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Now a quarantine exemption plan for toffs – the rest of us will have to suffer – politicalbetting.co

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  • Options
    TheScreamingEaglesTheScreamingEagles Posts: 114,554

    Another reason not to use LinkedIn.

    A second massive LinkedIn breach reportedly exposes the data of 700M users, which is more than 92% of the total 756M users. The database is for sale on the dark web, with records including phone numbers, physical addresses, geolocation data, and inferred salaries.

    The hacker who obtained the data has posted a sample of 1M records, and checks confirm that the data is both genuine and up-to-date …


    RestorePrivacy reports that the hacker appears to have misused the official LinkedIn API to download the data, the same method used in a similar breach back in April.

    https://9to5mac.com/2021/06/29/linkedin-breach/

    Does Dido Harding work for LinkedIn?

    It’s not really possible (or is it?) to maintain a professional career without a LinkedIn profile.

    What this in turn tells me is we cannot rely on some of these private companies to secure this data; we must regrettably regulate them as quasi public utilities.
    I have managed without a LinkedIn profile.

    I had one briefly, I was spammed by recruitment agents wanting to put me forward for jobs I really didn't want or wasn't suited for.
  • Options
    StuartDicksonStuartDickson Posts: 12,146

    ping said:

    I’ve come to an uncomfortable conclusion on the euro outright market.

    Germany, at ~7/1, are the value bet.

    I can’t quite bring myself to back them, though!

    I have.

    All things being equal the winner of the England v. Germany match gets to the final.

    In a two horse race you'd be happy with a 7/1 bet.
    At the moment it is a 14 horse race
    Nope - 10 horses left as 6 of the round of 16 are played...
    And one of those nags is Sweden. Heja Sverige!
  • Options
    TOPPINGTOPPING Posts: 41,389
    rcs1000 said:

    TOPPING said:

    HYUFD said:

    Those undertaking activities with significant economic benefit have always had favourable rules during this pandemic.

    Remember the you can meet up with people in a restaurant if it was for this. Or travel, the plebs can't go on holiday, but business people have been able to travel basically unhindered throughout.

    Given Freedom day is only 3 weeks away, I am not sure it will make a lot of difference.

    I am not sure it will be full Freedom Day, with even Australia restoring lockdown in some states and LA county reimposing a mask wearing request because of the Delta variant I would imagine masks will still be required to be worn in shops and on public transport, the biggest events will still have a capacity limit and quarantine will still be required for visits to red list countries and for the non double vaccinated to amber countries even from the middle of next month.

    I think this new government exemption would therefore certainly be very unpopular if executives returned from a red list country without quarantining
    How can it be freedom day when it is still mooted that children will be kept from school if there is a positive test in the class. While literally hundreds of thousands of people go to sports events, the pub, etc.

    What exactly does no more restrictions mean? It means restrictions the govt decides to keep. Plenty of them. Some idiot on R4 just now saying well children...long covid...can affect them....

    Vanishingly small probability of a child suffering from Covid. Otherwise, given that it has ripped through schools and unis these past few weeks, we would be hearing reports of children dying by the bucketload each day. Doesn't seem to be happening.
    Isn't freedom day also the end of term?
    Friends and bush telegraph tells me that end of term in many instances is being curtailed a matter of weeks early as everyone self-isolates. Whole rite of passage experiences just not happening for tens of thousands of children.
  • Options
    RochdalePioneersRochdalePioneers Posts: 27,286

    ping said:

    Scott_xP said:

    Taking back control-
    Lorry driver shortage: UK government and retailers in emergency talks
    https://www.theguardian.com/business/2021/jun/28/lorry-driver-shortage-uk-government-and-retailers-in-emergency-talks-covid-brexit

    I don’t agree with @Philip_Thompson and assorted other drawbridge brexiteers on much, but this is one area where they have a point.

    The government should not manipulate the market to prevent wage rises. It’s a good thing for the industry to recalibrate to domestic employment, higher wages and slightly higher costs.
    Except that the issue has been caused by a supply shock because of
    - Covid
    - Brexit
    - IR35 etc

    At least two of those are deliberate govt policy, and one of them is an act of god which we presumably wish to mitigate against.

    It might be that simply overseeing a wage spike might have consequences at the grocery tills.
    The bit that the minister studiously ignored at the previous meetings (where she accused the industry of "crying wolf") is that it isn't about money. You could offer drivers a stack of cash per hour and someone is still missing out.

    There aren't enough drivers. Will take time to train new ones (as apparently truck driving lessons / tests haven't taken place at all during Covid) so we either allow EU drivers back in or stuff won't get shifted around.

    Within a few months all this will feed directly into food price inflation (along with the other shortage which is people to work in factories and on farms) which analysts believe will be the biggest spike since 2007. Tesco et al insist they won't be putting up prices so I expect some fun times ahead with price negotiations :D
  • Options
    GardenwalkerGardenwalker Posts: 20,870
    I see Rishi has tweeted “Bring It On” about tonight’s game.

    How depressing, these artificial appeals to popularity. I doubt Rishi has ever watched a football game.
  • Options
    turbotubbsturbotubbs Posts: 15,250

    ping said:

    I’ve come to an uncomfortable conclusion on the euro outright market.

    Germany, at ~7/1, are the value bet.

    I can’t quite bring myself to back them, though!

    I have.

    All things being equal the winner of the England v. Germany match gets to the final.

    In a two horse race you'd be happy with a 7/1 bet.
    All things being equal, Wigan would never have won the FA cup.

    Knockout football is weird.

    Has anyone done an analysis of whether the favourite team wins more often in league games cf knockout games?
    As a Norwich City fan, we always prefer to "concentrate on the league"
    As a sometime Norwich resident and someone who watched a number of games at Carrow Road (borrowed season ticket very often available in the Championship, oddly not when in the Prem) I recognise that sentiment. My boys, Swindon, have a laughably bad FA Cup record against non league and lower league teams. Usually make some money from the bookies...
  • Options
    MarqueeMarkMarqueeMark Posts: 50,137
    The horrible Scottish numbers suggest she was worried we might close the border into Scotland. She had already made the case for us to do it.

    The differing regimes in England, Scotland, Wales and NI have been stupidity. One virus, one regime to attack that virus.
  • Options
    bigjohnowlsbigjohnowls Posts: 21,884

    Sri Lanka going well in the cricket again....be all over before the footy.

    They are shocking.

    I put £50 on them getting GT 199.5 looks like a loser
  • Options
    MarqueeMarkMarqueeMark Posts: 50,137
    Just three hours until we fall behind to another freakish goalkeeping howler.....
  • Options
    rcs1000rcs1000 Posts: 54,052
    TOPPING said:

    rcs1000 said:

    TOPPING said:

    HYUFD said:

    Those undertaking activities with significant economic benefit have always had favourable rules during this pandemic.

    Remember the you can meet up with people in a restaurant if it was for this. Or travel, the plebs can't go on holiday, but business people have been able to travel basically unhindered throughout.

    Given Freedom day is only 3 weeks away, I am not sure it will make a lot of difference.

    I am not sure it will be full Freedom Day, with even Australia restoring lockdown in some states and LA county reimposing a mask wearing request because of the Delta variant I would imagine masks will still be required to be worn in shops and on public transport, the biggest events will still have a capacity limit and quarantine will still be required for visits to red list countries and for the non double vaccinated to amber countries even from the middle of next month.

    I think this new government exemption would therefore certainly be very unpopular if executives returned from a red list country without quarantining
    How can it be freedom day when it is still mooted that children will be kept from school if there is a positive test in the class. While literally hundreds of thousands of people go to sports events, the pub, etc.

    What exactly does no more restrictions mean? It means restrictions the govt decides to keep. Plenty of them. Some idiot on R4 just now saying well children...long covid...can affect them....

    Vanishingly small probability of a child suffering from Covid. Otherwise, given that it has ripped through schools and unis these past few weeks, we would be hearing reports of children dying by the bucketload each day. Doesn't seem to be happening.
    Isn't freedom day also the end of term?
    Friends and bush telegraph tells me that end of term in many instances is being curtailed a matter of weeks early as everyone self-isolates. Whole rite of passage experiences just not happening for tens of thousands of children.
    End of term is a rite of passage without which we'd all be scarred?

    You and @contrarian seem to have a very low opinion of the mental resilience of the average 18 year old.
  • Options
    TheScreamingEaglesTheScreamingEagles Posts: 114,554

    I see Rishi has tweeted “Bring It On” about tonight’s game.

    How depressing, these artificial appeals to popularity. I doubt Rishi has ever watched a football game.

    He's a huge Southampton fan, he actually does know a fair bit about football.
  • Options
    GardenwalkerGardenwalker Posts: 20,870

    Another reason not to use LinkedIn.

    A second massive LinkedIn breach reportedly exposes the data of 700M users, which is more than 92% of the total 756M users. The database is for sale on the dark web, with records including phone numbers, physical addresses, geolocation data, and inferred salaries.

    The hacker who obtained the data has posted a sample of 1M records, and checks confirm that the data is both genuine and up-to-date …


    RestorePrivacy reports that the hacker appears to have misused the official LinkedIn API to download the data, the same method used in a similar breach back in April.

    https://9to5mac.com/2021/06/29/linkedin-breach/

    Does Dido Harding work for LinkedIn?

    It’s not really possible (or is it?) to maintain a professional career without a LinkedIn profile.

    What this in turn tells me is we cannot rely on some of these private companies to secure this data; we must regrettably regulate them as quasi public utilities.
    I have managed without a LinkedIn profile.

    I had one briefly, I was spammed by recruitment agents wanting to put me forward for jobs I really didn't want or wasn't suited for.
    I actually have no idea what you do (some kind of lawyer?) but in my field (tech) it’s helpful to have your name out there with recruiters.
  • Options
    HYUFDHYUFD Posts: 117,100

    I see Rishi has tweeted “Bring It On” about tonight’s game.

    How depressing, these artificial appeals to popularity. I doubt Rishi has ever watched a football game.

    He supports Southampton FC

  • Options
    turbotubbsturbotubbs Posts: 15,250
    Cookie said:

    rcs1000 said:

    HYUFD said:

    Those undertaking activities with significant economic benefit have always had favourable rules during this pandemic.

    Remember the you can meet up with people in a restaurant if it was for this. Or travel, the plebs can't go on holiday, but business people have been able to travel basically unhindered throughout.

    Given Freedom day is only 3 weeks away, I am not sure it will make a lot of difference.

    I am not sure it will be full Freedom Day, with even Australia restoring lockdown in some states and LA county reimposing a mask wearing request because of the Delta variant I would imagine masks will still be required to be worn in shops and on public transport, the biggest events will still have a capacity limit and quarantine will still be required for visits to red list countries and for the non double vaccinated to amber countries even from the middle of next month.

    I think this new government exemption would therefore certainly be very unpopular if executives returned from a red list country without quarantining
    Ummm: I'm in LA County and I haven't seen any reintroduction of a mask mandate. And the LA County Covid page has no mention of it (http://publichealth.lacounty.gov/media/coronavirus/). Also, LA County seven day case numbers are still heading down.

    So, not sure what your source is.
    If the mask mandate remains, it's not freedom day, and won't be presented as such.
    I could just about live with removing the legal basis of masks in shops and public transport and then wearing them out of courtesy if asked. But I really do hate masks in general life, and it puts me off from doing things like shopping, and even going to the pub with the stupid (my opinion) mix of on to enter and move and off to sit and eat/drink.
  • Options
    HYUFDHYUFD Posts: 117,100
    edited June 2021
    rcs1000 said:

    Cookie said:

    rcs1000 said:

    HYUFD said:

    Those undertaking activities with significant economic benefit have always had favourable rules during this pandemic.

    Remember the you can meet up with people in a restaurant if it was for this. Or travel, the plebs can't go on holiday, but business people have been able to travel basically unhindered throughout.

    Given Freedom day is only 3 weeks away, I am not sure it will make a lot of difference.

    I am not sure it will be full Freedom Day, with even Australia restoring lockdown in some states and LA county reimposing a mask wearing request because of the Delta variant I would imagine masks will still be required to be worn in shops and on public transport, the biggest events will still have a capacity limit and quarantine will still be required for visits to red list countries and for the non double vaccinated to amber countries even from the middle of next month.

    I think this new government exemption would therefore certainly be very unpopular if executives returned from a red list country without quarantining
    Ummm: I'm in LA County and I haven't seen any reintroduction of a mask mandate. And the LA County Covid page has no mention of it (http://publichealth.lacounty.gov/media/coronavirus/). Also, LA County seven day case numbers are still heading down.

    So, not sure what your source is.
    If the mask mandate remains, it's not freedom day, and won't be presented as such.
    I was merely pointing out that @HYUFD's claim that a mask mandate had been reintroduced in LA County is incorrect.
    'Los Angeles County public health officials are now "strongly" recommending everyone to wear masks in indoor public places, regardless of vaccination status, due to an increased spread of the Delta variant.'
    https://abc7.com/los-angeles-masks-delta-variant-indoors/10841712/
  • Options
    FoxyFoxy Posts: 44,755

    ping said:

    I’ve come to an uncomfortable conclusion on the euro outright market.

    Germany, at ~7/1, are the value bet.

    I can’t quite bring myself to back them, though!

    I have.

    All things being equal the winner of the England v. Germany match gets to the final.

    In a two horse race you'd be happy with a 7/1 bet.
    I wouldn't be so sure. I think Italy and Spain have both been scared, and France sent home by "lesser" teams.
  • Options
    dixiedeandixiedean Posts: 27,995

    I see Rishi has tweeted “Bring It On” about tonight’s game.

    How depressing, these artificial appeals to popularity. I doubt Rishi has ever watched a football game.

    Tbf he lists it as one of his interests. He named Matt Le Tissier as one of his heroes. Southampton fan.
  • Options
    FlatlanderFlatlander Posts: 3,909
    edited June 2021
    dixiedean said:

    My prediction for tonight.
    It wouldn't be as entertaining as last night.

    Neither of those games could have been classified as entertaining if England were involved. Exciting, perhaps.

    I see Rishi has tweeted “Bring It On” about tonight’s game.

    How depressing, these artificial appeals to popularity. I doubt Rishi has ever watched a football game.

    I thought he was a Saints supporter? You could argue that he wouldn't have seen any decent football there, but still...
  • Options
    GardenwalkerGardenwalker Posts: 20,870

    geoffw said:

    Cloth eared. Like the leniency towards UEFA bigwigs and hangers on.

    Cloth eared? Tories? I’m shocked.

    Another reason not to use LinkedIn.

    A second massive LinkedIn breach reportedly exposes the data of 700M users, which is more than 92% of the total 756M users. The database is for sale on the dark web, with records including phone numbers, physical addresses, geolocation data, and inferred salaries.

    The hacker who obtained the data has posted a sample of 1M records, and checks confirm that the data is both genuine and up-to-date …


    RestorePrivacy reports that the hacker appears to have misused the official LinkedIn API to download the data, the same method used in a similar breach back in April.

    https://9to5mac.com/2021/06/29/linkedin-breach/

    Does Dido Harding work for LinkedIn?

    It’s not really possible (or is it?) to maintain a professional career without a LinkedIn profile.

    What this in turn tells me is we cannot rely on some of these private companies to secure this data; we must regrettably regulate them as quasi public utilities.
    And you trust your data to public utilities? Quaint.
    Not the current regulators.

    Regulatory capture is a big issue in the U.K.

    We’re a big enough country that we ought to be able to avoid this.
  • Options
    rcs1000rcs1000 Posts: 54,052

    ping said:

    I’ve come to an uncomfortable conclusion on the euro outright market.

    Germany, at ~7/1, are the value bet.

    I can’t quite bring myself to back them, though!

    I have.

    All things being equal the winner of the England v. Germany match gets to the final.

    In a two horse race you'd be happy with a 7/1 bet.
    At the moment it is a 14 horse race
    Nope - 10 horses left as 6 of the round of 16 are played...
    According to QAnon, France and Scotland are about to be reinstated, so it's really a 12 horse race.
  • Options
    StuartDicksonStuartDickson Posts: 12,146

    The horrible Scottish numbers suggest she was worried we might close the border into Scotland. She had already made the case for us to do it.

    The differing regimes in England, Scotland, Wales and NI have been stupidity. One virus, one regime to attack that virus.
    The differing regimes in France, Benelux, Scandinavia and the United Kingdom have been stupidity. One virus, one regime to attack that virus.

    Not often you see a Tory advocating world government.
  • Options
    GardenwalkerGardenwalker Posts: 20,870
    edited June 2021
    HYUFD said:

    I see Rishi has tweeted “Bring It On” about tonight’s game.

    How depressing, these artificial appeals to popularity. I doubt Rishi has ever watched a football game.

    He supports Southampton FC

    Yeah, and Cameron “supported” West Albion Bromwich Wanderers.
  • Options
    rcs1000rcs1000 Posts: 54,052
    HYUFD said:

    rcs1000 said:

    Cookie said:

    rcs1000 said:

    HYUFD said:

    Those undertaking activities with significant economic benefit have always had favourable rules during this pandemic.

    Remember the you can meet up with people in a restaurant if it was for this. Or travel, the plebs can't go on holiday, but business people have been able to travel basically unhindered throughout.

    Given Freedom day is only 3 weeks away, I am not sure it will make a lot of difference.

    I am not sure it will be full Freedom Day, with even Australia restoring lockdown in some states and LA county reimposing a mask wearing request because of the Delta variant I would imagine masks will still be required to be worn in shops and on public transport, the biggest events will still have a capacity limit and quarantine will still be required for visits to red list countries and for the non double vaccinated to amber countries even from the middle of next month.

    I think this new government exemption would therefore certainly be very unpopular if executives returned from a red list country without quarantining
    Ummm: I'm in LA County and I haven't seen any reintroduction of a mask mandate. And the LA County Covid page has no mention of it (http://publichealth.lacounty.gov/media/coronavirus/). Also, LA County seven day case numbers are still heading down.

    So, not sure what your source is.
    If the mask mandate remains, it's not freedom day, and won't be presented as such.
    I was merely pointing out that @HYUFD's claim that a mask mandate had been reintroduced in LA County is incorrect.
    Los Angeles County public health officials are now "strongly" recommending everyone to wear masks in indoor public places, regardless of vaccination status, due to an increased spread of the Delta variant.
    https://abc7.com/los-angeles-masks-delta-variant-indoors/10841712/
    That's not a mask mandate, that's a recommendation.
  • Options
    StuartDicksonStuartDickson Posts: 12,146

    Just three hours until we fall behind to another freakish goalkeeping howler.....

    Oh, how we laughed.
  • Options
    Richard_NabaviRichard_Nabavi Posts: 30,820
    In a very strong field, Linked In is the worst, the very, very worst, website known to man. It is quite spectacularly bad - for example, they send out emails saying X wants to connect with you: then when you go on to the website, you can't find the invitation from X but you get screenfuls of utter garbage of zero interest to anyone. It even makes Microsoft Teams look well-designed, something you would have thought was impossible.
  • Options
    eekeek Posts: 25,009
    rcs1000 said:

    TOPPING said:

    rcs1000 said:

    TOPPING said:

    HYUFD said:

    Those undertaking activities with significant economic benefit have always had favourable rules during this pandemic.

    Remember the you can meet up with people in a restaurant if it was for this. Or travel, the plebs can't go on holiday, but business people have been able to travel basically unhindered throughout.

    Given Freedom day is only 3 weeks away, I am not sure it will make a lot of difference.

    I am not sure it will be full Freedom Day, with even Australia restoring lockdown in some states and LA county reimposing a mask wearing request because of the Delta variant I would imagine masks will still be required to be worn in shops and on public transport, the biggest events will still have a capacity limit and quarantine will still be required for visits to red list countries and for the non double vaccinated to amber countries even from the middle of next month.

    I think this new government exemption would therefore certainly be very unpopular if executives returned from a red list country without quarantining
    How can it be freedom day when it is still mooted that children will be kept from school if there is a positive test in the class. While literally hundreds of thousands of people go to sports events, the pub, etc.

    What exactly does no more restrictions mean? It means restrictions the govt decides to keep. Plenty of them. Some idiot on R4 just now saying well children...long covid...can affect them....

    Vanishingly small probability of a child suffering from Covid. Otherwise, given that it has ripped through schools and unis these past few weeks, we would be hearing reports of children dying by the bucketload each day. Doesn't seem to be happening.
    Isn't freedom day also the end of term?
    Friends and bush telegraph tells me that end of term in many instances is being curtailed a matter of weeks early as everyone self-isolates. Whole rite of passage experiences just not happening for tens of thousands of children.
    End of term is a rite of passage without which we'd all be scarred?

    You and @contrarian seem to have a very low opinion of the mental resilience of the average 18 year old.
    Knowing a lot of 18 and 19/20 year olds, all of them have been worn down by the relentless drip, drip drip of lockdown, exam results by random number generator, work options....
  • Options
    TOPPINGTOPPING Posts: 41,389
    rcs1000 said:

    TOPPING said:

    rcs1000 said:

    TOPPING said:

    HYUFD said:

    Those undertaking activities with significant economic benefit have always had favourable rules during this pandemic.

    Remember the you can meet up with people in a restaurant if it was for this. Or travel, the plebs can't go on holiday, but business people have been able to travel basically unhindered throughout.

    Given Freedom day is only 3 weeks away, I am not sure it will make a lot of difference.

    I am not sure it will be full Freedom Day, with even Australia restoring lockdown in some states and LA county reimposing a mask wearing request because of the Delta variant I would imagine masks will still be required to be worn in shops and on public transport, the biggest events will still have a capacity limit and quarantine will still be required for visits to red list countries and for the non double vaccinated to amber countries even from the middle of next month.

    I think this new government exemption would therefore certainly be very unpopular if executives returned from a red list country without quarantining
    How can it be freedom day when it is still mooted that children will be kept from school if there is a positive test in the class. While literally hundreds of thousands of people go to sports events, the pub, etc.

    What exactly does no more restrictions mean? It means restrictions the govt decides to keep. Plenty of them. Some idiot on R4 just now saying well children...long covid...can affect them....

    Vanishingly small probability of a child suffering from Covid. Otherwise, given that it has ripped through schools and unis these past few weeks, we would be hearing reports of children dying by the bucketload each day. Doesn't seem to be happening.
    Isn't freedom day also the end of term?
    Friends and bush telegraph tells me that end of term in many instances is being curtailed a matter of weeks early as everyone self-isolates. Whole rite of passage experiences just not happening for tens of thousands of children.
    End of term is a rite of passage without which we'd all be scarred?

    You and @contrarian seem to have a very low opinion of the mental resilience of the average 18 year old.
    End of school or uni year or of school or uni itself absolutely is a critical rite of passage.

    And as for the mental resilience of the average 18-yr old, I suggest you listen to some of the news items on the radio in the UK today. Children on anti-depressants = up, children with mental distress = up, children missing on average 115 hours of face to face teaching, children simply going missing from school.

    So yes, Robert and great vid on stopping illegal immigrants, btw, but absofuckinglutely yes, childrens' mental health is being fucked with.
  • Options
    GardenwalkerGardenwalker Posts: 20,870

    algarkirk said:

    In which the irresistible force and the immoveable object are once again kicked down the road. (I can't make entire sense of TC's 6th point. Can anyone elucidate?)

    This is an important concession by both parties.

    The EU has conceded a further extension of the current exemptions.

    The U.K. has conceded:
    a) that it was/is in the EU’s power to deny an extension
    b) that the extension is there to allow Northern Irish retailers to source locally or from the Republic, in preference to U.K. supply chains.

    The U.K. is slowly conceding the reality of a customs/regulatory border between GB and NI, long after have conceded it legally.
    The DUP are going to go stark raving bonkers over this. Tesco Ballymena will stock Irish beef and Irish milk and Irish market products and all the other stuff that you don't get in Tesco Barnsley. "WHERE IS OUR BRITISH BANGER" - thats got to be worth a march with a sash and one of those little bowler hats all by itself.
    The DUP have been comprehensively and continually cucked by the U.K., or rather by Boris Johnson and the Vote Leave administration.
    Well, they went through the lobbies in solidarity with Mark Francois, Steve Baker, Jeremy Corbyn, John McDonnell at el, in order to torpedo Theresa May's plan for avoiding a border in the Irish Sea, so they really are not in a position to blame anyone else.
    Oh yes.

    There is a book to be written about the pure madness and stupidity of the DUP during Brexit.

    Obviously I couldn’t give a fuck about the DUP, although it’s objectively bad for the Union on several levels.
  • Options
    rcs1000rcs1000 Posts: 54,052

    In a very strong field, Linked In is the worst, the very, very worst, website known to man. It is quite spectacularly bad - for example, they send out emails saying X wants to connect with you: then when you go on to the website, you can't find the invitation from X but you get screenfuls of utter garbage of zero interest to anyone. It even makes Microsoft Teams look well-designed, something you would have thought was impossible.

    In all probability, those emails are from hackers trying to steal your LinkedIn credentials. If you click on the link, it prompts you to login to LinkedIn.

    You don't see them because you just go to the LinkedIn website.
  • Options
    MaxPBMaxPB Posts: 37,610

    In a very strong field, Linked In is the worst, the very, very worst, website known to man. It is quite spectacularly bad - for example, they send out emails saying X wants to connect with you: then when you go on to the website, you can't find the invitation from X but you get screenfuls of utter garbage of zero interest to anyone. It even makes Microsoft Teams look well-designed, something you would have thought was impossible.

    It's owned by Microsoft. I'm not sure why you expected anything better.
  • Options
    PulpstarPulpstar Posts: 75,966

    Cookie said:

    TOPPING said:

    HYUFD said:

    Those undertaking activities with significant economic benefit have always had favourable rules during this pandemic.

    Remember the you can meet up with people in a restaurant if it was for this. Or travel, the plebs can't go on holiday, but business people have been able to travel basically unhindered throughout.

    Given Freedom day is only 3 weeks away, I am not sure it will make a lot of difference.

    I am not sure it will be full Freedom Day, with even Australia restoring lockdown in some states and LA county reimposing a mask wearing request because of the Delta variant I would imagine masks will still be required to be worn in shops and on public transport, the biggest events will still have a capacity limit and quarantine will still be required for visits to red list countries and for the non double vaccinated to amber countries even from the middle of next month.

    I think this new government exemption would therefore certainly be very unpopular if executives returned from a red list country without quarantining
    How can it be freedom day when it is still mooted that children will be kept from school if there is a positive test in the class. While literally hundreds of thousands of people go to sports events, the pub, etc.

    What exactly does no more restrictions mean? It means restrictions the govt decides to keep. Plenty of them. Some idiot on R4 just now saying well children...long covid...can affect them....

    Vanishingly small probability of a child suffering from Covid. Otherwise, given that it has ripped through schools and unis these past few weeks, we would be hearing reports of children dying by the bucketload each day. Doesn't seem to be happening.
    Not just death, though, is it?
    The probability of them being so seriously ill that they get hospitalised isn't trivial.
    Nor is the chance of chronic illness and potential long-term organ damage.
    They're not at the level where we can see any realistic chance of the NHS being overwhelmed by such, but we can't really dismiss the concern out of hand.

    Unless they authorise use of vaccines for the under-18s very rapidly and get a whole load more supply, I can't see them getting jabbed in time, so it's not really plausible for them to be protected prior to opening up on the 19th. I can understand some being very worried about that, but it's not likely to cause any realistic delay, I wouldn't have thought. The schools breaking up should help a lot by limiting spread, though.
    But what good does keeping the whole class off do once the rest of the class have negative PCRs?
    The life outcomes of the young are being destroyed by a lockdown imposed on them to save the skins of the elderly

    They have been fed to the wolves by the very people who now want to turn them into pin cushions over a disease that does not really affect them.

    The architects of the vaccination program and lockdowns are feted and cheered in your minds eye aren't they ?

  • Options
    HYUFDHYUFD Posts: 117,100
    edited June 2021
    rcs1000 said:

    HYUFD said:

    rcs1000 said:

    Cookie said:

    rcs1000 said:

    HYUFD said:

    Those undertaking activities with significant economic benefit have always had favourable rules during this pandemic.

    Remember the you can meet up with people in a restaurant if it was for this. Or travel, the plebs can't go on holiday, but business people have been able to travel basically unhindered throughout.

    Given Freedom day is only 3 weeks away, I am not sure it will make a lot of difference.

    I am not sure it will be full Freedom Day, with even Australia restoring lockdown in some states and LA county reimposing a mask wearing request because of the Delta variant I would imagine masks will still be required to be worn in shops and on public transport, the biggest events will still have a capacity limit and quarantine will still be required for visits to red list countries and for the non double vaccinated to amber countries even from the middle of next month.

    I think this new government exemption would therefore certainly be very unpopular if executives returned from a red list country without quarantining
    Ummm: I'm in LA County and I haven't seen any reintroduction of a mask mandate. And the LA County Covid page has no mention of it (http://publichealth.lacounty.gov/media/coronavirus/). Also, LA County seven day case numbers are still heading down.

    So, not sure what your source is.
    If the mask mandate remains, it's not freedom day, and won't be presented as such.
    I was merely pointing out that @HYUFD's claim that a mask mandate had been reintroduced in LA County is incorrect.
    Los Angeles County public health officials are now "strongly" recommending everyone to wear masks in indoor public places, regardless of vaccination status, due to an increased spread of the Delta variant.
    https://abc7.com/los-angeles-masks-delta-variant-indoors/10841712/
    That's not a mask mandate, that's a recommendation.
    So exactly what I originally said then 'LA county reimposing a mask wearing request because of the Delta variant'.

    A request is a recommendation
  • Options
    TOPPINGTOPPING Posts: 41,389
    eek said:

    rcs1000 said:

    TOPPING said:

    rcs1000 said:

    TOPPING said:

    HYUFD said:

    Those undertaking activities with significant economic benefit have always had favourable rules during this pandemic.

    Remember the you can meet up with people in a restaurant if it was for this. Or travel, the plebs can't go on holiday, but business people have been able to travel basically unhindered throughout.

    Given Freedom day is only 3 weeks away, I am not sure it will make a lot of difference.

    I am not sure it will be full Freedom Day, with even Australia restoring lockdown in some states and LA county reimposing a mask wearing request because of the Delta variant I would imagine masks will still be required to be worn in shops and on public transport, the biggest events will still have a capacity limit and quarantine will still be required for visits to red list countries and for the non double vaccinated to amber countries even from the middle of next month.

    I think this new government exemption would therefore certainly be very unpopular if executives returned from a red list country without quarantining
    How can it be freedom day when it is still mooted that children will be kept from school if there is a positive test in the class. While literally hundreds of thousands of people go to sports events, the pub, etc.

    What exactly does no more restrictions mean? It means restrictions the govt decides to keep. Plenty of them. Some idiot on R4 just now saying well children...long covid...can affect them....

    Vanishingly small probability of a child suffering from Covid. Otherwise, given that it has ripped through schools and unis these past few weeks, we would be hearing reports of children dying by the bucketload each day. Doesn't seem to be happening.
    Isn't freedom day also the end of term?
    Friends and bush telegraph tells me that end of term in many instances is being curtailed a matter of weeks early as everyone self-isolates. Whole rite of passage experiences just not happening for tens of thousands of children.
    End of term is a rite of passage without which we'd all be scarred?

    You and @contrarian seem to have a very low opinion of the mental resilience of the average 18 year old.
    Knowing a lot of 18 and 19/20 year olds, all of them have been worn down by the relentless drip, drip drip of lockdown, exam results by random number generator, work options....
    S'ok - Robert thinks they are a hardy lot and IIRC, @Ishmael_Z pointed out that children went through worse in WWII.

    So we're fine.
  • Options
    StuartDicksonStuartDickson Posts: 12,146

    Another reason not to use LinkedIn.

    A second massive LinkedIn breach reportedly exposes the data of 700M users, which is more than 92% of the total 756M users. The database is for sale on the dark web, with records including phone numbers, physical addresses, geolocation data, and inferred salaries.

    The hacker who obtained the data has posted a sample of 1M records, and checks confirm that the data is both genuine and up-to-date …


    RestorePrivacy reports that the hacker appears to have misused the official LinkedIn API to download the data, the same method used in a similar breach back in April.

    https://9to5mac.com/2021/06/29/linkedin-breach/

    Does Dido Harding work for LinkedIn?

    It’s not really possible (or is it?) to maintain a professional career without a LinkedIn profile.

    What this in turn tells me is we cannot rely on some of these private companies to secure this data; we must regrettably regulate them as quasi public utilities.
    I have managed without a LinkedIn profile.

    I had one briefly, I was spammed by recruitment agents wanting to put me forward for jobs I really didn't want or wasn't suited for.
    I actually have no idea what you do (some kind of lawyer?) but in my field (tech) it’s helpful to have your name out there with recruiters.
    I’m amazed that anyone on PB holds down a job. I wouldn’t bung any of you on the checkout at Lidls. You’d be forever staring at your screens and stabbing out “witty” ripostes.
  • Options
    Richard_NabaviRichard_Nabavi Posts: 30,820
    rcs1000 said:

    In a very strong field, Linked In is the worst, the very, very worst, website known to man. It is quite spectacularly bad - for example, they send out emails saying X wants to connect with you: then when you go on to the website, you can't find the invitation from X but you get screenfuls of utter garbage of zero interest to anyone. It even makes Microsoft Teams look well-designed, something you would have thought was impossible.

    In all probability, those emails are from hackers trying to steal your LinkedIn credentials. If you click on the link, it prompts you to login to LinkedIn.

    You don't see them because you just go to the LinkedIn website.
    No, they are real, but the website is so badly designed that I can't find them.
  • Options
    eekeek Posts: 25,009

    ping said:

    Scott_xP said:

    Taking back control-
    Lorry driver shortage: UK government and retailers in emergency talks
    https://www.theguardian.com/business/2021/jun/28/lorry-driver-shortage-uk-government-and-retailers-in-emergency-talks-covid-brexit

    I don’t agree with @Philip_Thompson and assorted other drawbridge brexiteers on much, but this is one area where they have a point.

    The government should not manipulate the market to prevent wage rises. It’s a good thing for the industry to recalibrate to domestic employment, higher wages and slightly higher costs.
    Except that the issue has been caused by a supply shock because of
    - Covid
    - Brexit
    - IR35 etc

    At least two of those are deliberate govt policy, and one of them is an act of god which we presumably wish to mitigate against.

    It might be that simply overseeing a wage spike might have consequences at the grocery tills.
    The bit that the minister studiously ignored at the previous meetings (where she accused the industry of "crying wolf") is that it isn't about money. You could offer drivers a stack of cash per hour and someone is still missing out.

    There aren't enough drivers. Will take time to train new ones (as apparently truck driving lessons / tests haven't taken place at all during Covid) so we either allow EU drivers back in or stuff won't get shifted around.

    Within a few months all this will feed directly into food price inflation (along with the other shortage which is people to work in factories and on farms) which analysts believe will be the biggest spike since 2007. Tesco et al insist they won't be putting up prices so I expect some fun times ahead with price negotiations :D
    That would be the same tesco's who claimed that the shortage of drivers was resulting in 2 lorries worth of food going to waste. Which rather trivialises the issue into Tesco's needing to find a single lorry driver to do 2 shifts.
  • Options
    geoffwgeoffw Posts: 8,176

    In a very strong field, Linked In is the worst, the very, very worst, website known to man. It is quite spectacularly bad - for example, they send out emails saying X wants to connect with you: then when you go on to the website, you can't find the invitation from X but you get screenfuls of utter garbage of zero interest to anyone. It even makes Microsoft Teams look well-designed, something you would have thought was impossible.

    Why hasn't a decent competitor emerged to cater for this market? Is there some kind of natural monopoly or barrier to entry?

  • Options
    MaxPBMaxPB Posts: 37,610

    HYUFD said:

    I see Rishi has tweeted “Bring It On” about tonight’s game.

    How depressing, these artificial appeals to popularity. I doubt Rishi has ever watched a football game.

    He supports Southampton FC

    Yeah, and Cameron “supported” West Albion Bromwich Wanderers.
    He does a good impression of a football fan if he isn't actually one.
  • Options
    rcs1000rcs1000 Posts: 54,052
    TOPPING said:

    rcs1000 said:

    TOPPING said:

    rcs1000 said:

    TOPPING said:

    HYUFD said:

    Those undertaking activities with significant economic benefit have always had favourable rules during this pandemic.

    Remember the you can meet up with people in a restaurant if it was for this. Or travel, the plebs can't go on holiday, but business people have been able to travel basically unhindered throughout.

    Given Freedom day is only 3 weeks away, I am not sure it will make a lot of difference.

    I am not sure it will be full Freedom Day, with even Australia restoring lockdown in some states and LA county reimposing a mask wearing request because of the Delta variant I would imagine masks will still be required to be worn in shops and on public transport, the biggest events will still have a capacity limit and quarantine will still be required for visits to red list countries and for the non double vaccinated to amber countries even from the middle of next month.

    I think this new government exemption would therefore certainly be very unpopular if executives returned from a red list country without quarantining
    How can it be freedom day when it is still mooted that children will be kept from school if there is a positive test in the class. While literally hundreds of thousands of people go to sports events, the pub, etc.

    What exactly does no more restrictions mean? It means restrictions the govt decides to keep. Plenty of them. Some idiot on R4 just now saying well children...long covid...can affect them....

    Vanishingly small probability of a child suffering from Covid. Otherwise, given that it has ripped through schools and unis these past few weeks, we would be hearing reports of children dying by the bucketload each day. Doesn't seem to be happening.
    Isn't freedom day also the end of term?
    Friends and bush telegraph tells me that end of term in many instances is being curtailed a matter of weeks early as everyone self-isolates. Whole rite of passage experiences just not happening for tens of thousands of children.
    End of term is a rite of passage without which we'd all be scarred?

    You and @contrarian seem to have a very low opinion of the mental resilience of the average 18 year old.
    End of school or uni year or of school or uni itself absolutely is a critical rite of passage.

    And as for the mental resilience of the average 18-yr old, I suggest you listen to some of the news items on the radio in the UK today. Children on anti-depressants = up, children with mental distress = up, children missing on average 115 hours of face to face teaching, children simply going missing from school.

    So yes, Robert and great vid on stopping illegal immigrants, btw, but absofuckinglutely yes, childrens' mental health is being fucked with.
    Do you have children? Do you remember what it was like to be a child?

    Literally the worst time of the entire school year was an enforced assembly while people trooped up to the front.

    The bit that was fun was meeting up with your friends outside of school. Which is - ummm - completely unaffected.

    (It is also worth remembering that "graduation" is a very modern concept. In the old days, you went for study leave and never came back. Which I guess explains why everyone over the age of about 50 is mentally scarred.)
  • Options
    StuartDicksonStuartDickson Posts: 12,146
    HYUFD said:

    I see Rishi has tweeted “Bring It On” about tonight’s game.

    How depressing, these artificial appeals to popularity. I doubt Rishi has ever watched a football game.

    He supports Southampton FC

    Yeah. In the same way George Galloway “supports” Queen of the South.
  • Options
    alex_alex_ Posts: 7,518

    Scott_xP said:

    Matt Hancock appointed a friend to a role that included scrutinising his work as a minister. They earned £15,000 for 15 days’ work.

    There are 85 of these positions - including more Tory friends and donors.

    We need a fully independent appointment process.


    https://twitter.com/Keir_Starmer/status/1409851895225724929

    https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2021/jun/29/labour-urges-overhaul-of-whitehall-oversight-rules-after-hancock-row

    Labour would have a bit more credibility if it wasn’t for the fact that their hero Tony Blair introduced non-executive directorships.
    Really? Really?

    They existed well before Blair.
    Codified by Blair in 2005.

    “History of non-executives in Whitehall
    Non-executives were first introduced in the early 1990s. In 2005 the first corporate governance Code recommended that each Whitehall department should have at least two NEDs, to sit on the management board chaired by the permanent secretary. At the time there were 37 NEDs, in 14 departments.”

    https://www.ucl.ac.uk/constitution-unit/sites/constitution-unit/files/178_-_Critical_Friends__The_Role_of_Non_Executives_on_Whitehall_Boards.pdf
    There's nothing wrong with NEDs per se if they are appointed properly. They should have a role equivalent to the Governors at a school or college, roughly.

    The problem is the cronyism in the way this government appoints people to NED roles, particularly, and obviously, Hancock.
    It is a role properly carried out by Parliament though.
  • Options
    Philip_ThompsonPhilip_Thompson Posts: 65,826
    ping said:

    Scott_xP said:

    Taking back control-
    Lorry driver shortage: UK government and retailers in emergency talks
    https://www.theguardian.com/business/2021/jun/28/lorry-driver-shortage-uk-government-and-retailers-in-emergency-talks-covid-brexit

    I don’t agree with @Philip_Thompson and assorted other drawbridge brexiteers on much, but this is one area where they have a point.

    The government should not manipulate the market to prevent wage rises. It’s a good thing for the industry to recalibrate to domestic employment, higher wages and slightly higher costs.
    To be clear I'm not a drawbridge Brexiteer.

    I had no issues personally with free movement, though in hindsight post-Referendum I've come to realise that free movement combined with our rigid planning system was a disaster. Free movement combined with a free market planning system as I support I'd have no objections with whatsoever. But lets not get onto Housing again.

    On this issue I simply think the same as you - it is for businesses to pay the market rate of wages whatever they may be, not rely upon the government to manipulate the market to prevent wage rises.

    As for all the crocodile tears over IR35 - if a job was only viable at that wage if it engaged in tax fraud then its no longer viable at that wage.
  • Options
    darkagedarkage Posts: 4,797

    Another reason not to use LinkedIn.

    A second massive LinkedIn breach reportedly exposes the data of 700M users, which is more than 92% of the total 756M users. The database is for sale on the dark web, with records including phone numbers, physical addresses, geolocation data, and inferred salaries.

    The hacker who obtained the data has posted a sample of 1M records, and checks confirm that the data is both genuine and up-to-date …


    RestorePrivacy reports that the hacker appears to have misused the official LinkedIn API to download the data, the same method used in a similar breach back in April.

    https://9to5mac.com/2021/06/29/linkedin-breach/

    Does Dido Harding work for LinkedIn?

    It’s not really possible (or is it?) to maintain a professional career without a LinkedIn profile.

    What this in turn tells me is we cannot rely on some of these private companies to secure this data; we must regrettably regulate them as quasi public utilities.
    I have managed without a LinkedIn profile.

    I had one briefly, I was spammed by recruitment agents wanting to put me forward for jobs I really didn't want or wasn't suited for.
    It seems like a pretty desperate place - a lot of people trying and failing to build up a professional profile, combined with the usual social media virtue signalling; and recruitment consultants wasting your time. I've kept a minimal profile on it so I can use it to keep in touch with people in my professional circle, but I would never post anything on it or even put a photo on it.
  • Options
    bigjohnowlsbigjohnowls Posts: 21,884

    In a very strong field, Linked In is the worst, the very, very worst, website known to man. It is quite spectacularly bad - for example, they send out emails saying X wants to connect with you: then when you go on to the website, you can't find the invitation from X but you get screenfuls of utter garbage of zero interest to anyone. It even makes Microsoft Teams look well-designed, something you would have thought was impossible.

    I stopped using Linkedin years ago and hate Teams with a passion. Zoom rools OK
  • Options
    HYUFDHYUFD Posts: 117,100
    edited June 2021

    algarkirk said:

    In which the irresistible force and the immoveable object are once again kicked down the road. (I can't make entire sense of TC's 6th point. Can anyone elucidate?)

    This is an important concession by both parties.

    The EU has conceded a further extension of the current exemptions.

    The U.K. has conceded:
    a) that it was/is in the EU’s power to deny an extension
    b) that the extension is there to allow Northern Irish retailers to source locally or from the Republic, in preference to U.K. supply chains.

    The U.K. is slowly conceding the reality of a customs/regulatory border between GB and NI, long after have conceded it legally.
    The DUP are going to go stark raving bonkers over this. Tesco Ballymena will stock Irish beef and Irish milk and Irish market products and all the other stuff that you don't get in Tesco Barnsley. "WHERE IS OUR BRITISH BANGER" - thats got to be worth a march with a sash and one of those little bowler hats all by itself.
    The DUP have been comprehensively and continually cucked by the U.K., or rather by Boris Johnson and the Vote Leave administration.
    Well, they went through the lobbies in solidarity with Mark Francois, Steve Baker, Jeremy Corbyn, John McDonnell at el, in order to torpedo Theresa May's plan for avoiding a border in the Irish Sea, so they really are not in a position to blame anyone else.
    Oh yes.

    There is a book to be written about the pure madness and stupidity of the DUP during Brexit.

    Obviously I couldn’t give a fuck about the DUP, although it’s objectively bad for the Union on several levels.
    The DUP likely originally hoped Brexit would lead to a restoration of a hard border with Ireland and had the whole UK gone to No Deal that is what would have happened. Although on that I think they were wrong, a hard border with Ireland would have led to greater demands for Irish unity than is the case now
  • Options
    GardenwalkerGardenwalker Posts: 20,870
    geoffw said:

    In a very strong field, Linked In is the worst, the very, very worst, website known to man. It is quite spectacularly bad - for example, they send out emails saying X wants to connect with you: then when you go on to the website, you can't find the invitation from X but you get screenfuls of utter garbage of zero interest to anyone. It even makes Microsoft Teams look well-designed, something you would have thought was impossible.

    Why hasn't a decent competitor emerged to cater for this market? Is there some kind of natural monopoly or barrier to entry?

    Yes, it’s a natural monopoly.

    And given the way it supports the entire labour market, it should be regulated.

    And yes, it’s got increasingly badly designed and unfocused in recent years.
  • Options
    eekeek Posts: 25,009
    edited June 2021
    MaxPB said:

    In a very strong field, Linked In is the worst, the very, very worst, website known to man. It is quite spectacularly bad - for example, they send out emails saying X wants to connect with you: then when you go on to the website, you can't find the invitation from X but you get screenfuls of utter garbage of zero interest to anyone. It even makes Microsoft Teams look well-designed, something you would have thought was impossible.

    It's owned by Microsoft. I'm not sure why you expected anything better.
    LinkedIn is owned but has separate management to Microsoft - back in 2018 when I was trying to get access for Dynamics CRM it was regarded as less important than Salesforce even when we pushed the point to board level.
  • Options
    bigjohnowlsbigjohnowls Posts: 21,884

    Sri Lanka going well in the cricket again....be all over before the footy.

    They are shocking.

    I put £50 on them getting GT 199.5 looks like a loser
    FFS who is their running coach?

    Benny Hill
  • Options
    rcs1000rcs1000 Posts: 54,052
    TOPPING said:

    eek said:

    rcs1000 said:

    TOPPING said:

    rcs1000 said:

    TOPPING said:

    HYUFD said:

    Those undertaking activities with significant economic benefit have always had favourable rules during this pandemic.

    Remember the you can meet up with people in a restaurant if it was for this. Or travel, the plebs can't go on holiday, but business people have been able to travel basically unhindered throughout.

    Given Freedom day is only 3 weeks away, I am not sure it will make a lot of difference.

    I am not sure it will be full Freedom Day, with even Australia restoring lockdown in some states and LA county reimposing a mask wearing request because of the Delta variant I would imagine masks will still be required to be worn in shops and on public transport, the biggest events will still have a capacity limit and quarantine will still be required for visits to red list countries and for the non double vaccinated to amber countries even from the middle of next month.

    I think this new government exemption would therefore certainly be very unpopular if executives returned from a red list country without quarantining
    How can it be freedom day when it is still mooted that children will be kept from school if there is a positive test in the class. While literally hundreds of thousands of people go to sports events, the pub, etc.

    What exactly does no more restrictions mean? It means restrictions the govt decides to keep. Plenty of them. Some idiot on R4 just now saying well children...long covid...can affect them....

    Vanishingly small probability of a child suffering from Covid. Otherwise, given that it has ripped through schools and unis these past few weeks, we would be hearing reports of children dying by the bucketload each day. Doesn't seem to be happening.
    Isn't freedom day also the end of term?
    Friends and bush telegraph tells me that end of term in many instances is being curtailed a matter of weeks early as everyone self-isolates. Whole rite of passage experiences just not happening for tens of thousands of children.
    End of term is a rite of passage without which we'd all be scarred?

    You and @contrarian seem to have a very low opinion of the mental resilience of the average 18 year old.
    Knowing a lot of 18 and 19/20 year olds, all of them have been worn down by the relentless drip, drip drip of lockdown, exam results by random number generator, work options....
    S'ok - Robert thinks they are a hardy lot and IIRC, @Ishmael_Z pointed out that children went through worse in WWII.

    So we're fine.
    I'm sure they've been worn down by lockdown.

    But I'm equally sure that graduation ceremonies are one thing they'd happily miss.
  • Options
    MaxPBMaxPB Posts: 37,610

    geoffw said:

    In a very strong field, Linked In is the worst, the very, very worst, website known to man. It is quite spectacularly bad - for example, they send out emails saying X wants to connect with you: then when you go on to the website, you can't find the invitation from X but you get screenfuls of utter garbage of zero interest to anyone. It even makes Microsoft Teams look well-designed, something you would have thought was impossible.

    Why hasn't a decent competitor emerged to cater for this market? Is there some kind of natural monopoly or barrier to entry?

    Yes, it’s a natural monopoly.

    And given the way it supports the entire labour market, it should be regulated.

    And yes, it’s got increasingly badly designed and unfocused in recent years.
    I don't know that it supports the entire labour market. We've recruited plenty of people without LI, I don't have one and have never struggled to get a job when I've wanted one. In fact loads of companies are going in the other direction and making sure that they aren't limiting themselves to LI candidates.
  • Options
    contrariancontrarian Posts: 5,818
    TOPPING said:

    rcs1000 said:

    TOPPING said:

    rcs1000 said:

    TOPPING said:

    HYUFD said:

    Those undertaking activities with significant economic benefit have always had favourable rules during this pandemic.

    Remember the you can meet up with people in a restaurant if it was for this. Or travel, the plebs can't go on holiday, but business people have been able to travel basically unhindered throughout.

    Given Freedom day is only 3 weeks away, I am not sure it will make a lot of difference.

    I am not sure it will be full Freedom Day, with even Australia restoring lockdown in some states and LA county reimposing a mask wearing request because of the Delta variant I would imagine masks will still be required to be worn in shops and on public transport, the biggest events will still have a capacity limit and quarantine will still be required for visits to red list countries and for the non double vaccinated to amber countries even from the middle of next month.

    I think this new government exemption would therefore certainly be very unpopular if executives returned from a red list country without quarantining
    How can it be freedom day when it is still mooted that children will be kept from school if there is a positive test in the class. While literally hundreds of thousands of people go to sports events, the pub, etc.

    What exactly does no more restrictions mean? It means restrictions the govt decides to keep. Plenty of them. Some idiot on R4 just now saying well children...long covid...can affect them....

    Vanishingly small probability of a child suffering from Covid. Otherwise, given that it has ripped through schools and unis these past few weeks, we would be hearing reports of children dying by the bucketload each day. Doesn't seem to be happening.
    Isn't freedom day also the end of term?
    Friends and bush telegraph tells me that end of term in many instances is being curtailed a matter of weeks early as everyone self-isolates. Whole rite of passage experiences just not happening for tens of thousands of children.
    End of term is a rite of passage without which we'd all be scarred?

    You and @contrarian seem to have a very low opinion of the mental resilience of the average 18 year old.
    End of school or uni year or of school or uni itself absolutely is a critical rite of passage.

    And as for the mental resilience of the average 18-yr old, I suggest you listen to some of the news items on the radio in the UK today. Children on anti-depressants = up, children with mental distress = up, children missing on average 115 hours of face to face teaching, children simply going missing from school.

    So yes, Robert and great vid on stopping illegal immigrants, btw, but absofuckinglutely yes, childrens' mental health is being fucked with.
    As is their physical health. Sports clubs of all types and all manner of other activities simply ceased to exist for months on end. In a country whose climate already militates against the outdoors and were child obesity and general lack of exercise among the young were already a big problem.

    The people who govern us, and their labour enablers are trying to pretend this is some new crisis.

    They created it. With their lockdowns. Fulsomely applauded on here.

    The hideous downsides of lockdowns are now starting to become apparent. There will be much, much more where that came from.
  • Options
    rcs1000rcs1000 Posts: 54,052
    HYUFD said:

    rcs1000 said:

    HYUFD said:

    rcs1000 said:

    Cookie said:

    rcs1000 said:

    HYUFD said:

    Those undertaking activities with significant economic benefit have always had favourable rules during this pandemic.

    Remember the you can meet up with people in a restaurant if it was for this. Or travel, the plebs can't go on holiday, but business people have been able to travel basically unhindered throughout.

    Given Freedom day is only 3 weeks away, I am not sure it will make a lot of difference.

    I am not sure it will be full Freedom Day, with even Australia restoring lockdown in some states and LA county reimposing a mask wearing request because of the Delta variant I would imagine masks will still be required to be worn in shops and on public transport, the biggest events will still have a capacity limit and quarantine will still be required for visits to red list countries and for the non double vaccinated to amber countries even from the middle of next month.

    I think this new government exemption would therefore certainly be very unpopular if executives returned from a red list country without quarantining
    Ummm: I'm in LA County and I haven't seen any reintroduction of a mask mandate. And the LA County Covid page has no mention of it (http://publichealth.lacounty.gov/media/coronavirus/). Also, LA County seven day case numbers are still heading down.

    So, not sure what your source is.
    If the mask mandate remains, it's not freedom day, and won't be presented as such.
    I was merely pointing out that @HYUFD's claim that a mask mandate had been reintroduced in LA County is incorrect.
    Los Angeles County public health officials are now "strongly" recommending everyone to wear masks in indoor public places, regardless of vaccination status, due to an increased spread of the Delta variant.
    https://abc7.com/los-angeles-masks-delta-variant-indoors/10841712/
    That's not a mask mandate, that's a recommendation.
    So exactly what I originally said then 'LA county reimposing a mask wearing request because of the Delta variant'.

    A request is a recommendation
    Fair enough, and I was wrong to jump down your throat.
  • Options
    eekeek Posts: 25,009
    edited June 2021

    geoffw said:

    In a very strong field, Linked In is the worst, the very, very worst, website known to man. It is quite spectacularly bad - for example, they send out emails saying X wants to connect with you: then when you go on to the website, you can't find the invitation from X but you get screenfuls of utter garbage of zero interest to anyone. It even makes Microsoft Teams look well-designed, something you would have thought was impossible.

    Why hasn't a decent competitor emerged to cater for this market? Is there some kind of natural monopoly or barrier to entry?

    Yes, it’s a natural monopoly.

    And given the way it supports the entire labour market, it should be regulated.

    And yes, it’s got increasingly badly designed and unfocused in recent years.
    All networks have a natural monopoly unless something way better appears (see Facebook replacing Myspace).
  • Options
    Philip_ThompsonPhilip_Thompson Posts: 65,826
    On topic there's been exemptions on this throughout the pandemic and for good reason too.

    Is anyone seriously suggesting that if Elon Musk says to the government "I'm interested in investing billions to build a Gigafactory in Britain creating thousands of jobs, I have 72 hours free in my diary to come to the UK to examine a potential site" that the government response would or should be "You'll need to quarantine for fourteen days first"?
  • Options
    TOPPINGTOPPING Posts: 41,389
    rcs1000 said:

    TOPPING said:

    rcs1000 said:

    TOPPING said:

    rcs1000 said:

    TOPPING said:

    HYUFD said:

    Those undertaking activities with significant economic benefit have always had favourable rules during this pandemic.

    Remember the you can meet up with people in a restaurant if it was for this. Or travel, the plebs can't go on holiday, but business people have been able to travel basically unhindered throughout.

    Given Freedom day is only 3 weeks away, I am not sure it will make a lot of difference.

    I am not sure it will be full Freedom Day, with even Australia restoring lockdown in some states and LA county reimposing a mask wearing request because of the Delta variant I would imagine masks will still be required to be worn in shops and on public transport, the biggest events will still have a capacity limit and quarantine will still be required for visits to red list countries and for the non double vaccinated to amber countries even from the middle of next month.

    I think this new government exemption would therefore certainly be very unpopular if executives returned from a red list country without quarantining
    How can it be freedom day when it is still mooted that children will be kept from school if there is a positive test in the class. While literally hundreds of thousands of people go to sports events, the pub, etc.

    What exactly does no more restrictions mean? It means restrictions the govt decides to keep. Plenty of them. Some idiot on R4 just now saying well children...long covid...can affect them....

    Vanishingly small probability of a child suffering from Covid. Otherwise, given that it has ripped through schools and unis these past few weeks, we would be hearing reports of children dying by the bucketload each day. Doesn't seem to be happening.
    Isn't freedom day also the end of term?
    Friends and bush telegraph tells me that end of term in many instances is being curtailed a matter of weeks early as everyone self-isolates. Whole rite of passage experiences just not happening for tens of thousands of children.
    End of term is a rite of passage without which we'd all be scarred?

    You and @contrarian seem to have a very low opinion of the mental resilience of the average 18 year old.
    End of school or uni year or of school or uni itself absolutely is a critical rite of passage.

    And as for the mental resilience of the average 18-yr old, I suggest you listen to some of the news items on the radio in the UK today. Children on anti-depressants = up, children with mental distress = up, children missing on average 115 hours of face to face teaching, children simply going missing from school.

    So yes, Robert and great vid on stopping illegal immigrants, btw, but absofuckinglutely yes, childrens' mental health is being fucked with.
    Do you have children? Do you remember what it was like to be a child?

    Literally the worst time of the entire school year was an enforced assembly while people trooped up to the front.

    The bit that was fun was meeting up with your friends outside of school. Which is - ummm - completely unaffected.

    (It is also worth remembering that "graduation" is a very modern concept. In the old days, you went for study leave and never came back. Which I guess explains why everyone over the age of about 50 is mentally scarred.)
    Robert the instances of damage to children's mental health is being documented today as we speak on just about all news outlets. I won't google it all for you because I'm sure you will be able to do so.

    And after a year or several years of school I could take or leave prize giving and speech day and what have you. I'm sure you the same and if it turned out that your May Ball was cancelled well not to worry your internship at GS was about to start. All perfectly charming.

    But the last 15 months have been hell for hundreds of thousands of children perhaps not so fortunate as you or me or perhaps just as fortunate. And during this time school has often represented an oasis of normality. And people are being denied as I said a rite of passage that is part of growing up.
  • Options
    eekeek Posts: 25,009

    On topic there's been exemptions on this throughout the pandemic and for good reason too.

    Is anyone seriously suggesting that if Elon Musk says to the government "I'm interested in investing billions to build a Gigafactory in Britain creating thousands of jobs, I have 72 hours free in my diary to come to the UK to examine a potential site" that the government response would or should be "You'll need to quarantine for fourteen days first"?

    Remember Elon Musk did exactly that back in April / May.

  • Options
    GardenwalkerGardenwalker Posts: 20,870
    HYUFD said:

    algarkirk said:

    In which the irresistible force and the immoveable object are once again kicked down the road. (I can't make entire sense of TC's 6th point. Can anyone elucidate?)

    This is an important concession by both parties.

    The EU has conceded a further extension of the current exemptions.

    The U.K. has conceded:
    a) that it was/is in the EU’s power to deny an extension
    b) that the extension is there to allow Northern Irish retailers to source locally or from the Republic, in preference to U.K. supply chains.

    The U.K. is slowly conceding the reality of a customs/regulatory border between GB and NI, long after have conceded it legally.
    The DUP are going to go stark raving bonkers over this. Tesco Ballymena will stock Irish beef and Irish milk and Irish market products and all the other stuff that you don't get in Tesco Barnsley. "WHERE IS OUR BRITISH BANGER" - thats got to be worth a march with a sash and one of those little bowler hats all by itself.
    The DUP have been comprehensively and continually cucked by the U.K., or rather by Boris Johnson and the Vote Leave administration.
    Well, they went through the lobbies in solidarity with Mark Francois, Steve Baker, Jeremy Corbyn, John McDonnell at el, in order to torpedo Theresa May's plan for avoiding a border in the Irish Sea, so they really are not in a position to blame anyone else.
    Oh yes.

    There is a book to be written about the pure madness and stupidity of the DUP during Brexit.

    Obviously I couldn’t give a fuck about the DUP, although it’s objectively bad for the Union on several levels.
    The DUP likely originally hoped Brexit would lead to a restoration of a hard border with Ireland and had the whole UK gone to No Deal that is what would have happened. Although on that I think they were wrong, a hard border with Ireland would have led to greater demands for Irish unity than is the case now
    It is extraordinarily hard to understand just what DUP were hoping Brexit would do or achieve.

    They probably - in tandem with the other Brexiters - believed the dogshit that we would be able to trade totally frictionlessly with the EU (and hence across the Irish border) without the need for an actual customs and regulatory border.

    Or “cake-ism” as it is now known.

    Indeed, it seems some Brexiters continued to believe that until about 1 January 2021.
  • Options
    FrancisUrquhartFrancisUrquhart Posts: 76,291
    Jurgen Klinsmann says Germany would fear Jadon Sancho

    https://www.bbc.com/sport/football/57628516

    Fat chance of that.
  • Options
    MattWMattW Posts: 18,671
    edited June 2021
    Scott_xP said:

    Taking back control-
    Lorry driver shortage: UK government and retailers in emergency talks
    https://www.theguardian.com/business/2021/jun/28/lorry-driver-shortage-uk-government-and-retailers-in-emergency-talks-covid-brexit

    There's a glorious context-free Guardian Troll-o-Stat in that.



    When you work it out, the increase in Tesco food waste is from I make it 0.33% to 0.33023%. They process 10.5m tonnes a year.

    Between 2019 and 2020 they reduced food waste from 0.42% to 0.33%.

    Yay for supermarket efficiency.

  • Options
    Morris_DancerMorris_Dancer Posts: 60,998
    Mr. Eagles, that's useful (on LI spammery). Been thinking of looking for more work/making a profile.

    Freelance writer, incidentally, for anyone after such.
  • Options
    rcs1000rcs1000 Posts: 54,052

    geoffw said:

    In a very strong field, Linked In is the worst, the very, very worst, website known to man. It is quite spectacularly bad - for example, they send out emails saying X wants to connect with you: then when you go on to the website, you can't find the invitation from X but you get screenfuls of utter garbage of zero interest to anyone. It even makes Microsoft Teams look well-designed, something you would have thought was impossible.

    Why hasn't a decent competitor emerged to cater for this market? Is there some kind of natural monopoly or barrier to entry?

    Yes, it’s a natural monopoly.

    And given the way it supports the entire labour market, it should be regulated.

    And yes, it’s got increasingly badly designed and unfocused in recent years.
    It isn't a natural monopoly. There is definitely a niche for a business directory and contact management product that is not LinkedIn. It could integrate a mobile app with tap to share business cards. It also do a great job of verifying peoples histories.

    There's a huge opportunity to do something really cool.

  • Options
    StuartDicksonStuartDickson Posts: 12,146
    HYUFD said:

    rcs1000 said:

    HYUFD said:

    rcs1000 said:

    Cookie said:

    rcs1000 said:

    HYUFD said:

    Those undertaking activities with significant economic benefit have always had favourable rules during this pandemic.

    Remember the you can meet up with people in a restaurant if it was for this. Or travel, the plebs can't go on holiday, but business people have been able to travel basically unhindered throughout.

    Given Freedom day is only 3 weeks away, I am not sure it will make a lot of difference.

    I am not sure it will be full Freedom Day, with even Australia restoring lockdown in some states and LA county reimposing a mask wearing request because of the Delta variant I would imagine masks will still be required to be worn in shops and on public transport, the biggest events will still have a capacity limit and quarantine will still be required for visits to red list countries and for the non double vaccinated to amber countries even from the middle of next month.

    I think this new government exemption would therefore certainly be very unpopular if executives returned from a red list country without quarantining
    Ummm: I'm in LA County and I haven't seen any reintroduction of a mask mandate. And the LA County Covid page has no mention of it (http://publichealth.lacounty.gov/media/coronavirus/). Also, LA County seven day case numbers are still heading down.

    So, not sure what your source is.
    If the mask mandate remains, it's not freedom day, and won't be presented as such.
    I was merely pointing out that @HYUFD's claim that a mask mandate had been reintroduced in LA County is incorrect.
    Los Angeles County public health officials are now "strongly" recommending everyone to wear masks in indoor public places, regardless of vaccination status, due to an increased spread of the Delta variant.
    https://abc7.com/los-angeles-masks-delta-variant-indoors/10841712/
    That's not a mask mandate, that's a recommendation.
    So exactly what I originally said then 'LA county reimposing a mask wearing request because of the Delta variant'.

    A request is a recommendation
    Watch out. You’ll have the admins telling you that your original post was “wrong”.
  • Options
    FrancisUrquhartFrancisUrquhart Posts: 76,291
    MattW said:

    Scott_xP said:

    Taking back control-
    Lorry driver shortage: UK government and retailers in emergency talks
    https://www.theguardian.com/business/2021/jun/28/lorry-driver-shortage-uk-government-and-retailers-in-emergency-talks-covid-brexit

    There's a glorious context-free Guardian Troll-o-Stat in that.



    When you work it out, the increase in Tesco food waste is from I make it 0.33% to 0.33023%. They process 10.5m tonnes a year.

    Between 2019 and 2020 they reduced food waste from 0.42% to 0.33%.

    Yay for supermarket efficiency.

    The Gruardian and bias by omission....surely not.
  • Options
    alex_alex_ Posts: 7,518
    rcs1000 said:

    TOPPING said:

    rcs1000 said:

    TOPPING said:

    rcs1000 said:

    TOPPING said:

    HYUFD said:

    Those undertaking activities with significant economic benefit have always had favourable rules during this pandemic.

    Remember the you can meet up with people in a restaurant if it was for this. Or travel, the plebs can't go on holiday, but business people have been able to travel basically unhindered throughout.

    Given Freedom day is only 3 weeks away, I am not sure it will make a lot of difference.

    I am not sure it will be full Freedom Day, with even Australia restoring lockdown in some states and LA county reimposing a mask wearing request because of the Delta variant I would imagine masks will still be required to be worn in shops and on public transport, the biggest events will still have a capacity limit and quarantine will still be required for visits to red list countries and for the non double vaccinated to amber countries even from the middle of next month.

    I think this new government exemption would therefore certainly be very unpopular if executives returned from a red list country without quarantining
    How can it be freedom day when it is still mooted that children will be kept from school if there is a positive test in the class. While literally hundreds of thousands of people go to sports events, the pub, etc.

    What exactly does no more restrictions mean? It means restrictions the govt decides to keep. Plenty of them. Some idiot on R4 just now saying well children...long covid...can affect them....

    Vanishingly small probability of a child suffering from Covid. Otherwise, given that it has ripped through schools and unis these past few weeks, we would be hearing reports of children dying by the bucketload each day. Doesn't seem to be happening.
    Isn't freedom day also the end of term?
    Friends and bush telegraph tells me that end of term in many instances is being curtailed a matter of weeks early as everyone self-isolates. Whole rite of passage experiences just not happening for tens of thousands of children.
    End of term is a rite of passage without which we'd all be scarred?

    You and @contrarian seem to have a very low opinion of the mental resilience of the average 18 year old.
    End of school or uni year or of school or uni itself absolutely is a critical rite of passage.

    And as for the mental resilience of the average 18-yr old, I suggest you listen to some of the news items on the radio in the UK today. Children on anti-depressants = up, children with mental distress = up, children missing on average 115 hours of face to face teaching, children simply going missing from school.

    So yes, Robert and great vid on stopping illegal immigrants, btw, but absofuckinglutely yes, childrens' mental health is being fucked with.
    Do you have children? Do you remember what it was like to be a child?

    Literally the worst time of the entire school year was an enforced assembly while people trooped up to the front.

    The bit that was fun was meeting up with your friends outside of school. Which is - ummm - completely unaffected.

    (It is also worth remembering that "graduation" is a very modern concept. In the old days, you went for study leave and never came back. Which I guess explains why everyone over the age of about 50 is mentally scarred.)
    I don’t think they’re talking about “graduation”. It’s explicitly all the extra curricular stuff that happens.
  • Options
    Richard_NabaviRichard_Nabavi Posts: 30,820

    In a very strong field, Linked In is the worst, the very, very worst, website known to man. It is quite spectacularly bad - for example, they send out emails saying X wants to connect with you: then when you go on to the website, you can't find the invitation from X but you get screenfuls of utter garbage of zero interest to anyone. It even makes Microsoft Teams look well-designed, something you would have thought was impossible.

    I stopped using Linkedin years ago and hate Teams with a passion. Zoom rools OK
    LinkedIn and Teams are bad for the same reason - they are both trying to be some kind of all-purpose Facebook/iOs substitute, so they've piled in masses of garbage, rather than actually doing what you want them to do - in the case of Teams, video conferences, not 'creating channels' or integrating apps or saving files or running a Wiki.

    As for Zoom, why the hell did their designers think it was a good idea to make it impossible to set up and test your video and sound before you start the meeting? (Teams has the same 'feature', except it's easy to get round by starting it and left-clicking on the icon in the taskbar).

    Yours, frustrated of Sussex.
  • Options
    rcs1000rcs1000 Posts: 54,052
    TOPPING said:

    rcs1000 said:

    TOPPING said:

    rcs1000 said:

    TOPPING said:

    rcs1000 said:

    TOPPING said:

    HYUFD said:

    Those undertaking activities with significant economic benefit have always had favourable rules during this pandemic.

    Remember the you can meet up with people in a restaurant if it was for this. Or travel, the plebs can't go on holiday, but business people have been able to travel basically unhindered throughout.

    Given Freedom day is only 3 weeks away, I am not sure it will make a lot of difference.

    I am not sure it will be full Freedom Day, with even Australia restoring lockdown in some states and LA county reimposing a mask wearing request because of the Delta variant I would imagine masks will still be required to be worn in shops and on public transport, the biggest events will still have a capacity limit and quarantine will still be required for visits to red list countries and for the non double vaccinated to amber countries even from the middle of next month.

    I think this new government exemption would therefore certainly be very unpopular if executives returned from a red list country without quarantining
    How can it be freedom day when it is still mooted that children will be kept from school if there is a positive test in the class. While literally hundreds of thousands of people go to sports events, the pub, etc.

    What exactly does no more restrictions mean? It means restrictions the govt decides to keep. Plenty of them. Some idiot on R4 just now saying well children...long covid...can affect them....

    Vanishingly small probability of a child suffering from Covid. Otherwise, given that it has ripped through schools and unis these past few weeks, we would be hearing reports of children dying by the bucketload each day. Doesn't seem to be happening.
    Isn't freedom day also the end of term?
    Friends and bush telegraph tells me that end of term in many instances is being curtailed a matter of weeks early as everyone self-isolates. Whole rite of passage experiences just not happening for tens of thousands of children.
    End of term is a rite of passage without which we'd all be scarred?

    You and @contrarian seem to have a very low opinion of the mental resilience of the average 18 year old.
    End of school or uni year or of school or uni itself absolutely is a critical rite of passage.

    And as for the mental resilience of the average 18-yr old, I suggest you listen to some of the news items on the radio in the UK today. Children on anti-depressants = up, children with mental distress = up, children missing on average 115 hours of face to face teaching, children simply going missing from school.

    So yes, Robert and great vid on stopping illegal immigrants, btw, but absofuckinglutely yes, childrens' mental health is being fucked with.
    Do you have children? Do you remember what it was like to be a child?

    Literally the worst time of the entire school year was an enforced assembly while people trooped up to the front.

    The bit that was fun was meeting up with your friends outside of school. Which is - ummm - completely unaffected.

    (It is also worth remembering that "graduation" is a very modern concept. In the old days, you went for study leave and never came back. Which I guess explains why everyone over the age of about 50 is mentally scarred.)
    Robert the instances of damage to children's mental health is being documented today as we speak on just about all news outlets. I won't google it all for you because I'm sure you will be able to do so.

    And after a year or several years of school I could take or leave prize giving and speech day and what have you. I'm sure you the same and if it turned out that your May Ball was cancelled well not to worry your internship at GS was about to start. All perfectly charming.

    But the last 15 months have been hell for hundreds of thousands of children perhaps not so fortunate as you or me or perhaps just as fortunate. And during this time school has often represented an oasis of normality. And people are being denied as I said a rite of passage that is part of growing up.
    You're completely missing my point.

    I TOTALLY AGREE WITH YOU REGARDNG THE IMPACT OF LOCKDOWN ON KIDS HEALTH.

    I THINK YOU ARE A COMPLETE FUCKING RETARD IF YOU THINK GRADUATION CEREMONIES ARE SOME ESSENTIAL RIGHT OF PASSAGE THAT KIDS ENJOY.
  • Options
    geoffwgeoffw Posts: 8,176

    geoffw said:

    In a very strong field, Linked In is the worst, the very, very worst, website known to man. It is quite spectacularly bad - for example, they send out emails saying X wants to connect with you: then when you go on to the website, you can't find the invitation from X but you get screenfuls of utter garbage of zero interest to anyone. It even makes Microsoft Teams look well-designed, something you would have thought was impossible.

    Why hasn't a decent competitor emerged to cater for this market? Is there some kind of natural monopoly or barrier to entry?

    Yes, it’s a natural monopoly.

    And given the way it supports the entire labour market, it should be regulated.

    And yes, it’s got increasingly badly designed and unfocused in recent years.
    I can see that network externalities imply cost decreases with scale. Since it attempts to match jobs to jobseekers it performs a valued service to the labour market as you say. Almost a public good you would think. Couldn't the dept of employment provide a service like that (at arms length of course)?

  • Options
    CharlesCharles Posts: 35,758
    Floater said:

    Utterly stupid idea - what idiot came up with that?

    What counts as "significant economic benefit?

    Why would the other parties want to meet with you anyway - I would refuse a face to face in those circumstances

    Against that I has a US client who is looking to invest £50m in the UK care homes sector. Really needs to be here in person to iron out the last details with his counterpart. But he’s not been able to come despite being double vaxxed so the project has drifted.
  • Options
    Nigel_ForemainNigel_Foremain Posts: 13,790
    rcs1000 said:

    geoffw said:

    In a very strong field, Linked In is the worst, the very, very worst, website known to man. It is quite spectacularly bad - for example, they send out emails saying X wants to connect with you: then when you go on to the website, you can't find the invitation from X but you get screenfuls of utter garbage of zero interest to anyone. It even makes Microsoft Teams look well-designed, something you would have thought was impossible.

    Why hasn't a decent competitor emerged to cater for this market? Is there some kind of natural monopoly or barrier to entry?

    Yes, it’s a natural monopoly.

    And given the way it supports the entire labour market, it should be regulated.

    And yes, it’s got increasingly badly designed and unfocused in recent years.
    It isn't a natural monopoly. There is definitely a niche for a business directory and contact management product that is not LinkedIn. It could integrate a mobile app with tap to share business cards. It also do a great job of verifying peoples histories.

    There's a huge opportunity to do something really cool.

    There are alternatives to LI, though the only really successful ones tend to be non-English speaking. The best one is probably Xing which is predominantly German speaking and the French have one which I cannot recall the name of
  • Options
    FrancisUrquhartFrancisUrquhart Posts: 76,291

    In a very strong field, Linked In is the worst, the very, very worst, website known to man. It is quite spectacularly bad - for example, they send out emails saying X wants to connect with you: then when you go on to the website, you can't find the invitation from X but you get screenfuls of utter garbage of zero interest to anyone. It even makes Microsoft Teams look well-designed, something you would have thought was impossible.

    I stopped using Linkedin years ago and hate Teams with a passion. Zoom rools OK
    LinkedIn and Teams are bad for the same reason - they are both trying to be some kind of all-purpose Facebook/iOs substitute, so they've piled in masses of garbage, rather than actually doing what you want them to do - in the case of Teams, video conferences, not 'creating channels' or integrating apps or saving files or running a Wiki.

    As for Zoom, why the hell did their designers think it was a good idea to make it impossible to set up and test your video and sound before you start the meeting? (Teams has the same 'feature', except it's easy to get round by starting it and left-clicking on the icon in the taskbar).

    Yours, frustrated of Sussex.
    You can on Zoom....Click your profile picture, then click Settings.....Video....
  • Options
    TOPPINGTOPPING Posts: 41,389
    rcs1000 said:

    TOPPING said:

    eek said:

    rcs1000 said:

    TOPPING said:

    rcs1000 said:

    TOPPING said:

    HYUFD said:

    Those undertaking activities with significant economic benefit have always had favourable rules during this pandemic.

    Remember the you can meet up with people in a restaurant if it was for this. Or travel, the plebs can't go on holiday, but business people have been able to travel basically unhindered throughout.

    Given Freedom day is only 3 weeks away, I am not sure it will make a lot of difference.

    I am not sure it will be full Freedom Day, with even Australia restoring lockdown in some states and LA county reimposing a mask wearing request because of the Delta variant I would imagine masks will still be required to be worn in shops and on public transport, the biggest events will still have a capacity limit and quarantine will still be required for visits to red list countries and for the non double vaccinated to amber countries even from the middle of next month.

    I think this new government exemption would therefore certainly be very unpopular if executives returned from a red list country without quarantining
    How can it be freedom day when it is still mooted that children will be kept from school if there is a positive test in the class. While literally hundreds of thousands of people go to sports events, the pub, etc.

    What exactly does no more restrictions mean? It means restrictions the govt decides to keep. Plenty of them. Some idiot on R4 just now saying well children...long covid...can affect them....

    Vanishingly small probability of a child suffering from Covid. Otherwise, given that it has ripped through schools and unis these past few weeks, we would be hearing reports of children dying by the bucketload each day. Doesn't seem to be happening.
    Isn't freedom day also the end of term?
    Friends and bush telegraph tells me that end of term in many instances is being curtailed a matter of weeks early as everyone self-isolates. Whole rite of passage experiences just not happening for tens of thousands of children.
    End of term is a rite of passage without which we'd all be scarred?

    You and @contrarian seem to have a very low opinion of the mental resilience of the average 18 year old.
    Knowing a lot of 18 and 19/20 year olds, all of them have been worn down by the relentless drip, drip drip of lockdown, exam results by random number generator, work options....
    S'ok - Robert thinks they are a hardy lot and IIRC, @Ishmael_Z pointed out that children went through worse in WWII.

    So we're fine.
    I'm sure they've been worn down by lockdown.

    But I'm equally sure that graduation ceremonies are one thing they'd happily miss.
    Apart from your own experience I seriously have no idea on what basis you could assert that for the nation's children. And your own experience is not relevant because you hadn't gone through 15 months of a global pandemic.

    So soz but I'm going to have to ignore your assertion.

    Children need as much normality as possible and the end of school/uni years ceremonies and activities are a vital part of that.
  • Options
    rcs1000rcs1000 Posts: 54,052
    alex_ said:

    rcs1000 said:

    TOPPING said:

    rcs1000 said:

    TOPPING said:

    rcs1000 said:

    TOPPING said:

    HYUFD said:

    Those undertaking activities with significant economic benefit have always had favourable rules during this pandemic.

    Remember the you can meet up with people in a restaurant if it was for this. Or travel, the plebs can't go on holiday, but business people have been able to travel basically unhindered throughout.

    Given Freedom day is only 3 weeks away, I am not sure it will make a lot of difference.

    I am not sure it will be full Freedom Day, with even Australia restoring lockdown in some states and LA county reimposing a mask wearing request because of the Delta variant I would imagine masks will still be required to be worn in shops and on public transport, the biggest events will still have a capacity limit and quarantine will still be required for visits to red list countries and for the non double vaccinated to amber countries even from the middle of next month.

    I think this new government exemption would therefore certainly be very unpopular if executives returned from a red list country without quarantining
    How can it be freedom day when it is still mooted that children will be kept from school if there is a positive test in the class. While literally hundreds of thousands of people go to sports events, the pub, etc.

    What exactly does no more restrictions mean? It means restrictions the govt decides to keep. Plenty of them. Some idiot on R4 just now saying well children...long covid...can affect them....

    Vanishingly small probability of a child suffering from Covid. Otherwise, given that it has ripped through schools and unis these past few weeks, we would be hearing reports of children dying by the bucketload each day. Doesn't seem to be happening.
    Isn't freedom day also the end of term?
    Friends and bush telegraph tells me that end of term in many instances is being curtailed a matter of weeks early as everyone self-isolates. Whole rite of passage experiences just not happening for tens of thousands of children.
    End of term is a rite of passage without which we'd all be scarred?

    You and @contrarian seem to have a very low opinion of the mental resilience of the average 18 year old.
    End of school or uni year or of school or uni itself absolutely is a critical rite of passage.

    And as for the mental resilience of the average 18-yr old, I suggest you listen to some of the news items on the radio in the UK today. Children on anti-depressants = up, children with mental distress = up, children missing on average 115 hours of face to face teaching, children simply going missing from school.

    So yes, Robert and great vid on stopping illegal immigrants, btw, but absofuckinglutely yes, childrens' mental health is being fucked with.
    Do you have children? Do you remember what it was like to be a child?

    Literally the worst time of the entire school year was an enforced assembly while people trooped up to the front.

    The bit that was fun was meeting up with your friends outside of school. Which is - ummm - completely unaffected.

    (It is also worth remembering that "graduation" is a very modern concept. In the old days, you went for study leave and never came back. Which I guess explains why everyone over the age of about 50 is mentally scarred.)
    I don’t think they’re talking about “graduation”. It’s explicitly all the extra curricular stuff that happens.
    I need to stop jumping down peoples' throats this morning.

    I had a bad night's sleep, and it's made me grumpy.

    Apologies to @TOPPING and to @HYUFD.

    (I feel sorry for my employees. They're going to have a very shitty day.)
  • Options
    CharlesCharles Posts: 35,758

    I'd dispute the notion that senior executives are toffs.

    Some of them are working class, or the grandchildren of immigrant, hardly toffs.

    If they are having to stoop to carrying out economic activity, then they are definitely not toffs.
    Don’t I know it!
  • Options
    eekeek Posts: 25,009

    In a very strong field, Linked In is the worst, the very, very worst, website known to man. It is quite spectacularly bad - for example, they send out emails saying X wants to connect with you: then when you go on to the website, you can't find the invitation from X but you get screenfuls of utter garbage of zero interest to anyone. It even makes Microsoft Teams look well-designed, something you would have thought was impossible.

    I stopped using Linkedin years ago and hate Teams with a passion. Zoom rools OK
    LinkedIn and Teams are bad for the same reason - they are both trying to be some kind of all-purpose Facebook/iOs substitute, so they've piled in masses of garbage, rather than actually doing what you want them to do - in the case of Teams, video conferences, not 'creating channels' or integrating apps or saving files or running a Wiki.

    As for Zoom, why the hell did their designers think it was a good idea to make it impossible to set up and test your video and sound before you start the meeting? (Teams has the same 'feature', except it's easy to get round by starting it and left-clicking on the icon in the taskbar).

    Yours, frustrated of Sussex.
    Teams was supposed to fix 2 issues:

    Sharepoint on the desktop rather than a browser
    Act as a wrapper round Skype for Business / Lync for the new world.

    When you understand the first bit you can see why all the Apps and file management comes from.
  • Options
    GardenwalkerGardenwalker Posts: 20,870
    edited June 2021
    rcs1000 said:

    geoffw said:

    In a very strong field, Linked In is the worst, the very, very worst, website known to man. It is quite spectacularly bad - for example, they send out emails saying X wants to connect with you: then when you go on to the website, you can't find the invitation from X but you get screenfuls of utter garbage of zero interest to anyone. It even makes Microsoft Teams look well-designed, something you would have thought was impossible.

    Why hasn't a decent competitor emerged to cater for this market? Is there some kind of natural monopoly or barrier to entry?

    Yes, it’s a natural monopoly.

    And given the way it supports the entire labour market, it should be regulated.

    And yes, it’s got increasingly badly designed and unfocused in recent years.
    It isn't a natural monopoly. There is definitely a niche for a business directory and contact management product that is not LinkedIn. It could integrate a mobile app with tap to share business cards. It also do a great job of verifying peoples histories.

    There's a huge opportunity to do something really cool.

    I prefer the other answer which suggested that it is a natural monopoly by virtue of the network effects acting as a barrier to entry to competitors.

    See also Google, Facebook, and probably Amazon within appropriate definitions of the retail market.

    The new entrant you described would have to build its network from scratch, or piggyback in another’s - ie Google or Facebook.
  • Options
    Nigel_ForemainNigel_Foremain Posts: 13,790

    HYUFD said:

    algarkirk said:

    In which the irresistible force and the immoveable object are once again kicked down the road. (I can't make entire sense of TC's 6th point. Can anyone elucidate?)

    This is an important concession by both parties.

    The EU has conceded a further extension of the current exemptions.

    The U.K. has conceded:
    a) that it was/is in the EU’s power to deny an extension
    b) that the extension is there to allow Northern Irish retailers to source locally or from the Republic, in preference to U.K. supply chains.

    The U.K. is slowly conceding the reality of a customs/regulatory border between GB and NI, long after have conceded it legally.
    The DUP are going to go stark raving bonkers over this. Tesco Ballymena will stock Irish beef and Irish milk and Irish market products and all the other stuff that you don't get in Tesco Barnsley. "WHERE IS OUR BRITISH BANGER" - thats got to be worth a march with a sash and one of those little bowler hats all by itself.
    The DUP have been comprehensively and continually cucked by the U.K., or rather by Boris Johnson and the Vote Leave administration.
    Well, they went through the lobbies in solidarity with Mark Francois, Steve Baker, Jeremy Corbyn, John McDonnell at el, in order to torpedo Theresa May's plan for avoiding a border in the Irish Sea, so they really are not in a position to blame anyone else.
    Oh yes.

    There is a book to be written about the pure madness and stupidity of the DUP during Brexit.

    Obviously I couldn’t give a fuck about the DUP, although it’s objectively bad for the Union on several levels.
    The DUP likely originally hoped Brexit would lead to a restoration of a hard border with Ireland and had the whole UK gone to No Deal that is what would have happened. Although on that I think they were wrong, a hard border with Ireland would have led to greater demands for Irish unity than is the case now
    It is extraordinarily hard to understand just what DUP were hoping Brexit would do or achieve.

    They probably - in tandem with the other Brexiters - believed the dogshit that we would be able to trade totally frictionlessly with the EU (and hence across the Irish border) without the need for an actual customs and regulatory border.

    Or “cake-ism” as it is now known.

    Indeed, it seems some Brexiters continued to believe that until about 1 January 2021.
    A lot continue to believe whatever Boris Johnson et al tell them to believe.
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    TheScreamingEaglesTheScreamingEagles Posts: 114,554
    From a friend.


  • Options
    rcs1000rcs1000 Posts: 54,052
    Charles said:

    Floater said:

    Utterly stupid idea - what idiot came up with that?

    What counts as "significant economic benefit?

    Why would the other parties want to meet with you anyway - I would refuse a face to face in those circumstances

    Against that I has a US client who is looking to invest £50m in the UK care homes sector. Really needs to be here in person to iron out the last details with his counterpart. But he’s not been able to come despite being double vaxxed so the project has drifted.
    Why can't he go to the UK? He'll have five days of doing Zoom meetings, which - if he lands on Friday morning - means he'll be able to do in person the following Weds.

    That's a lot better than for me and the US. I simply can't enter the US from the UK (despite being double vaccinated) without going via Canada or Mexico for two weeks.
  • Options
    RochdalePioneersRochdalePioneers Posts: 27,286

    algarkirk said:

    In which the irresistible force and the immoveable object are once again kicked down the road. (I can't make entire sense of TC's 6th point. Can anyone elucidate?)

    This is an important concession by both parties.

    The EU has conceded a further extension of the current exemptions.

    The U.K. has conceded:
    a) that it was/is in the EU’s power to deny an extension
    b) that the extension is there to allow Northern Irish retailers to source locally or from the Republic, in preference to U.K. supply chains.

    The U.K. is slowly conceding the reality of a customs/regulatory border between GB and NI, long after have conceded it legally.
    The DUP are going to go stark raving bonkers over this. Tesco Ballymena will stock Irish beef and Irish milk and Irish market products and all the other stuff that you don't get in Tesco Barnsley. "WHERE IS OUR BRITISH BANGER" - thats got to be worth a march with a sash and one of those little bowler hats all by itself.
    The DUP have been comprehensively and continually cucked by the U.K., or rather by Boris Johnson and the Vote Leave administration.
    Well, they went through the lobbies in solidarity with Mark Francois, Steve Baker, Jeremy Corbyn, John McDonnell at el, in order to torpedo Theresa May's plan for avoiding a border in the Irish Sea, so they really are not in a position to blame anyone else.
    They voted for the Leopards Eating Faces option and now wonder who to blame for having no face.
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    Philip_ThompsonPhilip_Thompson Posts: 65,826
    eek said:

    On topic there's been exemptions on this throughout the pandemic and for good reason too.

    Is anyone seriously suggesting that if Elon Musk says to the government "I'm interested in investing billions to build a Gigafactory in Britain creating thousands of jobs, I have 72 hours free in my diary to come to the UK to examine a potential site" that the government response would or should be "You'll need to quarantine for fourteen days first"?

    Remember Elon Musk did exactly that back in April / May.

    Precisely, which makes it really weird that Sky have "discovered" this now. This exemption was there all along and for very good reason too.

    I don't think anybody but the most zealot extremists would seriously suggest Musk should be told no in those circumstances.
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    Richard_NabaviRichard_Nabavi Posts: 30,820

    In a very strong field, Linked In is the worst, the very, very worst, website known to man. It is quite spectacularly bad - for example, they send out emails saying X wants to connect with you: then when you go on to the website, you can't find the invitation from X but you get screenfuls of utter garbage of zero interest to anyone. It even makes Microsoft Teams look well-designed, something you would have thought was impossible.

    I stopped using Linkedin years ago and hate Teams with a passion. Zoom rools OK
    LinkedIn and Teams are bad for the same reason - they are both trying to be some kind of all-purpose Facebook/iOs substitute, so they've piled in masses of garbage, rather than actually doing what you want them to do - in the case of Teams, video conferences, not 'creating channels' or integrating apps or saving files or running a Wiki.

    As for Zoom, why the hell did their designers think it was a good idea to make it impossible to set up and test your video and sound before you start the meeting? (Teams has the same 'feature', except it's easy to get round by starting it and left-clicking on the icon in the taskbar).

    Yours, frustrated of Sussex.
    You can on Zoom....Click your profile picture, then click Settings.....Video....
    No, you just get 'Join a Meeting' or 'Sign in'. If you've received an invitation and don't have an account - which applies to most people - you can't access the settings until you click 'Join a Meeting'. That is completely insane.
  • Options
    rcs1000rcs1000 Posts: 54,052

    rcs1000 said:

    geoffw said:

    In a very strong field, Linked In is the worst, the very, very worst, website known to man. It is quite spectacularly bad - for example, they send out emails saying X wants to connect with you: then when you go on to the website, you can't find the invitation from X but you get screenfuls of utter garbage of zero interest to anyone. It even makes Microsoft Teams look well-designed, something you would have thought was impossible.

    Why hasn't a decent competitor emerged to cater for this market? Is there some kind of natural monopoly or barrier to entry?

    Yes, it’s a natural monopoly.

    And given the way it supports the entire labour market, it should be regulated.

    And yes, it’s got increasingly badly designed and unfocused in recent years.
    It isn't a natural monopoly. There is definitely a niche for a business directory and contact management product that is not LinkedIn. It could integrate a mobile app with tap to share business cards. It also do a great job of verifying peoples histories.

    There's a huge opportunity to do something really cool.

    I prefer the other answer which suggested that it is a natural monopoly by virtue of the network effects acting as a barrier to entry to competitors.

    See also Google, Facebook, and probably Amazon within appropriate definitions of the retail market.

    The new entrant you described would have to build its network from scratch, or piggyback in another’s - ie Google or Facebook.
    It's amazing how many natural monopolies turned out not to be, though.

    Internet Explorer had a monopoly due to being installed by default on people's computers... until Chrome came along.

    Windows was a monopoly... and now it's not.

    Etc.
  • Options
    eekeek Posts: 25,009
    edited June 2021

    rcs1000 said:

    geoffw said:

    In a very strong field, Linked In is the worst, the very, very worst, website known to man. It is quite spectacularly bad - for example, they send out emails saying X wants to connect with you: then when you go on to the website, you can't find the invitation from X but you get screenfuls of utter garbage of zero interest to anyone. It even makes Microsoft Teams look well-designed, something you would have thought was impossible.

    Why hasn't a decent competitor emerged to cater for this market? Is there some kind of natural monopoly or barrier to entry?

    Yes, it’s a natural monopoly.

    And given the way it supports the entire labour market, it should be regulated.

    And yes, it’s got increasingly badly designed and unfocused in recent years.
    It isn't a natural monopoly. There is definitely a niche for a business directory and contact management product that is not LinkedIn. It could integrate a mobile app with tap to share business cards. It also do a great job of verifying peoples histories.

    There's a huge opportunity to do something really cool.

    I prefer the other answer which suggested that it is a natural monopoly by virtue of the network effects acting as a barrier to entry to competitors.

    See also Google, Facebook, and probably Amazon within appropriate definitions of the retail market.

    The new entrant you described would have to build its network from scratch, or piggyback in another’s - ie Google or Facebook.
    It's worth remembering that the core detail we wanted access to LinkedIn data for wasn't to allow people to identify potential customers, it was to tell the CRM system that ABC had left company XYZ and you needed to identify who the new person appropriate person was.

    Facebook did have a corporate version project - I think it's died a million deaths...
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    FrancisUrquhartFrancisUrquhart Posts: 76,291
    edited June 2021

    In a very strong field, Linked In is the worst, the very, very worst, website known to man. It is quite spectacularly bad - for example, they send out emails saying X wants to connect with you: then when you go on to the website, you can't find the invitation from X but you get screenfuls of utter garbage of zero interest to anyone. It even makes Microsoft Teams look well-designed, something you would have thought was impossible.

    I stopped using Linkedin years ago and hate Teams with a passion. Zoom rools OK
    LinkedIn and Teams are bad for the same reason - they are both trying to be some kind of all-purpose Facebook/iOs substitute, so they've piled in masses of garbage, rather than actually doing what you want them to do - in the case of Teams, video conferences, not 'creating channels' or integrating apps or saving files or running a Wiki.

    As for Zoom, why the hell did their designers think it was a good idea to make it impossible to set up and test your video and sound before you start the meeting? (Teams has the same 'feature', except it's easy to get round by starting it and left-clicking on the icon in the taskbar).

    Yours, frustrated of Sussex.
    You can on Zoom....Click your profile picture, then click Settings.....Video....
    No, you just get 'Join a Meeting' or 'Sign in'. If you've received an invitation and don't have an account - which applies to most people - you can't access the settings until you click 'Join a Meeting'. That is completely insane.
    You aren't signed in? If you are signed in, you definitely can...

    Can you do anything with something like Skype without having an account and being signed in?
  • Options
    GardenwalkerGardenwalker Posts: 20,870
    Teams is much easier than Zoom, sorry.

    It’s a minor miracle that it had emanated from Microsoft.
  • Options
    StuartDicksonStuartDickson Posts: 12,146

    TOPPING said:

    rcs1000 said:

    TOPPING said:

    rcs1000 said:

    TOPPING said:

    HYUFD said:

    Those undertaking activities with significant economic benefit have always had favourable rules during this pandemic.

    Remember the you can meet up with people in a restaurant if it was for this. Or travel, the plebs can't go on holiday, but business people have been able to travel basically unhindered throughout.

    Given Freedom day is only 3 weeks away, I am not sure it will make a lot of difference.

    I am not sure it will be full Freedom Day, with even Australia restoring lockdown in some states and LA county reimposing a mask wearing request because of the Delta variant I would imagine masks will still be required to be worn in shops and on public transport, the biggest events will still have a capacity limit and quarantine will still be required for visits to red list countries and for the non double vaccinated to amber countries even from the middle of next month.

    I think this new government exemption would therefore certainly be very unpopular if executives returned from a red list country without quarantining
    How can it be freedom day when it is still mooted that children will be kept from school if there is a positive test in the class. While literally hundreds of thousands of people go to sports events, the pub, etc.

    What exactly does no more restrictions mean? It means restrictions the govt decides to keep. Plenty of them. Some idiot on R4 just now saying well children...long covid...can affect them....

    Vanishingly small probability of a child suffering from Covid. Otherwise, given that it has ripped through schools and unis these past few weeks, we would be hearing reports of children dying by the bucketload each day. Doesn't seem to be happening.
    Isn't freedom day also the end of term?
    Friends and bush telegraph tells me that end of term in many instances is being curtailed a matter of weeks early as everyone self-isolates. Whole rite of passage experiences just not happening for tens of thousands of children.
    End of term is a rite of passage without which we'd all be scarred?

    You and @contrarian seem to have a very low opinion of the mental resilience of the average 18 year old.
    End of school or uni year or of school or uni itself absolutely is a critical rite of passage.

    And as for the mental resilience of the average 18-yr old, I suggest you listen to some of the news items on the radio in the UK today. Children on anti-depressants = up, children with mental distress = up, children missing on average 115 hours of face to face teaching, children simply going missing from school.

    So yes, Robert and great vid on stopping illegal immigrants, btw, but absofuckinglutely yes, childrens' mental health is being fucked with.
    As is their physical health. Sports clubs of all types and all manner of other activities simply ceased to exist for months on end. In a country whose climate already militates against the outdoors and were child obesity and general lack of exercise among the young were already a big problem.

    The people who govern us, and their labour enablers are trying to pretend this is some new crisis.

    They created it. With their lockdowns. Fulsomely applauded on here.

    The hideous downsides of lockdowns are now starting to become apparent. There will be much, much more where that came from.
    Which is why history will judge the Swedish model to have been the best way to cope with the pandemic. We minimised the harm done to children and young people, and we will reap the benefits in the decades to come.
  • Options
    dixiedeandixiedean Posts: 27,995
    HYUFD said:

    algarkirk said:

    In which the irresistible force and the immoveable object are once again kicked down the road. (I can't make entire sense of TC's 6th point. Can anyone elucidate?)

    This is an important concession by both parties.

    The EU has conceded a further extension of the current exemptions.

    The U.K. has conceded:
    a) that it was/is in the EU’s power to deny an extension
    b) that the extension is there to allow Northern Irish retailers to source locally or from the Republic, in preference to U.K. supply chains.

    The U.K. is slowly conceding the reality of a customs/regulatory border between GB and NI, long after have conceded it legally.
    The DUP are going to go stark raving bonkers over this. Tesco Ballymena will stock Irish beef and Irish milk and Irish market products and all the other stuff that you don't get in Tesco Barnsley. "WHERE IS OUR BRITISH BANGER" - thats got to be worth a march with a sash and one of those little bowler hats all by itself.
    The DUP have been comprehensively and continually cucked by the U.K., or rather by Boris Johnson and the Vote Leave administration.
    Well, they went through the lobbies in solidarity with Mark Francois, Steve Baker, Jeremy Corbyn, John McDonnell at el, in order to torpedo Theresa May's plan for avoiding a border in the Irish Sea, so they really are not in a position to blame anyone else.
    Oh yes.

    There is a book to be written about the pure madness and stupidity of the DUP during Brexit.

    Obviously I couldn’t give a fuck about the DUP, although it’s objectively bad for the Union on several levels.
    The DUP likely originally hoped Brexit would lead to a restoration of a hard border with Ireland and had the whole UK gone to No Deal that is what would have happened. Although on that I think they were wrong, a hard border with Ireland would have led to greater demands for Irish unity than is the case now
    But much greater opportunity for smuggling and other nefarious activity.
    Which may be the point.
  • Options
    CharlesCharles Posts: 35,758
    rcs1000 said:

    HYUFD said:

    Those undertaking activities with significant economic benefit have always had favourable rules during this pandemic.

    Remember the you can meet up with people in a restaurant if it was for this. Or travel, the plebs can't go on holiday, but business people have been able to travel basically unhindered throughout.

    Given Freedom day is only 3 weeks away, I am not sure it will make a lot of difference.

    I am not sure it will be full Freedom Day, with even Australia restoring lockdown in some states and LA county reimposing a mask wearing request because of the Delta variant I would imagine masks will still be required to be worn in shops and on public transport, the biggest events will still have a capacity limit and quarantine will still be required for visits to red list countries and for the non double vaccinated to amber countries even from the middle of next month.

    I think this new government exemption would therefore certainly be very unpopular if executives returned from a red list country without quarantining
    Ummm: I'm in LA County and I haven't seen any reintroduction of a mask mandate. And the LA County Covid page has no mention of it (http://publichealth.lacounty.gov/media/coronavirus/). Also, LA County seven day case numbers are still heading down.

    So, not sure what your source is.
    Not a mandate but “strongly encouraged”

    https://www.google.co.uk/amp/s/www.latimes.com/california/story/2021-06-28/as-delta-variant-spreads-l-a-county-recommends-everyone-mask-indoors?_amp=true
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    TheScreamingEaglesTheScreamingEagles Posts: 114,554
    Benjamin Monk has been jailed for 8 years for the manslaughter of Dalian Atkinson.
  • Options
    StuartDicksonStuartDickson Posts: 12,146
    rcs1000 said:

    HYUFD said:

    rcs1000 said:

    HYUFD said:

    rcs1000 said:

    Cookie said:

    rcs1000 said:

    HYUFD said:

    Those undertaking activities with significant economic benefit have always had favourable rules during this pandemic.

    Remember the you can meet up with people in a restaurant if it was for this. Or travel, the plebs can't go on holiday, but business people have been able to travel basically unhindered throughout.

    Given Freedom day is only 3 weeks away, I am not sure it will make a lot of difference.

    I am not sure it will be full Freedom Day, with even Australia restoring lockdown in some states and LA county reimposing a mask wearing request because of the Delta variant I would imagine masks will still be required to be worn in shops and on public transport, the biggest events will still have a capacity limit and quarantine will still be required for visits to red list countries and for the non double vaccinated to amber countries even from the middle of next month.

    I think this new government exemption would therefore certainly be very unpopular if executives returned from a red list country without quarantining
    Ummm: I'm in LA County and I haven't seen any reintroduction of a mask mandate. And the LA County Covid page has no mention of it (http://publichealth.lacounty.gov/media/coronavirus/). Also, LA County seven day case numbers are still heading down.

    So, not sure what your source is.
    If the mask mandate remains, it's not freedom day, and won't be presented as such.
    I was merely pointing out that @HYUFD's claim that a mask mandate had been reintroduced in LA County is incorrect.
    Los Angeles County public health officials are now "strongly" recommending everyone to wear masks in indoor public places, regardless of vaccination status, due to an increased spread of the Delta variant.
    https://abc7.com/los-angeles-masks-delta-variant-indoors/10841712/
    That's not a mask mandate, that's a recommendation.
    So exactly what I originally said then 'LA county reimposing a mask wearing request because of the Delta variant'.

    A request is a recommendation
    Fair enough, and I was wrong to jump down your throat.
    Very galant. Now, just waiting for a bit of magnanimity from the other admin…
  • Options
    rcs1000rcs1000 Posts: 54,052
    Charles said:

    rcs1000 said:

    HYUFD said:

    Those undertaking activities with significant economic benefit have always had favourable rules during this pandemic.

    Remember the you can meet up with people in a restaurant if it was for this. Or travel, the plebs can't go on holiday, but business people have been able to travel basically unhindered throughout.

    Given Freedom day is only 3 weeks away, I am not sure it will make a lot of difference.

    I am not sure it will be full Freedom Day, with even Australia restoring lockdown in some states and LA county reimposing a mask wearing request because of the Delta variant I would imagine masks will still be required to be worn in shops and on public transport, the biggest events will still have a capacity limit and quarantine will still be required for visits to red list countries and for the non double vaccinated to amber countries even from the middle of next month.

    I think this new government exemption would therefore certainly be very unpopular if executives returned from a red list country without quarantining
    Ummm: I'm in LA County and I haven't seen any reintroduction of a mask mandate. And the LA County Covid page has no mention of it (http://publichealth.lacounty.gov/media/coronavirus/). Also, LA County seven day case numbers are still heading down.

    So, not sure what your source is.
    Not a mandate but “strongly encouraged”

    https://www.google.co.uk/amp/s/www.latimes.com/california/story/2021-06-28/as-delta-variant-spreads-l-a-county-recommends-everyone-mask-indoors?_amp=true
    Yeah, I've been unnecessarily jumping down peoples' throats this morning. I should probably get a cup of tea.
  • Options
    GardenwalkerGardenwalker Posts: 20,870

    algarkirk said:

    In which the irresistible force and the immoveable object are once again kicked down the road. (I can't make entire sense of TC's 6th point. Can anyone elucidate?)

    This is an important concession by both parties.

    The EU has conceded a further extension of the current exemptions.

    The U.K. has conceded:
    a) that it was/is in the EU’s power to deny an extension
    b) that the extension is there to allow Northern Irish retailers to source locally or from the Republic, in preference to U.K. supply chains.

    The U.K. is slowly conceding the reality of a customs/regulatory border between GB and NI, long after have conceded it legally.
    The DUP are going to go stark raving bonkers over this. Tesco Ballymena will stock Irish beef and Irish milk and Irish market products and all the other stuff that you don't get in Tesco Barnsley. "WHERE IS OUR BRITISH BANGER" - thats got to be worth a march with a sash and one of those little bowler hats all by itself.
    The DUP have been comprehensively and continually cucked by the U.K., or rather by Boris Johnson and the Vote Leave administration.
    Well, they went through the lobbies in solidarity with Mark Francois, Steve Baker, Jeremy Corbyn, John McDonnell at el, in order to torpedo Theresa May's plan for avoiding a border in the Irish Sea, so they really are not in a position to blame anyone else.
    They voted for the Leopards Eating Faces option and now wonder who to blame for having no face.
    The psychological benefit that such types have is that they are predisposed anyway to blame others for everything.

    It’s always one of:
    1, the EU
    2, the “metropolitan elite”
    3, judicial “sabouteurs”
    4, “remoaners”
    5, Cameron or May.
  • Options
    TOPPINGTOPPING Posts: 41,389
    edited June 2021
    rcs1000 said:

    TOPPING said:

    rcs1000 said:

    TOPPING said:

    rcs1000 said:

    TOPPING said:

    rcs1000 said:

    TOPPING said:

    HYUFD said:

    Those undertaking activities with significant economic benefit have always had favourable rules during this pandemic.

    Remember the you can meet up with people in a restaurant if it was for this. Or travel, the plebs can't go on holiday, but business people have been able to travel basically unhindered throughout.

    Given Freedom day is only 3 weeks away, I am not sure it will make a lot of difference.

    I am not sure it will be full Freedom Day, with even Australia restoring lockdown in some states and LA county reimposing a mask wearing request because of the Delta variant I would imagine masks will still be required to be worn in shops and on public transport, the biggest events will still have a capacity limit and quarantine will still be required for visits to red list countries and for the non double vaccinated to amber countries even from the middle of next month.

    I think this new government exemption would therefore certainly be very unpopular if executives returned from a red list country without quarantining
    How can it be freedom day when it is still mooted that children will be kept from school if there is a positive test in the class. While literally hundreds of thousands of people go to sports events, the pub, etc.

    What exactly does no more restrictions mean? It means restrictions the govt decides to keep. Plenty of them. Some idiot on R4 just now saying well children...long covid...can affect them....

    Vanishingly small probability of a child suffering from Covid. Otherwise, given that it has ripped through schools and unis these past few weeks, we would be hearing reports of children dying by the bucketload each day. Doesn't seem to be happening.
    Isn't freedom day also the end of term?
    Friends and bush telegraph tells me that end of term in many instances is being curtailed a matter of weeks early as everyone self-isolates. Whole rite of passage experiences just not happening for tens of thousands of children.
    End of term is a rite of passage without which we'd all be scarred?

    You and @contrarian seem to have a very low opinion of the mental resilience of the average 18 year old.
    End of school or uni year or of school or uni itself absolutely is a critical rite of passage.

    And as for the mental resilience of the average 18-yr old, I suggest you listen to some of the news items on the radio in the UK today. Children on anti-depressants = up, children with mental distress = up, children missing on average 115 hours of face to face teaching, children simply going missing from school.

    So yes, Robert and great vid on stopping illegal immigrants, btw, but absofuckinglutely yes, childrens' mental health is being fucked with.
    Do you have children? Do you remember what it was like to be a child?

    Literally the worst time of the entire school year was an enforced assembly while people trooped up to the front.

    The bit that was fun was meeting up with your friends outside of school. Which is - ummm - completely unaffected.

    (It is also worth remembering that "graduation" is a very modern concept. In the old days, you went for study leave and never came back. Which I guess explains why everyone over the age of about 50 is mentally scarred.)
    Robert the instances of damage to children's mental health is being documented today as we speak on just about all news outlets. I won't google it all for you because I'm sure you will be able to do so.

    And after a year or several years of school I could take or leave prize giving and speech day and what have you. I'm sure you the same and if it turned out that your May Ball was cancelled well not to worry your internship at GS was about to start. All perfectly charming.

    But the last 15 months have been hell for hundreds of thousands of children perhaps not so fortunate as you or me or perhaps just as fortunate. And during this time school has often represented an oasis of normality. And people are being denied as I said a rite of passage that is part of growing up.
    You're completely missing my point.

    I TOTALLY AGREE WITH YOU REGARDNG THE IMPACT OF LOCKDOWN ON KIDS HEALTH.

    I THINK YOU ARE A COMPLETE FUCKING RETARD IF YOU THINK GRADUATION CEREMONIES ARE SOME ESSENTIAL RIGHT OF PASSAGE THAT KIDS ENJOY.
    "COMPLETE FUCKING RETARD" eh?

    And shouting. Hmm, I think this discussion is moving in my direction.

    And again, the graduation ceremonies, which you may or may not have enjoyed are absolutely an "ESSENTIAL RIGHT [sic] OF PASSAGE" for children. As is all the end of school/uni activities. I said at the beginning "End of term activities". Including graduation which formally marks the end of the era of schooling or uni.

    You are simply wrong on this and quite why on the one hand you say lockdown has had an impact and on the other you are unable to see that a critical component of lockdown people are cheering at goodness only knows. I can only imagine something happened at your graduation that was unpleasant otherwise your response is irrational.

    Edit: and @rcs1000 absolutely no need to apologise for anything - it's what makes PB PB.
  • Options
    eekeek Posts: 25,009
    edited June 2021
    rcs1000 said:

    rcs1000 said:

    geoffw said:

    In a very strong field, Linked In is the worst, the very, very worst, website known to man. It is quite spectacularly bad - for example, they send out emails saying X wants to connect with you: then when you go on to the website, you can't find the invitation from X but you get screenfuls of utter garbage of zero interest to anyone. It even makes Microsoft Teams look well-designed, something you would have thought was impossible.

    Why hasn't a decent competitor emerged to cater for this market? Is there some kind of natural monopoly or barrier to entry?

    Yes, it’s a natural monopoly.

    And given the way it supports the entire labour market, it should be regulated.

    And yes, it’s got increasingly badly designed and unfocused in recent years.
    It isn't a natural monopoly. There is definitely a niche for a business directory and contact management product that is not LinkedIn. It could integrate a mobile app with tap to share business cards. It also do a great job of verifying peoples histories.

    There's a huge opportunity to do something really cool.

    I prefer the other answer which suggested that it is a natural monopoly by virtue of the network effects acting as a barrier to entry to competitors.

    See also Google, Facebook, and probably Amazon within appropriate definitions of the retail market.

    The new entrant you described would have to build its network from scratch, or piggyback in another’s - ie Google or Facebook.
    It's amazing how many natural monopolies turned out not to be, though.

    Internet Explorer had a monopoly due to being installed by default on people's computers... until Chrome came along.

    Windows was a monopoly... and now it's not.

    Etc.
    None of those have network effects though. If you look at all the social media launches since Facebook they all go for a particular niche and expand from there. Take instagram, tik tok, even discord. All focus on a particular niche (albeit in the case of Discord, one MS will be seeking to steal with the consumer / cutdown version of Teams within Windows 11).
  • Options
    StuartDicksonStuartDickson Posts: 12,146
    rcs1000 said:

    TOPPING said:

    rcs1000 said:

    TOPPING said:

    rcs1000 said:

    TOPPING said:

    rcs1000 said:

    TOPPING said:

    HYUFD said:

    Those undertaking activities with significant economic benefit have always had favourable rules during this pandemic.

    Remember the you can meet up with people in a restaurant if it was for this. Or travel, the plebs can't go on holiday, but business people have been able to travel basically unhindered throughout.

    Given Freedom day is only 3 weeks away, I am not sure it will make a lot of difference.

    I am not sure it will be full Freedom Day, with even Australia restoring lockdown in some states and LA county reimposing a mask wearing request because of the Delta variant I would imagine masks will still be required to be worn in shops and on public transport, the biggest events will still have a capacity limit and quarantine will still be required for visits to red list countries and for the non double vaccinated to amber countries even from the middle of next month.

    I think this new government exemption would therefore certainly be very unpopular if executives returned from a red list country without quarantining
    How can it be freedom day when it is still mooted that children will be kept from school if there is a positive test in the class. While literally hundreds of thousands of people go to sports events, the pub, etc.

    What exactly does no more restrictions mean? It means restrictions the govt decides to keep. Plenty of them. Some idiot on R4 just now saying well children...long covid...can affect them....

    Vanishingly small probability of a child suffering from Covid. Otherwise, given that it has ripped through schools and unis these past few weeks, we would be hearing reports of children dying by the bucketload each day. Doesn't seem to be happening.
    Isn't freedom day also the end of term?
    Friends and bush telegraph tells me that end of term in many instances is being curtailed a matter of weeks early as everyone self-isolates. Whole rite of passage experiences just not happening for tens of thousands of children.
    End of term is a rite of passage without which we'd all be scarred?

    You and @contrarian seem to have a very low opinion of the mental resilience of the average 18 year old.
    End of school or uni year or of school or uni itself absolutely is a critical rite of passage.

    And as for the mental resilience of the average 18-yr old, I suggest you listen to some of the news items on the radio in the UK today. Children on anti-depressants = up, children with mental distress = up, children missing on average 115 hours of face to face teaching, children simply going missing from school.

    So yes, Robert and great vid on stopping illegal immigrants, btw, but absofuckinglutely yes, childrens' mental health is being fucked with.
    Do you have children? Do you remember what it was like to be a child?

    Literally the worst time of the entire school year was an enforced assembly while people trooped up to the front.

    The bit that was fun was meeting up with your friends outside of school. Which is - ummm - completely unaffected.

    (It is also worth remembering that "graduation" is a very modern concept. In the old days, you went for study leave and never came back. Which I guess explains why everyone over the age of about 50 is mentally scarred.)
    Robert the instances of damage to children's mental health is being documented today as we speak on just about all news outlets. I won't google it all for you because I'm sure you will be able to do so.

    And after a year or several years of school I could take or leave prize giving and speech day and what have you. I'm sure you the same and if it turned out that your May Ball was cancelled well not to worry your internship at GS was about to start. All perfectly charming.

    But the last 15 months have been hell for hundreds of thousands of children perhaps not so fortunate as you or me or perhaps just as fortunate. And during this time school has often represented an oasis of normality. And people are being denied as I said a rite of passage that is part of growing up.
    You're completely missing my point.

    I TOTALLY AGREE WITH YOU REGARDNG THE IMPACT OF LOCKDOWN ON KIDS HEALTH.

    I THINK YOU ARE A COMPLETE FUCKING RETARD IF YOU THINK GRADUATION CEREMONIES ARE SOME ESSENTIAL RIGHT OF PASSAGE THAT KIDS ENJOY.
    High school graduation… in England?!?

    It’s gone full circle now. You lot are de facto the 51st state.
  • Options
    AnabobazinaAnabobazina Posts: 20,094

    In a very strong field, Linked In is the worst, the very, very worst, website known to man. It is quite spectacularly bad - for example, they send out emails saying X wants to connect with you: then when you go on to the website, you can't find the invitation from X but you get screenfuls of utter garbage of zero interest to anyone. It even makes Microsoft Teams look well-designed, something you would have thought was impossible.

    I stopped using Linkedin years ago and hate Teams with a passion. Zoom rools OK
    LinkedIn and Teams are bad for the same reason - they are both trying to be some kind of all-purpose Facebook/iOs substitute, so they've piled in masses of garbage, rather than actually doing what you want them to do - in the case of Teams, video conferences, not 'creating channels' or integrating apps or saving files or running a Wiki.

    As for Zoom, why the hell did their designers think it was a good idea to make it impossible to set up and test your video and sound before you start the meeting? (Teams has the same 'feature', except it's easy to get round by starting it and left-clicking on the icon in the taskbar).

    Yours, frustrated of Sussex.
    Absolutely agreed. They are all – pretty much universally – total garbage. Terrible design, and lots of additional 'features' that nobody wants and nobody ever uses. I cannot wait for the day to come where my weekly team meetings can again be done face to face.

    Videoconferencing is shit. Anyone remember Zoom 'parties'??
  • Options
    StuartDicksonStuartDickson Posts: 12,146
    alex_ said:

    Scott_xP said:

    Matt Hancock appointed a friend to a role that included scrutinising his work as a minister. They earned £15,000 for 15 days’ work.

    There are 85 of these positions - including more Tory friends and donors.

    We need a fully independent appointment process.


    https://twitter.com/Keir_Starmer/status/1409851895225724929

    https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2021/jun/29/labour-urges-overhaul-of-whitehall-oversight-rules-after-hancock-row

    Labour would have a bit more credibility if it wasn’t for the fact that their hero Tony Blair introduced non-executive directorships.
    Really? Really?

    They existed well before Blair.
    Codified by Blair in 2005.

    “History of non-executives in Whitehall
    Non-executives were first introduced in the early 1990s. In 2005 the first corporate governance Code recommended that each Whitehall department should have at least two NEDs, to sit on the management board chaired by the permanent secretary. At the time there were 37 NEDs, in 14 departments.”

    https://www.ucl.ac.uk/constitution-unit/sites/constitution-unit/files/178_-_Critical_Friends__The_Role_of_Non_Executives_on_Whitehall_Boards.pdf
    There's nothing wrong with NEDs per se if they are appointed properly. They should have a role equivalent to the Governors at a school or college, roughly.

    The problem is the cronyism in the way this government appoints people to NED roles, particularly, and obviously, Hancock.
    It is a role properly carried out by Parliament though.
    +1
  • Options
    rcs1000rcs1000 Posts: 54,052
    TOPPING said:

    rcs1000 said:

    TOPPING said:

    rcs1000 said:

    TOPPING said:

    rcs1000 said:

    TOPPING said:

    rcs1000 said:

    TOPPING said:

    HYUFD said:

    Those undertaking activities with significant economic benefit have always had favourable rules during this pandemic.

    Remember the you can meet up with people in a restaurant if it was for this. Or travel, the plebs can't go on holiday, but business people have been able to travel basically unhindered throughout.

    Given Freedom day is only 3 weeks away, I am not sure it will make a lot of difference.

    I am not sure it will be full Freedom Day, with even Australia restoring lockdown in some states and LA county reimposing a mask wearing request because of the Delta variant I would imagine masks will still be required to be worn in shops and on public transport, the biggest events will still have a capacity limit and quarantine will still be required for visits to red list countries and for the non double vaccinated to amber countries even from the middle of next month.

    I think this new government exemption would therefore certainly be very unpopular if executives returned from a red list country without quarantining
    How can it be freedom day when it is still mooted that children will be kept from school if there is a positive test in the class. While literally hundreds of thousands of people go to sports events, the pub, etc.

    What exactly does no more restrictions mean? It means restrictions the govt decides to keep. Plenty of them. Some idiot on R4 just now saying well children...long covid...can affect them....

    Vanishingly small probability of a child suffering from Covid. Otherwise, given that it has ripped through schools and unis these past few weeks, we would be hearing reports of children dying by the bucketload each day. Doesn't seem to be happening.
    Isn't freedom day also the end of term?
    Friends and bush telegraph tells me that end of term in many instances is being curtailed a matter of weeks early as everyone self-isolates. Whole rite of passage experiences just not happening for tens of thousands of children.
    End of term is a rite of passage without which we'd all be scarred?

    You and @contrarian seem to have a very low opinion of the mental resilience of the average 18 year old.
    End of school or uni year or of school or uni itself absolutely is a critical rite of passage.

    And as for the mental resilience of the average 18-yr old, I suggest you listen to some of the news items on the radio in the UK today. Children on anti-depressants = up, children with mental distress = up, children missing on average 115 hours of face to face teaching, children simply going missing from school.

    So yes, Robert and great vid on stopping illegal immigrants, btw, but absofuckinglutely yes, childrens' mental health is being fucked with.
    Do you have children? Do you remember what it was like to be a child?

    Literally the worst time of the entire school year was an enforced assembly while people trooped up to the front.

    The bit that was fun was meeting up with your friends outside of school. Which is - ummm - completely unaffected.

    (It is also worth remembering that "graduation" is a very modern concept. In the old days, you went for study leave and never came back. Which I guess explains why everyone over the age of about 50 is mentally scarred.)
    Robert the instances of damage to children's mental health is being documented today as we speak on just about all news outlets. I won't google it all for you because I'm sure you will be able to do so.

    And after a year or several years of school I could take or leave prize giving and speech day and what have you. I'm sure you the same and if it turned out that your May Ball was cancelled well not to worry your internship at GS was about to start. All perfectly charming.

    But the last 15 months have been hell for hundreds of thousands of children perhaps not so fortunate as you or me or perhaps just as fortunate. And during this time school has often represented an oasis of normality. And people are being denied as I said a rite of passage that is part of growing up.
    You're completely missing my point.

    I TOTALLY AGREE WITH YOU REGARDNG THE IMPACT OF LOCKDOWN ON KIDS HEALTH.

    I THINK YOU ARE A COMPLETE FUCKING RETARD IF YOU THINK GRADUATION CEREMONIES ARE SOME ESSENTIAL RIGHT OF PASSAGE THAT KIDS ENJOY.
    "COMPLETE FUCKING RETARD" eh?

    And shouting. Hmm, I think this discussion is moving in my direction.

    And again, the graduation ceremonies, which you may or may not have enjoyed are absolutely an "ESSENTIAL RIGHT [sic] OF PASSAGE" for children. As is all the end of school/uni activities. I said at the beginning "End of term activities". Including graduation which formally marks the end of the era of schooling or uni.

    You are simply wrong on this and quite why on the one hand you say lockdown has had an impact and on the other you are unable to see that a critical component of lockdown people are cheering at goodness only knows. I can only imagine something happened at your graduation that was unpleasant otherwise your response is irrational.
    I apologise for shouting and calling you names.

    I just remember the utter misery - both as a parent and a child - of sitting through assemblies - particularly ones where people go up to the front to be presented with a worthless bit of paper. Every time I've thought "this is two hours of my life, two hours of utter tedium, I will never get back."

    Tony Blair, fwiw, agrees with me. He never actually turned up to graduate from Oxford, and therefore is technically not a graduate.
  • Options
    GardenwalkerGardenwalker Posts: 20,870
    rcs1000 said:

    rcs1000 said:

    geoffw said:

    In a very strong field, Linked In is the worst, the very, very worst, website known to man. It is quite spectacularly bad - for example, they send out emails saying X wants to connect with you: then when you go on to the website, you can't find the invitation from X but you get screenfuls of utter garbage of zero interest to anyone. It even makes Microsoft Teams look well-designed, something you would have thought was impossible.

    Why hasn't a decent competitor emerged to cater for this market? Is there some kind of natural monopoly or barrier to entry?

    Yes, it’s a natural monopoly.

    And given the way it supports the entire labour market, it should be regulated.

    And yes, it’s got increasingly badly designed and unfocused in recent years.
    It isn't a natural monopoly. There is definitely a niche for a business directory and contact management product that is not LinkedIn. It could integrate a mobile app with tap to share business cards. It also do a great job of verifying peoples histories.

    There's a huge opportunity to do something really cool.

    I prefer the other answer which suggested that it is a natural monopoly by virtue of the network effects acting as a barrier to entry to competitors.

    See also Google, Facebook, and probably Amazon within appropriate definitions of the retail market.

    The new entrant you described would have to build its network from scratch, or piggyback in another’s - ie Google or Facebook.
    It's amazing how many natural monopolies turned out not to be, though.

    Internet Explorer had a monopoly due to being installed by default on people's computers... until Chrome came along.

    Windows was a monopoly... and now it's not.

    Etc.
    I have some sympathy with this, but the returns on capital are simply insane, have been for a full generation, and are getting insaner.

    Google et al exist because our society allows them to; not the other way round.
This discussion has been closed.