Thought Id start this one going because its rather dead on this board at the moment and I suppose all my usual muckers are either at the Stella tennis event watching Dim Tim (lose again) or at Henly Regatta eating cucumber sandwiches (they wish,...NOT).

Anyway please feel free to just talk to yourself blast away and let it go on any company or subject you wish. Just wish Id thought of this one before.

cheers GF.

some sympathy but last August when things started to go pear shaped I started looking closely at the guarantees offered by these offshore offshoots and was horrified to discover that Guernsey had no compensation scheme and the Isle of Man 15k - I immediately brought all my cash onshore. These little fiefdoms are finished for banking

Copied from another thread by permission of Smiler.

Once upon a time in a place overrun with monkeys, a man appeared and announced to the villagers that he would buy monkeys for 10 each.
The villagers, seeing that there were many monkeys around, went out to the forest, and started catching them.
The man bought thousands at 10 and as supply started to diminish, they became harder to catch, so the villagers stopped their effort.
The man then announced that he would now pay 20 for each one. This renewed the efforts of the villagers and they started catching monkeys again.
But soon the supply diminished even further and they were ever harder to catch, so people started going back to their farms and forgot about monkey catching.
The man increased his price to 25 each and the supply of monkeys became so scarce that it was an effort to even see a monkey, much less catch one.
The man now announced that he would buy monkeys for 50! However, since he had to go to the city on some business, his assistant would now buy on his behalf.
While the man was away the assistant told the villagers 'Look at all these monkeys in the big cage that the man has bought.
I will sell them to you at 35 each and when the man returns from the city, you can sell them to him for 50 each.'
The villagers rounded up all their savings and bought all the monkeys.

They never saw the man or his assistant again and once more there were monkeys everywhere.

And that my friend is pretty much how the stock market works!

Yet more allegations of corrupt practices in government (Mr Osborne , shadow chancellor).
I think very few of our so called Honorable members could lie in bed straight.
Crooks the whole bloody lot of them.

Looks like a bit of Mandelson skulldugery to me - its what he's been bought back for isn't it? Cant see Osbournes done much wrong even if he did talk about a possible loan, he didn't take one. But who would you believe - two bankers and Peter Mandelson or George Osbourne? I know who I'd trust.

None of them?! ;o)

Britain deadYahooGoldman Sachs Merck.huge job losses.Government spent out.Dow struggling on 9000.and still they ask the question.are we all heading towards a recession.I thought I was thick?.on a plus side Swindon looks good for a ride!

Just talking to myself.
With Christmas just round the corner there will be a lot of people in financial troubleThose will be forced to used their last bit of credit to have any kind of festivities.what does the future hold?I know of a mid 30s woman that works at M&S and is left with one option.the credit cardsor mortgage?.a single mother works hard very sadyou will find most of the credit card companies have operated outside their guidelineslent money without legal requirements proper checks and so if it came to outside agencies/debt collectors/court proceedingsthe Judges are not looking favourably upon the lendersi.e. the card companies cant threaten your house! Or much elseAs if the financials are not in enough troublewhat would be the result in massive defaulting on cards which is inevitable!families being faced with no optionmy thought iswe have had eighteen months of media warningI have been personally persuaded for five yearsand yet people come on here and still buy Banks would you buy a lotto ticket if first prize was 2?...well you have been! all this and the equity markets losing more often than Spurs commodities looked as safe as Arsene Wengerand are also in Ramos land!!!!

Tabasco,

Ramos land. Is that near Egypt. If I were you I would not put my money in any Egyptian bank, that's asking for trouble.

I walk like an Egyptianand the wife wears bangles.as for Banksthats Phareohs land.nick nick!

Anyone see Question Time 1030 BBC 1 last night.
Roy Hattersley was unbelievable. According to him, Gordon Brown is saving the world single handed, and was in no way to blame for he present crisis. I half expected him to state that he had seen him (GB) walk on water, turn water into wine and can feed the whole worlds population with 5 loaves and 2 fishes.
If he had got any further up GB's backside he would have completely disappeared, which would be some feat considering his size.
And he did appear to believe what he was preaching, although he was probably the only person present that did.

I must say , that I rather liked Dimbleby's tie. It had an enormously large pink spider on it.

The opening comment from Baroness thingummygob (what a voice!) about the credibility of the Immigration Minister now being shot to pieces, because of an instruction from above banning his presence on the show, was also rather funny.

Up the Poles! Where would be be now without them, eh?

Will the last ones left please which off all the lights.

According to several 'experts' in todays newspapers they predict that 25 to 30% of the worlds hedge funds could collapse within the next few months due to the present Stock Market falls catching them out/short. So there looks to be much more blood to be spilt on the market floors till the bottom is reached.
They are also saying that although the banks are to big to allow them to go to the wall, they are also too big to save.
Is it just me or does anyone else see that if Armageddon of the financial markets occurs, no governments have the money to cover all their so called guarantees, without printing more money which would be the tiger chasing it's tail syndrome.

Frankly speaking....you can see that most of these programs are nothing more than political broadcasts for the labour party ......check out the news programs.....most of the presenters are nothing more than labour puppets !, (they would probably get sacked if they went too far) if the Conservatives got in, they would need a bit of a clearance and get rid of all this....every day half way through the news : what do you get ? "the news filler" ahhhh!....yes...! the socialist way of running things with loads of do gooder types !....really pathetic !, here's hoping for a better and fairer Britain one day ....dream on required field !

It's time to read the TALK thread! ;o)

The worrying thing is the number of job losses....firms going under....really bad !, and a crazy government with no control over spending with no ideas and endless nonsense jobs being created for an army of no goods......how about some decent road signs for a change instead of huge signs everywhere.....I'll give you an example : you are driving along a motorway and the turnoff will say the A1067 (I've invented these numbers) or A1022.....you are doing 70 miles per hour, you have crossed the country... and you come across that ridiculous sign !...mental !.....why not a destination...a name of a city, town !,.....who are the brilliant minds that think up these road signs ?, they want sacking !.

Another is that as long as you are on a motorway the signs should be blue....and the turnoffs should be white....as long as it is blue you are on a motorway...you turn off and it should be white not green, blue, white ....what a mess !.

RFget the wife to buy you Sat. Nav. For Xmaswhen you come to a roundabout and she says take the second exit big boy you tend to listen!

A big advantage with a Sat Nav is that it will sometimes relieve the boredom of a long journey by taking you down obscure country lanes and through raging rivers to add a bit of excitement! ;o)

And the traffic lights!

Approach the lights at a pedestrian crossing and they do the opposite thing to the traffic lights at a junction!

The order of the lights is different for each type of motoring experience.

And yet the motorist has only two decisions to make - whether to either stop or move on.

Aaaaargh!

Kim only if you say.. avoid all tolls.not Welsh are you?