I start with a few words on vegetables here at the Welsh hovel. Then onto today's election in France, and finally, the £16.60 pub burger in Wales: what is happening and what does it all mean?

I noted on Friday that the I shares from the alphabet soup that is Edge Performance VCT (EDGH for news, EDGI for the shares) are going to be wound up and sent off to the great share repository in the sky. This is after I shareholders got an 8.5p dividend with roughly another 3.5p to come following the disposal of Coolabi via a takeover on an enterprise value of £35 million. But I fancy I shareholders will be bitterly disappointed, given that they lost over half of their money over a nine-year period. A look at what happened with Coolabi may begin to explain why.

I have done a rather good new podcast on the US election which annoyed champagne socialist Darren Atwater greatly which tells you how good it is. You can access it HERE. In today’s bearcast, I look at Centamin (CEY) and Kefi Copper & Gold (KEFI) as well as at almost insolvent con Supply@ME Capital (SYME).

The correction in Gold and gold stocks continues and I am waiting patiently, relaxed as I am with my feet up as I sit on the veranda of my Montana log-cabin. It seems that the US election is taking centre-stage: I am not sure why, as both sides are promising the long-awaited fiscal stimulus, although Biden appears to offer more. But the outcome (or lack of one) will not make Covid-19 go away. The economic damage will therefore continue.

“Owner and operator of 47 premium pubs across Southern England and Wales”, The City Pub Group (CPC) has announced a “Year End Trading Update”, including “the board is pleased with the overall performance of the group for 2019”. The shares are currently at 197.5p – er, more than 9% lower on the day!…

Hello, Stare Swingers. As this old punter writes, the Footsie is up nearly 1.5%. Who’d have thought some news that Brexit is almost certainly on the doorstep would send shares soaring? Especially as so many companies have moaned that a break from Europe spells doom and gloom. But Friday’s massive hike in share prices proves one thing…

NoGold made the mistake of betting against me on the Election on the basis I did not know what I was talking about. It is time to cough up old boy. I discuss the election, its implications and the market euphoria of today. Then I look at Plutus Powergen (PPG) and its risible defence against a sack the board GM. I urge all shareholders to vote to sack the board.

Not content with leaving burying bad news on polling day to the likes of Purplebricks (PURP) or Versarien (VRS), this morning – election results day – AIM-listed Anglesey Mining (AYM) joined the fray with its Interims to September. They are truly horrid.

I had expected Boris to romp home as, rather with the Brexit Referendum, I sensed that there were a lot of very shy Tories out there and enough people would remember the Labour government of the 1970s which had to go cap-in-hand for a bailout from the IMF. Meanwhile the LibDem tactic of talking about cancelling Brexit and not much else backfired spectacularly and its erstwhile leader lost her seat. So Brexit is on the way, the Tories have a five-year term and life should improve. Above all, the Brexit deadlock is broken but now what?

Hello, Share Speakers. With the election only 20 days away, it’s wise to review our trading options. The election run-up can be just as important as the final result in Shareland. We are called to take scary buy, sell or hold chances because the outcome - particularly so this time - is so unpredictable. Yet there are some previous facts to help us.

Hello, share Bakers. You have to congratulate television’s political reporters. They always find new and ingenious ways of saying they haven't a clue what’ll happen next on the Brexit front. In my days as a telly reporter, I would have made strenuous efforts to find out the most likely course of events. But that was a long time ago and I didn't have such a forbidding workload - tweeting and contributing to the BBC website, etc.

Hello, Share Monkeys. Though you’re probably sick of Brexit, there’s no doubt that many of you worry about the current mess’s effect on our shares. I’ve tried to reassure you on a few occasions. But as the situation is constantly changing, it’s worth bashing on about the permutations, at least until the big vote.

A “Trading update” announcement from InterQuest (ITQ), a company subject to an attempted robber baron (Oops) management, buyout with a first closing date in less than a week. Hmmm...

There is a case for not bothering to vote at all. All four main parties (we include the SNP and, very charitably, the Lib Dems) are committed to running unfunded budget deficits up to at least 2025. None of them are prepared to make the tough choices a nation with an ageing population and a gaping budget deficit needs to make. In that sense all of the politicians are being dishonest with the electorate. So what's new?

In the late 1760's and early 1770's, the government of France was in a deep panic. They had recently suffered a disastrous and costly defeat in the Seven Years War, and the national budget was a complete mess. France had spent most of the previous century as the world’s dominant superpower, and the government budget reflected that status. From public hospitals to shiny monuments and museums, social programs and public works projects, overseas colonies and a huge military, France had created an enormous cost structure for itself. Eventually the costs of maintaining the empire vastly exceeded their tax revenue and by the late 1760s, France hadn’t had a balanced budget in decades. Debt was ballooning, interest payments were rising, and the government of Louis XV was desperate to do something about it.

To say that ShareProphets readers are right wing is to say that WG Grace is the greatest sportsman of all time. Yet, in a blatent scheme to rig the election in favour of the Tories, Tom has arranged for various patsies to argue in favour of the lesser parties. Yesterday Jonathan Price batted for team Lib Dem.  Although Tom expects today's offering to be a token paen to Labour. I say, prepare to be shocked: you're going to be voting Labour. 

Friday, we asked you to caption the photo inside in recognition of the snap election. The results seem to show that ShareProphets readers are neither Labour voters nor CloudTag fans. 

Hello Share Twiddlers. You may have noticed the Dow Jones indicator has been very sluggish lately. It just cannot break through its recent all-time highs above 18,500. As usual, lots of high sounding reasons are trotted out, all based on domestic economics and global forces. But these might be the-so-called experts showing off.

What a week for British politics! The party of socialism has elected a socialist leader: whatever next? The loons may be in charge of Her Majesty’s Opposition, but actually this is a great week for the country as a whole. Suddenly there is a choice.  

Hello Share Munchers. They've been telling us that the election run-up was going to send share prices down. The markets, after all, hate uncertainty.

George Papandreou is back in the game in Greece. This is big news and in this podcast I suggest a small bet on Greek equities on bonds might be in order as a result. Do elections matter for equity investors? I discuss both Greece and also the UK election in May.

Just a short BearCast Special on the situation in Greece with another election now looming in late January. What does it mean, who will win, will it mean the beginning of the end of the Euro and gow does it affect us? From a man who lives in Greece for a good part of the year and is an ardent Hellenophile if a profound Eurosceptic a few thoughts.