No surprise for kicking the can (do?) down the road:


Schools in England face years of chaos as government stalls on RAAC concrete repairs
wrote:

Latest figures show more than 230 schools affected by crumbling concrete, but many have yet to be told when rebuilding will begin

Schools forced to evacuate children after finding crumbling concrete could face years in portable buildings and temporary classrooms as the government drags its heels...

What sort of example does that set?...

Enjoy your education yet stay safe?
Martin

---

See new freedom: Mageia Linux
Take a look for yourself: Linux Format
The Future is what We all make IT (GPLv3)

Meanwhile, suffering imprisonment without charge to be bored unto death:



‘Nobody has told us anything’: Bibby Stockholm residents prepare for ‘boring’ Christmas
wrote:

Asylum seekers living on the vessel moored in Portland, Dorset say they expect another ‘boring’ day on the ‘floating prison’...

... asylum seekers on the Bibby Stockholm barge are expecting another “boring” day on Monday – standing in long queues for food they say is inedible, in the cramped accommodation they describe as “a floating prison”.

The controversial Home Office barge, moored in Portland, Dorset, is home to more than 300 asylum seekers...

... Corporate Travel Management (CTM) have been awarded a £22,450,772 two-year contract to manage the barge...

... Those on the barge who are struggling with their mental health say there is a long wait before they can get an appointment with a doctor. “One man who has mental health problems was given a number to call to get help. But when he phoned that number there was no reply,”...

... Leisure facilities onboard are limited and in a poor state of repair...

... The men can leave the site only on specially arranged buses...

... “Nobody has told us anything about any arrangements for Christmas,” one said. “As far as we know we will just be getting the same horrible under-cooked chicken and rice.”...

... “We have to queue for an hour or more to get food and sometimes the food runs out before we reach the front of the queue..."...

... "... for we are indeed imprisoned. I don’t even have access to any supermarket to get food for myself. The amount of food they give us is [only] suitable for a 10-year-old child,”...

... Home Office recently cut the allowance for asylum seekers in catered accommodation to £1.25 a day.

“It is very boring here as always,” said another. “[All news] is hidden from us. Every day, the sense of prison becomes more apparent here and we are more tired and unmotivated.”...

So... That gives a very nice tidy profit for minimum 'slum' care...

Is that Suella Braverman's modern day Oubliette? To be left abandoned forever cast adrift?...


Al in a small patch of UK politics, and people be damned...
Martin

---

See new freedom: Mageia Linux
Take a look for yourself: Linux Format
The Future is what We all make IT (GPLv3)

Japanese vehicle manufacturer gets caught out after 3 decades,

Daihatsu, Toyota's small car subsidiary, shuts down factories due to falsified safety tests.

Daihatsu, a subsidiary of Japanese car maker Toyota, has shut down production lines at all four of its factories as the Japanese government investigates reports the company faked safety test results on some car models for more than 30 years.

The shutdown came a week after the company announced it was suspending all vehicle shipments in and outside Japan after admitting to improper testing involving 64 models.

That led transport ministry officials to launch a deeper probe into problems that reportedly persisted for decades.

So far there have been no reports of accidents or deaths due to the falsified tests.

The stoppage is expected to affect thousands of auto parts makers and their employees, potentially dealing a blow to local economies across Japan.

It is just the latest of a number of safety or other violations revealed to have taken place at at least five of Japan's major automakers in recent years......

And Boeing are at it again on the 737 Max.....
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-67838424

---

Bob Smith
Member of Seti PIPPS (Pluto is a Planet Protest Society)
Somewhere in the (un)known Universe?

What car do you drive?...

Toyota-owned Automaker Halts Japan Production After Admitting It Tampered With Safety Tests for 30 Years
wrote:

... found evidence of tampering with safety tests on as many as 64 vehicle models, including those sold under the Toyota brand...

All for deadly greedy profits?

Stay safe folks!
Martin

---

See new freedom: Mageia Linux
Take a look for yourself: Linux Format
The Future is what We all make IT (GPLv3)

You're 2 days late with that 1 Martin. :-D

Cheers.

Hey! I'm out in the wasteland of the wet windswept desert bereft of good food and culture...

Even the mobile coverage is patchy...

The rest of the world will have to wait my inspection! :-p

---

See new freedom: Mageia Linux
Take a look for yourself: Linux Format
The Future is what We all make IT (GPLv3)

This could well be triggered by a culture that does its best to deny failure. This cultural trait is not unknown in a number of south east Asian countries.

---

Bob Smith
Member of Seti PIPPS (Pluto is a Planet Protest Society)
Somewhere in the (un)known Universe?

... for fear of career ending or even life ending retribution...


Instead:

Enjoy Democracy!
Martin

---

See new freedom: Mageia Linux
Take a look for yourself: Linux Format
The Future is what We all make IT (GPLv3)

Even worse - social rejection of one's entire family by their peers. No trial required (kangaroo or otherwise).

---

Bob Smith
Member of Seti PIPPS (Pluto is a Planet Protest Society)
Somewhere in the (un)known Universe?

And all it took was an un-Australian greedy foreign import to royally screw an iconic Australian brand before doing a runner.

Qantas was once dubbed the “spirit of Australians”, but two years worth of scandals has seen the airline go from an icon to a pariah.

In a few short years, Qantas has gone from one of the country’s most beloved brands to one of the most distrusted.

Fuelled by accusations of ripping off loyal customers in favour of record profits and huge executive payouts, the flying kangaroo is left with a mountain to climb as dissatisfaction turns to uproar and shareholders put the company on notice.

While new chief executive Vanessa Hudson apologised to customers upon stepping into the role in September, there’s a long way to go before Qantas will “get back to the national carrier that Australians can be proud of”.

“I know that we have let you down in many ways,” Ms Hudson said in an apology video to customers.

But with such a huge fall from grace, experts are predicting there’s a hard road ahead if Qantas wants to be forgiven by the Australian public.

HIGH PRICES, LOW SATISFACTION

While consumers have a plethora of reasons they are unhappy with the airline, most of the ire is directed toward the high price of airfares coupled with the reduced number of flights and headaches around queues and baggage delays during post-pandemic travel.

Perceptions of poor customer service, delays, cancellations and rising prices caused the Qantas brand to nose dive, dropping from the ninth most trusted brand in the country to 40th in just three months to December 2022, according to Roy Morgan......

Are you still hiding under a big rock back in Dublin Alan?

... And yet still this decades long running scandal continues...


Post Office scandal TV drama 'like a dream' say victims


People have been killed, other people have died. Yet none of the perpetrators have been jailed...

Indeed, the perpetrators still enjoy their profits...


All in our deadly greedy world...
Martin

---

See new freedom: Mageia Linux
Take a look for yourself: Linux Format
The Future is what We all make IT (GPLv3)

While the scandal has been public knowledge for some time, an ITV drama which aired last week has thrust the issue back into the spotlight.
Speaking to the Today programme, Sir David Davis said the drama had galvanised the response to the scandal. "There are now tens of millions of people who care about this - care a lot. They're furious in many cases."

Sometimes the media can be brutally...

So far, nobody at the Post Office or Fujitsu has been held accountable, although the High Court judge said he would refer Fujitsu to the Director of Public Prosecutions for possible further action because he had "grave concerns" about the evidence of the company's employees.

...effective

Interesting

Jason Coyne, who worked for Preston-based Best Practice Plc at the time, was instructed to examine the computer system called Horizon in 2003.

He said he notified the Post Office the data was "unreliable" but he was ignored, sacked, and then discredited.

... Hopefully, after many years, many news articles, and finally a film, those responsible in the Post Office and Fujitsu will at last be pursued for fraud, perverting justice, and whatever else...

And people have died.


One to watch the politics...

All in our deadly greedy world...
Martin

---

See new freedom: Mageia Linux
Take a look for yourself: Linux Format
The Future is what We all make IT (GPLv3)

Now this report I believe 100% as had personal experience in the past while a postman.
Racism+Horizon=trouble
The main problems stem all the way from Junior to Senior level management.
That seems to have got worse since privatisation.

The Daily Telegraph reports that the architect of Horizon, the faulty software that caused the scandal, has demanded immunity before agreeing to appear at the public inquiry. The paper says Gareth Jenkins's testimony has been delayed twice, and that his request for immunity has been refused twice. It also claims Mr Jenkins told forensic accountants as long ago as 2012 that the IT system could be accessed remotely by developers Fujitsu, despite one of the prosecution's key arguments being that it was tamper-proof. When approached by the Telegraph, Mr Jenkins said: "I don't have anything to say to you".

The Financial Times reports that, since 2019, when the Court of Appeal ruled that it's software had been at fault in the scandal, Fujitsu has been the joint or sole recipient of £4.9bn worth of government contracts, including £3.6bn during Rishi Sunak's time as chancellor or prime minister. A spokesperson for Mr Sunak tells the paper: "Once the full facts have been established by the inquiry we will make further judgments but it's important that we allow that process to take place."

Clear cut case of profits 1st.
The peasants don't matter & they don't mind.

What I find annoying is that this scandal has been ongoing for over 2 decades which the government were well aware of, yet they continue to award contracts to Fujitsu.
Edit.

Scary

Since 2013, the UK government has awarded Fujitsu 191 contracts worth more than £6.5bn, according to the procurement analysts Tussell, including:

£1.1bn with HMRC
£581m with the Ministry of Defence
£476m with the Home Office

Even after the Horizon scandal, its products are deeply entrenched in the government's IT infrastructure.
"Its mainframes have been used for decades at HM Revenue and Customs and the largest department of all, the Department for Work and Pensions, has been pretty reliant on Fujitsu equipment," IT journalist Tony Collins, who has covered the industry for decades, told the BBC in 2022.

This says it all too aptly:

Rishi Sunak finally reacts to the Post Office scandal


And that has killed some of the victims...

All in our deadly greedy world...
Martin

---

See new freedom: Mageia Linux
Take a look for yourself: Linux Format
The Future is what We all make IT (GPLv3)

Reading some of the comments, there sure are a lot of ignorant people out there.
Blaming the Tories & stating that Davis Cameron was aware & had been since he was PM throughout most of it.
Sheesh.
He didn't get into power until 2010.
It was Tony B liar & Gordon Brown in No 10 from 1997 to 2010.

While this on BBC.
Post Office went ballistic in 2015 over Panorama

Edit:
Live reporting on the inquiry by the BBC just restarted after the lunch break by the inquiry.

We are now hearing Jason Beer KC reading from a part of Jackson's witness statement.

It says: "Historic data governance problems, many of which were embedded in the Post Office's data landscape over many years, have risen to the surface under the scrutiny of the inquiry and Post Office's internal and external Inquiry teams."
Jackson says this refers to a 25-year period for the company where, as in other industries, IT was rapidly developing.
He's asked what he means by data governance and Jackson says it means "knowing what is where".
Beer suggest it's about internal standards, policies, how data is stored, processed and retained and should include accountability.
He then presses Jackson to explain the particular data governance problems identified in the Post Office.
Jackson says it can be "summarised as not a full map of systems, and what is where, and how it has evolved over time."

Talk has turned to Mimecast - a company specialising in cloud-based email management - and whether there was a complete repository of Post Office emails between 2012 and 2016.

Inquiry lawyer Jason Beer KC refers to a letter sent in November 2023 from Post Office lawyers Burges Salmon about the migration of Post Office data from email gateway platform Proofpoint to Mimecast prior to January 2016.

That letter states that the Post Office has been unable to establish why the transfer of email data from one platform to the other was not complete - after some emails were found to exist in Microsoft Exchange but not in Mimecast.

The inquiry previously revealed the Post Office had identified more than 300,000 emails from after 2012 that had previously been missed.

Sheesh.

Note that a pilot scheme was rolled out in 1995 and 1996 - and development and planning must have started even earlier than that. It's been described as the biggest UK IT project outside the military: something like that is very difficult to stop once it's been started. As HS2 and Boeing 737 Max have amply demonstrated.

Post Office suspected of more injustices over Horizon pilot scheme