Author's posts
Dec 23
Making a list
He’s making a list He’s checking it twice He’s gonna find out who’s naughty or nice Santa Claus is in contravention of article 6 of the General Data Protection Regulation (EU) 2016/679
Dec 31
Happy New Year
in 1957 this would be Balance Night. https://www.facebook.com/BBCArchive/videos/501546200218415/
May 08
Communicating in a roundabout way
The difference between British and our US colleagues is neatly summed up by roundabouts (or traffic circles, if you’re American) and traffic lights. A former British Ambassador to Washington hit the nail on the head when he identified this (although I can’t find him credited with this major cultural discovery on the internet). Americans are direct: if …
Sep 27
Dear Europcar – Ich wollen ein automiete
Dear Europcar Ich wollen ein automiete. Do you know about the internet? It is a global network of billions of computers that connects people and business around the world and you can use search to find what you want. One of the useful things about the Internet is that you can use it for shopping. …
May 30
Lego banking
Metro Bank, one of the UK challenger banks, has just announced a deal to lend customer deposits through Zopa, one of the UK’s biggest peer-to-peer platforms. This is a significant in a number of reasonss. It is both the first British bank to lend through a peer-to-peer platform, and a major collaboration of challenger bank with …
May 21
Fixing Markets
As five of the world’s largest banks pay fines totalling $5.7bn (£3.6bn) for manipulating the foreign exchange market it seems a good point to look at some underlying problems in the financial markets. Firstly let’s be clear: I am not looking to exonerate the Banks involved. They have been deservedly punished for their crimes. And …
May 12
The effect of earthquakes on unreinforced masonry and adobe low cost housing
My third year university thesis was entitled “the effect of earthquakes on unreinforced masonry and adobe low cost housing”. After computer simulations and a modelling an earthquake on a one tenth size building frame, basically the conclusion was: – they fall down. It doesn’t take an engineering degree to see that the effect of two …
Apr 29
The Bank that likes to say “Si”
The Trustee Savings Bank can trace its roots back to the first savings bank founded by Henry Duncan in Ruthwell, Dumfriesshire in 1810. But its recent history has been a roller coaster and banking systems are at the heart of that story. Thirty years ago the Trustee Savings Bank was a up and coming UK bank – …