151 days ago
I start with Wales and how not to make it richer. Then I look at Dave Lenigas run Pennpetro (PPP), UK Oil & Gas (UKOG), Helium One (HE1), Futura Medical (FUM) and Skinbiotherapeutics (SBTX).
154 days ago
Earlier today I flagged up the horrific and seemingly somewhat iffy way that £7.8 million of Welsh Government money had been spaffed on soon to go bust Reneuron (RENE), to transfer just 25 jobs from England to the rain sodden post industrial second world nation of Wales. But it seems that this is just the tip of the iceberg. I write this as the father of Welsh speaking, proudly Welsh kids, living in Wales. As he prepares a school project for St David’s Day describing a Welsh hero, young Joshua may read this article and in honour of Owain Glyndŵr punish me by burning down some of our barns.
164 days ago
I rather wish I had not bothered watering my vegetables today as God has just watered them with a vengeance. Wales really has been wet this summer which, like the drought of a couple of years ago, will be cited by the GroupThink as definitive proof of global warming.
196 days ago
As I have noted before, when one uses weather stations on RAF bases you can always prove there is global warming. But beyond the data, surely we all have the evidence of our eyes.
204 days ago
I start with why Malcolm is talking tosh on tobacco stocks and inflation and move onto Tata in Port Talbot. The bulk of the podcast covers my damning expose of NightCap (NGHT) which is the sort of journalism which really excites me and makes me think I’d never retire. It is shocking and I explain what should happen next, for any Allenby employees listening!
211 days ago
There was a recent survey showing that those, like myself, living in the rain sodden post industrial second world nation of Wales were among the most depressed in the world and one of the reasons cited was the rollout of 20 MPH speed limits. They are absolutely everywhere. The overpaid political midgets in the Senedd left it to the discretion of local councils as to where to apply the new limits and the power-hungry non-entities who run local councils across this once fine land could not wait to impose the limits everywhere they could.
225 days ago
As of today just under half the seats for the third Sharestock event on 7 September are now booked. If you have been before you know why but this year’s event will be bigger and better than any yet. Here is why you should make sure you have a seat HERE today.
228 days ago
In today’s bearcast I start with rain and reservoir levels here in Wales before covering: Canadian Overseas Petroleum (COPL), Renold (RNO), Avacta (AVCT), Ben’s Creek (BEN), Harland & Wolff (HARL), Belluscura (BELL), Horizonte Minerals (HZM), Wildcat Petroleum (WCAT), a major scandal the FCA needs to take seriously, Verditek (VDTK) and Regtech Open (RTOP) & the missing or not £1.4 million.
252 days ago
I have a facebook account which I very rarely use. I post links to my articles on it and now and again visit it it to check whether I am the subject of a two minute hate here in the last village in Wales. Following revelations that the Welsh Government imposed draconian lockdown rules on us for purely political rather than scientific reasons I am waiting for some of the face nappy fascists here to apologise but suspect they will not. Anyhow I was on facebook the other day and was contacted out of the blue by a chap living in Greece. My late father would have been horrified.
276 days ago
For St. David’s Day, the Pest, aka my son Joshua, has a choice of three Welsh tasks for a school contest. No sheep jokes, he is only seven. And fear not, any English person owning a second home in the village won’t be “coming home to a real fire” though Joshua is a fierce nationalist. That reminds me, it is Ireland vs Wales on Saturday which we will be watching with an Irish family though the Mrs says she will join the kids in rooting for Wales. Traitor. Back to the contest: the task we have chosen is making Bara Brith, a Welsh sort of fruit cake.
310 days ago
Despite claims that 2023 was the hottest year on record, using spectacularly bodged data, the arctic sea ice seems to be rather off message: it is now at its highest level for 21 years. Oddly the BBC’s various global warming correspondents have yet to take a private jet to report on that. Perhaps they are all at Davos with Greta Thunberg. Meanwhile closer to home I bring you two pictures that greeted my family at the Welsh hovel this morning, yes that is global warming you see in the farmyard and on the road up to the village.
315 days ago
I start with the weather. The Rain in Wales only stops when it hails. The River Dee is rising and will, I predict, breach a bank tonight – this relates to my great obsession in life (other than Cheryl Cole ) as you can see HERE. Then it is into Optibiotix (OPTI), Pennpetro (PPP) and Victoria (VCP)
323 days ago
There was a brief break in the weather here in North Wales yesterday. That is to say it was only raining steadily rather than pissing it down. And thus we took our house guest, a keen believer in the bogus religion of man made global warming, up to Lake Vrynwy. I have visited this place a number of times since the summer of 2022 when a lack of summer frain saw the emergence from the shallows of Welsh villages drowned by the English infidels to create the reservoir. Ignoring a stack of facts the cultists in the MSM predicted this would happen with increasing frequency thanks to global warming, or climate change as it is known when things get cold.
371 days ago
I did not used to be much of a baker but in the past couple of years I have got fairly good at making cakes. So I am kicking myself for slightly overdoing what is known as a Grandpa cake which you can see below. The top is a little well done but inside it is pretty moist as you’d expect of a fruitcake soaked in Guniness. that is not to say that my father was mad, just a bit eccentric, or soaked in Guinness, he preferred cider. It is just that the recipe is Irish and my father always referred to Ireland as the Old Country.
379 days ago
I end with my sister cropping up on Radio 4 yesterday, I start with my dilemma about where to watch the Wales game. In between I ask Malcolm ( UK shares) and Nigel (gold) to consider if the assets they are loving up may be unloved for a very good reason.
395 days ago
The River Dee which flows at the edge of my fields is meant to be a clean home to salmon and trout. Its banks should be home to a range of wildlife including Kingfishers, I saw one a few weeks ago, and a rare sort of dragonfly. My, now water-logged, fields are home to frogs, toads, snakes, aquatic birdlife and much more. This morning, as you can see below, there is a large compostable toilet stuck on the English side of the river, leaking shit. The story of that loo and its shit is one which leaves me in despair at a broken Britain with a Police and local council ( Chester and Cheshire West) who are not underfunded but are just useless, protecting those who break the law and telling we honest taxpayers to go fuck ourselves.
398 days ago
Yesi am a geek and this is my pet subject. Outside at the edge of my garden and fields, the River Dee is running high and fast and with non stop rain for most of the past day set to continue overnight, I am braced for the waters to breach the lower orchard. And that prompts me to revisit my specialist subject of water levels in the reservoirs of the United Utilities region and especially here in Wales.
411 days ago
My tomato harvest this year has not been great. Lots of plants were planted but I think that I need to start early growth under cloches next year. The bottom line is that we have had enough for some salads but not enough for canning. And the stacks of green tomatoes are generally too small to fry up and eat. Hence, as you can see below, I now have around eight pounds of green tomato chutney made with sultanas, apple vinegar, onions and brown sugar. It needs a bit of time to settle and store but the first pots should be ready for the Guy Fawkes night party where surely the guy on the bonfire has to be our dear leader here in Wales, Mark Drakeford or, possibly, the head of Oxfam.
442 days ago
I am not sure where my mad lefty pal L got this idea from, probably the Guardian. But as he came over for a swim and lunch yesterday he brought over warm figs in blankets – the blankets being bacon. Maybe he invented the recipe but he should claim credit for they were stunning.
458 days ago
Normally Joshua and I pick blackberries for ice cream, flavoured vodka and crumbles (with homegrown apples) after we get back from Greece. But this year they started early. One of our favourite haunts is the village churchyard where there is an enormous bush in the middle and a few smaller ones either side of the fence between the graves and our upper field.
482 days ago
Photos later but it’s exciting. Then on losing a bet with Joshua, More Acquisitions (TMOR), Wandisco (WAND) fesses up after my article last week but in a spineless way, musicMagpie (MMAG), Optibiotix (OPTI), Canadian Overseas Petroleum (COPL) & Guild ESports (GILD)
534 days ago
The last time West Ham were in a cup final (2006), I was there. The less said about that match the better. The only bar we could find afterwards near the ground in Cardiff not packed with joyful Scousers, in which to drown our sorrows, was a gay bar. We had real sorrows to drown.
583 days ago
Happy Good Friday from Greece. I describe my amazing triumph and then go on to discuss Carnival (CCL), Superdry (SDY), Minoan (MIN), Mirriad (MIRI), Ince Group (INCE), how companies that admit they are failing end up in a vicious circle and more. There may not be a Bearcast Saturday, it all depends on what time I make it back to Wales.
585 days ago
We all know that Versarien (VRS) will be running on vapours by June so its only hope is a bailout placing. Soundings must already be underway. As I prepare to bring 5 litres of Greek Hovel olive oil back to Wales you can win 500 ml by winning this contest
592 days ago
You may have worried, after my earlier piece, on a Welsh Easter in Greece, that I had starved the family of chocolate. As you can see below, I caved into consumerism and unhealthy living in a big way. The Mrs is hiding her chocolate Easter Bunny, Jaya was more excited about the pink wrapping than the actual egg.
592 days ago
The Greek Easter is next week when we will be in Wales. Welsh Easter is today when we are in Greece. So it was a mixed celebration.
600 days ago
Back in August of last year the sight of a parched Lake Vyrnwy in the hills about an hour from where I live was a posterboy for those predicting more and more droughts thanks to man made global warming. As someone who remembers my local reservoir drying up in 1976 but refilling very quickly the next year I thought that this was media bull at the time and with data from United Utilities and a site visit I have demonstrated a number of times that I was right and the MSM was talking GroupThink cock. But the mainstream media has not apologised, indeed over at the Guardian they have doubled down.
600 days ago
I start with a few ramblings on turning the Welsh Hovel into a homestead and an apple I have just eaten. I end with a reminder that 98% of you have yet to donate to Rogue Bloggers for Woodlarks. I am sure that you can each afford a tenner, please do donate HERE. Then I look in detail at Strix (KETL) and explain why Versarien (VRS) really is screwed. Unless you have dealt with banks when running a struggling company – as I have – you just won’t get why. I also look at BSF Enterprises (BSFA), Wishbone Gold (WSBN) and Inland (INL).
618 days ago
For years supporters of IQE (IQE) such as thirsty Paul Scott and our own Malcolm Stacey argued that it was a tech play and this justified fancy doo-dah valuations. I argued that it was simply a manufacturer operating in a cyclical commodity space and a not very good one at that. Today comes another dire lack of profits warning which will be enough to turn the bulls to drink and is a good reason for this sober bear to enjoy a small ouzo tonight.
619 days ago
Here in the last village in Wales the snow has been falling for a couple of hours. On the grassy bank outside my kitchen there is, perhaps, half an inch of global warming. On the road down to my house and other roads in the village it is yet to settle at all. But, quelle surprise, the village school has already cited ef ‘n’ safey reasons for a full shutdown.
637 days ago
I start with half term trespassers of whom there seem to be many here in Wales. Then it is onto Verditek (VDTK) and why AIM Regulation’s failings matter, Audioboom (BOOM), Versarien (VRS), questions about revenue recognition at Andrew Monk’s VSA Capital (VSA) and finally Moonpig (MOON). The prize Versarien contest mentioned is HERE
651 days ago
I am pretty sure I am not. In fact, although this household is very, very, mixed race ( white identifying as Northern Irish married to Asian origin identifying as English with kids mixed race identifying as Welsh) 98% of folks here in Wrexham are white. And although you would find it hard to believe given the media coverage and our Government’s determination to spend as much as it can to make Wales “the most LGBTQ friendly country in Wales” the census suggests that almost 98% of us are in fact heterosexual. In Cardiff it is only 95% so the proportion up here in North Wales must be even higher. But…
659 days ago
I start with a few words on the weather here in North Wales which brings much joy to my kids and then on Warwick School historic abuse matters. Then it is on to Caracal Gold (GCAT), Corero (CNS), Cellular Goods (CBX), Dev Clever (DEV), Skinbiotherapeutics (SBTX) and THG (THG).
672 days ago
With breathless excitement the BBC here in Wales has pumped out an exclusive story which has prompted some of the sheep shaggers to fill their boots with shares in Anglesey Mining (AYM) prompting a bit of a spike in the share price. But it is all bollocks. And a prelude to a deeply discounted placing. The sheep shaggers here in Cymru are going to get their fingers burned. Shame on the BBC for failing to do even basic research. Its article from one day ago is below.
673 days ago
As I write, the snow, which has fallen for the past two nights, exposing my son for the seventh time in his seven years on this planet to something cultists said he’d never see, is melting and the flood waters here on the river Dee in North Wales are actually receding. But still my fields are flooded as you can see HERE. More importantly we now have data on reservoir levels in the United Utilities region which includes this part of Wales. This data is now the highlight of my week and again shows what tosh the global warming cultists in the mainstream media GroupThink were talking last summer.
679 days ago
Nobody seems to care about history being accurate any more. As long as it fits the narrative that English folks were universally bad and that vast amounts of money must be paid to the imagined victims of slavery. The Church of England buys into this piffle and has produced a big report into its slaving links with especial reference to the South Sea Company and has found £100 million down the back of the sofa to compensate communities that might have suffered. Where to start?
683 days ago
In August 2022 Lake Vyrnwy, about an hour from where I live in Wales, was the posterboy of the Global warming GroupThink cult as I recalled here. I took my kids to the lake today and combine those photos taken with hard data from United Utilities to show how the GroupThink are just so wrong. Not that the BBC or anyone in the Mainstream Media will report it.
685 days ago
Already one health trust in England has banned hospital visits and force folks to wear face nappies “to save the NHS”. To save it from what? Covid of course. This is a new super strain of the Omicron variant, you remember the one that spread rapidly and killed virtually nobody. It is time for all the “experts” to be wheeled out, backing claims from public sector workers like the nurses and teachers as to why we should give them less work to do for more pay and to trainwreck the economy as we do so.
689 days ago
Maybe I have fallen out with these folks already: Colin Bird, Richard Poulden, and Andrew Bell. But after this podcast I sure will have done so. I own shares in two companies mentioned. It is my intent to cut my losses when back at my desk in Wales next week and to reinvest the little cash that comes in, in a boring gold play with a dividend which will not be passing the begging bowl around numerous times next year. I think probably I shall buy a few more Ariana (AAU). The three companies that I slate today are Red Rock Resources (RRR), Tiger Royalties (TIR) and Wishbone Gold (WSBN)
722 days ago
There is much wailing as the results of the 2021 Census are published and so that for the first time in almost two thousand years the majority of folks in England and Wales do not identify as Christian. Well sort of, many of the supposed godless are just like Cambridge University bisexuals. They will see the light sooner or later. Let me explain on this day before Advent.
735 days ago
My son Joshua has now spent well over half of his life in Wales. And, though he was born in England to parents who support Northern Ireland and England respectively, he considers himself a proud Welshman. He leads us as we say grace in Welsh each night and there are more and more Welsh phrases exchanged between him and me as I also start to grapple with the language from hell. Today his school is celebrating the fact that Wales has made it through to the World Cup finals, by everyone wearing red tops.
783 days ago
Hell I voted for her, something for which I must again apologise for to everybody else in Wrexham, but surely that merits a personal visit. It seems as if Wrexham Athletic is here in the last village in Wales tonight. At the school gates M, a fellow young mum who is a true libertarian as is her husband D, greets me with the news that flyers are out saying Atherton will be “door knocking” tonight. M says that D has a few words for our MP in this red wall seat and one suspects that Ms Atherton will not enjoy that monologue.
783 days ago
Both harvests have been good this year. I picked all the peppers, both the soft bell shaped ones and the spicier long green ones, earlier this week. The chilli plants are still turning red so what you see below is just the first crop. There will be a stack more to come and, after last year’s bumper crop we are still working through the dried chillies from 2021. Even an Anglo Indian household like this one cannot keep up with what our gardens supply.
811 days ago
I am not denying that the fuel crisis will hit a lot of folks hard this winter. If our entire political and media class had not driven this nation down the path prescribed by the uneducated doom goblin Greta Thunberg and had we not prolonged the bloodshed in Ukraine we would not be in this mess. But that is for another day. The GroupThink will – on both counts – be shown to be in the wrong just as they were on masks and lockdown. But will thousands die in unheated homes as we are told by the media and the Labour Party each day? I remember my childhood in the 1970s.
820 days ago
Apart from a brief couple of weeks when we were ordered to celebrate Black Lives Matter last year, Pride Month which started in June 2013 has been celebrated every month since. This week it is Pride Week in Ottawa, capital of the woke Socialist hell hole that is Canada. I am delighted to read in the must subscribe newsletter, the Ottawan – prop my pal D Atwater Esq – that “the Ottawa Tool Library presents the Free Pride Week Sewing Circle, for 2SLGBTQIA+ makers of all levels of sewing experience. Tickets are free.” Radical! Stonewall Riot v2. But what on earth is 2SLGBTQIA+ – I bet even President Castro-Trudeau cannot tell us what that stands for. But as a Welsh taxpayer there is something else bringing me even more joy.
826 days ago
My trip started at 10 AM GMT on a Monday and ended 2.30 AM GMT on last Thursday. I will not be doing it again. I describe exactly what happened.
828 days ago
I start with a bity of my travel adventures. I was in bed by 3 AM last night after the previous night’s 5 AM. If I ever say that I am driving from Greece to Wales in 2.5 days again you can shoot me. Then I remind you that it is less than a month to ShareStock so book your seats on the greenest lawn in Wales NOW. Then I look in detail at Revolution Beauty (REVB), Wildcat Petroleum (WCAT), I have a hot rumour on Parsley Box (MEAL) and I comment on GSK (GSK) and the Zantac issue. or non issue. Any more carcinogens with your medication vicar?
828 days ago
I start with my troubles in travelling and also with a guest at the Greek Hovel changing all the locks. Suffice to say I am in a bad mood as I head back to Wales. Then it is onto Canadian Overseas Petroleum (COPL) where – goaded by a trolling and abusive shareholder – I remind you why the shares will be sub 10p by Christmas and could well then head rapidly towards zero. Then back to Zak Mir and Lift Ventures (LFT), where I serve up a scenario where the initial Miriad deal was illegal and the cover-up needs exposing, something Aquis Regulation could do at ease. Of course if the NEDS and adviser Optiva are smart and, if my theory is correct, they will resign and whistleblow now as IF the initial deal was illegal and that is now being covered up they do not want to be implicated if things get messy.
830 days ago
I am afraid that events have conspired to deprive us of Malcolm’s words of wisdom for a third day. You will remember that Malcolm has now moved the contents of his 26 room South Wales seaside mansion to his new home in North Wales in a carbon net zero worker friendly manner. But he has no internet. Yesterday …
830 days ago
There is no column from the old boy today as he is moving house. This presents a dilemma for our own in house eco and social justice warrior. How does one ship the contents from his 26 room palace on the sea shore in the poshest village in South Wales to his new abode in the land of the Gogs, that is to say North Wales, in a net carbon zero manner?
840 days ago
Drew Nelson is the scumbag who as CEO of IQE (IQE) persuaded thirsty share bloggers and other gullible souls that his low grade commodity business, based in the rain sodden, post industrial, covid ridden, second world wastelands of South Wales which never generated a cent of cash was somehow a great growth stock. That justified paying Drew a vast salary but that was not enough to sate his greed.
845 days ago
I start with a few reflections about being alone on holiday for the first time in two weeks. It is a short respite but blissful. Then it is onto Julie Meyer and why she is so wrong about the economic prospects of her latest bolt hole, Greece. It is doomed. Then onto delusion among shareholders in the fraud Supply@ME Capital (SYME). And finally why you should book your tickets for ShareStock, on the banks of the river Dee in Wales, on September 10 HERE
892 days ago
Given it is hammering down here in North Wales, I bet Mr Mellon is somewhere far sunnier than Port Erin. The graphic below is from him, and I discuss it in detail. Then, I look at those determined to ignore clear warnings, ref Petropavlovsk (POG). I cover incomplete and thus, potentially deceptive, RNS statements ref. Nostra Terra Oil & Gas (NTOG), before assessing Fulham Shore (FUL) in detail. With gift aid, we have now raised £19,700 for Rogue Bloggers for Woodlarks - please help us reach the £20,000 landmark today (D-3 days), HERE. Finally, my podcast on falling out with Dominic Frisby, 1939 and all that can be accessed, HERE.
898 days ago
Just like the Greek Hovel - which, in reality, is a luxury eco-palace (book here) - the Welsh Hovel is not really a hovel, either. It is a listed building that, after three and a half years, is almost entirely renovated. I refer you to the “new” annexe.
917 days ago
Still branding herself after the colour of her hair dye, the blonde, Julie “lingerie on expenses” Meyer is today again spamming her GPDR non-compliant mailing list trying to persuade folks to join her at her latest investment conference. This email from the fugitive from a 6 month jail term here in the UK is her most insane yet. She insults the French, the Queen and invests a whole new island off Wales, North Anglesey. It is of course just Anglesey, or rather Yns Mon. Maybe she should visit the place as the North Wales Police are keen to have a word following her recent wasting of Police time.
925 days ago
An ageing population, more covid deaths (pro rata) than England, a post-industrial and weak economy and a piss poor rugby team, Wales has real problems. So what is the answer? Of course: we need more politicians!
935 days ago
The Rogue Bloggers for Woodlarks walk is looming. It is June 11.34miles. And my training to date has been poor. So, at 6.24 AM I set out for a little stroll as you can see below.
I am doing this to raise cash for an incredible charity. As you enjoy my real suffering below please do make a donation HERE
944 days ago
N restores old furniture and right now is assisting with the mending of an African table belonging to the Mrs. In return I shall be bringing him olive wood from the Greek hovel which has a distinctive and stunning core. The good news is that, thanks to my new Albanian tree pruner, I have plenty of fine samples to bring back to the rain sodden second world. N, enjoy…
948 days ago
Greece was often praised for its authoritarian approach to the scamdemic. You may remember the Guardian and BBC claiming that, while our evil government committed genocide by negligence, Greece’s draconian lockdown had cured the country of covid. Of course, it did not. The lockdown gave the economy another good kick but, as the table shows, Greece has fared relatively badly in terms of covid deaths.
953 days ago
I start with a few words on vegetables here at the Welsh hovel. Then onto today’s election in France, and finally, the £16.60 pub burger in Wales: what is happening and what does it all mean?
962 days ago
Joshua and I drove in my battered old Belingo to pick up Jaya from her nursery among the infidels in England yesterday as it was bitterly cold, far too cold to walk. As we arrived the skies seemed to visibly darken and I felt even colder. I remarked on this to a mother waiting for her little darling and almost at once the skies opened spitting out big lumps of snow. Joshua got out of the van in excitement and left his door open so within three minutes his seat was covered in global warming. But by the time we had reached the bridge back to Wales the storm was over.
967 days ago
Suffice to say, as the doctor outlined exactly what the problem was this afternoon and then what the solution would be I felt really very uncomfortable indeed. Luckily…
972 days ago
I give you the circumstances and ask should I sack this old bloke? I can see no reason not to even if it forces me to have to learn how to slate. Then I look at BlueJay Mining (JAY), musicMagpie (MMAG), McColls (MCLS), and the almighty joke that is Standard Listed Fragrant Prosperity (FPP) which is, as I explain, worth less than nothing.
973 days ago
I explain why and about a bit of a mishap as I left Wales. The it is onto musicMagpie (MMAG) after this piece earlier, Parsley Box (MEAL), Chill Brands (FRAUD), Online Blockchain (OBC), TrustPilot (TRST) and Knights Group (KGH). After my enforced training walk thismorning you can donate to Rogue Bloggers for Woodlarks HERE on the news of our new star walker.
993 days ago
Natch, some folks, like Darren Atwater, leap to the conclusion that Joshua headed to school dressed as Harry Potter. Au contraire. He is, of course, a Welsh wizard who even as a boy performed miraculous feats. That is to say Myrddin ap Emrys or, as thee infidels over the river In England might say, Merlin. And, yes, that is a home made wand made by yours truly.
1002 days ago
I comment on the weather here in Wales and then start with those sort of folks who engage in utterly reckless behaviour they know will ruin them. I think of vicars or Tory MPs having unsafe sex with rent boys in the era of the News of the Screws or of Paul Smith the, now ex, CEO of Morses Club (MCL). I look at ADVFN (AFN) and ask if its shares are now cheap at 63p? Then it is onto UK Oil & Gas (UKOG), and to Predator Oil (PRD) where I smell a pre-placing ramp and where the COO is now tweeting like a lunatic. Finally it is Guild ESports (GILD) and Cellular Goods (CBX).
1018 days ago
Idiots like our first minister here in Wales, Mr Mark Drakeford and the mask jihadists here in my home village of Holt still insist that we must wear masks to stop or slow the spread of covid. Yet hard real world data is more and more against them. Last week I discussed New York vs New Jersey. Before that it was three states in Dixie and before that Wales vs the infidels in England. Nows I bring you another chart the BBC and other hard line maskers just cannot explain.
1019 days ago
Ahead of West Ham vs Kidderminster and Wales vs Ireland I am obviously rushing to get things done. But this is a full length bearcast covering Kefi (KEFI), Love Hemp (LIFE) and Powerhouse Energy (PHE)
1020 days ago
In the old days when Wales defeated Ireland in the rugby, my late father and I would console ourselves with the phrase “At least Olaf will be happy”. Though she is in Paris at present I am sure that my eldest and fairly thirsty daughter, will need no great persuasion to wander into a pub to cheer on her compatriots in red.
1023 days ago
This week, 50,000 truckers headed in a convey to Ottawa, the Truckers for Freedom. All along the route, Canadians braved minus temperatures and driving snow to wave flags and shout their support. Prime Minister Trudeau claimed he had met someone with covid and so self-isolated in a hidden bunker. Almost the entire population of Canada, with the exception of my best man the deranged socialist Darren Atwater who has offered “Ol’ blackface” sanctuary at his log cabin in the woods, is revolted by Trudeau. So tweeting from his hideout how does little Justin describe the truckers, and in effect most Canadians?
1024 days ago
How many times do I have to serve up data from directly comparable regions with differeing mask policies where data, real world data, shows that far greater face nappy wearing makes no difference at all to covid spread, whatever the mask jihadists of my home village insist. “But you are not a doctor” they squeal “so your opinion does not count!” But I do look at data and the data does not lie. I showed you England vs Wales then three Southern States in the USA. Now let’s look at New York State and, on the other side of the Hudson River, the Garden State, New Jersey.
1029 days ago
Canada’s ridiculous hereditary Prime Minister Justin “blackface” Trudeau, has been thrice jabbed for covid. He is often seen in a mask although obviously not when partying with other G7 leaders. He is a fit and healthy young man. But…
1031 days ago
You may remember that last term the white kids on Joshua’s school council decided that everyone had to red one Friday to defeat racism. So mixed race Joshua and his best friend R (who is half Polish) had to have chats with their parents about why some folks might not like them. It was a bit of a hard conversation given that the boys are just 5. This Sunday the Mrs got a message: The school eco-committee has decided that you must provide your child with a healthy snack this week, until Friday, when they can have a treat.
1034 days ago
Now that it is cash generative, pro tem, ADVFN (AFN) reckons that its shares are undervalued. Of course Clem Chambers, the globe trotting boss of the websites group, has been saying this for years as the stock price tanked and I reckon that Cheryl Cole is missing out on a damn good time here in North Wales. We are all entitled to our opinions.
1046 days ago
Will Joshua ever make it back to school? There appear to be suggestions that Wales’s bone idle teachers will postpone his education in why white privilege makes him an automatic victim by yet another day. In the podcast I discuss why Cliff Weight is wrong about share options, the Chill Brands (CHLL) spoof and then took a detailed look at AIM China play Univison Limited (UVEL) which looks tome to be a zero. Have you looked at what this loss making indebted POS spunked £949,000 on during the first half? In signing off on interims,Nomad Spark Advisory is ‘avin’ a bubble.
1047 days ago
Wretched First Minister of Wales, the criminally insane Mark Drakeford, is at it again. Despite imposing a stricter lockdown than England on Boxing Day and insisting that England is a pariah as a result Welsh cases have continued their prior trajectory (as have English cases) suggesting that the measures taken made no difference at all. Welsh cases are now far higher than in England. All of this is explained and demonstrated HERE. So how does Dripford explain this? Simple sheeples..
1048 days ago
Naturally, the media love this stakhanovite hero of the NHS. Dr Eilir Hughes works in rural Wales as a GP, a profession where the average pay is already £100,700. Natch,Dr Hughes reckons that the NHS is massively underfunded by the Evil Tories and needs far more cash,not least for inflation busting pay rises all round. But before you consider crowdfunding for the poor lamb…
1049 days ago
Over the past few days I have shown time and again the growing mountain of hard statistical evidence that shows – as some of us have been saying for a very long time – that all the measures imposed by Government to try and control the scamdemic just do not work. Instead the collateral damage they cause ruins lives. Still the those inside the GroupThink of the media and political classes plough on, unable to admit their horrific blunders. Writing as I do, 30 yards inside Wales, once again our dear leader, the criminally insane Mr Mark Drakeford, has shown the folly of GroupThink. Consider the graph below.
1063 days ago
The Mrs has managed to get the lights working, the tree is topped with Olaf’s angel from 17 years ago, the in-laws have arrived and we’ve had our first covid scare.What more could one want for Christmas? To all readers of this, my personal website, even those neighbours here in the last village in Wales, who tried to snitch to the Council on the new English folks in the village or who berated me as Emmanuel Goldstein in a two minute hate, myself and my family wish you all a very merry Christmas and hope that we can all enjoy a less miserable, end of Mark Drakeford, 2022.
1063 days ago
In attempting to justify logic defying and insane new restrictions on the three million of us who live in Wales, our First Minister mad Mark Drakeford told a monstrous lie. He claimed that the Omicron variant was “probably” as deadly as the Delta variant.
1065 days ago
Throughout the scandemic Wales, under the leadership of mad Mark Drakeford, has had tougher lockdown rules that the infidels across the border in England. Yet covid numbers, here in the rain sodden post industrial principality have been resolutely and consistently higher than in England. Doctor: the medicine is not working and is having awful side effects what should we do? Up the dosage!
1070 days ago
I start with a report on life at the only place in the world wetter than Wales. Will harvester B have to swim across the dry river to make it home? There are photos on my site but it is getting a bit nerve wracking. I look at crypto and answer questions from reader Guy as to whether it is a bubble. I discuss the ethics of Matt Earl closing most of his Civitas Social Housing (CSH) short and I admit again to being bored by Ariana (AAU) while others are bored by Optibiotix (OPTI) but is that a reason to sell?
1070 days ago
I am not so keen on pubs these days and my feelings on my fellow residents of the rain sodden* land that is Wales fluctuate. But I have invested a modest sum as a present for my daughter in a fund raise that closes at midnight Sunday. If you like pubs or Wales or both I urge you to join me on the shareholder list. Will I make money? I doubt it so this is like most stocks on AIM but this is a good cause.
1088 days ago
I have an old friend B who is a good man and not dumb at all but he is a complete mask fanatic and he could not wait this morning to send me a link to a news article about how, as of Tuesday, folks in England will get fined £200 for not wearing a face nappy in Asda. No face nappies are needed in JD Wetherspoon but Botswana covid does not drink so that is all right. Follow the science comrades. It gave my old friend B such pleasure to spread the news of more draconian laws, I was almost happy for him. But…
1089 days ago
Just how many profits, or rather lack of profits, warnings has IQE (IQE) issued during the 21 years since its 2000 IPO at c400p. The shares are today 40p after the Pride of the Welsh tech sector added another warning to its, already extensive, collection. I hope that folks have listened to my warnings over many years that this is a dog with fleas, or ci gyda chwain as we say here in the post-industrial, rain sodden, second world province.
1089 days ago
I noted on Friday that in South Africa, where the new strain of Covid has emerged, the number of fatalities and indeed the number of hospitalisations is the same as the number of times I have shagged Cheryl Cole this week. That is to say, zero. All viruses mutate in a Darwinian way. To ensure species survival those that are more transmissable tend to be weaker, killing the host makes no sense. But, of course, mask jihadists – which includes almost everyone at the BBC - as well as most of the villagers where I live here in lockdown Wales, say that one must “liste to the science”. I offer hard data they offer doom and say that only scientists – as opposed to those who earn a living analysing data – are allowed a view. The fanatics want the State to strangle our liberties and the economy again. So here is a doctor fighting this strain at the centre of the epidemic appearing,amazingly, on the BBC today. Watch what she has to say on the basis of hard data and take that as your cue to resist Sajid, Boris and the rest of the deranged control fascists now running Airstrip One. Watch the video quickly before Youtube removes it for being what Prince Harry would term fake news.
1092 days ago
The man from the place where I buy all my trees, fruit bushes and seeds for the garden greeted me as Tom today as I walked in with Jayarani, after the young mums group run by my wife’s church, to buy some more blueberry bushes. This is a big advance from knowing me as the chap who lives at a place he still referred to by the name of the old, asbestos dumping,owners. Progress. Yesterday he dropped round a new Christmas tree.
1098 days ago
The rule here in North Wales is that you need to call our local surgery over in England at 8 AM to get an appointment.The Mrs has had a chesty cough for three weeks so – according to in the interweb – needs some antibiotics and thus a scrip. So she started calling at 8 AM. The line was engaged.
1119 days ago
I start with a few notes on horticulture here in Wales then move onto questioning my strongly held belief that Supply@ME Capital (SYME) is a worthless fraud. Then I explain why the recent Cenkos note on Skinbiotherapeutics (SBTX) is wrong and how via its website the company faces an acid test. Actually the website I refer to has now been amended as you can see HERE. But not before my contact placed an order. Finally I look at Vast Resources (VAST) and its shocking placing followed by even more shocking no-one is watching O’clock results.
1127 days ago
Plan B for England should covid case numbers increase involves bringing back face masks, vaccine passports and an encouragement to work from home. And this, we are assured by the experts, will help to stop the spread of covid, protect the NHS, make us all safer, yak, yak, yak. But the problem is that there is already hard data from the British Isles to show this is utter rubbish.
1139 days ago
Peter Brailey has explained numerous times on this website why Simec Atlantic Energy (SAE) is a zero in waiting. Its technology is suspect. It is year away from ever generating cash in a best, wildly optimistic, scenario and it has some ludicrous mini bonds which it cannot hope to repay where repayment is coming up fast. But to add to its woes it is now going to be screwed by the Government of land which, by 30 yards, I call home, Wales.
1140 days ago
Glamorous great Aunt Anna Lee, the British Bombshell, was in the film, How Green was my valley. Not a lot of people know that. Anyhow, the grass on top of the new earth bank and around the Ha-Ha is now, after two weeks of rain but two days of sunshine really starting to push through. Earlier today there were still two small puddles on top but they willbe gone by tonight so burning hot is the sun here in Wales today. Only kidding.
1158 days ago
Homework comes once a week from the Pest’s school here in Wales. It could be worse. Over the border among the infidels of England some of his peers have started at the Primary on the other side of the bridge and there for the fist two weeks the 5 year olds have been doing just two hours a day as “induction”. Apparently that is all about stopping the spread of covid, the plague which has killed almost nobody under the age of 10.
1158 days ago
Today is not only Joshua’s Birthday but also 100 days to Christmas and also Dydd Owain Glyndwr Hapus!. So I am busy cake making. Maybe a picture later after I burn my own house down in honour of the last Welsh Prince of Wales. In the podcast I discuss naughty corporate brokers, Optibiotix (OPTI) and Novacyt (NCYT)
1163 days ago
I have always thought that the idea of handing out trays of high sugar cup cakes bought from the local Nisa to the brats in your kid’s class at nursery or school on his or her Birthday, was just very silly. It did not happen when I was a boy, say I to the Mrs, sounding more and more like a grumpy old man as every day goes by.
1175 days ago
Of course they don’t. Madeline can’t have babies and lives 1500 miles from Texas. So she is affected in the same way that, living in Wales, I am hit by changes in the school hours in Latvia. That is to say not at all. But when you are a professional victim, near the top of the pyramid of victimhood, in 2021 who cares?
1176 days ago
There were not quite tears in my eyes or those of the Mrs as we sent Joshua into school for the first time today. But almost. Anyhow, he bravely trouped in holding the hand of a teacher who I was delighted to see was not wearing a face nappy. And by the end of the day, he was in great form, playing some odd playground game with R, his only pal from his nursery to go to Primary here in Wales and not over the river among the English infidels. So far he seems to like school but tomorrow he will be given his first homework, let’s see how he likes that.
1180 days ago
A couple of weeks ago, I showed data from three US states which demonstrated very clearly that wearing a face nappy makes sod all difference to covid spread. Now here is data from closer to home which makes the same point. Can the mask cultists explain this? Of course not so they will insist that I am not a doctor so not allowed to opine. Of course my job does focus on looking at numbers and explaining them but Harold Shipman is more qualified to interpret data than I am. Whatever..
1180 days ago
Having suffered the shocking customer experience of Curry’s yesterday, including an attempt to sting me for £45 with a false claim, I enquired of the press office at Dixons Carphone the owner, as to why its store was celebrating a Pride weekend? Much to my surprise Chloe, from the press office answered my email this morning stating:
1184 days ago
Kept awake by the sort of irritating, minor and temporary but painful condition that a gentlemen does not discuss on the internet, I find myself, as is often the case, considering the idea of my last day at work.
1185 days ago
I am back in the last village in Wales, Holt, and it seems as if the village Facebook page has again identified me as Emmanuel Goldstein and a two minute hate, which will last a lot longer than two minutes, is now underway. This time my “crime” is not to make a “modest proposal” to the local face nappy jihadists, it is far worse. I appear to have made a young woman cry.
1187 days ago
And so for the results of my second covid test in four days. This is all so utterly pointless. I was resident for seven weeks in remote parts of Greece where the covid rate is way way lower than it is here in Wales. I have had the disease so been vaccinated by God. I have been double jabbed thanks to Pfizer. And I had a test in Greece on Saturday morning which turned out negative.
1190 days ago
Now back in Wales after a two month break from the cultists, I am again running the gauntlet of the mask jihadists as I go about my daily life, heading to the village shop without a face nappy. I cite the Danish study, they insist that nearly all Welsh doctors say masking works. I point out the seven day rolling average deaths in Sweden has been 0 for more than a month, they say you are not a qualified doctor your views do not count. But, of course, my work is all about looking at numbers and data, something the jihadists of Holt cannot hope to understand at a meaningful level. So here is a chart for them to consider and then ignore as they relay instead on the “expert” views of a bloke on the telly.
1191 days ago
I am back in Wales as of the wee hours and reflect on that. Today has been plum harvesting day. In the podcast I look at Jubilee Metals (JLP) where I am out but should i dive back in and Ariana Resources (AAU) where I am in but should I dive out?. Then the two dogs both beloved of the Sith Lord Zak Mir: Argo Blockchain (ARB) and Remote Monitored Systems (RMS)
1191 days ago
I fly back to Wales tomorrow so have wasted too much of my life filling in moronic covid related forms today. I cannot say that i am happy to be heading back. I start with Luke Johnson’s warning on WFH and I rather think that on some points I disagree with my friend. Then onto UK regulation and its failings ref today’s two articles on Vast Resources (VAST) and the bombshell on the Zoetic (ZOE) fraud.
1192 days ago
The Mrs and I needed to pass a covid test within 72 hours of a flight back from the Hellenic Republic in order to be readmitted to Britain. And that meant finding a test centre open on a Saturday and a trip to Kalamata. A day ahead of the Great religious celebration what better way to spend the day.
1197 days ago
It is my penultimate Sunday in Greece and I consider the idiot Mark Drakeford and special hurdles I face in returning to Wales. I have spent the afternoon poisoning frigana in the snake fields. Photos tomorrow but I discuss that. Then I ask listeners to do a final chip in to raise another £495 to see loathsome pig Neill Ricketts sweating in court. Please donate HERE. Finally, I ask you to send 2 emails to [email protected] tonight. One on Central Copper resources and why the IPO must be stopped and one on why sleazy Tim Yeo must be sacked at Powerhouse Energy (PHE).
1211 days ago
Forgive the crude title or love it if you are Matthew and his dog. I could not resist. I start with a discussion of the tyranny of village facebook pages prompted by my latest spat with some villagers of Holt in Wales HERE. Then I look at Kefi (KEFI), Zoetic (ZOE), Kanobo (KNB), Supply@ME Capital (SYME), Block Energy (BLOE) and the bitcoin pump by America’s Neil Woodford and others. Ian Westbrook is now at just under £12,000 and has ten days to reach £20,000 to see the loathsome Neill Ricketts at the next stage. To call the bluff of the Versarien (VRS) bully, please donate HERE. PS Darren points out it is the 26th not the 27th. He is correct.
1213 days ago
Not Byron and Cam Hobhouse in Zitsa but cats Sian and Quincey back in Wales and snapped by a kind friend who went round to talk to them. No doubt someone in Holt will be dobbing them in on the village facebook group for non mask wearing and a failure to social distance. These cats are what i miss most about life back in Blighty which tells you a lot about how Airstrip One appears from abroad right now.
1216 days ago
Provoked by the sheer silliness of some of my neighbours back in the last village in Wales, I signalled my opposition to mask wearing on the village Facebook site last night. The response, as you’d imagine, has been Orwellian. And as such, I have a modest proposal for the face nappy jihadists…
1220 days ago
Greeks treat cats pretty badly. Anyone who has been here at a tourist hotspot will have been pestered by thin-looking moggies at more or less every restaurant in town. When the tourists go, the weak ones die or are killed by the locals. Only the strongest survive on rats and mice until the tourists arrive again. It is all rather brutal and something the natives would rather that tourists did not dig into, too much.
1224 days ago
Those who comment on my frequent typos may not be surprised to hear of this early diagnosis, prompted by the fact that my sister T – 15 months younger than me and a girly swot even at that stage – was more advanced in the reading department than her older brother. It was not until I was seven and interviewed by Jack Marshall the head of the Warwick Junior school that this cloud was lifted.
1244 days ago
The reasons Matt Hancock should be fired are not that he is useless and incompetent, although he is both, or that he has betrayed his wife and kids, though he has. One suspects if those criteria were applied across Government then there would have to be a monumental reshuffle, starting at the very top.
1246 days ago
Parents had booked days off work, days at nursery were cancelled because this afternoon was meant to be an open day so we could find out more about the Primary school Joshua will start attending after the teachers have another day off from teaching in September, after six weeks away from the blackboard. But then, with just 48 hours notice, it was cancelled on orders from the local council to combat a surge in Covid cases in the area. Such cowardice and nonsense.
1248 days ago
Alt-right bastards screamed the liberal left, this is an incitement to violence. The students responsible must be chucked out of the University, this is a threat to free speech. You can just feel the outrage, the self-righteous anger, the calls to ruin the careers of the young folk responsible, the BBC and the Guardian jerking off as more alt-right hate is exposed and they can somehow say all Trump voters are guilty by association. You know the story… except…
1258 days ago
Update August 24 2021: I have now been painted as a villain for writing the article below, demonised on my village facebook group. Demonised most unjustly, I should say. That mob attempt to silence someone just telling the truth is written up here.
The most famous person in these parts, apart from my cat who starred on Panorama’s Neil Woodford special and has been receiving fan mail ever since, is Eleanor Farr, aka Miss North West Charity girl. And she wants us all to give money to help her plant trees. Her green shite maths is off this planet.
1264 days ago
Who to support in the Euros? There is no team from the island of Ireland and so it will be Wales which gets my backing as well as my normal second team, that is to say anyone playing against England. When Wales gets knocked out, maybe mother Russia is the team to back.
1286 days ago
The Mrs and I live in the rain-sodden, post-industrial, second world country that is Wales by just thirty yards. At the end of our garden and fields flows the river which separates us from the infidels in England. Here in Wales we pay less, on average, in tax than the accursed English but we get more spent on us on average by our preposterous Government of all the, lack of, talents. And now we are all, each and every one of us, going to get loads of bonus free money and guess where it is coming from?
1294 days ago
Labour took a hammering across the UK last night and in this podcast I consider this rather crude analogy first used by one of its own leaders with regard to how it views the folks who were its core supporters. with reference to Northern Ireland and Jersey I argue that it cannot close the gap that now exists with its core and as such it can never hope to regain power and in Wales – as has already happened in Scotland – it may well become an irrelevancy. I refer to this piece on Tory sleaze from last week. One day that will matter but maybe it won’t for a very long time.
1295 days ago
Thanks to one of the daft in-bred snitches here in Holt, the last village in Wales, folks like teenmage mutant curtain twitcher Abi Lancelotte, at some stage some pen pushing jobsworth from Natural Resource Wales will be visiting us here at the Welsh Hovel. Pictured below is the work underway and what he or she will find. I make no apologies if the pen pusher is one of the other 108 genders and is offended by being referred to only as he or she.
1295 days ago
Nigel Somerville agonised at the weekend about who to vote for on May 6. In answer to his questions various of our writers will, over the coming days suggest who is worthy of your support. Last up is myself explaining why, here in Wales, we should vote for the cottage burning lunatics of Plaid Cymru.
1298 days ago
And now from Wales, by just 30 yards, it is my new weekly video show. This costs 99p per episode, and you can either listen to, or watch, a sparky interview with Red Rock Resources (RRR) boss Andrew Bell and then a detailed four way with myself, Chris Bailey, Gary Newman and Nigel Somerville on all things mining. Which metals are the ones to be in and why and how to play that. If you invest in mining stocks this show is for you..You can access the show HERE
1300 days ago
Am I becoming paranoid or is this my way of coping with the snitch culture in Holt near Wrexham? Anyhow, today, having checked the wind direction to ensure that any smoke headed to the open fields on the other side of the river Dee in England not towards any twitching curtains here in the rain sodden, second world, post industrial principality, we set off a big bonfire at the end of the large Ha Ha and flood defence being constructed.
1305 days ago
As ever, my training walks for Rogue Bloggers for Woodlarks start the same way. I am aware that the actual walk is now just five weeks away and it will be a gruelling 34 miles with a 6 AM kick off at Winchester Cathedral. But I must finish the walk and ensure my fellow rogue bloggers finish too. Woodlarks urgently needs us to raise £50,000 to ensure its survival and so please do donate HERE.
1308 days ago
It was 13 days ago that I did this walk – just over 20 miles. Last week my woke snowflake daughter Olaf joined me so I did just 11 miles not wishing to be accused of breaching her human rights with an act of patriarchal oppression. The route is the same as ever: along our fields by the Dee in Wales, the Bridge over to England and then walking the English side of the Dee towards Chester and back. This walk saw me end up walking past some of the smaller houses belonging to the Duke of Westminster on his extensive lands by the Dee. It does make you think a bit about the nature of inherited wealth.
1308 days ago
It may have escaped your attention if you are not a member of the GAWA or do not know what it is, but for the first time ever, the Northern Ireland Women’s Team has qualified for a major tournament. And thus. this St George’s Day I celebrate by starting down the path to get tickets for Euro 2022 to introduce my daughter to Northern Irish football. As is the norm I don’t pay any great attention to the English National day but I certainly take no offence from its celebration. My wife, on the other hand, may have parents born in India but identifies, on the census, as do most folks born in Nottingham, as English. For our kids growing up in Wales this will all be rather confusing.
1309 days ago
If you are not a parent neither of these little landmarks would seem to matter. But if you are you will understand the feeling. First up is Joshua, aged just over four and a half and still at nursery in England. But that will change in September.
1318 days ago
And now from Wales, by just 30 yards, it is my new weekly video show. This costs 99p per episode, and you can either listen to, or watch, some sparky interviews with Charlie Morris a bitcoin guru where we also discuss gold and the markets and Malcolm Palle of Aquis listed Coinsilum which is now an NFT play Plus there are a few thoughts on wider stockmarket issues from me. This bitcoin, blockchain & NFT special has a lot of gags but is also, I hope, pretty informative.You can access the show HERE
1318 days ago
I start with a few words on the late Phil the Greek and reference an article I wrote exactly one month ago HERE on the liberal US celeb Joy Behar calling out Phil and his family as Nazis. I reflect on the weather here in Wales and how tomorrow’s 20 mile training walk for Woodlarks will be very unpleasant indeed. So please do support me with a donation HERE. Then I discuss the saintly Vin Murria and share sales at Summerway (SWC) and for the first and last time in history I am a bit uneasy about all of this. Then the debate on whether to back the Skinbiotherapeutics (SBTX) or the Optibiotix (OPTI) charger?
1318 days ago
Here in Holt, the last village in Wales, where snitching on your neighbour with unfounded allegations is deemed fair game but something that cannot be discussed openly, a bright sun shines this Tuesday morning revealing another night of, modest, frost. So far this frost season the blossom on the fruit trees has survived and peas and beans planted a few weeks ago, grow unaffected.
1319 days ago
“I am here from the Council” said the young lady wearing fishnet stockings and a short skirt. “Hello…Oh yes” said I in my best Leslie Phillips accent, wondering why she wanted to see me. The awful truth is that someone here in the last village in Wales, has snitched to the planning department about lorry loads of rubble and earth coming down the lane to the Welsh Hovel, suggesting I may be threatening the flood plain. And so, I was honoured with a site visit.
1319 days ago
I have spent the past day sorting out books and furniture at my late father’s house and reflect on that. Then I discuss Hurricane Energy (HUR) and why I am not selling my shares in MyHealthChecked (MHC) yet, and why they will pass through 10p fairly soon.
1321 days ago
We are now up to eight rogue bloggers for Woodlarks with J, the son of reader Jonathan Price joining the party. That means one more person for the “having to talk to Dan Levi rota” so spreading the misery of hearing about the evils of Brexit and why disgraced Guardian fantasist Carole Cadwalladr is a genius, more widely. That is all good news. But think of how we will suffer on the day, even if it is now for less than 2 hours each and make a donation HERE. Meanwhile we continue with our training walks. As I look at the snow falling here in Wales I am glad I did my weekly walk yesterday. But here is a photo from Robert in Cornwall as he made it up to 15 miles.
1322 days ago
The good news is that we should be up to 12 rogue bloggers for Woodlarks by the end of the weekend. The bad news is that Lucian Miers has walked the course and it is indeed 34 miles, not the usual 33, and the last 1.5 miles are all uphill, just when one is ready to collapse. And thus I must train ever harder as this walk is the most important I have ever done and I must finish.
1326 days ago
I am sure that my siblings and a number of other folks who loved my dad, who died last October, will be remembering that it is his birthday today. He would have been 83.
1327 days ago
I have just finished my third training walk for Woodlarks, which was 16 miles. This is the photo record of walk two, 13 miles along the same route. I start walking along our fields by the Dee here in Wales. This is the view up across the second, smaller, field up to the Church whose doors I am no longer darkening. This field has a bog in the centre for about eight or nine months a year and is thus a bit of a wildlife haven.
1327 days ago
The Mrs abandoned our church in Wales, as it voluntarily shut its doors completely during lockdown, heading to a small Methodist, mask-free chapel in England where they have sung throughout. She was raised a Methodist so it is perhaps going home, not an outright defection. The place has an active Sunday school which Joshua loves and so she is making a permanent switch. On Friday, I went there for a treasure hunt for the kids. Thirty adults and their kids mixed freely, without masks, in a field and also inside the chapel. We shook hands. We stood together. It was life as part of a Christian community, or indeed a community of humans, as it really should be. But what of me and worship?
1330 days ago
I start with Boris and the blonde and what it says about double standards for the public sector ( our servants) and the private sector. My big political scoop of the day, BTW, is HERE. Then I discuss procrastinating ahead of a Woodlarks training walk. The weather is foul here in Wales but off I go, so as you listen so think of my suffering and donate HERE. Then it is onto Hargreaves Lansdowne (HL), poodle journalists, Link and Neil Woodford.
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1330 days ago
The data below is from the ONS and covers England and Wales. 2020 data is provisional so maybe tweaked a bit but with that caveat you will note a couple of things. Or if you are Boris Johnson and everyone else in the political and media class GroupThink you will ignore a couple of things which show how we citizens, we Winston Smiths, have all been taken for fools. Clearly more folks died in 2020 than in the years immediately before that. Suicides were up, untreated cancer deaths were up but Covid is responsible for most of the uptick. But for those who talk of the new plague, it is not that much of an uptick is it? More critically…
1333 days ago
A newspaper drops into the letterbox here at the Welsh Hovel, the last house before you hit the river which separates us from the infidels in England. If you start at the back, the paper is in Welsh, at the front it is in English. It is the election newspaper from the cottage burners of Plaid Cymru urging me to back its candidate for the Senedd on May 6. Of course I shall do that for reasons I explained here but if I was starting to waver…
1335 days ago
Robert is one of seven rogue bloggers for Woodlarks this year. Yesterday he managed 12 miles in the glorious sun as he stepped up his training ahead of our 34 mile stroll in late May. Today I am hoping to do 13 miles in a very wet and miserable Wales. Looking at the sun and the amazing view Robert enjoyed, I am rather jealous…
1335 days ago
I received a personalised letter today from a party that wants my vote in the Senedd elections on May 6. I will give you the quote then you guess whether it is from Labour led by bonkers Mark Drakeford, the Lib Dems, The Tories or the cottage burners of Plaid Cymru. Which party said it will “create 65,000 more jobs. And provide the basis for economic recovery by increasing funding for every pupil in Wales, and launching the biggest road building plan in a generation.”
1343 days ago
What could be better and bring more joy to this rain-sodden, post industrial nation? In Wales, 5.5% of the population is BAME among them my wife and two kids one of whom starts school in September. In our district, Wrexham, the BAME number is 2.6% according to the Welsh Government which has today announced exciting new changes to the school curriculum.
1350 days ago
Last night, the leader of Plaid Cymru, the party of Wales, held an online rally here in Wrexham for the faithful. Sadly I was unable to attend since spending an evening, even online, with a bunch of cottage-burning obsessives is not my idea of fun. In fact I’d rather watch Nish Kumar being an unfunny woke bore. It is that much my idea of “not fun”.
1351 days ago
The BBC is today celebrating a milestone in a renaming process at Liverpool University. In response to student demands, the building, a hall of residence, is no longer named after William Ewart Gladstone. Instead, it is to be named after someone “linked to the theme of racial equality and Liverpool”. I cannot wait and nominate the late George Floyd who once listened to a Beatles LP. But, whether fed by the students or just ignorant in its own way, the BBC cannot help itself in lying about the grand old man of Liberal politics with two doses of fake news.
1358 days ago
Just the other day, as we looked at the vast old 1600s chimney in the study here at the Welsh Hovel, I asked the Mrs if she could go onto the village Facebook page to see if any of the poor people had a young son who could pop around to be sent up to clean it. “Don’t be daft” she replied. “They abolished that sort of thing ages ago”. “Political correctness gone mad”, said I. “Thank God we both voted for Brexit and can scrap these insane rules which deny the children of the poor, here in Wales, a chance to earn a few pennies.”
1364 days ago
I have had Covid so everything tells me that I am already as immune as someone who has had the jab. I believe that jabbing me is therefore utterly pointless. But I can see that if I want to make it to Greece this summer, I will almost certainly need a Covid passport so on that basis I jumped at the chance to get the jab. The NHS showed its usual efficiency by contacting me five times by mail, text (twice) and email about the whole matter.
1369 days ago
I must be the least well known person ever to record a podcast with the celebrated conservative journalist James Delingpole. I doubt his regular listeners will ever have heard someone count to ten in Vlach before. To say our discussions were wide ranging is an understatement. Delingpole was a great friend and ally of my late uncle Christopher Booker and we start and end with him. In between, it’s Neil Woodford, fraud fighting, the corruption of the MSM, death threats, lockdown madness, Wales madness and a disagreement on the enrichment of Ireland. And much more. You can judge for yourselves HERE.
1373 days ago
The Welsh Government has found £170,000, in these times of austerity, to spunk on a report into statues, buildings, and street names that are linked to slavery or are racist in other ways. Naturally, folks like Sir Francis Drake, Nelson and Wellington are all in the firing line because their tangential or fairly minor connections to the slave trade must completely overshadow matters such as saving the nation from invasion and foreign domination. But it is my local town of Wrexham which shows up the monumental stupidity of this exercise, masterminded by the certifiably insane first minister Mark Drakeford and rubber stamped by the grossly overpaid pygmies of the Sennedd, in greatest detail.
1380 days ago
Our esteemed IT genius Darren says that there are so many pictures of my garden in badgerland Wales, the latest going up last night, and that my bleatings about snow stopping play are so pathetic that we should post a picture of his garden in the socialist paradise of Canada this morning. Okay.
I have to admit that Darren does seem to have a bit more snow to deal with than I have. The global warming is everywhere and has even frozen the vast river at the bottom of the garden. Don’t tell Greta! It is, I concede, a spectacular garden view.
1383 days ago
And now from Wales, by just 30 yards, it is my new weekly video show. This costs 99p per episode, and you can either listen to, or watch, some sparky interviews with Tony Manini of Asiamet (ARS) which, I am starting to think, I have called wrong twice in 5 weeks and then gold guru Ross Norman on where the precious metals are going this year. As a Jubilee Metals (JLP) shareholder his biggest call is the most exciting for me. As ever, on the macro view and on bitcoin, Ross is brilliant. Then from me I discuss where UK small cap shares will go in the current climate. You can access the show HERE
1383 days ago
This patch is the far end of the area formerly known as the jungle. Behind the wall is the lane down to the hovel and on the opposite side of it is the only other chap in the village who is cursing the defeat of Ireland by Wales today. Eight rhubarb plants went in last year and eight have emerged this year. They are now all covered with pots which, I am told, gets them shooting ahead faster. Round the edge are the surplus lavender plants from the lavender hedge we are creating, and in the middle one of the cherry trees planted 14 months ago along the edge of the garden and which is coming along very well indeed. So I hope for another bumper rhubarb harvest to make rhubarb gin for the Mrs, rhubarb crumble for Joshua and er…what else do you make with rhubarb?
1385 days ago
There has been great progress on all fronts and, this year, I hope for an abundance of apples, pears, plums, damsons, cooking apples, crab apples, raspberries, blueberries, rhubarb and more and there are photo updates on all to come. But I start with the strawberries.
1390 days ago
It is such a good joke I think I make it about 5 times in what follows. And now from Wales, by just 30 yards, it is my new weekly video show. This costs 99p per episode, and you can either listen to, or watch, some sparky interviews with Harry Adams of Kefi Gold & Copper (KEFI), where i am a loyal shareholder expecting the shares to double or more by mid year, and also Dominic Frisby. The singer, songwriter, comedian, gold guru, bitcoin expert and libertarian is on great form especially on the bitcoin/gold issue and tips the only AIM stock he owns and explains why. You will laugh and learn with him. You can access the show HERE
1395 days ago
Let’s be clear, as a resident of Wales, I support Scottish (and Welsh) Independence for the reasons explained HERE. I might add, that with Scotland heavy net takers from the Union, in terms of tax and spend, the rest of us would be much better off if the jocks buggered off as soon as possible. Having said all of that, the demands from Nicola Sturgeon and her inner circle for a new vote should be exposed for what they are, part of a scandalous cover up.
1396 days ago
Only kidding Mahmud my friend, but here is a Dog’s Arse for you which arrived in Wales today. In the podcast I look at ASOS (ASC), Boohoo (BOO), Remote Monitored Systems (RMS), Ridgecrest (RDGC), MyHealthChecked (MHC), Nightcap (NGHT), the green madness of Joe Biden and a stat sbhowing how he will screw female athletes, and Asiamet (ARS).
1398 days ago
As you know, we have had a spot of flooding here at the Welsh Hovel. In fact so much that we are on page 33 of today’s Mail. I stress that I do not read that frightful rag but my neighbour did and, so that you do not need to hold your nose, I bring you the dramatic picture below.
1399 days ago
As my house here in North Wales became surrounded by flood waters from the River Dee, I pointed out why those linking the rising waters to climate change or, as they used to call it, global warming, were so utterly wrong. But still they persist. Driven on by his uber-woke bird Princess Nut Nuts, our PM Boris Johnson is leading the green charge today, saying:
1400 days ago
I woke up to find that we have severe floods here on the River Dee. By 9 AM, the waters at the nearest measuring station to the Welsh Hovel had burst through the 21st Century record (from 2000) which was 9m 36 cm. Right now the depth is 9 metres 61.8 cm and rising. Later on, I shall show you life at the hovel, for now here is what I encountered as I tried to drive Joshua to nursery in England earlier.
1401 days ago
I start with the weather. Guess what it is like in Wales today? I end with Joe Biden, what I shall NOT be watching tonight, why and what I fear from the next four years. In between I look at IQE (IQE), Bidstack (BIDS), Xtract Resources (XTR), Eurasia Mining (EUA) and Greatland Gold (GGP). But it is mainly IQE.
1406 days ago
As I explained last week, I regard it as wholly desirable that the land in which I live, by 30 yards, that is to say Wales, throws off the imperialist yolk of the English infidels and gains its independence. But that should not stop me pointing out how ridiculous some of the Welsh people have become and that nearly all of its leaders are imbeciles who are not mentally capable of running a cat’s home let alone a country. Among the most ridiculous of our politicians here in Wales are those who will win my support next time, the folks from Plaid Cymru, the self-styled “Party of Wales”. This organisation, founded 95 years ago, declared itself neutral in World War Two as the rest of Wales signed up to fight the evil of Hitler. That was an early sign that Plaid has a tendency to choose for its leaders, folks who are as thick as two short planks. No. That is an insult to the planks. This brings me to its leader until last year, a short plank by name and nature, Leanne Wood.
1410 days ago
So says daughter Olaf who has repudiated her father’s DNA and is now identifying wholly as Welsh. She is perplexed that I laugh at the Welsh and its certifiable political class, predict that Independence in the short term would be an economic disaster for Wales as well as Scotland yet support the cause, as a Welsh resident, most strongly. Our starting point here is that my daughter is a teenager, lives in Islington and is a bit of a lefty. As such, she, by definition, does not really believe in jokes and many of my comments about cottage burners are said in jest and, thus, she does not understand them.
1413 days ago
I realise that the main job of North Wales Police right now, as snow falls across the region, is that vital task of preventing the spread of Covid by stopping folks from going sledging. As we all know, “the science” shows that this is almost as lethal in terms of spreading the plague as going for a Big Mac in Kettering. But there are other crucial tasks here in the land ruled by Mad Mark Drakeford.
1414 days ago
It was January 5 and a notice came up on Facebook. And so I remembered. It would have been the 20th Birthday of my morbidly obese three-legged cat Oakley. His Facebook page where devotees could watch him in action is still live even if he is not.
1417 days ago
The last time I posted on the Facebook page of the last village in Wales was to say that if folks wanted to walk across our fields then they would be more than welcome to do so. At the height of lockdown, it seemed a decent offer and I had even cut back the grass so folks could do so in a socially distanced manner. That was met with overt hostility from some who saw this as an act of wicked selfishness.
1419 days ago
Of course, here in Wales, you can get Covid from sledging but Joshua and I will risk it and as the first snow fell today his excitement was off the scale. Sadly the snow has not lasted. Fingers crossed for tonight. In the podcast I discuss tips of the year contests ( as opposed to our 22 tips of the year) and laugh at Justin Urquhart-Stewart. I look at two reasosn the bulls spout for bullishness and discuss. And i look at executive turnover and greed among FTSE 100 fat cats.
1419 days ago
The smaller Peppa Pig wellies contain the feet of four-year-old Joshua. The larger wellies were a late Christmas present to myself and meant that we were able to go on a decent New Year’s Day walk together up the River Dee on the Welsh side heading towards Chester. Walking with your son does not spread Covid in the way that sledging might in the world of mad Mark Drakeford, our dear leader here in Wales.
1420 days ago
It has not yet snowed this winter in the last village in Wales. Apparently the global warming was deep, crisp and even just 15 minutes away among the accursed English infidels on the other side of the border. And in the hills above Wrexham, the global warming was deep enough to allow folks to go sledging. And thus, my neighbour C took her young daughter up to the Horseshoe Pass where she always used to go sledging when she was a girl.
1421 days ago
We burned a home-made EU flag on a bonfire here at the Welsh Hovel on January 31 to celebrate the first stage of Brexit. Tonight at 11 PM we fully and finally leave the Evil Empire and after 45 years of family pain it would be wrong not to celebrate again.
1421 days ago
This rather surprises me. I was convinced that the top 30 would be packed full of waspish, libertarian or anti-woke articles. But it seems that many of the most read pieces on this website are the ones the Mrs thinks no-one reads, about life at the hovels here in Wales but also in Greece. Anyhow, here are my top 30 non financial articles of 2020.
1424 days ago
There may be ice on the road and pavements today or even snow as Bella sweeps the country. You may slip. You might hurt yourself. Your car may skid. You may be injured. It is vital that we all protect the NHS by agreeing to 24 hours of house arrest. Surely, even though ICU bed usage across the country is at lower levels than it was this time last year, such a National clampdown ahead of a dose of global warming, is the logical extension of the policies of bonkers Boris, the little twit Matt Hancock and Mad Mark Drakeford since March.
1429 days ago
Gosh, the tree and its oak barrel container are heavy but a friend and I somehow got it inside for its 16 days of warmth. Then it will be back to the garden where it has lived for the past year, gaining about two and a half inches. I reckon it is now just under five foot nine tall.
1429 days ago
Okay, the pantomime at the theatre in Wrexham is cancelled this year along with Christmas thanks to the clinically insane leader of Wales, Mr Mark Drakeford. Instead, thanks to AIM listed Remote Monitored Systems (RMS), we are treated to a performance of a new pantomime. Chancer spivs Paul Ryan & Trevor Brown, your AIM Cesspit career is behind you! Oh no it’s not! Oh yes it is! Or it soon will be.
1429 days ago
I refer not to Mark Drakeford, our First Minister. He is clinically insane so should not be judged too harshly for the scandal that is evident at the Welsh Assembly. For its members ( an MS) are set to get an inflation busting 2.4% pay rise next year taking the stipend of an ordinary MS, let alone a minister, to £69,273. This is a reward for failure. It is certainly not the sort of performance related pay we wicked capitalists in the private sector like to advocate.
1432 days ago
Before I start, I must confess that I stand guilty of gross hypocrisy. My preference, as long-term readers know, is for Christmas cards to be somehow related to why we are all having a holiday on December 25 even if we are not celebrating Christmas. That is to say the birth of Jesus. But this year the card I sent out was of a snowman. My excuse was that it was designed by Joshua at his nursery. Last year, I failed almost as badly with the card being of a tree. It too was designed by Joshua but at his playgroup in Wales so the message was very much Nadolig Llawen. Okay, so I am a hypocrite. Next up: a confession of very minor sexism.
1432 days ago
And now from Wales, by just 30 yards, it is my new weekly video show. This costs 99p per episode, and you can either listen to, or watch, some sparky interviews with Chris Gilbert of Fox Marble (FOX) and Dr Doom David Scott. I discuss averaging down and after news this week Fox is a rare case where that is justified. This will – as I explain in the show – be a multibagger from here. Meanwhile Dr Doom is now a bull. we discuss sharers, bonds, real estate, bitcoin and gold in a must listen to interview. Then there are a few thoughts on companies you must NOT own, including Powerhouse Energy (PHE).You can access the show HERE
1432 days ago
I start with Joshua’s Advent calendar, where window 20 leads neatly to Lyin’ Matt Hancock and the illegal escape of daughter Olaf and her mother Big Nose to stay with Olaf’s grandmother in West Wales. Then I discuss the difference between contrarian investing and bad investing with reference to Peter Brailey’s article today on oil stocks. Finally I flag up what to expect from 23rd December on this website. Get your camera ready!
1432 days ago
Wood cutting has become almost therapeutic in these dark days in lockdown Wales. Half an hour on weekdays and an hour a day at the weekend is the plan. Sometimes I have a day off. It all starts with a large pile of branches from trees cut down at the Hovel over the summer. I might drag three to the main barn and Joshua drags a small one if he is with me. That would be a weekday cut. At the weekend we double up.
1434 days ago
Daily, on our TV screens we are assured by “public health experts” whose jobs at the Ministry of Truth are safe, whatever happens to the economy, that tier 3 measures are more effective than tier two measures in controlling covid. That is to say numbers often rise enough to push a tier 2 district into tier 3 and then as controls tighten that district can return to tier 2 and eventually to tier 1. But there is a massive logical flaw in this claim which the media, collectively, fails to spot.
1435 days ago
Here in Wales, thanks to First Minister, Mad Mark Drakeford, all 50 JD Wetherspoon (JDW) pubs are shuttered and will stay so for the foreseeable future. As I noted in a photo article just published, life just over the border in “free” England is not much better for the boozers. Tim Martin is, yet again, my hero of the day, using Wetherspoon’s AGM as a platform to expose the Government and a supine 4th estate which laps up lockdown lies without question. The great man opines:
1435 days ago
Thanks to the certifiably insane First Minister here in Wales, Mr Mark Drakeford, boozers shut at 6 PM and can’t serve booze anyway. I can’t remember whether it is illegal to cross the border with England yet or whether the North Wales Police start arresting folks for this heinous crime on the 24th, 25th or 28th. Anyhow, we set off from the Welsh Hovel last night, four of us in the car, dashing the few hundred yards to the bridge to free England and what we found was heartbreaking.
1436 days ago
To make Matt Hancock appear like a logically thinking quick witted genius is a task which is almost impossible, as I noted yesterday. But there is one man in the British isles who can do it, that is to say the first minister of Wales, Mr Mark Drakeford. This poltroon should have been, as I have already flagged up, taken away by the men in flapping white coats many months ago for his utterly illogical lockdown response to Covid. As I sit here at my window, gazing out at the river that runs at the edge of our garden and fields and which keeps the English infidels, on the other side, away, the rain sodden principality appears utterly cursed.
1441 days ago
Here in Wales, all 50 of Tim Martin’s JD Wetherspoon (JDW) pubs are now closed as a reaction to crackpot Mark Drakeford’s latest mad plans. Yet Covid cases are roofing it as never before. Lockdowns do not work and today Tim Martin has issued a statement making it clear why and how badly we are going wrong in the UK. The great man says:
1444 days ago
Back at the height of the first lockdown to beat Covid and save the NHS, I was rationed as to how much flour and yeast I could buy at any one time as, in droves, folks started home baking. As I noted at the time, if one reads Defoe’s account of the Great Plague, people assumed in 1665 as they assumed in 2020 that changes in the way we behaved would be permanent. They will not be.
1447 days ago
The big event of the day was the return visit of Guardian reading L&G to the Greek Hovel. Joshua is a big fan of L in particular and his excitement at the prospect of splashing him in the pool mounted all morning. Aware that our friends like a drink or two, I headed into Kambos for supplies.
1451 days ago
To great fanfare, Scotland’s first poisoned dwarf, Ms Nicola Sturgeon, has announced a £500 bonus to valiant healthcare workers across Scotland. And, notwithstanding the grotesque subsidies paid by England and Wales to the feckless heathens, she demands that Boris Johnson makes this a tax free bonus.
1452 days ago
I have noted before that the former babysitter to ex-wife Big Nose, that is to say Welsh First Minister Mark Drakeford, is insane. He has now announced new measures here in Wales to destroy what is left of our hospitality sector and I urge the men in white coats to drag this wretched man away before he cancels Christmas. You may remember that we suffered a “firebreak” lockdown here in Wales between 23 October and 9 November to stop the spread of the virus…
1457 days ago
Margaret Thatcher recognised that Government does not create jobs. That is what the private sector does. She recognised that Government money is really the people’s money which when spent would have to be funded by either taxes or debt, i.e. future taxes. That is because she was what we used to call a Conservative.
1457 days ago
I have yet to complete my diaries from the Greek Hovel 2020 so you may not be aware that I am now in business with Nicho the Communist and his son but I am am and on that matter I spoke to both the son and also to lovely Eleni at the Kourounis Taverna today. How I wish I was back in warm Kambos rather than wet Wales. Or do I? A lot has changed.
1466 days ago
The newest Ms Winnifrith, pictured below, may return home to Wales with the Mrs today (Tuesday) or she may need another day with the English infidels at Chester Hospital. But here, at 8 lb 4 oz, she is in all her glory. The mother-in-law certainly will arrive later today and so Joshua and I have a good bit of tidying up to do after three days of lolling about watching Paw Patrol here at the Welsh Hovel. Anyhow, I am now on selective paternity leave…
1477 days ago
Our very elderly neighbours toddled along. Joshua’s pal H and his younger brother came with their parents and, unmuzzled, we drank mulled wine as the kids had chocolate peanuts, apart from H’s younger brother who has an allergy. As my bonfire roared into life, someone a bit higher up the slope in our village was letting off fireworks and in the distance, over the river among the infidels of England, there was another defiant display lighting up the sky.
1477 days ago
I am still under the weather hence my rasping voice. I look at more madness in Wales, why Biden will win – and it is not cheating – and at Wishbone Gold (WSBN).
1479 days ago
The Mrs is set to give birth in nine days and has insisted that we give our daughter, we think it is a girl, an Indian first name. Fair’s fair – Joshua has a Western first name. We do actually have a set of names decided but the shorthand name for Joshua’s little sister has, until now, been Priti, if only to trigger the lefty friends and relatives of the Mrs who seem to dislike the Home Secretary with a passion. But not now …
1482 days ago
Layla Moran MP reckons we need lockdown until Covid is eliminated, i.e forever. But she is not, perhaps, the dimmest MP in Westminster. Labour’s Carolyn Harris reckons that banning Tesco-selling kettles in Wales is fine as that is only fair on little shops and anyhow we can all buy Kettles on Amazon anyway. Clever folks don’t become MPs. But when you encounter a member of the Welsh Assembly, the Senedd, you realise that folks like Carolyn Harris and Layla Moron are, in comparison, intellectual giants.
1487 days ago
That our First Minister here in Wales has gone completely mad is now beyond doubt. But as with so many little and irrelevant men who suddenly feel a surge of excitement coursing through their veins as they whiff a vague scent of power, Drakeford’s other dominant characteristic is a complete absence of any sense of humour. In that vein, I have a joke for him which starts in a place like where I live, right on the border with the accursed English infidels.
1487 days ago
Clinically insane sufferer from little man syndrome, Mark Drakeford, rules a land now into its third day of house arrest. Its third day when shops are not able to sell what are deemed non-essential items such as clothes for my four year old and also for another baby due shortly, or a card to send to someone suffering a bereavement, or a computer. Today my laptop broke down…
1488 days ago
I did what 3 million Welsh residents could not do today and had a pub lunch. But I’ve broken the border and am back at the Welsh Hovel. I discuss my day, why I think Nigel is wrong on investing in residential property and ask why Link is being sued over Neil Woodford’s crimes yet he seems able to escape scot free.
1488 days ago
In today’s podcast I recount three crossings of the border out of house arrest Wales into free England and on a visit to a local store. I discuss Carolyn Harris MP on kettles, a woman who makes Matt Hancock seem like Einstein. I discuss what a dead cat bounce actually is with reference to Malcolm’s article of earlier and also why I’m glad fund managers are telling MP’s where to stick it when it comes to who should run Boohoo.com (BOO)
1488 days ago
For reasons which are nothing to do with the insanity of Mark Drakeford, I cannot work properly today at the Welsh Hovel hence this bearcast is short. I explain those reasons and hope to be back to normal by Saturday. In the podcast, I discuss that impending lockdown and also last night’s debate between Donald Trump and China Joe Biden and what it means for November 3.
1488 days ago
Tomorrow, notwithstanding the house arrest fire break that starts at 6PM tonight, I head over the border to England. I do so perfectly legally, because I am doing so to get my annual flu jab. There is no surgery in our village here in Wales so almost all of us are registered with an English infidel GP a few hundred yards away on the other side of the river. Once in England I may wish to go shopping or head out for lunch at a restaurant or to go for a snifter at a boozer.
1488 days ago
As per the email from my local GP just over the border among the accursed, plague-ridden infidels in England, I opted to break the house arrest, under which we in Wales now live, and cross over the river for my annual flu jab. The Mrs (pregnant), me (diabetic), and the pest ( a 4 year old) are all recommended to get jabs so we all got in the car…
1491 days ago
Three days ago, I asked who was going to certify Welsh First Minister Mark Drakeford as insane after he announced that he was putting the nation under a fire breaker house arrest as of 6PM on Friday. This was needed, we are told, to protect the NHS in Wales. After his latest pronouncement, which marks him out as a true intellectual lightweight in the world of political pygmies, I wonder if there is anyone left in Wales who does not want Drakeford dragged off by the men in white coats?
1491 days ago
On Tuesday, Joshua and I again went picking apples from the orchard by the river and we have already enjoyed an apple crumble. Next up will be another pressing of aple juice for my first stab at it was a bit of a triumph.
1492 days ago
There are six of us who called my father Dad and we have all been fairly reproductive. Thus with my father’s sister and his carer we are already at 24. And that number would have been higher had my wife not been almost due to produce a final grandchild and had my son not been too young to understand why so many are in tears. The Mrs and Joshua will not attend. Pro tem my father and the vicar do not count in the 30 who can attend, although I gather that the Welsh Government is considering changing the status of priests and corpses for services in this rain sodden Police state*.
1494 days ago
I flagged up last week that Mark Drakeford’s plan to keep the English infidels out of our beloved Wales was insane. I sit here, 30 yards from the border, ever alert to the danger of a plague-ridden scouser trying to swim across the River Dee and will be out shortly to plant anti personnel devices across my fields in line with Mr Drakeford’s diktat of last week. But now the wretched little man, suffering from a severe case of little man syndrome, has gone further.
1497 days ago
I am back here at last and allow a bit of time for personal matters. Then it is on to Optibiotix (OPTI), Skinbiotherapeutics (SBTX), Verditek (VDTK) and G3 Exploration (G3E).
1497 days ago
The competition to find the stupidest politician in the age of Coronavirus is fierce indeed. Up until now, it was the leader of Bournemouth Council who declared a “state of emergency” when her socially distanced public lavatories could not cope with a Bank Holiday weekend. At that point, I wished a plague of locusts on her town to let a woman who made Matt Hancock look like Albert Einstein know what a real emergency looks like. But now the lady from Dorset has been trumped by a congenital idiot closer to home, the First Minister of Wales, Mark Drakeford.
1511 days ago
Lockdown in our part of Wales starts in just under two hours. The Mrs has already escaped to England with Joshua. I am staying here but need some supplies so must rush to get them from a store where they don’t make you wear a face nappy before the North Wales fuzz sets up roadblocks on the bridges over the River Dee. Before my Dukes of Hazard style contraband run, I discuss various conspiracy theories over Rolls Royce (RR.) and IAG (IAG). I look at the massive issues now hanging over Verditek (VDTK) as I expose its latest desperate ramping and another past lie. Finally, Dev Clever (DEV), what is going on with Asimilar (ASLR) and Mark Horrocks as its share price slides again.
1511 days ago
From this corner of North Wales my prayers are with President Trump as he battles not only creepy Joe Biden but also, now, Covid. And thus a new bumper sticker for my battered old van has arrived and is, as you can now see, on display to trigger both Olaf and the Mrs as well as any other godless liberals in these parts.
1513 days ago
Joshua’s nursery is in England which is a blessing as it re-opened well ahead of institutions back here in the second world on this side of the border. And it means that although we go into Welsh lockdown on Thursday, I am going to be allowed to sneak over the bridge to take him to the nursery in free England.
1515 days ago
The two bigger jars were made earlier and already my damson and rhubarb gins are starting to take on a colour. The smaller, later batches of apple and pear are not colouring yet. In fact, I am not sure they ever will. The next steps: shake each jar once a day for a week so that all the sugar dissolves. Then store in a cold dark place, not hard to find here in Wales, until Advent when all four batches should be ready.
1520 days ago
There is no empirical evidence for the raft of civil liberties crushing and economy wrecking measures Boris Johnson announced yesterday but yet folks still want more. A YouGov poll showed 13% of us thought Boris had gone too far, 32% thought he had it about right but 45% wanted more restrictions, saying that the most illiberal Government in modern British Government had not gone far enough. Cripes, as Boris might say. Why am I not surprised?
1524 days ago
Alessandro Zamboni’s mad followers are desperate for him and his worthless company, Supply@ME Capital (SYME) to sue me for libel. I want him to sue me to as the disclosure process would be a hoot. I really want to say “see you in Court Bitchez” but very wisely, especially after Wednesday’s slam dunk market abuse – Zamboni says he is not going to sue. And his excuse?
1532 days ago
And now from Wales, by just 30 yards, it is my new, I hope, weekly video show. This costs 99p per episode, and you can either listen to, or watch, some sparky interviews with bear raider Matt Earl on the markets, the real economy and on 2 stocks where he is short (IQE & Boohoo) and one where he might be soon (Future PLC). we focus on Boohoo. There is also a detailed interview with Andrew Bell of Red Rock Resources (RRR). Its shares are 0.82p and what Bell says is ground breaking. I am on record as saying I shall eat my hat on video if the shares are not 1.26p before Christmas. I now reckon 1.65p is achievable and this is explained very clearly. Finally I return to the liars at Verditek (VDTK), why it is drowning in red flags and more. You can access the show HERE
1547 days ago
As I wander down to the bridge to go and pick up my car from the garage in England where it is failing its MOT, I am accosted by a stalwart of our local Church here in the last village in Wales. “We’re going back,” he says. I stare blankly. “Back to Church, services start in a few weeks.” The devil is in the detail.
1548 days ago
Big Nose and our daughter Olaf are on the train to her mother in West Wales and I am on the phone to the latter. She has a medical exemption and is a proud non-mask wearer. We agree that it is rubbish. Her mother shouts over that she is also a rebel. This top City lawyer goes round M&S not only not wearing a mask but also heading the wrong way on the social distance arrows trail.
1551 days ago
Okay, this is only one store in a medium sized Welsh village. The one I live in. Perhaps, unbeknown to me, absolutely all of my fellow villagers spend their nights re-reading the works of Ayn Rand, brushing up on Austrian economics or on the greatest 100 quotes of Ronald Reagan and we are somehow atypical. My instincts are that this is not an unusually enlightened place. And thus in light of my article earlier in the week on #BoycottBenandJerrys and the woke hypocrisy of Unilever (ULVR) I bring you a photo from the village store.
1552 days ago
I have used most fruit known to man in my cooking over the years but never, until now, damsons. I just viewed them as small, not very pleasant to eat, and altogether rather pointless. We have a tree in the area formerly known as the jungle but which is slowly becoming a large vegetable garden and which runs alongside the lane down to the hovel so I had pondered what to do with its fruit. I stumbled across a recipe for jam which refers to windfall damsons but, in this case, my fruit arrived thanks to lightning.
1552 days ago
Our local bistro here in Wales is a Greek South African joint so on the former basis, not the latter, it merits our support. Besides which, the owners are good folk and Joshua is in love with the waitress and it is a mutual feeling as they both share a passion for starting to talk about Christmas sometime in July. And so today my son and I had a modest lunch out.
1562 days ago
He is not in fact anyone’s Uncle. In India, an older man is always termed an uncle so Joshua has lots of uncles including both his godfathers, Johnny and Lucian Miers, Uncle Brokerman Dan and the list of unsuitable and disreputable “uncles” goes on and on. However, this uncle is in fact a relation. He is something like the third cousin of the Mrs but for historic reasons, these distant families were quite close.
1576 days ago
I start with some family memories from 1893. I hope that my son and his grandchildren are able to look back to these family memories from July 2020 and laugh. I fear they may cry. I consider a journey that my son and I made yesterday from a village by the Dee in Wales to South Warwickshire, to Ratby near Leicester and back to Wales again. I consider the madness of quarantines, vaccine orders and masks, of thousands of suicides, early cancer deaths and of economic ruin. I consider the complicity of the entire mainstream media and political classes and the madness of GroupThink. We will look back on this with true horror.
1608 days ago
I awoke this morning to strange sounds from the formal lawn behind the housse. I wandered downstairs and opened the door. Having entered single file through a small gate from the farmyard, the lawn was full of 10-15 bulls. The photo below was taken by my neighbour as a few of them wandered up the lane to his drive.
1616 days ago
I start with a few words on the summer weather here in Wales. then it is on to Big Sofa (BST). Then onto a few words about Neill Ricketts, Versarien (VRS), Rolls Royce (RR.), me, Cheryl Cole and the company’s latest promo video HERE. Finally, onto Wirecard a German Norfolk which tests the Roger Lawson thesis on how to deal with short sellers to destruction as it implodes.
1621 days ago
With gift aid we are now just a few hundred quid shy of raising the £48,000 needed to ensure that amazing Woodlarks can survive the Covid lockdown and continue its work next year. So if you have donated I thank you and if not please do so HERE. It would be great to end the weekend with the job done. The Mrs and Darren combined to put up a few photos of yesterday’s 33.3 mile walk so here is the full story.
1643 days ago
Myself and some friends from here, the last village in Wales, walked the track around the 3 farthest fields at the Welsh Hovel and it is 1.1 kilometres long. That means that on June 13 I shall walk the circuit 50 times exactly raising the money Woodlarks needs just to survive into 2021. Today I did three laps as I faced a busy day. Tomorrow it will be ten. Please donate a few quid today HERE. In the podcast I consider in long detail the timeline of major share dealings at AJ Bell (AJB) which just does not look right to me. There are a stack of questions going begging. Then it is onto Eurasa (EUA) and what will happen on Friday. Will SP Angel again show that it will act for anyone or will AIM Regulation wade in to ensure Eurasa is booted off the AIM Casino? I discuss that matter in detail.
1647 days ago
As it happens, strawberry cultivation used to be big business here in the last village in Wales. And myself, Joshua and the Mrs have been working hard to create a patch here at the Welsh Hovel.
1650 days ago
The other day I saw a report on how our brave boys in blue (and girls in blue and all the other 108 genders in blue) were stopping motorists here in Wales to make sure that their driving was really necessary in lockdown Britain. Some poor saps had strayed over the border as they drove from A in England to B in England. That brief foray into our rain sodden principality did not earn an on the spot fine but the miscreants were let off with a warning. As I have noted before, certain members of the fuzz seem to be rather enjoying life in an authoritarian Police state. And that takes us to Derbyshire where the Old Bill are onto a serious criminal. Jeepers, I hope they lock this bastard up quickly and throw away the key.
1654 days ago
When, in a post Covid 19 world, our political leaders look for a new way to squander taxpayers cash, one inevitable option will be a public enquiry into what happened. Since the entire political & media class agreed on almost everything and will never admit they were blundering idiots in thrall to Prof Pantsdown it seems a pointless way of burning my hard earned cash but then when did that stop our leaders? If there is an enquiry I do hope it looks at the cretinous buffoons who are meant to be in charge of the rain sodden second world nation where I live, that is to say Wales.
1693 days ago
So far the Betsi Cadwalldr health district seems to have been relatively unaffected by the Coronavirus. But there have been deaths around here in North Wales and there are many more folks who have caught Covid 19 and survived. In order to boost my immune system to improve my odds if I do catch it, I take Joshua for a walk each day first over our fields and then further on along the River Dee on the Welsh side and heading downstream.
1706 days ago
I start with good news about my daughter Olaf and her recovery from Covid 19. I end with a report on life at the last house in the last village in Wales and how we are coping and the community is pulling together. Good capitalists will be rewarded. Then I discuss data from the UK and Germany and what it may or may not tell us and then ask a question about keeping folks alive which no-one dares to ask but perhaps we should?
1708 days ago
I start with a few thoughts on how folks here in our village are showing their good side and how some businesses in doing so and adapting are showing the way forward for capitalism. Then I look at the Boeing, British Airways and Easyjet (EZJ) bailout conundrums facing our leaders. Easyjet has just scored a big own goal on that front and almost deserves to perish, hence the share price move today. I look at Crest Nicholson (CRST) and also at R4E (R4E) which is either a five bagger or bust.
1710 days ago
My daughter Olaf seems to be recovering well with her mother in London. That is the good news but I discuss how she must have contracted Covid 19 and the abject failure of Queens College Oxford to show a duty of care and just how useless 111 was when contacted. I look at why the Government statistics on Covid 19 are sheer fantasy as it has been stalking us for far longer than Boris admits. And finally I explain why my family and I are now in self isolation and locked down here in North Wales for the next three months and how we must adjust how we live as a result. By the way I shall do my 34 mile charity walk on June 13 come what may but I sense there will be no team hugs at the end. You can sponsor me HERE.
1733 days ago
I have not decided, or rather the Mrs has not decided, whether to install a wood burning stove or two in a couple of the 17th century fireplaces at the Welsh Hovel. We may just go with an open hearth. And we will not be troubled by new batshit crazy plans from the Tories to ban the sale of domestic coal and most logs. We have enough of our own wood in our fields and in the old barns and sheds to last not just ourselves but also our neighbours, for a lifetime. However, we are unusual and lucky.
1746 days ago
My neighbours told me that it does not rain in Wales all the time and I guess they were right after all. It is now snowing. The ground and the snow are too wet to settle but it makes a change.
1747 days ago
I write by a candle. I have no power here in Wales and am using my mobile to access the internet and it is dying. So I must be brief, it is Neil Woodford and fraud on the agenda today.
1753 days ago
I start with a few words on Brexit Day and how we celebrated it HERE in Wales. Then with case studies Toople (TOOP) and Haydale (HAYD) I look at clear Nomad and adviser failings harking back to those at African Potash (AFPO) and suggesting why it is vital that, now, heads start to roll. I also discuss Future (FUTR) and Optibiotix (OPTI) and suggest that you all follow the great example of No Gold HERE
1800 days ago
Well that made my day. Lovely Eleni from the Kourounis taverna in Kambos called to wish my family a Merry Christmas and to say thank you for the books for her two kids which arrived today. I am not sure what her son will make of Tin Tin but if it helps his English a bit all is good. Eleni asks how I am? Cold say I.
1916 days ago
Before we left for Greece the two water meadows next to the Welsh Hovel on the banks of the River Dee were five or six foor high with grass and wild plants. Notwithstanding this I used to wade through the grass towards the bridge that takes you to England and Joshua’s nursery. And one of our two cats, Quincey, would try to follow me but after about 100 yards he would give up.
1962 days ago
The deal here in Wales, as it was in Bristol, is that the Mrs works full time filling the heads of impressionable young folk with left wing nonsense, Joshua goes to nursery two and a half days a week and I look after him the rest of the time. But until today I had somehow managed to avoid going to the young mums play group in our village. Today I made my debut.
1986 days ago
I have not reported for a couple of days and I am glad to say that the waters are now receeding here at the Welsh Hovel. They have left our garden and the levels in the Orchard are down by a good foot and a half. The photos below are from Thursday and are from the area around the bridge I cross each nursery day walking Joshua off to “borstal” in England.
1988 days ago
I was unable to take photos from exactly the same spot as yesterday to show you how much the river Dee has risen as that would have left me in a couple of foot of water. But it has risen and will continue to rise as the rain from Bala makes its way down and because it is still raining. Joshua and I went to inspect it this morning and he is terribly excited and convinced that there are snakes in “his lake”. If that keeps him away so much the better. The far bank of the river, the English side, has now all but disappeared and so the “lake” streches almost without interruption, for hundreds of yards. Here in Wales…
2019 days ago
In twelve days time I will walk 33 miles from Horse Hill to Woodlarks with 11 other rogue bloggers to try to raise £40,000 for a charity that really needs that cash. So if you are yet to sponsor me please do so now HERE. Sagturday saw a training walk allowing me to explore the area around my new home, the Welsh Hovel, on the River Dee.
2019 days ago
I came home to the Welsh Hovel late last night to see cat Quincey sitting outside in the yard. In my absence the Mrs had, for a second time, let him escape his new home. after driving almost 400 miles in a day I let rip with a few choice words and then wasted an hour of my life coaxing the wretched cat back inside where I pounced and recaptured him. He has just rewarded me with another shit on the kitchen floor.
2043 days ago
In today’s podcast I explain what happened with Mrs Chav’s pussy and also about how the move to Wales and the Grim North went and why this is now a bigger project than the Greek Hovel. I cover Bould (BOU) and systemic market abuse, Telit (TCM) and its dire results and the threats to Nigel Wray and myself from Julie Meyer. I gather the Times has also been threatened and it is standing its ground. How do you think I will respond ahead of a 5PM deadline? Meanwhile we are now at 25% of our £40,000 rogue bloggers for Woodlarks target and i urge you to check out the rioll call of heros ( even if you are a dripping lefty who thinks my world view stinks) and join them HERE.
2248 days ago
Come home to a real fire...buy a second home in Wales. You remember the sketch. Anyhow, the Mrs and i are looking and pondering because, as you know, she wants to pursue her career and I want to rear goats. The exercise, however, throws up very real questions about house prices. Moving on I look at Bushveld Minerals (BMN), Optibiotix (OPTI), Avanti Communications (AVN), Imaginatik (IMTK), Redhall (RHL) and Mitie (MTO) another company whose former boss helps to make Jeremy Corbyn's quite insane policies seem almost desirable.
2339 days ago
This weekend in Folkestone there was set to be a charity showing of the film Zulu to help raise cash for the arms forces charity SSAFA. Members of the charity voted to show the 1964 classic portrayal of the battle of Rorke’s Drift but, like cycling, they are clearly just racist. 28 virtue signalling busy bodies have written to the Council demanding that the showing be scrapped stating that:
2416 days ago
I seem to remember some humourless sheep shagger, a compatriot of my fiercely Nationalist daughter, threatening to report me to the Old Bill after I made some satirical remarks about his homeland. I guess he was too busy dreaming about burning down someones second home to actually get around to it.
2436 days ago
My late ex father in law Iwan was consistently damning about the Assembly, which governs the Wales he loved with such fervour. He was a man who had grafted away all his life as builder and developer, risking his capital and working bloody hard to make a decent living for his family and along the way paying vast amounts of tax.
2462 days ago
My father has been watching the rugby like a hawk. Here in Greece I have been unable to watch but have kept in touch via the internet and calling my father after each game. Now this may not go down well with England supporters but in an Irish supporting family it was a perfect team as both our favourite teams won.
2736 days ago
The spendfest demanded by the people of Wales, Ulster, Scotland and the North of England is paid for by the hard working folks of London and the South East. That might sound like a provocative and unpleasant jibe at the expense of idle celts and workshy Northerners as they roam the welfare safaris. But it just happens to be a statement of fact as you can see below.
2805 days ago
I may be of distant Irish descent but I would scrap St Patrick's Day because it is an excuse for a bunch of idiots across the world with zero Irish links to get smashed and make complete fools of themselves. But it seems that I am missing the point. As the new twitter campaign shows we should end St Pat's Day because it encourages white racism.
2812 days ago
My father was bracing himself all day and watched the rugby to the bitter end. Today he will be with the rest of Shipston's small Irish community in the Horseshoe drowning their sorrows and wishing Scotland the best of luck against the Old Enemy. I could not watch after half time such was my sense of foreboding and - to the delight of the Mrs - switched to watch a Miss Marple I had seen many times before. The Alzheimer's is still at bay, I knew the killer at once and even why he did it.
2864 days ago
I could not sleep and found myself scouring the interweb for data on poverty and population for the town of Blaenavon where I visited a coal mine on Monday ( see HERE). I plan a major podcast on that when I am back in internet friendly civilisation, i.e. England. On the markets I look at Pearson (PSON), Nostra Terra (NTOG) and the idea that we are seeing a market blow-off. I dismiss one conspiracy theory about market makers then move on to Mitie (MTO) - Matt Earl is da King! - and then to Rosslyn Data (RDT).
3049 days ago
Nicola Sturgeon seems amazed that EU leaders are not lining up begging Scotland to join the Evil Empire as soon as possible. It has not dawned on her that, set to lose a major benefactor in form of the United Kingdom (in reality England plus the Celtic scroungers), the last thing it wants is to take back the welfare addicted nation of idlers that is Scotland. Heck the EU alread has the basket case that is the Real Greece why would it want the wannabee Greece of the North as well?
3055 days ago
It has emerged that Welsh first Minister, socialist Carwyn Jones, spent £9,500 of taxpayers dosh flying on a private plane so that he could see Wales play England at the European Championships on June 16. Ordinary Welsh fans flew Easyjet or went Eurostar but, as is always the way with socialists, some are more equal than others. Carwyn has offered a snivelling excuse but even that is a piss poor one which just does not stand up.
3070 days ago
The BBC is creaming itself with "news" that almost three million of our fellow citizens have signed a petition calling for a re-run of the EU referendum. I am told this shows that the nation is having second thoughts. Really? It makes me think that many of us are incapable of sensible thought at all.
It seems apparent that many of the names are bogus but I am happy to accept that a couple of million of folks who are eligible to vote want us to have to vote again because we voted the "wrong way". But are these two million "having second thoughts?" One suspects that they were "remainers" before and are "remainers" now. Nothing has changed it is just that they refuse to accept the popular will.
In covering this sad episode the BBC interviewed
3073 days ago
Some of my wife's pals are such patronising bastards. They work in the public sector, read the fecking Guardian and are so fucking self righteous they can drive me up the wall as they let it be known that they just know what is good for the rest of us, we ignorant oiks. Today they sent my blood pressure soaring as I explain HERE. Then it is onto Glenwick (GWIK) and why the poltroons can't get their maths right and African Potash (AFPO) which is worth 0p. Finally a division with my daughter & her mother, Big Nose, looms, it is Wales vs Northern Ireland.
3090 days ago
Prompted by a nasty tweet from Wales from a chap who spits out the words public schoolboy with invective in the same sentence as the word immigrant, this podcast is a follow up to the Cadwalladr article at the weekend. I had childhood & university privilege (public school & Oxford). But so too did folks who went to top comprehensives and Oxford, something some folks are in denial about. And that catchment area based selection is why abolishing public schools would still allow richer folks to buy a head start for their kids.
3092 days ago
Via twitter I come across a couple of articles by lefty Guardian and Observer journalist Carole Cadwalladr slating the posh and the way that privileged Oxbridge types dominate the media and politics. Carole is good enough to admit that she went to Oxford (a year below me and at the same college, as it happens) but insists that she is not part of the elite as she went to a state school - Radyr in South Wales.
Naturally, we posh twits who went to public school are now expected to listen to every word Carole writes on the matter of privilege because she has worked her way up from the grinding poverty of living in an abandoned coal mine with her 15 brothers and sisters eating rats. Heck, as she proudly boasts, she went to a Compy after all. Except that there are comprehensives and there are comprehensives.
Radyr
3129 days ago
The BBC News at Ten coverage of the elections to the costly waste of space that is the Welsh assembly is focussing on the economy. The big issue is apparently Steel and which party is going to spunk the most cash on part nationalising and subsidising an industry that will never ever make a cent in profit. But the BBC says there is an alternative view in the principality. Hooray. I look forward to Huw Edwards interviewing a real capitalist...but this is Wales.
The alternative view
3167 days ago
The poisonous midget who leads the SNP, Nicola Sturgeon told her party faithful the other day that she was going to organise another referendum on independence come what may. It is no surprise that the midget is so keen on the EU given how she buys into its idea of democracy: the people can vote however they wish in referenda and they will keep voting until they vote the "right" way.
Of course independence would be economic suicide for Scotland. At $100 oil it was spending more than it would have received in tax. 89% of Scots are net takers from the State and the nation is almost united in its belief in money tree economics.
Despite all this spending Scotland gets poorer as the public sector squeezes out the wealth creating sector, and sicker - life expectancy in Glaswegian men is now - at 57 - lower than anywhere else in the EU, indeed in the Eurovision zone which includes Ukraine with its civil war and its Chernobyl legacy.
As an independent nation, Scotland would be the Greece of the North at $100 oil. At $40 oil it would be the Upper Volta of the North which perhaps explains
3194 days ago
AIM listed biotech Reneuron (RENE) has today announced that it has completed the move of all of its operations from Surrey to Pencoed, Bridgend, Wales. Hooray...welcome to the most expensive job creation programme in history paid for with YOUR money.
This deal was first announced two years ago and involved the Welsh Assembly handing over a grant of £7.8 million to get the company to move from Surrey, where it employed 25 folks at the time, to the land of the Sheep Shaggers.
You will note that Wales is a net taker
3347 days ago
I have invited Getafix Stacey and his charming wife over for lunch. But have received three stern warnings from the druid.
First up he lives in remote West Wales, drinking at the Punter’s Return, seeking out the Money Tree and looking after “my precious” – his stash of Advanced Oncotherapy share certificates. Malcolm says that he and his Mrs sometimes go to Cardiff but he cannot bare to be away from his precious for too long so rarely heads further east. But he promises that he will make the trek over to Bristol soon.
Second I am warned that Malcolm’s Mrs is even more of a mad lefty than he is. I am used
3352 days ago
I am not sure that I could place Fiji on a map of the world. I know sweet FA about the Country. But that does not really matter. Fiji is playing England at rugby tonight.
And thus like folks across Wales, Scotland and God’s chosen country of Ireland for tonight “I am a Fijian”. There are only two teams I support in this World Cup.
3500 days ago
St George’s day used to be an almost forgotten festival on the days when at England soccer matches, folks waved the Union Flag. But for various reasons the past two decades have seen the rise of English nationalism. And in a sense I understand that.
Wales and, more especially, Scotland are grotesquely over-subsidized welfare safaris and it is the English taxpayer who picks up the tab. Of course societies based on welfare dependency rather than freedom and enterprise will not prosper and so the more the Celts mainline the subsidies the more they moan and bleat about the evil English. It is the English who are to blame for the relative poverty of the Celts, for addicts can never accept that their destiny lies in their own hands and so must blame others for failure.
Slowly the United Kingdom is being torn apart. As an economic Englishman I look forward to the day when Scotland and Wales are truly independent and would welcome them being towed off into the Atlantic
3539 days ago
The great day of reckoning arrives and as I wander along the road towards the Pearly Gates I catch up with my father who with his stick and poorly knee has been making slow progress. We chat and before long we meet up with St Peter.
Inside heaven we can see that it is just like Donegal in the summer. Green, wild but stunning. There is Brian O’Driscoll chatting away amiably with Darina Allen who is cooking up an amazing supper for all. Seamus Heaney is reading poems to Michael Collins. It is a free land. But St Peter shakes his finger and says that my father and I have been found wanting. I think that it is a bit harsh on the Old Man but accept that I have sinned and St Peter ushers us down a little path with a sign marked Purgatory.
As we prepare to enter Purgatory we can hear from inside drunken fools baying about Chariots while other imbeciles belt out the greatest hits of Max Boyce. I feel a tap on the shoulder and it is St Peter. Fear not he says, suffering the unbearable crowing of both English and Welsh rugby supporters on the same day will not last long. You are only in purgatory for a short while. I smile. But then St Peter adds, it will just feel like eternity.
In the days of my youth
3576 days ago
My rugby thoughts this weekend are naturally focussed on matters in Dublin but the Six Nations kicks off tonight in Cardiff with a battle of two of the minor teams and there are four very good reason why I shall support the sheep shaggers as they do battle with the English.
1. My daughter, though only half Welsh. is turning into a card carrying cottage burner and it will give her great pleasure if Wales win. And that will make me happy.
2. One should always support our Celtic brethren against the old Enemy.
3. In fact one should always support absolutely anyone against the old Enemy.
4. Wales supporters are unbearable in victory but so too are English rugby supporters. Since I live in England I shall only have to suffer a modicum of online Welsh triumphalism should Wales win but will enjoy the mass displeasure of England supporters first hand. An English triumph reverses that equation and would thus be far less pleasurable for me.
3592 days ago
I added a few comments to this piece by my Wales living pal Malcolm Stacey: Hello Share Smackers. As I write this modest little column, my IQE (IQE) shares have leapt on the day by 12%. This is jolly good because I've been ambivalent about this investment.
3630 days ago
The Mrs and I have put up our Christmas tree. It is a bit small but it is part of some environmentally friendly scheme here in Bristol which I cannot quite get my head around. But to humour the little woman I have played along with the green nonsense.
Anyhow here is the prize competition. To win a bottle of olive oil, made by my own fair hand, from the Greek Hovel all youhave to do is look at the decorations and name which countries they come from. For the avoidance of doubt I count England and Wales as seperate and the angel at the top was made by my daughter many years ago and she counts herself as Welsh. Your clues include that contributions come from four continents and I have bought all the decorations personally.
Post your guesses below with a deadline of Friday
3780 days ago
As I was leaving the Greek Hovel this morning at around 9.30 the gardeners arrived. Before Dan Levi tweets out abuse from the Manchester slums about how I am outsourcing hard work, let me explain.
3819 days ago
The lies told in the Scottish Independence campaign are almost laughable and I start with a total whopper told by the SNP.
But having said that I regard Independence as great news for Scotland and Wales should go the same way. Only by being independent and learning to stand on their own two feet rather than mainlining subsidies and whinging will these nations thrive.
It would be good news for England too as I explain in this video.
My financial postcard covers bubbles emerging in residential housing and popping in IPOs. You can watch that video HERE
3898 days ago
On Thursday morning AIM Cesspit posterboy Arian Silver (AGQ) snuck out its calendar 2013 results with a press release whose lack of disclosure truly is appalling -something that has landed it in the soup before, see HERE. Do the mothers who run this company not know that the purpose of a results release is to clearly inform shareholders what is going on? Or do they not give a fuck?
I have noted before how the total prize tool who does the PR for this woeful enterprise has berated me for not tipping the shares. Given that stock-holders have lost 89% over three years and 66% over one year I feel pretty vindicated. But who cares about the poor shareholders? Arian keeps on raising funds allowing its uber-Welsh management team to enjoy the lifestyle they feel they deserve and the brokers, lawyers and PR flunkies to keep issuing stiff bills each month. Bottles of Bollinger and pert ewes all round.
And so we come to the results this week.
3910 days ago
My new Welsh friend Paul emails me before the Ireland match to say that he is rooting for Italy as part of some diabolical calculation allowing his beloved sheep-shaggers to win the Six nations Championship. Hmmmmm.
Despite a catalogue of errors Ireland utterly routed Italy yesterday. It was an emotional Dublin send off for Brian O’Driscoll, the greatest ever Ireland player. My father and I watched and as BOD was interviewed post match, the emotion poured over in Shipston-on-Stour as I am sure it did in every outpost of the diaspora. The way the points stack up, barring some utter freak, if Ireland can manage to defeat the hit or miss Froggies in Paris, the Championship is ours. Surely God wishes to reward his loyal servant BOD thus?
And now to Wales vs. England. For me there are no diabolical calculations. Indeed shame on you Paul for thinking that way. Paul says that he is so excited about today’s game that he cannot sleep. I would suggest that he tries counting sheep. But I guess that might make him even more excited. I digress.
I can put aside the fact that the mother of my daughter (Big Nose) will be sitting at home munching nuts nervously as she roots for Wales. I am beyond that for I also know that my daughter will be dressed in a Welsh jersey or National dress, belting out the National Anthem, passionately roaring on the men in red.
This is a simple matter. The Old Enemy are playing. Thus naturally my mind is wired to support the other side. I do not feel this way about soccer – in Ireland’s absence I will cheer for England in the World Cup for as long as its campaign lasts which will not be very long. I gather that England are 33-1 to win the World Cup. For those who do not understand betting that means that if you wager £10 on England you will lose £10.
No, this is just a rugby thing. I think of the swagger
3911 days ago
My poor cats, they must be getting culturally confused. Tara & Oakley were born in the Isle of Man although like 99% of Manx Cats they have full tails. Rescued by me from the MSPCA they then came over to England with me but having to watch me heaping abuse on England whenever the rugby is on. So are we Irish daddy?
Of course on Sunday they will suffer extra confusion as this household stands shoulder to shoulder with our Celtic brothers in Wales. Come on the sheep shaggers please put the old enemy to the sword. Humiliate them!
But the confusion gets worse for in taking them to a new vet for their booster jabs the Mrs made the appointment. Being a deluded lefty, the Mrs is not Mrs Winnifrith but has retained her own (Indian) surname. What say you? Political correctness gone mad?
As such the cats have come back with a form showing that they too now have an Indian surname. Born Manx, naturalised English, adopted Anglo Irish and now finally Indian. Such is the melting pot that is Britain today but it is understandable if Tara and Oakley are this morning feeling a little culturally confused.
Incidentally the vet said both cats were in great nick although Oakley (the one with three legs) was a little on the plump side and could do with a bit more exercise. Plus ca change on that front.
3924 days ago
Whatever one things about the sheep shaggers, and as I explained on Friday I have mixed feelings, an evening match at the Millennium Stadium has a world beating atmosphere. It was a wonderful night. Wales played well, France were abject. I returned to Bristol rather worse for wear on the last train.
Worse was to come with Ireland against the Old Enemy. I really do loathe the swagger of English rugby with a passion. I loathed it when I wore the green jersey of London Irish
3927 days ago
Naturally my sporting thoughts this weekend will be in London. Can West Ham, in our last game before the return of Horseface, defeat Southampton at Upton Park to go into the top half of the table? More importantly can Ireland defeat the Old Enemy at Twickenham to lift the Triple Crown. Oh Lord, as I prepare for sleep tinight I pray of you that you may give your faithful servant BOD this one last triumph. As a merciful, fair and kind Lord I know that you cannot be an England supporter, so how about it?
But a nice man from North Wales has just offered me a ticket to see the Sheep Shaggers take on the Froggies in Cardiff on Friday night. It is but a short trip over from Bristol and so I have accepted. But who to support?
If I think of Big Nose, the Welsh speaking mother of my daughter Olivia and how insufferable she and her countrymen are when Wales win I am naturally inclined to support the Froggies. But then I chatted to Olivia tonight. For some reason she was not keen to discuss the Ireland game ( I cannot think why) but she says that she hopes Wales defeat the French and …it gets better…that what really matters is that Wales go on to beat England. That’s my girl!
And so for Olivia’s sake I am decided. I shall show solidarity with our Celtic Cousins. C’mon the sheep shaggers.
3938 days ago
Last week I expressed my shock that Ireland and West Ham had both won on the same day and wondered when this happened last? You see, I am used to supporting sporting sides that are just not very good. Well blow me down Ireland and West Ham have now both put in back to back wins on the same day – when did that happen last?
For Ireland it was a home game against Wales. Such occasions usually prompt a post-match call between my father and myself “At least Olivia will be happy.” My daughter is like her mother (Big Nose) a proud Welshie. But not this time.
Ireland were ruthlessly efficient and made Wales (who are not hopeless) look just ordinary. The pack lead by Paul O’Connell was magnificent at the lineout, with the rolling maul and in all aspects of secondary play. The scrums were a bit of a mess but overall it was a powerful display. Throw in the kicking of Sexton and the tackling of the backs – and their strength under the high ball and Ireland looked really good.
Next up is the Old Enemy at Twickenham
4136 days ago
AIM Cesspit listed Arian Silver (AGQ) has overdosed on its equity drawdown death spiral. It failed to attract any interest for a share placing a few months ago as I exposed on this website provoking much anger from its dickead of a PR man. And so it has issued convertible debt which is incredibly expensive – this company really is desperate.
It has not yet actually raised the C$15 million it says that it is doing but has signed up a leading Canadian specialist broker and it says it has one punter who will take the whole lot. I will humour the uber Welsh boyos at Arian by saying that the debt issue will go ahead.
See chaps I am a nice guy. So there is no need to complain about this article. Leave the bleating to your girlfriends. Damn,
4138 days ago
Shares in semiconductor wafer manufacturer and supplier IQE plc (IQE) have offered a volatile ride since I tipped them on my Nifty Fifty website at a 28.5p offer price in December – hitting 36.5p in January and February before falling back, particularly following some (what look misguided) competition concerns to commence the current month at just 18p. However, they have since recovered strongly and have nudged further higher today to 26.75p-27.25p on the back of a bullish update. They are still cheap.
I say that notwitstanding the fact that the PR bird for IQE is uber prudish Kay Larsen of College Group who thinks that I am a pornographer obsessed by sheep shagging. Kay confuses goat milking with sheep shagging. She needs to get out more...
Anyhow, back to IQE who are based in Wales where no-one has ever molested a sheep.
4141 days ago
To be honest I am a bit starved of ideas and the bird wants to head off for a romantic meal so the best that I can do on the caption front is to offer up a picture from earlier. Please post your wittiest captions in the comments section below.
4141 days ago
When I was a boy I tried to milk a cow. I think my mother ( who was heavily into self sufficiency) and I were on a commune in Wales. I really did not get the hang of it at all. So a goat? Heck why not give it a go. Meet the goat. As you can see, her leg is teathered and her mind is on food so maybe I'd have a chance?
4155 days ago
Larissa is the birthplace of Achilles and the provincial capital of Thessaly. It is a fairly sleepy town of 162,000 people which is nor rich, or certainly shouldn’t be, since the mainstay of the regional economy is small scale farming. How odd then that ownership of Porsche Cayenne’s per head of population in this town was twice the OECD average. Hmmmmm.
Welcome to the 100 sheep trick from the good old days. Each Greek farmer got a large EU grant per sheep. The EU did have to inspect the sheep but had to pre-arrange its visits with the local Mayor. There are ten farmers each owning 20 sheep. The inspector arrives and finds that farmer A has 100 sheep. The mayor takes him to a farm on the other side of town owned by farmer B where there are also 100 sheep. Back to farmer C where there are also 100 sheep and so on. The inspector is not Welsh so fails to twig that by the end of his visit he has seen the same 200 sheep five times each.
The grants are duly handed out to all ten farmers. They then employ one Albanian on peanuts to look after 200 sheep and head off in their Porsche Cayenne’s to the village square to drink coffee.
Everyone in Greece knew this was going on but no-one complained. The EU was spending other people’s money (er yours and mine) and so did not care. It was great that Greece had joined the Evil Empire which now reached from the Shetlands to within a couple of miles of Asia. Party on…
Yes I feel sorry for the Greek people and for poor Hellas. But it is worth remembering that in the good times more than a few Greeks trousered it big time and we paid for that.
4176 days ago
An early father's day treat saw me take my delightful daughter Olivia out for breakfast in Islington. Olivia's mother (Big Nose) is a Welsh speaker and Olivia seems to be growing up as a die-hard cottage burner - she is now taking Welsh lessons herself. It will come in handly when she visits the family of Big Nose in West Wales.
And so we wander into this restaurant and Olivia sits down with her back against the wall. I sit opposite and we prepare to discuss how her recent exams went, her plans for her 12th birthday, etc, etc.
But I could not help look at the wall behind where Olivia chose to sit. For one it was the image below. I made some comment about the girlfriends of Big Nose's little brother Andrew and got a dirty look.
4197 days ago
I write this from on-board an Easyjet flight to Berlin where I am going to the wedding of a friend of my partner. He is marrying a Kraut and I have been given a stern lesson about words and phrases I am not allowed to use. Kraut is one of them.
I have however packed my “It’s Time to Leave T-shirt” although my “I stand with Israel T-shirt” was left behind. Perhaps I should have knocked up a quick “I stand with Greece” number just for this trip. I have no football shirts. I do not plan to discuss our national sport with the Hun and I am banned from discussing theirs.
It seems as if most of my fellow passengers are on one of two stag parties and one hen party- all from Wales. I guess this is what Easyjet was created for. I am not sure that those on this trip will be taking in many of the sights of Berlin and it would have been far cheaper for 1 stag party and the hen party just to stay at Bristol airport, get blind drunk and shag each other. But they are all underway now, happily ordering a stream of expensive drinks from the staff.
The two grooms to be are both dressed up. One very large and gormless looking fellow is dressed as a fairy. The other smaller, but equally gormless, fellow is wearing a little gold number. Whatever floats their boat. I am sure they will have a great time. I just rather hope that they do so a very good distance from where we are staying.
4237 days ago
There are worse things that a nearly 12 year old daughter could tell her Dad. Olivia has already had to broach the news to me that she supports Wales (like her mother, big nose) not Ireland. Being told that she was supporting Manchester United like her mother’s young man rather than West Ham would be a real blow. And so today comes the news that she has now been given an audio tape and will soon have a private teacher to learn Welsh.
I put it to Islington resident Olivia that this would be a very useful language to acquire for later life. To her credit, she giggled. Why she cannot stick with another really useful language she is learning which I can speak (a bit) I do not know. What is wrong with Latin?
4258 days ago
For 24 hours I have been endeavouring to get hold of a broker note on a stock I first tipped at 14p and which is almost a quid now and which I have written about for four years. I wanted to post an update. I shall do so later today. The PR bird who looks after this account is a Ms. Kay Larsen at College Group PR. I have just had the most bizarre conversation with Kay who I tried to contact earlier but she was at lunch. Now it is 3.30 and she is back at her desk and this is bizarre. Evil thinks that Kay must be thick. I reckon that she is just on another planet. Anyhow…
Who will you be writing this for I was asked? Dunno. Probably ADVFN. Ok. I thought that was easy. But Kay drawled…
I have just done a Google search on you. Ok.
It seems that you wrote an article on my client on February 18th with a pornographic picture attached. Er… what…I checked it out and it was a picture of Ms Cheryl Cole (see above) revealing far less than is revealed on page 3 of the Sun every day. Does College Group boycott the Sun too I wonder? Er that is not pornography I stammered, it is Cheryl Cole, Britain’s most talented chanteuse. Kay disagrees. It is pornography she insisted.
Kay was not deterred. Her Google search led her to assert “And I see that you described a Welsh company as sheep shaggers.” Er not exactly, I tried to explain that IQE is based in a land where folks make jokes about sheep molestation but that I had written a full apology to the entire Welsh nation for making that link and I accept now that no-one in Wales has ever got familiar with a sheep.
Kay was not impressed. “It is not where we want to position our client” she insisted. The client, BTW, is Advanced Computer Software (ASW). Kay wants to position her client so that it is commented on by “serious financial journals” and regards my blog differently. Her “perception is otherwise”. It is all to do with the “way you position your blog.”
Okay so let’s get this straight: Kay will not co-operate with me unless I “reposition my blog” so that it follows her vision of what is “serious” with regard to the images I use and the language I use. Hmmmmm
4268 days ago
My formative rugby years were in the 1970s watching on a black and white TV screen with my Dad. Why do we support the Men in Green is asked my Dad: they always lose? Well my father and I still support the men in green. He taught me to do so as his mother had taught him and we have had a great couple of decades. But it is over. The good times have officially ended and we return to what I consider normality. That is to say a battle to avoid the wooden spoon.
This season has been terrible. For the first 45 minutes against Wales we looked like world beaters. Since then it has been just dreadful. Frankly the Irish ladies team (who, I think, won their grand slam) have played with more passion and discipline and – at times – skill.
It is the end of an era. Not once have I had a chance to call Aunt Valerie (an Ulster woman) to share joy in a way that she cannot with her husband Uncle Chris, as Ireland have triumphed. Calls to my father have been sad as we wonder if those glory years – a twenty year period when Ireland were not good but great as opposed to the normal fare of brave also rans – are just over.
I am not even sure that I would describe Ireland as brave these days. Back in the 70s we would pray for the rain to poor down on Landsdowne Road. Keep it tight in the forwards and fight with passion, pray and hope. The late Moss Keane, Fergus Slattery, those were the days. In defeat those Ireland teams were brave.
And now?
4283 days ago
On March 1st my daughter Olivia ( whose mother is a Welsh speaker) tends to dress up in her National costume. And I wish her, her mother ( Big Nose) and all Welshies everywhere a very happy St David’s Day. I do not know whether it is a Bank Holiday in the land where they really can take a joke and never molest sheep. But since about 75% of Welshies live off the State it probably does not make much difference anyway.
Anyhow it is probably an excuse for you all to get pissed and utter increasingly dark words about how your coal mines and industry were all closed down by the evil Thatcher! And that the 30 years of high unemployment seen since, despite wholesale subsidies from the accursed English, is all the fault of Thatcher, the English, the Tories and not you.
Happy St David’s Day to Welshies everywhere, notably weather girl Sian Lloyd, those fine singers Shakin’ Stevens and Charlotte Church, cultural ambassador Mr Craig Bellamy and, of course Ruth Madoc from Hi de Hi.
4285 days ago
There was no free share tip today oneonefreesharetip.com today as instead I felt the need to apolgise to an entire nation. In case you are not registered ( why not?) the piece runs.
I make a public apology to the entire people of Wales. It is indeed a heart-felt apology to you all ( my daughter Olivia included and even to her mother “big nose”). For you see it seems that I have been insensitive to the great people of the nation that brought you Max Boyce, badger fancying MP Ron Davies, weekend cottage burning and the entire Kinnock family and I want to apologise for that.
Clem Chambers and I have received an email from a sensitive and humourless Welshie called Gareth Davies He states:
“In your “One Free Share Tip” report of 17th February tipped Welsh technology hardware company I.Q.E., you referred to them as “sheep shaggers”. We Welsh have a good sense of humour and accept light –hearted “digs”, but the above phrase is not in that category and in fact is downright insulting and completely out of order. I trust that you will apologise for your remark and that such insults will not be repeated. Should I not receive a satisfactory reply, I may well take the matter further.
To Clem: I tried to get your e-mail address , but after several long, unanswered calls to 0207 0700 961, I have had to send your copy of the above e-mail by post (recorded delivery). Remarks such as the one above are often made in the media , mainly by S.E.England/London “establishment” figures. Having worked/travelled throughout Britain , I know that such hereditary, systemic, arrogant, publically- stated insolence is viewed by others outside the S.E. region with annoyance and contempt. Attitudes are hardening and in future, such insolence will not be tolerated.”
Ooooh er missus. I am threatened by Gareth, who clearly has time on his hands, that he may take the matter further and Clem now knows that this “insolence will not be tolerated.”
Clem and I are sensitive souls. I hate to think of Gareth staring up the valley looking at deserted coal mines and suffering because an Ireland supporting writer made such a comment about his fellow Celts. Poor Gareth. I am almost in tears as I write this apology for I want his soul to become less tormented. For you Gareth but also to all your wonderful countrymen and countrywomen, including family man Ryan Giggs and Ruth Madoc from Hi-de-Hi, I would like to state publicly:
I apologise for the comment. I fully accept that no-one in Wales has ever considered shagging a sheep and that nothing of the sort ever happens in the Principality. I think I got Wales confused with the Scottish borders and apologise for my basic error of geography which I shall not repeat.
Ends.
I hope that Gareth will accept this apology in full and will promise not to burn down the cottage that my Aunt Lucy owns in his great land.
I trust that this puts an end to the matter as I would rather spend an eternity listening to Aled Jones records in a room full of grumbling Welshies bleating on about how the wicked Thatcher closed down all the mines, than continue this pointless correspondence any further.
Tom Winnifrith
4303 days ago
Lo and behold a resurgent Wales beat the Froggies (who are now 0 from 2 but were pre tournament favourites), Scotland thrash Italy in what was meant to be the wooden spoon game and today’s match in Dublin could be the Championship decider. Although I would not rule the sheep shaggers (Welsh department) out yet.
England are, of course, the old enemy and when they arrive in Dublin full of swagger and arrogance as they do now, the desire for victory is greater than ever. And there is also the romance: in Brian O’Driscoll’s last season of six nations rugby might the men in green pull off a famous victory? If they play as they did in the first half against Wales they might win. Play as they did in the second half and there will be misery in Sheep Street, Shipston.
For I am back with my deluded lefty father and step mother. It is the former who brought me up to support “the Old Country.” For me tomorrow afternoon is a simple matter. Lunch. Then the White Bear to watch West Ham away at Villa. And shortly before 3 my father will arrive. I shall remove my West Ham hoodie to reveal an Irish shirt, we will switch bars and off we go.
My father has a dilemma. At 4 PM my step mum is preaching in Shipston Church. If Ireland are behind he will not want to watch and will head off to Church to pray for a BOD inspired comeback. If it is even Stevens he has assured my step mum that he will go to Church where he will pray earnestly for an Irish victory. So, I asked him: what if Ireland are 50 points ahead with 30 minutes to go: God vs. Pub, a chance to watch a famous victory with your son, the landlord ( also wearing green) and a bunch of miserable England supporters, or your second church service of the day? Hmmm. He admitted that would be a tough call. But it is – sadly – also an unlikely scenario.
4309 days ago
The past few encounters between Ireland and Wales have not made my father and I terribly happy. Our parting words after each recent let down have been “at least Olivia will be happy”. The mother of my daughter Olivia is a Welsh speaker, a dyed in the wool cottage burner and I am sorry to say that she has led Olivia astray in that she also supports Wales with a passion. She kindly says that Ireland is her second team but in post match calls in recent years she has not been able to contain her glee. Ha!
Ireland were magnificent in the first half, er…less good in the second. Brian O’Driscoll was inspirational. The Old Country were deserved winners and I will be calling Olivia ( and her mother) later to discuss. I shall try not to crow with Olivia. With her mother there will be no such restraint.
I did note one English reporter on the news commenting that after England defeated the poor Scottish team that the English should have no worries about beating France to win the six nations. He seemed to assume that next week in Dublin was a given. Such is the arrogance and swagger of English rugby right now. A home win in Dublin next week would be all the sweeter for that.
4332 days ago
Having coped with staff sickness by stepping into the breach as a super chef yet again yesterday at Real Man Pizza Company ( I turned out a totally awesome Pennette con Gamberetti e Manannan Vodka) it is off West for the weekend.
On Saturday I turn 45. And to celebrate, if that is the right word, being closer to 50 than 40 I plan to take the day off and go walking in West Wales. I might just pen a couple of pieces on the train tonight and load them up before I leave on Saturday but that is it. My first day without writing for months.
Normal service, including the Tomogrpah, returns on Sunday evening. You can of course register HERE to receive that missive.
Over and out.
4345 days ago
Will Reading get relegated this season? Is paedophilia a national sport in Belgium? Do sheep get nervous when they cross the border into Wales? Is the Guardian a paper fit only for lighting fires with and using in the cat’s litter tray? Is the Pope a Catholic? Of course Reading (and QPR) are going down.
4393 days ago
My weekend has been spent walking in mid Wales. I needed a break from non-stop writing. And as always I am one who tries to be aware of local cultural sensitivities and so when in Wales…do as the Welsh do.
Hence on Saturday afternoon
