When did Cairns change his mind? And about what?

I think Dan Thompson will do well enough at number 1. He has nothing to loose & he can gate. There maybe many others with more experience but i'm sure he is a match for anyone around his own circuit & has no fear away from home.

Spot on 1valve my friend pretty much said as much it just makes the losses in his pub in theory lower but he would be way better off if he just owned his cash cow insurance business. Without straying to much into politics he mentioned when Reeves lowered the employer ni threshold in 2024 that alone cost the pub an extra 45k a year for zero benefit other than paying more to the tax man. So your burger, bun, salad and chips has to go up from £16 to £20 to cover it another reason pubs are going the same way as speedway tracks.

Yes less tax is paid but ultimately the net profit (after tax) is also less because of the loss making company. In simple terms its actually good for a company to be paying tax (after correctly taking into account all of the available allowances) because that translates into a measurement of success.   

Trouble with that is, if Batchelor gets stuck behind traffic, we all no what he does, Cooper would be late for the meeting 

My Star w / e 20th Dec arrived today, think I'm up to date now so all is well 😉.  I also feel for Pinegen, always feel a bit guilty asking for replacements (copies missing after 3 days never turn up) but they are ok about it, apologise & send duplicates straight away.  I've sometimes boiught another copy from likes of Asda / Tesco / TJ Jones / whoever but often there are none on the shelves, usually at the same time as my '3 days late & gon foreva' copies.  Hmmm....