Peer-To-Peer Lending Gets a Plug in the Scotsman
The Scots like to think they are canny and one even thought he was prudent, so this article from the premier Scottish newspaper, the Scotsman should be very much welcomed by the peer-to-peer lending industry or at least its three major players; Zopa, Funding Circle and Ratesetter.
The Italians Are Coming
According to a report in The Sunday Times, Knight Frank have said that the largest group of emigrants to the UK are rich Italians. I suppose they have to be rich to afford the houses Knight Frank sells.
I hope they bring their money with them and invest it in the City.
The Fake Sheikh Strikes Again
With the demise of the News of the World, the fake sheikh, Mazher Mahmood, seems to have struck again for its sister paper The Sunday Times. It’s reported here on the BBC.
The Sunday Times alleges, during a two-month investigation in which reporters posed as Middle Eastern ticket touts, it found corruption involving people representing 54 separate countries.
Note the Middle Eastern ticket touts!
Obviously, these tickets weren’t distributed correctly, but then that had nothing to do with the London organisers. Yet again, Olympic rules are framed to feather the nests of members of the Olympic family.
I haven’t received my Sunday Times yet, but it will be explosive reading. They do name some of the countries on their web site and the list contains the usual suspects. The BBC reports that the Greeks actually asked for more tickets, because they had siold so many. This is from the BBC report.
Accusations include an allegation a member of the Greek Olympics Committee said he had “persuaded” Lord Coe, chairman of the London organising committee, Locog, to give Greece more tickets on the pretext demand had outstripped supply.
So did the Germans fund all of these Greeks to come to London?
I hope LOCOG trace the tickets that went to these countries and withdraw them, so that suckers will pay thousands of pounds for a worthless piece of card. There’s a fat chance of that.
After all the BBC has already exposed someone from Ukraine in this report.
And Now We Have a Bus Strike!
Len McCluskey has a very good way of making life for Londoners better; call a bus strike for next Friday.
It actually doesn’t effect me much, as with a bit of planning I could make sure, I haven’t got any journeys on that day. I am going to something in the evening, and I suppose I will have to take a taxi, which I can afford.
Some might say, that the bus drivers have a case, because everybody else has got an Olympic bonus. But then every other transport worker is employed more directly by Transport for London and not individual companies like Stagecoach and Arriva.
On the other hand, I’m listening to the complete silence of the Labour leadership. At least most voters are brighter than Mr. McCluskey!
Who Do the Young, Liberals and Women Vote For in Egypt?
The BBC in this report describes the two candidates thus.
Mohammed Mursi, head of the Muslim Brotherhood’s political wing, is up against Ahmed Shafiq, former President Hosni Mubarak’s last prime minister.
In the UK, it would be the equivalent of choosing between a Catholic Archbishop and Len McCluskey of UNITE or Bob Diamond of Barclays.
We’d certainly be on the streets protesting.
Floyd Mayweather Doesn’t Like the Jail Food
Then he shouldn’t have beaten his wife. It’s here in the Telegraph.
Prison or Tagging
The debate this morning on BBC Radio 5 is about punishment for crimes.
Most seem to be in favour of more prisons, but would we accept the extra taxes and where would we build them and where would we find the prison officers.
Having been over a prison recently, the biggest problem would appear to be lack of education and lack of jobs when they come out. In fact most of those I met, were extremely courteous to me and all the officers and others that worked and visitors. So the basics are there, it just needs to motivate them in the right way.
I am constantly reminded of the book, Menace to Society by Bill Fletcher. Fletcher had been in minor trouble for many years and had had all sorts of punishment. None had worked. In the 1960s, he ended up in Bow Street Magistrates Court in front of a Stipendiary Magistrate, who said he was going to give him the worst punishment he ever had. He let him go into the care of The Apex Trust, an organisation that rehabilitated offenders and still do. They taught him to read and write and he ended up as the doorman of the Shaw Theatre in London. I don’t think he was ever in trouble again.
I would agree that many offenders are beyond reform. On the other hand, a lot are good people underneath it all and with the application of a bit of training and a job, they can be set on the straight and narrow.
People Shouldn’t be so Thin-Skinned
There is a story in the Standard last night entitled Tantrum of the Opera. A Twickenham housewife tweeted to her friend that although she had seen the musical eighty times, she couldn’t stand the star. It has now developed into a full-blooded row.
I would make three conclusions from this.
In the first place the comment was only tweeted to a friend and thus the star is being a bit over the top.
Secondly, the lady has seen the musical eighty times, and so as she is effectively paying some of the star’s wages, she deserves a little respect.
Lastly, if I was producing a musical, I know someone, who I wouldn’t be employing.
They were also discussing another case on BBC Breakfast this morning, where someone made a comment about an X-Factor contestant. She has now suffered months of abuse.
She was possibly a bit unwise to say what she says, but it does illustrate, why you should always be careful what you say on social networking sites. However to abuse the lady and call her all sorts of unwise things in totally wrong.
The sooner we have a high profile case, where one of these so called trolls, gets some time at Her Majesty’s pleasure, the better. It will be interesting to see how much abuse the judge gets.
I have had a bit of abuse in my time over this blog and suspect it was because the post was about an odious foreign government.
She’ll Regret That Photo
The Times has an awful picture on the front page of Angela Merkel.
She looks in a terrible mood and if it wasn’t for her age, you might think that she was pregnant.
But then she has a lot of problems to solve!
John Major at the Leveson Enquiry
This is an extract from the BBC’s report on John Major appearing at the Leveson Enquiry.
Rupert Murdoch warned John Major to switch policy on Europe or his papers would not support him, the ex-prime minister has told the Leveson Inquiry.
Sir John recalled the exchange from a private meeting in 1997, which he said he had not spoken about before.
Later that year, his Conservative party lost power to Labour, with the Sun backing his rival Tony Blair.
Sir John said he was subjected to some “hurtful” press coverage while he was PM, but was “too sensitive” at times.
In about 1997, I was at a meeting, when John Major gave his view on the world. At that meeting, he said that “The Times, which used to be a newspaper, had accused him of dying his hair.” He then pointed to his grey hair and said. “Would anybody die it this colour?”
The Anonymous Widower 