According to a report in the FT, the development of the Jackdaw gas field is not quite as dead as I suggested in a previous blog post, which was based on a decision in the Scottish courts. The FT says:
“The government is currently drawing up new guidance for environmental impact assessments in response to the Finch decision, which will be published in the spring. The guidance is expected to set the bar higher for fossil fuel projects. The energy companies will then have to resubmit environmental impact assessments to the Offshore Petroleum Regulator for Environment and Decommissioning, a quango which answers to Miliband.
But Rachel Reeves said last week that ‘we were really clear in our [election] manifesto that we would honour all existing licences including at Rosebank and Jackdaw and we will stick by those commitments’”.
This is all very well but the companies involved are surely going to have difficulties planning future capital expenditure given the outstanding uncertainty as to whether Labour politicians such as Miliband will stick to their party’s commitments. Foreign companies and investors will surely be scared off by this duplicity and dissimulation.
The UK stock market has been trending down. Is this the post-Christmas hangover or just the trend following caused by index tracking funds? I don’t know as Paul Scott might say. He wrote a very amusing blog post recently putting the boot into an AIM company who shall remain nameless that claims to have a cure for erectile dysfunction. He simply said he had tried it and it did not work. I certainly recommend doing some shopping to try products and services before investing in a company.
Meanwhile, AIM continues to lose companies via de-listing or moves to the Main Market. The ones delisting are generally too small to be on AIM where listing and regulation costs are too high. They should rightly leave.
The ones moving to the Main LSE market (see GlobalData today) do not seem to justify the reputational problem of being on AIM compounded by the recently reduced tax benefits. The AIM market has a major problem and will continue to decline unless it is substantially changed with improved and tighter regulations. A change of name would also help.
The Reform Party is now on a roll and is leading in opinion polls. This may not last as people tend to support minority parties between general elections when their minds get more focussed on reality. But Reform is certainly proving more credible even if not everyone likes Nigel Farage. The Labour Government is even panicking to the extent of cancelling elections in some local councils on the basis that the pending local government elections will mean some votes will be wasted as boundaries are redrawn. They are also gerrymandering by proposing to reduce the voting age and allowing anyone who is UK resident to vote (i.e. not UK citizens alone). These moves are certainly very deplorable to anyone who believes in democracy.
Roger Lawson (Twitter: https://x.com/RogerWLawson )
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