Tech Bitch

The British population spends a whopping 13 billion hours every year worrying about spiralling personal debt according to new research from The Co-operative Bank.

It is a sobering fact that an average person in the UK will spend approximately 2 years (or 16,848 hours) during their lifetime stressing about their spending and borrowing habits, which is equivalent to 730 sleepless nights or a bit of MMORPG gaming.

Almost one in two (48%) of the 3000 poor people surveyed claimed to be either ‘concerned or deeply concerned’ about their increasing levels of debt, with 80% of people confessing to being ‘troubled’ about their lack of savings.

People in the North West were the biggest money ‘worry-warts’ where an overwhelming majority (78%) admitted to being ‘stressed or very stressed’ about their finances. Adults in Northern Ireland were the least likely (69%) to be concerned about their debt and inadequate saving provisions, due largely to being pissed all the time.

Undergraduates, recent graduates, and people at an early stage in their careers (18 to 30 year olds) spend almost two days per month (46 hours) worrying about their finances, with nearly 1 in 2 admitting that they dedicated 10 hours and above each week trying to balance their bank accounts. While the over 55s wasted the least time on golf money matters, with 9 in 10 dedicating an average of 2 and a half hours per week.

The research also revealed that in gender stakes it is women who are the biggest ‘worriers’ when it comes to money matters, and less likely to possess a savings product than their financially savvy male counterparts.

Despite almost three-quarters (71%) of Brits claiming to hold at least one savings product; with over half (55%) of those people investing in a cash ISA, worryingly only a fifth have actually taken full advantage of tax-free savings and invested in a cash ISA this year. Remember kids: it’s never too late to regain control of your finances - taking full advantage of your tax-free savings allowance before April and investing as little as a pound in a cash ISA is one way that you can help to ease the strain. Another is to gamble hard …

What do Kate Moss, Amy Winehouse, George Galloway and Friction.tv have in common? They have all joined in the fight to save a pub in Stepney. Oh dear …

The George Tavern, whose future is threatened by developers Swan Housing, has apparently become one of the leading creative outlets in East London.

Friction.tv, the self proclaimed ‘virtual Speakers’ Corner’, has announced that it is creating a specific online channel to provide much needed publicity for the campaign. The channel will allow those with too much time on their hands to add their voice to those of the stars in support of the venue.

Friction.tv offers an online platform for free user-generated opinions and debates through the upload of content in both video and text. The first video on the ‘Save the George’ channel will feature lunatic MP George Galloway discussing the threats of not getting pissed faced by the pub, and the landlady Pauline Forster announcing the creation of a new charitable trust.

The ‘George Tavern Charitable Trust’ will look to raise enough money to buy the disused ‘Stepneys’ nightclub behind the pub, and turn it into a community centre, further increasing the George’s contribution to the area.

The George, which has played host to guests including as Amy Winehouse and Justin Timberlake, will be holding many fundraising events, footage of which will be aired exclusively on Friction.tv. The Tavern is even installing inside the venue a designated Webcam for the channel, allowing pissheads to leave their messages of objection. The channel will also continue to provide up to date news on the campaign.

This is the first time Friction TV has teamed up with a single issue campaign and supplied a dedicated channel. Let’s hope it’s the last …

Hold the front page - not literally, of course. T-post is a wearable magazine. Subscribing to T-post is a lot like having a subscription to a magazine but instead of receiving magazines in your mailbox - you receive T-shirts. As a subscriber you receive a new t-shirt based on a current news item every six weeks. Select designers provide their interpretation of a specific news story and that design is combined with the actual news which is printed on the inside of the shirt.

Because the news is printed inside the shirt, the subscriber is left with an opportunity to interpret and communicate the meaning behind the shirt. It really becomes the subscriber’s interpretation of the story … Or am I making too much of all this? If you’re into the ethical treatment of robots or some bank robbers in Brazil who got away with 45 million bucks, this’ll be right up your sleeve …