Pirate Enterprise: Britain's sponsorship of offshore tax avoidance

Unremitting doom and gloom in this blog would get anyone down. A little while ago we celebrated a salesman who is on our side – the estate agent. It’s time to cheer ourselves up again, that we Ripped-Off Britons aren’t being vindictively picked on. We should remember that Britain doesn’t only rip-off Britons. Britain has for centuries had an enriching tradition of offshore private, or should that be pirate, enterprise. Britain rips-off our foreign brethren as well as us ordinary Britons.Like a mother doting on her wicked children, the British Government...

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NHS IT chaos

Chris, Fee and KJ discuss the NHS's infamous patient IT systemrip-off rip off aircraft carrier patient care record sys...

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Sticking it to the airlines by getting stuck

KJ seeks to exploit the airlines as volcanic disruption loomsIceland volcanic ash cloud airports airlines holiday travel disrupts flights cancellations UK grou...

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Doom and gloom around the dinner table

Will the moribund housing market bring a change in dinner party conversati...

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Pay for performance – Lloyds, RBS, Annual General Meetings and UK Government cowardice

The Centre for Policy Studies, a leading think tank, has proposed that the UK Government should hand its stake in Lloyds and RBS to the citizen taxpayers. If this happens then, for the first time in decades, a bank would actually be majority owned by ‘small shareholders’. The banks would only accept this if the shares were handed over without any voting rights, for fear of what would ensue at their Annual General Meetings (AGM).AGMs are traditionally stitched up between the big financial companies who hold the bulk of one another’s shares in the...

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Bankers have enemies in high places

But it's not as bad as it sou...

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Where are the CEO poachers when you need them?

Fee convinces KJ that CEOs aren't worth their huge salar...

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An alternative to switching energy supplier

Chris and his wife find a way to make all family members contribute to household bi...

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Pensions – the monstrous truth about the inflation indexation change from RPI to CPI

The financial competence of Gordon Brown, the former Chancellor and Prime Minister until the ejection of the Labour government in 2010, was exposed with hindsight by his government’s failures in protecting the British economy from the Credit Crisis that started in 2008. However, the evidence of financial dizziness in the rarefied atmosphere he once sucked up was there in his earlier statements.When, in 2008, Brown was pushing for a long-term pay settlement with public sector workers, he stated"What people all round the country want is certainty...

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Diffusing the doorstep energy salesman

Chris turns the tables on an energy salesman who won't take no for an answerGasElectricityUtilityBi...

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PPI leaves its mark on the population

Chris, Fee and KJ pay their respects to the PPI victimsUK banks won't appeal ruling to compensate customers missold payment protection insurance, Lloyds to settle PPI claims, PPI: 'Banks behaved disgustingly', Coming up: Jan. PPI, housing starts, Payment protection insurance complaints still rising, US core PPI falls in Oct, largest drop in 4 yrs, Payment protection insurance sale curbs appro...

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Beware of Greeks bearing public sector pensions

Fee and KJ discuss the Greek situation, with another bailout on the horizonGermany powers eurozone economic surgePortugal learns terms for $115 billion bailoutOsborne: eurozone crisis shows dangers to UKPortugal seeks EU bailoutPortugal closer to bailoutEurozone leaders meet to bolster euroEurozone retail sales up for first time since J...

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Beware bankers bearing Structured Products – the Great Dividend Robbery

Is investing in the stock market all it’s cracked up to be? Judging by this rocketing graph, it would seem so. But take a closer look and you will see how you can get ripped off by investing via a “Structured Product”. The worm on the Structured Product hook is the promise that you can invest in a risky market, but if even the worst happens you are guaranteed to get your money back.“Structured Products” are yet another method used to bamboozle the public. In the last decade there has been an avalanche of products promising returns running into...

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Fear of financial services outguns terrorism

After a historic victory over the banks on mis-selling Payment Protection Insurance (PPI), our heroes discover why the FSA is now investigating the banks' newest idea: ID Theft Insurance[KEYWORDS: Three million bank customers ripped off over payment protection insurance in line for payouts worth £4.5bn after High Court victory, Payment protection insurance complaints still risingPayment protection insurance sale curbs approved, Payment protection insurance complaints soarLloyds stops selling payment protection insurance, Complaints...

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A better alternative to the Alternative Voting system

Fee comes up with a novel political solution.[KEYWORDS: UK Votes 'No' To Alternative Vote, Alternative Vote 'Would Have Kept Brown In', David Cameron ignores calls to rearrange alternative vote referendum over royal wedding date Electoral reform: The case for alternative vote Alternative Vote: the wrong referendum on the wrong question What exactly is fairer about the Alternative Vote? Would the alternative vote have changed histor...

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Forget ELECTION reform! It is EJECTION reform that really matters

Forget whether “First Past The Post” or “Alternative Vote” is the best way for you to elect your politicians. With the imminent referendum on the voting system in the UK, politicians, journalists, activists, and even ordinary voters interested enough to have any opinion at all are focusing on the procedure of “elections”. Getting terribly heated, calling each other rotters and liars, threatening legal action for dishonesty in politics (!), they are being successfully distracted from the real issue. Not "Elections", but “Ejections”.The question...

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