My Dalliance With Joan Collins
Joan Collins was on BBC Breakfast this morning plugging a book.
I actually met her once in the queue for Immigration at Heathrow, after we’d both flown in from the United States. All I can say, is that she looked a lot better this morning, as I suspect she’d had time to do her make-up properly.
She did ask me a favour in the queue at Heathrow, which I declined. but then I never light anybody else’s ciggie. Or even one for myself, for that matter! Even if it belongs to Joan Collins!
Interviews Before Execution
This article on the BBC web site, puts a whole new slant on reality television.
We’re back to the public executions at Tyburn that finished in the last 18th Century. The list on Wikipedia of those who were executed there, includes Oliver Cromwell, who was actually posthumously executed, after exhumation of his body from Westminster Abbey.
A Glorious Celestial Display
The next few months are very exciting if you are an astronomer or even just someone interested in the stars. This excellent summary from the BBC lays it out well. Last night, I was able to see Venus and Jupiter above the houses at about six, as I walked to the bus to go to Islington. So if I can see it in Central London, the view must be much better, where there is no light pollution.
The article mentions a Transit of Venus in June. I was lucky enough to observe the one in 2004 from Suffolk.
Considering they occur rarely, Iwas very lucky. In 2004, no-one actually was able to watch their second Transit of Venus, as the previous one had occurred in 1882.
Wikipedia says this about their frequency.
Transits of Venus are among the rarest of predictable astronomical phenomena. They occur in a pattern that repeats every 243 years, with pairs of transits eight years apart separated by long gaps of 121.5 years and 105.5 years.
I’ll try and find the pictures, I took at the time.
An Excellent Comment on Banking
My Google Alert for Zopa found this today by Richard Heller on a web site called politics.co.uk. I particularly liked this bit, which is the author’s idea.
The banks should be compelled to offer all their customers a facility called a good neighbour account. The customer would receive a guarantee that all the funds from such an account which are available for investment by the bank would be lent exclusively to local people and local small and medium-sized businesses. They would not be lent to foreign dictators or racketeers and they would not be used to speculate in fantasy financial products which their bank cannot value or even understand.
The bank in question would not have to track its use of every single such account. But it would have to publish accounts to show that all the available aggregate funds in such accounts had at least been matched by aggregate local lending to individuals and qualifying businesses. There seems to be a market for this kind of lending, as witnessed by the recent growth of peer-to-peer financial institutions. Britain’s largest such company, Zopa, had its best-ever month in January. But no one has yet tried to bring the concept into a current account.
If demand for good neighbour accounts really took off, it could force the banks to revive the old model of Captain Mainwaring banking. The hero of Dad’s Army received money from local people and businesses in Walmington-on-Sea. He kept some of this in cash or at call. He lent the rest to other local people and businesses in Walmington-on-Sea. Captain Mainwaring, and others like him, helped Britain to finance the huge demands of the Second World War and then to finance a generation of recovery and growth. All this was achieved with the minimum of government regulation or support.
In contrast with the Mainwaring era, too many of Britain’s modern banks have been run by Private Walker, the spiv, or worse still by Private Pike, the stupid boy.
He mentions Zopa as nearest to this ideal of banking, which certainly our parents would have recognised.
Zopa of course has paid me a lot more in interest, than ever I would have got from a reputable bank.
Charlotte Rampling and Elizabeth Frink
There was a piece in the Times yesterday about Charlotte Rampling and how at 66, she is still finding good parts. The article mentions her father, Godfrey, as an Army officer, but he was more than that. He was a superb athlete, winning gold in the 1936 Olympics and died three years ago at 100.
Charlotte was born in one of the villages surrounding Haverhill in Suffolk. As was Elisabeth Frink, one of our finest sculptors.
There must be something in the water.
The Reliability of Zopa
Every morning I check the status of my Zopa and normal bank accounts.
Zopa was fine today, but my bank account was inaccessible for routine maintenance from midnight yesterday until eight this morning.
It got me thinking that I don’t think in the over four years, I have used Zopa, I’ve never not been able to access the system.
To be fair though, I have hit a couple of bugs in the past, which have resulted in say the system hanging until I have logged back in, but I certainly haven’t had a problem in the last couple of years, when my use of the system has been heaviest.
So if you worry about Zopa’s reliability, I’d say it’s probably up there with the best financial institutions.
On the related subject of fraud on Zopa, I found this article on the web. The writer makes a lot of sound points.
The Mystery Knitter Of Saltburn
This story turned up during the week, where a mystery knitter made a 50 metre Olympic-themed scarf and tied it to Saltburn pier.
What Is The Plural of a Plural?
Most surnames are singular, like Smith, Brown or Cameron, so if you’re say going to supper with friends with this name, you might say you’re going to the Smiths.
But what do you do, if your friends have a name that s already plural? I have friends with such a name of French origin that in French would be plural.
So what do you call them collectively?
Rangers Launch Fans Fighting Fund
It has been reported on the BBC, that Rangers have launched a Fans Fighting fund.
I thought, that was what they did anyway!
At least they’ll go down fighting!
THe land of the free – unless you’re female
Janice turner is on form in The Times today, with an article, which has the headline above.
It is summed up by this early paragraph.
How bizarre it is to watch the United States — the upbeat, future-focused wellspring of all things exciting and new — tear itself apart over contraception. America, capital of the global porn industry, teen pregnancy gold medallist, progenitor of Madonna and Gaga, having its presidential election defined by the morality of birth control.
Apparently, the United States is making it much harder for women to get contraception and has gone totally against people planning their family. Especially if you’re poor.
Even countries as Catholic as Ireland and Italy have seen that contraception is one of those things that creates a better society.
So does the United States want to create a worse country for its poor?
Obviously, they need a lot of male children to fight their wars and female ones to care for the injured.
The Anonymous Widower 