A review of The New Inn at Roborough, North Devon
The New Inn at Roborough in North Devon isn’t the easiest place to find. It’s hidden away in a rural backwater, so be sure not to rely on your Sat-Nav to get you to this traditional Devonshire pub. If you do, you’ll be taken on a wild goose chase up hill and down dale but when you eventually arrive you’ll find a warm welcome and a menu that’s a little out of the ordinary.
The Steeple Times asks Welsh National winning racehorse trainer Michael Scudamore: “What’s on your mantelpiece?”
The Steeple Times shares “wit and wisdom”. What’s your guiding force?
Grandad Scu, a tough man when he was riding and an absolute gentleman. He is the person that dad, Tom and I look up to the most.
“Don’t get even, get medieval” is, in our humble opinion, a great motto. What’s yours?
“Keep a leg either side and his head off the floor” – Michael Scudamore Snr.
A self-made mogul and former champion boxer who cannot read or write fluently. He thinks “differently” and built a £400 million fortune by creating and then selling a buy-to-let empire of almost 6,000 rental properties. Panayiotou takes the view that it is “moral[ly]” right to pay taxes in Britain and of those who call Heath Hall, a £65 million property he developed in North London, as “impersonally hideous as a brothel”, he rightly responds: “These guys are just jealous”. This maverick is indeed a businessman worthy of admiration rather than envy.
Boris Berezovsky found dead in his bathtub
It has just been confirmed that 67-year old oligarch Boris Berezovsky was found dead in a bath at his Surrey home at around 11am this morning. His son-in-law, Yegor Shuppe, revealed the news earlier today on Facebook and later a statement came from Alexander Dobrovinsky of Moscow based The Alexander Dobrovinsky & Partners law firm stating:
“Just got a call from London. Boris Berezovsky committed suicide. He was a difficult man. A move of disparity? Impossible to live poor? A strike of blows? I am afraid no one will get to know now”.
Berezovsky, who I encountered several times at The Lanesborough Hotel, lost a £3 billion damages claim against Chelsea Football Club owner Roman Abramovich in 2012. It was the largest private court action ever to have been heard in Britain and during the case he was described as “an inherently unreliable witness”.
In a separate case in January 2013, Mr Berezovsky former lover and mother of two of his six children, Elena Gorbunova, won a £200 million freezing order on his assets.
Aside from this, the political exile and outspoken critic of Russian President Vladimir Putin, was subjected to a number of assassination attempts. A 1994 car bomb decapitated Berezovsky’s chauffeur and after a hitman had been sent to kill him in 2007, he alleged that security sources had told him:
“Someone you know will come to Britain, he will try to connect to you and when you meet him, he will just kill you and will not try to hide”.
Whether Mr Berezovsky died of natural causes, committed suicide or was killed unlawfully remains to be revealed. Whatever transpires, this turn of events marks a most tragic end for this most colourful of oligarchs.
Gina Miller investigates the links between Saint Valentine and transparency in investing
According to the wise font of all knowledge, which can be extremely accurate or extremely inaccurate, Wikipedia, Saint Valentine (in Latin, Valentinus) is a widely recognised third century Roman saint commemorated on February 14th and associated since the High Middle Ages with a tradition of courtly love. Nothing is reliably known of Saint Valentine except his name and the fact that he died on February 14th.
But many of the current legends that characterise Saint Valentine were invented in the fourteenth century in England, notably by Geoffrey Chaucer and his circle, when the feast day of February 14th first became associated with romantic love.
Whatever the truth is, most people today associate Valentine’s Day with romance. When one thinks of romance it is normally in the old fashioned Mills and Boon books or the more modern 50 Shades of Grey with some dashing man seducing his future conquest but once the charming good looks are pierced, below the surface they are often found to be pretty shallow and unedifying and after a while, maybe the real cardinal sin, boring. I say this as someone who once dated a famous model who was known across the UK for taking his jeans off in the laundrette revealing a great body but sadly not a lot of substance beneath.
Where is the connection with the world I work in, investments? Well a surprising amount when you consider it. The world of investment relies on seduction but the seduction is used for all the wrong reasons and normally with all the wrong results. There is a fine line between seduction and deception. Every day countless savings and investment managers cross this line.
When you meet your wonderfully charming or slick fund manager they try to seduce you with flowery words and jargon with no meaning or deliberately assembled to impress you with its complexity; but designed to prevent you from understanding how your money is really invested or how much your money is really costing. The smoke and mirrors are crafted to beguile and reassure that by being so complex, they must be amazing to do what they do and charge what they charge. Of course more often than not investing does not really need to be so complex or expensive to get sold returns.
If you think of most great inventors or inventions they are often based on a simple design or a simple concept. In investment the living Saint of investment is widely held to be Saint Buffet of Omaha, Nebraska. He has an annual convention where thousands flock to his temple to hear and learn from every word he says since he has probably the longest and best known and maybe most successful track records of anyone. He does not make things complicated or flowery he talks of common sense and old fashioned virtues that have stood the test of time and which people can understand. He simply tries to buy companies which he trusts, thinks are great franchises that can stand the test of time; and which for whatever reason are available at the right price. He does not hide from his investors how he invests, what he invests in or his charges for the services he provides. He works alongside his clients because he is managing his own money in the same way.
When you meet your fund manager or wealth adviser or whatever other name they call themselves, don’t be seduced by the initial lavish language or entertaining or lavish date because normally this does not last and it is you who ultimately is paying for it anyway. Often the more lavish the entertaining, the more likely that they are ‘after’ something and that something is to erode more of your returns in fees.
In economics there is a term called giffen goods. These are goods by which the more that is charged the more that it is demanded, these are luxury goods. If your XXX handbag was available for £10 rather than £1,000 it would quickly lose its panache or lustre. Investment managers try and make their services desirable through charging more in the knowledge that most clients wrongly think: “If I pay more I must be getting a better product or a better performance”. However the research shows the precise opposite and that if you pay more, it simply means more money has been deducted from your savings and in turn they are then worth less.
We have been working extremely hard via a True and Fair Campaign to force by law, the investment industry to stop this deception and reveal to customers exactly how much, in total, investments are really costing and how they are really invested. The scale of this deception is truly shocking.
Maybe, just like a good relationship, there needs to be substance and openness and trust or the relationship is not a real relationship but just an empty dalliance, fun at the time but not particularly rewarding thereafter. I implore you to trust your instincts, keep to your principles and do not be seduced by the flannel. Instead, do plan today for your tomorrows and the life you dream of as you grow older and go off into the sunset of retirement.
Happy Valentine’s Day.
For more information about the True and Fair Campaign, go to: http://www.trueandfaircampaign.com
Matthew Steeples highlights the peril of “reaching out”
“Reaching out” is a phrase that can be compared to Starbucks and their taxes.
This toxic platitude has sadly become common in both Britain and America and is generally used by people who don’t know you when they want something. Like Starbucks on the high street, it is everywhere and akin to the coffee company and their tax contributions, it contributes very little.
“I’m reaching out to you today…” began a recent email from Cindy McCain, the wife of a former American Presidential candidate, asking for a donation to a campaign her husband was running. Mrs McCain’s insincere email continued in the same tone and I did not feel motivated to donate. The very words “reaching out” so grated on my psyche that I was utterly turned off. I am certain many others felt just the same.
In her song, “Reach Out and Touch (Somebody’s Hand)”, Diana Ross used the euphemism correctly. Her reference to physical contact is a perfectly reasonable use of the words whereas McCain’s pompous and forlorn request was unwelcome and unwanted. As I “reached” the end of the email and read: “This is a call to action,” all the bleach blonde had achieved was to lead me towards the button marked “junk mail.”
Starbucks are now trying to put a stop to their tax avoidance. Please could Mrs McCain and others “lead by example” and do the same with their “reaching out”?
A mistake of operatic proportions
We’ve utterly no problem with the billionairess Oprah Winfrey but we’re not sure our national opera house should be renamed in her honour.
The management of the Vue Cinema in Reading plainly don’t feel the same as here, as our picture of the week, we feature an image of a poster for their forthcoming series of events. Highlighted to us by Elizabeth Ferguson of The Royal Ballet on Facebook, Vue mistakingly renames the Royal Opera House the “Royal Oprah House” in an advertisement for “the best on stage on screen.” Of it, Ferguson commented: “Words fail me.”
Oprah may be one of America’s finest but we imagine even she’ll admit that she’s not quite ready to take centre stage at Covent Garden just yet.
Matthew Steeples takes a view on the story of David Cameron, UKIP, racism and foster homes
First David Cameron described UKIP supporters as “mostly racist” and then a pair of ex-Labour supporting foster parents from Rotherham had three children taken from their care due to their support for that party. Sane people are rightly asking: “What is going on?” and also wondering: “What on earth is ‘Call Me Dave’ playing at?”
The UK Independence Party is an organisation that reflects the views of many in this country and a significant segment of our readership back them too. Equally, many do not and UKIP rightly accepts that. Of course, by their very existence they are a party whose stances polarize opinion and their naff logo and the proclamations of some of their odder members do make rational individuals cringe from time to time.
Nigel Farage, the party’s best asset, is a man guided by sense. He has pointed out many of the significant failings of the European Union and he does it boldly and with a belief bolstered by a dedication to improving Great Britain’s lot. Like or loathe him, here is a politician with passion and one whose influence is growing.
A site that proclaims itself as: “Britain’s most-read political blog,” PoliticalBetting.com, takes a different view and backs Cameron’s statement in suggesting: “There is an Islamophobic element to UKIP that mirrors many parties in Europe.” They refer to “golliwog supporters” and even add:
“David Cameron is right to stand his ground and not apologise for his earlier remarks about UKIP. What should worry him more is the growing number of people in his own party who seem quite relaxed with working with them. They are either blissfully unaware of what lies underneath the party’s anti-European statements or worse are prepared to tolerate them for electoral gain.”
All a decent couple did was to attempt to care for unfortunate children and their political alliegances are an irrelevance. PoliticalBetting.com and David Cameron’s generalisations about UKIP are also wrong and Rotherham council’s actions are utterly abhorrent. Have none of these people learnt anything from how the media firestorm of the Jimmy Savile saga was fueled? Isn’t it about time that they woke up and got their own houses in order instead of ranting about racism and foster parenting?
Victoria Beckham tours Brian Blessed’s former home
In April, the blog that preceded The Steeple Times featured an article on Clarence House in Richmond.
At the time this former school and home of actor Brian Blessed was priced at £22,500,000 but after languishing on the market, the price has been slashed by £4,500,000 to £18,000,000.
In recent days Victoria Beckham has been pictured touring this and other properties in south-west London. No stranger to securing a bargain and worth some £160 million, Mrs Beckham could no doubt slice a little extra off if she decided to proceed. She and her husband are allegedly set to return to the UK and an unnamed source is quoted as revealing:
“David has been really missing London and the UK recently. The royal wedding, the Olympics and now Christmas coming up have all made him long for the UK. He talks about being in London a lot and he misses his family, so it would make perfect sense for the family to all move back to Britain. For the Beckhams, Eton [as a school for their sons] would be the ultimate arrival.”
Perhaps if the couple don’t manage to get their sons to “go Eton Style,” they could reopen Clarence House as a school. The most famous pupil to pass through the doors was Bernardo O’Higgins (1778 – 1842), the liberator and founding father of Chile.
To read the original feature on Clarence House, 2 The Vineyard, Richmond Hill, Surrey, TW10 6AQ go to: http://thesteepletimes.com/opulence-splendour/blessed-clarence/
Watch the Eton Style Gangam parody at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9FtZkVRkusQ
Lancastrian Sky News anchor Kay Burley is the longest serving female newsreader on British television. (more…)