UK Politics Thread: Conservative Losses in Local Elections

[Minoa]

We literally keep this information in publicly accessible books in libraries in NZ. I mean, the scale and ease of use of the data is enormously different but...

The UK has two registers. The open register was always public but not everyone's there. The electoral register that includes everyone is supposed to be private and only accessible by select groups such as campaigners.

And also council town halls and selected libraries (as far as I know about Islington).

[Forsher]

Catastrophic PSNI blunder identifies every serving police officer and civilian staff with 345,000 pieces of data, prompting security nightmare

The PSNI just accidentally released information on every single one of their officers, support staff and even some civilians that work with them. What area they are based in, their name, their rank, what type of work they did, id numbers etc

Jesus fucking christ

Would that sort of information not be available through a freedom of information request? None of it seems super confidential.

I'd be very surprised if it was.

There is a conceivable public interest in knowing if the police have a surveillance team on top of a building overlooking a public park, say. However, under what possible situation would the public need to know (a) the names of the officers in that team and (b) how to contact them?

The information might not be that finely detailed, but there's still no material reason to know who the vetting officers in Belfast are or how long they work etc on an individual level. There is a huge difference between knowing, and I'm making up the numbers, that the twenty Belfast based vetting officers work 47 hours a week on average, and knowing that Orla Cunningham worked 52 hours, Liam McCool worked 42 hours etc. etc.

[Tinhampton]

Would that sort of information not be available through a freedom of information request?

Yes. The PSNI leak came after somebody used an FoI website to request a statistical breakdown of the PSNI hierarcby. For whatever reason, they decided to name every single active-duty member of PSNI as well as their ranks alongside that for a few hours.

[Forsher]

Would that sort of information not be available through a freedom of information request?

Yes. The PSNI leak came after somebody used an FoI website to request a statistical breakdown of the PSNI hierarcby. For whatever reason, they decided to name every single active-duty member of PSNI as well as their ranks alongside that for a few hours.

The names and locations do not appear to have been part of the request. In order to produce the requested information, someone had to take an internal file with the microdata necessary to calculate the requested information. The microdata was then mistakenly requested:

The FoI request had asked the PSNI for a breakdown of all staff rank and grades.

But as well as releasing a table containing the number of people holding positions such as constable, the PSNI included a spreadsheet.

Of course, maybe someone could have requested the names but given the way that article is written is basically "expect some dead police officers in the next year or two", I doubt it.

[Celritannia]

The Bibby Stockholm: the Langham Family and their right wing links

[British Arzelentaxmacone]

As soon as I read the first line and saw the word ‘UKIP’, I sighed deeply.

[Philjia]

The first minister of Wales Mark Drakeford will leave the Senedd by the next election in 2026.

[Tinhampton]

Full list of UK public sector data breaches since Tuesday lunchtime:

Electoral Commission compromised (names and addresses of all registered voters 2014-22, and details of anyone who emailed the Commission, made accessible; this was not a leak and there are no files)
PSNI responds to FoI with TMI (police force published - and then retracted - initials and corresponding ranks of all serving officers on What Do They Know)
Smaller, more detailed PSNI leak emerges (a spreadsheet containing full names of 200 of the ~10,000 PSNI officers was published after a police computer was stolen)
NRS publishes details of every single adoption in Scotland, ever (this information was on an NRS-run website called Scotland's People for a long time until an unsuspecting foster mum in central Scotland complained)

It is currently Wednesday evening

[British Arzelentaxmacone]

Yes i did hear about the Scotland Data Breach. Particularly shocking, considering the fact that it follows a slew of other data breaches since Tuesday, as you mentioned. I’m not about to get on my tin foil hat, but it is strange that all of these breaches have occurred over roughly 2 days, and in rapid succession of each other. Weird.

[Ifreann]

Full list of UK public sector data breaches since Tuesday lunchtime:

Electoral Commission compromised (names and addresses of all registered voters 2014-22, and details of anyone who emailed the Commission, made accessible; this was not a leak and there are no files)
PSNI responds to FoI with TMI (police force published - and then retracted - initials and corresponding ranks of all serving officers on What Do They Know)
Smaller, more detailed PSNI leak emerges (a spreadsheet containing full names of 200 of the ~10,000 PSNI officers was published after a police computer was stolen)
NRS publishes details of every single adoption in Scotland, ever (this information was on an NRS-run website called Scotland's People for a long time until an unsuspecting foster mum in central Scotland complained)

It is currently Wednesday evening

By Friday Charles will be photographed with his PIN written on the back of his hand.

[Fartsniffage]

Full list of UK public sector data breaches since Tuesday lunchtime:

Electoral Commission compromised (names and addresses of all registered voters 2014-22, and details of anyone who emailed the Commission, made accessible; this was not a leak and there are no files)
PSNI responds to FoI with TMI (police force published - and then retracted - initials and corresponding ranks of all serving officers on What Do They Know)
Smaller, more detailed PSNI leak emerges (a spreadsheet containing full names of 200 of the ~10,000 PSNI officers was published after a police computer was stolen)
NRS publishes details of every single adoption in Scotland, ever (this information was on an NRS-run website called Scotland's People for a long time until an unsuspecting foster mum in central Scotland complained)

It is currently Wednesday evening

By Friday Charles will be photographed with his PIN written on the back of his hand.

I remember working in a Barclaycard call centre best part of 20 years ago. Customer called up for a PIN replacement to be sent out. Asked me to pass on a suggestion for an area on the back of the card similar to where you would put your signature for her to write down her PIN so she didn't forget it.

[Ifreann]

By Friday Charles will be photographed with his PIN written on the back of his hand.

I remember working in a Barclaycard call centre best part of 20 years ago. Customer called up for a PIN replacement to be sent out. Asked me to pass on a suggestion for an area on the back of the card similar to where you would put your signature for her to write down her PIN so she didn't forget it.

Genius idea. No possible downsides.

[British Arzelentaxmacone]

I remember working in a Barclaycard call centre best part of 20 years ago. Customer called up for a PIN replacement to be sent out. Asked me to pass on a suggestion for an area on the back of the card similar to where you would put your signature for her to write down her PIN so she didn't forget it.

Genius idea. No possible downsides.

Security 1000

[Dumb Ideologies]

I think we should put all the information inside a big vault secured with unreadable text captchas and that plastic food packaging that is meant to easily tear open.

[British Arzelentaxmacone]

Ladies and gentlemen, our problem is solved.

[Fartsniffage]

I think we should put all the information inside a big vault secured with unreadable text captchas and that plastic food packaging that is meant to easily tear open.

I think we should put all the information inside an FOI vault that only you are allowed to access. And it's all about bungalows.

[Dumb Ideologies]

I think we should put all the information inside a big vault secured with unreadable text captchas and that plastic food packaging that is meant to easily tear open.

I think we should put all the information inside an FOI vault that only you are allowed to access. And it's all about bungalows.

No I don't know how many affordable rented chalet bungalows have been permitted within the built up area of Upper Lattesbury since 1974.

Please stop asking.

[Hurdergaryp]

I think we should put all the information inside an FOI vault that only you are allowed to access. And it's all about bungalows.

No I don't know how many affordable rented chalet bungalows have been permitted within the built up area of Upper Lattesbury since 1974.

Please stop asking.

The questioning will continue until answers given are considered acceptable.

[Fartsniffage]

I think we should put all the information inside an FOI vault that only you are allowed to access. And it's all about bungalows.

No I don't know how many affordable rented chalet bungalows have been permitted within the built up area of Upper Lattesbury since 1974.

Please stop asking.

Not until it breaks you....

[The Blaatschapen]

*Cries in Northern Irish*

I wish to declare my intention to run for the Northern Ireland Assembly at the next election. I would prefer to run for Alliance, the SDLP, or the UUP, but I'm open to offers.

The pay is attractive, and the current workload seems compatible with my continuing to perform my current professional role in Great Britain.

Go for sinn fein MP in the British parliament, it probably pays more for the same workload.

[El Lazaro]

I wish to declare my intention to run for the Northern Ireland Assembly at the next election. I would prefer to run for Alliance, the SDLP, or the UUP, but I'm open to offers.

The pay is attractive, and the current workload seems compatible with my continuing to perform my current professional role in Great Britain.

Go for sinn fein MP in the British parliament, it probably pays more for the same workload.

Since they don’t claim the seats, they aren’t allowed to claim the salary.

[Emotional Support Crocodile]

Why do dumbass councils keep approving housing developments on flood plains?

Plan for 'affordable' 100 home Leicester estate gets green light

[The Archregimancy]

I wish to declare my intention to run for the Northern Ireland Assembly at the next election. I would prefer to run for Alliance, the SDLP, or the UUP, but I'm open to offers.

The pay is attractive, and the current workload seems compatible with my continuing to perform my current professional role in Great Britain.

Go for sinn fein MP in the British parliament, it probably pays more for the same workload.

Alas, no; those seven Sinn Féin MPs are expected to actually work. Michelle Gildernew, for example, is a member of the party's national executive, and its cross-border health spokesperson. Meanwhile, Paul Maskey works for the Fáilte Feirste Thiar / Welcome to West Belfast tourist promotion body for free. The whole point of this is to be paid for not doing any work, not to do unpaid work.

On that basis, getting elected as a backbench MLA looks much more attractive.

[The Huskar Social Union]

Arch is in the Ra

[The Huskar Social Union]

New poll shows a Labour landslide victory with around 460 seats

New polling – given exclusively to Channel 4 News – shows a Labour landslide victory with around 460 seats and the Conservatives reduced to 90 seats – if there were an imminent general election.

Poll by Find Out Now UK and Electoral Calculus.

LAB: 461 (+258)
CON: 90 (-275)
SNP: 38 (-10)
LDEM: 37 (+26)

Now i doubt the Conservatives would fall that low unless something like Girlboss Liz Truss takes over as PM again but its still another point towards a grim result for the Tories.