It's a sad day when one of the biggest banks in the country makes most of its money through dodgy but entirely legal tax avoidance schemes.The Guardian got hold of a number of leaked memos from a Barclays whistleblower and it infuriates me that a judge has ordered The Guardian to take them down off their website to try and prevent people reading what the bank was up to. But as The Guardian quite rightly points out today, by banning the memos, the judge has merely put into play The Streisand Effect. A few years back Barabara Streisand was infuriated to find aerial photos of her property on the Internet and sued the website owners for millions of dollars. Result? The website had half a million hits almost immediately and far more people viewed her property than ever would have done had she remained quiet. So I am doing my bit for the Guardian and if you want to read the memos download them by clicking here via Wikileaks or here. Please pass these on to as many people as possible. If the government is going to support the banks with our money through insurance we can't be encouraging them to profit from tax avoidance.
Well that's ruined our chance of an increased overdraft but you have to stick to your principles and these people clearly have none.
We're on the last leg of our holiday now and after Marion's birthday yesterday it's back to business as usual with her busy cleaning the conservatory at the moment. She enjoyed her shopping and I was amazed when she bought a lovely top on impulse. But credit crunch blues set in again whilst we were eating our tapas at the super La Vina and before we caught the train home we had to return to the shops and take the top back.
I said Marion would probably be right when she said that we were scraping the barrel in going to see Paul Blart:Mall Cop on Wednesday evening. She was.
So it's Chelsea again in the Champions League. First leg at home again. Hiddink has done well in his first couple of months so it's not going to be easy but at least we haven't got John Arne Riise playing this time. This weekend it's Aston Villa at home but those wonderful Sky Sports people have changed it to Mothers Day at 4 pm. That's great for any Liverpool fan with a mum isn't it? At least Marion's mum is a Liverpool fan and we can watch it on TV whilst someone (presumably motherless) takes my place on the Kop. How I yearn for the days of Saturday 3 pm kick offs.
Talking of football I'll leave you with James Corden's Gavin and the England football team. I had a dig at Corden on here a few weeks ago but it shows that, with the right script, he's still a very funny guy.
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