Nearly the weekend

I should mention the row about Google censoring itself in China. I have some sympathy for the company. They are quite right when they say that China would block them completely if they didn't censor. It also should be recognised that the engine apparently does spew up messages informing users of what they aren't allowed to see. It could be argued that that measure is very positive. The question is, what kind of emssage does this send Beijing? Is Google bowing to their wishes, or are they compromising?

George Galloway got kicked out of the Big Brother House last night along with Dennis Rodman. He's spend the last 24 hours defending his decision to go in. He's come up with some credible arguments and it emerged yesterday that he wasn't collecting his salary while he was in there which will shut a lot of people up.

I've written to the bank again.

Dickie says that banks are acting like tossers due to new money laundering laws. This isn't true. I was quoted legislation as I was blowing my stack in NatWest and it was legislation from 1997. That's not new. It's before 9/11 in fact. Besides, eventually it was possible to obtain a bank service using only a letter from me as confirmation of my wife's address, so it must be legal. It could be that the law is being interpreted over-zealously of course.

You know what I think the problem is - kids. The first time I was turned away I was told that NatWest simply couldn't help us, by an enthusiastic 18 year old. The second time I was told they could help us if I provided a letter, by a more mature woman. When I returned on the next visit I was turned away again by a young girl who thought the letter didn't contain enough information. The final visit almost resulted in failure again when I was told, by a child again, that the letter wasn't good enough and we needed a bank statement from Taiwan. It was only when the more mature manager came out that things got done. Can you see a pattern forming here?

The Prince of Wales says we should all walk and cycle more because it's good for us. Right, and according to him, so is homeopathy. What a knob.