Theresa May Reshuffles Cabinet, Warns Amazon and Google of Power Shift (arstechnica.co.uk)

An anonymous reader writes from a report via Ars Technica: British Prime Minister Theresa May has given a stern warning to big business, telling the public to "think not of the powerful, but you." Specifically, she singled out Google and Amazon for dodging taxes and creating a lot of parliamentary scrutiny. Ars Technica reports: "May has been quick to stamp her brand of conservatism on her party by letting go of key members of Cameron's cabinet. She has so far sacked big hitters such as chancellor of the exchequer George Osborne, justice secretary Michael Gove, and culture secretary John Whittingdale. Philip Hammond now has the keys to Number 11, but we're still waiting to hear who will replace Whittingdale, whose remit included the rollout of super fast broadband in the UK. He's also the man behind the White Paper on the future of the BBC, which sought radical changes at the public service broadcaster. So far, 10 cabinet positions have been announced by May. They include Justine Greening as secretary of state for education, and Liz Truss becomes justice secretary, while former London mayor and key Brexit campaigner Boris Johnson -- to the surprise of many -- now heads up the foreign office. May has handed her home secretary job to Amber Rudd -- who will now be responsible for the government's push for greater online surveillance laws. Rudd was previously the minister for energy and climate change." David Davis is now in charge of withdrawing the UK from the European Union. David has for many years "opposed the government's attempts to bring in a so-called Snoopers' Charter." Ars Technica writes, "He's also currently suing the UK government over DRIPA -- legislation that was rushed through by the Tories after the European Court of Justice had ruled that the Data Retention Directive was invalid for failing to have adequate privacy safeguards in place."

Comments

Re:She seem like a commie...

[Anonymous Coward]

Conservative doesn't mean wacko like in the US

And it's high time conservatives reclaim the title from the wackos

The British government looks like Duck Soup

[Streetlight]

I wonder if the inner sanctum of Number 10 has lots of doors because it looks like a Marx Brothers movie, particularly Duck Soup. May is Margaret Dumont, , Johnson is Groucho, Chico could be Hammond, and Harpo could be Truss. We need more Marx Brothers for the rest of the bozos. No wonder Cameron hummed with a smile while entering Number 10 to clean out his stuff.

Re:The British government looks like Duck Soup

[MightyMartian]

There is sound logic behind the putting of the chief surviving Brexiteers in senior positions. First of all, May, as a Remainer, is giving them the responsibility to implement that which they convinced a majority of voters to vote for. The intent behind is to heal the deep rifts in the Conservative Party. Everyone knows some form of free movement, like the so-called Norway model, is going to have to be a feature of Britain maintaining open access to the EU (this is particularly true of the City, where the inability to work within the EU financial system freely would likely see a great deal of the City migrate over to the Continent). It will be David Davis, one of the main Brexiters, who will have to negotiate these matters, and forcing him to largely repudiate pretty much every significant Leave stance will be just deserts, not to mention to some extent protecting May from being seen as imposing a Remain agenda. The same goes for Leadsom, who is now responsible for having to either maintain subsidy levels to all this UK farmers who relied on EU subsidies, or explain to all and asunder how Brexit was perhaps not the best idea ever.

Boris Johnson is the best bit, however. He's managed to insult just about every important leader in the Western world, as well as Turkey's Recip Erdogan. His appointment as Foreign Minister means his first few weeks in the position will see his belly get fairly raw by having to crawl up to all those Germans, French, Belgians and others that his band of merry fools compared to Nazis. The intent here is twofold; first of all, she cannot trust Boris on the backbenches, where he's bound to stir up trouble, but she also needs to give him the opportunity to destroy himself, thus making a potential (maybe even inevitable) sacking far easier, and forever rendering him an impotent figure. And, despite his clown's attitude, he is known to have some ability, so maybe, once he's finished kissing ever one of Britain's Western allies' asses, he might even not do a bad job. And, in reality, over the years the Foreign Office's importance has dwindled to some extent, with Prime Minister's tending to manage the more important files, like relations with close allies, off their own desk.

Re:The British government looks like Duck Soup

[MightyMartian]

Actually, what European ministers is said is that Britain cannot expect open access to Europe without free movement, which, of course was one of the chief objects of the Leave camp's ire. Now it will have to be the chief Tory leaders of Leave who will have to negotiate access to European markets, and likely have to accept free movement with only nominal concessions from the EU. In other words, as everyone expected, Britain will now, like Norway, have to accept the most important facets of the Common Market, but has given up any role in shaping the underlying policies, and it will be Brexiters who will have to inform the Eurosceptics.

No wonder Nigel Farage left UKIP. Once the UKIPers find out he sold them all an absolute load of bollocks, they'll want his head.

Re:The British government looks like Duck Soup

[MightyMartian]

Which is why Davis will have to negotiate free movement. It's the only way to save the City, one of Britain's major economic engines. May has a rather black sense of humor, not to mention that she intends to make the chief Tory Eurosceptics abandon every position they ever held. She is going to make them not only pay for Brexit, but make them justify all the steps that need to be taken to repair as much damage as possible.

Re:The British government looks like Duck Soup

[Zocalo]

Yeah, that's my assessment of Boris Johnson's appointment as well. The initial reaction was "WTF!?", which is pretty much the response that dominated the global media coverage of it, especially given that Theresa May's other choices seemed fairly reasonable, but when you think it over the is really just a very well crafted stab in the back for Boris. He claims to be a BrExit supporter (yet didn't actually seem to want to change much, despite his campaigning), so despite any attempts to dodge the bullets by refusing to stand for PM, he's still going to have to either demonstrate some faith in his convictions or take the heat for breaking promises. Then there's the matter of his need to go cap in hand to the various people and cultures he's insulted over the years, and all quite likely under an intense media spotlight.

Frankly, I think this is a brilliant idea by May. She's assigned Boris a position alright, and it's "useful idiot" - someone who is going to be drawing all the media attention, while the real work goes on elsewhere (it's actually Phil Hammond, Liam Fox and David Davis that will be mostly responsible for BrExit). As you note though, despite his reputation as a buffoon, Boris is also generally regarded as someone is also fairly astute, so while this could easily be seen as giving him a rope by which to hang himself, he's also been given an opportunity to actually make it all work. Only time will tell whether this makes or breaks Boris' political career, but I don't think there's much room for middle ground.

Re:The British government looks like Duck Soup

[AmiMoJo]

May is indeed quite devious. I think these threats against big tech companies are just to soften them up for the Snooper's Charter, so they hand over data willingly rather than trying to resist. She has seen how they have been increasing the use of encryption and ensuring that they themselves can't unlock devices, and realizes that prying may be thwarted if she can't make them cooperate.

Re:The British government looks like Duck Soup

[monkeyxpress]

I think that is probably right. I would be scared if I was those companies though. My observations from having to deal with the UK immigration system during her tenure as home secretary, is that she is a populist who will blindly acquiesce to public opinion in order to score points. I don't think she is someone who will try to shape public opinion around her own vision. In a way, this is probably why she is the perfect Brexit prime minister for the conservatives, but it is not really leadership, and shaping Britain according to the braying of the tabloid press might keep her in power, but isn't going to lead the country to a good place.

Will be interesting to see how this pans out.

Translation:

[axewolf]

Google and Amazon are being rebuked for pushing the corruption of society a little too far into the limelight and are to be whipped back into the shadows.

The Establishment is upset at the show they have to put on to make it seem like they are actually changing anything.

All the newest dirtiest business of the international total surveillance state recedes into the shadows of deeper levels of military intelligence.

Nothing really changes and everything continues in the same direction.

Almost all of us continue to be disposable workers that in the advent of the automation of the economy will be targeted by malicious social doctrine to eventually be driven to economic/moral/spiritual poverty and/or sterility and/or suicide.

We aren't meant to last in this society.
Maybe it's just my opinion, but the opportunity turn things around is almost gone, and will certainly be gone at the end of the millenial generation.

Re:Translation:

[Anonymous Coward]

This post sums up exactly what is so bad about cynicism.

Let's start with some political basics. People who have things want to keep those things. People who don't have things, think that they should. Keep those two simple points in mind at all times. It doesn't matter whether for "things", you read "fast cars", or "money", or "power", or "sexual opportunities" - these rules are always valid.

What does "change" mean? It means the transfer of Things from someone to someone else. (It does not mean "creating more Things", that's called "production" and it's the normal, i.e. unchanging, business of any economy.)

In any state of change, there are lots of ways you can divide up the people. You can divide them into "winners/losers", or "leaders/led", or "aristocracy/bourgeoisie", or "establishment/insurgents", or even just "haves/have-nots". All of these divisions are valid up to a point - which is to say, they can all be used to make true and sometimes important observations - but all of them also obscure a very important part of the story. For that part, I'm going to ask you to consider the division between "prepared" vs "unprepared", or "adaptable" vs "rigid".

It should be pretty obvious, then, that the people who benefit from a change are, to a large extent, those who are sufficiently prepared/adaptable for it. Everyone else will either lose, or at best tread water.

What kinds of people do you think are prepared for Brexit? Clue: it's the people who've had the most leisure, resource and opportunity to make those preparations/contingency plans, i.e. the people with most resources and connections. I.e. to a large extent, "the Establishment". By definition - "the Establishment" is those people who are good at positioning themselves on top.

Where you go wrong is in assuming this must be the result of some great eternal conspiracy to do down the underdogs. It's not. "The Establishment" isn't a conspiracy, it's just lots of greedy people looking out for number one. And when you complain that "nothing really changes", what you're saying is that the people you identify with, were not equipped to exploit the changes that happened.

And whose fault is that, exactly?

If you just sit around and moan that "everything continues in the same direction", then you're screwing yourself over. You're waiting for someone to come and give you a hand up. Well, this post right here? - this is the closest you're going to get. I'm telling you that what you need to change is not society, or the economy, or the system, or the establishment - it's you. So get on with it.

Re: Translation:

[MightyMartian]

No, the translation is "Have you actually tried doing anything at all, rather than impotently whining on the Internet about how the Establishment is screwing you over, and concocting conspiracy theories whose only real purpose is to convince yourself that your apathy is a rational choice.

Have you ever written a letter to your elected representative? Have you ever got like-minded citizens in your area together to petition other citizens in the area for letter writing campaigns or petitions, or to seek meetings with elected representatives at whatever level of government you're having issues with?

It's so much easier to go on the Internet, mask your laziness and apathy in the form of grand conspiracies about the Man keeping you down.

Re:collectivism = death

[MightyMartian]

When people start throwing around terms like "collectivism is dead" and "income tax is immoral", you know you're dealing with an ignorant Libertarian blowhard.

Pay your fucking taxes, asshole, and quit trying to get society to underwrite your greed. That's right, society. We're social animals, not a bunch of solo hunting predators. Unless, of course you're a sociopath, then Libertarianism is very attractive, because fucking morons buy into it, and fucking morons make the best prey.

If this is the new /.

[jmd]

After many years of reading Slashdot it is time to move on.

I am a very political person but for the most part I came here for non-political news. Just the straight up NASA did this... nVidia did that... Silicon Graphics is bought by Rackable Systems etc etc.

The comments on Slashdot are so much more inflamatory than before. A sign that Slashdot has run its course.

Re:She seem like a commie...

[MightyMartian]

I think Americans at least get a little confused at how a Parliamentary system works (so, to, do a lot of Canadians, Brits, Australians and so forth, mind you). If a vote isn't a free vote, then MPs for each party are bound to vote in line with the party. If it is a crucial vote, like a confidence motion, then a three line whip will be used, and if an MP defies even that, well they can be expelled from their party. For a cabinet minister, however, it is even more severe. A cabinet minister must, on all government bills, whether they are free votes for all other MPs, support the government bill. This is a longstanding Westminster tradition, and if a cabinet minister cannot back a government bill or motion, then the cabinet minister must resign.

in addition cabinet ministers are bound not to reveal cabinet debates or the results of those debates. The Government in a Westminster Parliament must remain united, and if a cabinet minister simply cannot abide the decisions of Cabinet, again, they're only choice is to resign. This is not such a different arrangement from how the US cabinet works, and that was modeled on how the British government still at least partially functioned by the time of the American Revolution (although Westminster was well on its way to its modern form even then).

The reason for this dates far back in Westminster constitutional history. Up until the 18th century the King would name his cabinet, which would serve in His name. And so it still is. Why the Prime Minister and his or her cabinet are chosen from sitting MPs and Peers, they are sworn into the Privy Council (an older governing body of which the Cabinet is a part), and the deliberations of the Privy Council, be in effect advice to the Sovereign, are generally kept secret.

So the intent of this long-winded explanation is to state that you cannot judge Theresa May entirely by the votes she cast over the last six years. She was bound by practice and convention to side with her fellow Cabinet Ministers, and generally has not enjoyed the right to public criticize those Ministers (though during the 2010-2015 Coalition, that practice was often ignored in subtle and not so subtle ways). In fact, little enough is known of May's views, and a lot of British political observers are quoting a Rumsfeldism, she is a "known unknown".

Re:She seem like a commie...

[MightyMartian]

This idea that taxes, or indeed any law, require every individual's consent is utterly absurd. First of all, it would make government completely unworkable.

But more to the point, what was meant by the Revolutionaries when they said "No taxation without representation", or in the Westminster tradition of "responsible government" wasn't that you didn't have to pay taxes, it was that no tax could be imposed without the consent of the GOVERNED. That doesn't mean that you, I and every other taxpayer get a veto on the taxes we'll pay, it means we elect representatives who will then create the taxes, and if we don't like the taxes being levied, then our right as citizens is to try to get people elected who will more closely align with our views on taxation matters.

Citizenship confers not only rights, but inherently it confers obligations. You have the right to vote for your representatives, but you have the obligation to abide by their lawful and constitutional powers to pass laws, including tax laws. If you feel you have been unjustly treated, you have the right to petition the government or to seek redress through the courts.

So there is no theft. You are taxed by people who a conferred the right to enact and collect taxes by the consent of the governed, which is you and all your fellow citizens collectively.

Re:She seem like a commie...

[Hylandr]

The Tax is the amount society pays it's people in Government services and infrastructure.

The less corporations pay in tax deprives the society that supports it.

First tried in New Zealand

[monkeyxpress]

Boris Johnson is the best bit

In New Zealand, the former prime minister Helen Clark did a similar thing to the leader of a fringe coalition partner (NZ uses MMP, so small parties frequently hold the balance of power). The guy, Winston Peters, was a known charismatic trouble maker (sound familiar?) and rose to power mostly by blaming immigrants for stealing jobs. So she made him foreign minister. It completely shut him down, as he was out of the country most of the time, had to put on a serious face so he didn't become the laughing stock of the world, and was hobbled in his ability to portray people from other countries as troublesome. It was an incredibly successful strategy, and he ended up doing an okay job of it.

However I wouldn't read so much into it being an attempt to destroy Boris. The foreign minister is largely a PR role, which Boris will be quite good at once he has apologized to everyone, and I think he has enough political nous to ensure nothing serious around Brexit can be pinned on him.

Leadsom and Davis on the other hand, have found themselves holding the poison chalice.

Re:She seem like a commie...

[swillden]

The Tax is the amount society pays it's people in Government services and infrastructure.

The less corporations pay in tax deprives the society that supports it.

Sigh.

Corporations. Don't. Pay. Taxes.

Look, this is basic economics. Capital seeks a certain rate of return in given economic conditions and a given economic context. When you raise taxes on corporations, you don't change that sought rate of return, which means that corporate governance adapts to shift the cost of the taxes elsewhere, so they don't come out of profits and returns meet expectations. Corporations that fail to do this lose, and their capital moves to others that do it well.

This means that any taxes you nominally assess to corporations actually land on suppliers, employees or customers. In many cases suppliers and customers are other corporations subject to the same demands of capital, so they just shuffle the costs off further. At the end, it always lands on employees and customers. In the short term profits may take a hit, which drops the cost onto investors, but that's a temporary situation.

The bottom line, then, is that corporate taxes are all ultimately paid by individuals. Actually, this should be utterly obvious even without looking at the detailed mechanisms: corporations aren't real, they're just a mechanism for pooling individual wealth to accomplish larger goals than any individual could... but the products are all ultimately consumed by people, the owners are all ultimately people, and so the taxes all ultimately land on individuals -- voters.

That means that corporate taxation is just a way to impose hidden taxes on voters. Taxes that they pay but don't know they pay, and taxes that are allocated fairly randomly, and likely rather regressively. Corporate taxes are a bad idea and we should abolish them, instead raising capital gains taxes and the top marginal income tax rates.

Re:Virtue signaling kleptomaniac much?

[Uberbah]

Taxation is immoral

Civilization costs money.

it's the extortion of money through threat of force of arms.

That describes capitalism and unearned wealth, not taxation.