Northern On-the-rocks (the Sequel)

[threegee]

The greatly anticipated Branson masterplan surfaces. In short: the existing shareholders pitch in £650M of good money after bad. Virgin tips in £250M (roughly equal to what NR is bleeding every single day just at the moment), and somehow manages to end up with 55% of the equity!

Get this one past the censors and RB will soon be able to put his train set back in the box, and retire to the Bahamas. Even be able to afford his very own island!

[Pencil_Neck]

The greatly anticipated Branson masterplan surfaces. In short: the existing shareholders pitch in £650M of good money after bad. Virgin tips in £250M (roughly equal to what NR is bleeding every single day just at the moment), and somehow manages to end up with 55% of the equity!

Get this one past the censors and RB will soon be able to put his train set back in the box, and retire to the Bahamas. Even be able to afford his very own island!

Folk with beards........

[Monsta®]

The greatly anticipated Branson masterplan surfaces. In short: the existing shareholders pitch in £650M of good money after bad. Virgin tips in £250M (roughly equal to what NR is bleeding every single day just at the moment), and somehow manages to end up with 55% of the equity!

Get this one past the censors and RB will soon be able to put his train set back in the box, and retire to the Bahamas. Even be able to afford his very own island!

do you own shares in NR like?

[threegee]

do you own shares in NR like?

Already answered that; pay attention in the back row!

The answer is no. And, I don't like - like!

Lots of moms and pops in our area probably still do though - under the impression that it was as safe as Barings and The Bank of England. I've been saying that is was being run by a bunch of incompetents for the last twenty five odd years. Unfortunately no one seemed to be listening!

[Pencil_Neck]

Already answered that; pay attention in the back row!

The answer is no. And, I don't like - like!

Lots of moms and pops in our area probably still do though - under the impression that it was as safe as Barings and The Bank of England. I've been saying that is was being run by a bunch of incompetents for the last twenty five odd years. Unfortunately no one seemed to be listening!

Very true.......

[Monsta®]

Already answered that; pay attention in the back row!

The answer is no. And, I don't like - like!

Lots of moms and pops in our area probably still do though - under the impression that it was as safe as Barings and The Bank of England. I've been saying that is was being run by a bunch of incompetents for the last twenty five odd years. Unfortunately no one seemed to be listening!

you cant say that! it was'nt there fault that a load of fat americans defaulted on there mortgages! why they were aloud to get mortgages in the first place is a mystery! but !*!@# happens!

[Pencil_Neck]

you cant say that! it was'nt there fault that a load of fat americans defaulted on there mortgages! why they were aloud to get mortgages in the first place is a mystery! but !*!@# happens!

Racism, sexism.......now fattism ......some collection of views you hold dear boy

[Denzel]

Already answered that; pay attention in the back row!

The answer is no. And, I don't like - like!

Lots of moms and pops in our area probably still do though - under the impression that it was as safe as Barings and The Bank of England. I've been saying that is was being run by a bunch of incompetents for the last twenty five odd years. Unfortunately no one seemed to be listening!

And I bet you were listening to The Arctic Monkeys before anyone else.

[Pete]

And I bet you were listening to The Arctic Monkeys before anyone else.

Come on Denzel everybody knows theres no monkeys in the Artic, might find them white bears though.

[threegee]

And I bet you were listening to The Arctic Monkeys before anyone else.

Artic who?

Not in my music collection; not that it gets many plays these days. I mean have you tried buying gramophone needles in Bedlington recently?!

[threegee]

This gets more comical by the day.

Now we learn that their pension fund trustees also had an arm and leg invested in NR, and in extricating themselves have manage to turn a healthy surplus into, at very least, a £100M deficit. They're demanding someone bail them out of their foolishness too!

http://news.bbc.co.u...ess/7182668.stm

This is a poison-pill which could more or less assure that anyone anticipating any sort of rescue will walk away.

Meanwhile the taxpayer is holding the baby to the tune of a very large proportion of the entire national reserves. The current hopes that middle east oil money will save the day. Somehow, I don't think so!

The pound has now plummeted to an all-time low against the euro and inflationary pressures are building. IMHO Alastair Darling is completely clueless, and the sooner he gos the less damage the economy will suffer. Even if he were to resign tomorrow (most unlikely) the outlook would be only a tiny bit less bleak.

The unelected Mr Brown hasn't got the guts to call an election, and - next in a long chain of sleaze - his aspiring deputy has been caught-out taking illegal contributions to the tune of £103,000.

The entire British political system is a complete and utter farce, right down to the local government level. What's to do? Call an expensive enquiry (led by trusted political chums) to tell us what we already know; tinker with a few inconsequential things; then paper over the cracks and pretend things can continue as ever - all in typical British fashion. There are times to envy countries which have had a revolution!

[Malcolm Robinson]

The entire British political system is a complete and utter farce, right down to the local government level. What's to do? Call an expensive enquiry (led by trusted political chums) to tell us what we already know; tinker with a few inconsequential things; then paper over the cracks and pretend things can continue as ever - all in typical British fashion. There are times to envy countries which have had a revolution!

Line them up against the wall comrade! I guess this is what you get once you have career politicians with no real world experience!

NR looks like it will be NNNNNationalised........now there is a blast from the past!

[Denzel]

Come on Denzel everybody knows theres no monkeys in the Artic, might find them white bears though.

They got eaten by penguins.

[threegee]

They got eaten by penguins.

Yet another place Ryanair ruined with their 1p long-haul flights then?

[Denzel]

Yet another place Ryanair ruined with their 1p long-haul flights then?

Yes, I think holidays to far-flung destinations should be the sole reserve of the idle rich.

[threegee]

Yes, I think holidays to far-flung destinations should be the sole reserve of the idle rich.

Never had a problem with poor penguins (idle or not). The problem is with penguins who don't know how to behave on someone else's iceflow.

[Pete]

Never had a problem with poor penguins (idle or not). The problem is with penguins who don't know how to behave on someone else's iceflow.

All Penguins are Toon supporters.

[threegee]

...NR looks like it will be NNNNNationalised........now there is a blast from the past!

Yup!!

Now how much are the shares worth? Government can't be seen to be subsidising all those "idle rich" shareholders by supporting their risk-taking habit.

[Symptoms]

Now how much are the shares worth? Government can't be seen to be subsidising all those "idle rich" shareholders by supporting their risk-taking habit.

In reality, the shares are currently worthless, so all those sucked into Thatcher's 'Share Owning Democracy' myth will lose most of their investment. Of course, 'the idle rich' don't risk their loot in things like NR, they 'top slice' their commission before investing the residue of the poor punters' redundancy money; yes, the 'idle rich', and their sons & grandsons, tend to be the stockbrokers - thieving bastards the lot of them! Playing the Stock Market is the same as going to the bookies - how many of Paddy Powers clients expect all their wager back when they lose?

The only ones I feel sorry for are the Staff of NR who are likely to lose their jobs

[Malcolm Robinson]

This now looks like a very humiliating episode for Mr. Darling and by association Mr. Brown! Good job there is turmoil in other parts of the financial world or this would have been the joke of the year! If Mr. Darling does go, and what will it take if not blatant incompetence on many levels, it must reflect on Brown and his government. Blair seems to have got out when the going was good, or comparatively so! Does every government who has been in power for quite a long time descend into a shambles? These people shouldn't be running a beetle drive!

It's about time we sought recompense off the likes of directors who had inside knowledge of this and the only thing they did was to sell millions of pounds worth of shares when they were at a high price before any public crash and even walking away with golden handshakes!

[Malcolm Robinson]

Will the NR be able to compete for business as normal with all the ho ha about its recent change? Brown said it will return a good dividend to the national purse and be privatised in the years to come but that means it has to be profitable and without being able to develop new and existing business how can that be? The other banks are already crying foul and the guy in charge has now brought in a management consultancy firm to lay plans. Why do WE need to pay Sandler if his first action was to bring in planners to lay down a blueprint which he will follow? Like Mac Greggor in times past he is to be the, very well paid, scapegoat for all the jobs which will inevitably be lost!

[Pete]

Will the NR be able to compete for business as normal with all the ho ha about its recent change? Brown said it will return a good dividend to the national purse and be privatised in the years to come but that means it has to be profitable and without being able to develop new and existing business how can that be? The other banks are already crying foul and the guy in charge has now brought in a management consultancy firm to lay plans. Why do WE need to pay Sandler if his first action was to bring in planners to lay down a blueprint which he will follow? Like Mac Greggor in times past he is to be the, very well paid, scapegoat for all the jobs which will inevitably be lost!

Hear, hear

[Malcolm Robinson]

There's at least a third to go in an effort to make the company tradeable. I don't belive this is what nationalisation was all about, it used to be about workers rights, job protection and having industries which are necessary for the state to control its own future in the public sector. We now have a socalist Gov essentially running a private business? How times have changed!