no more ranting at the TV: February 2006

Tuesday, February 21, 2006

BBC

I’m no fan of the BBC as regular readers will know, but todays breakfast output descended to new depths.

They did a follow up piece on some farmer who they had covered five years previously during the “foot and mouth” outbreak. At the time he was full of doom and gloom prophesies about the future. Five years on, he had bought more land and more sheep.

The BBC did the obligatory “poor farmers” bit showing this bloke “doing a part time job to help make ends meet” What they failed to mention, that anyone who can buy acres of countryside is by no means poor, and the impression they created, of some guy looking to make a few pounds was simply false.

They also failed to mention that during foot and mouth, farmers were paid compensation by the government (i.e. you and me) for their diseased lambs, at about twice the rate they would have received for live animals !

So the farmer having being helped out of difficulty by a hapless taxpayer was happily showing the dolt reporter some new born lambs, and the whole report amounted to nothing more than “Oh, poor farmers, oooh lovely newborn lambs”

It totally failed to tackle any serious issues relating to the state funding of farming in the UK. Now for some kind of kiddie vet show, fine, but for a formerly serious news organisation – do me a favour! And the worst of this? We are compelled to pay for this propaganda, as well as for the farmers livelihood.

State funding should be withdrawn from both.

Saturday, February 18, 2006

Virgin, experian and certain death 3

So finally, waaaay after the instant access that was promised, I get my credit report, and it says that Virgin Credit Cards report me as in default for over 5 months, (and I'm sooooo not, as they themselves have now agreed).

Now in January, someone (we can't give names) promises to correct the record, as this is very serious and of course a criminal libel.

And as of yesterday, nothing had happened. So I ring Virgin again, and I'm on the phone to various drones for over an hour, and in the end, " a manager will definetly call me back today"

You can guess the rest.

So after trying to make myself understood for about 10 months with their call centre and utterly failing, it looks like I might need to sue them, to get them to pay attention !!

What an absolute fucking ball buster and waste of time and money !!!!

Friday, February 17, 2006

Big up my friends

I was pondering the true nature of wealth, and of course money is a big factor. But so are friends, so to my friends, in no set order:

John W: We were friends in infant school (ie Kindergarten) aged four, and he's still a great guy, though he doesn't go to footie nearly enough

John R: Friend from senior school, profoundly smart man, and makes me (!) seem historically limited, really, really thoughtful and great company, as well as being a fan of fine wine and vintage cognac

Matt: business partner and so much more, friend from college, great guy, and come June 6th I'm his best men, what an honour.

Richie: My elder brother, utterly trustworthy, fellow bluebirds fan and a man who can find fun in anything, always fun to be with

G-force: He is Luke to my Obi-Wan at the moment, but he's gone from dateless 90lb weakling, to a man who can squat 300lbs, and knock out about 18 chins (bastard!). He did look like a famine victim, he now looks like a "Mens Health" cover guy, and has a succession of chicks after him, He now demonstrates the man he really is.

Nic: Middle aged blokes can't make friends, but this guy is sound, smart, a great skier, and very focussed. Kinda lad you could trust with your nympho model girlfriend.

Daz: Haven't seen him since 10 years when he left for California, but, really, really gotta catch up

Vafa: She was and still is impossible, and I mean impossible!!! but you know you'd give up the Kidney as necessary

And e-friends: I've never met any internet buddies, but hi to Helen, who sooooo underrates her magnificence (you don't see what I, or the rest of the world see!) and Meghan who, if ever, there is such a thing as soul mates, she's mine. A beautiful, thoughtful, kind, deep, intelligent woman ~ you wouldn't design one any different.

Life is far richer with all of you playing some kind of part, so, many, many thanks

Wednesday, February 15, 2006

Retailing

An all party group of MP’s looking at retailing produced a report that was published today, that I find utterly baffling. In essence they want to “support” small retailers, and ensure that large retailers don’t dominate and produced “cloned towns”

There is almost nothing in this report that I agree with. First off, large retailers get to be large by supplying goods and services to people at a price they like. If they don’t do this, they won’t be large retailers for very long. Small retailers with either succeed in niche markets or by supplying value added customer care. Maybe they will get to be large retailers one day.

But what we surely don’t need is a retail ombudsman, (meaning more civil servants, more regulation and more tax). If small business needs help it needs it in the form of lower taxes and less regulation. As for the less successful retailers, why is it in my interest as a consumer to have to pay higher prices, for a lesser product range? Surely we should not give business like this some kind of statutory protection?

Then there is the argument that we need to maintain competition in retailing. I’m very confident that Tesco, Sainsbury’s, Asda/Walmart, Morrissons, Aldi, Lidl, Waitrose, Co-op and one or two others do this just fine.

Finally there is the charge that we are producing clone town centres. This is broadly true. But really, look at tedious unimaginative planning officers and planning committee members who believe everything should be “in-keeping” This is a philosophy which utterly stifles imaginative development and actually leads to the “clone-town” phenomena

So really, the government as ever, jujst need to back away and let architects design quality buildings without stupid planning restrictions (look at the Bluewater frontages for an example of this) and let shops compete, and we will have varied products at low prices, without the need for more civil servants.

Thursday, February 09, 2006

Virgin, experian and certain death 2

So 48 hours go by and I get this e-mail saying welcome to experian blah, blah

We will send you a PIN by mail in the next "few" days to enable you to start using your account.

This is not "instant" access.

And the worst thing, after negotiating my way through these fuckwits, who would take bets that Virgin have indeed notified them that I was not, in any way a bad debtor?

This could be long(er) and painful.

Wednesday, February 08, 2006

A sorry to all my many stalkers

I thought I simply enabled word verification but with my computer sagacity I somehow managed to ban comments altogether !

Dah....

Tuesday, February 07, 2006

Virgin, experian and certain death

Ten months ago I'm in this motorway service station and this honey says to me, "would you like to apply for a Virgin credit card?" As these jobs suck, and as she was kinda nice I say "Sure" and two weeks later I get one. I never used it and after a month I get a bill for £15 from 3 Telecom in Maidenhead. So I ring 'em and say "I don't have a 3 phone, nor live in Maidenhead, this is wrong" They said fine and asked me to fill in this form, and I didn't want to 'cos I was just repeating exactly what I'd just told 'em, but okay I did it.

Next month, bill says carried over from last month £15, late payment charge £10. I ring 'em again and am assured everything is fine if I just fill in a form. "I've already done so, and won't do so again, sort this out" They say sure, no problem, etc This goes on for 10 months of letters phone calls and threats and the bill is up to £200 by which time they say, "we are taking you to court" I say "Great 'cos I'm counter-suing, what's the date" this actually makes their lawyer open the file and he says "Whoops, you don't owe us anything" Hallelujah.

"One last thing, you have to tell your credit reference agency, that I have NOT been in default for 10 months, send me a copy of the letter you will send them" They said they couldn't 'cos it would be e-mail. So I told 'em to send me a copy of the e-mail and they say they can't for some unlikely technical reason.

So given that Virgin credit card in my experience behaved with all the financial skill and temerity of monkeys at a salad bar, I decide to check for myself. So I go on the Experian website for "free instant access to your file" The "free" access is gonna cost me £5.99 per month if I don't cancel the DD but okay, soo I fill in all the details, and get a message about a technical problem.

So I ring thier call centre and say "I can't access my account" bloke says "You only joined today, it takes 48 hours" "but the website says instant" says a by now bitter and twisted Stu. "Er, yes" says the hapless dolt.

So I think fuck 'em and I go the the Advertising Standards Authority website and tell 'em all about it....and wait for it......

The page won't submit.

So nearly a year of my life dealing with fuckwits, who have nothing to do with me, but can't do thier own jobs at all, and so I suffer massively unless I sort out problems NOT of my own making. So, lesson the first;

Virgin Credit Cards in my experience - hapless
Experian Credit Reference agency - misleading claims on the website
The ASA - hey it's the government, what did I really expect?

I shall never do business with any of these entities again. Make your own mind up.

Thursday, February 02, 2006

Shell

...announced profits of almost £13B today.

there will be calls no doubt for windfall taxes on these "obscene" profits. But such thinking is sloppy and here's why.

First shell already pay taxes around £4B as well as employing loads of people, facilitating the governments petrol tax revenues, VAT, Employers national insurance etc. They pay enough.

Second, companies can move operations easily today. We should welcome success, not be suspicious or openly hostile to it.

Third, when the storms struck the Florida coast, we didn't see the government offering money to help out with the repairs, Shell and its shareholders took the risk, they should take the profit.

Fourth, we need to source new oil deposits. The government aren't looking, Shell are and this will take a lot of money.

Fifth, we are on about new sources of energy and Shell and others are researching this. Taxing their profits will hit their R & D budgets.

Sixth, you and I probably own part of Shell through our pension funds. We would be taxing ourselves and pensions need all the help they can get right now, not more taxes.

Seven, what is obscene about making a profit ? Is there a level of profit that is "decent" and another that is immoral, and who says what this is?

So really, no new taxes, Pu....lease

no more ranting at the TV