Jam sandwiches
Four former directors of Barclays have been charged by the SFO this morning with breaches of this and that. It all centres round a payment of £322m to the Qataris who subscribed for the very necessary refinancing of Barclays – £4.5bn in June 2008 topped up with a further £7.3bn in October 2008.
I remember the panic well since I bought c. 500,000 Barclays at 53p and made some useful dough. The nation should be very grateful to the Barclays Four since the bill would otherwise have fallen upon the Dour One (Gordon Brown) who would have snitched the dough from the nation.
However, these regulators just love the benefit of hindsight and there will now be massive legal costs arising (paid for by Barclays no doubt for their involvement and by the taxpayer in relation to the SFO) whilst this case trundles to its ineffectual and/or unsatisfactory conclusion. It’ll take at least a year. When a country (i.e. we ourselves) has run out of money it is sensible to render ourselves even more insolvent – particularly when it is to no effect.
By the way, have you noticed that the Dour One has never been charged? It was his totally irresponsible handling of interest rates that got us into this mess in the first place.
*****
It’s a bit of a punt, I know, but I bought Surface Transforms (LON:SCE) this morning at 15p. Today’s statement is news of jam deferred but it is fair to reckon that the jam is still there.
*****
Finally, the Ascot Authority is to allow gentlemen (their term, not a reality) to remove morning coats since the heat will be otherwise intolerable. So be it.
At least the Ascot Authority will not allow sexual intercourse in the Royal Enclosure. You will laugh but voyeurs only narrowly escaped that pleasure at Goodwood a few years ago: heat does strange things.
>> It was his totally irresponsible handling of interest rates that got us into this mess in the first place.>>
Hi Simon,
I thought one of GB’s first actions was to hand over rate setting to the BoE?
zho,
You are not the first reader who makes this point/claim in GB’s defence. But it was typical of the deception that GB practised that he knew perfectly well that he could to engage in false modesty when the brief to the BoE was merely and only to hold inflation at 2.5%. Circumstances in money markets demand a much more flexible approach – which of course the BoE was denied.
GB knew this and it is yet again proof of what a ghastly person he was and no doubt remains.
Simon Cawkwell
Hello.
Do you still hold Proxama? Any comment on its woeful share price performance since you featured it ?
What about GB sale of our gold bullion losing us billions in the process. Another successful transaction by Labour. All of this could be small beer if we let Mr Corbin into power