frankbarnard.com

Someone once asked me, when they learned I was a published author: ‘ How’s it feel to be rich and famous?’ I remembered this when two things happened on the same day; the announcement that Barclays Bank is paying out £1.5 billion in cash bonuses as their profits soar by 92% to £11.6 billion, and a letter in the post box (or rather, old waste bin) from NatWest about a currency exchange matter involving me. This last sounds impressive until you learn that it related to a payment of 37.75 Euros by the Irish Libraries people who, like their UK counterparts, pay about 5p every time one of your books is taken out.

We were quite pleased, Jan and I, because this Gallic windfall just about covered a pub lunch, that is until we learned that NatWest were charging me £5.00 to change euros into sterling. Apparently this is quite reasonable. My local branch thought it might have been £10.00, almost 25%. But it does perhaps go some way to explaining why the bankers seem to be doing so particularly well at the moment. All this on top of hearing that some MPs charge £5,000 a day for lobbying which is almost the same as the annual state pension I receive aged 72. Of course I must remember my income from writing which was, now let me see, oh dear. So what am I saying? ‘Rats’ might cover it.