A survey carried out by Kwik Fit has shown that many motorists are trying to save cash by skipping regular servicing of their car. This can make their motors more dangerous and increase the chance of being involved in an accident. Plus, insurers could be less inclined to pay out if your car isn’t deemed roadworthy at the time of an accident.

If you’re unlucky enough to get involved in a shunt, here’s a brief guide to some of the things you should remember to do. You might want to print it out and keep it in your glove box along with a notepad and pen for those panicked moments after an accident when it’s hard to think straight.

• Get the contact details, car registrations and insurance company details of anyone else involved in the accident. This includes any witnesses.
• Do NOT admit liability. If the other party does admit liability, ask them if they’ll confirm it in writing there and then.
• If anyone is injured as a result of the accident, you are legally obliged to call the police. An ambulance might be necessary too.
• If the police attend the scene, get the names and ID numbers of the attending officers.
• Take as many photos of the scene as safety allows. If you don’t have a camera phone, it could be worth keeping a disposable camera in your car at all times.
• Take notes about the accident scene, including positions of vehicles, weather conditions, road conditions, estimated speeds of the vehicles involved, skid marks, points of contact on the cars involved. Make a sketch of the scene if possible.
• Ring this guy (below). Actually, don’t.

If you think we’ve missed anything, please add to the list in the comments box below. Because knowledge is power and all that. Stay safe you beautiful Bitterwalleters.

Tip for this waiter - don't go and see your granddaughter's stage show.

When you’re eating out in a fancy restaurant (or even a scummy one) how much do you usually tip? And do you have any idea where that tip goes? Because it doesn’t always end up in the pockets of the staff who have served you… and a new law aimed at closing that loophole won’t change a thing.

At the moment, restaurants can pay staff below the £5.73 minimum wage, making up the shortfall from their tips, but under the new law, the full minimum wage must be paid by the restaurant. However, there is nothing to stop all tips from ending up in the greasy palms of the restaurateur and no law forcing them to display their tipping policy, so that the diner has no idea where the tip will end up.

According to the British Hospitality Association, approximately a fifth of the UK’s 30,000 restaurants do not pass on tips to waiters. This flies in the face of a YouGov survey from January which showed that 94% of customers wanted gratuities to go straight to staff. 79% of those surveyed thought tipping policies should be clearly displayed .

You can help to stop tips from being diverted away from waiting staff by paying all gratuities in cash and asking restaurant management what their tip policy is. Remember, service charge is usually optional so if you’re not happy, don’t pay anything. Or find out where your waiter lives and drop the money off in person at a later date. No, don’t do that, it would be too weird.

Let us know your tipping tales of woe or otherwise. Maybe you’ve worked in a restaurant and been stiffed by the management when it comes to sharing out the gratuities. Or perhaps you know of a restaurant that lets staff keep 100%. And if you’d like to tip us, cash in a brown envelope would be nice thanks.

[The Observer]

Shockingly, they fell at the first hurdle in our Worst Company In Britain competition, but there’ll be no proud crowing or puffing out of chests at npower’s HQ today. Not now they’ve been fined a whopping £1.8 million by Ofgem for shitty door-to-door selling tactics.

If one of their shaved chimps knocks on your door in the near future, here’s a few ways you can get shot of them and avoid any subsequent hassle. The list doesn’t include ‘offer them a bag of capital letters for their stupid company’s stupid name.’

1 – Pretend you’re French. And deaf. Growl occasionally.

2 – Tell them you can’t talk right now as you’re decomposing a corpse in a bath of acid and the eyeballs are just about to pop and it’s the best bit.

3 – Ask them if you can go round to their house later and provide some energy for them? If they decline, tell them it’s a deal-breaker.

4 – Tell them you generate your own energy by rubbing a balloon on your hair. Keep a balloon by the door and rub it on the salesperson’s hair to demonstrate.

5 – Act all excited and tell them that you love the Power Rangers too. Invite them in because you’ve got all the costumes and no one to play with.

Alternatively, you could just get one of those little signs that says ‘No Salespeople’ – why anyone would buy anything from someone who has just knocked on their door is completely beyond our comprehension.

A bank manager, yesterday.

Now that they’ve f***ed everything up and are having to accept billions of pounds of taxpayers’ cash to cover their arses, there surely isn’t anyone else on the high street that boils the blood of its customers quite so much as your ‘friendly’ bank. But we don’t have to take it any more – here’s how you can get your revenge.

1:  KEEP AN EYE ON YOUR CASH
Make an appointment with the branch manager. When you get there, ask to see your money. This will upset him. Then, check the serial numbers on the notes and complain that it isn’t the same money you deposited.

2:  MAKE YOUR OWN CHEQUES
Present something ridiculous like a tractor tyre as a cheque. This is perfectly legal, as long as it has all of the correct details and signature on it like a normal cheque. The bank won’t like it but they will have to accept it.
(more…)