Miserly banks short-change savers
TEACH YOURSELF BODYGUARD (PART I)
SAVINGS are in such a ‘sorry state of affairs’ that the proportion of accounts paying interest above the Bank of England base rate has hit a five-year low, a report has found.
The analysis of the savings market has sparked renewed concern that banks and building societies are not passing on last month’s interest rate rise to savers.
According to the report, less than 69 per cent of savings accounts are paying above the base rate of 0.75 per cent. By contrast, in September 2016 and September 2017, 77 per cent of accounts had interest rates above the base rate.
The analysis, carried out by Moneyfacts UK, also showed that average interest paid on instant access ISA accounts has actually fallen since two years ago, despite two rate rises by the BoE.
Since August’s rate rise, many financial institutions have only made paltry increases in the interest they pay. In one example, Nationwide offered savers holding e-ISA a miserly 0.05 per cent more – a fifth of the BoE rise.
Charlotte Nelson, of advice service Moneyfacts, called the situation a ‘sorry state of affairs’. She said: ‘Despite two rate rises, savers are still not seeing any real improvement in rates. The fact that the percentage of the savings market that pays above base rate has fallen by a whopping 5 per cent in just one month, proves that many have failed to pass on the full increase, if they have done so at all.’
Mark Carney, governor of the Bank of England, said last week that savers had had to be hurt to rescue the economy after the financial crisis.
HE tried to take his own life after the Home Secretary he was protecting was ‘blown up’ by a mystery assassin following several earlier attempts to kill her.
Now it appears that policeman David Budd is injured in another attack in the final episode of BBC1’s hit political thriller Bodyguard.
A picture from the episode, due to air next Sunday, shows Budd, played by Richard Madden, looking stunned with a bloodied face while covering himself with a green blanket.
Fans are currently in the dark about who ‘killed’ Home Secretary Julia Montague – or even if she is dead at all.
Earlier in the series, Montague, played by Keeley Hawes, apparently died after being targeted by a bomb during a speech – leaving her lover Budd trying to find her killer. Depressed Budd tried to shoot himself in a failed suicide bid as a funeral for Montague took place in scenes not shown.
Fans gave their own theories on social media about who may be responsible for the killing, with many suspecting the new partner of Budd’s estranged wife Vicky. One person wrote that their theory was ‘Julia is still alive, but in hiding. Can’t wait for Sunday to find out!’ The extended
ACTING ALONE: But was he? Was she? Were they? Who was the strange figure in the black Range Rover? In major new crime series, nobody ever acts alone. They always have a shadowy chum who drives a black Range Rover. ALLEGATIONS: Always ‘extremely serious’. ANXIOUS, LOOK: If you’re not looking cross, look anxious. Script extract: Commander Anne Sampson: (Looks anxious) Come in, David. Sgt David Budd: (Looks anxious) Mum. Commander Anne Sampson: Shut the – (looks anxious) – door. Sgt David Budd: (Looks anxious) Mum. Commander Anne Sampson: Thanks for coming in at short notice. (Looks anxious.) Take a seat. (Looks anxious.) Sgt David Budd: Mum. (Looks anxious.)
ANSWERS: There are more questions than answers, until the final 15 minutes, when there are far more answers than questions.
‘ But what’ s bothering me, Sarge, is why the man in the black car picked up the woman from the cafe before the man in the other black car had worked out the true identity of the man on the street corner? Or was that the same man, in the same black car? And where’s the briefcase in all this? And didn’t that actor play one of the detectives in Fatal Mistake on ITV last year? And didn’t I spot Count Arthur Strong next to the coffee machine?’ BUDD, COTTON: Sister of Sgt David Budd. Big in counter-surveillance, Cotton Budd keeps her ears close to the wall. Nothing escapes her. She can hear someone breathing three streets away. CCTV FOOTAGE: Always mysteriously wiped. Hang on! Play it again! That man in the hoodie! Yes, I’m sure of it. It’s that shifty Huw Edwards off the Ten O’Clock News! CHEER UP, IT MAY NEVER HAPPEN! No one has been heard using this phrase in Bodyguard. Phrases never employed by the director of Bodyguard when talking to his actors include ‘ Say Cheese!’ ‘Lighten up, guys!’ ‘Time to do The Conga around the operations room!’ ‘ Where did I put the Whoopee Cushion?’ and ‘ Jed! I think this scene could do with a couple more laughs!’ COINCIDENCE: ‘But why did Rob Macdonald pass Tahir Mahmood in the corridor just seconds before Julia Montague asked Stephen Hunter-Dunn if he liked sugar in his tea? And, now you mention it, why did he stir his tea — even though he hadn’t asked for sugar? It can’t just be a coincidence. Or can it?’ COME FROM ME, THIS DIDN’T: ‘Remember. This didn’t come from me.’
‘ What didn’t come from you, Sarge?’ ‘This. This didn’t come from me.’ ‘B-b-but I don’t understand.’ ‘Listen, and listen hard. When I told you this didn’t come from me, I meant that telling you this didn’t come from me, didn’t come from me. And this didn’t come from me, right?’ CONSPIRACY: ‘You’re not asking me to believe they’re all in it together!’
‘ That’s exactly what I am asking, Mum.’
‘This thing is bigger than all of us.’ DEAD: Is he really dead? Or is he just underacting?
DOSSIER: I doss. You are dossy. He is dossier.
EMBITTERED: OK, you guys! Ready to roll! Take one! Act embittered!
EVENIN’ ALL: Those were the days! Policemen in crime dramas never say, ‘Evenin’ all’ any more. Instead, they say: ‘He’s armed! Get down! Get down! GET DOWN!’
FAMILY: ‘There’s nothing to suggest your family is in danger.’ The moment a senior officer says these words, you can be sure that, 20 minutes later, the family in question will be in very great danger indeed. FILES: Always ‘ top secret’. It’s for your own good: ‘As of now, I’m taking you off this operation. It’s for your own good.’ See ‘Embittered’. FORMER: Beware of formers — former adviser, former PR, former soldier, former secretary, former Home Secretary: in crime series, their past is always about to catch up with them. GUNMAN: Always ‘lone’. HE, SO WHICH ONE’S: Is he the one who was with the one who was talking to the one with the beard, or is he the one who looks like the one who was talking to the one with the beard? Hang on, I think he may be the one who was plotting against the one with the beard. Or is he the one with the beard, and he’s shaved it off? And so which one’s HE? I’m sure I saw him in the background in the operations room! Or was he one of the doctors? But he didn’t have a northern accent then, and he does now. SO WHICH ONE’S HE? To be continued . . .