries – notably China – have been dishonest about their COVID figures, I would not include Greece in that grouping.
August 15, 2021
@S_W; Indeed the UK has set its own boarder rules, in other words practised our national sovereignty, isn’t that what Brexiteers wanted?! :confused: It is not just the death rate though that is concern, but possible/probably of infection and how contagion, hence why France was placed on the Red list a few weeks back when the CV19 Delta variant was of concern; as an example beyond CV19, didn’t the UK impose travel restrictions a few years back from certain African countries that (have) had a high Ebola infection rate. Just because a country makes it easy for non residents to enter doesn’t mean it is a safe country, just one that is perhaps more desperate for foreign currency/earnings.
I have no idea if the PRC are giving untrustworthy figures or not regarding their CV19 death rate, what I do know is the UK govt has been fudging our own countries figures [1] since quite early on in the pandemic, apparently no one in the UK who tested positive for CV19 has ever died from, or due to complication from, CV19 if they die on or after the 29th day since that initial test. Best not throw stones when living in a glasshouse yourself…
[1] because the govt told us they were changing their counting methodology
August 15, 2021
Travel limitations are one way only Jerry – – just go to Dover – hundreds welcomed daily – no passports, no visas, – – not only welcomed, but put in hotels then allowed to stay, given a free life with all provided from the taxpayer’s pocket ( who has no choice in the matter ). Then, it appears, after welcoming the illegal, their relatives are flown here at our expense to also live here, all found, on the taxpayer too. Houses WILL be supplied, especially when their families arrive smiling broadly, etc etc.
Glad I’m old – – doubt VERY much this will make it on show – they’re still trying to pretend we don’t know the govt intentions – – WE DO.
August 15, 2021
European countries have worked together to produce a Covid passport enabling easy travel for their citizens between EU and EEA counties. They have made it easy for people but your Brexit has made it hard for us Brits.
Still – itâs not as though you will need to apply online for a visa waiver to go on holiday to Spain, or face mobile roaming charges in Italy, or pay vastly more for insurance because your EHIC card has gone – a particular punishment for the old and the ill. Itâs also great that you wonât need a GB plate or a green card or an international driving licence in some countries because thatâs be pointless bureaucratic madness. And, of course, you can still bring back as much as you like without facing taxes.
(Oops – should I tell him?)
August 15, 2021
We don’t just holiday in the EU, Andy. The harder the EU makes it to go on holiday there, the fewer Brits will go. It’s the EU’s choice. A “covid passport” is pointless bureaucratic madness – and authoritarian with it.
August 15, 2021
Apparently in 2025, everyone will have to have a digital phone, as opposed to the landline that I (and many others) have.
I may be able to cope, with assistance from my Son, but many others may not. I see problems ahead,
August 15, 2021
Thanks, as I was unaware of this. Do you know what reasons are being given for this?
August 15, 2021
Old technology not up to future and current speed requirements, is the reason given.
Probably more expensive a system to maintain than digital over the airwaves.
Will be a real problem for those who have problems with a mobile phone signal, as indeed we do at home.
August 15, 2021
Yes, we pay for supposed high speed wifi. It’s not high speed and it keeps cutting out on us. It’s very annoying when you are in the middle of paying for things online. Rather than spend billions on HS2 Johnson would be better off improving wifi connections for the whole country.
August 15, 2021
Indeed almost anything is better than pissing money down the drain on HS2 or Net Zero. Tax cuts and redundancy payments for much of the state sector are the best options.
August 15, 2021
Cut the Council staff by over half and no one would notice and cut the management by 3/4. Reduce their pay to reflect their responsibilities and their pay would be cut by 60%. When is our useless Government going to commission a review………..never!
August 15, 2021
You will have a VOIP phone. Nothing to do with mobile phones.
August 15, 2021
And how do you get internet in areas with no mobile phone coverage and no land line?
August 15, 2021
good luck with that, and getting through the busy priority of ‘voice’ packets contesting what gets through the internet first.
Those who notice on BBC radio the strange noises when trying to include someone remotely, pips, squeaks, gurgles, buzzes – -that is VOIP trying to correctly sequence the voice packets – not always well – and it will get massively worse when landlines cease to be an option.
August 15, 2021
Many thanks. Looks like my rather ancient mobile, bought only for emergency purposes, is heading for extinction.
August 15, 2021
Money making.
August 15, 2021
Reason? – money and monitoring.
August 15, 2021
@CC; “Digital phone” does not mean a Smart or Mobile phone, most offices already use digital desk phones, for domestic use I doubt most will see any difference in how their phones work unless they wish.
August 15, 2021
To clarify…
You will still have the copper wires coming into your house (until fibre is available in your area). but your “land line” phone will change to one that uses IP (Internet Protocol) to communicate with the “exchange”. Which is all fine and good as VOIP (Voice Over IP) is quite mature technology, the downsides are that if your broadband service is not that good or your router fails or you have a power cut then you will have no phone service!!!.
It was part of the GPO/BT remit that they should supply a phone service even during a power cut, this has changed…
It could be that your service provider will supply a new router that you can plug your current phone into or maybe they will replace router and phone – I don’t know…
In any case good idea to also have a mobile for emergencies.
August 15, 2021
Apologies to our host for going OT on technicalities!…
@Know-Dice: “the downsides are that if your broadband service is not that good or your router fails or you have a power cut then you will have no phone service”
Why should that affect telecoms VOIP, as likely to be rolled out by BT and the other providers, by still using the copper wire to the property they will be able to inject power over IP to the telephone(s) and any VOIP subscriber switch (VOIP routers will surely be in the road side cabinet?). Otherwise telephones will need a mandated UPS back-up -think about it, without, should your fuse board catch fire (meaning you loose domestic power) how will you call the emergency services?!
“In any case good idea to also have a mobile for emergencies.”
Yet it is often the mobile networks that crash first in any civil emergency! You have it the wrong way around,, use a mobile as your main communication device by all means but best to always have a hard wired subscriber land-line at home, it means even if you only have time to dial 999 and then become incapacitated or what ever your call can be traced to an exact address, yes a mobile signal can be triangulated but that takes more time and only gives a relatively wide search area.
August 16, 2021
Jerry,
This is what BT Openreach say (look for their document “All IP FAQ”) –
Note the “their telephone into their broadband router” so they don’t intent to “inject power”.
BT as a separate entity or other service providers will supply the VOIP (probably SIP) connectivity.
If you are interested maybe look at what happened in Australia over the last few years with their NBN rollout and from one of their FAQs
“What happens in a power blackout”
Note the “may supply a battery back-up”
August 15, 2021
Why would there be problems for anyone? All that changes is the line. Effectively what comes into your house is a digital line rather than an old fashioned analogue one. A handful of people may have to replace their telephone handset if they have a really really old one. But providing they can count from 0 to 9 they still shouldnât have a problem. It has zero to do with your mobile.
We really must stop holding back society because a few elderly stop outs try to defy progress. Take Post Offices and bank branches. I keep hearing how Post Offices and bank branches provide a lifeline for older people. Aside from churches and hospitals the two places on Earth I try to avoid the most are Post Offices and bank branches. A little piece of me always dies when I have to go in one. I always get stuck in a queue behind a Beryl or a Barry whoâll take half an hour to do something they could have done in 20 seconds on the internet.
August 15, 2021
@Andy; “[they] take half an hour to do something they could have done in 20 seconds on the internet.”
So why are you in the Post Office then Andy, duh! After all nothing that can be done at the Post Office counter can not be done via the internet by those who know how, you can even pre-pay postage, or arrange courier collection of your returned internet shopping or whatever. Such people are the ones I tend to get stuck behind whenever I use my Post Office, young barely twenty-somethings, mailing out their internet auction sales for the want of buying a set of postal scales to weight their parcels, something my grandparents generation knew how to do…
Many pensioners have never learnt to use computers, some can not use them due to health reasons, other people refuse to use internet banking etc.
August 15, 2021
Jeez.
Andy spends another Sunday fulminating. Does he really have young kids as he claims ???
I was too busy hiking or sailing with mine on a Sunday they were that age.
August 15, 2021
Perhaps Beryl and or Barry are there precisely because they cannot use the internet (for perhaps a number of reasons)
August 15, 2021
You were out to defy progress when we voted to Leave the EU, Andy. You’ve spent years holding back our progress to independence. We nearly didn’t even get BINO due to middle-aged stop outs like you.
August 18, 2021
@Pillock – Those who are elderly now invented the very technologies you rely on and boast about.
August 15, 2021
I think that there will be the ability to plug your landline phone (or DECT base station) into a box or socket on an internet router: you will subscribe to an internet connection instead of a phone landline that has maybe delivered ADSL internet as well. These boxes already exist, and you can transfer an existing landline number to use. They are capable of all the usual landline services such as caller id, call waiting, call blocking, etc.
I would expect these boxes will be provided “free” before the landline itself is disconnected, if you still run one. There are various companies that specialise in providing phone services over the internet and the boxes or purpose built phones to make it possible. They are known as “VOIP providers” (Voice Over Internet Protocol). A search will give you a flavour of how they operate, and allow you to find reviews of particular companies. Once you have a VOIP phone number via an internet connection, you can abandon your formal landline.
The main benefit of a landline used to be that there was a requirement to keep the line operational for up to 48 hours in the event of a local power cut, whereas as a mobile mast is only expected to remain powered for an hour. However, I think OFCOM have agreed to lower the standard on landlines .
August 15, 2021
Welcome to the ‘new normal’, Sir John. Use of your car made difficult, cashless digital payment, biosecurity surveillance, it’s all there. Some of this was trends that we could see before March 2020, but they’ve got a lot worse since. I am only surprised that you bring up the irrelevant question of benefit to members of the public (irony alert). As if that was the point.
And the Covid state of emergency bill is coming up for renewal in Parliament next month. Then we’ll see where the government stands, on what Steve Baker MP called a ‘new way of life in a checkpoint society’.
August 15, 2021
Digital capture would be a more accurate header for today’s offering. After all, the aim is to capture and then track the user rather than enlighten or make a process more efficient for the user. It is the inevitable consequence of a politics that promotes the State’s interests above that of the private person.
Indeed this thirst for control, information and monitoring is now being widely extended under pressure from the political State across the private sector
I have been told by Natwest (The technocrats have started on a State owned bank, obviously) that to access my bank account I must prove my identity using biometric information including voice and facial recognition. I refused. I have set up DDs and SOs on all payments and will not access my bank account again. If they cancel then I’m snookered. Of course they know that without a bank account a person cannot transact to live in a normal manner. It’s blackmail, pure and simple
Access to public services and now it seems private companies will be used as a weapon to force compliance and conformity.
John’s continual call for higher public spending plays into the hands of Labour’s all-powerful public sector. His politics and that of his party (more State spending) is making the political and vile enemy stronger by giving them what they desire, more of our wealth
Why some people believe this process of digitalisation and politicisation is welcome and indeed inevitable, I believe it is political, pernicious and has evil intent.
Look to China and indeed the US to see what the Tory-Labour controlled British State have planned.
Reply I do not continually call for higher overall public spending and regularly identify areas to remove spending. Today I offer you not spending ÂŁ13bn on smart meters.
August 15, 2021
Facial and voice recognition can fail totally and then what do you do? You have to wait hours to speak to a person to sort it out!! ( Personal experience).
At least the first power looms worked and were actually faster than foot powered ones.
What the powers who-should-NEVER-have-been are trying to rollout now is discriminatory and disgusting, ill thought out and letâs face itâŠthey just donât have the talent or brainpower to make it work! They couldnât make the country work along traditional lines so why do they think they are up to this?
I mean we have almost come through the plagueâŠso why are they rushing ahead with all this? Is there a link maybeâŠ..?
August 15, 2021
I applaud your (Sir John’s) contempt for smart meters – an almighty misdirection of capital.
August 15, 2021
We are being bombarded with emails offering us a smart meter. We have refused and will continue to do so until it is made a legal requirement.
August 15, 2021
One benefit of living in a non digital area, I can’t have one and like you won’t, just so they can control prices and usage as power becomes more rationed, as it will, so Andy can use his Tesla.
August 15, 2021
Likewise, actually got a call from my supplier only a couple of days ago suggesting it will help me with my bills, I asked how, given the display did not separate all of the various appliances used in the house.
Comment back, the new series 2 meters actually have the ability to read the signature of all of the appliances being used, will calculate them individually over time using those signatures to calculate electronic use of each one.
I said very smart, but does that show on the display to the user, reply not at the moment.
so what is the point for the householder, all rather worrying this collection of information, I will hold out until I am forced to have one.
August 15, 2021
Zero benefit to consumer….100% benefit to energy supplier & governments
August 15, 2021
I fully support your stance
August 15, 2021
My mother attempted to go on a ââsingle occupancy tariffââ for her water supply only to be told sheâd have to have a water meter fitted first to be considered for the tariff â Why ?
August 16, 2021
Just to check that the water consumption is consistent with a single person occupancy?
BTW, The water companies have been encouraging people to have a water meter for at least 10 years. I was NOT one of the very first Thames Water consumers to ask TW to install a meter and it was done in 2011 or 2012. So to read a comment like glenâs above makes me despair âŠ
The effort to have water meters has been going on for years:
Water Industry Act, 1991.
Water Industry (Prescribed Conditions) Regulations 1999.
âŠ
and the present state of affairs: researchbriefings.files.parliament.uk âWater meters: the rights of customers and water companiesâ, CBP7342, 27 June 2019.
Having a (non smart) meter divided my TW water bill almost by half when the children were still around, by three quarters since they left.
The âhilariousâ (TM) bit is that people without a meter are now more likely to get a smart meter than a passive one. âAll things come to those who waitâ.
August 15, 2021
Spot On
August 15, 2021
As an overseas NatWest customer I empathise with you – isn’t it ironic that the more we use today’s wonderful instant technology, for whatever purpose, private or commercial, the more likely we are to have our bank accounts hacked, our personal and commercial business swindled, and the longer every part of our everyday business is prolonged?
August 15, 2021
Last time I was in NatWest, about 2 years ago they tried to get me to go online banking with a heavy sell. I asked if they would fully cover me if my account was hacked and they said ‘no’. So I said I am not doing it. If fewer people complied with the requests from businesses to become sheep, we might get some service back.
August 15, 2021
DOM
Change your bank, I would.
August 15, 2021
I changed my account to Nationwide when they introduced flex (current) accounts back in the 1980’s, following disappointments about various other banks I tried.
To date, I have been perfectly satisfied with their service. Even my son changed his account back to Nationwide.
August 15, 2021
I could supply you a big long list of savings that you already know should be done to save the tax payers billions. HS2, Foreign Aid, EU aid, management on costs in all health and public services, immigration at ÂŁ3k each x 700,000 every year. Review all civil servants functions and responsibilities. All back room functions and responsibilities at the Home (Hopeless) Office, etc etc. Your Government have failed to reform any of it, but then you are no longer…………conservative.
August 15, 2021
lots of us on here have repeated the above savings possible. I think we know the chances of any of it happening!
August 15, 2021
Dom, Change your bank account.
August 15, 2021
The parking meters are a disaster for people who donât have internet access on their phones, e.g. visitors who donât have a roaming data plan.
August 15, 2021
Yes.
And we tend not to venture out much this horrific nightmare of a world politicians have created.
OhâŠOhâŠthatâs EXACTLY what they want isnât it?âŠâŠ
August 15, 2021
I agree. And it is what they want.
August 15, 2021
+1
The assumption is also that everybody not only has a mobile phone, but also one that has the facility to deal with these shananakins.
August 15, 2021
J Bush
Or has a smart phone but refuses/prefers not to use it to pay for things/do online banking
August 15, 2021
Good Morning Sir John
Today’s newspapers tell me that the BBC is negotiating a six figure payment to charity, approved by Buckingham Palace, as atonement for the Bashir interview.
So the licence fee payers are on the hook for the BBC’S misdeeds, unlike those actually responsible.
This utter lack of accountability, virtue signalling and contempt for the public purse is exactly the standard of service we have come to expect from public institutions.
In this case it is reminiscent of the purchase of indulgences in the middle ages, except we have taken it a step further by forcing others to pay on our behalf.
August 15, 2021
Pat – – The BBC is a govt propaganda machine. Blatantly misleading “statements” about Covid are pushed out daily. Clearly selected “callers” on phone-ins all have the same view that you should all have the jab – because it was “wonderful” – – said by callers – in the middle of the night ?????. Anyone not agreeing with govt approved words is cut off, then given a small insult.
August 15, 2021
@Pat; “This utter lack of accountability, virtue signalling and contempt for the public purse is exactly the standard of service we have come to expect from public institutions. “
Until you eluded to the TVL fee I wasn’t sure if you were still talking about those at Old Portland Place or perhaps those along ‘Fleet Street’, the latter have far more questions to answer with regards the treatment of the entire Royal Family -past and present- than the BBC. If the BBC needs to be brought to account, and I say nothing in their defence, then so does the entire (remaining) national ‘Red Top’ tabloid press here in the UK -perhaps even some of the traditional broadsheets titles too.
August 15, 2021
Your experiences are typical of what you can expect from a monopoly supplier. Where there is competition it will likely weed out incompetent or inconsiderate suppliers. Yet we are, more and more, living in a world constrained by excessive and growing government regulation and bureaucracy. Who will lead the revolution to reduce it? Not Johnson, that is for sure.
August 15, 2021
+1
August 15, 2021
Indeed.
August 15, 2021
I refuse to download apps for car parking etc which so far hasnât caused any major problems, because my husband download any required. Iâm sure that will catch up with me at some point when Iâm alone.
However, I recently signed up to a GP referral exercise class at a gym. âBecause of Covidâ they wonât accept cash and as the weekly session is under ÂŁ5 it seems to me to make work. But on my first visit I had to pay an annual fee to cover the meetings with the trainer. Twice the young lady assured me the payment hasnât gone through on my card, and to pay the following week when I came for my class. The following week, youâve paid madam⊠checking with the bank, yes! the payment had been taken twice! I got a mini statement to prove this and tried getting a refund. It couldnât be done on the till, I must apply online, or download their app (no thanks). As you can imagine, that wasnât straightforward. Two weeks later after emails going backwards and forwards, uploading the mini statement etc., I got a phone call. Could I give them my card details for a refund? Why the heck this couldnât this have been done at the gym the first time, I donât know. I wrote a formal letter in the midst of my applying for said refund, complaining about their poor business model etc, but I doubt the system will be changed.
âBecause of Covidâ you have to book each class in advance⊠twice now Iâve had to phone from holiday to book a class for my return because they only allow a week in advance! (7 days exactly. Try booking on Tuesday for next Thursday – canât be done!)
August 15, 2021
Sharon
Your experience is typical.
My advice would be to INSIST on a refund, or get someome big to acquire it for you, and walk away from said class.
Remember that posession of other people’s money is these days as much a gimmick as actually robbing it. The fact that they’re fully aware of your rights and will have to refund you is irrelevant – keeping hold of your money for as long as possible is what they’re up to these days.
August 15, 2021
Sharon do you live in Wokingham district by any chance, as very similar problems exist with their latest fantasy systems.
August 15, 2021
No, Alan, I donât. I live in a London Borough south of London. I suspect itâs common everywhere.
August 15, 2021
Unless things have changed since I was in business, (quite likely have in order to make things more difficult), they can do it. In my shops we used to refund customers cards when they returned things or if there was a mistake. Probably lack of training of staff or more likely disinterest from management, unless of course the banks are acting up.
August 15, 2021
Should have got the local paper in to embarrass the hell out of them.
August 15, 2021
Whilst reading your article, something the character played by Jeff Goldblum in Jurassic Park said, came to mind. “Your scientists were so preoccupied with whether or not they could, they didnât stop to think if they should.”
I think that holds true with the direction of digital progression , but more specifically and worryingly, is the way TPTB want to use it.
August 15, 2021
+ EXACTLY!!
August 15, 2021
+1
August 15, 2021
Yes wellâŠI donât feel much sympathy and actually I hope that all politicians have their lives similarly incommoded.
Who did all this? Not us!!
You all sat there and let it happen!!
August 15, 2021
+1
August 15, 2021
Data shows that people who have been vaccinated can still catch and spread Covid so what is the point of a proof of vaccination certificate? It seems to me that itâs just a tool to coerce people into getting the vaccine by excluding them from society if they donât comply.
August 15, 2021
+1
Aye and the Johnson regime silence as to how they fit that square peg in a round hole is deafening.
August 15, 2021
Christine.
“It seems to me that itâs just a tool to coerce people into getting the vaccine by excluding them from society if they donât comply.”
Indeed so Christine. The trick is to change one’s lifestyle so attempts at exclusion make no difference whatsoever.
Just don’t go to night clubs, concerts etc. And eventually when you’re asked for the latest phone app proof etc just to buy food……you’d be talking mass civil unrest anyway. We will win.
August 15, 2021
Yeah âŠ
âWe shall overcome (x2)
We shall overcome some day-ay-ay-ay-ay
Deep in my heart
I do believe
We shall overcome some dayâ.
In the meantime, the anti âpass sanitaireâ demonstrations happen ⊠in France.
August 15, 2021
Hefner, There have been plenty of anti-lockdown, anti vax-passport, demonstrations in the UK. Indeed friends of mine have been on them. Just because they’re not reported, or are downgraded, by the BBC, doesn’t mean there isn’t an substantial revolt against the government’s coercive obsessions.
August 15, 2021
“In the meantime, the anti âpass sanitaireâ demonstrations happen ⊠in France.”
…..and we have not been informed of this by Johnson’s BBC.
August 15, 2021
I heard on radio the other day, a member of the JVCI panel state that vaccines do lessen the transmission rate by about 50 percent. Doubt she was lying, as a highly qualified doctor, why would she? Why do you think ‘they’ are trying to coerce people to having the vaccine?
August 15, 2021
the transmission risk rate is much less due to the vaccinated ‘viral load’ being less, and it is removed from the body mostly in days.
August 15, 2021
Oh I hope we will win Steve. It didn’t need changes in my lifestyle to avoid the vacpassport so far but obviously we all need to buy food.
August 15, 2021
And to get them on the appâŠif I understand correctly.
They tried all this with a virus ( swine flu) in 2009 but were caught out and exposed.
MaybeâŠvaccine = ÂŁÂŁÂŁÂŁs = passport = means of controlling us = incentive for forcing all money spinning medical procedures onus in perpetuity?
The sheep all dipped and branded in one go. Price of mutton data sky high!
August 15, 2021
+1
It’s about state control of people not a virus. Our MPs are complicit in this move to an authoritarian state. The CCP must we watching in admiration.
August 15, 2021
Brian +1
August 15, 2021
+1
Yes! As I said 2009 was a scam too.
August 15, 2021
Christine – you are so spot on – – and as for “children aren;t affected by Covid” – now they are FULLY intent on sticking every child with it – – lies and more lies – control and more control – – don’t let the people have freedom – – just like the Daleks – OBEY – OBEY – OBEY.
August 15, 2021
I believe that in America, the latest top-of-the-range Tesla will not only find the nearest parking point, but it will actualy park itself for you. It will then contact the parking privider and pay the fee if you have programmed it’s electronic management unit with your banking details. I expect it would have known that the evening parking was free.
Reply How many can afford a top of the range Tesla? It couldnât do any of those things with a flat battery.
August 15, 2021
Reply to reply
A question you might want to ask the leader of your party the next time you see him.
August 15, 2021
Top of the range Tesla ? – the taxpayer will be buying every politician one – and paying for their preferential charging of said car.
August 15, 2021
+1
August 15, 2021
How many can afford the top of range of any car?
Incidentally, the entry level Tesla can park itself too – if you have the right software installed on it. But, in this country, the law does not allow it. The lawmakers are behind the technology.
But because the Tesla is brilliant you can buy the entry level version now – and then when the government gets around to changing the law – you can simply download the self driving software. You can upgrade your car at a later stage. Brilliant. I suspect your diesel doesnât do that.
Also, it wonât have a flat battery unless you let it go flat. Itâs a Tesla. It tells you when to recharge. Your diesel car also doesnât go if you donât fill it up when it runs out.
August 15, 2021
Andy, Most people cannot afford a Tesla, even an “entry level” one. And many people who could afford one, don’t see why they should pay 50% – 100% more than for an equivalent petrol car with worse range and 10x to 100x slower refill times. Oh, and petrol cars tell you when you’re running out of fuel too.
Battery cars are not fit for purpose, and disposing of the batteries after 8 years will be an ecological nightmare. And what second hand battery car owner will be able to afford a new battery anyway? With the massive extra weight of BEVs, and second batteries or premature scrapping, it is unlikely that any significant saving in CO2 will be effected anyway.
August 15, 2021
I have NEVER had a problem parking.. but I guess you have, Andy.
August 16, 2021
Actually, many cars are offered with automated parking these days. Including diesels. The problems are not with controlling the engine, transmission, brakes and steering, but rather with ensuring that the software doesn’t make a mistake and result in a crash – which is the same problem for Tesla.
August 15, 2021
Indeed or the infrastructure or enough generation to supply the needs of the Nation. Then again our current clown and associates know they won’t be in office or accountable by then. Just saw a picture today of Gideon in todays newspapers, how quickly a yesterday man who never made a correct decision in his life. No care in the world for his failings in public office or his unpatriotic behaviour in support of a foreign power.
August 15, 2021
Let them buy Teslas, eh, Sakara? That’s a very out-of-touch and authoritarian, even C18th, attitude – your real name isn’t Marie by any chance, is it?
August 15, 2021
and when the space is already used without booking? when the system fails? when a local power cut happens? When the user driver parks in the wrong free space?
August 15, 2021
Reply to reply – yes the Tesla is expensive and something the majority of taxpayers can’t afford. Yet until recently the Government took from those that can’t afford one to subsidize those that could – does highlight the abuse the taxpayer is subjected to by this out of control Government
August 15, 2021
It is reported that Channel 4, which is 100% owned by the taxpayer, is paying a consultant (with Labour Party connections I believe) to campaign against the decision of the elected government to privatise it. Surely such an expenditure should be ultra vires? Hereâs how it works in a democracy, Channel 4 leftists: the people elect the government, the government in parliament sets policy, and public employees (like you) carry it out. Those C4 Management personnel authorising such payments should be made personally liable for the inappropriate use of public funds to suit their own personal, career or political ends.
August 15, 2021
Richard1, I am afraid that the woke left give each other jobs (usually on the public purse). It’s their way of retaining control over the rest of us.
August 15, 2021
Of course it is, Christine. For confirmation, look at what Macron is doing in France.
Here, the way it’s worked so far is: fool enough people into thinking they’ll be ‘free’ if injected. That’s what’s meant by the ‘vaccine roll-out success’.
But in future, should that not get enough people complying, say with ‘booster shots’, coerce them by law is what it may come to, as in France.
August 15, 2021
Using the “cars-on-the-road” as a proxy for compliance with the untargeted national lockdowns (UNLs), I saw considerable acceptance in the first but very little in the second. As for the third UNL, compliance started well in January 2021, but rapidly tailed off until we were almost back to normal in April.
People voted with their feet (and their cars!) irrespective of what they said or polled. People will make their own decisions about the vaccines too. The extent, and seriousness, of covid19 vaccine side effects (downplayed by the MSM) has been absorbed by the population – this is why there has been a tail-off in vax uptake.
It all comes back to the Soviet era proverb: “We’ll pretend to work, if you pretend to pay us”. We are now a society of pretenders. And the government is to blame.
August 15, 2021
Welcome to the world Sir Redwood.
Sorry to hear about your frustrations with this technology, the temptation is to have a good laugh at your experience, but we are up against it almost every day of our lives and therefore sympathise with you.
Actually, digital technology has cost lives, money and resources.
It is a perfect tool for herding and entrapping the masses into parting with their money, incriminating themselves, and forcing their compliance.
Much of it, and the way in which it used against the freedoms and rights of people is imported from America.
Did you realise operators of this technology quite often attend training courses in the US to help them fine tune it to shaft people ?
Then there is cock-ups, i.e. idiot civil servants buying American software straight off the shelf without stopping to think that the US does not have post codes or national insurance numbers. I accurately cite benefits and HMRC in this.
The Post Office, well suffice to say the truth will out eventually. Will it be an overpaid fool buying off the shelf or a snowflake graduate saying “Oh like – yeah – I like forgot about that”
In summary this technology cannot be trusted to enhance our lives and has become an enslavement.
I avoid conflict by controlling my own lifestyle rather than letting others control it, thus:
1) I refuse to have a Mobile Phone, that way I cannot be spied upon.
2) Before I stopped watching TV – I made sure it was not interfaced with the internet.
3) I pay my bills via Standing Order – I am in control of when, how much, and whether or not to pay. This is extremely effective against lazy local authorities and utilities who’s policy is to try it on.
4) I will not have any technology in the house which is capable of surveillance.
And lastly, 5) Probaly appropriate to your recent experience – if there’s nowhere to park without being robbed or expected to have the latest software or gizmo……I turn around and go home, regardless.
Opt out of digital enslavement, It really is the Devil’s alternative. Live a normal stress free life, and if your refusal to comply and part with your money pisses off the powers that be – all the better.
August 15, 2021
I do the very much the same. My weekly shop is paid for with cash and I have no ‘clubcards’.
My children laugh at my lack of knowledge and ignorance of technical changes, given I spent over 20 years managing software based high tech projects. However, I choose to be so to keep myself distanced from the State’s desire to ‘log’ everyone’s business and no doubt ultimately to control it.
August 15, 2021
Well said….one is choice one is imposed
August 15, 2021
Steve, Very well said. Apart from no.1, I already control my lifestyle as you do. Particularly, I do not watch TV, thereby avoiding the subtle continuous propaganda that favours the “spirit of the age” – woke socialism. For my (Android) mobile, I switch it off every day, and occasionally remove the battery. I do not have a Google account, so cannot download apps, and I do not make financial transactions on it either. This minimises spying. And also means I have never had the NHS/Covid apps (hurrah!).
August 15, 2021
@steve – well said, then they complain the high street is dying without admitting they are the ones that killed it!
August 15, 2021
@steve, it does seem to be mission creep that a modern TV spies on you in your own home. Our Government allows it why?
Maybe once people set up there shiny new TV the forget to read the T&C that state the manufacturer will collect data from you while the TV is on. People are to preocupied in seeing the new TV display the latest programs. The manufacturer then gets to collate with other sources and sell the results – you are being farmed. Maybe the ‘great reset’ is part of Governments fear of the people
August 15, 2021
Great post today John, had all the problems you have had in the past, except downloading the NHS App, not attempted that yet as have heard it can be frustrating.
Car parking problems all over the place but Brighton the worst experience so far, ended up giving up, as got in the telephone for assistance see our website loop.
Yes with all of this technology about, why has reading a screen in sunlight not yet been resolved by the experts.
Family member who has used Wokingham Councils Shine exercise/dancing class system for years, now having problems, as the booking system is in absolute chaos, partly outsourced, indeed it is in so much chaos the Council attempted to clarify the situation with a meeting with users/residents last week, only problem is they were not specific on its location, just said Cantley Field, now as you now this is a large area with a mixture of sports buildings, changing and meeting rooms and a theatre. Turned out it was under a marquee in the middle the Park, No Signage to be seem anywhere.
Most who attended still totally confused with the payment system and how it works, pre covid it used to be so simple, but not now.
Likewise the Recycling centre requires pre-booking with date and time up to a week in advance with electronic completion of the required form, lots of details required about yourself, the expected waste that you are proposing to take, and the vehicle you are using.
All double checked at the entrance, again originally introduced due to covid, but now continuing.
Result, capacity reduced to half of what it was. Apparently fly tipping in increasing, well you could knock me over with a feather !
August 15, 2021
Alan
“Likewise the Recycling centre requires pre-booking with date and time up to a week in advance with electronic completion of the required form, lots of details required about yourself, the expected waste that you are proposing to take, and the vehicle you are using.”
Yes, the same up here in Hull. Seems like they’re all at this latest scam.
Considering that council tax pays for the freedom to just turn up at the tip when you please i.e. it’s a facility paid for in advance, was there any reduction of council tax to reflect this loss ? NO. Similarly we are all STILL paying councils to employ lines of staff to sort out rubbish as per the old weekly bin collection days….no local authority ever reduced council tax when they introduced two bins and expected householders to segregate waste. I have proof of that fact from two local councils.
One money grabbing scam after another, but hey no need to feel we are not getting vaue for money……councils have Chief Executives on the public pay roll on typically about ÂŁ110,000 per year salary for doing absolutely JS for the money.
August 15, 2021
Blimey Steve only ÂŁ110,00 that sounds like a bargain compared to some.
The last one we had a few years ago in post here, was reported to be paid over ÂŁ300,000 a year, then got another pay off to leave.
August 15, 2021
And my HWRC is also still requiring an appointment. This silliness should have ended in July – or sooner.
August 15, 2021
Alan. Living in Brighton, I have given up shopping and dining in town. Last time I tried to park and pay I had spent so much time finding a space where I could pay that the others I had dropped at the pub had finishes their meal by the time I arrived.
I just bought a new car and tried to change my parking permit to the new registration. They have closed the permit office and do everything by phone and internet. Unfortunately they say that it takes at least half an hour before they answer because the operators have to do it on their computer and the extra staff aren’t sufficient to keep up. It’s possible by downloading a form which requires all the ID that a new applicant has to give. Also I had to create an account with the council with long passwords. But before I can copy the form and council tax bill. which is only by email, with name and address, I also have to return the permit for the old car by post. As they say that getting a permit is subject to long delays, I would be unable to park anywhere closer than a mile from home until the new permit arrives. I gave up.
Then there was the new passport, which had to be done by taking a selfie in special lighting conditions. First effort it said was in black and white, second it said my eyes were closed. I was pink and eyes open. Third time with eyes wide open succeeded but I look insane and will have to boggle every time I go through the computer recognition system.
As to the Wetherspoons app, which they insist on us using, my drinking friend teaches computing and tracks his wife on his smart. He had to put a jacket over his head to read the screen in sunlight and it took half an hour to order a pie and baked potato. The app timed him out when searching for the drinks.
August 15, 2021
This digital revolution is an imposition rather than an evolution.
I very much agree that it all makes life a lot more complicated and tiresome.
Isn’t it true that landlines are to be phased out by 2025, to make us all the more dependent on this brash and enforced technology that we’d prefer to live without!
August 15, 2021
Re:landlines are to be phased out by 2025.
Yet another choice the Johnson regime would like to remove from the masses. Appears to be a replication of CCP ideology being enacted in the UK, rather than following conservative principles!
August 15, 2021
Don’t remember reading that in the Tory manifesto
August 15, 2021
Does that also mean all the public telephone box/points are to dissappear…how are the poor people that can’t afford a ÂŁ500+ smart-phone to communicate
Are the motorway, coast and other emergency public phones to dissappear as well ?
August 15, 2021
Good morning.
For Public Services to do that there has to be some sort of incentive. In the Private Sector one such incentive is, if you do not or will not do ‘x’ for ‘y’ then someone else will. If you, those in government, address that issue then many of the problems would soon find their own solution. Simple.
August 15, 2021
This is no longer about parking meters, vaccine passports and restrictive bank account access but about an evil Socialist State political culture whose intent is to frustrate, to incite and then respond with an even greater force to counter the natural and inevitable anger that such attacks will trigger. It as though we are being taunted and invited to respond to flush out dissidents and those refusing to comply who become visible, then portrayed as a threat to others and then can be targeted with cancellation.
I continue to focus on those horrific events that party leaders refuse to condemn or stay silent upon. That silence is the evidence I need to confirm my suspicions of just how far State politicians and evil bureaucrats are willing to go to crush dissent by using all forms of psychological warfare against decent human beings who pay their taxes, abide by both moral and official laws and respect others.
If moral politicians from any quarter remain silent about this totalitarianism there is no route back from this horror that will become all consuming and even more horrific both here in the UK and the now appalling descent into vulgar demonisation of all opposition by Biden’s government, the US State and its cronies
August 15, 2021
DOM
Absolutely spot on. +100
August 15, 2021
Endorsed.
August 15, 2021
DOM, +1, Powerful and accurate.
The silence and evasion, âDrip by drip, it came on us rather like an anaesthetic â, I quote Christabel Bielenberg from the tv screen at this very moment!
MSN and Main Parties are complicit someday it will become evident even to the sheeple.
Thank you, DOM.
August 15, 2021
Dom, Excellent comment.
August 15, 2021
John, your experience of parking in London is similar in many cities and is enough to put people off visiting. I really feel sorry for many people who simply don’t understand how apps etc work. I made the big mistake of putting my train tickets onto my phone. My phone was charged up in the morning but by the time I came home it had run down and I couldn’t get it to show my ticket. Luckily the ticket collector at the station had a charging lead and I was able to plug in and at least get on the train but I was worried on the whole journey that the ticket inspector would ask to see my ticket and I would get charged again.
August 15, 2021
I know an elderly couple who are often being asked for their email address or mobile number in order to access information or to apply for services etc. They have neither.
They are often asked to look up information on a web site. They do not have a computer.
They have been forced to ask relatives to carry out these tasks, effectively rendering them deaf and dumb to many public services and interactions. Same with the cartels: banks, telecoms, utilities, some large charities and railways.
Organisations in the public sector and cartels who do not rely on customer goodwill seem to use technology to please themselves and effectively shirk from doing their duty.
Millions must have been frozen out or inconvenienced out in this way.
It’s a scandal imho
Perhaps the solution is to invoice these organisations for the tremendous amount of time all this takes and the sue them for not doing their jobs
August 15, 2021
Kenneth
“…….often being asked for their email address or mobile number in order to access information or to apply for services etc. ”
All too common these days.
An example is where businesses ask the customer for their e-mail address for their receipt following a transaction. Of course, it is a lie…..they are selling bulk e-mail addresses.
I always say no and insist on paper receipt.
August 15, 2021
+1
I am invariably somewhat bemused by the incredulous response when I say I don’t have a mobile, or at least one that would meet the requirements.
August 15, 2021
Kenneth
“Organisations in the public sector and cartels who do not rely on customer goodwill seem to use technology to please themselves and effectively shirk from doing their duty.”
“Millions must have been frozen out or inconvenienced out in this way.”
It’s also about getting your money, and informing Johnson’s deep state about your private business, movements and so on.
Only an inconvenient freeze-out if you play their game. The best way is to not play their game and live by the old ways….refuse and resist.
Examples include :
Withdraw all your money from the bank each month – deal in cash. Leave just enough in the bank to cover bills – always pay them by standing order where possible. Get your gas & electric on key meters – so no direct debits for energy upon which they can help themselves to as much as they like from your account and without so much as a by your leave.
Remember that Standing Orders give YOU the power over YOUR money – you’d be surprised how potent that is when you have a dispute with utility or local council. Stopping the money really does work very quickly.
Bus Lane and car parking robbery – always delay, argue, and take it right to the wire. Make sure it costs them a lot more in administration. You can always fire an FOI at them afterwards to make them admit how much money they wasted by harrassing you.
Don’t have a mobile phone, and have nothing to do with anyone or anything that insists you must have one- walk away if necessary.
Grow your own fruit & veg – eat healthily without getting ripped off by supermarkets. I have successfully limited my supermarket spend to bread, milk and cheese. Meat I get from a local Butcher, and it’s local meat – not EU, not Irish, and not Scottish.
I have even exchanged home made Jam for some meat. Supermarkets won’t do that.
Invest in a supplimentary off – grid solar set up, and a log burner and prefereably an AGA or Rayburn. That way Johnson can turn the gas & electric off altogether, your lights will stay on and you’ll keep warm.
Better food, no stress, much less expense…….a better lifestyle than the one quisling Johnson and his bosses are trying to impose. What is not to like ?
I turned my back on what Johnson and his big business bosses are doing to this country, and I don’t regret it for a minute.
August 15, 2021
Absolutely. I worry greatly about the ‘left behind’.
August 15, 2021
I live in Hillingdon and I am going to give them a shout out in that their website, libraries, parks and parking facilities do actually consider their service users even to the tune of allowing 30 minutes free parking for on street shop parking. The machines occasionally break but the half hour free makes it difficult for the wardens to pounce.
Then again it is a Conservative council so considers its residents first rather than transgender whales in a climate changing environment.
Council tax is too high though.
August 15, 2021
I have the problem of two Conservative MPâs but a 2/3 majority LibDem council, so some things are fine, but some things are ridiculous⊠but the Tory MPs can help fight the most ridiculous.
August 15, 2021
A decade ago I missed a baptism at Westminster Cathedral as I had registered my car with the relevant phone payment company but we were in my wifeâs car and it was impossible to switch the number plate under my registration and I couldnât register a new one with the same email etc. My wife attended while I fought this impossible system in the streets missing the event and was extremely âfrustrated & disappointedâ by the whole experienceâŠ!
I used to wonder why people pay for everything via their phones and found it annoying when they clogged up the Tube entry gates but once I tried it I was converted. However, I do worry for the older generation as my mother is completely lost in this digital revolution and no doubt I may be too be in the future.
August 15, 2021
Why is is easier to open up your phone and use it on the tube than to touch your wallet on the reader? Used it once when I forgot my wallet so asked my wife for her credit card number and loaded it tot he phone but other than for emergencies it is completely unnecessary and put even more information about you in the hands of phone app providers and your phone.
Nothing to convert in my opinion, just a gimmick.
August 15, 2021
Parking machines where you used to have to put in coins (1) required you to have the correct change, and (2) were often a target for people to break into and steal the money, thus costing the council tax payer twice – lost revenue and repair costs. The new pay by app approach also gives you a permanent record of the parking you paid for, so in the event of a dispute, you no longer have to worry about not being able to find an old ticket, as your parking records are kept in perpituity. Registration is a once-off task, and, once done, I have found these apps simpler easier than the old coin-operated way. For example, if I am running late for a train, I can save myself a bit of time and pay for my parking once I am on the train, assuming that facility is available.
As for the pieces of card for vaccination (which are easy enough to copy), one can only hope that a similar view on what is and is not valid ID will be held when voting on certain legislation which is due to come before Parliament soon.
Reply Easier if you use the same park, difficult as a one off visitor
August 15, 2021
There are only a limited number of parking apps and they are, in my experience, used all over the country. The next time you park somewhere else, it may well be the same app you use.
August 15, 2021
Peter P, No good for those without a mobile, those with an unsuitable mobile, or those (like myself) without (by choice) either a Google or Apple account. By contrast getting coins for parking machines is neither difficult nor discriminatory.
August 15, 2021
In my experience, these services offer payment by phoning up and talking to a person, payment by SMS and payment by website as well as payment by app. The other week I crossed the Mersey Gateway bridge about 10am in the morning (a toll rather than a parking charge, but it operates on the same principles). I phoned them about 7pm that evening, spoke to a person and paid my toll, all in about 5 minutes. It was easy.
I find being able to pay parking and other tolls such as bridges by a range of different methods )and by the end of the following day rather than on the spot) a far more convenient solution than having to carry a sufficient range of different combinations of coins, and making sure I replaced them when used so I wasn’t short of the right change next time.
August 15, 2021
As regards the comments about London roads being blocked off, making access all but impossible, we already know who to blame for this ridiculous stunt – none other than the ridiculous London mayor.
When is the government going to rein in this very inadequate bungling senseless labour politician?
At the end of the day the government has to take responsibility for its creations, (past and present), and that means removing their powers when they fail the people they are supposed to be serving!
August 15, 2021
Useless and unused cycle-lanes, parking meters, fines and traffic wardens everywhereâŠno wonder everyone is using side streets and the high streets are blocked â these arenât unintended consequences
August 15, 2021
@Bryan Harris – Yes and Boris is to recall Parliament next week – Why? The UK Government is responsible for more than 400 servicemen deaths in Afghanistan, for what? They were undermanned, under equipped and led to their death by political ego.
We do not have an Armed forces capable of responding, a small number of very profession dedicated service personnel does not make an army, it is a local defence force.
So Boris’s response to ‘grandstand with virtue signaling’ and not a single apology from the HoC for the situation they have caused.
Lets just hope the Taliban doesn’t encourage the return of Al-Qaida – then the UK will be in big do-do
August 15, 2021
Most of central London needs pedestrianising. All of Soho, Covent Garden, Whitehall, Parliament Sq, The Embankment, Oxford & Regent St and more
It is time to put people before cars. Pedestrians, cyclists, scooters. If it causes traffic jams and you donât like traffic jams – tough. Go on the tube or walk instead. If that makes you angry go to a lesser city instead – there are lots of them in the rest of the country.
August 15, 2021
You are so London centric it is hilarious Andy
Sure it might work in Soho.
Try it in the countryside where the tube, buses, trains and ubers are non existent and without a car you are isolated.
Try walking your children to and from schools along lanes with no pavements nor street lighting.
August 15, 2021
Andy, Many of the elderly, or infirm, cannot walk the distances required in London. But then I know you cheer when old people die, so I guess you think it’s not your problem. Until you become old yourself. You, putting other people before anything, especially if they’re older – that’s a joke!
August 15, 2021
How do the shops and restaurants get supplied ?
August 15, 2021
by returning to the 16th century – with horse and cart
August 15, 2021
Indeed, and what about emergency vehicles, particularly those taking patients to and from the many major and specialist hospitals and clinics in Central London? Or conveying the materials needed for scenery and back stage operations at the Royal Opera House, or conveying some of the larger musical instruments where necessary to the Wigmore Hall, the Festival Hall or the Barbican Concert Hall? What about large and valuable artworks being brought to London museums and galleries and auction houses?
August 16, 2021
Sack barrows operated by the army of the recently arrived.
August 16, 2021
You would turn central London into a useless desert. No deliveries of any kind would be possible, nor repairs to any broken infrastructure. Sewers left to overflow, gas leaks to explode.
August 16, 2021
@Mark
Some would say that has already happened, especially with sewers overflowing because of the excess population it has to cater for.
August 15, 2021
I bet the Afghans would just love the problem of how to pay for their parking, instead of looking at the holocaust unfolding.
The 90 days for the Taliban to take Kabul has suddenly reduced to a matter of hours. With western governments scrambling to get their people out, how long before the Taliban take control of the take off and landing flight paths from the airport? A wide-bodied jet would make too tempting a target for a guy with an RPG. Then all aircraft are grounded and the western personnel are stranded.
August 15, 2021
Dave Andrews
“I bet the Afghans would just love the problem of how to pay for their parking, instead of looking at the holocaust unfolding.
A hypothesis that would be appropriately presented to Blair & Bush, who engendered the crisis.
And of course Johnson…..who has done nothing at all to repair the damage done by Blair.
August 15, 2021
@Dave Andrews
I was just thinking about what the average Afghan will have to face – those that survive the initial onslaught. It will be like hell on Earth as human rights are taken away and they forced to follow a 14th century creed that dehumanises women and ranks them with animals.
When you extrapolate what is happening over here, in France and elsewhere with basic human rights being denied, you can’t help but see some similarities with how the aims of the Taliban match the aims of the extreme environmentalists who want us to return to the dark ages.
August 15, 2021
The Observer, 15/08/2021, Emma Beddington âCashed out: A fond farewell to cash and notesâ.
And who is copying whom, John from Emma, or Emma from John? TITQ.
August 15, 2021
hefner, did you know there is currently ÂŁ95.3 billion in notes and coins in the economy somewhere? This upsets HMRC even more than it does the Treasury/BoE. This cash is being used for all sorts of VATable transactions that the latter can’t see and hence tax. Getting rid of notes and coins would be manna from heaven for HMRC.
BTW. There is some confusion on my patch about digital currencies. Replacing notes and coins with the equivalent of a cash/debit card, has nothing to do with Bitcoins and the like, which are fiscally valueless (even less than Dutch Tulip Bulb mania of 1636/7). You will know a country has gone totally mad when it starts taking Bitcoins for tax demands.
August 15, 2021
How do you know that cash is being used for illegitimate transactions acorn?
I paid a restaurant bill yesterday because their wi fi network was down and none of their card machines were working.
August 18, 2021
Weak argument, P2: How do you know that cash is NOT being used for illegitimate transactions?
What about the âniceâ people at oneâs door keen on cleaning the gutters, or helping with garden waste for cash?
August 18, 2021
I gave a straightforward example to counter the claim how cash is used in a legitimate way.
I see no examples from you heffy proving cash is often used in an illegitimate way other than a the two you give us which fail to prove the workers involved will fail to record them in their accounts after being paid.
Would you accept a cheque from someone you didn’t know after you had done work worth many hundreds of pounds?
Many do not carry a card machine with them.
August 15, 2021
Good God, Acorn, I think you’ve said something sensible (first paragraph anyway)! Though obviously Bitcoin offends your MMT purity (second paragraph).
August 15, 2021
You have to place the ‘Smart Meter’ high on your list Sir John. If it was simply a way of effectively reading the meters in ones homes it would make sense, it goes further in allows the energy suppliers and the authorities to spy on the user.
Add into that the ‘click bait’ of the camera door bell – why do the authorities get access as a matter of course.
The proper way, in a proper democracy, is the authorities and the police work for the people. Were it goes wrong is that it is trawling for wrong doing were no wrong doing is suspected. In a ‘free’ society the police and the authorities can always ask the courts to spy if there is a ‘just’ cause. In the horrendous dictatorship the UK is becoming, spying by the authorities, the police and also encourage by neighbors as a matter of course by the Government. That has all the traits of the Police States we associate with the ‘stasi’ in the old eastern block. A Government in fear of its people.
It should never be about doing it because you can, the question is always in a ‘free’ society should you.
August 15, 2021
Given the total breakdown of the armed forces in Afghanistan in the last week or so, I have reluctantly come round to agreeing with Sleepy Joe that if coalition forces stayed longer, the only result would be even more deaths of our soldiers and would be a further waste of treasure.
I feel sorry for the young women of the country who will suffer a loss of all opportunity to progress and be reduced to a life of near-enslavement. However I have no sympathy whatsoever for Afghan men.
It seems obvious now that they are simply not prepared to stand up for their country and are going to sheepishly accept subjugation by the Taliban for themselves and their female relatives.
What a tragic waste of lives and money our politicians have engineered over the last 20 years.
August 15, 2021
I would also like to say that, given the total failure of the Afghan people to defend their country against the Taliban, we should assume that they are happy with the takeover and refuse to accept any refugees from the country other than those that worked for British Forces.
August 15, 2021
Yes SJR, enslavement to the digital god is universal, and all the time you are making abeyance to it remember it is a computer not a person. All the organisations that hide behind these computers make absolutely sure that there is never an email address to contact and should a help phone number be given you need to develop a taste for repetitious music preceded by streams of irrelevant recorded information. There is also the suspicion that the owner of the phone is getting a kickback from the phone company. I will not bore you with recent specifics , but can I suggest that the glut of lawyers in the HoC propose legislation against the negative aspects of computer systems geared to the exclusive interests of the companies employing them.
August 15, 2021
Dream on Sir John. My experience of local councils is incompetence and an overriding wish to take the easiest route with no attention paid to cost.
August 15, 2021
On the contrary, I will give an example of good technology, and it’s from the NHS !
I recently discovered the NHS App, not the Covid 19 one, but the one that enables you to access your own medical records on your phone.
Not only did it download and install very quickly, it also allows you to submit a request for repeat prescriptions with just a few keystrokes. The request went straight to my Doctor with the items needed accurately described and the prescription was then automatically sent to the Pharmacy I normally use. Within two days I had a text from the Pharmacy telling me it was ready to collect.
I hesitate to ask how much it cost to develop, but it certainly works brilliantly and saves everyone a lot of time and effort.
August 15, 2021
This Government encourages other States to Spy on UK citizens, workplaces and businesses. So I guess that is why the feel it is all right for them to also play the same game.
In our new world we have what is called in the trade ‘Click Bait’ in simple terms that means an internet offering to encourage you to click through. A click through means date collected and a monitoring ‘cookie’ installed on your device. The first thing to remember is that ‘The General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR)’ protects no one. It doesn’t even tell you the objective is to monetarize the viewer(the viewer is the crop to be harvested) until at best some 30 pages on through the T&C’s. The amusing condition on one of the major players is they say they don’t collect personal data then you read further their associates and partners ‘may do’ but you need to read their own 30pages or so to find out. The identity of the 2nd and 3rd parties is obscured and the why, who and what is even more obscured. – Could be any State spying agency.
As the UK Government encourages and condones spying by foreign nationals on UK Citizens, its easy to understand why they themselves and everyone else believes they have the same rights.
It is possible to block some if not most of the internet spying, it is not the default, but it should be. In a real ‘free’ society, others should ask before they take(that would also be polite) – put the citizen back in control and responsible for themselves.
Reverse the writing of the GDPR make the purveyor of the website responsible for saying up front what is ‘farmed’, who it is sold too and make them responsible for all out comes. That would also inhibit authorities from playing fast and loose with their over burdening requirements. However, I would suspect most authorities apps such the NHS vaccine one is bought in from 3rd party’s, they make there money because of the selling method of the data they collect.
Never loose site as with the NHS app and other authority introduced apps, what ever they infer about privacy etc. the data they collect is taken out of the UK, collated and used outside of UK and its legal jurisdiction. No one would know who, what, then happens, what foreign State is using it. The UK Government discharges its responsibility to keep you safe the moment you participate.
The Government is complicit in creating the World none of us want a part of.
August 15, 2021
When I go into my high street petrol station, I can drive straight in, fuel up in 2-4 mins, and if I like pay by cash, all user friendly to the consumer borne over years of experience, customer research and ease of access to products
If youâre driving an EV car you need to download an app just to find a suitable and compatible (3 different types) unmanned charging station, download app and ensure the charging point is actually working (20% faulty) and ensure you have the registration and app to pre-paid as its cash-less
Youâll also need the latest smart-phone with the latest upgrades (what if your phone is faulty or if you have an old phone or if you donât own/carry a phone) âŠ.potentially multiple digital failures points
EV charging stations donât provide air for your tyres, water for your windscreen or nonessential sweets for your children or local destination advice
August 15, 2021
I have worked with a range of softies (software engineers) from the brilliant down to the quite frankly stupid, trying to prove how smart they are! My response to the latter was always, why have it complicated, when it could be simple?
That in a nutshell is the problem with the public sector purchasing software programmes. If its complicated it must be good. Err no, they have merely been taken in by con artists spin.
August 15, 2021
You are describing how Track and Trace came into existance!
August 15, 2021
Please take this up with the Chancellor. Before he raises any more taxes on things like the supply of gas for home heating, he needs to consider things like this:
Reported by TPA today
It would be good to see a diary piece on how we taxpayers are supporting political concerns that should never be getting our money – the unions are but one other example.
The TaxPayersâ Alliance is calling for an end to the practice of taxpayer-funded lobbying, so public money is not used to distort political decision making by advancing policy positions taxpayers may seriously disagree with.
August 15, 2021
A few years ago I wanted to see a show in Manchester 40+ miles away. Concerned about parking near the theatre I rang the council parking people, voiced my concerns, no app etc on phone, does the machines accept cash etc. To my surprise I got clear answer, went to the show, coins into the meter. All done. Happy night.
Two years later, different city, did same, totally opposite system, app payment only,. Result, didn’t go, no show, they didn’t get my ticket money, Not happy.
Who benefitted?? – nobody as far as I know.
August 15, 2021
What comes to mind is ‘consent’
The UK Government has got away with a lot in the fight against Covid. As we now know unless we are stupid, like all viruses we must learn to live with it there is no cure.
Time to get back on track, a Government serving the people by consent of the people who lend them their powers. That ethos should also trickle down to all those that take the taxpayer pound. The authorities and the police are their to serve, that doesn’t mean they automatically take the path of least resistance.
Those that serve the people take the taxpayer money need to reflect that they are getting away with things that would never happen in real life. A company exists because of customers, they are monitored constituently and are accountable to their board and shareholders. They take responsibility for every move they make and pay for it when the go astray. Why do jobsworths believe they should be different – ‘entitled’
August 15, 2021
In Dorset an app called JustPark is used in the council car parks. In a local town you have to pay for a minimum of an hour. If you go there for 10 minutes to the shops and then return to the town I live in, and you want to park, you canât use the app again because it wonât let you end your previous booking. In what is rapidly becoming a cashless society, youâd think the public servants who did the deal with JustPark could have checked it out better, first.
I look forward to my first row when I get a ticket in my local town when I can prove my car was in paid for parking in a town a few miles away.
August 15, 2021
“Let us take the NHS CV 19 app and proof of vaccination which we now have to show in order to attend certain events.”
This is what they would have you believe, but it appears not to be completely accurate
https://www.nhsx.nhs.uk/covid-19-response/using-the-nhs-covid-pass/#exemptions
According to the NHS: “If your customer confirms that they have a self declared exemption, but is unable to show any evidence, you should allow them access to your venue or event. You must not ask for proof of their medical exemption and it is not essential they show any form of exemption card at any point.”
The Civil Service and Authoritarians in Government are salivating at the prospect of controlling our personal lives and personal decisions, via technology. And sadly there are far too MPs who actually represent the interests of their Constituents who will stop them.
The only solution for those of us who value Civil Liberties, personal freedom and the ability to make our own decisions (whether good or bad) is to vote for alternative MPs who have similar beliefs.
August 15, 2021
If you want to save me what time I have left John – just tell me I’ll never get another post on here – but poster EdM had FOUR on the other day – all good size – one after the other – clearly a preferred poster.
August 15, 2021
Interesting that our host talks about the imposition of technology which makes our lives a misery, yet, when one gives examples of how to circumvent this evil, by nothing more agressive than changing one’s lifestyle to avoid becoming ensared……guess what? – the post is deleted.
If that’s your attitude Sir Redwood why should we be bothered about or indeed sympathetic towards your inconvenience ? We have to put up with technology designed to make our lives a misery on a daily basis.
I suspect you are telling us that what happens to us every day is of no importance compared to your one – off experience.
You see now why we view politicians in general as rather arrogant.
Print or delete I don’t really care mate, your party just won’t be getting any votes from me.
August 15, 2021
I commend Sir John for his persistence. It probably cost him ÂŁ1.15 to include the privilege of using the app. I only use cash (when the facility is there) or credit card.
August 15, 2021
Well JR maybe you are waking up. This all about CONTROL of the people and has been since the so called Plan-demic farce began. All part of the plan. You are an MP and you really do not know what is going on!!!!
August 15, 2021
+1
August 15, 2021
The “managed capitalism” of 1945 to 1975, yielded much better growth than the “laissez-faire capitalism” of the last four decades. The latter requiring the addition of a “free market economy” where buyers and sellers; all having the same information, work to the “rational markets theory” decisions are based on logic not emotion.
Laissez-faire capitalism leaves everything for market competition to decide, often including regulation. Hence, we end up with Smart Meters of different specifications not able to communicate with different suppliers of energy. Electric Vehicles with different plugs and sockets; along with numerous different ways of paying for charging in a fragmented network of independent suppliers. And; more diverse ways of paying for car parking that you can shake a stick at. Not to mention why we need two separate NHS “apps”.
August 15, 2021
So acorn, in the “managed capitalism” period you admire what caused for example, the several different video tape machine systems in the 1970s ?
August 16, 2021
Betamax, 1975; VHS, 1976, the mass market not before 1980 et sq.
Never one to let the opportunity of a dumb comment pass, are you? Do you ever check the information on a topic before you comment?
August 16, 2021
Your usual style of response heffy
Which totally fails to grasp the straightforward point I was making.
acorn was claiming, falsely, in my opinion that capitalism was managed in the post war period.
The he says that laissez faire capitalism was all that happened after that, which is also wrong.
His example was about the many electric vehicles charging types and that was due to laissez-faire economics.
So my example was a straightforward reposte to show these things happened post war years.
I have many other examples of similar happenings in acorn’s preferred “managed capitalism” era.
But thanks for joining in the debate heffy.
August 15, 2021
The problem is that none of the applications get tested by “Dummies” before being put into service to iron out the problems and unknowns that occur in the real world.
Also the government is good at choosing the least competent contractors. Big on name low on skill.
Basically the technology is good but highly dependent on the mind set and experience of the people developing the system software and hardware that go to make up a particular system.
The greatest failing is the desire to have something especially made for the requirement and not looking around to see if there is already a near fit.
Difficult to name one Government IT project which can be called a success.
August 15, 2021
There are of course benefits but they usually arise out of new ideas entirely.
We are suffering many ways because of the obsession with ‘IT’ for everything. ‘Boris’ and countless numbers of people in the bureacracy think that IT is the most fashionable and the only way to advance themselves – they must come up with a new ‘tech’ method for everything.
No-one dare say that anything existing is perfectly acceptable. They feel they must make an impression – life just becomes more irritating and we can do nothing about it. I would wreck if I could find a way!
August 15, 2021
Sir John, perhaps you do not realise the true significance of your words ” ….and had peace of mind that I had complied.”.
That is what people – not just in the UK, but most of the globe – have been conditioned into thinking for at least the last 16 months, and probably fro several decades.
There are some that might say that this whole thing has been planned well in advance. But…… that would be just a wild conspiracy theory…… wouldn’t it?
August 15, 2021
Most of the information provided was wholly irrelevant to the success of the transaction. The true value is always in the data collection, which will be used for unrelated purposes.
August 15, 2021
Now that this Biden person has handed over Afghanistan to the Taliban can we expect this British PM to open up the UK to millions of refugees from this now Taliban controlled nation? Is this why Johnson has recalled Parliament? Moreover, is this a deliberate tactic to change the fundamental demographic nature of the west?
Johnson’s autocratic actions since he crawled into power will be his undoing. His unnatural actions in office conflict with his personal political history and his promotion of freedom of expression as a most fundamental principle to guide all free peoples
August 15, 2021
O/T: According to âCentre for Citiesâ, the PMâs levelling up efforts could cost as much as what Germany spent in the years following its 1990 reunification, ie âŹ2tn over two decades (Guardian/Observer, 15/08/2021 âThe cost of Boris Johnsonâs levelling up: ÂŁ2tn, says UK thinktankâ).
Over 20 years, thatâs ÂŁ100 bn/year. And if divided equally between the 30 m UK taxpayers actually paying tax, thatâs about ÂŁ3,300/year additional tax for each of us/them.
August 15, 2021
I would tend to disagree hef
They assume only extra spending will help these areas.
What about trying less restrictions on planning
Or less restrictions on change of use of buildings?
Simple things which cost little yet can start to stimulate economic growth.
There are many things government could do apart from just spending many billions as your chosen think tank claims.
It worked decades ago when Hesletline got Merry Hill redeveloped in the Midlands.
DId this think tank cost the positive benefit from stimulating the economic redevelopment of these areas?
PS
Bit disappointed you never rose to my challenge a few days ago.
Having accused me of “writing posts day after day about fears of left wing armagedddon” you then ran away when asked to provide examples.
August 16, 2021
Count the number of times you consider peopleâs comments as âleftâ, âleftyâ, âsocialistâ, ⊠over the last six months, eh?
Obviously you didnât use âarmageddonâ, but the tenor of your comments would often give the impression that the only proper way of thinking is to agree and align with yours.
Fortunately the world is a bitty less restricted that you think.
August 16, 2021
Predictably switichng the angle of attack now you have been forced to climb down eh heffy?
But good to see you finally admitted that I never said what you claimed.
I’m glad you now agree that I have never written posts about “a left wing Armageddon” “day in day out, week in week out,month in month out” is what you claimed.
And all of it totally false.
A grudging response by you but not unexpected.
August 17, 2021
Peter 2
It is difficult to follow what you writ as you most often just respond without checking the facts , so Hefner does have a point to make on your contributions which is valied.
August 17, 2021
hefner should check his own facts bill
He accused me of saying something which he has now accepted was wrong.
So I’m not sure why you have decided to join in.
PS
If you think there are factual inaccuracies in my posts then please let me know.
Always happy to improve.
August 18, 2021
P2, your comment is so vague there is no possible âfactual inaccuracyâ. But it has some of the âwhataboutâry you condemn in others.
What do you exactly propose in terms of âreducing restrictions on planningâ? Or of âchange of use of buildingsâ. What are âthe simple things which cost little yet can start to stimulate economic growthâ?
And isnât it interesting you quote Lord Heseltine, as you must obviously realise he has been a strong advocate of devolved powers to English regions and cities, something that at least in words does not sound so different from âNorthern Powerhouseâ or âlevelling upâ?
August 18, 2021
You have now bizarrely moved your argument to link to a completely different post.
Which started when you posted with a think tank’s claim that many billions needed spending to improve the imbalance of wealth North v South.
I posted to say it can be achieved with far less cost.
By relaxing restrictions, regulations and giving tax breaks for example.
As happened when Round Oak Steel Works and the area nearby was transformed.
I’m glad you find it interesting heffy.
August 15, 2021
In order to park on streets within a 15 mile radius of my home I need to have 4 different parking apps. At least I donât have an electric car as Iâd need many more for the charging stations.
August 15, 2021
The Taliban takeover of Afghanistan puts the whole âclimate changeâ into perspectiveâŠ.not one Taliban leader has ever talked about Carbon Net Zero!
Its only the western woke countries that interested in Carbon Net Zero, Open Borders, Multiculturalism, Digitisation of Services and Banning ICE Vehicles
August 16, 2021
You donât cause the climate to change when you live in the Stone Age.
August 16, 2021
The Taliban are the leading light – they’re already at Net Zero
August 15, 2021
Parliament recalled to talk about afghanistan but not about the ongoing invasion on our beaches says all you need to know about our political class. Completely and utterly out of touch.
August 15, 2021
Theyâre probably going to talk about how many Afghans we can accept before joe public get savvy about the government plans
August 15, 2021
Having had an account for 10 years with Dart Charge, the quasi-public body that operates the Dartford bridge, I had the most annoying service from them when I didn’t use the account for 12 months due to Covid restrictions. They acknowledged that my non-use was probably due to Covid but they would still close my account unless I used it in the next 90 days. I complained about this but they took no notice and still went ahead and closed my account. However, they never told me that they had actually closed my account and I presumed that it was still dormant until I later made a crossing and was then emailed a PCN as I hadn’t paid for that crossing, even though I still had ÂŁ12.23 in the account which I thought I still had with them. I then realised that my account had actually been closed and had to appeal to them to cancel my PCN. They told me that I had to open a new account and send them details so that they could refund me my ÂŁ12.23 from the account they had closed. What an awful mess they made by not showing any flexibility and not cancelling accounts not used during Covid. I don’t see any reason why they needed to close a valid account that held my current payment card details plus ÂŁ12.23 cash. It caused an awful lot of calls to their helpline to sort this out – wasting my time and theirs. A classic case of a fossilised public service that showed no flexibility. I understand that many others got caught out in the same way.
August 15, 2021
Boris has just announced that “no one wants Afghanistan to become a breeding ground for terror”
What right has anyone in the West to demand anything of the new regime in Afghanistan ?
The West, and Joe Biden in particular, lost all rights to comment on what the Afghan government does when it baled out of the country with unseemly haste.
Any unfortunate consequencies are entirely the responsibility of Western governments for allowing a terrorist group to take over the country because they failed to ensure that the Afghan regime they supported had enough backbone to maintain order.
August 16, 2021
How could they âensure they had enough backbone to maintain orderâ? Send them on SAS courses in the Brecon Beacons? Send them to a public school and flog them a bit?
Given we actually have no way of controlling things on the ground in Afghanistan, surely all we can do is explain to their leaders that, if they allow terrorists to operate in their country, we wonât invade again, weâll send them back to the Stone Age they want to live in.
August 15, 2021
SirJ I watched your interview tonight on GB News â and I saw a Prime Minister in waiting, you knew your subjects, you didnât waffle, you came across honest with purpose & pride
Please get on with it and start ruffling a few feathers
August 17, 2021
We don’t want highly toxic digital water.
August 17, 2021
Using the online DBS service when your passport has expired… not good.
It found my driving licence details but every attempt to get a second form of ID failed, despite the fact that other credit agencies can pick them up just fine.
Having to take documents to a Post Office is not how it’s meant to work.
I’ve changed my view on ID cards over the years – I relly think it’s time we introduced them – apart from the ease with which we could prove identity, it would also stop the attraction of the UK to illegal immigrants which is they can blend in and no-one can tell that they are illegal, since we have no mandatory form of ID.