I use my cheque book every month at least once. Sometimes it's multiple. If I give money to my family which I sometimes do then they promptly photo the cheque whilst paying it into their accounts online. However, they know how I choose to Bank and they accept it even if they think I'm mad. I refuse to do online banking in any circumstances and when it has been suggested by my bank they get a sharp "do you want my account or do I transfer it elsewhere" and they seem to drop the subject immediately. A short story about an account with Nationwide a while ago. My wife heard about an account which would pay us a fair bit more interest wise than the savings account and said she would like to do it. It was for a bond which could be 1 year, 2 year or 3 year with interest depending on how long it was put in for. I took her to Nationwide in Plymouth City Centre to ask about doing it. The bloke on the desk said it would be fine and all that but of course it was an online account only so she would have to go into their website and the forms were there and easy to do. She then pointed out that she was registered blind and couldn't fill out online forms. Chap said it would therefore be ok for me to do it for her. That was his downfall. She got right upity with him and asked if he thought it was ok for her to forego all her independance and be precluded from their new accounts simply because she was blind. She also pointed out that she had been a customer of theirs for over 25 years. He didn't know what to say so she suggested he speak to head office and check if they would be prepared to make an exception for disabled people. Don't know what he said to them but he came back and said they had agreed. He then did the forms manually and it went from there. At the end of the process she told him that they were 5 minutes away from losing her account altogether. She did thank him and they now do make exceptions in certain circumstances. See easy isn't it when all you have to say is yes instead of no. I said to the bloke when we were on our way out "welcome to my world" and winked.
hell my last cheque was 2015 we stopped taking them as a business in 2018 to costly for us. we got charged to bank them Online is the best way now for it all.. applepay is better for us.. dont have to keep in putting your details one click plym and you have paid
I checked when I started that cheque book of 25 cheques. January 2015. It contains the June 2016 payment of a £100 speeding fine that was the subject of my very first post in this forum on the way to the play-off game at Wembley. Four cheques are as yet unused and 5 were payable to my daughter and subsequently destroyed Most of the rest were payments to our window cleaner.
THE WONDERS OF SCIENCE. Stroking a dog for as little as three minutes could help boost individuals' concentration and lower stress...a study suggests. Playing with a well behaved dog can boost the strength of two types of brainwaves that are known to improve concentration and make people feel more relaxed...data shows. Scientists at Konkuk University in South Korea monitored the brain activity of 20 healthy adults as they interacted with a poodle in a variety of ways...including grooming, playing with a toy and stroking. Participants claimed to feel less fatigue...depression and stress after all the activities...the scientists said. Daily Telegraph...14/03/2024. Another case of thousands of £'s spent proving what millions of dog owners could have told them for nothing.
Yep I can see the less depression, fatigue and stress bit until the vet bill arrives. It's not the pet that has the stroke then. The subject of vet bills has been on the radio several times over the last cuple of days. How expensive some of them are and people coming on and quoting bills of over £5k in some cases. Over £1k seemed almost the norm. It prompted a conversation between me and herself as we both had a dog in the house when growingf up. Mine lived until it was 16. In all that time from a 6 week old puppy she never went near a vet once. Herself's dog was almost the same. Both got fed on the same food we ate with the odd bone thrown in from the butchers if he was in a good mood and you looked pitful enough at him when asking. My dog was as happy as larry.
Figures published by the Department for Work and pensions (DWP)...reveal that between April 2019 and November last year (2023) ...1.5 million people applying for sickness benefit linked to Universal Credit were granted the most generous level of welfare payments. The figure showed mental health was the biggest driver of long term sickness claims...cited in 69% of cases.....Of the 2.4 million health claims processed by DWP over this four year period...16% were rejected. Another 19% of claimants were deemed to have "limited capability for work and work-related activity"...People in this last group do not have to look for a job in order to receive payment. A total of 3.9 million people are now receiving out-of-work benefits without having to even look for a job. Nikita Malik...head of work and opportunity at the Centre for Social Justice...said..."All the numbers are moving in the wrong direction...This represents both a huge economic challenge and a shameful waste of potential." A DWP spokesman said..."We are taking the long-term decision to help everyone who can work to do so." And some people in work are threatening to strike. Civil servants at Britain's official statistics body have threatened to go on strike after being asked to work in the office for two days a week. More than 1,000 employees at the Office for National Statistics (ONS) are being balloted over strike action after bosses told them to stop working from home full time. Article's in todays Daily Telegraph...15/03/2024. What a topsy turvy world we live in.....millions not having to find work and others in work not wanting to work just now and again at their work place as requested.
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR. Dear Editor I recently collected a small bottle of medicine for my dogs....the bill was £79....with a prescription ...I could purchase the same medication online for £19.90. I also requested a dental check for my three Pekingese....This took less than five minutes for all of them....and the charge was £55...with an estimate of £2,700 for the work....Is it any wonder that dog homes are full ? Dear Editor. The inquiry into the gradual takeover of vets by private equity companies is to be welcomed. We have had experience of being with two different independent vets at the time they were bought out...At the first...the cost of a consultation doubled...and we were being charged for follow-up appointments...which until then had been part of a package. When we moved to Dorset we signed up with an independent vet....only for Medivet to take it over.....The price of drugs increased significantly. These factors are bound to affect animal welfare as people find they can no longer afford the treatment.....We are lucky in that two vets have set up a new ...independent practice in our area. They tell me they have been inundated with clients....But one wonders how long such vets will survive. Daily Telegraph...15/03/2024.
I fear we need to take a hard line with those who won’t work as opposed to those who can’t. We have the highest burden of tax since the aftermath of WW2 and that just can’t go on.
A survey in Australia is claiming that there is not such a thing as long-Covid......they say that it is not unique about symptoms suffered by people following a bout of coronavirus....instead sufferers are simply experiencing the normal effects of recovering from a virus....which can be fatigue...brain fog...and shortness of breath....known as post-viral syndrome. These findings are from the chief health officer of Queensland in Australia....following new research by Queensland's public health department....which studied more than 5,000 people suffering Covid like symptoms between May and June 2022. Daily Telegraph...15/03/2024. Blimey that could scare the day lights out of thousands of work shy hanger oners. (is that a word ?)
Isn’t it strange that we can have such a hullabaloo about a man who only started to donate to the Conservative Party when it chose a non-white Hindu as leader, but who made uncomplimentary remarks about Diane Abbott, who in turn claimed prejudice against Jews, of whom millions were murdered by the Nazis, was less important than that against her own ethnic group. Her remarks of course came at a time when her political party was riddled with anti-Semitic rhetoric. I’d have thought that the fact Frank Hester makes large sums from supplying Government contracts but is also apparently the largest single donor to the ruling party at least as much of potential concern, although there is no evidence of any impropriety. I abhor racism but I can’t help that all this political froth obscures the very real scourge across the world.
I think the worst part of his rant was that she should be shot and not so much the colour aspect. The donations he has made are beginning to sound like a tip as in something you give the waiter after good service. Thank you for the huge contracts now here is a tip for doing it well. Dodgy doesn't cover it.
And sounds like there is another £5 million donated for this year ....but will show up in the records at the appropriate time later in the year ?.
I did say no evidence of impropriety. With a few exceptions, the private sector does do very good work for the public sector. But.... I worked with a civil engineer with whom we were discussing South West Highways, who do a lot of road maintenance locally. Colloquially known as SWH (naturally) she explained that in the trade, the acronym was usually taken to mean South West Holidays due to the less than impressive work rate of its crews.
On and off, I’ve banged on about electricity standing charges, why they’re going up and why it’s iniquitous for them to be subsumed into unit rates. New figures have been released. It is estimated that £54 billion needs to be spent on the electricity grid between now and 2030 and a further £60 billion between 2030 and 2035 to achieve Net Zero commitments by switching to more diverse green power sources. To put those gargantuan numbers into perspective, the cost of HS2 as originally conceived was £115 billion at 2015 prices and half of that has had to be cancelled due to unaffordability. Cement and steel all have high proportions of energy costs within their prices and inflation is always a big risk in such cost estimates. This is needed to install 5,000 miles of new cable network of which 4,000 miles will be underwater. All of that will need planning and environmental approvals, which is an Herculean task in itself. Presumably all the landslide cabling is costed as being on overhead pylons. If environmental pressure results in it having to go underground, then costs will increase significantly. Permitting is a big risk to cost and schedule because many wind farms in particular are in remote and therefore environmentally sensitive areas. Similarly, undersea cables have to come ashore somewhere and pylons on the coastline won’t be popular. In fact, they won’t be popular going across ordinary farm fields will they? As I read it, that will add about £40 to £60 to the average bill if spread over all users but if it’s concentrated on users in proportion to usage, then the costs will be higher on some than others when in fact the underlying cost is the same for each household. We all have only one electricity connection to the grid don’t we? If as some argue gas users should have to subsidise electricity, then there will be further inequality. Another story in the news is of course the slow uptake of air pump heating and no wonder nobody wants that unless they’re building a brand new eco home designed to use it. What a government omnishambles is coming over the horizon!
Israeli troops have killed a senior Hamas commander Faiq Mabhouh head of the operations directorate for Hamas's internal security....he was found holed up in the network of tunnels under Gaza City's Al-Shifa Hospital.....at least 20 Hamas fighters were killed and wounded and at least 80 suspects have been detained. IDF troops found numerous weapons in a room nearby.....Mabhouh and his troops had apparently been hiding at the hospital for some time. So we hear that the head of the World Health Organisation yesterday expressed concern over the assualt on Al-Shifa....saying "hospital shouild never be battle grounds". Why are they not saying that terrorists should not hide amongst hospital patients ? In a statement...Hamas condemned the attack on Al-Shifa as a "new crime" and lashed out at Israel for "targeting defenceless civilians" ...instead of taking on the fighters on the battlefield. I think the IDF would prefer to take on Hamas fighters on the battlefields....but Hamas are to cowardly to do that so they hide in the hospitals amongst the Palestinian patients. These weekend demonstrations that we allow....which are basically supporting Hamas (Israel condemned not Hamas).......need to be clamped down on.....but of course that is difficult with a police force which is dysfunctional to the extent that it is at the moment. Facts from BBC News 19/03/2024.
Not just air-pump notDistant....but the second hand electric cars market is flat....many are not interested in them.....more response in city's then in the countryside for buying electric cars....and the cost is beyond many people anyway...plus the cost of setting up recharging places and the length of time to recharge them compared with five minutes in a petrol station to fill up. Plus the spontaneous fires that seem to happen now and again....you don't need that happening in your garage or on your driveway.
