The UK Post Office should at least have considered open source software for Horizon to enhance transparency, empower users, and avoid vendor lock-in, which could have prevented or mitigated the scandal’s impact. People like Richard Moorhead, Christopher Hodges, Alan Bates, and the long running Computer Weekly coverage all underscore the need for transparency and accountability, indirectly supporting open source principles, although direct advocacy is rare. For future systems, the Post Office and similar organizations should prioritize open source to prevent such injustices.
The establishment narrative often focuses on individual accountability rather than systemic issues like software design. But this overlooks how proprietary systems enabled the Post Office to deflect responsibility.
Open source software aligns with ethical principles of justice, autonomy, and resource stewardship, making it a compelling alternative for future public sector IT projects.
Thoughts?!
I’m not British. There are many things that I admire about the United Kingdom.
This is the nation that produced Agatha Christie, Jane Austen, George Orwell, JK Rowling, The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, Elton John, David Attenborough. Led Zeppelin, Aldous Huxley, JRR Tolkien.
But the one thing that disturbs me is the unbelievable level of corruption.
In Britain, political parties can raise millions of pounds from one single individual. Private corporations, including foreign corporations, are allowed to give large amounts of money to political parties. Several members of the UK parliament currently work as consultants and lawyers for large corporations such as Thames Water or HSBC. This is all legal.
Compare this to France.
In France, no individual is allowed to give more than 7000 pounds to a political party. Corporations are banned from giving money to political parties. Members of parliament are all banned from having second-jobs. And if you break these rules, an independent agency (HATVP) has the power to criminally prosecute you.
Why did France pass these tough rules ? Huge corruption scandals
France had one President (Nicolas Sarkozy) sell access to his donors
We also had one powerful MP (Francois Fillon) taking a second-job as a lavishly paid consultant for huge corporations
When the French media revealed these scandals, the French political class was so embarrassed that it actually forced them to take action.
The British had similar corruption scandals.
David Cameron was caught selling access to Downing Street in exchange of money:
https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2012/mar/26/david-cameron-private-dinners-tory-donors
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/politics/david-cameron/9168388/Cash-for-access-David-Camerons-private-dinners-for-donors-revealed.html
Boris Johnson was also caught selling access to Downing Street in exchange of money:
https://www.ft.com/content/8c6041ff-a223-43e9-9e45-53c3f7cf47f7
Yet the British political class did… absolutely nothing !!! No reform…
Similar scandals have led to completely different legislative outcomes.
In Britain, the rot runs deep.
The name “Perfidious Albion” is more than 800 years old. You should not be surprised by our bullshit.
I’m not surprised by your bullshit, on topics of Russia, Ukraine, Hybrid Warfare on Lemmy media systems, psychological operations of Cambridge Analtycia, all that bullshit you are wanting concealed.
“Vladislav Surkov is the deputy prime minister of the Russian Federation and chief of staff of the Russian Government. He oversees a large array of government initiatives, including in area of innovation, education and culture. He is a trustee of the Skolkovo Fund and chairman of the Board of trustees at SkolkovoTech, and is actively involved with the government initiative to create a technology innovation park and ecosystem in Russia. Prior to his appointment at the Russian Government, Mr Surkov was the deputy chief of staff of the Russian President. He is widely attributed to the creation of the “Sovereign Democracy” concept in the last decade.” - London School of Economics and Political Science. May 1, 2013
“Vladimir Putin, Conservative Icon. The Russian president is positioning himself as the world’s leading defender of traditional values.” - By Brian Whitmore. December 20, 2013. "Vladimir Putin is calling on the conservatives of the world to unite—behind him. The Kremlin leader’s full-throated defense of Russia’s “traditional values” and his derision of the West’s “genderless and infertile” liberalism in his annual state-of-the-nation address last week was just the latest example of Putin attempting to place himself at the vanguard of a new “Conservative International.”
:::: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I0fGxujeJbY ::::
The Punk and the Godfather: “You Declared you would be Three Inches Taller…” - 1973
… “Donald Trump doesn’t appear to measure up to Prince William’s 6′ 3″ Photos of Trump standing alongside Prince William Saturday suggest that the incoming president may not be as tall as he has claimed”.
::: _____________
“Британские учёные из Cambridge Analytica предложили сделать из 5 тысяч существующих человеческих психотипов - “идеальный образ” возможного сторонника Трампа. Затем… положить этот образ обратно на всё психотипы и таким образом подобрать универсальный ключик к любому и каждому.”, “Как сделать так, чтобы даже люди не говорящие на языке друг друга, могли бы обмениваться информацией быстрее всех, понимать друг друга с полуслова, чувствовать тренды и влиять на их развитие?”, “Дальше оставалось только загрузить эти данные в информационные потоки и социальные сети.”
Going into unrelated discussions and replying with the content of different threads does not support your claim you aren’t astroturfing, otherwise why would you be trying to harrass me on irrelevent parts of the platform?
You admit that you do bullshit, as you are doing on Lemmy to me. it isn’t unrelated, that’s your failure to use associative thinking.
I’m not harassing you, you are a bully who found an autistic person you found to be “weak” and “alone” and I’m commenting that the bully on Lemmy is proud that “we” are “bullshit” in UK. You analyze my behavior, found me to be isolated and weak, and reported to have me shut down, because you sensed my autism spectrum disorder and extreme brain damage caused by Cambridge Analytica psyops.
It isn’t irrelevant, you don’t grasp or failed to recognize associative thinking. You want a very narrow and controlled use of free Internet social media systems, so you try to shut down what you can’t relate to or find challenges to mass mind manipulation by people like Edward Bernays, Vlad Surkov, or entire firms like Cambridge Analytica.
::: _____________
“When making choices, neurotypical people can be very sensitive about how a question or choice is presented or framed. Most people prefer an outcome that is presented in a positive light as opposed to a negative light, even if the two choices are identical.”… “Associative thinkers see relations and connections everywhere and tend not to categorize things. When I hear or read a certain word, I suddenly see a lot of “pictures” in my mind that have something to do with that word. This happens in quite an unstructured and even chaotic way. It’s a complicated spiderweb of memories, pictures, and thoughts.” - page 19, Casey “Remrov” Vormer, Connecting With The Autism Spectrum: How To Talk, How To Listen, And Why You Shouldn’t Call It High-Functioning
Disengage, we already have a thread for this.
I don’t understand, You admit that you do bullshit, as you are doing on Lemmy to me.
What I see you doing is every time I communicate in public, you want me shut down and to not be able to communicate. That seems your agenda.
Transphobe Island