Apparently, there is to be 500,000 union members who will be out on strike today. This is of course a co-ordinated effort by those who essentially wish to bring the government down. It is little to do with wages since as the unions know there is no money to be dished out in any event.
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I see that Rachel Reeves, the Shadow Chancellor, is promulgating the lie that removing non-dom status from the tax code will release sufficient money to pay either £3bn or £1.5bn towards the NHS. She knows perfectly well that is a lie and in any event a profoundly silly policy. I wrote to Wes Streeting, the Shadow Health Minister, pointing this out. Needless to add he has not replied. He must prefer to be known as a liar.
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Odey Asset Management are not stupid. They have upped their stake in REA (RE.) without, it seems, moving the price. They will have assessed the Indonesian political risk and the likely movement of the palm oil price. It follows that sensible bunnies will do exactly the same and buy. Crispin leaves the purchases of palm oil to the butlers in his London and Gloucestershire homes.
As it happens, RE. have today announced a trading update. It is extremely bullish. I guess that the proper price of RE. ordinaries is well over 150p.
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Perhaps ten years ago Gabriel Grego of Quintessential Capital Management came to my home to go over the details of a fraud that he had uncovered and documented. His work is very thorough and careful. He has now turned to Darktrace (DARK) and confirmed the opinion of the Dark Destroyer, Matthew Earl, that DARK is heading south. It closed at c. 210p last night.
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Hindenburg have alighted upon the interests of the Indian billionaire, a Mr Advani, and the decline so far has lopped off $50bn in value. I cannot deal in Bombay but perhaps those who can should consider availing themselves of a shorting opportunity.
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Lady Homa Alliance has taken her stake in N Brown (BWNG) over 3% and has so disclosed as announced yesterday. There is unlikely to be a bid this week that is known to her and Lord Alliance – otherwise the FCA will get very warmed up. But next week is another matter…..
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I am not sure that I have got it right with Webis (WEB) since its CEO, Ed Comins, is in a close period and will be visiting the UK from California for the ICE exhibition in a few days’ time. I hope to have a drink with him next week. In the meantime, WEB’s Californian business, WatchandWager.com, have announced that its online customers will now be able to bet on the many high class horse races featured in the portfolio of a Mr Stronach who owns lots of racecourses. It is too early to reckon with any certainty as to how this deal will work out in practice. But I paid 2p each for 2,300,000 shares. That’s enough pro tem. Master Investor’s chairman owns shares in WEB.
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I bought 1m Morses Club (MCL) at 1.3p. This was not a clever bargain on my part but I trust that the sellers head of the delisting from AIM will soon dry up. This company openly declares itself insolvent in the absence of further funds – which it presumably will raise once its private status is attained. MCL is capitalised at only £1.5m. Where all this goes I do not know. But I quite understand MCL’s declaration that the cost of AIM is far too high for this tiny company.