Clobbered all ways
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Perhaps unfairly, Customs and Excise probably ranks next in unpopularity to the Inland Revenue. The long closure of the LACES computer Customs clearance systems at Heathrow Airport, resulting in shippers and agents receiving large bills for storing imports which the cannot remove from thE warehouses, has certainly no stimulated public affection fo the service.
The British Shippers' Coun cil's complaint about the lack o an alternative service capable o dealing with the volume o imports received at Heathroin could justifiably have beer much stronger. To be deniec rightful access to one's goods ii bad enough but to be clobberec with heavy bills for their unrea sonable detention outrageous. It is like being giver a ticket for overstaying one': time on a parking meter becausr the police have immobilised thi vehicle.
The US National Bureau of Standards, which never fails to baffle me, "will soon be soliciting proposals for specific projects .. . including host to network interface protocols ..."
Thus the unacceptable interface of claptrapitalism rears its ugly physiognomy once again.