Holiday Hiatus

Alex Fear and the Mrs are officially on holiday for 2 weeks from tomorrow, so the blogging will be light. We're actually looking for new flat to rent but we may just skip to the beach if the sun keeps (or catch a cheap 'environMENTALly unfriendly' flight away for a few days). In the meantime, any time I get at the 'puter will be devoted to testing a new CMS and thinking the best way to go about transferring this to a Wordpress blog (domain name/content). Look forward to changes, and better organisation of the resources (devoted to social action etc). In the meantime, click on one of the labels below to read through some previous topics.

tick... tick... tick... tick... BOOM!

Banks face a timebomb, but who set the timer? Banks did when they started lending more than 3x income. It is effectively a financial suicide bomb and banks are the financial terrorists whose bomb will take out many people in one go. I like the sound of financial terrorism, I think I'm going to make a new category.

Bank Charges: How I Did It - From The First LBA to Post-Account Closure

Your exclusive is finally here! I've been waiting for the final letter from the FOS before I blogged this one walkthrough for anyone who wants to do it but is worried about the repercussions. Previous posts on excessive bank charges here: Its Time, Banks Behaving Badly, Everyone Should Do This, The Public 1 HSBC 0, Accountability Advice, Calls to Stop Illegal Activity are Unfair What the MSM says here: £100,000 Will Help Customers Fight Unfair Charges, Claims Cost Banks £200m, The Latest on Bank Charges, FSA Faces Calls to Take On Retail Bank Regulation Other rages against the machine? Fight the Fear! Before I begin I must acknowledge that this would not have been possible without the information provided by the Consumer Action Group. They were one of the first, if not the first, groups to take on bank charges and offer comprehensive advice and templates in their forums. To be honest, I did not get a lot of responses when I posted in the forums, so instead I had to search through other users posts myself and adapt the templates to my personal situation. This does not negate the hard work the CAG put in, I just hope that by offering a full walk-through of my own experience, it saves you the time of trying to piece together different experiences. Please feel free to email me if you have any questions. Intro: Momma always said to save all my paperwork... So I did. By 2006 I had suffered 3-4 years of unfair practices by the companies I banked with. The last bank I signed up with had already charged me over £400 for overdraft fees and direct debits. You see, I graduated with a Computer and Management Sciences degree in 2003, but the UK IT job market had effectively gone bust so the only job I managed to land for the first year was a customer services job answering a phone. I was not earning a graduate salary, but I had graduate size debts to pay off and was working under supervisors younger than me, who hadn't gone to university, being paid more than me. To be honest, my bitterness was difficult to put off. I was basically living beyond my means, and finding myself going over my overdraft limit constantly, then having to ask the bank for an extension each time so I could buy things like food. When the bank started to cut me off, I decided to switch. My credit rating was decimated so I wasn't allowed to open another grad account, instead I had to settle for a basic. My previous bank did not like the idea of me leaving and so they switched my account from 0% interest to standard 15% interest without notice. I did not know how the law works or how it was supposed to protect people like me at the time so I didn't do anything. I simply tried my best to pay off what I could, when I could. Now I had my basic account, I was able to use all my wage at the end of the month, but I usually found myself with pennies left by the last week. Which meant, when an emergency came up, that tipped me over the edge and into red- for which the bank automatically slapped an extra £30 on top- thankyou very much. As the months went by, even when I managed to bring my spending back in line, an extra £30 from the previous month put the current month in the red and bang- another £30. So by the end of 3 months I could easily rack up £170 in charges (month 1= £30, month 2= £60, month 3 = £90). So when I was finally sufficiently pissed off enough to search for some solution online- I found the CAG, and my eyes were opened. I had also been sufficiently screwed with my credit rating that I had nothing to lose- and pay attention anyone reading this who works for a bank - I was backed into a corner- when you back someone into a corner, then you leave them no option but to fight. The banks here have effectively dug their own grave by profiting off the back of the weakest in society. Now, I had kept all my statements, so I went through them and totaled up all the charges. For those of you who don't have your statements, you will need to file a Data Protection Act request with your bank, CAG supplies the details here. Once you have your statements, read on. Step 1. Gimme back my money First thing I did was take the CAG's template and adapt it slightly for my own circumstance, then sent it to my bank. Preliminary Letter (pdf) | (odt) They simply ignored the letter or lost it, so after 14 days had timed out, it was time to fire a warning shot across the bow. Step 2. Letter Before Action Letter Before Action (pdf) | (odt) This provoked a swift worded response 7 days later: "I am writing in response to your recent communication and was very sorry to learn of your disappointment with the service you have received. Thankyou for taking the time to highlight your concerns, we are currently looking into the situation and will be writing to you with a more detailed response. In the meantime, I am enclosing a leaflet which explains the steps we will take to handle your complaint." Meaning, we are not going to give you back your money, however give us a bit more time to make up an excuse. To which I sent the following reply: Response Letter (pdf) | (odt) I then got a second letter from the bank 11 days after that: "Thank you for your letter dated 26 May, please may I apologise for the delay in replying. I am unable to comply with your request to reimburse the charges applied to your account as they were debited correctly in accordance with our published charging tariff... blahcakes" Step2A. This is where I went wrong I had every intention of filing a claim with the Small Claims Court. But as I mentioned above, money was tight, I lived hand to mouth, and it was going to cost at least £50 to file the claim, which a the time I couldn't afford (I had already filed one that month against my first bank for the overdraft change- an entirely different legal matter still with the courts). I'm not proud of myself for it, but I just decided it could stay on the back-burner. Besides they had refunded all the charges from screwing up my account switch-over, and reinstated my direct debits. I strongly suggest that you don't let the initial cost of the claim deter you, but if you did fail to follow up your legal threat, read on, be encouraged. Step 3. 9 months later A new job, a double income and some good financial management later, I pondered the legal threat I had made 9 months ago, and whether I'd have to start fresh, or be able to pick up where I left off. I read back through my letters, then did a quick check online and in the forums, then I thought what the heck, go for it. So here's my second LBA, this time I was determined to follow it through, but they didn't know that: LBA 2007 (pdf) | (odt) This time I got a much more detailed and wordier reply which can be downloaded below: Bank response to LBA (pdf) Step 4. Small claims online Since this was a LBA, not a fresh start with a simple preliminary, I waited for the 14 days to time out and did not give the bank any further warnings before filing my claim online which came to £80. I basically used Money Saving Experts statutory interest calculator, to calculate my total charges plus 8% interest which came to £611.24. When you file your claim online your fee will be added to this automatically (£611.24 + £80 = £691.24). HMCS MoneyClaim is easy enough to understand and the fields hardly need explaining, just go through and fill in your details, defendants (your bank). Then you will come to the 'Particulars of Claim' which is the difficult part, especially since you are limited to 500 characters. Again, I took the example provided by the CAG in their template library and edited the wording slightly to fit: Between 01/12/04 and 28/12/06 the Defendant applied numerous default charges to the Claimants bank account. The defendant contends the charges were debited in accordance with its contract with the Claimant. The charges applied are an unfair penalty under the Unfair Terms in Consumer Contracts Regulations, which state: 'A term is unfair if it requires any consumer who fails his obligation to pay a disproportionately high sum in compensation'. The amount charged does not reflect the cost of the breach. The charges are an unlawful 'extravagant' penalty. A charge is a penalty if it does not reflect an items true cost. Under the County Courts Act 1984, the claimant is entitled to interest at a rate of 8% per annum from the date they were first deprived of the money. This totals £61.24, continuing to accrue at the statutory daily rate of 0.021% until judgment or earlier payment. The Claimant therefore asks the court to enter judgment in their favour for £550.00 plus interest, totaling £611.24. Please note that this is an old wording and CAG currently provide a new one in their template library (registration needed) which they ask not to be printed outside of the private forum. HMCS Claim Form (pdf) Step 4A. Be prepared to go to court I have published the steps I took so far, under the assumption you already have researched claiming back bank charges. If not, I should warn you before you get to this stage that if you are going to file with the small claims court you should be prepared to actually go to court. You are not defending yourself so you don't need a solicitor or lawyer- it is the bank who decides if they want to defend themselves against your claim. If your bank decides to defend in court, it is best to seek advice from a website such as the CAG, MoneySavingExpert or ThisIsMoney forums- don't pay for the advice- there is no need! The charges are illegal and unfair but if you don't state your claim properly you could end up like this man. It's completely wrong, but remember the banks have a whole legal team working for them. Step 5. Wait... A few days after filing online I got a Notice of Issue through the door, it felt good to hold in my hand... Then the next day, a short (disgruntled) note from my bank with Acknowledgement of Service. Yessssssss. This was followed by the AoS from the court. Interestingly you will note bottom left of the AoS the bank ticked "I intend to defend all of this claim". Acknowledgement of Service (pdf) Step 6. Bank Owned! Bank Settlement Letter (pdf) £700 of my money, stolen from my account returned! Ooh I don't like the sound of this: "As it is clear that you do not accept the terms and conditions for the operation of your account we will shortly be contacting you to discuss its future operation." Step 7. The Empire Strikes Back! And sure enough... 1st Notice of Account Closure (pdf) "The decision should not be regarded as an admission of liability on the part of the Company, nor should it be regarded as any sign of weakness..." Ooh they must have taken it personally. "Therefore as it is clear that you do not accept certain aspects of our terms and conditions for the operation of your account we regret that we are unable to continue to offer you banking facilities..." Err... which certain aspects of the T&Cs were those... the ones that were unlawful? The ones you were unwilling to defend in court? Of course it was an attempt to piss on my victory parade, and if I'm honest I was not only annoyed but slightly nervous. The last account switch-over didn't go to well (see above) and I actually did get good service from A&L. A brief check in the CAG forums and other online places only seemed to return results for people going through a similar thing, but no resolution or some brief mentions but no details.. how.. what.. when? Step 7A. Pulling the cord Most guides you read will advise you on the first step to open your parachute account. I haven't mentioned this yet because I still had my former account with HSBC which was currently dormant, so I knew I'd be able to do a quick transfer myself into it. Nevertheless, I had got my first taste of blood, I wasn't going to let them get away with retaliation and forcing inconvenience and further stress on my person. Step 8. Go ahead, bank, make my day I wrote a strongly worded letter right back to them asking things like: "If you felt that your charges were ‘fair’ and not unlawful, why did you offer full payment and not proceed to defend them in a court of law and prove my particular case wrong?" I then mentioned I'd spoken to someone in customer services who had confirmed that other customers were having their accounts closed after claiming back charges. This was true, and it was important for establishing it as a retaliatory measure, not just a vague "breakdown of the relationship". Finally I used some of my own initiative and creativity to issue a further warning about closing my account: If you go ahead with the closure of my account I will be forced to complain to the Financial Ombudsman Service myself and be claiming further compensation. I take this opportunity to remind you the FOS is ruling in favour of customers who have had accounts closed in retaliation for claiming back charges. (See attached adjudications ‘Mr A’ and ‘Mr L’). In order to make my point, I enclosed print-outs of an article from ThisIsMoney and both adjudications from the FOS website. I did this to make it clear I knew my favourable legal standing. Warning Letter on Account Closure (pdf) | (odt) You will be advised that it is the banks discretion who they do business with, so even if they are wrong to close an account, it can't be stopped in anyway legally. The bank did take notice of this letter. I received a shortly drafted letter from them advising they were "currently looking into the issue you have raised and will let you have our response as soon as possible." I then got another letter 7 days after that to advise that "the issue you have raised concerning the closure of your account has been forwarded to the relevant department who will contact you direct." That got their attention didn't it? Step 9. We're gonna do it anyway and risk the consequences... ... because it's all about risk isn't it? If we keep this customer, we can't make any money off him anymore, if we close the account, we'll only lose a couple of hundred pounds.. you do the math. 2nd Notice of Account Closure (pdf) But they extended the the closure date... can't really think why, they already decided they were going to close it. I suppose they expect I should be thankful for this gesture? So I get online and transfer all my standing orders over from one account to the other. Let the HR girl know at work (thankfully I work in a small company), and write a letter to companies I direct debit. Those I missed, got in touch with me- Ha! Step 10. The last laugh Next stop FOS website to download their complaint form. It took about 15-20 minutes to complete. Mostly cut-paste-edit job and photocopying a bunch of letters. Print then send. Had a response by 12th June from the FOS: "Thankyou for sending your complaint form. Unfortunately, I have to return this as you need to sign it." DOH! 2nd Response from the FOS (pdf) The 3rd response from the FOS on 16th July  was just to inform me of the guy who had my case dumped on him, and to inform me they have a heavy workload so it may be sometime before they can progress my case. Well, I think they're doing a great job BTW but I immediately had an idea of how they could reduce their workload. Stop writing letters to inform clients you have a heavy workload! I think that will probably reduce it by a quarter at least. 4th Response from the FOS - The Gold! (pdf) "A&L has now told us it would be prepared to pay £200 compensation to cover the distress and inconvenience the closure of your account may have caused..." -///- And that folks, is how I did it, it only took me 12 months, but I did have a rather long and unadvised break in between. Like a surgical procedure, unpleasant, but you get to take time off afterwards and eat cookies. Anyone can do it. Technorati Tags: bank charges, banks, reclaim charges, overdraft, account, financial ombudsman service, account closure, retaliation, how to, moneyclaim online, small claims court, letter before action, fightback, walkthrough

Housing Market Lies: Your Home Is An Investment

M Mildly Offensive Contains reference to the housing market and may cause some homeowners to be offended by the truth. Previous Housing Market Myth articles: House Prices Always Rise, Low Interest Rates Means I Pay Less This one is simple so it's going to be a relatively shorter than my previous articles. Up till now, you could simply assume I'm a bitter late 20's Gen-XYer who is sounding off due to not being able to get on the housing ladder. But don't just take it from me, take it from property millionaire Robert Kiyosaki, to show you why the home you live in is not an investment.  Let's start by getting a definition of investment: "An asset or item that is purchased with the hope that it will generate income or appreciate in the future. In an economic sense, an investment is the purchase of goods that are not consumed today but are used in the future to create wealth. In finance, an investment is a monetary asset purchased with the idea that the asset will provide income in the future or appreciate and be sold at a higher price." - Answers.com Wouldn't a home fall under that description? We need to be clear what we are referring to. A house, can be an investment, since you can purchase a house as an asset and sell it later at a profit (or loss depending on the market). A home however, is not the same as a house. A home is something you live in. You can change homes, but you can't really sell your home unless you intend to be homeless. Of course, you may argue, people make profit on their homes when they appreciate. This 'profit' is only made when the home comes to be sold, and unless you choose to move into a home that is smaller (ie. of less value) the 'profit' is not going to be realised as it is invested into the new house of equal or higher value. This is further backed up by the dictionary definition of profit: An advantageous gain or return; benefit. The return received on a business undertaking after all operating expenses have been met. The return received on an investment after all charges have been paid. Often used in the plural. The rate of increase in the net worth of a business enterprise in a given accounting period. Income received from investments or property. The amount received for a commodity or service in excess of the original cost. - Answers.com Therefore profit is what you have left over when you have met all expenses. Profit is not increase, it is less costs. Profit is what you get to take home to spend on whatever you like. Robert Kiyosaki, the author of Rich Dad, Poor Dad, further defines your home as a liability: In "standard" accounting, if you buy a house, you consider it an asset. However, from a cash-flow perspective, if you have to make mortgage and property tax payments, while the house produces no income (i.e., it causes a negative cash flow), the house is a liability. Anything that produces income is an asset; anything that incurs expenses is a liability. - Basic Money Skills Don't jump on the housing wagon thinking you can sell if it gets tough. When interest rates rise it will be difficult to sell your house for a 'profit' because many others will be trying to do the same thing. The best advice for FTB is to hold out for lower prices. If you're offer is not 30% lower than the asking price, then it's not low enough. Meanwhile renting gives you the opportunity to walk away from bad deals. It also frees you up to leave your current property if the rent is too much. DISCUSS THIS POST Technorati Tags: property investment, asset, investment, liability, housing market, myths, lies, home ownership, income, mortgage, first time buyers, buy to let, money, profit

Stealing Abstracts Part 1

This Post Is Rated: I for Ooh... Illegal. Or is it... and what are the implications? It's already been done 1.3 million times and counting. After some careful consideration, I thought I'd join in and "break the law" too: 09-f9-11-02-9d-74-e3-5b-d8-41-56-c5-63-56-88-c0 This string of seemingly random numbers forms a key to unlocking the DRM on HD-DVD and Blue Ray hardware. The AACS-LA does not want people to publish this number. In fact it has even threatened legal action against those who choose to publish this set of numbers. I won't go into too much detail here because this story is old and there is already plenty of information on the web and it's been covered extensively by BoingBoing. But is it really illegal to publish a set of numbers? Interestingly (at the time of publishing this post) it has not been tested in court which really raises the question of whether it's actually illegal to own and publish these numbers. Can you really own a number? Something tells me it never will be tested, or if it is, the AACS will probably fail. Can you really see them filing a law-suit against 1.3 million people, many who probably don't even reside in America? Interestingly, Ed Felton of Freedom to Tinker already addressed the issue of 128-bit number ownership: Now, thanks to our newly developed VirtualLandGrab technology, you can own a 128-bit integer of your very own (and then presumably, start issuing take-down notices to anyone who publishes the numbers or keeps a copy of them). Here’s how we do it. First, we generate a fresh pseudorandom integer, just for you. Then we use your integer to encrypt a copyrighted haiku, thereby transforming your integer into a circumvention device capable of decrypting the haiku without your permission. We then give you all of our rights to decrypt the haiku using your integer. The DMCA does the rest. - You Can Own An Integer Too - Get Yours Here! I'm plan to do a follow up post on this subject as it demands a more thoughtful analysis, but my initial thoughts on this subject is that we have moved beyond a mere Information Age and are becoming part of a type of Information Revolution. Traditional business models and capitalist frameworks are being usurped by Creative Commons and Open Source. These examples speak for themselves: EFF: Public Interest Prevails in Digital Copyright Showdown The Inquirer: Linux Man says Microsoft screwed itself Finish Court Rules CSS Protection used in DVDs "ineffective" Lessig Blog: Required Reading: The Next 10 Years The Enquirer: EMI Has DRM Free Sales Boom SmartFlix: This Post is for You, Robert Tourtelot eCoustics: Dell Introduces Linux Based Computers Software Journal: Microsoft and IBM admits Google is now a rival... Whether you know it or not you are witness to a civil war taking place over the net. The internet is a type of 'wild west' or Electronic Frontier if you will. All the rules from the old country no longer count. If you Google search, blog, social network, make internet calls or have ever used any kind of free or open source software then you have already chosen your side or become a sympathiser for the revolutionaries. My second thought is this, by pursuing legal action even against people who simply publish a string of numbers (regardless of knowledge of how to use them), then the AACS and other vested interests are already losing the battle. They dilute the severity of their claim by attacking anyone without discretion, and they will be opening the door for people to claim ownership of numbers and text (see above)- the end result would be death of progress, innovation and design. Imagine a programmer that would have to obtain rights from a different 'owner' for every line of code they wrote for a new program? Perhaps the only way to move forward would be for programmers to learn Klingon or some other language- until the AACS claimed ownership of certain strings of Klingon numbers and words. In my view, those who are blurring the lines between what is and isn't illegal copying are the proprietors and proponents of DRM and the DMCA. More to come. Technorati Tags: drm, aacs key, dmca, copyright, open source, illegal, creative commons, electronic frontier, information revolution, hd-dvd, blue-ray, 09 f9 11 02 9d 74 e3 5b d8 41 56 c5 63 56 88 c0 DISCUSS THIS POST

Londonland Part 1

This Post Is Rated: M for Mildly Offensive. Londoners may take particular offense at the revelations of this post (and they are welcome to it). Inserted with Windows Live Writer... Impressive eh? Last year I moved from Warwickshire, England to Ealing, Londonland and having been in this strange culture for several months now, I feel able to comment on it fully. Londonland is ruled by Supreme Dictator Red Ken, whose rule has been unchallenged for 7 years and at this rate looks set to go on forever. Natives of Londonland refer to it simply as London, but it is quite obvious that the Supreme Dictator considers London to be a separate state from the country of England, where I come from. After all, in England, mayors of large cities tend to serve the inhabitants of their cities and are concerned with matters within their jurisdiction. It would be rare to see an English mayor flying all over the world to attract business and mass-migration, posturing on the world stage like a prime minister, president or royalty would. The people of Londonland (Londoners) are very different from the English. For example, English people such as myself, enjoy fresh air and open spaces, so they buy and build property that allows them to experience these things. In Londonland, people have a fear of open spaces, so they cover anything green with flats and industrial parkland. Then they buy a large family houses and split each room into several living compartments for single or couples. The Mayor of London has erected a Congestion zone surrounding the City of London and the counties of Kensington and Chelsea. This is to create the maximum amount of congestion in the surrounding areas of Shepherds Bush, Hammersmith, Battersea, Vauxhall and Islington. This has the effect of reducing air quality as traffic takes longer to reach its destination. The exchange rate between England and Londonland is 1:3. For every 1 pound you spend in England, you spend on average 3 pounds in Londonland. That's why in England a hairdresser is usually a low paid job, but in Londonland hairdressers outrank fund managers and investment bankers. Londoners have no basic sense of geography. Many Londoners would be able to tell you what time you need to catch the Victoria line to Kings Cross but have no idea how to get home if you offer them a lift in the car. When queried about a place existing outside of the M25, they simply do not know, it doesn't exist. There is no past-time that Londoners enjoy more than queing. Everywhere you go in Londonland you will find you have to queue. Infrastructure is designed to maximise queue potential by making buildings and streets as small as possible. If Londoners can't queue then they settle for overcrowding, which is just as much fun. The objective of the game is to wait until the tube train pulls up and then try to cram as many people as possible into one space. If you're not breathing the armpit of the person standing next to you, then you simply haven't got enough people in yet. A good tactic of 'overcrowding' is to stand as near to the door as possible to maximise the sardine effect. The Mayor of Londonland knows how much Londoners enjoy 'overcrowding', which is why he doesn't invest money into tube infrastructure to create more capacity. Motorists of Londonland love nothing more than sitting in their car and going nowhere, especially in the hot sun. So as an alternative to the enjoyable activity of queuing to get into a car park, the Mayor of Londonland has done his best to recreate the a car park on Londonlands roads. This has been achieved by installing as many speed humps, traffic lights and one-way routes as possible. Of course this alone would not slow traffic down enough to simulate all the thrills of sitting in a car park, so the Mayor has also converted as many 2-lane roads as possible into single lanes. In order to do this he marked out long stretches of road with red tarmac. These lanes are specially reserved for the mythical London Bus. 'Mythical' because a bus is rarely seen on these strips of red tarmac, however, plenty can be spotted queuing amongst the cars on the black tarmac. Londonland has very different traffic rules to England. For example, in Londonland, motorbikes and mopeds usually drive on the right side of the road, and only move onto the left side if the right side of the road is blocked by oncoming traffic. In England, where I am from, people generally use their car horns to express dissatisfaction with another driver, in a situation such as where the other driver has cut them up. In Londonland, the car horn is used to express apology or appreciation of your driving, ie. If someone cuts you up or crosses into your lane, it's not unusual for them to beep you on their horn, the longer they beep the more apologetic they are. Finally, when living in Londonland it's important to emphasise how great living in Londonland is to visitors from England and other countries. A true Londoner will never mention the foibles detailed above because they don't see them. It makes me think of the line that Morpheus speaks to Neo from The Matrix... "Unfortunately, no one can be told what the Matrix is. You have to see it for yourself... The Matrix is a system, Neo. That system is our enemy. But when you're inside, you look around, what do you see? Businessmen, teachers, lawyers, carpenters. The very minds of the people we are trying to save. But until we do, these people are still a part of that system and that makes them our enemy. You have to understand, most of these people are not ready to be unplugged. And many of them are so inured, so hopelessly dependent on the system, that they will fight to protect it." Londonland is a Matrix. Bleak, concrete, systematic and ruled by sinister government programs and agents. Green spaces and parks seem to be artificial compared to England. There's nowhere you can go that other people aren't and we are watched by a melee of cameras and robots. Welcome to Londonland.   Technorati Tags: london, england, environment, mayor of london, ken livingstone, culture, life, london transport, tube, congestion zone, traffic, queues   Discuss this post

Battery Powered Death Machine

This Post Is Rated: C for Controversial. Would have been fun if it hadn't been about a life-threatening contraption built by environMENTALISTS. If anyone wanted further proof that the environMENT has become more important that human life, last month Top Gear released the G-Wiz Crash tests: This is the car Red Ken, Global Leader and Supreme Dictator of Londonland, wants you and everyone else to drive one of these awful death-traps. Here's a piece cut from the FAQ on G-Wiz manufacturers site: What about safety in the G-Wiz? The G-Wiz is a breakthrough product in the fight against climate change... Thanks but we asked about safety Excessive speed, no seat belts, alcohol & drug usage, and driver error are the main causes of accidents and injuries in the UK... Just so you know, it's not our fault if you end up dead in one Whilst larger, heavier cars in general perform better in crash tests, they are also more likely to injure other road users... Our cars will only kill you The G-Wiz has a tubular steel space frame which surrounds the driver and passengers. This includes side impact bars and a front crumple zone designed to protect passengers in low speed collisions... Low speed collision = 2mph? Why have no manufacturer Euro NCAP crash tests been done on the G-Wiz? Neither the Euro NCAP test nor the Dept of Transport UNECE Regulation 94 test are required or recommended under the European regulation for quadricycles. Both tests are designed for M1 vehicles, primarily cars capable of speeds in excess of 100 mph and not low speed urban vehicles... Wow, that's convenient, avoids any marketing problems. Like all vehicle manufacturers RECC is however constantly reviewing safety features and innovation relative to usage... I feel safer already - as long as the other guy is driving one. Source: Going Green FAQ HT Gavin Ayling. Technorati Tags: death trap, g-wiz, environment, london, ken livingstone, crash tests

The Logo of the Beast

This Post Is Rated: F for A good Fun poke at a marketing disaster. But is there something more sininster at work? Conspiracy theories are afoot regarding the new Notwinter Sportfest 2011> <2013 Logo. Stef of Famous for 15 megapixels Blogs: "In another world exclusive scoop* for the Conspiraloon™ Alliance, the true form of the fragmented 2012 Olympic Logo is revealed..."   While Cranmer alerts us to a possible Zionist conspiracy, as discovered by Times journalist Daniel Finkelstein:   Could the the dark, hidden agenda be to completely turn people off the Notwinter Sportfest? Have we already seen the first wave of the attack?   Technorati Tags: Olympics, Zionism, Nazism, Olympic Logo, 2012, Conspiracy, Marketing Disaster

How To Respond To TV Licensing Threats

This Post Is Rated: C for Controversial. Contains references to government enabled thuggery no less. A while ago Neil Herron posted an excellent response he had sent to TVL Enforcement: "Despite a call to your 0870 number, I continue to receive threatening letters from yourselves. Therefore, as I have replied to you, and requested the attendance of one of your authorised officers at a mutually convenient time in order to be interviewed in compliance with the Police & Criminal Evidence Act 1984, I consider any further intimidatory letters or implied threats as harassment." - Neil Herron I do not believe in TV Licensing. There are few countries in the world today that force their citizens to pay for a telecommunications licence. The people of New Zealand are the most recent example of a nation successfully rising up to challenge and overturn their draconian licencing laws. I would encourage people here to also protest and write to their MPs. There are also countries who have proved that public service television can be successful without licensing. Canada, for example does not require you to own a licence to view public service television. There are only two channels available for free, then you purchase cable for the rest. Usually when it comes to licensing the BBC, the counter-argument always presented usually follows the lines of how the BBC can afford to take risks, we wouldn't get the quality programming if it wasn't funded by the licence and it allows the BBC to remain impartial. Bullshit. ITV, Channel 4 and even Channel 5 are now able to compete with substantial quality programming at no cost to the tax payer. But there is a more sinister work afoot with TV Licensing, and that is the subcontracting of the work to a firm called Capita which also run things like the Criminal Records Bureau, Congestion Charging and Council Tax. If you are not concerned yet, you should be. At this rate, 20 years from now Capita will be monitoring your every move in our increasingly Orwellian society. With regards to TV Licensing, Capita's method of enforcement appears to be: Send warning letter to ANY household not currently registered with a licence on our database (yes that means people without TVs included). Send threatening letter to ANY household that has not yet paid up (regardless of electronics owning status). Send a different version of threatening letter from step 2. Use lots of RED BOLD FONT. Send threatening letter: AN ENFORCEMENT OFFICER WILL SOON VISIT TO INTERVIEW YOU UNDER POLICE AND CRIMINAL EVIDENCE ACT... BLAHCAKES... Wait 3 months. Repeat steps 1-5. Anyone who has moved home or been a student will probably recognise one or more of the TVL letters mentioned above. We recently received all of these letters twice over when we first moved into our flat in London, before we had our TV setup. They seem to have been sending them since the last tenant left, whilst no-one was living there, until we arrived. When we finally got the TV setup and grudgingly paid for our licence, surprise! We were still receiving these threatening letters! It got to Step 4 twice, and yet, no enforcement official (which I was looking forward to). Why? The answer dear readers is simple. They seem to have little enforcement on the ground, though this is hard to determine, since they have not really been forthcoming with the FOI requests (read the pdfs). It is reported that even their detection equipment is not nearly as good as they make out. So what to do with these threats and harrassments from the TVL? I would not encourage anyone to break the law, but let's just say if they ever turn up at my doorstep, regardless of whether I have a TV and licence or not, I would tell them in polite and no uncertain terms to f*** off and get a warrant. If you you need a little more detail than that, here's a short guide: Ignore the threat letters, read others' personal accounts, opinions and check the forums Read one persons experience of their rhetorical threats. You are worried, are they coming for you? BBC Resistance has all the answers. Take your time over the material there, enjoy. Fed up of their hateful, empty threats? Write a 'cease and desist' letter revoking their 'implied right of access' (also see Neil Herron link above). On the event that an enforcement clown officer shows up at your door, you have a right to refuse entry unless they have a warrant. They most definitely won't have a warrant if it's the first visit. Only a court can issue a search warrant on reasonable ground to suspect you have a TV. This means they have to apply individually for every innocent person they harass. In the highly unlikely event they obtain a warrant, they will most likely want to interview you under caution. YOU DO NOT HAVE TO SAY ANYTHING. However, be not afraid. Know this: They only want your money. I cannot find the source but did I read a post for the job of TV Licence Enforcement Officer on a jobsite a long time ago. It was a "day in the life of" in which the officer explained he would try to sell a licence to the person he had interviewed. This is what they will probably try to do. (If I find the link I will post it). Protest and resist. It is completely immoral and possibly unlawful to send out letters randomly to anyone who does not own a licence. This is an assumption of guilt and requires the recipient to prove their innocence. It's time the UK caught up with the 21st Century and realise that not everything can or should be taxed.

Here's a FACT about F.A.C.T.

This Post Is Rated: I for Isn't that illegal? No, it's not. Yet. It seems to me, ironically, that only legally rented, bought and viewed movies display the Federation Against Copyright Theft's impotent warning message. That is, only those who have actually bought, rented or viewed legally have been warned not to buy, rent or view illegal copies... Regular readers be advised! Abandon All Fear will soon be going under the radar. This website and blog will be filtering ip addresses and blocking access to most government, police and copyright protection organisations. No, I'm not planning to offer the latest Arctic Monkeys song for download or anything like that. I do however intend to discuss the subject of copyright in the near future, along with speed cameras, parking and other legal matters which is viewed by some as a war between aging business models and profit making versus the future. I'd rather not have big brother snooping in on my blog, not liking what they see, discovering my identity and/or watching for some sort of mistake. However, I am aware that some of my dear readers may work for the government et al. Therefore if you find you can no longer access the blog in the next few days, drop me an email (see sidebar) with your IP and I will reply in view of restoring your access. You have been warned!

Uri Geller Doesn't Want You To Watch This

But there's nothing he can do to stop you from watching it. Not even with psychic powers.

Captive Audience

I haven't said anything on the 15 British sailors who were taken captive by Iran. It's pretty obvious it was a sick publicity stunt in order to goad the US and UK governments. Ahmadinejad has to know that Bliar is on his way out and holds little sway with the British public or even elements of his own party. It is hardly likely such a dubious case as made for the Iraq war could be made for Iran now without solid reasons. Regardless, it must be a harrowing experience to be taken captive as many former innocent Guantanamo Bay captives will tell you. But the most striking element of this media circus is how Iran has unwittingly or otherwise, proved that there is no need to use torture to extract the confessions you want- at least not when it comes to British soldier-sailors. Image: Beau Bo D'Or I had respect for them when they refused BA's complimentary champagne and for changing back into uniform once safely on the plane. Unfortunately they began to lose this respect as the truth emerged that they offered zero resistance to the Iranian authorities, going the extra mile for the Iranian propaganda machine and making money (with the exception of Captain Chris Air) from the experience when others who have gone through much worse situations have not. Which is why I find Inspector Gadgets opinion the most common sense and on-the-money, that I have read so far.