Member Info for torquay

There's certainly been some traffic on here today and many useful contributions which have largely covered most of what I would have said - except that Trumps representative landed in the UK to start the ball rolling on an arrangement that I have long expected.
The EU financial cycle is based on ten years whereas the UK used to oporate a five year cycle which is much easier to manage and live within its discipline. The UK cannot manage within the EU cycle because they lack the ability to maintain the financial discipline that it imposes over the longer period.
Apart from the Health Service which is struggling it is not clear to me what remains in the country that could be of interest to them - if they don't already own it, it is because somebody else picked it up the last time a useful and profitable company was put on the block or given away like Rover cars, because it was burning money for its new owners.
Now in answer to you Martin - the Colleen and I are settling in here with some reservations - but not many.
The weather is colder but bearable in our warm new house with three loo's - I played golf yesterday at Crossgar for £7 green fee while I am waiting for membership at Ardglass - am not joining Newcastle's Mourne Club because of restricted availability of tee times bus the cost of membership is a joke £2,200 in year one.
The people here are a delight and very hospitable, we have already made quite a number of friends and we are developing our social life. We have been busy since we moved in making it our home and receiving ALL the various members of the family who have been to visit - our youngest daughter has been over four times since Christmas. Our eldest lives here in Belfast, which we both dislike but none the less visit almost weekly to perform our duties as grandparents which we enjoy except for the drive up there, the roads in Down are not great because journey times are slow - they all chug along in convoys which are hard to overtake especially if there is a tractor at the front.
There are quite a few things that we miss, surprisingly there are no carvery's here, there is no effective administration and the health service is really not coping because of this. I have been waiting over a year now for a consultant's appointment which was automatic in Torquay - because I am well, I have not arranged a private consultation, which is what we are told that you must do "if you really want to be seen."
Having said all that we are settling in and enjoying the comfort of our own home. When we start to travel in the autumn, after the last of our visitors have been, we are looking forward to seeing the country north and south with our FREE TRAVEL passes - unless Boris abolishes them. We haven't really used our passes much because we like the independence that the car gives us, but for long journeys let's say to the Kingdom for a country and western weekend we may well find them very useful.
Now enough of this it's getting late.
Go

Yes Martin - "Bottom here" - what can I do for you

Oops - word was of course ENCASHED....predictive text or fat finger - it's just tried to do it again.

Ranger is out there but encased his holding some time ago.

Good luck all...

John Mac - Never fail to be impressed by your thoughtful contributions which never descend into name calling - admirable.
If we say that 18MLn voted for Brexit amongst a population of say 65MLn - that by my reckoning is about 28% of the population. The total votes cast were about 35MLN or about 54% of the population - it does not constitute a majority but it is a sizeable part of the population.
It is safe to assume that of the rest who did not vote - they don't care one way or the other - BUT they are the very ones who will have the most to say when they escape from their phone banks for two weeks in Ibiza and discover that on COOLY economy zero hours wages they cannot afford it.
As for the country rising like a Phoenix from its own ashes I would only invite LTI to look about him - the fires in Sheffield are all out, the mines are closed, the North Sea is drying up and the only growth business looks as though it is going to be tourism. Unfortunately this is an industry where the hours are long the work is hard which does not suit a lot of todays youngsters, who do not like getting up early in the morning with a smile on their faces which is why we needed so many migrants - work ethic.
When I first landed in Torquay there were 75,000 letting rooms thirty years ago and a good number of well trained staff experienced in delivering hospitality. When I left almost two years ago we had 15,000 letting beds and the hotels which had survived Mrs Thatcher et al were run by much reduced levels of staff making the work harder for everyone.
Rise from the ashes indeed - I would be pleased if they could even run a tourism business - alas the business is now in the hands of private equity finance who know the cost of everything but the value of nothing.
This morning it was announced that 58,000 cattle here will have to be slaughtered in October if HARD BREXIT goes ahead - yesterday it was Harland & Wolf that ran out of "support" from it's banks and there has been a slow decline in employment all over the province, as investment becomes harder to find.
They used to call it "Managing Decline" I am not sure what they should call this present predicament which was founded on a fiction that was sold to the British people.
If that is truly the settled will of the people - knowing now what the cost is going to be - so be it. "They have sown the wind"
I'm just glad that I am living in a country that has the capacity to feed 35 million people and where there is a bright young educated workforce who do not shy at the sight of a harness.
Good luck all.

Well said PGEE - just my sentiments - I thought that the UK population was nearer to 70 Million but no matter. As I have stated previously this is a great illustration "of the tail wagging the dog."
The UK "that great DEMOCRACY" is where it is - because the majority of numpty's do not participate in elections - because "they do not see the point/what difference can they make."
And so the country sleep walks over the edge driven by the zealots.
Good luck all. I've given up even lighting candles.

OOPS: - I got that wrong it seems, as I become more out of date with modern "market" conditions. It appears that these companies are now able to decide under what conditions they "Use" other peoples money and just how liable they are for gambles that don't come off.
No wonder the market has become so SOFT - when people discover just how secure THEIR funds are - I am not surprised that liquidity is shrinking and with it our prospects of a 12 Euro Benchmark.
Good luck all.....

Nuri: Administration is not liquidation - then you would have to worry about your assets vanishing - the boys who deal with insolvency's are real pieces of work but what mystifies me is that their actions are usually considered legal, even though so much money is just appropriated by them in fees, charges and just plain sticky fingers.
Have read through todays posts - "up the creek without a paddle" comes to mind, but anything is possible when you remember the way that the economy was destroyed by unlimited credit, when loans were arranged in ever bigger amounts - with no thought of SECURITY.
They are at it again - they really don't mind if the bus goes over the cliff - just so long as they are driving it.
Maybe Brecon is the start of adult politics - however, we should never underestimate the stupidity of the British electorate, after all it's thanks to them that we are in this mess.
Good luck all - thankfully I'm still hitting the ball like Shane Lowery !!!

Radar.
Go to sleep it's late and everybody has had a good go at this bone for today....

Good luck all

And all the time the pound weakens towards convergence which, I am guessing, was the expected outcome.
Tony Blairs dream of convergence is finally becoming a reality - but at what cost to the UK economy and those who have to work in it.
This has been some day to celebrate - forty five years since the Colleen and I put our future together and that was a Monday as well.
Good luck all....

The Colleen has two managed funds My Wealth and M & G - both have lost her money and added insult to injury by charging arrangement fees as well as management charges.
The "modern economy" and globalisation are a bit of a joke these days when the people running it seem to be the only people who can squeeze anything out of it and they are all partying out in the med on their floating gin palaces spending the proceeds.
Cheap money is just that - it is supposed to stimulate growth by reducing the burden on all those indebted people and companies, resulting in accelerated growth in the economy and an increase in profits.
Anybody see any signs of this in the economy apart from in the Premier League and the people running that little venture along with Sky.

Good luck all.

Have not read the article that you attached but am dismayed at your loss - if what develops is a merger, it is very unlikely that this will advantage you but you may be lucky.
Now a takeover would be a different thing but I am afraid that that boat sailed when the banks were buying up the building society's years ago.
The Colleen was invested in PTSB "when they used to pay interest on deposits" at the time she got out with 10% loss and £90 on the currency exchange - we think - we asked for a statement but never got anything.
Very hard to see how you could make up for that kind of a hit - your only hope is the Irish Lottery I'm afraid.
Good luck all...

Is that who it is - you must have a better nose than a truffle hound....

Good luck all

Looking at the market cap and recent purchases it looks like better news is on the way - all we have to do is wait for the turbulence to start as Boris meets Europe.
One things for sure - he ain't Margaret Thatcher - but he might manage something.
Europe's comfortable club will probably sit on its hands until they are told what to do by France and Germany.
Don't mistake me however, I believe in the european project but it has become too comfortable and vulnerable to the tide of unrest in the middle east and Africa as the big powers create their bush fires which create refugees.
Interesting times gentlemen interesting times under the new Capo who they try to convince me is very intelligent - if he is, he should never have looked for the job - it will destroy him.
Good luck all...

I've been on here since Coggy was your best mate and GrahamD was our correspondent in the western Isles, where he described the windy conditions as being enough for three bricks on the flower pots to stop them blowing off the patio. Since I've come to live here I have learnt what he meant, we have had a wind here last week that broke the Clematis that I had been nurturing into bloom, just when it was covered in blooms TEN and many buds - the wind broke it - or was it my grandsons wither football ?
Good luck all - if Boris really means NO DEAL I might even buy some more shares - pending his assassination or exile to Fermanagh in the little village of Castlederg where he could while away the time with Arlene as his housekeeper.

Nuril son - It's your money of course, so you can do what you like with it - I invested at .37p a long time ago, "because the share was too cheap."
That was eleven years ago - I deserve to live long enough to at least get my money back, I will be too old to use one of those lovely golfing buggy's because when I hit the ball I won't be able to see which way it went because I have burned my eyeballs watching this share.
Good luck all - am going to hit the ball like Shane a little later today - I hope.
Our boy done good.....

Well that part has come true - when I played on the course forty years ago I paid five pounds with a member,because they were glad to see me. Now its £150 and they don't care - they'll live off this for years with some very creative accounting I'm sure. Thankfully there are plenty of other good courses in the area that still practice the inclusive spirit of golf which is why Ireland is so well represented by its young - they can all have a go, but not on Portrush anymore without a valid and low handicap certificate.
Just hope that he keeps going well tomorrow and does not do a Rory, poor lad burst his bubble on the first day trying to please the crowd which was a shame he is a great talent as his second round showed.
RADAR whose this young fella Sugrue - he's not related to Butty Sugrue who kept the pub in Shepherds Bush is he ?

Good luck all.

The news of Hotdog's misfortune really makes you think about the system that he invested in - how do we fix it. Fred the Shred lost billions of other peoples money and where is he now, playing golf with 16 million in the bank and a very handsome pension paid to him every month, when he should have been treated like Padraig Pearce to some lead poisoning.
And there are others.......who privatise the profits and nationalise the losses and now we are looking at "goldilocks" for PM and Brexit.
How have we got here ? The Open is being played at Portrush, which should be a major boost for tourism over the long term, if the opportunity is seized and exploited.With the worlds eyes for once focussed on the north in a good way and many golfers already in evidence around here at Newcastle and Ardglass, what is the contribution of our friends The Orange Men - a three hour parade with drums through Portrush on Saturday.
I would just love it if I could see some sanity return to our politics and Shane Lowery winning on Sunday would be a good start.
Good luck all - do not lose the faith Hotdog.

Speaking of which - I have a form to tell them that I have moved - thought that the "divi" would be posted to me as a cheque or deposited.
Have seen nothing so far, good job I was not holding my breath or I might have been cremated me by mistake !!
Good luck all.

The UK became a wholly owned subsidiary of the US a long time ago - very few Cherry's are left now or the wealth that was accumulated in pension funds.
The UK is now run by people who think that personal wealth is a sign of virility, which of course it is when it circulates in the economy - too much is now invested in the so called "service industries" which have been mined and inhabited by the same people. They burn resources whilst returning almost nothing to the economy, not to mention the burden of the pensions that these people award to themselves.
Good luck all....