I do most of my social hangouts at pubs

Ah so the type of place where you hang out is the type of place that “should” be preserved. Now I understand why you think that.

to say that historically it has not been the social centre of UK towns is false

I haven’t said that.

obv don’t go to a pub and take up space without giving them any money

LOL you think you can give me advice

It’s the cornerstone of interacting with your local community in the UK.

No it isn’t. My interactions with my local community never take place in a pub. I don’t think I know anyone who would consider the pub to be the “cornerstone of their interacting” with anybody at all, local community or otherwise. Frankly your description seems bizarre.

You don’t even have to drink, it’s a cozy, generally quiet place to socialise.

This doesn’t accord with my experience at all. I’d feel very out of place if I just hung around in a pub for any length of time without buying anything. Pubs aren’t social centres, they’re businesses.

it’s a part of British culture that should be preserved

Why?

The goal should be

Why should it be?

This is a terrible article which seems to be for the purpose of poo-pooing the Green Party’s policy in favour of… landlords… the Big Issue… on the side of landlords… WTF?

Zulip

Cocaine? Absolutely not. Not that I’m against cocaine, it’s just that people on cocaine are really, really annoying.

So you’re for criminalising alcohol use then?

not legalisation, I don’t want to be seeing Tesco value acid available behind the counter

Legalisation can mean lots of things, including legalised drugs sales only from specialised pharmacies. This is the kind of approach advocated by legalisation proponents. “Legalisation” doesn’t mean “available in Tesco”.

For a lot of the world, certainly in Britain, supplying medicine to people who need it is a very different concept to pharmaceutical companies doing good business.

Jesus, this is what the UK has become. Following the US down into the gutter.

Apple was forced to follow EU regulations … so the EU can tell a foreign company

This is wrong. Apple isn’t a foreign company from the perspective of the EU. Their EU headquarters are in Cork:

https://www.apple.com/careers/us/work-at-apple/locations/cork.html

They also have offices in Munich, Prague, Copenhagen, Paris, Berlin, Stuttgart, Barcelona and Stockholm:

https://www.apple.com/careers/us/work-at-apple/locations.html

the fact their servers are offshore and the company is offshore doesn’t matter

This is wrong.

they’re doing business in the UK by being made available there

This is wrong.

thus must be bound to those laws

This is wrong.

they have an obligation(duty) to uphold British law

Let me get this straight, you’re claiming that non-UK citizens acting outside of the UK are subject to UK law?

how’s that hard to grasp

If you are claiming what it seems like you’re claiming then it’s not difficult to grasp, it’s just wrong.

the point was the UK is not the only one trying to do it

I don’t see any evidence of the EU trying to do with the GDPR what the UK is trying to do with the Online Safety Act.

they can totally enforce the fine by restricting those businesses from doing business within their territory until they comply

That’s sanctioning, not enforcing a fine.

And yes they can do that but that’s not what Ofcom is talking about. Ofcom have explicitly stated that foreign citizens have “duties” under UK law. The word “duty” has a very specific meaning in English law, in fact it’s really one of the most basic concepts. It means there is an obligation on someone and if that obligation is not fulfilled then courts have the power to take action.

Sanctioning a foreign citizen doesn’t imply an obligation. There can’t be an obligation because a foreign citizen, by definition, is not subject to English law. Ofcom is claiming that foreign citizens are subject to English law.

I don’t know how you could get it more wrong.

LOL

Fine companies in other countries

Firstly, then GDPR is legislation, it can’t act in the world, like fine people. I presume you’re referring to the EU and not the GDPR.

Secondly, the EU has no power in “other” countries, by which I presume you mean non-EU countries. It’s not possible for the EU to fine companies in non-EU countries. They could issue a fine but they have no power to enforce or collect the fine. The non-EU companies can quite legally just laugh at the EU and give them the finger.

the GDPR does apply outside of the EU

What do you mean exactly? What do you mean by “apply”?

GDPR does this as well

I don’t understand what you’re referring to with the word “this”. What is it you believe the GDPR does as well?

abuse subtance use

LOL

Is it important?

Given that’s a British party and the participants will be mostly British and connecting from Britain, then yes.

Surely this is the strength of federation

I’m not sure what you think is a strength here. Just because you can create a community anywhere doesn’t mean it’s a good idea to ignore geography or jurisdiction.