kiltarlity

Setanta went into administration at approx 4.40 pm this afternoon, they are no longer broadcasting.

Don't worry SMEE. lol She freelances, she has been seen doing her thing at the football when Sky have been covering games.

Courier reports that Audi-Hambo has agreed to a one year deal! Proctor is expected to complete deal later in week.

Angelo Massone was on the Livi Forum. There is a poll asking if the fans think he should go. He voted "NO" himself... his IP address has been traced their is no doubt it is him!! You couldn't make this stuff up!! Livi are hardly out the woods yet. Another 270k in rent arrears to find by end of month, or it's insolvency...

Really admire you mate, I think most guys would be only to happy to leave the kids with their ex and go back to the single life. When I got together with my wife, she had 2 children (girls) both with different dads. In the 10 years we have been together, their Dads have taken next but nothing to do with them, and have let them down more times than I care to remember. There has been zero financial support either.

Cannot see this being true. There is no way our BoD would not be playing hard ball over compensation and that would be hitting the papers.. and certainly wouldn't be concluded by Tuesday at 10am, this would drag for 4 or 5 days at least.

Maxxs in the bus station is closed cos it is fire damaged inside... Kebab, Christ I'm so jealous!! I'm on a mega lo GI diet. The wife signed up for one of those diets where they send you your food monthly, all ready just too cook. She gave up a couple of weeks in and has now cancelled, I joked I could do with losing a bit of weight I'm a bit plumpish, so she suggested I went on the diet and used the stuff up. Figured if I was going to do this I might as well do some light exercise as well ! I'm hugely unfit!! Well I'm 6 days in and have lost an amazing 11lb's, went to Tesco today and bought a pair of 36" waist jeans the same as the 38" ones I'm wearing at mo, tried them on and they fit.... Going to carry on another week and then try returning to a more normal healthier diet, rather than my usual chips with everything diet. Graham

Just a note to wish you all the best with this. As a dad, I understand a little.

Vauxhall cars give bigger discounts to certain groups of workers. Nurses, Teachers ect. So I kind off see where you are coming from. I'm not going to feel bad about the goverment funding me to be a student, I'm returning to study (changing career), It's been 17 years since I was last a student and since then I have always worked and paid tax.

You could look at it the other way technically I am not a student till September so why would I be entitled to a discount for the earlier games.

I start as a student nurse in September, as I understand it I cannot get a student season ticket without a matrik card showing I am a student. So I am unsure what to do, do I pay as I go till Sept and then get a season ticket or indeed wait for the half season tickets? or do I just forget discount this season and buy a full adult season ticket.??

I'm looking forward to getting to more games than ever this season, especially away days to County and Dundee (Nostalgia!!) ..

Mines a strange story! I was constantly bullied at school and in the Boys Brigade because I was rubbish at playing football. This put me off the game big time. It wasn't until I went to University in 1998 that I started to mellow and started to enjoy watching the odd game. My flatmate was a Dundee fan and I sometimes went to Dens Park with him. I returned to Inverness and forgot about football! Then 5 years ago with all the press and exitement in Inverness about SPL football, I started getting a little interested again, I started going to a few matches with my father in law (a dons fan) and thats when I started supporting ICT properly. So Smee does that make me a glory hunter lol!!

Smee and others who are interested. (please note this is a pdf so you need acrobat or similar installed to view) http://www.phtm.co.uk/_includes/docs/leagu...le/l7wk9qCi.pdf This is a league table of taxi fares in Scotland. There are 45 councils setting tariffs. As you can see Inverness is the 23rd most expensive place in Scotland to take a taxi out of the 45 licenced council areas. You will also see evidence that as I said, Inverness fares are about average for Scotland as a whole. Aberdeen, Dundee, Edinburgh, Perth are just some of the places that are more expensive.

Without wishing to appear a complete ****, there is the old...freedom of choice argument. NOBODY is forcing the taxi drivers to do the job! Likewise nobody is forcing you to take a taxi, you could always walk.. I'm only pointing out the costs involved in running a taxi, because until I became a cabby, I had no idea how much it cost to put and keep a cab on the road and that in a nutshell explains why fares are the cost they are. I suspect in other citys you have been using private hire cars not plated taxis. They are often cheaper because they are often old bangers, less stringently regulated, pay less council/ company fees and their drivers/operators get away with poorly maintained cars, inadequate insurance ect.

From a public point of view I would argue oversupply of cabs is a bad thing. Many drivers are now working 60-80 hours a week to make up their pay. Their is nothing illegal in this, taxi drivers are not covered by any legal restriction on working hours. This is a danger to the pubic. Also congestion in the town during the day is made much worse by taxis circle-ing the town trying to get a rank space, because you have a situation where their are several times more cars working than rank spaces avaliable. Another point is now we live in a mitgation society, I have to have, expensive public liability insurance and taxi insurance. If I insured my car as a private car it would cost me ?200 a year, as a taxi it costs me just shy of a grand a year. I'm not sure if you drive MEE, but I can tell you if you did you would probably be aware the running costs of a family car are quite high. Now imagine your running a taxi thats 4-5 services a year, the equivalent of 3 mot's (taking in taxi tests) instead of one, prob 3 sets tyres a year and many many more repairs than a normal car. Not long ago I new a old lady who gave up driving and sold her car because it was cheaper for her to use a dozen taxis a week than keep her own car on the road.

I often feel racism is a difficult issue. If you get involved in a scrap with someone from a ethnic minority it is sometimes too easy for them to claim it is a racist attack, when it may well not have been motivated by racism at all. Don't get me wrong I'm totally against racism... But I do know of one asian guy who only still has his job with a goverment department because he plays the racist card every time he gets into trouble at work, and they are too scared to sack him. If he was wasp his shinanigins would have seen him sacked years ago.

I didn't buy it from a Mazda dealer, their is a corrosion policy/warranty. But according to small print it must have a full Mazda main dealer service history (mine don't) and what's more you have to have paid the extra ?20 each service for the optional body inspection for warranty to be valid. I might have pushed it, but as my car is used as a taxi, they basically didn't want to know! My car is not unique, loads of complaints on the web about rusty arches and sills and alloy wheel corrosion. My Mazda 6 is not based on mondeo platform, but the new one is I believe.

thats also a very good point but the standard of players livi and Gretna brought in were above there station which helpd the steam rolling up, dungdee are only buying the leauges name no real massive signing above the standard of Div 1.. It will be very interesting to see how it plays out.... Yup on paper it looks all Dundee, but then again football is a funny old game!!

I do remember it was not just the Picasso this effected, it did effect other peugeot/citroen cars, you are right they do share many parts. Don't know if it effected the 307 might be worth a bit of internet searching on your part. Like you I have been far from was impressed with AC. Mind you don't get me started I currently own a 2005 Mazda 6 nice car shame about the rust!! and Mazda don't want to know!!

Although more expensive than I am used to, I was very impressed with all the Taxi's and drivers I came across in Inverness(bar one who happened to be english). They were friendly, informative and generally helpfull.

That was newspaper sensationalism!! They counted driving convictions as criminal convictions, if you drive 40k a year its quite easy to pick up the odd 3 points. The council will suspend your licence if you go over 6 points in 3 years. All taxi drivers working in Inverness have to be subject to disclosure Scotland and won't get a taxi licence if they have recent un-spent convictions or indeed serious spent ones. Tax laws have tightened up, it's easy for taxman to check your mileage and look at your figures, check your office for the jobs you have done. Now I'm not sure I declare every tip, then again often I say ?8 when fare is ?8.40 or give a regular or friend a discount, several times a month I don't get paid or get paid less because customer dosen't have enough money. If someone says ?20 for Nairn at 12pm when it's quiet, I will probably do it and give them the ?10 discount as it's better than doing nothing. It all averages out!.

If you looked into this further you would find taxi fares in Inverness are roughly at the national average for fares in Scotland, we have until recently lagged behind. Also please bear in mind that in the big citys like Glasgow taxi fairs are subject to boundary charges which we don't have in Inverness. I have just come in from a 8 hour night shift, I have taken just under ?100. (This is typical at the moment and remember this is supposed to be our busy time/ tourist season!!) Deduct ?20 fuel, ?30 in radio fees to (Taxi Company) that leaves me with ?50 Then theirs, income tax, national insurance, depreciation/repair money. Licences and inspection fees I have earned well under national minimum wage. I do, obviously do better at the weekends, but I still predict I will be lucky to make ?14 000 this year for a 48 hour week nightshift/anti social hours job. I'm in the process of looking for another job, their is no money in being a cab driver in Inverness anymore. We are waiting 45mins or more between jobs.. Their are simply TOO MANY CARS working, and the council issue more licences week in week out... (because they make so much money out of it.). it is not in their interest to cap the number of taxis. Please note: 48 hour working week does not include the extra 5 hours a week I spend keeping the car clean and doing my books!!

Ours was done under the recall in 2005, and what a bodge it is!! Instead of putting new springs on they just clamped a bracket onto the strut, so that if the spring breaks it is physically deflected away from the tyre. We had nought but probs with our Picasso, mostly electrical, we got rid as soon as it was out of warranty. Loved the space but the build quality and electrics were terrible. If they hadn't had these probs they would have made great taxis. But you know how bad they are when you realise their are only 3-4 Picasso cabs working Inverness.

"Stress", "Depression" words that get banded about loosely in society. Many who have never suffered mental illness, can have no grasp on just how badly these conditions at their most sever can effect a persons ability to function rationally. It may not be a defence, but it sure is a mitigating factor.