Will The Co-op Bank Take Over The Lloyds Branches?
There is an article in The Times today, saying that the transfer of 632 branches from Lloyds Banking Group to the Co-op Bank is hitting various problems, mainly it appears conerned with computing.
If I was a customer of one of the branches to be transferred, I would have been off elsewhere by now, as I am one of those dinosaurs, who believe that I choose my bank and not politicians and bureaucrats from Europe.
So I suspect that if the transfer does go through, the Co-op will get some the branches without the customers.
It appears to, that a similar transfer of branches from RBS to Santander has already foundered.
It’s a real mess out there in retail banking.
The Telegraph Attacks Two Targets In One Article
Toby Young in Her Majesty’s Daily Telegraph has attacked both Lance Armstrong and Alistair Campbell in this article.
It is getting that Lance Armstrong is becoming a non-laurel wreath to hang around anybody you don’t like’s neck.
Lance Armstrong Questions His Punishment
Lance Armstrong has questioned his punishment for proven doping offences on the Oprah Winfrey show.
He actually wants to compete again.
Do they have cycling or triathlon events in prisons?
I suspect that this odious cheat, won’t give up and he’ll go to Court to get what he wants. Let’s hope the judge who tries his case is an honest man or woman.
A Welsh Take On Horseburgers
This article in the Mirror talks about and links to a video that has gone viral. It concerns a pantomime horse suffering from grief over the loss of its parents in a Tesco store in West Wales.
The Tragic Fallout Of Doping Cheats
After the mega-cheat, Lance Armstrong’s theatrical performance, last night, Nicole Cooke this morning made an impassioned plea for the victims of those, like the drug-fuelled Texan. She said, that she had lost medals because others cheated by doping when competing against her.
I remember the 1960s, when athletics was ruined by the Soviet Block, who took everything that a chemist could devise. Look at the career of our greatest-ever female sprinter; Kathy Smallwood-Cook, who would be in a totally different league, if competition had been fair and square. It has always puzzled me, how Mary Peters ever won that pentathlon gold in the 1972 Munich Olympics. If you look at the women’s athletics results at that games, few medallists are not from the Soviet Block. There are a few West German medals, but then they had home advantage and London 2012 showed how that helps drammatically. I do remember watching that pentathlon, with C on a terrible black and white television, when Mary Peters, was almost willed over the high jump bar by masses of British troops based in Germany, who somehow had got tickets.
Where would the careers of some retired clean athletes be, if they had competed fair and square?
Cheats like Armstrong have a lot to answer for! He should be prosecuted for fraud and perhaps asked to spend some time in a nice cosy Texas jail.
Step-Free Access To The Underground
Coming back from Kings Cross station tonight, I took the indirect route using the Circle line to Moorgate station and then getting a 141 bus from just outside the station to just round the corner from my house.
The reason was that I had a heavy parcel of bedding, I’d bought in John Lewis and my normal change to the bus home at either Angel or Highbury and Islington stations would have meant crossing a major road.
Although I’m not in any way disabled, sometimes I do find that my left hand is a bit gammy and it is better to take an easier route, with escalators, lifts or right-handed staircases. For this reason, I know a lot of the best routes to get around London.
As I went through the gate at Kings Cross, the staff were chatting about step-free access and how difficult it will be to put in at some stations. I said that I think we’ll be finding some innovative engineering solutions used in some stations.
I know that inclined lifts are going to be used on Crossrail, but when I got home I found that at Greenford station, London Underground is going to get its first inclined lift. There’s more here on the Crossrail web site.
I think we’ll see a lot more of these, especially at stations, where there are three escalator positions, but the middle one has never been installed to save money.
The great advantage of inclined lifts is that in these stations, they can be installed without any digging or disruption to the station during the installation process.
I also think that buses have a large part to play in step free access.
As I said, I often plot my routes around London to avoid difficult stations or interchanges. For instance, I don’t change at Green Park station, as although it has lifts and is step free, you can walk miles between trains. Kings Cross too, is a bit of an Underground maze. Often though, the best route is to go to an easier station and then get a bus.
But not all stations have easy access from the trains to the buses and vice-versa like London Bridge, Euston and Victoria.
It may improve the lot of passengers and especially those who are disabled to improve the bus/Tube interface, as it will mean that some difficult stations can be bypassed.
I want lots more step free access to stations, but lets see if we can have innovative and more affordable solutions, that allow more stations to be given the full treatment.
Pep Guardiola Gives A Two-Fingered Salute to Chelski And Man Sheikhy
Pep Guardiola has decoded to join Bayern Munich. Read about it here in the Guardian.
It just goes to show that you may be as rich as Croesus, but you can’t buy everything. And certainly a man to whom it appears football is more important than money.
A Real Joke Fest
The number of jokes after the horse-meat got into the supermarket burgers has been enormous.
The Guardian has even created a summary of all the best.
Or should that be worst!
This photo is priceless.
The Man Who Outsourced Himself
This curious tale shows the power of the Internet. an obviously intelligent employee in the US, got a consulting firm in China to do his job, using the Internet.
I bet he’s not the only one who’s doing this!
The Anonymous Widower 