I loved World of Warcraft for many years, but kind of stopped playing during Cataclysm.
And it's kind of weird, but I preferred the old-style questing (many repeated quests and perhaps less streamlined experience) compared to what came afterwards.
In Cataclysm they tried to improve the quest experience, add more variety, but somehow the game lost a bit of its magic - at least from my point of view.
I haven't checked the Guardian in dept, but I believe they towed the same messaging during COVID as any other major Western publication and the same regarding the Russia / Ukraine situation right now.
Alternative voices are to be found on tight corners of the internet, like an individual on Twitter for example.
That doesn't make that much sense, those issues are ones that the Guardian would be aligned with anyway - at least in general. I'm pretty sure I've read disputing opinion pieces on there on both subjects.
You can setup a private VPN with Digital Ocean and a PiHole droplet. I guess it's a little bit less likely to be a honeypot. It also seems cheaper than any public VPN offering.
Proper border checks don't do much if people enter the country legally but overstay their visas
IDs (along with verification laws) discourage employers from hiring unauthorized immigrants, and without access to gainful employment, many will opt to return to their country of origin, or choose not to come in the first place.
You are describing the current system. Employers can receive business-ending fines (at least in theory) for hiring illegal labour. I’ve never worked a job in the UK that didn’t require me to prove my right to work here, eg by showing them my passport. Digitising the IDs will make no difference.
And frankly, if you believe this is actually about immigration then I’m embarrassed for you. Everyone can see that they’re just using the current crisis an excuse to ram through the unpopular thing that they've wanted for decades.
I have never seen a report of a business ending because of a fine. I have seen reports of hospitality business having to close because they lost their alcohol licence, where the licencee employing illegal immigrants was deemed not to be a fit and proper person.
On paper, the punishment for hiring illegal labour is £45k per worker for the first offence and up to £60k for repeat offences[0]. That's enough to ruin a small business.
Whether or not these laws are actually enforced is another matter. [Insert obligatory reference to Turkish barbershops]. But I've been asked to show ID at every job I've ever had, so companies obviously care about it even if the risk is low.
It's a popular stereotype in the UK (although it only seems to have arisen in the last year or so) that "Turkish barbershops" are a front for money laundering.
They're certainly suspicious: all across the country, high street retailers are going bust, and yet somehow all these barbershops, nail salons, takeaway joints etc are staying in business, able to afford prime commercial real estate even though you never see anyone in there getting their hair cut or their nails done.
I don't know why the Turks in particular are being singled out, but that's the meme. The "American Candy Stores" in London are another famous example.
There's an old saying where I'm from that the barbershop is the safest line of work because everyone needs their hair cut.
Where I am, admittedly in the Netherlands but I grew up in the UK and haven't noticed a huge difference, nail salons are always quite full when I pass, and I see food delivery drivers almost every time I look out the window. Similarly the barbers always seem to have clients. Could be the time of day you look?
Just going to throw it out there that it's a bit disconcerting to see these kind of criminal stereotypes associated with a certain people on HN.
In the town I live there are 3 (or 4) barbershops - one Turkish and the rest are British - I don’t notice any difference, they all have a long queue on Saturdays but empty in the middle of a working day.
What a lovely framing that is. Since time immemorial our right to vote without having to present papers was prized and protected and caused no appreciable problems whatsoever. Then, finally, in one of these inevitable spasms of authoritarianism, they do away with it and we're now turned away from the polling station unless we can show our permission slip.
Then they come up with even more papers for us, and the argument for it is that it's now a benefit that we can more easily comply with Voter ID laws.
Bugger off with that. Don't talk to me about any "benefit" in relation to voter ID that isn't abolishing it.
> Since time immemorial our right to vote without having to present papers was prized and protected and caused no appreciable problems whatsoever.
I don’t disagree at all, however we are where we are. The laws were introduced by a different government in a failed bid to maintain power by disenfranchising voters less likely to have ID.
That being said, we are where we are and having government-provided ID is a benefit in that context.
Only a day or two since this was announced and a petition against ID Cards has already reached 1 million - way beyond the 100,000 required for a Parliamentary Debate. I wonder what the petition's growth rate will be over the next couple of weeks or so.
> ... The 'Unofficial' boss of European Union is Germany. ...
I disagree with this sentence. The unofficial bosses are both Germany and France. Which is also the reason why the people in the richer EU countries will suffer economically when the upcoming bailout for France /will/ happen.
