Come To Christ And Get A Free Gun
I didn’t believe the story in the Times that the Lone Oak Baptist Church is giving all new members a gun. But it’s all over the web, including here on the New York Daily News.
Let’s hope they don’t open a branch in London!
Would You Trust These Politicians In High Office?
There has been a lot of bad pieces written about the involvement of Patricia Hewitt, Jack Dromey and Harriet Harman, whilst at the National Council for Civil Liberties, with the odious Paedophile Information Exchange.
I did read an article in The Times by David Aaronovitch, where he confessed to a silly act in the 1970s and said that it was a difficult era. I regret a few things I did in those far off days, but none have ever been or will ever be a criminal offence.
Patricia Hewitt has now apologised and said that it was wrong for the NCCL to be involved with PIE. The others may or may not do the same, but will the voters trust these three senior Labour politicians in the future, as surely their judgement has been shown to be flawed.
The Government Has Second Thoughts On Central European Time
The MP, Rebecca Harris is to introduce a Private Members Bill, that will bring in Central European Time on a trial basis. It’s reported here on the BBC.
It might make my life better, as I’m a very early riser, but would that be beneficial to me or not.
It would mean that I’d wake at six rather than five, just as the various breakfast news programs are starting.
But it won’t get to law, as some backwoodsman will say no! And Ulster always says no!
Interestingly, last time, it was debated, a lot of Scottish institutions backed the change, although some MPs didn’t.
Having looked after horses for a lot of the last forty years, the arguments about farming are spurious in my view. I’ve never found an animal that can tell the time, but all of them manage their lives by the light levels.
An Insight Into Small Energy Companies
I found this article on a company called Contract Natural Gas in the Yorkshire Post. This section describes what they do.
CNG supplies commercial natural gas to businesses, from family firms to blue chip corporations, across sectors including retail, leisure and hospitality.
But it also provides technical services to independent gas providers such as Ovo Energy.
It seems that there is a lot of innovation going on in the provision of energy.
The energy companies live in interesting times!
Barclays Loses Customer Data
Why is it the banks always seem to get things wrong? Or are they just accident prone?
This morning customer data from Barclays is reported to be on sale, here on the BBC.
I will not prejudge where the leak of information came from, but it will be interesting to see who did the dirty deed.
I suspect though we’ll see an increase in phishing scams tasrgeting Barclays customers.
Prospects For Scottish Banks
I have a trawl for the Royal Bank of Scotland in Goggle and two stories this morning make interesting reading.
Scotland Will Never Be Free as Long as It Has RBS is from Bloomberg and Analysis: Scottish banks plan quietly as independence debate gets louder is from the Chicago Tribune.
They should be read.
I don’t care which way Scotland votes, as it is their affair, but I won’t be following David Cameron’s advice to phone my Scottish friends and implore them to stay, Mainly because all of them seem to be in the Better Together camp.
One feeling I do have, is that the Scottish independence debate is the tail, that is wagging the donkey of the Royal Bank of Scotland. No bank is too big to fail, but because of the referendum in September, no English politician dare put the Royal Bank of Scotland and its employees out of its misery.
I can’t believe that if Barclays had got into the sort of trouble RBS did, then it wouldn’t have been liquidated.
RBS Mucks Up ISAs
My trawl for the Royal Bank of UK Taxpayers, has found this story from the Herald. Here’s the first paragraph.
Some NatWest and Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) customers have found themselves short-changed in their monthly interest payments in the latest blunder to hit the banks.
It looks like a computer error.
It’s funny, but it seems quite a few of the stories critical of RBS, seem to be in the Herald. Didn’t it uised to be the Glasgow Herald?
Tube Strikes And Cashless Buses
London for the next two days will suffer a Tube strike, about the closing of ticket offices and putting more staff in station lobbies and on platforms. New technology means that very few people need the ticket offices and the space could be better used for other purposes like retail.
Yesterday, London buses announced that they would no longer accept cash on buses from the summer. I would have thought that the Unions would have objected to this, as surely there must be job losses in those handling the cash. Or are the unions concerned with buses, in favour of a better service for all Londoners, whereas those on the Tube, are just out to do a King Canute and turn back the tide of new technology.
I suspect, every rail company in the UK, can’t wait for the day when Bob Crow retires!
Should We Jump On The Peer-to-Peer Bandwagon?
I wouldn’t tell anybody one way or other, but I would advise them to research the reputable peer-to-peer lenders, if they need to borrow money or save for the future.
This article from Julian Knight was published yesterday in the Independent.In the opening paragraph he speculates that you might be able to fund peer-to-peer lending from an ISA.
As he says, it might only be kite flying, but if it is, it is a kite armed with some serious ordnance destined for the banks.
You may dismiss peer-to-peer lending as something for nerds, accountants or gamblers, but even if you do, read the article.
If you decide to act on it, make sure you think before you leap.
Madness At Hackney Wick
This story is beyond belief. Here’s the first bit.
A young woman was in a serious condition in hospital today after leaping on to a freight train in London and being burnt by live overhead cables.
The 22-year-old sparked an explosion by touching the 25,000-volt wires and was thrown 20ft on to the platform where her friends had stood watching, the London Evening Standard reported.
The only good news is that she wasn’t killed. It probably shows that if say the 25,000 volt cables are dragged down in an accident, you might just about get away with being hit. But I certainly wouldn’t recommend any experiments.
The Anonymous Widower 