BT confirms removal of Huawei 4G equipment

[badass]

It is - when you reject a regulated system used for the protection of this country and its law abiding citizens for one that is unregulated and dedicated to industrial and military espionage against this country, affecting the economy and indirectly your security, safety and wealth.

You beat me to it!

Sometimes we need to get some perspective.

[badass]

And I’m sure the Chinese intelligence services are very grateful to to. Pity Snowden didn’t reveal Chinese/Russian activity rather than betraying is own country and putting the lives of his fellow countrymen at risk.

Not sure I agree with the betraying his own country bit. Perhaps he was, but then again, the part of his own country was betraying its people. Perhaps we could call it a partially justified betrayal.

[badass]

It is. China can't prosecute/persecute UK citizens for wrongthink. China is only really interested in state level information.

They might not prosecute. Just manipulate instead like Russia does. Secondly, China and Russia is interested in individuals. Just not all. There are a large number of people that are in positions where they interact/have influence over government and/or national infrastructure. You don't know how useful you could be. There are plenty of examples but members of this board are generally a smart bunch and can probably work out plenty of scenarios where individuals could be targeted in this way.

Used for the detection and prevention of crime - but I guess you think that safety of of the population of London is not worth it.

But if your were hit by a hit and run motorist, I suspect you would be quite pleased if the incident was fought on CCTV leading to a conviction and compensation.

TBH in my experience, CCTV has been a complete and utter waste of time, effort and money due to general incompetence and resourcing. Footage always seems to either have been wiped due to age at the point an investigation began or not working.

It does, too many people brainwashed into unwarranted suspicion about things ranging from smart meters to mobile phones. The threat isn’t from the state, it’s from organised crime. The brainwashing/conspiracy theory power of (anti) social media.

The threat from organised crime is far, far greater than any from the state, however with the state having such unrestricted access into everyones privacy and politics being so fickle, there is always a future threat that something you do that harms no one is the subject of some kind of moral panic or other and becomes illegal retrospectively for example. Sound paranoid? Just look at what's going on with tax right now. Schemes that were legal in the past have been ruled tax avoidance schemes and tax has been retrospectively applied. Whether you agree with tax dodgers being punished or not, the point is that people are being punished for doing something that was legal at the time.

[Moonister]

We don’t know how many acts of terrorism or other crime was prevented by law enforcement agencies and the consequent cost saving.

I agree with you to some extent about pollution and social issues - congestion charges and the promotion of EVs is being used to address those issues, and the spending on social care is increasing. But crime prevention is important for all levels of society and the homeless are particularly vulnerable.

Crime prevention and national security is important. I agree with you. However, full blown intrusion of privacy and distrust we have right now isn't a way forward. Not to mention there is a clear link between poverty and crime rates as well as invading someone's country to seize its natural resources and then dealing with disgruntled people of that country coming in and blowing things up - "lock'em up" Trump's mantra isn't going to take us far.

Congestion charge these days is nothing more than another income stream for the government just like "sugar tax". If CC was withdrawn today I would still not drive to central london because there is too much traffic. I actually doubt it makes any measurable difference in terms of reducing the traffic since roads are / will be jammed packed anyway. We need to "quit" fossil fuels and substantially improve public transport. Black cabs running on diesel, 4x4, and busses - just unacceptable. While oil pigs laugh all the way to the bank. Half hearted promotion of EVs - these are baby steps. We're not going to "save our planet" by only doing weekly recycling "bit" - we need stong and decisive actions where it really matters. Air quality in London is really bad and deteriorating. I live in London so am familiar with the issue e.g. every single day there is a long queue of black cabs iddling outside the King's cross station while cabbies read earlier mentioned gutter press. The council displayed a drawing done by children saying something along the lines of "stop iddling...it's bad for our lungs" - sweet but clearly ignored.

[Moonister]

We don’t know how many acts of terrorism or other crime was prevented by law enforcement agencies and the consequent cost saving.

Exactly...we don't know.

Yet there are many things (problems) we do know yet willingly ignore because it's not entertaining enough

[Andeh13]

It is a sad state of affairs when I actually would rather have a foreign agency snoop on my data than my own govt.

What an odd thing to say!