nice one Cyril !

Laying here in bed listening to the road being dug up outside.... about an hour ago a truck with a digger on the back and a couple of vans rolled up and are happily digging away right outside our bedroom window why they couldn't wait until daylight in a couple of hours time I don't know!

Coffee time I think

CC

Hi there,

My problem is even worse!!

Channel 4 have elected to show Houston Texans v. Green Bay Packers LIVE and I am having to watch the Texans getting smashed out of the park and losing for the first time this season!

Why is it painful? Well, a friend of ours from Houston was all set to honour a bet and arrange our flights out to Houston for the Superbowl if they had an undefeated season!! Now, if they make it to Superbowl we will have to find our own fares!

I wish someone would come and dig up my road as I could do with the distraction! Back to the bottle I think!

Best regards,

You have my sympathy Dutto, meanwhile I'm listening to the digger, the dog pacing back and forth, as well as MrsCC sleeping away

42 - 17 off to bed!

Take 'em a cup of tea > and throw it over them!

Nite, nite!

What a surprise... worked through the night and as soon as daylight broke they packed up and left leaving a huge hole outside.... around 8am another crew arrive and do something in the ground, then put some cement in the hole... now I expect another crew will be along to fill the hole in... hardly an emergency that warrants digging the road up in the early hours of the morning the culprits = National Grid

CC

When I was much younger, National Grid dealt with electric, now it appears to be gas - how and when did it change?

Paulmold wrote:When I was much younger, National Grid dealt with electric, now it appears to be gas - how and when did it change?

NG were 'floated' on the stock exchange some years ago, currently in American ownership.

A better question Paul, would be. "What don't they do?" They appear to be into everything, according to the annual prospectus I get relating to the half dozen shares I have.

And before you ask, NO they are not worth much!

Mike D

Hi there,

They started installing the National Gas Grid back in 1964 so that the natural gas finds out in the North Sea could be distributed throughout Britain.

The natural gas entering the grid started at Bacton in Norfolk, then Easington in Yorkshire, then Theddlethorpe in Lincolnshire then .....

By 1975 it covered virtually the whole of Britain and even incorporated the gas coming in at St. Fergus on the Moray Firth.

It was obviously a major project and, to maintain pressure throughout the whole system, apart from pipelines compressor booster stations were also installed at crucial points throughout Britain with a control facility at Hinckley in Leicestershire.

This massive government investment (via British Gas which was a nationalised company) was an incredible success and British Gas made huge annual profits for the Exchequer: which is exactly why it was the very first nationalised company to be sold!!!!!

Best regards,

British Gas...................yes I remember those Natural Gas ads.

They had so much of it, they would practically be giving it away!

Remember the digging up of every street in London at the time.

"British" Gas

PB

peugeotboxer wrote:British Gas...................yes I remember those Natural Gas ads.

They had so much of it, they would practically be giving it away!

Remember the digging up of every street in London at the time.

"British" Gas

PB

Hi PB

("Tell Sid")

That was before all the streets were dug up yet again to install cable vision, at the same time cutting off 'phone lines, gas and electricity supplies. What fun that was!

Happy days.

Mike D

1b449 wrote:

peugeotboxer wrote:British Gas...................yes I remember those Natural Gas ads.

They had so much of it, they would practically be giving it away!

Remember the digging up of every street in London at the time.

"British" Gas

PB

Hi PB

("Tell Sid")



That was before all the streets were dug up yet again to install cable vision, at the same time cutting off 'phone lines, gas and electricity supplies. What fun that was!

Happy days.

Mike D

Well I didn't buy any of those shares that 'sid' told me about.
Wonder if i would be a rich man now if I had?

With regard to the natural gas conversion, also remember that all the gas jets had to be changed as well.
Can remember our gas fire (in the parlor) being taped up not to be used as it couldn't be converted! Dad wasn't pleased!

PB

peugeotboxer wrote:
..........

Well I didn't buy any of those shares that 'sid' told me about.
Wonder if i would be a rich man now if I had?

Hi there PB,

Here's another history lesson, sorry!

"Selling the privatised industries of Britain to the people that already owned them will be regarded as the biggest con of the 20th century!!" (I am quoting an American financial advisor to Ronald Reagan.)

When they sold off British Gas they were nervous that the general public may object so they launched the huge "tell Sid" campaign that we of a certain age remember so well.

When selling British Gas the shares were deliberately undervalued so that the general public would buy into the scheme, cash the shares in almost immediately, get a quick "profit" and then beg for more. (Pavlov's dogs have nothing on the UK general public when it comes to short-term gain v. long term pain!)

However, the real reason it was an incredible con was that only 45% of the shares in British Gas were actually offered to the general public and the remaining 55% of shares were sold to the financial institutions friendly to the government of the day.

So, if the hundreds of thousands of "little people" who bought £200 worth of shares "made a profit" by selling them for £250 imagine the profits made by the hundred or so financial institutions that bought the other 55% of the shares!

It was such a "success" that by the time British Telecom (yet another highly profitable company) was sold off there was no "Tell Sid" campaign and the level of contempt shown to the general public reached epic proportions; as demonstrated by the fact that only 15% of the shares were offered to the general public and the remaining 85% were "sold" (i.e. undervalued and dispensed yet again) to the government's friends in the City.

Enjoy your utility bills people. You only have yourselves to blame!!

Best regards,


PS Before someone comes in and says something like "We couldn't afford to keep subsidising everything!" please let me point out that ALL of the companies sold off were profitable in public ownership. Even the National Coal Board made enough money from its investments in offshore gas fields to off-set any "subsidies" that the coal-mining side of the business required and we still subsidise the railways just as much as we did before privatisation.

Well said

Hi,

I would like to add, before anyone gets the idea I'm 'minted'.

I never bought gas or telecom shares, the NG shares were 'gifted' as at the time I was in the industry. I have never bought, sold or cashed them in, and dont really have much interest in their value. Nor do they do not get me cheap electricity! (As if...)

Mike D

1b449 wrote:Hi,

I would like to add, before anyone gets the idea I'm 'minted'.

I never bought gas or telecom shares, the NG shares were 'gifted' as at the time I was in the industry. I have never bought, sold or cashed them in, and dont really have much interest in their value. Nor do they do not get me cheap electricity! (As if...)

Mike D

Mike,

I'm reminded of the Forrest Gump bit where he more or less says "A friend of mine bought me shares in some kind of fruit company. They are called Apple and they seem to be doing very well."

Ha! We wish eh?

Best regards,

Ian

Nice one Ian!

Mike D