I for one will welcome his good words. Arr.
Kelvin MacKenzie quits Highbury
He’s off. He spends millions getting there, fires everyone in sight and then quits after a few months saying there was too much debt. Did you not spot that when you bought the shares, Kelvin? What exactly is your idea of due diligence?
I’m guessing that he’s using the issue of debt to cover his ego somewhat. He tried to play hardball with the banks, who have never liked him. He lost. Now he needs a way to cover up his failings.
Doesn’t bode well for Highbury, though, to have your chairman quit during the middle of debt negotiations.
Who nicked my money and why doesn’t First Direct want to stop them?
So Christmas is upon us and the usual tugs at our finances are pulling hard. Freelances like me get even more fun at this time of year: no one’s commissioning much new work; accounts departments are going on holiday; and late payers don’t get twinges of conscience and start paying their debts without ghosts rattling their chains nearby.
Even so, what none of us needs is fraudulent transactions on our business accounts. So imagine my delight last Thursday when I discover a payment from my account to “Vanquis Bank Chatham” for nearly £250. I’d never heard of them. I’ve been to Chatham once, but I went through very quickly once I’d had a look around. Needless to say though, I’d done no business of any kind with anyone in Chatham ever, let alone Vanquis. I hadn’t even done any business that week using that account, certainly nothing to the tune of £250.
I pointed this out to my bank, First Direct, who were kind enough to do a Google search and point out what I’d already discovered for myself: Vanquis Bank runs a credit card for those with debt problems who can’t get a credit card anywhere else. It has a maximum limit of £250 and (wait for this: it’ll stagger you) an APR of 58%!
Surprisingly enough, I don’t own one of these. First Direct shouldn’t be surprised since I have a credit card with them with no balance on it at all at the moment. You’d think – and you’d have thought they’d think this too – that if I were going to buy anything using a credit card, it would be with that one. But no. I patiently explained this to them, but they didn’t see quite to understand. So they got their disputes department to call me the next day. They sent me an e-message using their atrocious e-messaging system (not for us email! We want a system that you can’t store messages in and can’t easily print out any messages. Hoorah!), which I duly printed out and posted on Sunday.
Guess what. Today, another entry for the “Vanquis Bank Chatham”, again for nearly £250 appears on my statement. Despite my contesting the previous payment, First Direct has decided to let the second payment through as well. I’m down half a grand now. I can look forward to calling their disputes department again tomorrow, I guess.
But here’s the fun part. Remember Groundhog Day? That’s what it was like with First Direct. I rang up, told them what had happened last time as well as this time. And they then proceeded to do exactly the same things again, even repeating back to me things that I’d already told them that they decided to proclaim they’d discovered. They offered to do a Google search for me (“apparently, they run a credit card…” “I know, I told you that two minutes ago”), told me there was nothing they could do until the disputes department was open, etc.
First Direct: here’s something you could do to improve your service. If there’s a disputed transaction where the customer says they’ve never done business with the company in question before and if the company either looks dodgy or looks like it might have one or two dodgy customers, why don’t you stop all future transactions on that account with that company? Doesn’t all that evidence suggest to you identity fraud or something similar, particularly if your customer tells you it is?
My next worry is working out how the tea-leaf got my bank details. I don’t use my bank details online that often, usually only for direct debits and the like with reputable companies. I have a Mac so spyware is not going to be the cause. When I use my Switch card, because it’s my business account, I save the receipts for tax purposes. I shred everything I don’t keep. So how’s they do it?
I’m paranoid, but not paranoid enough it turns out. Any suggestions anyone?
Free speech in all cases
A somewhat coherent argument about freedom of speech from Spiked’s deputy editor today.
Who says journalists can’t do good?
A New York Times reporter explains how he was able to stop a child porn ring and get one of its victims off drugs and into college.
How do you misplace a sixth of your economy?
I don’t know: you’d have to ask China. Maybe they just have a really, really large sofa.
US-style murder laws could come to England and Wales
You know the argument that if a group of monkeys typed for long enough, they’d come up with Hamlet? I guess that if the government keeps suggesting laws, they might come up with some good ideas every once in a while.
Don’t want to do any research? Time for some weasel language
The Media Guardian has a curious article today on the effect that John Spencer’s death will have on The West Wing. I say curious because it seems to be written by someone who doesn’t know that much about how television works and can’t even be bothered to find out. Take this quote
The West Wing, which is in production on its seventh season and is thought to have got two or three episodes in the can before Spencer died…
“Is thought to have” is a great weasel phrase. You can use it in all sorts of articles. You can use it for making statements that you don’t have the facts to confirm, the confidence to assert or which may even be completely untrue (eg “The Prime Minister is thought to have refused the deal in no uncertain language”, “President Bush is thought to have taken bribes from Osama bin Laden”).
You can use it to avoid having to do research as well. Here a simple check would have revealed that the first nine episodes of The West Wing have already aired in the US. The NBC web site or tv.com would have shown that. A quick check of the calendar would have done the same, since the majority of US shows start airing in September and October. A little thought would also have highlighted the fact that production companies tend to shoot episodes weeks before they actually air, so it’s likely episodes 10 and 11, at least, are already in the can.
How are they going to address Spencer’s death in the show? I’m pretty sure a second fictional heart attack is the most likely option. The ongoing story line already has various politicians pressing his character to do more for the campaign, with Spencer refusing: “They’re trying to kill me”, a reference to his almost-certain fate were he take on even more stressful tasks than running for vice president.
Highbury spurned a takeover offer
Not that I’m at all worried, being a regular contributor to iCreate, but Highbury’s not doing too well at the moment. Yesterday, the Independent on Sunday broke the news that Highbury spurned an approach from one of its former directors last week to buy some or all of its titles.
I’m guessing it could well be Imagine Publishing that made the approach, although that would only make sense if they were planning to expand or only take on the IT titles.
What staggers me though is how quickly it all went wrong. The Independent has a nice piece that analyses the recent history of the company, but I’m curious about how 3i so badly misjudged the situation only a year and a half ago. Well, it didn’t misjudge it from its perspective, of course, but Paragon certainly got the sharp end of it.