I heard the CEO of Ebay UK getting interviewed on R4 yesterday too. A calm quiet bloke – though maybe a little weary sounding.

Q. So you are taking down all these auctions?

A. Yes, but we have X Million (insert your choice of total number) auctions and Y Million (and again) users adding new items every hour – so its an ongoing process.

Q. Rumour has it you only did a u-turn because your US bosses told you to?

A. Er, no. I haven’t spoken to the US chiefs since this started. That is just nonsense; many of our loyal community reported these auctions and we just listened to our customers. We ask for help from our users reporting what they believe are illegal/immoral auctions (firearms, human organs etc etc). We have Z thousand (and again) employees vetting auctions, but without the help of our customers it frankly would be an impossible task.

Q. Oh, right then.