Posts by codejunky

G20 finance ministers agree plan to make multinationals pay their 'fair share' of tax

Re: EU backs it...

@gandalfcn

You appear to have posted the same link twice but as it says-

"When asked if this would be looked upon favourably, Mr Tusk said there would be enthusiasm but he warned the country would not be automatically accepted."

In fact apart from saying there is some enthusiasm (brexiters shocked I tell you) it basically says Scotland would have to agree to no opt outs, would be just another country waiting to get ascension and would have to meet the criteria for joining. So the situation hasnt improved for Scotland joining it seems.

Re: This proposal is not worth the paper is might get printed on

@AC

"A sovereign citizen then? I comprehend."

I had to look that up. No

Re: This proposal is not worth the paper is might get printed on

@AC

"Apologist or wannabe elite?"

Wanna not have my money stolen. I work for the incentive of trading my time for money.

Re: EU backs it...

@gandalfcn

"You really do need to see a shrink to sort out your psychotic behaviour."

Typing is psychotic behaviour? If you think so you should go see a shrink.

Re: EU backs it...

@gandalfcn

"There is hyperbole and there are shouty inanities."

And yet msobkow isnt wrong-

https://www.reuters.com/business/eu-commission-puts-hold-plan-digital-services-levy-2021-07-12/

Re: EU backs it...

@gandalfcn

"The truth, as usual is readily available to all but Brexiteers"

That being the truth that Scotland doesnt meet the required criteria to join the EU? Especially under the proposed independence voted on last time. That Scotland wants to join with the opt outs the UK had, which is a pipe dream.

Re: This proposal is not worth the paper is might get printed on

@AC

"The best bit about the anti-tax brigade is"

They probably dont want their earnings to be stolen. These tax's having a bad habit of working their way down to the little people.

Remember that income tax is only on the rich land barons as a temporary measure to pay for the war against France.

Re: EU backs it...

@msobkow

"Funny. But the rest of the world outside Ireland considers the Irish to be thieves who are STEALING THEIR TAX REVENUE."

Of course they do. Hard to steal whats already been stolen.

Re: EU backs it...

@Yet Another Anonymous coward

"How screwed is Ireland when Scotland gets independance and joins the Eu?"

If Scotland decides to do that to themselves I expect there will be a lot of disbelief and sympathy as reality hits them. Independence is tough but joining the EU (or thinking they will even be accepted) is just economic suicide. Ireland will probably be sympathetically watching as will the rest of the world.

Re: Surely they knew?

@Big_Boomer

"Then all we need to do is find a way get fair taxes from the other serial tax avoiders. If they all paid their fair share, we would all pay less taxes."

I dont know of tax falling due to the government collecting more. I know the government has collected more by reducing some tax's. Amazingly without collecting this theoretical 'fair' amount of theft the govs still manage to spend more.

The only way we pay less tax is when the government is scared it will take less by charging more.

Re: EU backs it...

@IGotOut

"Oddly Ireland, the big tech tax haven, decided not to back it."

Good on em. Money does not belong to the government. Offering lower tax in one country keeps the thieving governments from ramping up tax in their own countries.

Google fined €500m for not paying French publishers after using their words on web

Re: If you can't tax 'em fine 'em

@stiine

"Because that would wipe them from search listiings"

Well yes. So they can tell search engines what pages they can scrape and which they cant. So news sites can easily resolve this, they just want their cake and eat it.

Re: If you can't tax 'em fine 'em

I have 4 downvotes but nobody suggesting that robots.txt exists on those news sites nor that it wouldnt solve the problem.

Its a serious question. If they dont want google offering up their news (with links to drive them more traffic as I understand it) then why not just exclude pages from the web crawling?

Re: If you can't tax 'em fine 'em

@WanderingHaggis

"you plagiarizer or treat my hard work as free and kill my living then you deserve it."

Is there a robots.txt to tell search engines to ignore the content?

UK's biggest trade union takes aim at Amazon over 'price gouging' allegations

So?

"Unite – the UK's largest trade union, with some 1.4 million members – has accused Amazon of inflating prices for items such as hand sanitiser and other health products during the pandemic."

And that is why we are glad the world isnt run by trade unions. Items not typically bought by many is suddenly in vast demand. These just so happen to be items being reserved by professional services e.g. hospitals which requires suppliers to up production quickly.

Would Unite have preferred that these items were just out of stock everywhere? How else do they think supply would have been ramped up?

NHS contracts for document storage, digitisation three years after paperless deadline

Ha

"three years after it missed a self-imposed deadline of going paperless."

Brought by the stunning healthcare service that still uses fax. At some point the religious defence of the NHS will fail and the administrative bureaucracy will be split from the actual health providers when discussing the institution.

OK, you're paying data charges in the EU, but you can still roam free in, er, Iceland

Re: Roaming Charges ?

@AC

"https://www.logicallyfallacious.com/logicalfallacies/Traitorous-Critic-Fallacy"

And how does that apply? Seriously. Based on your link-

There is nothing disingenuous about my question as he is stating his preference for the EU and not only that but actively complaining about Britain after brexit. Now he states he is an expat which makes this conversation moot as it seems he has gone to where he would prefer to be (and so theoretically should be happier).

Assuming you are the same AC of accusing me of saying "Throwing everyone who disagrees with them/isn't like them out of our country?" then I have already explained how you are wrong and that I am not talking about throwing anyone out (appeal to force), only on acting out their preference so this example doesnt apply.

Sometimes a question is really a question. Often an answer can lead to further discussion. However if you read his comments that isnt his forte

Re: What exactly did we get from the EU for £40bn divorce settlement?

@tip pc

"It’s fair to pay something, not sure £40bn for something we won’t have access to is fair."

True. I think the 'strictly speaking' part of your link is the UK just not being willing to give the EU a penny as we tell em to sod off. I do think that a bit harsh myself although the thought of us not paying seemed to make the EU twitch when it was suggested.

You are right we could have cut all ties with the EU and maybe got away without paying anything. I imagine their vaccine tantrum would have been worse though.

"I’m glad we can split hairs on this without resorting to childish name calling :)"

I am appreciating the mature conversation too ;)

Re: We're slashing red tape!

@gandalfcn

"Taking the piss is not a sticking point, it is taking the piss."

Ahhh so your saying remainers are taking the piss when they are writing anti-foreigner posts. And that its not a sticking point that remainers cant get past passports being made in a foreign country but when they are complaining about it they are just taking the piss out of the group who is not anti-foreigner and doesnt care the passports are made in foreign lands?

And then you call me a lier, ignorant and a loser. How far does your parody account go? Do you also have a twitter where you post all your inane ramblings like Titania McGrath? You really do seem to have that persona down well.

Re: Roaming Charges ?

@gandalfcn

"You claim "decided against EU membership" but the fact, not your lies, is it was a "cooperation agreement with the EU,""

It was an agreement to pull the Swiss closer to the EU, the Swiss rejected it and that impacts any possible future EU agreements and those already established as they expire. Technically not membership, just the same buggery they like to pull on members.

https://www.politico.eu/article/switzerland-eu-talks-partnership-treaty-end/

Re: Roaming Charges ?

@gandalfcn

"yu seem to be avoiding the fact that UK had far more deaths than other countries"

No it hasnt. As an absolute number we are 7th which is a worthless stat anyway as it ignores population. Per 1M we are 20th in the world. In Europe we are 15th.

https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/

"SARS has been around for a while"

At what point does that change the fact that we are in an unprecedented situation? This is a global pandemic in the modern world.

"You should try reading what it says and then what the government does."

To be honest I dont read the mail unless someone posts a specific link to an article and even then I look for another reference if I can find one.

"You should try it. I do and get downvoted, as do others. Maybe you should stop lying and stop downvoting facts."

You do get downvoted I see that. And I downvote some of your hilarious crap too on occasion. But your insistence that I am lying while not being able to demonstrate a single lie isnt facts.

Re: Roaming Charges ?

@gandalfcn

"A lying Grammar Nazi to boot."

I am guessing you realised how wrong your comment was. Or your remaining braincells just crashed.

Re: Roaming Charges ?

@AC

So if you do understand then you know it was a question and your comment was for stupidity? Assuming your the same coward who seriously misread my comment and claimed I said different things.

Re: Roaming Charges ?

@gandalfcn

"The government was responsible for all the deaths, The government was not responsible for the vaccines, that was scientists."

The government is responsible for the deaths? Within reason I agree, which also applies to every country with an unprecedented situation. The government also being responsible for facilitating the scientists and ordering vaccine. So within reason of blaming the UK gov we also do the same with the EU who failed miserably at procuring the vaccine necessary and then making the situation worse.

"All you do is bang on about the vaccine"

Again am I not to mention the most recent and still very relevant screw up of the EU? Which follows their pattern of dealing with crisis?

"you disngeuous twatwaffle"

I am seeing a lot of insults in your comments and they are amusing (not heard twatwaffle in a while). But if you focus on putting some valid content in your posts too that would be nice.

Re: Roaming Charges ?

@gandalfcn

"also a Grammar Nazi to boot."

I have never ever been called that before, thank you. I am dyslexic and often cop remarks against my comments for my mistakes. If you consider me a grammar nazi you really must have difficulty. I dont knock people for having difficulty writing but I assume you are referring to your other comment (not this thread) where you tell me "Try learning English." while your comments are full of mistakes.

Its less of me being a grammar nazi as you acting like a child.

"Given you are claiming the UK is now better off outside the EU that comment proves indisputably you are a blatant liar, doesn't it"

Not at all. Its your unsubstantiated claim so I am still waiting for you to back it up. I did notice you posted such a response to Phil O'Sophical where you demonstrate how disingenuous your question was. Hence I didnt answer it.

"Haven't you noticed that commerce and industry in the EU and the rest of the world is leaving the UK behind?"

No. In fact it seems the UK is so far ahead in its pandemic response to now have downgraded the situation to epidemic and opening up vaccinated while the EU members have a variety of conflicting approaches (particularly those trying to attract UK and US tourists).

"Maybe I did you fucking idiot and I just like to prove what lying idiots you Brexiteers are."

Why would it make me an idiot to suggest you move to where you claim to want to be? And if you are there then why are your panties in such a knot?

"Why don't you move to Russia?"

Because I dont want to...

Re: Roaming Charges ?

@gandalfcn

"So you have no answer, because you know you are a liar."

The answer is we left the EU. You just dont like the answer.

"Firstly, stating facts and taking the piss out of lying Brexiteers is not moaning it is the antithesis"

To you it might seem like your taking the piss, and I would agree if you are a parody account (kinda like Titania McGrath taking the piss out of woke stupidity). But if you actually believe what you are posting I can only feel sorry for you.

"because you won but actually lost"

Lost what? The thing we actively didnt want? That does sound like a win.

"As you know so much about me"

I dont know anything about you except your a parody account or fanatical about the EU. Which is why I keep pointing out your assumptions about me are wrong because you really dont know me.

Re: Roaming Charges ?

@AC

"It isn't even a question"

Sorry if English isnt your first language. The question mark at the end of the bit you quoted is due to it being a question- if the EU means so much to you why didnt you move to it?

"Throwing everyone who disagrees with them/isn't like them out of our country?"

Who is throwing anyone anywhere? It is a very legitimate question for staunch remainers who believe the EU to be the land of hope and light while the UK is a doomed hell hole.

"Can Brexit backers think of any new/real ideas to get the UK out of this mess?"

We did get out of the mess. We left the EU. And just in time as its in another crisis.

Re: Roaming Charges ?

@AC

"Even after "winning", the flag botherers are still trotting out this old chestnut?"

If its such an old chestnut then you surely can answer then? If the EU is such a wonderful land of light and utopia while the UK is some doomed hell hole due to brexit then surely the moaners like gandalfcn would move to the EU.

That you cant answer it and spout crap is probably why you posted AC.

Re: What exactly did we get from the EU for £40bn divorce settlement?

@gandalfcn

"You continue to prove you aren't too bright. Or honest. Perfect Brexiteer."

So no answer? Nothing you can possibly think of a reasonable argument against or in your case even unreasonable argument? Just an acceptance that you have nothing and so an empty comment? Really hoping for your sakes you are a parody account.

Re: What exactly did we get from the EU for £40bn divorce settlement?

@gandalfcn

"it seems you are either as morally bankrupt as him or a total nibhead."

Damn with arguments like that I cannot fathom how remain lost the vote.

Re: I see no ships

@gandalfcn

"Why are you conflating two separate things?"

I dont. Hence my reply to the AC. Was that you?

"Do you approve of the principle that Britain and Spain should share sovereignty over Gibraltar?"

That is surely up to the residents of Gibraltar who voted to remain part of the UK.

"Hmmmmm. but they recognised a purely advisory one as an instruction. Amazing isn't it."

Not really.

"Gibraltar is not part of the UK"

First few words- 'Gibraltar, a British Overseas Territory' source- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Status_of_Gibraltar

"I suggest in the very near future the UK will negotiate fr Gib to be part of the EU. Or else."

Or else what? If Gibraltar wants to remain part of the UK the UK will continue to tell Spanish ships to shove off when they break the international laws governing the territory.

Re: We're slashing red tape!

@gandalfcn

"Try learning English."

I am starting to wonder if you are a parody account or something. That you could type that with the excessive character substitution you have going on is amusing to me and I am dyslexic.

"The agreement to print said passports has been made, so there can be no "sticking point.""

It seems to be a sticking point for remainers who keep bringing it up as though its a bad thing. As I said it seems nationalistic and anti foreigner, and from remainers.

"Why is it that Brexiteers are not only dishonest and ignorant but also semi-literate?"

If you are a parody account you deserve a beer my friend for making me laugh so hard. If not then you probably shouldnt kill any remaining braincells with alcohol.

Re: Roaming Charges ?

@gandalfcn

"Erm, The UK has dropped as an economic force both within Europe and globally you numpty. Damn! What universe are you in?"

Eh? The EU that is bending over to Russia? The UK aint doing that. Hell Russia slapped them about a bit for fun before Turkey left one of the presidents on a sofa. The EU still is behind in vaccinations due to incompetence while the UK is vaccinated.

"Covid. Covid. Covid. That is all you have. What about all those who died because of BoJo?"

Is this a 'dont mention the virus' moment because the EU failed badly? I do agree people died from BoJo implementing such a strict lockdown policy and should have gone more Sweden model. But as far as UK gov vs EU gov, had we remain we would have the same situation but without vaccine (EU procurement). In fact countries in the EU are trying to open up even without being vaccinated while the UK locked down until vaccinated. If you want to blame our gov for mismanagement then same applies abroad.

"Yes, the EU has had problems but is rapidly catching up, but the Mail doesn't tell you that, does it."

Dont read the mail. But catching up is what you do when your behind. Same as the global financial crisis where the EU was catching up after gravely failing.

"If,as you believe, the UK is doing so well why has it's economic position fallen so dramatically?"

Go on, show me your source. Lets see what your looking at.

"If,as you believe, the UK is doing so well why has boJo signed such pathetic trade deals that have disadvantaged the UK"

Disadvantaged how?

"If your comment had any merit whatsoever then all other countries would be having exactly the same economic problems as the UK. They aren't."

I really am wondering where you are getting your information. The UK is doing pretty well, look beyond its borders.

Re: I see no ships

@AC

"(But England told them all to shut their mouths and just do as they're told.)"

No, its the same Gibraltar that voted to remain in the UK territories.

Re: Roaming Charges ?

@gandalfcn

"The predictions were if the UK left the EU completely, i.e. a hard Brexit. That didn't happen and never will."

Gad damn those goal posts run so fast. Come back. First of all we were guaranteed a recession if we voted leave on the day of the result. Didnt happen. Then it was because we needed to hand over Art50. We did that and still nope. So it was pushed to somewhere in the future.

The punishment budget had no reason to exist other than a direct threat against the population. It was the exact opposite of what a gov should do to the economy especially with their doom predictions. Oops.

Hell even at the start Cameron promised to demand important changes (damp squib) and he would support leave (he backed remain) if he didnt get them (he didnt).

"The UK has become an international laughing stock, is that why you are so angry?"

Pointing out you are wrong and not considering your ramblings to be clever doesnt make me angry, I am amused at what is left of the defence of the EU. There used to be commenters who at least had some clue. And its not laughter but its mostly at watching the EU flail around blaming everyone else for their vaccine screwup.

"That Brexit has exposed exactly where the UK stands outside the UK?"

I assume you mean outside the EU. And so far its been praised for being able to do what the EU has not. Deal with a crisis. Like last time!

"Yell us how many places the UK has dropped in the world league?"

No idea. Probably less than if it remained.

"Just on the disaster that was V]Brexit"

Based on the number of mistakes in your post I am thinking maybe you are the one who is angry. Dunno why, if the EU means so much to you why didnt you move to it? Plenty member countries to choose from.

Re: Roaming Charges ?

@gandalfcn

"Bess. You won, get over it."

You are aware I am replying to your crying comment. So maybe you need to internalise that 'get over it' bit.

"Remain didn't make a mess of anything"

Now thats a dull thud of a dumb comment. From a remain perspective providing the vote itself seems to meet the criteria of a mess. As a brexiter a lack of good reasons to remain and using the weight of government to directly threaten the population seems a bit of a mess.

"Why don't you tell the truth instead of blaming others?"

Blame who for what? I do blame remain and leave for varying reasons of various things but what specifically do you mean? And also what lies do you think you have spotted me tell? Exactly?

"Your hero BoJo"

And so another dull thud as you obviously dont have a clue about me. You might find I wasnt even convinced Boris would pull the trigger until he actually did it. That would be like me calling your hero Mandelson just because he is a remainer. Idjit

Re: What exactly did we get from the EU for £40bn divorce settlement?

@tip pc

"As I understand it, the UK could not have to pay if it forwent the “deal”. The deal went hand in hand with the settlement."

The UK would have to pay it. Thats the racked up bill we owe for our part of the EU (as calculated by the EU). The reason its so high is the desperate attempts to remain by former PM's interfered with actual negotiation. When brexiters were negotiating we were presenting them a bill for the assets we owned as part of the EU.

"I understand the settlement is to do with paying the UK’s share of EU investments while we where a member"

Investments is one word but costs of being in is more accurate. Investments would suggest a return but this is government investing which often doesnt.

"Doesn’t look like we get great value from our £40bn."

Agreed, but that £40bn is what we agreed to spend as part of the EU, not the price for leaving. Hell this is the figure after accounting for EU fines the UK gets a share of-

https://www.continentaltelegraph.com/2021/07/its-not-a-40-billion-brexit-bill-its-actually-0/

The £40bn isnt the cost of leaving, its part of what it would have cost to remain and that would be continually growing.

Re: What exactly did we get from the EU for £40bn divorce settlement?

@MatthewSt

"Well Farage et al are still entitled to their pensions from their outstanding contributions as MEPs..."

Well earned and if I ever saw the man I would buy him a pint

Re: What exactly did we get from the EU for £40bn divorce settlement?

@tip pc

"Our friends in the EU have come up with a figure of £40bn that we owe them for that last minute deal British campaigners forced us into."

Erm that doesnt make sense. That £40bn is the figure racked up by being in the EU. By leaving the EU we stopped the bill at £40bn owed to the EU which would be considerably higher had we remained (and been forced into the covid recovery fund too, again GBP bailing out the Euro).

"what exactly have we got for that £40bn?"

The difficulty of answering that is a very good leave argument. Of course had we continued with brexiters negotiating that £40bn would likely be much less as we would be charging them for our share of the assets. But remainers kept claiming it was more like a gym, aka a waste of money you get nothing for but the membership put us in billions of debt.

Re: I see no ships

@Fruit and Nutcase

"And the foreigners have been forewarned to be cooperative as otherwise they will get a visit from Boris in his BoatyMcBorisFace "Royal Yacht" which he has landed on the MOD budget"

Wasnt it a destroyer that the gov threatened to send over to Gibraltar which made the Spanish piss their pants and change their aspirations of taking Gibraltar due to brexit? Seemed to work too. Probably because the UK was one of the few Military mights of the EU.

Re: We're slashing red tape!

@Fruit and Nutcase

"Blue tape, just like the new British Blue Passport, made in the EU"

I am amazed at how much of a sticking point this is for remainers. Almost like they are against foreigners or something. A kind of nationalistic look. A similar nationalistic outlook as the EU has come to think of it...

Re: Roaming Charges ?

@gandalfcn

"If your comment had any merit whatsoever then a;; other countries would be having exactly the same economic problems as the UK. They aren't."

Damn! What universe are you in? Except the EU has vaccinated and looking to come out of lockdown (about bloody time) while EU members are very mixed in their opinions (depending if they rely on tourism).

Re: Roaming Charges ?

@Miss Config

Isnt Switzerland that other place in Europe that recently decided against EU membership?

https://www.politico.eu/article/switzerland-eu-talks-partnership-treaty-end/

Re: Roaming Charges ?

@gandalfcn

"It's hilarious watching them try to rationalise the f$ckupfest that is Brexit,especially BoJo and the Wibblers."

Except this doesnt seem to be the case (in my experience anyway). After remains failure to make a half decent case, their doom warnings being exposed as bull and the EU acting like the EU to the pandemic crisis there has been a swift quiet and lack of will to defend the utopia of light and hope.

As per this thread is the usual crying losers with little to actually say.

As Europe hopes to double its share of global chip production, Intel comes along with $20bn, plans for fabs

Re: gimme gimme gimme

@Dave Pickles

"So slap a 30% tax on imports from Asia. Fixed!"

Why? That just makes everything with chips more expensive. Although if the US and EU want to subsidise the production for us excellent, but knowing our gov the UK is probably paying towards it here too.

Linux Mint 20.2 is a bit more insistent about updating but not as annoying as Windows or Mac, team promises

Cool

I am running mint 19 for now. I would upgrade (mostly to see the shiny shiny) except ubuntu has issues with the upgrade with an encrypted swap partition and so mint does too. Overall I do recommend mint to ex windows users (and a few current ones too).

Re: Linux Bloatware

@89724102172714182892114I7551670349743096734346773478647892349863592355648544996312855148587659264921

Nice name btw. I do believe there can be issues running Mint >17.3 on some dual core processors. The boot up and shutdown seems to take much longer although I dont think it affects the running of the machine beyond that.

If you are using XP its probably an old enough machine to be dual core.

A real go-GETTR: Former Trump aide tries to batter Twitter by ripping off its UI

Re: reason us politics are so toxic

@Mooseman

"Well, plenty of people turn up with t shirts with daft things on them. I'm wearing a Monty Python Spanish Inquisition t shirt as I write this, it doesn't mean I'm in favour of torture and auto da fe."

While I too wear amusing tshirts are you seriously going to claim the socialist crowds who wish to overthrow capitalism etc are not socialist?

"BLM is not marxist"

Useful idiots might not be but yes it is.

"striving for equality after decades of oppression is not the same thing at all"

Agreed but we are talking about BLM.

"and neither were they burning cities"

Holy shit and propaganda. Really?

"most fo the damage was done by far right groups pretending to be BLM supporters"

I cant take this seriously. You are kidding? Please tell me you are kidding.

"go ahead and look there is plenty of evidence"

Please do. Please go look.

"You are still pushing the "radical left" idea about anything that doesn't wholeheartedly prop up the far right idiocy of trump et al, and have yet to actually offer any evidence other than "because I said so" to prove it."

Eh what? Sorry you need to rewrite that because I have no idea what you are on about. That you dont think there is a radical left in the US is your belief. You even accuse the radical left of being far right pretending to be left.

Gov.UK vows to chop red tape in the digital sector. What could possibly go wrong?

Re: Highly regulated sectors are essential for export

@gandalfcn

"Why don't you go and have a nice chat with a shrink?"

I am not sure that will help your case.

"Really? You obviously have no idea what the word means"

So the EU didnt make rules the UK had to follow? Even to the detriment of the UK? The EU currently looking at taking Germany and Poland to court to make clear to these members that EU rule is supreme even if it is against a members constitution (Poland and Germany challenged EU rules in their own courts).

"The UK an extremely powerful and influential member of the EU"

Lets take that as true, a single member of how many? Cameron being sent home with nothing. Even in bailing out Greece the UK was made a promise which was swiftly forgotten. If thats extremely powerful god help the rest.

"Before continuing to make a fool of yourself and spouting inane drivel I suggest you get an education and some real life experience."

Thats cute but makes a lot of assumptions about me while you spout drivel. And I have just explained how yours is drivel, you have avoided such bar the amusing claim of our extreme power and influence. Maybe before making a fool of yourself assuming you know anything about me you should stick to the topic

Re: What could possibly go wrong?

@PeterM42

What could go right? A lot!