Evil Diaries: Every Dog Has Had His Day

Every dog, it is said, is allowed one bite. Seemingly 9,000 people are admitted to hospital every year as a result of this licence. So some would be very angry at this smelly and unpleasant pet.

However, my family did rather well in that my younger daughter was bitten through the lower lip when she was seven years old and had bent over to pat “Doggie” on the head. I asked the owner for damages – which fortunately – was covered by a policy at Eagle Star. Many months later Eagle Star coughed up £1,200 through a barrister. The cheque was made out to me and I asked him what I should do to account to him for this money. He told me to go out and invest:

The following Saturday I put it all on the favourite in the 2,000 Guineas and doubled the money. From here it all went into a split capital investment trust capital shareholding. And after a few years it turned into £1m. This was a handy sum when it came to paying school fees.

I still think dog owners should pay far more for exposing their pets to the public.

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I met Farhad Moshiri thirty years ago. He had by then become a chartered accountant with Spicer and Pegler and graduated to CEO of Phil Edmunds’s Middlesex.

Farhad is no fool and through his contacts achieved at Middlesex built up extensive contacts in Russia which turned into massive profits in western Europe. These came to £2bn for Farhad, some of which was invested in Everton.

And there he was stuck at the bottom of the Premiership when a few days ago he hired Sean Dyche as manager. On Saturday Everton, admittedly at home, beat Arsenal 1-0. Perhaps Everton will not be relegated after all.

I had lunch with him just before Christmas at Oswald’s in Albemarle Street and he commented on events in hand at Everton. He is very keen on football but having to deal with the fans who have only an emotional stake and nothing financial in point one does wonder whether the ownership of a football club makes sense.

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Poppy who runs DarkTrace (DARK) has got £75m company money to prop up the share price. So far she has succeeded in squeezing the shorts. But £75m does not go far these days for these purposes. Give Poppy the pip in a few weeks’ time.

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I simply do not understand Quantum Blockchain (QBT) but its boss, the most impressive Francesco Gardin, does. The shares are c. 2p and might be cheap but I do not know when or how this will prove to be the case.

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Every day some conmen email me offering “investments” in residential property yielding 6% p.a. and more. I dare say others get this torrent of fraud gushed out at them. The attitude is to be contemptuous and spit at these animals.

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Lord (Daniel) Hannan points out that Britain cannot contemplate continuing to indicate that it will pay state-financed old age pensions. HMG in so indicating is really pledging the future earnings of the youth of today to buy the votes of prospective pensioners now in their fifties and sixties. This is immoral and I trust the youths involved will kick back.