Hurrah For HMRC

Before some suspect that I have lost copious marbley things, bear with me. I've been following the somewhat protracted administration problems at Portsmouth Football Club closely. They were the first Premiership club to go into administration and they've gone into administration for the second time recently - demonstrating once again that many football clubs are living beyond their means. But my main reason for following their plight closely is not because I have any particular affinity with them (yes good luck to them), but due to one man -  the administrator Andrew Andronikou.(pictured above - this is a bit of a personal post)

For those who are not familiar with the man, Andrew Andronikou works for chartered accountants UHY Hacker Young which in their words are:

...one of the UK's Top 20 accounting and auditing firms

Mr Andronikou's profile can be found here:

He has extensive experience in Bank receivership and investigation assignments, and also liquidation appointments. He is particularly interested in undertaking corporate reconstruction work, such as Administrations and Company Voluntary Arrangements. Andrew has headed a number of high profile appointments including the recent Administration of Portsmouth Football Club, the first premier league club in history to enter Administration.

Hmm "extensive experience" eh? Not that implies any level of competence of course, and rightly so. A substantial part of Mr Andronikou's experience was being the administrator during the deeply entrenched money problems at Swindon Town. In summary, for long time until December 2007 we were a financial basket-case - and we were the first club to go into administration twice.

However according to Andronikou - when he was appointed at Portsmouth - he was the 'saviour of our club', as he became the only administrator arrogant enough to sign autographs:

This makes me think Portsmouth's administrator Andrew Andronikou (the only accountant in the country who signs autographs) isn't quite as media savvy as he imagines he is.

Yet describing him as Swindon’s saviour is a historical revisionism on a scale that the Ministry of Truth would have been proud of. Having been involved during that time, and witnessed first hand Andronikou's role, (and I'm not sure how to put this nicely), but his actions left the deep suspicion that his mind was not entirely focused on fulfilling his legal obligations to the professional standard that would be expected.

Now I should mention at this point that he also had a close relationship with Swindon Town's 'advisor' Mike Diamandis at the time. Diamandis was appointed as an 'advisor' despite being banned as a director for trading whilst insolvent. Yet in truth it was apparent that de facto he ran the club as a Director, some would say potentially illegally

He is the man who - behind-the-scenes - has effectively run the football club for the last five years.

Diamandis and Andronikou have had a close personal relationship in the past, their business record is indeed deeply suspicious. Andronikou was often appointed to a number of Diamandis' businesses which had gone into administration and no questions were apparently asked - it won't do to investigate rigorously whether a company was trading insolvently.

Unfortunately for them football fans tend to be a different kind of customer - ones with years of an emotional attachment that far outweighs concerns of finances. So as a consequence, and almost altruistically, awkward questions get asked, much to the discomfort of those with vested interests:

"I have an issue with the supporters trust as well as they could have caused untold damage if we had not ignored them. Their self importance genuinely put the club at risk. I think we all agree a supporters trust is healthy but for the right reasons. I think they have got out of hand. I think it represents about 20 people and that has to change quickly.

The Swindon Trust's response being:

"The comment about the 20 or 30 busybodies finding something else to do has caused a great deal of anger among fans," said Davis.

"We (the Trust) have over 950 members, all of whom are extremely concerned about the way the club is being run and the way that Mr Andronikou is supervising the CVA.

So...far from being a saviour, he took our club to within 24 hours of being wound up and didn't sign off our Company Voluntary Agreement for years after it should have been. Previous to that this was the man that always had 'mystery buyers' lined up which never materialised, ignored genuine buyers to the detriment of the creditors because it didn't apparently suit those in charge and blamed everyone else when things didn't go according to 'his plan'.

Not only that he took it upon himself to, despite being someone appointed to look after creditors’ interests, tell the creditors what to do (my emphasis):

"I have the discretion to do what I think is right for everyone. That is where it starts and ends really.  No matter what some people say, as long as I think it is in the interests of everyone to extend the deadline then I can extend or vary it as I see fit."

So it's no surprise to see Portsmouth experience the same 'incompetent' man:

Mr Andronikou was the preferred administrator - which sparked alarm among Pompey fans.

And as a result it comes as a source of great amusement to myself as a result of HMRC action that I learn this:

A High Court judge today refused to allow Andrew Andronikou’s firm to act as Pompey’s administrators. Mr Justice Alastair Norris ruled UHY Hacker Young will not be in charge.

The decision came despite Balram Chainrai’s firm Portpn Ltd offering £500,000 to the club if Mr Andronikou or another administrator it approves of was appointed.

And the Judge was pretty damning:

Mr Justice Norris added: ‘What’s proposed this time round seems to be exactly what was proposed last time round without addressing the real underlying problem. One would think that the real emphasis should be on reducing the trading losses of the club to turn it into a viable trading business. Perhaps a fresh view is called for.’

‘The general body of taxpayers, the ordinary consumers who do pay their energy bills and the ordinary traders and professionals who provide services such as, coach hire, catering, medical services, ground care and maintenance, must wonder why they should be subsidising the club’s energy bill and why it is that they are involuntary lenders to the club over their outstanding bills and why they will only get back pence in the pound for the services they have provided.’

And with that he blew the final whistle saying: ‘I will appoint Mr Birch and his team to be the administrators of Portsmouth Football Club.’

In other words the least of Andronikou's concerns was the small business creditors. But we knew that all along. Sometimes HMRC gets things right - albeit like a stopped watch still being correct twice a day.

I'm Saying Nothing...

From today's Daily Telegraph (my emphasis throughout):

The arrest of Labour MP Eric Joyce over an alleged assault in a House of Commons bar follows concerns over the culture of taxpayer-subsidised drinking in Parliament.

And from the Irish Times last Thursday:

BRITISH PRIME minister David Cameron has signalled support for a minimum price for alcohol that would raise off-licence prices, even though some members of his cabinet believe such a move could be illegal.

Mr Cameron, speaking during a visit to a hospital in Newcastle, said: “Every night, in town centres, hospitals and police stations across the country, people have to cope with the consequences of alcohol abuse.”

Sweet Eurosceptic Topping

Boris Johnson aka 'I'm a lovable buffoon really' has just woken up to perils of CAP in his piece in today's Telegraph. One wonders what took him so long? Anyway, he bemoans, in rather convoluted language, the negative impact the EU is having on the American owned company Tate & Lyle:

This historic company produces about 40 per cent of the cane sugar in the entire EU, and most of it comes from the London plant. 

Now this superb business faces a threat from Brussels, and the imposition of an unnecessary and badly thought-out regulation.

The plant has the capacity to produce 1.1 million tonnes of refined sugar a year; and yet the company is prevented, by the EU commission, from importing the raw materials in the quantities it needs. Their current output is now down to 60 per cent of capacity — and the result is that jobs are being lost in a part of London that already faces the highest levels of unemployment in the city and indeed in the whole of the country.

For decades they have been artificially shielded, by high tariff walls around the EU, which mean that sugar prices in Europe are more than double the world market price.

Boris is understandably not happy, even though Richard North highlighted the potential effects in 2004 and 2005. So after a lengthy criticism, by Boris, of the situation and of the EU, what does he propose to do? Well... wait for it...cue drum roll:

And we are lobbying Brussels to drop its crazy prohibition, and allow Tate and Lyle to get cane sugar from wherever in the world it can find the stuff.

Lobby Brussels? Not advocating withdrawal - nope - instead a pathetically weak proposal of lobbying Brussels. There lies another Tory Europlastic. Boris naturally has form on this. Take this interview with Paxman on the Lisbon treaty in 2009. When asked what should happen if it was ratified, Boris hides behind:

That's a hypothetical question...and...I'm not an expert on Euro Treaty law.

An answer that is basically no different from Cameron's "we won't let matters rest there". As always beneath the sweet Tory Eurosceptic topping lies stale Europhile substance.

With more than one eye on Cameron's position Boris knows the sugary appeal of Eurosceptisim will win over the sweet-toothed Tory faithful. But should he win the leadership or even become PM we'll go through the whole "veto" charade again.

The man is our enemy not our friend.

Irony On Stilts

The main purpose of the EU, from the very beginning, has been to abolish the nation state and to destroy democracy. The founding fathers have always made this very clear. And partly to achieve this, with significant irony, the EU has adopted all the trappings of a country in all but name. This is aptly demonstrated by the shameless lack of democracy, involving Nigel Farage shown in the clip below (1:40 mins in)



The President of the EU Parliament, Martin Schulz, says:

Nationalism is propagated, in this house, by those who wear flags on their desk and nationalism on their sleeve.

So says Schulz, a member of the EU, an institution which thinks that the solution to try to destroy any kind of national identity needs a flag, a national anthem, effectively a capital, and a European identity.

Presumably when the EU gets around to producing its own dictionary, the phrase 'self-awareness' will be noticeably absent.

hattip: Ironies Too

Deadly Switch Off

Swindon recently engaged in an experiment, despite local concerns, to save money and to 'reduce their carbon footprint' by switching off streetlights - enthusiastically supported no less by a Tory councillor.

But whoops it's gone a bit Pete Tong according to the BBC:

Hundreds of street lights in Swindon which were turned off to save money are being switched back on.

Swindon Borough Council said the authority felt it was not worth continuing due to the number of concerns being raised by the public.

But what the BBC report and the Councillors don't say is 'concerns being raised by the public' refers to the fact that lights have been turned back on because of significant safety considerations, views which were aired well in advance, and that accidents have subsequently increased as a result of the blackout.

Still at least it was supposed to save £20,000, only a snip compared to the total basic Councillor's allowances of £722,600.

Forcing Greece Out

As previously mentioned on this blog, and by Richard North, and by Mary Ellen Synon, it looks like Greece is on its way out of the Euro - forced by the Germans. It's nice to see the BBC catching up eventually, and the fact they're starting to report it, reluctant as they always are to mention EU matters, indicates how close this scenario is coming to pass.

A Nation Of Goldfish

If there's ever one issue guaranteed to drive me to drink, it's the subject of binge drinking and minimum pricing, which has cropped up yet again:

Cells known as “drunk tanks” which detain inebriated people until they sober up could be introduced to towns to tackle the nation’s growing alcohol problem, David Cameron signals on Wednesday.

Next month, the Government publishes its alcohol strategy which is expected to recommend higher “minimum” prices for drink, potentially by increasing duties on many alcoholic beverages. 

Drunk tanks? What the hell are they? Challenger 2's that run on ethanol?

It's like there's some software in Number 10 that shows an alarm and says; 'it's been 2 months or so since the last 'binge drinking' press release - time for another, we'll just re-arrange the words a bit'. We had one in December and one in August and so on.

So cue another day of apparent 'news', liberally sprinkled with the same old photographs of young drunk women (well, if you can't beat them join them). Given that the call for minimum pricing has gone on for years the MSM seems incapable of asking the obvious question, to both Labour and Conservative governments; "so why don't you just do it?". No-one else seems to be asking the same question either, preparing to take at face value regular press releases. Nevermind we'll just go through this whole charade again in a couple of months time. We really are a nation of goldfish.

Meanwhile real news is happening...

The MSM Fiddles As Greece Burns

The Talking Clock makes an excellent point about the priorities of our nation's 24 hour news coverage. Last evening's coverage, on both the BBC and Sky, was dominated initially by the sad death of Whitney Houston (which albeit warrants a mention) and then for hours by pre BAFTA footage of self- congratulatory celebrities walking down the red carpet. Apparently, and this was important, they were adopting a 'green' theme - actor Colin Firth was wearing an 'Eco-friendly sustainable suit', whatever that means? All of this coverage despite that the event had a two hour time slot on BBC One anyway.

Meanwhile on the European continent - on our doorstep - Greece was experiencing severe social, economic and political turmoil. People were rioting, buildings were burning and Greek politicians were voting on approving a new austerity package the failure of which to pass the Parliament could have resulted in Greece exiting the Euro and possibly the breakup of the currency itself.

Not that any of us would have known this following the 'standard' media outlets. We had to instead rely on social networking sites and foreign news channels, such as Russia Today, to follow the unfolding events.

The MSM is retreating rapidly into an ever decreasing circle of relevance.

Deliberately Misleading?

Ian Cowie, the head of personal finance in the Daily Telegraph, rightly picks up on the disgraceful jump in the numbers of older people dying of cold, unable as they are to afford to heat their homes. His solution, rather than tackle the real issues, is to propose scrapping VAT on household fuel:

Warm words from politicians are cold comfort and no substitute for action. Bringing the tax on household fuel into line with zero-rated VAT on water and food makes sense - they are all necessities of life – and could bring immediate help to thousands of people suffering unnecessarily this winter.

One small problem however - Brussels.

Domestic heating used to have zero VAT until 1993. The then Major Government under pressure from the EU began the process of harmonising VAT in accordance with the 6th VAT Directive. This meant that, in an ever increasingly 'isolated' Britain, the Tories attempted to impose VAT on previously exempt goods such as; food, clothes and newspapers. Politically sensitive as this obviously was, the Tories began tentatively with domestic heating, the upshot being that we gave up that exemption (with a 5% duty) and so to get it back now requires the permission of Brussels - permission that almost certainly won't be forthcoming.

Despite being the head of personal finance, Mr Cowie doesn't mention any of this. Now this can only be because of one or two reasons: he doesn't know or he chose not to mention it. It's hard to believe he doesn't know. VAT is not some obscure EU Directive but a real tangible part of our membership - it's an EU tax introduced in 1973 as a consequence of joining the then EEC. To plead ignorance, particularly in his position on the Telegraph, must surely call into very serious question his abilities as a journalist.

So the only other option is that he is aware. Which then means he has written an article that he knows cannot happen but disguises this by hiding important information from his readers. An article in short that is a lie and a deceit.

Either way what he has written is pointless waste of time and illustrates once again the inability of our MSM to acknowledge where the real government lies. I do wish they would grow up.

By Default

It's another Euro crisis, so it's another deadline. It's reported that this weekend bankrupt Greece faces the ultimate decision of whether to stay in the Euro or not.

Now we have been at 'deadline hour' many times before, which has so far always proved false, so a little cynicism is in order. But the indications are that the momentum does appear to be heading towards a conclusion - I do agree with Richard North when he writes "There is definitely a sense that we are moving to the end game".

The pressure on Greece is intense and there seems to be a non-too subtle attempt, on behalf of the EU and Germany, to force Greece to default, and possibly exit the Euro. The likely reasons for the EU's bullying are manifold.

The cost of trying to save political face by keeping all the countries in the Euro has been superseded by the embarrassment of the Greek crisis to the Euro project, which has no prospect of ending anytime soon. Greece is an economic basket case - so the EU needs to get rid of, in part to try to improve the currency's 'respectability'. That Greece will default has always been a matter of when not if - a reality the EU has long known about. After over 2 years, weariness is creeping in. Greek promises are never kept and more importantly for some European politicians elections are due this year. Taxpayer's money to keep bailing out Greece is not popular to say the least.

The constant bailouts, or rhetoric, has also conveniently given time for the Eurozone to prepare for the inevitable Greek default - in short economic sandbagging. As Louise Armitstead argues in the Telegraph:

The bankruptcy of Greece is no longer the threat to the eurozone that it once was. For all the frustration caused by the constant delays - Greece missed four deadlines last week alone - the time has not been wasted. Banks have busily untangling themselves from the thicket of Greek debt; repricing and restructuring debt and taking large write-downs. In total foreign banks have slashed their exposure to Greece by 60pc.

In a note last week, Willem Buiter, Citigroup’s chief economist, said: “In early September 2011, we argued that the cost of Greek exit to the rest of the world would be very high. We now consider these costs to be much lower because the 'exit-fear-contagion’ could be contained.”

In essence preparations are being made to hang Greece out to dry, a view echoed by Jeremy Warner:

There is only one way of interpreting the set of fresh demands tabled by eurozone finance ministers last night in return for agreeing a new €130bn bailout for Greece – that they are now quite deliberately trying to push Greece out of the euro. All pretence at European solidarity has been abandoned, to be replaced by the vengeance of Shylock.

There is now no chance whatsoever of Greece making it in the eurozone. Economically and politically, the country is in meltdown. Richer Greeks...are all getting their money out as fast as they can, as those of us who have been gazumped in the London property market by Greeks bearing piles of wonga know only too well.

It's a disgrace what's going on, little short of the rape of Greece by its own countrymen, but it is an entirely rational and logical response to the grossly overvalued currency they find themselves with.

Greece has very little option now but to impose capital controls and leave the euro. The longer it leaves things, the more desperate will its plight become.

Despite enduring economic, social and political hardship strangely most Greeks still want to be members of the EU and the Euro. Sadly they are about to find out the hard way that membership of the EU, and more specifically the Euro, only works one way - it means doing what the EU orders when a member, and being jettisoned overboard without concern when an inconvenience. The other Euro members are saving their own skin but not without causing economic and social meltdown, without a care, in another country first.

But no doubt if the inevitable Greek default doesn't lead immediately to a Euro breakup, much rejoicing will occur in Brussels, along the lines of 'we're dealing with the problem'. However next up will be Portugal, and then... well close your eyes and put a pin randomly into a map of Europe.