Breakfast

Sipping coffee, warm croissants with ham+cheese and the morning papers which are in praise of a successful Party conference about to wind down later today with David Cameron's address at 2PM.

Last night ended actually this morning around 1:30, with nice chats with familiar faces after a splendid 10PM evening party celebrating the cultural heritage of Azerbaijan during the ConservativeHome Election Countdown Party:

ConservativeHome, supported by the European Azerbaijan Society, was delighted to support the Conservative Spring Forum from 10PM until midnight in the Ambassador Suite.

In attendance was Kenneth Clarke and several other members of the Conservative front bench. Live Azerbaijani jazz music, wine flowing in abundance and delicious canapés were also served.
[The European Azerbaijan Society (TEAS) is a non-governmental organisation dedicated to promoting Azerbaijan in economic, cultural and political terms.]

I'm off to return to London shortly for the opening of a vernissage at a small but elitist museum and gallery under the patronage of my employer - it seems whenever culture is involved the Bank sends Elgar as its representative. No objections from this side... LOL

Current Music: ELGAR - Enigma Variations

CP Spring Forum

Tory Spring Forum in Brighton

I arrived shortly after 11 this morning and checked into the Hilton Metropole where most fringe meetings are taking place.
First on the list was the noon meeting mainly sponsored by the Bow Group:
12:30 CAER and The Bow Group

The Hilton Brighton Metropole: Room 3

Hung, drawn and quartered

Will a hung Parliament spell triumph or disaster for Cameron’s Conservatives?

Speakers: Janice Small, PPC and Director Conservative Action for Electoral Reform (Chair);
George Parker, Political Editor – Financial Times; Annesley Abercorn, Chairman – The Bow Group;
Dr Tim Bale – Sussex University and Author of “From Thatcher to Cameron”;
Keith Best, Former MP and Chairman of CAER

17:30 Tory Reform Group and POWER2010

The Hilton Brighton Metropole, Meeting Room 3

The British Constitution - Time For Change

Rt Hon Sir George Young MP, Shadow Leader of The House;
David Mundell MP, Shadow Secretary for Scotland;
Rt Hon The Lord Trimble, former First Minister of Northern Ireland;
Tim Crockford, Chairman - Tory Reform Group (Chair);
Representative from POWER2010

8PM Dinner
• The Hilton Metropole, Kings Road, Brighton
• The Host for the evening, The Party Chairman, Eric Pickles MP
• Guest Speaker, The Rt Hon Kenneth Clarke QC MP

Late Evening venues:

Lights On Brighton

Busy week, and no end in sight: rampant speculation against the euro (and anything it stands for), and yesterday's presentation at 30 Millbank. Briefing the staff of Osborne, Clarke and Philip Hammond - a total of nearly 60 people  - during a 20-minute speech and 1-hour roundtable discussion was fun, intense and purposeful. The topic "Banks under new Basel-III regulations in the post-Lehman Brothers collapse era" was a wake-up call to some not to get carried away with hostile legislation that could deal a fatal blow to commercial banking as we know it. The spooky years of the Labourites have to come to an end, and I did my share to invigorate the Conservatives' quest to recapture Number 10 in May.


Tomorrow I will be in Brighton, but will return to London early Sunday for a previously arranged engagement at 11am, so I shall miss Cameron's address to the delegates at 2pm. But I shall watch and listen to him from the comfort of my bathtub... LOL

The reward at the end of the day...

Odd Eon on Leicester Square

Leicester Square is always an exhilerating, vibrant and captivating place, but even more so when a movie premieres here (and which important movie does not premiere in London, eh?).

So the quick stroll from the Strand office to my favourite lunchtime eatery yesterday was nearly impeded by the crowd already lining up for the evening world premiere of digitalized Alice in Wonderland at the Odeon. I didn't even notice the giraffe made of grass when I whisked by and took the snapshot.

The white building on the right corner is Capital Radio London, home to one of my mostly listened stations, 95.8FM CapitalFM. It is also one of the most appallingly ugly buildings south of Sunderland.

Year of the Tiger

All packed and ready to go: small suitcase and mobile phone fully charged, the bank's minibus is about to arrive. Like the post-Super Bowl Monday, another half day at work today before heading out to Gatwick to board a plane to a region of England where it is colder than here, but where people are friendlier too.

No, the dawn of the Chinese New Year is not the reason to visit Tyneside again, but has rather to do with what one associates traditionally with a February 14th...

Back on Monday, have a great one everybody!

Zoom Zoom Zuma

Zuma's Fornication  Acts a Liability for South Africa:
A hooting chimp for president - an embarrassment for all

Propagating the stereotypical behaviour from the slums, the philandering yet ageing president Jacob Zuma heaps embarrassment after embarrassment on South Africans. The chimpanzee behaviour, with spastic body language and accompanying rain forest sound effects, includes the marking of tribal territories by means of public urinating, a multitude of female partners (five of them are even married to him) and to strive for as many offsprings as possible: 21 at last count. With the embarrasment comes the humiliation of South Africans who in a bout of progressive debilitation have voted the buffoon into the presidency in the first place.

This week, Democratic Alliance Leader Helen Zille has written an Open Letter. As this blogsite is closely affiliated with the DA we post Mrs Zille's letter in full length:

"The latest controversy surrounding President Jacob Zuma illustrates a consistent thread running through his presidency: power abuse. Zuma believes he is above the law and social norms. He believes that - by virtue of his position - he can get away with anything. One of his close political associates summed it up the other day when he said, in conversation: Jacob Zuma has a mandate from 11 million people so he can do what he likes.

This attitude applies to Zuma's financial dealings, his relationships with women, and to his relationship with his citizens. If any institution of state gets in his way, it is effectively neutered. If any government campaign requires him to change his behaviour, it is ignored.

ANC - Murder & Co

ANC Implicated in String of Murders - Again


The senior ANC figure implicated in a string of murders linked to Fifa World Cup tender disputes in Eastern Transvaal (Mpumalanga in the local tribal language) must be forced to stand down by his party's leadership, the Democratic Alliance (DA) said. Mpumalanga's DA spokesperson Anthony Benadie said the identity of the ANC figure was known in the political circles even though an article in the Sunday Times on the matter did not reveal it.

Benadie's statement follows the publication of a feature on the Mpumalanga murders on Sunday in which a number of officials were on a hit list and have either been threatened with death, went missing or were killed in recent years allegedly over the province's tenders. Those killed included, among others, former Nelspruit council speaker, Jimmy Mohlala, Mpumalanga's arts, culture and sport communications director Sammy Mpatlanyane, and regional secretary Themba Monareng.

The newspaper also wrote about the DA's criticism of Mpumalanga premier, David Mabuza's alleged silence on the murders. But his spokesperson, Mabutho Shithole (that is the name), responded that it was "unfair" to criticise Mabuza's silence on the killings. He offered this lukewarm and cynical response: "Our position is that any killing of an individual is wrong and very painful to the families of the deceased."

DA's Benadie said that the failure to step aside of the unidentified senior ANC figure linked to the killings, or his ANC party's failure to force him to stand down until his name has been cleared, would be untenable.

Three alleged surviving victims of the unidentified senior ANC official also included a former ANC regional leader Alfred Monareng, Nelspruit mayor Lassy Chiwayo and deputy mayor Nackie Ndlovu.

The Sunday Times quoted ANC national spokesperson Jackson Mthembu saying that the ruling party was aware of the alleged hit list and allegations against the politicians allegedly involved. Mthembu was quoted saying the party has sent a 'task team' (another hit squad?) to investigate those responsible for the killings in Eastern Transvaal, but also that the ANC could not do anything until police (= ANC) cracked the murder cases.

FX Updates

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Germany Still After Jewish Wealth

Nazi efforts to confiscate Jewish property abroad
Ex-HSBC Thug in Cahoots With Berlin Regime
This is a follow-up article of the posting on 27 December 2009

In the week when the civilised part of the world commemorated the liberation of Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp, the Berlin regime decided it was the appropriate time to match the mountains of hair, spectacles and gold teeth ripped from Nazi victims in the 1940s with going after Jewish funds deposited in Swiss banks, estimated at $16 billion. Like their Nazi forefathers, today's German regime seeks help from clandestine sources and criminals to gain access to, or knowledge of these deposits, and offers a $3.5 million bribe to an ex-employee of  HSBC Private Bank in Geneva.

Chief architects of Jewish persecution: a German chancellor flanked by Bundesbank Chief Schacht

Personally known to me, 'Antoine' is now known as Herve Falciani, and has subsequently been exposed as a French secret service mole placed at HSBC-PB in the 1990s. The affair has already soured the diplomatic relations between the wealthy banking centre Switzerland and the cash-strapped, near bankrupt post-Vichy French Republic. The new revelations of Berlin's involvement in the affair, purportedly concocted between former French president Chirac and former German Reichskanzler Schroeder, threaten the diplomatic ties between Bern and Berlin now as well.

The ruse of the Paris-Berlin axis powers is to claim that Jewish funds in Switzerland are illicit and constitute tax evasion. The arrogance of this claim is impertinent indeed, as the two former fascist states try to re-define the legality and origins of funds through hearsay and prejudice and assume the right to circumvent Swiss laws and impose Nazi legislation on the Bern government.

The portrayal of 'Antoine' by French authorities today as someone like a Robin Hood is absurd: smuggled into HSBC, the Italian citizen was placed there as a "sleeper" inside the banking giant, kept dormant as he gained seniority as an employee and wider access to banking dataon thousands of customers. In 2005 the "sleeper" was called into action and started his secretive collection of data. The incentive for Antoine was not some idealistic goal to punish the wealthy, but a self-fulfilling scheme to line his own pockets and to satisfy his anti-Semitism as much as those of the French. The potential windfall profit for the needy French taxman of $380 million - the result of the extortion scheme to investors to "pay or go to jail" - justified the means: Antoine was a cheap mole who was paid $1.4 million, provided with a fine residence on the Cote d'Azur and given a new identity.

He might be in for the Iron Cross award now too, as a disk with data of 1,300 predominantly Jewish investors at HSBC Private Bank is up for sale and within reach of Reichskanzler Merkel. Smelling blood and fortune - especially of Jewish origins - has always been a driving motivation for German leaders for ages. The prospect to buy illegally obtained data for merely $3.5 million and in exchange reap up to $500 million in a subsequent "pay or face trial" extortion plot derides the Berlin regime as a banana republic junta.

"Our goal is to get possession of this data," Frau Angela Merkel said at a press conference on yesterday, after debating the issue in her cabinet over the weekend. The regime is now looking at any way to acquire the data, Minister of Interior and State Security Schauble said in a separate briefing. He said the government would pursue the same "line" as in 2007, when a similar acquisition of secret bank data in Liechtenstein was made. The deal proved lucrative for German tax authorities: some $255 million were recovered by the end of last year. As in the past, the Nazis and their successors discount the nature of relations with other countries in pursuit of Jewish wealth.

The Swiss authorities, on firm moral grounds, reacted quickly, saying that there would be no co-operation in any investigation based on stolen data. Political parties across the board slammed the move as "dealing with stolen goods." The past success of investors to save their wealth from hostile regimes and tax regimes should not be impaired by Berlin's shadowy dealings with criminals today.

Swiss Liberals said the pressing need for budget revenues could not justify abandoning the rule of law, while Christian-Democrat Pirmin Bischof compared it to a "modern form of bank robbery." "We expect Germany not to buy this data, but to arrest the criminals who broke the law in Switzerland and to return the data," Thomas Sutter from the Swiss banking association told German TV channel ZDF.


German foreign minister Guido Westerwelle called on the neighbouring state to co-operate in fighting tax evasion. Himself a Liberal, he tried to strike a more cautious tone, however, stressing the need for all privacy and legal issues to be respected before buying it. Even within Merkel's Bavarian sister party, the Christian Social Union, politicians expressed doubt about the move. Bavaria's interior minister Herrmann told that acquisition of such data can only be justified in serious cases, such as murder.

Record deficit kills all visions

Holy Shit!

St Barack on Monday forecast a record budget deficit of $1.56 trillion (£975 billion) for 2010 – worse even than the White House's prediction made just a week ago – as red ink threatened to submerge his leadership and reforms such as health care.

Wholly Shit!

5-time bigamist and South African president Jacob Zuma had undermined the struggle against HIV/Aids by having unprotected sex again. He fathered a love-child with the daughter of SA soccer boss Irvin Khoza. Zuma's behaviour directly contradicts the government's campaign against multiple sexual partners, and the inherent Aids risk in having unprotected sex.

All the President's men were mum about the baby girl, reportedly born to Sonono Khoza, 39, on October 8 last year. The child, Thandekile Matina, was given Zuma's surname and was registered as his daughter. He now has 20 children.

Zuma's behaviour complements that of former president Thabo Mbeki, whose denialist stance on HIV/Aids was found by Harvard University to have possibly contributed to the deaths of more than 300 000 South Africans during his tenure. South Africa has a president who, both through his words and actions, is doing similar damage to the struggle [against HIV/Aids] - a life and death struggle for millions of South Africans.

In 2006, Zuma was narrowly acquitted of raping the HIV-infected daughter of a close family friend. Judge Willem van der Merwe found that Zuma had consensual sex with her after the victim changed her story during trial, purportedly after receiving ZAR 50,000 ($6,750).

Current Music: THE STONE ROSES: Love Spreads