CUNNING WHEEZES

[Stanley]

And still active. See the current PE.

[Stanley]

In political trouble? Start an artificial panic over fuel supplies. Mind you, it's a good thing to check your facts before starting talking. Francis Maude tried the cunning wheeze but slipped up. (Note to PM. Before trying to prove you are a frequent pasty eater and 'one of the lads', check that the source on Leeds Station still exists and didn't go out of business seven years ago.)

[Stanley]

Recycle food waste into pet foods. Make a profit out of waste. When pets get poorly more business for vets. Insurance companies pile in with insurance policies. Result, doubles all round!

[Tizer]

Halifax are now up to their chins in dog poo over their nasty trick to abandon all those pet owners who had signed their pets up to the company's `lifelong insurance'. They are going to be forced to pay some compensation - but the regulator has bottled out of imposing really strict conditions and Halifax won't be hit anywhere near as badly as they should be. Some people are going to take it further in court so there is hope yet of rubbing Halifax's nose further into the you know what. How stupid can company executives get? They set up insurance and promote it as being for the lifetime of the pet and then back out of the promise. But then they are probably the same people as dropped us into the credit crunch.

[Stanley]

I've often wondered about the use of 'lifetime' guarantees. The lifetime of what? The artefact or the owner? The only genuine lifetime guarantee that I am sure of is the one you get when you buy a Zippo lighter. I know because I have used it. If you send a Zippo lighter back to the manufacturer they will recondition it and return it to you at no charge.
Advertising copy is full of these amorphous words, 'fresh', 'home made', 'low fat', 'nine out of ten cats'. The most common one these days must be the '**% prefer' that is used by cosmetic manufacturers with a codicil in fine print which gives a low number of those women polled and no indication of who they are.
The fine print itself is a cunning wheeze. Look at the adverts for the pay day loans etc. The actual enormous APR is in fine print for a nano-second on the screen and no mention of how roll-overs can jack the rate up. It's a mine field out there!

[Tripps]

The problem is that the target audience don't understand percentages anyway. They've been paying APR's of 25-35 % on ordinary credit cards for years with no concern.

[Whyperion]

Hasnt the ConDem govt today made some kind of bigSociety loan scheme for useful projects. Its a loan scheme ( so the money has to be paid back ) administered by the banks - using money that is niether the banks nor the govts ( its from the value of bank etc deposits where the depositor has not touched the account for 15 years or more ).

[Stanley]

Page 10 of today's PE. Analysis of the HMRC report on economic consequences of reducing the top rate of tax reveals that only 7% of the top tax rate payers who will benefit are engaged in manufacturing the rest are lawyers, accountants, casino bankers and consultants. Sounds like a typical cunning wheeze to me....

[Whyperion]

I was part wrong on the £600m loan scheme , only £400m is from orphan accounts , the other big 4 banks are chipping in £50m each.
looks useful for charities to buy capital goods ( normally when I have dealt with charities they tend to lease them - photocopiers / phone systems and the like and I suppose things like minibuses for transport to centres ).

Reviewing the un-simplified tax changes for 2012/2013 and proposals for following years the squeezed middle will get even tighter squeezing , with more steath rises that GB could have thought of.

[Stanley]

Interesting subject this morning on BBC R4's 'Something Understood'. It examined competition and winners and losers and questioned whether competition is really as good a thing as id generally accepted. Does 'winning' really matter? Does it bring out the best character traits? I've often wondered about this and my position is that whilst striving to improve and be better can be a good thing the effect on 'losers' can be very damaging. It may be that the old 'Playing fields of Eton' theory of empire building might be one of the biggest cunning wheezes ever. The class system is built on this premise and it's instructive to look at the subsequent careers of some of the losers in the race of life. When I was doing the interviews for the LTP I was struck by the number of informants who were disadvantaged at an early age by selection for better schools. Some of them were definitely officer material but never got the chance to shine because in society's terms, they were losers. It might be that success in competition can just as easily encourage the wrong character traits. Social control can manifest itself in many different guises.

[Tizer]

Evolution is a competition too and they can both go wrong. Did you see the programme on mammoths? Why evolve those very long, unwieldy, heavy tusks? Yes, we know it's competition and males showing off but it's an example of competition pushing on towards a dead end, a waste of the animal's energy and nutrition in making and carrying the appendages. Big tusks might have helped one mammoth win over another but they were a definite disadvantage when humans came along and found that ivory was a useful material. Mammoths failed the competition with humans!

[Stanley]

I watched that programme and enjoyed it. A lot of Mammoth ivory disgorged at the bottom end of glaciers was used in piano keys because it was harder and more durable. I suppose that this too is illegal under CITES.

[Whyperion]

Speaking to a friend he said piano keys often from walrus tusks. I dont think mammoths are endangered. Programme on BBC? coming up on trade in Elephant Ivory , I think its Ivory worked after 1948 which it is illegal to trade.

[Stanley]

Not too sure whether this is a CW or not but if your qualification for the Warm Homes Discount Scheme is under section 4, income under £16,190 and energy costs over 10% of income, the more you economise, the less your percentage is and it looks as though efficient energy users are penalised.

[Tizer]

The law of unintended consequences perhaps? Or, as you say, it may be a CW.

[Stanley]

I think the former. They have made the rules so complicated that they are a minefield. Evidently as far as BG are concerned, the Essentials Tarriff was being abused. They found that many who applied did not really need it. That was bad management of course.

[Stanley]

I was listening to current opinions on the Leveson Enquiry and the imminent re-appearance of the Murdochs, father and son. The general opinion is that it could get nasty as they are expected to go on the attack and possibly name names to divert attention from themselves. Politicians may not go unscathed. There is little doubt that the Newscorp cunning wheezes department will have been working flat out on this one! Noticeable that the Murdoch papers are printing a lot of criticism of the Coalition, perhaps the Rebekkah/Dave/Murdoch honeymoon is over.

[Tizer]

Watch out for this one! A company called Rewards First is getting its small ads put on other companies web sites and these advertise things like "£20 off your next purchase!" When you click on the link they automatically sign you up as a member and then charge you monthly membership using the credit card details you used for your purchase with the company that owns the web site ( a trick known as `piggy backing'). Many people don't check their credit card statements carefully and miss these payments of e.g. £17.50 or just let them through because they can't be bothered checking them out. Rewards First, of course, makes a fortune out of this. An example that is now causing a fuss and some bad publicity for Rewards First is on the Flybe airline web site. Rewards First claims that it tells people they will be made members and charged monthly but victims of this scam say they didn't see any warning. The scam has been going on for a couple of years now as shown by this thread:
http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/sho ... ?t=2609079
and this article:
http://blogs.mirror.co.uk/investigation ... rst-o.html
The moral is, don't click on these tempting offers on web sites - one click and you're stuck with sorting out the problem even if you notice what is appearing on your credit card statements.

[Stanley]

See 'Politics Corner' for Levenson's reaction to Hunt and Downing Street's cunning wheeze to get everyone off their backs.

[Stanley]

If we accept that 'news management' comes under the heading of Cunning Wheezes we are seeing some interesting ploys as a result of the Select Committee enquiry report on hacking. Rupert has sent a message to all employees saying that the report is good for the business and Tory 'spokesmen' (mainly a woman!) are rubbishing the whole report saying that it's a political ploy by the Left. I don't see the point of the latter as it goes directly against public opinion. Tory DNA kicking in and defending big business?

[Stanley]

The combined CW departments and the spin doctors will be hard at work today trying to mitigate the clear message against the Coalition from the polls. Now we wait for the Boris v Ken match.....

[Stanley]

Watch out for another CW from the banks. They are expecting to be hit by the Euro crisis and will be looking for ways to improve their profitability. Obvious route is to raise bank and mortgage charges. Doe anyone expect to see them re;porting a loss in six months?

[Tizer]

A few posts back in this thread I mentioned the `legal' scam being run by companies like Rewards First who offer you a discount but sign you up for membership with a monthly fee on your credit card if you try to take the discount. This has gone on quietly for a few years but since it was aired again recently in The Times the newspaper has received a flood of letters from people who were tricked and the authorities are looking into it - but the onus is still on us...buyer beware!

[Stanley]

Could it be that the only sure defence is never sign up to anything?

[Stanley]

Looks as though the Face-Book flotation was a CW. Offered at $38 and now fallen to $33. Nice work if you can get it!