EastleighSoulBoy

Spot. On.

Great news in these uncertain days! Thanks for keeping us in the loop Tim.

You mean you haven't the hearts to tell us now?

Doug Ellis (Villa) A bit of an enigma really because he oversaw their decline and then their rise back through the divisions. One minute a benevolent benefactor and seemingly at one with the fans. The next minute clamping down on spending, sacking managers and reviled by many Villa fans. So when will . . Nah, I'll leave someone else to ask.

IMPORTANT Have you got a valid driving licence? Unwitting motorists face £1,000 fines as thousands of photocard driving licences expire Thousands of motorists are at risk of being fined up to £1,000 because they are unwittingly driving without a valid licence. They risk prosecution after failing to spot the extremely small print on their photocard licence which says it automatically expires after 10 years and has to be renewed - even though drivers are licensed to drive until the age of 70. The fiasco has come to light a decade after the first batch of photo licences was issued in July 1998, just as the they start to expire. Motoring organisations blamed the Government for the fiasco and said 'most' drivers believed their licences were for life. A mock-up driving licence from 1998 when the photocards were launched shows the imminent expiry date as item '4b' They said officials had failed to publicise sufficiently the fact that new-style licences - unlike the old paper ones - expire after a set period and have to be renewed. To rub salt into wounds, drivers will have to a pay £17.50 to renew their card - a charge which critics have condemned as a 'stealth tax' and which will earn the Treasury an estimated £437million over 25 years. Official DVLA figures reveal that while 16,136 expired this summer, so far only 11,566 drivers have renewed, leaving 4,570 outstanding. With another 300,000 photocard licences due to expire over the coming year, experts fear the number of invalid licences will soar, putting thousands more drivers in breach of the law and at risk of a fine. At the heart of the confusion is the small print on the tiny credit-card-size photo licence, which is used in conjunction with the paper version. Just below the driver name on the front of the photocard licence is a series of dates and details - each one numbered. Number 4b features a date in tiny writing, but no explicit explanation as to what it means. The date's significance is only explained if the driver turns over the card and reads the key on the back which states that '4b' means 'licence valid to'. Even more confusingly, an adjacent table on the rear of the card sets out how long the driver is registered to hold a licence - that is until his or her 70th birthday. A total of 25million new-style licences have been issued but - motoring experts say - drivers were never sufficiently warned they would expire after 10 years. Motorists who fail to renew their licences in time are allowed to continue driving . But the DVLA says they could be charged with 'failing to surrender their licence', an offence carrying a £1,000 fine. AA president, Edmund King said: 'It is not generally known that photocard licences expire: there appears to be a lack of information that people will have to renew these licences. People think they have already paid them for once over and that is it. It will come as a surprise to motorists and a shock that they have to pay an extra £17.50.' The AA called on the Government to use the annual £450million from traffic enforcement fines to offset the renewal charge. Before photocard licences were introduced, old-style paper licences were valid until the age of 70. Many motorists still believe this to be the case with the new ones. http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/news/article-23554347-details/Unwitting+motorists+face+1,000+fines+as+thousands+of+photocard+driving+licences+expire/article.do

No they haven't, as you and I know. Your point is a fair one, although I obviously disagree with you. You just didn't need to be so denigrating about, what I think is, a stalwart effort by one of the younger fans and his friends.

You just can't seem to try and make a point without being patronising or offensive, can you? And I was actually beginning to look at your posts in a different way.

I think that's a fair choice, given that most of us don't 'hate' the guy. In brighter days, a little money and slightly different strategy he may well have done well for us.

The Wee (BIG) man for me.

Well said and totally candid.

People in glass houses really shouldn't throw stones! :roll:

No, Rupert will not allow him!

"Lars'week I cootn't spel engineer, now I r one!" So sorry mate, just had to!

Are you implying that Saints are 'Shafted' and buried?

Sometimes you just do. Recently I got to second interview stage. I was expected to come up with a 5 minute presentation about Planned Preventative Maintenance. When I looked around the guy showing me around told me that they had trained him, not a cheap course, in Inspection and Portable Appliance testing. They then would not buy the test equipment (about £1k). If they couldn't afford that how on earth would they properly implement Planned Preventative Maintenance? Easy choice to not proceed with the application at the end of it. Remember that an interview works both ways and some employers tend to forget that they need to sell their job as much as we need to sell ourselves!

Probably a Ghia or GhiaX at that sort of moolah. I have a 52 plate Ghia X and it's superb. Leather, 6 X CD player, trip computer A/C climate control, heated seats, auto anti dazzle rear view mirror. Plenty of bins for storage. So a newer model should have some enhancements on that.

Indeed a fair comment! I'm 6 ft and faaaarking big with it but I have 'felt' intimidated by someone far less in size than me, so much so that if I had not walked away I may have got into a lot of trouble for sorting him!

I'd vouch for spyinthesky. he may not post too often but he is a Saint, through and through. Probably for longer than me, and I've been a supporter since the first game I saw, back in 1965.

I'd vouch for spyinthesky. he may not post too often but he is a Saint, through and through. Probably for longer than me, and I've been a supporter since the first game I saw, back in 1965.

That's good that you are a caring person and that nobody, re-read my carefully worded post, has accused you of being uncaring. I just find it odd that people can find such a letter 'funny'.

Well, the choice is immense. There are ceiling fans, pedestal fans, desk top fans, induction fans, lunatic fringe fans blah, blah, blah.

Have you been researching on the wireless internet A.K.A. the R.F. Web?

Your mention of Steve Gibson is strange to me because I thought that he was a model chairman and I would not, until this letter (which he must have known about), have had him in the same bracket as O.B.L.

Or maybe just close that particular section of the ground?

As an electrician I would know exactly where to connect the Positive and the Negative with regards to Beetroot Bonce.