445 days ago
There were three historians on this show discussing the holocaust. Dan Stone and Catherine Merridale and a chap called Bernard Wasserstein. Stone has recently published a book on how folks in countries across Europe assisted or took part in the murder of six million Jews. Among those were the parents and family of Mr Wasserstein who were butchered in a village in Western Ukraine.
597 days ago
Bruno seems to think it is becoming reliant on Russian Gas in the 2010s. Can any reader think of any action of the last 100 years which might, perhaps, have been an even bigger mistake?
817 days ago
The BBC and, to a lesser degree, the rest of the mainstream media insist on giving equal prominence to women’s football as to the men’s game. Anyone who points out that not only are standards in the women’s game much much lower than in the men’s game but also that the amont of interest in it is a fraction of that in the men’s game is atttacked as a sexist bigot. Speaking as someone who has already bought tickets to see Northern Ireland’s womens team in this summer’s European championship, is this member of the #GAWA allowed to point out another inconvenient truth? No? Well I shall anyway.
830 days ago
Of course, covid vaccines and boosters are voluntary say our leaders, it is just that we will try to “persuade” and “cajole” you all into having them. First we will start with the grown-ups and then, in Scotland at least, we will be coming for your five year olds. And of course vaccines work don’t they? Sorry did someone mention Israel?
884 days ago
There is intense competition for this award with Professor Neil “pantsdown” Ferguson nominated for several spectacularly bad expert predictions. But the winner goes to the Indian American born head of Public Health at Edinburgh University, Dr Devi Sridhar. The media loves her as she ticks all the diversity boxes and her recommendations invariably focus on more state intervention, economic destruction and erosion of civil liberties. But her forecasting? My cats could do better. What follows, an op. ed. in the wretched Guardian , is a world beater.
967 days ago
I follow the account @AuschwitzMuseum on twitter. Each day, in fact several times a day, it sends out the bare details of someone sent to Auschwitz, usually accompanied by a photo. When they arrived and what was their fate. Say what you like about the Germans, they were damn good at record keeping so in most cases we do know the exact fate. Each day you see the smiling faces of little boys and girls in happier times. Most of those were sent straight to the gas chambers. It is an upsetting twitter account to folow but an unpleasant reminder that one’s daily upsets are really trivial, they mean nothing at all. Today’s tweet is below.
1026 days ago
Though he boasts of his East End heritage, my friend Lucian sometimes says, in his very posh English accent, that he is Scottish as his family has some estates up there funded, one suspects, from the slum housing they once owned in the West Ham heartlands. Lucian is about as Scottish as Rod Stewart or the late Duke of Edinburgh. But tonight he will be filming with a German TV crew in Glasgow.
1030 days ago
1036 days ago
On an almost daily basis, some woke dullard makes the claim that we wicked Brits all benefitted from the slave trade and need to cough up. Invariably, the same sort of folks say we should forgive and forget events of eight years ago in Europe, most Germans were not Nazis they say. The only problem apart from the logistics of reparations – who gets the moolah – is that both statements are not true although in 2021 I am probably not allowed to say that. Here goes anyway… let’s start with the Hun.
1130 days ago
The graph below is pretty clear. Having lockdowns as a way to fight covid does not work. It looks at age adjusted excess deaths per million. You will see that Sweden, no lockdown, does pretty well, far better than the UK with a draconian lockdown. Florida with a very lax lockdown does marginally worse that California with a very tight lockdown, but not that much worse. Lockdown jihadists, mainly from the “tolerant” left, have repeatedly warned that Republican run Florida was heading for Armageddon. Many of those fanatics lived in New York with a far more draconian lockdown. Look how it fared…
1174 days ago
Natch Calista has a degree (biology) and natch she supports the SNP. In her tweet below, she asks a simple question which marks her out as suffering from a terribly severe case of #BrexitDerangementSyndrome. Pray for Calista, she is not well.
1178 days ago
In case you missed it, today is the 76th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz and thus it is Holocaust Memorial Day. At 8 PM tonight we will light a candle at the Welsh Hovel as I hope that you all will wherever you are. It is important that we remind the younger generation of the sheer horrors of what went on, so that man’s inhumanity to man cannot be expressed in such a vile way again. The problem is that people are forgetting or perhaps just don’t know at all.
1490 days ago
I start with good news about my daughter Olaf and her recovery from Covid 19. I end with a report on life at the last house in the last village in Wales and how we are coping and the community is pulling together. Good capitalists will be rewarded. Then I discuss data from the UK and Germany and what it may or may not tell us and then ask a question about keeping folks alive which no-one dares to ask but perhaps we should?
2109 days ago
It is being reported today that Britain’s worst ever Prime Minister, the wretched Theresa May told former Brexit Secretary David Davis that she was unable to amend her proposed Brexit plan because she had already had it cleared by German leader Frau Merkel. And this is before the UK cabinet got to see the plan let alone agree to it.
2132 days ago
Hell's teeth: I do not even support England, but the sneering elitism of the metropolitan elite, as exemplified by the little read Independent newspaper (below), almost makes me want to. For the avoidance of doubt, with no Irish team in Russia, I am hoping that England triumph. I would not go as far as some of my neighbours in flying the cross of St George but I understand their pride in their country and why they do so.
2351 days ago
The scariest graphic you will see this year is on Zero Hedge below and shows just how each country in Europe is ageing. I discuss what it says about the scorched earth policies the EU has imposed on the Southern Europeans, about Germany and about the UK and Eire. This is the old world. It is dying. We in the UK need to focus elsewhere as we approach Brexit. Then it is onto IQE (IQE) and its £95 million placing: buy, sell or hold.
2454 days ago
We are, this week, remembering one of the bloodiest battles of 1917, Passchendaele. Rightly we remember the brave men of both sides who gave their lives for their country. They deserve our respect and should be honoured. But once again many endeavour to rewrite history and pretend that World War One was not utterly pointless.
2588 days ago
Buzzfeed likes publishing fake news about Donald Trump and others. It ignores basic journalistic ethics on fact checking but when its pea brained columnists get to twitter they just make things up. Meet Leticia Miranda, Consumer Affairs Reporter who asks on twitter "Is this offensive?"
2619 days ago
I do not normally pay much attention to what folks on neighbouring tables say when watching the world go by in the Kourounis taverna in Kambos, the village closest to the Greek Hovel where I hope to spend most of the rest of my life. I just tap away at my keyboard or think about olives. But today I exploded as a fat and smug German explained to a couple of timorous Brits why hard Brexit would screw England and thus why we should "obey orders" and fall into line with what Germany, sorry the EU, wanted. I exploded.
2796 days ago
You would have thought that leaders of the failing Evil Empire would have reacted to Brexit and the surge in support for anti EU parties across the continent by at least pretending to listen to the people of Europe. Surely a few cliches about "we must listen" would have been standard spin. But the EU really does not care.
2801 days ago
I was waiting this to happen just at it did four years ago as I reported HERE. The EU has claimed that it sits at the top of the Olympic medals table with Team GB, currently second behind the US, submerged into team Evil Empire.
The EU table shows that the Evil Empire has won 223 medals at this year's Games – including 78 golds – compared to the United States' 84 and China's 51. Team GB - on 50 medals and 19 golds - disappears.
Remember that it is your taxes that funds such a pointless exercise. Do you think that in the streets of Athens they are cheering
2824 days ago
Today's European Islamist atrocity is in France sees two Moslem attackers storm a church in St Etienne shout the usual words about Allah, cut off the head of an 86 year old priest who was performing mass and then take some nuns and worshippers hostage. After four attacks in Germany and now two in France in just 12 days, just about everyone in a now terrified Europe now accepts that there is a problem. Everyone except our State broadcasters and political elite that is.
2913 days ago
Dodgy Dave and team Project Fear could not contain their delight when President Obama came over and warned we Brits that we just MUST vote to stay in the EU. If we don't we can't trade with the US, ISIS will invade tomorrow and next time around when Germany wants to play at its national sport, America will be on the side of the Krauts. It all sounded rather grim and Cameron et al could not contain their delight.
Oddly
2926 days ago
The headline is deliberately offensive for as someone who, pro tem, lives in the EU I am utterly offended by an assault on free speech taking place in Germany right now.
Comedian Jan Böhmermann read out a poem in Germany about Turkey's fascist President Erdogan. You know the guy who closes down papers and TV stations that criticise him and treats journalists as "terrorists" if they are not "on side". Erdogan demanded Germany prosecute the guy and Angela Merkel has now agreed to this.
Turkey wants to join the EU and
2983 days ago
It is now 48 hours without nicotine and lefty luvvie Emma Thompson attracts my ire. there is also comment on the Horse Hill ramping and Leni-maths, the tobacco smugglers at Afriag (AFRI), Fusionex (FXI), Adolf Hitler's business cards, Iofina (IOF), Petroceltic (PCI), Environmental Recycling (ENRT), Edenville (EDL), Tertiary (TYM), Totally (TLY) and Igas (IGAS).
3142 days ago
In my first postcard for a while I feel forced to comment on two hot topics. Secondly it is why the MPs were wrong on not allowing assisted dying in the UK - they will simply add to the suffering of those who are most vulnerable. But first I explain why Germany's policy on migrants is driven purely by selfish need. Not that our own selfish policies are laudable it is just that we find ourselves in a different position.
I commented on the great victory of Comrade Corbyn in my bearcast today HERE
3498 days ago
Frigging hell how many warning signs do investors in AIM listed China stocks need? Today’s shocker comes from Germany where Ultrasonic – a shoe maker – has seen its shares crash by 79% in just one day. But there is a read across to some of our AIM listed frauds.
Ultrasonic’s problem is that its CEO and COO Qingyong Wu and Minghong Wu have disappeared without trace. At the same time all the cash in its PRC and HK bank accounts has disappeared. Sounds bad eh?
3553 days ago
Fund Manager Robin Christie was arrested earlier this year and this week, I am led to believe, the Crown Prosecution Service will decide what charges to press against him. Meanwhile around £25 million invested in funds he created has disappeared. The cash was supplied by IFAs and it is not clear yet whether all ultimate investors know what has happened. The real red faces are round at the FCA which (under its previous guise as the FSA) visited Christie in 2009 and gave him a clean bill of health.
Christie’s funds at Propertybourse based in the Channel Islands invested in German and Tuscan real estate. He also established the Campbell Property Student Accommodation Investment Fund (Birmingham) LP. You would have thought that investing in Birmingham real estate over the past three years was a nil brainer but er…it was last month revealed to be worthless.
It
3565 days ago
My new best friend Foti and I had a temporary falling out today. He asked to be paid for five days work at the hovel – 350 Euro for him and his assistant. Hmmmm. It seems as if his hourly rate has doubled and hang on…that is five days…he has only worked two for me.
It seems as if the old owner Athena told Foti that I had asked him to do three days’ work and that I would pay. This was of course a total lie. I have told my lawyer and lovely Susan Shimmin from Real Mani who explained this all to Foti and it is agreed that everyone, including the local Notary, will harass the bitch Athena and make her pay.
The doubling of the hourly rate ( albeit to only 5 Euro per hour per man) is because Foti has decided that he will be my business partner from January – i.e. for next year’s olive cycle when the yield will double thanks to our TLC, and until the he will charge me. Part of me thinks this is rather sharp and I should find another Albanian and get a better deal.
However,
3567 days ago
I snuck out last night to watch the World Cup. The longer it lasted the more I could put off driving back along the long and windy road in the dark to the Greek Hovel. And even worse, to getting out of the car, walking ten yards through the grass to the Greek Hovel wondering what wildlife was lurking in the grass or inside the hovel. As it happens it was a wildlife free experience. Even Mr Rat seems to have “taken his medicine” and disappeared.
The taverna was packed and it soon became clear that I was the only person not supporting the Argies. As the Argies “scored” the taverna rose as one. As the linesman raised his flag for offside one fist punched the air. It was then that the dirty looks started.
How I wished I spoke Greek and could have explained that I too loathe the krauts but that the Argies are for Falkland’s related reasons even worse. But I spoke no Greek and so the loud cheers and increasingly timid punches from me continued. And then the Belgrano moment…The Argies sunk by a sub. The Taverna was not happy. I was rather hoping that it would go to penalties so postponing my encounter with wildlife diversity back at the hovel but on balance was delighted.
Watching Germans celebrate and Angela Merkel smile and clap with joy caused me no great pleasure but
3568 days ago
I have no internet at The Greek Hovel. And I am damned if I will drive back there in the dark from the local taverna along the long and winding road. And so I must miss the Germany vs Argentina World Cup Final. Shucks. Do I care who wins?
No. I’d like both teams to lose. The Argies are a conceited and dirty side and have not worked out that the Falklands are not called the Malvinas. As for the Krauts? They are also arrogant. There is the little matter of two contests at their National Sport during the last Century and a German win will undoubtedly see the Evil Empire claiming that “The World Cup has been won by the EU”. So I’d like both sides to lose.
Accepting that this cannot happen, I conclude that the Argies really are dirty cheats. And our contest with them at the National Sport of Germany was more recent than our bouts with the Hun. And so thinking of the Falklands if I care at all I rather hope that the Krauts scrape a win.
3785 days ago
High profile defector to UKIP Victoria Ayling is now exposed on camera saying about immigrants that she wants to “send them all back.” UKIP Fuhrer, Nigel Farage says that this is “slightly odd”. No, Nigel it is despicable. What do you not understand about that?
3918 days ago
And so to this week's caption contest There are no prizes here and entries may not be approved if they threaten legal issues but anything in bad taste will be published at once. And so I ask you to submit in the comments section below by Friday at 9 AM your captions for this picture of a well known businessman and one of his former employees: Mr Rupert Murdoch and Ms Rebekka Brooks.
For what it is worth my entry is:
3974 days ago
In four weeks’ time the happy band of brothers that is the EU will welcome a new member – its 28th. Welcome aboard Croatia you do not know all the fun you have been missing.
The unemployment rate in Croatia is 20.9% (against a Eurozone average of 12.2%) while youth unemployment is already 51.8%. So in terms of making this a greater “common market” what will be the added trade benefits to Britain of welcoming this economic basket case on board? Er…exactly.
But of course it means that Croats can now pack their bags and seek employment or claim benefits elsewhere in Europe. The first flight (one way) out of Zadar, Croatia to London Stansted after July 1st is on July 3rd and costs 47.99 Euro with Ryanair. You kind of sense that it will be sold out soon.
As an employer I welcome more cheap labour. Persuading a native Brit to come off welfare and earn £16,000 as a waitress is pretty much impossible and so the EU provides an answer. I gather that there are some good looking birds in Croatia and so I am not grumbling.
But I am not sure that on balance, the addition of another country which will be a net taker from EU funds really makes the case for the UK staying in the Evil Empire any more compelling.
As for Croatia presumably with its economy already fucked it can do a few Greek style fiddles and compound its misery by applying to join the Euro. At which point youth unemployment of 51.8% will seem like the “good old days.” Although perhaps not quite as good as the the glory days the last time it linked up in an Axis lead by Germany.
3979 days ago
I have visited Yad Vashem and other Jewish museums in various places. But Berlin clearly has some special significance as it was at the heart of the Nazi Empire and the machinery of the holocaust. I guess that now the next step is to pluck up courage to go to Auschwitz.
Not to trivialise Evil Empire's I bring you below a cartoon by a Jewish artist who produced some amazing work before his death in 1944.
I found the Museum very moving and thought provoking. If I wrote up my thoughts the article would be very long and so instead I produce a stream of consciousness video.
3981 days ago
I am sitting in a café in Berlin killing a couple of hours while my partner heads off to meet a friend who is such a screaming deluded lefty that it was felt that I would not be able to contain myself. Happily preparing to pen a quick piece on Norseman Gold a bunch of Krauts walk in and bark away in German. I mutter something about being English.
Can you move to smaller table so that we can occupy yours? Hmmm. I guess that the need for Lebensraum did not end in 1945.
Sure. Whatever. I am now sitting in a dark corner taking grim satisfaction from being able to make cheap jokes at their expense as they sprawl all over the benches by the window.
3982 days ago
I write this from on-board an Easyjet flight to Berlin where I am going to the wedding of a friend of my partner. He is marrying a Kraut and I have been given a stern lesson about words and phrases I am not allowed to use. Kraut is one of them.
I have however packed my “It’s Time to Leave T-shirt” although my “I stand with Israel T-shirt” was left behind. Perhaps I should have knocked up a quick “I stand with Greece” number just for this trip. I have no football shirts. I do not plan to discuss our national sport with the Hun and I am banned from discussing theirs.
It seems as if most of my fellow passengers are on one of two stag parties and one hen party- all from Wales. I guess this is what Easyjet was created for. I am not sure that those on this trip will be taking in many of the sights of Berlin and it would have been far cheaper for 1 stag party and the hen party just to stay at Bristol airport, get blind drunk and shag each other. But they are all underway now, happily ordering a stream of expensive drinks from the staff.
The two grooms to be are both dressed up. One very large and gormless looking fellow is dressed as a fairy. The other smaller, but equally gormless, fellow is wearing a little gold number. Whatever floats their boat. I am sure they will have a great time. I just rather hope that they do so a very good distance from where we are staying.
4038 days ago
There is so much I could have covered in this week’s caption contest but somehow the spark of interest is missing. I cannot think of anything at all funny to say and so I was tempted not to run a contest at all but with no prize on offer I offer up the following picture taken, I gather in Wales. In honour of PR prude Kay Larsen of College Group PR who thinks that she has the right to dictate exactly where her clients are covered and how, I offer up this picture.
For what it is worth my entry is:
Sheep One: I just want to talk about pornography
The ram in the middle: I just want to shag some sheep
Sheep Two:
4046 days ago
What was it that Chris Huhne, Tony Blair, Lord Howe, Paddy Pantsdown etc. said about how disastrous it would be if Britain did not join the Euro? No doubt the guilty men will apologise one day to those they labelled xenophobes for disagreeing with them. Perhaps they might care to explain to the good folk of Cyprus how they have benefitted from Euro membership?
In light of this the prize for the wittiest entry to this week’s caption contest is 1 Cypriot Euro or 2 Cupid shares – whichever is worth less. Actually I shall offer a real prize: an It’s Time to Leave T-shirt.
As ever you can buy your own it’s time to leave T-shirt as well as a range of other politically incorrect T-shirts, mugs, sweat-shorts and hoodies HERE
And brownie points to anyone who turns up at the UKInvestor Show on April 13th wearing such apparel.
So post your captions to the picture below in the comments section. The deadline for entries is next Friday morning
My entry is: “There is a surprisingly large turnout at the annual meeting of the Cyprus friends of Germany Society”
Last week I asked for captions to a picture of Ed Milliband. The standard of entries was so depressingly low (my own included) that there is no prize. And I’d rather not have another picture of this hopeless figure on this site so let’s just draw a line under the episode.
Now that he is friended me on Facebook, can Jon Pickles please return with a vengeance for this week’s contest.
4106 days ago
One Term Dave says:
I dream of German-themed spanking parties. I have a fantasy where I grovel at Angela Merkel’s feet, and she shouts “Schweinhund” and makes me give her £19.2 billion of your money, every year, and then she gives me sheets and sheets of new laws designed to destroy our economy whilst benefiting hers.
In fact, it’s not a fantasy..
4185 days ago
You may have read today about the unhappy tale of the German convert to radical Islam who has now quit the Taliban. The kraut is now on trial in Germany and is identified as Thomas U. The tale is a morality tale but about the horrid Taliban but about the decadence of the liberal West.
Thomas U managed to raise £4000 through fraud. He took this and his newly converted wife off to Afghanistan to join the Tailban and free the area of “infidel occupiers.” On arrival the Tailban stole his cash. He then saw the mangled bodies of three bodies of three dead Germans who had been killed in action as “freedom fighters”. He said this made him sick.
4201 days ago
And so President Obama apparently won the second Presidential debate. The polls look close. My money is still on Obama winning and Mitt Romney getting to spend more time with his $77,000 a year taxpayer subsidised horse. But all will become clear on November 6th.
The great issue should be the US economy. It is the economy stupid. Read my lips. As far as I can see President Obama wishes to bankrupt America within four years while Mitt’s policies will leave him needing at least two terms to achieve the same goal. Slow death or quick death – it’s America’s call.
And so, part one of this week’s caption contest is in honour of hopeychange himself
4205 days ago
I am calling the result of the Friday caption contest early. Jon Pickles, finance director of ILX Group is officially a genius and his entry is unbeatable. A T-shirt will be sent to Mr P in due course for his winning entry and for showing that accountants can have a sense of humour.
The picture is of Reichsfuhrer Merkel meeting Greek PM Samaras in Athens on Friday, the day the Evil Empire was awarded the Nobel Price for Peace. Stop laughing at the back. It really did win.
4208 days ago
As you may have gathered German leader Angela Merkel has been visiting Greece this week where she has met up with Greek PM Samaras to discuss how the EU austerity programme is bringing health, wealth and happiness to his country. Naturally the people of Athens have been delighted by their complete loss of sovereignty and greeted Merkel with undiminished love and admiration. Or I think that is what the press release from the Evil Empire’s press office will have said.
Anyhow in honour of this happy occasion in the brotherhood of man that is the
European Union I bring you a photo of Merkel and Samaras as they prepare to address adoring crowds in Athens.
4274 days ago
Throughout my travels in Greece during the past six weeks one thing has become apparent: the Greeks are completely deluded about their fate. They just simply do not get it. There is a large swathe of opinion that wishes to keep the Euro and believes that this can be done merely by slashing public sector jobs and Government waste. They do not think that austerity and the need to be competitive applies to them. Why they are so attached to the Euro which has brought them such misery baffles me. I think some associate it with the vast grants Greece used to get and think those days will come again (dream on).
Others see being part of the Euro club as a matter of national pride. So let me get this straight, Germany is telling your politicians how to run your country stripping you of independence, will soon send over “observers” to oversee the state, you have been bankrupted and humiliated – in all thoroughly buggered by Berlin. When this happened 1943-45 it was not a source of pride, what is different now?
4317 days ago
At the start of the game I was supporting England. After 120 minutes I felt that it would have been a monstrous injustice had Italy not gone through. Over 90 minutes and 120 minutes they were by far the better side and deserved to win. They showed flair and were a pleasure to watch. Italian playmaker Andre Pirto was just a delight – his ultra-cool penalty kick completed a game which he dominated with a cool brilliance which was just inspiring. The commentators reaction was that England are only “average” – hmmm.
Italy are not a great side, not even a great Italian side. But they are very good. As are the other 3 semi-finalists. My heart wants Italy to defeat Germany and then Spain in the final. My head expects a Spain v Germany final and in that game I think Spain should win and I pray it does win as a) they are the best side in the tournament and b) they are not Germany.
