AI vs state bureaucracy
After many hard fought class battles, the workers of Britain are – on paper – supposedly owed many benefits and protections against their employers.
But the class struggle never ends. By constructing an intentionally Byzantine bureaucracy, the ruling class has prevented exhausted, confused British workers from claiming up to £20 billion in benefits they are owed each year.
But now the British state is facing a deluge of claims and appeals which are successfully navigating this obtuse and hostile system – and they are being written using AI!
Artificial intelligence can do what workers have for years lacked the time, energy, and resources for: to claim the benefits they are owed, and to file against their employers for unlawful sackings.
In front of every hard-won right is a swathe of near-insurmountable bureaucratic barriers to ensure they are never claimed. Supposedly, we all have the same rights under capitalism – the right to hire the best lawyers for tens of thousands of pounds!
Armed with AI ‘lawyers’, workers are demanding legal action from the state which claims to defend their rights while really serving the bosses and billionaires.
Yet there are limits to what this will achieve.
Those workers who do successfully push through an employment tribunal will still be faced with a four-year wait time – and no guarantee of compensation at the end.
And as more of these AI-assisted claims come rolling in, the ruling class is sure to respond in kind: AI-generated claims will be responded to – and likely rejected – by AI-generated bureaucrats.
For workers really looking to seek justice from their criminal employers, the path remains the same: that of class struggle.
Robin Gaffney, Cheltenham
‘Nationwide’ super-speed broadband?
There is nothing more telling of a broken system than when you compare the network speeds between urban areas and rural areas. Full-fibre connection is available city-wide in areas such as London, Bristol and Cardiff – but what do the South Wales Valleys and the countryside towns get? Mere scraps.
Companies like BT, Sky and Plusnet pride themselves on their fast speeds ‘nationwide’ – but from experience, this is simply not the case.
While major cities get coverage of 250Mbps, rural communities are left with as little as a maximum of 20Mbps (results may vary depending on the area in question.)
This is no accident. The population density of urban areas offers a higher return on investment, so these network providers are more incentivised to maintain and set up full fibre capabilities in these areas.
And so financiers in London are able to trade stocks in a matter of seconds – while a worker living outside of a major city may be sitting at their screen waiting minutes or even hours for a simple file to download.
This profit driven model is incompatible with today’s society, with the rise of remote working and where the internet is indispensable in so many areas of our lives.
As it stands, the only present solution is to relocate to a major city – but that in itself poses its own problems such as higher rent and utilities. It also doesn’t change the fact that these broadband providers, knowing how essential fast internet is today, are able to charge through the nose for it wherever you are!
This broken system needs to change and these companies need to be held accountable.
Daniel Deverell, Wales
UK Biobank fails to keep sensitive data safe… again
In April, data from the UK Biobank which contains genetic information, medical images, and other health details were discovered for sale on the popular online Chinese market place, Alibaba.
The UK Biobank stores and grants access to data collected from 500,000 volunteers in order to support research advancement on treating cancer, dementia, diabetes, and more.
The Biobank’s Chief Executive, Sir Rory Collins, seemed dismissive of the ensuing outrage, however. He argued the leak was because of “a few bad apples” and that the data does not include “personally identifying information” such as names, addresses and contact details.
However, participants have already been identified from this “de-identified” data – and this incident is in fact just one in a string of data breaches the UK Biobank has been included in over the years.
This time, the British government claims they “swiftly” removed the listings before anything was sold. The Biobank suspended access to its cloud-based research platform to investigate the incident, alongside promises to introduce “additional security measures”.
Leaked UK Biobank datasets were still online three months after the confidential patient records were compromised earlier this year https://t.co/SaYktO8WAr
— The BMJ (@bmj_latest) June 11, 2026
But implementing the latest, most secure cyber security measures – which are always playing catch up to the latest hacking technology, especially with the developments of AI – would cost platforms like Biobank a small fortune.
And the Biobank’s platform is not hosted in-house, but outsourced to private companies. So we have to ask: who will pay for these “additional security measures” to prevent more sensitive data leaks? It certainly won’t be the private companies themselves!
Put into the hands of the workers themselves, without the constraints of profit-seeking, the frameworks could be quickly put in place so this data could actually be held and accessed securely. The sky would be the limit in enhancing human health.
Sara Al Disi, Edinburgh
Liverpool students left devastated
On GCSE results day students hoping to study for A-levels at the City of Liverpool College faced severe disappointment. Not because their hard work hadn’t given them the results they needed, but because College management had cancelled all A-level courses, and only told them as they tried to complete their enrollment.
In the local paper, Liverpool Echo, parents condemned the decision. Some students had been told from January they had been accepted onto courses which were now not going ahead.
The parents did praise the college staff, who had only been given 24 hours to prepare to deal with the students’ devastation and aid them in scrambling to find alternatives.
Management say the decision was the result of an “extensive review” considering the growth of vocational courses and “the economic needs of the Liverpool Region”. It cited falling A-level applications making courses unviable – but unviable for who?
This is how remote and unaccountable the management of our educational institutions is. They treat students as nothing more but future fodder for capitalism. If colleges were run by the workers, students and local community they would not treat youth with such callousness.
Mike Hogan, Liverpool
Transport or culture? Can’t have both
Enjoyers of Birmingham’s nightlife are in uproar about plans for the expansion of Moor Street train station. Birmingham City Council’s plans for a ‘Moor Street Gateway’ will see the city centre’s existing stations linked up with the much-delayed HS2 terminal.
‘What could be wrong with this?’ you may ask. These plans mean travellers will be able to change easily between rail, bus and metro services; walkways will be expanded; and more trees will be planted. Seems like a win-win situation, no?
However, the expansion is set to cut directly through Digbeth, the city’s cultural hub and a centre of community organising. The £1.75 billion worth of government grants behind the Moor Street expansion will see dozens of spaces demolished – ranging from art hubs and community organising spaces, to local cafes and nightlife venues.
These businesses and community groups have been offered no alternatives for relocation, and no ways to sustain themselves if they become cut off from the city by building works. One way or another, they are set to go under.
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To add insult to injury, no official communications had even been made to Digbeth’s tenants when the plans were announced on social media. And since then, all attempts by businesses and groups to reach out for more information have been ignored.
And why would these private companies sitting on major government contracts care about the people of Birmingham losing yet more cultural and community spaces? They care about raking in their profits.
Under capitalism, we are offered a bogus dichotomy: a choice between improvements to public services, and the preservation of culture and community. We cannot have both.
With a planned economy, public funds could be funnelled directly into improving our public services, and into ensuring that cultural spaces are actively nurtured.
Tara Desai, Birmingham
