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Just googled it and not surprised that they do not receive National Lottery support either.  Many appear to be running their own local lottery to raise funds. 

I know the National Lottery has worked wonders for our athletes, but not supporting a vital service is wrong. 

Excellent post on LinkedIn yesterday by a proud parent taking his daughter to uni.  The subject was safety and standard of accommodation.  It sounds like it was private rental, but this is what he found:

fire alarms not working

smoke alarms disconnected

no gas safe certified boiler certificate

no PAT on any appliances

smoke damage to the burglar alarm

As a Head of H&S he knows what he is talking about and all relevant tradesmen were there within an hour.  He now has 140 likes and a number of comments thanking him for raising awareness of things that parents may overlook.  Although the students are over 18, many of them may not be safety or property wise.  

One of today's national newspapers has highlighted the risks of posting pictures of airline boarding cards on sites such as Instagram.

Not being a techie please bear with me in explaining the problem.  Most boarding cards now display a bar code.  By "hacking" into that bar code, personal details can be obtained about the passenger, including membership of frequent flyer programmes. It was suggested that the person who recently spent three weeks in airport lounges gained access by doing this.  

Could it be the same people who posted their travel details on Facebook then wondered why they had been burgled......

Had my wrist slapped on another forum for asking a contributor to name the holiday company with whom he's recently had a problem which was sorted out by a travel expert on the forum site.  The site in question is for "silver travellers" affiliated to Age UK (it's not Saga).  The reason for not naming was fear of litigation.  In another post about last week's French air traffic controllers strike, a different person was allowed to name a certain low cost airline when they wouldn't refund the purchase of flights with another airline, only refunding cost of their cancelled return flight.

I'm used to looking at a business travellers' website and forum, where there are no such limits and their user names often reflect their view of a particular airline.  I'll see how long it takes them to notice I'm not contributing any more but can't delete my profile.  A fit of pique I know, but I should have read the signs when posting a couple of travel security tips and some responses were "if we thought about this, we'd never go out".

Yes, I fit into that age group but don't/won't adopt the mindset......

Reminds me of Mr Blair's version of Iraq......

That thud you heard was my head hitting the table!!

It's gone on almost as long as the US presidential one, but that one has been far more exciting but just as excrutiating......

Thanks for the reminder Steve.  A very worthy cause to support and I can never understand why it isn't government funded.  Do the Lottery do anything to support?

Collection at a late family friend's funeral was for the air ambulance, as many people in their rural Leicestershire village had benefited from it.  

Living near a large hospital, I often see the West Midlands one either going into land or hear it taking off from the pad in the local park.  

With the advent of comparison sites, customer loyalty has declined.  Insurance companies now don't expect customers to stay with them, perhaps relying on those like Steve's wife who let it auto renew.   

I've recently done my home and car insurance.  By using a certain "animal related" site, I reduced my home insurance premium by £80 for a higher cover level.  Car insurance was a laugh.  Received quote from current supplier stating "a great price from our panel of insurers".  Quick trawl of comparison site saved me £140, even when paying monthly.  When I 'phoned to cancel renewal I was told that premiums had gone up since last year.  Needless to say, they couldn't match the new price.  I've now got the cinema tickets offer and another furry toy......

Smaller companies I deal with offer incentives for loyalty.  One gives me 5% discount on next purchase for every review I post.  I've got three of these in my inbox to use.

In a few years this could be one of the new words to be included in the dictionary!!!

This has developed into a really interesting discussion!

Not wishing to cast doubt over individual's honesty, I wonder how many of these "part-time" couriers have notified their insurance providers.  

Another issue seems to be the differing charges and systems used by mail-order companies.  Kaleidoscope uses Hermes and charges £3.95 delivery but returns are free if courier collects or you take to one of their appointed outlets (One-Stop, BP Petrol Station, Co-op Convenience Store, etc).  QVC delivery charges are variable, but they charge for returns via Hermes.  Amazon has option to collect from local Post Office, I've used it and it works fine.   

Again not trying to stereo-type in any way, there may be a higher turnover of "part-time" couriers given that they are mums, pensioners or others supplementing their income.