Westministenders: Before the Fire Alarm of Rome goes off

[RedToothBrush]

I’m going to keep this one very simple.

THE DEADLINE TO REGISTER TO VOTE IS 22ND MAY.
www.gov.uk/register-to-vote

Postal votes start to go out on 23rd May.

Your challenge is to persuade someone to register to vote or to get someone who is considering not to, to get their arse to the polling station.

Go forth and harass. Especially women and the young.

That’s it. No frills OP.

Thanks woman
I was sat agog at it last night. I woke up this morning to see people saying they agreed with me but also posting at the same time on the bastardised quote that the person who said it is a twat! These people aren't able to join the dots at all because the quote was bastardised by a 'trusted' member of the group in spite of the actual evidence being there.
And that's on a niche small scale.
It makes me worry about my dc when they're older as this will be their world.

Did anyone pick up on the 'rogue' local journo who fielded some tough questions to TM? Obviously she didn't answer, just have sound bites.

I am purposely staying out of the tablet/fudge debate. It gets as heated as scone/scone orjam or cream first

Cream first (= butter substitute) HTH

Small point of order on Scotland and Trident and defence more generally. This is another "difficult" issue for Scottish Labour. Both Kezia and Ian Murray (our one Scottish Labour MP) are pro Trident as are the Unions (jobs and a sense that if the UK is going to have it anyway Scotland might at least get the economic benefit). However the majority of the wider party and the population as a whole are anti-Trident.

On defence more generally there are a lot of ties to the Scottish regiments and depending where you are being viewed as not fully behind them plays very badly - JC's speech yesterday would have played very well but I doubt anyone but political anoraks like me will have seen it, so they will be left with the MSM re-imagining of him as a terrorist / pacifist (no idea how anyone squares the internal logic of that).

Ashcroft has Zac regaining his seat so I think that may be on the "optimistic" side. Frustratingly most of the Scottish seats I looked at were in the "too close to call" - I am not sure he was asking the right questions here.

Probably Hashi . I think we'll have to have a non partisan tasting session to check.

I can't let that fake news go uncorrected!!

Scones are always jam (preferably artisan jam) first and then lots of cream. Otherwise you are sadly skimping on the cream which is the important bit.

Rebel you are 100% correct. The cream also stops the jam sinking into the scone. This is why the lettuce goes on top of a Big Mac (that was my penny drop moment for the week)

Also has to be knob of butter not marg in the tablet.

Artisan has to be clotted cream and then even I can have too much of a good thing.

Bugger. Now I've started something here
On a roll me

If anyone wants me I'll be round at womans taste testing 😂

It makes me worry about my dc when they're older as this will be their world.

I bit of a derail warning, but I do think one of the most important things we should be teaching our children is how to manage their data and identity online, as well as how to navigate the ocean of information now available. They must learn to check sources and how to identify fake news and misinformation. In many respects research skills are now more important than learning rote facts, something I am not sure our education system has caught up with.

I think it has been particularly hard for those who are in their teens now and whose parents have not really got experience of growing up online. They haven't had any guidance on how to manage these dynamics and their parents don't really understand how to support and protect them.

I think it will be easier for my daughter who is now 5 as she will learn from those who have come before and I just about experienced navigating relationships online in my teens (the joys of AOL chat rooms!), so can offer relevant guidance and support.

Agree, Bigly.
Media, legal and digital literacy should replace fairy tales or religion as compulsory subjects.

Do any clever computery posters have any insight into why a NSA stolen hack, should attack the NHS, German railways and currency exchange, when Trump/Russia is exploding and and MLP just lost?

Sorry this is from the fail.

^A global cyber attack using hacking tools widely believed to have been developed by the US National Security Agency and leaked online by a group called the Shadow Brokers has caused chaos around the world.
British hospitals, the Russian government, German railways and big companies like FedEx were among those affected on Friday when they were crippled by the 'ransomware' that rapidly spread across the globe and infected tens of thousands of computers in 99 countries^

Security experts say the malicious software behind the onslaught appeared to exploit a vulnerability in Microsoft Windows that was identified by the US National Security Agency for its own intelligence-gathering purposes.

< tin foil hat on>

DH has Cornish roots so I rest my case. He is now debating with himself on what goes in the pudding end of a pasty.

woman DH is an IT geek. There is a fix to the hack which was available and was applied by his workplace months ago. So the more pertinent question is why hadn't everyone else applied it?

We are the ancient parents of teenagers which is why I interact online, so that I do understand the issues and they trust my input. Our current ongoing debate is on the meaning of "Netflix n chill" - I refuse to believe their re imagining of "chill". (we also have a 5 year old being corrupted by said teenagers daily)

So the more pertinent question is why hadn't everyone else applied it?

It does seem a bit odd:
Rudd says naughty NHS should have followed Mr Hunt's advice:

Amber Rudd admits there is chance not all NHS files are backed up

Amber Rudd told BBC Breakfast she could not confirm that all NHS files are backed up. She said:

I hope the answer is yes, that is the instructions that everybody has received in the past. That is good cyber defence, but I expect, and we will find out over the next few days if there are any holes in that.

Rudd later told Sky News: “It is disappointing that they [the NHS] have been running Windows XP - I know that the secretary of state for health has instructed them not to and most have moved off it

www.theguardian.com/society/live/2017/may/12/england-hospitals-cyber-attack-nhs-live-updates

I agree completely about the clotted cream how about, but am not sure you can have too much of a good thing when it comes to dairy products or wine! (Clearly you can, but...!)

I also agree about the IT teaching. DH is very it savvy so doesn't do any social media he doesn't have to for work. I agree that's probably the best policy but as we have a pre-teen and a nearly pre-teen I'd rather know how it works and how to manage it so I can watch them.

So the more pertinent question is why hadn't everyone else applied it?

I work in an IT job in local government and have been in the public sector pretty much my entire career. The answer to this question is that for the most part those in senior positions in the public sector (including many IT managers) have a horrendous lack of IT knowledge or understanding and in many cases refuse to listen to those that do. They will not give the money or the resource to support work that any sane person would class as essential. Trying to explain these risks to them is like bashing your head against a brick wall. It will though inevitably be the poor sods in IT who have been warning of this for years who will get the blame.

This also the case for the backing up of files. It is a lack of understanding and refusal to realise that this is important and a required task. I have lost count of the number of times I have had to explain the importance of secure systems and backing up information to people when they come to me to complain that their dodgy access database that the work experience kid built them has lost all their data.

To counter the fudge versus tablet schism which is dividing this nation: shortbread. Surely we can all agree on that?

Trying to explain these risks to them is like bashing your head against a brick wall
I'll take my tin foil hat off and do some baking then.

“It is disappointing that they [the NHS] have been running Windows XP - I know that the secretary of state for health has instructed them not to and most have moved off it"

Now to balance out that previous rant I will give a minor defence of the NHS. Upgrading systems is not as simple pressing the upgrade button and getting on with your life. Often their is a myriad of legacy systems that the business is reliant on that will also need upgrading or even replacing in order to be able to continue on the new version of Windows. If the new system is very different you will also need to train all your staff so they can continue to work effectively. This takes a long time, a lot of resources and can be very expensive.

It is a big ask for them to magically upgrade all their systems overnight when they are being cut to the bone. Particularly when everyone is saying how all the back office staff who do all the boring things like manage IT systems and deliver large projects should be sacked because we don't need paper pushers in the NHS. The Government must take their share of the blame on this one.

bigly I was about to post something similar. Not to mention that sometimes rolling out patches or new systems in large organisations is time consuming too, so there's nearly always somewhere with more out of date stuff compared to others. Not to mention when an update proves unsuccessful

There is a good rundown on the WannaCrypt ransomware attack from The Register here www.theregister.co.uk/2017/05/13/wannacrypt_ransomware_worm/

I understand most of it, and I'm not an IT bod. The article also has links to sources with more technical details.

One phrase I would quote from El Reg is this: "..unpatched systems, or ones running legacy versions such as Windows XP, are therefore vulnerable and can be attacked."

A report published in September last year noted that at least 42 NHS trusts were using Windows XP, an OS which Microsoft no longer supports, and were therefore not receiving security updates.

'Particularly when everyone is saying how all the back office staff who do all the boring things like manage IT systems and deliver large projects should be sacked because we don't need paper pushers in the NHS. The Government must take their share of the blame on this one.'

^THIS

Agree that the Tory policy of job and funding cuts supported by all the Fail rhetoric about pointless back office managers etc (Partic under Lansley as health sec, when trying to push through the health and social care act) means that the NHS' infrastructure including IT is now worse than creaking at the seams. This vulnerability is inevitable where you have system-wide underinvestment.

The Government must take their share of the blame on this one.'
They won't and will be egged on by the Daily Heil and Co.

Sack the backroom staff - they're not needed.

Hang on, how come no one updated the computers?

What do you mean medical staff or admin aren't IT experts?