Falling for a bond thriller
Premium Bonds went on sale on November 1, 1956. What is the earliest Premium Bond still entered in the monthly draw?
On the first day of issue, november 1, 1956, my parents bought me a £3 Premium Bond, no eP 416396. I still have it, and was pleasantly surprised a couple of years back when it won me a £25 prize.
Windsor Bowen, Salisbury, Wilts. COnservatIve Chancellor of the exchequer harold Macmillan unveiled Premium Bonds in his Budget in april 1956 with the catchphrase: ‘saving with a thrill.’ he believed the scheme would foster a culture of saving in the post-war era and help control inflation.
shadow Chancellor harold Wilson criticised their introduction in a Commons debate on June 18, 1956, saying: ‘now Britain’s strength, freedom and solvency apparently depends on the proceeds of a squalid raffle.’
Dr Geoffrey Fisher, the archbishop of Canterbury, said it was ‘a cold, solitary, mechanical, uncompanionable, inhuman activity’. Yet people bought Premium Bonds in their millions.
at a ceremony in trafalgar square on november 1, 1956, the first £1 bond was bought by the Lord Mayor of London, alderman sir Cuthbert ackroyd.
the second was bought by W. Crook, the Mayor of Lytham st annes in Lancashire, where Premium Bonds operations were then based. By the end of the day, £5 million worth had been sold.
In those days, Premium Bonds had to be held for six months before they could be entered into the draw, so it was not until June 1, 1957, that the first winner was chosen by a number-crunching machine called ernie — electronic random numbers Indicator equipment.
the original ernie machine was invented by tom Flowers, a former code breaker at Bletchley Park. the fourth version of ernie picks the winners today.
George Talbot, Sheffield. I stILL have Premium Bonds issued on the first day of sale. at that time I worked in a Manchester branch of the District Bank (now defunct). In order to acquaint ourselves with the procedures, members of staff issued them to each other.
I invested £5, which was more than a week’s pay.
One of these numbers paid out a prize of £25 in 1964 — not too bad a return. I re-invested this money in Premium Bonds, but in the 54 years since have not won any more prizes.
H. Thackray, Leeds.
Does texting or using social media alter our brain chemistry?
there is good evidence that excessive texting or computer use is stimulated by the neurotransmitter dopamine, which helps control the brain’s reward and pleasure centres.
this has been demonstrated by Dr Gary small, Professor of Psychiatry at the UCLa semel Institute in California and director of the Memory and ageing research Centre.
his brain scan technology, developed to demonstrate the physical evidence of brain ageing and alzheimer’s disease, also verified a dopamine loop when using computer technology, which could lead to potentially addictive behaviour.
recent research has shown that dopamine causes seeking behaviour, or desire, that propels you to action. It is the body’s opioid system that makes you feel pleasure, satisfied and therefore pause your seeking.
the dopamine system is stronger than the opioid system for evolutionary reasons — seeking is more likely to keep you alive than sitting around in a placidly happy state.
however, evolution did not take into account the instant gratification offered by social media.
With instant responding to texts and getting likes on Facebook, it’s possible to get into a dopamine-induced loop. In this seek-reward system, it becomes increasingly difficult to stop texting or checking emails. You only have to watch teenagers at the dinner table to see what is going on. Dr Ian Smith, Cambridge.
I’ve never seen the actor Will Smith play a villain. Has he been offered any roles as a baddie?
WILL sMIth is best known for playing wise-cracking good guys in such films as Independence Day, Men In Black, I robot and Bad Boys. Yet, in 2014 he played the ultimate baddie — Lucifer — in Winter’s tale.
his do-gooding character has defined his career. even bad guy roles were altered to make them seem positive.
In 1993’s six Degrees Of separation, smith’s character, Paul, is a con-man who pretends to be the Ivy League friend of a rich student so he can take advantage of the lifestyle of the parents.
Yet it is not smith who is made out to be the bad guy, but the bourgeois parents played by Donald sutherland and stockard Channing.
In 2016’s suicide squad, where smith is playing Batman villain Deadshot, he may shoot people for money, but he loves his daughter.
In 2014’s Winter’s tale, smith makes a three-minute cameo as Lucifer and admonishes the demon played by russell Crowe. to prove his devilry, watch his shadow and how the flames rise as his anger burns.
Emma Stewart, St Andrews, Fife.
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