JetSet

Another good example of rare = valuable. Remind me very much of The Silver Bullets built by AirStream in the 40's and 50's. (except they were caravans ) Pete

In many circumstances I'd say yes. Politicians at a government level should be above suspicion IMO. Yes, and whoever sanctioned the payments. It's one of the reasons why so few people bother voting, just adds to "they're all corrupt" attitude of the general public Fair enough, but payments and bungs to the police from newspapers have been going on long before Blunket had any power, long before he was born too. Just depends how far back the police want to look I guess? Pete

If this is true then Cameron is going to face a lot of awkward questions. Pete Why? At the time of Milly Dowlers disappearance & the soham murders he wasnt even a front bench MP for the opposition. He may face some questions about how the police are going to clear this up now, but trying to lay blame at his door for the polices antics during the time of all this wont fly. David Blunket and/or Charles Clarke should be the ones facing the sternest questions imho. Because Coulson was appointed by Cameron 6 months after he resigned from The News of The World over the hacking allegations, there was much criticism about his appointment at the time. He (Coulson) has consistently denied any involvement, but if these latest revelations are to be believed then he has a serious problem. It's not going to look good if someone who was at the heart of government finishes up in prison. As for Blunket, he resigned in 2004, 2 years before the first news of the hacking scandal broke, are you suggesting he knew all about it and hushed it up? Anyway, it'll be interesting to see how this works out, I get the feeling that there's a lot more to come out yet. Pete

Just taken from The BBC News site If this is true then Cameron is going to face a lot of awkward questions. Pete

Too right....and more explosive revelations to come. Pete

+1 Pete

Yeah, no figures given but the A55 in North Wales is, or should I say was, due to be converted into a 6 lane highway for over 100 miles. I know that the Welsh Assembly is now having second thoughts about this as the cost has spiraled to well over a billion and traffic levels have dropped by about 15% since the peak of 2007. They originally expected a 20% increase in traffic flow over a 10 year period and it just hasn't happened. TBH, I think we will see very few new major projects from now on it just doesn't make sense to spend billions on roads when usage is bound to drop from now on. I don't think there's ever going to be that much demand for electric vehicles either, they still need charging up and the price of electric is going to soar even more in the next few years. So, enjoy it while you can, the golden age of motoring will be over within the next 20 years Enter the second coming of The Railway, the only way forward really. Pete

this is true, my mum owns a MGBGT V8, and isnt worth that much even tho there is less than 1000 on the road still (driven or undriven). but the the MGC is now worth mega bucks. in excess of £20k!! when she was restoring both the MGBGT 1.9 and the MGBGT V8 you could pick up a "C" for about 3 grand. as it was a less desirable car at the time. i do believe that the "350z" will be a classic of some sort in the future. Good point, the MGC was something of a disaster for British Leyland, overweight, overpriced, handled like a pig and needed a lot of attention to keep it on the road, consequently very few were sold. Cars that sold badly or fell apart very quickly are the ones that become classics very quickly because of the rarity value more than anything else. It'll be a long time before the Zed becomes a classic as they're less likely to scrapped in large numbers for many years yet. GT4's are a special case though, very limited numbers built, a classic for sure Pete

The advertised Jag is a bit of a stunner, love the styling and the equipment level is very impressive... however I don't think I would be looking to spend almost £28k on a 5 year old car but that's just me . Pete

Thank goodness for that Pete

A lot cheaper to stay in New Jersey and get the bus into New York. I was looking at an overnight stay on my way back from Denver and some sightseeing in New York. Found that Hotels in NYC are very expensive and Hotels near to Newark Airport come in at about 50% of the price. Some even offer free transportation into New York Price for flights sound about right, cost me £600 to get to Denver in early June last year, November is usually the cheapest month for flights, prices get hiked for the Christmas period. Continental were the cheapest in 2009/10 from Manchester and as luck would have it their hub is at Newark, Delta used to be the cheapest but have ramped their prices up over the last few years. Pete

Awesome idea but not sure I'd want to do it in the Zed Isn't Norway like a giant block of ice? Norway is horrendously expensive, The Scottish Nationalists who always mention Norway as an example of what small countries can achieve should try living there for a few weeks (pint of beer £8-10) packet of fags (£8-9) . Beautiful country though and not as cold as you'd think in fact the summer climate of Southern Norway is pretty good. Further North it stays pretty cool right through summer but you've got the advantage of almost eternal daylight. Low population means that away from the handful of cities the roads are nice and quiet Pete

Cool reg number Pete

Bugger, I've had keys previously that you can get wet and it's really handy for surfing - looks like it's waterproof bag time or sandy burial then Well, apparently one of the undocumented features is that the valet key should switch the alarm off when opening the door, mine doesn't so it must have been submerged at some time or the chip is damaged. The problem is that I don't see how the chip in the valet key can be powered up, no battery in there Pete

Nah, the baby boomers children are going to start another baby boom, there'll be plenty of kids to keep the pension companies happy while they pay our pensions. Yeah, that seems to be the cunning plan, just keep expanding the population like there's no tomorrow Pete

There's quite a few in The Deeside/Chester/Wrexham/Wirral area that are here on the forum . Even more who aren't on the forum too Pete

There's what looks like a microchip in it. Definitely not waterproof as you can prise the chip out. Pete

I was actually working on a £25k figure for a teachers salary, that's how I arrived at £12.5K, do classroom teachers start on £30k these days? Anyway, lump sums will reduce your pension, I took the tax free max I could and my pension was reduced accordingly. Point taken....the pension fund didn't get into trouble till the 90's and the whole thing is quite frankly a mess. Much of the damage was done in the crash, but trouble had been brewing for several years before that. Where does the money come from? Good question, obviously the proposed increase in pension payments will help and so will increasing the retirement age, I don't have any problem with that, other than there'll be a period when very few people are retiring and it'll difficult for young people to find jobs, but so be it. I'm not keen on career average pensions but if inflation was taken into account then I'd be O.K with that too. The truth is though that we should have been looking at this decades ago, or has it come as a surprise to the authorities that the baby boomers like me born just after The War are all approaching retirement age . As you quite rightly say it'll get a lot worse and probably never better again. We need to get it right and not leave it until the baby boomers children get to retire and have to go through this process again. Pete

Let's deal with the pension contributions first, it's true that only around £160 was paid in in 1976, but that money would have been invested into a fund and would have grown substantially since 1976. Further contributions from 1977-2011 would also also have gone into the pot, there should be after 35 years contributions quite a bit in there if the money was invested properly. The trouble with a career average is that it doesn't allow for inflation, for example a teachers salary of £2.5k in 1976 would be worth at least £15k (probably a lot more) today. Therefore I don't think its fair to tot up a persons earnings through their career and divide it by the number of years worked....if there was zero inflation then yeah, I'd be happy with them doing that. Don't forget that inflation in the 70's touched 30% at times. Your calculations based on a 17.5k pension are incorrect. Unless you joined the pension scheme after 2007 your pension will be based on 1/80, there was no backdating of this so a teacher retiring today would at very best be 43/80th's and for most it would be 40/80's about £12.5k. It's also worth bearing in mind than new teachers now face an extra 3 years of work , based on a 47 year career this would mean that in theory you could get a pension of 47/60th's but unless you are a company director you can't go above 40/60th's by law. So, as I see it you could possibly be paying in for an extra 7 years for nothing. Leave early and your pension will be reduced accordingly (usually 3.5% for each year). And BTW, Wonga charge 4214% Pete

Very Nice Pete

+1, The 30ft RV I rented in The States had a river under it every time I parked up. Pete

Looks like something David Beckham would buy for his 5 year old Pete

Yeah, I enjoyed owning it. Considering the size of the engine it would keep up with things like the Mini GT, Sprite and Spitfire. Bad points were the water pump and the head gasket, my GF at the time also had one and had to have the engine rebuilt when the gasket failed...warped head, bent valves,etc . The engine was also very difficult to work on and you had to lift the bonnet up to put petrol in . On the plus side is was more comfortable than a Mini, much more room too and had a much better dashboard . Not many of them left now but I think you can still pick them up at reasonable prices. Pete

No way of telling if its an import, but I can tell from the rear lights that it's a pre facelift model . I've used Buckley tyres since the 80's, best service and prices for miles Pete

Just under 650 here. Zed 1 276 Zed 2 309 Clio 60 Total 645 Pete