Month: October 2015

Bad News From Wolfsburg

You may remember Gifford, my hedge fund manager friend, who flits between the East and West coasts while managing a long/short equity fund domiciled in the Cayman Islands. He wrote to me and the other investors in his fund this week and I’d like to share what he had to say.

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Categorised as Business

Bungalow Bliss

Last year Jack Fitzsimons died. His legacy as a principled Irish politician should never be forgotten but he will be remembered more by me for writing Bungalow Bliss.

Leather Armchairs

Leather Armchairs is a book by Charles Graves, the poet Robert’s brother, published in 1963. It has a foreword by P G Wodehouse, which is a good start, and it describes sixty of the London Clubs then extant.

Two Nights in Kunduz

This is what I wrote in 2008 about two nights I spent in Kunduz, now perhaps captured by the Taliban. What I didn’t write then, was that on the first evening, walking through the streets, I felt for the only time on that trip to Afghanistan very much in danger and that, returning to our… Continue reading Two Nights in Kunduz

My Conference Speech

How long will David Cameron speak for this morning as the conquering hero at the Conservative party conference in Manchester? 

Buy The Bank

Gordon robbed us shareholders in Lloyds Bank when he persuaded Lloyds TSB (as it then was called) to buy HBOS in 2008. That led to some £20 billion of government (taxpayers) money being injected into the   enlarged bank to keep it solvent. Now George is giving us a chance to get some of our… Continue reading Buy The Bank

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Categorised as Business

Cheap Lane

Some of the best things in life are free, others cost much less than the pleasure they provide. The reverse is also true. Does an expensive car, house or holiday really give value for money?

Downhill

Downhill is a British film released last year, directed by James Rouse. It was his first movie (he usually directs film and TV advertisements) and describes four school friends walking the coast to coast path across England from St. Bees on the Irish Sea to Robin Hood’s Bay – 192 miles. It’s good but not… Continue reading Downhill

In Or Out?

“In or out, sir?” is what a barman says mixing a Pink Gin. It refers to the Angostura Bitters. But it already has a more important meaning in the UK as the promised In/Out referendum looms. What’s the best way for Conservative europhiles to scupper the Out campaign? You’re spot on; appoint an 83 year… Continue reading In Or Out?

66 Mark Lane

My life in the City began on the first Monday in August 1976 and looks as if it ended at 5.00 pm on the first Monday in August this year, 39 years later.