Wannacrypt,a story

The NSA’s hack on old Microsoft operating systems is weaponised and released to the internet, most publicly massively impacting the UK’s NHS, which had taken the decision not to move forward from Windows XP, a product for which support by its authors ceased in 2012. This was meant to be quick and a source list for a blog article, but as ever it took too long.

This is a storify I made at the time and have transferred it to this blog and published as at the date created. …

Oops

Jeremy Cliffe, Berlin Desk Chief of “The Economist” reports on the state of “negotiations” between the UK and the EU27, the remainder of the EU. It’s not pretty.

 …

Racism in culture & politics

Racism in culture & politics

Two stories, one personal and one public showing the endemic racism in the UK in Thatcher’s ’80s and wondering how much things have changed. Originally posted as a storify, rescued and back dated to the original date.

The personal story related to watching an episode of Minder, “Poetic Justice, Innit!” and the endemic, unnecessary casual racism within it. This was cross referenced with yet another shock story of racists in the Tory cabinet.

The Minder episode was published a year after the Brixton riots, and the video copy on youtube, pointed to in the story is no longer available there. The story was made in 2017, posted here in 2020 and backdated to the date of its first publication.  …

Crisis in Catalonia

Crisis in Catalonia

I made a storify about the Crisis in Catalonia when the Spanish Police disrupted the Referendum in Catalonia. This story includes an article by Owen Jones and two by Craig Murray, together with one or two other articles that I hoped might help me understand what was happening. I transferred this to the blog, as at the original date of publication, once Storify announced they were abandoning the service.  …

No safe space

No safe space

I made a storify after the election, and its terrorist disruption about the, mainly Tory response in blaming the internet. I don’t make the point that the Northern Ireland “troubles” were pre-internet but I do talk about the Tories, and May’s instinctive response is to censor and silence dissidents. I also point to Amnesty International’s critical report on the UK’s surveillance laws. I transferred this to the blog, as at the original date of publication, once Storify announced they were abandoning their service.

 …