Chapter 15

Donnie argued with the goddess of course – about stopping the attack on the plane - but she told him that it was something that just had to be. Donnie was unhappy about her response to say the least. There had also been some soul-searching for Donnie before deciding to use the future information to generate money.

Uppermost in his mind was whether it was morally right to use the knowledge to do this. Was it dishonest? He eventually came to the conclusion that having access to the information was fortuitous, but not dishonest. He could see no strong argument against using it. Who would lose out? Other gamblers? Other investors? The bookies? Donnie decided that all of them played the odds and knew what the risks were. In his case, the risks could be reduced to zero, but he believed that wasn't dishonest.

With his conscience clear, Donnie analysed what he had jotted down in the notebook. The date on the newspaper Beira had shown him was still nine and a half months away, but there was something that Donnie could use his information for immediately.

Going online, he checked the current values of the various stocks, shares and commodities he had noted down. Comparing the current values to those in October 2011, he was able to identify where the opportunities lay to make investments now that would make some big returns over the coming months.

The gains to be made were mostly modest, but two of companies showed a huge rise and Donnie guessed that they must be due to make major announcements about something – a new product or discovery – over the coming months.

Things were different, however, when it came to futures and commodity markets. Donnie was actually dismayed at just how much prices for certain things were going to increase. The price of oil was set to rocket as was the cost of things like cocoa beans.

"I bet if I was to map the countries where these things are produced I could forecast where there's going to be turmoil over the next nine months," Donnie thought to himself.

Donnie had also noted down how much the payouts had been on the four lottery competitions where he had written down the winning number. The UK Lotto paid out £6m, Euromillions had been a 'rollover' and paid £120m, the Irish lottery had paid out £5m and the Spanish lotto a further £60m.

I should buy six tickets with the winning numbers for each lottery. That way if someone else happens to win, I'll still get the vast majority of the prize money with six shares to their one. A cool £191million - not bad!"

The sports pages had yielded a positive goldmine of options for generating revenue. As well as noting down the results for all of the horse races, football, rugby and even cricket matches, Donnie had skim read a number of the reports and picked up some other little gems. A reference to Novak Djokovic had referred to him as the 'current Australian Tennis champion'. In football, a team in England and one in Scotland were described as 'current title holders' and in cricket, an article had made reference to the English team as having won the cricket world cup.

Donnie knew he would have to wait some time before he could lay bets on the individual races and matches, but the other 'big' events hadn't happened yet either. The Australian Open tennis started in mid January. The football season ended in May and if he remembered rightly the cricket World Cup was due to take place in March.

Maths had always been something that Donnie liked and a notion overtook him now to check the bookmakers' odds for these four outcomes and then to calculate how much he would win for a £10,000 stake on an accumulator bet. It didn't take him long and the result - £20.8million – was staggering.

"Whoa! I guess it would be a bad idea to put that down as a bet with a single bookie. I'll have to make a number of bets, with smaller stakes, and spread them around. When we get to October, I'll put the other bets on as accumulators too and spread the pain around!"

Fortunately for Donnie, the explosion in online betting companies would make such an approach relatively straightforward.

Once he had reviewed all of the various income possibilities, Donnie had a fair idea of how to proceed. Apart from £10k, the vast majority of the funds he currently had available would be used to buy stocks, shares and commodities. The £10k would be the stake for his first bet on the 'big' events.

When the first bet paid off in early May, he would use the winnings to step up the building work at Ardbrecknish. It was a gamble as to what would happen to the stocks etc after the date on the newspaper – so Donnie would take no risks and sell them all on that date to realise the gains he had calculated.

Once the winnings from the October bets and the various lotteries were all in, he would have more than enough money to play with.

With the plans for capital funds largely dealt with, Donnie now turned his thoughts to something else that he had picked up from the newspaper the goddess had shown him.

There had been another article on the front page that he had looked at, another article besides the coverage of the attack on the troop transporter. This second story covered the introduction of new legislation by the Scottish Government – an SNP Scottish Government! That meant of course that the SNP were going to win May's election – another opportunity for a winning bet thought Donnie. His quick scan of the article had highlighted the fact that the SNP had swept to victory on the back of a campaign that emphasised the need to reform banking and to safeguard public services.

"I certainly can't disagree with that and I've been telling the party they should go after our opponents on just those issues. I need to make sure and stress both at the next focus group away-day."

The holidays at Craig Bheithe farm had been good overall for Donnie. The weight of killing three people had receded somewhat, helped by just being amongst his family in the very familiar surroundings. That allowed him to relax and enjoy himself. He did some cross-country skiing with his brother, continued to watch and discuss the news with his father and generally just got away from hard work for a few weeks.

By the end of the two weeks, however, he admitted to himself that he was starting to miss Katie and he was glad it was only a week before she returned. Packing his things, Donnie thanked his parents for a wonderful break and drove himself and Rory back to the apartment in Bridge-of-Allan.

He had another SNP focus group that week, this one at the Inchyra Grange hotel near Falkirk. Donnie was focused on the future knowledge he had about the election and he was determined to try and influence things so the party would campaign on bank reform and public services.

The afternoon session gave him an opportunity when one of the other members of the group, Daryl, made a comment about the austerity measures being brought in by the UK Government.

"My parents taught me that if I wanted something, I should save up and buy it. If I couldn't afford it, I did without. Maybe the country as a whole should get back to that way of thinking," Donnie suggested.

"That's so simplistic a view it's childlike! The banks and lending are the things that keep the country's economy going," Daryl shot back.

Donnie was surprised that a member of the group would be so aggressive and rude, but he wasn't about to let the matter drop.

"Okay, explain to me how that works? Who do the banks serve?" he asked.

"Their shareholders of course," sneered Daryl.

"Given his attitude I might end up enjoying this," Donnie thought.

"But the figures reported last week by one of the big three banks showed an increase in profits of £6.5billion over last year. £5billion was paid out in bonuses to bank staff and there was no dividend for shareholders," Donnie pointed out. "That doesn't sound to me as if the banks are working for their shareholders. Who is taking the risk? If the bank fails, the shareholder loses their investment, what does the employee, the investment banker, lose?"

"That's plain silly, if the shareholders are not satisfied with the management of the bank they can remove them or simply sell their shares!" Daryl scoffed.

Donnie shook his head sadly.

"Now who's being silly? Sell their shares at today's prices? Come on, get real," he challenged.

"Look, the banks have to pay big bonuses. If they don't, those staff will be lured away by other banks," said a slightly less sure of himself Daryl.

"You know, every time I hear bank bonuses being debated someone uses that line. I've just explained that these people are generating huge profits – not for the shareholders, not for the bank's customers, but for themselves!

"If the government doesn't have the balls to stop this – especially now -then that suggests to me that the bankers are beyond control. We've just been through a global economic collapse – caused by these self same bankers – yet while everyone else pays off the loans needed to bail them out – people losing their jobs, pay cuts, public services shrinking – these bastards are already paying themselves bonuses again. What's worse is that they can't see why the public are furious about it – because they don't think it's wrong! They believe it is their due!" said an impassioned Donnie.

Daryl visibly wilted under Donnie's arguments, but had one last attempt at defending his position.

"If the banks weren't there, who would provide businesses with the funds to grow? Who would back the economic recovery?"

"Hmmph!" exclaimed Donnie.

Everyone looked at Donnie in surprise. It wasn't like him at all to make such a dismissive noise.

"That will be the banks who are asking small businesses to pay exorbitant interest rates for loans when the base lending rate has been at 0.5 percent for how long? Have you been listening to these small businessmen? They can't afford the loans and the banks know it!

"The banks don't want to lend. They're rebuilding their balance sheets. They're taking ludicrously cheap money from the Bank of England through quantitative easing and charging people through the nose to borrow it!

"The banks are providing the funds for the recovery my ass! The banks are busy lining the pockets of their stupendously overpaid investment bankers as usual!" Donnie finished.

Donna, another of the group, tried to smooth things over by changing the point of debate.

"So are you saying that we should put banking reform high on our list of priorities for the campaign?" she asked.

"Yes, of course I am," Donnie answered.

"But that's a matter for the Westminster Parliament, we can't do anything about it here in Scotland," Daryl protested strongly.

"Exactly! That's the point. The SNP are the only mainstream party that is devoid of blame here. The Scottish Labour party are tainted because it was a Labour Government in power in London when the collapse happened.

"The Scottish Conservatives and Scottish Liberal Democrats are tainted by the fact that their parties have formed a coalition Government at Westminster now and they have done nothing to address the bankers so far as the electorate is concerned.

"The SNP can point to the fact that we have played no part in any of that – BUT – if we were independent then we would reform banking!" Donnie concluded.

Daryl looked sheepish again at having missed the opportunity to use the banks to promote independence.

"Look, let's role-play a live debate on TV," Donnie suggested. "Donna, you be nasty old Jeremy Paxman, the interviewer out to make me look stupid."

The group were energised by the idea and gathered round Donna and Donnie.

"So Mr McGregor, how do you defend the SNP's record on education? Teacher numbers are falling, class sizes are rising and results have flat-lined," accused Donna.

"It's a disgrace, Jeremy. You are well aware that the SNP gave a commitment on teacher numbers and to reduce class sizes. Unfortunately, Labour's incompetent economic performance in government and now the coalition's weak response to the banks means that public sector funding has seen the most swingeing cuts in living memory. In those circumstances, we have been forced down a different path.

"Now, if the SNP had those fiscal powers, we would be reforming the banks as a priority. An end to shameful bonuses. Break up the large banks. No more guaranteed bail outs at the public's expense. Responsible lending to people and business. The savings we'd make would allow us to safeguard our public services, to honour our pledges on teacher numbers and class sizes!" Donnie finished.

"What about economic performance here in Scotland? It's worse than elsewhere in the UK," Donna attacked.

"Yes, Jeremy. Scotland's economy is more heavily dependent on the public sector than elsewhere. It's inevitable when the Conservatives and Liberal Democrats announce measures to cut 500,000 public sector jobs that Scotland will be hit hardest. But they know there is an alternative. If they would only tackle their friends the banks, the public loans could be repaid quicker and public sector cuts wouldn't need to go so deep," Donnie answered.

Donna was really into the role-play by now and she prepared to fire her next question. Donnie laughed and held up his hand to call a halt.

"I think you see the point," he laughed. "No matter what the question is, you can turn it round to the banks and public sector cuts."

Within twelve hours a video of the session was delivered to Alex Salmond and the First Minister watched it with interest.

McGregor, Iowa January 2011

McGregor was only a small town, with a population of less than 1,000, significantly down on its peak of over 5,000 during the late 1800s. Ironically, the town's residents were now mainly of German descent, with ethnic Scots accounting for only a tiny number.

Katie and her mother were drinking coffee in the small shop on Main St., opposite the tall Masonic Block building.

"You're certainly happier than I've ever seen you," smiled Rose McGregor.

She studied her daughter over the rim of her coffee cup. What she had just said was true. Katie positively glowed, especially if she happened to be talking about Donnie McGregor. There was a bright gleam in her daughter's eyes and her spirit seemed to be soaring high.

"I'm happy for you, but I just can't help worrying too," Rose added.

"Mom! Stop it, there's nothing to be worried about," Katie replied dismissively.

"But he's so young, barely seventeen, and it's happened so quickly," Rose persisted.

"When you meet him you'll understand," Katie argued. "He's far more mature than his age might suggest. He's super intelligent, confident but still modest somehow, and he's a perfect gentleman. Oh, and did I mention he was fit? Yummy! Anyway, given his links with our family and why those happened it's pretty much a done deal."

Katie had of course related what Donnie had told her on their first night together. Like any protective mother, Rose had at first been sceptical, believing that Donnie was some kind of scam artist. His knowledge of the story that had been handed down through the generations was too detailed though and she had eventually come to accept he was somehow tied to Katie.