Conservatives erase Internet history

[ttosca]

The Conservative Party has attempted to erase a 10-year backlog of speeches from the internet, including pledges for a new kind of transparent politics the prime minister and chancellor made when they were campaigning for election.

Prime minister David Cameron and chancellor George Osborne campaigned on a promise to democratise information held by those in power, so people could hold them to account. They wanted to use the internet transform politics.

But the Conservative Party has removed the archive from its public facing website, erasing records of speeches and press releases going back to the year 2000 and up until it was elected in May 2010.

It also struck the record of their past speeches off internet engines including Google, which had been a role model for Cameron and Osborne's "open source politics".

And it erased the official record of their speeches from the Internet Archive, the public record of the net - with an effect as alarming as sending Men in Black to strip history books from a public library and burn them in the car park.

cont'd

www.computerweekly.com/blogs/public-sector/2013/11/conservatives-erase-internet-h.html#.UoOBWozVPl0.twitter

Notice OP conveniently cherry-picks what they want from the Register article and ignores all mention therein (and in other posters' messages) of the fact that Labour has done exactly the same thing? Just puts 'Toryscum Toryscum Toryscum' on repeat and tries to drown it out, I guess.

At least if the politicos did manage to erase the internet we'd be spared all this wretched copy and paste.

Notice how Bob cherry-picks what I write in my posts?

You can go back and read what I wrote, or I will repeat the relevant line from my last post:

"There is no 'conspiracy' involved. Even the ever-sarcastic Register calls it out for exactly what it is: Political parties removing previous speeches where broken promises were made, in the run-up to the upcoming elections."

Also, Bob, when Labour, or whichever neo-liberal party is in power next, you can be sure that I will spend just as much time criticizing them as I do with the Coalition and Tory scum.

It's not about playing teams, it's about holding power to account.

'it's about holding power to account'

But you haven't mentiond the EU once!

Have the EU erased their internet history too then?!

I'm sure those neo-Liberals are quaking in their boots! That endless copy n' paste speaks truth to power and no mistake.

But the question is will you ever work out that by banging on over and over and over about 'Tory scum' you are preaching only to the converted? You'd think it was obvious...

Bob-

The point of discussing things in a forum is not to make those in power 'quake in their boots'. The point is to discuss, debate, and raise consciousness about what is being done in our name.

The 'quaking in their boots' bit comes later, at election time, or when the public decide they've had enough and take to the streets.

If you don't think pointing out the corruption of our elected officials is important, than just ignore threads where this takes place.

claig-

Primarily because it's not the EU which is the greatest threat to people's livelihoods in the UK today, it's the Tory government.

It's not the EU which is responsible for the huge rise in foodbanks, it's the Tory scum.

It's not the EU which is responsible for killing thousands of disabled people, it's the Tory scum.

It's not the EU which has brought in a tripling in the rise of tuition fees to £9000, it the Tory scum.

It's not the EU which has sold off the Royal Mail, it's the Tory scum.

It's not the EU which is slowly dismantling and privatising the NHS, it's the Tory scum.

It's not the EU which has overseen the greatest wealth disparity in the UK since the Victorian age, it's the Tory scum.

It's not the EU which is responsible for making unemployed people work for free at poundland, and thereby depressing wages generally, it's the Tory scum.

It's not the EU which has removed income support for some of the most vulnerable people in society, including cancer patients and people on their deathbed, it's the Tory scum.

It's not the EU which has sent out racist SMS messages and racist billboards telling people they're 'not welcome' and to go home, thereby fostering a culture of racism, it's the Tory scum.

It's not the EU which has made cuts to legal aid, which the Bar council says: put "cuts before justice", It's the Tory scum

It's not the EU who oversaw the London riots in which frustrated youths with no hope and no future set London alight in anger, it's the Tory scum.

It's not the EU who are trying to bring in new 'anti-social behaviour' which are so widely defined that they can basically used by the police to arrest anyone at any time for potentially causing 'annoyance', it's the Tory scum.

---

These are just some of the things that come immediately to mind and after 5 minutes of Googling.

The coalition has been absolutely disastrous for the UK and anyone who believes in democracy, fairness, and justice.

If you want to bring up issues with the EU, go ahead. The Tories are the biggest problem, as far as I see it.

They have to find cuts and the progressive elite does not want to touch the bilions of foreign aid, so they instead force cuts on some areas of the public.

New Labour would not do dramatically differently.

Both Conservatives and New Labour are part of the progressive elite and their policies don't differ that much. They are both constrained by EU laws and follow a neoliberal globalisation agenda pushed by socialist EU puppets of big business.

They have to find cuts

Not true. They should collect tax from those corporations who avoid it by closing loopholes and banning shell companies. Combine that with an end to bailing out banks and we won't need to cut services.

Yes, but big business pays the piper and calls the tune. They can't bite the hand that feeds them. Same as the socialists and the EU socialist political class. They all do what the bankers say.

The only opposition to the bankers and their centralized control of Europe, along with their austerity, comes from the right. UKIP are against bank bailouts for some European countries and want them to be allowed to leave the EU in order to be able to recover with their own currencies.

The EU socialists are worried about the impending European elections in May, because populist parties are growing all over Europe and right wing, populist, anti-establishment, anti-banker parties may end up making up about 30% of the EU Parliament. That will throw a huge spanner in the EU socialists', bigwigs' and big business system.

It was the same in America. The only opposition to the bankers and bank bailouts was the Tea Party. Three years later, the left wing billionaires funded the Occupy movement in order to pretend that they were against the bank bailouts. But it is a false movement funded by socialist billionaires to perpetuate the control of the banking cartel.

Remember what our Occupy movement descended into. A discussion about the discrepancy of earnings between workers and bosses *not even in banks), and bigwigs and Church of England types and socialists and do-gooders discussing it on our news channels, which ended up with nothing being done about wage disparity and which was a diversion from what the bankers were doing.

I read they removed info from their website, I had no idea they tried to delete from the entire internet. No mention in the news Labour had done the same.

The progressive elite and their business controllers, just like the Marxists, have always been dismissive of the 'Poujadists', the small business class, the middle class and bourgeoisie, because the Poujadists represent the view of many ordinary people and not of the progressive elite.

From the Financial Times

"By seizing a quarter of the vote in local elections this week, the UK Independence party has stamped its image on British politics in a manner comparable to populist, anti-establishment movements across continental Europe. There is a rising possibility that Ukip and like-minded parties will ride a wave of discontent with political elites, economic distress and immigration to achieve a breakthrough in next year’s elections to the European parliament."

www.ft.com/cms/s/0/cb629c44-b3f9-11e2-ace9-00144feabdc0.html#axzz2khXV2uil

From the Economist

"The rise of populists is a threat both to the euro and to the EU as a whole.

EUROPE HAS A dissonant new voice. Anti-Muslim, anti-elite, anti-globalisation and increasingly anti-Brussels, populists now count for something in the Nordic countries, among the Dutch and Flemish, in France, Italy and Austria, and in parts of eastern Europe. They come in many varieties, but all claim to represent what Pierre Poujade, France's original post-war populist, called “the ripped-off, lied-to little people”.

www.economist.com/node/21536873

www.economist.com/node/21536873

“the ripped-off, lied-to little people”

They are the squeezed middle amd the progressive elite has ignored them for years.

The only opposition to the bankers and bank bailouts was the Tea Party. Three years later, the left wing billionaires funded the Occupy movement in order to pretend that they were against the bank bailouts. But it is a false movement funded by socialist billionaires to perpetuate the control of the banking cartel.

Rubbish. 30 seconds on an internet search brings up this Forbes article proving what I was going to post. The Tea Party was set up and funded by the Koch Brothers, a mega rich bunch of crooks. So the Tea Party are shills for corporations with vested interests. Those against bank bailouts come from both left and right, socialist and capitalist. Those for it are neoliberal corporatists.

The Occupy movement has been terrorised by police action. Those same police who are supposed to be looking after the interests of the people, not the corporations. When the new law, which makes just about anything a potential annoyance, is passed it will effectively outlaw any form of protest.

claig the EU has done more to curb the bankers and fund managers than the Tory government ever would. They are trying to curb top bankers' bonuses and salaries, especially when these banks are failing their customers (opposed by the UK) ; they are trying to increase transparency and tighten up regulations on investment funds (google AIFMD, opposed by the UK) ;

The UK's adherence to the ECHR is also under threat, due to the Tories - and no, they wouldn't replace it by something just as good, otherwise why withdraw (I don't think they actually will, but it's mooted as a possibility).

The EU would like to ban the outrageous roaming charges which the pobile phone providers use to rip off the customers. The British government are against this too.

Very many of the Tory policies are being highly criticised by EU partners, even those who are all for austerity. They are dangerous, and believe me, if it wasn't for the EU they would have gone further. And they couldn't give a flying fuck about the so-called squeezed middle, and if ever Farage got into power (which he won't) he wouldn't give a toss either. Like they don't care about the working classes, unemployed, disabled, elderlý children, etc etc etc.

Back to the thread subject. I wasn't aware Labour had done the same. Is there a piece anywhere which confirms that?

And another thing: if TAFTA is ratified by the EU you can wave goodbye to democracy, because corporations will be more powerful than government. For instance, if Labour get in and freeze energy prices, TAFTA gives the corporation power to reclaim those lost profits from taxpayers. It indemnifies them against loss, which is not free trade and is not capitalist. Look it up, it's scary.

The Tea Party was not created by the Koch brothers. Many people think it has been co-opted by the Koch brothers who gained an increasing influence on the original populist movement.

In the same way, UKIP wasn't created by capitalists, as it is against their banking cartel control of a centralised Europe and against the socialists who support it.

'Those against bank bailouts come from both left and right, socialist and capitalist'

The only first original political movement against the bailouts came from the right, because the socialists are part of the progressive elite. Read the FT, read the Economist. The only threat to the bankers' cartel comes from the right, not the puppets of the left.

Of course, the elites will try to co-opt populist movements and change them in order to neutralise their opposition and of course the elite socialist billionaires will create phoney movements and phoney issues (climate change etc) in order to divert people from the real issue of banker control of Europe.

'Those for it are neoliberal corporatists.'
Yes, they are the progressive elite, and the only real poitical opposition to them are populist political movements, not establishment socialists with PPEs and pension perks who parrot the party progressive line.

"The Occupy movement has been terrorised by police action."

Yes, because the Occupy movement is a pawn of the plutocrats who funded it, just as the climate catastrophe campaigners are unknowing pawns of the elites who fund them in order to destroy growth and limit the life chances of the people. Again the only political opposition to their elitist progressive policies are parties of the people like UKIP and the other Poujadist populist movements who don't believe in the climate lies or the lies of the bankers.That's what has got the elitists and some at the Economist and the FT worried.

Some of the elitists and socialists are worried that the game is up, that the 'Poujadists' have cottoned on to their lies and they no longer want to be “the ripped-off, lied-to little people”.

I don't see that getting through as it stands atm. I don't know much about it but there is too much at stake which outweighs the benefits. It's strange that most of the information I can find on it is on blogs and not in the mainstream press, either side of the Atlantic.

Petite, this is something about Labour deleting some of their speeches etc
Apparently, they did it first.

order-order.com/2013/11/14/labour-delete-entire-history-pre-2010-from-website/

claig have you read the English translation of 'Indignez-vous!' Worth a read I think you would like it. Or in French of course, I think you speak some french iirc.

Thanks claig. Not a fan of that site (too Tory) but there is an interesting point made in the comments. Labour can't break promises made as they are not in government. It is the next election campaign promises which count.