Member Info for torquay

When it was decided to expand the EU in response to the growing strength and influence of the USA, the politicians of the time thought that strength and certainty could only be assured by being part of a trading block. Likewise with the banks who were encouraged to enlarge themselves through their acquisition of most of the building society's and merging themselves into financial monoliths. What developed out of this creation were financial "incredible hulks" who did not know their own strength or how to manage their risk, because they were now so big that it scarcely mattered. We all know how that ended or has it ended yet, the level of debt in the two main "capitalist systems UK and America" is beginning to cause problems again which is affecting sentiment and investment decisions. We just have to content ourselves to be patient and make haste slowly and incrementally, because we are ALL only to aware from past experience what happens when economy's "go global" and become overwhelmed with irrational exuberance. Good luck all

Reading recent posts (not very many) I was surprised at the waspish tone in the response by our Mr Mac to a recent DCB contribution. BOI can only prosper, as we all know, from heightened commercial and financial activity which is now being manufactured in Europe according to our friend Juncker. The banks are not going to do anything when interest rates are so low and unrewarding - their impaired loan books are now looking much tidier - with QE creating a reasonably comfortable environment for them to operate in, why should they do anything when the bonuses are quite good anyway. That leaves the politicians who haven't got a clue over here - whatever about the fulminations of some of the Brexit fans both in Westminster and on the Lloyds forum. My daughter recently attended a conference in London which was considering the effects of Brexit and wondering how to plan for the future. One contributor stated that if only Ireland had joined the Commonwealth we would never have been in this mess - how does anyone respond to that and hope that the response bears fruit.!! Good luck all..

Up from its low point which I think I remember as being 6.80

At least we know NOW that there are people still out there. nite nite

Which is perfectly understandable when all the news sounds like a soap opera about Brexit - we are getting a little light relief with discussions and items about the terrible hurricane season - but it isn't good to see so much destruction and genuine hardship out in the carribean. Still they got Boris out there today - so that's all right then. Can't even get a laugh on Lloyds board their all going in for one liners - most of them meaningless. Good luck all.

Have been thinking for some time that X4 had become invisible of late - and there you are - hope all continues to go well for you and that you are now well recovered from all the surgery. Watching this board is like waiting for paint to dry.

When I came over in 1986 after being at home for ten very happy years - well eight anyway - I looked around for a place to live and a business that I could buy - we decided on Torquay having covered a great deal of ground. We never came to stay, it was always our intention to return, in fact our eldest did just that when she went back to attend University - she has never left and is now raising her two sons. Brexit will put the Tin Hat on this place - if our hotels are obliged to recruit from our overflowing Jobcentre - they will be weakened before they start. What we have coming onto the job market from our schools or simply migrating to the town from city's up country are mostly ill disciplined and unpleasant youngsters who quite often are completely unsuited to the hard work that is required in the hotel industry. As I have previously stated the hotel industry here is failing anyway - Torbay had 65,000 letting beds in its hotels when we came into the Bay - we now have 18,000 beds and still the established premier hotels are being sold as their owners look elsewhere to invest rather than employ local labour on the living wage. In any case my bones would never rest easy here - I want finally to settle where we will be happy for the few years that we have left now that our girls are settled. Torquay is not a place that I would visit on holiday, because it is far too commercialised and traffic choked these days thanks to the councils "traffic calming schemes" Each year it becomes more seedy with the spread of greasy spoon cafes in replacement for restaurants and the smell of Wacky Backy and worse along with Iceland's barbecue packs being lit all over Tor Abbey Meadow. The last couple of seasons have been quite good for the businesses that survived, they are now taking the opportunity of the better trading figures that they can now show to sell up - before the frost ( Brexit ) sets in again. Ireland will be affected by Brexit but not as badly as here - if interest rates rise it will have a drastic effect on the local economy here, all the new B & B and Hotel owners who have paid big money to buy into here will suffer. Having freed up our capital the colleen and I will be better off if the interest rates rise and will save a small fortune on our repeated trips to Ireland. Maybe if we decide that we are going back, we can try a few trips to the continent with the money that we save on all the journeys that we make to visit our family in their various parts of the old sod because we can travel for free on the train and the bus. It is almost a certainty that we will be returning, just so long as our sales complete - contracts are being prepared now but we are also looking at Wales too - but I won't be looking that hard - only at the golf courses. Now it's later than I thought - see what happens when my thoughts are stirred up. Good luck..

As our "over managed" Health Service is slowly being bled to death by all the fellow travellers who have attached themselves to it, because the public purse is so reliable when it comes to getting paid and of course you get a pension as well. As the system here is sinking Ireland is getting better and excesses which are present here are slowly being ironed out over there. The hospital in Sevenoaks was reported this year to have a budget of 300MLn - 200MLn is being spent on administration and pensions. The same is true of the Police, slowly disappearing like the Armed forces because of the need to pay attractive amounts in order to recruit successfully - these of course also produce entitlement to pensions which are amazingly generous throughout the public service - the more silver and gold braid that you have, the more pension you are entitled to. You have to wonder, when you consider Hillsborough, how these people get these jobs !! We are now looking into the industry that has grown up around education and Vice Chancellor's salaries - one or two of them are paid more than twice as much as Saint Theresa AND if you Google a list of the Universities the list is practically endless - you could almost say that every town should have one but some like Birmingham have several. Tony's mantra was education education but a good share of it is a waste of time, unless it leads back into Education or the Public Service and who pays for that ? It is a situation that really does not bear thinking about - the young generation here have quite a bleak future to look forward to, when you consider that they are obliged to join the world of work ( the treadmill ) up to 50K in debt before they even think about a mortgage or a car. I know that there are supposed to be great jobs in the City, but they are only available to the cream of graduates who quite often are recruited from abroad along with our bright sparks. How many of the lads who came over here on the buildings and the M1 went to university ? The Murphy's, Gleeson's, Kennedys and Finnegans etc all worked hard and prospered and you know how good Irish schools were in those days. I know that there were exceptions dotted around the country but mostly it was dismal. Now look at Ireland - they understand the value of education which advantages it's people, because employment quite often looks for them e.g Apple, Dell, Google, Hewlett Packard and Intel to name just a few of them who have brought employment into Ireland. Yes Ireland has come a long way from the old donkey and cart and the steel rimmed wheels on the hay floats - AND they have done it themselves - I know that there is a lot more still to do - but look where they started from. Good luck to you...

The currency rises - so the share drops - funny isn't it ?? Wish that I had jumped when this was over 7.00 - I could be buying back in now, sure of making a profit. Painful isn't it - am beginning to understand the consolidation suggestion - why not give them away !! AS IF - WHEN WE HAVE ALL WAITED THIS LONG.... Good luck all.

Just read what I posted last night again and realise that it is now almost fifty years since I was in your neck of the woods. That your Polyglot neighbours voted for Brexit does not surprise me, when you consider where most of them come from, they would have very limited connections with Europe or interest in wines and ski-ing. Bet they all drive european cars though just like me. As parliament deliberates Brexit, I am quite sure that when they have exhausted every possibility that won't work, someone will make a suggestion in the members bar that may just get adopted. Personally I am waiting for the economist to speak (Vince Cable) - he seems for the moment to be keeping his powder dry until next month and the Conference Season, when no doubt ideas will be aired or he is just not being reported. The Conservatives will do their best to look as though they are doing something and the Labour Party will keep muttering, now that they seem at last to have developed a policy which one or two of them understand. Good luck all.

Thank you Martin for your faith in my opinion, I just hope that your confidence is not miss-placed because you have to remember that it is over forty years since I lived in London. In those days the 32 Club was in Harlesden and the Galtymore was in Cricklewood along with many other halls around London and I danced in them all almost every night. We still have family in London and I do travel up there once or twice a year but it no longer feels the same - the sights have changed a lot, almost beyond recognition. It used to be that Southall was the international district, which has obviously now overflowed, contributing to the change that is so noticeable now. So far as addressing these changes and some of the problems that have come with them, I am at a loss to offer any insight for fear of stirring up the thought police. Everything now is on message to the point of incoherence, which in part explains the current state of the country. I do not enjoy visiting London any more, because it so hard to get anywhere unless you travel on the underground which I cannot abide and never could. It was fun when I lived there and met my Colleen, but those days and that city are long gone but the memories are still good. Now I've rambled long enough and it's getting late for the lad who got another year older today - hardly seems possible.. Good luck all.

Thank you for your post and comments you do however mistake me if you think that I see the Lloyds forum as fun. With regard to Brexit it is certainly very far from being funny. If you can see what the effect of Brexit is going to be, along with myself and a lot of your friends and most of the people who post on here - "WHY CAN'T THE LLOYDS SHARE HOLDERS" ?? As somebody who has been subject to the vagaries of the British economy for the last thirty years, survived two attempts at re-possession whilst the economy continued to deteriorate, I know only too well what your view of the short term future is likely to be. I find it astonishing that so many of these people are incapable of thinking for themselves, preferring to believe what they are or have been told by Carmeron, Osborne and Boris Johnson and The Telegraph and Times. The bottom line is that they are incapable of working within a financial discipline, which has now resulted in the third devaluation of the currency quite apart from Black Friday with Lamont or whatever day it happened. The future here is looking more and more bleak, because of memory loss by our "Current" leaders. At least in Ireland inward investment will continue, because of its able and educated work force and the country's have a go attitude. Getting late - must go. Good luck all

I'm sorry that there have been so many references to Brexit on here and our need to poke it's adherents in the eye elsewhere but really with the dismal performance of this little pony - what are we to do - watch Newsnight. It is sad that ALL of the markets seem connected to the hive like the Borg in Star Trek and share the same herd mentality but there we are. D C B I do tick the recommend box on that other site for most of the posts identified with fair minded and intelligent comment which you always seem to submit - unfortunately all that happens is the o lot of those "numpty's" filter you. Now having said all that and probably annoyed one of our best posters by mentioning that subject again, it is good to see the site waking up again. Come October and the Conference season I am sure we will have much to discuss as the tension mounts and the pips (Tories) start to squeak. Going over now to put a bit of sugar on the flames. Good luck all... will look in later.

thinking about replacing the Vor Sprung which was why I bought the shares in the first place, couldn't see a downside @ the price of entry - then they collapsed. It has been a very slow and really quite a poor recovery - should have sold at the same time as Trump's pal Wilbur when they were .39cents. It's not all bad news however, with the pound as weak as it is, I would benefit from the uplift which may not last that long may even drop them as soon as tomorrow, so that I can buy back in when "Sterling recovers" - although that might take a change in the government. I am influenced by the summers of the seventy's - when the Punt always rose during the holidays encouraging tourists to spend - they always fell for it mostly - because the poor folks do not do calculus when on holiday. Under present conditions with sentiment as it is, a self fulfilling prophecy being prepared so far as property is concerned, I think that we just got out in time. We'll take our time now before deciding our next move, I have a couple of cosmetic jobs I want doing on the present car, before we travel over to see the grandchildren and make the last visit in this car whilst looking at property south of the border. I sympathise Hotdog, but I do not see that much excitement on the horizon new CEO or not - Europe almost booming would have had a good effect on the share price normally - BUT what you can gain with one hand in Europe you could lose in the UK until they decide that the country is better off inside Europe than wandering about on its own. The old relationship with America - when the economic cycle here was five years and the US was three years ahead does not apply anymore - thanks to globalisation. Very wet here today - real West Coast weather. Good luck all.

Is everybody hibernating or are they having a good laugh on the Lloyds forum along DCB and MickB and myself - I think I remember a post from Martin also. I find it very hard to believe that all their posters are serious about Brexit - but most of them are - talk about Don Quixote I had no idea that DCB was so well acquainted with the North East and its litany of misfortunes - It certainly silenced somebody called Gino73 when I must have touched one of his over sense-ative nerves - anybody think he's Niall Quinn,after all Sunderland are called the Black Cats and they are trying to bounce back. Movement and momentum will be slow whilst we wait for the White Flag to be raised in Whitehall - they surely must come to their senses soon. In the meantime we must all be patient, because this is going to end up as a hard boiled egg. Saw some comments from Gerry Adams who is not yet entitled to a chip in game. Good luck all..

CORRECTION - I don't sleep under the mattress at all - "it is of course" a quilt. From the sound of things, much the same is going on in Ireland where Garda Barracks have suffered serious cuts in manpower, in the villages many of the offices are open but only when an infrequent visit is made by patrolling guards. Ours has been mothballed for years because of a new "small" office next the Parish priests home. Good nite all - busy day tomorrow.

It seems just as hot tonight which is fine if you are playing golf - sleeping under a 4 Tog mattress is almost impossible for me. One of my golfing partners - a real hard boiled Lloyds investor type and a retired surgeon trained by the Army and allowed to "practice" in Belfast in the70's before joining the NHS. He took early retirement because he was not going to be interfered with by any "Clinical Commissioning" body, but also because he could no longer accept the wholesale plundering of hospital resources by "administrators" who pay themselves quite often 500K PA and retire with pensions of 100K regardless of contribution or qualifications. These people have the authority to control budgets and plan our surgeons work. You could not make up or believe what has been done to the NHS over the last thirty years with everybody managing it - our last two chief executives are in prison - one for misrepresentation (no qualifications) and the other for corruption - she left the hospital in handcuffs. My friend tells me that an ever increasing amount is being spent on financing the pensions of these people, who award themselves their salaries and decide at what level they wish to oporate within the organisation. He is extremely worried when he sees the amounts going out versus the hospital's income. My friend tells me that he is extremely worried because the same has been going on in the Police Service and Education - Squeaky Bum Time indeed. He asked me today what was going to happen to Ireland once Brexit goes ahead? I said don't worry about Ireland !! They have good friends in the Germans who have made great investments in Irelands Water, Sewerage and Roads, as well as many initiatives to create employment. This information seems only to have made him more unhappy because, the more that he thinks about Brexit, the more that he see's that the countries flag is flying at "Half Mast" Would love a party but at the moment where would we have it. DCB - don't forget to post a line to Lloyds because the tide is turning - how are our MP's really going to survive, when they see the vans arriving at Nissan et al. ALL THOSE JOBS DISAPPEARING - who will vote for them again. Good luck all.

Unfortunately I waited until my artery collapsed due to furring, and was lucky to escape with such a minor intervention. Am not going to compose at length this evening as I am quietly stewing - 72 degrees F @ 11.30 IN THE KITCHEN - WITH THE WINDOW OPEN.

As a devoted smoker for nearly fifty years - until my incident - I have every sympathy with this who are still attached to their addiction but can really recommend the alternative now that I have tried it. More energy because I sleep better, but mostly because I was told that if my stent was not a success they would have to go IN through my chest. The upside of my abstinence is that I can pay my golf membership and a few drinks with what I have saved,

Exactly what is required, but it still does not alter the fact that it should never have happened in the first place and probably wouldn't have if the British banks, RBS in particular had not sailed in to hoover up all those deposits. I find myself very much in sympathy with your sentiments - good luck....