Other ideas Labour put forward include a "national data library" to centralize existing government research programs to facilitate academic access to public sector data.

And did they specify what safeguards would be applied to all the personal data therein?

there shall be a password

Will it be "Pa$$w0rd"?

Don't be ridiculous, Number One! Who'll be able to type that safely? It will be "secret", of course, because passwords must be kept secret. Or swordfish. Actually, I was also thinking about the days of the week or the dish of the day down in the canteen, because Johnny Foreigner wouldn't think of anything like that but then I thought about our Scottish friends…

Well, nice to think that somebody thinks about these things.

I suspect (know) quite a lot of these are on Amazon AWS at the moment so it can only be a net improvement. Anon for obvious reasons.

"Readers will remember plans to build a datacenter campus on a landfill site overlooking the M25 motorway "

Readers will also remember that one of the commenters on that article who lives near it pointed out that said "landfill site" is actually now a nice green grassland.

For a certain definition of "nice" certainly. As a former resident of the area, for me it's still just a grassed over landfill site right bounded on one side by the grim industrial estates of Hillingdon, on the other by the country's busiest motorway, and within earshot of our busiest airport. A very good site (subject to power feeds) for a DC. The reason it didn't go ahead was simply because Conservative voters on the other side of the M25 want a sterile zone between them and the hoi-polloi of the metrollops, and the sacred principle of "green belt" was applied.

Doesn't the M25 count as sterile?

The reason it didn't go ahead was because it doesn't comply with the planning laws that specifically say you cannot develop on greenbelt land. That's the whole point of greenbelt.

After being refused twice by the council and again by the secretary of state, the developer has submitted the same unlawful proposal yet again in the hope that the next secretary of state will allow it.

Surely the protesters can find an endangered species of earthworm, or some rare variety of cabbage, to prevent any development within miles?

Lots of down votes but your comments seem to mirror what the minister wrote when denying the application - https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/recovered-appeal-woodlands-park-landfill-site-land-south-of-slough-road-iver-buckinghamshire-ref-3307420-30-october-2023

And did they specify what safeguards would be applied to all the personal data therein?

And how all of our data that they store in AWS will be kept out of the hands of the USA government when it asks Amazon for it using the [1]Cloud Act .

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CLOUD_Act

The idiots are apparently planning to ban new drilling in the North sea even though recently New Zealand demonstrated how bad an idea that is. I cant say I am inspired by any party right now.

Hard agree on the lack of inspiration. I suppose some of their soft "commitment to transport" blurb could be hiding punchy - but weirdly controversial - policies (such as reopening stations (or building new stations) to enable more local/regional rail travel) in order to avoid opening wedge arguments like HS2 right before the election. But none of it really sells a vision of where they want to take the country though. It's all counched in an idea that we can't afford nice things, when we absolutely can - but they still treat public spending and infrastructure investment as a dirty word, or at best a necessary evil.

As for oil... North Sea is into diminishing returns. If they want to cut energy costs then they need to change how the energy market works. Bringing more oil to market isn't likely to massively change that.

Frankly, I'm not sure why they don't just spend some cash on building out a new mega state-owned solar panel factory (nationalise one of our domestic manufactureres with a huge investment) and then give them out to councils/schools/hospitals for free, and to the private sector at cost.

Re the £1bn for a solar panel plant. History shows that Labour are worse than the tories for pigs in the trough. So this will magically morph into £100bn and be rather late.

So wind the clock forward an election or two and we will be back to the tories being hated for implementing massive austerity cuts to fix the planet sized hole labour made in our finances again.

What this country needs is a change of attitude - there are many very capable people but as a country we have a ‘can’t do, rights not responsibilities’ attitude which holds us back.

But none of it really sells a vision of where they want to take the country though.

None of the parties is bothered with vision. There was a time when they had a clear idea of where they wanted to take the country, and were able to explain and defend it. Now they just run focus groups to see what people would like them to think, and say they'll do that. No vision, no principles, no clue.

The party bosses aren't leaders any more, just followers, and no-one wants to vote to choose followers.

North Sea is into diminishing returns. If they want to cut energy costs then they need to change how the energy market works. Bringing more oil to market isn't likely to massively change that

Agreed, but while pursuing some sort of joined-up thinking on energy (if only!) that would phase out fossil fuels, it's better to use our own oil than to shut down local production and rely on expensive imports. Didn't we learn that lesson with cars, TVs, etc?

"it's better to use our own oil than to shut down local production and rely on expensive imports"

Our own oil is (in production terms) amongst the most expensive in the world; However the global market sets the wholesale price and then government add taxes of up to 80% on top. North Sea oil is well below our demand, so we're always reliant on imports. The value of North Sea reserves is mainly a small number of high value jobs in Scotland, and a marginal reduction in the UK's balance of trade deficit.

"Frankly, I'm not sure why they don't just spend some cash on building out a new mega state-owned solar panel factory (nationalise one of our domestic manufactureres with a huge investment) and then give them out to councils/schools/hospitals for free, and to the private sector at cost."

Hopefully because they understand that at a latitude of 50-53 degrees north, solar is the worst possible choice of renewable. It gives an annual average capacity factor of around 9%, its peak output is when daytime demand is lowest, and in Nov. Dec, Jan the capacity factor is around 3%. PV is a shocking waste of resources in the UK for that reason, rather than the cost per MWh. If you want renewables at scale then the answer is not PV, but offshore wind on a vast scale, which has a capacity factor around 46% although even that has its own downsides, and the actual power cost is about as expensive as Hinkley Point.

I don't believe them. Or any other political party at the moment.

As it's election time, they'll promise anything to anyone to get the votes to stay on the gravy train of being in parliament.

Heard too many promises from people with different coloured rosettes over the years, that as soon as they got the job, deny ever saying such things, even when you show them the manifestos.

Datacentres, just like any other industrial site, need to make sure they can provide the necessary services: mainly electricity, and access before permission can be granted. They'll be touted as massive investments but usually, once the building has finished they'll be a handful of techies to run the place and some head-the-balls for security. Ex-industrial sites should make a great fit but it's normally cheaper to build on open ground.

Not to mention that there's a declining availability of ex-industrial sites as many have been redeveloped into business parks, retail parks and housing.