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.

Greek,

It's actually considered to be nearer to 230 miles if you include the evening pub crawls!

You're all wrong on the distance.

Speaking as a Yorkshireman, I speak with authority that the walk is traditionally measured in the old northern measurement of "firkins".

The walk is 2 firkin long and 2 firkin steep.

Alan

:o)

The "scrapage system" is a political throwaway for voters in regions where we still make cars . . . . there are plenty to choose from, although rarely does a mass market Co make all their range in the UK.

As far as buying a new car is concerned, I consider them to be poor value for money ( like shares!), since they lose half their value in just 3-years.

Furthermore, I doubt that 2000 would cause me to change my 10+ yr old motor - to get something "similar" I'd have to pay well over 12k - so even assuming I get 2k-off I cannot get a "good deal" via a dealer . . . . whereas the depreciation starts at the "normal" price, which will be somewhat lower than list.
My car has virtually zero depreciation 0-- am I likely to swap it for something that loses 2000/yr . . . even if the mpg is 30% better - NO! becaue like many who have 10+yr old cars - I do very little milage, maybe 5000/yr so the lower fuel consumption is not a big issue.

+Before you say "you should consider the environment" - let me remind you that my old car has paid its manuafacturing "carbon footprint" over ten+ years, (ie the energy needed to make it) - whereas the "new" car is just starting to repay a massive energy cost. This "energy cost" is in direct proportion to the price (roughly), so if your car cost 25k it needs to last maybe 30+ years to have the same annual footprint as say a bijou-motor.

Has anyone here, taken advantage of this scheme? -
+ Did it work out a bargain?

I tried it at the off license with an empty bottle of 10 year old scotch to swap for a case of Stella and they booted me out.

hangon,
'Has anyone here, taken advantage of this scheme?'

Apparently several MP's have called their skatebords 'Ford' and claimed 2000 off their new Mercs and one case has been reported of an MP 'scrapping' a 1960's Dinky Ford Prefect.

Oblomov,

Your right re the pub crawls.

Alan,

Your mention of being a Yorkshireman, reminded me of the occasional few extra yards walked at night to find a friendly sheep. It helped to stop me missing my wife
so much. No doubt none Yorkshireites will never understand the comfort of a warm sheep on a cold, windy, rainy night.

I appreciate times are hard but after some thought I decided to post the following 2 sites that my son Mark has opened in able for anyone out there who wishes to donate for the Coast to Coast walk that we both completed, May 15th to May 28th 2009.
Any amount gratefully received.
I know that there are so many charities out there that no one can donate to them all, so will only mention this post again in order to thank anyone kind enough to donate.

This is a local Hospice.........www.justgiving.com/coast2coastdovehouse
This is a charity for Lupus Sufferers, an immunity attacking desease.........www.justgiving.com/coast2coastlupusuk

Greekman

No doubt all out there want to see our disgraced MPs treated the same as us serfs when it comes to criminal activities.
As a member of The Tax Payers Alliance (its free to join) I have just received their latest news sheet. They have pulled a team of legals together, with the intention of taking out private prosecutions against several of the worse offending MPs, if the powers that be IE Police/CPS decide to take no action.
In a previous post I stated that I would make my own approach to legal action via a criminal report. It now looks like the TPA will ensure these criminals do not escape justice, or at least a prosecution.
Some might just get what they deserve.
Being sorry, and paying back the proceeds of a crime has never been an escape clause re crime, specially when these are as a result of being caught.

Trevor was locked up for a political offence and Amnesty International wouldn't help him.

He broke into the conservative club and nicked a barrel of Watneys.

No problem. All he needs to do is say he will give it back, say he is sorry and sell his story to the papers. Also the con club sec will probably contact a Con MP who will put it on his expenses, at an inflated price of course, so its a win win situation.

Q Was it our local Con Club (Beverley) that Trev targeted, as I overheard an official looking bloke the other day as I was passing our local Con Club saying, " Someones snaffled some of our beer stocks, so just deliver another Firkin dozen barrels". And there was me thinking there was no such barrel size for beer.

I have just read the headlines that police are hunting a man after a womans body was found in a wheelie bin.

When caught, he should be hung. I have no truck with criminals, except Trevor because if you're that rubbish at it you're a kind of anti-hero, and the punishment cannot be severe enough.

However, I find myself wondering, given the system of punishments we have, and the ludicrous sentences handed down, if the police would get a harsher punishment for the murderer if they asked for the murder to be taken into consideration, and putting the wrong rubbish in the wrong coloured bin to be the more serious crime.

True - I take it that you voted UKIP.

What a very sad story....

From http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/....

Sailor 'loses life savings after yacht sinks to bottom of sea'
A sailor has been left penniless after his uninsured 25,000 yacht sank, taking his life savings to the bottom of the sea.

By Sarah Knapton
Published: 7:00AM BST 15 Jun 2009

Jonathan Orme-Dawson, of Norwich, was just two months into a year-long journey when the boat hit rocks off the Dorset coast in thick fog.

The 61-year-old had to be winched to safety by a Coastguard helicopter from an inshore lifeboat that managed to rescue him.



But the 24ft yacht he had restored later broke up, due to the damage, and sank.

Mr Orme-Dawson was forced to leave his passport and money for his trip on board the stricken vessel.

"I'd saved up for a long time but it's all floating out there now I'm afraid - the money as well," he said.

"It was the trip of a lifetime.

"I planned a year to be away but that's been cut short now by 10 months I'm afraid."

He added: "But now my lovely old yacht is at the bottom of the sea and my dream has been ruined.

"The whole lot is destroyed and even if I am able to salvage anything, all the electronic kit will have been wrecked."

Mr Orme-Dawson, a retired languages teacher, had spent years restoring his 24 foot yacht.

He had planned a year long trip travelling anti-clockwise around the UK coastline, calling in at harbours en route.

He set off on April 1 but on Friday night, as he was sailing from Lyme Regis to West Bay in Dorset, his engine failed in thick fog.

The 50-year-old wooden vessel Harnser then smashed on to rocks because he could not see.

"I am not familiar with the area but thought I could hug the coastline," Mr Orme-Dawson said.

"However, the huge cliffs cut off the wind and water got into the diesel so my engine failed.

"Suddenly there was a crunk and I was aground."

He added: "I realised I needed to call Mayday for help because I was in serious danger."

The yacht had been holed and later sank but Mr Orme-Dawson managed to radio for help and the coastguard scrambled air and sea rescue teams.

Richard Horobin, from the RNLI, said: "It was a dangerous rescue. We could not get close to the yacht because of the rocks.

"So two of our men swam 50 metres to the nearby beach and that is how they got the rope to the yacht.

"But when we tried to pull her off the rocks she began to take on water."

He added: "We then got the yachtsman off the boat and he had to wade through water. He was later winched to safety from the beach by helicopter"

Mr Ormer-Dawson paid tribute to his rescuers.

"They were just tremendous - it was such a relief to see the helicopter arrive," he said.

"The sea was quite choppy and some of the waves were six or seven feet high, which is quite scary when you are being battered.

"I was in deep shock and very tired because the boat was breaking up and being pounded by waves. The lifeboat also arrived and one of the crew came aboard to help me."

He said he could honestly say that without his rescuers, he would "not be here to tell the story".

He added: "I am an experienced sailor but I can say that I am only alive because of the combined efforts of the coastguard and the RNLI."

Last week Paul and Helen Glavin, of Weymouth, were forced to watch their 15,000 yacht sink off the coast of the British Virgin Islands in the Caribbean after accidentally hitting a whale.

And last weekend a US research vessel charged with protecting endangered whales hit one of the animals off the Massachusetts coast cutting into the animal's left tail fluke with its propeller.

'Phwoar' or not 'Phwoar'? That is the question.

As usual, the law is an ass, IMHO. What on earth was such a pious Muslim girl doing working as a cocktail waitress?


Muslim cocktail waitress Fata Lemes wearing the red dress
Photo: TIM STEWART NEWS LIMITED

Muslim waitress wins nearly 3,000 for hurt feelings over skimpy dress
A Muslim cocktail waitress who resigned after being ordered to wear a "revealing" dress for work that offended her religious beliefs has won 3,000 for sexual harassment despite having posed for photographs in a low-cut top.
Published: 7:00AM BST 16 Jun 2009

Fata Lemes, 33, who claimed her upbringing meant she was "not used to wearing sexually attractive clothes", was handed the payout even though it later emerged pictures of her in a revealing top had appeared on Facebook, the social-networking site.

Miss Lemes later insisted that the photo was taken on a beach and was irrelevant to her claim that the dress she was asked to wear at the Rocket Bar in Mayfair made her "look like a prostitute".

The tribunal panel concluded that the Bosnian Muslim "holds views about modesty and decency which some might think unusual in Britain in the 21st century".

But it accepted that she genuinely believed that the short, low-cut dress was "disgusting" and made her look "like a prostitute".

It ruled that her bosses should have made allowance for her feelings and their insistence that she wear the dress amounted to sexual harassment, it ruled.

Lawyers for Spring & Greene, the restaurant group that owns the bar, highlighted the existence of the Facebook picture to the tribunal but it is not known whether the panel ever saw it before making their judgment.

The panel at Central London Employment Tribunal found that Miss Lemes "overstated" her trauma at being asked to wear the sleeveless dress that was open at the back.

It rejected Miss Lemes' claim that she was left with no choice but to walk out of her job after just eight days.

It branded her compensation claim of 20,000 including 17,500 for hurt feelings as "manifestly absurd".

But it awarded her 2,919.95 for hurt feelings and loss of earnings.

Miss Lemes, who had previously worn black trousers and top to work, told the tribunal that she "might as well be naked" in the dress, adding: "I was brought up a Muslim and am not used to wearing sexually attractive clothes."

In its judgment, the panel ruled that restaurant group Spring & Greene must "take their victim as they find her".

It said of the dress: "It is eye-catching, not only because of its colour but also because of its cut and lines.

"It is clearly a garment for a girl or young woman. It is intended to, and does, show the curves of the body.

"It seeks to make the wearer attractive. It might be seen as a party dress or something to wear at an informal celebration."

But the panel ruled that wearing the dress could not amount to "conduct of a sexual nature".

Miss Lemes told how she was pestered for sex by customers at the bar shortly after starting work in May last year.

The tribunal ruled: "In our judgment, the effect of requiring her to wear the dress was to violate her dignity. We further consider that it created for her an environment which was degrading, humiliating and offensive."

It pointed out that a summer uniform of "brightly coloured, figure-hugging garb" had not been introduced for male waiting staff.

But the tribunal rejected Miss Lemes' claim of constructive dismissal.

The company's lawyer Tom Grady told the tribunal: "There is no evidence to support the suggestion that it is a sex club or some sort of seedy brothel."

Here's Fata's Facebook picture:

On a beach or not. Taken without her permission, so what. Next she will be saying that she was forced to wear the dress before she went onto the beach. I can't see any embarrassment on her face (red Dress Picture).
And just what did she think a cocktail waitress would be required to wear, a full Hijab.
No doubt her next move will be to apply to be a stripper or a lap dancer, so that when she is asked to strip or sit on a mans lap she can scream 'sexual harassment', and win a few more thousand.
Like you say, 'The law is an ass', or is it just pro anything not indigenous British.

The law may indeed be an ass, but what does that make us, for allowing the law to make these decisions?

We should be hollering from the rooftops for change, and to allow the indigenous to have their culture supreme over any other on any point of law where there is a conflict.

May seem a little right wing, but it is the product of left wing policy for 30 years.

Sorry to change the subject to shares (is it allowed on this thread?) but does anyone know what usually happens when a company of which you are a shareholder is bought out by an overseas company? A year ago I sold all my Stanelco shares (phew!) and bought into Rift Oil with the proceeds at 6p. Rift have accepted an offer from a Canadian co. at 13p a share, the shares are now trading at 12.5p but there appears to be massive selling. Presumably the company has to remain registered in the UK or the new company buy up all existing shares? If not what happens to my shares? I can't under stand why everyone would be selling.

Lets hope that the lawyer who advised her charges 3000 for their advice.

oblo, if an offer has been made at 13p then provided you accept and the offer goes through, you will be paid the 13p sometime in the future. If you don't want to wait until the payment date (given in the offer information) or gamble on the (normally small) chance that the offer might not go through, then you can sell in the market. There are people in the market happy to buy your shares at a discount and sell them to the Canadian company later for 13p.