And speaking of banks...
Little Petal has just come back from a trip to Newcastle. Now that she's back at work again she's been able to give her mother back some of the money she borrowed a while ago.
Little Petal's big sister took the money into the bank to pay it in. Her mother banks with Northern Rock. Just in case some of you don't know or don't care about British news, Northern Rock is the bank which folded last year as the first ripples of the sub-prime crisis spread across the big pond and lapped at our shores. Northern Rock was effectively nationalised as the only way to keep it both open and out of Richard Branson's hands. (Someone that successful is obviously an alarming prospect as an incoming banker, just as he was too honest a choice for the lottery management).
So, a customer walks into Northern Rock, and instead of wanting to withdraw all their savings and take them to a steadier bank, says that they want to pay some money in. And what happens? The Northern Rock bank says "I'm sorry, but that account has been frozen because it hasn't been accessed for a while. We'll have to re-activate it. This may take some time."
Let's just clarify what happened: a bank was saying that they couldn't accept money. Not they weren't going to lend it, but they couldn't see their way into receiving money. A bank was saying it was too difficult for them to take someone's money and put it in their safe. A bank said that? Even a piggy bank knows when to just shut up and take the money.
From what planet did they recruit the nationalisation managers? Bare weeks have elapsed since the emergency legislation was enacted to prevent the formation of Virgin Banking, and already the Northern Rock is showing all the hallmarks of the dear old nationalised British industry that caused them to become a byword for waste and inefficiency (I before E except after C).
LP's sister was not impressed. As soon as the account was re-activated she drew out all the money and opened a new account for Mother in the Alliance and Leicester, just over the road. I thought the whole idea of nationalising Northern Rock was to prevent just that sort of thing.
Is there anybody out there watching what's going on in this brave new world of ultra-modern reversionist socialism? And if so, are they just laughing?
I know, two posts in one day, but if you've noticed, I've been silent a whole fortnight. This is just catch-up time.
Little Petal's big sister took the money into the bank to pay it in. Her mother banks with Northern Rock. Just in case some of you don't know or don't care about British news, Northern Rock is the bank which folded last year as the first ripples of the sub-prime crisis spread across the big pond and lapped at our shores. Northern Rock was effectively nationalised as the only way to keep it both open and out of Richard Branson's hands. (Someone that successful is obviously an alarming prospect as an incoming banker, just as he was too honest a choice for the lottery management).
So, a customer walks into Northern Rock, and instead of wanting to withdraw all their savings and take them to a steadier bank, says that they want to pay some money in. And what happens? The Northern Rock bank says "I'm sorry, but that account has been frozen because it hasn't been accessed for a while. We'll have to re-activate it. This may take some time."
Let's just clarify what happened: a bank was saying that they couldn't accept money. Not they weren't going to lend it, but they couldn't see their way into receiving money. A bank was saying it was too difficult for them to take someone's money and put it in their safe. A bank said that? Even a piggy bank knows when to just shut up and take the money.
From what planet did they recruit the nationalisation managers? Bare weeks have elapsed since the emergency legislation was enacted to prevent the formation of Virgin Banking, and already the Northern Rock is showing all the hallmarks of the dear old nationalised British industry that caused them to become a byword for waste and inefficiency (I before E except after C).
LP's sister was not impressed. As soon as the account was re-activated she drew out all the money and opened a new account for Mother in the Alliance and Leicester, just over the road. I thought the whole idea of nationalising Northern Rock was to prevent just that sort of thing.
Is there anybody out there watching what's going on in this brave new world of ultra-modern reversionist socialism? And if so, are they just laughing?
I know, two posts in one day, but if you've noticed, I've been silent a whole fortnight. This is just catch-up time.
posted by Sopwith-Camel | 9:15 pm
9 Comments:
I've never had a mortgage - just never got around to it - but I do have a bank account. In fact, I have had several of those, sometimes concurrently. I opened my first current account when I was a student and it made me feel so grown up that I opened several others.
Now I've given up being grown up, I have just one bank account - at a building society.
Northern Rock was once recommended to me but I never got around to opening an account. I always thought well of it, despite not having any money in it, and was therefore sorry to see it take a tumble.
I sometimes think we'd all be better off keeping our money in an old sock under the mattress rather than relying on the money markets which keep panicking themselves into crashes for no very good reason, like a bunch of people scared of their own shadows. That would make burglars happy too, I suppose.
And speaking of banks...
Google has no fucking idea where to find pornography.
;)
oh lordy me. that is brilliant. vote of confidence: fail
we have ours spread all over the map. credit unions, ira accounts, insurance, several investments, checking, savings...all different and unaffiliated institutions. the 1970's are still clear as a bell in my memory.
ST: The only trouble with the old-sock bank is that the money can get a bit smelly.
P: I think you're struggling to find porn via google because of your insistence of using rhyming slang.
FN: I've decided that if the worst happens, LP and I will become trailer-trash and live in a derelict railway carriage surrounded by hundreds of empty bottles.
Grant, is that you?
Yes. You OK?
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People should read this.
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