Quiz shows, banks and supermarkets

Maybe I'm just getting older and more miserable, but are quiz shows on television, and in particular on the BBC, - which I might add you and I fund to the tune of almost £200 a year each - becoming more inane and ridiculous? They all seem to follow the same format - a slick-witted presenter presiding over to two teams of "B" stars comprising of the same, old, second-rate stand-up comedians and unemployed soap stars, just because it’s one particular agent who holds sway over the BBC light entertainment department.

The format, presenters patter and audience reaction is identical, whichever the show.

It's just a great pity the programmes on the BBC aren't as good as their link advertisements between those programmes.

Back on commercial stations, banking advertisements have become so solemn, customer-friendly and twee. As the banking institutions take their long-suffering customers even further for a ride on their single journey of increasing dishonesty and bad value for money, their advertisements are becoming sickeningly sugary, as if butter wouldn't melt in their canteen microwaves.

Wherever you want to get to in life, Lloyds TSB have a range of bank accounts and personal financial services to suit you, (none of which we’ll let you have). Helpful Banking from NatWest (unless you want to withdraw your money form a cash machine). Help your business grow with HSBC business banking (although we won’t be lending you any). Whether you want a current account, a loan, or to save at Barclays we can offer what could be good for you (but more importantly, what’s good for us).
Sadly, Martin Salter, MP for Reading West, left parliament in April 2010. He was a champion of banking for the normal people and gave them (the banks and not the people) a continual merry bashing.

As summed up by the banking profession's mission statement "We must be sincere to all of our customers, all of the time, even if we don't mean it" (I have just made that one).

Talking around fat profits for city banking suits, the supermarkets continue their march against the small local shopkeeper. Not happy with closing corner shops down and changing Britain from a nation of shopkeepers to a nation of out of town hypermarket-visiting sheep,  their 'Local' shops are spreading like a disease into the suburbs and small towns throughout the land from 6am to midnight each day.

And they have the support of suppliers such as the National Lottery, Menzies newspaper distribution and tobacco licensing who are happy to supply them despite the fact they might be ruining their small neighbour which up to then was only local newsagent, Lottery terminal and tobacconist on the road. With a family to support and nowhere near the range of goods stocked by the ’local’supermarket.

Beware though. With the exception of Morrisons, the supermarket ‘local’ shops are more expensive than their large supermarket brothers.