Big Tech is stoking unrest in the UK. Why? • Hacker News Board

Re: Big Tech is stoking unrest in the UK. Why?

#81

Post by dredmorbius » Sat, Jun 20, 2026, 9:48 PM UTC

graemep wrote: post #46

spwa4 wrote: post #8

The whole reason the British government pushed Brexit was so Britain could control its immigration. That's how Brexit was presented to the population, that's why people voted for it. Then the government got Brexit, and then Boris Johnson more than tripled immigration, chasing away EU immigration and getting all the immigrants from the (very coincidentally very low-wage Pakistan, I mean there aren't very many countrie…

Which government pushed for Brexit? The government at the time of Brexit campaigned to remain. People voted for Brexit for a lot of reasons. The leaders of both Vote Leave and Leave.EU said they wanted more skilled immigration. > raised taxes on everybody except immigrants. immigrants pay the same taxes as everyone else plus extra taxes such as the NHS surcharge and huge visa renewal fees.

Right. "The government" didn't push for Brexit. Then-prime minister David Cameron pushed for a Brexit vote largely because he thought that the measure would be defeated. Quoting Wikipedia, "Supporters of the Remain campaign included then-prime minister David Cameron, the future prime ministers Theresa May, Liz Truss, and Sir Keir Starmer, and the ex–prime ministers John Major, Tony Blair, and Gordon Brown" https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brexit>.

Retrospective analyses and Cameron's own account make clear that he saw advantage in calling for the referrendum with the expectation that it would be defeated. Example:

Cameron chose to commit to a vote, not because the country’s population was clamouring for one but because a significant minority of his own MPs ... were demanding that he do so...

Naturally, Cameron was aware he was running a risk – after all, his best friend in politics, Chancellor George Osborne, told him so again and again. But he thought he would win the vote....

https://ukandeu.ac.uk/why-david-cameron-called-the-2016-refe...>

Re: Big Tech is stoking unrest in the UK. Why?

#82

Post by kjkjadksj » Sat, Jun 20, 2026, 9:51 PM UTC

10xDev wrote: post #51

kjkjadksj wrote: post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If only there were more customers to grow markets! Hmm I wonder how that could be done…

You are not going to get more customers with higher house prices or through greater youth unemployment. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cm203nn7lzro

Prices are high from zoning preventing the market to build to meet demand.

Re: Big Tech is stoking unrest in the UK. Why?

#83

Post by dredmorbius » Sat, Jun 20, 2026, 9:52 PM UTC

dijksterhuis wrote: post #23

spwa4 wrote: post #8

The whole reason the British government pushed Brexit was so Britain could control its immigration. That's how Brexit was presented to the population, that's why people voted for it. Then the government got Brexit, and then Boris Johnson more than tripled immigration, chasing away EU immigration and getting all the immigrants from the (very coincidentally very low-wage Pakistan, I mean there aren't very many countrie…

you are right, although i would point out that when you use the word “government” you’re mostly referring to a series of conservative party governments. at the same time. two things can be true. everything you mentioned plays a large part in why we’re in a bit of a mess as a country. this is being exacerbated by big tech firms, especially social media ones. the fact that a lie from some tech bro with a large soapbox…

"The government" in British politics (as with most parliamentary systems) is a term of art which in a policy context refers specifically to present executive authority as embodied in the Prime Minister and his or her cabinet.

"The government" at the time, embodied by David Cameron, were not pushing for Brexit. It, and Cameron, pushed for a vote, but with the expectation that the referendum would be defeated.

Re: Big Tech is stoking unrest in the UK. Why?

#84

Post by reaperducer » Sat, Jun 20, 2026, 10:14 PM UTC

Dig1t wrote: post #47

1dom wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As a brit, I can confirm I am not at all fed up with immigration. Your comment is unnecessary, unsubstantiated, doesn't add anything to the discussion and is just going to cause arguments in its current form.

[flagged]

Many towns and cities are well less than 50% native English.

I'm not British. Can you provide a list of these cities, so I can evaluate whether this is a good thing, or a bad thing?

Re: Big Tech is stoking unrest in the UK. Why?

#85

Post by 1vuio0pswjnm7 » Sat, Jun 20, 2026, 10:55 PM UTC

It appears archive.today has removed the Javascript and CAPTCHA requirements as well as the DDoS against the blog

Your IP address and any optional headers you send, e.g., user-agent, will be returned in an HTML comment at the top of the response body

Re: Big Tech is stoking unrest in the UK. Why?

#86

Post by Smoosh » Sat, Jun 20, 2026, 11:21 PM UTC

Dig1t wrote: post #47

1dom wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As a brit, I can confirm I am not at all fed up with immigration. Your comment is unnecessary, unsubstantiated, doesn't add anything to the discussion and is just going to cause arguments in its current form.

[flagged]

“Replaced” seems very pejorative here.

The times are clearly changing, as they always do. Are you saying that it is “natural and sensible” to be racist and xenophobic? Perhaps it is. But perhaps we can do better.

Re: Big Tech is stoking unrest in the UK. Why?

#87

Post by tolien » Sat, Jun 20, 2026, 11:33 PM UTC

jiddert8 wrote: post #7

[flagged]

Your ignorance is hanging out.

> The author could not find the elusive videos of maniacal Whites stabbing, beheading, assaulting, machete-ing or raping non-White strangers in the streets because they do not exist

Literally today - man charged after suspected anti-Muslim attacks in Edinburgh https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cx2xg6lwz5jo

Re: Big Tech is stoking unrest in the UK. Why?

#88

Post by 1vuio0pswjnm7 » Sat, Jun 20, 2026, 11:35 PM UTC

Text-only from WARC:

    curl https://ghostarchive.org/chimurai4/4KevH.warc \
    |grep -o articleBody\":\".*\",\"wordCount \
    |sed 's/articleBody\":\"//;s/.\{42\}follow FT Weekend on Instagram.*\",\"wordCount//;s/\\n/@/g' \
    |tr @ '\n' \
    |fmt

Re: Big Tech is stoking unrest in the UK. Why?

#89

Post by jltsiren » Sat, Jun 20, 2026, 11:44 PM UTC

sefrost wrote: post #70

10xDev wrote: post #67

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah this is just nonsense, not really worth dealing with for anyone even mildly serious. If you want to halt all immigration or deport all immigrants then you are on the wrong forum. There certainly are forums for what you are suggesting though.

I didn’t suggest either of those things. Like I said I’m not voicing my personal opinion. But we can look at the polling data going back decades now on this issue. People were not happy when it was 50,000 net migration. At one point it hit 950,000. Obviously the issues that people are concerned about on housing, on transport, on education and more aren’t resolved by reducing the flow for a couple of years. My point i…

> My point is simply that these feelings have existed for a long time and the government has generally gone against what the electorate have asked for.

The electorate repeatedly asked for those policies by voting the parties that enacted them. If they had other opinions, they didn't express them in any way that actually matters.

That's a feature of first-past-the-post elections. The system deliberately prioritizes regional representation over public opinion. If you want a parliament that prioritizes public opinion, you need a different electoral system.

Re: Big Tech is stoking unrest in the UK. Why?

#90

Post by tim333 » Sat, Jun 20, 2026, 11:47 PM UTC

"Big Tech" seems to basically be Elon Musk, known for nazi salutes and nazi grandparents who moved out of South Africa because it wasn't racist enough.