The Northampton Chronicle and Echo
Apr 11 2013
It would seem that Northampton council have been using a council flat to store tools for eight years. Makes a mockery of the bedroom tax somewhat. Only discovered due to a freedom of information request seeming.
Glanced at the headline announcing the BBC’s new DG and did a quick double take as I thought it said they’d appointed Terry Hall as Director General. Mind you if they had I bet he still wouldn’t have looked happy about it.
Image by DerekL under this creative commons licence
An advert for Co-operative wholesale society bank from 1960
The news that the Co-op bank in the UK has ceased offering a basic bank account for undischarged bankrupts means that only Barclays will continue to offer such a banking facility.
So what are the options for anyone going through the personal bankruptcy process and desperately needing a basic bank account .
The way I see it is it’s Barclays Bank or one of the prepaid credit cards such as the Cashplus card which issue an account number and sort code to enable benefits or wages to be paid onto it and direct debits to be paid out of it accordingly (total access needs to be enabled by verifying your personal details in order to avoid any usage limitations).
As I understand it the sort code and account number facility for this prepaid card is supplied by the Co-op bank so it remains to be seen if this service will be affected in any way. Hopefully not or it’s Barclays or the highway for personal bankrupts. If anybody has further details then please let me know.
Bankruptcy isn’t the end of the world but not having access to a bank account of some kind until a discharge is issued can be a major handicap because it’s much harder to be paid cash in hand or to entirely make payments in cash without being financially penalised for so doing.
If you are facing personal bankruptcy or debt issues then it’s worth giving the UK national debtline a call.
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“One of the great things Canberra has going for it is low expectations”
A verbatim quote from an ABC Canberra radio interview with a representative from the company running a risky competition within Australia to get one of five hundred free holidays to the much maligned capital of Australia, Canberra in return for writing about the experience on social media.
As the report pointed out a similar exercise by the national airline Quantas backfired but clearly one person on the marketing team thinks even bad publicity would be good publicity and the public perception couldn’t possibly get any lower.
Scottish born American talk show comedian Craig Ferguson and Australian born film Actor Guy Pearce ended up apologising for running down Canberra in a previous light hearted interview on the American show which is shown in Australia on one of the free to air digital channels.
I’ve always loved Canberra but probably because it has, for me, an oddly European aesthetic and feels slightly out of place when compared with the rest of Australia. I await the outcome of the competition with interest.
Image by ~Prescott under this creative commons licence
Politics is a grubby business. BBC Television centre, that purpose built home of the BBC and instantly recognisable icon has finally been sold to *spit* property developers. All in the name of appeasing politicians and opponents who count the value of everything and appreciate the value of nothing very much at all. A sad day.
Image by strollerdos under this creative commons licence
In other ‘tinkering at the edges’ type news the British government (for want of a more accurate description) has announced an change to the hours during which people can get married.
Traditionally this marryin’ lark had to happen between 8am and 6pm. Only ‘traditional’ religious institutions don’t have to offer anything other than the old ..er..traditional hours so it looks like it will be restricted to civil ceremonies and a minority of enterprising religious hipsters.
All a little meaningless when unlike many other countries you still can’t get married where you like. Just places that have a licence.Oh and where are our celebrants? (other than only in Scotland)
I can remember filming a wedding many years ago that was scheduled for a 5:30pm start in church. Due to it being a stacker where this was the last of a day of weddings at the same church meant that cummulative delays at each previous wedding didn’t clear the church for the last ceremony until 5.45pm. Very embarrasin’
The Vicar promptly hurried the couple into place, announced we would sing only one verse of the first hymn before launching into the vows at speed, dispensing with the other two chosen hymns and having said couple walking like a couple of stunned mullets back down the aisle again by a few minutes to six. Almost a drive by affair such was its haste. All because of the 6pm deadline.
Photos in the grounds were also a rushed affair as the Vicar wanted to be locked up and home for tea pretty sharpish (ooh I could tell you some tales).
Tradition eh. A prison made of the familiar.
Image by Moyan Brenn under this creative commons licence.
A British space company based on the Isle of Man (let’s try not to dissect the many reasons why those words are not ordinarily arranged together in the same sentence) has bought a load of second hand space gear and is touting for trips to the Moon for those with enough spare change.
“But any space enthusiast wishing to make the trip would have to be willing to fly the craft themself because no trained astronauts would accompany them on their odyssey.”
The manual is in the glove box.
Interesting image on the company website under the title of research and development (click on image 3).
Image by Terry Madeley under this creative commons licence
