Another Drive4show 'Anything goes' thread

[JAS]

First topic message reminder :

Well done Jas, I've done it a few times and have applied too. Not heard back yet though.

I did it in 2008 Super and was disappointed not to break 4 hours (I ran Glasgow 3 times in the mid 80s with a PB of 2.52) Huge difference in running marathons from early to mid 20's and late 40's/early 50's though. I said in 2008 that I had one more left and it WOULD be sub 4 hours!! I've applied 3 times without success since but I'm in this time.

Nice one JAS...trust all that training won't interfere with the golf schedule too much!

In reality and coupled with the Captaincy it probably will knock my game backwards a bit. C'est la vie :-/. Ideally the day I'd want to be doing my last long training run is the day of the Captains drive in.

Didn't Kirkygolfer run in it - think some of us helped him raise money?

I'm sure somebody from the boards did Kwini, cant remember the name though.

[MontysMerkin]

Yup, increase the interest rate so every home owner struggles with their mortgage. Genius

Happened in the 80's (interest rates up to 15%). Mind you allowed a lot of the landed gentry and a fair few footballers to pick up whole streets of defaulted houses for next to nowt so not all bad.

[navyblueshorts]

What would they be jailed for?
And what's communism got to do with it?

Jailed for?? Oh, I don't know. How about fraud and corruption? I'm sure there's a case-load of charges that could be brought if this turns out to be true. I'm no corporate lawyer so I haven't a clue what they'd be called but I'll be very surprised if this wasn't extremely illegal.

Communism forgot about innate human greed. Capitalism uses it but didn't take into account just how bad it is. Both systems have been/are being found out as a result of the same human instinct.

[super_realist]

greed is good

[BlueCoverman]

...and oral sex gives you cancer

[MontysMerkin]

greed is good

If you're a fat pig. Your ideologies collide!!!

[navyblueshorts]

greed is good

Somewhat simplistic methinks.

[super_realist]

It's Shane Lowry's family motto

[incontinentia]

Shane is from a place in Ireland called 'Offaly', also known as 'the faithful county'. Double whammy for you there soupy.

[super_realist]

Ha ha, more reason to ridicule the gargantuan, gluttenous, gullible god botherer

[incontinentia]

All that admirable alliteration...

[super_realist]

couldn't think of a "g" word for "botherer"

[MontysMerkin]

In another remarkably astute financial move (after the resounding success of privatising the PO) I hear the government is about to sell the £860 million student debt off for £160 million to some of their mates. Greed is good children, greed is good, now look the other way while I nick all yer sweets.

[super_realist]

Why would they even bother for such a piffling amount?

You couldn't build a car park for that.

[mystiroakey]

it could be money that is almost written off

[MontysMerkin]

Yeah but who are they selling it to, for them to make a tidy half billion on? Might be chump change for you but how many wheelchairs would that buy? Health checks for the elderly? Social care (ha!)? It all adds up - there's not much left to sell now. Probation service up for grabs at the mo and it looks like Serco and those 4 singing lads are on a tidy number looking after the prisons.

[McLaren]

Navy

Have you considered that the "harmless" beliefs of the religious masses give credibility to religions influence over many of our most important institutions? A problem which is much more severe around the world.

[Doc]

THE SCOTTISH QUESTION:

Today Salmond releases the white paper and this post isn't a for or against thing, its actually about the reality afterwards. lets say the yes vote wins, what should the Scots actually get from the UK.

Should we allow them to keep sterling. Should we close branches of our banks. Will we need proper border control because the Scots will allow free borders and we cannot. What happens with civil servants and their pay and pensions north of the border. What happens to the BBC as it should be closed down and staff either made redundant or relocated, we cannot just give them it and they wont be paying license fees. What of our armed forces, we cannot have a nuclear fleet based there, and we must close those military bases and relocate our forces back, otherwise we would be expected to pay rent for the bases which are our anyway. We already know that the Glasgow shipyards will not be building our naval ships, so that will move to our own yards. Will future defense redundancies just be Scottish regiments. How will an independant Scotland defend itself, as Salmond says there will be a navy and army? who's equipment because we shouldn't just give them ours.

There are some massive things to resolve which doesn't get much air time, but the list is huge and answers really need giving to all of them so that a proper judgement can be made. Salmond just seems to hang his hat on Oil revenues .....

[super_realist]

As someone who works in the Oil industry I think Salmond has been incredibly stupid in his reliance on this issue.
If the price of a barrel goes down to what it did in the 90's almost no fields in the UK sector are economic.

He is a fat, stupid, necrophiliac, heart attack in waiting and I hope the electorate are smart enough to give him the middle finger the bigot deserves.

[gaelgowfer]

Surely agreements have to be in place BEFORE any vote is taken?

[raycastleunited]

Yeah but who are they selling it to, for them to make a tidy half billion on? Might be chump change for you but how many wheelchairs would that buy? Health checks for the elderly? Social care (ha!)?  

This is an incredibly uninformed post. Where did you do your research, the Sunday Sport or the Sunday Mirror?

How on earth do you think a business is going to make "a tidy half billion" on this loan book? The portfolio comprises 5 year and 7 years student loans originated from 1990 - 1998. Now, if I took out a 5 year loan for £1,000 in 1990 and still haven't repaid it 23 years later, it's a fair bet that I'm not ever going to repay it, and it will cost you a lot of time, money and hassle to track me down, take me to court and pursue me for a couple of hundred pounds. These loans were probably written off years ago, with no prospect of getting a penny more from them, so I think getting £160m is a bonus.

[super_realist]

I'm just listening to the fat fool on 5 live.

I actually feel sick.

[super_realist]

Now lego hair is on. What a moron.

[raycastleunited]

being a capitalist and proud of it,

Hang on, weren't you the one denouncing the profits made by private companies like easyjet only a few days ago?

Let me get this right, you're a capitalist unless it concerns services that you want to use, like cheap flights for golf trips or cheap energy bills?

[MontysMerkin]

Yeah but who are they selling it to, for them to make a tidy half billion on? Might be chump change for you but how many wheelchairs would that buy? Health checks for the elderly? Social care (ha!)?  

This is an incredibly uninformed post. Where did you do your research, the Sunday Sport or the Sunday Mirror?

How on earth do you think a business is going to make "a tidy half billion" on this loan book? The portfolio comprises 5 year and 7 years student loans originated from 1990 - 1998. Now, if I took out a 5 year loan for £1,000 in 1990 and still haven't repaid it 23 years later, it's a fair bet that I'm not ever going to repay it, and it will cost you a lot of time, money and hassle to track me down, take me to court and pursue me for a couple of hundred pounds. These loans were probably written off years ago, with no prospect of getting a penny more from them, so I think getting £160m is a bonus.

The Grauniad I'm afraid. Not sure the figures stack up - most of the people I know were taking the loans at 6 grand a year over 4 years so that would be a bit more than a grand over 5 years. You didn't have to start paying till you earned 24K either.
Ok make that 200 mill? Still be liable for the loans though whether you were likely to pay em back or not, so could be at risk if they change the t's and c's? Still sounds like a stinker to me...
I'm still paying off my bloody student loan and they've changed interest rates a couple of times on me, and as I have to pay at source I have no say in the matter.

[gaelgowfer]

Not to mention the fact that if a Yes vote won the day, Scotland would effectively be outside the EU resulting in dem pesky sassenachs doing 'whitever' they like to us.

[super_realist]

Actually, there is an agreement that if you do not earn a certain amount within a certain time of taking out the loan (20 years I think) then the loan does not have to be repaid.

[super_realist]

Not to mention the fact that if a Yes vote won the day, Scotland would effectively be outside the EU resulting in dem pesky sassenachs doing 'whitever' they like to us.

Why are you so anti english Gael?

[MontysMerkin]

She's Scottish?

[gaelgowfer]

Not to mention the fact that if a Yes vote won the day, Scotland would effectively be outside the EU resulting in dem pesky sassenachs doing 'whitever' they like to us.

Why are you so anti english Gael?

Am I?

[MontysMerkin]

"pesky sassenachs" is a derogatory term. We don't go round calling you lot miserable thick idiots do we?

[gaelgowfer]

Let me put it another way ... for the hard of understanding.  If I go into a shop to buy something surely it's not unreasonable to want to know what I'm getting before parting with my money?

[super_realist]

Where did anyone say otherwise, and what does being Scottish mean that you don't currently get that?

[mystiroakey]

Yeah but who are they selling it to, for them to make a tidy half billion on? Might be chump change for you but how many wheelchairs would that buy? Health checks for the elderly? Social care (ha!)? It all adds up - there's not much left to sell now. Probation service up for grabs at the mo and it looks like Serco and those 4 singing lads are on a tidy number looking after the prisons.

if its high risk debt- they may only be factoring getting a small proportion of it back.

the other firm may only recover 200m of it at significant cost- and any profit made on the 'deal' will be taxable anyway!

plus the fact that its sold to a private company means more will be recovered- less students will get away with not paying there debt and more private sector jobs will be available.

There is allways another side to it Monty.

[raycastleunited]

Yeah but who are they selling it to, for them to make a tidy half billion on? Might be chump change for you but how many wheelchairs would that buy? Health checks for the elderly? Social care (ha!)?  

This is an incredibly uninformed post. Where did you do your research, the Sunday Sport or the Sunday Mirror?

How on earth do you think a business is going to make "a tidy half billion" on this loan book? The portfolio comprises 5 year and 7 years student loans originated from 1990 - 1998. Now, if I took out a 5 year loan for £1,000 in 1990 and still haven't repaid it 23 years later, it's a fair bet that I'm not ever going to repay it, and it will cost you a lot of time, money and hassle to track me down, take me to court and pursue me for a couple of hundred pounds. These loans were probably written off years ago, with no prospect of getting a penny more from them, so I think getting £160m is a bonus.

The Grauniad I'm afraid. Not sure the figures stack up - most of the people I know were taking the loans at 6 grand a year over 4 years so that would be a bit more than a grand over 5 years. You didn't have to start paying till you earned 24K either.
Ok make that 200 mill? Still be liable for the loans though whether you were likely to pay em back or not, so could be at risk if they change the t's and c's? Still sounds like a stinker to me...
I'm still paying off my bloody student loan and they've changed interest rates a couple of times on me, and as I have to pay at source I have no say in the matter.

But people like you who have loan interest deducted at source probably aren't a part of this loan book. Remember, the loans being sold are all at least 15 years old, some of them over 20 years. This was back in the day when there were no tuition fees and students also received grants from their council to cover living expenses. Universities also set aside funds to provide top-up "hardship grants" if you were short of cash. Life was also a lot cheaper 20 years ago... £1 a pint etc. There was no need to borrow more than a couple of grand.

The people who still haven't been able to pay off a tiny little student loan in 20 years are the type of people who have dropped out from society and are sitting in squats wearing hemp clothes eating mung beans, they've never had a job and never will.

[raycastleunited]

"pesky sassenachs" is a derogatory term. We don't go round calling you lot miserable thick idiots do we?

[mystiroakey]

"But people like you who have loan interest deducted at source probably aren't a part of this loan book"

None will be. You would have to be pretty stupid to sell a debt that is getting paid back on time every month with hardly any extra administration costs

[MontysMerkin]

Yeah but who are they selling it to, for them to make a tidy half billion on? Might be chump change for you but how many wheelchairs would that buy? Health checks for the elderly? Social care (ha!)?  

This is an incredibly uninformed post. Where did you do your research, the Sunday Sport or the Sunday Mirror?

How on earth do you think a business is going to make "a tidy half billion" on this loan book? The portfolio comprises 5 year and 7 years student loans originated from 1990 - 1998. Now, if I took out a 5 year loan for £1,000 in 1990 and still haven't repaid it 23 years later, it's a fair bet that I'm not ever going to repay it, and it will cost you a lot of time, money and hassle to track me down, take me to court and pursue me for a couple of hundred pounds. These loans were probably written off years ago, with no prospect of getting a penny more from them, so I think getting £160m is a bonus.

The Grauniad I'm afraid. Not sure the figures stack up - most of the people I know were taking the loans at 6 grand a year over 4 years so that would be a bit more than a grand over 5 years. You didn't have to start paying till you earned 24K either.
Ok make that 200 mill? Still be liable for the loans though whether you were likely to pay em back or not, so could be at risk if they change the t's and c's? Still sounds like a stinker to me...
I'm still paying off my bloody student loan and they've changed interest rates a couple of times on me, and as I have to pay at source I have no say in the matter.

But people like you who have loan interest deducted at source probably aren't a part of this loan book. Remember, the loans being sold are all at least 15 years old, some of them over 20 years. This was back in the day when there were no tuition fees and students also received grants from their council to cover living expenses. Universities also set aside funds to provide top-up "hardship grants" if you were short of cash. Life was also a lot cheaper 20 years ago... £1 a pint etc. There was no need to borrow more than a couple of grand.

The people who still haven't been able to pay off a tiny little student loan in 20 years are the type of people who have dropped out from society and are sitting in squats wearing hemp clothes eating mung beans, they've never had a job and never will.

My loan was for 92-96 and I borrowed 4 K a year for those years to cover bills. Still paying...

[gaelgowfer]

Salmond is basically expecting scots to take a leap of faith into the unknown.  Why should England (and don't forget Wales!) do us any favours were Scotland to vote Yes?  Just can't help feeling the whole referendum thing is an SNP cynical exercise based on having no real expectation of winning in order to justify its existence.

[Doc]

One other thing thats annoying is this: How many civil servants have been tied up with this Scottish thing? They will have been putting together a counter argument and all the leg work and research that goes with it. maybe if they were doing something useful maybe we wouldn't have wasted millions on the now defunct Virgin trains fiasco. A whole army of civil servant mandarins will be playing with this, and how much money will Salmond have spent on this without using his own cash. We must have a load of spare civil servants who can work on projects like this? Or did we have to hire in consultants and at what cost. In a time of austerity vanity projects should be shelved!!

[mystiroakey]

No disrespect Monty but you must be on a very low wage if you are still paying your student loans.

But you will not be part of the debt sell off, I remeber my girlfriend was being deducted 400 pounds a month once she hit a decent wage, and her 6k debt was gone within 2 years

[gaelgowfer]

"pesky sassenachs" is a derogatory term. We don't go round calling you lot miserable thick idiots do we?

Clearly you have an underdeveloped sense of humour.  You should get that seen to.  Here, let me help you ...

[MontysMerkin]

No disrespect Monty but you must be on a very low wage if you are still paying your student loans.

But you will not be part of the debt sell off, I remeber my girlfriend was being deducted 400 pounds a month once she hit a decent wage, and her 6k debt was gone within 2 years

I'm ok now myst thanks, I married well  
However my loan repayments are less than a 100 sheets a month which is why it's taking so long to pay off.
Along with all those years in a squat wearing hemp clothes eating mung beans.

[MontysMerkin]

"pesky sassenachs" is a derogatory term. We don't go round calling you lot miserable thick idiots do we?

Clearly you have an underdeveloped sense of humour.  You should get that seen to.  Here, let me help you ...

Said a Scot          

[mystiroakey]

Well anyway point is- you wont be part of the sell off!

[super_realist]

Not necessarily Oakey, I only started paying my 10 year old loan last year when my salary catapulted miles above the repayment threshold.
He could have been postponing it for years then suddenly come into a considerable salary, or like he says, married well, or could have been on a crafty limited company situation where he only pays himself a "minumum wage"

[MontysMerkin]

Just eventually decided to get a career with pensions et al.
Had been putting it off but in the end shoving a broom is a bit boring.

[mystiroakey]

I was very naughty.

I left uni after 2 years, but for some reason kept getting my grant cheques sent to me for the 3rd year !

I used to jump a train down to Southampton and cash my grant cheques and then jump the train back home..

They did catch up with me a few years later though and i paid it back!

[MontysMerkin]

Well anyway point is- you wont be part of the sell off!

Not bothered about the sell off too much personally, but the fact the government is selling stuff off at silly money to their mates! Sorry, venture capitalist consortium. Like the PO farce - I mean what the f@ck were they thinking? And so we go through this pathetic attempt at an inquiry with the banker boys who just say oops and that's that. It's a national disgrace chum, that's what it is, a national disgrace. Bring back hanging that's what I say, you were lucky etc etc.

[Doc]

Salmond is putting himself forward as the rightful King of Scotland and that ugly, fat Sturgeon the trout wants to be his concubine. Heres a few of his promises, which he has no mandate for, its just a wish list really. Lets hope the Scottish nation sees through this bluster and grandstanding:

1. And here are some further key pledges:
o No tuition fees policy to continue
o Sterling to be retained
o New employment measures to encourage female participation on boards and better employee representation
o Formal relationship between new Scottish Broadcasting Service and BBC to continue programmes and services in Scotland
o Scottish citizens entitled to Scottish passport. Will cost same as UK passport. UK passport will be valid until it runs out
o The new defence force will have 15,000 regulars and 5,000 reserve personnel
o Minimum wage to rise at least in line with inflation
o From April 2016, single tier state pension to be £160 per week
o Royal Mail to be returned to public ownership (by first government of a Scottish independent parliament)
o 30 hours of childcare per week in term time for all 3 and 4-year-olds and vulnerable 2-year-olds
o Trident removed within first parliament
o "Bedroom tax" abolished in first year
o No rise in base rate of tax
o New state pension will be £1.10 per week more than the UK. Pensions will increase either by earnings, CPI inflation or 2.5%, whichever is highest
o Faslane to be retained as a conventional naval base and joint HQ of a Scottish defence force

[mystiroakey]

sterling to be retained and they think they will still be independent!

The Bank of England will still have to control there interest rates,

They might as well just go for devolution.

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