Cha-ching...that'll be £56.50!!

Anyone who has had recent experience of the Driving Test will be thinking ‘I damn well knew it’ with the news that an AM is asking why it appears "harder" to pass tests in North Wales than other parts of the country.

When I questioned the pass/fail rates at our local centre, which at that time was threatened with closure and has in fact since closed, I was told my suspicion was bordering on paranoia. So I watched as my daughters and their pals regularly went through the motions of failing a test, coming home and having to wait 10 days and most importantly, paying for yet another test. Each failure allegedly down to a completely different set of major faults. I then noticed how they all eventually opted to attend a different Test Centre and miraculously they all passed at their first attempt in the alternative venue.

Was I paranoid to suspect that some examiners knowing their employment future was less than secure, could have possibly been deliberately failing young people in order to ensure a steady supply of candidates to keep the Centre busy? Oh as if!!


nick

...and in the yellow corner, Dimitar Berbatov

Probably because Mrs Berbatov allowed little Dimitar to get away with his petulant behaviour all to often, this particular Tottenham fan lost his patience with the ‘wantaway’ whiner long ago.

However, if someone could come up with a time machine in the very near future, I’d take great delight in transporting him to the same dressing room with Dave Mackay as skipper and leaving him with the simple instruction, “ tell Mr Mackay that you’re the biggest earner here, but you want double at another club and consequently you’re not in the right frame of mind to play today.”

Ouch!!!

nick

He couldn't exactly 'sneak' into the UK!

I really don’t care whether Gary Glitter is or isn’t having a heart attack. It just seems incredulous that the British taxpayer is forking out on a police officer who is accompanying him and who has been unsuccessful in ‘trying to persuade him to board the plane to the UK.’

Don’t try too hard mate!

With their usual incompetence, only last week the Home Office said it did not comment on individual cases, but a spokeswoman did say “When it is known that a sex offender convicted in another country is to be deported to the UK, he is met at the port of entry by police who interview him and pass any relevant information to the police in the area in which the offender is proposing to live.”

So wouldn’t that be Heathrow then and not Bangkok?

Still, I doubt if the officer concerned is enjoying the company and would class the trip as a perk.


nick

You can fool some of the people blah blah blah

Well it must be true then, but it isn't the version I was told!!!


nick

The cruel side of mortgage repossessions

My long held dislike for banks and other irresponsible lending institutions was well publicised on my old blog. The work we did on recording the BBC1 programme ‘Britain’s Streets of…’ did nothing to re-assure me that I should change my opinion.

Consequently I am saddened, but not surprised to hear that the number of properties repossessed by mortgage lenders in the UK rose by 48% in the first half of 2008, to a staggering 18,900. My sympathies only lie with those in the spiral of debt. The woes of HSBC, RBS & NatWest would almost be funny if I thought they wouldn’t affect customers and no doubt future job losses. The institutions as always will blame irresponsible borrowers and conveniently ignore the fact that responsible lending is the safety valve to that. Last night I watched a news bulletin and a woman featured who receives a low income and was now being repossessed because she can no longer repay her £300,000 mortgage! Of course I can understand her plight, yet I can’t understand her anger being directed at Gordon Brown. Surely what I consider to be the rule of thumb means that she should be on at least £100,000 to qualify for such a large mortgage? Three times the total income? The corollary of rubber-stamping overstretched loans has been that vendors quite naturally put their prices up to maximise their gain. Housing becomes less and less affordable especially for first time buyers. Vicious circle!

While I’m on the soapbox, television companies and in particular the BBC should act a whole load more responsibly too. Every morning they air a programme, ‘Homes Under the Hammer’, fronted by two inane presenters. The ethos of the show is how much of a killing can greedy people make by buying what were affordable properties and after doing them up quickly, selling them at an inflated price. The grinning presenters then gush ‘wow that’s fantastic, a £25,000 profit in just 9 months’. Er….guess who’s paying that profit?

I suspect it’s not exactly what this year’s 18,900 repossessed folks will be watching as they wait for the bailiff!


nick