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VFM the Japan news could also be viewed that we have totally stuffed our car and electronics industries by not staying in the EU.
EDIT – FT link
I wonder what it says on the McCrappy ad, perhaps that is great for listening to music, or sleeping on a plane!
I really shouldn’t laugh as some poor layout jerk is probably trembling at the fact that their job is in the balance for poor staff work and laziness (failure to check copy). They will be hoping that no-one (especially their boss) picks up this thread.
I have friends who work for the big Banks/Trading Houses/Lloyds of London, they are either going or gone. There will be a vestige of course but not anywhere near its previous power base. Most of them started making contingency plans within three months of Brexit. Most have now pulled the trigger.
The short medium term impact on our economy will be terrible. From an EU growth leader pre-Brexit we are now a laggard in Europe. Whether this economic pain will be worth it in ten years time is a gamble I was not willing to take.
Unfortunately the die is now cast, even if Brexit gets completely reversed we will still suffer. My only consolation is that those areas who voted for Brexit will get punished the most for their decision. Brexit Government Projection
I agree – they don’t even cure rheumatism!
Nice Dave – what happens when the ‘free’ three years is up?
Your comments imply that other than possible security updates the Cloud Control is redundant soon after set-up —-true?
I’ll certainly agree to disagree with VFM over the EU and ‘Democracy’.
I probably have a very different world view of UK democracy as I believe that irrespective of the EU it fails the test of ‘democracy’ in a great many respects. As a simple examples of that statement, we cannot elect out local Fire/Police Chiefs the way they do in the US, nor have frequent public referenda and proportional representation the way they do in Eire. There are many others but I will not bore anyone with these as most could be viewed as trivial. Our democracy is designed to just give people a vestige of power but is in effect delegated responsibility without real decision making ability. (When such power is accidentally let loose — Neighbourhood Planning for example, it is quickly curtailed and rolled back.)
Do I really care — no.
I actually think that pure democracy is a recipe for management by Committee, and potentially disastrous. It either fails to do anything or results in a common consensus that pleases no-one. In my view the best sort of ruler is a Benevolent Dictator. The person I know who came closest to that ideal was the PM of Singapore, Lee Kuan Yu – hated by most of the International Press, but he ran a damned good corruption-free country.
The SAP ‘philosophy’ if that is the right word, is not user driven. It is purely a software package system, and if you want an on-time, on-budget project the company needs to take all the packages with as little modification as possible.
It has obviously evolved over time and I can only talk to SAP R/3 or SAP ERP but essentially the idea in those days was take the package and modify your internal business systems to fit. Wherever possible we tried to use an experienced Internal Auditor as a Project or Business Phase Manager. Not only did these people know their accounting and business systems, they had a good handle on data/information flows and associated controls for the business. In essence it was their job to mash the Business System to conform with that of SAP, others would support them in selling these changes to the appropriate Business Managers. Life was deliberately made difficult for those asking for program changes or ABAPs.
Although strictly speaking an Auditor is not a Jack of All Trades, a good one can come pretty close. I also loved the thought of turning Gamekeepers into Poachers! They were not good at writing ABAPs or data interfaces but they were very good on the Business Side and translating standard SAP into business practices.
SAP like many systems is now Cloud or Enterprise Cloud based. My guess is that this has not changed the basic affiliate accounting elements in SAP too much but no doubt it has made some of the global Enterprise interfacing a horribly complex business, which is where Duke’s IT professionals come into their own element.
I can believe it JCD, it took us years to find out that failures are more often caused by poor user commitment and non-essential ‘nice to haves’, than anything else.
I look at some of the modern development methods such as ‘Agile Development’ with horror. I translate them to as ‘Users can’t be bothered to define an overall strategy for what they need, sling something together to see if they like it!’.
The
guycrocodile who managed this role for my old company terrified many of his staff and the rest of his Board (he was a main Board member). Whenever it was required he took no prisoners, and happily browbeat or undermined any he saw standing in his way. Any IT Pro attempting to use technical BS as a stall soon got caught and out on their ears. This mix of qualities is unfortunately rare.The entire job went on in phases for years around the world, but he managed to successfully pass on his role after four as he had established sensible working ground rules that no-one dared question. (He went to an even bigger job within the company)
I’m afraid when systems are introduced that cut across many territories/disciplines (the NHS for example), mega projects such as this can only succeed when headed up by a person with intelligence, drive, stature and a desire to absorb and process technical information.
I would guess that Lidl failed because they heaped the job on an IT pro who lacked stature and political nous. All the interested groups then sat back sniping at him.It is a job better filled by a non-IT person, with the IT Pro as deputy/advisor.
SAP has the capability of running the IT for such a system, but failure is usually user led.
I’m sorry if you saw my remarks as insulting, but you appeared to be totally ignoring the evidence I gave.
However to respond to your point on there being a democratic deficit in the EU constitution …
If the EU parliament as a body wanted a specific piece of legislation they could just ask the Commission for it. If the Commissioners refused they could vote them out. Far more power indeed than our MPs have over our own House of Lords.
This is not perfect, and it certainly is clumsy but it does answer the issue of MEPs introducing legislation that is badly drafted or in conflict with existing national laws.
You used the Friday Private Members Bills as an example of a missing element of democracy. Conservative MP Sir Christopher Chope says he objected to the Upskirting Law (as he does to most such Friday Private Members Bills) as the procedure for these Bills does not allow for proper democratic debate, at which perhaps pertinent issues could be brought to the attention of the House.
Answering the outcry in the House, Theresa May says that she will now look for Parliamentary time to bring forward such a law or amend an existing law (as they did in Scotland). In some respect this is analogous to the clumsy process required in the MEP/Commissioners relationship.
Repeal of laws is always a worthy objective (we have far too many of our own already). However. unless it were a very simple law I could see that it faces the same conflicts with existing National Laws and would not be an easy process. It is perhaps for that reason that the EU use the term ‘codification’ for their repeal or amalgamation of EU laws.
I am aware of only one very important area where I would agree that there is a huge democratic deficit and that is money. The Commission sets the budget and associated taxation, parliament only acts as an advisory body.
The EU is far from perfect and both the French and Germans have stated there is a need for reform. In an ideal world perhaps we would have been better to have worked with them some years ago and introduced the necessary changes. The treaty level is perhaps where the EU is still both diplomatic and democratic.
Very true — the SAP people who write ABAPS (sort of macros within the table driven SAP system) were humongously expensive. The loot was so attractive that some of our best people learned to write ABAPs and then joined the ranks of highly paid consultants.
It isn’t just programmers who are in demand as the REAL art is management of the Business Users and showing them how small changes in work practices could save tens/hundreds of thousands in not customising the software.However to do that successfully the whole project has to be led by someone who can take no prisoners right across the Corporate infrastructure even up to Board Level. It needs someone with huge cojones and intestinal fortitude to fulfil that role, and it needs an equally skilled (überaus expensive) consultant to mentor the non IT business-side SAP Project leader and guide him/her through the long and arduous process.
Of course we cannot unilaterally repeal EU legislation, that would be a job of our MEP.s. EU law affects all the member states and it would be anarchy for one to go its own way.
As EU law affects all member countries there are very good practical reasons why the European Parliament cannot just pass legislation, the interests and established laws of all the member states would need to be first taken into account. That is why the EU parliament asks the Commission to bring forward legislation to address a need. Bringing in new laws is a complex business (e.g.one reason why upskirting has not yet been made an offence) and not something that can be done on the back of an envelope. The process of bringing in a law for all the member states is even more complex.
If you argue that such a process is cumbersome and in need of change I would not demure in any way, however it is a falsity to say that MEPs play no part in the process.
VFM I would give your arguments more credence if you did not accept the deceits of Arron Banks et al., without at least questioning their veracity. I’ve addressed your other misconceptions, but to put to bed your point on Third World Skilled Workers – here is the EU paper on attracting such workers to the EU.
If you want to place blame on not being able to get an Indian specialist then blame Theresa May’s policies when she was in the Home Office, not the EU!
On your diversion into upskirting (which incidentally was blocked by a UK MP), I think I just need to quote the main duties of an MEP:
“The European Parliament has the power to amend or block proposals from the Commission for new EU legislation or changes to existing legislation. Through votes in Parliament or Parliamentary Committees, MEPs can also ask the Commission to bring forward proposals for new legislation. Thus, the European Commission and European Parliament have a close working relationship.”
In other words just like the UK, MEPs can ask the equivalent of our Office of the Parliamentary Counsel to draft legislation.
But you are not a politician of the Bojo ilk VFM, so I expect better of you,. It is even worse that you continue to spout nonsense about lack of control when it is obvious that MEPs have more powers than our MPs.
“But when I ask Remainers if they understand how the EU is governed …”
Based on your assertion about the EU Commissioners I could very easily make the same comment about Brexiters, but I Would include comments about being economical with facts.
Just so you can be more accurate in your assertions in the future here is a handy guide to the roles of an MEP and how it fits in with repealing legislation.
VFM – if you are going to make contentious assertions about the EU please ensure that they are accurate!
“In addition to its role in approving a new Commission, the European Parliament has the power at any time to force the entire Commission to resign through a vote of no confidence. This requires a vote that makes up at least two-thirds of those voting and a majority of the total membership of the Parliament. While it has never used this power, it threatened to use it against the Commission headed by Jacques Santer in 1999 over allegations of corruption. In response, the Santer Commission resigned en masse of its own accord, the only time a Commission has done so. ”
That is even more power than we have over our Whitehall Mandarins!
Better to support people who have their assets and investments in this country rather than people who salt their assets overseas. Jacob Rees Mogg for example. (see Paradise papers)
Make it a three way referendum. a) Full Brexit and the hell with the Irish border/British Manufacturing b) CETA +/- c) Reject Brexit
I see that Justine Greening is now pretty much proposing this as a way of stopping her party jumping over the cliff towards a Corbyn Government.
Although this is attractive to me I am so heartedly sick of all the In-Breds fighting one another that I would rather see a Corbyn Government. At least that would not drag us down the path of completely destroying the manufacturing and technology sectors.
I thought Croatia raised their game they were even dirtier than they were against England!
At times I thought I was watching a Rugby match, at others it was more like judo/Karate — hip throws and arm strikes aimed at breaking collar bones. Few if any being picked up by the ref, but I guess TV cameras gets better viewing angles, and long lenses..
Today’s Ars may be serendipitous (or not)!. They suggest HMD Nokia 6.1 – seems to address the failed Moto update program at least. A tad expensive maybe at ~£290 for the UK phone.?
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