Nick Hurd says Apple is not civil enough -

In one of the more daft moves we have seen from the Coalition government, Civil Minister Nick Hurd has decided to take on Apple.

Britain has been famous for carrying out bizzare military campaigns in the past and had some heroic last stands. But Hurd taking on Apple ranks right up there with the Charge of the Light Brigade.

You can see Hurd's reasoning. He is a Minister of a large Western democracy with a reasonably sized military force, the odd nuclear weapon. You would think that he would get a fair hearing from the CEO of a software company.

All he wants is for Steve Jobs to allow donations to be taken using an iPhone app. What could possibly be wrong with that?  It would be a good way of charities getting much needed cash.

Apple apparently has told the British government to go forth and multiply. Steve Jobs has spoken and that is the end of it. After all Hurd might have nukes, but Steve can order all his fanboys to vote Labour in the next election and since there are several trillion of them, apparently, and this would hang the hung government.

Not to be deterred, Hurd has written to ask Apple for explanation on its refusal. "I will write to Apple in the next couple of weeks to get clarity on its position and encourage the company to be more positive and constructive," Hurd said.

It is a bit like Neville Chamberlain popping back from having a nice chat with Hitler and thinking a piece of paper would stop World War Two.

We can see the answer now.

“Because I said so.
From my Ipad
Steve Jobs.”

Hurd is the minister for civil society, and he thinks that it would be a little more civil if Apple allowed charities to collect the cash.

What he does not understand is that Apple is far from civil and really does not give a monkey's about charities. What it is probably concerned about is that whoever uses the App will have credit line straight through to the most incredulous of customers in the world – the Apple fanbois. This will be a gift for those who want to steal money off them. After all look how much they shelled out to iTunes.

Either way Hurd is never going to get Jobs to bow to anyone else's will. Apple dragged its feet with the EU for years after Brussels insisted that its gadgets last as long as any other product.

The only way for Hurd to get Jobs' attention is to slap a huge trade tariff for all over priced electronic goods made in China.