One minor TV celebrity getting out of prison soon is Dan Penteado, who helps to exposes workmen on the fiddle on the BBC’s Rogue Traders programme, fronted by consumer and taxpayer champion Ann Robinson.

Penteado was caught doing some rogue trading of his own when fraudulently claiming housing and council tax benefits whilst earning £56,000 from his TV job, a lapse of judgement that got him jailed for 10 weeks by Bournemouth magistrates on July 17.

Wonder if our saintly Ms Robinson knew?

Marketeers at Boots have told millions of pensioners that the loyalty benefits on their Advantage cards have been “upgraded” when in fact they have been downgraded.

Until recently the over-60’s got a 10% discount on own-brand products, and then 4 Advantage points (4 pence) for every pound spent. This meant that products priced at £10 would cost £9 with the 10% discount and then attract a further discount of 4 pence in the pound on £9 (36 pence) making a total of £8.64. Now, under what Boot’s slippery marketeers describe as an upgrade the number of Advantage points has been increased to 10 per £1 but the 10% discount scrapped, so what used to cost £8.64 now costs £9. Continue reading →

Another worthwhile target for acid Annie Robinson and her Watchdog team would be their employers, the BBC.

For years now their TV Licensing division has employed vacuous bluster and bullying to collect its licence fees, largely undeserved in the opinion of many. One feature is that they write inviting previous licence holders to advise them that they no longer need one, and then tell them that they will be getting a visit from their investigators anyway, on the basis that they could be lying. Another is that they keep threatening to send in their investigators if they don’t get a response and then fail to back up their threats with action.

Not impressive, so go for them Annie, unless of course it’s more than your job’s worth………..

Sad to note that trusted and respected presenter Sir David Attenborough has blotted his integrity copybook, again, as has the BBC.

Apparently footage of polar bear cubs was shot in a Dutch zoo for the BBC’s much-admired Frozen Planet documentary, but presented by Attenborough as happening in the Arctic wilderness. And a caterpillar, supposedly freezing under a rock in the wild, was filmed in a box. Continue reading →

A basic annual salary of £1 million is “very low”, according to Sir Martin Sorrell, head of advertising agency WPP.

Sorrell was being interviewed on BBC’s Radio 4 Today programme when he revealed that he has to struggle along on the above amount, made less challenging by an additional £3.2 million in incentives.

Some have wondered what planet Sorrell is living on. For our part we wonder why a man who makes such a screw-up of his own public image should be heading a firm whose job it is to look after other people’s.