Member Info for Grezzz

Thanks for the headsup!

Desertsands -Very pleased to hear your good news - will raise a glass to you later! (I'm meeting a very old friend who's flying in from Los Angeles, I hope he's 'flying the flag'!)

I'm still slightly under water here, but when airlines started to pick-up, instead of averaging down heavily on IAG, I opened a position with EZJ, so overall my airline stocks (including RYA) are doing quite well.

I'm now keeping an eye on AIRA. I know I'm a glutton for punishment, but I think its fundamentals, particularly with respect to Russia's future, look promising...

Ditto..

'HydrogenOne Capital Growth plc' - Anyone else agree that the company name is misleading? ;)

What will it take to change the sentiment here, other than some fairly chunky interest rate cuts?

Yes, thanks for your endeavour, Hounddog!

And FRO from me too...

On a separate issue, my former wife gave birth to my beautiful twin daughters in Santa Monica in the late'80s. As is usual for twins, they were premature, by slightly over a month. From the moment her pregnancy was confirmed until my daughters were walking, the pre and post natal care was exemplary. Of course, it was stressed that breast milk is the ideal nutrition, but many mothers, especially with multiple births, with the best will in the world, struggle to produce sufficient milk. But new-born babies and especially pre-matures need nutrition, and if the mother is struggling, formula is pretty much the only option. My girls seemed to favour Enfamil, so that's what they lived on until they could tolerate cows' milk. My point is - infant formula is not breast milk. Everyone knows it's a compromise. It's down to the paediatric team to indicate and monitor its use, especially in compromised babies. If there is a case to answer, it should be focussed on the care protocols, not the highly researched and developed product which has undoubtedly saved millions of young lives over the decades.

Guird - You are quite right. American jurors absolutely love to 'stick it' to non-American companies who have the temerity to trade in their markets, failing to comprehend the contribution to their economy in terms of employment and taxes. As you mentioned, this was demonstrably the case regarding the treatment of BP. I was living in southern Alabama when the Deepwater Horizon event occurred , and my partner and I drove down to the gulf several times to see what was going on, over the course of a few months. In the early stages, there was a terrible smell, but not once did we actually see any oil on any of the beaches. However, the locals, with the backing of their representatives were having an absolute field day. They had political backing right up to the Oval Office, with Barrack Obama making some highly inflammatory comments. You wouldn't believe the number of businesses (tourism, restaurant, fishing) which were completely revamped on BP's coin, and then some. No-one would deny that BP screwed up royally (well actually their subcontractor, but..) and they did need to be held responsible - but the claims and litigation were distinctly anti-British.

Now with respect to Illinois, I think it has one of, if not the largest 'Irish' population outside of Ireland. When I worked in NYC, the IRA would hold fund-raising events right outside my office on Madison Avenue, with the support of both the average American office worker and the authorities. Americans' definition of terrorists is very flexible. The fact that the Illinois jury awarded more than double the plaintiff's claim speaks volumes. I'll leave this here...

Driftking27 - I think old FF is about as good at sums as he is with writing English...

"In this world of relentless chaos, I rely on a small group of “anchors” to keep me and THG steady. Iain is one such anchor".

This sentence is missing a couple of 'W's...

"I had to convince Iain that I wasn’t a mad man.."

It's your shareholders you need to convince, mate...

I wasn't expecting the s/p to be up over 6% - but I'm not complaining!

Further and farther...

Ant1986 - Yes, and as you've already alluded, I'm topping up on the hope that the new government will see infrastructure investment as the obvious way to kick-start and grow the economy. I'm not expecting any 'bagging' here, but a steady improvement will suit me as a LTH.

Seems Proactive are framing this as a 'done deal':

"The FTSE 100 has dropped 40 points lower after falls from Rentokil, Entain and Melrose continued to offset a 6% surge in DS Smith's shares.

DS Smith's jump comes after fellow packaging rival Mondi confirmed a takeover bid had been accepted, paving the way to create a £10 billion industry giant".

Sloppy reporting, or are we all missing something?

Ftseexplorer - No, I don't think you are. I have MRO earmarked for the new upcoming ISA...

Tricky one to get right this....

So much emotion on this board. Drama Queens having a field day. I'm beginning to think that maybe there IS a medically significant amount of oestrogen in our drinking water...

LWHL My thoughts exactly!

I started to build a position at the back end of 2019, expecting BoJo to follow-up on his infrastructure projects. We all know what happened shortly after that.. However, as much as I dislike Starmer and most of his cronies, I do believe Rachel Reeves is both a smart cookie and a realist. As such, I'd be surprised if civil engineering doesn't feature heavily in her pledge to build the economy. Fingers crossed.