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Ian Brown 👨🏻‍💻

@ianbrown.tech
5.2K followers 436 following 301 posts

💻 regulation (🔑 #privacy 🗳) ⛷🚴🏻‍♂️🥾🗺 🇮🇨🇪🇸🇪🇺🏳️‍🌈🌻 Visiting Prof @fgvoficial.bsky.social 👨‍🏫 Formerly DCMS Principal Scientific Officer/Prof. Information Security & Privacy @oii.ox.ac.uk Tech News @1br0wn.eupolicy.social.ap.brid.gy

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Reposted by Ian Brown 👨🏻‍💻
Eurasia Group @eurasiagroup.net · 05/10/2025
An age-old French nightmare — that of growing German military might — is resurfacing in a new form. As Berlin inevitably becomes the EU’s dominant military power, our expert @mijrahman.bsky.social explains how strategic autonomy is now in Germany’s hands: @politico.eu
politico.eu
European strategic autonomy is in German hands
As Berlin inevitably becomes the EU's dominant military power, its billions could either build or blur Macron's vision of European defense.
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Pat Walshe - Privacy Matters 🇮🇪🇬🇧🇪🇺 @privacymatters.bsky.social · 22/09/2025
What a terrible take. As someone who engaged at a policy level with the ePrivacy Directive (& its predecessor 97/66EC), the ePD didn’t ’plaster the online world with pop-ups’. Privacy invading & eroding business models are responsible for that - biz could have chosen a different path
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Reposted by Ian Brown 👨🏻‍💻
Ciaran Martin @ciaranm.bsky.social · 22/09/2025
Great thread from Kevin on the airport cyber attacks - “corporate centipede” and “welcome to 1998” being my favourites ENISA - the EU’s cyber security agency - now saying it’s ransomware www.reuters.com/business/aer...
reuters.com
EU agency says third-party ransomware behind airport disruptions
The European Union's cybersecurity agency said on Monday that airport disruptions caused by problems with automatic check-in systems were caused by a third-party ransomware incident.
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Prof Mike Yearworth @mikeyearworth.bsky.social · 21/09/2025
"In a landmark study, OpenAI researchers reveal that large language models will always produce plausible but false outputs, even with perfect data, due to fundamental statistical and computational limits." www.computerworld.com/article/4059...
computerworld.com
OpenAI admits AI hallucinations are mathematically inevitable, not just engineering flaws
In a landmark study, OpenAI researchers reveal that large language models will always produce plausible but false outputs, even with perfect data, due to fundamental statistical and computational limi...
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Reposted by Ian Brown 👨🏻‍💻
Matthew Guariglia @mguariglia.bsky.social · 21/09/2025
I wrote a similar piece in Slate last year--granted, it was pre-election but the specter for what an authoritarian regime could do with the massive police surveillance apparatus at its fingertips has been hanging over us for awhile.
slate.com
You Might Think More Police Surveillance Means More Safety. There Are Several Problems With That.
You cannot protect people from harm if part of what you offer them is a different kind of harm.
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Reposted by Ian Brown 👨🏻‍💻
Katja Bego @katjabego.bsky.social · 21/09/2025
My new piece in @the-independent.com on the UK's tech prosperity deal: The deal does not only leave the UK even more dependent on US tech companies, it also once again shows how out of step the country is with tech sovereignty debates in the rest of Europe. www.independent.co.uk/voices/starm...
independent.co.uk
Starmer’s tech deal is a national security gamble – and ties us too closely to Trump
The rest of Europe is working hard to move away from dependence on US technology – particularly when it comes to AI, writes Katja Bego. But the UK is moving the other way for quick cash and false prom...
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Paris Marx @parismarx.com · 20/09/2025
jesus christ. transport regulators need to get their acts together.
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Ben Collier @susansegfault.bsky.social · 20/09/2025
Although of course disappointing to see that MI6 haven’t done their homework - it’s Tor, not TOR @torproject.org
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Samuel Stolton @samuelstolton.bsky.social · 19/09/2025
New: Google will meet the EU’s deadline to propose changes to its advertising technology business after a near-€3 billion fine — but won’t include the full breakup the EU and industry rivals have previously pushed for: www.bloomberg.com/news/article...
bloomberg.com
Google Readies EU Offer After €3 Billion Fine, Skips Full Split
Google will meet the European Union’s deadline to propose changes to its advertising technology business after a near-€3 billion ($3.5 billion) fine — but won’t include the full breakup the EU and…
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Reposted by Ian Brown 👨🏻‍💻
bryan newbold @bnewbold.net · 19/09/2025
excited to share that we are following through on our earlier commitments and putting together an independent+neutral organization to house the DID PLC system, includes the directory service
docs.bsky.app
Creating an Independent Public Ledger of Credentials (PLC) Directory Organization | Bluesky
The Bluesky Social app is built on an open network protocol that refers to each user by a unique Decentralized Identifier, or DID (a W3C standard). The most popular supported DID method was developed ...
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Reposted by Ian Brown 👨🏻‍💻
Rosamunde Van Brakel @rosamundevb.bsky.social · 19/09/2025
Why is it here to stay? I have seen no scientific evidence that shows that this is legitimate policing, but I have seen evidence of harms that it is causing and no serious debate on societal and democratic impact in the future policinginsight.com/feature/opin...
policinginsight.com
Policing facial recognition is here to stay, risks included: What we need is a more honest debate
The recent use of live facial recognition (LFR) by the Metropolitan Police at Notting Hill Carnival brought the new technology back under the spotlight; Dr Asress Gikay, Senior Lecturer in AI…
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Reposted by Ian Brown 👨🏻‍💻
Aaron Martin @sixfouronea.net · 19/09/2025
A friendly reminder that use of Clearview AI's tech is highly restricted if not banned in many parts of the world like the EU, UK, Canada, and Australia. It's been repeatedly fined for contravening these country's laws. www.404media.co/ice-spends-m...
404media.co
ICE Spends Millions on Clearview AI Facial Recognition to Find People ‘Assaulting’ Officers
A new contract with Clearview AI explicitly says ICE is buying the tech to investigate "assaults against law enforcement officers."
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Reposted by Ian Brown 👨🏻‍💻
S G Dickinson @sgdickinson.bsky.social · 19/09/2025
It's also dismaying that ICANN, which (cl)aims to be globally inclusive, admits it's catering to the US admin's anti-DEI stance. This, despite many calls over the years that it move from USA to a jurisdiction like Switzerland, with a legal framework specifically supporting independent int'l orgs.
icann.org
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Reposted by Ian Brown 👨🏻‍💻
S G Dickinson @sgdickinson.bsky.social · 19/09/2025
A good reminder why the current US administration's anti-DEI stance - & US-based Big Tech's widespread adoption of that - means it's more important than ever to nurture the development of tech & tech companies outside the US, so tech truly can meet the needs of a diverse world.
theguardian.com
Social media ban trial data reveals racial bias in age checking software: just how inaccurate is it?
Young people from Indigenous and Asian backgrounds are more likely to be miscategorised as over the age limit and older people as underaged, analysis finds
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rasmuskleis.bsky.social @rasmuskleis.bsky.social · 19/09/2025
"If the EU ends up legislating [about encryption] on a technically incorrect basis, we could be left with a law that neither protects children nor citizens' right to privacy – but instead makes everyone more vulnerable" @moltke.bsky.social writes. www.dr.dk/nyheder/vide...
dr.dk
ANALYSE: Derfor holder Hummelgaards udsagn om kryptering ikke
Justitsminister Peter Hummelgaard (S) hævder, at man kan lave undtagelser i kryptering, og at Apple og Meta kan, men nægter at hjælpe med at fjerne overgrebsmateriale med børn. Begge udsagn modsiges a...
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Reposted by Ian Brown 👨🏻‍💻
Simonetta Vezzoso @wavesblog.eurosky.social · 18/09/2025
If you had been in Brussels and paid between 800-1200 EUR you might have heard that 👇
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Alissa Cooper @alissacooper.bsky.social · 18/09/2025
DCC 2026 -- our annual competition conference bringing together researchers, policy experts and practitioners -- is accepting paper submissions until October 13. Get those fingers typing ...
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David Klemperer @dmk1793.bsky.social · 18/09/2025
We need much more stringent rules about when it is acceptable to film people (and we also need the tech execs pushing these products to be brutally exiled from society)
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Natasha Bernal @natashabernal.bsky.social · 18/09/2025
I covered the protests in London against Trump for @wired.com. Protesters aren't convinced by the AI deal from US tech giants: They want to know what the UK is giving them in exchange for up to $45bn in investment and where the power for data centers will come from www.wired.com/story/climat...
wired.com
Anti-Trump Protesters Take Aim at ‘Naive’ US-UK AI Deal
Thousands marched in London to protest President Donald Trump’s second state visit. Among them were many environmental activists unhappy with Britain’s new AI deal with the US.
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Reposted by Ian Brown 👨🏻‍💻
Andrew Couts @couts.bsky.social · 18/09/2025
NEW: Criminals are using "SMS blasters"—a version of cell-site simulators used by police to surveil phones in a certain area—to flood people nearby the devices with scam texts. @mattburgess1.bsky.social reports www.wired.com/story/sms-bl...
wired.com
Cybercriminals Have a Weird New Way to Target You With Scam Texts
Scammers are now using “SMS blasters” to send out up to 100,000 texts per hour to phones that are tricked into thinking the devices are cell towers. Your wireless carrier is powerless to stop them.
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euobserver — EU news that matters @euobserver.com · 18/09/2025
In Moldova, authorities estimate the Kremlin will spend €100m — €31 per registered voter — to influence the outcome. In the Czech Republic, Kremlin-linked outlets are pumping out more content each day than the country’s major news outlets combined.
euobserver.com
Moscow's interest in this autumn's Czech and Moldova elections
In Moldova, authorities estimate the Kremlin will spend €100m — €31 per registered voter — to influence the outcome. In the Czech Republic, Kremlin-linked outlets are pumping out more content each day than the country’s major news outlets combined.
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Reposted by Ian Brown 👨🏻‍💻
Barack Obama @barackobama.bsky.social · 18/09/2025
After years of complaining about cancel culture, the current administration has taken it to a new and dangerous level by routinely threatening regulatory action against media companies unless they muzzle or fire reporters and commentators it doesn’t like.
yahoo.com
Let’s be clear about what happened to Jimmy Kimmel
Trump’s most brazen attack on free speech yet.
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Blavatnik School of Government @blavatnikschool.bsky.social · 18/09/2025
Jaguar Land Rover joins the list of high-profile cyber-attack victims, with production and services disrupted. Is it time to rethink our approach? 🚨 Prof @ciaranm.bsky.social argues operational resilience–not just data breaches–is the real frontline.👇
ow.ly
Jaguar Land Rover to M&S: our cyber policy blind spot
In the wake of a cyber attack that has halted Jaguar Land Rover’s computer systems and production lines, Ciaran Martin, Professor of Practice in the Management of Public Organisations, argues that…
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Reposted by Ian Brown 👨🏻‍💻
rasmuskleis.bsky.social @rasmuskleis.bsky.social · 18/09/2025
What if one could automatically monitor what politicians promise and enhance the ability to check, at scale, whether they deliver? Pledgetracker, by @fullfact.org and researchers, tries to retrieve relevant evidence and reduce human verification effort. Read their preprint here: lnkd.in/ec5gHYV9
lnkd.in
LinkedIn
This link will take you to a page that’s not on LinkedIn
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Matt Davies @halcyene.bsky.social · 18/09/2025
The headlines — £31bn in investment, new jobs, faster medical treatments — sound almost too good to be true. What are we giving up in return? Me in @theguardian.com on today's US-UK Tech Deal: www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...
theguardian.com
The UK’s £31bn tech deal with the US might sound great – but the government has to answer these questions | Matt Davies
The big firms making these pledges are not charities. We know there will be a quid pro quo; we just don’t know what it is yet, says Matt Davies of the Ada Lovelace Institute
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Reposted by Ian Brown 👨🏻‍💻
David Wells @davidwellsct.bsky.social · 17/09/2025
New piece countering hype on terrorist use of Gen AI. Adoption has been slow and its impact minimal, in contrast with criminals (where the impacts have been immediate & significant). But, we should anticipate an increase in adoption, largely in line with broader societal trends in future
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Reposted by Ian Brown 👨🏻‍💻
David Dayen @ddayen.bsky.social · 16/09/2025
The law, if that matters anymore, says that TikTok must relinquish Chinese control over the algorithm. After nearly a year of delay, China is still going to control the algorithm. www.ft.com/content/550e...
ft.com
Beijing says TikTok’s US app will use Chinese algorithm
Security hawks have raised fears recommendation code could be manipulated to push propaganda
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CERRE Think Tank @cerrethinktank.bsky.social · 16/09/2025
🚨 New CERRE Research 🚨 📘Can the EU reconcile #DigitalSovereignty & #Competitiveness? ✍️ By @zach-meyers.bsky.social This is the first issue paper in a series of forthcoming publications under our newly launched EU Competitiveness Forum. Read it here 🔗 tinyurl.com/sjcf7u86
The EU faces two existential problems. First: how can it tackle its so-called ‘competitiveness problem’ – its subdued rate of economic growth. Solving this problem requires better use of innovations, which – thanks to Europe’s poor track record on commercialising new technologies – are mostly foreign today. The second: how can the EU boost its technological sovereignty, so that it is less reliant on unreliable trading partners?

This CERRE Issue Paper by Zach Meyers explores how the EU can reconcile these two priorities – just as the Commission is launching proposals for a European Competitiveness Fund, and a Cloud & AI Development Act, which aim to boost use of technologies like cloud and AI while supporting ‘sovereign’ technological solutions.
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Michael Spratt @michaelspratt.eurosky.social · 15/09/2025
#speirgorm #spéirgorm
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Jessica Shurson @jessicashurson.bsky.social · 15/09/2025
Really happy to share my new article "Investigative Jurisdiction: The Evolving Limits of Extraterritoriality in Transnational Digital Investigations" now published online with the International & Comparative Law Quarterly. It's open access and free to read here: doi.org/10.1017/S002...
doi.org
Investigative Jurisdiction: The Evolving Limits of Extraterritoriality in Transnational Digital Investigations | International & Comparative Law Quarterly | Cambridge Core
Investigative Jurisdiction: The Evolving Limits of Extraterritoriality in Transnational Digital Investigations
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Annette Dittert @annettedittert.bsky.social · 14/09/2025
Musk is inciting violence on London's streets.Tommy Robinson is financed by US tech bros. These are all very direct attempts to destabilise the British state. Starmer needs to stand up to this. A government that doesn't defend its country's values against these blatant attacks is not doing its job.
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Chai Patel @chaipatel.net · 13/09/2025
Ah yes if black and brown people throw a party we need to scan their faces. White supremacists organising a hate march do not need to worry about their privacy. The police have them covered. This btw is also why everyone arguing for digital id in this country is either naive or dangerous.
2h ago 10.29 BS1
Police are not using live facial recognition in its policing of the 'Unite the Kingdom' demonstration which is beginning on London's south bank, reports the PA news agency.
It said:
• We're using a mobile CCTV van to help monitor the build up of crowds. Officers have been asked if it's using 'live facial recognition' - we can confirm it is not.
The live facial recognition technology - which captures people's faces in real-time CCTV
cameras - was used in the policing operation at the Notting Hill carnival.
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Open Rights Group @openrightsgroup.org · 11/09/2025
VPNs must not face the chop 🚫 Next week the Lords will debate whether VPNs undermine the Online Safety Act. Banning or blocking VPNs will shatter security and free expression in a self-defeating attempt to make the unworkable workable. Read our briefing ⬇️ www.openrightsgroup.org/publications...
openrightsgroup.org
Briefing: VPNs and the Online Safety Act
BRIEFING ON THE PUBLIC’S USE OF VPN TECHNOLOGY VPNS ARE UNLIKELY TO BE USED BY 6-12 YEAR OLDS BARRIER, NOT ELIMINATION Age assurance measures aim to make accessing restricted content more difficult…
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Claire Jackson @claire.northsky.social · 11/09/2025
This is the political project every AI booster in higher education is facilitating
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Owen Boswarva @owenboswarva.bsky.social · 11/09/2025
Ofcom investigates 22 more porn sites under new age-check rules www.ofcom.org.uk/online-safet... press release with links to case summaries Expansion of anti-porn campaign under UK's Online Safety Act, including one site where Ofcom hasn't identified the provider. #censorship #openweb #techpolicy
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Andrew Couts @couts.bsky.social · 11/09/2025
NEW: “Minutes after right-wing activist Charlie Kirk was fatally shot while speaking at an event in Utah on Wednesday, far-right influencers and extremist communities lit up social media with calls for violence against the left.” @davidgilbert.bsky.social reports www.wired.com/story/far-ri...
wired.com
‘War Is Here’: The Far-Right Responds to Charlie Kirk Shooting With Calls for Violence
Prominent far-right figures and elected officials have called for vengeance following the death of conservative activist Charlie Kirk.
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Joseph Lorenzo Hall, PhD @josephhall.org · 11/09/2025
"using the ability of end-to-end encryption to reclaim that previous baseline expectation of privacy and ephemerality that we used to have in our communications, no matter how inconsequential and innocuous they are, is something that would benefit us all as a society." @riana.bsky.social
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Chris Marsden @chrismarsden.bsky.social · 11/09/2025
'she had received positive feedback after deciding to “get rid of” the chair of the CMA. Amazon boss Doug Gurr was appointed in his place. “Previously businesses, all the time – especially in tech – had been raising concerns about the CMA. That has changed a lot.” www.theguardian.com/politics/202...
theguardian.com
Rachel Reeves tells private equity bosses she plans to shut down more regulators
Chancellor stopped short of saying which regulators were in government’s crosshairs
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Jason Koebler @jasonkoebler.bsky.social · 09/09/2025
New: HHS has told all employees that they should start using ChatGPT, continuing the administration's AI-ification of everything, its trust in tools that hallucinate, and the general sense that getting things right is not important or worth trying to do: www.404media.co/hhs-asks-all...
404media.co
HHS Asks All Employees to Start Using ChatGPT
The agency tells workers "we should all be vigilant against barriers that could slow our progress toward making America healthy again."
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Mark Boyd @markboyd.bsky.social · 10/09/2025
We compiled our vids and overviews on interoperability into one post: platformable.com/blog/Interop... Interoperability is an essential component of open digital ecosystems that makes it easier to collaborate and for all orgs to participate
platformable.com
A quick overview of interoperability
Interoperability is the ability for systems to connect and co-create value. This quick overview describes key concepts of interoperability and provides a model and action list to improve interoperabil...
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Evan Greer @evangreer.bsky.social · 10/09/2025
beware of people who want to "protect" the children but are vehemently opposed to empowering children, giving them information so they can have agency, teaching them about consent, and actually listening to them
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Tim Wu @superwuster.bsky.social · 10/09/2025
The Extraction Imperative: that the highest purpose of business lies not in creating value but finding novel ways to take more money and intangible assets from everyone else; i.e., achieving full use of every iota of market power.
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Bluesky Safety @safety.bsky.app · 10/09/2025
Protecting young people online is a shared responsibility. Here’s how Bluesky is approaching new age assurance laws with pragmatism and flexibility. bsky.social/about/blog/0...
bsky.social
Our Approach to Age Assurance - Bluesky
We’re committed to keeping our community informed as we navigate new regional regulations.
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Gateklons @gateklons.eurosky.social · 10/09/2025
This is the actual value the Data Act brings @daphnek.bsky.social www.reuters.com/business/ret...
reuters.com
Google scraps some cloud data transfer fees in EU and UK
Google said on Wednesday it had scrapped data transfer fees for organisations processing workloads "in parallel" across two or more cloud platforms in the European Union and Britain ahead of the EU Data Act coming into effect on Friday.
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Simon McGarr @tupped.bsky.social · 09/09/2025
Read Brian Honan’s expert Op-Ed piece warning against the returning ChatControl laws, which Ireland is supporting at the EU Council, despite us balancing huge amounts of our economy on the security of the very tech industry it would most attack. www.irishexaminer.com/opinion/comm...
irishexaminer.com
Proposed EU Chat Control regulation could create surveillance state
New law would threaten individual privacy and undermine public trust in digital life as well as leaving every European device open to cyber-criminals and hostile states, writes Brian Honan
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Rachel Coldicutt @rachelcoldicutt.bsky.social · 08/09/2025
This is a good analysis, I think. Notwithstanding the general trash fire, there are some poor decisions being made in US tech policy around AI (and also crypto) that the UK is choosing to lock itself into by taking this C20th view of progress
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