Why?



Don’t get me wrong, i’m happy that my pension pot is worth a bit more for now, I just don’t understand why you would it frame it in those terms.



Is Tim Martin’s level of happiness one of your primary barometers of how good something is? When you see... well anything really, do you wonder how Tim Martin feels about it? Why is his perspective of special interest?

It was an example of how the markets have reacted to the result, nothing more. Imagine if Corbyn had won, the markets would have collapsed and austerity would look like ambrosia.

"The Pound erased its post-election gains over the Euro and Dollar Tuesday amid reports that Prime Minister Boris Johnson will create a new 'no deal' Brexit cliff edge, which has led some analysts to suggest a further correction is in store for the British currency.



Prime Minister Boris Johnson reportedly plans to enshrine the end of 2020 into law as the end of the next phase in the Brexit negotiations and the 'transition' period the UK will enter once the withdrawal agreement is ratified and the country formally leaves the EU on January 31.



Pound Sterling was quoted lower against all its major rivals in noon trading Tuesday as a result of the report, after having reached a post-referendum high against the Euro in the immediate aftermath of last week's election and a two year high relative to the Dollar.



The Pound had rallied strongly against major rivals in recent weeks as markets saw the increasing prospect of a Conservative Party election victory not only seeing off the threat of an increasingly radical opposition party but also burying the threat of a 'no deal' Brexit for at least the foreseeable future.



Those gains are on the verge of melting away as markets respond to the renewed threat of an exit from the EU on World Trade Organization (WTO) terms."

That is CURRENCY not STOCKS, but keep your rhetoric coming.

Yeah, I get that, I’m just generally confused as to why you would present it in terms that (to me) seem so unrelatable.



If it was highlighting a benefit that many of us share (e.g. through private pensions), and even if it was smug one-upmanship that you own lots of shares, I could see it.



Do you identify strongly with Tim Martin, and feel that if he is winning, you’re winning?

Not a case of identifying with anyone, just an example of how the markets reacted to the result.

I appreciate it was a throwaway line on an Internet forum.



However, it was an invitation to muse on the emotional impact of that market reaction for one specific person. Even if he is taken as representative of a wider group (Britain’s least needy?) it seems an odd way of looking at it from the perspective of the not-super-wealthy who are well-represented here.



Can you see why it looks odd to me? Does it not look odd to you, even as a ‘first thing that comes to mind’?

No, it doesn't appear odd to me at all, but then I am as staunch a Conservative as you are Socialist.

I’m sure a lot of socialists would question my staunchness!





Is part of being a Conservative and viewing economic activity as a competition, celebrating your own relative defeat and its growing margin, because the competition itself is the important thing? Erm, congratulations...?



Tbf, I think I may have worked it out. It’s a ‘this is good news, including for this prominent Brexit-supporting liberals’ bogeyman (I had to Google him, btw), suck on that you Remain and Cringebyn voting losers’. Is that right? I feel we’ve made a connection.



Merry Christmas.

I'm glad it's not just me. It is odd, isn't it?



This weird obsession that because someone is cleaning up, the rest of the country must be in rude health.



The only thing that makes a Conservative happier than Tim Martin making 40 million, is Crispin Odey making a 300 million bet against British businesses in the hope they'll fail. They love that stuff. Makes them hard before bed.

Employment does continue to ride in crude numbers but, the ecconomy is not rising at anything like the same rate, which would suggest that there are a greater number of jobs available but, that they aren't, comparatively, as well paid at they used to be

Zero hours contract anybody ?

I'm sure Sal will tell us that plenty of people love zero hours contracts. It gives them freedom. Whether he'll admit that it's usually the people who are not actually reliant on the money to feed themselves who are the ones who enjoy the freedom the most, is another thing.