PASOKisation in Britain

PASOKisation in Britain

The once mighty PASOK has been reduced to the smallest Party in the new Greek Parliament. In 2009, it won 44% of the popular vote and formed the Government; earlier this year, it won a under 5%. Its decision to join the New Democrat led coalition in 2010 had led to a split, with much of the left of PASOK leaving to support its eventual replacement, Syrizia. PASOK has been killed by its own austerity policies and walking away from the hopes and causes of their political base.  …

Banks Eh?

Banks Eh?

Have you got outraged over FATCA yet? Over the last quarter, I have received several pieces of correspondence from different banks asking me to certify that I have no income that the US Government might be interested in. It goes to show just how poor, the Banks’ whole person/customer knowledge is. …

The customer is, and shall be king

I have posted an article on my linkedin blog, which looks at the future of banking technology particularly as it applies to their technical debt in the data centre. It argues that customer intimacy is key. I say,

So the incumbent players have to re-modernise their systems, build fit for purpose customer relationship management systems i.e. KYC and cope with the business disruption that new software driven competitors are developing, on top of which margins in retail financial services are very low.

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Spicy

A trip to “Silk Road” in Camberwell, a Chinese Restaurant with food from Xinjiang province. Here’s a hint, when someone says “you like spicy food?”, the answer in my case is probably No! Leave the 🌶🌶🌶 alone. The shish kebabs though were great; not what I expect from a Chinese menu and I plan to return. …

Academies of Justice

Academies of Justice

Will Hutton in the Guardian states that the Greens propose to extend the rights to belong to Trade Unions and to prohibit discrimination against TU members. It’s true see, check out their policy statement http://policy.greenparty.org.uk/wr.html, they also plan for a a right of Union recognition. Where’s the Labour Party on this? Actually, where’s the TUC and unions? I know it’s a long way from manifesto, to government policy, as a long term labour party member, boy do I know, but if the party policy ain’t right, then the parliamentary party’s policy and government policy is unlikely to be. …