Dom C to 'revolutionize' the yookay's 'knowledge economy'

[Borg Refinery]

I don't think you have a clear understanding of my positions if you think that I want Singapore-on-Thames, which in any case to me has been a discussion more about tax and trade barriers than about knowledge workers.



Oddly, Cummings is the one who wants to portray himself as the hero of the (northern white?) working classes, so they might not be so enamoured to read some of this stuff.  I suppose it's possible that he doesn't like them after all and just wants to fool them into voting for him, but I'm sure nobody would ever be that cynical.



I actually think, and always thought, it was questionable to run our manufacturing industries down so massively and try to become a specialised knowledge economy, which is what New Labour seemed to want.  However also recognised that we are operating in a real world environment, and there are a lot of complex levers at play.  For example, when we were much bigger in the automotive industy, I seem to recall that we were actually just not very good at it - our vehicles were simply inferior to what other countries were making.  



This though is exactly what I feared - many of the hard line Brexit folk have sold their ideas to certain portions of the UK population as a pig in a poke.  It's well documented that during the 2016 referendum campaign, the Brexit campaign went around the UK telling each area what they wanted to hear - they went to the North East and told them Brexit would mean all the factories and mines re-opening again, they went to the rural South  told them that Brexit would mean the UK would keep out all foreigners and become the ruler of the waves.  They went to the rich and told them it would mean they didn't have to pay any taxes or be held accountable for scorched earth economic policies.  



As I said on previous Brexit threads, I got the impression (and again I admit this is a generalisation) that half the Brexiteers wanted to make the UK Singapore-on-Thames, and the other half wanted to bring back (or create new version of) the 1950s industries.  They can't both get what they want.

Fair enough.

I don't disagree with some of Cummings's thoughts.



Eg The general public's grasp of numbers is very bad



However I get the impression he thinks he is cleverer than he actually is. He seems enamoured with obscure theories and desperate to be the person who "zigged" when everyone "zagged". He also has an unhealthy disregard for rules and procedures.



If he was simply one advisor amongst many to an intelligent and principled politician who could filter out his good points and control his worst instincts some real good might come from his ideas.



Under the cover of a weak and detail adverse politican who can't separate out the wheat from the chaff, he's a disaster.



Also he seems to have a very unhealthy obsession with eugenics.

He thinks he's a silicon valley genius when he's just not, as we've clearly seen.



As for your "the public are completely thick" stuff, that just puts you more and more into the stereotype you've created for yourself...

Having read that link, having heard that he wants to find the one person in 10,000 who is actually truly great at project management, and give them the job currently handed by fifty dickheads who do not know their arse from their elbow but sit in glass palaces like Filton Abbey Wood and trust me, are the shittest of the shitheads, I am ecstatic.

The only person who doesn't know his arse from his potato of a head is Dom and the proof is in the govt's results on anything you care to mention up til now.



Beetlejuice laments the public's grasp of numbers, but neglects stuff like this -



https://immigrationnews.co.uk/tory-maths-government-statistics-dont-add-up/">https://immigrationnews.co.uk/tory-math ... nt-add-up/">https://immigrationnews.co.uk/tory-maths-government-statistics-dont-add-up/



They are innumerate. They are incompetent.

[johnofgwent]

Javert ought to be pleased.

Having read that link, having heard that he wants to find the one person in 10,000 who is actually truly great at project management, and give them the job currently handed by fifty dickheads who do not know their arse from their elbow but sit in glass palaces like Filton Abbey Wood and trust me, are the shittest of the shitheads, I am ecstatic.

[johnofgwent]

As an addendum, we did/still do have a version of ARPA/DARPA.  It was/is DERA/Kinetiq.

Aren't they a private company now ?

[Borchester]

Related:



https://bylinetimes.com/2020/06/10/whitehall-analytica-dominic-cummings-shake-up-of-the-british-state-gathers-pace/">https://bylinetimes.com/2020/06/10/whit ... hers-pace/">https://bylinetimes.com/2020/06/10/whitehall-analytica-dominic-cummings-shake-up-of-the-british-state-gathers-pace/



Javert ought to be pleased.



Isn't this what you want? A silicon valley obsessed Elon wannabe who transforms the yookay into "singapore-on-Thames" with a full knowledge economy where all the idiots who don't get it, get put out to pasture and we eliminate useless sectors like fishing, agriculture?



https://www.google.com/amp/s/metro.co.uk/2020/03/01/top-government-aide-said-britain-doesnt-need-farmers-fishermen-12327758/amp/">https://www.google.com/amp/s/metro.co.u ... 27758/amp/">https://www.google.com/amp/s/metro.co.uk/2020/03/01/top-government-aide-said-britain-doesnt-need-farmers-fishermen-12327758/amp/



It sounds like you have more in common with him than you'd care to admit..

Dom Cummings is a bit of a dick. Boris likes big projects because, well, they are big, so Dom plays along. But I think that DC seems to have forgotten that his real job is to massage the flow of information and to act as the PM"s fall guy. If push comes to shove Boris will drip sympathy and dump DC like a hot spud.



Money spent on research is never wasted, but Singapore's success isn't based on computers or banking or the manufacture of tin cans but Change Alley, where the locals would happily sell you the rope to hang yourself with a discount for cash.

[Javert]

Related:



https://bylinetimes.com/2020/06/10/whitehall-analytica-dominic-cummings-shake-up-of-the-british-state-gathers-pace/">https://bylinetimes.com/2020/06/10/whit ... hers-pace/">https://bylinetimes.com/2020/06/10/whitehall-analytica-dominic-cummings-shake-up-of-the-british-state-gathers-pace/



Javert ought to be pleased.



Isn't this what you want? A silicon valley obsessed Elon wannabe who transforms the yookay into "singapore-on-Thames" with a full knowledge economy where all the idiots who don't get it, get put out to pasture and we eliminate useless sectors like fishing, agriculture?



https://www.google.com/amp/s/metro.co.uk/2020/03/01/top-government-aide-said-britain-doesnt-need-farmers-fishermen-12327758/amp/">https://www.google.com/amp/s/metro.co.u ... 27758/amp/">https://www.google.com/amp/s/metro.co.uk/2020/03/01/top-government-aide-said-britain-doesnt-need-farmers-fishermen-12327758/amp/



It sounds like you have more in common with him than you'd care to admit..

I don't think you have a clear understanding of my positions if you think that I want Singapore-on-Thames, which in any case to me has been a discussion more about tax and trade barriers than about knowledge workers.



Oddly, Cummings is the one who wants to portray himself as the hero of the (northern white?) working classes, so they might not be so enamoured to read some of this stuff.  I suppose it's possible that he doesn't like them after all and just wants to fool them into voting for him, but I'm sure nobody would ever be that cynical.



I actually think, and always thought, it was questionable to run our manufacturing industries down so massively and try to become a specialised knowledge economy, which is what New Labour seemed to want.  However also recognised that we are operating in a real world environment, and there are a lot of complex levers at play.  For example, when we were much bigger in the automotive industy, I seem to recall that we were actually just not very good at it - our vehicles were simply inferior to what other countries were making.  



This though is exactly what I feared - many of the hard line Brexit folk have sold their ideas to certain portions of the UK population as a pig in a poke.  It's well documented that during the 2016 referendum campaign, the Brexit campaign went around the UK telling each area what they wanted to hear - they went to the North East and told them Brexit would mean all the factories and mines re-opening again, they went to the rural South  told them that Brexit would mean the UK would keep out all foreigners and become the ruler of the waves.  They went to the rich and told them it would mean they didn't have to pay any taxes or be held accountable for scorched earth economic policies.  



As I said on previous Brexit threads, I got the impression (and again I admit this is a generalisation) that half the Brexiteers wanted to make the UK Singapore-on-Thames, and the other half wanted to bring back (or create new version of) the 1950s industries.  They can't both get what they want.

[papasmurf]

Also he seems to have a very unhealthy obsession with eugenics.

The Tories and the "elite," always have had  a very unhealthy obsession with eugenics.

[BeElBeeBub]

As an addendum, we did/still do have a version of ARPA/DARPA.  It was/is DERA/Kinetiq.

[BeElBeeBub]

I don't disagree with some of Cummings's thoughts.



Eg The general public's grasp of numbers is very bad



However I get the impression he thinks he is cleverer than he actually is. He seems enamoured with obscure theories and desperate to be the person who "zigged" when everyone "zagged". He also has an unhealthy disregard for rules and procedures.



If he was simply one advisor amongst many to an intelligent and principled politician who could filter out his good points and control his worst instincts some real good might come from his ideas.



Under the cover of a weak and detail adverse politican who can't separate out the wheat from the chaff, he's a disaster.



Also he seems to have a very unhealthy obsession with eugenics.

[Borg Refinery]

Cummings wants to replicate ARPA in the UK. He already has an agenda on what it will do and how it will be run.



EXCLUSIVE WHITEHALL ANALYTICA – THE AI SUPERSTATE: Part 2 – Is COVID-19 Fast-Tracking a Eugenics-Inspired Genomics Programme in the NHS?

Nafeez Ahmed



In 2018, he wrote a 47-page document concluding that a British ARPA would cover research into "machine learning, robotics, energy, neuroscience, genetics, cognitive technologies... and, crucially, funding what now seem 'crazy' ideas just as the internet and quantum computers seemed 'crazy' before they became mainstream".



Cummings added: "There should be a systematic improvement in the ecosphere of school curricula, universities, venture capital, high skilled immigration policy, planning policy, tax policy, the structure (and incentives) of public companies, intellectual property law (which in important ways supports rent-seekers and undermines innovation and is particularly badly understood by politicians/officials)... We could play an extremely valuable role as an experimental testbed for scientific regulation outside all three major blocks (USA, EU, China) without having to obey awful EU rules like GDPR."



The Prime Minister's chief advisor also wants to change the culture for MPs and Whitehall decision-makers as part of the project – ending a system which has stayed impartial for a century-and-a-half. Cummings famously said that he aimed to replace them by "hiring data scientists, project managers, policy experts, assorted weirdos... who have a one in 10,000 or higher level of skill and temperament".



"Our technological civilisation should aim for very widespread literacy in quantitative reasoning about risk and uncertainty (>2/3 of the population?). Now, three-quarters of MPs cannot answer a very basic probability question like the odds of tossing two heads in a row. Performance is so low and ignorance so vast that there is a lot of low hanging fruit. It has been shown how children can master statistical reasoning to a far higher level than the normal politician and even better than expensively trained doctors who mostly fail quite basic tests of statistical expertise related directly to their core work."

Related:



https://bylinetimes.com/2020/06/10/whitehall-analytica-dominic-cummings-shake-up-of-the-british-state-gathers-pace/">https://bylinetimes.com/2020/06/10/whit ... hers-pace/">https://bylinetimes.com/2020/06/10/whitehall-analytica-dominic-cummings-shake-up-of-the-british-state-gathers-pace/



Javert ought to be pleased.



Isn't this what you want? A silicon valley obsessed Elon wannabe who transforms the yookay into "singapore-on-Thames" with a full knowledge economy where all the idiots who don't get it, get put out to pasture and we eliminate useless sectors like fishing, agriculture?



https://www.google.com/amp/s/metro.co.uk/2020/03/01/top-government-aide-said-britain-doesnt-need-farmers-fishermen-12327758/amp/">https://www.google.com/amp/s/metro.co.u ... 27758/amp/">https://www.google.com/amp/s/metro.co.uk/2020/03/01/top-government-aide-said-britain-doesnt-need-farmers-fishermen-12327758/amp/



It sounds like you have more in common with him than you'd care to admit..