Reply to: AWS profits

[malvolio]

oh, the ironing!

The frustration stems from people routinely claiming political bias when the point is about actions taken (or not taken) by politicians.

It's a bit like saying if you're against illegal immigration you have to be a racist. Pointlessly wrong, and just a way to prove you don't have a counter argument.

[edison]

FFS. Has no-one in government procurement read the US Cloud Act?

People in government procurement think cloud is something that rain comes from.

[sadkingbilly]

Not what I said. Yet again. Your bias over political issues is getting tedious..

oh, the ironing!

[malvolio]

Yes, you're right, in the 70s, Heath caused the 3 day week, and you had to wait 30 years to get broadband installed.

Definitely no responsibility for the state of the UK infrastructure should ever be blamed on private businesses or conservative governments, it's always the fault of evil civil servants, communist labour governments, and regulators who don't do enough. Is that better? Do you know which governments want less regulation, have less concern for the country and only concern to shareholders?

Not what I said. Yet again. Your bias over political issues is getting tedious. Or do you really believe ministers spend their time discussing the minutiae of 100-page contracts and ITTs with service providers before they are awarded? Ministers set policy, which are broad-brush intentions, the detail is passed down to their Departments for implementation.

When you actually understand both realpolitik and how government contracts are drafted and awarded, then perhaps we could have a conversation about what is really the nature of the problem.

Incidentally, Heath called the three day week as a reaction to the strikes the unions were calling across a range of public services. Thatcher gave government to tools to stop that kind of power over national interests. Rayner is now determined to reverse all those changes, despite union membership halving since the 70s (near 14m out of 24m workers then to about 6m out of 30m now and declining). HTH. BIDI.

[WTFH]

BTW, in the 70s we had a three week wait for a telephone and a four week wait for the bedside extension for my other half who was an on call emergency worker. Buy a cooker, wait two weeks for an electrician to connect it. Most of the pubic services worked to the same timescales.

Yes, you're right, in the 70s, Heath caused the 3 day week, and you had to wait 30 years to get broadband installed.

Definitely no responsibility for the state of the UK infrastructure should ever be blamed on private businesses or conservative governments, it's always the fault of evil civil servants, communist labour governments, and regulators who don't do enough. Is that better? Do you know which governments want less regulation, have less concern for the country and only concern to shareholders?

[malvolio]

Wait till you hear about who owned and maintained the water, the electricity, the gas, and the telephones in the UK in the 1950s. All "abdicated" as you put it, under Heath and Thatcher, on the promise of competition, improvement in quality and reduction in cost. Now it's owned by refinanced debt so that managers and shareholders get payouts and UK citizens suffer.

Is that the fault of de-nationalisation or the fault of Ofcom/Ofgem/Ofwat/Ofpiste quangos who failed to regulate the businesses? O that of the civil servants who drafted the contracts who failed to include proper parameters for service delivery?

BTW, in the 70s we had a three week wait for a telephone and a four week wait for the bedside extension for my other half who was an on call emergency worker. Buy a cooker, wait two weeks for an electrician to connect it. Most of the pubic services worked to the same timescales.

[jamesbrown]

I hear AtW profits are up since he opened a soft furnishings outlet next to his kebab shop.

[WTFH]

That's why I said that. If we spent less on getting outside shonky doing the business we could invest more on inside shonky and perhaps get more for our money and systems that fit the requirement.

A long time ago in the 1950's the government built its own data centres and trained its own developers. They had to go to civil servants and ask if they wanted to be this new thing called a programmer. Wonderful things ensued, technology was pushed forward and we produced people with newly required skills. Now we've abdicated that to buying everything, normally from abroad, at great cost to both our current and future prosperity

Wait till you hear about who owned and maintained the water, the electricity, the gas, and the telephones in the UK in the 1950s. All "abdicated" as you put it, under Heath and Thatcher, on the promise of competition, improvement in quality and reduction in cost. Now it's owned by refinanced debt so that managers and shareholders get payouts and UK citizens suffer.

[DoctorStrangelove]

That's why I said that. If we spent less on getting outside shonky doing the business we could invest more on inside shonky and perhaps get more for our money and systems that fit the requirement.

A long time ago in the 1950's the government built its own data centres and trained its own developers. They had to go to civil servants and ask if they wanted to be this new thing called a programmer. Wonderful things ensued, technology was pushed forward and we produced people with newly required skills. Now we've abdicated that to buying everything, normally from abroad, at great cost to both our current and future prosperity

Managed decline, dear boy, managed decline.

After all did you see the boat "we" used in the Med last week? At least it didn't have oars. .

[malvolio]

Blimey, that would suggest a complete loss of understanding of their tech!
How might one even attain that level of complacency ...

Oh I don't know. A lot of the secure systems , especially in the MOD, are built around a Windows NT Server core...

[anonymouse]

Blimey, that would suggest a complete loss of understanding of their tech!
How might one even attain that level of complacency ...

Simple, because it's old tech mainframe, just ignore it. By the next time it comes round again, everybody has moved on. Rinse and repeat.

[Protagoras]

For HMRC to rebuild a mainframe team, they needed to know what courses were required and who could provide such training, because they didn't know.

Blimey, that would suggest a complete loss of understanding of their tech!
How might one even attain that level of complacency ...

[anonymouse]

It would make sense for UK Gov to setup an internal consultancy covering strategy to development and operations.

This would, of course, require significant investment but it should be possible to save a lot of money in the long run if done properly as well as providing jobs for people.

Is Govt even interested in sovereignty, data or otherwise?

The government did have such a department, it was called ITSA, it was given to HP. For HMRC to rebuild a mainframe team, they needed to know what courses were required and who could provide such training, because they didn't know.

[Protagoras]

It would make sense for UK Gov to setup an internal consultancy covering strategy to development and operations.

This would, of course, require significant investment but it should be possible to save a lot of money in the long run if done properly as well as providing jobs for people.

Is Govt even interested in sovereignty, data or otherwise?

[tazdevil]

I can understand that happening. The government / civil service has no contract negotiation skills and a one size fits all approach to drawing up terms.

There was a time when we invested in our own infrastructure and I can't believe we've lost the skills to still do so

That's why I said that. If we spent less on getting outside shonky doing the business we could invest more on inside shonky and perhaps get more for our money and systems that fit the requirement.

A long time ago in the 1950's the government built its own data centres and trained its own developers. They had to go to civil servants and ask if they wanted to be this new thing called a programmer. Wonderful things ensued, technology was pushed forward and we produced people with newly required skills. Now we've abdicated that to buying everything, normally from abroad, at great cost to both our current and future prosperity