Re: Powerseller status

In message <fp4a0i$73a$1@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>, at 15:10:07 on Fri, 15 Feb 2008, Fran <usenet1304@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx> remarked:

"Roland Perry" <roland@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:qPjrkkPCFatHFA69@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx
In message <fp3v3r$jnc$1@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>, at 12:04:07 on Fri,
15 Feb 2008, Fran <usenet1304@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx> remarked:

So, which uni did you study law at? And which law school?

I'm self trained. What uni did you study business at?

AHA! A classic barrack room lawyer.

I'm aware that there's a risk of being seen as that.

I'm not the one pretending to be a legal
expert - you are.

I don't think *any* of the people posting here are qualified solicitors, are they? But there's more to law than knowing how to be a solicitor and win cases in the County Court.

Before that, policy has to be decided, and laws drafted that reflect that policy. As I've said elsewhere, that's where most of my "legal" work is done, and it involves sitting for days with "real" lawyers discussing what this or that means, and oddly enough a lot of it rubs off. And you'd be surprised (or maybe not) how many other people in the process aren't trained solicitors either. There's not a huge difference between interpreting legal drafting and solving mathematical equations, for example.

My benchmark is "how often do people eventually go with what I suggested". And the answer is: "almost always".

Of course, if you had been paying attention you'd have remembered that I
did run a mail order business for several years (hence in part my
interest
in the mechanics of eBay and fascination with the antics in this
newsgroup).

Really? Was that whilst you were working for Transaction TV or before it?

Long before.

In fact my debut in "making laws" was back in those days when the
Chancellor whacked 25% VAT on "luxuries" and HMC&E decided that the
items
I was selling (specialist transistors and integrated circuits, parts to
make radio sets etc) were all "luxuries".

So, you'd have known Marshalls, then, eh?

iirc they were business to business, and mainly wholesale. Our niche was
selling one-off cash-with-order to the public, when none of the
traditional distributors would countenance selling less than 100-off to
account holders.

Wrong on that. They had both a B2B and retail premises. So, you really don't
know of what you speak.

You seem very keen to trip me up. I'll bite. Where was that retail premises? I really don't remember it. What I do know is that our only serious competition was originally Maplin, and later Watford Electronics. It was 35 years ago, so forgive me for not remembering every single advertiser in Wireless World.

And then there was the 8 years I spent as Alan Sugar's chief techie -
the
original apprentice some say. That wasn't a picnic I can tell you!

Yeah. The Register is interesting on that topic. 1983, eh.

This maybe:

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2007/08/02/alan_suagr_nostalgia/page3.html

So far, I regret to say, no civil servant or government department has
ever paid me for my advice. They get it for free.

Riiiiight. So, you give free advice to government on a totally altruistic
basis.

Sometimes people pay me to give advice to governments, and sometimes I do
it anyway. Call it a serious hobby if you like. I've spent much of the
last five years on "sick leave", so it gave me something to do.

Now we're getting to it. So, sick leave but still promoting your
"consultancy", eh? Surely that makes you capable of work?

I didn't take down the website if that's what you mean. No real reason to. There was a chance I'd recover, and I did. So here we are five years later and for perhaps the last two years I've been well enough to work half time (I wish my recovery hadn't stalled at that point though). The other half of the time is why you see so much of me on usenet, and why I have the time to engage in "pro bono" and charity work.

You know, in all the years I dealt with central government, I never
came across this as a model - and it was actually against procedure to do
so, as it laid the department open to claims of accepting freebies and
thus
undue influence. Of course, if what you mean is that you are a *lobbyist*
then that's a different matter, hm?

I'm happy to admit that some of what I do can be described as lobbying.
But as plenty of it is completely unpaid, even that's too broad a brush.

They tend to be rather ignored, ime. Rather odd that your name was never
one that was bandied about. But then, it's a big place.

I tend to work quietly behind the scenes, as that is much more effective.
Remind me, which uni did you study lobbying at?

I've never been a lobbyist. You are drawing conclusions of fallacy again.

And you are reading things I didn't say.

If you understood about lobbying (or am I jumping to conclusions again) you'd know that the people making the most noise, and getting noticed in "places" [which ones, by the way, where you might have heard that bandying about you mentioned] are not always the one having the most effect.

But why the angst. What's in this for you??

But the EU did once pay my travelling expenses when I gave a training
course about telecoms regulation and what the essential differences are
between an IP address and a telephone number.

So, if you've done all this stuff, how come you don't promote it on your
website?

This website? http://www.internetpolicyagency.com/

That's the one.

Odd how there's nothing after 2003 or so.

That's when I got ill, so it went a bit quiet for a couple of years.

Still is, as far as one can see.

To be honest, you have reminded me that perhaps an update on the website would be useful. However, I get as much work as I can cope with even with that website frozen in 2003. I'm not even sure my prospects look at it.

And no mention of CIX, either,

I was there for just one rather troubled year in their development. I
saved their asses, but it's not necessarily politic to yell that from the
rooftops.

That didn't seem to be their view of why you ...er... were "departed".

Getting into sensitive territory here, but my departure was inevitable once they'd sold the company (for the simple reason that the buyer wanted my job for himself, and a small company like that doesn't need two MDs). I don't criticise anyone for that, it seems a perfectly reasonable thing to want. But there was never any reason for them to stage a departure, and I was a bit disappointed it turned out like that. What mattered to me was that I'd done the job I was hired to: keep the company in one piece until they found a buyer.

I think you're sussed, old son.

If that means you've sussed that I'm a serious player, perhaps we can get
back to talking about eBay?

I think it means we've sussed that you choose to project yourself as a fake
legal expert.

This discussion has been interesting, it makes me think I should work a bit harder on raising my profile, as there seem to be several things about my work that are capable of misinterpretation.

For example, I'd much rather project myself as a legal expert, than a fake legal expert!
--
Roland Perry
.

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