ISIL

3147 days ago

Feeling rather proud of the Labour Party – it was today the conscience Britain seems to lack

Okay my motives for handing over £3 to join Labour might not have been the purest. I have done the decent thing and voted for Comrade Corbyn but today I actually felt a real pride as Labour – notably Harriet Harman – took on this Government on the issue of immigrants and state sponsored executions.

Please do not think that I admire much of what Harman stands for and has stood for in the past. But today she spoke for the conscience that this nation seems to have forgotten it had, as a smug David Cameron announced that a British drone had executed two British born ISIL jihadists in Syria.

The House of Commons voted two years ago not to intervene militarily in Syria. I am sure that the two men killed were plotting bad acts and the world is no worse place for their demise.  But the State cannot go around without any mandate simply executing its own citizens. Harman

3260 days ago

Weekly Postcard #112 - ISIL, The Med Migrants, UKIP, Labour & the working class edition

In a fairly long postcard from the Greek Hovel I cover a number of issues and start with the migrants in the Med and the ISIL threat - as ever the howling right wing British press has got this wrong. Then to the battle for the soul of the deserving working class: Labour vs UKIP vs The Tories - I have a few ideas for George Osborne.

3430 days ago

So the market is nearly back to all-time highs, everything is okay?

Hmmmm. Lots of low grade Aim stocks are flying, the FTSE 100 is nearly at all-time highs, there is a lot of rubbish being spouted about a Santa Rally coming early and I am stuck in Greece preparing to start the olive harvest tomorrow when I should be punting rubbish on AIM making a killing. Right? Wrong.

Clearly sentiment among investors has changed. Fear has been booted out of the building and greed has waddled back in. But is the world really a different place to where it was six weeks ago when Fear was ruling the roost? For me all the Black Swan potential events floated by market commentators as shares tumbled in October were peripheral issues. Sure Ebola could have caused problems if it broke out in Balham or Brooklyn. But that was not my real gripe with the bulls. I still think that one wild card – an ISIL atrocity in NY or London - could spook investors badly.

But my fundamental concern