Member Info for Scampthedog

I think its fair to say that nobody has the slightest clue regarding what the damages might amount to.

Personally speaking...I will be very surprised indeed (and please let me be wrong) if the damages finally received for Nanoco exceed 50 million.

Very happy to be very wrong of course...hopefully.

I don't have one (its purely guess work). Do you have a figure in mind?

Any thoughts anyone on what the middle and higher settlements could be for the 'lower end' damages.

I thought that was likely the case.

Ginodog, may I politely inquire what sum of total damages do you yourself expect to be paid out?

if it comes in at the lowest possible estimate for damages.

Happy enough with that.

The present 'Jewel in the Crown' the new R.M Super Hub at Warrington is an absolute disaster zone.

One manager from 'upstairs' (flowroom) has already been sacked a day after a very irate Mr Simon Thompson left the building; and it would also seem that the two biggest scalps have now been lined up to be soon taken.

Rumour has it that both the Plant Manager and his second in command (names withheld to protect their dignity) have been told they will presently be 'moving on'.

That machine is not fit for purpose (I have mentioned this before so won't be going into any great detail) due to the fact it is not designed to process floppy plastic bags, irregular shaped parcels, heavy parcels (of any size), tubes, small packets, letters...and so on and so forth.

R.M were told right from the very start by the company that supplied and fitted the machine that the machine was the wrong type for the wrong building (building is too small)...but R.M would not listen. Result? A piece of junk that requires a complete re-design and major overhaul.

And that brings me nicely around to the other rumour: the machine is to be shut down for 6 months to allow for this re-engineering. Very few people I know subscribe to this...but I tend to think it may be the case...but not a major shutdown...more of an intermittent one.

Either way...a major headache that really does need to be resolved.

And as for shutting down Mail Centres? Some maybe. But don't think for one minute these new Hubs can replace the Mail Centres completey. If I had to guess, I will suggest that Daventry well may replace some Mail Centres...but Warrington? No chance. Like I just mentioned...the building is too small: no room to install the letter sorting machine that resides half a mile down the road at Sankey.

All in all (at Warrington Hub leastways)...a very unsatisfactory state of affairs.

I think there might be a fair chance of one being announced sometime early in the New Year...much to the delight of the CWU no doubt - lol!!

I can almost hear the howls of indignation right now. Oh Lord!...funny as Hell.

and a peaceful and joyful Christmas Eve to you and your own. God bless.

Based upon IslesworthSpys' answer (yes) to my open question here is my Kretinsky scenario.

1. Kretinsky increases his stock holding in I.D.S up to the 29% thresehold; he has to exercise the correct amount of decent hesitancy of course...as per the Secretary of States' insistence that he (Kretinsky) gives the ongoing dispute every chance At being amicably resolved. (all in my opinion this).

2. Kretinsky urges the Board to split R.M UK from GLS...more than likely he will be encouraging the Board to do this whilst Steadily increasing his holding over the next several months (or weeks...whichever is the case).

3. The Board, under considerable (privately and behind closed doors) pressure from Kretinsky ("do this or I initiate a takeover attempt") announce that self-preservation is now of the utmost importance (they must protect the profitable GLS' monies from the scheming CWU for the investors sake)...they split the company.

4. Kretinsky would own (at the 29% level...in the present form of IDS)) approx 278,400,000 shares (he owns approx 220,000,000 at this moment). Divide this amount in half and he would have approx 139,200,000 shares in each newly formed company: R.M UK and GLS.

5. This means that each new company has approx 480,000,000 shares...with, as I previously stated, Kretinsky owning approx 139,200,000 in each new company; by my math that works out at about 30% holding in each one of the two.

Conclusion.

Kretinsky does not have to takeover IDS in its present form to take control of GLS...all he has to do is strong-arm the Board into splitting GLS away from IDS and making it a seperate company...then launch a takeover of GLS itself.

And as for the then marooned newly created R.M UK? Its share price just collapses!! I think the share price would be somewhere around £1.00 a share...or even less perhaps. It just might be that Kretinsky instead of going after GLS would then reveal his true hand -- and pounces upon a defenceless R.M UK!! He gets Royal Mail for buttons...and then chops it to Hell and back whilst in the process making himself an awful lot of money. As for GLS? Well that takes care of itself...and in 12 months time probably doubles in value thus ensuring Kretinsky (and us) another extra, mighty big windfall.

A beautifully orchestrated bloodless coup! What price that 4% buyback now then I wonder? Lol. And I think I can hazard a good guess who it was suggested it to the Board in the first place also.

'The Plans of Mice and Men.'

but I need something answering first.

My open question to all you posters is this: if this company is split (R.M UK and GLS)...could our shares in GLS be traded on the stock exchange just like IDS shares are at this moment? Because I for one can see no other way. Of course, it would then, in that case, not be just IDS shares any longer (if the answer is indeed 'yes') it would be a case of R.M shares and GLS shares both listed and traded seperately.

Hope I have not confused you all. Lol.

If the answer is 'yes'...then I think I now understand what Kretinsky is all about.

You have obviously never worked, in any capacity or role, for Royal Mail.

If you or any other member of the uninformed great 'General Public' really understood how Royal Mail, at times, operates...you would, trust me, be quite appalled. At times of great 'Pressure' (particularly Christmas) it can be truly chaotic.

Trailers 'lost' in a yard somewhere only to be 'discovered' days later full of 1st Class mail; mail transferred out of a building to be sorted elsewhere...left for several days (due to lack of resources to sort it) to be transferred somewhere else -- or even back to where it originally came from; 1st Class mail thrown in with 2nd Class mail...therefore ensuring the 1st Class mail fails; 'Guaranteed Next Day Delivery' found lanquishing in an unsorted york several days (or weeks) after it was originally mailed; trailers taken hundreds of miles to the wrong depot full of the wrong mail; lost letters and small packets found in the crevices of sleeved yorks or inside folded sleeves stacked together; small packets wedged between the upper decks and the sides of the trailers...I once found a small parcel 10 months after it had been posted.

You can just go on and on.

And as for that new 'Super Hub' at Warrington...what a bl..dy joke that is. Mail ripped open by the machine...so much so they have a department set up just to try and repackage some of it; I say some of it because a lot of it is totally destroyed.

Example. One young lad, whose job it is to try and retrieve the stranded mail, told my mate that one evening he retrieved two small jackets...both ripped to pieces. He googled them...total cost -- £1,100.00! And that is just a fraction of what that bag of sh.t is chewing up every single day; my mate estimates it must be destroying thousands of pounds worth every single week.

And as for lots of other items passing through there each day? Much of it rolling off the track and getting stuck underneath...a lot of it only retrieved weeks later by the engineers using extending grippers when operating cherry-pickers.

Try as they might they cannot hit that 850,000 item target per day...and they never will. The best they have ever acheived is 500,000. The machine is the wrong type for the wrong building...simple as that. The sackings have already started.

Simon Thompson visited several days ago...a day later one of the managers from upstairs (this is where all the trapped mail resides) was sacked. Not surprising in the least. Place is a total disaster zone!!

Like I said...if only you truly knew. But of course...you don't do you?

for cruel and savage Winter...he now surely cometh.

This was the last great campaign...the high-water mark of a once mighty and seemingly invincible army. This...now their Gettysburg; the turning point in a long drawn-out war for supremacy...now the hasty retreat...soon the decimated ranks...the recriminations...the desertions and despair. The inevitable result -- the victor!!

And we all know what that means don't we?

CWU: RIP.

What started out (and quite rightly so) just a dispute about having a 2% pay increase forced upon us, very quickly turned into something much more far reaching.

As always, the CWU has stepped outside its mandate. Their job, as a union, is not to attempt to form company policy...but try and limit any downside.

This outcome was all so predictable...and, as an ongoing dispute, is all so wearisome.

When is this union going to learn that they are required to accept that some change is inevitable...and, therefore, some compromise is required? Never it would seem.

I will give it (at the very most) to January 9th...then the letters will start arriving. They won't make happy reading.

This strike is now well and truly dead in the water.

Apparently she was reported to be also accompanied by a swarthy looking man, who goes by the name of Paul Duck, riding upon a white Ostrich.

True? Probably not. But there again...about as probable as Block finding commercialy viable amounts of oil in these much depleted fields.

Still, like I first stated , several years ago now...worth a punt. A punt that is...not a reckless gamble.

When I suggested a short while back that support was crumbling at the 27p level my comment was met with a certain amount of sceptical sarcasm...actually, more like downright contempt.

I wonder how many of you scoffers have been quietly selling off over the last several days?

Most of you I would wager.

That sudden spike in the s.p was nothing more than a cleverly engineered 'fear-of-missing-out' circumstance that took advantage of a particular bit of opportunistic news...and very efficiently done too; someone made a quick killing on this one. Fair play to them!!

Be careful not to get caught out though. 'IF' that RNS lands with an even better than (hopefully) expected update...you might well be left holding nothing more than your limp pecker in your hand whilst desperately trying to p.ss against the wind.

Not a very pleasant thought I grant you.

In the short term this could go all the way back down to 18p. But if you truly believe that Scancell has the expertise to acheive something truly remarkable here...why worry?

Whatever Scancell achieve in the not so distant future...one thing is for certain: it will be a lot more than they have already done so. And that in itself is considerable.

Undeniably...a very, very bright future here for all concerned.

To my great surprise, us posties are being paid our £200.00 Christmas bonus tomorrow (16th) ...shareholders next perhaps?

Most shareholders might now demand a special dividend, however small that might be, to be paid in the New Year; especially when they soon become aware that the posties have received this, and in their eyes no doubt, much undeserved aforementioned payment.

After all...what is good for good old Mrs Goose has to be also good for good old Mr Gander.

but 18 days is an absolute age in the stock market.

Now then...what was that famous quote again? Ah yes. "A week is a long time in politics".

Same for the stock market I guess.

Santa will be bringing you all a late Christmas present this year...but its going to be a very, very special one.

Samsung will be working furiously on a new carol sheet now!

DerekRocholl.

Your right about the pension contributions. But it is still equivalent to back pay. Once we had received the lump sum...then that was that. We would have been up to date and fully priced in.