Will We Ever Get Rid of This Worthless Bank?
This report in the Guardian is depressing reading for the New Year.
If we look at the figure of £14.5bilion out of pocket, that means that all sixty three million of us will have to contribute around £230,000 each. I know some of that money will come from corporate taxes, but where do the big companies like BP, BT and Vodafone get their profits from?
If we look at the performance of the two state-controlled banks, we see that Lloyds is actually improving both in value and share price, but RBS is still an impossible basket case.
More and more, I’m coming to the conclusion that Gordon Brown’s decision to save RBS was one of the worst pieces of political judgement ever, that ranks with when Neville Chamberlain thought Hitler was a good bloke to be trusted.
I wonder how many idiots, still bank with RBS or their accident-prone subsidiary; NatWorst?
I know of one supposedly sensible guy who does, but he got a mortgage with NatWest, in the good times.
With RBS, the bill would have been lot less, if we’d put the bank down and compensated, all those individuals and companies, who’d lost money as a result.
But if he’d done that, Gordon Brown would have have lost every Labour vote in Scotland to the Nationalists.
He might though have retained power in 2010, as the rest of the UK, would have applauded his courageous action.
Now That’s What I Call A Robbery!
I was once called one of the Top Ten programmers in the world and as that was before I wrote Artemis, it is a compliment to the guy who said it, that he spotted my talent early.
I’ve never attempted to steal any money using a computer, but I have certainly had a few ideas, that I’ve kept to myself, or used in the odd unpublished short story. But this report on the BBC about how a series of cash machines were emptied, is completely unbelievable. Here’s the opening paragraphs.
Researchers have revealed how cyber-thieves sliced into cash machines in order to infect them with malware earlier this year.
The criminals cut the holes in order to plug in USB drives that installed their code onto the ATMs.
Interestingly, the crooks emptied the machines of the higher value notes first, so they could be away quickly.
This illustrates one of the big faults of the euro., compared to the pound. There are so many large notes in circulation, that the currency is a criminal’s and a money launderer’s dream. I don’t like large notes anyway!
I suspect it was an inside job, in that someone who worked for either the bank or the cash machine company was the guy behind it all.
But of course, these days, where software is produced under contract by those in far off countries, is it any wonder you get crimes like this?
I wound never put anything more than working petty cash into a bank or building society, as they’re all vulnerable to be taken out by a gang of clever hackers.
And they are a lot less vulnerable if all those in charge of the computer system and those who program it, are actually employed by the company.
Sadly, this is no longer always the case, as various calamities in the banking industry in the last few years has shown.
Farage Says Yes!
Nigel Farage of UKIP saying that the UK should accept more Syrian refugees is a bit of a surprise.l Here’s an extract from a report on the BBC.
The UK should take in some refugees from Syria’s civil war, UK Independence Party leader Nigel Farage has said.
He told BBC News that Western countries should agree to take an allocation, but he did not specify numbers.
I wonder what his typical supporter thinks of this statement!
Ulster Says No!
The talks in Northern Ireland seem to have ground to their inevitable conclusion, as is reported here on the BBC. Here’s the first bit.
Talks aimed at solving some of Northern Ireland’s most contentious issues ended on Saturday without agreement.
The five main parties will meet again early on Monday to discuss parades, flags and dealing with the past.
I am getting sick to death of the same entrenched attitudes, that have cost all of us billions of pounds.
Who is going to rid us of this troublesome country?
Most of my friends from Eire don’t want this bigotted basket case either!
One point that has to be made. In most of England, we don’t have any religious parades that are contentious and you rarely see flags flown that some might not like. Even the cross of St. George has gone from something that was only flown to annoy to a flag flown with pride. So why if we can do it on this side of the water, can’t the Northern Irish do it.
I was also in Liverpool in the sixties, where there was a nasty undercurrent of religious tension. You don’t hear anything negative like that, from the city now!
Don’t Rob Banks, Because They’re Much Better At Robbing You!
This wonderful statement was made this morning by Justin Urquart Stewart on BBC Breakfast this morning, as he commented on a report saying bank robberies in the UK had dropped by 90% in the past decade.
Justin must be the nation’s most recognisable stockbroker. Or is he the only recognisable one?
The Lawyers Did Very Well Here!
This case, reported in the Daily Mail is well summed up by the headline.
The £40,000 battle of the wheelie bins: Homeowner slapped with massive legal bill after row with neighbour ends up in court
When will people ever learn, that a quick way to lose lots of money, is to send a trivial dispute that could be settled over a cup or glass of something to the lawyers.
The only winners here are the lawyers, who walked away with bulging trousers.
Are Google And ARM Holdings Forming An Alliance On Servers?
There has been a couple of reports on the Internet about a link-up between ARM Holdings and Google forming an alliance to create low energy use and high power servers. The Register bills it as Chipzilla versus The Chocolate Factory, in this article.
The last paragraph of the article, wich refers to the reports, is significant.
Such a scenario would be far worse news for Intel than merely losing a few million CPU sales each year.
So has Intel finally met its match in a small Cambridge company?
I think the answer is yes and we must make sure that this amazing UK company stays independent.
The Dumbest Bank Of The Year
This has just been awarded by Bloomberg to the Royal Bank of UK Taxpayers.
Bloomberg reports it here.
It doesn’t say, if the bank turned up to receive their award. Or did they send Gordon Brown? After all he started this fiasco!
Giving A Bank A Cyber Kicking When Its Down
RBS and its subsidiary NatWorst are getting attacked by hackers according to this report in the Guardian. Here’s the bank’s description of the problems and their explanation of what happened.
The bank said its systems had been deliberately targeted: “Due to a surge in internet traffic deliberately directed at the NatWest website, customers experienced difficulties accessing some of our customer websites today.
But the outcome is the same as ever and customers couldn’t use the web sites.
I blame some hackers, who have a vested interest in RBS going bust.
Perhaps they’re another wunch of bankers, who have hedged the share price!
Will the last customer to leave RBS/Natworst please close their browser!
I Will Say One Thing
I will not comment personally on the sad death of Nelson Mandela.
But I will quote Pieter-Dirk Uys; the satirist and anti-Apartheid activist, from his one man show, that I saw in London about ten years ago.
What if Nelson Mandela, had come out of prison angry?
You don’t want to think about it!
The Anonymous Widower 