Barry Cryer strikes again
There are three parrots on a perch in a petshop. A man comes in and asks how much the first one is. '£100,' says the shopkeeper. 'What does it do?' 'It quotes Shakespeare,' says the shopkeeper. 'How much is the next one?' asks the man. '£200.' 'Why so much?' the man asks. 'It can squawk Bach, Beethoven and the whole classical repertoire,' says the shopkeeper. 'What about the last one?' '£500.' 'Bloody Hell. What can it do?' asks the man. 'No idea,' says the shopkeeper, 'but t
2 hours ago1 min read
Niall Ferguson
One of the reasons I wrote so many history books, says Niall Ferguson in The Free Press, was to ensure people “learned the lessons of history” – like the vital lesson that anti-Semitic language can easily explode into genocidal violence. So it’s with profound dread that, today, I see this ancient hatred normalised and trivialised. Influential American conservatives like Tucker Carlson calmly tolerate revisionist “anti-historians” like Darryl Cooper, who deny the Holocaust and
1 day ago2 min read
IC for 23rd July (Focusrite)
Even in the “widely depressed UK market”, audio equipment company Focusrite (TUNE) has a “strong argument to be the most undervalued stock we have seen anywhere”, according to analysts at Investec, the company’s broker. The broker has been pushing this message for a while. In September 2025, as if on repeat, it described Focusrite as “the single most undervalued stock we can see across the market”. But Investec may nevertheless have a point. Based on most valuation metrics,
1 day ago5 min read
The decline of AIM
continues. This is hardly surprising given that these small, some bordering on tiny, companies are drenched with costs which do not produce any profits. I am not sure what the answer is but, clearly, these costs are a mistaken emphasis. Written by Simon Cawkwell, July 2026
2 days ago1 min read
