Category Archives: Business

Nation prepares to celebrate the end of PPI calls

“What a great time to be alive,” remarked Eddie Grudgingly, landlord of the Squirrel Lickers Arms. “It’s a Bank Holiday, the weather’s fair and PPI is coming to an end.”

“They said Austerity was over. Didn’t see anybody celebrating. They thought it was going to be like a War Is Over Lennon Ono anthem blaring out of the wireless and everybody dancing in the streets. Turned out damper than a squid that’s been dunked in a jar of tepid ale. Another pint?”

“But PPI, though. Nobody saw that coming and nobody saw it coming to an end either. And coinciding with a Bank Holiday. Last week, we had a couple of tourists in the Lickers. Spoke with a funny accent like that. I said ‘Who are you?’ and the bloke goes ‘Tourists’. I said ‘We don’t serve terrorists. Oh, you’re tourists. Are you both Taurus?’ Gin and tonic?”

“I’m putting on a Special on Thursday, which is when PPI ends, at midnight. Bit of a knees-up, Vera Lynn on the box. Miserable old git in the corner, going on about how he forgot to send his coupon in. He thinks it’s like the football pools. Then, when we get to midnight, it dawns on us – no more PPI phone calls! No more Angie’s Advice.”

“Boris up there, going ‘Oy, hold your horses, chaps, we haven’t finished Brexit yet.’ It’s not Brexit dividing the country, mate, it’s PPI. It’s those who claimed and those who didn’t. We all put up with the phone calls, but only 52% bothered to claim. The other 48% said, ‘No, we’re alright as we are, thanks.’ Now it’s over and nobody gives a toss one way or the other. Top up?”

“Anyway, you know what’s coming next, don’t you. Have you been mis-charged fees on your PPI claim?”

1 Comment

Filed under Around Harold, Brexit, Business, Tourism

HM Queen ‘to take back control of Parliament’

Taking back control of the steering wheel.
A new poll has revealed that most people would back HM Queen to have the final say on Brexit.

“It seems obvious that when we’re talking Sovereignty, the Monarch should be the final arbiter,” said landlord Eddie on behalf of Harold’s informal polling group IMHO.

The group meets regularly to discuss global issues while drinking alcohol. At last night’s meeting in the Squirrel Lickers Arms, chaired by landlord Eddie Grudgingly, IMHO voted overwhelmingly to back a motion in support of a Royal Prerogative on Brexit.

“After all, there’s a fair bit of German in her blood and the Duke’s quite Greek,” said Eddie, “so they have a better understanding of Europe than far-right loudmouths  in parts of Lincolnshire and the Tory Party.”

It was decided that a People’s Vote would be a waste of time, because everyone’s changed their minds, so the result would be the same as last time.

The group also supported a motion of praise for Prince Philip’s ability to survive an actual car crash much better than the Prime Minister fared in her metaphorical one.

“And the Duke,” said Eddie, winding up the debate, “is now single-handedly saving hundreds of jobs at Jaguar Land Rover with his recent order for a weekly fleet of new cars. He’s doing more for the British motor industry than Greg Clark and that’s a fact.”

As the meeting adjourned, members of the political focus group thanked Eddie for another well-organised piss-up in his pub, which everyone agreed was a rare talent these days.

Comments Off on HM Queen ‘to take back control of Parliament’

Filed under Around Harold, Brexit, Business, Europe, Greek bail-out, Politics, Royals

Gateshead passport printer De La Rue loses contract for ‘sounding a bit French’

Oops, wrong one. Well they all look the same, don’t they.

Comedy and Tragedy were blended together today in the Tory soup-maker to produce the finest ironic Brexit Smoothie yet.

Franco-Dutch firm Foux da fa fa et un homme qui s’appelle Lars have been awarded the contract to print the UK’s new non-EU passport, after Jacob Rees-Mogg said the existing Gateshead firm De La Rue ‘sounded a bit French’.

“The writing was on the wall,” he said. “Well, on a brass plate on the wall, anyway.”

Brexiteers’ heads have been exploding as they grapple between the desire to keep foreign hands off sovereign matters and the freedom to trade where we want. Continue reading

Comments Off on Gateshead passport printer De La Rue loses contract for ‘sounding a bit French’

Filed under Brexit, Business, Europe

Tables turn as HMRC accused of tax dodge

cash

A typical wad of cash.

HMRC’s accounts have come under scrutiny by EU tax officials, who allege jiggery-pokey and unpaid duties.

Clothing imports from China have been grossly undervalued in HMRC’s books, claims the EU, demanding £2.4bn in extra tax.

HMRC say they have a problem accessing the data just now, as unfortunately their dog ate the USB memory stick and the back-up drive has been mislaid in a snowdrift.  They’re trying to get copies of their bank statements but the internet is a bit unreliable round their way and mail doesn’t always get through in bad weather.

Harold builder Herbert Fork, who’s been done for tax a few times, says he offers his sympathies to HMRC.

“I know what you go through when you get turned over by the VAT man,” he empathised.

“I just hope they don’t nearly have a heart attack during the investigation and that it can get sorted within a couple of years and not drag on and on until they’ve almost lost the will to live. You’ve got to feel for them.”

Comments Off on Tables turn as HMRC accused of tax dodge

Filed under Around Harold, Business, Economy, News

Lib Dems will be ‘victims of apathy’ predicts Harold stoner

A typical village stoner

Pinning hopes for Lib Dem election success on the decriminalisation of marijuana may be flawed logic says a village stoner.

“Most of the time we’re too stoned to remember to put things in our diaries,” said the smoker.  “Anyway, politicians are power-crazed liars, who’ll tell you anything.”

The dope smoking community is also wary that someone is trying to pull a fast one on them.

“So, they want us to register to vote for this?  So is that like your name and address and stuff?  Yeah, thought so, and the next thing you know is someone’s knocking on your door init.  Get lost.”

Nick Clegg meanwhile has been explaining more details of the marijuana policy. Continue reading

Comments Off on Lib Dems will be ‘victims of apathy’ predicts Harold stoner

Filed under Around Harold, Business, Crime, Drugs, Election 2017, Lifestyle, Politics

New ‘grasping prosthetic hand’ is actually based on Philip Green

Scientists made the prosthetic hand more lifelike than the original

Harold scientists have developed a prosthetic hand with extraordinary grasping powers, inspired by the limbs of well-known yacht enthusiast, Sir Philip Green.

Dr Rachel Guest explains: “Our new device bypasses usual hindrances like common decency, by incorporating the so-called Green technology chip into a myoelectric hand.”

“Once it detects stored wealth, say pensioners’ life savings, the prosthetic limb can grasp everything not actually nailed down, then hide it in a Monaco bank account held in trust by the other hand.”

Continue reading

Comments Off on New ‘grasping prosthetic hand’ is actually based on Philip Green

Filed under Business

April Fool story pranks Evening Harold readers – pranks them real good

There were red faces and some ‘lolz’ up and down Harold High Street when it emerged that many readers had been taken in by one of our April fool stories – but did you spot it?

Residents awoke to a straight-faced article on the business pages of our off-line version that explained how Mexican regulators had given the go ahead for the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (ICBC) to take a ‘significant’ share of the local operations of Grupo Financiero Banorte, S.A.B. de C.V., (Banorte), one of the big four Mexican commercial banks.

But the joke was on them, because nothing of the sort had happened, and it appears many readers believed the story, answering “yes” when asked if they believed the story.
Continue reading

Comments Off on April Fool story pranks Evening Harold readers – pranks them real good

Filed under 29/9 attrocities, Business, Crime, Hoildays, Holidays, idiots, Society

Literary critics hail Chancellor’s petrol tank analogy

Saving it all for a rainy day.

Language experts have welcomed Philip Hammond’s use of simplified English to explain esoteric financial matters to the general public.

“I struggle to avoid glazing over when economists refer to complex fiscal concepts like ‘contingency fund’,” said literary critic Peter Pentop, “but the idea of putting petrol in the tank before embarking on a car journey suddenly makes everything clear. I guess he’s putting up fuel duty from midnight.”
Continue reading

Comments Off on Literary critics hail Chancellor’s petrol tank analogy

Filed under Business, Economy, Europe, Labour, NHS, Politics, Society

Lab analysis of local kebab shop chili sauce finds ‘zero semen’ shock

Mystery solved

Mystery solved

Scientists at Dunstable Metropolitan University were stunned by results of a DNA analysis of the chili sauce at local Harold kebab shop I Shish You Not!, when data showed that no human semen was present, a new report revealed today.

“We had always assumed that the employees were rubbing themselves off like a troop of monkeys back there,” commented Dr Pauline Copland, lead food scientist at Dunstable Met where the study was performed.
Continue reading

Comments Off on Lab analysis of local kebab shop chili sauce finds ‘zero semen’ shock

Filed under 29/9 attrocities, Around Harold, Business, DNA, Food, Health, News, science, spam

Morrissey expecting “major ker-ching” when Queen dies

Former Smiths front-man Steven “Morrissey” Morrissey spends his days quietly scanning the Times obituary columns for news of Queen Elizabeth II, knowing that when she finally does pass away, his 1986 Album ‘The Queen is Dead’ will most likely be swept to number 1 by a sombre, patriotic nation.

Morrissey practising his mournful look

Morrissey practising his mournful look

“We [The Smiths] toyed with the idea of a perennial Christmas song, like Mariah Carey and Wham did, but the market was a bit crowded, so ‘How Soon is Christmas?’ eventually became the track we all know as ‘How Soon is Now?’, and ‘Santa in a Coma’ just got binned,” chirped the happy-go-lucky crooner.

“Then Johnny [Marr] said we should put down a track that played the long game – a little retirement bonus for us if you will – and we bounced around some ideas for blue ocean strategies, where we would be guaranteed to be the go-to track when some inevitable future event happened.”

That track was ‘The Queen is Dead’, and the album of the same name became one of the defining albums of the eighties, but Morrissey expects a revival of its success when the Queen finally does die.

Morrissey points to the boost Prince got when 1999 eventually happened, and the windfall enjoyed by The Primitives following the death of Princess Diana, and chuckles, “This is one set of royalties I’m really looking forward to.”

Comments Off on Morrissey expecting “major ker-ching” when Queen dies

Filed under Art, Business, Culture, Entertainment, music, News, Nostalgia, Obituary, Royals

Blair performs exotic dance every night for Saudi royal family shock

blair-belly-dancer

We’d pay to make it stop

Fears are growing that Tony Blair will do anything for money after if was revealed that he now performs nightly belly-dances for Saudi royalty.

Blair is known to have a wide range of opaque business interests, but it was never suspected just how far the former Prime Minister would go for cash until details of his fleshy writhing leaked out.

The Middle-East envoy role held by Blair included a certain degree of consultation over business affairs, but many are shocked to see him stripping nearly naked and wriggling lasciviously for the pleasure of the Saudi royal family.

A spokesman for Blair admitted that exotic dancing had happened, but denied that it was in any way inappropriate.

“It’s not like he’s advising savage dictators in Kazakhstan,” he pointed out.

“That was last week.”

Comments Off on Blair performs exotic dance every night for Saudi royal family shock

Filed under Business, Smug

Shoplifting ban should be suspended, rules court of appeal, as ‘everyone knows how to get past security bloke’

Now nick & collect, rule judges

Now nick & collect, rule judges

A court order banning the theft of goods from Tesco Express in Harold has been lifted. Court of Appeal judges accepted local thief Mark Kettle’s bid to lift the ban, and said the overt pilfering of items from the shop could start, pending a possible appeal from the manager.

The judges said the practice of nicking jars of coffee and packets of Haribo from Tesco Express had now been widely established and it was no longer in the public interest to maintain the ban.

They gave the shop time to apply to take the case to Dunstable Supreme Court. In the ruling, they said there must be no theft leading to getting caught before 13:00 BST on Wednesday. The shop has until 10:00 BST today to submit arguments to the Supreme Court.
Continue reading

Comments Off on Shoplifting ban should be suspended, rules court of appeal, as ‘everyone knows how to get past security bloke’

by | April 19, 2016 · 9:17 am

Local bank ‘was just a front for a launderette’

Bank, became a launderette, now a pound shop.

Bank, then a launderette, now a poundshop.

From the outside, it looked like any other High Street Bank. But behind the heavy wooden doors, a laundering operation was providing services for working people with no washing machines of their own.

Documents obtained by the Evening Harold from the local Planning Committee reveal conclusively that a ‘change of use’ application was approved in 1959, subject to the building retaining its original facade.

“I’m not surprised at all,” said Doris Kettle who remembers well the massive ‘just one more sixpence’ launderette drying machine swindle of the 1960s.

Continue reading

Comments Off on Local bank ‘was just a front for a launderette’

Filed under Around Harold, Business, Lifestyle, News, Nostalgia, Travel, Weather

Tories trawl Panama Papers in hunt for welfare cheat

"I see trees, lots and lots of trees"

“I see trees, lots and lots of trees”

David Cameron says he will not sleep until he’s trawled through all the Panama Papers to find someone who’s been overpaid £50 of Jobseeker’s Allowance.

“My mother always said ‘look after the pennies and the pounds will look after themselves’, so I’m determined to go through the 11 million leaked Panamanian files and catch a few welfare cheats, and rely on the super-rich to look after themselves” said Cameron.
Continue reading

1 Comment

Filed under Business, News

Starbucks will enter Milan, espresso’s birthplace, ‘with humility, respect, and a double shot of Rohypnol”

starbucks

“No, they all taste like that. Don’t worry.”

Serial tax-system-rapists, Starbucks will open a store in Milan next year, says CEO Toby Green. “We open in Milan, then further stores will be rolled out across the country. Think of waves of Sherman tanks in 1943.”

“Basically, we’ll f%ck the Italian treasury up the a%se from Sicily to the Swiss border, with Rohypnol-laced champagne cocktail parties and our tried-and-trusted off-shore profits, on-shore losses tax strategy. It worked like a dream in the UK. Well, we told them it was a dream.”

Once the whole country has been impoverished, the Starbucks outreach team will return to Milan. “Italian culture gave us espresso, Ferraris and more recently, multi-million dollar compensation packages.” says Green “and we want to demonstrate our respect for that culture and tradition.”

“So when we get back  to Milan we’ll be hanging their Finance Minister from a lamp-post in the Piazzale Loreto.”

Comments Off on Starbucks will enter Milan, espresso’s birthplace, ‘with humility, respect, and a double shot of Rohypnol”

Filed under Business, News

Ladbrokes’ lost £43m: “We’ll bet our way back into profit”

Ladbrokes

“…we’ll still be holding up our punters by their ankles, to shake out any loose change”

Ladbrokes, one of the the high street’s leading money-hoovering bastards, have posted their worst ever losses, to the delight of the nation’s gambling addicts.

Outgoing CEO, Richard Glynn, explained his simple recovery plan, which will leave his successor in a sound position; guaranteed mate, can’t fail. “Step one, we’ve a £10m accumulator with Betfred, for the first five races at Kempton Park on Saturday. That’s a dead cert so we’ll be well ahead by tea-time”.

“If that doesn’t work and we’ve no reason to think it won’t, step two means  staking all February’s takings on Jeb Bush winning Continue reading

Comments Off on Ladbrokes’ lost £43m: “We’ll bet our way back into profit”

Filed under Business, News, Sport

Izal to re-launch as ‘Dash!’

Barbaric and medieval.

Barbaric and medieval.

It was once the nation’s least-favourite toilet paper, but Izal may soon be available again in selected outlets.

“Obviously, the name Izal is a bit soiled by association now,” said Harold businessman Woodrow Gunther, who has acquired the firm for £1, “so we needed a new brand name. We were thinking about that unique combination of sprouts and Quality Street and alcohol and dried fruit and sprouts and After Eights and alcohol you get at Christmas, and very quickly came up with the name Dash!.

“The problem with Izal,” he explained, “is that it’s been smeared thanks to Obama using a sound-alike word to refer to Islamic State. So that was a bummer.” Continue reading

Comments Off on Izal to re-launch as ‘Dash!’

Filed under Around Harold, Banal History, Business, Christmas, Lifestyle, Nostalgia, War

Woman fails to mention cancerous child and demented parent when complaining about her energy bill.

‘I’m going to write to Watchdog, blah, blah, blahdy blah….’

Breaking with years of well established tradition Mrs Fiona Warburton of Harold managed to complain to EDF about the accuracy of her energy bills without once mentioning her elderly mother’s advanced Alzheimer’s or her daughter’s terminal leukaemia. Continue reading

Comments Off on Woman fails to mention cancerous child and demented parent when complaining about her energy bill.

Filed under Badgers, Business, Children, idiots, Lifestyle, Media, News, Society, Technology

China gives UK 99 year lease on new Houses of Parliament

parliament building

The proud new building should stand for at least another 10 years and 1 month.

David Cameron has saved £7bn on the cost of restoring the Houses of Parliament, by granting the contract to China.

For the mere informality of signing over the freehold, politicians will have somewhere to sit for the next 99 years.

“This is excellent news for the UK tax payer”, said Cameron. “They’re even throwing in a big ‘tribute’ iWatch to replace Big Ben.”
Continue reading

Comments Off on China gives UK 99 year lease on new Houses of Parliament

Filed under Business, Economy

Amazon sues people who left positive reviews of Adam Sandler movies

sandler

Was this typed with a straight face?

Amazon has confirmed that unscrupulous shoppers who leave 5-star reviews of films, despite them containing Adam Sandler, will be sued.

Although Sandler has near-universal unappeal, some malicious trolls have gushed all over his leavings on the popular online shop.

Amazon fears this could cause unwary customers to order them, which might damage their trust in the tax-efficient company.
Continue reading

Comments Off on Amazon sues people who left positive reviews of Adam Sandler movies

Filed under Business, Health, Technology