The Anonymous Widower

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.

June 27, 2012 Posted by | Computing, Finance, News | , , , , , | 2 Comments

Should We Ditch Huhne’s Wind Power Policy?

There is an article in The Times today from Dieter Helm, who is Professor of Energy Policy at Oxford University and a Fellow in Economics at New College at the same University.  So he should know what he is talking about. in fact, if you can get hold of a copy of today’s Times, the article on page 22 is a must-read!

He questions Chris Huhne’s energy policy of building lots of wind farms, especially as it will lead to higher energy bills against a background of falling gas prices. As gas is a fuel that creates less CO2 for the same amount of energy than coal, it would seem to me to be sensible, that whilst we wait for nuclear to come on stream, we use gas in the interim, as obvious low gas and electric prices will be a stimulus to the economy and our wind farms will do little to reduce the amount of world-wide CO2 emmissions, as China and India are commissioning a new coal-powered power station every week or so.

He finishes with a lovely quote.

Ministers who try to pick winners should remember that losers tend to pick governments.

He also indicates that energy and climate change policy needs substance, to make it a  workable one, that is believable to the man on the Dalston omnibus.

In my view that means scrapping expensive, inefficient and unsightly wind farm proposals, use more gas and build nuclear power stations for our long term needs. I am also a strong proponent of building a large tidal power station on the Severn, with an international airport on top.

It would also stimulate the country, if our electricity and gas bills were reduced.  The higher they get, the more likely it is that jobs needing a lot of energy will be exported to where energy is cheap, like India, China and the United States.  So we’ll get more global warming from their new coal-fired power stations.

February 6, 2012 Posted by | World | , , , , , | Leave a comment

A Doggy-Bag Story

We had dined in one of Mumbai’s finest restaurants and they didn’t stint on the portions.

And we failed to eat it all!

So they gave us a large doggy bag and told us to give it to one of the beggars outside. We tried to refuse the bag, but they insisted.

In some ways it’s sad that mothers have to beg for their food in one of India’s richest cities, but they have put a system together to help.

February 5, 2012 Posted by | Food | | 1 Comment

Today’s Times Leaders

They are a classic.

The first details the rows in the Labour Party and how Blairite is now an insult.

The second says that America’s investment in Mubarak’s leadership in Egypt was very misguided.

It finishes by taslking about how various factions and religions in India have destroyed the largest literary festival in Asia at Jaipur.

We need some compassionate and sensible thinking.

January 18, 2012 Posted by | World | , , | Leave a comment

Hare Krishna In The Rain

I hadn’t seen them on Oxford Street for some years, but they were there last week in the rain.

Hare Krishna in the Rain

We may think of them as harmless religious nutters.

But a couple of years ago, I heard their work in improving school sanitation in India widely praised by the Projects Director of UNICEF in a lecture at Emmanuel College in Cambridge.

December 26, 2011 Posted by | World | , , | Leave a comment

The Joy of Flying

This report makes me glad, that I probably won’t fly long-haul for some time.

October 16, 2011 Posted by | Transport/Travel | , , | Leave a comment

West Bengal To Change Name

I really don’t care what the Indian state of West Bengal is called, but it would appear that they are thinking of changing the name because the W put it at the bottom of lists of Indian states, so they get less inward investment.  The Times of India report it here.

The interesting point though is that being at the bottom alphabetically a bad thing? Do more Prime Ministers and Presidents have names beginning with A, B or C say?

August 30, 2011 Posted by | News | | 3 Comments

India Goes Barmy

My next door neighbour was once a retired British Army Colonel. After visiting India and seeing the rehearsal for the Republic Day ceremony in New Delhi, I said it was the best military ceremony, I’d seen and that included quite a bit of the Guards in London.

He said it was debatable, whether the Indians copied us in this field or we copied them. It doesn’t really matter, as a good spectacle is always a good spectacle.

So now after a disappointing summer for their cricketers, Charaan Shetty has launched the Indian Cricket Dundee, which is talked about in the Times today as an Indian version of the England’s Barmy Army.

August 18, 2011 Posted by | Sport | , | 3 Comments

We Could All Learn From This

India has just released their oldest prisoner, who was 108. He looks extremely dangerous as he is carried from jail by his relatives in this story on the BBC web site.

How many prisoners in jails in the UK and around the world should be released as they are ill or demented and well past an age at which they can do anybody harm?

June 18, 2011 Posted by | News | , , | 3 Comments

The Most Dangerous Part of an Aircraft

As someone who has over a 1,000 hours in command of light aircraft, with most of that in a big twin piston-engined Cessna 340, I read aviation stories, when I see them.

As to the most dangerous part of an aircraft, it’s the pilots, as this story proves.

I always remember the story of a Brazilian airliner that crashed on takeoff.  There was only two casualties, in that both pilots died, when the plane hit trees.  Afterwards it became apparent that they had been having a heated argument as they took off, which led to blows.

One doesn’t like to be uncharitable, but you can be if you want!

November 30, 2010 Posted by | News, Transport/Travel | , , | Leave a comment

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