Murdoch on Maneouvres - Again

Since our subversive old friend Guido Fawkes became a wholly-owned subsidiary of NewsCorp (or whichever it is of Murdoch's vehicles), Order-Order has become a reliable one-stop shop for picking up on whatever is Rupe's latest diktat to all his organs.  Fawkes, you see, is nothing if not loyal to his masters overseas (yes, the parallels with 1605 are all there), and so there are compliant links to Times, Sun and Sky etc whenever a new 'line-to-take' is being promulgated by the proprietor.

www.cityunslicker.co.uk/2016/07/the-genius-that-is-gove.html

And Rupert is nothing if not the owner of a fan of Michael Gove.   Right now it's pretty clear the word has gone out: Gove for PM !   Even Trevor Kavanagh in the Sun, who clearly resents being given these instructions, is dutifully puffing Rupe's man, for pity's sake.  Still, if the alternative is Amber Rudd (who has apparently raised a veritable war-chest and instructed Lynton Crosby to manage her own leadership campaign) we aren't exactly spoiled for Aussie-promoted choice.  Why is it always Australians - whose own domestic politics are such an utter shambles - who come over here sticking their fingers in everything?


Flashback 2011 (for fans of the doggerel) - to a time when Rupe was dodging serious controversy, seeking once again to restructure his empire, and furiously wooing the Chinese ... (the usual apologies, this time to Cole Porter)

Who wants to spend a year in gaol ? 
Who wants their bid for Sky to fail ? 
Who wants the bother of a big public fuss ? 
A big public fuss is no good for us ! 
Who wants bad headlines ev’ry day ? 
When Chinese markets are in play ? 
Who wants shame and opprobrium too ? 
And I don’t, cos all I want is Hu 

Who wants the wretched BBC ? 
Who wants his stuff online for free ? 
Who wants to burden Fox with neutrality ? 
What, neutrality ? that’s no use to me ! 
Who wants to bother with the facts ? 
Who wants to pay out any tax ? 
Who cares for human rights, or for Liu ? 
And I don’t, cos all I want is Hu

ND

Caption Contest – The Winner

Caption Contest – The Winner

Guido Fawkes' Friday caption contest '...was the usual mix of bile, bad jokes and mindless nonsense, but there is always one caption that makes Guido chuckle. Congratulations to Bill Quango MP for a copy of Big Brother Watch, The State of Civil Liberties in Modern Britain – a collection of essays edited by Alex Deane. The winning entry:'

“The Presidents rush to see if its really true. Labourlist has gone off message.”

Blow that trumpet. Only won it once before.

{personally, I liked R.McGeddon's}

"Pandemonium breaks out as the two Presidents realise that Carla and Michelle have been left alone with Berlusconi….."

Carter Ruck defeated; now is the time for change

I have been a little busy to get involved in the whole Carter-Ruck story. Most of it is shown below in the video. Well done to all involved. It is very important that we protect free speech as our Labour Government has been intent on taking it away.



Another issue it brings up is the role of the judiciary and the judges who cravenly give in to the QC's and barristers in this country.

There is a simple solution, elect them . yes from amongst the qualified, but nonetheless the makers of law should not be above the 'demos' over whom they seek to rule. As it is we have an very imbalanced constitution where the Executive has control of the legislature without recourse and the judiciary is also without the power of the people. No wonder as modern society has grown on this model, we feel we have become more of a police state. Political correctness and such like was bound to thrive.

Perhaps the new wave of technology that is the Internet can re-energise the people to take back some control. However an incoming Government would be well advised to redress the constitutional balance in favour of the people (and how convenient it would stymie some of the worse EU excesses too).

Trading Interview with Guido Fawkes

Today is the first in a series of interviews with a variety of people who are interested in trading. First up is the UK's number one blogger, Guido Fawkes. Guido often comments on trading and always has a place for it on his blog; he is right far more often than not and himself has a background of working in Finance.

Cityunslicker(CU): What are the markets that interest you?

GF(Guido Fawkes):

Generally I try to trade in generic markets and indices. For example futures on commodities and derivatives. I look at whole sectors and not specific stocks.

CU: Why not stocks?

GF: I am put off by other people knowing better than me and some limited and bitter experience. Trading in 1997 to 2001 was great in dotcom stocks....I even managed to keep half my next wealth between 2000-2001. Lesson learned.

CU: Where are you placing your bets for the rest of 2009?

GF: Gilt markets on the short side is my bet, but this is hindered by greatly quantitative easing messing with the market dynamics; but I don't want to be out of the market when it does collapse.I am prepared to take some heat on it waiting for the inevitable. I know I should be getting long stocks but I am averse to it at the moment.

Also I have some Private Equity investments that are taking up a lot of time. I don't review hundreds of pitches, but meet people directly so as to keep these quite focused to a few select opportunities.

Long-term I would be betting on India, which I see as better than China due to the legal system and English language advantage. But the Bombay stock exchange very volatile, so I would look to funds like the Merrill Lynch one.

CU: One of my current picks is Unitech Corporate Parks, an AIM share that owns a number of business parks across India, as usual, one for the brave. How addicted to trading are you?

GF:

I really like doing it, I should do 3 or 4 trades a year rather than 40 as I'd be more successful then. I knew that the weekend when Darling said the UK was screwed that I should have put more in to shorting the Pound. I did well but it was such an easy trade.

My wife is always saying I should to go back to financial markets, but for me playing in the markets is risk capital for - even losing it all would not ruin my life.

CU: What are your best and worst ever impulse trades?

GF: The best one was in a German biotech firm that returned 300% on day one, thanks to me meeting a broker at the right time. I made a lot of money out of the globe .com too - I knew it was crap, but could see it would fly for a short while in that market environment and got out way ahead. It tanked in the end, but noy for me,

My worst decision was to turn down 500k worth of stock in the Google IPO - turned down 20% profit on day one. I felt so burnt by tech stocks from the dotcom mess that I could not accept the recommendation.

CU: Thanks Guido, good luck with your trading picks.

I think Guido is pretty on the money with his calls, QE is going to mess with the Gilt market though and may well string out the inevitable. Also the Government may choose a sharp devaluation over interest rate rises, so a hedge on the pound collapsing would make the position safer.

So far so good: Guido up 34%, Cityunslicker 150%

I note Guido has a post today on his investment performance year to date. he has done pretty well, as he is a very shrewd chap when it comes to bonds, less so on gold.

Gold is much harder to predict this year though with all the monetary stimulus, I have given up on it too for trading purposes this year, even though last year it saved me in the crash.

Guido' strategy has been to invest in bonds, mainly going short on gilts. Given the UK's parlous financial position, this is very sound, hence his returns.

My strategy was to invest in bombed out banking and resources stocks for the most part. I bought RBS at 10p, Lloyds at 50p, for example and sold out at well over 100% up on each. I also bought Barclays at 70p and sold at 85p - ouch, they are 300p now!

On the resources side, investments in heritage Oil and Tullow have done well, and then currently I have a plethora of minnows, such as EMED, ACU, AFE, PPA which I have high hopes for, despite some current big paper losses amongst that lot. Finally my single biggest investment is the property company Minerva - bombed out due to its huge debts, I have faith that the banks will roll this over and also that the major City developments are going to be in demand. The shareprice is currently 14p, the company has traded as high as 400p. Should be a fund ride.

Guido rules the waves

Small departure from normal monetary based comment from me. Just wanted to say maximum respect to Guido Fawkes for his revelations about Damian McBride and the sick heart of new Labour.

Our Government, not content with leading us to economic disaster, has at its centre a group of nasty, ignorant and contemptible people; obsessed with hurting the Tories rather than healing the country.

Not only has Guido calmly exposed this (no mean feat to take on the 5th most powerful Government on the planet), but it has also revealed the complicity of much of the mainstream media such as the Telegraph and Mirror journalists in going along with the Government spin merchants.

All power to Guido for the week ahead. The cover up of the original sin always proves more fatal. Blogs are becoming more influential, just see the headlines of all tomorrow's papers.

Connecting the dots

More bad news was bound to come out of the PBR today. Following on from yesterday, Guido has an excellent scoop on 18.5% VAT to come in 2 years time.

As I pointed out yesterday, there is more to this than meets the eye. For a long-time there has been a desire for tax harmonisation across the EU. Indeed, by raising taxes so much in the UK over the past 8 years, Labour has moved us to a position where this may even be beneficial to the majority in the UK due the the EU average having lower taxes than the UK.

Even if that seems far-fetched - VAT harmonisation has been on the table for a long-time. The EU will be looking to consolidate its power in a time of crisis; this is one of the first steps.