FTSE 100 finishes at record high for 9th day in a row

There has been more terrible economic news today with the FTSE 100 finishing on a record high for the ninth consecutive day of trading.

It follows this morning's terrible news that Snapchat is joining the other tech giants Google, Apple and Softbank in moving its international headquarters to London since Brexit.

The FTSE 100 has now risen for 11 days in a row, nine of which have been at record high levels. The previous record was eight days of record growth following Labour's landslide election in 1997 and another day of growth tomorrow will see the longest period of continuous growth in the FTSE 100's 33 year history.

Jeremy Corbyn backs maximum wage

Jeremy Corbyn today called for a maximum wage forcing the Labour Party to backtrack on his behalf, claiming that he "misspoke" and really meant that executive pay should be capped.

Labour's obsession with penalising the highest tax payers and wealth creators is dangerous and divisive. Punitive taxes to punish high earners drives them away and reduces tax take. Inciting hatred of people who are successful causes revolution.

Snapchat announces its global headquarters are moving to London

The decimation of the UK's economy following the Brexit vote continues unabated with the announcement that Snapchat is moving its international headquarters to the UK.

The American social media giant is building new offices in London and has already started recruiting extra staff ahead of a stock market flotation. The UK subsidiary will manage Snapchat's non-US business around the world and will pay tax in the UK on the non-US portion of its estimated $1bn of advertising revenue.

Snapchat's decision to locate its global headquarters in the UK follows similar decisions by Google, Apple and Japanese technology giant, Softbank's high tech investment fund.

ALDE group reject 5 Star Movement

The Italian 5 Star Movement has been knocked back by the ALDE group, leaving them unattached and out of pocket after voting to leave the EFDD group yesterday.

Grillo says that the party will attempt to form its own group in time for the next EU elections in 2019 but in the meantime, the funding that his party will no longer be getting will go to the groups that promote the very things his movement opposes.

Oops.

Italian 5 Star Movement leave EFDD group to seek membership of federalist ALDE

The Italian 5 Star Movement have voted to leave the Europe of Freedom and Direct Democracy (EFDD) group they co-founded with UKIP and join the pro-EU, anti-democracy Alliance of Liberals and Democrats in Europe (ALDE) group headed up by Guy Verhofstadt.

It's not that surprising that the 5 Star Movement is looking to the future without UKIP in the EU Parliament but it's quite bizarre that a party founded on the core principal of securing a referendum on leaving the €uro and introducing direct democracy would join a grouping that is fundamentally opposed to both of those ideals.

The ALDE group has to vote on whether to accept Beppe Grillo's motley crew of anarchists but despite some strong opposition in the group to the 5 Star Movement's lack of commitment to the EU project the fact that it will bring them more money to UKIP's disadvantage will smooth the way to their joining.

There will be a reduction in funding to the EFDD group to reflect its smaller size going forward but the overall effect will be somewhat muted as Grillo's party received a sizeable chunk of it as the second largest delegation. It does leave the EFDD group in a precarious position, potentially needing only to lose a single MEP to fall short of the country requirements to form an official group. The other groups will be working hard to poach one of the EFDD members to force it to fold as they have done in the past but something usually turns up when this happens, much to their dismay.

The decision hasn't gone down too well in Italy where Grillo has been criticised by politicians on the left and the right and by Italians who feel let down that he has aligned his party with a group of federalist politicians.

Well that's a bit embarrassing Mayor Khan

Fake News: Jamie Oliver blames closure of under-performing restaurants on Brexit

TV chef Jamie Oliver has announced he is closing 4 of his Italian restaurants and blamed Brexit for the closure.

If you smell a rat it's not the two for one Sunday lunch special. He has 42 Italian restaurants in the UK but these 6 restaurants combined represent less than 5% of the turnover for all the UK restaurants. This suggests that they're turning over about half the average for the rest of them. This is against a backdrop of declining turnover across the group since 2013 which Oliver previously blamed on tough competition from high street chains.

Oliver is blaming the weak pound against the €uro - a result of uncertainty caused by the British government's lack of preparations for Brexit rather than Brexit itself - for making the restaurants unprofitable. He says that importing Parmesan and olive oil from Italy is getting too expensive as a result but what's this?

The Telegraph reported back in February last year that drought and disease in the olive oil producing countries of southern Europe have decimated crops and pushed up prices by 20%.

But what about Parmesan? Parmesan is so expensive that it held by some Italian banks as collateral and the Italian Mafia are stealing millions of pounds worth of it every year. It's always been expensive but this wholesale theft - estimated at 4% of total production - is pushing up prices.

So the real story behind the fake news is that 6 of Jamie Oliver's Italian restaurants are under-performing and the price increases he's blaming on Brexit have more to do with the result of organised crime and poor crops in Italy and Spain than the weak pound.

Lib Dem candidate suspended over allegations of inappropriate behaviour towards young member

A Lib Dem parliamentary candidate has been suspended pending an investigation into allegations of inappropriate behaviour towards a teenage member.

Paul Halliday was a PPC for Newport in South Wales, the Lib Dem candidate for Newport East for the Welsh Assembly and was supposed to be contesting this year's local elections. He is a US-trained theologian, a former church minister for the Church of Christ and a minister for his own Church of the Forgiven Family.

Unconfirmed comments from an insider in the Lib Dems' youth wing suggest that the party have been trying to keep a lid on this and other allegations for a while.

Morgan Stanley apologise for Project Fear propaganda

Morgan Stanley has followed the Bank of England's lead and apologised for getting it wrong over Brexit.

The disgraced American bank claimed that a Brexit vote would see itself and other banks pulling out of the UK. One of their employees who heads the British Bankers Association was caught out making false claims about banks having firm plans to leave the UK before the end of last year when the banks in question called him out as a liar. The bank made some of the most pessimistic predictions for Project Fear.

So that's two major players in Project Fear admitting they were wrong. Who's going to be next? The BBC? The Guardian? An MP?

Fake news: Guardian blames Dutch woman's visa mistake on Brexit

The Guardian have blamed a Dutch woman refused a residency permit after failing to provide valid evidence of her right to be in the UK on Brexit.

Monique Hawkins - a Dutch passport holder - has lived in the UK for 24 years, is married to a UK citizen and has two children who are British citizens. She was taken in by the ludicrous scare stories put out by Project Fear (the Guardian included) and fearing for her future right to live in the UK, she applied for a residency permit so that she could then apply for citizenship.

But when she sent the forms off to the Home Office she failed to enclose her original passport as evidence that she was living in the UK legally so her application was rejected and she was told she would have to leave the country. Rather than accept that she had made a mistake and the Home Office had followed the rules absolutely correctly, she went to the Guardian who published yet another scare story warning EU citizens that they faced being deported just like Hawkins.

All she had to do was provide the Home Office with her Dutch passport to show that she has a legal right to live here but instead she provided a solicitor-certified copy which - as the solicitor should have been aware - is not acceptable. In fact, it is the first thing on the list of documents you must provide on the Home Office's website.

The Home Office have now fast-tracked her application and provided her with a residency permit but she's still not happy. She has told the Guardian that she believes it is unlawful for the Home Office to hold on to applicants' passports for up to 6 months whilst their applications are processed because it infringes on their right to freedom of movement so expect another Remoaner legal case soon trying to water down Brexit before it's even started.

The Guardian has been pontificating about fake news since it became fashionable at the end of last year but just like their crusade against tax avoiders they run from their tax dodging Cayman Islands trust-owned offices in London it is a cynical and hypocritical campaign that doesn't extend to themselves. The only link to Brexit in this story is that Hawkins decided to apply for the residence permit because of the Brexit vote. If she had decided to apply because she needed it to work the headline wouldn't be "Job application: Dutch woman who was told to leave UK now allowed to stay". If she had decided to apply because after living and raising a family here for 24 years she felt British the headline wouldn't be "British identity: Dutch woman who was told to leave UK now allowed to stay".

This is a perfect example of the fake news that is causing fear and division in this country and once again it is the Guardian and Project Fear who are behind it.

Bank of England issues mea culpa over Brexit propaganda

The Bank of England has admitted getting Brexit predictions wrong with their chief economist saying that criticism of economists who predicted global economic apocalypse was a "fair cop".

Andy Haldane told a meeting at the Institute for Government that there is a "disconnect" between what economists predicted and what's actually happened. He compared their performance to weatherman Michael Fish famously dismissing predictions of a hurricane in England shortly before one actually happened.

The unexpected mea culpa from one of Project Fear's most high profile allies comes as the FTSE 100 once again finished at a record high, unemployment remained at record lows, house prices are on the rise and the UK was announced as the fastest growing advanced economy in the world this year.

UKIP leader and peers formally request knighthood for Nigel Farage

UKIP leader, Paul Nuttall and UKIP peers Lord Pearson of Rannoch, Lord Willoughby de Broke and Lord Stevens of Ludgate have written to the British government's Honours Committee to formally request that Nigel Farage be given a knighthood.

Honours and Appointments,
The Cabinet Office,
1 Horse Guards

London SW1A ZHQ. 6th January,2017

For kind attention Ms Alison Bennett

Dear Sirs,

We write to recommend a Knighthood for Nigel Farage.

After taking back the UKIP leadership in 2010, he built it into a party which won the last EU Elections, and for which 3.8 million people voted in last year’s General Election. This amounted to 12.6% of the votes cast, or one third of those received by the successful Conservative Party.

More than anyone else he provoked the recent referendum on EU membership, and his contribution to the result was very substantial.

0n 21st August 2016 Lord Pearson wrote to the Prime Minister suggesting that Mr. Farage should have been offered a peerage. This was an error, because he would not actually accept a peerage now, as he wants to see out this EU Parliament, and could not take a seat in the Lords while remaining in that Parliament.

He has since become a figure of international significance, thanks to his support for President-Elect Donald Trump during his campaign for the Republican leadership. He and Mr. Trump enjoy a good personal relationship, which is likely to endure.

As to work outside politics, he gave up what would undoubtedly have been a lucrative City career to build UKIP, which has been a very full time job over the years. He has however given his time to many charity events, when people donate to a charity to have a meal with him or hear him speak. We do not have a record of the amount so raised, but it must be substantial.

We would be happy to answer any questions the Committee might have, and trust they agree that a Knighthood would now be appropriate. We suggest that it would also be in the national interest.

Signed

Malcolm Pearson (UKIP Leader, House of Lords).
Paul Nuttall (UKIP Leader).
David Stevens of Ludgate (UKIP, House of Lords).
David Willoughby de Broke (UKIP, House of Lords)

By-election win for UKIP in Bradford

A great result yesterday for UKIP in the Bingley Town Council by-election in Bradford.

UKIP candidate Sara Hardman beat the Conservatives, Labour, Greens and an independent to take the vacant Crossflats & Micklethwaite seat last night.

Bingley Town Council is a new council created last year with 8 independent, 4 Labour, 3 Conservative and now 1 UKIP councillor.

Candidate	Party	Votes	%
Sara Hardman	UKIP	164	34.60
Steve Williams	Conservatives	132	27.85
Lorna Armitage	Labour	94	19.83
Matt Edwards	Greens	45	9.49
Gary Hudson	Independent	39	8.23

Poll of GPs finds majority support for UKIP policy

A survey of 500 doctors has backed UKIP's policy of putting 1,000 GPs into A&E departments in hospitals to free up A&E staff to deal with real emergencies.

The Royal College of Emergency Medicine and the Press Association commissioned the poll which found that 61% of GPs nd secondary care doctors would like to see GPs in A&E departments.

UKIP's health spokesman, Suzanne Evans, said:

The government needs to put this idea in train now. At the very least it should be prioritised for as soon as we leave the EU, when vital funding for the NHS is released as we are freed from our membership fees.

UK ambassador to the EU resigns

The UK's ambassador to the EU has resigned from his post 11 months early, supposedly to allow his successor time to get in post before Brexit negotiations start.

Sir Ivan Rogers was due to leave his post in November but decided to cut his stint as ambassador to the EU short. The British government released a statement saying it was to allow his successor time to get settled into the job in time for Article 50 being triggered in March but Rogers is a committed Remainer who has been briefing against Brexit and his decision is likely to be more to do with not being able to get his own way than wanting to smooth the way to successful negotiations.

Rogers' resignation is being lamented by Remoaners who desperately wanted to keep their man involved in the Brexit negotiations.

Nick Clegg claims that Rogers has been "hounded out by hostile Brexiteers in government" and called it "a body blow to the government's Brexit plans" and "a spectacular own goal".

George Osborne described him as "perceptive, pragmatic and patriotic" whilst the Labour MP for Copenhagen, Stephen Kinnock, said it "raises serious concerns about the Government’s shambolic approach".

Peter Mandelson said "his resignation is a serious loss for us in Brussels" and "our negotiation as a whole will go nowhere if ministers are going to delude themselves about the immense difficulty and challenges Britain faces in implementing the referendum decision".

The only people who will miss Ivan Rogers are the eurofederalists at home and on the continent who were hoping he would be able to help downgrade our independence to membership lite. He was an obstruction to a clean Brexit and we are better off with him out of the way. Let's just hope that Theresa May doesn't appoint yet another Remainiac to handle our exit negotiations with the EU.