Following the Met’s various disasters, I suggested at work that if anyone’s nickname is The Fraudster or The Bank Robber, that one of us should call compliance.
Perhaps other organisations should consider this?
I used to work with a guy we called "the terrorist" but he most assuredly was not
There was a guy I worked with nicknamed the Duke, but actually he was a German Prince...
He used to call me "The Count"... at least I think that´s what he was saying...
Instead of red tape for pointless cash machines how about doing something about tuition fees which most people will now never pay off and will still be paying into their 50s?
The Tories must go. Their priorities are helping the over 70s not anyone that actually works.
Cash machines are not pointless. They're vital. And cash represents freedom.
Unless your wallet gets nicked, in which case it represents an irretrievable loss, as my son has just discovered this morning while on holiday. At least he was able to use his phone to lock his card before it could be used; there's no locking cash though.
On the other hand, if you lose your phone, you can use cash to pay for everything while you get a new one and get everything set up again (which, as I discovered takes a few days) and it's much easier to get hold of more cash if needed than another phone.
Instead of red tape for pointless cash machines how about doing something about tuition fees which most people will now never pay off and will still be paying into their 50s?
The Tories must go. Their priorities are helping the over 70s not anyone that actually works.
Who introduced tuition fees? New Labour
They never made the fees unaffordable as your lot have done.
They were going to, Mr Bat. Don't you remember? Labour set up a commission to review the level of their top-up fees, and promised to implement whatever the commission came up with.
Then Labour lost the general election, and the Coalition Government took over. The Tories, of course, wanted to raise top-up fees to £15,000 or thereabouts, Labour were supposedly committed to £9000. The Lib Dems, in government, held the increase down to £9000, and were blamed most unjustly by everybody for the increase.
It's an unfair world, of course, but really Labour ought to have taken the blame for all the tuition fees problem.
New Labour were wrong on tuition fees. Tories are wrong on tuition fees.
They've been in government now for 13 years, it is evident they want to saddle us with debt and not ever have us own a home whilst gifting the elderly with a triple locked pension.
Fuck the Tories.
Tuition fees are right and appropriate, otherwise it's just another bung to the middle classes. Without them, the system would be unaffordable unless numbers were slashed - which would have other, major, knock-on effects.
However, what's not right are (1) the amount of interest charged, which should be the lower of BoEBR / CPI inflation, and (2) as you say, a housing market stacked heavily against anyone under 40 (or older in some parts of the country). Scrap most planning regulations; presume a right to develop other than in exceptional circumstances; reduce red tape to encourage more small developers; build!
That, and the extra taxes on top, with bungs to pensioners on the other side, is basically why young people have stopped voting Tory.
Why would they?
It was different in 1979. The Tories were then offering them the chance to take their money on holiday, more freedom from closed-shop Unions, and the chance to own their own home.
I think that's sensible. I'm 1.2 miles from the nearest cashpoint, and exactly 3 miles from a second if that one is out of service. Should be feasible for the whole of England, perhaps some tricky cases in the Scottish Highlands.
Have you any idea of how many additional ATM's that would mean in rural Northumberland? I was living 1.5 miles from the nearest shop let alone ATM. That was 4 plus. And I was in the relatively well populated Tyne Valley.
Well banks can now be fined by the FCA if they don't provide a branch or ATM within 3 miles in rural areas
How does that work? They can simply say "not me, chum, some other bank can do it".
Some rural areas, you'd almost be lucky to have a *commercial building* to put an ATM in.
Nope the FCA can now fine any bank which shuts a branch in a market town or suburb or fails to provide an ATM in them either, no excuse
So does the fine go to the people who are the last to close an ATM in an area then?
This could lead to a rush not to be the last institution with an ATM in the area, and face being trapped doing so indefinitely.
No it goes to banks who sut branches too and who fail to provide ATMs in the area even if they don't have one now
That doesn't make sense. All bank branches have ATMs anyway so "shut a branch and don't have an ATM" is an emopty set.
I’ve been into a bank branch that didn’t have an ATM. Rare, but they occur.
Ah, thanks. I did wonder, but couldn't think of any. But, most of the time, most places, that'll apply. So the problem remains (and also whether FCA will even fine the bank more than 51p in cash).
Well, one was a Coutts office (meeting a friend that worked there). They had a counter for Coutts customers, but no machine.
Mind you, the funniest was a cash machine at Citi in Canary Wharf. That only dispensed £50 notes. I thought it symbolic of something - hubris? Idiocy? Still not entirely clear.
Especially odd seeing as £50 notes are hard to actually spend anywhere without someone pulling out an eye loupe.
True fact - until I moved to London aged 23 I had never seen a £50 note in real life (even though I'd done quite a bit of retail work).
You are right that most people do not see them. Friends gave someone a framed Turing £50 note for an IT worker's 50th birthday. They'd not realised the Turing notes were in general circulation; they thought it was a short-lived special like Peter Rabbit 50p pieces, so bought one on ebay at a large premium.
That's a sad story. Kindly thoughtfulness leads to financial loss and awkwardness all round.
A fair piece by Anne McElvoy on the current free speech debate. Warning that some culture warriors on the left or right may find it offensive so if that is you best to avoid.
I think that's sensible. I'm 1.2 miles from the nearest cashpoint, and exactly 3 miles from a second if that one is out of service. Should be feasible for the whole of England, perhaps some tricky cases in the Scottish Highlands.
Have you any idea of how many additional ATM's that would mean in rural Northumberland? I was living 1.5 miles from the nearest shop let alone ATM. That was 4 plus. And I was in the relatively well populated Tyne Valley.
Well banks can now be fined by the FCA if they don't provide a branch or ATM within 3 miles in rural areas
How does that work? They can simply say "not me, chum, some other bank can do it".
Some rural areas, you'd almost be lucky to have a *commercial building* to put an ATM in.
Nope the FCA can now fine any bank which shuts a branch in a market town or suburb or fails to provide an ATM in them either, no excuse
So does the fine go to the people who are the last to close an ATM in an area then?
This could lead to a rush not to be the last institution with an ATM in the area, and face being trapped doing so indefinitely.
No it goes to banks who sut branches too and who fail to provide ATMs in the area even if they don't have one now
That doesn't make sense. All bank branches have ATMs anyway so "shut a branch and don't have an ATM" is an emopty set.
I’ve been into a bank branch that didn’t have an ATM. Rare, but they occur.
Ah, thanks. I did wonder, but couldn't think of any. But, most of the time, most places, that'll apply. So the problem remains (and also whether FCA will even fine the bank more than 51p in cash).
Well, one was a Coutts office (meeting a friend that worked there). They had a counter for Coutts customers, but no machine.
Mind you, the funniest was a cash machine at Citi in Canary Wharf. That only dispensed £50 notes. I thought it symbolic of something - hubris? Idiocy? Still not entirely clear.
Especially odd seeing as £50 notes are hard to actually spend anywhere without someone pulling out an eye loupe.
True fact - until I moved to London aged 23 I had never seen a £50 note in real life (even though I'd done quite a bit of retail work).
There's an atm on Park Lane that dispenses in fifties.
I think that's sensible. I'm 1.2 miles from the nearest cashpoint, and exactly 3 miles from a second if that one is out of service. Should be feasible for the whole of England, perhaps some tricky cases in the Scottish Highlands.
Have you any idea of how many additional ATM's that would mean in rural Northumberland? I was living 1.5 miles from the nearest shop let alone ATM. That was 4 plus. And I was in the relatively well populated Tyne Valley.
Well banks can now be fined by the FCA if they don't provide a branch or ATM within 3 miles in rural areas
How does that work? They can simply say "not me, chum, some other bank can do it".
Some rural areas, you'd almost be lucky to have a *commercial building* to put an ATM in.
Nope the FCA can now fine any bank which shuts a branch in a market town or suburb or fails to provide an ATM in them either, no excuse
So does the fine go to the people who are the last to close an ATM in an area then?
This could lead to a rush not to be the last institution with an ATM in the area, and face being trapped doing so indefinitely.
No it goes to banks who sut branches too and who fail to provide ATMs in the area even if they don't have one now
That doesn't make sense. All bank branches have ATMs anyway so "shut a branch and don't have an ATM" is an emopty set.
I’ve been into a bank branch that didn’t have an ATM. Rare, but they occur.
Ah, thanks. I did wonder, but couldn't think of any. But, most of the time, most places, that'll apply. So the problem remains (and also whether FCA will even fine the bank more than 51p in cash).
A new improved political compass, in the binary letter-combo style of Myers Briggs. Covering the 6 principal faultlines in British politics and ideology (or at least on PB):
Like Myers-Briggs, a forced preference - you have to fall on one side or other rather than claiming to be in the centre or that it depends.
1. Economics, which instead of left vs right I would define as socialised vs market. The extremes on each side being freewheeling market fundamentalism and communism, but in Britain more a case of believing in more or less state intervention in the economy:
S = socialised M = market
2. Social and identity politics: traditionalist/authoritarian vs liberal. Are you woke or anti-woke? Should we topple statues of slavers? Do we need a lavatory tsar and so on.
W = woke A = anti-woke
3. Green politics: are you an eco-warrior who wants us all on our bikes, stopping drilling in the North Sea and installing heat pumps, or are you a petrolhead who upholds everyone's right to keep 3 gas guzzlers in the cul-de-sac, thinks LTNs are the spawn of the devil, and wonders if the climate crisis stuff isn't just a tad overwrought.
E = eco-warrior P = petrolhead
4. Nimby vs Yimby. Should we concrete over the green belt and build build build because the country needs infrastructure, or protect what remains of our green and pleasant land?
N = nimby Y = yimby
5. Russia and Ukraine: are you a hawk or a dove? Do you despair of keyboard toy soldiers bloodthirstily escalating until the last Ukrainian / global thermonuclear war, and understand Russia's historical concerns on NATO expansion and the rights of Russian speakers in Donbas? Or do you see Putin as a fascist thug who must be defeated to avoid greater problems down the line?
D = dove H = hawk
6. Brexit or remain. In or out?
B = Brexit R = remain
As of today I am MWEYHR, although a couple of those are marginal (S/M and N/Y).
I liked this because I think it's useful to think about politics in different ways, but Myer-Briggs is a really bad model to use. Also I don't think you'd find many woke petrolheads, or vice versa, so you can probably reduce the number of dimensions.
I think Baxter's three dimensions, and the seven political tribes he derives from them, are really pretty good, and are a framework we should use to think about British politics more often.
So when we think about red wall seats and the voters in them people are often thinking about the group that Baxter labels "Somewheres". Left-wing economically, but socially conservative and patriotic.
A large number of posters on pb.com are in the group Baxter calls "Progressives" - centrist economically, but Internationalist and socially liberal.
It's easy to think of posters on pb.com who fall into the groups "Kind Young Capitalists", "Strong Right" and "Strong Left".
I wouldn't say that pb.com has many "Centrists", "Traditionalists" or "Somewheres".
We can see clearly why the pro-EU Tories have been so fundamentally defeated. They exist in an almost deserted area of political space, with very little of the British public for company, so little that no group is defined to describe them.
Actually we do have woke petrolheads on here, and we also have anti-woke environmentalists. The good thing about Myers Briggs is it creates a large number of categories, which helps when you get misfits: people who don't have predictable views on everything. The trouble with sorting people into a small number of tribes is it doesn't capture these exceptions.
Baxter doesn't really deal with opinions on foreign policy, building/nimbyism or - properly - environmentalism either. It essentially lumps climate scepticism in with social conservatism, which is often wrong.
Yeah I'm not fond of Baxter's groupings. The diagnostics are too focused on specific issues (particularly migration). Also the question about too many people being sent to prison is not really saying enough about your views on law and order.
Law and order should be fertile ground for Labour I think. Exactly as you say, the Tories have for too long conflated justice policy with crime prevention policy. Sentencing is no substitute for good policing. Better and more effective policing, evidence collection, improved conviction rates, even basic follow up on property crime would all go much further to discourage offending than just lengthening prison sentences. Yet sentencing is all they bang on about.
This.
I don't think there's any correlation between severity of sentencing and crime rates, is there?
(Unless it's a positive correlation - the more severe the sentencing, the higher the crime rates.)
A long while back, the Grauniad ran a puzzled headline - “Record numbers in prison, crime falls”
The vast majority of crime is committed by multiple repeat offenders.
Under the coalition, for a while, giving bail to people for multiple levels of offences was stopped. So if you were on bail for burglary, got caught, bailed again, got caught, you got warehoused.
Instead of red tape for pointless cash machines how about doing something about tuition fees which most people will now never pay off and will still be paying into their 50s?
The Tories must go. Their priorities are helping the over 70s not anyone that actually works.
Who introduced tuition fees? New Labour
They never made the fees unaffordable as your lot have done.
They were going to, Mr Bat. Don't you remember? Labour set up a commission to review the level of their top-up fees, and promised to implement whatever the commission came up with.
Then Labour lost the general election, and the Coalition Government took over. The Tories, of course, wanted to raise top-up fees to £15,000 or thereabouts, Labour were supposedly committed to £9000. The Lib Dems, in government, held the increase down to £9000, and were blamed most unjustly by everybody for the increase.
It's an unfair world, of course, but really Labour ought to have taken the blame for all the tuition fees problem.
New Labour were wrong on tuition fees. Tories are wrong on tuition fees.
They've been in government now for 13 years, it is evident they want to saddle us with debt and not ever have us own a home whilst gifting the elderly with a triple locked pension.
Fuck the Tories.
Didn't you say you owned a house?
I do but I am certainly the exception to the rule. Fortunately I have inheritance but mostly all of my friends will sadly never be able to afford to buy if the current trajectory continues.
I am still saddled with university debt and having no help from the government anywhere else. Elderly get a free ride.
Hopefully you will be elderly yourself someday and will have worked a lifetime paying all your taxes and no doubt view things in a very different way
As far as the triple lock is concerned Starmer is fully on board with it so no change there then
The triple lock makes perfect sense. Who has forgotten the political fallout of Labour increasing the OAP by just 75p pa.
Both parties are committed to the triple lock even though it is sending the benefits bill up c.20% in nominal terms over two years.
I think analysts are increasingly clear it will have to go at some stage though. Currently it is a ratchet that ends up bankrupting the country.
Mathematicians knew it would have to go at some stage at its inception. What took analysts so long to grasp simple maths? And more importantly when will the politicians follow suit?
Yet another turd left in the cupboard by David Cameron as a problem for Future Britain. I genuinely believe that he is the worst prime minister of modern times*
*Truss will be the eternal asterisk in such discussions.
David Cameron through his arrogance made some significant errors, but compared to Johnson he was a Titan.
Truss's mis-steps caused a significant but relatively short lived fiscal event, but Johnson drove a coach and horses through parliamentary rules and etiquettes. By promoting some of the most appalling Charlatans ever to cross the threshold of the Palace of Westminster he has changed British politics for the worst and possibly forever. He threw his weight behind leaving the EU, knowing that it would be a disaster for the nation, but understanding it may be his best opportunity to climb the greasy pole. The lies, the corruption, he and his fellow travellers were truly awful. By comparison Cameron was one of Britain's all time greats.
I am in the process of being triggered about having to remind people how useless, institutionally, the NHS is.
Please take as read 20 posts on the matter, while I spare both me writing them or you reading them.
How many institutions wouldn't respond as this hospital did, in worrying more about how it would look than about the necessity to call in the police to conduct an investigation?
The NHS is a particularly egregious example, because their entire function is a caring one, and we interact with them when we are at our most vulnerable, but the failing seems to be almost universal.
Instead of red tape for pointless cash machines how about doing something about tuition fees which most people will now never pay off and will still be paying into their 50s?
The Tories must go. Their priorities are helping the over 70s not anyone that actually works.
Cash machines are not pointless. They're vital. And cash represents freedom.
Unless your wallet gets nicked, in which case it represents an irretrievable loss, as my son has just discovered this morning while on holiday. At least he was able to use his phone to lock his card before it could be used; there's no locking cash though.
On the other hand, if you lose your phone, you can use cash to pay for everything while you get a new one and get everything set up again (which, as I discovered takes a few days) and it's much easier to get hold of more cash if needed than another phone.
I think it's fair to say that theft is a great inconvenience to the victim, regardless of what is stolen from them. And thieves don't even provide receipts for the insurance claim.
Why did briefcases go out of fashion for business people?
They were the target of knickers.
Edited - more seriously, i imagine because they aren't well-adapted for laptops.
And less need for fat documents and reports, sheets of OHP graphics and 35mm slides, folders to flash at punters, etc., etc., with the laptop bag taking the residue instead.
Why did briefcases go out of fashion for business people?
The Inbetweeners.
It's funny. I'd never really come across briefcases until I went to a Prep School in the early 90s and they were all the rage. They suddenly seemed to disappear when we got to the Upper School as presumably they were not appropriate for rebellious teenagers for whom a bag over a single shoulder was the only acceptable item.
Why did briefcases go out of fashion for business people?
About 40 years after hats went out of fashion.
I feel like it was still a thing a bit in the 90s, but definitely rare by the millennium. Ydoethurs suggestion it was down to laptops might be right - as laptop bags and rucksacks are still big.
I think that's sensible. I'm 1.2 miles from the nearest cashpoint, and exactly 3 miles from a second if that one is out of service. Should be feasible for the whole of England, perhaps some tricky cases in the Scottish Highlands.
Have you any idea of how many additional ATM's that would mean in rural Northumberland? I was living 1.5 miles from the nearest shop let alone ATM. That was 4 plus. And I was in the relatively well populated Tyne Valley.
Well banks can now be fined by the FCA if they don't provide a branch or ATM within 3 miles in rural areas
How does that work? They can simply say "not me, chum, some other bank can do it".
Some rural areas, you'd almost be lucky to have a *commercial building* to put an ATM in.
Nope the FCA can now fine any bank which shuts a branch in a market town or suburb or fails to provide an ATM in them either, no excuse
So does the fine go to the people who are the last to close an ATM in an area then?
This could lead to a rush not to be the last institution with an ATM in the area, and face being trapped doing so indefinitely.
No it goes to banks who sut branches too and who fail to provide ATMs in the area even if they don't have one now
That doesn't make sense. All bank branches have ATMs anyway so "shut a branch and don't have an ATM" is an emopty set.
I’ve been into a bank branch that didn’t have an ATM. Rare, but they occur.
Ah, thanks. I did wonder, but couldn't think of any. But, most of the time, most places, that'll apply. So the problem remains (and also whether FCA will even fine the bank more than 51p in cash).
Well, one was a Coutts office (meeting a friend that worked there). They had a counter for Coutts customers, but no machine.
Mind you, the funniest was a cash machine at Citi in Canary Wharf. That only dispensed £50 notes. I thought it symbolic of something - hubris? Idiocy? Still not entirely clear.
Especially odd seeing as £50 notes are hard to actually spend anywhere without someone pulling out an eye loupe.
True fact - until I moved to London aged 23 I had never seen a £50 note in real life (even though I'd done quite a bit of retail work).
You are right that most people do not see them. Friends gave someone a framed Turing £50 note for an IT worker's 50th birthday. They'd not realised the Turing notes were in general circulation; they thought it was a short-lived special like Peter Rabbit 50p pieces, so bought one on ebay at a large premium.
What's the deal with special 50p pieces which, if you look at them on eBay, vary in asking prices from 51p to £10,000.
Almost the entire purpose of the Royal Mint is to flog overpriced "special" coins to gullible collectors. https://www.royalmint.com/
Instead of red tape for pointless cash machines how about doing something about tuition fees which most people will now never pay off and will still be paying into their 50s?
The Tories must go. Their priorities are helping the over 70s not anyone that actually works.
Cash machines are not pointless. They're vital. And cash represents freedom.
Unless your wallet gets nicked, in which case it represents an irretrievable loss, as my son has just discovered this morning while on holiday. At least he was able to use his phone to lock his card before it could be used; there's no locking cash though.
On the other hand, if you lose your phone, you can use cash to pay for everything while you get a new one and get everything set up again (which, as I discovered takes a few days) and it's much easier to get hold of more cash if needed than another phone.
I think it's fair to say that theft is a great inconvenience to the victim, regardless of what is stolen from them. And thieves don't even provide receipts for the insurance claim.
Why did briefcases go out of fashion for business people?
About 40 years after hats went out of fashion.
I feel like it was still a thing a bit in the 90s, but definitely rare by the millennium.
As soon as mobile phones became ubiquitous it became untenable to have to use a hand to carry a briefcase when that hand could be grasping a phone instead.
I think that's sensible. I'm 1.2 miles from the nearest cashpoint, and exactly 3 miles from a second if that one is out of service. Should be feasible for the whole of England, perhaps some tricky cases in the Scottish Highlands.
Have you any idea of how many additional ATM's that would mean in rural Northumberland? I was living 1.5 miles from the nearest shop let alone ATM. That was 4 plus. And I was in the relatively well populated Tyne Valley.
Well banks can now be fined by the FCA if they don't provide a branch or ATM within 3 miles in rural areas
How does that work? They can simply say "not me, chum, some other bank can do it".
Some rural areas, you'd almost be lucky to have a *commercial building* to put an ATM in.
Nope the FCA can now fine any bank which shuts a branch in a market town or suburb or fails to provide an ATM in them either, no excuse
So does the fine go to the people who are the last to close an ATM in an area then?
This could lead to a rush not to be the last institution with an ATM in the area, and face being trapped doing so indefinitely.
No it goes to banks who sut branches too and who fail to provide ATMs in the area even if they don't have one now
That doesn't make sense. All bank branches have ATMs anyway so "shut a branch and don't have an ATM" is an emopty set.
I’ve been into a bank branch that didn’t have an ATM. Rare, but they occur.
Ah, thanks. I did wonder, but couldn't think of any. But, most of the time, most places, that'll apply. So the problem remains (and also whether FCA will even fine the bank more than 51p in cash).
Well, one was a Coutts office (meeting a friend that worked there). They had a counter for Coutts customers, but no machine.
Mind you, the funniest was a cash machine at Citi in Canary Wharf. That only dispensed £50 notes. I thought it symbolic of something - hubris? Idiocy? Still not entirely clear.
Especially odd seeing as £50 notes are hard to actually spend anywhere without someone pulling out an eye loupe.
True fact - until I moved to London aged 23 I had never seen a £50 note in real life (even though I'd done quite a bit of retail work).
You are right that most people do not see them. Friends gave someone a framed Turing £50 note for an IT worker's 50th birthday. They'd not realised the Turing notes were in general circulation; they thought it was a short-lived special like Peter Rabbit 50p pieces, so bought one on ebay at a large premium.
What's the deal with special 50p pieces which, if you look at them on eBay, vary in asking prices from 51p to £10,000.
Almost the entire purpose of the Royal Mint is to flog overpriced "special" coins to gullible collectors. https://www.royalmint.com/
Their other purpose is to bang out pennies and tuppences as if it was still 1971. Or even 1871.
Instead of red tape for pointless cash machines how about doing something about tuition fees which most people will now never pay off and will still be paying into their 50s?
The Tories must go. Their priorities are helping the over 70s not anyone that actually works.
Who introduced tuition fees? New Labour
They never made the fees unaffordable as your lot have done.
They were going to, Mr Bat. Don't you remember? Labour set up a commission to review the level of their top-up fees, and promised to implement whatever the commission came up with.
Then Labour lost the general election, and the Coalition Government took over. The Tories, of course, wanted to raise top-up fees to £15,000 or thereabouts, Labour were supposedly committed to £9000. The Lib Dems, in government, held the increase down to £9000, and were blamed most unjustly by everybody for the increase.
It's an unfair world, of course, but really Labour ought to have taken the blame for all the tuition fees problem.
New Labour were wrong on tuition fees. Tories are wrong on tuition fees.
They've been in government now for 13 years, it is evident they want to saddle us with debt and not ever have us own a home whilst gifting the elderly with a triple locked pension.
Fuck the Tories.
Tuition fees are right and appropriate, otherwise it's just another bung to the middle classes. Without them, the system would be unaffordable unless numbers were slashed - which would have other, major, knock-on effects.
However, what's not right are (1) the amount of interest charged, which should be the lower of BoEBR / CPI inflation, and (2) as you say, a housing market stacked heavily against anyone under 40 (or older in some parts of the country). Scrap most planning regulations; presume a right to develop other than in exceptional circumstances; reduce red tape to encourage more small developers; build!
I agree on tuition fees interest.
However even most under 30s oppose allowing more development in the greenbelt
There is a local scandal going on at the moment about a Syrian consultant who operated at Ninewells in Dundee. He seriously and permanently maimed numerous people. Complaints about him were swept under the carpet, largely, it appears, because he was more the averagely successful at bringing research money into the hospital. Eventually he left. The Scottish Government is refusing to have an inquiry because he is abroad and beyond our reach. The fact that numerous colleagues, managers and administrators either covered up his disasters or wilfully disregarded them for years whilst more and more people were harmed is not, apparently, worth investigating.
You sure? Current Courier reports are rather different - inquiry being considered.
From Martin Mayer, again: ". . . bureaucracies are fundamentally motivated by the fear of discovery of error." That insight, from his book, "Today and Tomorrow In America", explains so much, including, it appears, this Lucy Letby case.
I am in the process of being triggered about having to remind people how useless, institutionally, the NHS is.
Please take as read 20 posts on the matter, while I spare both me writing them or you reading them.
How many institutions wouldn't respond as this hospital did, in worrying more about how it would look than about the necessity to call in the police to conduct an investigation?
The NHS is a particularly egregious example, because their entire function is a caring one, and we interact with them when we are at our most vulnerable, but the failing seems to be almost universal.
It's a prime risk for any organisation or institution. It won't happen to all, but the temptation to give in to it will be felt by all.
Not sure how it is eliminated. I think duarded against is the best we might do, and requires as much transparency as possible, and a cultural shift to need to continually review and justify any institution in an honest way.
(Said nobody who’s ever lived abroad in an OECD country).
I attribute my continuing good health to a lifetime's avoidance of the medical profession. There are some who argue it's the other way round, but it would take more than bland assertion and a plausible bedside manner to convince me.
I think that's sensible. I'm 1.2 miles from the nearest cashpoint, and exactly 3 miles from a second if that one is out of service. Should be feasible for the whole of England, perhaps some tricky cases in the Scottish Highlands.
Have you any idea of how many additional ATM's that would mean in rural Northumberland? I was living 1.5 miles from the nearest shop let alone ATM. That was 4 plus. And I was in the relatively well populated Tyne Valley.
Well banks can now be fined by the FCA if they don't provide a branch or ATM within 3 miles in rural areas
How does that work? They can simply say "not me, chum, some other bank can do it".
Some rural areas, you'd almost be lucky to have a *commercial building* to put an ATM in.
Nope the FCA can now fine any bank which shuts a branch in a market town or suburb or fails to provide an ATM in them either, no excuse
So does the fine go to the people who are the last to close an ATM in an area then?
This could lead to a rush not to be the last institution with an ATM in the area, and face being trapped doing so indefinitely.
No it goes to banks who sut branches too and who fail to provide ATMs in the area even if they don't have one now
That doesn't make sense. All bank branches have ATMs anyway so "shut a branch and don't have an ATM" is an emopty set.
I’ve been into a bank branch that didn’t have an ATM. Rare, but they occur.
Ah, thanks. I did wonder, but couldn't think of any. But, most of the time, most places, that'll apply. So the problem remains (and also whether FCA will even fine the bank more than 51p in cash).
Well, one was a Coutts office (meeting a friend that worked there). They had a counter for Coutts customers, but no machine.
Mind you, the funniest was a cash machine at Citi in Canary Wharf. That only dispensed £50 notes. I thought it symbolic of something - hubris? Idiocy? Still not entirely clear.
Especially odd seeing as £50 notes are hard to actually spend anywhere without someone pulling out an eye loupe.
True fact - until I moved to London aged 23 I had never seen a £50 note in real life (even though I'd done quite a bit of retail work).
You are right that most people do not see them. Friends gave someone a framed Turing £50 note for an IT worker's 50th birthday. They'd not realised the Turing notes were in general circulation; they thought it was a short-lived special like Peter Rabbit 50p pieces, so bought one on ebay at a large premium.
What's the deal with special 50p pieces which, if you look at them on eBay, vary in asking prices from 51p to £10,000.
Almost the entire purpose of the Royal Mint is to flog overpriced "special" coins to gullible collectors. https://www.royalmint.com/
Their other purpose is to bang out pennies and tuppences as if it was still 1971. Or even 1871.
The halfpenny was withdrawn from circulation in December 1984. Using the Bank of England inflation calculator we can see that half a penny in 1984 would today be worth just over 1.5p so there's a good case for withdrawing both the smallest denomination coins from circulation.
I think that's sensible. I'm 1.2 miles from the nearest cashpoint, and exactly 3 miles from a second if that one is out of service. Should be feasible for the whole of England, perhaps some tricky cases in the Scottish Highlands.
Have you any idea of how many additional ATM's that would mean in rural Northumberland? I was living 1.5 miles from the nearest shop let alone ATM. That was 4 plus. And I was in the relatively well populated Tyne Valley.
Well banks can now be fined by the FCA if they don't provide a branch or ATM within 3 miles in rural areas
How does that work? They can simply say "not me, chum, some other bank can do it".
Some rural areas, you'd almost be lucky to have a *commercial building* to put an ATM in.
Nope the FCA can now fine any bank which shuts a branch in a market town or suburb or fails to provide an ATM in them either, no excuse
So does the fine go to the people who are the last to close an ATM in an area then?
This could lead to a rush not to be the last institution with an ATM in the area, and face being trapped doing so indefinitely.
No it goes to banks who sut branches too and who fail to provide ATMs in the area even if they don't have one now
That doesn't make sense. All bank branches have ATMs anyway so "shut a branch and don't have an ATM" is an emopty set.
I’ve been into a bank branch that didn’t have an ATM. Rare, but they occur.
Ah, thanks. I did wonder, but couldn't think of any. But, most of the time, most places, that'll apply. So the problem remains (and also whether FCA will even fine the bank more than 51p in cash).
Well, one was a Coutts office (meeting a friend that worked there). They had a counter for Coutts customers, but no machine.
Mind you, the funniest was a cash machine at Citi in Canary Wharf. That only dispensed £50 notes. I thought it symbolic of something - hubris? Idiocy? Still not entirely clear.
Especially odd seeing as £50 notes are hard to actually spend anywhere without someone pulling out an eye loupe.
True fact - until I moved to London aged 23 I had never seen a £50 note in real life (even though I'd done quite a bit of retail work).
You are right that most people do not see them. Friends gave someone a framed Turing £50 note for an IT worker's 50th birthday. They'd not realised the Turing notes were in general circulation; they thought it was a short-lived special like Peter Rabbit 50p pieces, so bought one on ebay at a large premium.
What's the deal with special 50p pieces which, if you look at them on eBay, vary in asking prices from 51p to £10,000.
Almost the entire purpose of the Royal Mint is to flog overpriced "special" coins to gullible collectors. https://www.royalmint.com/
Their other purpose is to bang out pennies and tuppences as if it was still 1971. Or even 1871.
Not so now, certainly not 1971 levels. Zero in recent years. And one very, very obvious reason for the recent spike.
From Martin Mayer, again: ". . . bureaucracies are fundamentally motivated by the fear of discovery of error." That insight, from his book, "Today and Tomorrow In America", explains so much, including, it appears, this Lucy Letby case.
Some years ago, in Northern Peru, crime got a bit out of hand.
So they sent a new police general from Lima.
One of his first actions was to end bail for police officers who shot someone by mistake and planted evidence to cover it up.
If you shot someone by mistake and put your hands up to it, you were held in the police station.
Why did briefcases go out of fashion for business people?
About 40 years after hats went out of fashion.
I feel like it was still a thing a bit in the 90s, but definitely rare by the millennium.
As soon as mobile phones became ubiquitous it became untenable to have to use a hand to carry a briefcase when that hand could be grasping a phone instead.
What was the other hand used for, I have to ask? Scratching the nether regions?
I think that's sensible. I'm 1.2 miles from the nearest cashpoint, and exactly 3 miles from a second if that one is out of service. Should be feasible for the whole of England, perhaps some tricky cases in the Scottish Highlands.
Have you any idea of how many additional ATM's that would mean in rural Northumberland? I was living 1.5 miles from the nearest shop let alone ATM. That was 4 plus. And I was in the relatively well populated Tyne Valley.
Well banks can now be fined by the FCA if they don't provide a branch or ATM within 3 miles in rural areas
How does that work? They can simply say "not me, chum, some other bank can do it".
Some rural areas, you'd almost be lucky to have a *commercial building* to put an ATM in.
Nope the FCA can now fine any bank which shuts a branch in a market town or suburb or fails to provide an ATM in them either, no excuse
So does the fine go to the people who are the last to close an ATM in an area then?
This could lead to a rush not to be the last institution with an ATM in the area, and face being trapped doing so indefinitely.
No it goes to banks who sut branches too and who fail to provide ATMs in the area even if they don't have one now
That doesn't make sense. All bank branches have ATMs anyway so "shut a branch and don't have an ATM" is an emopty set.
I’ve been into a bank branch that didn’t have an ATM. Rare, but they occur.
Ah, thanks. I did wonder, but couldn't think of any. But, most of the time, most places, that'll apply. So the problem remains (and also whether FCA will even fine the bank more than 51p in cash).
Well, one was a Coutts office (meeting a friend that worked there). They had a counter for Coutts customers, but no machine.
Mind you, the funniest was a cash machine at Citi in Canary Wharf. That only dispensed £50 notes. I thought it symbolic of something - hubris? Idiocy? Still not entirely clear.
Especially odd seeing as £50 notes are hard to actually spend anywhere without someone pulling out an eye loupe.
True fact - until I moved to London aged 23 I had never seen a £50 note in real life (even though I'd done quite a bit of retail work).
You are right that most people do not see them. Friends gave someone a framed Turing £50 note for an IT worker's 50th birthday. They'd not realised the Turing notes were in general circulation; they thought it was a short-lived special like Peter Rabbit 50p pieces, so bought one on ebay at a large premium.
What's the deal with special 50p pieces which, if you look at them on eBay, vary in asking prices from 51p to £10,000.
Almost the entire purpose of the Royal Mint is to flog overpriced "special" coins to gullible collectors. https://www.royalmint.com/
Their other purpose is to bang out pennies and tuppences as if it was still 1971. Or even 1871.
The halfpenny was withdrawn from circulation in December 1984. Using the Bank of England inflation calculator we can see that half a penny in 1984 would today be worth just over 1.5p so there's a good case for withdrawing both the smallest denomination coins from circulation.
I will forever remain baffled by the resistance to doing so. We've done it before when denominations became worthless and inconvenient, do so again!
Why did briefcases go out of fashion for business people?
About 40 years after hats went out of fashion.
I feel like it was still a thing a bit in the 90s, but definitely rare by the millennium.
As soon as mobile phones became ubiquitous it became untenable to have to use a hand to carry a briefcase when that hand could be grasping a phone instead.
What was the other hand used for, I have to ask? Scratching the nether regions?
Why did briefcases go out of fashion for business people?
They were replaced by go-bags which can be carried. Briefcases were for the days when info was on paper. They were big enough for a pad of paper, pens, ruler, rubber, calculator
Then laptops came in, and big manbags were the vogue, big enuf for a chunky pre-Lenovo ThinkPad, adapter, mice, disc drives, etc
Then laptops got thin and sipped electricity like a little mouse, so you could throw a laptop into a go-bag and go to school, uni or work, doing work on the train[1] at need
[1] If you were posh and travelled on nice trains by first class during the daytime when its less crowded. If you are not posh and travel on cattle-truck class on craptrains at night when evil fuckers abound, it is less possible. I hate trains.
I am in the process of being triggered about having to remind people how useless, institutionally, the NHS is.
Please take as read 20 posts on the matter, while I spare both me writing them or you reading them.
How many institutions wouldn't respond as this hospital did, in worrying more about how it would look than about the necessity to call in the police to conduct an investigation?
The NHS is a particularly egregious example, because their entire function is a caring one, and we interact with them when we are at our most vulnerable, but the failing seems to be almost universal.
Not defending Lucy Letby (if she did what she was convicted of, she deserves a full life tariff) but why were the Managers of Chester Hospital not lined up next to her for sentencing on specific serious charges relating to the seven deaths?
When my Mother died of neglect in the midst of the Princess of Wales Hospital scandal, I followed the subsequent court case with interest. As I recall two imported nurses were given prison sentences, whilst the Managers who oversaw the culture behind the fiasco retained their positions. Now that really was a perfect example of scapegoating the lowest common denominators.The Managers should have gone down for neglect caused by dereliction of duty alongside the nurses. If I had mowed my mother down in my car whilst texting on my mobile phone, I would quite rightly expect a hefty custodial sentence. Those Managers who were texting on their mobile phones, or casually whiling away their day as my Mother, with cancer and mild dementia whiled away several hours on the cold bathroom floor of a private room, anticipating her own imminent demise, should have been as equally culpable as the Filipino nurse.
I think that's sensible. I'm 1.2 miles from the nearest cashpoint, and exactly 3 miles from a second if that one is out of service. Should be feasible for the whole of England, perhaps some tricky cases in the Scottish Highlands.
Have you any idea of how many additional ATM's that would mean in rural Northumberland? I was living 1.5 miles from the nearest shop let alone ATM. That was 4 plus. And I was in the relatively well populated Tyne Valley.
Well banks can now be fined by the FCA if they don't provide a branch or ATM within 3 miles in rural areas
How does that work? They can simply say "not me, chum, some other bank can do it".
Some rural areas, you'd almost be lucky to have a *commercial building* to put an ATM in.
Nope the FCA can now fine any bank which shuts a branch in a market town or suburb or fails to provide an ATM in them either, no excuse
So does the fine go to the people who are the last to close an ATM in an area then?
This could lead to a rush not to be the last institution with an ATM in the area, and face being trapped doing so indefinitely.
No it goes to banks who sut branches too and who fail to provide ATMs in the area even if they don't have one now
That doesn't make sense. All bank branches have ATMs anyway so "shut a branch and don't have an ATM" is an emopty set.
I’ve been into a bank branch that didn’t have an ATM. Rare, but they occur.
Ah, thanks. I did wonder, but couldn't think of any. But, most of the time, most places, that'll apply. So the problem remains (and also whether FCA will even fine the bank more than 51p in cash).
Well, one was a Coutts office (meeting a friend that worked there). They had a counter for Coutts customers, but no machine.
Mind you, the funniest was a cash machine at Citi in Canary Wharf. That only dispensed £50 notes. I thought it symbolic of something - hubris? Idiocy? Still not entirely clear.
Especially odd seeing as £50 notes are hard to actually spend anywhere without someone pulling out an eye loupe.
True fact - until I moved to London aged 23 I had never seen a £50 note in real life (even though I'd done quite a bit of retail work).
You are right that most people do not see them. Friends gave someone a framed Turing £50 note for an IT worker's 50th birthday. They'd not realised the Turing notes were in general circulation; they thought it was a short-lived special like Peter Rabbit 50p pieces, so bought one on ebay at a large premium.
What's the deal with special 50p pieces which, if you look at them on eBay, vary in asking prices from 51p to £10,000.
Almost the entire purpose of the Royal Mint is to flog overpriced "special" coins to gullible collectors. https://www.royalmint.com/
Their other purpose is to bang out pennies and tuppences as if it was still 1971. Or even 1871.
The halfpenny was withdrawn from circulation in December 1984. Using the Bank of England inflation calculator we can see that half a penny in 1984 would today be worth just over 1.5p so there's a good case for withdrawing both the smallest denomination coins from circulation.
I will forever remain baffled by the resistance to doing so. We've done it before when denominations became worthless and inconvenient, do so again!
The Tories weren't so dependent on the elderly vote. The deletion of 1p and 2p would make them realise how bad inflation was. I can still remember the reactions to decimalisation from my parents!
I think that's sensible. I'm 1.2 miles from the nearest cashpoint, and exactly 3 miles from a second if that one is out of service. Should be feasible for the whole of England, perhaps some tricky cases in the Scottish Highlands.
Have you any idea of how many additional ATM's that would mean in rural Northumberland? I was living 1.5 miles from the nearest shop let alone ATM. That was 4 plus. And I was in the relatively well populated Tyne Valley.
Well banks can now be fined by the FCA if they don't provide a branch or ATM within 3 miles in rural areas
How does that work? They can simply say "not me, chum, some other bank can do it".
Some rural areas, you'd almost be lucky to have a *commercial building* to put an ATM in.
Nope the FCA can now fine any bank which shuts a branch in a market town or suburb or fails to provide an ATM in them either, no excuse
So does the fine go to the people who are the last to close an ATM in an area then?
This could lead to a rush not to be the last institution with an ATM in the area, and face being trapped doing so indefinitely.
No it goes to banks who sut branches too and who fail to provide ATMs in the area even if they don't have one now
That doesn't make sense. All bank branches have ATMs anyway so "shut a branch and don't have an ATM" is an emopty set.
I’ve been into a bank branch that didn’t have an ATM. Rare, but they occur.
Ah, thanks. I did wonder, but couldn't think of any. But, most of the time, most places, that'll apply. So the problem remains (and also whether FCA will even fine the bank more than 51p in cash).
Well, one was a Coutts office (meeting a friend that worked there). They had a counter for Coutts customers, but no machine.
Mind you, the funniest was a cash machine at Citi in Canary Wharf. That only dispensed £50 notes. I thought it symbolic of something - hubris? Idiocy? Still not entirely clear.
Especially odd seeing as £50 notes are hard to actually spend anywhere without someone pulling out an eye loupe.
True fact - until I moved to London aged 23 I had never seen a £50 note in real life (even though I'd done quite a bit of retail work).
You are right that most people do not see them. Friends gave someone a framed Turing £50 note for an IT worker's 50th birthday. They'd not realised the Turing notes were in general circulation; they thought it was a short-lived special like Peter Rabbit 50p pieces, so bought one on ebay at a large premium.
What's the deal with special 50p pieces which, if you look at them on eBay, vary in asking prices from 51p to £10,000.
Almost the entire purpose of the Royal Mint is to flog overpriced "special" coins to gullible collectors. https://www.royalmint.com/
Their other purpose is to bang out pennies and tuppences as if it was still 1971. Or even 1871.
Not so now, certainly not 1971 levels. Zero in recent years. And one very, very obvious reason for the recent spike.
A fair piece by Anne McElvoy on the current free speech debate. Warning that some culture warriors on the left or right may find it offensive so if that is you best to avoid.
From that article: "...Government events are not obliged to book Private Eye’s great caricature Dave Spart or his EDF-supporting mirror image. But a generous amount of disagreement is good and useful..."
My perennial reminder that free speech debates are never about free speech, they are about where to draw the line between the sayable and the unsayable, and who decides which is which.
Instead of red tape for pointless cash machines how about doing something about tuition fees which most people will now never pay off and will still be paying into their 50s?
The Tories must go. Their priorities are helping the over 70s not anyone that actually works.
Who introduced tuition fees? New Labour
They never made the fees unaffordable as your lot have done.
They were going to, Mr Bat. Don't you remember? Labour set up a commission to review the level of their top-up fees, and promised to implement whatever the commission came up with.
Then Labour lost the general election, and the Coalition Government took over. The Tories, of course, wanted to raise top-up fees to £15,000 or thereabouts, Labour were supposedly committed to £9000. The Lib Dems, in government, held the increase down to £9000, and were blamed most unjustly by everybody for the increase.
It's an unfair world, of course, but really Labour ought to have taken the blame for all the tuition fees problem.
New Labour were wrong on tuition fees. Tories are wrong on tuition fees.
They've been in government now for 13 years, it is evident they want to saddle us with debt and not ever have us own a home whilst gifting the elderly with a triple locked pension.
Fuck the Tories.
Tuition fees are right and appropriate, otherwise it's just another bung to the middle classes. Without them, the system would be unaffordable unless numbers were slashed - which would have other, major, knock-on effects.
However, what's not right are (1) the amount of interest charged, which should be the lower of BoEBR / CPI inflation, and (2) as you say, a housing market stacked heavily against anyone under 40 (or older in some parts of the country). Scrap most planning regulations; presume a right to develop other than in exceptional circumstances; reduce red tape to encourage more small developers; build!
I agree on tuition fees interest.
However even most under 30s oppose allowing more development in the greenbelt
Strongest support and strongest opposition in the 65+ age group
It's a question which requires more context - stick "given that green belt land is pretty shit generally and no other way of solving the housing crisis" on the end.
I think that's sensible. I'm 1.2 miles from the nearest cashpoint, and exactly 3 miles from a second if that one is out of service. Should be feasible for the whole of England, perhaps some tricky cases in the Scottish Highlands.
Have you any idea of how many additional ATM's that would mean in rural Northumberland? I was living 1.5 miles from the nearest shop let alone ATM. That was 4 plus. And I was in the relatively well populated Tyne Valley.
Well banks can now be fined by the FCA if they don't provide a branch or ATM within 3 miles in rural areas
How does that work? They can simply say "not me, chum, some other bank can do it".
Some rural areas, you'd almost be lucky to have a *commercial building* to put an ATM in.
Nope the FCA can now fine any bank which shuts a branch in a market town or suburb or fails to provide an ATM in them either, no excuse
So does the fine go to the people who are the last to close an ATM in an area then?
This could lead to a rush not to be the last institution with an ATM in the area, and face being trapped doing so indefinitely.
No it goes to banks who sut branches too and who fail to provide ATMs in the area even if they don't have one now
That doesn't make sense. All bank branches have ATMs anyway so "shut a branch and don't have an ATM" is an emopty set.
I’ve been into a bank branch that didn’t have an ATM. Rare, but they occur.
Ah, thanks. I did wonder, but couldn't think of any. But, most of the time, most places, that'll apply. So the problem remains (and also whether FCA will even fine the bank more than 51p in cash).
Well, one was a Coutts office (meeting a friend that worked there). They had a counter for Coutts customers, but no machine.
Mind you, the funniest was a cash machine at Citi in Canary Wharf. That only dispensed £50 notes. I thought it symbolic of something - hubris? Idiocy? Still not entirely clear.
Especially odd seeing as £50 notes are hard to actually spend anywhere without someone pulling out an eye loupe.
True fact - until I moved to London aged 23 I had never seen a £50 note in real life (even though I'd done quite a bit of retail work).
You are right that most people do not see them. Friends gave someone a framed Turing £50 note for an IT worker's 50th birthday. They'd not realised the Turing notes were in general circulation; they thought it was a short-lived special like Peter Rabbit 50p pieces, so bought one on ebay at a large premium.
What's the deal with special 50p pieces which, if you look at them on eBay, vary in asking prices from 51p to £10,000.
Almost the entire purpose of the Royal Mint is to flog overpriced "special" coins to gullible collectors. https://www.royalmint.com/
Their other purpose is to bang out pennies and tuppences as if it was still 1971. Or even 1871.
The halfpenny was withdrawn from circulation in December 1984. Using the Bank of England inflation calculator we can see that half a penny in 1984 would today be worth just over 1.5p so there's a good case for withdrawing both the smallest denomination coins from circulation.
Incidentally, the halfpenny was withdrawn from circulation not long after the £1 coin was introduced (1983), which by inflation from then would now be worth the equivalent of £3.22 - so perhaps time to replace the £5 note with a coin?
If the £50 note was also withdrawn, as frequently considered to cut down on criminal use of it, that would leave Britain with only two denominations of banknote. Possibly the fewest denominations of banknote of any currency, and yet perhaps also the greatest variety of different banknotes because of all the Scottish variations...
I think that's sensible. I'm 1.2 miles from the nearest cashpoint, and exactly 3 miles from a second if that one is out of service. Should be feasible for the whole of England, perhaps some tricky cases in the Scottish Highlands.
Have you any idea of how many additional ATM's that would mean in rural Northumberland? I was living 1.5 miles from the nearest shop let alone ATM. That was 4 plus. And I was in the relatively well populated Tyne Valley.
Well banks can now be fined by the FCA if they don't provide a branch or ATM within 3 miles in rural areas
How does that work? They can simply say "not me, chum, some other bank can do it".
Some rural areas, you'd almost be lucky to have a *commercial building* to put an ATM in.
Nope the FCA can now fine any bank which shuts a branch in a market town or suburb or fails to provide an ATM in them either, no excuse
So does the fine go to the people who are the last to close an ATM in an area then?
This could lead to a rush not to be the last institution with an ATM in the area, and face being trapped doing so indefinitely.
No it goes to banks who sut branches too and who fail to provide ATMs in the area even if they don't have one now
That doesn't make sense. All bank branches have ATMs anyway so "shut a branch and don't have an ATM" is an emopty set.
I’ve been into a bank branch that didn’t have an ATM. Rare, but they occur.
Ah, thanks. I did wonder, but couldn't think of any. But, most of the time, most places, that'll apply. So the problem remains (and also whether FCA will even fine the bank more than 51p in cash).
Well, one was a Coutts office (meeting a friend that worked there). They had a counter for Coutts customers, but no machine.
Mind you, the funniest was a cash machine at Citi in Canary Wharf. That only dispensed £50 notes. I thought it symbolic of something - hubris? Idiocy? Still not entirely clear.
Especially odd seeing as £50 notes are hard to actually spend anywhere without someone pulling out an eye loupe.
True fact - until I moved to London aged 23 I had never seen a £50 note in real life (even though I'd done quite a bit of retail work).
You are right that most people do not see them. Friends gave someone a framed Turing £50 note for an IT worker's 50th birthday. They'd not realised the Turing notes were in general circulation; they thought it was a short-lived special like Peter Rabbit 50p pieces, so bought one on ebay at a large premium.
What's the deal with special 50p pieces which, if you look at them on eBay, vary in asking prices from 51p to £10,000.
Almost the entire purpose of the Royal Mint is to flog overpriced "special" coins to gullible collectors. https://www.royalmint.com/
Their other purpose is to bang out pennies and tuppences as if it was still 1971. Or even 1871.
Not so now, certainly not 1971 levels. Zero in recent years. And one very, very obvious reason for the recent spike.
Fascinating link but even so, 56 million pennies in 2021 and 88 million in 2020? There just aren't enough sofas to lose them all.
Actually, that is why the replacements were minted, I believe - the loss or stagnancy rate. Plus there's a lot of recycling, and HMG mandated new coin designs. IANAN so can't remember why or exactly when the design was changed, apart of course for the Brexit 50p.
Why did briefcases go out of fashion for business people?
About 40 years after hats went out of fashion.
I feel like it was still a thing a bit in the 90s, but definitely rare by the millennium.
As soon as mobile phones became ubiquitous it became untenable to have to use a hand to carry a briefcase when that hand could be grasping a phone instead.
What was the other hand used for, I have to ask? Scratching the nether regions?
One always needs a hand free to open doors with, use a handkerchief, to hail a cab, provide aid to a lady in distress (though it is acceptable to place your briefcase on the ground in that eventuality), or to toss ha'pennies to street urchins, etc.
I think that's sensible. I'm 1.2 miles from the nearest cashpoint, and exactly 3 miles from a second if that one is out of service. Should be feasible for the whole of England, perhaps some tricky cases in the Scottish Highlands.
Have you any idea of how many additional ATM's that would mean in rural Northumberland? I was living 1.5 miles from the nearest shop let alone ATM. That was 4 plus. And I was in the relatively well populated Tyne Valley.
Well banks can now be fined by the FCA if they don't provide a branch or ATM within 3 miles in rural areas
How does that work? They can simply say "not me, chum, some other bank can do it".
Some rural areas, you'd almost be lucky to have a *commercial building* to put an ATM in.
Nope the FCA can now fine any bank which shuts a branch in a market town or suburb or fails to provide an ATM in them either, no excuse
So does the fine go to the people who are the last to close an ATM in an area then?
This could lead to a rush not to be the last institution with an ATM in the area, and face being trapped doing so indefinitely.
No it goes to banks who sut branches too and who fail to provide ATMs in the area even if they don't have one now
That doesn't make sense. All bank branches have ATMs anyway so "shut a branch and don't have an ATM" is an emopty set.
I’ve been into a bank branch that didn’t have an ATM. Rare, but they occur.
Ah, thanks. I did wonder, but couldn't think of any. But, most of the time, most places, that'll apply. So the problem remains (and also whether FCA will even fine the bank more than 51p in cash).
Well, one was a Coutts office (meeting a friend that worked there). They had a counter for Coutts customers, but no machine.
Mind you, the funniest was a cash machine at Citi in Canary Wharf. That only dispensed £50 notes. I thought it symbolic of something - hubris? Idiocy? Still not entirely clear.
Especially odd seeing as £50 notes are hard to actually spend anywhere without someone pulling out an eye loupe.
True fact - until I moved to London aged 23 I had never seen a £50 note in real life (even though I'd done quite a bit of retail work).
You are right that most people do not see them. Friends gave someone a framed Turing £50 note for an IT worker's 50th birthday. They'd not realised the Turing notes were in general circulation; they thought it was a short-lived special like Peter Rabbit 50p pieces, so bought one on ebay at a large premium.
What's the deal with special 50p pieces which, if you look at them on eBay, vary in asking prices from 51p to £10,000.
Almost the entire purpose of the Royal Mint is to flog overpriced "special" coins to gullible collectors. https://www.royalmint.com/
Their other purpose is to bang out pennies and tuppences as if it was still 1971. Or even 1871.
Not so now, certainly not 1971 levels. Zero in recent years. And one very, very obvious reason for the recent spike.
Fascinating link but even so, 56 million pennies in 2021 and 88 million in 2020? There just aren't enough sofas to lose them all.
PS Fermi piano tuner analysis: about 28m households in UK, ignoring second homes, etc.: losing say 2 x 1p per sofa per year would count precisely enough for the need to replace 56Mp. QED.
Looks even more plausibe if one allows for coins dropped eg outside - 2p per household dropped outside + 1 in the sofa would generate your actual 88Mp in 2020.
There is a local scandal going on at the moment about a Syrian consultant who operated at Ninewells in Dundee. He seriously and permanently maimed numerous people. Complaints about him were swept under the carpet, largely, it appears, because he was more the averagely successful at bringing research money into the hospital. Eventually he left. The Scottish Government is refusing to have an inquiry because he is abroad and beyond our reach. The fact that numerous colleagues, managers and administrators either covered up his disasters or wilfully disregarded them for years whilst more and more people were harmed is not, apparently, worth investigating.
You sure? Current Courier reports are rather different - inquiry being considered.
Massive failing in English NHS = opportunity to talk about suggested SG failings in this area. Still, I'm sure folk will get round to making the connection between Letby and the government in charge of the NHS for the last 13 years at some point. Shan't be doing anything as risky as breath holding, mind.
I think that's sensible. I'm 1.2 miles from the nearest cashpoint, and exactly 3 miles from a second if that one is out of service. Should be feasible for the whole of England, perhaps some tricky cases in the Scottish Highlands.
Have you any idea of how many additional ATM's that would mean in rural Northumberland? I was living 1.5 miles from the nearest shop let alone ATM. That was 4 plus. And I was in the relatively well populated Tyne Valley.
Well banks can now be fined by the FCA if they don't provide a branch or ATM within 3 miles in rural areas
How does that work? They can simply say "not me, chum, some other bank can do it".
Some rural areas, you'd almost be lucky to have a *commercial building* to put an ATM in.
Nope the FCA can now fine any bank which shuts a branch in a market town or suburb or fails to provide an ATM in them either, no excuse
So does the fine go to the people who are the last to close an ATM in an area then?
This could lead to a rush not to be the last institution with an ATM in the area, and face being trapped doing so indefinitely.
No it goes to banks who sut branches too and who fail to provide ATMs in the area even if they don't have one now
That doesn't make sense. All bank branches have ATMs anyway so "shut a branch and don't have an ATM" is an emopty set.
I’ve been into a bank branch that didn’t have an ATM. Rare, but they occur.
Ah, thanks. I did wonder, but couldn't think of any. But, most of the time, most places, that'll apply. So the problem remains (and also whether FCA will even fine the bank more than 51p in cash).
Well, one was a Coutts office (meeting a friend that worked there). They had a counter for Coutts customers, but no machine.
Mind you, the funniest was a cash machine at Citi in Canary Wharf. That only dispensed £50 notes. I thought it symbolic of something - hubris? Idiocy? Still not entirely clear.
Especially odd seeing as £50 notes are hard to actually spend anywhere without someone pulling out an eye loupe.
True fact - until I moved to London aged 23 I had never seen a £50 note in real life (even though I'd done quite a bit of retail work).
You are right that most people do not see them. Friends gave someone a framed Turing £50 note for an IT worker's 50th birthday. They'd not realised the Turing notes were in general circulation; they thought it was a short-lived special like Peter Rabbit 50p pieces, so bought one on ebay at a large premium.
What's the deal with special 50p pieces which, if you look at them on eBay, vary in asking prices from 51p to £10,000.
Almost the entire purpose of the Royal Mint is to flog overpriced "special" coins to gullible collectors. https://www.royalmint.com/
Their other purpose is to bang out pennies and tuppences as if it was still 1971. Or even 1871.
Not so now, certainly not 1971 levels. Zero in recent years. And one very, very obvious reason for the recent spike.
I think that's sensible. I'm 1.2 miles from the nearest cashpoint, and exactly 3 miles from a second if that one is out of service. Should be feasible for the whole of England, perhaps some tricky cases in the Scottish Highlands.
Have you any idea of how many additional ATM's that would mean in rural Northumberland? I was living 1.5 miles from the nearest shop let alone ATM. That was 4 plus. And I was in the relatively well populated Tyne Valley.
Well banks can now be fined by the FCA if they don't provide a branch or ATM within 3 miles in rural areas
How does that work? They can simply say "not me, chum, some other bank can do it".
Some rural areas, you'd almost be lucky to have a *commercial building* to put an ATM in.
Nope the FCA can now fine any bank which shuts a branch in a market town or suburb or fails to provide an ATM in them either, no excuse
So does the fine go to the people who are the last to close an ATM in an area then?
This could lead to a rush not to be the last institution with an ATM in the area, and face being trapped doing so indefinitely.
No it goes to banks who sut branches too and who fail to provide ATMs in the area even if they don't have one now
That doesn't make sense. All bank branches have ATMs anyway so "shut a branch and don't have an ATM" is an emopty set.
I’ve been into a bank branch that didn’t have an ATM. Rare, but they occur.
Ah, thanks. I did wonder, but couldn't think of any. But, most of the time, most places, that'll apply. So the problem remains (and also whether FCA will even fine the bank more than 51p in cash).
Well, one was a Coutts office (meeting a friend that worked there). They had a counter for Coutts customers, but no machine.
Mind you, the funniest was a cash machine at Citi in Canary Wharf. That only dispensed £50 notes. I thought it symbolic of something - hubris? Idiocy? Still not entirely clear.
Especially odd seeing as £50 notes are hard to actually spend anywhere without someone pulling out an eye loupe.
True fact - until I moved to London aged 23 I had never seen a £50 note in real life (even though I'd done quite a bit of retail work).
The best place to find £50 notes these days is in London betting shops.
Why did briefcases go out of fashion for business people?
About 40 years after hats went out of fashion.
I feel like it was still a thing a bit in the 90s, but definitely rare by the millennium.
As soon as mobile phones became ubiquitous it became untenable to have to use a hand to carry a briefcase when that hand could be grasping a phone instead.
What was the other hand used for, I have to ask? Scratching the nether regions?
One always needs a hand free to open doors with, use a handkerchief, to hail a cab, provide aid to a lady in distress (though it is acceptable to place your briefcase on the ground in that eventuality), or to toss ha'pennies to street urchins, etc.
All when using a mobile? The City of London does have a very odd code of manners.
I think that's sensible. I'm 1.2 miles from the nearest cashpoint, and exactly 3 miles from a second if that one is out of service. Should be feasible for the whole of England, perhaps some tricky cases in the Scottish Highlands.
Have you any idea of how many additional ATM's that would mean in rural Northumberland? I was living 1.5 miles from the nearest shop let alone ATM. That was 4 plus. And I was in the relatively well populated Tyne Valley.
Well banks can now be fined by the FCA if they don't provide a branch or ATM within 3 miles in rural areas
How does that work? They can simply say "not me, chum, some other bank can do it".
Some rural areas, you'd almost be lucky to have a *commercial building* to put an ATM in.
Nope the FCA can now fine any bank which shuts a branch in a market town or suburb or fails to provide an ATM in them either, no excuse
So does the fine go to the people who are the last to close an ATM in an area then?
This could lead to a rush not to be the last institution with an ATM in the area, and face being trapped doing so indefinitely.
No it goes to banks who sut branches too and who fail to provide ATMs in the area even if they don't have one now
That doesn't make sense. All bank branches have ATMs anyway so "shut a branch and don't have an ATM" is an emopty set.
I’ve been into a bank branch that didn’t have an ATM. Rare, but they occur.
Ah, thanks. I did wonder, but couldn't think of any. But, most of the time, most places, that'll apply. So the problem remains (and also whether FCA will even fine the bank more than 51p in cash).
Well, one was a Coutts office (meeting a friend that worked there). They had a counter for Coutts customers, but no machine.
Mind you, the funniest was a cash machine at Citi in Canary Wharf. That only dispensed £50 notes. I thought it symbolic of something - hubris? Idiocy? Still not entirely clear.
Especially odd seeing as £50 notes are hard to actually spend anywhere without someone pulling out an eye loupe.
True fact - until I moved to London aged 23 I had never seen a £50 note in real life (even though I'd done quite a bit of retail work).
You are right that most people do not see them. Friends gave someone a framed Turing £50 note for an IT worker's 50th birthday. They'd not realised the Turing notes were in general circulation; they thought it was a short-lived special like Peter Rabbit 50p pieces, so bought one on ebay at a large premium.
What's the deal with special 50p pieces which, if you look at them on eBay, vary in asking prices from 51p to £10,000.
Almost the entire purpose of the Royal Mint is to flog overpriced "special" coins to gullible collectors. https://www.royalmint.com/
Their other purpose is to bang out pennies and tuppences as if it was still 1971. Or even 1871.
The halfpenny was withdrawn from circulation in December 1984. Using the Bank of England inflation calculator we can see that half a penny in 1984 would today be worth just over 1.5p so there's a good case for withdrawing both the smallest denomination coins from circulation.
Incidentally, the halfpenny was withdrawn from circulation not long after the £1 coin was introduced (1983), which by inflation from then would now be worth the equivalent of £3.22 - so perhaps time to replace the £5 note with a coin?
If the £50 note was also withdrawn, as frequently considered to cut down on criminal use of it, that would leave Britain with only two denominations of banknote. Possibly the fewest denominations of banknote of any currency, and yet perhaps also the greatest variety of different banknotes because of all the Scottish variations...
Now I don't really see the purpose of cash...unless like I did on Wednesday one leaves their wallet at home and has no means of paying for the fuel required to return home. Fortunately I had my phone with my mobile banking app, and I could arrange an emergency cash code to use at a cashpoint. Other than that, cash, why bother?
Why did briefcases go out of fashion for business people?
They were replaced by go-bags which can be carried. Briefcases were for the days when info was on paper. They were big enough for a pad of paper, pens, ruler, rubber, calculator
Then laptops came in, and big manbags were the vogue, big enuf for a chunky pre-Lenovo ThinkPad, adapter, mice, disc drives, etc
Then laptops got thin and sipped electricity like a little mouse, so you could throw a laptop into a go-bag and go to school, uni or work, doing work on the train[1] at need
[1] If you were posh and travelled on nice trains by first class during the daytime when its less crowded. If you are not posh and travel on cattle-truck class on craptrains at night when evil fuckers abound, it is less possible. I hate trains.
Yes but my recollection is that briefcases were replaced by backpacks before laptops were a thing so perhaps the change started in schools as FrankBooth suggested earlier or maybe it was just the unholy trio of fashion, price and convenience.
In the later part of my career I used a pilot's case as it was useful for carrying books, student essays, and sandwiches.
The best case for carrying laptops is in landscape format, and survey bags are the best since they are set up for them. But go-bags are in rough portrait format and don't work as well, especially if carrying two.
I think that's sensible. I'm 1.2 miles from the nearest cashpoint, and exactly 3 miles from a second if that one is out of service. Should be feasible for the whole of England, perhaps some tricky cases in the Scottish Highlands.
Have you any idea of how many additional ATM's that would mean in rural Northumberland? I was living 1.5 miles from the nearest shop let alone ATM. That was 4 plus. And I was in the relatively well populated Tyne Valley.
Well banks can now be fined by the FCA if they don't provide a branch or ATM within 3 miles in rural areas
How does that work? They can simply say "not me, chum, some other bank can do it".
Some rural areas, you'd almost be lucky to have a *commercial building* to put an ATM in.
Nope the FCA can now fine any bank which shuts a branch in a market town or suburb or fails to provide an ATM in them either, no excuse
So does the fine go to the people who are the last to close an ATM in an area then?
This could lead to a rush not to be the last institution with an ATM in the area, and face being trapped doing so indefinitely.
No it goes to banks who sut branches too and who fail to provide ATMs in the area even if they don't have one now
That doesn't make sense. All bank branches have ATMs anyway so "shut a branch and don't have an ATM" is an emopty set.
I’ve been into a bank branch that didn’t have an ATM. Rare, but they occur.
Ah, thanks. I did wonder, but couldn't think of any. But, most of the time, most places, that'll apply. So the problem remains (and also whether FCA will even fine the bank more than 51p in cash).
Well, one was a Coutts office (meeting a friend that worked there). They had a counter for Coutts customers, but no machine.
Mind you, the funniest was a cash machine at Citi in Canary Wharf. That only dispensed £50 notes. I thought it symbolic of something - hubris? Idiocy? Still not entirely clear.
Especially odd seeing as £50 notes are hard to actually spend anywhere without someone pulling out an eye loupe.
True fact - until I moved to London aged 23 I had never seen a £50 note in real life (even though I'd done quite a bit of retail work).
You are right that most people do not see them. Friends gave someone a framed Turing £50 note for an IT worker's 50th birthday. They'd not realised the Turing notes were in general circulation; they thought it was a short-lived special like Peter Rabbit 50p pieces, so bought one on ebay at a large premium.
What's the deal with special 50p pieces which, if you look at them on eBay, vary in asking prices from 51p to £10,000.
Almost the entire purpose of the Royal Mint is to flog overpriced "special" coins to gullible collectors. https://www.royalmint.com/
Their other purpose is to bang out pennies and tuppences as if it was still 1971. Or even 1871.
The halfpenny was withdrawn from circulation in December 1984. Using the Bank of England inflation calculator we can see that half a penny in 1984 would today be worth just over 1.5p so there's a good case for withdrawing both the smallest denomination coins from circulation.
Incidentally, the halfpenny was withdrawn from circulation not long after the £1 coin was introduced (1983), which by inflation from then would now be worth the equivalent of £3.22 - so perhaps time to replace the £5 note with a coin?
If the £50 note was also withdrawn, as frequently considered to cut down on criminal use of it, that would leave Britain with only two denominations of banknote. Possibly the fewest denominations of banknote of any currency, and yet perhaps also the greatest variety of different banknotes because of all the Scottish variations...
UK is most unusual in having £20, as such a low denomination, as the highest in general use.
A Ukranian 1,000 grivna note is worth £20, and that just bought a boozy lunch for three of us. The US has $100, there’s a €200 note (they withdrew the €€500), and in the UAE 1,000 dirhams is more than £200.
Last time I travelled from the UAE to the UK, I handed in nine notes of 1,000dhm, and got 100 £20 notes back.
Why did briefcases go out of fashion for business people?
They were replaced by go-bags which can be carried. Briefcases were for the days when info was on paper. They were big enough for a pad of paper, pens, ruler, rubber, calculator
Then laptops came in, and big manbags were the vogue, big enuf for a chunky pre-Lenovo ThinkPad, adapter, mice, disc drives, etc
Then laptops got thin and sipped electricity like a little mouse, so you could throw a laptop into a go-bag and go to school, uni or work, doing work on the train[1] at need
[1] If you were posh and travelled on nice trains by first class during the daytime when its less crowded. If you are not posh and travel on cattle-truck class on craptrains at night when evil fuckers abound, it is less possible. I hate trains.
Yes but my recollection is that briefcases were replaced by backpacks before laptops were a thing so perhaps the change started in schools as FrankBooth suggested earlier or maybe it was just the unholy trio of fashion, price and convenience.
Criminal proclivities of Wockney Cankers? Briefcases not fat enough to hold the original mobile phone bricks ?
I think that's sensible. I'm 1.2 miles from the nearest cashpoint, and exactly 3 miles from a second if that one is out of service. Should be feasible for the whole of England, perhaps some tricky cases in the Scottish Highlands.
Have you any idea of how many additional ATM's that would mean in rural Northumberland? I was living 1.5 miles from the nearest shop let alone ATM. That was 4 plus. And I was in the relatively well populated Tyne Valley.
Well banks can now be fined by the FCA if they don't provide a branch or ATM within 3 miles in rural areas
How does that work? They can simply say "not me, chum, some other bank can do it".
Some rural areas, you'd almost be lucky to have a *commercial building* to put an ATM in.
Nope the FCA can now fine any bank which shuts a branch in a market town or suburb or fails to provide an ATM in them either, no excuse
So does the fine go to the people who are the last to close an ATM in an area then?
This could lead to a rush not to be the last institution with an ATM in the area, and face being trapped doing so indefinitely.
No it goes to banks who sut branches too and who fail to provide ATMs in the area even if they don't have one now
That doesn't make sense. All bank branches have ATMs anyway so "shut a branch and don't have an ATM" is an emopty set.
I’ve been into a bank branch that didn’t have an ATM. Rare, but they occur.
Ah, thanks. I did wonder, but couldn't think of any. But, most of the time, most places, that'll apply. So the problem remains (and also whether FCA will even fine the bank more than 51p in cash).
Well, one was a Coutts office (meeting a friend that worked there). They had a counter for Coutts customers, but no machine.
Mind you, the funniest was a cash machine at Citi in Canary Wharf. That only dispensed £50 notes. I thought it symbolic of something - hubris? Idiocy? Still not entirely clear.
Especially odd seeing as £50 notes are hard to actually spend anywhere without someone pulling out an eye loupe.
True fact - until I moved to London aged 23 I had never seen a £50 note in real life (even though I'd done quite a bit of retail work).
The best place to find £50 notes these days is in London betting shops.
This looks far worse and more damaging for Chester Hospital than Wayne Couzens was for the MET.
It's so bleak, but you have to applaud the consultants sticking with it for nearly three years. And Cheshire Police for picking up such a complex case and delivering a successful investigation.
I'd add the jury. 9 months of evidence then weeks of consideration in a complex and emotionally charged case. Well done them.
There is a local scandal going on at the moment about a Syrian consultant who operated at Ninewells in Dundee. He seriously and permanently maimed numerous people. Complaints about him were swept under the carpet, largely, it appears, because he was more the averagely successful at bringing research money into the hospital. Eventually he left. The Scottish Government is refusing to have an inquiry because he is abroad and beyond our reach. The fact that numerous colleagues, managers and administrators either covered up his disasters or wilfully disregarded them for years whilst more and more people were harmed is not, apparently, worth investigating.
You sure? Current Courier reports are rather different - inquiry being considered.
Massive failing in English NHS = opportunity to talk about suggested SG failings in this area. Still, I'm sure folk will get round to making the connection between Letby and the government in charge of the NHS for the last 13 years at some point. Shan't be doing anything as risky as breath holding, mind.
Yes Rishi Sunak is absolutely responsible for a nurse murderer 7 years ago in a hospital he never worked at and when he wasn't even in the Cabinet or PM.
As usual we know who the real culprits are, the evil Tories. They should have been monitoring her ward 24/7 to check she didn't turn into a serial killer and given her managers proper training so that if they found out some babies were dying it might be something to report!
I think that's sensible. I'm 1.2 miles from the nearest cashpoint, and exactly 3 miles from a second if that one is out of service. Should be feasible for the whole of England, perhaps some tricky cases in the Scottish Highlands.
Have you any idea of how many additional ATM's that would mean in rural Northumberland? I was living 1.5 miles from the nearest shop let alone ATM. That was 4 plus. And I was in the relatively well populated Tyne Valley.
Well banks can now be fined by the FCA if they don't provide a branch or ATM within 3 miles in rural areas
How does that work? They can simply say "not me, chum, some other bank can do it".
Some rural areas, you'd almost be lucky to have a *commercial building* to put an ATM in.
Nope the FCA can now fine any bank which shuts a branch in a market town or suburb or fails to provide an ATM in them either, no excuse
So does the fine go to the people who are the last to close an ATM in an area then?
This could lead to a rush not to be the last institution with an ATM in the area, and face being trapped doing so indefinitely.
No it goes to banks who sut branches too and who fail to provide ATMs in the area even if they don't have one now
That doesn't make sense. All bank branches have ATMs anyway so "shut a branch and don't have an ATM" is an emopty set.
I’ve been into a bank branch that didn’t have an ATM. Rare, but they occur.
Ah, thanks. I did wonder, but couldn't think of any. But, most of the time, most places, that'll apply. So the problem remains (and also whether FCA will even fine the bank more than 51p in cash).
Well, one was a Coutts office (meeting a friend that worked there). They had a counter for Coutts customers, but no machine.
Mind you, the funniest was a cash machine at Citi in Canary Wharf. That only dispensed £50 notes. I thought it symbolic of something - hubris? Idiocy? Still not entirely clear.
Especially odd seeing as £50 notes are hard to actually spend anywhere without someone pulling out an eye loupe.
True fact - until I moved to London aged 23 I had never seen a £50 note in real life (even though I'd done quite a bit of retail work).
You are right that most people do not see them. Friends gave someone a framed Turing £50 note for an IT worker's 50th birthday. They'd not realised the Turing notes were in general circulation; they thought it was a short-lived special like Peter Rabbit 50p pieces, so bought one on ebay at a large premium.
What's the deal with special 50p pieces which, if you look at them on eBay, vary in asking prices from 51p to £10,000.
Almost the entire purpose of the Royal Mint is to flog overpriced "special" coins to gullible collectors. https://www.royalmint.com/
Their other purpose is to bang out pennies and tuppences as if it was still 1971. Or even 1871.
The halfpenny was withdrawn from circulation in December 1984. Using the Bank of England inflation calculator we can see that half a penny in 1984 would today be worth just over 1.5p so there's a good case for withdrawing both the smallest denomination coins from circulation.
Incidentally, the halfpenny was withdrawn from circulation not long after the £1 coin was introduced (1983), which by inflation from then would now be worth the equivalent of £3.22 - so perhaps time to replace the £5 note with a coin?
If the £50 note was also withdrawn, as frequently considered to cut down on criminal use of it, that would leave Britain with only two denominations of banknote. Possibly the fewest denominations of banknote of any currency, and yet perhaps also the greatest variety of different banknotes because of all the Scottish variations...
Now I don't really see the purpose of cash...unless like I did on Wednesday one leaves their wallet at home and has no means of paying for the fuel required to return home. Fortunately I had my phone with my mobile banking app, and I could arrange an emergency cash code to use at a cashpoint. Other than that, cash, why bother?
"Why bother?" is an interesting way to pose the question.
Cash only exists insofar as it is a convenience. If it is a source of bother then, indeed, one should cease using it. One assumes that there are still people who find using cash convenient for whatever reason.
Personally I find that I am using cash less as time goes on, which is a bit of a shame, because I have such a glorious small bag for carrying coins in.
I think that's sensible. I'm 1.2 miles from the nearest cashpoint, and exactly 3 miles from a second if that one is out of service. Should be feasible for the whole of England, perhaps some tricky cases in the Scottish Highlands.
Have you any idea of how many additional ATM's that would mean in rural Northumberland? I was living 1.5 miles from the nearest shop let alone ATM. That was 4 plus. And I was in the relatively well populated Tyne Valley.
Well banks can now be fined by the FCA if they don't provide a branch or ATM within 3 miles in rural areas
How does that work? They can simply say "not me, chum, some other bank can do it".
Some rural areas, you'd almost be lucky to have a *commercial building* to put an ATM in.
Nope the FCA can now fine any bank which shuts a branch in a market town or suburb or fails to provide an ATM in them either, no excuse
So does the fine go to the people who are the last to close an ATM in an area then?
This could lead to a rush not to be the last institution with an ATM in the area, and face being trapped doing so indefinitely.
No it goes to banks who sut branches too and who fail to provide ATMs in the area even if they don't have one now
That doesn't make sense. All bank branches have ATMs anyway so "shut a branch and don't have an ATM" is an emopty set.
I’ve been into a bank branch that didn’t have an ATM. Rare, but they occur.
Ah, thanks. I did wonder, but couldn't think of any. But, most of the time, most places, that'll apply. So the problem remains (and also whether FCA will even fine the bank more than 51p in cash).
Well, one was a Coutts office (meeting a friend that worked there). They had a counter for Coutts customers, but no machine.
Mind you, the funniest was a cash machine at Citi in Canary Wharf. That only dispensed £50 notes. I thought it symbolic of something - hubris? Idiocy? Still not entirely clear.
Especially odd seeing as £50 notes are hard to actually spend anywhere without someone pulling out an eye loupe.
True fact - until I moved to London aged 23 I had never seen a £50 note in real life (even though I'd done quite a bit of retail work).
You are right that most people do not see them. Friends gave someone a framed Turing £50 note for an IT worker's 50th birthday. They'd not realised the Turing notes were in general circulation; they thought it was a short-lived special like Peter Rabbit 50p pieces, so bought one on ebay at a large premium.
What's the deal with special 50p pieces which, if you look at them on eBay, vary in asking prices from 51p to £10,000.
Almost the entire purpose of the Royal Mint is to flog overpriced "special" coins to gullible collectors. https://www.royalmint.com/
Their other purpose is to bang out pennies and tuppences as if it was still 1971. Or even 1871.
The halfpenny was withdrawn from circulation in December 1984. Using the Bank of England inflation calculator we can see that half a penny in 1984 would today be worth just over 1.5p so there's a good case for withdrawing both the smallest denomination coins from circulation.
Incidentally, the halfpenny was withdrawn from circulation not long after the £1 coin was introduced (1983), which by inflation from then would now be worth the equivalent of £3.22 - so perhaps time to replace the £5 note with a coin?
If the £50 note was also withdrawn, as frequently considered to cut down on criminal use of it, that would leave Britain with only two denominations of banknote. Possibly the fewest denominations of banknote of any currency, and yet perhaps also the greatest variety of different banknotes because of all the Scottish variations...
UK is most unusual in having £20, as such a low denomination, as the highest in general use.
A Ukranian 1,000 grivna note is worth £20, and that just bought a boozy lunch for three of us. The US has $100, there’s a €200 note (they withdrew the €€500), and in the UAE 1,000 dirhams is more than £200.
Last time I travelled from the UAE to the UK, I handed in nine notes of 1,000dhm, and got 100 £20 notes back.
One of my earliest jobs, in the mid-1990s was working in a foreign exchange bureau. I remember once being handed a SFr1000 note (which I think is the largest value note in common circulation in the world outside Singapore), and - after doing quite a bit of checking to ensure its validity - doling out £20s in return for what seemed like ages.
Instead of red tape for pointless cash machines how about doing something about tuition fees which most people will now never pay off and will still be paying into their 50s?
The Tories must go. Their priorities are helping the over 70s not anyone that actually works.
Who introduced tuition fees? New Labour
They never made the fees unaffordable as your lot have done.
They were going to, Mr Bat. Don't you remember? Labour set up a commission to review the level of their top-up fees, and promised to implement whatever the commission came up with.
Then Labour lost the general election, and the Coalition Government took over. The Tories, of course, wanted to raise top-up fees to £15,000 or thereabouts, Labour were supposedly committed to £9000. The Lib Dems, in government, held the increase down to £9000, and were blamed most unjustly by everybody for the increase.
It's an unfair world, of course, but really Labour ought to have taken the blame for all the tuition fees problem.
New Labour were wrong on tuition fees. Tories are wrong on tuition fees.
They've been in government now for 13 years, it is evident they want to saddle us with debt and not ever have us own a home whilst gifting the elderly with a triple locked pension.
Fuck the Tories.
Tuition fees are right and appropriate, otherwise it's just another bung to the middle classes. Without them, the system would be unaffordable unless numbers were slashed - which would have other, major, knock-on effects.
However, what's not right are (1) the amount of interest charged, which should be the lower of BoEBR / CPI inflation, and (2) as you say, a housing market stacked heavily against anyone under 40 (or older in some parts of the country). Scrap most planning regulations; presume a right to develop other than in exceptional circumstances; reduce red tape to encourage more small developers; build!
I agree on tuition fees interest.
However even most under 30s oppose allowing more development in the greenbelt
I think that's sensible. I'm 1.2 miles from the nearest cashpoint, and exactly 3 miles from a second if that one is out of service. Should be feasible for the whole of England, perhaps some tricky cases in the Scottish Highlands.
Have you any idea of how many additional ATM's that would mean in rural Northumberland? I was living 1.5 miles from the nearest shop let alone ATM. That was 4 plus. And I was in the relatively well populated Tyne Valley.
Well banks can now be fined by the FCA if they don't provide a branch or ATM within 3 miles in rural areas
How does that work? They can simply say "not me, chum, some other bank can do it".
Some rural areas, you'd almost be lucky to have a *commercial building* to put an ATM in.
Nope the FCA can now fine any bank which shuts a branch in a market town or suburb or fails to provide an ATM in them either, no excuse
So does the fine go to the people who are the last to close an ATM in an area then?
This could lead to a rush not to be the last institution with an ATM in the area, and face being trapped doing so indefinitely.
No it goes to banks who sut branches too and who fail to provide ATMs in the area even if they don't have one now
That doesn't make sense. All bank branches have ATMs anyway so "shut a branch and don't have an ATM" is an emopty set.
I’ve been into a bank branch that didn’t have an ATM. Rare, but they occur.
Ah, thanks. I did wonder, but couldn't think of any. But, most of the time, most places, that'll apply. So the problem remains (and also whether FCA will even fine the bank more than 51p in cash).
Well, one was a Coutts office (meeting a friend that worked there). They had a counter for Coutts customers, but no machine.
Mind you, the funniest was a cash machine at Citi in Canary Wharf. That only dispensed £50 notes. I thought it symbolic of something - hubris? Idiocy? Still not entirely clear.
Especially odd seeing as £50 notes are hard to actually spend anywhere without someone pulling out an eye loupe.
True fact - until I moved to London aged 23 I had never seen a £50 note in real life (even though I'd done quite a bit of retail work).
You are right that most people do not see them. Friends gave someone a framed Turing £50 note for an IT worker's 50th birthday. They'd not realised the Turing notes were in general circulation; they thought it was a short-lived special like Peter Rabbit 50p pieces, so bought one on ebay at a large premium.
What's the deal with special 50p pieces which, if you look at them on eBay, vary in asking prices from 51p to £10,000.
Almost the entire purpose of the Royal Mint is to flog overpriced "special" coins to gullible collectors. https://www.royalmint.com/
Their other purpose is to bang out pennies and tuppences as if it was still 1971. Or even 1871.
The halfpenny was withdrawn from circulation in December 1984. Using the Bank of England inflation calculator we can see that half a penny in 1984 would today be worth just over 1.5p so there's a good case for withdrawing both the smallest denomination coins from circulation.
Incidentally, the halfpenny was withdrawn from circulation not long after the £1 coin was introduced (1983), which by inflation from then would now be worth the equivalent of £3.22 - so perhaps time to replace the £5 note with a coin?
If the £50 note was also withdrawn, as frequently considered to cut down on criminal use of it, that would leave Britain with only two denominations of banknote. Possibly the fewest denominations of banknote of any currency, and yet perhaps also the greatest variety of different banknotes because of all the Scottish variations...
UK is most unusual in having £20, as such a low denomination, as the highest in general use.
A Ukranian 1,000 grivna note is worth £20, and that just bought a boozy lunch for three of us. The US has $100, there’s a €200 note (they withdrew the €€500), and in the UAE 1,000 dirhams is more than £200.
Last time I travelled from the UAE to the UK, I handed in nine notes of 1,000dhm, and got 100 £20 notes back.
We're suspicious of people with large amounts of cash, the flash gits. Forcing them to have large bundles of lesser notes helps us identify them.
There is a local scandal going on at the moment about a Syrian consultant who operated at Ninewells in Dundee. He seriously and permanently maimed numerous people. Complaints about him were swept under the carpet, largely, it appears, because he was more the averagely successful at bringing research money into the hospital. Eventually he left. The Scottish Government is refusing to have an inquiry because he is abroad and beyond our reach. The fact that numerous colleagues, managers and administrators either covered up his disasters or wilfully disregarded them for years whilst more and more people were harmed is not, apparently, worth investigating.
You sure? Current Courier reports are rather different - inquiry being considered.
Massive failing in English NHS = opportunity to talk about suggested SG failings in this area. Still, I'm sure folk will get round to making the connection between Letby and the government in charge of the NHS for the last 13 years at some point. Shan't be doing anything as risky as breath holding, mind.
Yes Rishi Sunak is absolutely responsible for a nurse murderer 7 years ago in a hospital he never worked at and when he wasn't even in the Cabinet or PM.
As usual we know who the real culprits are, the evil Tories. They should have been monitoring her ward 24/7 to check she didn't turn into a serial killer and given her managers proper training so that if they found out some babies were dying it might be done to report!
Calm down dear.
I expect you were quite rightly up for the Labour Government and Byers, Hewitt, Johnson and Burnham's oversight failures in the Staffs Health Board and general MRSA scandals.
Dear PBers, I am planning to take a visitor from Cambridge to somewhere on the coast. All of East Anglia and Essex look (roughly) similar distances. Could anyone recommend a particularly nice bit to visit? Goals are a) beauty b) interest c) old villages and pubs. Having never been to the coastline on the rump of England I'm at a bit of a loss.
I am in the process of being triggered about having to remind people how useless, institutionally, the NHS is.
Please take as read 20 posts on the matter, while I spare both me writing them or you reading them.
How many institutions wouldn't respond as this hospital did, in worrying more about how it would look than about the necessity to call in the police to conduct an investigation?
The NHS is a particularly egregious example, because their entire function is a caring one, and we interact with them when we are at our most vulnerable, but the failing seems to be almost universal.
Not defending Lucy Letby (if she did what she was convicted of, she deserves a full life tariff) but why were the Managers of Chester Hospital not lined up next to her for sentencing on specific serious charges relating to the seven deaths?
When my Mother died of neglect in the midst of the Princess of Wales Hospital scandal, I followed the subsequent court case with interest. As I recall two imported nurses were given prison sentences, whilst the Managers who oversaw the culture behind the fiasco retained their positions. Now that really was a perfect example of scapegoating the lowest common denominators.The Managers should have gone down for neglect caused by dereliction of duty alongside the nurses. If I had mowed my mother down in my car whilst texting on my mobile phone, I would quite rightly expect a hefty custodial sentence. Those Managers who were texting on their mobile phones, or casually whiling away their day as my Mother, with cancer and mild dementia whiled away several hours on the cold bathroom floor of a private room, anticipating her own imminent demise, should have been as equally culpable as the Filipino nurse.
The big fish always slip through the net, Mexican.
I think the saying was originally applied to leading Nazis slipping off to South America but it applies in a wide range of contexts, including the one you describe.
I think that's sensible. I'm 1.2 miles from the nearest cashpoint, and exactly 3 miles from a second if that one is out of service. Should be feasible for the whole of England, perhaps some tricky cases in the Scottish Highlands.
Have you any idea of how many additional ATM's that would mean in rural Northumberland? I was living 1.5 miles from the nearest shop let alone ATM. That was 4 plus. And I was in the relatively well populated Tyne Valley.
Well banks can now be fined by the FCA if they don't provide a branch or ATM within 3 miles in rural areas
How does that work? They can simply say "not me, chum, some other bank can do it".
Some rural areas, you'd almost be lucky to have a *commercial building* to put an ATM in.
Nope the FCA can now fine any bank which shuts a branch in a market town or suburb or fails to provide an ATM in them either, no excuse
So does the fine go to the people who are the last to close an ATM in an area then?
This could lead to a rush not to be the last institution with an ATM in the area, and face being trapped doing so indefinitely.
No it goes to banks who sut branches too and who fail to provide ATMs in the area even if they don't have one now
That doesn't make sense. All bank branches have ATMs anyway so "shut a branch and don't have an ATM" is an emopty set.
I’ve been into a bank branch that didn’t have an ATM. Rare, but they occur.
Ah, thanks. I did wonder, but couldn't think of any. But, most of the time, most places, that'll apply. So the problem remains (and also whether FCA will even fine the bank more than 51p in cash).
Well, one was a Coutts office (meeting a friend that worked there). They had a counter for Coutts customers, but no machine.
Mind you, the funniest was a cash machine at Citi in Canary Wharf. That only dispensed £50 notes. I thought it symbolic of something - hubris? Idiocy? Still not entirely clear.
Especially odd seeing as £50 notes are hard to actually spend anywhere without someone pulling out an eye loupe.
True fact - until I moved to London aged 23 I had never seen a £50 note in real life (even though I'd done quite a bit of retail work).
You are right that most people do not see them. Friends gave someone a framed Turing £50 note for an IT worker's 50th birthday. They'd not realised the Turing notes were in general circulation; they thought it was a short-lived special like Peter Rabbit 50p pieces, so bought one on ebay at a large premium.
What's the deal with special 50p pieces which, if you look at them on eBay, vary in asking prices from 51p to £10,000.
Almost the entire purpose of the Royal Mint is to flog overpriced "special" coins to gullible collectors. https://www.royalmint.com/
Their other purpose is to bang out pennies and tuppences as if it was still 1971. Or even 1871.
The halfpenny was withdrawn from circulation in December 1984. Using the Bank of England inflation calculator we can see that half a penny in 1984 would today be worth just over 1.5p so there's a good case for withdrawing both the smallest denomination coins from circulation.
Incidentally, the halfpenny was withdrawn from circulation not long after the £1 coin was introduced (1983), which by inflation from then would now be worth the equivalent of £3.22 - so perhaps time to replace the £5 note with a coin?
If the £50 note was also withdrawn, as frequently considered to cut down on criminal use of it, that would leave Britain with only two denominations of banknote. Possibly the fewest denominations of banknote of any currency, and yet perhaps also the greatest variety of different banknotes because of all the Scottish variations...
Now I don't really see the purpose of cash...unless like I did on Wednesday one leaves their wallet at home and has no means of paying for the fuel required to return home. Fortunately I had my phone with my mobile banking app, and I could arrange an emergency cash code to use at a cashpoint. Other than that, cash, why bother?
There's that thing with supermarkets needing you to use a £1 coin to liberate a trolley which you get back when you return it. For years I found this annoying (since I'm not a carrier) but just recently I had a bright idea. The bright idea hinges on the fact that if I'm doing a big shop requiring a trolley I'm always in the car so what I now do is ... dig this ... I keep a £1 coin in the car! I don't even think of it as 'cash' it's just the circular piece of metal that gets me a shopping trolley.
3 As at A level. Degree from Imperial College London. Chartered Accountant. Licenced Dealer of Securities.
In the later part of my career I used a pilot's case as it was useful for carrying books, student essays, and sandwiches.
The best case for carrying laptops is in landscape format, and survey bags are the best since they are set up for them. But go-bags are in rough portrait format and don't work as well, especially if carrying two.
I used to use the poacher's pocket of my Barbour for my Z88 ...
I think that's sensible. I'm 1.2 miles from the nearest cashpoint, and exactly 3 miles from a second if that one is out of service. Should be feasible for the whole of England, perhaps some tricky cases in the Scottish Highlands.
Have you any idea of how many additional ATM's that would mean in rural Northumberland? I was living 1.5 miles from the nearest shop let alone ATM. That was 4 plus. And I was in the relatively well populated Tyne Valley.
Well banks can now be fined by the FCA if they don't provide a branch or ATM within 3 miles in rural areas
How does that work? They can simply say "not me, chum, some other bank can do it".
Some rural areas, you'd almost be lucky to have a *commercial building* to put an ATM in.
Nope the FCA can now fine any bank which shuts a branch in a market town or suburb or fails to provide an ATM in them either, no excuse
So does the fine go to the people who are the last to close an ATM in an area then?
This could lead to a rush not to be the last institution with an ATM in the area, and face being trapped doing so indefinitely.
No it goes to banks who sut branches too and who fail to provide ATMs in the area even if they don't have one now
That doesn't make sense. All bank branches have ATMs anyway so "shut a branch and don't have an ATM" is an emopty set.
I’ve been into a bank branch that didn’t have an ATM. Rare, but they occur.
Ah, thanks. I did wonder, but couldn't think of any. But, most of the time, most places, that'll apply. So the problem remains (and also whether FCA will even fine the bank more than 51p in cash).
Well, one was a Coutts office (meeting a friend that worked there). They had a counter for Coutts customers, but no machine.
Mind you, the funniest was a cash machine at Citi in Canary Wharf. That only dispensed £50 notes. I thought it symbolic of something - hubris? Idiocy? Still not entirely clear.
Especially odd seeing as £50 notes are hard to actually spend anywhere without someone pulling out an eye loupe.
True fact - until I moved to London aged 23 I had never seen a £50 note in real life (even though I'd done quite a bit of retail work).
You are right that most people do not see them. Friends gave someone a framed Turing £50 note for an IT worker's 50th birthday. They'd not realised the Turing notes were in general circulation; they thought it was a short-lived special like Peter Rabbit 50p pieces, so bought one on ebay at a large premium.
What's the deal with special 50p pieces which, if you look at them on eBay, vary in asking prices from 51p to £10,000.
Almost the entire purpose of the Royal Mint is to flog overpriced "special" coins to gullible collectors. https://www.royalmint.com/
Their other purpose is to bang out pennies and tuppences as if it was still 1971. Or even 1871.
The halfpenny was withdrawn from circulation in December 1984. Using the Bank of England inflation calculator we can see that half a penny in 1984 would today be worth just over 1.5p so there's a good case for withdrawing both the smallest denomination coins from circulation.
Incidentally, the halfpenny was withdrawn from circulation not long after the £1 coin was introduced (1983), which by inflation from then would now be worth the equivalent of £3.22 - so perhaps time to replace the £5 note with a coin?
If the £50 note was also withdrawn, as frequently considered to cut down on criminal use of it, that would leave Britain with only two denominations of banknote. Possibly the fewest denominations of banknote of any currency, and yet perhaps also the greatest variety of different banknotes because of all the Scottish variations...
UK is most unusual in having £20, as such a low denomination, as the highest in general use.
A Ukranian 1,000 grivna note is worth £20, and that just bought a boozy lunch for three of us. The US has $100, there’s a €200 note (they withdrew the €€500), and in the UAE 1,000 dirhams is more than £200.
Last time I travelled from the UAE to the UK, I handed in nine notes of 1,000dhm, and got 100 £20 notes back.
When I lived in Switzerland I would have CHF 200 notes in wallet, as you got whatever came out of the machine, and would feel a bit worried when using one to pay for a packet of cigarettes in the tabac and they wouldn’t bat an eyelid. I was even more surprised early in my time there to see people pull out a CHF1000 in a supermarket for a purchase of CHF100 and no tutting or anything from the cashier.
Dear PBers, I am planning to take a visitor from Cambridge to somewhere on the coast. All of East Anglia and Essex look (roughly) similar distances. Could anyone recommend a particularly nice bit to visit? Goals are a) beauty b) interest c) old villages and pubs. Having never been to the coastline on the rump of England I'm at a bit of a loss.
Dear PBers, I am planning to take a visitor from Cambridge to somewhere on the coast. All of East Anglia and Essex look (roughly) similar distances. Could anyone recommend a particularly nice bit to visit? Goals are a) beauty b) interest c) old villages and pubs. Having never been to the coastline on the rump of England I'm at a bit of a loss.
Wells next the Sea? You've got plenty of old villages all round there, the likes of Holt, Burnham Overy etc, Holkham Hall, and some gorgeous countryside. All that coast from Hunstanton to Sheringham is quite nice.
I think that's sensible. I'm 1.2 miles from the nearest cashpoint, and exactly 3 miles from a second if that one is out of service. Should be feasible for the whole of England, perhaps some tricky cases in the Scottish Highlands.
Have you any idea of how many additional ATM's that would mean in rural Northumberland? I was living 1.5 miles from the nearest shop let alone ATM. That was 4 plus. And I was in the relatively well populated Tyne Valley.
Well banks can now be fined by the FCA if they don't provide a branch or ATM within 3 miles in rural areas
How does that work? They can simply say "not me, chum, some other bank can do it".
Some rural areas, you'd almost be lucky to have a *commercial building* to put an ATM in.
Nope the FCA can now fine any bank which shuts a branch in a market town or suburb or fails to provide an ATM in them either, no excuse
So does the fine go to the people who are the last to close an ATM in an area then?
This could lead to a rush not to be the last institution with an ATM in the area, and face being trapped doing so indefinitely.
No it goes to banks who sut branches too and who fail to provide ATMs in the area even if they don't have one now
That doesn't make sense. All bank branches have ATMs anyway so "shut a branch and don't have an ATM" is an emopty set.
I’ve been into a bank branch that didn’t have an ATM. Rare, but they occur.
Ah, thanks. I did wonder, but couldn't think of any. But, most of the time, most places, that'll apply. So the problem remains (and also whether FCA will even fine the bank more than 51p in cash).
Well, one was a Coutts office (meeting a friend that worked there). They had a counter for Coutts customers, but no machine.
Mind you, the funniest was a cash machine at Citi in Canary Wharf. That only dispensed £50 notes. I thought it symbolic of something - hubris? Idiocy? Still not entirely clear.
Especially odd seeing as £50 notes are hard to actually spend anywhere without someone pulling out an eye loupe.
True fact - until I moved to London aged 23 I had never seen a £50 note in real life (even though I'd done quite a bit of retail work).
You are right that most people do not see them. Friends gave someone a framed Turing £50 note for an IT worker's 50th birthday. They'd not realised the Turing notes were in general circulation; they thought it was a short-lived special like Peter Rabbit 50p pieces, so bought one on ebay at a large premium.
What's the deal with special 50p pieces which, if you look at them on eBay, vary in asking prices from 51p to £10,000.
Almost the entire purpose of the Royal Mint is to flog overpriced "special" coins to gullible collectors. https://www.royalmint.com/
Their other purpose is to bang out pennies and tuppences as if it was still 1971. Or even 1871.
The halfpenny was withdrawn from circulation in December 1984. Using the Bank of England inflation calculator we can see that half a penny in 1984 would today be worth just over 1.5p so there's a good case for withdrawing both the smallest denomination coins from circulation.
Incidentally, the halfpenny was withdrawn from circulation not long after the £1 coin was introduced (1983), which by inflation from then would now be worth the equivalent of £3.22 - so perhaps time to replace the £5 note with a coin?
If the £50 note was also withdrawn, as frequently considered to cut down on criminal use of it, that would leave Britain with only two denominations of banknote. Possibly the fewest denominations of banknote of any currency, and yet perhaps also the greatest variety of different banknotes because of all the Scottish variations...
The largest note in Thailand is that for 1,000 Baht. about £20. They seem to manage.
There's that thing with supermarkets needing you to use a £1 coin to liberate a trolley which you get back when you return it. For years I found this annoying (since I'm not a carrier) but just recently I had a bright idea. The bright idea hinges on the fact that if I'm doing a big shop requiring a trolley I'm always in the car so what I now do is ... dig this ... I keep a £1 coin in the car! I don't even think of it as 'cash' it's just the circular piece of metal that gets me a shopping trolley.
3 As at A level. Degree from Imperial College London. Chartered Accountant. Licenced Dealer of Securities.
You can purchase a device that lives on your keyring and liberates the trolley without depositing the coin...
I think that's sensible. I'm 1.2 miles from the nearest cashpoint, and exactly 3 miles from a second if that one is out of service. Should be feasible for the whole of England, perhaps some tricky cases in the Scottish Highlands.
Have you any idea of how many additional ATM's that would mean in rural Northumberland? I was living 1.5 miles from the nearest shop let alone ATM. That was 4 plus. And I was in the relatively well populated Tyne Valley.
Well banks can now be fined by the FCA if they don't provide a branch or ATM within 3 miles in rural areas
How does that work? They can simply say "not me, chum, some other bank can do it".
Some rural areas, you'd almost be lucky to have a *commercial building* to put an ATM in.
Nope the FCA can now fine any bank which shuts a branch in a market town or suburb or fails to provide an ATM in them either, no excuse
So does the fine go to the people who are the last to close an ATM in an area then?
This could lead to a rush not to be the last institution with an ATM in the area, and face being trapped doing so indefinitely.
No it goes to banks who sut branches too and who fail to provide ATMs in the area even if they don't have one now
That doesn't make sense. All bank branches have ATMs anyway so "shut a branch and don't have an ATM" is an emopty set.
I’ve been into a bank branch that didn’t have an ATM. Rare, but they occur.
Ah, thanks. I did wonder, but couldn't think of any. But, most of the time, most places, that'll apply. So the problem remains (and also whether FCA will even fine the bank more than 51p in cash).
Well, one was a Coutts office (meeting a friend that worked there). They had a counter for Coutts customers, but no machine.
Mind you, the funniest was a cash machine at Citi in Canary Wharf. That only dispensed £50 notes. I thought it symbolic of something - hubris? Idiocy? Still not entirely clear.
Especially odd seeing as £50 notes are hard to actually spend anywhere without someone pulling out an eye loupe.
True fact - until I moved to London aged 23 I had never seen a £50 note in real life (even though I'd done quite a bit of retail work).
You are right that most people do not see them. Friends gave someone a framed Turing £50 note for an IT worker's 50th birthday. They'd not realised the Turing notes were in general circulation; they thought it was a short-lived special like Peter Rabbit 50p pieces, so bought one on ebay at a large premium.
What's the deal with special 50p pieces which, if you look at them on eBay, vary in asking prices from 51p to £10,000.
Almost the entire purpose of the Royal Mint is to flog overpriced "special" coins to gullible collectors. https://www.royalmint.com/
Their other purpose is to bang out pennies and tuppences as if it was still 1971. Or even 1871.
The halfpenny was withdrawn from circulation in December 1984. Using the Bank of England inflation calculator we can see that half a penny in 1984 would today be worth just over 1.5p so there's a good case for withdrawing both the smallest denomination coins from circulation.
Incidentally, the halfpenny was withdrawn from circulation not long after the £1 coin was introduced (1983), which by inflation from then would now be worth the equivalent of £3.22 - so perhaps time to replace the £5 note with a coin?
If the £50 note was also withdrawn, as frequently considered to cut down on criminal use of it, that would leave Britain with only two denominations of banknote. Possibly the fewest denominations of banknote of any currency, and yet perhaps also the greatest variety of different banknotes because of all the Scottish variations...
Now I don't really see the purpose of cash...unless like I did on Wednesday one leaves their wallet at home and has no means of paying for the fuel required to return home. Fortunately I had my phone with my mobile banking app, and I could arrange an emergency cash code to use at a cashpoint. Other than that, cash, why bother?
There's that thing with supermarkets needing you to use a £1 coin to liberate a trolley which you get back when you return it. For years I found this annoying (since I'm not a carrier) but just recently I had a bright idea. The bright idea hinges on the fact that if I'm doing a big shop requiring a trolley I'm always in the car so what I now do is ... dig this ... I keep a £1 coin in the car! I don't even think of it as 'cash' it's just the circular piece of metal that gets me a shopping trolley.
3 As at A level. Degree from Imperial College London. Chartered Accountant. Licenced Dealer of Securities.
My wife bought a little metal disc that fits onto her keyring that's the same size and shape as a pound coin for that purpose. It cost her £1. But she did buy it from a charity.
There is a local scandal going on at the moment about a Syrian consultant who operated at Ninewells in Dundee. He seriously and permanently maimed numerous people. Complaints about him were swept under the carpet, largely, it appears, because he was more the averagely successful at bringing research money into the hospital. Eventually he left. The Scottish Government is refusing to have an inquiry because he is abroad and beyond our reach. The fact that numerous colleagues, managers and administrators either covered up his disasters or wilfully disregarded them for years whilst more and more people were harmed is not, apparently, worth investigating.
You sure? Current Courier reports are rather different - inquiry being considered.
Massive failing in English NHS = opportunity to talk about suggested SG failings in this area. Still, I'm sure folk will get round to making the connection between Letby and the government in charge of the NHS for the last 13 years at some point. Shan't be doing anything as risky as breath holding, mind.
Yes Rishi Sunak is absolutely responsible for a nurse murderer 7 years ago in a hospital he never worked at and when he wasn't even in the Cabinet or PM.
As usual we know who the real culprits are, the evil Tories. They should have been monitoring her ward 24/7 to check she didn't turn into a serial killer and given her managers proper training so that if they found out some babies were dying it might be done to report!
Calm down dear.
I expect you were quite rightly up for the Labour Government and Byers, Hewitt, Johnson and Burnham's oversight failures in the Staffs Health Board and general MRSA scandals.
I believe ‘touched a nerve’ is the traditional response. Fair play, HYUFD is never one to put the blame for bad stuff on politicians he opposes.
I think that's sensible. I'm 1.2 miles from the nearest cashpoint, and exactly 3 miles from a second if that one is out of service. Should be feasible for the whole of England, perhaps some tricky cases in the Scottish Highlands.
Have you any idea of how many additional ATM's that would mean in rural Northumberland? I was living 1.5 miles from the nearest shop let alone ATM. That was 4 plus. And I was in the relatively well populated Tyne Valley.
Well banks can now be fined by the FCA if they don't provide a branch or ATM within 3 miles in rural areas
How does that work? They can simply say "not me, chum, some other bank can do it".
Some rural areas, you'd almost be lucky to have a *commercial building* to put an ATM in.
Nope the FCA can now fine any bank which shuts a branch in a market town or suburb or fails to provide an ATM in them either, no excuse
So does the fine go to the people who are the last to close an ATM in an area then?
This could lead to a rush not to be the last institution with an ATM in the area, and face being trapped doing so indefinitely.
No it goes to banks who sut branches too and who fail to provide ATMs in the area even if they don't have one now
That doesn't make sense. All bank branches have ATMs anyway so "shut a branch and don't have an ATM" is an emopty set.
I’ve been into a bank branch that didn’t have an ATM. Rare, but they occur.
Ah, thanks. I did wonder, but couldn't think of any. But, most of the time, most places, that'll apply. So the problem remains (and also whether FCA will even fine the bank more than 51p in cash).
Well, one was a Coutts office (meeting a friend that worked there). They had a counter for Coutts customers, but no machine.
Mind you, the funniest was a cash machine at Citi in Canary Wharf. That only dispensed £50 notes. I thought it symbolic of something - hubris? Idiocy? Still not entirely clear.
Especially odd seeing as £50 notes are hard to actually spend anywhere without someone pulling out an eye loupe.
True fact - until I moved to London aged 23 I had never seen a £50 note in real life (even though I'd done quite a bit of retail work).
You are right that most people do not see them. Friends gave someone a framed Turing £50 note for an IT worker's 50th birthday. They'd not realised the Turing notes were in general circulation; they thought it was a short-lived special like Peter Rabbit 50p pieces, so bought one on ebay at a large premium.
What's the deal with special 50p pieces which, if you look at them on eBay, vary in asking prices from 51p to £10,000.
Almost the entire purpose of the Royal Mint is to flog overpriced "special" coins to gullible collectors. https://www.royalmint.com/
Their other purpose is to bang out pennies and tuppences as if it was still 1971. Or even 1871.
The halfpenny was withdrawn from circulation in December 1984. Using the Bank of England inflation calculator we can see that half a penny in 1984 would today be worth just over 1.5p so there's a good case for withdrawing both the smallest denomination coins from circulation.
Incidentally, the halfpenny was withdrawn from circulation not long after the £1 coin was introduced (1983), which by inflation from then would now be worth the equivalent of £3.22 - so perhaps time to replace the £5 note with a coin?
If the £50 note was also withdrawn, as frequently considered to cut down on criminal use of it, that would leave Britain with only two denominations of banknote. Possibly the fewest denominations of banknote of any currency, and yet perhaps also the greatest variety of different banknotes because of all the Scottish variations...
We don't need to replace the £5 with a coin, which would be of much bigger value than the largest coins in most (all?) other countries - particularly at a time when cash is going out of fashion anyway.
But we should withdraw pennies and twopences from circulation.
I think that's sensible. I'm 1.2 miles from the nearest cashpoint, and exactly 3 miles from a second if that one is out of service. Should be feasible for the whole of England, perhaps some tricky cases in the Scottish Highlands.
Have you any idea of how many additional ATM's that would mean in rural Northumberland? I was living 1.5 miles from the nearest shop let alone ATM. That was 4 plus. And I was in the relatively well populated Tyne Valley.
Well banks can now be fined by the FCA if they don't provide a branch or ATM within 3 miles in rural areas
How does that work? They can simply say "not me, chum, some other bank can do it".
Some rural areas, you'd almost be lucky to have a *commercial building* to put an ATM in.
Nope the FCA can now fine any bank which shuts a branch in a market town or suburb or fails to provide an ATM in them either, no excuse
So does the fine go to the people who are the last to close an ATM in an area then?
This could lead to a rush not to be the last institution with an ATM in the area, and face being trapped doing so indefinitely.
No it goes to banks who sut branches too and who fail to provide ATMs in the area even if they don't have one now
That doesn't make sense. All bank branches have ATMs anyway so "shut a branch and don't have an ATM" is an emopty set.
I’ve been into a bank branch that didn’t have an ATM. Rare, but they occur.
Ah, thanks. I did wonder, but couldn't think of any. But, most of the time, most places, that'll apply. So the problem remains (and also whether FCA will even fine the bank more than 51p in cash).
Well, one was a Coutts office (meeting a friend that worked there). They had a counter for Coutts customers, but no machine.
Mind you, the funniest was a cash machine at Citi in Canary Wharf. That only dispensed £50 notes. I thought it symbolic of something - hubris? Idiocy? Still not entirely clear.
Especially odd seeing as £50 notes are hard to actually spend anywhere without someone pulling out an eye loupe.
True fact - until I moved to London aged 23 I had never seen a £50 note in real life (even though I'd done quite a bit of retail work).
You are right that most people do not see them. Friends gave someone a framed Turing £50 note for an IT worker's 50th birthday. They'd not realised the Turing notes were in general circulation; they thought it was a short-lived special like Peter Rabbit 50p pieces, so bought one on ebay at a large premium.
What's the deal with special 50p pieces which, if you look at them on eBay, vary in asking prices from 51p to £10,000.
Almost the entire purpose of the Royal Mint is to flog overpriced "special" coins to gullible collectors. https://www.royalmint.com/
Their other purpose is to bang out pennies and tuppences as if it was still 1971. Or even 1871.
The halfpenny was withdrawn from circulation in December 1984. Using the Bank of England inflation calculator we can see that half a penny in 1984 would today be worth just over 1.5p so there's a good case for withdrawing both the smallest denomination coins from circulation.
Incidentally, the halfpenny was withdrawn from circulation not long after the £1 coin was introduced (1983), which by inflation from then would now be worth the equivalent of £3.22 - so perhaps time to replace the £5 note with a coin?
If the £50 note was also withdrawn, as frequently considered to cut down on criminal use of it, that would leave Britain with only two denominations of banknote. Possibly the fewest denominations of banknote of any currency, and yet perhaps also the greatest variety of different banknotes because of all the Scottish variations...
Now I don't really see the purpose of cash...unless like I did on Wednesday one leaves their wallet at home and has no means of paying for the fuel required to return home. Fortunately I had my phone with my mobile banking app, and I could arrange an emergency cash code to use at a cashpoint. Other than that, cash, why bother?
There's that thing with supermarkets needing you to use a £1 coin to liberate a trolley which you get back when you return it. For years I found this annoying (since I'm not a carrier) but just recently I had a bright idea. The bright idea hinges on the fact that if I'm doing a big shop requiring a trolley I'm always in the car so what I now do is ... dig this ... I keep a £1 coin in the car! I don't even think of it as 'cash' it's just the circular piece of metal that gets me a shopping trolley.
3 As at A level. Degree from Imperial College London. Chartered Accountant. Licenced Dealer of Securities.
You do know they'll let you have tokens for that, don't you?
Mind you, some buggers charge a couple of quid for them.
In the later part of my career I used a pilot's case as it was useful for carrying books, student essays, and sandwiches.
The best case for carrying laptops is in landscape format, and survey bags are the best since they are set up for them. But go-bags are in rough portrait format and don't work as well, especially if carrying two.
I used to use the poacher's pocket of my Barbour for my Z88 ...
I think that's sensible. I'm 1.2 miles from the nearest cashpoint, and exactly 3 miles from a second if that one is out of service. Should be feasible for the whole of England, perhaps some tricky cases in the Scottish Highlands.
Have you any idea of how many additional ATM's that would mean in rural Northumberland? I was living 1.5 miles from the nearest shop let alone ATM. That was 4 plus. And I was in the relatively well populated Tyne Valley.
Well banks can now be fined by the FCA if they don't provide a branch or ATM within 3 miles in rural areas
How does that work? They can simply say "not me, chum, some other bank can do it".
Some rural areas, you'd almost be lucky to have a *commercial building* to put an ATM in.
Nope the FCA can now fine any bank which shuts a branch in a market town or suburb or fails to provide an ATM in them either, no excuse
So does the fine go to the people who are the last to close an ATM in an area then?
This could lead to a rush not to be the last institution with an ATM in the area, and face being trapped doing so indefinitely.
No it goes to banks who sut branches too and who fail to provide ATMs in the area even if they don't have one now
That doesn't make sense. All bank branches have ATMs anyway so "shut a branch and don't have an ATM" is an emopty set.
I’ve been into a bank branch that didn’t have an ATM. Rare, but they occur.
Ah, thanks. I did wonder, but couldn't think of any. But, most of the time, most places, that'll apply. So the problem remains (and also whether FCA will even fine the bank more than 51p in cash).
Well, one was a Coutts office (meeting a friend that worked there). They had a counter for Coutts customers, but no machine.
Mind you, the funniest was a cash machine at Citi in Canary Wharf. That only dispensed £50 notes. I thought it symbolic of something - hubris? Idiocy? Still not entirely clear.
Especially odd seeing as £50 notes are hard to actually spend anywhere without someone pulling out an eye loupe.
True fact - until I moved to London aged 23 I had never seen a £50 note in real life (even though I'd done quite a bit of retail work).
You are right that most people do not see them. Friends gave someone a framed Turing £50 note for an IT worker's 50th birthday. They'd not realised the Turing notes were in general circulation; they thought it was a short-lived special like Peter Rabbit 50p pieces, so bought one on ebay at a large premium.
What's the deal with special 50p pieces which, if you look at them on eBay, vary in asking prices from 51p to £10,000.
Almost the entire purpose of the Royal Mint is to flog overpriced "special" coins to gullible collectors. https://www.royalmint.com/
Their other purpose is to bang out pennies and tuppences as if it was still 1971. Or even 1871.
The halfpenny was withdrawn from circulation in December 1984. Using the Bank of England inflation calculator we can see that half a penny in 1984 would today be worth just over 1.5p so there's a good case for withdrawing both the smallest denomination coins from circulation.
Incidentally, the halfpenny was withdrawn from circulation not long after the £1 coin was introduced (1983), which by inflation from then would now be worth the equivalent of £3.22 - so perhaps time to replace the £5 note with a coin?
If the £50 note was also withdrawn, as frequently considered to cut down on criminal use of it, that would leave Britain with only two denominations of banknote. Possibly the fewest denominations of banknote of any currency, and yet perhaps also the greatest variety of different banknotes because of all the Scottish variations...
Now I don't really see the purpose of cash...unless like I did on Wednesday one leaves their wallet at home and has no means of paying for the fuel required to return home. Fortunately I had my phone with my mobile banking app, and I could arrange an emergency cash code to use at a cashpoint. Other than that, cash, why bother?
There's that thing with supermarkets needing you to use a £1 coin to liberate a trolley which you get back when you return it. For years I found this annoying (since I'm not a carrier) but just recently I had a bright idea. The bright idea hinges on the fact that if I'm doing a big shop requiring a trolley I'm always in the car so what I now do is ... dig this ... I keep a £1 coin in the car! I don't even think of it as 'cash' it's just the circular piece of metal that gets me a shopping trolley.
3 As at A level. Degree from Imperial College London. Chartered Accountant. Licenced Dealer of Securities.
You are not Gillian Keegan and I claim my £1 shopping trolley token.
Dear PBers, I am planning to take a visitor from Cambridge to somewhere on the coast. All of East Anglia and Essex look (roughly) similar distances. Could anyone recommend a particularly nice bit to visit? Goals are a) beauty b) interest c) old villages and pubs. Having never been to the coastline on the rump of England I'm at a bit of a loss.
Dear PBers, I am planning to take a visitor from Cambridge to somewhere on the coast. All of East Anglia and Essex look (roughly) similar distances. Could anyone recommend a particularly nice bit to visit? Goals are a) beauty b) interest c) old villages and pubs. Having never been to the coastline on the rump of England I'm at a bit of a loss.
Dear PBers, I am planning to take a visitor from Cambridge to somewhere on the coast. All of East Anglia and Essex look (roughly) similar distances. Could anyone recommend a particularly nice bit to visit? Goals are a) beauty b) interest c) old villages and pubs. Having never been to the coastline on the rump of England I'm at a bit of a loss.
I think that's sensible. I'm 1.2 miles from the nearest cashpoint, and exactly 3 miles from a second if that one is out of service. Should be feasible for the whole of England, perhaps some tricky cases in the Scottish Highlands.
Have you any idea of how many additional ATM's that would mean in rural Northumberland? I was living 1.5 miles from the nearest shop let alone ATM. That was 4 plus. And I was in the relatively well populated Tyne Valley.
Well banks can now be fined by the FCA if they don't provide a branch or ATM within 3 miles in rural areas
How does that work? They can simply say "not me, chum, some other bank can do it".
Some rural areas, you'd almost be lucky to have a *commercial building* to put an ATM in.
Nope the FCA can now fine any bank which shuts a branch in a market town or suburb or fails to provide an ATM in them either, no excuse
So does the fine go to the people who are the last to close an ATM in an area then?
This could lead to a rush not to be the last institution with an ATM in the area, and face being trapped doing so indefinitely.
No it goes to banks who sut branches too and who fail to provide ATMs in the area even if they don't have one now
That doesn't make sense. All bank branches have ATMs anyway so "shut a branch and don't have an ATM" is an emopty set.
I’ve been into a bank branch that didn’t have an ATM. Rare, but they occur.
Ah, thanks. I did wonder, but couldn't think of any. But, most of the time, most places, that'll apply. So the problem remains (and also whether FCA will even fine the bank more than 51p in cash).
Well, one was a Coutts office (meeting a friend that worked there). They had a counter for Coutts customers, but no machine.
Mind you, the funniest was a cash machine at Citi in Canary Wharf. That only dispensed £50 notes. I thought it symbolic of something - hubris? Idiocy? Still not entirely clear.
Especially odd seeing as £50 notes are hard to actually spend anywhere without someone pulling out an eye loupe.
True fact - until I moved to London aged 23 I had never seen a £50 note in real life (even though I'd done quite a bit of retail work).
You are right that most people do not see them. Friends gave someone a framed Turing £50 note for an IT worker's 50th birthday. They'd not realised the Turing notes were in general circulation; they thought it was a short-lived special like Peter Rabbit 50p pieces, so bought one on ebay at a large premium.
What's the deal with special 50p pieces which, if you look at them on eBay, vary in asking prices from 51p to £10,000.
Almost the entire purpose of the Royal Mint is to flog overpriced "special" coins to gullible collectors. https://www.royalmint.com/
Their other purpose is to bang out pennies and tuppences as if it was still 1971. Or even 1871.
The halfpenny was withdrawn from circulation in December 1984. Using the Bank of England inflation calculator we can see that half a penny in 1984 would today be worth just over 1.5p so there's a good case for withdrawing both the smallest denomination coins from circulation.
Incidentally, the halfpenny was withdrawn from circulation not long after the £1 coin was introduced (1983), which by inflation from then would now be worth the equivalent of £3.22 - so perhaps time to replace the £5 note with a coin?
If the £50 note was also withdrawn, as frequently considered to cut down on criminal use of it, that would leave Britain with only two denominations of banknote. Possibly the fewest denominations of banknote of any currency, and yet perhaps also the greatest variety of different banknotes because of all the Scottish variations...
We don't need to replace the £5 with a coin, which would be of much bigger value than the largest coins in most (all?) other countries - particularly at a time when cash is going out of fashion anyway.
But we should withdraw pennies and twopences from circulation.
Dear PBers, I am planning to take a visitor from Cambridge to somewhere on the coast. All of East Anglia and Essex look (roughly) similar distances. Could anyone recommend a particularly nice bit to visit? Goals are a) beauty b) interest c) old villages and pubs. Having never been to the coastline on the rump of England I'm at a bit of a loss.
Dear PBers, I am planning to take a visitor from Cambridge to somewhere on the coast. All of East Anglia and Essex look (roughly) similar distances. Could anyone recommend a particularly nice bit to visit? Goals are a) beauty b) interest c) old villages and pubs. Having never been to the coastline on the rump of England I'm at a bit of a loss.
Southwold or Aldeborough.
The Adnams tour in Southwold is a nice way to fill a rainy afternoon.
In the later part of my career I used a pilot's case as it was useful for carrying books, student essays, and sandwiches.
The best case for carrying laptops is in landscape format, and survey bags are the best since they are set up for them. But go-bags are in rough portrait format and don't work as well, especially if carrying two.
I used to use the poacher's pocket of my Barbour for my Z88 ...
I picked up about half of that.
Game (on checking, not poacher's) pocket = large waterproof pocket in a dangling flap inside Barbour oiled canvas jacket for placing dead pheasants, roadkill, remains of sadistic outings, etc.
Dear PBers, I am planning to take a visitor from Cambridge to somewhere on the coast. All of East Anglia and Essex look (roughly) similar distances. Could anyone recommend a particularly nice bit to visit? Goals are a) beauty b) interest c) old villages and pubs. Having never been to the coastline on the rump of England I'm at a bit of a loss.
Comments
He used to call me "The Count"... at least I think that´s what he was saying...
Why would they?
It was different in 1979. The Tories were then offering them the chance to take their money on holiday, more freedom from closed-shop Unions, and the chance to own their own home.
Not difficult is it?
Why did briefcases go out of fashion for business people?
https://www.msn.com/en-gb/lifestyle/style/opinion-anne-mcelvoy-an-intellectually-cowardly-idea-is-spreading-from-left-to-right/ar-AA1fl4rt?cvid=9bbf0cb961934db79431324504596a74&ocid=winp2fptaskbarhover&ei=26
The vast majority of crime is committed by multiple repeat offenders.
Under the coalition, for a while, giving bail to people for multiple levels of offences was stopped. So if you were on bail for burglary, got caught, bailed again, got caught, you got warehoused.
Sorry. I see it already has been noted.
Truss's mis-steps caused a significant but relatively short lived fiscal event, but Johnson drove a coach and horses through parliamentary rules and etiquettes. By promoting some of the most appalling Charlatans ever to cross the threshold of the Palace of Westminster he has changed British politics for the worst and possibly forever. He threw his weight behind leaving the EU, knowing that it would be a disaster for the nation, but understanding it may be his best opportunity to climb the greasy pole. The lies, the corruption, he and his fellow travellers were truly awful. By comparison Cameron was one of Britain's all time greats.
(Said nobody who’s ever lived abroad in an OECD country).
Edited - more seriously, i imagine because they aren't well-adapted for laptops.
The NHS is a particularly egregious example, because their entire function is a caring one, and we interact with them when we are at our most vulnerable, but the failing seems to be almost universal.
I do think it useful to be required to demonstrate the candidate's approval of a message though.
#SamsoniteForTheWin
I feel like it was still a thing a bit in the 90s, but definitely rare by the millennium. Ydoethurs suggestion it was down to laptops might be right - as laptop bags and rucksacks are still big.
https://www.royalmint.com/
Shoes too.
However even most under 30s oppose allowing more development in the greenbelt
"Would you support or oppose allowing more housing to be built on Green Belt land? | Daily Question" https://yougov.co.uk/topics/politics/survey-results/daily/2023/05/17/d5ba5/1
Not sure how it is eliminated. I think duarded against is the best we might do, and requires as much transparency as possible, and a cultural shift to need to continually review and justify any institution in an honest way.
https://www.royalmint.com/corporate/circulating-coin/uk-currency/mintages/1-penny/
https://www.royalmint.com/corporate/circulating-coin/uk-currency/mintages/1-penny/
So they sent a new police general from Lima.
One of his first actions was to end bail for police officers who shot someone by mistake and planted evidence to cover it up.
If you shot someone by mistake and put your hands up to it, you were held in the police station.
Sending a police officer to a Peruvian jail….
Then laptops came in, and big manbags were the vogue, big enuf for a chunky pre-Lenovo ThinkPad, adapter, mice, disc drives, etc
Then laptops got thin and sipped electricity like a little mouse, so you could throw a laptop into a go-bag and go to school, uni or work, doing work on the train[1] at need
[1] If you were posh and travelled on nice trains by first class during the daytime when its less crowded. If you are not posh and travel on cattle-truck class on craptrains at night when evil fuckers abound, it is less possible. I hate trains.
When my Mother died of neglect in the midst of the Princess of Wales Hospital scandal, I followed the subsequent court case with interest. As I recall two imported nurses were given prison sentences, whilst the Managers who oversaw the culture behind the fiasco retained their positions. Now that really was a perfect example of scapegoating the lowest common denominators.The Managers should have gone down for neglect caused by dereliction of duty alongside the nurses. If I had mowed my mother down in my car whilst texting on my mobile phone, I would quite rightly expect a hefty custodial sentence. Those Managers who were texting on their mobile phones, or casually whiling away their day as my Mother, with cancer and mild dementia whiled away several hours on the cold bathroom floor of a private room, anticipating her own imminent demise, should have been as equally culpable as the Filipino nurse.
My perennial reminder that free speech debates are never about free speech, they are about where to draw the line between the sayable and the unsayable, and who decides which is which.
Is he OK?
It's a question which requires more context - stick "given that green belt land is pretty shit generally and no other way of solving the housing crisis" on the end.
If the £50 note was also withdrawn, as frequently considered to cut down on criminal use of it, that would leave Britain with only two denominations of banknote. Possibly the fewest denominations of banknote of any currency, and yet perhaps also the greatest variety of different banknotes because of all the Scottish variations...
Looks even more plausibe if one allows for coins dropped eg outside - 2p per household dropped outside + 1 in the sofa would generate your actual 88Mp in 2020.
Still, I'm sure folk will get round to making the connection between Letby and the government in charge of the NHS for the last 13 years at some point. Shan't be doing anything as risky as breath holding, mind.
A Ukranian 1,000 grivna note is worth £20, and that just bought a boozy lunch for three of us. The US has $100, there’s a €200 note (they withdrew the €€500), and in the UAE 1,000 dirhams is more than £200.
Last time I travelled from the UAE to the UK, I handed in nine notes of 1,000dhm, and got 100 £20 notes back.
As usual we know who the real culprits are, the evil
Tories. They should have been monitoring her ward 24/7 to check she didn't turn into a serial killer and given her managers proper training so that if they found out some babies were dying it might be something to report!
Cash only exists insofar as it is a convenience. If it is a source of bother then, indeed, one should cease using it. One assumes that there are still people who find using cash convenient for whatever reason.
Personally I find that I am using cash less as time goes on, which is a bit of a shame, because I have such a glorious small bag for carrying coins in.
I expect you were quite rightly up for the Labour Government and Byers, Hewitt, Johnson and Burnham's oversight failures in the Staffs Health Board and general MRSA scandals.
I am planning to take a visitor from Cambridge to somewhere on the coast. All of East Anglia and Essex look (roughly) similar distances. Could anyone recommend a particularly nice bit to visit? Goals are a) beauty b) interest c) old villages and pubs.
Having never been to the coastline on the rump of England I'm at a bit of a loss.
I think the saying was originally applied to leading Nazis slipping off to South America but it applies in a wide range of contexts, including the one you describe.
3 As at A level. Degree from Imperial College London. Chartered Accountant. Licenced Dealer of Securities.
102 off 52 balls. What an innings.
Edit - that will teach me to keep my mouth shut...
Fair play, HYUFD is never one to put the blame for bad stuff on politicians he opposes.
But we should withdraw pennies and twopences from circulation.
Mind you, some buggers charge a couple of quid for them.
How can you tell?
It doesn't leak.
Edited to remove duplicate.
They are so tiny.
https://www.bestinthecountry.co.uk/barbour-buyers-guide
Z88 = laptop computer equivalent of Sinclair C5 and made by the same brand
NEEDS LEGALLING Whistleblowing doctor accuses hospital management of 'potentially facilitating a mass murderer'
Bloody right it does