A big punt, PM
TO the fury of the public, the Press, our No1 global ally and enough of his own MPs to trouble him, Boris Johnson has picked Huawei as our 5G supplier.
It is either extremely brave or staggeringly reckless. It will either benefit Britain hugely and rapidly or, if our worst fears are confirmed, endanger national security and destroy his Government.
The first big decision of Boris’s majority administration is a high-risk gamble. We know this because, incredibly, Huawei is officially deemed “high risk”.
Which begs the question: Why ARE we risking letting a branch of China’s Communist regime loose on our vital new broadband network — through which it could conceivably steal untold quantities of data and state secrets or shut down our power grid?
A regime infamous for the relentlessness and ingenuity of its hackers?
In fairness Ian Levy, technical chief of our National Cyber Security Centre, has produced a solid and detailed defence of how the risks will be mitigated, core parts of the network kept beyond China’s reach and our secrets protected.
And we accept that Boris is in a bind, needing to roll out 5G fast and with no one else ready to deliver it. But that will not satisfy the US nor our other security partners.
And The Sun believes those relations matter more than delaying 5G.
For now, the decision is made. And our intelligence chiefs are right to demand no such risk ever be repeated.
That means ensuring there are British firms to produce the kit we need once even 5G becomes obsolete.
Dodging Duke
PRINCE Andrew lurches from one PR disaster to another. First the calamitous Newsnight interview. Now he’s swerving the FBI he promised to help.
He may have been legally advised to keep schtum about his paedophile pal Jeffrey Epstein. But it makes him look even worse.
Yes, it is ironic for the Americans to complain about his failure to co-operate as they continue to hide Anne Sacoolas from justice over Harry Dunn’s death.
But Andrew should do the right thing by Epstein’s victims. And tell the FBI everything he knows, here or in the US.
Beeb own goal
STOPPED clocks are right twice a day, a success rate Gary Lineker can only envy.
But the overpaid snack pusher is for once correct over the compulsory BBC licence fee.
It is, as he says, a tax which — like contributing to his unconscion-ably vast salary — should be voluntary.
BBC chiefs are in denial, so long have they idly taken this archaic public funding model for granted.
But when your own most lavishly-paid star cannot justify it, the game looks up.
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