Lex Luthor

It seems banks want it all ways. You say that banking is free but you pay a price for this 'free banking' - they want to pay you zero interest on your money, yet charge you 20% on cards and loans and overdrafts. Without customers there would be no banks. It seems my bank aren't interested in providing what customers want though, or I wouldn't have to go in to town to put a cheque in (which there is no way I am doing) or wait in excess of 25 minutes to speak to someone about my account

Absolutely. With Cameron and Boris, it's like Dumb and Dumber are leading the way in both campaigns and they obviously think that the British public are the Dumbest. I feel totally betrayed by these two. They have brought nothing to help the public choose on facts. I can't help feeling that they are both 'in this together' and at the end, Boris is going to hand over a Euro to Cameron, instead of the I think I'm going to end up spoiling my paper because I have absolutely no idea which way to vote. I just do not know enough facts about the important issues because they've been withheld from me.

Thank you. I will investigate. ---------- Post added 18-05-2016 at 23:40 ---------- I don't think it's pointless. I am a customer. I have freedom of choice. Having a local branch is important to me to pay cheques in. I will switch to a bank that has a local branch. If that branch closes, then I'll switch to another bank that has a local branch. If they all close, then I'll switch to the Post Office. By the time the banks realise they have lost all their customers, who knows, they might open up a branch locally?

Thank you. That is helpful. Will they do this for multiple accounts, do you know?

Received a letter today saying the Ecclesall Road, Hillsborough, Woodseats and one of their Fargate branches are all closing. This is such a shame. This, coupled with the huge IT job losses locally made me wonder about transferring my account to another bank. I phoned to discuss it with someone and an automated recording told me there was in excess of a 25 minute wait. I wonder how long the Woodseats branch has been there? I think it's a great building. I remember it used to be the Midland before HSBC took over. I've seen an old painting of Woodseats with a tram going past the bank, so I'm assuming it's pretty old. I don't want to have to go to town to put a cheque in, that's far too inconvenient for me, and so is a 25+ minute wait to speak to someone about it. Looks like customers don't have much of a choice unless they take their business elsewhere.

Must be terrible for the owners.

I thought dogs had to be kept on leads in parks. Don't they?

Interesting insight, do HSBC have plans to sue the police?

Have they reinstated a company then? I remember years ago when many people complained about the parking company, so they got rid of them.

And this is one of the most important reasons to scrap this idea. If Hunt was remotely bothered about death rates at weekends, he'd also want to stop the doctors and consultants from all going on holiday during the summer and be persuading the government to scrap it. Unfortunately, our family know the true cost of this lunacy. The only time of the school year when there should be an absolute ban on vacations is during the first half term of the school year, when the children are forming friendship groups and getting used to their new teacher.

Because the government would have to admit that such stringent attendance targets for school are absurd.

How can it be snatched, unless it was off lead?

So, according to Stan Collymore on twitter, the security training exercise took place at Old Trafford last Wednesday. All eyes are on the security firm, but what about Old Trafford's own security and the police - do they not perform checks before fans are allowed in the stadium? It seems like a fan has spotted this device in the first instance, to me. This raises huge questions about the security at large venues, sporting and otherwise. Are they left to be self-regulated? Are no demands made of them by the government and the FA to protect fans or is it all presented as 'advice'? If so, it's time for new laws to protect fans/customers. Mayor of Manchester on Sky news seems a very sensible guy who is taking this seriously for the right reasons.

To be fair the parking facilities at Centertainment are woefully inadequate and people will welcome somewhere with decent parking. The problem is the roads around there. The traffic puts me off going already. I presume the applicants will have to invest majorly in roads/access also, like IKEA have had to?

I think there will always be a need for high quality pieces of journalism. The trouble increasingly is, they seem to rely on stories to land on their desks/phone them, rather than going out there and investigating issues that affect local people.

Will you bother putting them in an envelope, or just put them in the post box?

Who says they had food and that food was included in the bill?

Bakewell Market. Scarborough for the day. Crich Tramway Museum. Bishops House. Buxton - visit to opera house? Matlock. Canal. Crooked Spire, Chesterfield.

I thought the Profumo Scandal was more about the Official Secrets Act than the actual sexual acts/morality.

Just like Kay Burley does when she's in Cameron's company.

Nope but I hate that road and always try to avoid it. It's a real dangerous spot.

The guy also has a point regarding the cuts to mental health services though.

Sorry to hear about your problems. Your daughter needs to make a record of every phone call and letter written to them and take copies of everything. Do persist with them though. They do often get it wrong and then don't like to put it right. I would recommend she contact the Zest Centre at Upperthorpe to see if they still run advice sessions, or if they can recommend somewhere. It's not easy as most of the advice centres have closed due to government funding cuts.

So this dangerous guy is still on the run over a week later? Great. Let's hope he doesn't come across someone else he doesn't like the look of soon.

Sorry to hear this. I'm afraid I don't know the answer but hope all goes well.