At the last general election, I did not bother to vote since the notion of the Conservatives being upstaged in Kensington struck me as ridiculous. But, unbeknowst to me, the boundaries had been changed. So, Labour won by twenty votes – I was not alone in my idleness. The result is one Emma Jane Coad. She it was, on the appointment of Sir Martin Moore-Bick as the judge to investigate the Grenfell tragedy, who declared that he could not be the right man to do the job since he would not empathise with the lives and rights of poor people. Yes, she wants someone as brainless as she to do the work.
Yesterday, she criticised the government for delaying the start of the enquiry when she herself has had a central part in causing the delay. Remember: if Labour get into power we’ll have this sort of drivel all day every day. And it will cost.
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I caught up again yesterday on 888 Holdings (LON:888). My informant, an industry expert, warns me that although British bookmakers have the brains, the Americans have the energy and will to muscle in on this $25 billion p.a. bonanza. So that means Facebook, Google and lots of others will want this pie.
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That noted, and back on domestic ground, investors fear that 888 will now face a governmental attack on online bookmaking. I doubt it: restricting the use of the internet is the holy grail of centre-left politicians. Mercifully, so far, they have not got anywhere near succeeding. This may mean that 888 is cheap anyway.
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Equity Development have just published a bullish review of Elektron (LON:EKT), now 34p. They foresee a figure of 100p and remark that the current price is justified by Bulgin alone. Thereafter one has to fantasise about Checkit for the next 66p. Perhaps that is not so silly.
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I wish somebody would set up a web site comparing stock borrow costs as offered by lenders. I was quoted 5% p.a. cost on IQE (LON:IQE) yesterday. This cannot be competitive. The truth is that ever since 2008, stock lenders have become much warier and try to charge accordingly. I am sorry to say that they succeed.
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Finally, when my father arrived at Christchurch Oxford for the Winter term of 1946 he encountered a Merton Atkins. They became lifelong friends and must have played cricket on every village ground in Oxfordshire and surrounding counties.
Merton was brainy and during WWII was in intelligence in Cairo. It was therefore a delightful surprise the other day when my brother got me to invest in Sarah Helm’s Vera Atkins: A Life in Secrets. She was a cousin of Merton and stationed in SOE headquarters and took it upon herself to investigate the disappearances of her agents in German concentration camps. This was not easy since time and budgets were severely constrained. As one of the agents was dragged off to be murdered and incinerated she cried out Pourquoi? Pourquoi indeed.