The G Man

New Mazda 3 is gone, to be replaced with the new  pup mobile (following on from ‘Fran & Anna’ reveal in the pet thread)

BMW 3 Series Touring, M Sport X drive (and no, The Muzzer stays, it’s a car thang!)

couple of jobbyish pics, but you’ve all seen them before!

One half of Fran and Anna, due to bed down on 03/07 

Not sure if this one will be Fran or Anna

Epic looking car   GLWTS

(MPS4S available btw, fitted a new set of rears @ 6 weeks ago )

Today, near Galston, I was heading eastbound after the best fish supper at the Wee Hurry, in my Stang.  Stunning colour and paintwork, but jeezo, that looked an uncomfortable ride 

,any vids of the drive out?

11 hours ago, Ebized said:

Is it me, seeing more or a 370 - particularly in the profile?

Thought the exact same

What we all need to remember regards pension contribution, which I’ve found a staggering amount of people don’t, is that you don’t pay any tax on pension contributions, you’re taxed after pension contributions on your salary are taken off.

Tax comes later when lump sum payments are calculated and accordingly, what income a pension pays out.  It’s all very complicated for us mere mortals but it’s never too early to start learning and hoping you’ve done the best with your money.

You missed taxing them in every country appropriately to the revenue they accrue.  Of course it needs to be retrospective, then the tax that should’ve been paid, would still be in the pots of millions of pensioners pensions, not in the Cayman islands or similar.

But then we come right back to the myth of brexshit, when the truth is, billionaires don’t like to be taxed fairly, not at any cost and certainly not to help a country or individuals to have a comfortable future.

If you’re happy at that, then I suppose you are happy to die ‘in service’, when you may well be 75 patrolling some landing full of criminals and thugs (think about that for a second) with no hope of retiring, despite the ‘5% - 25%’ input to your pension 

1 minute ago, Ekona said:

Tax them at the point of use, not at the point many years later. That’s my point. 

Tax them in ALL the countries they operate in, on the revenue they accumulate in that country, not som tax haven, convenient minimal tax regime.  Tax them now and make it retrospective.

5 minutes ago, Ekona said:

Someone started those, from absolutely nothing. So yes, it still applies. And yes, if the state doesn’t like them circumventing perfectly legally the tax laws at source then change the tax laws. 

Exactly!  Change the tax laws, tax the rich and powerful more, thankyou for confirming that point 

8 hours ago, Ekona said:

Ive got a banging pension with the prison service, 5% from me and 25% from them, can’t complain at that at all. Also got a private one from previous work but that’s just a tiddler really. Tbh I’m expecting to die in service so it’s all irrelevant

You're just in the job, that’ll be worth next to nothing just now.  5% from you? Used to be zero %, non contributory, except widows and orphans fund (2.5%).  2 for 1’s in some cases.

Good luck I hope you don’t die IN service or in service, hope you have a long retirement 

1 hour ago, Ekona said:

Half a million is easy to pass though if you’re including property, that’s my issue. Make it £5M+ and I’d consider it vaguely sensible. 
 

That being said, if it’s been earned legitimately (ie not via crime) then tax has been paid at source, so why should it have to be paid again? We already have inheritance tax which is bad enough, this would be an absolute urine-stealer. Let’s say I work hard and make a company that employs thousands, creates huge amounts of wealth for the country, and am able to set my kids up for life, why should I be punished? If people are following the rules on tax and avoiding it legally, then change the rules on tax in the first place. Don’t move the goalposts because the state is too inept to create something that’s not possible to bend. 

What, like Amazon, Google, Facebook .  

Well, the financial crash, which cost @ 1/4 of what Covid so far has cost.  For the little misadventure of a global financial crisis, women of a certain age lost 7 years of state pension and their male counterparts lost a minimum 2 years, in today’s terms that was @ £72,000 pounds in saved (which were paid for) state pension income for a couple who had full NI contributions.

That was before they started dismantling the final salary pension schemes that were once a fantastic work benefit, through tax changes, national insurance changes and a multiple of stealth tax on investments on a level pertinent to probably people like most on here.

Pension pots are already being raided with tax cuts to lifetime pot accumulation.  There’ll be more legislation, on a quite aggressive scale, to further claim from the big pension funds.

Im no expert but at 37, if I were you, I would be heavily investing in a pension if you’ve not done so yet.  There is a lot of good organisations out there that will help.

Even my cast iron final salary pension has moved position in the last few years due to government raids (I’m talking two years ago) to push what I was due at 60, to 62.  All this in the last 10 years, the next 4 years will see a massive influx of legislation not for an imminent pensioners benefit.

All this and we’re only 6weeks into brexshit, in another 6 weeks we’ll be under new pressure from that jobby sandwich.

i think the markets, if you know how to work in/with them, is the way to go now.

Most of NASA’s $2billion was spent on shift allowance for all that 24hr a day computer watching.......I mean flying a spaceship......

Once this Covid mess is under control, from a medical point of view, standby for an unmitigated and persistent assault on any and all pension pots from the westminster government.  Just like they did after the financial crash, only two, three, umpteen times worse.

Best hide yer dosh under the mattress..............

9 hours ago, GranTurismoEra said:

 

Colour coded bonnet is more likely the Abarth version with 32 extra horses. I suppose the colour code is to differentiate them from the standard car. I saw a review on Autotrader claiming the Renault Zoe was quicker off the mark  but I digress

 

I think you get an LSD, Sportier suspension, Sports Exhaust, bodykit and some more extras. The MX5 is still faster apparently lol. The standard 124 if you want all the extras then its the Lusso Plus.

 

The Fiat offers something different being Turbo and a bit more road presence. The MX5 sounds and goes better.

 

You can get the Abarth and just wrap the bits to match the colour. 

The Abarth comes in solid colours as well, as in all one colour 

Mentioned elsewhere before, I’m actively looking for one of these.  My Mrs says the different coloured bonnet etc puts her of and looks a bit ‘aftermarkety’.  So probably a solid red or white for me if I commit.

Im assuming the fit and finish, being built in Japan (?) is pretty good?

I too, prefer the Fiat look against the newer MX-5, although @5’ 11”, I do comfortably fit the MX-5.  Just need to get off my ar5e and find one I suppose.....

1 hour ago, Bunning said:

I was concerned about this when I had my 350Z but i'm pretty sure they are all OK. The TFL website has a checker here you can use if you pop in your registration number:

 

Check your vehicle - Transport for London (tfl.gov.uk)

Just checked my 5.0 V8, no charge apparently

Ooft!  Love a good movie and rewatch loads, just a few in no particular order:

The Godfather Trilogy 

Heat

A Few Good Men

Most Marvel movies, with End Game being top

Top Gun

First three Star Wars

Saving Private Ryan

Bullit

Fury

Inglorious Basterds

Django Unchained (Tarintino)

In fact all Tarintino

Original Le Mans

We Were Soldiers

All The Presidents Men

Laundromat

Alien series

Deadpool 1 and 2

Safehouse

Equalizer

Batman (Christopher Nolan trilogy)

No Country For Old Men

Ron Burgandy, both

Bad Santa

Fargo

Burn After Reading

Three Billboards

All Daniel Craig Bond movies

All Sean Connery Bond movies

Unforgiven

A Bridge Too Far

Waterloo

Toy Story

Star Treck (Chris Pine lot)

2001 A Space Oddity

John Wick 1,2 and probably 3

Goodfellas

The Irishman

To Kill A Mocking Bird

All Mission Impossible

The Big Lebowski

Thunderbolt & Lightfoot

Fightclub

Zulu

The French Connection 1 and 2

Debbie Does Dallas (first porno movie I watched)

The Searchers

The Train

Gladiator

Moneyball

the List could go on and on.

Keep yer Stang, they are mightily fun, even on the narrowest of roads, Christ we even went up Glen Etive in September in ours 

Ive only did @ 2k Miles the whole of last year in it, obviously Covid restrictions didn’t help with planned Euro trips .

Yesterday, I just sat in it on the drive and ran it up to temp to defrost, started fannying aboot wi the active exhaust and the Lund N gauge and nearly killed the car    Luckily I managed to revert it back to the tune, despite my big fat goldfinger 

Im considering one of these as a ‘back up’ fun car, don’t know if it’s on your radar, https://www.autotrader.co.uk/car-details/202012227321289?postcode=ml92ap&model=124 SPIDER&sort=relevance&include-delivery-option=on&onesearchad=Used&onesearchad=Nearly New&onesearchad=New&advertising-location=at_cars&make=FIAT&radius=1501&page=1

that exact one in fact.

Ill keep the Stang till it’s a pile of dust on the drive, being a Ford, that’ll probably not be long   Owes me nowt, but the adventures we’ve been on in it have been marvellous and it still gives me a nice, comforting feeling when I ‘slip it on’.

IMO, best looking wheels on the planet 

Best Bond ever IMO, that said, he advocated giving wummin a slap and evaded tax, in his tax haven 

So drinking bleach and sticking a uv lightbulb up your erse doesn’t work?  Jeezo! I’m shocked 

After the other night where he was clearly oot his box on steroids, I think he should suffer a massive relapse and just shuffle off now.  

7 hours ago, Ekona said:

very restricted regime where no one mixes with other units. That’s helped a lot, it just makes the days very boring!

In my experience, restricted regimes and boring days are much, much better than “visors down, shields up” days, by a long way 

Trumps a knut, his kind will do anything to empower themselves with more money and influence (Supreme Court judge appointments,  a case in fact).  I don’t wish him dead, but I hope he gets it as rough as fluck.  “I like Presidents that don’t catch a virus”, just like he likes military men who don’t get captured, a total spunkbucket of a *****.

Anyway, back on the fence........

Hand me down iPhone 6 here, saving my money for a blower