Lord Sugar phubbed in peers' debate on 'digital understanding'

Re: Logic?

"yet no one got the fabled: 56Kb/s**"

Not sure that's entirely accurate. I pretty certain that it was possible to get 56kbps to the ISP, but remember that those were the days that big businesses had 1Mbps leased lines for _all_ their internet connectivity.

You can only connect as fast as the slowest part of the pipe between you and your destination.

Re: Logical Leaps

It's pretty easy to figure out what she was talking about. She has joined together various different government proposals, and so is thinking of a dystopian future where everyone will need to have proof of identity before they can gain access to the Internet, with ID cards providing the key - possibly along similar lines to how some banks use a person's C&P card in a personal reader to provide authentication to log onto a bank site.

In such a situation, an ID card will be a necessity if you want access to t'interwebs, and obviously those who have no ID card will rarely get to do anything online and so be severely hampered in learning how to do anything online.

Re: Logic?

'by assuming he's capable of jumping to a conclusion...'

Point of order Mr. Speaker : Lords cannot jump to conclusions. They by tradition they have to 'a-leap' to conclusions. And there have to be exactly 10 of them in order to do it.

Re: Logic? @phuzz

And yet, Lord Sugar managed to build up several quite successful companies (although there were failures along the way!)

He is a Life peer, not a hereditary one (they are an endangered species in the Lords). Generally life peers have been appointed because of outstanding contributions to the United Kingdom, so are, by definition, high achievers.

They get old, true, but I have heard some of the best and most informed speeches in either house from members of the Lords. Often, this is because they have the time and knowledge to be well informed on the subject they are speaking on.

This is the very nature of the non-elected second house in the UK. Although they may have had some form or patronage to get there, once there, they are independent of the prevailing elected house, so can (and do) act as a moderating influence in UK government, one that is outside of the normal cycle of elections. Put successful and experienced people in the Lords, and you will get a completely different perspective on legislation as it is being debated.

Re: Logic?

@phuzz

Half of them would struggle to reach the conclusion of a sentence, let alone a speech.

Give them their due credit - some are world renown experts in the field of... fiddling expenses

Re: Boring jobs?

I'm not seeing the logic there . You have the same amount of people* , they are just more pissed off . You have just shifted the problem x minutes into the future.

My company has a policy at the moment of not paying bills for 60 days . Shocking . Its as if they think in 60 days the amount will be less,or they will have saved up money , meanwhile this week they are still hemorrhaging cash on bills from 60 days ago.

I like to think The robot menus do save time and money because the call goes to the correct department in thoery , also ID verification can be done before paying operator to do it , etc etc

*yes I know some will be so pissed off they will hang up , but thats hardly a solution.

Re: Boring jobs?

"the cost of the service goes up, less profits etc etc."

Less profits, yes. It doesn't necessarily follow that the cost of the service goes up (to the consumer).

In these days where we pay the same for 'things' that we used to, yet the 'things' are substantially 'less' then I can only think that it's all about squeezing the last iota of money for the least amount of product.

Take Mr Kipling's Apple Pies for instance. My wife bought some last week and discovered a thin slice of apple sauce and two tiny chunks of apple in between all the pastry - they didn't used to be that stingy with the filling, yet they still cost £1.60

Also, shops/producers still make profits from items that are marked down to half price - what does that tell you about their 'normal' price.

I know we're talking about the service industry and wages etc. - but in this day and age it should be possible to have 'work from home' call staff plugged in to the system and keep costs low. Imagine all those people who struggle to find suitable part time work being able to log in and handle calls for a company whilst being at home, convenience is worth more than a few extra quid to some people (especially when the convenience is the difference between earning a few quid extra or not at all)