do you think Labour had a decent shot at a majority government under a diferent leader?

I know wasn't directed at me, but personally I do. I don't really dislike Corbyn that much. To be honest I am not really sure why he is by so many, but regardless the thing is many do and just won't vote labour no matter how good the policies they propose are. Not saying they are good, just it seems with him as leader they won't ever be elected.

Last election which May held onto power just about, I think labour would have pulled off a shock victory. Because the Tories manifesto was so poor both in policies and execution and the leader had 0 charisma. Not that it should matter but it does in today's world. Another problem corbyn has as well in my opinion, but having charm/charisma and being a good orator is very important in terms of getting message across and getting people on board.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=sOBmn0xU7wY

This was the first video I ever saw of her , I think Mint Trev put it up here.

She nailed him good and proper. Loved her ever since regardless of bets.

Dunno if Tikay rooting for me is a good or bad omen but thanks.

Cheers Marky too .

She is amazing, shame we dont have any politicians in this country anywhere near her calibre.

Workmen who don't turn up on time or at all

With you on this really pisses me off. Especially when  you have made special arrangements.

Friday was due to have a smart meter installed. They were due between 12-4 had to arrange for someone to pick kids up from school. Not only did they not turn up I got a e mail saying you were due to have a installation but nobody was home. Bloody cheek, am absolutely fuming as its not the first time either this happened.

I waited in for a new Smart Meter to be fitted on the due day. At 2pm the van drew up in the turning. Fella gets out & I can see him posting something though everyone's door. He gets to me & I'm waiting to see what it says.

You were out when we called as per our appointment. Please contact xxxxx to arrange a new appointment.

I catch him, & yell at him to come back.

He halfheartedly apologises & says he'll fit the new Meter right away. He takes a cursory look at the Meter Housing, scratches his head & says "ahh, non-standard one, sorry mate, I don't carry those with me, you'll have to re-book".

Seems to me most utility companies are terrible at Customer Service. Meanwhile, the ultra-efficient Ryanair gets flak galore.

Actually this makes sense some kind of scam these guys have, they probably get some kind of fee for just turning up or something thinking about it. This way they make a boat load without actually doing something.

Whole thing is scandalous glad you at least managed to catch the bugger.

Workmen who don't turn up on time or at all

With you on this really pisses me off. Especially when  you have made special arrangements.

Friday was due to have a smart meter installed. They were due between 12-4 had to arrange for someone to pick kids up from school. Not only did they not turn up I got a e mail saying you were due to have a installation but nobody was home. Bloody cheek, am absolutely fuming as its not the first time either this happened.

I don't post on blonde much but I lurk a bunch. On a Monday morning rant and need to get it out of my system.

People that park in car parks but not in actual spaces. Where I live there are lot or car parks around offices where people (especially taxi drivers) park right in front of the entrance, which also happens to be the entry to the actual car park.
The other week someone actually parked behind me blocking me in with the indicators flashing and not in the car. I had to wait 30 mins until they came back. To make matters worse there were empty spaces all over the place and it was the middle of the day.

When waiting for a lift and the button has been pressed to call the lift, someone walks up and presses it again. Why, why, why do they think it makes it come quicker or something.

People that wait for other people or other people in front of entrances/exits, you can wait anywhere in the whole dam place why wait exactly the one place where you will be in others way.


Quite a few driving ones, which tilt me everyday

Taxi drivers inability to drive properly. Also add to that those people that drive 40pmh regardless of the speed limit, taxi drivers seem especially adept at this.

On a similar note on the motorway, you go into he fast lane to overtake someone. Some tool comes speeding up behind you being somewhat pushy/aggro. You overtake move over and then they continue at the same speed as before.

Slowing right down/stopping at roundabouts when there is no traffic coming from the right.

Asking someone how they are doing and they answer 'doing good'.

In the queue at a shop (normally local shop) and someone comes behind you in the queue and asks if they can go in front because they only have a couple of items, when you clearly have one item yourself.

People shouting down the phone when on a call, I have a small private office with paper thin walls. For some reason the guy next to me feels the need to shout at the top of his voice when on the phone. I have earplugs in now at the office (no joke) and its still like he is in the room with me. To be fair I did speak to him about it (nicely) and he has tried to tone it down.

TV programs/people that claim someone has a photographic memory (mainly because I have been binge watching suits) or any kind of pseudo science stuff you see/hear that gets passed off as a real thing.

Playing live poker at local small tournaments (I made mistake of playing one at the weekend):

Thanking the dealer for a suck out
Constantly forgetting to put in your blinds
Watching a movie on a ipad while playing (3 people did this at one of my tables)
Wearing sunglasses indoors at a local £50 comp

Paying the bubble - tilts me so hard.
Made the final table and 8 get paid, FT is 10 handed (not a brag its a £50 tournament v a bunch of whales).

First thing that happens is two people pipe up about paying the bubble, one of which was the huge chip leader. I decline to do it, then 2 of them including the dealer start explaining to me what it means. Because they thought I meant a normal deal as how could anyone not want to pay the bubble. When I explained I knew what they meant, it was greeted first with disbelief that I would not want to do followed by a few people being clearly pissed off that I would not agree. 

As you can see its mainly people that seem to annoy me, mainly doing randomly idiotic things.

Rant over enjoy

I bought it directly from Amazon. Was told would get a update in 48 hours. No update so I contacted them again, they said they didn't have a result of their investigation but it was likely a dispatch error.

Someone somewhere got a £800 laptop rather than compost. They are sending a replacement which should arrive Monday.

I suspect I had a easier resolution because it was from Amazon direct.

Hope OP got his issues sorted.

That's good to hear. Glad you got it sorted out quickly.

I only ever buy stuff from Amazon directly now unless it's something under a tenner, as they just snap refund if there are any problems.

They are pretty good with stuff like that.
My kindle fire broke was 2 years out of warranty. Contacted them about it and they offered some cheap deal on a new tablet.

Kicked up a bit of a fuss and they just sent me a brand new one same version as I had. Pretty amazing to be honest, might have helped I have been on prime for years. Still was just chancing my arm a bit when I contacted them about it.

I bought it directly from Amazon. Was told would get a update in 48 hours. No update so I contacted them again, they said they didn't have a result of their investigation but it was likely a dispatch error.

Someone somewhere got a £800 laptop rather than compost. They are sending a replacement which should arrive Monday.

I suspect I had a easier resolution because it was from Amazon direct.

Hope OP got his issues sorted.

Bought a laptop today and instead of a new latop, I had a bag of compost delivered instead! Hope I don't have as many issues getting this sorted.

Hope you get it sorted.

I ordered an iphone on amazon.. the parcel turned up containing two pillow cases.. informed amazon and it was arranged to be returned. they then informed me i had sent two pillow cases back..yes thats what you sent me..this was there reply below.. im not too sure where I stand just seems bizarre and cant be right surely ??
..

What was the outcome Dean?

Set up his own Amazon shop selling laptops to get it back.

Brilliant:)

Bought a laptop today and instead of a new latop, I had a bag of compost delivered instead! Hope I don't have as many issues getting this sorted.

and what will happen to them because of that?

would customers be served by stars being split into two or three smaller sites?

poker is a weird market in that it will tend to there being one big provider as people want to play where the guarantees, spread of games and traffic is best. the market isnt big enough for multiple sites with queues of people wanting to play 6 max SnGs

stars is the latest incumbent of that role. if they exploit their customers they might not be for very long. it might not be another poker site that takes their place either.

also its worth noting that although high volume professionals and people running bots have moved to sites like party that welcome that sort of customer, stars has made massive changes that appeal to recreational players - gamification of rewards and poker, high variance short stacked jackpot poker, etc etc. those players may not feel as exploited as players who are rake sensitive and rely on poker for a living.

would you argue for government involvement in stars?

No I would not and nowhere mentioned that I even think government intervention is they way forward.

I really am struggling to work out what your point is.

You said you could not think of a single example of a monoply exploiting its customers. I simply provided one of which there are countless.

Hell, Argos who I was a senior buyer for got taken to court for price fixing in toys category which they had a monopoly on at the time. Exploiting their customers into paying higher prices and paid some huge fine. Though actually it was one the the manufactures doing it.

Nike and Addidas have been price fixing for 20 years between them to make consumers pay higher prices. The prices of their products to retailers are exactly the same to the penny and always have been (I used to buy sports equipment).

Their are so many examples of customers/suppliers being screwed over by firms with monoploy powers in a market. In general they are very anti competitive and make huge barriers to competition.

Eventually it seems the market corrects itself, I.e Tesco were abusing their power for years no longer dominant. Argos who I used to work for no longer dominant in toys. Stars I am sure will go the same way (hopefully).

It doesn't mean they are not damaging in the short to medium term though which was what I was stating.

[buffyslayer1]

buffyslayer1

Well stars are not a monopoly by any means. they acquired a huge market share by out competing bigger rivals on price, spread of games and customer service. they may be currently be exploiting their customers but there are sites like party poker and new start ups like RIO poker that are seeking to innovate and take back their market share.

years ago planet poker or party were the monoliths.


government should be staying out of mergers altogether.


if there ever is a case where companies can simply exploit customers by increasing profits without increasing output then very quickly they will attract rivals. and competition does not usually come from imitation, big companies are blindsided by innovation.

EMI buys virgin and is blind sided by the ipod.

Nokia completely owns the mobile market and doesnt see the iphone.

Microsoft is famously run through the courts for bundling internet explorer and exploiting  monopoly power and at the same time open source projects like firefox overtake them. they are also out manoeuvred by apple and google. they lose market share not to other PC operating systems but people using tablets, televisions and phones to access the internet and perform computing tasks. They could not have seen these changes coming.

IBM's monoploy case lasts about 15 years, by the time it came to an end it was a bit part player as the home computer had become ubiquitous and its mainframe monopoly wasn't worth a carrot.

we didnt need governments to break up these so called monopolies. its worth noting that none of those companies attempted to reduce output when they had so called monopoly power.

you may get some short term protection for some consumers but in the long term breaking up companies, preventing them from merging, and not allowing signals to be sent to markets makes us all worse off.

re suppliers.


Suppliers prices may well be squeezed. but they cant be forced below the marginal cost, otherwise they would be better off not selling at all.

an equilibrium will be found and the although a small sector will see reduced profits the benefits are accrued by consumers.

You are factually just wrong here.

Pokerstars is effectively a monopoly especially in specific areas like sit and gos and sngs they have the overwhelming share of the market.

In fact I believe under UK terms a company only has to have around 25% of the market to be considered a monopoly. They have way way more than that with just .com/es alone not even including .es
Just because they became a monopoly by being the best supplier of games doesn't get away from the fact that they are one.
From the day they acquired ftp and amaya took over they have been exploiting their position.


Does this mean they will always be #1 by such a huge margin no. But that's not the point. You asked if any monoply had actually abused their position and there are countless examples I just happened to name one.

Which they almost certainly are at the moment and basically getting away with it.

The monopolies aren't a problem. I can't think of an example where companies start exploiting their customers. When a supermarket sends independent retailers under its because they offer more choices e and lower prices. When the independents go under we don't see supermarkets scaling back choice and ramping up prices

And where their monopoly does see them stagnate we see innovative alternatives like Aldi move in and hoover up market share.

Government should stay the hell out of this


A lot of the more complicated monopoly cases often take years and by the time they are close to ending the so called collosous has been out flanked by more nimble competition.

Think of the strangle hold that the likes of dell, nokia, EMI etc had over their respective industries before being blind sided by things like MP3 players and smart phones

pokerstars is one example

This is the great fact that Remain failed to build their campaign around and Leave lied about.

The average adult migrant from the European Economic Area yielded £2,370 more for the Treasury in 2017 than the average British-born adult did. Reducing immigration will hurt now, and in the future

https://www.economist.com/graphic-detail/2018/09/26/migrants-contribute-more-to-britain-than-they-take-and-will-carry-on-doing-so

Good morning all,

Just re-quoting this for Adz (and Apez I guess) You might “doubt what they put in covers what they take out”. It looks as though using the number of foreign languages you hear in the hospital waiting room isn’t a reliable way to measure whether immigrants are net contributors to the exchequer though.

Ok. If you havent digested previously what I have said about immigration, ie if you bring a skill and are willing to integrate and learn and speak our language, then yes you are spot on.

But most of these people I see, have brought relatives who translate,a nd we got back to the post earlier about the man who has brought his wife over with no intention of integrating, therefore getting a job, therefore probably taking out more than putting in.

Those are the immigrants the majority of Brexiteers want curbed.

I think its going to be asking a lot to have people coming here to work to fill skills shortages but not bring their families with them.

Also your personal experience doesn't stack up against the facts. Levels of non Uk employment are the same as UK citizen employment rates pretty much. Plus even if this did happen again the facts don't stack up on average like someone posted earlier the average adult migrant contributes more than they put in. This takes into account that small proportion of immigrants who are not integrating as you put it since its an average.

I feel like you are blindly ignoring where all the data points to based on some personal experiences, which is something we all do and is really hard to overcome.   

I would urge everyone to read this, remain or leave, concerned or sanguine

Its a long read but its important.

the writer began on social media by saying

"Here's the truth about Brexit, the "punishment" some people claim the EU wants to inflict on us, the full horrific consequences of no deal, and the dangers lurking behind any deal we reach. Buckle in, it's pretty long. Better to be thorough than to leave anything out. "

200,000 views later he put it in this PDF

It's fascinating

https://www.docdroid.net/m3YvOS5/brexit-truth-revised.pdf

Where was he when the referendum campaign was happening?

When the Remain side were outlining vague threats about how it would be difficult for us and Leavers were allowed to just say WTO with nobody seriously challenging them.

Would this have changed my view of the EU, no.
Would it have changed my vote in the referendum. Almost certainly.

Does it change anything now? I still don’t see how, unless Mrs May is prepared to be the sacrificial offering and is planning on just saying ‘Brexit means we stay’.

In Hand Analysis terms we’re in ‘Fold pre, but as played it’s a clear all-in and hope that villain folds’ territory.

Good post. Remains campaign was horrifically executed and was very negative.

I know this pdf was negative but there was substance to it unlike the general the sky will fall approach of those in charge of remain.

Never commented on this thread as I generally keep political thoughts to myself. However I voted brexit and feel that we are all talking about some issues but completely ignoring others.

1. Happy to reduce the number of people coming to this country. But not if they are workers. By stopping Europeans who don't want to work... great. But I'm happy for anyone who wants to work to stay. By restricting european people it doesn't solve the issue. My friend who is English but of Pakistan culture just bought his new wife into the country. She speaks no English. She is not enrolling for English lessons and has no intention of ever working in a paid job. When will this conversation include non Europeans ?

2. I would like uk people to get more chances to got jobs. However we are at the point where if you want a job you can get one as unemployment falls. In order to get more uk people in jobs we need to reduce some benefits so that the have no choice. We keep hearing we will lose lots of farm workers yet we pay people to stay at home. This needs addressing. (I'm aware some people cannot work and need support and they are not the people I'm talking about here). Some people need forcing to take these jobs.

Thoughts ?

Why do you have the idea that lots of Europeans are coming over here not to work?
I am sure there are some but the majority of Euro's that come over are economic migrants. I believe the levels of employment among non UK people is roughly the same as UK citizens. Your post implies that people come over here to get benefits?

I was looking for some data which splits out EU and non EU immigration as I think if i recall (read this a while ago) that non - EU immigration employment is a lot lower then EU immigration. A big part of which is non EU immigration has a lot of asylum seekers. However, I can't find anything at the moment on the splits and don't want to spend hours trawling through various studies.

I think it was from a podcast called more or less behind the stats (or facts) by the BBC, where they broke down the cost of immigration and showed that EU migration was a massive net benefit when you factored in all the variables (including costs on infrastructure etc) and non EU migration was a massive negative in this respect.  

Also you are right about restricting European people doesn't solve the problem (if you think there is one) as about half the UK's immigration comes from outside the EU over which we have full control.