Morning Brief – Dutch Election

Dutch Election

What the Hard Right under Geert Wilders winning by the largest number of seats(37) means for Europe will become clear in the next months but for the Netherlands the composition of their new coalition government is expected to take a month and will likely comprise 4 or even 5 parties. This may or may not include Wilders’ party but as it will at best be unwieldy if not unworkable, it means that Geert Wilders is back as a leading influence in both the Netherlands and Europe. In case you are wondering what he stands for, his Smorgasbord menu of policies includes Nexit and banning reading of the Quran, headscarves, mosques and Islamic schools. Brussels not enjoying this unexpected outcome while European wide Nationalist parties from Spain to Hungary are cheering.

EUR/JPY 163.45.

Moon

On Saturday night the residents of the UK’s Isle of Wight spotted a halo around the Moon which two thousand years ago would have caused consternation and a flight to their nearest cave. It turned out that the halo was visible across much of England rather than merely the Isle of Wight and only its residents having succumbed to mass hysteria. At such times in 21st century Britain people turn to the Met Office rather than Druids who duly pronounced on the halo: it’s a sign of impending rainfall. Shock horror.

GBP/EUR 1.1510.

Asia

Yesterday China, Japan and South Korea agreed to hold a summit between the 3 nations. This principle of regular conferences was actually agreed to in 2008 but the last tri-partite meeting took place in 2019 and has not happened since then due to Covid restrictions. While not perfect as plenty of topics will be in the too difficult drawer rather than on the agenda of the summit expected to be fixed for Q1 2024, it is surely better for a meeting to take place despite Taiwan, the disputed Senkaku Islands and China’s territorial aggression as well as many other contentious issues not being up for discussion.

EUR/USD 1.0945.

UK: It’s a gas

Here’s a stat for you: According to the UK’s Office of National statistics or ONS, 70% of the Uk have Electric Ovens and only 30% gas ovens. But when it comes to hobs, 38% have electric and 61% gas. Not sure what that means except that if you live in Oxford, you had better move fast if you are contemplating a new home and are a fan of cooking on gas as those sages on the City Council have banned the installation of gas hobs in new homes post 2025.

GBP/USD 1.2620.

Born to Be Wild 

This day in 1968, Steppenwolf released their eponymous album that featured this stomper which party animals chucked themselves around to for years as they imagined themselves as urban cowboys like Peter Fonda and Dennis Hopper in the cult movie Easy Rider which memorably featured this song. Born to be Wild:

Get your motor runnin’
Head out on the highway
Looking for adventure
In whatever comes our way

Yeah, darlin’ gonna make it happen
Take the world in a love embrace
Fire all of your guns at once
And explode into space

I like smoke and lightnin’
Heavy metal thunder
Racing with the wind
And the feeling that I’m under

Yeah, darlin’ gonna make it happen
Take the world in a love embrace
Fire all of your guns at once
And explode into space

Like a true nature’s child
We were born
Born to be wild
We can climb so high
I never wanna die

Born to be wild
Born to be wild

Get your motor runnin’
Head out on the highway
Looking for adventure
In whatever comes our way

Yeah, darlin’ gonna make it happen
Take the world in a love embrace
Fire all of your guns at once
And explode into space

Like a true nature’s child
We were born
Born to be wild
We can climb so high
I never wanna die

Born to be wild

Discussion and Analysis by Humphrey Percy, Chairman and Founder

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