It ain't easy being a presidential candidate ...

From the Donald's diary (here):

Wednesday    I’ve just been in a TV studio where the host kept asking me to endorse the Republican candidates John McCain and Paul Ryan, who are fighting primaries. And I refused.

“Feel like telling me the strategy there?” says my campaign chief, afterwards.

“Not really,” I tell him.

“Is it because McCain refused to say he was comfortable with you controlling the nuclear arsenal?” says my campaign chief.

“No,” I say.

“Is it because you feel Ryan represents an aloof Republican hierarchy?” he says.

“No,” I say.

“Is it because you momentarily forgot whether you were a Republican or a Democrat?” he says.

“It might be,” I say.

   

Looks a bit dodgy to me

And what if you live in a flat?

 

Rueful smile of the day

Here

"You're more than a number in my little black book"

What kind of paranoid idiot writes down the name of his enemies in a little black book?  And what kind of idiot then tells the newspapers about it?  The President of the European Commission, that's who.  The Guardian reports:

There is no shortage of people who could make it into the bad books of the European commission president, Jean-Claude Juncker.

...

While the true list of his enemies remains secret, Juncker has revealed he keeps “a little black book” to note down the names of people who cross him. “I have a little black book called Le Petit Maurice where for the past 30 years I have noted when someone has betrayed me,” the EU president told the Belgian newspaper Le Soir.

Juncker explained it wasn’t very full, because people “rarely betray me”. He added: “I am not vengeful, but I have a good memory.” Juncker’s black book was a constant companion during his 18 years as prime minister of Luxembourg. He would tell people attacking him: “Be careful. Little Maurice is waiting for you.”

Bizarre ...

The last refuge of the bureaucrat

When you cannot find a decent reason not to do something, you can always rely on the tried and tested.  The Guardian reports:

Theresa May will not intervene in the official process of approving David Cameron’s resignation honours list because it would “set a very bad precedent”, Downing Street has said.

It's nonsense of course.  Would anybody mourn the loss of the ability of an outgoing PM to reward his friends and cronies?

 

Music of the week

 

The plot thickens

So my old boss from my time in Brussels, Michel Barnier, has been appointed as the European Commission's Brexit negotiator.  The Guardian reports:

A veteran French politician and experienced Brussels insider who has repeatedly clashed with the City of London over financial services reforms is to lead talks on Britain’s exit from the EU.

The president of the European commission, Jean-Claude Juncker, said he had wanted an experienced politician for an “important and challenging job” as he announced the appointment of Michel Barnier, a former EU commissioner. Barnier would “help us develop a new partnership with the UK”, he said.

A member of France’s centre-right Les Républicains (formerly UMP) party, Barnier, a former French cabinet minister, will take up his post on 1 October. He said in a tweet he was “honoured to be entrusted” with such a demanding task. The appointment will be viewed with some apprehension in London.

All very well, but a quick glance at Article 50 of the Lisbon Treaty suggests that it is the European Council, rather than the European Commission, which is mainly responsible for the negotiations.  Possibility of a turf war between Tusk and Juncker?


   

Go figure ...

The FTSE 100 has risen by 20 points to 6744, a level last seen in August 2015.

Now over 6761.

   

And the Fairy Queen offered three options to Prime Minister May ...

Option 1

Go for a hard Brexit, securing controls on immigration but abandoning hopes of access to the single market.

The likes of Liam Fox, Andre Leadsom and Priti Patel would cheer but the business lobby (and the bulk of Tory donors) would disapprove, not to mention London, Scotland and Northern Ireland.  And there might be nasty economic repercussions.  Would it command the support of the Commons?

Option 2

Go for a soft Brexit, securing access to  the single market but at the expense of free movement of labour (perhaps with minimal concessions) and payments into the EU, some kind of arrangement not dissimilar to Norway or Switzerland

The Tory right wing would scream betrayal, endangering the already slim Tory majority. And the people might ask what was the point of the whole exercise.

Option 3

Keep on delaying the invocation of Article 50 in the hope that something - a general election? the collapse of the euro?  Jean-Claude Juncker falling under a bus? - turns up.  In other words, kicking the can down the road.

Nobody would be happy, particularly in the light of the continuing uncertainty, but they might be less unhappy than would otherwise be the case.

No easy answers then.  But sooner rather than later, Mrs May will have to choose.


   

See bankers!

The customer is a sponge that you keep on squeezing.  The Guardian reports:

A major high street bank has paved the way for the introduction of negative interest rates for the first time in Britain by warning customers it may have to charge them to accept deposits.

The warning by NatWest was made in a letter changing the terms and conditions for the bank’s 850,000 business customers, which range from self-employed traders, charities and clubs to big corporations.

It could mean that an account holder with £1,000 in a NatWest account could see that shrink to £999 or less the following year as the bank charges a negative rate of interest.

Well, it's obvious.  They are not making enough from the charges associated with overdrafts and mortgages (no chance of those interest rates falling anywhere near zero).  Nor from their gouging on exchange rates for foreign currency.  Besides, they have to keep paying exorbitant remuneration to their top executives.

   

Music of the week

Quote of the day

Humility squared.  From  The Times (here):

Donald Trump is now the official Republican candidate for the presidency. Even when he is trying to be modest he has to outdo everyone else. Interviewed by CBS at the party convention, Trump disagreed with the suggestion that he is smug. “I think I am humble,” he said. “I’m much more humble than you would understand.”

   

Smoking and France

From time to time, I  have indulged in a French ciggie or two.  The romance, the Left Bank chic, the je ne sais quoi, they have all seduced me into endangering my health.  But now the health fascists are going to  put a stop to it, by banning those brands seen as cool.

The Guardian bewails these developments:

Serge Gainsbourg and his daughter Charlotte, Brigitte Bardot, Django Reinhardt, Albert Camus, Alain Bashung, Jean Paul Sartre, Catherine Deneuve, Béatrice Dalle.

All are a bit sullen. All are a bit broken – all a bit twisted, a bit nihilistic, a bit dark. All have been known for their chain-smoking. You light a cancer stick, and you get to meditate on your own life going up in smoke. It may be appalling, but this aesthetic – just in case you’ve never seen our arthouse movies – feels very French.

To make matters worse, it also neatly embodies the rejection of a broader society constantly promoting self-betterment – which, judging by the output of “life coaches” and other charlatans everywhere, has never been conducive to good art, let alone a jovial debate between friends at a terrace with a pastis and a few smokes. And – did I mention? – French people don’t like to be told what to do.

Moi, non plus, even if I received clearance yesterday that, following a CT scan, my lungs were OK.  So from time to time I may buy a pack of Gauloises (sans filtre obviously) ...

   

   

A week is a long time in politics

11 July: Theresa May says that the government will block takeovers of key UK companies.

18 July: Government Ministers welcome takeover of Arm, one of the UK's most important technology companies

    

Music of the week

 

Smile of the day

Here


   .

Culling the deadbeats

She's enjoying herself:

Theresa May bounced into her Westminster office. She could have just sacked the dead wood over the phone like most prime ministers have done, but why deny herself the pleasure of doing it in person? First in the queue outside her door was Michael Gove.

“Hello, you treacherous little shit,” she said, evenly. “I’ve never liked you. Let alone trusted you. You’re fired.”

“Please don’t,” Mikey whimpered. “Sarah will kill me if I come back with nothing. I’ll do anything. Junior minister in transport...”

“Next.”

Next was Nicky Morgan. “Can you give me one good reason why I shouldn’t get rid of you?” Theresa snapped. Nicky’s mouth opened and closed without saying anything. Same as it always did.

“Next.”

In came Oliver Letwin. “You’re sacked.”

“Really? I didn’t even know I had a job.” Oliver had never been the most worldly of politicians.

   

A ticking timebomb

The point about a timebomb is that it is set to go off at a specific time.  Boris, on the other hand, teeters along the high wire, likely to fall off at any moment.

A foreign secretary with a lust for self-destruction?  I doubt if he will last until Christmas.

   

Just a thought

   h/t George

Smile of the day

Here

   .

Quote of the day

From Ruth Davidson (here):

The leader of the Scottish Conservatives, Ruth Davidson, made fun of former party leadership hopefuls Andrea Leadsom and Boris Johnson during a lighthearted speech to journalists in Westminster.

Drawing on the turbulent politics of recent weeks, Davidson, who is hugely popular in her party, told reporters that she was glad to be still standing as everyone in politics was either “resigning, getting knifed, bottling it, withdrawing, failing, declaring, or falling on their sword”.

“I think the mad thing in all of the last few weeks is that the last man standing is Jeremy Corbyn,” she said, joking that Labour was now putting forward a “unity candidate” to take on their original “unity candidate”.

“Thats the difference between our two parties: Labour is still fumbling with its flies while the Tories are enjoying their post-coital cigarette. After withdrawing our massive Johnson,” she added, making the room full of reporters, politicians and advisers, burst out laughing.

  

Hyperbole

Some people are getting very upset about the failure to exclude Jeremy Corbyn from leadership election.  The Independent reports:

A former special advisor to Tony Blair says a decision to allow Jeremy Corbyn the automatic right to defend his leadership will be the death of the Labour party.

John McTernan is a long-time critic of Mr Corbyn and said if the leader "had any shame" he would have walked away some time ago.

He told BBC News in the wake of the NEC's secret ballot decision: "Today was the day the Labour party was stabbed in the heart and killed by the Labour National Executive Committee.

"Jeremy Corbyn may have won this vote, but he has destroyed the Labour party," he said. 

I disagree.  If Corbyn had been excluded, a large proportion of the Labour Party would have regarded it as a stitch-up and would never have forgiven those responsible.  This way, there is at least a chance that the party can be re-united, either under a new leader or under Corbyn.  Not a very big chance, but a chance nonetheless.

 

Quotes of the day

Just another manic Monday:

Only the Conservatives can combine the brutality of a Stalinist purge with the low comedy of a Carry On film. It had trusted the country to reach the right decision in the referendum campaign and it wasn’t going to make the same mistake again by giving the untamed fringes of the Tory party a say.

Then there is Andrea:

“It has only just come to my attention I have the support of just 25% of Conservative MPs,” she continued, forcing the words through the fixed smile, “and that, in these uncertain times, the country doesn’t need a nine-week leadership campaign.

“I’ve also taken a look at the people around me and decided most of them are an electoral liability. So I have decided to withdraw my name from the contest and let Theresa May be prime minister. Sorry to have made such a nuisance of myself. I’m now going to lie down in a dark room for several years. Thank you for coming.”

Oh, and David:

Back at No 10, David Cameron was on the phone to his therapist trying to deal with his self-destructive issues when he heard that Theresa was going to be moving in a great deal earlier than anticipated. “Bugger it,” he yelled. It just wasn’t fair. Now he wouldn’t get to fly in his brand-new Dave Force One plane to Africa. Now he’d miss his last G20. Now he’d have to find somewhere to rent as he’d given his tenants notice to leave in September. The way the day was going, George would forget to bring back a suitcase full of dollars from New York.

   

Conspiracy? Blackmail?

One way or another.  You can't take on the Establishment and win:

Andrea Leadsom has withdrawn from the race to be leader of the Conservative party, leaving Theresa May apparently uncontested for the job of next prime minister.

The dramatic development came in a statement issued by Leadsom, the energy minister, shortly after midday. She admitted that she has been left “shattered” by the contest in which she has faced an outpouring of anger following her comments about motherhood.In a statement read out in London, Leadsom said she did not believe she had sufficient support to form a strong and stable government after coming in second place behind the home secretary in the ballot of Conservative MPs.

She added “I wish Theresa May the greatest success”, and promised the only remaining candidate her full support.

     

Pointless?

OK, so he gets to do some travelling before he gets the bullet, but is there any valid objective?  The Independent reports:

George Osborne will travel to New York for talks with major investors in an effort to strengthen US-UK trade links after the vote to leave the European Union.

The Chancellor said improving ties with the US is now a "top priority" and he will urge leaders from some of America's biggest investors to stick with the UK after the Brexit referendum result.

...

Mr Osborne said: "While Britain's decision to leave the EU clearly presents economic challenges, we now have to do everything we can to make the UK the most attractive place in the world to do business.

"Britain and the US have been at the forefront of open trade in the last 200 years and pursuing a stronger relationship with our biggest trading partners is now a top priority.

"That's why I am travelling to the US, China and Singapore in the coming weeks and why my message to the world is that Britain may be leaving the EU, but we are not quitting the world.

And the first question he will be asked is whether the UK will retain access to the single market.  He does not know the answer.

 

Music of the week

Nice story

From The Guardian (here):

It has no buffet car, the waiting room is a garden shed and only one of its three hand-built carriages is fully glazed. But for one week only, the train from Leadhills to Glengonnar Halt has become an essential addition to the UK’s rail network.

In a rare, perhaps unique, moment in British railway history, a replacement train service has been put on to make up for a closed road. It is normally the other way round. And this service is run by amateurs.

Launched 30 years ago by a small group of single-minded rail enthusiasts high on the barren, rocky moors of south-west Scotland, the Leadhills and Wanlockhead Railway (L&WR) is ordinarily a weekends-only summertime attraction for tourists.

Then South Lanarkshire council decided to resurface the only road connecting the two villages that vie for the title as Scotland’s highest.

...

So for five days this week, while road builders re-laid and repainted the B797, the L&WR has run a full weekday timetable for the first time in its history. With ticket prices cut from £4 to £1, it has put on 18 services a day between its two stations, with seven trains timed carefully to meet buses in Leadhills running north east to and from Lanark, and its scheduled rail connections to Glasgow.

...

Its workhorse locomotive, a stubby, blue-painted diesel-powered engine called Clyde, rattles and judders over the single narrow-gauge track at a stately five miles an hour; it hits 8mph on its downhill run back to Leadhills.

There is still goodness in this world.

   

   

Dog whistle time

Maybe she really  is disgusted.  Maybe not.  The BBC reports:

Andrea Leadsom says she is "disgusted" by a newspaper article saying she suggested being a mother gave her an advantage over Conservative leadership rival Theresa May.

The Times quoted Mrs Leadsom as saying having children gives "a very real stake in the future of our country".

But the mother of three tweeted that the way the interview was reported was "the exact opposite of what I said".

Earlier Mrs May, who has no children, called for a "clean campaign" pledge.

The paper headlined its front-page lead story "Being a mother gives me edge on May - Leadsom."

But the story is on the front pages, whether by accident or design ...

     

Quote of the day

From The Times (here):

Mark Durkan (SDLP, Foyle) even mocked what should be regarded as one of Mr Blair’s achievements. “This is not a day for soundbites,” he said, echoing Mr Blair’s comment at the Good Friday agreement. “But does the prime minister not agree that the hand of history should be feeling someone’s collar?”

Almost a century ago, contemplating the senseless waste of human life, lions led by donkeys, Kipling wrote in his Epitaphs of the War: “If any question why we died/ Tell them: because our fathers lied.”

What will be Mr Blair’s epitaph? Perhaps six words that he wrote in July 2002 to George W Bush: “I will be with you, whatever.” It was Mr Bush’s 70th birthday yesterday. No one asked Mr Blair what he had given his friend as a present but the answer was clear: his reputation.

   

Pathetic

I wonder if this is somebody who could be a Prime Minister.  The Observer reports:

Today the Observer reveals that Corbyn’s private office is reluctant to allow the leader to speak to the Labour party’s democratically elected deputy, Tom Watson, on his own.

A senior source close to Corbyn explained: “They want Watson to be on his own with him so that he can jab his finger at him. We are not letting that happen. We have a duty of care here. He’s a 70-year-old man [sic]. This is not a one-off. There is a culture of bullying, maybe it’s a Blairite/Brownite thing. But while they see two old men [Corbyn and McDonnell], they don’t see the 250,000 people behind them.”

If Corbyn's staff cannot trust their man not to be bullied by the Deputy Leader, then the Labour Party is in considerable trouble.

For the record, Corbyn is 67.

 

Music of the week

 

Quote of the day

From The Independent (here):

.. the final reveal still had the power to shock. For a politician who made his name as the court jester, only to strive for the crown, Boris teed himself with a fitting phrase. After setting out what would have been his manifesto for leadership, he said: “That is the agenda for the next Prime Minister of this country.

“But I have to tell you my friends, you who have waited faithfully for the punchline of this speech, that having consulted colleagues and in lieu of the circumstances in Parliament I have concluded that person cannot be me.”

The clown of Westminster had delivered his final punchline. As he departed the stage, behind him lay the wreckage of his party’s unity, his country’s economy and the hopes and dreams of the architects of the European Union. Like a restaurant after a visit by the Bullingdon boys: a mess for someone else to tidy up.

And what a mess ...

 

Keep up at the back

Boris stabs himself in the front while Jeremy shoots himself in the foot (again).

What is the world coming to ...

 

Et tu Brutus ...

First he betrayed his old best friend David; then he betrayed his new best friend Boris.  Our next Prime Minister - probably ...

   

Smile of the day

From The Times Diary (here):

Overheard on the Commons terrace this week.  Journalist: “What do you think about Roy Hodgson resigning?” Labour MP: “Remind me which department he was shadowing.”

   

Quote of the day

From The Guardian (here):

Fricassée de David Cameron was not on the menu – it was quail salad followed by poached veal and with a dessert of strawberries to round things off, since you ask – but if you were the prime minister it surely must have felt like it.

Imagine: you’re sat round a table with 27 other reasonably important people, all of whom think you have done something unbelievably stupid and are now determined that you follow through with something unbelievably enormous, very soon.

Your sole objective, meanwhile, is to do nothing whatsoever for as long as possible, while pretending you know what you want when actually you don’t because it will be your unfortunate successor who decides.

It can’t have been pleasant.

 He'll get no sympathy from me ...  

It's not turning out the way Boris expected

 

Quote of the day

From The Guardian (here):

If the Commons statement had been intended to reassure people that everything was going to be OK, it backfired spectacularly. MPs who had been previously certain that someone, somewhere must have a plan only now realised that no one did.

And little prospect of any plan emerging in the near future ...

 

Schadenfreude ...

... is the feeling of joy or pleasure when one sees another fail or suffer misfortune.

But it is far from appropriate when considering the misfortunes of the English football team.  Just because they were beaten by Iceland, a country with a total population considerably fewer than the city of Edinburgh, is not a cause for celebration.  Rather, we should sympathise with the affluent but ineffective plodders who - once again - let down their country.  It's not their fault - well, actually it is - but they are only human.

So, no gloating, please.

(I write some awful rubbish at times.  And, if you believe any of the above, ...)

    

     

Probably NSFW

You may wonder what was the point ...

From The Guardian (here):

Michael Fuchs, a senior figure in Angela Merkel’s CDU party, told the Today programme this morning that if the UK wanted to retain access to the single market once it left the EU, that would be possible, “but not for free”. According to the BBC, he went on:

You have to see with Norway, with Switzerland, you have to pay a certain fee. And the per capita fee of Norway is exactly the same as what Britain is now paying into the EU. So there won’t be any savings.

Screwed, either way.

Quote of the day (2)

From The Times (here):

Markets hate uncertainty. Or at least so you keep reading. Every time you do, remember that it’s nonsense. Markets trade and thrive on uncertainty. If everyone is certain, no one buys or sells anything. A certain market would be one that didn’t move, ever.

And my loss is your buying opportunity ...

 

Armageddon postponed

At the time of writing, the FTSE 100 is down by a mere 12 points, less than 0.25%.

I suppose I can now close that window.

 

Quote of the day

From The Guardian (here):

The Brexiters have won the referendum but seem to have little idea of what to do after victory.

Do they want access to the EU single market or not? We have heard endless claims that the UK, armed with a bigger economy and greater negotiating clout, can secure a better deal than Switzerland, Norway or Canada. But nobody has agreed what this model might be. A degree of vagueness was inevitable, but there is a world of difference between constructive ambiguity and not having any concrete negotiating principles.

But access to the single market implies some acceptance of free movement of labour.  Which is presumably why no-one on the Leave side is prepared to face up to the difficult choices.

 

Wee problem for Jeremy

The Guardian reports:

More than half of the Labour shadow cabinet is expected to stand down on Sunday in a major coup against Jeremy Corbyn, triggered by the result of the EU referendum and the leader’s decision to sackHilary Benn.

The decision of Heidi Alexander, the shadow health secretary, to resign on Sunday morning is seen as hugely significant, because unlike Benn she was a more “loyal and pragmatic” member of the Corbyn team, a Labour source said:

She is seen as a moderate, practical and pragmatic voice. Hilary always had a problem with Jeremy. Now that Heidi’s gone, most of the shadow cabinet will step down. He can’t just replace those positions because other front bench ministers won’t step up to the roles.

Loyal members of shadow cabinet told the Guardian they were now writing their resignation letters in a coup that will be impossible for Corbyn to contain.

Smile of the day

Wheels within wheels

Musings in The Sunday Times on the next general election:

If our representative system is to retain its integrity, there will surely have to be a general election, perhaps as soon as the autumn. The new Tory new prime minister, presumably Boris Johnson, will need to go to the country, seeking a mandate for withdrawal.

If the UK wants what it voted for last week, he will win it by a landslide, and the constitutional part of our present crisis, at least, will be solved. But then again, he may not win it, especially if Labour elects a more credible leader than Jeremy Corbyn. It is, after all, the overwhelming desire of 90% of Labour MPs, almost all the trade unions, and a majority of Labour voters, that Britain remains within the EU.

Johnson, of course, may not want to risk an election on a platform of withdrawal, not least because it would almost certainly lead to a split in the Tory party.

Interesting.  Boris would presumably seek a mandate involving some kind of association agreement with the EU (either as part of the EEA or otherwise), even if that meant abandoning opposition to free movement of labour.  As to what position the Labour Party might adopt, I haven't a scooby ...

   

Music of the week

Our next prime minister

You may wonder if Boris is up to the job.  But, hey, it's inevitable.  The Guardian reports:

The blunt truth is that nobody else in Conservative politics gets begged for selfies as Johnson did on every walkabout; none has his charisma or his reach. If his name is on a shortlist of two put forward to Tory members, few doubt he would be the runaway winner.

And if MPs conspire to keep him off that list during the preliminary stages of the contest? Well, imagine the consequences for those who have already outraged constituents by voting remain. Imagine the rage, the mass defections to Ukip, were Johnson to be seen to be blocked by yet another elite afraid of ordinary people getting it wrong.

Far from sure that a country led by Boris is one in which I wish to live ...

 

This is going to get complicated

The implications of Brexit are becoming apparent.  The Guardian reports:

The UK has to negotiate two exit agreements: a divorce treaty to wind down British contributions to the EU budget and settle the status of the 1.2 million Britons living in the EU and 3 million EU citizens in the UK; and an agreement to govern future trade and other ties with its European neighbours.

Tusk has estimated that both agreements could take seven years to settle “without any guarantee of success”. Most Brussels insiders think this sounds optimistic.

At the same time. the UK and Scottish governments need to decide what to do about the vast body of domestic legislation giving effect to EU policies in such areas as the environment, consumer protection, financial regulation, agriculture and fisheries, and so on.  This is likely to be the centrepiece of parliamentary business for years to come.  And none of it will be easy.

Relieved!

OK, it's not good but the FTSE100 is sticking at 6025 or thereabouts, down 5% on last night's close.  Far from the 15-20% decline predicted by the doom-mongers.

   

Weird

The FTSE 100 has recovered from a low of close to 5800 to well over 6000.  Sterling has recovered from a low of $1.34 to over $1.37.

Meanwhile, Cameron is going without invoking Article 50 to initiate Brexit negotiations with the EU on the grounds that it would be for a new PM to decide.  And, possibly, that new PM - whoever he or she turns out to be - may conclude that he should not invoke Article 50 until he has secured his position by means of a general election.  Which raises the question of whether a new government would feel obliged to pursue Brexit - depending on the manifesto on which it had been elected.

Old Heraclitus had it right when he said all is flux and nothing remains the same.

   

Only one of the questions ...

From The Guardian (here):

Britain now has to decide what sort of arrangement it wants to have with the EU. Does it want to remain part of the single market even if that means accepting free movement of labour? Or does it want to go for a complete go-it-alone approach, which would give the new government a freer hand on immigration?

Or should we look for an option somewhere between this binary choice.  And we do not know what position the EU will be prepared to accept.

Furthermore, even the Brexiteers seem unsure what they want.


   

"All is flux; nothing stays the same."

The people have spoken.  What happens now is the question.  And none of our politicians has a clue ...


 

Ruth Davidson tells it like it is

Still in the trough

From CityWire's press summary (here):

• The Guardian: TalkTalk paid its chief executive, Dido Harding, an extra £1.8 million last year when the telecoms company suffered a cyber-attack that cost it £60 million and 101,000 customers.

• Daily Mail: Dairy Crest boss Mark Allen has seen his pay go up by almost 50% in the past year, despite the firm reporting a 59% fall in profits.

• Financial Times: SABMiller’s chief executive took a £1.2 million cut in total pay last year but will shortly be in line receive a payout of £55 million — once the London-listed brewing group is taken over by larger rival Anheuser-Busch InBev.

   

Cluck cluck!

Not sure that likening the electorate to a bunch of chickens is a good idea:

They think it's all over ...

Well, maybe it is.  Bloomberg reports:

European stock futures surged, Asian equities rallied and the pound strengthened by the most in three months amid signs Britons are warming toward the European Union ahead of a referendum on Thursday. The yen slumped with Treasuries and gold as haven assets fell out of favor.

FTSE 100 futures soared as much as 3.3 percent, while contracts on the Euro Stoxx 50 jumped more than 3 percent and the MSCI Asia Pacific Index rose by the most in two months. Sterling jumped after a poll showed the campaign for the U.K. to remain in the EU leading by three percentage points. The euro strengthened with high-yielding currencies, while the yen fell for the first time in seven days.

Me, I'm keeping my fingers crossed.

   

Music of the week

 

Sir Philip before the Select Committee

Is it fair to subject a knight of the realm to such a grilling?

Big Phil set the tone by rolling his eyelids at the committee while sitting down and his performance became progressively more unstable the longer the session dragged on. First in line was Conservative Richard Fuller, who he believed was looking at him in a funny way. “Stop staring at me like that,” he demanded. Then he had a pop at another Tory, Jeremy Quin, for playing with his glasses in an annoying way. The committee clerk was ticked off for whispering and Labour’s Karen Buck, aka “That Lady”, was called out for being a mind-reader in a former life. Most bizarrely of all, the reporter from the Sunday Times was all but accused of bringing about the collapse of BHS by investigating the deal.

“I’m not here to blame anyone because that’s not my style,” he insisted. “But there are some other people I could mention who are to blame.” Quite.

“Can we get back to talking about some of the details?” asked co-chair Frank Field. “I’m afraid I don’t understand the question,” said an apparently bemused Big Phil. Field tried again. “Can we get back to talking about the some of the details?”

“That’s not the right question to be asking me,” insisted Big Phil second time round. This became a familiar pattern; almost every question was either too difficult or not the right one. It’s fair to say that Big Phil has concentration issues as well as trust issues.

   

You looking at me, pal ...

Splendid rant in The Guardian:

Ours is a broken economic system, rigged in favour of a tiny wealthy elite whose fortunes more than doubled even as the wages of millions fell. It is an elite riddled with contempt for democracy, and will be damned if anybody wishes publicly to scrutinise its affairs. It is happy to treat the state as a cash cow but reluctant to pay taxes to contribute to its upkeep. It drips with machismo and arrogance, believing that rules exist for the little people. It is more interested in short-term profit than long-term innovation and investment, putting the bank balances of a few ahead of the interests either of workers or society as a whole. It has no interest in accepting responsibility for problems it has caused, and will shamelessly redirect blame anywhere else. And if this system were to take human form, it would surely be Sir Philip Green.

Who would disagree ...

 
 

Hooks, crooks and comic singers

These are not very nice people.  The Guardian reports:

Dominic Chappell, the former owner of BHS, had his “fingers in the till” of the failed retailer and “threatened to kill” its chief executive after he was confronted about taking money out of the business, according to explosive allegations made to MPs.

...

Other allegations from the hearing into the collapse of BHS, which has put 11,000 jobs at risk, included:

• Chappell claiming that retail tycoon Sir Philip Green, who sold the business to him, was to blame for its collapse. 

• that Green went “insane” when he found out that BHS was in talks with Mike Ashley’s Sports Direct about a rescue deal, so he blocked it and forced BHS into administration.

• Chappell’s consortium, Retail Acquisitions, collected at least £17m from BHS despite owning it for just 13 months.

• the consortium put none of its own funds into BHS, instead the £15m it injected into BHS came from a £5m loan from a property company and £10m from Green.

Chappell later claimed allegations by Topp of a death threat were “a nonsense”. After the hearing, he told the Guardian: “What I said to him was ‘when I get back to the office I will fucking sort you out’.” Chappell said he meant he was going to fire Topp but let it go because of the “gravity of what was going on”.

Extraordinary.

Quote of the day

From The New Statesman (here):

It is the season of bed-wetting. For those who follow politics closely – we anxious few – every new poll, whether from the UK or the US, is arriving freighted with apocalyptic significance.

It’s true that the stakes are high. In five months’ time, we could be standing among the smoking ruins of liberal democracy. The Trump coat of arms will be emblazoned on the dome of the Capitol. The British Prime Minister, Boris Johnson, will be making tinny jokes about bulldogs as Vladimir Putin moves tanks to the Finnish border.

On the other hand, the post-war order may be looking remarkably intact, Britain having voted emphatically to Remain, a liberal Atlanticist with unexciting ideas installed in the Oval Office, and the England football team having returned home from France after three matches of unbearable mediocrity.

   

Smile of the day

Here

Music of the week

Basically, it is Romeo and Juliet, compressed into less than three minutes:




 

He doesn't like hotdogs ...

Nor is it my favourite.  The Guardian reports:

To my mind, the hotdog is the bastard cousin of the burger. The meat-to-bread ratio tips too far towards the bun, and they’re made with frankfurters, the most disgusting food known to man. Does anyone enjoy their flaccid smoothness, laced with gristle and offputtingly pink? Eating a frankfurter is like licking Cristiano Ronaldo. It mystifies me that Frankfurt – birthplace of Goethe, financial powerhouse, site of two botanical gardens – would want eternal association with mechanically recovered meat paste. It’s not champagne, is it?

Maybe it's the mustard?