I'm pretty sure remotely disabling computers is covered under the computer misuse act in the UK and every similar law in all countries that have them.

No DNS huh? NTP? Outgoing ssh? Http{s} to​ high number ports? Outgoing RDP?

...see the problem?

Oh, you mean like GWX was for Win7+? "Hello, we tried to upgrade your computer to WinX, your computer is now an expensive brick." Yeah, that's a great idea.

Tunneling still works

Pirates don't install security patches.

Neither does the NHS

There was no patch for XP until today, so how could they?

XP has been out of support for over three years. Continuing to use it is gross negligence. It was only a matter of time until something like this happened.

2 years for NHS, but your point stands :) http://www.v3.co.uk/v3-uk/news/2406304/windows-xp-government...

Yes. Gross negligence from gov for under funding a core government service.

Quite intentionally, too. One of their parties is looking jealously at the cashflow that a US-style system might provide them. At the cost of everyone else, sure, but what's that to the allure of profit?

that's not really true, windows update has been working fine for pirated copies of windows for ages since creating spam-bots hurts everyone and doesn't really sell more real copies of windows