Now The Crooks Join In The NatWorst Fiasco
According to ActionFraud, a UK Police web site, crooks have started sending out e-mails purportedly from Stephen Hester to compromise accpounts and steal money. The article is here.
Is This The Truth About the RBS Problems?
The Register also has an article, where it claims a source has told them what happened at RBS and NatWorst. This is an extract.
A serious error committed by an “inexperienced operative” caused the IT meltdown which crippled the RBS banks last week, a source familiar with the matter has told The Register. Job adverts show that at least some of the team responsible for the blunder were recruited earlier this year in India following IT job cuts at RBS in the UK.
The problem isn’t in India, it’s with what haggis-head or collection thereof that decided on the risky strategy. And were they appointed by Fred Goodwin or one of his arse-lickers?
I hope that if you read the article in The Register, you’ll take the only sane action and move to another bank, as soon as RBS or NAtWorst have paid you the compensation, you think you deserve.
Greeks Vent Their Fury on Microsoft
The Greeks have tried to destroy Microsoft’s offices in Athens by fire according to this article in The Register.
It would appear no-one was hurt.
Why Is A School Using Libel Lawyers?
On BBC London News this evening, there has been a story about a primary school, using well-known libel lawyers to sue their local council for damages over something written in a report. I didn’t get the full story, but I shall be watching later tonight and searching the papers in the morning.
After all, as a taxpayer, I don’t like schools wasting money and hiring libel lawyers definitely comes under that category.
C did her first pupillage as a barrister in libel chambers and it never ceased to amaze her how much money was wasted by clients in cases.
Zopa in the Belfast Telegraph
Zopa has a good plug in the Belfast Telegraph today.
It’s probably opportune given the problems at Ulster Bank, which has a high presence in the province. On the other hand, if people haven’t got a working bank account, how are they going to repay their loan?
NatWorst in the Observer
I’ve been trying to see, if I can find any reference to NatWest as NatWorst on the internet. I found this interesting article from the Observer from September 1999. This is the interesting bit and it isn’t about the bank.
Listen, very carefully…is that the sound of a Wall Street crash? The Dow Jones has slithered back like a rattlesnake on a slagheap: not so much irrational exuberance as ungainly correction. It’s how it always starts: a large rise, followed by a stuttering correction followed by a crash. Oh, and it always happens in October. Look at 1987; look at 1929. So then, five days to go until we can kiss our assets goodbye.
I wonder if the journalist who wrote this, realises now what he said. So he was a few years early.
Hospital Reorganisation
There have been a couple of stories on the news about hospital reorganisation in the last week or so. There was a story last week about the reorganisation of A & E units in North West London. Today, there’s a story about a trust in South East london, that might merge with one in North West Kent.
As when the closure of Barts was mooted some years ago, the locals are against it. For instance someone has said this morning, that those in South East London prefer to travel to the teaching hospitals in Central London.
I lived for a long time in East Anglia and now, the number of big hospitals, is probably down to just two; Cambridge and Norwich, with some local General Hospitals in between. Some like Bury St. Edmunds will disappear fairly soon.
And then of course, there was the retired doctor, who got elected to Parliament over the closure of Kidderminster Hospital, a few years ago.
Modern medicine means we need less hospital beds and more specialist consultants and because paramedics are so much more advanced in what they can do, we need less A & E units.
But try selling this to the locals.
The Ramadan Rush
It would appear from The Times, that rich shoppers from the Middle East are getting their shopping in before Ramadan starts on July 20th. They also claim that France’s burqa ban, means that shoppers now prefer London.
The French really know how to create laws that help their business sector, especially as they are bringing in a financial transaction tax.
The Sun Is On Form
The Sun today, creates one of its memorable front pages. On a par with some of their classic headlines. As it is totally factual, no-one will object. The headline is.
Greeks Exit Euro
And the full story is here, with a very good picture.
It of course refers to the football and not the currency. If Angela Merkel has a sense of humour, she’ll probably be laughing like a drain, or whatever Germans do idiomatically!
The newspaper may be on form, but where’s the orange one in the sky?
The Return of NatWorst
Some years ago, I used to do the programming and processing for a company called PressWatch, that rated the coverage of major companies in the UK printed media.
Some time before I programmed the system, NatWest had a string of bottom places and were labelled NatWorst by some financial journalists.
It would appear from its current computer problems, that along with other banks in the RBS Group, it is attempting to claim the bottom place again. Read about it here.
The article says it is a computer glitch. I would describe it as a computer disaster.
A computer glitch is what I’ve just suffered from Nationwide. They said my credit card statement would be ready online on Wednesday. It didn’t arrive until today. But at least, it didn’t cost me any money, although I did worry, that there might have been some illegal transactions, they were sorting out. Especially, as it’s the VISA card, I use for Olympic tickets. But all is now fine.
The Anonymous Widower 