Gordon Brown Replies to the PayPal Petition

[Zak33]

paypalregulation - epetition response

A while ago we had a thread about Paypal needing to come under UK banking law,and the chance to sign a petition to force them to behave, and then they buggered off to Luxembourg.

My brain can't deal with this short reply from the country's leader.
Anyone care to illucidate (sp?) on what it means.

Are we winning or losing?

[directhex]

it's a form letter explaining what people know, and precisely WHAT they're complaining about

"we, the people, protest that the sky is blue"
"good people, your government is here to tell you that when the sun rises, blueness can be seen on high!"

[Sinizter]

elucidate

He says FSA will have some power over Paypal as the host state's controlling body - nothing about whether Paypal will have to be regulated properly and fully by FSA like other financial bodies.

So in essence, PCBS waffle.

PCBS = politically correct bull****.

[SiM]

Yeh I got that link in an email too... It all sounded like nonsense to me..

[dave87]

My understanding of that short response was along much the same lines as Sinitzer.

Basically because they buggered off to Luxemburg they fall under the domestic authorities and regulations they set out, however under the treaties that underlie the EU and the EEC, we, as the host state, have some control over them within domestic rules/regs.

The first line is the typical labour getout clause, they moved because they wanted to, not because we were even remotely considering cracking down on them.

Sad days, but a step in the right direction I suppose, unless the FSA decides they are acting legitimately within the rules set out in Luxemburg, and as such they have little they can actually do. At least it will now fall under the purview of the FSA, so they know where they stand.

I personally won't use paypal unless there is no other option, and given that I don't use ebay out of principle, that is a situation that I very infrequently come across.

[TheAnimus]

Originally Posted by directhex

it's a form letter explaining what people know, and precisely WHAT they're complaining about

"we, the people, protest that the sky is blue"
"good people, your government is here to tell you that when the sun rises, blueness can be seen on high!"

Not really fair, because its kinda his fault its blue.

Woo finally a use for my MiFID and FSMA 2000 training! (i HATE legal training).

Basically in the EU and some other exceptions, the local regulation can be 'passported' to our country, meaning that the luxemberg regulation authorities have to ensure the regulation for paypal in the UK.

This actually sort of makes sense, as it stands any taxable revenue of paypal will be going to lux, not us. So why should we pay to regulate it with our taxes, rather than let the luxemberg authorities do their job.

Because we don't trust them. Well done for siging us upto this Tony and Gordon. Well done indeed.

As it now stands any complaints should be sent to the luxemberg regulatory body. However, the FSA are still the regulators of last resort, as they in theory can put pressure on the luxemberg authorities, even revoke the passport rights of paypal.

[Dingo]

More polishing of the silverware whilst the House is stolen.........NuLabour say and do anything to appease but actually do nothing!!

Or in other words ‘The art of government is to let the people think they’re running the country whilst ensuring they don’t’?

and ‘The thing that will keep us in power is the short memory of the people’?

as well as
‘Having distributed our guineas [?] to the populace, we drove on to the sound of renewed cheering’


and so, come the next Election, fools the length and breadth of the Country will still vote NuLabour

[chicken]

Has anyone actually seen a response to a petition on this site that isn't just a "Thanks for telling us who we need to try and convince more, here, direct to your inbox is a load of political waffle in a vague attempt at reducing people who oppose our ideas", and actually has any effect whatsoever?

[Stringent]

You think we live in a democracy chicken?

[Salazaar]

Originally Posted by Stringent

You think we live in a democracy chicken?

More importantly, given the number of plainly silly and ill thought out petitions on that site do you really expect anyone in an already overworked government to take it seriously? If you want to petition the government about something write to your MP, it's what they're there for and they're duty bound to reply to you. Then persuade other people to do the same.

[chuckskull]

In my limited understanding it sounds like; It's Luxembourg's problem, until they really screw up then the FSA might do something