Dan Hannan MEP and Gordon Brown – the devalued Prime Minister of a devalued Government

‘Are You Being Served?’ Department Store Rossiters to Close

The department store that is thought to have been the inspiration for the TV comedy ‘Are You Being Served?’ is closing its doors for the last time.

Rossiters in Paignton in Devon, which has been trading for 150 years, is another victim of the UK recession.

It closes at five ‘o’ clock today (Saturday) for the final time, putting 100 staff out of work.

Paignton’s High Street recently lost Woolworths – in fact, it’s looking like a bit of a ghost town.

Not appealing to all of those foreign tourists who are supposed to be flooding in this summer.

How can Gordon Brown sit there in Davos (with his mobile ‘phone going off repeatedly) and tell us that we’re better off than others in this recession when we’re losing companies like this?

Bristol’s Broad Plain Boys: Sexist

A Bristol sports club has been forced to change its name after being branded sexist.

Bristol City Councillors warned Broad Plain Boys could lose funding.

The club is based at the Riverside Leisure Club in Easton and had held the title since 1894.

Now the complex, which does have girl members, calls itself Broad Plain Working With Young People Group.

Is it me, or is that political correctness gone mad? Given the current economic climate, don’t Bristol City Councillors have anything better to do?

Business Grants for Switching to Renewable Energy

Businesses in the West are being offered grants to help them switch to renewable sources of energy.

The South West Regional Development Agency (SWRDA) is injecting an extra £2m into a fund called Regen SW, which offers money and advice to help firms go green. SWRDA has now invested more than £5.3 million in Regen SW since 2002. 

The extra money will allow Regen SW to beef up its support to businesses.  It will also look at speeding up the transition to a low-carbon economy in the South West by promoting sustainable energy.

One local business that has already benefited from a Regen grant is The Mendip Centre at Blagdon, near Bristol. It is the headquarters of Holt Farm and the Yeo Valley dairy. It is currently installing a 130kW biomass boiler, which generates renewable heat. It is estimated it will save them £11,000 a year.

Sainsbury’s to Stop Selling Battery Eggs

UK supermarket giant Sainsbury’s has announced that it will stop selling battery farm eggs from caged birds from early next month.

The plight of caged hens has been well-known for decades in the UK – it’s barbaric, cruel and unnecessary to keep birds in conditions that make their lives short, painful and miserable.

Like most people I know, I have been buying only free range eggs as long as I can remember. The extra 20p or so per 6-pack is a small price to pay to live in the knowledge that those creatures that provide us with food are not suffering.

How refreshing that a major supermarket is finally taking the step forward.

Now it’s time to put pressure on Tesco, ASDA and Morrisons to do the same.

Currys and Argos not recession proof

It seems that Woolworths, MFI, Addams and The Pier may not be the only major retailers to disappear during this recession.

Analysts say that 15 major chains will go in the first 3 months of this year.

And sales figures out today seems to support that.

Like for like sales at Currys and PC World dropped 10% over the last quarter. Sales at Argos dipped 7.5% over roughly the same period, and Homebase lost out by 10.2%.

I wonder if companies share the motto ‘Whatever doesn’t kill you makes you stronger’…

Dream Job – Sit On A Beach for $100k

Here is a job to die for.

Live on an island off the Australian coast and update your blog.

Term: 6 months

Workload: 12 hours per month

Application deadline: 22nd February

Salary: $100k

Job duties include:

• Live on Australia’s Great Barrier Reef
• Stroll the white island sands
• Soak up the sun
• Snorkel the reef
• Report experiences via weekly blogs, photo diaries, and video updates
• Feed the turtles, watch the whales

Requirements:

• Must be an excellent communicator, able to speak and write in English
• Strong swimming skills and a love of snorkeling and scuba diving

According to the Daily Telegraph, within the first 24 hours 850,000 people had clicked on the site.

Look outside. Right now. Is it any wonder?

Iceland buys Woolworths stores

It seems that Iceland, the frozen food retailer that we all know and love from the 1990s, is buying 51 former Woolworths stores.

Good news, finally, for the high street.

Iceland bosses say they want to help communities that have lost their Woolies, as well as creating 2,500 jobs.

An interesting time for Iceland to invest, since their parent company, Bauger, perhaps unsurprisingly, is Icelandic. Let’s hope the money isn’t coming from Icelandic banks.

Interest Rates Cut to 1.5%

The Bank of England has cut the base rate to 1.5%.

It’s the lowest the base rate set by the bank in its 315 year history. Manufacturers’ associations said the move was “too timid”, and that the rate should have been cut even further.

Is it good news or bad news?

Homeowners with a £150k tracker mortgage will save around £45 per month. Repayments on a £250k mortgage will drop by around £77 per month.

But what about all of those who have been saving, those people who saw recession on the horizon and put some money away to weather the storm? What about pensioners, who aren’t affected by mortgage rates and live off the money they’ve saved their whole lives?

The simple fact of the matter is, saving money in UK banks and building societies has never returned so little.

Isn’t it time the Government offered help to people who saw the storm coming?