For me Boris is the only one of the contenders who can still make Brexit happen. He's also probably the only one who could stop Corbyn's Labour winning at the next general election. For all his bumbling persona, he is quite an astute politician and I for one wouldn't mind seeing him given a chance as PM
OK but that's not quite how your article reads. It says "To put it into context: out of 250 seminar sessions across the two days, there were only two which featured all white male panels."
That implies to me that the 250 seminar sessions included panels.
So let me get this right. Out of 250 panels, two of them had all white male panellists. If it was a case of say 100 out of 250, then there might be some justification for this article, but two out of 250. Come on, there's far more important battles to fight.
Why should these people have been excluded from the panels because of their skin colour and gender?
If it were just a common market as they said in the 1970s, then yes I'd stay, but it isn't.
If it were just a free trade association, then yes I'd stay, but it isn't.
It's all about federal and political union, with our country governed mostly by unelected bureaucrats. That's one of the main reasons why I voted Brexit and still would. The EU acts just like a dictator, always demanding its own way and the Brexit negotiations have done nothing to dispel that view in the minds of many people in the UK (and elsewhere in Europe for that matter!).
If it were just a common market and free trade association, there wouldn't be such a kerfuffle about anyone leaving or joining.
Artificial federations don't last long and soon end in instability and even war, witness what happened in Yugoslavia and the Balkans 20 years or so ago. I fear the same could happen across Europe in the coming years, with the rise of far right and far left extremism in many countries.
I certainly would object strongly to the creation of a European police force and/or military. I see no benefit for our society.
There are already rumblings of a recession looming in Europe and beyond, nothing to do with Brexit, but whether we stay or go, that recession will affect us and our economy.
Mr Mischief, Your arguments would be more persuasive if you didn't keep resorting to insults against anyone who may have a different political opinion from yourself.
I voted for Brexit in 2016 and will be happy to do so again if the "Peoples vote" brigade get their wish and a second referendum takes place.
Like the majority of people who voted Brexit, I did not do so based on the misinformation during the referendum campaign (from both sides!), but on my own personal beliefs and experience of living in an EU controlled society.
My parents firmly believed that they were misled by the pro european campaign in the 1970s referendum and would never have voted to stay in the EU if they had known then what would happen, with all the ever closer federal and political union that has ruined our country.
This is not about "Little Englanders" and I get fed up with the constant sniping from remainers insinuating that all Brexiteers must be xenophobic racists.
I just feel that HMRC and HMG have gone about this completely wrong. The whole idea of mandation and forcing every business to go digital was always a pipedream worthy of cloud cuckoo land. If some people want to stay with paper records and/or spreadsheets why shouldn't they? Those who want to go to the cloud where it suits them, fine, go ahead.
I've said before that HMRC should have learnt from what happened when they introduced mandatory electronic filing of PAYE returns. There should have been some way of incentivising people to go digital over a longer period (a tax credit was paid for 5 years to encourage early takers if I remember for PAYE).
The whole mandation bit is what stinks to me and MTD in its current format is nothing more than a penalty farming exercise for HMRC.
And what about today's news about John Lewis' profits down? This was once a famous brand where their name counted for a lot and customer service and satisfaction was considered important to them. No more it seems. My wife and I recently had a new kitchen fitted through John Lewis but we had no end of problems. Our feedback and impression was that this was not an isolated experience.
The economy, business rates and all the other problems affecting the retail industry will most certainly have an impact but any business like John Lewis that neglects customer service is going to hit problems, big time.
Agreed. I remember a few years ago popping into Woolworths a few days before Christmas and all their Christmas stuff had already disappeared from the shelves. It felt quite mercenary then and I was not at all surprised when Woolworths went bust the next year.
Other stores are guilty of the same mercenary attitude today. As soon as the kids broke up for the summer holidays, what were the stores pushing? "Get ready to go back to school"! As soon as the summer holidays ended, what do we see? Christmas stuff already coming in.
My answers
Yes I remember that well, in the early days of Hector the tax inspector!
For me Boris is the only one of the contenders who can still make Brexit happen. He's also probably the only one who could stop Corbyn's Labour winning at the next general election. For all his bumbling persona, he is quite an astute politician and I for one wouldn't mind seeing him given a chance as PM
OK but that's not quite how your article reads. It says "To put it into context: out of 250 seminar sessions across the two days, there were only two which featured all white male panels."
That implies to me that the 250 seminar sessions included panels.
So let me get this right. Out of 250 panels, two of them had all white male panellists. If it was a case of say 100 out of 250, then there might be some justification for this article, but two out of 250. Come on, there's far more important battles to fight.
Why should these people have been excluded from the panels because of their skin colour and gender?
If it were just a common market as they said in the 1970s, then yes I'd stay, but it isn't.
If it were just a free trade association, then yes I'd stay, but it isn't.
It's all about federal and political union, with our country governed mostly by unelected bureaucrats. That's one of the main reasons why I voted Brexit and still would. The EU acts just like a dictator, always demanding its own way and the Brexit negotiations have done nothing to dispel that view in the minds of many people in the UK (and elsewhere in Europe for that matter!).
If it were just a common market and free trade association, there wouldn't be such a kerfuffle about anyone leaving or joining.
Artificial federations don't last long and soon end in instability and even war, witness what happened in Yugoslavia and the Balkans 20 years or so ago. I fear the same could happen across Europe in the coming years, with the rise of far right and far left extremism in many countries.
I certainly would object strongly to the creation of a European police force and/or military. I see no benefit for our society.
There are already rumblings of a recession looming in Europe and beyond, nothing to do with Brexit, but whether we stay or go, that recession will affect us and our economy.
Mr Mischief, Your arguments would be more persuasive if you didn't keep resorting to insults against anyone who may have a different political opinion from yourself.
I voted for Brexit in 2016 and will be happy to do so again if the "Peoples vote" brigade get their wish and a second referendum takes place.
Like the majority of people who voted Brexit, I did not do so based on the misinformation during the referendum campaign (from both sides!), but on my own personal beliefs and experience of living in an EU controlled society.
My parents firmly believed that they were misled by the pro european campaign in the 1970s referendum and would never have voted to stay in the EU if they had known then what would happen, with all the ever closer federal and political union that has ruined our country.
This is not about "Little Englanders" and I get fed up with the constant sniping from remainers insinuating that all Brexiteers must be xenophobic racists.
I just feel that HMRC and HMG have gone about this completely wrong. The whole idea of mandation and forcing every business to go digital was always a pipedream worthy of cloud cuckoo land. If some people want to stay with paper records and/or spreadsheets why shouldn't they? Those who want to go to the cloud where it suits them, fine, go ahead.
I've said before that HMRC should have learnt from what happened when they introduced mandatory electronic filing of PAYE returns. There should have been some way of incentivising people to go digital over a longer period (a tax credit was paid for 5 years to encourage early takers if I remember for PAYE).
The whole mandation bit is what stinks to me and MTD in its current format is nothing more than a penalty farming exercise for HMRC.
And what about today's news about John Lewis' profits down? This was once a famous brand where their name counted for a lot and customer service and satisfaction was considered important to them. No more it seems. My wife and I recently had a new kitchen fitted through John Lewis but we had no end of problems. Our feedback and impression was that this was not an isolated experience.
The economy, business rates and all the other problems affecting the retail industry will most certainly have an impact but any business like John Lewis that neglects customer service is going to hit problems, big time.
Agreed. I remember a few years ago popping into Woolworths a few days before Christmas and all their Christmas stuff had already disappeared from the shelves. It felt quite mercenary then and I was not at all surprised when Woolworths went bust the next year.
Other stores are guilty of the same mercenary attitude today. As soon as the kids broke up for the summer holidays, what were the stores pushing? "Get ready to go back to school"! As soon as the summer holidays ended, what do we see? Christmas stuff already coming in.
Wow, that is incredible. What an absolute fiasco. So much for GDPR!
Surely someone at the professional bodies must make some representations about this.