Spring is definitely here. The daffodils and narcissi in our garden are flowering (see photos) and other plants are sprouting. A tip: if you find that squirrels dig up your newly planted daffodils and eat them, switch to narcissi which are smaller but apparently less favoured for consumption.
Spring might be here and this seems to have made the UK stock market look a bit more attractive. It’s probably just temporary optimism as the economy is definitely in the doldrums. I have been purchasing small and mid-cap UK stocks but some of them have then promptly fallen. I must stop reading the share tipping publications! They are full of good “stories” and some of them certainly look cheap but the media rarely give you a balanced view.
Chancellor Rachel Reeves apparently plans to cut public expenditure so as to balance income with current expenditure but will it happen? I doubt it. Socialists have a propensity to spend other people’s money as I recall Margaret Thatcher said. Dismantling bureaucracies such as NHS England and all the numerous other quangos that have been invented in recent years will take both determination and money. At best it will take years to do unless we have a more forceful leader like the USA now has.
The only positive sector is defence where UK and other European expenditure will rise. But expenditure on defence does not make us wealthier. Bombs and shells create loud noises and kill people but they don’t make us richer or improve our lives.
Roger Lawson (Twitter: https://x.com/RogerWLawson )
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