The General Election seems to have degenerated into a mud-slinging stage where the main parties are attacking each other in a last gasp effort to highlight the deficiencies of the opposition and swing the vote. As someone who used a postal vote two weeks ago, I am immune.
But the BBC have convinced me that they should be put out of business by screening an appalling session of Question Time where clearly the audience had been selected to prejudice the Reform Party and Nigel Farage and the questions selected to make them look bad. The BBC should not just be defunded – they need total reform to get them back to factual news reporting as a public service and with no more political bias.
I now consistently switch over if BBC news comes on our TV although Channel 4 news is no better as they apparently tried to “stitch up” Nigel Farage as he put it. I can believe it.
The BBC’s coverage of the US Presidential election is another example of their bias. Joe Biden is clearly too old and verging on senile for the job if you care to watch the debates. Donald Trump clearly has his own if different defects but does not deserve his negative media comments from the liberal establishment. How can democracy create two such poor candidates for the top job? That is a question worth pondering.
One thing I have done recently is to read the Annual Report of Scottish Mortgage Investment Trust (SMT) in which I hold some shares. This is one of the largest and most widely held UK investment trusts. After a bad year in the 12 months to March 2023 they recovered in 2024 so the share price regained the previous year’s fall.
In March 2024 they commenced an active buy-back programme to reduce the discount to NAV which I welcome. I don’t normally like share buy-backs but for investment trusts they do make sense where the discount widens too much.
The Manager’s Review in the SMT Annual Report is worth reading as it is a good summary of global economic trends and the portfolio holdings. There are particularly interesting comments on their holdings in Tesla and SpaceX.
These were the concluding comments from manager Tom Slater:
“There is a lot to be excited about. Artificial intelligence, digitalisation, scientific and engineering progress, and the opportunities presented by transitioning our energy model will provide fertile investment territory for years to come. Jeff Bezos stressed the importance of focusing on the things that don’t change as you build a business. For Scottish Mortgage, that means seeking the most exceptional growth companies, being patient and constructive owners, and harnessing the outsized impact of the small number of extraordinary companies to drive our returns”.
There is also a good review of the development of Artificial Intelligence and how it might impact companies by Lawrence Burns. Clearly many investors are betting that companies such as Nvidia will revolutionise the business world. I am not totally convinced that this will be the case. This could be another dotcom boom and bust.
Roger Lawson (Twitter: https://twitter.com/RogerWLawson )
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