Today, as a business customer of the Royal Mail, I received a letter from the company’s sales director Graham Davis. The letter was to give me advance notice that postage prices would be “changing” with effect from 30 March; but the letter did not say what the new prices would be. For that I would have […]
Category: Consumer Affairs
The Nigerian 419 scammers are getting more brazen in their lies
Have you heard about a 419 scam? Named after the relevant part of Nigeria’s criminal code; a 419 scam is an email based confidence trick where unwitting recipients are told that they’ve won the lottery, or – more common – that a disgruntled bank worker or solicitor, or the wife or relative of a former […]
The Tesco Hudl: Do they really exist?
I don’t know how Tesco’s highly-rated but super-hidden budget tablets, the Hudl, got their name. But I’m beginning to think that the Hudl doesn’t really exist and that on 1st April 2014, Tesco will announce that we have all fallen for an amazing marketing ploy and that Hudl actually stands for “HaHa U Dozy Loons!” […]
Actions speak louder than words
I have just received two identical letters from my gas and electricity supplier SSE (or, SSE Energy Supply Ltd and Southern Electric Gas Ltd, to give the separate companies their proper legal names). The letters begin: “When it comes to customer service, Southern Electric believe you should be treated as we’d like to be treated […]
Government-owned Student Loans Company issues spurious legal threat to press
On Monday 28th May 2012, former Prime Minister Tony Blair was giving evidence to the Leveson Inquiry into the press. Over the course of that week a number of cabinet ministers gave evidence: Theresa May, Michael Gove, Vince Cable, Kenneth Clarke and Jeremy Hunt. It followed a sensational week of evidence from a succession of […]
Trust me, I’m a journalist!
Tomorrow (Wednesday), the Church and Media Network will hold a day-conference in London exploring issues of trust in the media. It’s an important subject and could not be more topical. The conference blurb says: “It has been a traumatic period for everyone who works in media, with a constant stream of stories in which the […]
Just how many people click those dodgy social media links?
Every now and again, I – like many people – receive a direct message on Twitter telling me that somebody is saying something nasty about me; or that I’ve been caught on video doing something I shouldn’t have been doing. On Facebook, I see status after status telling me that I can now see who […]
Church lawyers to review advice to PCCs on chancel repair liability
Church lawyers are to review their advice to PCCs on Chancel Repair Liability (CRL), after the case in Broadway, Worcestershire, where the Charity Commission ruled that it would be “reasonable” for the parish not to register liability against 30 householders. Under recent legislative changes, PCCs have just over a year to register CRL against affected […]
Chancel-repair liability: PCC given dispensation
A church in Worcestershire has been told by the Charity Commissioners that it would be “reasonable” for it to decide not to register chancel-repair liability (CRL) against 30 households in its parish. The PCC of St Eadburgha’s, Broadway began the process of registering liability during an interregnum, after advice from the legal advisory commission of the […]
MP gives warning on Chancel Repair Liability
Chancel Repair liability (CRL) is an issue “on the verge of explosion”, a junior government minister, Peter Luff, has said. Mr Luff, the MP for Mid Worcestershire, is helping the PCC of Broadway with Wickhamford to find a way to avoid registering CRL against 30 households in its parish. “My strong sense is that this […]