
Re: How do you draw a map of the USA?
But the Earth America is flat and only 9,000 years old...
532 publicly visible posts • joined 4 Apr 2017
we all should pay more tax
What you mean is the country needs to raise more revenue.
One way is to increase the overall tax take, and as you describe, every government fudges around the issue, trying to eek out gains without causing general uproar.
The issue is that the structure of the UK tax system is no longer fit for purpose. NI is an anachronism and needs to be removed. A simple set of (adjusted) tax brackets that apply to all would be a much fairer system with many fewer loopholes to stretch tax avoidance but still permitting those that want the ability to operate in flexible manner.
But no Government is willing to risk making the change lest it lead to their unemployment (and it's their ego that keeps them wanting to be a politician).
"This option is not usually available to permanent employees."
On the contrary, EVERY company I've worked for has permitted employees to make additional contributions to the pension scheme, or to a personal pension scheme BEFORE Tax. This is standard tax law.. What the company does not do is match those additional contributions.
"Show me one single shred of evidence that Amazon haven't paid every penny they owe or quitcherbitchin'"
Show me one single shred of evidence that Contractors in general haven't paid every penny they owe or quitcherbitchin'. I agree there are a very small number of cases HMRC have won (THREE), however they have LOST 75% of the cases they brought to Court.
The entire IR35 shitdhow is driven by the big consultancies to feather their nest, it is not in the interests of the people.
"HMRC confirmed ... the rules will not be used to open new investigations ... unless there is reason to suspect fraud or criminal behaviour"
Pretty sure HMRC already class any mistakes in tax returns to be fraud or criminal, so they can and will go after anyone. It has already happened in the Public sector despite the same promises.
The authorities can go after Directors in certain circumstances, such as criminal activity. And if criminal activity can be proven, proceeds of crime can go after Directors assets.
Limited Companies do provide some protections, but not carte blanche otherwise there would be a lot more criminal activity hidden behind them.
"The auditor – one of the "Big Four" – reached an out-of-court settlement with HPE prior to the start of the Autonomy trial."
Ding, ding, ding, we have a winner. I can't say Autonomy and its people are entirely innocent, however the Auditor signed off the deal so it cannot have been that far from the norm.
The issue is not the content of the wash, it is that animals are treated poorly and are kept and processed in insanitary conditions because they are going to be cleaned with some kind of antibacterial just before release into the market.
In the EU by not having the wash stage the treatment of animals and the sanitary conditions during processing are higher to start with. They're far from perfect, but better than the US.
Big Business: "we'll consider individually which roles are inside IR35 and which are outside IR35"
HMRC: "We consider all these people were inside IR35, give us this x millions in NI and Tax NOW, and if you win the case in court in 18 months time we'll give you the money back."
Big business: "fuck that, every role is inside IR35"
"or only want to work 8 months a year (which would normally not fall under IR35..."
Wrong. The length of the contract is irrelevant. You can be contracted for one day and be inside IR35. It comes down to control, where, when, and how the job is done, and any financial liablility. Now it is likely you could argue one day is outside, but there are no objective measures in IR35, only subjective assessments of the working conditions. And this is the major problem, it is subjective, not objective.
Anyone who utters this phrase against any changes as a result of Brexit needs to understand that this is EXACTLY what you voted for.
Everyone was warned of the potential impact and consequences that would occur. You voted for it. You only have yourself to blame.
"pay PAYE, Pensions, sick pay, holiday pay, and paternity pay"
Companies cannot avoid the law, even small companies with single employees. Yes, certain rules are amended for Director/Employee, but the appropriate laws still apply. All "benefits" and "rights" must still be met by the Contractor's company, that's why the day rate is higher, to cover the cost of those provisions.
"Sounds like a fair and equitable trade to me."
While the flippant side of me nods, this really isn't fair or equitable. How many actual deaths can be directly attributed to the actions of Mike Lynch. I suspect none.
Let's not forget the USA also has an ongoing request for Julian Assange. Once Anne Sacoolas is in the UK we can discuss who we'll give back.
The average killer hasn't received £500million from an alleged fraudulent transaction.
Bail is set appropriate to the potenial of the accused to skipping it, much to the out of pocketness of Saint Julian's friends. Lynch has enough money to get himself to a country of non-extradition, something few killers have (unless you're backed by the American government and extracted from a country under false immunity).
"If Labour had not chosen to make themselves the anti-Brexit party"
In what universe were labour the "anti-Brexit party". They were entirely the "sit on the fence party". They still are. They have no clear policy on anything.
"If we were in power we'd be doing it different"
"What would you be doing different?"
"Er, it would be, er something else, maybe this or maybe that"
When a relative went into care I installed some Hue, some Arlo and NetAtmo Weather to remotely monitor the property. The technology is now cheap enough.
Motion detection video, doorbell picked up on audio could turn a light on, scheduled light changes, and monitored the temperature without having the heating on all the time (old thermostat, no frost protection).
It's a use case. not saying its brilliant, but it is a use case.
As the article says, whatever the EU mandate is likely to become the de facto standard in many other countries as it simply doesn't make sense to make multiple variations.
Brexiteers still don't understand that. The UK is going to need to comply with so many EU regulations not only for trade with the EU but for trade with other countries that have adopted the EU regulations.
But at least they'll have blue passports when they go on trade delegations.
Merchant Bankers like Farage: "Those pesky EU rules prevent us from gouging money out of everybody for everything, we need to leave the EU"
I'm still waiting for anyone to show me a single good reason for leaving the EU. As far as benefit to the people of the UK, everything proposed is turning out to be a worse position
Reap what you sow Brexiteers!
In fairness to Zoom, every other Conference service I've ever used had the same problem where only a conference ID was widely used and no additional authentication of who had dialled in. Like Zoom, you could add a password, most meeting organisers chose not to.
Security by obscurity as it were...
"The UK will still follow the EU, just not as a member any more."
Is that like those local gym memberships? You can pay £90 a month to be a member, use it as much as you like, have a say in how it's run, who else can join, and what equipment is available, or you can pay £30 for a day visit with no say whatsoever?
I'll have 10 days a month at £30 each says the UK...
Diplomatic Immunity is very important for genuine diplomats, it is in place to prevent vexatious accusations being made against a countries representatives.
The "tragic accident" caused by negligence is clearly not a vexatious accusation. The facts are well established, the evidence is likely to stand up in a court of law in both countries, and there is the principle that diplomatic immunity can be removed in cases where there is a genuine case.
If the US believe causing death isn't grounds for extradition then they can fuck right off for extradition for any crime less than death.
Why a small country?
Any philanthropic person or "organisation" can reserve TLDs these days, so spend $180k on a new TLD and operate as a not for profit, with a written constitution and a board of governors.
"Sold" properly to the current .org users with an easy mass migration path you could kill the sale of .org instantly as all the profit is gone
"all the major ISPs created some independent internaional non-political organisation to run root"
Principle is sound, but why the "major ISPs", aren't they part of the "management" problem of the Internet anyway?
Why wouldn't it come under the remit of the United Nations? Could easily be run under their banner, run as a "not for profit", but able to cover it's running costs.
Much as I agree with you that the innocent have nothing to fear, the problem is the scope creep of searches.
Will officers routinely "triage" all devices they seize just in case they find something incriminating. If it only takes a short amount of time and every officer has access to the scanner, what is to stop them fishing? Policy on Probable Cause? I know that often minor crimes lead to bigger catches, criminals being idiots don't insure their car, get pulled, and hey presto, stolen goods or drugs in the boot. Wouldn't be caught if the Police couldn't open the boot just because there was no insurance.
At what point do the Daily Mail want every device scanned "cause paedophiles". Do we have random searches taking place "cause paedophiles".
Just what is the feedback loop on searches to ensure the scope does not creep.
"uses software to flash phone, furtle bits not usually furtled, forcibly unlock it, rummage around."
From what I've read, nothing as specific as this happens. Details are thin but I've seen nothing that indicates any change to the device
If it does alter the contents then you are right, that evidence is likely to be inadmissible. That, however is not the point. Plod want to know who you've been communicating with so they can go search them too, acting on "information received".