UK 05:40 Wednesday, 23 September 2026
Breaking news and expert analysis on fast-moving AIM and LSE listed shares
Disclosure: I have no positions in any stocks mentioned, and no plans to initiate any positions within the next 72 hours. I wrote this article myself, and it expresses my own opinions. I am not receiving compensation for it (other than from ShareProphets). I have no business relationship with any company whose stock is mentioned in this article.
You would have thought that a firm of stockbrokers would want to see a critical press exposing fraud on AIM so that its clients do not lose money. But it appears that Hargreaves Lansdown (HL.) has given into the Bulletin Board jihadists and has joined other companies such as Tesco in refusing to advertise here. The same folk who have sent me death threats, smeared me and the restaurant because of what I write (fraud exposes) are trying to get this website closed down.
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Comments
turbograndad
Tom,
They are my current brokers, at Jimbo’s suggestion I have just fired of an email to them with the same effect, and more besides.
I await their reply.
Gateway
Suspect that HL are not free-speech deniers, just a company that doesn’t want to be associated with a website that uses the ‘f’ word like confetti, often has a misogynistic tone and calls investors morons, twats etc. I actually enjoy the site Tom, but won’t actually open any of your articles when the wife or kids are about because I’m rather embarrassed about what they may see as the headline on the screen. I could ask you to tone it down, but you won’t, so I won’t bother. I’ll continue to read, but I’m not surprised you’re losing advertising and you’re giving your detractors a massive stick to beat you with.
Tom Winnifrith
Gateway
C4 carries far more bad language than I use plus some sex and violence which others may find offensive. The BB Jihadists have not asked Tesco to stop advertising on C4 have they?
They are specifically targetting this site. If i write like Mother Theresa/Julie Andrews in the Sound of Music they would still find a way to try to persuade advertisers to pull. You know I am a libertarian so belive in legalising prostitution & heroin. Maybe that would be the stick – who knows.
The bottom line is that it does not matter how I write, it is what I write about that the jihadists want removed.
You are either in favour of free speech or against it. Simple
Turbo
many thanks, I am now planning to record video at HL on Monday, am sure they will love the PR
t
wildrides
Tom ……….. if you go into the entrance foyer at HL be careful that you dont slip over . I hear the floors are awash and the walls dripping .
simon
Hargreaves will have thousands of clients who are long of QPP. They are a business and earn bugger all from you but probably make rather a lot from these clients.
If you were running HL what would you do ?
Free Speech specifically (specifically) does not apply to offensive language (or language likely to cause offence) . Directly insulting people is NOT free speech.
KewalRai
HL Account closed and moved elsewhere…and a Morrisons has just opened up nearby so no longer need to go to Tesco!
Gateway
TV advertising is different – there’s a watershed etc and I suspect Tesco wouldn’t necessarily choose to advertise during the break of some of C4’s more X-rated shows. This is a financial website and if people are being put off coming here by the language then advertisers are free to choose not to be associated (that’s their freedom of choice surely and they shouldn’t be harangued/stigmatised for it). Anyway, just my opinion (free speech and all that) and thanks for letting me post my views. I’ll keep reading (when the ladies and minors aren’t about).
Tom Winnifrith
Simon
Well clearly you would put money before principle.
If I were minded to do the same I’d run this site to promote a load of shite like Quindell. But I am not. So if I was running HL I would stand up for free speech knowing that only a few jihadists would actually pull their accounts and if those accounts are stuffed full of QPP shares they probably are not worth much anyway. Id take minimal short term pain knowing I was doing the right thing.In pursuit of pure bottom line where do your principles end? We know you now do not care about free speech. what else would you do or refuse to defend just for money?
T
CoolHandLuke
Tom,
I subscribed to T1ps for 6 or 7 years and have read a lot of what you write on here. I have always respected your writing and views although I am with Gateway – I am afraid that increasingly the tone and how you express your views detract from the message. Describing people as morons, Jihadists etc etc is name calling which belongs in the school play-ground.
I fully understand why serious companies don’t want their advertising on here – it is nothing to do with objecting to free-speech or what you are saying and everything to do with being associated with “standards” which they deem to be bad for their good name.
CHL
filthy lucre
You’d just better hope that Peter Hargreaves doesn’t see you then!
He won’t put up with any nonsense. Maybe he doesn’t like his firm being
associated in any way with a tiny blogsite riddled with obscenities and abuse?
Millfield
I have commented on your over-use of foul language in the past as being unnecessary, debasing the text and losing credibility for the writer. Naturally, this was met with a response of more of the same.
Of course reputable companies would not want one of their adverts displayed alongside some of your more colourful diatribes, and I am amazed that you cannot accept this.
Your excuse that TV channels might on occasion air “entertainment” shows or films containing similar obscenities after the watershed is a ridiculous comparison, as you are supposedly set up as a serious news and comment provider, not a low-brow entertainer. I am sure that if any of the main channel news programmes were peppered with expletives then the both the viewers and advertisers would quit in unison.
I believe that your site provides a most valuable service to all small investors, as you have shown great courage in taking on the bully boys and spivs. However, even though you seem to have much difficulty accepting criticism I would counsel you to reconsider your stance on the liberal use of obscenities in the name of “free speech”. You really do not need them in order to get your point across.
T.Welbourn
Likewise I deal with HL and will be writing to inform them that unless they change their advertising mind, I shall remove my ISA from their management together with my Vantage account. Thanks to your advice HL have benefitted from my purchases & sales. They appear to be biting the hand that feeds them thanks to a bunch of morons who somehow think that your website is responsible for the slow death of QPP. In the meantime, I hope you have received my first monthly encouragement thro’ PayPal.
Best wishes but I’m not enthusiastic about your choice of words either. I look forward to another excellent Pizza in the not too distant future!
turbograndad
Tom,
Some of the posters here just don’t get it do they, no wonder you use expletives at them.
Don’t they realise that the real obscenity is the corrupt financial disservice that most investers face, and that is what you are trying to expose.
The chronic failure of regulation, fraud on a grand scale, insider trading, the banking scandels, the manipulation, the cronyism, the PR ramping, the lies, the deceit, the creative accounting, the devious dealings, how the system is in the favour of the market makers, the insiders, as oppossed the the PI’s as oppossed to the II’s.
Where there is money it will attract the wrong doing, the shysters, the phonies and you always have cronies.
What do these people bleat about instead, some bad language, I think you have to draw your que from that Tom, they are not really interested in the language really, they just want to maintain the corrupt financial services that you are trying so hard to expose, corruption pays them.
If they doubt the corruption, its out there for all to see, a long history.
Startom
You harp on about free speech but block those that you don’t agree with. I never once abused you, often stated I didn’t agree with the bashing that took place on LSE regarding your pizza shop but often was the brunt of abuse from you, being called a w*nker/moron and twat for simply pointing out inaccuracies in some of your reports. Namely your ones about Phones4U, having spent 10 years working for them, I had slightly more inside knowledge than you did. You chose to shout me down and tell me I was wrong, when in fact, it was you that was wrong, and my blocking soon followed.
Abuse, lies and being in bed with ‘the most feared shorter in the City’ doesn’t give you a leg to stand on and proves this isn’t free speech. It is a grudge against a company, an opportunity for you to help your pal earn more money through blatant market manipulation.
The pleading for support/charity is laughable. In one bearcats you slate the Forex brokers, a few days later you are plugging ETX, well known for offering incentives to companies/individuals encouraging users to join them. Often offering much worse spreads than other brokers.
I wouldn’t enjoy seeing anyone struggle, but you have often stated you hope QPP holders lose everything, for this my sympathy for you has gone. You have only yourself to blame if your business/businesses go down the pan.
You started a battle with investors that were passionate about the company, that invested a lot, and were much smarter than you gave them credit for. They came back fighting, united together and you are now seeing the results of this.
Shame on you.
neverwhere
Tom, It’s worth pointing out that it’s not just about bad language… I actually don’t mind the language, find it quite entertaining…. I have more concern about you being abusive towards shareholders rather than the plc bosses. First thing you should clear out is the moron of the week competition… how ridiculously insulting is that?
wildrides
I like the swearing …………. so the more Shites , fecks , wankers , morons , the better as far as I am concerned . My only complaint is there are not enough cunts ( except the ones that write in complaining about the swearing ). So more use of “cunts” please . As you probably already guessed my favorite record of all time is from the late seventies ( about 1977 ) called “ Derick and Clive live “ . Its a series of comedic conversations between Peter Cooke and Dudley Moore ( a sort of precurser to the talking heads of Mel Smith & Griff Reece
Jones ) Pete and Dud were famous edgy comedians of the day . One track on the album is a conversation between Pete and Dud where they try to fit as many mentions of Fuck and Cunt in one conversation as they can . As a student at the time I can fondly remember it being played for the first time in the student union bar over the PA . Laugh ……… I very nearly died . If laughter could kill the whole union bar nearly died that night . It still makes me laugh just thinking about that night . Highly recommended listening for all students and those of a less judgemental disposition . The two are as mad as a box of frogs ( Spike Milligan mad ) and saved all their most edgy material for release on record , whilst performing mainstream Two Ronnies type stuff on BBC 1 & 2 at the time . Many mainstream fans still have no idea about their “double life “ as Derick and Clive ;)Phil
All I can say is that none of who complain have never had to cross a picket line.
I worked as a recovery manager for buy & builds and venture capital. I have recovered over 20 companies, some out of insolvency, some straight forward acquisitions that need to be integrated into the group. I have worked for and with companies in my cv to include. Hanson Trust, FH Tomkins, Suter (don’t normally mention Suter), BTR, MR Group Maskins, Firema and various venture capital groups.
In my time I have had a car burnt out, broken windscreens, windows, I have had a group of union militants broke into my car, shit on all the seats, piss everywhere, boot lids ripped off, lights, wipers paint strippers, gouges, hammer dent and in total 4 company cars written off..
I have been spat on, bags of urine thrown in my face, Human shit and dog shit in my face. Suits ruined, punched, kicked, bitten and on the worse in the early hours petrol put thru my letter box with a fire lighter block and my house set of fire. I had two young children asleep upstairs.
The local paper ran a piece where we were accused on union bashing as I sacked 4 union shop stewards for intimidations on two woman. The local BBC TV news ran the story published my name and photograph as a venture capitalist asset stripping a local company, From that union militants found my home address, in Leeds.
That company employed 246 ground floor workers. The union called an all out strike, 22 walked out, the rest stayed. I demanded they came back to work, they didn’t so I sacked all 22. It created a picket for 18 months, the workers that never went on strike suffered badly. Their children were beaten up at school, wives spat on the the town, threatened, some were excluded from shops either in sympathy with the union, or the shops had been warned.
A nightshift worker was beaten up, fractured skull, detached retina, ruptured roof of his mouth, Ruptured eardrums, smashed front teeth. Broken eye socket,jaw, collar bone, arm, wrist, amputated index finger. broken ankle, ribs, and a ruptured testicle, which had to be removed.
Two buyers from Rolls Royce came to visit, a man and a woman, As they went thru the picket a militant got his penis out and pissed all over the woman. They overturned their car and set it alight. The south yorkshire police looked on and never intervened.
You want me go on, ok lets go on. No just one more. A young 19 years year old apprentice who never went on strike was bullied and intimidated so badly he took his own life. The year 1988, the place Barnsley, South Yorkshire..
It took 3 years to break even, Rolls Royce did award them with a contract despite the picket, a very demanding contract for aero engine parts, we employed another 230 people. I phoned them earlier this evening, the MD at home, they are stlll there, still have Rolls Royce, they have 435 people employed in Barnsley and a factory in Seattle the USA, where 720 staff make aircraft parts for Boeing.
You really think TW language is an issue. The union that promoted that 18 month picket was the Transport and General Workers Union, a union for the common working man. My arse it was. It doesn’t matter how you talk to them, once they sense a weakness you are in for shit.
JustCurious
Tom
I see this one of two ways:
1. You know that HL, Tesco et al have a valuable brand to protect and are well within their rights to disassociate from your website in order to avoid tarnishing their reputation. You know that this is nothing to do with free speech and that your C4 analogy is nonsense, but you are feigning condemnation in order to milk this free speech angle and publicise yourself further. If so, well done you, it is a novel approach.
2. You genuinely believe that these companies are cowards and complicit in suppressing free speech. In which case, you are wrong. Most companies would strongly oppose endorsing a website which, for example, describes a rival (Louise Cooper, see Bearcast of 7 November) as a “silly bitch”. Do think that was proper use of your right to free speech? Personally I cannot think of any company that would be willing to associate with that kind of journalism, so perhaps you should be grateful that you have any advertisers at all…
J P Spaghetti
Don’t use HL myself else I’d join the other posters who’ve nobly taken the issue up with them. Have also made a small contribution, though – if I win the Lotto jackpot I’ll up it significantly. Re. the language (sorry but yawn!), I honestly can’t recall ever reading a comment here by Tom which I don’t think in all fairness was at least in some way proportionate to that which provoked it or wasn’t warranted in a post describing an act of dodginess. Maybe there’ve been some and I’ve just missed them. I also think a fair bit of humour goes above the heads of some (I’m originally a Northerner). Anyway, it’s late – here’s to fighting the good fight.
Phil
Filthy I see you had a great share rise today 6p+, Jesus. Only 600p to go.
I have worked out about 30LSE posts per penny, keep at it pal. You have that little sod called Mr Going Broke playing catchup.
Hows you mate Terry getting on, been in touch lately. I forget that £68 company, you know the one, the bargain, how much did you buy for. to jog your memory, re keywords, Fielding, Trouser, Mug, Nigerian email scam, (£68 × 441176), great move that one you certainly drive a hard bargain
Terry must have wet himself when you turned up,
turbograndad
PHIL,
Some fantastic posts, you could not have made it up, unlike the bastards you were up against, I’m sure Tom will note.
To all whom don’t trust Tom, and his motives, the way he tells it like it is, just move on, or ask yourselves what are your motives, whinging poms.
Malcolm Stacey
I’ve sent my email to Hargreaves Landsdown, expressing my disgust.. It’s very easy just go onto their website and click on’ contact us.’ https://www.google.co.uk/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=1&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=0CCEQFjAA&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.hl.co.uk%2F&ei=66jUVPSBLsa4Ud36gZAH&usg=AFQjCNF6VvAfiozrJroabxxnMRi1paWVsA&bvm=bv.85464276,d.d24
Mike Thomas
What a load of tosh. Nobody is trying to stop Tom speaking up and making his voice heard. He can say what he wants to whoever he wants and whenever he wants. Its called FREE SPEECH you morons.
If companies dont like the way he says it…..tough! Dont get dragged into the spoof story….besides: I shop at Waitrose, not that dump Morrisons or Lidl (God forbid!). Well done Tom!
wildrides
Mike
what planet are you inhabiting this week ? Waitrose is one of the companies that is black balling Share Prophets . More reasons to shop at more reasons .
Phil
Thank you Turbo, I appreciate your comments. Barnsley was a success story for the people of Barnsley, you cannot judge a population by those idiots.
They took a prewar, oil on the floor engineering company and changed it to a cutting edge engineering technology fit for the international stage, with international customers and they have created wealth for Barnsley with high quality engineering products, used in demanding environments where component failure is untenable. The real failure was the South Yorkshire Police, they were worse than useless.
I see we have a Quenron Mike Thomas posting, when he busts in Quenron it wont be Waitrose any more, he’ll be lucky to afford Zomba’s tickey market, then he will be grateful of god forbid Lidl.
Tony Ben came up and on camera worked that picket, well he would do. Ben was rich, he could afford it. You need money to be socialist, No money, your no socialist. When Mike Thomas busts in Quenron, he will be down here. Down with us proles living on the lower tables. maybe then he will finally get it, but don’t hold your breath. Like all Quenrons, underneath he is as thick as shit.
Mohsin
Tom
I am kind of feeling glad that HL has decided not to advertise on your website. AND it is not only HL . there is list of big companies that are not advertising on your website. I am going to send them a “Good Work” email as well.
Your theory of free speach is just rubbish and nonsense. As long as it is working in your favour, it is ok but the minute it changes, you bring “ free speach” and “Jihadist” words to help calm your nerves. You are an investor and researcher. You should just write about shares. But you are making it personal now. The compaign that you have run against QPP is an example. Every email, Every newsletter, every article is just about QPP..
Why are you calling them “BB JIhadist” ? Are you trying to start some kind of relegious war ?Check your tone and your words. As some of above people says you are using words that can’t be read or shown in presense of family members .
NOT advertising on your website is NOT againt the free speach – YOU moron
Mohsin (@mohsi_n)
Adge
Always thought them a bunch of spivs. Siding with the QPP fraudsters vindicates my original stance. Much better firms to do business with out there. Seem to remember an original firm with a similar name went bust. So always regarded them with suspicion. Leopard spots etc. Funny how these events stir up old bad memories.