Are we not in the middle of a significant global financial crisis?

Was this recession not largely facilitated by greedy banks and their haphazard lending policies? And certainly here in the UK, don't you and I as good ole' Tax payers now 'own' a significant chuck of these fast-toppling institutions?

Any Government with balls should then surely say - 'Bank Holiday? Get stuffed - you've got work to do!!'  

Let the rest of us enjoy a Bank Holiday, yeah sure.  We could even spend some of them outside the Bank's head offices, poking fun through the windows and checking on their work-rate.  But the Bank itself? forget it man! They have catastrophically changed the face of our finances forever. The Government bangs on about ensuring there will be 'fundamental changes' to the way they are run and how they operate in general.  There's lots to do to make up for the lack on confidence and general hideous debt accumulated as a result of their incompetence. 

So all this work is to be done, just not on Bank Holidays? Gimme a break. 

Frankly, they don't deserve holidays; they should be wholly embarrassed just by the idea of ponsing off work for another week of the year because of some old fashioned notion from yester-year.

It's tough out there - and Banks need as much time as possible to make amends.  Why burden them by restricting their time to do it in..!?  

New slogan ideas: HSBC - The World's Local Bankrupt.  May catch on...

Recession!!  HUMBUG 

I firmly believe recession is partly a mindset!  Once the thought of a recession gets in there, it spreads like a disease. Like fate, the word recession is banded about like it's the answer to - or cause of - all sorts of irrational behaviour. I call it a Virtual Recession!

It's the old adage of cause and effect. Take a perfectly healthy organisation, start a rumour that it's in financial difficulty and everyone pulls their cash out. Result - it ends up in financial difficulty, even though it wasn't to start with!  So it's a matter of FOCUS.

Whatever you focus on, you'll feel - and be drawn-toward even. But the choice is there. For example, you can chose to recognise that either house prices (not values of course - that's another debate) have reduced 5% in the last five months OR that they've actually gone up 240% in the last five years?  Coming down a bit to a more realistic level perhaps? Great! that means first-time buyers can get on the waggon perhaps, and kick-start the whole buying-chain again.

If you buy into all this doom and gloom, you become part of it.  It will influence your actions. You'll stop spending a little here and there, pull the horns in a bit perhaps, and this ripple-effect will end up contributing - even causing - the very thing you are afraid of. And letting doubt creep in. That's cause and effect. 

Where one person sees gloom, another sees opportunity.  Yes, think efficient, and you may have to actually have to peddle a bit harder to get the results, but they ARE there to be had.  Rise to the challenge!  It bugs me when people sit around blaming 'recession' for poor performance, when in fact poor performance causes recession. Like blaming fate; it's quaint, but in reality it's just a way to dodge the responsibility whilst blaming something that can't argue back. 

So, be part of the solution, not the problem, and we'll kick its butt.

Yeehaaa!

I know I'm not alone here, as everyone I speak to in business reserves a particular level of loathing for BT.

We are moving as we've said.  We already have a contract with BT and are moving about 8 lines just 500 yards down the road.  Same telephone exchange, same number, everything. BT have to simply transfer our switching to the new location, which already has cabling etc installed and that WE are paying a phone company to move all the hardware. So for this switch, BT want - are you ready - £116 + VAT PER LINE. Then we have to commit to a NEW one-year contract.  What the hell is going on in the world? If I buy from a BT reseller, BT are then suddenly unable to survey for twelve days, ruining our move schedule. Unreal.

Oh, and they won't give us an install date, and when they are ready to will not guarantee it will either a) happen that day or b) work when it's done.  in the meantime we have to organise everyone - movers, furniture, fittings - and all other logistics of moving - around BT.  Can they call us back with a date? Their answer, I kid you not. 'Sorry, we can't make outgoing calls so we'll write or eMail'.  Can't make outgoing calls?!?! Now they know how I feel!

Am I missing something?   £928 + VAT (don't get me started on that one) AND a new 12-month commitment to these absolute incompetents, to switch the phones we already paid £900 to install, on the same exchange.  God help us.