The majority of the electorate, who voted to leave the EU, are to blame for Lloyd’s bank having to cut 3,000 jobs and close 200 branches, according to its £8.5 million a year CEO, Antonio Horta-Osorio. This is despite his claim that Lloyds were “in a strong position to withstand the uncertainty” he says has been caused by the Brexit vote.

Horta-Osorio has not said whether the savings made by his job cuts and branch closures will be used to improve customer service, to donate to charity or to fund even more generous salaries, bonuses, expenses and pensions for himself and his management team.

Leaked messages from the organisations behind the long-running junior doctor’s strikes indicate that they were just pretending to want to “save the NHS” when all they really wanted was more money from it.

The chairman of their junior doctor’s committee Johan Malawana proposed “a strategy that tied the DH up in knots for the next 16-18 months” and, during talks with arbitrators Acas that the doctors should not get “too concerned in the Acas rubbish. We need to play the political game of always looking reasonable”.

The British Medical Association, which many would expect to know better, was revealed as cynically wanting the government to impose a seven day contract on doctors in the hope that this would win their members sympathy and support from the public for their striking for more money.

Forecasting a dip in bookings for August travel – due to sterling’s drop in value and acts of terrorism putting travellers off – Eurostar’s marketeers have introduced a day return fare of £58 for midweek travel to Paris and Brussels, representing just over a quarter of the normal fare for August. Continue reading →

An increasing number of householders being chased for the TV license fee are using a legal loophole to prevent “enforcement officers” – actually staff of private firm Capita with no legal right to enter homes or search property without permission – from calling on them.

The legal process is “withdrawing implied right of access” to a householder’s frond doorstep, something any householder can do, thus making enforcement officers trespassers if they continue to visit.

It is, unusually, a criminal offence to fail to pay the TV licence and this is an unwarranted status likely to be altered by an overdue Act of Parliament next year.

Ofcom has upheld complaints from viewers that Channel 4 quiz show Countdown breached broadcasting rules by plugging products on air.

Countdown host Nick Hewer, 72, who is a former public relations consultant and more recently scrutiniser of young business hopefuls on The Apprentice TV reality show gave the upcoming Ideal Home Exhibition some “heavy promotion” that left some viewers wondering if he had been paid for it. And a guest on the same show, former British swimmer Mark Foster talked about his (paid for?) position as Ambassador for P&O Cruises before heavily promoting them. Continue reading →

More processed foods have been found to contain high levels of salt and/or fat, according to a study by Consensus Action on Salt and Health (CASH).

More than 200 chilled dips sold in supermarkets were tested, including houmous, taramasalata, salsa and guacamole. Houmous has a high calorie count of 280 per 100gm, and the tastiest products, caramelised onion houmous from Marks and Spencer and Tesco contained more salt per 100gm than four packs of ready-salted crisps. A portion of Waitrose cheese and chive dip contained more fat than a McDonald’s Big Mac.

Marketing Matters has received emails promoting home-working for a salary of $2,500-$5,000 from “the personnel manager of a large International company”.

So far this person calls themselves, in identical emails, “Michael Blevins”. Or “Malcolm” Or “Jesse” Or Nathaniel” Or “Dionne Valencia”.

Anybody else got any names to add?

Sir Philip Green has been awarded the government’s prestigious UFOC award for business activities, the Unacceptable Face Of Capitalism.

To win this Green had to unselfishly remove millions for the BHS pension fund and use it to buy himself another luxury yacht.

Previous winners have been Tiny Rowland and Robert Maxwell. Thought to be runner-up this year was Mike Ashley of Sports Direct, who has coincidentally expressed an interest in buying bits of BHS from the administrator.

The secretive Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) agreement between the large corporations of the USA and the EU is fast becoming a major consideration for those wondering if they should trust the EU enough to want to stay in.

After all this appallingly obvious USA anti-consumer money-grab, with secretive corporate courts deciding on compensation grabbed from a country’s taxpayers for laws passed by their governments that adversely affect the profits of Big Oil, Big Pharma, Big Tobacco et al has already secured the backing of two thirds of the unelected MEPs, so can you trust people who make such ill-advised decisions? Leaked documents have also indicted that the MEPs are also in favour of the questionably corporate-friendly US way of regulating products, whereby a product is only banned if it is proved to be dangerous – people becoming ill or dying is a good indicator – rather than only allowing it onto the market when it is proved safe. Continue reading →