391 days ago
I know, I know. Next up in this series I shall be discussing Madonna on the evils of plastic surgery followed by the Doom Goblin Greta Thunberg on the dire consequences of bunking of school after the age of 12. But we start with the evil, blood-soaked old bastard Gerry Adams of IRA/Sinn Fein. His last major tweet was on October 8, a day after the biggest one-day slaughter of Jews since World War Two when he showed his sympathy with the people of Israel by….
495 days ago
The Poet Laureate is in the Arctic writing poems about global warming. Mr Simon Armitage was interviewed by Amal Rajan and Martha Kearney on BBC Radio 4’s Today show and it was just so lamentable. The poet talked utter tommy rot and the presenters had done no homework on hard data to call him out. It was the London liberal elite GroupThink on steroids. With data I call out the lot of them for serving up fake news and fake poetry.
947 days ago
Apparently, the most popular share amongst retail investors is Polymetal (POLY). Although shares have plunged by 80% since the invasion, it seems Joe Public cannot buy enough of them.
1347 days ago
The evidence of just how useless is Met Commissioner Cressida Dick has mounted iover the years. The shooting of that poor Brazilian chap should have done for her career. It did not. So many blunders have happened on her watch but nothing has ever stopped her rise to the top and her staying there. You might have thought that Police manhandling protesters at the Sarah Everard vigil might finally see her gone. But oh no.
1431 days ago
I note that Matt Hancock has a First Class degree in PPE from Oxford and admit that I cannot match his Geoff. I only achieved a Desmond from the same place in the same subject and, at the time, I remember thinking that I was jolly lucky not to have racked up a Douglas. I am pretty sure that my late uncle Christopher Booker had the same feeling after coming away with a second from Cambridge where he read history.
1438 days ago
As you may know, my occasional panic attacks consist of a nightmare that I have somehow managed to go back to Oxford as a mature student but, sitting in Schools facing finals again, I realise that I have done even worse than last time and that my Desmond will be removed and I am, if lucky, heading for a Douglas. One of the papers I must face is logic. Observing recent events, if I am compared with the current crop of Oxford-educated poltroons running the country, I reckon I might come top of the class and be set for a Geoff.
1440 days ago
An enlightened reader (ER) of this website walked into a shop in London today.
1441 days ago
In these last days before the UK confirms how we leave the EU, many of those on the losing side of the referendum in 2016 are suffering recurring bouts of Brexit Derangement Syndrome. Pity folks like Steven McKellen for he is not well. But at least he knows why his side lost.
1463 days ago
Britain is more or less bankrupt. The national debt is more than two trillion pounds, that is to say more than 100% of GDP. And as every day goes by that debt gets bigger and bigger. And thus the discussions that Tory ministers are having behind closed doors is not whether they will stiff we plebs with tax rises but how they will stiff us. Against that backdrop Boris Johnson has today announced that, at a cost of £4 billion, the UK is to buy extra warships to make it the greatest naval power in Europe. Once again Boris Johnson thinks he walks in the footsteps of Churchill.
1624 days ago
Goody Proctor saw Baden Powell watching Gone with the Wind. Quick let’s tear down his statue too. The hysteria mounts and among the keenest to eradicate history is Sadiq Khan, the Mayor of Stab City the lawless moral cesspit that is the capital of Airstrip One. In his sights right now is Thomas Guy who bequeathed his fortune to found Guy’s Hospital in London. The name stays, for now, but the statue is on its way out. Naturally the charges against him show a profound ignorance of history but when do the mob and half wits like Khan care about the facts?
2228 days ago
I see that London’s hapless Mayor Sadiq Khan is tweeting like a man possessed, pleas for folks to travel to his great City this weekend for a mass exercise in anti Brexit Remoaning. I would have thought he has more important things to do.
2233 days ago
I never had Roger Lawson of Sharesoc down as a natural wit but I did chuckle when I read his comments on Telford Homes (TEF) and London/UK house prices. He is bang on the money, echoing exactly what I said in bearcast yesterday. Anyhow back to Roger “it’s the way he tell’s ‘em”
2264 days ago
Penned at Gatwick airport on Saturday as I waited for a train. Some bald Northern prick was blocking the escalator on the walking side. I said “excuse me.” He said “It’s not bloody London.” I suggested that rules about standing/walking up were national. “What’s your hurry you will only get stuck at passport control.” I pointed out it was my choice and rules were rules and as he moved aside I concluded my sentence “and you can fuck off” as I stormed on ahead to passport control where there was almost no queue.
2368 days ago
Surigng knife crime, a housing crisis, the list of London's problems goes on and on but its truly useless Mayor Sadiq Khan is focussing on the big issues like tackling tweets from Katie Hopkins and today proclaiming that cycling is racist. He is not talking of the cheats in the tour de drugs but of those folks who get on their Boris bike every day.
2576 days ago
The quote is from John Humphreys on BBC Radio 4. It was at least better than that from American Muslim activist Linda Sarsour who tweeted after the Halloween attack in New York
2623 days ago
Mr H Khan appears not to realise that tweeting out boasts about how his FTSE short paid out thanks to London, i.e.the terrorist attack at Parsons Green, is more than a bit tasteless. I tweeted a suitable reply as you can see below.
2695 days ago
Ooooh you are awful said Dick Emery. In the case of London Mayor Khan that is awfully politically correct. And awfully useless. Fresh from supporting the Al Quds day, aka lets blame the Jews for Grenfell Tower, march, hapless Sadiq Khan has a new battle: saving LGBT bars and clubs and he has promised "urgent action." Politicians always promise urgent action never just action but what exactly is little Khan's understanding of why gay bars are shutting?
2759 days ago
So I find myself in London for two days. The reason I am here is surreal and I shall tell you all about it when I am allowed to. I lived in this City for about twenty years. I suppose I was younger then and its attractions were of interest to me at that point in my life: places to drink, lots of single women, a chance of to make money. I can't say that I am interested in any of the above right now and in fact London fills me with dread and horror and I do all that I can to avoid it.
2805 days ago
I find myself back in London ahead of a big event tonight as I explain HERE. So I am working at the pizza place now known as Wedge Issue and run by hipster Pizza Hardman Darren Atwater. It is most excellent and I commend it to you all if you are in Clerkenwell, although I am not sure I get this hipster business at all. I'm getting old. In the main podcast I look at why the LSE Asylum just does not work. In terms of stocks I cover Independent Resources (IRG), Nyota (NYO), FastForward (FFWD),Challenger (CHAL), the joke regulation one sees on the Standard List, Regency Mines (RGM) and some coal assets some folks think will go into the joke that is "New Worthington".
2848 days ago
At the bottom of our big field at Butterwell farm in Byfield was a stream. For a small boy the bank on the other side, that led up to a metal fence and onto the Daventry Road, seemed very steep and since it was lined with nettles I regarded the stream as the border of our lands.
In the summer it trickled gently on from Mr Peter Thompson's field and open country beyond, at one end through our field and on to a neat, wire mesh lined, hole in a brick wall which separated the bottom part of our land from a small house where an old man lived. In the winter the stream became a bit of a torrent, often more than a yard and a half wide. One year it flooded almost all the way up the slope of the field and must have been thirty yards wide.
2902 days ago
Lunch on Thursday at the Greek Hovel was provided by the wife of George the Albanian. At least I think it was his wife, it was one of his two female assistants. I pondered how much an Islington bistro would have stung me for, offering similar fare.
2918 days ago
I am not sure if this tape of a customer and his London stockbroker is kosher or not. It sounds real enough and I warn you that the language is awful. Even I would not use some of the words here. Enjoy
3125 days ago
Every time I go to London, a City where I lived for almost twenty years, I am struck by the fact that it is populated by aliens, by folks who do not live or think like the normal human beings across the rest of Britain or even England. London is another country.
I open the capital's local paper the Evening Standard. Years ago I worked for this publication which even then viewed itself as more of a national than a regional paper, for eve 20 years ago London was already becoming a separate land. I read star columnist Anne McElvoy whining about how discussions about the EU referendum are ruining the London dinner party. I kid you not.
Apparently not only are Londoners so dull that all they can yack on about is the bloody referendum but also it really is a pressing issue, worthy of a lead column, that the dinner party is in danger. Jeepers. Put
3295 days ago
Naturally my thoughts are with the victims and their families. What happened in Paris last night was an atrocity and those responsible are evil. However, tying in with yesterday's article on Jihadi John, I suggest that the actions of our leaders in bombing Syria and Iraq have not only destroyed those countries but have made we in Paris or London or even Bristol not safer but less safe. Before you shout "bomb the bastards back into the stone age" consider that this is exactly what we have been doing and it is not either just or doing any good at all. Au contraire.
3340 days ago
Interupted by fckwit PR men and a host of other things this is not a good day. But at least in 48 hours Pizza hardman Darren Atwater has the FSAL headache and I shall be away from acursed London and back in Bristol. On the podcast today: Outsourcery (OUT), Wandicso (WAND), Paragon Diamonds (PRG), Sefton Resources (SER), Fitbug (FITB), Koovs (KOOV), Boohoo.com (BOO), Daniel Stewart (DAN), Golden Saint Resources (GSR) and Blur (BLUR).
3349 days ago
I cannot remember exactly when I was diagnosed with type 2 diabetes. I think it was around six or seven years ago. It was not a surprise. I had eaten and drink too much and the great West Ham supporting Tory blogger Iain Dale had described his symptoms and diagnosis a few months earlier. I knew what was coming.
There have been times since when I have managed it with medication and sometimes just by clean living and taking stacks of exercise. There have been times when I just let myself go. Four years ago I was a 19 stone 6 pounds blob and really all over the shop. But relationship breakdowns, work crises, near bankruptcy and a nervous breakdown did wonders for my (physical) health sending me off to walk around the mountains of Greece and Albania. I may have been a bit of a fruitcake but I sure knocked my body into shape.
Of course marriage and owning a restaurant are not good for the figure but I think I sort of have things in some sort pf check but perhaps I was a tad complacent. I know that Iain has also gone through such phases. However, the Mrs forced me to register with a doctor and last week an eye test showed the first – albeit minimal at this stage – signs of an issue in my right eye. I knew what was coming next.
This afternoon I strolled down to the doctors,
3483 days ago
It is clear that Scotland now thinks totally differently to England in social, economic and political terms. It is another country and it must be given independence now – more on that later. But there is another country within England – London.
As a resident of the boonies and someone born and raised a small town boy I have always thought Londoners odd. As they wander around buying properties on a sub 1% yield and thinking that is a bargain, paying £100 for underwater yoga sessions and more for regular colonic irrigation the middle classes of London just seem peculiar to me.
And in political terms
3887 days ago
A little bit of a misunderstanding with the Mrs and the alarm clock saw me still soundly asleep as the 4.47 AM pulled out of Bristol today. In the end I had a pleasant lie-in, worked in the morning and just after lunch (an apple) kissed goodbye to the cats and the Mrs and headed off. Now in London I will not see Bristol, or the cats, again for more than a month.
The Mrs is heading up later in the week for her Birthday and the UK Investor Show on Saturday where she will be personfully ( you see dearest, I can be PC if I try) looking after speakers in one of the breakout rooms and then wandering around with her parents who are also attending. Tes, the mother-in-law is coming to the show. Be very afraid. I am. I guess I won’t be swearing all day just in case she hears and gives me a scary and dirty look.
And then a few farewells and it is off to Greece on my own at first as I try to find the grave of my great uncle David. Thereafter the Mrs joins me as we spend a couple of weeks in the Mani where – I warn you – the internet connection can be patchy. It will be early May before I get back to Bristol, the cats, a new kitchen sort of designed by me with a lovely new Range Cooker. It seems like a long time away but I am sure that time will fly.
Anyhow my battered and well-travelled rucksack is packed and with me as we prepare to go hill walking in Greece once again. I really cannot wait.
3913 days ago
To London yesterday for an early morning breakfast with Paul Atherley of AIM listed Leyshon Energy (LEN) which at 5p trades at net cash. So is this going nowhere? Far from it. The Q&A follows.
Q. What happened your Chinese gas – is it toast?
3915 days ago
When I was a child my mother’s wider family used to meet up at a restaurant in Marlborough in December for a meal and to exchange Christmas presents. I remember the hotel served an amazing brown breadcrumb ice cream. My grandparents would travel up from Dorset and my mother’s brother and little sister would drive up separately from London while Dad would drive us down from Northamptonshire.
My father takes after his mother and so we would arrive on the dot at 12.30 as agreed. We would then spend the next two hours enjoying the sweepstake organised by my father on which member of the Booker clan would be the last to arrive. Bookers do not do punctuality and it is correctly said that the only occasion at which they are ever on time is their funeral.
My father’s mother only once ever missed a train in her life. That was when she arrived so early that she caught the one before instead. My father operates on a similar basis and so when dropping me off at Moreton-in-Marsh he always allows plenty of time. Even though he observes a strict 20 mile an hour speed limit on all roads, more or less up to and including Motorways, I inevitably spend a good twenty minutes waiting on the platform at Moreton.
But I am as guilty of this obsession with not missing my train as is he. Regular readers will know that I catch the 4.47 AM from Bristol when travelling up to London as I am doing today. It is empty
4238 days ago
In Greece youth unemployment is c60%. Ditto Spain. In Eire 30%. But these figures dramatically understate, yes I repeat understate, what is going on and it is the Euro that is to blame. An entire generation across much of Europe is being pulverized, systematically smashed and it is the Euro worshipping leaders of the same countries who are to blame. This is almost a crime against humanity.
Why the understatement?
4312 days ago
I was in a rush and so thought I’d splash out and get a cab from The Real Man Pizza Company to the Flux new media conference at Truman’s Brewery today. According to AA Route Planner it is 2.2 miles and should take 8 minutes. It is damn simple just head down Clerkenwell Road to Old street, take Great Eastern Street, Commercial street and then Wentworth Street and you are there. I have lived around here on and off for almost 25 years.
But my taxi driver knew best. My journey lasted 25 minutes. He found every traffic jam going. It cost £15.60. It was the craziest route you could imagine. What can you do at the end? Sod all. Just pay up, walk away and mutter under your breath a lot of rude words. Most cabbies are honest – this guy was just a piece of work. But there is nothing you can do about it.
Coming back I walked. It did not take much longer and was pretty direct.
