GirlsBike2 in Dorking hasn’t closed, just stopped paying to be a GirlsBike2 franchise. The sisters are now trading as H and A Motorcycle Clothing.
http://www.hamotorcycleclothing.co.uk/[/quote]My point being the Highgate branch of GB2 which closed, of which Dorking isnt.
shame to hear of this, im sure there will be others too…
looks like they have been saved
I actually do know someone who works for a bank - quite senior in fact at RBS…
Sorry mate, I’m not with you on the whole ‘the poor bankers’ thing - no pay rises etc for 3 years. They are paid ridiculous sums of money and those that are to blame for the crash have in the most part got away scot free. You refer to cost of fuel and electricity- As if bankers are overly bothered about increases in the cost of utilities. Looking at payouts recently their bonuses are just as fat as ever.
Fact is banks have enjoyed the benefits of a tax bailout, enjoy the extremely low B.O.E lending rates but are not passing any of that on to their customers. They also immediately stopped paying interest on client savings (my bank did anyway) and are not lending to small business - a sector that is not as high risk as you make them out to be.
It is actually investment bankers and ratings agencies that took sub-prime debt and created fancy investment vehicles out of them which they then traded left and right that caused the crash. Yes people should not have borrowed what they can’t afford but let’s face it - the bankers and mortgage brokers were in on it for profit and greed.
It’s a scandal what has happened.
Agreed, it is a bit cute blaming the financial crisis on people borrowing what they could afford and not the banks, when it was the banks who borrowed what they couldn’t afford by presenting other people’s debt as collatoral!
+1
… word.
not everyone that works for a bank is the ‘banker’ you’re so quick to vilify. and im sorry but it is equally an individuals fault that borrows more than they can possibly repay should the market turn sour. just because you can, does not mean that you should.
very few ‘bankers’ even dealt in mortgage backed securities, and fewer still were party to sufficient information to make the wonderful hindsight based comments of still poor ‘understanding’ made above.
perhaps people could point out which companies other than charities that are ‘not’ trying to make money? which public companies aren’t required by shareholders to maximise revenue and EPS, dividends and other indicators of financial worth?
irrespective of the answer to these questions, the UK can ill-afford to lay waste to its financial services industry. whilst its true that the banks cannot move lock stock and barrell out of the UK, the hedgefunds, high net worth individuals and other ‘mobile’ areas of financial wealth can leave the UK should they so choose (i.e if we make it punitive enough to stay here). Even the banks that have a base of operations can shift where they trading activity through for areas of their business in other regions and deprive the UK of billions of direct tax revenue (that more than pays for our public services, schools and numerous other areas of government expenditure combined). wouldn’t you if it were your money?
add to that the large numbers of people they employ, the tax those individuals pay here, the tax on the 'banker’s with the headline grabbing bonuses (which are very small part of the banks etc) and the fact they spend much of the net income here the impact could be hugely damaging to the UK.
sadly politicians are too quick to pander to the views expressed above. I am genuinely concerned about what may happen personally.
If people were borrowing just what they could afford, why are personal insolvencies at an all time high?
Which bonuses do you look at ? Those headline figures where banks are paying an average of GBP20,000 per person? Because let me tell you, most people aren’t seeing a fraction of that! How it works is that the top blokes get an absolute fortune and a lot of people all the way down the food chain get 0. Not a little, just 0.
I hope you realise that bankers make up a fraction of the employed staff in a bank, and that ALL of these staff are hurting along with you in the current economy.
Also, you think bankers aren’t worried about costs? Well, let me share an anecdote about how the cost of fuel helped send Frank Thomas to the liquidators and will probably send a few more dealers to the wall now that we’re forecasting oil going about $200 a barrel…
I work in IT and since moving out of the ISP and ad agency world, I’ve worked for a couple of big banks, one very small Dutch bank and a large American bank. Always IT. I’ve never made a decision that led to the crash or had any impact. But I’ve had people with mortgages and credit cards swear at me and call me names. Fine. Whatever. They’ll get theirs…
But as a result in the changes to banking pay packets, I now earn a lot less than what I used to. I’m by no means badly off, but I’ve reduced my discretionary spending. The increase in fuel means that I don’t ride for pleasure as much as I used to. That in turn means that I decided I didn’t need a new helmet this year. Ah well, that’s 400 quid not making it into a retailer. I was also looking at new gloves which I downsized on because if I’m not doing the miles, I don’t need the better gloves. Starting to see how an established company like Frank Thomas can get into trouble just because of the increase in the price of fuel ?
Trackdays are out because insurance has gone up so much, which means renting the van to go to the track costs a lot more than it used to. The fuel to get the van there is also a measurable increased cost, although the fuel spent at the track is minimal. But as a result, I skip that. That’s less money to the track day companies, less money to the car rental place and less money on the bike parts and gear that I used to buy. That’s thousands of pounds a year no longer making its way into the UK economy.
I was, possibly foolishly, thinking about buying a new bike this year. My plan was to buy a 600 and because it was going to be my dream bike (new CBR600F) I was going to buy new. But insurance has gone up a LOT the past few years thanks in part to the foolish underwriting actions of a few large insurers, and hey, if I can’t really justify the fuel money, why waste any discretionary income on a new bike? The old one’ll do fine.
Now let’s face it - who walks into a dealer and buys a brand new bike without buying at least one accessory or extra? So that’s a new bike at silly money and whatever accessory money no longer going into the Essex Honda. And I hear that they could use the business at the moment. Oh, and because I’m on the old bike, I service it myself because I’ve not got a warranty I need to care about. So that’s less profit money going to either Motoden or Chiswick Honda too.
I’m just one person, and the above is a subset of my personal list of changes in behaviour due to the increased cost of fuel. There are loads of people at the dropzone who aren’t there most weekends anymore because of the cost to drive there. I know quite a few people who’ve sold their bikes because of the increases in fuel and insurance making them too expensive to enjoy anymore.
So while you seem thrilled that people in banks are going 3+ years without a payrise or a bonus, I’m pretty sure a lot of large spend retailers would far rather we had that discretionary income and we were spending it with them!
My bank didn’t take any bail out money. Yet we are vilified. So I watch the process to move more and more of our trading staff to Zurich and Frankfurt and I approve of this. I watch the efforts to register more of our business in countries that actually seem to want our presence and the financial contributions that come with this, and this makes me happy. Of course, that’ll be millions of pounds in money leaving the UK economy both directly in the form of less tax paid, and indirectly in the form of services and assets being purchased in Switzerland and Germany, with the trickle down effects of that. It’ll also mean a higher burden on social welfare as more people get laid off once the jobs are in Zurich and the backoffice is run out of Asia. And I can’t feel sorry for the UK - the public have made it clear that you don’t want us, so why shouldn’t we move our money elsewhere ?
have nt read all of this but the banks+ oil companys are in it together if they want a ressession there bring it on if they want a boom time there bring it on. there money funds are soo great and so powerful, barclays are the dirtest of the lot i hear with blood on there hands, anyway thats my thought on this
