Starmer is still better than the alternatives (Farage, Badenoch) but that's not saying much. The alternatives are just that shit.

Labour need to backtrack on the authoritarianism pronto, otherwise we'll be proper fucked the next time a real authoritarian gets in (like Trump bum buddy Farage). Some of the laws they're creating are made to be abused, even though Starmer isn't going to abuse them (he lacks the initiative, drive and imagination for that)

Things like this are why I prefer a wired connection. That and sound quality.

The simple answer to this is "if you want public money, give us parts of your company, otherwise fuck off and die". Also if we capped or outright stopped losses from being used to minimise taxes on profits it would help protect us against reckless billionaires.

The Games and Entertainment division has always been a loss for Microsoft. Long before AI came along it was supported by the more profitable divisions (OS and Applications). It's the same story over at Sony with the Playstation losing money and being funded by more profitable things.

It's just after 25 years of making a loss, the M$ management aren't seeing any benefit from it.

Florida Man has done almost anything but he ain't stolen no kids.

Algorithms also assume that people know what they're doing and will act rationally. If anyone thinks people drive this way they are clearly not paying attention to the roads.

Every traffic jam starts with just one arsehole, just one who thinks they're different, special, above it all. One arsehole who decides that 30 is fast enough for everyone. One arsehole who sits on the phone, One arsehole who cuts people up, straddles two lanes, doesn't proceed at a green light. One arsehole who thinks the rules don't apply to him (and only him) and refuses to fit into traffic.

The kicker is, there are a lot more than just one arsehole on the roads.

And don't think that autonomous cars will save us, first off, they'll never work in our lifetimes but ignoring that they will be programmed to follow the rules to the letter (not the least important reason is to ensure the manufacture is as indemnified as possible from any blame), they will wait for a large enough gap, they will ignore faster moving lanes, they will wait for intersections to be clear, they won't speed... So the arsehole will decide that they know how to drive better because they will force their way into traffic, tailgate, so on and so forth.

I'm less worried about Starmer as King Cnut, he's well intentioned but delusional and incompetent... I'm more concerned about how these laws will be used by King Cunt's like Nigel Farage if they ever gained power. For this reason alone these laws need to be opposed but the fools voting for fascists like Farage are just telling politicians like Starmer that they want more fascism (and is anyone surprised they're getting it?).

To be fair, that was an easy mistake for a Florida doctor to make as the average Floridian has no heart, no spine, no brain and their heads and arses are interchangeable.

The UK is one of the few places where you can still buy small amounts of codeine in over the counter painkillers (less than 13mg from memory). This is one of the reasons we're not having the same levels of prescription pain killer prescriptions as the US or Australia.

Australia banned it a bit over 10 years ago and everyone suddenly went doctor shopping for pain killers, now Australians are using strong painkillers as recreational drugs (A.K.A. Hillbilly Heroin) ... quelle surprise!

It's the same story with pseudoephedrine, you can still get it in the UK without a prescription, even though it's a faff having to ask the pharmacist specifically for the product that contains it. If anything we need to be putting the prescribing of more low level pharmaceuticals in the hands of pharmacists and reduce the load on the NHS clinics and A&E departments.

Apple definitely can afford to give up Europe, but that just means handing the market entirely to Android rather than it's current state of mostly Android. That will have a knock on effect to other markets... Apple can still afford this but they won't because they're too arrogant and greedy.

Instead they'll complain and try to undermine the EU.

Yep, I'd rather see the EU close whatsapp to chat bots in entirety.

I think you mean Protected Designation of Origin. It can only be called Mafia if it comes from the Mafia region of Italy.

It's less of a nationalism thing and more of a national security thing. The US has demonstrated that it's an unreliable partner.

When it comes to government, you have wholesale, then you've got wholesale, then you've got government wholesale. They're probably getting transactions for pennies compared to the extortionate rates that small business pay (this is why companies rarely advertise their rates, at least the full rates rather only the headline rates that are at best, obfuscating the actual costs, small business get raped by the card machines) The UK is generally pretty good at managing their suppliers, when you find out how little the NHS is paying for medication, often less than half the OTC price (the OTC price in the UK, not the inflated prices Americans pay at that). That's because the NHS can go and say "you see those 3 factories, we want to buy all their output".

Not every culture places an emphasis on being honest and forthright... They probably feel just fine about it as long as they can't be held to blame because in some cultures being seen not to be at fault is far more important than almost anything else. If you get a lot of foreign scam calls who you really need to be angry at are the telco's who make money off it and the politicians who allow the former to happen because these are the people who have the power to stop it. They just don't want to. You'll always find people desperate enough to take crap jobs, would it really be any better if the scam caller really was Jethro from Alabama instead of India? Certainly in the UK there are (or at least recently were) UK based scam call centres, notably the "we's heard you bin in an accident" scam (yes, the standard of English really is that bad, they are hiring people who can't get any other job), I certainly didn't think these scam calls were any better than ones with foreign accents, it's still a time wasting scam call.

They don't want "strict" emissions controls because then they'll have to make products that meet those standards. What they want is a specific loophole that they can easily meet but is difficult or expensive for everyone else, such as a critical "safety feature" that John Deere owns the patent of.