Author Archive: harrymottram
AGENDA WEST: The 2008 Credit Crunch explained in Adam McKay’s adrenalin filled tragic-black comedy movie The Big Short shows how easy it is for fraudster bankers to bring an economy down – is it happening again with Covid-19 loans?
A quartet of central characters, drive the plot of The Big Short, as they uncover the extent of the sub-prime mortgage scandal in the USA in 2007. Without one main protagonist the story lacks a clear focus on a single narrative but makes up for it by illustrating the unravelling scandal with graphics, straight to […]
AXBRIDGE PAGEANT: all systems go for 2022 (providing Covid 19 is on its way out this summer)
Green light for town’s 2022 Pageant The Pageant will go ahead next year as planned. That was the decision made by the Axbridge Pageant Committee on January 18th, when a Zoom meeting was held to discuss the situation in light of the on-going Covid-19 crisis. There is one important caveat, of course, that the event […]
BATH VOICE: Vision for a ‘people friendly’ Hayes Place in Bear Flat set out by the residents association
By Harry Mottram for Bath Voice At the top of Holloway linking Bear Flat to the city centre is Hayes Place and if you haven’t stopped for some fish and chips or a coffee in The Good Bear cafe you might miss it.The Council, traders and the Bear Flat Association representing the residents, want to […]
AGENDA WEST OPINION: Thought it couldn’t get any worse? Experts predict INFLATION is set to return in 2021 along with higher interest rates
Those who are long in the tooth can remember the horror of Black Wednesday in 1997 when interest rates briefly went up to 15% as the Chancellor attempted to end a sterling crisis prompted by linking the pound to the Euro in the ERM. Thousands of home owners couldn’t pay their mortgages as their monthly […]
AGENDA WEST BUSINESS NEWS: Covid-19’s double dip recession on the way as winter lockdown costs our economy £390m a day – the first such downturn since 1975 in the era of strikes, inflation and unemployment
An economic think tank has predicted something that every business in the UK has predicted: we are about to enter a double-dip recession. A recession is defined by negative economic growth in two successive quarters. In 2020 Q1 and Q2 saw negative growth but the summer’s respite and Eat Out To Help Out saw Q3 […]
AXBRIDGE CHAMBER OF COMMERCE BREAKING NEWS: Supreme Court backs small businesses in Covid-19 insurance case bringing potential relief to thousands of firms and traders
Cheers broke out in small businesses across the UK today as the Supreme Court backed them in a dispute with insurers over disputed coronavirus business interruption claims potentially worth £1.2bn. The Axbridge Chamber of Commerce’s secretary Harry Mottram said common sense had prevailed. He said: “Nobody takes out insurance that is worthless – so of […]
AXBRIDGE CHAMBER OF COMMERCE BREAKING NEWS: Ruling expected TODAY for thousands of small businesses in Covid insurance case (after insurers refused to pay up)
Firms who pay business interruption insurance will learn today if they will be able to claim after being shut down by the Covid-19 crisis. The Supreme Court will make the ruling which could see over a billion pounds worth of insurance paid out to struggling businesses. Waste of money The BBC reported on London hair […]
RAPSCALLION MAGAZINE NOVEL REVIEW: All we want is be loved and to have a relationship is the theme at the heart of Bernadine Evaristo’s novel Girl, Woman, Other in which she sketches the lives of 12 inter related modern Britains
Everything is different in Bernadine Evaristo’s novel Girl, Woman, Other, so that everything can be the same – to paraphrase Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa in The Leopard. Why? Because and despite of her free flowing style with no punctuation and written in a stream of consciousness technique, the twelve short stories fused into each other […]
Axbridge Chamber of Commerce News: Scam alert – beware of coronavirus scams and fraudsters who are claiming to be from the NHS
Across the UK, members of the public have received fraudulent text messages claiming to be from the NHS offering them the opportunity to sign up for the Covid-19 vaccine. The texts ask the recipient to click on a link which takes them to an online form where they are prompted to input personal and financial […]
Bath Voice Features: North gone south headteacher looks forward to a brighter year (despite having to make major changes to the school due to Covid-19)
Hope springs eternal in Bath following one of the most difficult years in modern times due to the Covid-19 crisis “You have to take some of the positives from 2020,” said Dave Goucher, 44, the headteacher of Oldfield Park Juniors, “we’ve coped exceptionally well despite the challenges.” In an exclusive interview with Bath Voice the […]
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