I’m stuck for subjects to write about tonight. I had a head crammed full of subjects last night, but fell asleep in front of TV, When I woke up I was cold and stiff and in no mood for writing, so I crawled up to bed. Twenty four hours later they don’t seem as interesting.
We have had quite a lot of magpies this year and they seem to be more playful than usual, though I’m not sure that this is a scientific observation, as being playful through the whole year doesn’t seem li9ke it would have much survival value and I’m probably misreading their behaviour.
The Nigel Farage story continues to develop. His bank, which turns out to be Coutts, claims that it closed his account as he no longer had enough money to meet their parameters, and offered him n account with another bank in the group. Other customers with Coutts claim they have less than the required wealth and have been allowed to keep their accounts. The story becomes more murky as the days go on.
I was interested to notice that the bank was fined for failing in its duties to check for money-laundering in 2012. They have, I’m sure, tightened things up, but it is interesting to see that until quite recently major banks have been allowing large depositors to get away without the same checks I had to go through a couple of months ago.
I am tempted to move on to the evils of modern banking for a few paragraphs but I’ll not subject you to that. Time to move on and look for some new subjects. Anyway, it’s time for bed.
Magpie
We have no magpies in the garden and although they are handsome birds, we are very happy about that. The Farage saga seems mostly to be an effort on his part to keep his name in front of the public. I wish that he wouldn’t do that.
Growing up in Lincolnshire and Peterborough we had no magpies or buzzards. When I came to Nottingham about 35 years ago we had a few magpies in town and buzzards in Derbyshire. One year we had a population explosion of magpies, plus squirrels and cats. Everything else declined. The cats and squirrels have declined but the magpies just keep on going – by far the commonest bird in the street. But a definite mixed blessing.declined and
“Nature is red in tooth and claw”. I believe Annie Dillard came up with that one, but I am not sure.
That’s the trouble with nature – it isn’t very nice. Howeverm neither are humans.
We are part of Nature.
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I hadn’t heard about the Farage saga. Such pretty birds.
They are lovely birds and very entertaining. Unfortunately they are also vicious predators and
other birds do not thrive in their presence.
That is too bad.
This is nature at work. In the UK cats are virtually an apex predator, rather than a tasty morsel, as they are in USA. Even they can be savage when given free rein.
Yes. Unfortunately we have lost several cats to predators.
It was something I’d never thought of until No 2 son moved to Toronto and told me about the difference between UK and Canada in this respect.
My daughter had a savings account from the time she was little, so it was jointly held with my husband. She recently switched it to an adult account in her name. They held the money for three weeks to make sure it wasn’t money laundering or anything. This included a check from her college for an award she’d won…
I really wonder who is being targeted by this money laundering legislation. A long-standing account should surely not need that much checking. Perhaps your husband is leading a double life and is s person of interest to some shadowy government department . . .
. . . I really should watch less TV, shouldn’t I?
He does read a lot of spy novels….maybe they’re based on him…
have you ever noticed foreign politicians falling from office just after you’ve been on holiday there?
😂😉
The Farage saga is most entertaining. We, too, have lots of fat magpies and fewer other birds.
We saw sparrows in the garden this week for the first time in years. Th e variety of garden bird life has declined over the years as the magpie population has gown.