Member Info for Clued

Totally agree Carrington. I live abroad, but lived in the UK under Tony Blair's Labour Govt which tbh wasn't too bad. However, from listening to the current election debates and reading various articles, I would not like to be living in the UK under a Starmer Labour Govt. I feel that Sunak is not suited to politics, let alone being PM, but maybe another Tory in charge would provide a much more effective Tory Govt. Would Cameron consider being PM again ?!! Had some disagreeing words last week with a UK train driver on basic £54,000 p.a. (40hrs p/wk presumably ?) who is completely deluded that he isn't being overpaid !! Many Accountants and Solicitors at the lower end aren't paid that. No political party should be dependant to any significant degree on a sector, eg trade unions, that has objectives contrary to that political party, for obvious reasons of influence, collusion and bias. I cannot understand why the British public are so fooled by Starmer and his angels except that they do not have enough intelligence to see that a bad Tory Govt is the best of two evils !!!

This Labour Govt will wreck the UK, mark my words.

Slashnburn, from reading your views I presume you also believe that our lives are all a Simulation ? There's plenty on youtube about the theory.

Profit taking after a good run I'd guess. Don't think Peace on Earth is happening yet !!

Agreed sparhawk, it's easy for people here to generalise and say that the City (whatever that really means !!) doesn't like the new CEO strategy, but 3 broker analysts gave price targets yesterday which are higher than the current market price. Indeed Barclays, who are quite prominent in the so-called "City", have a target of 320p, so seems that the Shorter hyenas are getting as much from this weakness as they can. The tide will turn soon because this is now ridiculously cheap. I topped up yesterday at 230.4p and will buy more if I can sell some other shares at reasonable prices.

MarkGo, I see you're having some fun highlighting the inaccuracies of the IEA data and reports. What I find fascinating is that if there is blatant dishonesty, ie not reporting objectively using all the known data, within the IEA then all it needs is a disgruntled employee or ex-employee whistleblower to expose the lot and effectively really damage the organisation's reputation. We have seen similar 'leaks' from 'unidentified sources" of other orgs. Would IEA risk such a scandal or does arrogance blind them do you think ?!!

CR888, there's time yet !!

Thank you taze. Interesting bit is the "Short Interest Ratio (Days To Cover) 5.3 " !! Can't wait for the Short Squeeze BOOM upwards in the share price !!

Jinkar, the UK has one of the highest train fare costs in Europe - why do you think that is ? It is because the UK train company wages are excessive and so Joe Public has to pay more to cover those costs. Their trade unions hold Joe Public to ransom to acheive their demands whilst also paying their own officials excessive wages, not exactly what Karl Marx had in mind, but what so I know !!!!

Ash69, said that I'd agree to disagree and to leave it at that. But you had to be abusive and show your true working class colours !! You say that you haven't had a pay increase for 5 years, well on £54,500 p.a. basic whilst many many jobs are on far less for much higher skill sets, have you wondered why ? Qualifying as an Accountant v achieving the skill level to drive a train are at completely different levels. We all admittedly like to fool ourselves sometimes that our jobs are better than they are, but Accountants and Solicitors and Train Drivers do have one thing in common - AI and Robotics will replace most of the jobs in the next 20 years !!

Ash69, I'll just agree to disagree because many qualified Accountants and Solicitors and Engineers are paid less than your basic £54,500 p.a. for a 40 hour work week, around £40k - £45k, and the entry levels for those are much higher. I'd gladly drive trains for basic of £40k p.a., but let's just leave it there !!

So TheTrotsky, what you're saying basically is that LGEN using IFRS standards forces them to be over prudent by providing fully for long-term liabilities, but not allowed the same benefits for long-term assets ? If so, wouldn't IFRS bias too much towards prudency and too little towards consistency, matching concept and reasonableness ?

MPO818, "when the BOE have the guts to act" ? Would you reduce interest rates when wage inflation is currently c 6% basically because many are threatening public hardship if they don't receive their demands. The Living Wage increase did feed into it, but the BoE cannot risk reducing int rates too soon as it'll create worse problems. Also, if Joe Public reduced some spending on the likes of the very price-inflated music events it would help bring down inflation. Train drivers being paid c £60k for example, nothing against them, but many white collar professionals, eg Accountants, Engineers, not on that !!

Conger2, " just wish they focus on getting out of debt, cut costs and get dividends flowing." Agreed, but now there may be a Pilot strike in Aer Lingus as agreement couldn't be reached today with their Union. There seems to be no end to these wage demands, thus the data on UK Wage Inflation today @ 6% p.a. !!

Yes getafgrip, not over till the fat lady sings !! Maybe Lynch would be interested in running Darktrace after buying with a group ??

US natural gas futures surged over 2.5% to $2.9/MMBtu on Friday, marking a more than 12% increase for the week, driven by expectations of increased cooling demand due to warm weather forecasts for June. Forecasts indicating above-normal temperatures in various regions, particularly the Midwest and East, fueled market optimism, with expectations for this heat pattern to persist in the coming weeks. Also, US gas production is still down around 9% in 2024, as energy firms like EQT and Chesapeake Energy delayed well completions and reduced drilling activities earlier in the year. On the other hand, the latest EIA report showed a larger-than-expected storage build last week, bringing gas stockpiles 26.5% higher than the seasonal average." Trading Economics 9th June 2024.

Have general confidence with DEC, but the "gas stockpiles 26.5% higher than the seasonal average." is of concerrn. Where do you see things going ?

We cannot control, or even influence, what GCAT BoD or Robbie McCrae are doing, or not doing, to get the Audit and following tasks completed, so probably best to simply wait !! Que sera sera, concentrate on your other investments best probably !!

But meoryou, unfortunately BP's extra USD1 25b p.a. is still relevant to 2031 so, like Exceptional costs, is still relevant and should remain part of any comparison with SHEL and others. At least the extra USD1.25b can be used to explain downsides to BP v SHEL and others !!

I'll be honest Notrex, I'm really beginning to miss the gg side of the conversations on here !! I don't want to unfilter gg, but it's becoming nearly unbearable not to !!

CR888, sounds bad news as just checking in here to see if you've been able to persuade any of your contacts to vote NO !!

Getafgrip and MarkGo, amn't spending hours on this today, and note the USD (not GBP), but found quickly on Google (seems credible and leaves me confident):

Fitch Assigns BP International 'A+' IDR; Outlook Stable. Fitch Ratings - London - 28 May 2024: Fitch Ratings has assigned BP International Limited (BPI) a Long-Term Issuer Default Rating (IDR) of 'A+' with a Stable Outlook and Short-Term IDR of 'F1+'.

AND

net debt* was $24.0 billion, compared with $20.9 billion at the end of the fourth quarter 2023 and $21.2 billion at the end of the first quarter 2023. The increase in the net debt is mainly attributable to a working capital* build.7 May 2024.

Sometimes Paralysis by Analysis !!