sparkygoesforth wrote:
I don't think the sellers have a particularly well-developed sense of morality, but Bob Geldof's continual pontificating is beginning to grate. Inviting people to hack eBay seems a bit over the top, eBay isn't selling the tickets - just providing a means to do it. As they said, selling these tickets is no different to selling anything else won as a prize from their point of view. Banning the auctions isn't going to stop people selling the tickets - they'll still be sold down the pub, through classified ads, by touts, etc. Maybe only issuing named, non-transferrable tickets would have been a better solution (as happens with football matches, music festivals etc)? But as long as Geldof's happy that's all that matters, it seems - I lost a lot of respect for him today.
Issuing non-transferrable tickets would have been the smart thing to do, my bf was incredulous that they could even be sold on ebay in the first place. Complete nonsense for them not to have done that. Like you I've lost a lot of respect for Bob Geldof recently, yes it's all in a good cause but no that's no excuse to act like a petulant child. When he yelled for 1 million people to descend on Edinburgh I couldn't believe it. Edinburgh has a population less than 450,000 - can you imagine what will happen if upwards of 1 million people descend on that city? Total carnage. People being crushed and stampeded, assaults and vandalism - is that what people want to remember about this endevour?
I'm all for giving to charity and I have nothing but admiration for Gordon Brown in his plans for Africa and all that he has said recently. He agreed that people should be able to protest peacefully and no sooner had he said that than Geldof grabbed the spotlight back by demanding all those people descend on Edinburgh. The man is on one serious ego trip and is in danger of turning this campaign on it's head and the only people that would be hurt by that is those in Africa. Has he even listened to what Gordon Brown is trying to do in stamping out the corruption in Africa rather than handing out cash willy nilly that helps nobody? Just argh *rants into the distance*