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Speaker 1: ComCom Comms Commissioned at times I think has a needy

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Speaker 1: job in the sense it starts out life in appearance

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Speaker 1: anyway as being on our side, our being, you know,

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Speaker 1: the people's side. We need a hero protected to keep

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Speaker 1: the big bad boys away from our lives and our wallets.

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Speaker 1: And lately though they look like they might have a

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Speaker 1: large legal budget that someone's told them to spend or

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Speaker 1: else they're going to lose it, so out they come

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Speaker 1: with the lawyers the other day for one, you know,

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Speaker 1: the telco one over their starlink claims about texting anywhere

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Speaker 1: in the country. Now, this case to me looks literal.

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Speaker 1: You can't say you can text from anywhere. If literally

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Speaker 1: I can find a place where you can't see the

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Speaker 1: room for adults. Interpretation appears to be devoid of presence

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Speaker 1: in this particular case. Then we get food Stuffs yesterday,

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Speaker 1: who are to appeal a ruling by the ComCom on

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Speaker 1: its merger. Now, the interesting bit about food Stuffs is

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Speaker 1: that they are, unfortunately a supermarket, and supermarkets are hated

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Speaker 1: because they sell stuff at prices we've decided are too high.

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Speaker 1: They are in the same category as banks and telcos

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Speaker 1: and petrol stations and airlines all out there to rip

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Speaker 1: us off. Bleeders try and generally make life miserable. Food

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Speaker 1: stuff have got two bits, the north and the south.

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Speaker 1: They want to join the two bits together. From a

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Speaker 1: business perspective, makes perfect sense. You're playing with scale. Scales

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Speaker 1: generally good, but scale also reduces numbers in the market.

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Speaker 1: It may well reduce competition. Where we appear a bits

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Speaker 1: stuck in this country? Is that very fine and quite

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Speaker 1: probably indefinable line between letting people get on with business

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Speaker 1: and indeed creating an environment in which business prospers and

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Speaker 1: more businesses want to open and killing business by overregulating it,

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Speaker 1: driven in part by the fear over lack of competition

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Speaker 1: and therefore the punter being ripped off. What will be

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Speaker 1: interesting is whether the foodstuffs can argue their case on

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Speaker 1: fact or on what clearly is an over arching zeitgeist.

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Speaker 1: The banks, for example, appeared in front of the Government

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Speaker 1: committee into banking the other day. They made it, by thought,

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Speaker 1: very plausible, very reasonable case around their profits. It will

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Speaker 1: make no difference though, because the government doesn't want to

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Speaker 1: hear it. Maybe foodstuffs are the same. What is a

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Speaker 1: decent price a decent margin. What is the choice for

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Speaker 1: a punter who sees a can of beans at a

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Speaker 1: higher price one place that goes elsewhere? Is a court

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Speaker 1: even required? If the zeit god ied around business and

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Speaker 1: its success is predetermined whether sensibly logically or not. For

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Speaker 1: more from The Mic Asking Breakfast, listen live to News

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Speaker 1: Talk Set B from six am weekdays, or follow the

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