Apart from the Town Hall there are several fine buildings in Rochdale town centre, a few of them banks or former banks.

Royal Bank of Scotland, RBS:-

This has “bank” inscribed in the stone above the door but is somewhat anonymous now:-

Lloyd’s Bank (the rounded building):-

If you look closely at the above picture you can see a blue plaque. It was once the Union Flag Inn. In 1745 a confrontation between the Jacobite forces of Bonnie Prince Charlie and the town authorities took place here:-

Beside Lloyd’s Bank is the very modern Beales and behind and above both a building with faded writing on the brick. “Rochdale (something I can’t make out; equitable?) Pioneer Society (something I can’t make out.)” The Co-operative movement started in Rochdale (see later post):-

This building has a fine cupola:-

Two bank buildings – one a former bank – in North West Circus Place, Edinburgh, near Stockbridge:-

Frontage, Number 15, North West Circus Place:-

Detail:-

Royal Bank of Scotland:-

Front View:-

Good cartouche above doorway and still deco style on the door itself:-

I have no personal, nor indeed passing, interest in whether former Royal Bank of Scotland head Sir Fred Goodwin had an affair or not. The public interest is also hard to see (except in so far as it seems any affair between high-ranking bank officials was against the rules, which would really only be an issue for the bank and the regulator anyway.) Or is the allegation that he was taking his eye off the ball? So consumed with his passions that he wasn’t overseeing the bank’s (ahem) affairs properly? But that wouldn’t explain the other banks’ failures in the crisis of 2008.

[Oh and by the way, I could have stuffed up a bank for the money those bankers were getting. Or, rather, I could have not stuffed it up for a whole lot less. And been happy with my salary into the bargain.]

What intrigued me about the latest Fred The Shred/Bed episode, though, was the BBC’s reporting of it on the television news on Friday (20^th May) when in their pictures illustrating the story they showed photographs of not only Fred, Andrew Marr and others now named in connection with superinjunctions but also that of a footballer who was never named in the piece.

A footballer was mentioned in the coverage but his name was not given. One inference that could be drawn was that the pictured footballer was the one the story was referring to.

The curious thing is that this footballer was not the one I had understood the superinjunction story was about and about whom subtle hints have been dropped in the media recently.

What is going on? What was the BBC up to?

Or have I missed something about the footballer who was pictured? Who was, I admit, involved in a very public stushie some while ago now.