RBS and NatWest customers could face weeks of turmoil as a result of computer chaos

RBS and NatWest customers could face weeks of turmoil as a result of the banks’ computer chaos, the Financial Ombudsman Service warned today.
Meanwhile sophisticated internet fraudsters tried to cash in on the confusion by launching a phishing attack on NatWest customers in an attempt to steal crucial personal financial information.
And the pain continues for some 100,000 Ulster Bank customers who still have a frustrating wait until at least the beginning of next week to have their banking facilities restored.
The beleaguered Royal Bank of Scotland said today that just a few customers of NatWest and RBS will still experience delays after the update of account balances cleared for those banks.
But Ulster Bank customers will “continue to  experience unacceptable delays to their accounts being updated” until “the start of next week”, RBS said in a statement.
The computer mistakes that have hit an estimated 12 million customers of the two banks, as well as having a knock-on effect on millions more, could leave problems for many weeks to come, the financial watchdog said.
The FOS’ David Cresswell urged those affected to keep detailed records of what has happened to their accounts as the knock-on effects would take some time to identify and rectify.
"It is really important to make noted of what is happening, of conversations you have with people, of difficulties you are facing, because this is a ripple effect from the original problems," he said.
That includes making lists of extra charges for inadvertently going overdrawn or paying a credit card bill late, and making sure that a your credit rating is not damaged.
NatWest said it has extended branch opening hours to 8am to 6pm in an effort to clear the backlog of problems.
"But the full focus of our efforts will now be on delivering the same result for our Ulster Bank customers,” an RBS spokesman said.
Customer unhappiness was mounting today with many expected to switch banks once their accounts have been restored.






Before I comment I have to declare a vested interest, my job has recently been outsourced from Germany to the Czech Republic. (On a clear day if I went to the top of the TV tower in Berlin I could probably see it.)


Who gains from outsourcing?
First and most importantly, the manager in the company that outsources, he or she gets a big fat bonus for reducing the companies wage bill.
Secondly, the person who gets the outsourced job.
Finally the country which gets the outsourced job, as they have one less unemployed person to support.
Who loses from outsourcing?
Firstly, obviously the person whose job is outsourced.
Secondly the country that loses the outsourced job, as they now have to support an additional unemployed person. 
Finally and most importantly, the customer as they get a worse service, a less reliable product, with longer delays in resolving problems.


If you were about to have open heart surgery, would you want the operation to be performed by a surgeon with ten years experience and training or a cleaner who had no idea what they were doing but was incredibly keen and had watched every episode of Grey’s Anatomy? 

Jimmy Carr admits 'terrible error' over taxes

From today's Independent Newspaper:


Jimmy Carr spoke out after Prime Minister David Cameron branded his tax dodging "morally wrong".
The comedian released a statement saying: "I appreciate as a comedian, people will expect me to 'make light' of this situation, but I'm not going to in this statement as this is obviously a serious matter.
"I met with a financial advisor and he said to me 'Do you want to pay less tax? It's totally legal'.
"I said 'Yes'.
"I now realise I've made a terrible error of judgment.
"Although I've been advised the K2 Tax scheme is entirely legal, and has been fully disclosed to HMRC (Her Majesty's Revenue and Customs), I'm no longer involved in it and will in future conduct my financial affairs much more responsibly.
"Apologies to everyone."

Mr Cameron, speaking last night during a visit to Mexico, joined a chorus of criticism of the comedian, whose tax arrangements were revealed in The Times on Tuesday.
Describing them as "straightforward tax avoidance", the PM said it was unfair on the people who pay to watch the comic perform that he is not paying his taxes in the same way that they do.
Mr Cameron said: "I think some of these schemes - and I think particularly of the Jimmy Carr scheme - I have had time to read about and I just think this is completely wrong.
"People work hard, they pay their taxes, they save up to go to one of his shows. They buy the tickets. He is taking the money from those tickets and he, as far as I can see, is putting all of that into some very dodgy tax avoiding schemes.
"That is wrong. There is nothing wrong with people planning their tax affairs to invest in their pension and plan for their retirement - that sort of tax management is fine.
"But some of these schemes we have seen are quite frankly morally wrong.

My heart goes out to Mr Cameroon, how it must hurt him to hear of morale wrong doing. If only he was in a position where he could do something to change the laws relating to UK tax.
If only he was prime minister, I'm sure he'd do something in an instant.
Hang on a second............................................. He is.
And once he's sorted out this particular loophole, maybe then he could look into UK tax avoidance by large companies, such as, Glaxo Smith Kline, Northern and Shell, Amazon and News International.

Beating the tattoo and other things.

Watching the European Championships I have been struck by the number of footballers sporting tattoos. It almost seems compulsory to have them. When I was young the only people who had tattoos were sailors, Polynesian Islanders and ex members of the SS.
Speaking of the SS, I have been amazed at the reaction to the member of Greece’s neo Nazi Golden Dawn party assaulting two female panellists on a televised debate. People have thrown up their hands in shock as to how someone could behave that way. During the debate he threw water on one woman and then slapped another around the face. His defence was that he had been provoked, I presume he meant verbally, which is the sort of thing that happens in a debate. The idea is when this happens you are supposed to confound your opponent with an incredibly witty response. This is obviously beyond the powers of a right wing Neanderthal.
Having a neo Nazi in a debate with his opponents and expecting him to behave in a civilised manner is the equivalent of dressing a chimpanzee in a suit, calling him a waiter and expecting him to serve you dinner.

The Daily Mail on line poll for today

TODAY'S POLL

Are U-turns the sign of a weak government or one that listens to the public?

No

Yes

Above is the poll question from today's Daily Mail.
The Daily Mail is the world's most read on line newspaper,
and if that doesn't depress you, then nothing will.


You might be interested to know that people voted :


No 35%
Yes 64%
WTF? 1%  (that was me)


I presume the Daily Mail used the picture of David Cameroon attached to the question
to illustrate a weak government, or possibly one that listens to the public.

Suicide bomber kills 90 in Yemen, al Qaeda vows more attacks

(Reuters) - A suicide bomber in army uniform killed more than 90 soldiers in the heart of the Yemeni capital on Monday and an al Qaeda affiliate threatened more attacks if a U.S.-backed campaign against militants in the front-line state did not stop.
The bombing, which wounded more than 200 people, underscored the dangers Yemen faces as it battles Islamist militants entrenched in the south and threatening shipping lanes in the Gulf of Aden and the Red Sea.
The explosion left scenes of carnage in Sanaa's Sabaeen Square, where the military had been rehearsing for a parade. Body parts lay strewn across a 10-lane road not far from the presidential palace.
"We had just finished the parade. We were saluting our commander when a huge explosion went off," said soldier Amr Habib. "It was a gruesome attack. Many soldiers were killed and others had their arms and legs blown off."




When ever I read these sad reports a couple of questions spring to mind. 


1. How do you persuade a person to strap high explosives to his or her body and then perform an act of mass murder on people he/she has probably never met and therefore does not know?
2. If I was the person having the high explosives strapped to his or her body, I would ask the person who was doing the strapping. "If this is such a good idea, why am I the one who is shortly going to be blown into oblivion and not you?" 


The above goes double for the suicide bomber who had a stick of dynamite shoved up his rectum, which he then detonated in a room containing a Saudi Prince. An elementary knowledge of physics would have told him that the only thing that was going to happen was the splattering of his own offal over a relatively small area.

2012 Games: Rooftop missiles set to protect London

Surface-to-air missiles are set to be deployed on top of a residential block of flats this summer to protect the Olympic site in east London from airborne terrorist threats.

People in Bow were handed a Ministry of Defence (MoD) leaflet yesterday alerting them that a squad of 10 soldiers would be based in their gated, private estate during the Games. Missiles installed there will only be fired as a "last resort", it said.
Brian Whelan, 28, a journalist and resident of the block, said: "They are going to have a test run next week, putting high-velocity missiles on the roof just above our apartment."
The move is part of what is set to be the biggest peace-time security operation in the capital, with more than 40,000 staff reported to be involved in guarding venues and protecting competitors and the millions of visitors heading to the Games. FBI agents from the US are also expected.


The Olympic motto is  Citius, Altius, Fortius , which is Latin for "Faster, Higher, Stronger", so it looks like the UK is really getting into the Olympic spirit for the upcoming games to be held in London. Let's be honest, you don't get much faster, higher or stronger than a  surface-to-air missile. 

Think-tank calls for all bank holidays to be scrapped

If public holidays were scrapped it would add £19bn to Britain's annual economic output, a think tank says.

The Centre for Economics and Business Research says each bank holiday costs the UK economy £2.3bn.

England and Wales usually get eight bank holidays a year, with nine in Scotland and 10 in Northern Ireland.

This year Easter and the extra bank holiday for the Diamond Jubilee means there are five in April, May and June in England, Wales and Northern Ireland.

The Centre for Economics and Business Research says that if bank holidays were scrapped, Britain's GDP would be £19bn higher every year.

They also suggested that public holidays should be spead more evenly throughout the year

BANK HOLIDAYS 2012

England and Wales - 2 January; 6 and 9 April; 7 May; 4 and 5 June; 27 August; 25 and 26 December

Comparison of public holiday entitlement
Selected countries	Number of days
Source: Mercer HR, December 2011
Japan, South Korea	15
Spain, Malta	14
Portugal, Austria	13
Greece, South Africa	12
France, Italy, Brazil, New Zealand	11
Australia, Finland, Norway, Belgium, US	10
Canada, Ireland, Germany	9
UK, Netherlands	8

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-17654781

The above figures show, the UK is one of the countries with the least number of public holidays per year.

As for the suggestion of spacing them more evenly throughout the year, most of the holidays are connected with religious holy days, so without a hasty re-write of the bible I can’t see them changing.

And as a final, point regarding working hours, no employer ever gave his workers one extra minute off, let alone an hour or a day without it being squeezed out of them like blood from a stone and being accompanied by howls and cries that it would ruin them.

Bus crash kills 22 children in Switzerland

Two small Belgian towns are in deep trauma after a devastating bus crash in the Swiss Alps left at least 22 schoolchildren dead.

A further six people died in the crash, on Tuesday night in a tunnel in the south-western canton of Valais, or Wallis. The classes of 11- and 12-year-olds were returning from a school skiing trip to the small Flemish towns of Heverlee and Lommel, east of Brussels.

Distraught parents gathered at the Saint Lambert school in Heverlee anxiously awaiting news of who had died and who had survived the crash, which is believed to be the worst road accident in Switzerlands history.



Children's bus crash kills 28 in Switzerland

As a general rule I do not discus religion or politics with strangers and I try to avoid the subjects with friends and family.

My wife is presently extremely ill and staying in a clinic about 100 km from our home, I drive to visit her every day. This means that I use the same road each day at roughly the same time and I have picked up the same hitchhiker on three separate occasions and given him a lift.

He knows the reason for my journey and always asks after my wife. On the last occasion he said that all we can do is pray, I nodded, he then asked if I believe in God and when I replied no he shook his head and said that I should, as it does no harm.

Fortunately we arrived at the spot where I drop him off before he asked the question that all believers ask of non-believers, why?

I think this very sad news article explains why I cannot believe in the all-powerful benevolent god as portrayed in the Christian religion. 

New evidence suggests Stone Age hunters from Europe discovered America

From todays Independent.

A remarkable series of several dozen European-style stone tools, dating back between 19,000 and 26,000 years, have been discovered at six locations along the US east coast. Three of the sites are on the Delmarva Peninsular in Maryland, discovered by archaeologist Dr Darrin Lowery of the University of Delaware. One is in Pennsylvania and another in Virginia. A sixth was discovered by scallop-dredging fishermen on the seabed 60 miles from the Virginian coast on what, in prehistoric times, would have been dry land.

When I read articles like this I often wonder what  Christian fundamentalists think about it, do they chuckle and shake their heads safe in the knowledge that the earth is only 6000 years old?

So I decided to look into why they believe that the earth is 6000 years old and I found this:

The date that many Christian fundamentalists believe the earth was created on is based on a chronology of Biblical events prepared by a seventeenth-century Irish bishop, James Ussher.

The chronology first appeared in The Annals of the Old Testament, a monumental work first published in London in the summer of 1650. In 1654, Ussher added a part two which took his history through Rome’s destruction of the Temple in Jerusalem in 70 A.D. The project, which produced 2,000 pages in Latin, occupied twenty years of Ussher’s life. Ussher lived through momentous times, having been born during the reign of Elizabeth and dying, in 1656, under Cromwell. He was a talented fast-track scholar who entered Trinity College in Dublin at the early age of thirteen, became an ordained priest by the age of twenty, and a professor at Trinity by twenty-seven. In 1625, Ussher became the head of the Anglo-Irish Church in Ireland. 

As a Protestant bishop in a Catholic land, Ussher’s obsession with providing an accurate Biblical history stemmed from a desire to establish the superiority of the scholarship practiced by the clergy of his reformed faith over that of the Jesuits, the resolutely intellectual Roman Catholic order. (Ussher had absolutely nothing good to say about “papists” and their “superstitious” faith and “erroneous” doctrine.) Ussher committed himself to establishing a date for Creation that could withstand any challenge. He located and studied thousands of ancient books and manuscripts, written in many different languages. By the time of his death, he had amassed a library of over 10,000 volumes. 

The date forever tied to Bishop Ussher appears in the first paragraph of the first page of The Annals. Ussher wrote: “In the beginning, God created heaven and earth, which beginning of time, according to this chronology, occurred at the beginning of the night which preceded the 23^rd of October in the year 710 of the Julian period.” In the right margin of the page, Ussher computes the date in “Christian” time as 4004 BC.

So now I know.

ANCHSoon after

British boxers fight at Munich press conference.

From various newspapers:

Dereck Chisora believed David Haye glassed him during their disgraceful brawl. Haye, with a glass bottle in his right hand, punched Chisora. Drink spilled on to Chisora's shirt and the end of the bottle appeared to catch his chin. Women screamed as more members of both camps joined the fray involving the two British heavyweight boxers, and huge men lurched around the room, scattering bottles, tables and chairs.

Dereck Chisora's promoter Frank Warren described his client's brawl with David Haye as "ugly, horrible, disgraceful and an embarrassment for British boxing".

"It's brought the sport into a bad light, which is a great shame for all the fighters that do behave, and 99 per cent of them do behave and carry a lot of honour into the sport.

"I would say they were total idiots. 


So this brawl has cast in a bad light the noble art of punching someone in the head until they suffer brain damage. My guess is that it has also significantly increased the amount of money Frank Warren will make from the eventual contest between these ’total idiots’.

Russia and China use veto to block UN security council resolution.

Russia and China have vetoed a UN security council resolution calling for the Syrian president to step down, provoking a furious reaction.

All 13 other members of the council, including the US, France and Britain, voted in favour of the resolution, which backed an Arab peace plan aimed at stopping the violence in Syria. Russia and China blocked the resolution because of what they perceived to be a potential violation of Syria's sovereignty, which could allow for military intervention or regime change.

American UN envoy Susan Rice described the veto on Saturday as "shameful", saying Russia and China aimed to "sell out the Syrian people and shield a craven tyrant".

"Any further bloodshed that flows will be on their hands," she said.

I fail to see the advantage either long term or short term for the Russians and Chinese continuing support of Assad because it is inevitable that he will go the same way as Mussolini and George Formby and eventually he’ll be seen hanging around a lamppost. (See my previous post re exit plans.)

It’s good to see the United States indignant regarding the continuing abuse by the Syrian government of its citizens and continuing human rights abuses. But before the US gets all 'holier than thou' it’s worth noting that since 1972 the United States has been the single, solitary veto on 42 Security Council resolutions condemning Israeli violations of international law or human rights.

Chile Invokes Chilling Anti-Terrorist Law

Extracts from: Chile Invokes Chilling Anti-Terrorist Law Against Indigenous Mapuche, published by Indian Country.

Chile’s controversial anti-terror law dates back to the 1973-1990 reign of dictator Augusto Pinochet. The draconian anti-terror law allows for suspects to be detained for indefinite periods of time without charge and allows the use of testimony from anonymous witnesses in trials, Forbes Online said. Some aspects of the Pinochet-era legislation parallel the National Defence Authorization Act (NDAA), which was signed into law by President Obama on New Year’s Eve. The NDAA allows for the indefinite detention without charge or trial of people suspected of terrorism, including U.S. citizens detained on U.S. soil.

Chile’s anti-terrorism law was invoked last year against four Mapuche men—activists involved in the struggle for their land rights who were sentenced to 20 and 25 years in prison in what appeared to be trumped up charges under the anti-terrorism legislation. “What is happening in Chile isn’t justice; it’s a pantomime, because under the anti-terrorism law, there is absolutely no way justice can be done,” said José Venturelli, spokesman for the European Secretariat of the Ethics Commission against Torture. The Mapuche are Chile’s largest indigenous group, numbering nearly one million among Chile’s population of more than 16 million. Their struggle for their land rights has frequently pitted them against not only forestry companies but also large landholders and other private interests.

Under Chile’s anti-terrorist law, prosecutors may keep their evidence secret, anonymous witnesses can testify for the prosecution, prosecutors may apply for powers to tap telephones and intercept correspondence, e-mails and other communications, suspects can be held for up to 10 days before formal charges are brought, and detainees often face long periods of pre-trial detention and disproportionately long sentences.

http://indiancountrytodaymedianetwork.com/2012/01/11/chile-invokes-chilling-anti-terrorist-law-against-indigenous-mapuche-71708#ixzz1kMucelWI

Today was one of those days I had to look at a calendar and check the date, yes it is 2012. (Unless of course you’re Jewish and it’s 5772, Muslim 1433 or Mayan, very worried.) And not the middle ages and the Spanish Inquisition, not seventeenth century America and the Salem witch trials and not the 1930’s and Nazi Germany.

Franz Kafka wrote ‘The Trial’ in 1915 & based it upon anti-Semitic laws then in force in the Austro-Hungarian Empire:

The central character, Joseph K. is arrested one morning, apparently victim of a slander. The two policemen that arrest him refuse to give any explanation.  He is tried in a court that prevents any access to its Judges, and that does not recognize his legal right to a defence. The court proceedings remain secret and the bill of indictment is not accessible to the accused, nor to his lawyers, and even less to the public in general. The accused is therefore unable to defend himself, since he doesn’t know of what he is being accused. After this entirely non-transparent proceeding, the Court orders the execution of the unfortunate Joseph K.

'She bathes in blood'

From todays Daily Mail

'She bathes in blood': Lady Gaga accused of bizarre Satanic ritual in London hotel
 

The 25-year-old Bad Romance singer has been accused of leaving a London hotel room bathtub drenched in blood.

Rumours have flown around the net that the stiletto loving singer has started taking part in morbid Satanic rituals to keep her safe from spirits.

Staff at the plush Intercontinental Hotel in London were shocked when they went to clean Gaga's room and found blood in the bath.

However, the red substance has not been identified as blood and that it was more likely that the red liquid is part of a 'weird' stage costume or prop.

So absolute bollocks then.

North Korean 'dear leader' Kim Jong Il dies.

The news came as North Korea prepared for a hereditary succession. Kim Jong Il inherited power after his father, revered North Korean founder Kim Il Sung, died in 1994.

In September 2010, Kim Jong Il unveiled his third son, the twenty-something Kim Jong Un, as his successor, putting him in high-ranking posts.


The official title for North Korea is :


The Democratic People’s Republic of Korea.

British Library's early newspaper archive goes online

From today’s Guardian newspaper:

British Library's early newspaper archive goes online

More than 4m pages, drawn mainly from 19th-century regional newspapers, previously kept in decent obscurity at the library's newspaper archive in Colindale, north London, will now be available for historians and family researchers to browse for a small fee, or free if they visit the central library in King's Cross. All human life, not to say all the news fit to print, is certainly there, albeit written up in florid Victorian prose – great events, horrible murders reported in exhaustive detail, celebrity gossip, as well as the occasional intrusion into private grief.

For example:

Following the death of Grace Darling, the lighthouse keeper's daughter who had become a heroine for rescuing shipwrecked passengers off the coast of Northumberland, the editor of the Exeter and Plymouth Gazette sneered in the sort of tone to be heard any day now on blogsites: "We wonder our contemporaries do not know better than to suppose the public are generally interested in the health of this peasant."

And as for scandals, the British Chronicle in September 1790 had a ripe one about an unnamed peer who fancied his valet's wife and sent the servant off on an errand which would take him away overnight. The valet was suspicious, hid near his wife's apartment and locked the couple in when he heard his employer enter, before heading off to the peer's wife's chamber on a similar mission. "In the morning gentle readers you may picture to yourselves the confusion of the whole family: his lordship was found locked in the arms of Mrs Anne and her ladyship was discovered in the same situation with Mr Thomas."

Here is the link

http://newspapers.bl.uk/blcs/

When I worked for British Telecom  the Newspaper Library was in my ‘area’ and I was fortunate enough to work there on several occasions and it was a fascinating place and of course in those days there were no ‘soft’ copies of the newspapers, just the actual newspapers.

Golf and racism, it’s just not cricket.

I don’t know if you follow golf but the big story of the last couple of weeks is the racist remark made by Tiger Woods former caddie Steve Williams at the recent "caddie of the year" ceremony

The caddie described his new employer's triumph at the time as the "greatest victory of my career". When asked to explain why he had made such an obvious exaggeration given that he had caddied Woods to 13 major championship wins, Williams said: "I wanted to shove it up that black arsehole."

Williams conceded in a public apology that his remarks, which were made in front of 200 players, caddies and officials at a "caddie of the year" ceremony, "could be construed as racist" and added: "However, that was not my intent."

Despite this admission, a statement issued jointly by the US PGA and European Tours on Sunday made it clear that Williams will not be punished: "[We feel] strongly there is no place for any form of racism in ours or any other sport. We consider the remarks of Steve Williams, as reported, entirely unacceptable in whatever context. We are aware that he has apologised and we trust we will not hear such remarks again. Based on this, we consider the matter closed."

Racism is without a doubt vile, obnoxious and incredibly stupid. I have lived in many countries and the population of each is made up of roughly the same proportion of the good, the bad and the ugly. Anyone who has any knowledge of the history of mankind with it’s continuous migrations across continents realises, that despite outward appearances we are all basically the same and to claim that people from one particular place are somehow intrinsically superior to the rest of humanity is insane.

Back to the golf.

Steve Williams made a great deal of money whilst caddying for Tiger Woods, well in excess of ten million dollars and his remarks at the very least smell of ingratitude.

Steve Williams is from New Zealand, whose idea of culture is The Haka.

With regards to the remark itself.

"I wanted to shove it up that black arsehole."

I thought that Steve Williams was referring anatomically to what he wanted to do with the trophy that his golfer had just won.

Unlike a great number of ‘ladies’, (if you believe the press) I am not familiar with the colour of Tiger Woods nether regions but I do suspect judging by the parts normally visible to the public, they are probably quite dark, so in that area alone Steve Williams was making an accurate statement.

And finally:

Tiger Woods ethnic background is, and in no particular order. Chinese, Thai, Native American, African American and Dutch. So if  anyone wanted to racially insult Tiger Woods, why pick on the African American part? Why can't they be a little more imaganitive and feel free to indulge their own petty brand of xenophobia in a more creative way.

Syria and the Arab League

The Arab League has sent an "urgent message" to the Syrian government, denouncing "the continued killings of civilians" taking part in protests.

The league's ministerial committee on the Syrian crisis also urged Damascus to "take the necessary measures" to protect civilians.

The ministers also said that they had held "frank and friendly" talks with President Assad on Wednesday.

This is the same tone used by a parent in a supermarket to their small child as they slide down a shopping aisle on their stomach.

“Don’t do that Tarquin, otherwise mummy will get cross in a minute.”

If the videos just beginning to surface of Gaddafi’s capture, showing him being beaten, repeatedly stabbed in the arse with a knife and then finally being shot in the head don’t persuade Assad to go, somehow I don’t think that a ‘frank and friendly’ chat with the Arab League will do it.

Gaddafi, what, no exit plan?

Now, I’m not a dictator, mad or otherwise but if I was running a country I’d make bloody sure that I had an exit plan in place for when the people turned on me.

You know what fickle ungrateful bastards the people can be, just ask that nice Mr Mubarak who was running Egypt for 30 years.

Hussein’s exit plan was to hide in a hole covered by a sheet of polystyrene; Gaddafi’s to hide in a drainage pipe and then hope that the person who finds you has a sense of humour. But these pale into insignificance when compared to Hitler’s exit plan. Which was to wait in a cellar in Berlin until the Russians surround it and then marry your long-standing significant other, poison the dog and then commit suicide. Me, I’d have a private jet fuelled up and ready to go at the slightest whiff of popular unrest, a villa in the Caymans and a Swiss bank account.

Bob Buckman’s obituary

Extract from Bob Buckman’s obituary in today’s Independent.

Robert Alexander Amiel Buckman, doctor, writer, presenter and performer: born London 22 August 1948; Professor, Department of Medicine, University of Toronto; married 1977 Joan-Ida van den Ende (two daughters), secondly Patricia Shaw (two sons); died 9 October 2011.

Buckman was born in London, where his father was an import-export trader and his mother a barrister. He gained a love of acting while attending University College School and, at the age of 13, even appeared in the West End as the Midshipmite in the Gilbert and Sullivan comic opera HMS Pinafore (Savoy Theatre, 1961).

After graduating in medicine from St John's College, Cambridge, Buckman became a junior doctor at University College Hospital, London. Alongside his work and stage appearances with Beetles, he contributed scripts to the television sitcom Doctor on the Go (1977) and the satirical radio series Week Ending. He and Beetles also appeared in The Secret Policeman's Ball, the 1979 Amnesty International fund-raising comedy gala at Her Majesty's Theatre.

During his early years in Canada, he continued to be seen occasionally in Where There's Life, contributing reports from across the Atlantic. He also presented two ITV series of The Buckman Treatment (1986, 1989), surveying "the American way of health".

Later, he wrote and fronted the What You Really Need to Know About... series of films (1993-2000) aimed at patients and made by Video Arts, John Cleese's production company. Then, they launched the Videos for Patients series, whose releases in 2000 covered illnesses such as Parkinson's disease. Each would begin with a doctor-patient scenario acted out by Cleese and Buckman, before the humorous doctor explained the medical facts.

As well as being the author of more than a dozen books – includingNot Dead Yet: The Unauthorized Autobiography of Robert Buckman (1999) – Buckman contributed to Punch magazine and the Toronto newspapers The Globe & Mail and the Star. In 1999, five years after winning the Canadian Humanist of the Year award, he became president of the Humanist Association of Canada.

Buckman never fulfilled his greatest ambition, which he once revealed to be to meet his first great-great-great-grandchild. He died in his sleep on a transatlantic flight from London to Toronto after a week spent making a series of short films titled Top Ten Tips for Health.

I am always amazed when I read an obituary like this, how on earth do people find the time and talent to achieve so much?

I remember watching Bob Buckman in a TV series in the 1970’s called the The Pink Medicine Show and for some obscure reason one sketch has stuck in my mind.

A patient is lying in bed and a doctor ask if he has any problems, only one replies the patient, my bowels. What’s wrong? Asks the doctor. Aren’t you regular? Oh no replies the patient, every morning at seven o’clock. So what’s the problem? Asks the doctor. I don’t wake up until eight o’clock. Replies the patient.

The government is to announce that the Olympic Stadium deal with West Ham and Newham Council has collapsed, sources say.
Legal challenges by Tottenham and Leyton Orient, plus an anonymous complaint to the European Commission, have led to fears that court action could drag on for years while the stadium remains empty.
A ministerial statement is expected around noon, saying that the stadium will remain in public ownership and leased out to an anchor tenant following a new tender process.
It is likely that under the new tender process any costs of transforming the stadium after the 2012 Games will be covered by the Olympic Park Legacy Company. Prospective tenants will then be asked to bid for the stadium with the running track remaining in place.
The tenants would pay an annual rent to the OPLC, which could actually prove to be less costly for the likes of West Ham.


Several points spring to mind on reading this.
Why does anyone bid for the olympics? It always results in over spending, debt burdens and stadiums that no one wants.
Prestige? 
It must be a huge comfort for the Greeks as they approach financial ruin to look back upon the 2004 Summer Olympics.
Legacy?
The Olympic village will be turned into housing. Why do you need to host an Olympics to spend money on housing and infrastructure? I'd settle for the amount of money  they spend on bidding for the Olympics to be spent on housing and infrastucture.
The east end of London will have a 60,000 seater athletic stadium that no one wants, but apparantly it will be usefull in our bid for the 2017 world athletics championships.
Finally on a footballing note. I have watched football at stadiums with running / dog tracks around them: The old Wembley, the old Stamford Bridge and the Olympic Stadium in Munich (a stadium that Bayern München couldn't get out off quickly enough) and to put it mildly from a spectator's view point they were all terrible.