Tuesday, 18 June 2013
Companies that star in hit BBC Three reality TV series The Call Centre slapped with £225,000 fine for nuisance PPI calls
Companies that star in hit BBC Three reality TV series The Call Centre slapped with £225,000 fine for nuisance PPI calls
By TARA EVANS
|
Two companies that appear in BBC Three TV series The Call Centre have been fined £225,000 for nuisance payment protection insurance calls.
The Information Commissioner’s Office issued penalties to Nationwide Energy Service and We Claim You Gain – both firms that feature in the light-hearted fly-on-the wall documentary following the personal and professional lives of eccentric boss Nev Wilshire and his team.
The fines were issued by the ICO in response to 2,700 complaints between May 2011 and the end of last year.
Fine: Television programme, 'The Call Centre', shows boss Nev Wilshire in his Swansea based office. Two of his firms have been fined a total of £225,000 for nuisance PPI calls.
The ICO said that ‘neither company carried out adequate checks to see whether people they were calling had registered with the Telephone Preference Service, which is a legal requirement'.
The Swansea based companies are part of Save Britain Money Ltd and a spokesman said that neither accepts that a fine ‘is the appropriate course of action'.
A spokesman added that the companies are issuing a formal appeal and that they ‘remain committed to the best interests’ of customers at this time.
Problems: Nev Wilshire with admin assistant Kayleigh Davies from BBC Three fly-on-the wall-documentary 'The Call Centre'. The ICO said that the fine was issued after 2,700 complaints were received.
A spokesman from the BBC said: 'The Call Centre is a highly successful BBC Three observational documentary. The BBC purely documents this workplace and the lives of those involved in it.
'The Call Centre, like all BBC programmes went through robust editorial processes and compliance and we are confident that the programme is a balanced and fair representation of life in that place of work.'
Simon Entwisle, director of operations at the ICO, said: ‘The public have told us that they are fed up with the constant bombardment of nuisance calls. While the activities of Nev and his call centre employees have provided entertainment for many, they hide a bigger problem within the cold calling industry.
‘People have the legal right not to receive marketing calls and these companies have paid the price for failing to respect people’s wishes.’
Boss: Nev Wilshire, chief executive of Swansea's third biggest call centre. A spokesman said the firms would be seeking an appeal on the fine.
Earlier this year consumer group Which? launched a campaign to end nuisance calls and texts – it has received almost 62,000 votes of support from consumers so far.
Which? executive director, Richard Lloyd, said: ‘Thousands of people have told us they are sick and tired of being bombarded with nuisance calls and texts, so it’s good to see the Information Commissioner’s Office doing more to punish companies who are breaking the rules.
‘Given the scale of this problem, it’s time for the Government and telecoms providers to step in too, with new laws and new technology to tackle this scourge on people’s everyday lives.
‘The ICO and other regulators must be given more power to properly police how our personal data is used, so we can call time on nuisance calls and texts.’
The ICO has issued fines totalling more than £750,000 to companies who have breached Privacy and Electronic Communications regulations. It is carrying out ten more investigations.
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/money/news/article-2343790/Call-centres-BBC-Three-programme-hit-225-000-fine-nuisance-PPI-calls.html#ixzz2Waz6WTRz
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The Disturbing Trend of Christian Self-Deprecation
The Disturbing Trend of Christian Self-Deprecation
Christianity is a corporate community that includes thousands of different sects, factions, organizations and denominations—it includes millions of individuals and their nuanced theologies. The problem with the “Christian” label is that Christians often completely disagree with many of the characteristics attributed to them, and many Christians are ashamed to be associated with “Christianity” because of the negative stigmas tied to the label—representing things that overshadow Christ.
This is why self-deprecation is so attractive, because it defends Christianity without completely agreeing with it. Wikipediadefines self-deprecation as: the act of belittling or undervaluing oneself. It can be used in humor and tension release. It’s used as a tool to disassociate ourselves from the things we’re ashamed of: Westboro Baptist, televangelists, huckster street preachers, end times lunatics, politicizing preachers, bigoted fundamentalists, homophobia, anti-science and anti-environmentalist agendas and a whole lot more.
Christians use self-deprecation as a defense mechanism, a form of social disparagement used to defend our faith—from ourselves. Unfortunately, Christianity has become the favorite punching bag for Christians, an easy target to place blame for all our shortcomings. And it’s becoming mainstream, a common practice among believers.
Related: Healing Toxic Faith…Did Jesus Die to Save Us from God? by Derek Flood
We laugh and make fun of our dark and embarrassing characteristics as if to say to the secular world, “Hey, we can relate to you, and we realize that these things are bad.” We want society to understand that we agree with them on many levels, and yes, we also think certain things are wrong, horrible and evil—we use self-deprecation as a pseudo form of evangelism.
Self-deprecation is also a way for Christians to proclaim self-awareness, to identify ourselves with how we think we’re perceived. We joke about everything that’s unique and weird about Westernized Christian culture: acoustic guitars, bad church coffee, youth group activities, first-time visitor gifts, bulletins, organs, choirs, megachurches, short-term mission trips, CCM, offertories, Christmas pageants and old-fashioned hymns.
But self-deprecation can easily transform into self-righteousness. We shame the Christian things we don’t like or have become too familiar with, and look down on those who disagree with us or fall into these molds. It causes us to join cliques based on our frustrations instead of unifying believers through contentment. Elitism and haughtiness quickly follow.
Self-deprecation is often based on stereotypes, assumptions and half-truths, so while we make fun of Seminary students who constantly pluck away on their acoustic guitars—there’s also very real worth in worshipping God (even using an acoustic guitar). Thus, we avoid experiencing Christian clichés—even if they can be positive and healthy for us.
We also deceive ourselves by using self-deprecation as an artificial form of forgiveness and holiness, believing that making fun of our imperfections and evils is the same thing as eradicating—or taking responsibility—for them. So while it’s easy for us to joke and dismiss televangelists and radical preachers who spew hate-filled messages, we rarely take practical steps to stop them.
Also by Stephen: The 6 BEST Things About American Christianity
For many, self-deprecation is a way of avoiding the responsibility of encountering our fears, disappointments and regrets related to our faith. We critique and criticize our corporate Christian identity because it makes us feel better—as if we’re admitting our guilt. But self-deprecation is not the same thing as forgiveness.
And while we think self-deprecation causes us to be more relatable and empathetic to non-Christians, it’s ultimately communicating a sense of disappointment, disillusionment and discontentment—it thrives on negativity and kills our sense of hope.
The reality is that there are many things wrong with “Christianity,” but instead of focusing on the bad, let’s attempt to reclaim the hope that Jesus represents—redeeming our world by personifying the sacrifice, service, grace, hope, joy and love of Christ.
—
Stephen Mattson has written for Relevant, Sojourners, and The Burnside Writer’s Collective. He graduated from the Moody Bible Institute and is currently on staff at Northwestern College in St. Paul, MN. Follow him on Twitter @mikta.
Photo Credit: Samuel Perry / Shutterstock.com
Monday, 17 June 2013
Are we living in the Past, the Present or the Future? Part 1: Living in the Past.
I
often wonder what is the attraction of TV Programmes like ITV’s Downton
Abbey and Alibi’s Murdoch Mysteries . ? Is it
Nostalgia for an earlier, seemingly more
innocent age ?, perhaps with all the upheaval that we both see around us and
read about that directly or indirectly affects our day to day lives, is living
in or thinking about the past some sort
of safety net?
I had a blast from the past while listening to Absolute 80's,I enjoy listening to some great
and not so great songs from my younger days ! but I wouldn’t choose to travel
back in time, like some Welsh version of Dr Who and try to live in those
days. I grew up in a small village in
the South Wales Valleys called Melin Court, and spend time not only there but
in other villages like Resolven and Clyne. Overall when I wear my rose tinted
glasses I enjoyed my time growing up there, but if I could ask my teenage self
the same question what would the answer be?
I
enjoy music, and did Cse Music in School, (I also played Chess on one of the
School Chess Teams) I had the opportunity to visit the world famous Cavern Club
in Liverpool , it’s one of the places the Beatles played, it was packed and
overall I enjoyed my time there, there was a live band playing cover versions
of songs by The Beatles and The Who. The atmosphere was electric, but one thing
struck me, here’s a young band not playing their own songs but playing the
songs of a previous generation!
My
time at The Cavern Club lead me to think about why we sometimes try to live in
the past, we let the circumstances of
our past, the influence of others,
past hurts, past disappointments,
feelings of hurt and sometimes bitterness govern our lives. We let the
things that happened 5, 10, 15 or even 20 plus years influence how we live
today, perhaps the hurt of a breakdown of a relationship that has happened in
the past we don’t allow ourselves due to the fear of rejection or the fear of a
failure to move on to a better relationship. Sometimes we try to eat the fruit
of past blessings, happiness, success which like all fruit that was picked and
not eaten, has become rotten, instead of picking and eating the new fruit for
today.
The
Prophet Isaiah wrote in Isaiah 43:18-19b, NivUk
“18
Forget the former things; do not dwell on the past. 19 See, I am doing a new thing! Now it
springs up; do you not perceive it?”
It’s
easy to try to live in the past, but God calls us to move on and move forward
to both bigger and better things.
The
Apostle Paul wrote in Philippians 2:13-14NivUk
“
13 Brothers, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one
thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining towards what is ahead, 14 I press on towards the goal to win the
prize for which God has called me heavenwards in Christ Jesus.”
So
let us turn away from our past, because it’s a new beginning, a new start and a
new season for us all.
Yours
in His Grace
Blair
Humphreys
Southport,
Merseyside
*”I
have no regrets about what happened in my younger days”
Are we living in the Past, the Presence or the Future? Part 2: Living in the Present.
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When
I first wrote this post, My mind is thinking about a very important Football
March that was played in Wembley Stadium between Swansea City and Bradford City.
The
match between Wales and France was the decider to see if Wales would win, the
Grand Slam which goes to the Rugby Team who have won all their matches. This would have been the 3rd Grand Slam
Trophy Wales would have won in the last 7 years, Wales having won in 2005 and
in 2008. There was a great deal of
pressure on the Welsh Rugby Team to repeat their previous successes and win the
Grand Slam. Having already beaten Ireland, Scotland.& England away, and
beaten Italy at home. they faced the challenge of beating France at home in
Cardiff. I watched the Game on TV, and I could feel the electricity of the
Welsh Supporters in the Stadium, and I knew in my heart of hearts, that Wales
could and would win the Game. Just a few
days before the game, the tragic news of the death of Mervyn “Merv the Swerve
“Davies who had Captained the Welsh Rugby Team in the Glory Days of the 1970’s,
was announced. Not only did the current Welsh Rugby Team have to face the
pressure to repeat the success of 2005 and 2008, but to win for the memory of
Merv the Swerve.
There
was great deal of hype, for Wales to win
the Grand Slam again, and to go on to bigger and better success in the future
by playing and hopefully beating teams like Australia and New Zealand in the coming months. I noticed that both the coaching staff lead
by Warren Gatland and the players lead by Sam Warburton focused on the present
and not on the past, (the wonderful Welsh Team of the 1970’s or the previous
Grand Slam wins of 2005 and 2008), nor did they focus on the future by thinking
ahead to playing and hopefully beating Australia and New Zealand, they focused
on the present and committed themselves to win both the Triple Crown and the
Grand Slam.
This
lead me to think, that sometimes we focus our minds and past
success and sometimes failure, disappointment, hurt etc, and try to live our
lives in the past, Maybe it’s sense of regret, a sense of safety, and sense
that our best days are behind us, so we set our minds (because we think things
can’t, wouldn’t or shouldn’t get better today) on yesterday, then again,
because of the disappointments etc of today, we day dream or dream about tomorrow, hoping and praying that
our tomorrow will be better than today, isn’t it better to live in the present
, than to live in the past or the future
?, because God is in control of our lives,
and despite the pain and heart ache of today, God is blessing and will
bless more as we live for Him today.
In
1904, God moved in Wales and tens of thousands were born again, for years since
them Welsh Christians including myself have prayed that God would move in Wales
like he did in 1904, we make monuments of past success and make our current
models of mission copies of the past, But God has a new and better thing and we
miss out what God wants to do today because we’re focused on what God did in
the past!
I
love reading, and for many years I read and re-read books of what God has done
so wonderfully in the past, and would dream or day dream that I was in those
times and in those places, but I’m not, I’m reading a book at the moment on the
great Evangelist Smith Wigglesworth, who died in 1947, it’s great and
challenging read but this is 2012 and not 1947. I’m not knocking what God has
done in the past, but we’re called to live in today’s world not yesterday’s
world. When I was in my mid to late
teens, we sang a song, (don’t worry, I’m not going to sing it out aloud!)I want
to serve the purpose of God in my generation, See here for the full words.
The
Apostle Paul said in Acts 13:36 ESV, “David, after he had served the purpose of
God in his own generation, fell asleep and was laid with his fathers and saw
corruption”
God
has called us to love, serve, obey and follow Him by living in the Present, we
can praise God for what He has done in the Past, and we can Pray for what God
will do in the Future, but we can Praise Him for what He has done in our lives
so far, and Pray that He is doing a better work in our lives today than
yesterday.
The Apostle Paul wrote in Ephesians 3:
20-21, ESV,” 20 Now to him who is able to do far more
abundantly than all that we ask or think according to the power at work within
us, 21 to him be glory in the church and
in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever. Amen.
Let
us then, stop trying to serve God’s Purpose’s for past generations, or try to
imagine what are God’s Purpose’s for future generations, or try to serve God’s
purposes for other places or people, Let us instead serve with whole hearted
commitment God’s Purpose’s for our lives, the places He has planted us
alongside the people He has called us to walk alongside and share live and
faith with. Let us therefore, “Live in the Present”
“I
want to serve the purpose of God, in my generation
I
want to serve the purpose of God, while I am alive
I
want to give my life, for something that will last forever
Oh,
l delight, I delight to do your will.”
Yours
in His Grace
Blair
Humphreys
Southport,
Merseyside, England
See
Part 1 of this series "Living in the Past"
Saturday, 15 June 2013
Some Thoughts on Christian Marriage, an extract from God is a Matchmaker by Derek & Ruth Prince
1. God
Himself initiated marriage at the beginning of human history. Adam had no part
in planning it. Without divine revelation, man cannot understand it; much less
make it a part of his experience.
2. The
decision that the man was to marry proceeded from God, not from the man.
3. God
knew the kind of helper that the man needed. The man did not
4. God
prepared the woman for the man
5. God
presented the woman to the man. The man did not have to go in search for her
6. God
ordained the nature of their life together. Its end purpose was unity
7. Jesus
upheld God's original plan of marriage as binding on all who would become His
disciples. It is still in force today
Some
additional thoughts, also from God are a Matchmaker:-
§ That a Christian will enter into
marriage not because it is his or her decision, but because it's God's.
§ That a Christian man will trust God
both to choose and to prepare the wife he needs. On the other side, a
Christian woman will trust God to prepare her for the husband for whom God has
appointed her.
§ That a Christian man, walking in the
will of God, will find that God brings to him the wife whom He has chosen and
prepared for him. On the other side, a Christian woman will allow God to
lead her to the husband for whom he has been preparing for her.
§ That the end purpose of marriage
today is still what is was for Adam & Eve: perfect unity. Only those who
fulfil the first three requirements , however, can expect also to enjoy the
fulfilment of the end purpose
Blair Humphreys, 15th June 2013
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