The Easter Truce
Whenever there is any truce, those of a certain age are reminded of the WWI Christmas Eve / Christmas Day ceasefire along the Western Front in 1914. This was commemorated in the “Pipes of Peace” song and video by Paul McCartney. That said, one doubts if there will be any pop songs written about the latest Russian ceasefire in Ukraine.
Those who support President Trump’s negotiating stance with Putin would suggest that the ceasefire is the result of the threat to walk away from peace talks. It looks as though Russia, via its ceasefire is not quite as keen as continuing the war as it has pretended to be. Anecdotal evidence this week of would be conscripts being plucked from Russian gyms suggest that the meatgrinder is looking for another 100,000 victims, so the war cannot be going that well. For what its worth, the best solution to Russia / Ukraine would appear to be to settle along current battle lines, but in return Ukraine joins Nato. The best deals are always ones that both sides hate.
The Supreme Court Ruling On The Legal Definition Of A Woman
While it may be a something of a generalisation, historically, at least from a British perception, the idea of a Supreme Court was not very British. It tended to belong to countries that were either third world (before the term was as derogatory as it is now) or generally places where the law was not quite as fair / British as it is here. But then all of a sudden in the early 2000s the Blair government delivered the idea of there being a Supreme Court in the UK, presumably because we did not have one, and because of course we needed another layer of law / lawyers, as we did not have enough already. That said, the now cancelled historian David Starkey, who has suggested that almost all our ills stem from the Blair era, and pointed out that having a Supreme Court has made Parliament redundant. One could argue though, that this is not strictly true. The Supreme Court has only made Parliament redundant on the big issues. For the day to day trivia it is still required. But Starkey is perhaps even more correct that he knows. The Supreme Court actually makes General Elections redundant. This is partly on the basis that most of the big issues are now never voted on, so the government can periodically draw on its lackeys at the Supreme Court. But it was also the case that Blair set up the Supreme Court so that even when Labour was not in power, this kangaroo court would do its bidding on issues such as Brexit, the welfare state or as was the case this week, the legal definition of a woman.
Why the law should be medalling in such matters is of course a moot point. But there has been a twist. It should have been the case that our friends in the Supreme Court came up with the “lefty” ruling. Instead, it came up with the crackpot / old definition of biological sex. How the hell did that happen? The Supreme Court was set up to guarantee certain types of results, very much in the pro ECHR vein. Let us call them progressive in terms of politics. Indeed, the self-identification concept has been one of the characteristics of the past 10 years which will go down in history. Alas, it would appear that one can no longer claim to be a stripy red caterpillar with 37 legs et al. But if the latest Supreme Court ruling means that it is no longer a “lefty” proxy for government when Labour are not in power, what does it mean? Arguably, something even worse, rule of law has morphed into tyranny of law. It will be interesting to see how much further the “lawocracy” can go as it proves that even when a government has a massive majority, it can be deliberately holed under the water by the Supreme Court.
70 Is The New 50
One would guess that most of the people in their 50s and 60s who are still working are doing so because they have to. In addition, most of those who have not blown the lights out will be wondering why and what the previous 40 years of efforts in the workplace were for? Most of those years were effectively spent in close partnership with HMRC, a kind of Lennon / McCartney deal, where whoever wrote the song, the spoils were equally divided. Enter a report by the IMF singing the praises of the silver economy, and 70 being the new 50. Obviously, the agenda here is that most of the Western world not only has a demographic crisis, but also a welfare crisis. There is simply not enough money around to pay for the sick, the old, the young and the lazy. So the only way forward is to get the few suckers who are actually capable of work, or have the work ethic to keep going. The IMF is helped along of course by the way that due to the burden of taxation, most of us will never have enough money to provide for our old age, or of course hand on to our descendants. Indeed, all the IMF reminds us that for all but the over-achievers, it would have been better for the Boomers / Generation X, to simply “turn on, tune in, and drop out” in the manner suggested by Timothy Leary.
Blue Origin
Rather strangely I happened to be in a place that was showing the Blue Origin launch, and given that I was around at the time of the Challenger disaster in 1986, was concerned that with its “celebrity” payload, everything would go well. Indeed, once Blue Origin passed the key 73 seconds timeframe and did not breakup, I breathed a sigh of relief. I then breathed another sigh of relief when the glamorous crew landed safely. There was and is a high risk to such travel, even if it only lasts 10 minutes, and even if it is either a hen-do, a publicity stunt, or even a total waste of resources.
VE Day
One can hardly believe it, but it is now 80 years since VE Day. I can remember the 1970s, with Dad’s Army, and Fawlty Towers “Don’t mention the war.” Now the table has turned. Most of the younger generation have even less interest in WWII than perhaps the children of the 1970s had of WWI. What is perhaps ironic as May 8 approaches is that the government is allowing pubs to stay open an extra two hours to allow revellers to commemorate VE Day. Presumably, unless they are complete alcoholics no one under 50 will have any interest in such a celebration – unless in the armed forces. For the rest of us, we may be just as mindful of the cost of a pint, and all the government’s efforts to squeeze the last bit of tax from the hospitality industry. We may also be reminded of how what has so far been such an un-British government has all of a sudden had an injection of national pride.
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The information, investment views, and recommendations in this Zaks Traders Cafe interview are provided for general information purposes only. Nothing in this interview should be construed as a promotion or solicitation to buy or sell any financial product relating to any companies under discussion or referred to or to engage in or refrain from doing so or engage in any other transaction. Any opinions or comments are made to the best of the knowledge and belief of the commentator but no responsibility is accepted for actions based on such opinions or comments. The commentators may or may not hold investments in the companies under discussion.
