UK - England, Wales, N.Ireland, Scotland

[RTH10260]

Passport e-gates back online after outage causes delays at UK airports

11 hours ago
By Michael Race & Katy Austin, BBC News

A "nationwide issue" which caused huge delays at passport e-gates has been resolved, the Home Office has said.

Major UK airports including Heathrow, Gatwick, Manchester and Edinburgh all confirmed a Border Force problem was causing delays with arrivals late on Tuesday.

Pictures and videos on social media showed long queues.

One passenger told the BBC he spent longer queuing for passport control than he did on his flight from Lisbon.

E-gates are automated gates that use facial recognition to check a person's identity and allow them to enter the country without talking to a Border Force officer.

There are more than 270 of them in place at 15 air and rail ports in the UK, according to the government's website, which also says they are supposed to "enable quicker travel into the UK".

Due to the outage, staff were left manually processing passengers instead.

Affected airports included London Stansted, Birmingham, Bristol, and Newcastle.

The Home Office, which oversees Border Force, said in a statement early on Wednesday: "eGates at UK airports came back online shortly after midnight."

A spokesperson for the Home Office said the problems were caused by a "system network issue" and were first reported around 19:50BST, meaning the issues persisted for more than four hours.

They added that "at no point was border security compromised, and there is no indication of malicious cyber activity".

They extended apologies to "travellers caught up in disruption" and thanked "partners, including airlines for their co-operation and support" during the outage.

However, the problem did not appear to not just be affecting the e-gates themselves, as Belfast International Airport, which does not have them, said the Border Force "systems" had been impacted.



https://www.bbc.com/news/business-68972065

[Suranis]

This is a blog post on a Blog about MLMs, but this part relates to the Post Office Scandal in Britain. The first half talks about how the MLM industry was more or less found to be a fraud in the Gerald Ford administration but the powers that be literally buried their heads n the sand about it not least because powerful figures in the MLM industry were part of the Administration, and every administration since has basically done the same thing.

It then goes onto the Post office scandal and how it parallels

https://mlmtheamericandreammadenightmar ... andal.html

This shameful, ongoing American cover-up has remarkable parallels with what has happened in Britain with the Post Office scandal, albeit on a much smaller scale. More than 900 innocent Post Office contractors are known to have been wrongfully sacked, prosecuted, extorted, bankrupted and their lives and happiness destroyed, due to a faulty computer system which they were assured was 'robust,' and which they were obliged to use. More than 230 innocent people were sent to prison. Furthermore, 3500 other innocent sub-postmasters were coerced, by the threat of sacking (which also meant the loss of their initial investment) and criminal prosecution, into paying the Post Office significant sums of money (in some cases over £100 000) which they were falsely-accused of stealing. The effectively-valueless software - known as 'Horizon' and which cost UK tax-payers one billion £ - made it appear that all these thousands of honest people were liars and thieves. The true scale of the damage caused by the Big 'Horizon is robust' Lie, is incalculable, because, obviously, it wasn't just the innocent sub-postmasters whose lives and happiness were destroyed by it. Yet, no independent quantifiable evidence existed to prove that any money had been stolen.

The politically-appointed senior management of the UK Post Office, and of the government-backed Japanese commercial company, Fujitsu, that supplied the faulty software, knew the truth, but maliciously hid it to protect their own reputations and financial interests - causing a massive miscarriage of justice to occur and, in some cases, lives to be lost. Perhaps the most- damning evidence proving that the abuse was centrally-directed by the Post Office senior management, lies in the fact that the victims were all fed exactly the same scripted-lies - initially when they contacted the Post Office's 'help-line,' and subsequently, when they faced the Post Office's investigators. They were told individually that the Horizon system was proven to be without fault, in that they alone were the only sub-postmaster in the UK with large sums of money missing. Just like in a totalitarian state, the all-powerful Post Office managers maintained an absolute monopoly of information over their powerless workers, whilst the ruling-regime's closed-logic controlling-narrative, could never be wrong. Thus, any sub-postmaster challenging the Big 'Horizon is robust' Lie, was sytematically branded as 'a liar and a thief.' According to their contracts, sub-postmasters were personally responsible for any losses.

Perhaps the most damning-evidence proving that the abuse was also centrally-directed by the senior management of Fujitsu, lies in the fact that the company is now known to have employed a team of 12 specialists to gain constant remote access to thousands of the sub-postmasters' 'Horizon' accounts. This was a secret attempt to maintain Fujitsu's management's monopoly of information by identifying and correcting the many accounting mistakes, and thus, remove the evidence that the system was fatally-flawed. At the same time, Fujitsu propaganda kept telling the sub-postmasters that remote access to their Horizon accounts was completely impossible.

As it gradually became clear that something must be radically-wrong with 'Horizon,' because hundreds of sub-postmasters were being accused of theft, an all-party group of Members of Parliament was formed to investigate. The Post Office CEO, Adam Crozier, was replaced.

In 2012, a sinister game then began to be played when the new CEO of the Post Office, Paula Vennels (an ordained Minister in the Church of England), began pretending that she too was in search of the truth about Horizon. However, the ensuing independent investigation she organized, but which she and her colleagues tried to limit and stage manage, reveals that just like her predecessors, Paula Vennels was probably only interested in hiding the full-truth, and/or playing for time.

Eventually, when it looked like the Post Office's monopoloy of information could no longer be maintained, Paula Vennels instigated an internal system of dispute resolution, supposedly to compensate the innocent sub-postmasters, but this turned out to be just another cruel charade.

Most of those criminally-responsible for creating, and maintaining, the Big 'Horizon is robust' Lie have finally been hauled before a public enquiry and grilled by lawyers acting for the surviving victims. Some of the most-arrogant guilty parties had to be forced to appear. All of a sudden, their memories of their own abusive criminal roles in these matters have become lost. They have kept reciting the classic phrase, 'I don't recall.' Various current, and previous, UK government Ministers are also implicated for failing to take appropriate action, until public opinion suddenly-shifted and they began to fear for their future electoral chances.

After several years with, little or no, well-informed media interest, Fujitsu and the Post Office's monopoly of information began its slow public melt-down. This was the result of an article by Rebecca Thompson published in 2009 by a specialist magazine, 'Computer Weekly.' That was followed a few years later, by an investigation conducted by journalists from the popular satirical magazine, 'Private Eye.'



Mr Bates vs The Post Office - Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mr_Bates_ ... ost_Office

The award-winning television dramatization, 'Mr. Bates vs the Post Office' (broadcast as recently as January 2024), was the major factor that finally shone a light on the dark truth and forced the sitting Conservative government to take swift appropriate action.

Alan Bates is a financially-savvy, dignified and tenacious former sub-postmaster who, when in 2000, he spotted substantial short-falls in his weekly 'Horizon'-generated accounts, went through all his Post Office transactions with a fine tooth-comb. Alan Bates immediately realized exactly what was going on. 'Horizon' was glitching and duplicating certain transactions making it appear that money had gone missing. He contacted the Post Office with his urgent concerns and, realizing the serious implications, refused to sign any Post Office document which would make him look responsible for 'Horizon's' obvious mistakes. At the same time, he did his best to confront the Post Office bosses with the reality that they had bought a fragile system which could not be trusted, but he met with an inpenetrable wall of organized lying and obstruction. Eventually, Alan Bates was arbitrarily sacked simply for continuing to report the truth, and refusing to be framed. The Post Office counter was removed from his shop, and his initial investment of £60 000 was lost. That didn't stop Alan Bates, because he gradually managed to gather together an alliance of other, equally-determined, and well-informed, innocent victims.

The 'Justice for Sub-postmasters Alliance' eventually managed to take the Post Office to court and ultimately win against all the odds. The initial triumph of the truth in the High Court, opened the flood gates, because the justice system itself then had to confront the shameful catalogue of cruel abuse it had presided over.

Prior to the broadcast of 'Mr. Bates vs The Post Office,' although they were fully-aware that a massive miscarriage of justice had happened, the government Ministers with responsibilty for these matters had claimed to be concerned, but they had done as little as possible to compensate fully the surviving victims and their families.

It looks increasingly likely that a number of current, and former, Post Office and Fujitsu employees are soon going to be charged (at the very least) with the crime of 'conspiracy to pervert the course of justice,' and they will probably be jailed themselves. Alan Bates says he is quite prepared to raise the cash via public appeal in order to launch private criminal prosecutions; that is, if the authorities fail to hold the guilty parties fully to account. The succession of impotent politicians who presided over this tragedy for more than 20 years, of course, will never be held fully to account.

In the meantime, UK tax payers will have to foot the bill for the Big 'Horizon is robust' Lie. Although Fujitsu is ultimately responsible financially. The innocent survivors' criminal convictions have been quashed, but they are still waiting for full compensation. Sadly, more than 30 victims have already died.


David Brear (copyright 2024)


Sub-postmasters, are contractors who have bought a form of frachise from the UK Post Office to operate a local post office business. However, contrary to the vocabulary employed, these take-it-or-leave-it contracts have placed sub-postmasters in the position of dependent employees, rather than independent business owners. Indeed, the Post Office has retained the one-sided right to terminate these contracts, if it is ruled that any of the many terms set out in them, is not being respected by a sub-postmaster.

'Horizon' is the name of a computer software system which the UK Post Office originally purchased at a cost of one billion pounds sterling from the Japanese information technology company, 'Fujitsu.' At the time of 'Horizon's purchase, the government of Prime Minister, Tony Blair, held power in the UK and it was ultimately a government decision.

'Horizon' was supposed to have been acquired for the benefit of sub-postmasters, in order for them to accomplish electronically the laborious day-to-day tasks of running a sub-Post Office (accounting, stock-taking, etc.). These activities previously required hours of paperwork and calculations.

'Horizon' was installed by the Post Office in 1999. Serious problems immediately began to be reported to the Post Office's own 'helpline.' Postmasters were assured that their concerns were being addressed. However, Post Office management not only disregarded these concerns, they also began reciting the Big Lie that 'Horizon is robust,' and they began blaming, and isolating, the sub-postmasters for the accounting mistakes that the faulty system kept producing.

In this way, the faulty Horizon system made it appear that money was being stolen by hundreds of previously honest sub-postmasters, when in reality, this obviously could not be the case. It is interesting to note that 'Horizon' never seems to have made it appear that money was appearing: only that money was disappearing, a fact which seems suspicious to me. That said, the faults in Horizon are evidently only assumed to have been the result of genuine mistakes in the system's development, rather than any criminal activity.


David Brear (copyright 2024)

[Suranis]

This is a 2015 Panorama programme about it, just to show some of the real people who went to prison over this.

[Volkonski]

Rishi Sunak calls UK national election for July 4

https://www.reuters.com/world/uk/rishi- ... 024-05-22/

British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak called a national election on Wednesday for July 4, saying Britons would be able to choose their future in a vote his Conservatives are widely expected to lose to the opposition Labour Party after 14 years in power.

Ending months of speculation as to when he would call a new vote, Sunak, 44, stood outside his Downing Street office in pouring rain and called the election several months earlier than expected - a risky strategy with his party far behind Labour in the opinion polls.

[Volkonski]

Paula Vennels, former CEO of the Post Office, has been testifying this week about her part in the scandal.

She is piece of work.

[RTH10260]

Rwanda flights will not take off before election, says Rishi Sunak
Assertion that flights will not begin until after 4 July poll prompts despair from Tories on right of party

Rajeev Syal, Jessica Elgot and Rowena Mason
Thu 23 May 2024 17.24 CEST

Rishi Sunak has said deportation flights to Rwanda will not leave before the general election, prompting ridicule from Keir Starmer and despair from Tories on the right of the party.

Under the £500m scheme, which is the cornerstone of his government’s promise to “stop the boats”, flights would not start landing in Kigali until “after the election”, the prime minister said.

Sunak made stopping small-boat crossings in the Channel one of his key pledges when he became the Conservative leader. The government had claimed flights would act as a deterrent and would leave from the end of June.

However, a human rights charity and a union have launched fresh legal action against the scheme. Channel crossings are at record highs in the first half of 2024, suggesting there has been no discernible deterrent effect.

Pressed on whether any deportation flights would take off before voters go to the polls on 4 July, Sunak repeatedly said the scheme would get up and running only after the election.

“If I am re-elected as prime minister on 5 July, these flights will go … we will get our Rwanda scheme up and running,” he told the BBC.

Starmer said Sunak had always been aware that the plan, devised two years ago under Boris Johnson, would not work.

“I don’t think he’s ever believed that plan is going to work, and so he has called an election early enough to have it not tested before the election,” the Labour leader said on a visit to Gillingham in Kent.

Tories on the right of the party are frustrated and have said Sunak should have ensured that a plane would land in east Africa before any election date.

One former minister said: “If the PM truly believed in the plan, which ministers have spent so much time getting right, he would have seen it through, whatever it took. Instead, it will be difficult if not impossible to defend because it has not been shown to work.”

Another Conservative said Sunak did not want to take on the European court of human rights, which stopped the last deportation flight to Rwanda in 2022 by issuing a rule 39 injunction.

“The suspicion is that Sunak is worried that Strasbourg would attempt to stop the flights again and is unwilling to ignore their rulings,” they said.

Refugee charities that have been fighting the plan said it was a “dead duck”. Enver Solomon, the chief executive of the Refugee Council, said: “The Rwanda plan will go down in the history of British policymaking as an Alice in Wonderland adventure that was both absurd and inhumane.”

Government lawyers had previously told the high court that the earliest date for flights was the week commencing 24 June.



https://www.theguardian.com/politics/ar ... ishi-sunak

[RTH10260]

Speculating minds may want to suggest that the election was set so to delay the actual implementation of the Ruanda deportation scheme as things were anyhow going bad for the Torries.

[Foggy]

Wait, the horrible delay is from the end of June to the 5th of July? And if he loses the election that prevents a fait accompli? Oh, this is awful.

[RTH10260]

The Guardian has published over the last couple of years an ongoing historical review on slavery, especially with the British historical background in mind.

Revealed: how Church of England’s ties to chattel slavery went to top of hierarchy
Lambeth Palace documents show purchase of enslaved people in 18th century approved by Anglican archbishop

Desirée Baptiste and Jon Ungoed-Thomas
Sat 25 May 2024 17.20 CEST

An archbishop of Canterbury in the 18th century approved payments for the purchase of enslaved people for two sugar plantations in Barbados, documents seen by the Observer have revealed.

Thomas Secker agreed to reimburse a payment for £1,093 for the purchase of enslaved people on the Codrington Plantations, as well as hiring enslaved people from a third party. It was stated the measures were “calculated for the future lasting advantages of the estates”.

The papers are among a cache of documents found in the archives of Lambeth Palace Library which detail the direct links between the Church of England and chattel slavery on plantations owned by its missionary arm, The Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts (SPG).

In response to the Observer’s revelations, Justin Welby, the archbishop of Canterbury, said: “Every new piece of evidence around the Church’s involvement in the slave trade is sobering, and reading that a former archbishop of Canterbury was involved in the purchase of enslaved people is particularly painful.

“It is also a reminder that this work is not finished and there is more we need to do to examine our role in the trade in enslaved Africans, which was a blasphemy against God’s creation in treating men, women and children as less than human.



https://www.theguardian.com/world/artic ... -hierarchy