Is There A Case For A mini-Peer-to-Peer Lender?
By all accounts, the lender of last resort, Wonga, is successful, despite the fact that it lends money at extortionate rates to those who shouldn’t really be borrowing money. On the other hand, the major peer-to-peer lenders, like Zopa, Funding Circle and Ratesetter, go from strength-to-strength and continue to gain plaudits from financial commentators.
If the peer-to-peer lenders have a problem, it is the perceived entry level, where potential investors like the concept, but are put off by not wanting to put several thousand pounds at risk.
So could the parameters of the peer-to-peer model be modified to borrow smaller amounts and lend it to out in dribs and drabs as payday loans?
I’m not sure, but it would be a much more ethical way of satisfying the market and possibly educating the borrowers as well.
You’re probably venturing very close to a completely automated credit union.
It Must Be The Silly Season!
I’m getting masses of spam, trying to get me to join casinos. I haven’t seen it at this level for a couple of years.
They say there’s one born every minute, but it would appear that most of them are promoting on-line casinos. I suppose it could be due to a large number of unemployed kids, who’ve just left university and this is the only job they can get.
It’s so sad really.
The Unknown Sprinter
Unless you live in London and regularly watch the local BBC News, you won’t know of Adam Gemili. It appears too, that the Olympic Accreditation Department didn’t either, as they got his picture wrong on his ID.
He runs on Saturday morning in the heats of the hundred metres.
I don’t think he’ll be unknown for long! Even Tyson Gay thinks he’s very good.
Arise Sir Bradley
If after his exploits this year in the Tour of France (It’s the Anglo-Saxon’s now!) and then his untouchable performance in the Olympic time-trial yesterday, where he made a world-class field look like amateurs, he must be odds-on to be knighted in the near future. The web certainly thinks so.
Would he be the first Sir Bradley?
Searching the Internet only finds an anti-gay evangelical Christian web-site, a US wrestler called Sir Bradley Charles and a Sir Bradley Avenue in Sacramento, California. In my book only the last one has any credence. So who was it named after?
So I think he would be the first Sir Bradley!
There of course a lot of sites saying he should be knighted.
For different reasons, such as his part in bringing the Olympics to London, it can’t be long before Her Majesty corrects the mistake the Greeks made over David Beckham, by adding a knighthood to his name.
What A Difference A New Train Makes
Getting back to Central London after a match at Wembley has been difficult all of my life, although since the new Wembley Park station has been built it’s been a bit better, especially when the police get their Triggers out.
But these last two days home after 70,000 plus crowds at Wembley have been much easier because of the new 8-car S-Stock trains. These take passengers on the Metropolitan line at 1,400 in each air-conditioned train load, On both days, I went all the way to Moorgate station for a friendly 141 bus almost to my door.
The trains are an enormous improvement and will get better, as track improvements and retirement of the A60-Stock allow higher speeds.
I Called It Right
I know a few Koreans and so I went with them to see them play at Wembley tonight against Gabon. We were a bit higher up in Club West.
Korea v Gabon at Wembley
The view was a bit better, than for the game last night.
It wasn’t an exciting game and the goalless draw was about fair. But it meant that Korea came second in their group.
When Great Britain won, it meant that the tickets, I’d bought on spec to see the quarter-final in Cardiff won’t have to be sold on.
I just felt the two teams might meet there. And I was right!
So it’ll be off on a High Speed Diesel Train on Saturday. What better way is there to travel to see your team?
Great Britain v Brazil At Wembley
I thought this would be a must-see event and as over 70,000 went I wasn’t alone in my thoughts. As ever I took a few pictures.
But there were empty seats as the pictures show.
The football was very good.
Perhaps to me, the difference between the two sides was that every time the ball went lose, the British team were on it, like a pack of hounds. Even the goal scored by Steph Houghton was after Brazil failed to clear a corner.
The one mistake Britain made was missing the penalty, but in the end that didn’t matter.
Beach Volleyball At Horse Guards Parade
Yesterday, I spent a pleasant afternoon at the beach volleyball on Horse Guards Parade.
Note :-
- The advert for New Zealand on top of New Zealand House.
- In four hours, we saw four matches. The Netherlands won two and Venezuela and Italy one each. Sadly the British women lost to the Italians. But the Dutch beating the Germans was probably very satisfying for them.
- The food was no better than at the Lee Valley.
- The weather wasn’t good, but everybody carried on regardless. Even the Italian and Australian girls, who obviously train in the sun!
- I’ve put most of the comments in the pictures.
In some ways the stadium itself is a star. It just shows how with careful design, you can build a temporary 16,000-seater stadium. How many other sports could put on a championship in such a stadium? It would be ideal for tennis, some equestrian sports like dressage, boxing and martial arts, to name just a few. The only problem in the UK would be the rain.
WordPress Change Picture Sizing
One of the things that annoys me is when people have a good system and then they change it for no good reason.
When I enter a picture in WordPress, I like them to be a particular size of 450 x 337, just like in this post.
I enter everything in visual mode and then once I’ve uploaded the picture, I edit it to get the right size. You used to just click the picture and then got an edit dialog, where you type in the size you want.
Now though the edit icon wants you to resize the picture using the mouse. It’s crap, as far as I’m concerned.
So now, I have to switch to text mode and change the values directly.
Why don’t people leave well enough alone.
The Silver Routemaster
First are running SRM 3, a silver Routemaster on one of London’s two heritage routes; number 9.
The Silver Routemaster
I use route 9, occasionally to get from Bank to Trafalgar Square. The last time, I used a Routemaster and was surprised at how many working people were on the bus.
How many museum pieces are still working full time on a normal cost public service?
The Anonymous Widower 