Buyer beware
I read this morning that 2,000 new claims are lodged every day for compensation in respect of improperly sold payment protection insurance. PPI has become a huge industry. It’s a dripping roast for ambulance chasing lawyers. It’s costing banks billions at the very time when they are supposed to be rebuilding after the crisis.
Why?
I have no trouble in accepting that in cases where borrowers were pressured aggressively or coerced into signing up for such insurance, payback is due. But in others, where the punters simply didn’t know that PPI was included in their package, I’m sceptical. I don’t see why people should be compensated for their own failure to read the small print. I did Latin at school; I know what caveat emptor means.
Why do I give a toss about this? Because I am seriously pissed off by unsolicited text messages from con-men telling me that I am due two or three grand in compensation for missold PPI when I know for sure that I have never had that sort of cover.
A sensible Westminster government would put a statutory time limits on PPI claims. Unfortunately we don’t have one.
Graven image
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-21665179
I’m giving a lot away here, but what exactly is a ‘Justin Beiber’? I’m assuming that he’s some sort of living idol. if so, I prefer the inanimate sort. They don’t treat their followers with contempt, or rip them off for a few hundred of their hard earned bank-notes.
Stock Exchange Blues
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-scotland-business-21652353
Another couple of years of this, and it could be back to square one. Hope not.
Cardinal Sin
In the wake of the O’Brien affair, I may be splitting hairs here, but are priests allowed to have any sort of ‘sexual conduct’? Can we expect more compromised clerics to beat the gun and ‘fess up before potential accusers come forward? Or can we expect that the Catholic church will re-examine the discipline that it imposes on its ordained priests? Many of us will remember the scandal of Roddy Wright. Indeed I believe I met him once, at a family gathering. He was guilty of love; for that he was disgraced, and was lucky there was no tar or feathers handy. But what is the basis of priestly celibacy? It’s church law not God’s. It makes clergy stand apart from their congregations. I wonder if it might not be better if they stood closer to them, sharing all the situations of their everyday lives, so that they might better understand their problems?
I’ll watch what I like, and like what I watch whether the ******* Guardian likes it or not
My thanks to Joy for drawing this patronising twat to my attention. Taxi for Hogan; you really don’t have clue do you?
http://www.guardian.co.uk/tv-and-radio/tvandradioblog/2013/feb/11/death-in-paradise-how-viewers
Can’t be ar*ed
Hell, I should be working, but it’s a nice day.
Babble
http://www.bbc.co.uk/newsbeat/21574930
Flavour of the month, but what language does she speak and why the **** should anyone care? People are homeless, people are hungry, people are dying of preventable disease, so why are we giving airtime to some spoiled kid in a posh frock?
Meat is murder
QJ’s view of the horse meat scandal. It serves us all right for eating our fellow mammals. We should have risen above that centuries ago, but we’re all cannibals at heart really.
What’s the real story?
Thirty years ago, I worked in politics. Back then I believed that the BBC’s coverage was institutionally biased, not necessarily against one party but against the perceived favourite in any situation. Looking at its coverage this morning of the Eastleigh by-election, it seems to me that nothing has changed.
BBC reaction to the LibDem victory has been neutral, UKIP’s second place being the big story. The Tories on the other hand, have been ‘humiliated’, according to its political correspondent.
Really? Presumably Robin Brant is experienced, or he wouldn’t be standing in front of the camera with a microphone in his hand. In that case he should have taken a closer look at the numbers. They suggest that if ‘humiliation’ is being alleged, both the coalition parties stand accused, but it seems that the concept of a humiliating victory is beyond Mr Brant’s comprehension. It seems so, but there’s a greater story in play.
Let’s look at the numbers. While beaten into third place, the swing against the Conservatives was actually less than that against the winners, and the margin between the two coalition parties was less than Chris Huhne’s LibDem majority at the 2010 general election. While acknowledging that the turnout was only 52.8%, the numbers are still spectacular. The LibDems polled 11,624 votes fewer, while the Tory vote fell by 10,543. Its majority over the party in second place was cut from 3,864 to 1,771. On the face of it it won only because it started from a higher base than the Tories. The UKIP leader Nigel Farago (I know, it’s Farage, but isn’t my version a far better name for a politician?) suggests that his party may have polled more votes than anyone else in the ballot box, losing only because of postal votes cast ten days before election day. He may have a point; 20% of Eastleigh electors voted postally in 2010 and for yesterday’s by-election over 14,000 postal ballot papers were issued.
Where did I get these numbers? From the coverage by Sky News, which in my humble, left the BBC lagging behind years ago in the quality of its political analysis.
What will all this mean in two years, come the next General Election? Nothing directly, but what does it mean now for the party leaders? It means we will see a lot more of Mr Farago from now on. It means that Nick Clegg is absolutely secure. Most significantly, it means that the nail holding Dave Cameron’s jacket has become very shoogly, and that is the real story that the BBC is seeking to advance, through its florid, if unsupportable language.
Who gives one?
One for the more intense followers of Scottish football; Lord Nimmo-Smith (who he?) and his ‘independent’ commission have imposed a fine of £250,000 on a company that is on the verge of liquidation, with minimal assets and a long queue of creditors. My thoughts: 1) Who gives a shit? 2) Was the unc0llectable fine Lord N-S’s way of justifying the costs of his pointless investigation? 3) Can we all get on with our lives now?
Bad and good
The bad news is that Death in Paradise series 2, ended last night. The good news is that series 3 has been commissioned and will be on air next year.
No shame, Esther?
I’ve just been revolted by this ad which popped up on a page I was reading.
My first thought was that dear Esther might have been a victim, but no such luck.
Edgy drama
Around a month ago, I was in a production room at BBC Scotland, waiting to be a guest in Fred Macaulay’s radio programme. The show was on air and I was able to listen to Stephen Poliakoff promoting his new project, a five part drama, Dancing on the Edge. My thoughts at the time were that SP is a genius when it comes to plugging his own work and also that ‘Dancing’ would have to be exceptional to live up to the BBC hype.
Now that it’s over I can report that it was exactly that, a brilliant piece of original drama with a star cast on top of their form. If you haven’t been following it, or you haven’t been able to, the DVD will be released next month.
Que?
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-21547513
This should also be a requirement for people working in call centres operated by UK financial institutions. Ever had one of those calls where you couldn’t understand a word the person in Mumbai was saying?
Oz
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-21519050
I’d like to go back there. I’d better start saving
Farewell, young Tom
And so farewell Richard Briers. God speed on your journey to The Good Afterlife.
I have often wondered why he didn’t really build on his early success with that seminal and much loved TV series. My best guess is that it was down to having his teeth capped. Somehow, it changed his appearance, and made him look less like the nice guy next door, and more like the bank manager you really don’t want to face across his desk.
Hanging on the telephone
Ever wonder how much of your life you spend hanging on the phone waiting for call centres to answer, listening to Godawful music and beng told periodically that they really are working very hard to answer you?
Yeah, me too. It’s as well I don’t know.
Toddlers kept off public beach by elite golf club
This is Gullane West beach; it’s beautiful, it’s public, but it’s a longish walk to reach it and the footpath is rough and very difficult for those with small children. It is possible to reach it by car but the only road runs across land owned by Muirfield Golf Club, and is strictly private. Thus, only members and their kids have easy access. To me, this is unfortunate. Hell, it’s a damned shame; surely it’s time that road was opened up, or another way found of making it more accessible.
Horse-shit
Another reflection from my beach-walk. I’m not a dog owner but I borrow one occasionally, so I’m aware of the social and legal pressure that is put upon us to clean up what we must now call, it seems, our pets’ ‘poo’.
That is all well and good, but having just negotiated a public path on a popular walk, I find myself asking, fairly loudly, why the same duties are not imposed upon people with horses. We may not fancy them in our Tesco Spag Bol, but they can crap anywhere they like? Excuse me?
Could it be that while the dog is the common man’s best friend, laws and attitudes are still framed largely by the horse-owning classes?
