BIG BROTHER BORIS

Fortunately alternatives to big brother Boris are coming through Farage was rather an Arthur Daly type figure, or a silky-tongued used car salesman.Farage, now I think about it, was always kicking the tyres of govt and finding fault. He was pretty much always right, but he didn't have a coherent alternative. There are serious politicians in that they have a vision. Trice  Burnham (Labour). Reform. The Tory party was founded...

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0 STRATEGIC DEFINITION

29 October 2021stage 0 1 Strategic Definition  1.1 PurposeBy the end of this stage 0, you will have identified and made the business case V1 for purchasing a property and established the objectives and risks for rehabing works. Begin writing down your MVV and budget and configuring the Property Selector tool ready to log the start-up data for a list of candidate properties.The Strategic Definition stage 0 is about finding the property...

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THE 2021 AUTUMN BUDGET

Rishi is totally brilliant, but he is not serious; and that's the trouble with this govt, led by Bojo. They don't have any skin in the game as they are fabulously rich themselves already. They just want to stay in office and the best way to do that is to play the Master of Ceremonies at a party.Rishi should have been wearing a party hat and carrying a magic wand. When the people turn to hard work, thrift and moral decency,...

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SECRETS OF GIVING ADVICE

Secrets of giving adviceCan you remember times when you tookgood advice ... and didnt?So, starts, as usual by listening.Asking open questions Asking questions that also allow the respondent to see a benefit for themselvesWaiting for them to ask you for advice.Telling of other people or yourself, not give instructions!Don't care about if it is followed or not.Dont mind if they do something different!!! Compare:CoachingConsulting ...

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NORTHERN IRELAND PROTOCOL

"The way forward is for the UK and EU to cooperate in measures to curb the flow of non compliant goods in either direction across the Irish land border, while leaving each side free to make and follow its own laws and rules within its own territory."That says nothing.The answer is a digital border, where it should be, and the technology is here ready to deploy. The EU is The Single Market, which is the so-called "four freedoms", broken out into a cascade of deeply trivial rules (300 in the case of the NIP), policed by the EU's own court. That's...

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THE CASE FOR THE NATION STATE

From Poland's perspective, the case against an EU federal Europe is the case for the primacy of the nation state.But from the EU point of view, this is an existential threat. It is quite unlike Gernany's objection from its constitutional court.  The EU is built on the Single Market. From these so-called "four freedoms" flow all the rules that so annoy lovers of freedom for their own parliaments. These rules are judged...

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OUR INHERITANCE

23 October 2021https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2021/10/23/parents-occasionally-abrupt-children-may-guilty-mild-neglect/Who says you can't take it with you? The costs of care in the home can reach £2,000 a week, or as much as twice the bill for care in a private care home. So it is quite possible for a parent to burn through the family fortune, leaving the family or beneficiaries with nothing. Nothing?In those final years...

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ACCESS THAILAND

Passport or travel document with a validity not less than 6 monthsVisa application form (filled out)One(1) recent 4x6cm. photograph of the applicantRound-trip air ticket or e-ticket (paid in full)Proof of financial means (20,000 baht per person/40,000 baht per family)Proof of Hotel or private accommodationAfter receiving your Thailand tourist visa and certificate of entry from the Thai Embassy or consulate, the traveler must prepare the following documents before traveling to Thailand:Certificate of Entry (COE)Valid visa in your passportDeclaration...

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HEAT PUMP

v.gd/qryrtWSix things you'll only know if you have a heat pump As Boris Johnson encourages people to replace their gas boilers, new converts tell us what the low-carbon alternative actually involves By Luke Mintz and Yolanthe Fawehinmi 19 October 2021 • 8:37pm Richard Casson admits he was a little nervous when a mechanic arrived at his north London flat in May to replace his traditional gas boiler. He wasn’t coming to install...

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NO MORE PATIENCE FOR THE EU

18 October 2021The EU is a dangerous and wayward power. It has no vision of its future. It has no idea of the balance of power in the world. It treats its enemies, like China and Russia as friends ;  and it treats its friends, the UK and the United States, as enemies. It shows no respect to its peoples, instead it seeks to discipline them (the Greeks, the Poles, the Hungarians.) It serves only German industry and French vanity. It exists as a vortex of power, draining member states of their skilled and competent, becoming ever more self-centred...

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AN INVESTING STRATEGY (work in progress ...)

14 October 2021Looking at the Cyclically Adjusted Price Earnings ratio (CAPE):Ie average on the FTSE 100 and 250Average over last 10 years. It is middle of the road territory on both:FTSE100 at 7,000 is CAPE in 14 to 20 rangeFTSE250 at 23,000 is CAPE in 19 to 28 rangeSo fair value on both - meaning you can expect the average return of 7%, divis reinvested. Now compare with the S&P500:It's up 1.71% today at 4,438.26.The CAPE...

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YAYOI KUSAMA at THE TATE MODERN

15 October 2021 Does this art tell us something about the artist? About ourselves? It was excellent but upon opening there was a strong mouldy stench of horse piss rhat sucked in the face and you'd think the wine was corked. But actually, it just needed to be aired for half an hour ("chambrayed" - how do you say that ?). I could have...

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THE FIGHTING TEMERAIRE

10 October 2021Three images ...

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BRACE FOR INTEREST RATE RISES

10 October 2021Petrol - isnt this where fears of inflation started? There's all you need to take your kids to school, we are told, it's in the country somewhere, just not in the right places. So it's only haulage.Later, we are told it is a multitude of small, short-term issues, of which panic-buying fuel is but the latest, and once we're through we'll be in global-Britain times enjoying our prosperity, power and independence to...

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PRODUCTIVITY IN THE UK ECONOMY

10 October 2021At last week’s Conservative conference, the Prime Minister championed a high-wage, low-immigration economy driven by high productivity, accusing firms of being drunk on cheap labour from abroad. But unless productivity is also there, it will simply lead to higher inflation and require a more stringent response from the BoE.For all the PM’s urging, growth in productivity, which allows the economy to get more bang for...

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"SPILLOVER" - EUROPEAN INTEGRATION AT WORK

8 October 2021The EU would be fine if it stuck to matters of ISO trade standards. The EEC was OK wasn't it?It has well overstepped the mark with its claim to sovereignty over nation states. If it could restrain itself to a trade body such as the IEEE that would be fine.Instead, this creeping federalism, where it bribes trade bodies into accepting its constitution by offering subsidies, offering control through the ECJ, and in return...

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PAULA REGO at THE TATE BRITAIN

7 October 2021 *Paula Rego at Tate Britain I have a ticket to see paintings by a Portuguese artist, Paula Rego, at Tate Britain on Friday. *About Rego is an artist who is fascinated with storytelling. She is especially interested in stories of women battling with their fears and desires. She explores adults’ cruelty and children’s wildness and in her paintings, her stories tell of dangerous adventures. She tries...

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PORTFOLIO STRATEGY IN THE NEW ECONOMY

6 October 2021"Weather the expected downturn and wait for stability to return."Question about strategy in these times of crises and change and in particular, how to deal with inflation.We may be entering a very different economic environment. Just had an email from a reader who is a Royal Bank of Scotland pensioner on a company pension. He was surprised to learn that their annual increase whilst tied to inflation is capped...

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BEST INDEX FUNDS FOR GLOBAL STOCKS: AN ETF STRATEGY

Best Index Funds for Global Stocks, Part IPart I - Strategy(Part II - SetupPart III -Operations)BackgroundStrategyTiltsModern Portfolio TheoryStrategic allocation rules“Core and satellite” portfolio designScreen for compliant ETFsSummaryBackgroundWithout enough knowledge or time to make a sound call, some investors nonetheless try to pin the tail of a stock they hope will outperform, on the donkey of all stocks in the market. The alternative...

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WORK FROM HOME or LIVING AT WORK

And parents were supposed to work from home and teach their kids. Work, with the kids under their feet all day. Teach, with neither the knowledge nor the pedagogy. A giant exercise in crowd management. Scare them into lockdown, then busy them to keep them from rioting. But it worked. Boris got his covid programs through. Just mental illness soared and other diseases flourished.Terrible times, empty memories. Time...

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BENEFITS OF COOPERATIVE SOLUTIONS FOR IRELAND

4 October 2101 Aligning tax regimes North and South on 12.5% is a very pragmatic solution  and would satisfy the US and in any case the South is likely to accept 15% if it remains in the EU.Pragmatic, except that it would further align the N S economies and distance NI from GB, further opening the road to a united Ireland. Could Westminster not grasp the nettle, see the writing on the wall, look over the horizon a little? I...

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