Friday 5 June 2009

Barclays' Pension Fund Has £2.2bn Deficit



I read with interest that Barclays have a £2.2bn deficit in their staff pension fund and , as a result, are scrapping their final-salary pension scheme. "So what?" You might say. Well, before joining Instanta I worked for Barclays for seventeen years and my Barclays pension figures in my retirement plans. As it stands I don't seem to be affected by the planned changes but a £2.2bn funding gap is hardly likely to fill me with confidence - I'm afraid Instanta is going to be lumbered with me for quite a few years to come.





Hands off Terry Wogan. We've already suffered from Terry leaving Eurovision. Now the BBC is being criticised for paying him and other radio presenters too much. His pay has not been revealed but is reputed to be in the region of £800,000. He attracts 13 million listeners to his show which works out at such a low cost per listener per day that it barely registers. I'm a Radio 4 man myself but I can think of a lot less value for money. It's reputed that certain Premier League footballers earn as much in a month as Terry earns in a year.







Today's special June offer will run until 10am on Monday 8th June. Until then you can buy the super CT200 boiler for the very special price of £485. That means a saving of £76 or over 13%.To qualify for this special price, orders must reach Instanta no later than Monday 8th June at 10 am and must quote the reference
blog offer 050609.



Excitement mounts here at Instanta in anticipation of the annual golf day on Monday at Duxbury Golf Course. About ten staff and friends will be competing for the coveted trophy. Craig backed out of booking the fire engine limo and the pink one wouldn't take all the golf bags so it's a plain old mini bus. Never mind, I am sure that there will be plenty more opportunities to impress the members.As for the golf? After his success at Celtic Manor, it would be a very brave man who would bet against Peter Brindle to take the trophy especially as he has organised it and made the rules.





Our genteel home town of Southport is starting to look like Al Capone's Chicago if you believe the local press. For the last few weeks almost every front page of the papers has featured a local businessman (with a business just down the road from Instanta)who appears to have fallen out with someone. Said businessman has experienced a gun attack on his home, arson at his business, a high speed chase along the coastal road when he was pursued by a motorcyclist armed with a hand gun and this week's episode had him arrested after a huge brawl at a trendy bar in up market Birkdale.It would be no surprise if the Mitchell brothers turned up in next week's installment.Although, joking aside, it seems more likely that somebody is going to be very badly hurt.

We are recruiting for a new office trainee at the moment. We phoned an ad in to local careers service Connexions. We are looking for someone literate and with good numerical skills to contact Jenny Wright here at Instanta. Seems that Connexions could also be looking for someone literate as all the applications have come addressed to Jenny Write.

Twenty six years ago when the kids were little we all used to enjoy the outrageous pop videos on "Top Of The Pops". I never quite understood "Total Eclipse Of The Heart" but thanks to YouTube, everything is now clear.






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