Bailing out the banks

The Bank of England is allowing our banks to swap mortgage debt for goverment bonds (at least that's what I understand of it). It feels like a classic case of nationalise risk and privatise profit.

I wonder if this bailing out will have a later payback, during the good times the goverment was often talking of windfall taxes. I think that could be a reality now with this move.

Book read: Four Weeks in May

I've just finished reading Four Weeks in May - a captain's story of war at sea. It's about the role of HMS Coventry in the Falklands war. I read a couple of indifferent reviews about this book, but once I'd started reading it I couldn't stop, finishing it in little over a day.

The author (Coventry's captain at the time) does a good job of describing life at sea whilst at war up to the eventual sinking, and life after having lost the ship. It's a good balance of technical operations, the people involved, and describing the loss.

It still confirms the theory that it was all "a close run thing". Landing ground forces before having held the skies meant that the British sacrificed ships to perform the landing.

Freeview PVR

The TV market in the UK is split into satellite/cable (where all the content is) and terrestial digital (BBC, and some other channels - free apart from the licence fee).

I really struggled to find a decent freeview PVR, they were thin on the ground. But I did eventually find the Topfield 5800. Not sold by many retailers in the UK, but pretty solid and reliable. It is also now has a software update for series linking.

Portsmouth FA cup finalists

Portsmouth have made the FA cup final, despite some poor games - including the semi final, they often aren't great games though.

Last time this happened was 1939 - I hope that isn't an omen.