Today has been designated as National Coming Out Day.
There’s been so much going on recently in the media and social media about gay bishops in the Church of England.
This seems to me to say it in a more elegant way than all the letters to the press, editorials, blog posts and twitter posts by the score.
I’m contemplating it – too much instability coming up in the next couple of months though.
You might find http://www.ethicalconsumer.org/buyersguides/money/bankingcurrentaccounts.aspx interesting – the CoOp don’t seem to score all that highly, although obviously better than established big names.
I did move my account and our joint account about 18 months ago – from Lloyds to the Co-op!
My reason was what appeared to be a policy to get as much money out of me as possible, culminating in imposing an accumulating daily penalty for a going a very small amount overdrawn on one account by accident when I was ill. The charge amounted to much more than the original overdraft. They didn’t inform me of this for several days and the basic attitude was ‘well that’s your lookout’. They knew that there was enough money in other accounts to cover it.
I knew about ethical banking before that – our son is a great advocate of ethical banking and had suggested we moved to the Co-op several times – but it was only a personal experience of what I considered unethical behaviour which damaged me personally that gave me the impetus to do it.
Many years ago when my father was struggling financially, his branch of Barclays called him in to tell him off about his overdraft. He went straight across the road to another small local bank called Martin’s, asked if he could transfer his overdraft there and they lent him the money to close down the account at Barclays. He always said that Barclays had to eventually take over Martin’s to get his custom back!
One thing I did find with moving banks though – it was actually not quite as straightforward as I was told it would be – there were several standing orders and direct debits that didn’t get automatically transferred so there were a couple of months of companies contacting us to tell us we owed them money! However it was all fairly easy to sort out on the phone. Also we were on a lower overdraft limit for the first six months so if you need to use the whole of your current overdraft limit every month it’s best to be clear about what you’re being allowed.
I bank with the Clydesdale because I work for them, and they require you to have your salary paid into a Clydesdale account.
I wonder if Howard’s branch of Lloyds is being sold to the Co… I really hope so, for hunners of different reasons.
I wonder how ethical the co-op bank actually is. I have had a preference for shopping at co-op supermarkets because of their ethical stance,until the recent revelations that they are among the worst offenders for driving down the price of milk below the cost of production. Fair trade and ethical have to apply to the uk too.
The Cooperative have just increased the price they pay to milk producers, in response to concerns raised. As to the bank, “more ethical than any of the other high street banks” is about as good as it gets right now.
The list of candidates for the election of a new Bishop of Glasgow and Galloway has now been published. They are: The Ven Dr John Applegate The Very Rev Canon Dr Gregor Duncan The Rev Canon Dr Alison Peden
Just to say that if you are looking for me in connection with anything to do with St Mary’s, I’m away from work until next Friday, 11 December 2009. I’m not sure whether I’ll be blogging. We’ll see.
There was a lot of radio to catch up on last night. Firstly, there was St Ninian’s Cathedral in Perth doing the big live broadcast on Radio 4 at 0810. It was great to hear familiar & unfamiliar voices on the radio and imagine the place all miked up. (St Ninian’s is where I did…
I forgot to set the camera up this morning (still needing a couple of people to be the camera team, I think). So, no video from this morning. Here is the text though: The tradition in churches like this one is to try to make something special of Advent. Whilst the rest of the world…
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