Return of the middle man ...

We do not, I know, live in a fair society. But there is one group ofpeople who have had more than their fair share of criticism and abuse.

It is time to speak out in their defence.

So fierce has been the attack on their culture and their way of life, that it has now become professionally dangerous to be too closely associated with these people. In our own industry, these victims of prejudice have become synonymous with all that's wasteful about the computer retail trade.

Only recently, several major PC vendors have been stirring up malevolent thoughts of mass redundancies, throwing thousands of useful lives onto the social scrap heap. Even the mighty Bill Gates has deemed it necessary to speak out about why these people should be