Brian Bollen's Blog

Sign of the times

Sign of the times update. Of the 24 Scottish footballers travelling to play Peru and Mexico I recognise just three names...

CSFI: Future of P2P lending

The future of Peer-to-Peer lending: A round-table discussion with Giles Andrews (Zopa), Sarah Walker (KPMG) and Daniel Lanyon (AltFi). To be held Thursday, May 31, 2018, 12.30-2.15pm. At Baker’s Hall, 9 Harp Lane, London EC3R 6DP.  Email [email protected] or call CSFI on 0207-621-1056.

Nelson confirmed as leaving Standard Chartered

Standard Chartered Bank in Singapore has this morning formally confirmed that Barnaby Nelson is to leave his position as its head of securities services for Greater China and North Asia next month.

The wasteland that is British TV broadcasting

Such is the wasteland that is British TV broadcasting that while others watched the overexposed Sue Perkins host the BAFTA awards, Meet the Neanderthals, Midsomer Murders or Bake Off, my wife and I binge-watched old episodes of Time Team yesterday evening, from Much Wenlock, Hanslope and Alderton. So enjoyable.

The essence of politics

Mint - Blain’s Morning Porridge

Politics is the art of looking for trouble, finding it where it doesn’t exist, diagnosing it incorrectly, and applying the wrong remedy. 

What does Sturgeon think she is going to achieve?

So Scotland now has significantly higher alcohol prices than the rest of the UK. What on earth does 'first minister' Nicola Sturgeon this is going to achieve? Are Scotland's drinkers going to wake up and sign her pledge? Or will they head south in their cars, vans, lorries and pantechnicons to load up over the border with England?

I see the marchlands being filled with giant warehouses flogging nothing but cheap booze in its various forms, reminiscent of the glory days of the Calais booze cruises. What will Sturgeon then do? Erect physical borders with customs posts? That would surely be illegal in what is, remember, a United Kingdom.

Or will she attempt to criminalise the purchase of cheap booze? I seem to remember the USA trying to do just in the 1920s and that worked out well, didn't it? I think the Queen in the North has well overstepped her mandate.

If the people of Scotland want to drink more than is good for them, and many of them do (as I recall there are areas of Glasgow where male life expectancy is lower than in Mali in Africa), and do not necessarily lose the habit when they move further south, that is surely their business, not hers.

Welcome to Scotland, no salad for 200 miles, says one well known English comedian whose name escapes me for the moment (Andy something, cheeky Cockney chappy). That is the way the people want it. And it is their RIGHT.

What next? Tax fish suppers? Ban Buckfast wine? Water down Irn-Bru? Start a witch-hunt on tablet and macaroon bars? Force people onto diets and into gyms? That way lie madness and political ruin, I would suggest.

Is this the end of the eurozone recovery

Eurozone gross domestic product (GDP) growth slows, but adverse weather is probably to blame. Azad Zangana, Schroders', Senior European Economist comments on the latest figures announced today.