Member Info for fleccy

Pas you've linked to an article highlighting why the Crypto hype bubble is on the brink of collapse. AI will draw money out of Crypto at an ever increasing rate, because AI investment will steadily pull money out of the likes of Bitcoin. It's no surprise that miners are looking for alternative revenue streams, with the diminishing Bitcoin reward putting a strain on their finances and them seeing AI hype as the next bandwagon. AI is useful, Bitcoin isn't.

Clearly Brown was a Financial guru who thought things through before acting, not. I'll post a link to the Independent's view of Brown's decision to sell half the UK's Gold at the bottom of the market.

"Gordon Brown’s decision to sell of half of Britain’s gold reserves 20 years ago at the bottom of the market has been billed as the worst financial decision of all time. Not so, writes my colleague John Rentoul, who argues that it was sensible to diversify our assets"

https://www.independent.co.uk/voices/gordon-brown-gold-reserves-sold-economy-analysis-financial-bullion-a8909611.html

OK hindsight is a wonderful thing and Brown may have thought he was doing the right thing at the time, but it was yet another of his decisions that backfired disastrously with long term consequences for the UK's finances; Pure Genius.

At least he saved the World

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MYrNCMwxcpk

Aus you posted a link to an Independent news article, this is what they said:

"The chancellor, Gordon Brown, abolished substantial tax relief on dividends that pension funds received on their investments. The financial effect of this tax snatch was colossal. It was estimated that the loss of this tax relief had extracted, in total, over £118bn of income by 2014. If this lost income had been even conservatively invested, pension funds may have benefited by an additional £230bn"

Parker is this you?

https://i.postimg.cc/rybG7QM6/pumping.jpg

It bothers me Pete because I saw the slow motion car crash of my DB pension, before it hit a wall years before my retirement; Also after the company closed the scheme to new members, it caused an undercurrent of jealousy among new staff who were put on an inferior DC pension scheme. If you wonder why Gordon Brown's under the radar change is still brought up, it's probably because my experience was duplicated across every company in the UK and is still the cause of resentment to all those affected, whether they're DB or DC scheme members.

Savage, our opinions on whether Brown's action was a raid or rescinding a giveaway is irrelevant, the effect of removing the allowance lead to the death of Final Salary Pension scheme's. Because many companies ceased to offer Defined Benefit pensions to new workers in the UK, since 1997, they've missed out on a highly successful type of pension scheme that worked for employers and employee's. Funnily enough Public Sector DB pension schemes weren't affected by the change, even Gordon Brown's Gold plated pension remained intact. When my Final Salary pension scheme finally closed to existing members, the company justification was that it was unfair for the Defined Contribution members to keep it going.

Aus you're obviously emotional about the UK electorate voting to leave the EU, whether or not it was the right decision is irrelevant; Politicians were fighting in full view of the electorate with many appearing to be in cahoots with the EU, all they've succeeded in doing is destroying leavers and Remainers trust in Politicians.

"Interesting end to the day, nearly 2 million shares bought in 10 mins into close, RNS logged?"

Lol, no. 2,000,000 shares is only 0.155% of the 1,291,313,755 total voting rights.

I'd like to see Labour making a success of things, but things have moved on since 1997 so they'll likely be called out should they try any stealthy tax raids. Watch Farage chip away at the main political parties over the next 4 years, calling them out on anything and everything, it'll be a pantomime well worth watching.

The deindustrialisation of the UK is scandalous, with both of the main parties responsible for that, how can a country be productive if it doesn't produce anything? And deindustrialisation has mostly hammered the parts of the country that voted leave in the Brexit referendum, go figure.

If politicians wonder why trust in them is at an all time low, the parliamentary skullduggery in trying to block and reverse the Brexit vote is likely the biggest cause. Think of it like this, a referendum was held and Vote Leave won, subsequently there was a back and forth tussle in Parliament with many politicians trying to reverse a democratic decision, with some politicians appearing to ally with the EU. Even remain voters were likely astounded to see our political class fighting it out, when they should have collaborated to get the best deal from the EU.

If Labour can't improve peoples prospects over the next couple of years, I suspect Proportional Representation will gain more support in preference to the current FPTP system.

My investments and Final Salary pension scheme are two completely unrelated things. Gordon Brown was Labour chancellor when he took a wrecking ball to the UK's DB pension's, and I've previously read that he was warned about the possible consequences of his tax raid.

The Conservatives aren't much better, I don't agree with the way they've been running the country either, they seem to be out for themselves. I previously voted Tory, but voted Reform this time around and will be in the future. I like much of what Farage says in reference to the state of the UK, it lines up with my thinking.

Gordon Brown had obviously never heard of the Law of Unintended Consequences.

https://www.thisismoney.co.uk/money/comment/article-13041677/HAMISH-MCRAE-Time-fix-Gordon-Browns-pension-errors.html

"I rank that tax raid as one of the three most seriously idiotic decisions by Chancellors I can recall – the other two being John Major putting the pound into the European Exchange Rate Mechanism in 1990 and, going back even further, James Callaghan introducing the Selective Employment Tax in 1966.

But we were kicked out of the ERM after two years, so the damage was limited. And the SET, which put an extra tax on service-sector workers, ended when VAT was brought in seven years later. By contrast, the dividend tax raid has lived on until now."

Aus are you saying Labour are good?

If you are you probably weren't affected by Gordon Brown's 1997 attack on Company Defined Benefit pension scheme's.

"“It was an enormous mistake for Gordon Brown to take ACT relief away. While it didn’t raise a massive amount for the Treasury, for pension schemes it was disastrous. But that only became clearer later.” Before 1997, a pension fund could, for example, be paid £100 in dividends and get £25 in cash back from the Treasury in tax relief. After the bonus was axed, many employers were unable to make up the shortfall themselves. They faced the choice of going under or scrapping their defined benefit schemes. Tom McPhail, of consultancy The Lang Cat, said the policy was a “cynical and clever tax raid”. He added: “Apart from a few nerdy pensions and economics experts, no one noticed."

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/money/pensions/gordon-brown-ruined-retirement-generation/

I was affected by Brown's raid on Final Salary schemes, post 1997 my scheme was degraded in stages over various years; A couple of years before the scheme was completely closed it involved salary sacrifice with the remaining Final salary scheme members moved onto a Defined contribution scheme around 2013. I retired late 2019 so missed out on 6 years worth of contributions into the Final Salary scheme. After Gordon Browns attack, and as a result of various changes since, I've calculated that my starting pension was down by around £6000 a year, and to add insult to injury annual rises are capped at 4.235% even when inflation is at 10%.

Defined Benefit schemes were also big investors in UK stocks, so there's an argument that Gordon Brown is partly responsible for the current dire performance of the the UK stock market. The media seem to forget the disastrous Labour stealth policies that still have repercussions today. I WILL NEVER VOTE LABOUR.

"He does go on a bit? O.C.D. comes to mind?"

If that's aimed at me Dan, if I do emphasize a point it's to ensure people understand said point. I was only answering the question raised in the title of this thread "Where have all the share purchases gone?", clearly many shares are required to prevent dilution due to MCB's.

Hybrid Bonds

Bond Currency Volume Coupon Next Call Date

VG $1.3bn 6.25% USD 1,300,000,000 6.25 03/07/2024

VG £0.5bn 4.875% GBP 500,000,000 4.875 03/07/2025

VG €0.5bn 4.2% EUR 500,000,000 4.2 03/07/2028

VG €2.0bn 3.1% EUR 2,000,000,000 3.1 03/10/2023

VG $2.0bn 7.00% USD 2,000,000,000 7 04/01/2029

VG €1.0bn 3.00% EUR 1,000,000,000 3 27/05/2030

VG €1.0bn 2.625% EUR 1,000,000,000 2.625 27/05/2026

VG $0.5bn 3.25% USD 500,000,000 3.25 04/06/2026

VG $1.0bn 4.125% USD 1,000,000,000 4.125 04/03/2031

VG $0.95bn 5.125% USD 950,000,000 5.125 04/12/2050

VG €750m 6.50% EUR 750,000,000 6.5 30/05/2029

VG £500m 8.00% GBP 500,000,000 8 30/05/2031

https://investors.vodafone.com/debt-investors/bonds-outstanding-eu-and-us

Between now and 2031 Vodafone have €8.9 Billion of convertible Bonds reaching Next Call date; Those Bonds will have to be covered either by cash, or by shares, just saying.

To add to my last post the Hybrid Bond maturing today is for $1.3 Billion, but I did a Euro conversion in my chart so the figure will vary in the chart due to currency fluctuations.

Not all Vodafone's buybacks are aimed at reducing the total share count, the previous share buybacks were about preventing dilution due to Hybrid Bonds (MCB's) reaching their next call date.

"SHARE BUYBACK PROGRAMME

In March 2019, Vodafone Group Plc ('Vodafone') issued a two-tranche mandatory convertible bond ('MCB'), the first tranche of which (£1,720,000,000 1.20 per cent. Subordinated Mandatory Convertible Bonds; ISIN XS1960588850) matured on 12 March 2021, and the second tranche of which is due to mature in March 2022. In order to satisfy the conversion of the first tranche of the MCB, 1,426,710,898 shares were issued from existing shares held in treasury. Between (i) 22 March 2021 and 18 May 2021, and (ii) 19 May 2021 and 23 July 2021, Vodafone undertook irrevocable and non-discretionary share buy-back programmes to reduce the issued share capital of Vodafone to partially offset the increase in the issued share capital as a result of the maturing of the first tranche of the MCB (the 'Programmes'). Vodafone today announces it will commence a new irrevocable and non-discretionary share buy-back programme (the 'New Programme'). The sole purpose of the New Programme is to further reduce the issued share capital of Vodafone to partially offset the increase in the issued share capital as a result of the maturing of the first tranche of the MCB.

Vodafone currently intends to launch additional share buy-back programmes over the next 8 months to reduce the issued share capital of Vodafone, to further offset the increase in the issued share capital as a result of the maturing of the first tranche of the MCB, before the second tranche of the MCB matures in March 2022. Details of any such programmes, including the target number of shares to be repurchased, would be announced before any trading under such programmes begins"

https://www.lse.co.uk/rns/VOD/share-buyback-programme-3ymlcuofhfw404f.html

They have a €1,204,775,000 Hybrid Bond with a Next call today, which will no doubt be covered by Treasury shares.

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/e/2PACX-1vRA1ndHTf_Bz7O_moDxmcbWnEtcusZucUu6lEJvm3O4mGooeH4ErFjRqot3RQHBaVXCgoUED1k2CUVK/pubchart?oid=17624073&format=interactive

I'm quite curious, why would the Engineer's manager's be the ones scheduling their jobs? I worked in Telecoms and that wasn't the case on the maintenance side of things. When I worked in Telecoms, the NOC's (Network Operations Centers) would see alarms and raise a Remedy ticket, which would then be sent to a Resource Management team who'd then allocate the jobs to the Field Engineers; For Customer reported faults, a customer facing team would take the call and raise a ticket, which would then first go to the NOC before being sent to the Resource team controlling the Engineers. Managers were there to manage the team, mainly dealing with things like performance management and welfare of the team under their control.

If by manager you guys mean an Engineering workforce management team, then that makes sense, but the nature of the job and human nature encourages Engineers to try and finish their shifts as close to home as possible. You'll always get a mix of people with some more willing to take jobs later in their shift and wanting more overtime, other's will want to get home asap at the end of their shift's.

Garwool, in the absence of anyone else coming forward Craig Wright could easily have been Satoshi Nakamoto, obviously he failed to prove that in court.

I'd like to add that at no point have I ever thought that the English Cricketer Craig White is Satoshi Nakamoto, I assume that's the Craig White you referred to in your last post? 🤣

"they tell me of a “game” doing the rounds where the winner is the one who goes the longest not opening the rear doors of his/her van"

They wont complain then when they're made redundant. I regularly see contractors out and about working on behalf of Openreach, so a lot of work is getting done as evidenced by the rapid rollout rate of FTTP. If the engineers you know work on copper only, then their job may be winding down as FTTP goes in; If they also cover maintenance of FTTP then it proves how reliable FTTP is compared to Copper.

You can't make assumptions, based on conversations you've had with a few Engineers you know. As far as jobs being allocated geographically, that might depend on availability and skillset, without knowing the full picture it's hard to judge.

Mrhanji, I'm just a realist who reads between the lines and applies common sense.

Might I suggest you try these, they may help you with your Rose-Tinted Spectacle problem:

https://images.app.goo.gl/D3cxo1See7hZJka78