1018 days ago
We can talk of awful fouls and the penalty curse but should not deny that Italy played better football and deserved to win the European Championship. No doubt many of us are still in denial on that matter today but the statistics do not lie. I say this as someone who came into the tournament not supporting England for a range of reasons but who was won over by the charm of the young squad and of the manager and by the way it seemed to unite and give joy to the whole country. All of those involved in England did their country proud. I shall now go back to supporting Northern Ireland, but in this tournament the match against the Hun was the key turning point for me.
1170 days ago
The Government’s latest covid travel restrictions are non-sensical,smash the young and the poor disproportionately and the penalties for flouting them are offensive. Matt Hancock, you are a disgrace.
1737 days ago
The man who exposed Globo (GBO) and Folli Follie as outright frauds is back with a devestating new dossier on 1 billion Euro capitalised Bio-On which is listed on Italy’s AIM market. This looks like a slam dunk zero to me. The dossier from Gabriel and Quintessential Asset Management is below.. as ever we are first with the news….
2159 days ago
I start with the myth which Julian Richer is trying to perpetuate that you can somehow stop large scale, 100% legal, tax avoidance by folks like Sir Phil Green or indeed the legal stuff we all engage in by using dividends in private companies, etc. Then I ask if Italy might break the Euro or even the EU who are behaving - again - with shocking contempt for the little people. It should. Will it? Finally...98% of bearcast listeners have NOT yet sponsored myself and Brokerman Dan for our 30 mile Woodlarks walk. If you enjoy bearcast I am sure you can spare a tenner so donate HERE - to those who have donated I say thank you.
2429 days ago
As an alternative to the fake news, non stop diet of Trump and Brexit bashing that is the BBC, our hotel offers up DW News, a German channel presented in English which offers up a non stop diet of Trump bashing and explanations of why the EU is the greatest thing since sliced bread. Today's winner was a story about a farm in Southern Italy run by a yuppie ancient history graduate which farms donkeys.
2700 days ago
I am utterly wiped out after day one of what looks like being a cracking harvest. A full photo report is HERE. In the podcast I discuss votes tomorrow in Austria and Italy and what they mean and why we bears are feeling good about the lack of a Santa Rally. Trump was Santa this year and that rally is over. I explain why I disagree with Malcolm Stacey's article today. I then look at a number of AIM stocks set to slide and why, as I refer to Steve's piece earlier. In focus: Avanti Communications (AVN), Advanced Oncotherapy (AVO), Telit (TCM), Boohoo (BOO), Tungsten (TUNG), Fastjet (FJET), Cloudtag (CTAG), African Potash (AFPO) and I have a few words about Worthington (WRN)
2786 days ago
There are days when you start to think that in ranting about a decadent and degenerate West the chaps at ISIS have not got it completely wrong. And thus we today discover that masturbating in public, in fact in front of young women, is no longer an illegal act in Italy thanks to a Supreme Court Ruling.
2801 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.
3693 days ago
I told God that I did not mind West Ham losing as long as Ireland won in Paris yesterday and so won the Six Nations Championship. And God played ball. West Ham were stuffed at Stoke and Ireland scraped home. My stomach was in knots for the whole game, it was agony but in the end Brian O’Driscoll went out as he deserved with a win.
My thoughts as the match dragged on were of a game in Rome a few years ago. Ireland thumped Italy but knowing that the Championship would be decided on points tried for that extra score and Italy got a freak try. We then sat down to watch France vs. Scotland and with last gasp points France did enough to deprive Ireland of the Championship. It was agony. No doubt as the England team and supporters watched events unfold yesterday they felt the same agony.
3700 days ago
My new Welsh friend Paul emails me before the Ireland match to say that he is rooting for Italy as part of some diabolical calculation allowing his beloved sheep-shaggers to win the Six nations Championship. Hmmmmm.
Despite a catalogue of errors Ireland utterly routed Italy yesterday. It was an emotional Dublin send off for Brian O’Driscoll, the greatest ever Ireland player. My father and I watched and as BOD was interviewed post match, the emotion poured over in Shipston-on-Stour as I am sure it did in every outpost of the diaspora. The way the points stack up, barring some utter freak, if Ireland can manage to defeat the hit or miss Froggies in Paris, the Championship is ours. Surely God wishes to reward his loyal servant BOD thus?
And now to Wales vs. England. For me there are no diabolical calculations. Indeed shame on you Paul for thinking that way. Paul says that he is so excited about today’s game that he cannot sleep. I would suggest that he tries counting sheep. But I guess that might make him even more excited. I digress.
I can put aside the fact that the mother of my daughter (Big Nose) will be sitting at home munching nuts nervously as she roots for Wales. I am beyond that for I also know that my daughter will be dressed in a Welsh jersey or National dress, belting out the National Anthem, passionately roaring on the men in red.
This is a simple matter. The Old Enemy are playing. Thus naturally my mind is wired to support the other side. I do not feel this way about soccer – in Ireland’s absence I will cheer for England in the World Cup for as long as its campaign lasts which will not be very long. I gather that England are 33-1 to win the World Cup. For those who do not understand betting that means that if you wager £10 on England you will lose £10.
No, this is just a rugby thing. I think of the swagger
4042 days ago
Cyprus is a small island and it was easy to ignore or play down events at first but the situation is now out of control. We live in a new world order, the post Cyprus order and you need to wake up to the reality of that fast.
The Euro was never an economic project. It was a political one. And as such the “believers” brushed aside any economic objections and sought to ensure that everyone joined the club. Some countries were not fit to join (Portugal, Eire Spain, Italy, France, Greece, and Cyprus) but that mattered little. The leaders of those countries and the ECB agreed to lie in order to gain entry.
This was a concerted lie by the political elites across Europe – a class distinct from the folks they nominally represent. And so today as the Euro collapses the political elites of Poland, Rumania and elsewhere are still applying to sign up. Hey, I know the Titanic is going down but is there any chance of me jumping off a floating currency lifeboat and getting on board your fine vessel? Madness.
And one reason that it is madness is that we have no idea how Cyprus will play out. The initial plans for state bank robbery have been shelved and so if you have less than 100,000 Euros in your bank account that money is, pro tem, safe. But it is impossible to withdraw it in more than small tranches. If you have more you will lose some of it. Perhaps 40% or 60% or potentially all of it. The idea that bondholders should lose everything if a bank fails seems fair to me. The idea that depositors should lose cash is just obscene.
What will be the effects?
For one you will see a growing scandal of how the political elite looked after its own and its friends.
4057 days ago
Cyprus has become the fifth Eurozone nation to get a bailout but this one is different. At the insistence of the Germans one condition of the bailout is that private citizen’s pay and they will do so via a tax of up to 10% levied on all bank deposits in the Mediterranean island. This is pure socialism in action – the idea that the legitimate savings made by an individual as a result of fully taxed income can just be seized by the State. It is a horrific precedent.
For having established that the State can effectively seize whatever it wants whenever it wants you rather accept that you have no private property or savings. You can work your socks off, pay taxes to support those who do not work, save prudently so that you will not be a burden on the State or your family in the future and then one day the State just seizes your money. Heck why stop at 10% of bank deposits? Why not seize land, houses, etc.? The precedent is now there and this is an EU precedent.
David Cameron wishes to remain part of an organisation which thinks that State sponsored theft of private wealth is acceptable. I do not and nor, I suspect, do most British people. If the Conservative party and for that matter the Lib Dems and Labour support State sponsored theft that is fine they should be honest about it and we can all vote UKIP. But will the established parties stand up to the political elite in the Evil Empire and say
4058 days ago
My formative rugby years were in the 1970s watching on a black and white TV screen with my Dad. Why do we support the Men in Green is asked my Dad: they always lose? Well my father and I still support the men in green. He taught me to do so as his mother had taught him and we have had a great couple of decades. But it is over. The good times have officially ended and we return to what I consider normality. That is to say a battle to avoid the wooden spoon.
This season has been terrible. For the first 45 minutes against Wales we looked like world beaters. Since then it has been just dreadful. Frankly the Irish ladies team (who, I think, won their grand slam) have played with more passion and discipline and – at times – skill.
It is the end of an era. Not once have I had a chance to call Aunt Valerie (an Ulster woman) to share joy in a way that she cannot with her husband Uncle Chris, as Ireland have triumphed. Calls to my father have been sad as we wonder if those glory years – a twenty year period when Ireland were not good but great as opposed to the normal fare of brave also rans – are just over.
I am not even sure that I would describe Ireland as brave these days. Back in the 70s we would pray for the rain to poor down on Landsdowne Road. Keep it tight in the forwards and fight with passion, pray and hope. The late Moss Keane, Fergus Slattery, those were the days. In defeat those Ireland teams were brave.
And now?
4062 days ago
A Sicilian has posted in Italian on the Real Man Pizza Facebook page asking for a job. That is because he thinks that we are a Sicilian restaurant. That is in fact not as daft as it sounds – we do serve one Sicilian wine but the confusion comes from the Isle of Man flag which flies outside out restaurant and is on our web-page.
Ilse of Man Sicily
You see the similarity – the presence of the triskelion – the three legs. The Sicilian flag comes from 1282, the Isle of Man flag is from 1931 although it is based on the Manx coat of arms which is from the 13th century. Some folks suggest that the Manx flag is derived from that of Sicily, others that it came via Olaf Cuaran, a 10th century Norse Gaelic warlord who briefly ruled the Isle of Man.
It could just be a coincidence – the triskelion is an ancient symbol going back as far as Mycenae.
So our Sicilian friend can easily be forgiven his mistake.
4085 days ago
Caitt Reilly is the job snob geology graduate who said that being forced to work at Poundland rather than just sit on the dole until she found a job that suited her was illegal. Needless to say some crackpot judge found in her favour. Incidentally that work experience did her some good as she now has a job at Morrison’s with one suspecting that the supermarket thought the stint at Poundland was a more impressive part of her CV than a degree in geology.
Caitt seems like a sour faced deluded lefty with a point to prove but she is utterly typical of British youth today in believing that she can sit on her fat arse collecting benefits paid for with taxes paid by those of us who do work (often in jobs we don’t relish) until something she likes comes along. That process can take years. And the more we churn graduates out with 2:1 degrees from useless Universities in pointless subjects the more you will get young people saying that a menial job is “beneath them.” The only way to address this is by root and branch reform of the welfare system.
I contrast this with the attitude of young Europeans mainly from Spain and Italy who are flocking to London. Back home there are simply no jobs – youth unemployment is 50% plus and rising thanks to the joys of being in the Euro. And so the more enterprising ones
4106 days ago
It was late Saturday morning and two fresh faced young men were standing outside the door of Real Man Pizza Company looking a bit confused. I like to be helpful (and perhaps they were looking for an early lunch) and so I stuck my head out of the door and asked if I could help? Does anyone inside speak Italian came the reply. Of course, meet the senior waiter Aldo. Poor Aldo.
I should have guessed by the intense but virtuous expressions on their faces. Within a minute or so they were in full swing explaining to Also that Jesus loved him and offering him some reading. Aldo is a cheery fellow and engaged them in conversation and they left seeming happy. He explained to me later that they had eaten with us earlier in the week and that he was trying to keep their trade. He has the patience of a saint that man.
Clerkenwell, where Real man is based, was an Italian district 80 years ago. We still have a Church and a few Italian restaurants. But…overall I would have thought that Italian speaking Jehovah’s witnesses seeking to spread the good word will fund relatively think pickings in EC1. I would suggest they would have a far better hit rate somewhere like….er Italy.
4293 days ago
This is a farce. Spain is bust. So too is Italy. France will be next. We have already forgotten about Greece and Cyprus. They are buster than bust. Yet the leaders of the Evil Empire and the IMF just arse about pretending it is all under control. “Don’t panic” shouts Corporal Jones. Das is Gut says Frau Merkel as she announces that she is off on holiday for a month. The Spanish are relaxed. Just ban short selling for 3 months and if we remove the evil speculators everything will come up smelling of roses. Well at least not like the streets of 10 Italian Cities where the trash is 10 foot high and the schools will not re-open in September because there is no money. But that in no way implies that Italy itself is bust, says whichever bloke is leading Italia this week. Yeah right. Of course not. So there you have it. It is all about dealing with evil speculators and we can rest easily. Bollocks.
4300 days ago
This year all eyes have been on Europe. In a recent poll even most Guardian readers now accept that the EU is not good for Britain and that joining the Euro would be a disaster. “I say unto you, that likewise joy shall be in heaven over one sinner that repenteth, more than over ninety and nine just persons, which need no repentance.” I cannot put it better than the gospel of Luke (King James version natch). Even the most deluded of Euro loon (Charles Kennedy, after lunchtime?) must now accept that Greece, Spain and Portugal are bust and that Italy and France are heading that way. Not surprisingly the Euro is tanking, the dollar looks strong and the world seems to think that the Old World has a monopoly on insurmountable problems. It does not. The USA is in the same boat as Europe and that boat is called the Titanic.
Now I accept that Europe has its own particular issues. A fixed currency for uncompetitive economies is a killer (for them). A genetic aversion to hard work, addiction to welfare-ism and the need for regular fixes of industrial action ( i.e. inaction) across swathes of the Southern part of the continent post challenges that, in the current set-up, are insurmountable.
But the US also faces challenges. Some of those it has in common with Europe. I no more believe the stated NAV of most of the big American banks than I do that of Barclays.
4315 days ago
I suggested here in an earlier piece that Spain were a boring side. To be fair they had shown real Arsenal-ish tendencies in earlier Euro 2012 games. But last night they were magnificent. Even before Italy gave up with 20 minutes to go Spain were just masterful. After 20 minutes I had given up on an Italian victory as Spain mentally destroyed their opponents in that opening spell. That they were only 1 nil up at that point was irrelevant – the game was won.
4317 days ago
I shall find somewhere to watch the game tomorrow. My head tells me that Spain are the reigning World and Euro champions and will win. My heart fervently wants an Italian victory – it would be a far better result for lifting the human spirit. We shall see.
Spain enjoyed one goal-fest in the group stages. But that was against a very poor Irish side playing without passion, intelligence or – frankly – much skill. Crushing a Hackney-marsh side like that Ireland team told us nothing. For more or less the rest of the tournament Spain have been, for want of a better word, plain boring. Reminiscent of Arsenal sides of old, the Spanish seem to regard a 1 nil victory as a reckless experiment in attacking football.
4322 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.
