Off Topic The Politics Thread

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Should the UK remain a part of the EU or leave?

  • Stay in

    Votes: 56 47.9%
  • Get out

    Votes: 61 52.1%

  • Total voters
    117
  • Poll closed .
A gripe of mine. Why can't criminal sentences be expressed in a way that the public can understand? Yesterday, it was reported widely that the toe rag that killed the Scouse copper who had two young children, was sentenced to 20 years in prison. The BBC declared 4 times an hour that the little punk "would be detained in prison for 20 years".

This morning, it's clear he'll be released after 10 years (He'll be on licence, but since he was on licence for another offence when he killed the copper, I have no faith that he won't resume his psychopathic life.)

In the US, the sentence would have been expressed as 10-20 years. The UK authorities won't adopt that practice because they want to dupe the public about tough sentencing, and most of the media conspires with them. Is it any wonder the public get cynical when government and media treats us like pea-brains?

The real issue should be, why were the jury not told of his associate's statement that revealed he'd said "watch this" as he run him over. How can it be prejudicial if its a witness statement? He would've got a murder sentence then (and those are minimum tariffs).
 
The real issue should be, why were the jury not told of his associate's statement that revealed he'd said "watch this" as he run him over. How can it be prejudicial if its a witness statement? He would've got a murder sentence then (and those are minimum tariffs).

I assumed the witness (who himself received a 6 year sentence) refused to give evidence about what was said at trial.

PS the "6 year sentence" will probably be around 2 years. Criminal use of language.
 
A couple couple of dirty handshakes between the CBI and PWC! LOL. Go read what PWC's core business is, Accounting isn't mentioned. Of course good forecast models can be made. Go look at it.Have you seen one from a similar Company saying the opposite? I doubt it.
Dirty handshakes ?? Think you missed the point ??

PWC core business not accounting - strange because when companies I have worked for used PWC it was for accounting services ??? I actually did some accounting consulting work in conjunction with PWC employees doing "ACCOUNTING WORK" - PWC like all "Accounting Firms", don't use the word "Accounting" because it isn't sexy enough - but that is their core business, always has been. Back in '84 I was interviewed for an Accounting position in PWC's Accounting consulting department !! These days they use the words Assurance and Consulting, which includes Accounting work !!

Of course good forecast models can be made.

Didn't say forecast models cant be made, of course anyone can build a spreadsheet, and make it to say anything - The US Federal Reserve, had a forecasting model, that said the US sub-prime defaults would be limited to the financial sector, and contained - They got that one horribly wrong, so who is to say PWC are any better at forecasting !! The IMF have world growth forecasting models - They change them every Quarter !!! Virtually never say the same number for 2 consecutive quarters.
 
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From memory, PWC came about after the merger between the accountancy firms of Price Waterhouse and Coopers and Lybrand at the end of the 1990's. Their core businesses are accountancy, audit, tax. They also used to do management consultancy but I think they sold off their business. They have several ancillary businesses including forensic accountancy.
 
From memory, PWC came about after the merger between the accountancy firms of Price Waterhouse and Coopers and Lybrand at the end of the 1990's. Their core businesses are accountancy, audit, tax. They also used to do management consultancy but I think they sold off their business. They have several ancillary businesses including forensic accountancy.
They still do consultancy. I see some of their bids, but they've never won any work from my bit of my company.
 
It's often the most profitable work. And a lot less risky than audit.
Too right it's profitable. We have just received quotes ranging between $600 -$800k for six weeks work from all of the big boys. But we are getting one of them to do it for nothing due to a cock up they made on a previous project, our business is so big for these guys (they all have partners dedicated to getting work from us, God knows how much we spend in total, biggest contract I've been involved in was $2m) sometimes it works to our advantage, they are terrified of being locked out of the income stream.
 
Too right it's profitable. We have just received quotes ranging between $600 -$800k for six weeks work from all of the big boys. But we are getting one of them to do it for nothing due to a cock up they made on a previous project, our business is so big for these guys (they all have partners dedicated to getting work from us, God knows how much we spend in total, biggest contract I've been involved in was $2m) sometimes it works to our advantage, they are terrified of being locked out of the income stream.

Yes, commercial muscle. This is a good example of the accountancy firms' relative risks. In management consultancy, if they cock up, they can remedy and offer some free work. If they cock up audit, the genie's out of the bottle and massive and uninsurable losses can flow. Classic example was Arthur Anderson's fraud and negligence on Enron. It obliterated Anderson worldwide.
 
Dirty handshakes ?? Think you missed the point ??

PWC core business not accounting - strange because when companies I have worked for used PWC it was for accounting services ??? I actually did some accounting consulting work in conjunction with PWC employees doing "ACCOUNTING WORK" - PWC like all "Accounting Firms", don't use the word "Accounting" because it isn't sexy enough - but that is their core business, always has been. Back in '84 I was interviewed for an Accounting position in PWC's Accounting consulting department !! These days they use the words Assurance and Consulting, which includes Accounting work !!



Didn't say forecast models cant be made, of course anyone can build a spreadsheet, and make it to say anything - The US Federal Reserve, had a forecasting model, that said the US sub-prime defaults would be limited to the financial sector, and contained - They got that one horribly wrong, so who is to say PWC are any better at forecasting !! The IMF have world growth forecasting models - They change them every Quarter !!! Virtually never say the same number for 2 consecutive quarters.
Back in 84, and 94 sure. But Financial Accounting Standards stopped that about 10 years ago. Not so very sexy! They (and their competitors) are no longer permitted to do Accounting work for a Client if they are performing audit, tax consultancy or other services for them. Their services need to be seen "at arms length" from the activities of the Company itself. In practice in my experience anyway, they no longer do Accounting at all, and they don't promote that they do.
 
But Financial Accounting Standards stopped that about 10 years ago.

Accounting Standards dont exists anymore??? http://www.ifrs.org/pages/default.aspx

What the hell is this ?

Back in 84, and 94 sure. But Financial Accounting Standards stopped that about 10 years ago. Not so very sexy! They (and their competitors) are no longer permitted to do Accounting work for a Client if they are performing audit, tax consultancy or other services for them. Their services need to be seen "at arms length" from the activities of the Company itself. In practice in my experience anyway, they no longer do Accounting at all, and they don't promote that they do.
Audit is done by accountants, yes so they don't do accounting work for audit clients, so they do accounting work for non-audit clients - you just arguing for arguing sake ? Or do you have an actual point
 
Accounting Standards dont exists anymore??? http://www.ifrs.org/pages/default.aspx

What the hell is this ?


Audit is done by accountants, yes so they don't do accounting work for audit clients, so they do accounting work for non-audit clients - you just arguing for arguing sake ? Or do you have an actual point

This is correct. Independence rules apply where an accountancy firm is auditing a client. It doesn't apply to other services. Why would it?
 
Audit is done by accountants, yes so they don't do accounting work for audit clients, so they do accounting work for non-audit clients - you just arguing for arguing sake ? Or do you have an actual point ?
Audit is done by Auditors. My point is that you aren't going to get a better, relatively unbiased forecast than that one. Perhaps the IMF as you say but doubtless with approximately the same result. Leaving the EU will be a huge blow to the UK financially.
 
My point is that you aren't going to get a better, relatively unbiased forecast than that one. Perhaps the IMF as you say but doubtless with approximately the same result. Leaving the EU will be a huge blow to the UK financially.

How can you determine that there isn't a better "relatively" unbiased forecast ? On what basis did you determine that, that should be unquestioned, when the US Federal Reserve bank and the IMF are useless at forecasting, why would PWC deserve special mention at being better at forecasting ?

Forecasts are just that, a guess !! An educated guess !!