Etymological fallacy
No, that's not what "passionate" means. I've made it a habit to stop reading at the first mistake, since it casts doubt on everything that follows.
1030 publicly visible posts • joined 30 Jun 2010
Rateable Value rising from £158m to £715m means a rise of £557m, multiplier is 49.7%, giving BT a bill of £276m. There are 26.7m households in Britain, so that's just over £10 a year each. Rounding up to £12/year, that's £1 per month per household.
The direct bill to consumers will be a bit less because I haven't taken into account business telephone lines, but ultimately it's all coming out of the same pockets. This isn't a tax hike on BT; it's a tax hike on all of us.
People didn't start switching to Apple products because they were shiny. They switched because they were fed up with being bombarded with notifications: you need to reboot to install updates, you need a new mouse driver, you need to pay $39.99+tax to upgrade your free trial version of McAfee, your copy of Windows isn't genuine, you need to download the !CrashSpam!Toolbar! for Internet Explorer. Some days I felt like I was doing more work for Windows than with Windows.
On Windows, uninstalling an application means finding its custom uninstaller or digging through the Control Panel, running the uninstaller, then being told that it was unable to remove everything because there's a stray .ini file in the folder. On the Mac, uninstalling an application means dragging its icon to the trash can.
On Windows, closing the lid and re-opening it means every application pops up a warning message: network path not found (because it takes a few seconds for the network to connect), printer not found, and why haven't you rebooted for updates yet? On the Mac, closing the lid and re-opening it means finding everything just where you left it.
That's what good design means. It's not just the shiny / pretty side: it's making it all work together.
The lawsuit alleges Palantir routinely eliminated Asian applicants in the resume screening and telephone interview phases, even when they were as qualified as white applicants.
Throwing out Asian names at the CV ("resumé") stage would indeed show discrimination; but why would the company waste time with telephone interviews if they knew they weren't going to hire them?
So you've got a stash of valid card numbers, and let's assume you also stole the associated postcodes and CCV numbers. What large transaction can you do online that isn't either (a) traceable via physical goods delivered to a drop address, or (b) reversible, e.g. buying e-money in various online communities?
I can understand that you'd get away with topping up a £10 PAYG phone using a stolen card number; but can they do anything meaningful? Or are the police / banks just not bothered about chasing up (a) / (b) above?
"a database of customers that have been on a standard variable tariff for three years or more"
So now every supplier will send their customers a letter after two years and eleven months, saying "Thanks to your unfailing loyalty, we're putting you on a cheaper* tariff!"
(*for a couple of months only, before reverting to the higher tariff again; preferably in the summer while your usage is lowest)
Contractors will raise their rates to offset the higher taxes; but the public sector will be able to afford those higher rates, because the tax take will be higher. It's just more money cycling through HMRC's hands.
(Yeah, I know that's not really gonig to happen in practice.)
There was a time, not so long ago, when a hip new trend like Pokemon Go would be popular for at least a couple of years. Angry Birds was popular for at least six months. Pokemon Go has been out for less than a month, and already it feels like yesterday's buzz. In fact every new trend has a lifespan measured in weeks; and no doubt it's only getting shorter. What's going on?
@d3vy,
Companies can offer loans to help purchase an annual season ticket, which works out slightly cheaper than a monthly or weekly ticket. This can save a few quid; but it's nothing compared to the 40%+ you save by purchasing a season ticket out of your pre-tax income.
I'm not moaning - just observing that it's actually quite difficult to design a tax system which treats both employees and contractors fairly and equally. In particular, it's very difficult to distinguish between a job-hopping employee and a "serial monogamist" contractor who only has one job at a time with each job lasting many months.
It's not just the National Insurance, it's the expenses too. If you're commuting from e.g. Bath to London, the train season ticket will cost you £10,000 a year. A contractor can pay that out of pre-tax income, whereas an employee (even a short-term one) simply can't.
Paying your wife is another trick which employees can't do either; a contractor pulling in £100k a year could save at least £12,000 by using his wife's (and/or children's) tax-free allowances. It's not terribly common, but it does happen.
A level playing field would be much appreciated, but it's hard to see how it could be done with minimal state interference.
with government code being open source it should be easier and cheaper to extend and modify.
That's fine in theory. But who hasn't rocked up at a new job, taken one look at the legacy code, and decided to burn the whole lot and start again?
(Pro tip: never ask "who wrote this crap?"; it was invariably the person who you just asked.)
The T&S (Travel & Subsistence) clampdown is already causing upheaval. Since April 2016, umbrella companies can no longer claim T&S. Experienced contractors will already have their own limited companies, but first-time contractors who just want to test the waters will be unimpressed at what's on offer.
Could a Silicon Valley VC employ staff in France remotely? No legal presence in France, the offices just a rented Regus-style building, staff bring their own kit, everyone connects to a server in the UK or the Netherlands. Seems like a nice way of getting round legal loopholes. Staff might struggle to get a mortgage though.
It's generally a good thing. Here's how it works:
1. A canny British entrepreneur sets up a new business with his savings, and grows it into a tidy operation.
2. Foreign investor buys up the business. Cue much wailing and gnashing of teeth.
3. Original founder now has lots of cash, lots of experience, and time on his hands. He (or she) sets up another new business, creating more jobs and growth, and giving more consumers what they want.
Rinse and repeat.
It doesn't matter whether the buyer is foreign or domestic; what matters is that the entrepreneur can cash out of the boring mature business and concentrate on setting up innovative new businesses.
If you're the star of this week's On-Call, and have driven half-way across the country to plug in a dot-matrix printer, you might welcome a quick break in McD's to wolf down before the long drive home. Not all of us have the time or the money or the patience to search out somewhere better when away from home.