The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune

The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune: I won £80,000 on Almandin last Tuesday in the Melbourne Cup but had lost £20,000 of that by COB Friday. However, by around 4.20 p.m. on Saturday I had lost a further £20,000. Not good. And then I won £60,000 in no less than three major fluke football results.

Needless to add, I have played this up and majored on Hillary Clinton and placed £15,000 at 8/15 Zac Goldsmith to win the Richmond Park by-election. The only poll I have seen in relation to the latter has him 29 percentage points clear of the oppo. That seems to me to be more like a 90% chance of winning. Voting is on 1st December.

Finally, Andy Murray may have moved to the top of the tennis rankings but he has won SPOTY in two of the last three years. That he should be 1.7 to win 2016 is ridiculous.


*****

Fevertree (FEVR) is up 100p this morning on a trading update and is now at 1,070p. I still do not get it. I know it hurts but my view is to stay short.

*****

Other people’s tax affairs are best left with them but I asked my tax QC pal about how Phil [Green] is allowed to put his affairs in the hands of his wife and, since she is non-resident, thus escape tax. He replies:

“If HMRC could argue that she is a mere cipher for him and she is, effectively, his nominee, they might run an argument that her revenues and profits are, in fact, his.”

It is not impossible that HMRC could so argue. After all, the HoC Treasury Committee would merely ask for Tina to stand cross-examination during which she’d melt. So she might be tempted to decline to come and HMRC would be free to draw its own inferences. Assessments would then be issued and a clampdown applied to Phil’s assets worldwide (probably only UK assets in practice).