Scotty

My last two attempts to communicate have failed due to an accident. This is seriously affecting my marriage so I would appreciate a speedy resolution to the problem! over 2 years ago via web

Banks. RBS Mastercard recently blocked my card when I made several online purchases, in case they were 'fradulent' transactions. An international phone call and 10 minutes later they had unblocked it, but I then had to email and telephone ( again international ) all the companies who had emailed me to say my payments had been refused. Their emails were the first I knew of it of course, RBS disn't have the courtesy to contact me first to let me know they were refusing my payment....yet they have my number, my email etc. I'm all in favour of fraud prevention but had this happened when I was standing in a shop and not sitting in front of my screen, it would have been not only infuriating but a complete waste of my travel costs and time. Before blocking a customer's card they should at least attempt to contact their customer using the contact details they hold on their files. over 2 years ago via web

I have been thinking a lot more about this global warming thing and one thing worries me. How will we know if we have been successful or not? This may sound a silly question and you might be tempted to say 'When the temperature goes down, stupid' but we need to think about it. We know that the temperature goes up and down all the time and has done since time immemorial, long before man was around to influence it. How will we know that this time the cooling is due to us? Will one year with a noticeable drop be enough to say with certainty we've done it or should we wait until a few years have passed and a trend has developed or what? This is important because it is going to cost a lot of money (over £205 billion according to government estimates) and we don't want to keep on spending this kind of money unnecessarily once our goal has been achieved.
Can one of the experts advise, please? over 2 years ago via web

I have just finished reading two interesting books on climate change. The first is one by Nigel Lawson, Margaret Thatcher's 'brilliant' chancellor and before that her energy minister called 'An appeal to reason - A cool look at global warming' and the other by Christopher Booker the founding editor of Private Eye and veteran debunker entitled 'The real global warming disaster'. Lawson's book is a dispassionate look at global warming and in particular at the proposed action to counter it, while Booker's is a history of the phenomenon from its beginnings in the early seventies to the present position where, according to the current wisdom, we only have a few years at best to act to stop a global catastrophe of cataclysmic proportions. Both books are well argued, fully researched and properly sourced and referenced and together have changed my mind completely on the subject. From being a total believer in the 'accepted view' and the 'settled science' on global warming, although a little sceptical as to what we can do about it, I am now firmly in the other camp. I now think that what we are witnessing could turn out to be one of the greatest mass deceptions ever perpetrated on the of the human race. Two quotations are worth repeating. The first is by professor Richard Lindzen, the world's leading atmospheric physicist and 'climate scientist':
'Future generations will wonder in bemused amazement that the early 21'st century's developed world went into hysterical panic over a globally averaged temperature increase of a few tenths of a degree and, on the basis of gross exagerrations of highly uncertain computer projections combined into implausible chains of reference, proceeded to contemplate a roll-back of the industrial age.'
The second is from Nigel Lawson's book where he says:
'One country in the world has decided to.........intensify its commitment to cutting back unilaterally on its carbon emissions. That country is the United Kindom, with the passage.. (in) November 2008, with enthusiastic all-party support, of the Climate Change Act. This may well go down in history as the most absurd piece of legislation any British parliament has ever passed.' I urge you to read these books and then judge for yourselves.
over 2 years ago via web

Bank Bonuses. Can we please stop these before they start again. We have a government who paid obscene amounts of tax-payers money to bail them out but have failed to wield any control over them at all. Bonuses are creeping back, higher interest rates on credit cards, ridiculous rates on mortgages etc.etc. Oh yes, sorry, we forgot the tax payer owns us,lets just carry on ripping off the people who helped us keep our jobs in the first place. None of us get paid extra money for failing to do our jobs properly ( or should I say recklessly) so why, oh why, should they. over 2 years ago via web

My email service went down 6 hours ago, a fibre optic cable has been cut apparently somewhere near Bristol. Bristol !!! The Email Protection Agency are 'battling' to restore my service. I ring again, they say that only 6 customers, 6, have been affected, and I'm one of them. Amazing. At least I've still got the internet and can Quiet Riot about it. Has anyone else had this problem with the Email Protection Agency? over 2 years ago via web

Re. the Maclaren buggy manufacturer. It appears that at least 3 children in the past year have been injured in the UK. Ian Harmer's 13-month-old daughter suffered a horrific injury, caused by one of the company's pushchairs, more than a year ago. However, the firm rejected his claim that there was a need to make safety improvements. Its insurers even put pressure on Mr Harmer and his family to drop their compensation claim.
In the two other cases, Sarah Dutton, from Essex, said her son Daniel, three, lost the tip of a finger, while Lara Bond, a teacher from London, said the same had happened to her four-year-old daughter, Jemima. SEE FULL ARTICLE..........

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1227084/Firm-ignored-warning-buggy-cut-girls-finger.html#comments#ixzz0WbwPuZLi
over 2 years ago via web

UPDATE to the story on Meg whose pension was given away to someone else by STANDARD LIFE. Meg's lawyer has now read the full rules of the Standard Life pension plan which Standard Life only sent on request 2 days ago.

The lawyer is in no doubt that it is a pension as also defined by Dutch pension legislation under which her Marriage Contract was drawn up. ( Meg was married in Holland as they lived there at the time). Therefore under both the notarised Will and her Dutch Marriage contract Meg should have been the recipient of this pension. Standard Life had no moral or legal right to give her pension payment ( £70,000) to another member of her ex-husbands family instead and without her knowledge. A family member, incidentally, who was not even mentioned in the will as a beneficiary of anything.

Standard Life are using the 'discretionary payments' clause to excuse and justify the fact that they gave Meg's pension to the wrong person. A pension which she contributed to for 17 years of her marriage. Standard Life did this without making any checks whatsoever to see if there was a Will or to even request a solicitors letter. Meg now has No pension.

If you would like to support Meg in her fight to get her pension back from Standard Life please join the 'Pensions at Standard Life Quiet Riot'. Thanks for your support.

And remember, if there is a 'discretionary clause' in your pension or life insurance payment, don't let an 'adminstrator' at Standard Life make the same mistake with your pension that they did in Meg's case. Perhaps its time to change this legislation once and for all. over 2 years ago via web

Hands off our chocolate. Is Nothing sacred, not even Cadbury's?
" Kraft Foods launches hostile bid for Cadbury" What is the world coming too when the threat of takeover looms large over that most British of favourites, our very own Cadbury's chocolate. We know Kraft make cheese slices ( if you like that sort of thing) but they should stick to what they know best, they have no experience whatsoever at producing a bar of the finest chocolate ever known to man or woman. And I warn you, they would change it, yes change it, it would never taste the same again.
We must fight in the streets, and in the fields, and in the supermarkets, we must take up the battle cry " Keep off our fruit and nuts". Now, before its too late.

" Cadbury has rejected a £9.8 billion ($US 16.3 billion) hostile bid from Kraft Foods, setting up what could be a lengthy tussle for control of the UK chocolate company. In a statement, Cadbury chairman Roger Carr said the board "emphatically rejected this derisory offer and has strengthened its resolve to ensure the true value of Cadbury is fully understood by all." Kraft's offer "does not come remotely close to reflecting the true value of our company," he added.

I'm with you Cadbury's. Stand to your mettle, hold fast, we will support you.


over 2 years ago via web