Software giant Palantir snubs ‘undemocratic’ digital ID scheme
The US-based company, which had been touted as a potential bidder, said that it would not seek any contracts around it
Global Witness* and Neck Dearden can stop hyperventilating. Because they really were lining up to say that the only thing wrong with it is that the American hypercapitalists would steal Our Data.
*They might be Global Justice Now by now.
Well, the petition had about as much effect as expected.
Government response boils down to “we’re doing it anyway, so fuck off”.
That’s the same response they give to all these petitions. Very occasionally parliamentarians take a different view but with this collection of performing seals on the green benches I’m not holding my breath.
I don’t suppose many people thought the government would immediately back down. But let’s wait and see. It will worry Labour MPs in fringe seats, and every single person who signed and gets told to fuck off will be stronger in their contempt for Starmer.
2,759,493 signatures now and still going up rapidly. Possibly enough to affect views in some marginals, especially where Labour are up against muslim savages. That’ll cause some people to pay attention, especially if Nige decides to run with it, because as is painfully, risibly obvious, as usual, Nige sets the agenda and everyone else lashes around, helplessly.
It’s weird how our politics are now all tidal locked in an unwilling gravitational dance around the inescapable coalescing mass of Reform. Everything the current politico-media biosphere does now is with a side eye on Nige.
That’s a rather big change in under 12 months, no? Preference cascades and you. People used to say “what will Rishi do?”, but nobody ponders Kemi Badenoch. The Tories finally got their inevitables, after several election cycles of betraying and defying the people who voted for them, they’re now the Opposition in name only. Most of their MP’s will lose their jobs to Reform at the next election and they know it. Nobody thinks of the Conservatives as the alternative to the present government, they provide no leadership on any issue, Reform – for now – has the mandate of heaven.
Looking at the map the number of people who signed it in my constituency is larger than the majority of our MP.
Got a link to the map please, M25?
Uh, I suppose I could read the page and see the link staring at me…
Interested gets it. Demand a referendum.
I don’t think Starmer cares about your contempt.
You’re not his constituency anymore. You stopped mattering when you gave up your guns. Its the Muslims that matter now.
Palantir knows what a balls-up it’d be and is wisely staying well clear.
This….
I very much doubt Palantir would give two shakes about any “undemocratic” issues, but there’s literally no solid idea what/where to build this from, what should be included, and how it should be rolled out.
And that’s before the Meddling, Mission Creep, Revisions, and handbrake 180’s…
You can pretty much guarantee that whatever they *can* build would not be what the Pointy Haired Bosses want. Even if it actually is what was specified.
So they wisely pass on this one, because it’s a no-win gambit.
Won’t come by my desk, but if it did I’d advise “No Bid” due to the reputational and commercial risks, and inevitably high cost of bidding for something like this. But Crapita eats this kind of shit for breakfast. The usual perennially crap big government outsourcers will queue up for this, and at the backend it’ll all be vibecoded by the cheapest people from India willing to photocopy a degree from the Mumbai Institute of Technology. I predict hilarious cyber security and GDPR incidents to come.
I fear you are correct. The only bidders will be people who bid for anything. It will be a race to shovel taxpayers money into bags labelled “Swag” before it gets canned.
That makes sense. Palantir is Peter Thiel’s outfit. He’s one of the good guys.
Indeed. I can’t see Peter Thiel signing up for all the DEI bullshit that will be needed just to bid let alone implement the project should they win.
The DEI stuff will also be why the project will fail.
To give them credit, Palantir are quite keen on only doing “good stuff”, so supporting repression is not their bag. That’s part of the reason the Left hates them so much: they stepped in to support various military functions where the left had got Google to bycott them.
Translation: we think wed have to spend a fortune on bidding, blah blah blah, and it’ll probably go nowhere.
No-one that is doing software for the state has any scruples at all. If you did, you wouldn’t do it. I know that if I do a government project, there’s a 50% chance of it being a bonfire of cash. But as the voters won’t listen to me, someone has to have that money and it’s me, Capita, Accenture. At least the code sat on a server doing nothing will be good code if they hire me.
Tim, as I was googling ‘Was Richard Murphy indirectly responsible for the Manchester Synagogue attack’ last night, surprised you haven’t seen his current post ‘The fatermath of the Manchester Attack’ yet.
But I will not support the Israeli government’s actions when they are wrong. At present, they are pursuing a genocide. That government’s policy – not that of Jews, even if they all happen to be Jewish – is racist and fascist. And it is not in any way antisemitic to say so.
It actually is anti-semitic to single out Israel as it’s the solely Jewish state. If I’d heard a word from you condemning The Attacks on the Rohingya in Burma or the Actions of renegade groups in the DRC or the Yemen then you might have a case but you haven’t therefore one can only conclude that your disapproval of actions is coloured by political considerations.
In that case, to suggest that because of this wholly unjustified attack, which I condemn absolutely, I am no longer allowed to point out that the actions of some people are wrong is discriminatory, a denial of my human rights, and a denial of reality, because that genocide is happening, and many people died as a result of it in Gaza yesterday.
I’ve got a right to quote the ‘Protocols of the Elders of Zion’ goddamit and anyone who says otherwise is ‘denying my human rights’
Saying that does not make me an antisemite, as that politician on Channel 4 last night implied. It reflects the fact that I respect the rights of all Jews to be treated equally in this world, as I respect the rights of all others to be treated in the same way. I cannot be an antisemite for upholding Jewish rights. Those who say I am are the real antisemites: they are saying the Jews are different, and that I will not stand for. Jews are people, like all other people. They are not better, worse, or different. They are people to be judged as all others are.
Yes – and of course Hitler was a zionist. Israelis are Nazis, blah, blah blah
There’s more in a similar vein. Worth a look although would understand if you feel its been done to death.
Anti Semite blames murderous Muslim attack on non-Israeli Jews on Israeli Jews
In other news….
Killing 0.9% of a population does not a genocide make. More than that die each year of old age.
VP you will be astounded to hear that the British government decided to let a man whose literal first name is “Jihad” move here and acquire British citizenship “as a young man”. Somebody in the Home Office thought “hmm, yes, we do need more Jihads in England.”
Maybe that’s the ticket for immigration applications, change your first name to “Rape” or something.
“They are people to be judged as all others are.” I wonder if that’s why he hates the repeal of DEI. He wants people judged not on the content of their personal character but on a collective characteristic.
Toytown Austria-Hungary will introduce it’s “digital wallet” from next year I understand.
Free for all “European citizens” where you can store your entire life, down to every time you scratch your arse, on your phone. Not compulsory of course (this is toytown Austria-Hungary ) and nobody will ever require it except for screamingly obvious reasons of convenience.
I’m just amazed that the euro whores didn’t just say they would adopt this.
Palantir can spot an opportunity to lose money and trash your brand over a project that’s destined to be cancelled in disgrace.
Let me ask you a question, Blokes. Consider how angry you, and people you know, are about Two Tier and his government.
Now ask yourself: who’s going to comply? Serious question, because I don’t think this is going to be like face masks. Nobody’s gonna believe ID cards are to save gran. Foolishly, Two Tier has created a policy focus for opposition to his government to rally around, whereas previously it was rather diffuse discontent around immigration and the economy.
I’m gonna make a bet that, especially after the lockdowns, ID cards are gonna be as popular as a cup of sick, and there’s going to be millions of noncompliers. It’ll be a cool new trend on social media, #IDFREE.
This is Sir Keir’s poll tax, he’s chosen the form of his own political destruction.
Yes, its going some to manage to get pretty much everyone, Left and Right, to agree on something, and give them all a popular position to campaign against you on. And all for a policy that doesn’t have any upside for the party proposing and implementing it. Will it reduce immigration? No, because the illegals will continue to live and work illegally, just as they do now. Will it reduce expenditure on welfare and the NHS? No because they’ve specifically said it won’t be used to gatekeep those items. Its going to be stupid expensive, its going to go wrong and say ‘Computer says no’ to all sorts of people who have never so much as stepped foot outside the country, and it will be subject to a massive campaign of civil disobedience that will force the State to either give up or prosecute millions of people. Its going to be an absolute sh*t show for whoever attempts to implement and enforce it. So what sort of moron thinks ‘I’m deeply unpopular, lets try and do something that is guaranteed to p*ss off even more people?’
Also do they deport illegals now when they catch them? No. So even if ID cards did help them catch more illegals, there’s no point.