Mandy Gets The Sack
It seems hard to believe that say even just a couple of week ago one might have struggled to pick out news stories that were of significance or had any long term repercussions that one could extrapolate. However, this week the opposite seems to have been the case. Rather like those rather creepy TikTok postings which suggest that time will speed up as we approach the end of the world, this is what appeared to have happened this week. And of course, most of the news has not been positive. Instead, it has been negative, sometimes in the extreme.
Perhaps the most “normal” negative piece of news centred around the apparently close relationship between Lord Mandelson and Jeffrey Epstein. While the aftermath of “Mandy” being sacked has focused around an apparent lack of due diligence being carried out on his ridiculous return to public life in the form of becoming British Ambassador to the United States, the obvious negatives: being known as “the prince of darkness” (now the only one after the demise of Ozzy Osbourne) and being a couple of decades past his sell-by date, did not require references to his MI6 file. This was an embarrassing example of jobs for the boys, and even worse, an affirmation of the conspiracy theory that 18 years after being PM, Tony Blair is de facto once again the power behind Downing Street. We have had his New Labour policies since 1997, and they continue unabridged. The only difference between now and when Blair resigned is that rather than New Labour, we have the 1970s Labour, bankrupting Britain. The only consolation is that as Dr Arthur Laffer, of “Curve” fame reminded us this week, we seem to be at a tipping point in terms of the government not being able to drain any more cash via tax of the gullible workers of this country. I say “workers” rather than “working people”, as this group overlaps with the increasing number of people who quite sensibly live off The State.
Unite The Kingdom
In the 20th century, before all the high tech we have today, and especially social media, the go to as far as protest was either striking, or marching through the streets. These days going on strike has diminishing returns, as in most cases, doctors or train drivers, they have jobs for life and are doing rather better than the rest of us. It is also the case that many of the big gripes such as going hungry, freezing to death, or being taxed up to the eyeballs, are really covered by unions, especially in the private sector (by definition.) But yesterday, apparently, over 100,000 people did brave the September showers to engage in what will most likely prove to have been a futile exercise. Indeed, the only way it was not futile was that the exercise did manage to bring out 1,600 police into the open air, walking the pavements. The question is though, why were they there. Apparently, the main cause of disruption at the event was bottles being thrown at the police, so it could have been the case that everything would have been totally peaceful if they had not turned up. The other issue here is if 1,600 police can be delivered to a “unite the kingdom” event, why can they not be deployed every day in central London to deter phone snatchers, bike stealers, pick pockets and other miscreants? The answer is of course that the powers that be have no problem with them at all.
It is also the case that as far as whatever “unite the kingdom” is pushing for, the ship sailed years ago. If one is generous it sailed as far soon as Tony Blair came to power in 1997. It was re-affirmed after the British people voted the wrong way in 2016, and has been doubled up on ever since. Indeed, the more protest there is, whether via the streets or social media, the more things will go in the opposite direction to what the leaders of yesterday’s event wish.
The Charlie Kirk Aftermath
If one Googles recent pre-assassination material regarding Charlie Kirk it is interesting that his achievement in building an 11m following on Instagram, and a real White House appreciation would not necessarily have been obvious. To British eyes and ears he was your typical conservative with a small c Midwest type “activist”. Indeed, he did not appear to be someone who would be controversial or serious enough to warrant the kind of horrific reaction that was meted out this week. He became both a warning of how dangerous it can be to enter the arena of politics, and how so many people do not do so in order to avoid the fate meted out to him.
What was and is a standout regarding the affair, over and above young children losing their father, is the trend of left-wing protagonists becoming the violent ones. We saw this at the turn of the year with the assassination of Brian Thompson CEO of UnitedHealthcare. This was something where the reaction, as in the case of Kirk was one where the radicalised shooter was not universally condemned. We have had an element of this during the week as well, with some of those who crossed verbal swords with Kirk adopting something of a “good riddance” stance.
This does seem to mark a major sea change in what we have seen historically. Indeed, we have not seen such rich / far right / elite hating since perhaps the 1960s and 1970s. It is at this stage difficult to distinguish whether we are looking at a return of the perennial haves / have nots divide, or whether there is a new generation of people who are not frustrated by their own lack of achievement, but actually want no one to succeed materially. Worst of all, they seem to not want to tolerate anyone with views other than their own, with something approaching a religious fervour.
Larry Ellison’s $100bn Day
Presumably Mr Ellison in the wake of this week’s US shooting is making sure that his security is up to scratch. He can afford to make sure it is given that in one day, with one announcement, the value of his stake in Oracle (ORCL) rose by an almost unimaginable amount. Perhaps what is most noteworthy here is that it has taken the man the best part of 50 years to become an overnight success, and briefly scale the peak of being the world’s richest man.
What is also a standout is that his vision has remained consistent, and he has done this without the homespun ordinariness of a Warren Buffett, the geeky weirdness of either Bill Gates or Elon Musk, or the something of the night mystery of players in the hedge fund / investment world. The cliché in the stock market as far as blue chip companies and their share prices is that elephants do not gallop. In this case one can say that the share price of Oracle effectively pole vaulted. Even better the jump was a pie in the face to recent talk that the AI bubble has burst. Of course, the main protagonist in the AI bubble burst was MIT. We are left wondering whether this call last month was either academics with no real world experience making a call to get attention, or academics being jealous of the riches being made by people who know far less than them in the real world?
