Notices by Emeritus Prof Christopher May (chrismayla6@zirk.us)

If you are a Lloyds Banking customer you might be interested to know that one part of their strategy to become more profitable is to greatly expand their commercialisation of (anonymised) customer data.

This is to say, that while they're making money out of the interest they charge you they're going to use their data about your use of their services to make more. As with many firms, you're not so much a customer, as an (unwilling?) asset to be exploited.

#banking #privacy #politics
h/t FT

@gemlog

No, but a lot has happened in the five years since I retired & stopped reading/watching so widely as I did

@dlakelan @dalias @GhostOnTheHalfShell @karlauerbach @elfin @HarriettMB

Surely that's where judicious use of the hashtag comes in?

@dlakelan @dalias @GhostOnTheHalfShell @karlauerbach @elfin @HarriettMB

Hmmm.... is that right?

Hardly surprisingly given Brexit, the UK remains outside the EU's designation of 'made in Europe' that will likely govern the sales of fleet & electronic cars in Europe.

Nissan have observed that should the UK remain outside that designation, they would move production out of the UK (and other car manufacturers would likely do the same).

No doubt the UK 'negotiators' will be trying to gain such designation; their problem: we need it, but the EU really is quite ambivalent

#EU #politics
h/t FT

So, Matthew Swindells (a senior NHS official - joint chair of four NW London NHS Trust) urged his colleagues to put more patient data into Palantir's patient record system, at the same time that he was a paid consultant for Palantir.

Once again, the privatisation of NHS functions is riddled with conflicts of interest; the move to private provision is hardly a 'reasoned' decision but rather is the result of the corrupt purchase of influence.

#NHS #politics #Palantir

h/t FT

Alan Beattie (FT) on geopolitics:

'Few governments will weep for Iran’s regime, but they see how the US weaponises the dollar system to punish countries it dislikes....the more that the dollar is used as a tool of coercion, the more other nations will seek alternatives....

Trump seems intent on trashing more than half a century of US leadership of the world economy.... Other governments are entirely sensible to detach themselves before they become collateral damage'

#geopolitics #Iran #Trump

@gemlog

Old habits die hard (even 5 years into retirement)

So, today the Home Office revokes its (EU-derived) statutory duty to provide asylum seekers with support & accommodation and introduces only conditional (means tested) support... for those having waited for over a year for their asylum claim(s) to be assessed, they will be allowed to seek employment but (!) on gaining any work, they will then fail the means test for state support.

Yup, Labour brutality towards refugees just got (even) worse.

#refugees #politics

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2026/mar/04/asylum-seekers-allowed-to-enter-uk-jobs-market-under-new-measures

I've said before that the rise of a politics based on feelings rather than evidence is one of our key problems... and if you wanted further proof of this proposition:

Yesterday, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said Trump had a 'feeling' Tehran was going to attack US interests!

So people's lives have been sacrificed on the basis of the Tangerine Tyrant's capricious 'feelings'.... we really are on the road to hell.

#USPol #Iran #Trump

h/t FT

Rand (the strategic think tank) have four scenarios for the immediate domestic political future of Iran:

1. The (remaining) leadership 'dig in' resulting in a continuation of domestic repression;

2. The leadership 'cut & run' leaving a power vacuum;

3. The Revolutionary Guard step up & impose a military Junta of some sort;

4. A popular uprising asserting a new Iranian political settlement.

These are, of course, not mutually exclusive!

#Iran #politics #democracy
https://theconversation.com/who-or-what-will-replace-irans-supreme-leader-ali-khamenei-274753

Manchester-based RISE have just published a report on the impediments & discriminations suffered by working class artists & art workers.... which includes this brilliant summation from one interviewee:

'Its not a meritocracy, its a mirrortocracy'.

Commissioners & institutions hand out money to those who look (and speak/act) like themselves, reinforcing the class dimension of the UK arts scene!

Its more than this but this a big factor!

#arts #UK #class
h/t Art Monthly
https://www.riseassociates.co.uk/downloads/ClassCeiling-Digital.pdf

One more aspect of the UK's barbarity is the handcuffing of pregnant women (often to male prison officers) when having vaginal examinations *and* during birth. If you're surprised at this, you'll be shocked reading the accounts in this article.

James Timpson (Prisons Minister) has requested an urgent review of the practice, but seemingly as yet no funding has been allocated - so we can see how seriously the Govt. takes this issue, ehh?

#prisons #women

https://www.theguardian.com/society/2026/mar/04/the-scandal-of-women-handcuffed-while-in-labour-i-was-so-shocked-when-the-restraints-werent-removed

Just in case the Labour Party leadership were in any doubt, Zac Polanski has said (in light of the tripling of the membership of the Green Party of England & Wales in six months):

'Let me be absolutely clear: Greens are not here to be disappointed by Labour, but to replace them. We will not wait politely for change; we are building it. This membership surge proves that the future of progressive politics belongs to the Greens'!

#greens #politics #GPEW

https://greenparty.org.uk/2026/03/01/the-green-party-of-england-and-wales-surpasses-200000-members/

You'll recall that Brexit was meant to allow us to 'control' our borders, and you may also know that the checkpoint for imported meat products is 22 miles inland from Dover; drivers are required to drive to the checkpoint to have their shipments checked for compliance & disease control....

So, how many of you will be surprised that nearly 20% of shipments never turn-up for inspection, just going straight to their destination?

Not only was Brexit idiocy its also badly managed!

#Brexit
h/t FT

Q. does the Tangerine Tyrant have an endgame in Iran?

Well, little that has been said suggests he has any idea what he expects (or wants) to happen once the war is 'won' (if it ever is)....

This is declaratory politics at a new level: having declared that Iran is a threat that the US needs to neutralise (with the help of Israel & other willing & not so willing allies).... nothing more is required.

Which presents us with the likelihood that things will only get worse.

#Iran #politics #USPol

A Dubai based hedge-fund executive has said to the FT:

No one knew 'you were getting exposed to geopolitics when moving to Dubai. It was not a consideration. People have moved families. This element of concern is new'!

Given the Hedgies are supposed to be the smart guys, how did they miss the Middle East is suffused with global oil politics, and that it has been unstable politically for generations....

Oh that's right; low taxes, folks... it'll all be fine

#politics #MiddleEast #Geopolitics

University Physics depts. are being hit by £162mn reduction of available funds through the Science & Technology Facilities Council (STFC) & a cut of £250mn in UK Research & Innovation (UKRI) funding for science infrastructure projects.

Other subjects (especially those away from the sciences) have been hit by successive budget declines for years, but this reduction in grants/funds from STFC & UKRI implies the university austerity crisis is still deepening.

#universities #politics
h/t FT

In the next weeks we will see an intensification of attacks both on Zack Polanski & the Green Parties, as the Right media realise actually both GPEW & the SGs represent a real challenge to their man Farage delivering the country to the Far Right.

We can expect lies, distortion & extrapolations all intended to demonise the Greens, but given the new social networks the progressive left increasingly uses (like this one) unlike previous campaigns this one may be less successful.

#politics #media

If you didn't expect Keir Starmer to hold the line on non-cooperation with US/Israeli air strikes on Iran, you'll be unsurprised he's now said that UK bases can be used for 'defensive' attacks on Iranian military bases.

And then he used the phrase that UK bases will be used for 'specific & limited defensive purpose'; of course, any similarity to the claims the Tories made about breaking international law is just a coincidence.

Labour's support will further ebb away.

#politics
h/t BBC News