Monday 12th February

How Lloyds, Nat West, RBS, Barclays and HSBC turned their backs on rural towns

Britain has the lowest concentration of banks among the leading nations of Europe: we have 155 banks for every million people. France has 420; Germany has 450; and Spain has 810.

One in four bank branches will disappear from the High Street within the next five years, a report has revealed. 

Hundreds of market towns and suburbs will become banking deserts, forcing frail and elderly customers to travel miles to reach their nearest branch. 

The Campaign for Community Banking Services predicts the UK’s 9,500-strong branch network will plummet to 7,000 by the end of 2018, shedding more than a quarter of existing branches. 

Well I could go on finding articles on bank closures in small towns ad infinitum, we are experiencing it as well, Kirkby has no banks now, the last of them Barclays closed last year.  Pickering is going the same way, NatWest to close this summer, Yorkshire Bank has also just closed over Xmas, leaving just one Barclays branch to cope with a busy market town.  Of course the banks will say we are doing it just for the customers, no say the banks it isn't a cost cutting exercise to put more money into the pockets of the fat cats up at the top. As if!! But it puts a lot of people at a disadvantage, my nearest branch is 20 miles away in Thirsk,  I suspect a lot of people will turn to the Post Office but all those very elderly, whose pensions mean cash to them to spend at the shops, what will happen?   All hail the internet, well yes maybe, but there is so much fraud on the net, and many people cannot access the web from their phones.

The moral maze we wander through.... Sex in the wrong places this time high officials in the charity game, are found to be having parties, orgies even in Haiti a few years back when in all truth they should be helping the people in need.  A few bad pennies and they could wreck a charity needed in the world.  My money goes out ad hoc, either in a direct response to a calamity, and then occasionally to  animal charities in need of direct money for rescue such as the Asian bears used for bile production, or the terrible trade in dogs for meat in similar places in Asia.

I went for a walk down Salton Lane yesterday, it was crisp and frozen, the world round us is peaceful and placid, the barn owl flew through the garden and churchyard on Saturday when Irene was delivering a wrongfully delivered parcel to us, we sat and drank sherry (after four o clock) and discussed village affairs, which at the moment is about speeding in the village, a footpath to replace the dangerous slippery grass verge.  But all our councillor had come back with is the fact from the traffic person in the council THAT THE ACCIDENT RATE IS NOT HIGH ENOUGH.  So either one of us throws ourselves under a car. or  Irene is going to get the name of the person who writes such dross and then maybe a bit of publicity is called for....