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The Great UK Internet Access Debate: Will Age Verification Actually Work ?

  There is no doubt that exposure of young children to online porn and other such 'adult' material can be harmful, whether it occurs by their own choice or by accident. The advent of the ‘always on’ internet, along with ready access to smartphones for some kids as young as 4 years old, has created a ‘perfect storm’. A number of cases in the media where problems have been highlighted has brought matters to a head recently. Older pre-teens and teenagers are also at risk of harm, but for different reasons, and access amongst these groups is rarely accidental. The key question is – how do we manage the problem as a responsible and caring society ? The government has seen fit to introduce a requirement for age verification via OFCOM in an attempt to restrict access to internet pornography and other 'adult' sites for anyone under 18. Will this rather draconian measure actually work ? The answer, almost certainly is no….here are some of the reasons why , and some adv...
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Infra-Red Remote Controls: What to Do When they Don't Work

 Editor's Note: I've reproduced this article from a guide I put together recently for my website on what to do if your remote dies on you, or gets damaged or lost. You can download this as a .pdf version - this also contains some useful illustrations. It's available via this link . ---------------------------------------- Introduction One of the most essential, and also potentially annoying, modern inventions is the infra-red remote control. Virtually every electronic device we use nowadays comes with a dedicated remote of some sort, and a lot of the more recent models have been designed so that they won’t work at all without it. Many of us have already suffered the consequences of this clever move on the part of the manufacturers after we’ve either a) lost the remote for our TV or b) one of the kids has broken it or c) the dog has taken a bite out of it (or the cat's been sick on it - moggies are never blameless!). The resulting lack of a working remote means t...
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What’s Wrong with Our UK Tax System ?

In short – it stifles incentive and enterprise, thus reducing UK productivity and wealth generation..... Let me try to explain. The Covid pandemic, Brexit, and more recently the worldwide ‘cost of living crisis’ have undoubtedly put a huge strain on many western economies since the start of the decade, and the UK is no exception.  The many billions gobbled up by pandemic costs and the furlough scheme in particular were but one example of the financial challenges we faced, and the debt incurred will still have to be paid for somehow.  Raising taxes was a logical response during the first years of the pandemic in an attempt to pay down some of our mounting debt. Maintenance of ultra-low interest rates and effectively ‘printing money’ via quantitative easing was another means adopted to try and soften the immediate economic blow in the late 2010s, but unfortunately had the effect of making the economy appear more robust than it actually was....and building up our debt mountai...
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