August 2012

Recent news has, rightly, been dominated by the Olympics and what a fantastic show it was. Our best ever performance at the Games was surely helped by the public who seemed to become overwhelmingly involved in their desire to be a part of the event. Team GB can be very proud.

In the background, there has been talk of a cut in Base Rate, further revelations about LIBOR, banking fines, and a hint of the next possible "scandal" - packaged bank accounts. Life goes on!

Continuing the Olympics theme, last month we made mention of Rajiv Ouseph, a 25 year old English badminton player currently representing England as the No.1 Singles Player in the UK. Rajiv was selected for the London 2012 Summer Olympics and, whilst playing very well and giving a good account of himself, sadly failed to progress beyond the group stages of the tournament. He won his first match and narrowly lost 21-19 in the third game of the next. It was a great experience for him and he will take a lot from it, but sadly it was not to be. Rio?

Milton Keynes resident, Greg Rutherford, has different memories of course, having secured the Gold Medal for Team GB in the mens long jump event. A fantastic result with his jump of 8.31m enough to win him the title of Olympic Champion. As we know, the Post Office have taken to painting a red letter box gold in the home towns of the GB winners, and to this end two(!) boxes are now displaying their new colours in the city centre. Many congratulations Greg!