So far, so good. But the whole idea of an hourly wage assumes that people are employed by someone else. Now 15 per cent of the workforce employ themselves
Read in the Independent
Month: March 2019
John Naughton: When new technology goes badly wrong, humans carry the can | John Naughton
A new study has found that we are quicker to blame the operators than complex systems when they fail
Since the 1960s, one of the key developments in making cars safer has been the idea of a “crumple zone”, a part of the vehicle (usually the front) that is designed to absorb the energy from a collision by controlled deformation, ie crumpling. By doing this, the zone protects the most important part of the car – the cell containing the driver and passengers. (If you doubt the effectiveness of crumple zones, by the way, a video made some years ago by the Fifth Gear TV programme makes interesting viewing.)
As the world moves to vehicles that drive themselves, our roads are likely to become safer because most road accidents are caused by driver error. That, at any rate, is the standard spiel of evangelists for autonomous vehicles. There will, they say, be many fewer collisions and therefore less carnage on our roads. Crumple zones will become less necessary, though autonomous vehicles will continue to need them.
I can see corporate lawyers at the big tech companies salivating at the idea of a ready supply of liability sponges
The EU’s decision to stop rescuing drowning refugees shames us all
It was, in reality, inevitable that Operation Sophia, the European Union’s humanitarian policy of rescuing refugees from death by drowning, would soon come to an end.
Apple’s latest attempt to dominate our lives is doomed to fail… thankfully
A fierce battle has been raging for some time in the kingdom of corporate behemoths. Last year, billionaire Jeff Bezos seemed to be the reigning monarch, occupying the throne with his tightening grip on the world of retail, entertainment and – increasingly – finance.
Owen Jones: This defeat is the end of the Brexit PM. Bring on the general election | Owen Jones
Now is the chance to remove the main source of Britain’s worst crisis since the war: Conservative rule
Force-feed them back their words. Theresa May’s deal was “even worse” than staying in the EU, declared Dominic Raab, the Brexit secretary who resigned to oppose a deal he helped negotiate. This is a man who once publicly confessed he didn’t understand Britain’s reliance on the Dover-Calais crossing.
The deal would turn Britain into a “vassal state”, declared Boris Johnson, a man who had penned a column backing remain days before, endorsing leave; it was “about as bad as it could possibly be”.
Owen Jones: Sayeeda Warsi tells Owen Jones: ‘Islamophobia is Britain’s bigotry blind spot’
Tory peer Sayeeda Warsi is one the most outspoken critics of Islamophobia in her own party. She talks to Owen Jones about ‘Britain’s bigotry blind spot’ and the consequences it has for Muslim communities around the country, describes how an anti-Muslim narrative fuels violence and shares her concerns about how complaints are dealt with in the Tory party
The momentum has finally switched to remain – Theresa May has engineered a political sea change
As Boris preaches and the Grand Wizards of the ERG cast spells of disaster on Britain’s embattled prime minister, perpetual chaos continues. But beyond the Westminster soap opera, the national mood is changing
Read in the Independent
‘Children are born without judgement’: Laura Craik on why we must teach LGBTQ issues in schools
Plus the unjust persecution of Paris Jackson and the hunt for Cher’s T-Shirt
Read in the Standard
Owen Jones: Why we need to talk about the media’s role in far-right hate | Owen Jones
Too often the political and media establishment contribute to an environment in which hatred can thrive
When it comes to the threat of Islamist terrorism, no one doubts the role of radicalisation. The internet, hate preachers such as Anjem Choudary and Abu Hamza, and the western-armed, extremism-exporting state of Saudi Arabia: all play their part in radicalising the impressionable. When it comes to the far right, however, this consensus is absent. The reason for this is as obvious as it is chilling: the hate preachers, recruiting sergeants and useful idiots of rightwing extremism are located in the heart of the British, European and American establishments. They are members of the political and media elite.
Less than two weeks ago, dozens of Muslims were murdered in Christchurch. Before the lethal rampage, the shooter is said to have inscribed “For Rotherham” on one of his gun magazines – in reference to the English town’s grooming scandal. In Britain, far-right terrorist attackers have ranged from David Copeland, who detonated a nail-bomb in a Soho gay pub in 1999 after decades of media hatemongering against LGBT people, to the murderer of Jo Cox, whose despicable act was cheered by 25,000 people online, to Darren Osborne, who ploughed his van into worshippers outside a mosque. As one radicalisation expert, Abdul-Azim Ahmed, of the Centre for the Study of Islam in the UK at Cardiff University told ITV news, Osborne’s extremism “also came from the mainstream media. It came from mainstream politicians both here and abroad.”
Related: Tory MP criticised for using antisemitic term ‘cultural Marxism’
Related: Islamophobic attacks in the UK leave Muslims feeling increasingly anxious | Shaista Aziz
