Gordon Brown and Margaret Thatcher

What have they got in common!

Actually - not a lot.....but after a short while in office they were both loathed by the good folk of the UK and on their way out!

But - in 1982 and in the nick of time along came the Falkand's War victory which kept Maggie in power for another 8 years.

And history of a sort is repeating itself....the Worlds Bankers are hanging on Gordons every word.

You never know - he might just win the next general election!

RYANAIR - Squeezing the punters

I watched no-frills cheapo airline Ryanair's Chief Executive Mr Michael O'Leary on BBC Television's "Watchdog" program this week.

The arrogance of Mr O'Leary was nothing short of breathtaking.

I have now joined the army of his ex passengers who can't wait for Ryanair to go pear shaped!

Investing in Iceland Banks

British local Councils and Charity organizations have admitted to putting almost 1 Billion UK pounds of taxpayers hard earned cash at risk by gambling on higher interest returns in Icelandic Banks.

Captain Mushroom smells a smell that makes doggy doo-doo smell like a Paris perfume house.

The finance chiefs of Councils throughout the UK did not wake up one morning and suddenly decide to invest in Iceland - I believe that they were told to.

Somewhere in the world, probably lounging on a $10 million luxury yachts are the salesmen that sold the idea of Icelandic Banking to our gullible local authorities.

I smell huge commission cheques and double dealing but I suspect that the real truth will not bear close scrutiny.

Questions I ask.

1] Why did Local Councils who claim to be struggling to fund their parasite staff 's indexed linked pension schemes have the wherewithal to stash millions of our cash away and then tie it up on three year terms? Shouldn't these same Councils be improving local services including social housing, street cleaning , the Police & Hospitals?

2] What the hell are Charities doing the same for? My concept of Charities is that good generous townsfolk give what they can afford to help the poor and needy and the Charities then shovel the cash out to these folk all over the World.

3] Where is our cash now?

Where else in the world has our cash been put - please don't tell me Chile or Cuba or Outer Mongolia....for God's sake why not put our cash in British Banks - is that too much to ask?

I hope that when the dust finally settles on the Icelandic Banks problems that full inquiries will be held and the incompetents made to pay!

TESCO's - who's kidding who?

Tesco's latest wheeze is to tell customers that they are "helping them to spend less every day"

They must be joking.

What Tesco's want is for punters to spend every penny that they have in their purse.....and it wont be long before they put plastic buckets by the exits doors telling folk to lob their loose change in!

Global Financial Meltdown

The worlds financial markets have been reeling from the collapse of major companies this week.

I can't get my head round a situation where on Monday a company is worth many billions of dollars and the very next day its filing for bankruptcy.

That smacks of the level of gross ineptitude that only governments are capable of.

Major World Banks, Insurance companies and Airlines have all called in the liquidators this week.

I find it bizarre that the very same bankers who, with an eye to their big fat greedy bonuses running into millions of dollars, recklessly give away fortunes to the sub-prime mortgage market, yet a scientist who is developing a life saving piece of kit struggles to get bank funding of just a few thousand dollars.

The underlying theme to all this is Greed and Incompetence and the "old boys network"

One airline boss appeared on TV this week in the wake of his companies collapse leaving thousands of angry fare paying passengers stranded around the world blaming the oil price, the credit crunch and everything else he could think of.

Not once did I hear him own up and admit that his company failed because of his incompetence.

I am cheered by the thought that bank managers terrified by the distinct possibility of losing their jobs and fat cat pensions, are feeling the same stress's and strains that small businessmen feel everyday of the lives.

Offshore Call Centres in India

I wonder how much money companies who make UK staff redundant in favour of call centers in India actually think they are saving.

Let us imagine that a company saves 500 jobs in the UK at say, £20,000 per employee difference in salary.

That's a maximum of £10 million saved per year.

Add back into that the cost of training in India plus the telecom equipment re-routing on-cost.

Take out the hidden cost of customers that say - "I love India and the Indian people but I want my service provider to have UK staff understanding the British way of doing things "- and get up and leave.

Are the managers of the already fabulously wealthy companies that move their first-line service centers offshore doing the right thing just to save a measly few quid a year?

Supermarket Car Parks

I am convinced that millions of gallons of petrol are wasted each year driving in and out of the car parks at out of town shopping malls and filling stations.

Instead of a simple entry exit system using the minimum of distance, it occurs to me that the architects have dipped a hedgehog in ink and just let it wander aimlessly around the drawing board in order to design the car park layout as lengthy and as complicated as possible.

Aircraft Black Box's

After the tragedy at Madrid Airport this month I ask why are civil aircraft still carrying in-flight data and cockpit voice recorders - the so called Black Box's (actually they are bright yellow!)

Surely in this technological age we can transmit many channels of data in real-time from the aircraft via satellite or whatever to a remote monitoring station.

As it is we monitor just a few aircraft parameters and record them on little more than audio tape just like our old reel-to-reel tape recorders.

In the event of an accident, the data recorders are searched for, not always easy if the crash is mid ocean.

SAGE SOFTWARE RIP OFF

Mushroom Components has been using Sage Line 50 software for 8 years.

Today we spoke to their technical support team about a very simple problem which could have been answered by them in about 30 seconds.

They wanted £650 YES - thats SIX HUNDRED & FIFTY pounds before they would speak to us....

Is that a RIP OFF or what??

ICSource and feedback

I am amazed to read in ICsource's comments section that Innovative Components Specialists in Florida has been burnt by Cheaper Electronics Inc of New York.

There are almost 20 - YES TWENTY pieces of bad feedback about Cheaper Electronics on the ICsource web site - yet companies are still giving them credit terms.

Those that do in my opinion are wholly irresponsible, naive, and deserve all they get.

As my old sales manager Bill Clinker was always telling us...." an order aint an order untill its been shipped and paid for!"

Politicians - the Good the Bad & the Ugly

I have a thing about politicians....have you noticed that just before election time, they come creeping round to your house to try to persuade you to vote for them.

The candidate that tells me that he is a lying cheating evil scheming crook that just wants his share of the gravy train - gets my vote - at least he's honest!

Who was it that said - failed businessmen become consultants and failed consultants become politicians?

Motorists, speed cameras & technology

Great Britain is the most watched Country in the World....everywhere one looks there is someone or something watching you.

Friends in London have told me that whenever they have been burgled it's just not worth reporting the matter to the Police as all they do is give you a crime number for insurance purposes - but accidentally put ONE wheel in one of Red Ken's or (Boris's if you prefer) precious Bus Lanes - there's a 100 quid fixed penalty notice on its way to you within microseconds - cos you've been zapped on one of London's 17410348709187032874789 cameras.

I find it bizarre that a respectable law abiding motorist can lose his driving licence - his job - his home all because in any three year period he falls slightly foul of the Governments armchair policing policy of using Speed Cameras to catch speeding motorists driving at one or two miles an hour over the speed limit.

Every year hundreds of millions of pounds are raked in by the Government in speeding fines.

Every day we all witness examples of dangerous driving - that Police or the speed cameras don't see.

We have the technology available that as soon as a motorist sees any unacceptable or dangerous driving, a button can be pressed on his dashboard to record the event with the on-board digital camera and transmit the event immediately to the Police.

Have you also noticed that the Authorities have now got mobile detector vans to ensure that vehicles are displayed a valid road tax disc?

Surely the sensible way forward is that vehicles cannot be driven unless smart cards are inserted in a reader validating insurance, road tax and the drivers licence at the same time monitoring his breath to ensure he / she is sober.

The technology is here now - lets go for it!

We are all getting older

The recent death of marketing Guru Evan Steadman reminded me that we are all getting older.

Over the years I have lost contact with buddies that I grew up with.....

I would very much like to make contact again before we all croak it:-

Dick Broome - emigrated to Australia in 1967
Chris Crowther - my flying instructor Biggin Hill 1966
Bill Clinker - ex Athena - last seen 1979
Dick Williams - ex Distronic - last seen 1990
Bob Pearson - ex Mushroom - last seen 1991
Terry Roeves - ex MCP & Zetex - last seen 1995
Any salesman from Solidev Ltd - 1968
Ian Buxton - ex HRS - last seen 1988
The 2000 girls at Texas Instruments Bedford -1965 - I may not have loved you all - but I loved as many as I could!

If anyone knows the whereabouts of the any of the above - please let them know how to contact me.

John Cuss - the Man who never was!

We are approaching the anniversary of life changing events that took place in 1978.

I had established an Electronic Component Distributor in 1973 and had rapidly grown and had franchises with major manufacturers such as Sprague, Thompson, Augat and Alco.

Out of the blue, Mr Albert Winter from the Company's accountants McIntyre Hudson in Bedford introduced "John Cuss" to the company as a man of substance and good standing and one that could be thoroughly recommended and suggested that he should become involved with the company.

After several meetings, Mr Cuss was brought into the company.

The company went from strength to strength and after a few months Mr Vaughan & his wife went on holiday to Spain.

Mr Cuss immediately swung his well rehearsed plan into action....

Most of the staff were dismissed, the locks on the warehouse were changed, the company vehicles were taken as was the companies twin engined Piper Seneca aircraft

The Barclays bank account mandate was forged and the account run up to the overdraft limit and cleaned out.

It transpired that "Mr Cuss" was a professional con-man with a string of previous convictions who spent many years in prison and indeed John Cuss was not even his real name.

The company was dissolved owing thousands of pounds to creditors and Mr Cuss went to prison again for six years (which included time for other offences) leaving a string of wrecked companies and at least one company owner who committed suicide.

Mr Albert Winter left McIntyre Hudson's who never even had the balls to put their hands up to their negligence. Eventually they made a derisory payment whilst still trying to squirm their way out of any liability.

As one of the lads from the Fraud Squad at Scotland Yard remarked - give me an honest burglar any day - the REAL crooks are accountants & solicitors as they know how to get away with it!

The story frequently made front page news in local newspaper "Bedfordshire on Sunday"

Heide and I were left with two young children - no money - a mortgage and school fees to pay - but that's another story.......

£1000 Reward for information

Paul Vaughan my fearless leader from Mushroom Components tells me that on the afternoon of Sunday 27th July, one of the company vans was broken into while parked in the Embankment Bedford.

The thieves made off with a TomTom 720 SatNav and about £50 in cash as well as having caused damage estimated to be £1000 to the van.

The Bedford Police responded quickly and have several fingerprints now on file.

There is a an alarming rise in thefts of SatNavs to fund drug habits.

I say to the Government.....

£5 billion a year is spent of class A drugs....largely from the proceeds of petty crime.

Either a] give the drugs away free or b] anyone caught selling / dealing / using should be deported or put down so that these parasites no longer pose a threat or a drain on society.

Paul Vaughan has offered to put up £1000 of his own cash for information leading to the successful arrest and conviction of the culprits.

Post Offices in Kempston

Mushroom Components headquarters is in Kempston a town 50 miles north of London with a population of about 25000 served by just two post offices.

One has ample parking, but has only one serving counter - the other has many assistants - but no parking - just what you need when you are trying to post 20 parcels!

I say to the Royal Mail - sort this out now....and stop the eBayers hogging the only counter at the Springfield Road Post Office.

Every year the postal charges go North and the service goes South.