Tuesday 2nd December 2014

[Eric_WLothian]

I like the bit in that Times article that says that Osborne is going to announce (reannounce) a crackdown on Google, Amazon etc. Hmm I seem to recall that the EU are already doing that, having launched investigations into the tax arrangements of both Ireland and Luxembourg and talked about making them repay the avoided tax. Is Osborne attempting to take credit for something he hasn't done himself?

Yes I've mentioned this before

Probably re-announcing this:

The chancellor will bring in new laws making sure that internet downloads are taxed in the country where they are purchased, meaning web firms such as Amazon and Apple will have to charge the UK's 20% rate of VAT. At the moment they are allowed to sell digital downloads through countries such as Luxembourg, where the tax rate is as low as 3%.
In a little-noticed announcement, Osborne said he would used this year's finance bill to impose the new law from 1 January 2015.

http://www.theguardian.com/music/2014/m ... -downloads

[StephenDolan]

Talking of tax avoidance...I just posted this elsewhere...

I remembered that in 2013 Osborne made a big thing about how much he was going to get from people hiding their cash in Swiss accounts...so I thought I'd take a look at the forecasts.
2013 budget.....£3.2bn
2014 budget.....£0.9bn

Oh dear...

I also recall that the Treasury must have convinced the ONS that the money was as good as in the bank...so the ONS went ahead and booked the cash in their monthly borrowing report...only to have to back it out again when it became clear that the forecasts were wildly wrong - as can be seen from the above

Ah well...

Thanks to Dave Hartnett. Before he left HMRC after this disastrous Swiss deal for, where was it again?

[Eric_WLothian]

According to artist Jeremy Deller on Newsnight, who went to school with him, Farage was in the CCF so used to spend a lot of time in a uniform running around shouting. Sounds about right somehow.

Nowt wrong with the CCF.
(Ex Cdt Sgt Eric).

[rebeccariots2]

Isabel Hardman ‏@IsabelHardman 3h3 hours ago
Well-placed source says that mystery vote on Thurs is indeed Autumn Statement-related http://specc.ie/1yIevdi" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Paul ‏@Splottdad 3h3 hours ago
@IsabelHardman can you explain this "mystery" angle? I thought Govt was supposed to be transparent?

Isabel Hardman
‏@IsabelHardman
@Splottdad well, indeed. And hold votes on stuff that they think is right, rather than trip up opposition.

[ErnstRemarx]

Actually come to think of it before I had a Commadore I had (well my older brother had... I was about 4) a Dragon 32. It was rubbish and yet brilliant at the same time.

All those period computers were little bits of magic that had somehow filtered down to our lives (well, my life, in industrial Cheshire) through a process not understood. I was 16 and my mate 5 doors down had a Speccy ZX that was simply magic. OK, it took about 10 minutes to load a game off a cassette, and if that game was Fighter Pilot you'd then spend the next 3 hours flying in a monochrome blue sky failing to find and destroy the single enemy jet lurking up there flitting back and forth. But it was, er, fun.

The major breakthrough was Elite, a space trading and combat game thar was so absorbing as to remove hours from your life unnoticed (as it did, as did the original D&D). I didn't actually own a computer until 1984 when I finally bought an Amstrad CPC6128, which was twice as good as the Spectrum, or, to put it another way, only half as dreadful. I can still remember knocking out a dreadful games magazine called StAB (Strangled At Birth) dedicated to play by mail games on it and a dot matrix printer that cost me £160 back in 1985.

The highlights were Elite, Lords of Midnight, Tau Ceti and probably one or two other titles I've now forgotten, but wouldn't mind having another crack at. I tried programming, but didn't understand it, and it was only about4 years later that I suddenly got it and became vaguely proficient. Perhaps I should have become a games programmer (as a long time wargamer, it has an appeal given that we're not exactly thick on the ground), but there you go.

I could rabbit on about this sort of shite for hours, as it was both fun and illuminating, but I'll close this message by reiterating my thanks to all you lovely bods who've been so supportive today and to assert that Elite is better than Football Manager. Probably. Although Western Front was ace; as was Austerlitz. And Over Flanders Fields. And some more I've just remembered.... oh dear....

[RogerOThornhill]

I've just reminded myself about Osborne's decision to put a forecast in for the 4G licenses in his 2012 Autumn Statement -a figure that was plucked out of the air apparently...and probably resulted in us getting in less than expected.

http://www.computerweekly.com/news/2240 ... um-auction" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Odd that everyone remembers Gordon brown announcing gold sales in advance which allegedly drove the price down (although how people are going to know you have gold for sale if you don't tell them is unclear to me) but no-one seems to recall George's "Oh, I'm only expecting this much for 4G".