What did you make of all this, John? Well,

you know, Kevin Nolan is quoted in this story, which is a great scoop by Conor Pope to get this documentation.

I'll read out some of the quotes from these emails in a second.

But Nolan is saying, you know, it's normal for the past directors to have some advisory role in a situation like this where a company's gone bankrupt and we're trying to kind of bring it back from the dead.

But any customer who, you know, didn't have their order fulfilled, lost hundreds, maybe thousands of euro on this deal, is not going to be happy to see The way that they're speaking behind the scenes in private when they think no one can hear them.

So they're talking about, you know, strategizing to make sure staff don't hang around for good redundancy packages.

You know, there's some emails about that.

Yeah, so I'm

What did you make of all this, John?

Well, you know, Kevin Nolan is quoted in this story, which is a great scoop by Conor Pope to get this documentation.

I'll read out some of the quotes from these emails in a second.

But Nolan is saying, you know, it's normal for the past directors to have some advisory role in a situation like this where a company's gone bankrupt and we're trying to kind of bring it back from the dead.

But any customer who, you know, didn't have their order fulfilled, lost hundreds, maybe thousands of euro on this deal, is not going to be happy to see The way that they're speaking behind the scenes in private when they think no one can hear them.

So they're talking about, you know, strategizing to make sure staff don't hang around for good redundancy packages.

You know, there's some emails about that.

part of our everyday household strategy.

What did you make of all this, John? Well,

you know, Kevin Nolan is quoted in this story, which is a great scoop by Conor Pope to get this documentation.

I'll read out some of the quotes from these emails in a second.

But Nolan is saying, you know, it's normal for the past directors to have some advisory role in a situation like this where a company's gone bankrupt and we're trying to kind of bring it back from the dead.

But any customer who, you know, didn't have their order fulfilled, lost hundreds, maybe thousands of euro on this deal, is not going to be happy to see the way that they're speaking behind the scenes in private when they think no one can hear them.

So they're talking about, you know, strategizing to make sure staff don't hang around for good redundancy packages.

You know, there's some emails about that.

part of our everyday household strategy.

What did you make of all this, John?

Well, you know, Kevin Nolan is quoted in this story, which is a great scoop by Conor Pope to get this documentation.

I'll read out some of the quotes from these emails in a second.

But Nolan is saying, you know, it's normal for the past directors to have some advisory role in a situation like this where a company's gone bankrupt and we're trying to kind of bring it back from the dead.

But any customer who, you know, didn't have their order fulfilled, lost hundreds, maybe thousands of euro on this deal, is not going to be happy to see the way that they're speaking behind the scenes in private when they think no one can hear them.

So they're talking about, you know, strategizing to make sure staff don't hang around for good redundancy packages.

You know, there's some emails about that.

part of our everyday household strategy.

What was the lead up to this, and were we expecting it?

Well, there has been some rumblings about cost control at Aer Lingus, uh, uh, for some time this year, and there's obviously been a lot of talk about airlines in general given the energy crisis that has been, um, has been haunting us most of this year since the Iran war, uh, started at the end of February.

And what I think we're seeing is the reality setting in, um, at, at Aer Lingus.

Uh, the, part of the explanation, anyway, is that fuel prices are likely to stay higher for longer, that, uh, with the resumption of hostilities in the Persian Gulf, um, and no end in sight there really, we can expect, and the airline has certainly said, that they think elevated fuel costs will, will continue on into 2027.

But that's only part of the story.

Uh, what the airline has said today also is that they're facing increased transatlantic compe- competition.

In fact, uh, that's up by 45% in, in, in the last year alone.

They also fly transatlantic, don't they? So is there sort of intercompetition there?

And when

you strip that out, actually, we're $2.3 billion ahead of 2025.

And it's not just the corporation tax, even though that has hit, I think, what is it? Is it $50 billion at this point? We're on track for $50 billion? Sorry, we've taken in $50 billion in the first six months of the year.

Corporation tax is obviously a huge part of that.

But not to be overlooked, our income tax, which is still the largest tax head, which is... up, I think, what is it, 2.2%? And then VAT receipts are up 7.5%.

That, to me, is very significant because it shows that consumer demand and incomes are strong, right? And as long as that happens, as long as that is the case, the domestic economy will be in good shape.

Obviously, the exchequer, the public finances... are very dependent on American investment and the sort of what some people call tax washing coming through this jurisdiction.

For example, the uncertainties caused by the AI bubble and consider what a big market fall could mean.

And when

you strip that out, actually, we're $2.3 billion ahead of 2025.

And it's not just the corporation tax, even though that has hit, I think, what is it? Is it $50 billion at this point? We're on track for $50 billion? Sorry, we've taken in $50 billion in the first six months of the year.

Corporation tax is obviously a huge part of that.

But not to be overlooked, our income tax, which is still the largest tax head, which is... up, I think, what is it, 2.2%? And then VAT receipts are up 7.5%.

That, to me, is very significant because it shows that consumer demand and incomes are strong, right? And as long as that happens, as long as that is the case, the domestic economy will be in good shape.

Obviously, the exchequer, the public finances... are very dependent on American investment and the sort of what some people call tax washing coming through this jurisdiction.

For example, the uncertainties caused by the AI bubble and consider what a big market fall could mean.

It's a good business, but maybe not as big a potential as people say.

Yeah, if you break it down into the four components, you have the rockets business, launching things up into space.

And SpaceX does that both for Starlink and then on contract.

It's done a lot of NASA contracts.

It puts commercial satellites up into space.

That's a revenue stream.

Then you've also got X, the loss-making social media site formerly known as Twitter.

hasn't it?