Author: rogerwlawson

Digital IDs and VPNs – Do We Need Them?

The FT and other media have reported that the Prime Minister is planning to bring in digital IDs. It is hoped that this will help to reduce illegal migration. Everyone in the UK would need to have a passport or other digitised identity document.

Reportedly a Government spokesperson said “We are committed to using tech to make it easier for people to interact with the state, learning from other countries on how best to deliver this for citizens”. The UK is one of the few countries that does not have a secure digital ID scheme. Most of Europe does for example.

There will undoubtedly be strong opposition to such a scheme from a minority of the population who are paranoid about concealing or protecting their identity. But what’s my view? I think it is time to introduce digital IDs. They would help to prevent identity theft and fraud and we already have numerous forms of digital identity held by different organisations, including the Government. Having a unified system would assist immigration and law enforcement operations and protect my personal identification.

A related issue that has arisen recently is the use of VPNs (virtual private network software) to conceal your digital IDs on the internet. This is not something new – I have had some VPN software on my laptop for over 10 years to hide my id when using it in a public place such as a hotel. It prevents interception of my emails and web browsing data.

There is a petition on change.org that supports the use of VPNs – see https://www.change.org/p/protect-the-right-to-use-vpns-in-the-uk?

And this quote is in it from Tom Wiersma: “VPNs are the only way in which data to and from my systems becomes more difficult to hack. That data may contain financial, health or other private data which no one has the right to access. VPNs essentially make my on-line activity safe.”

It would be a shame if the Government tried to ban or restrict the use of VPNs.

Roger Lawson (Twitter: https://x.com/RogerWLawson  )

You can obtain notifications of new posts in future by following me on Twitter (now “X”) – see https://x.com/RogerWLawson where new blog posts are usually mentioned.

Apple’s Problems

An article in Investors Chronicle a couple of weeks ago reminded me of some of the problems Apple recently faced. It mentioned that a US legal judgement had upheld a complaint against Google for maintaining a monopoly on internet search services. Apparently Alphabet pay the iPhone maker about £15 billion per annum to keep Google as the default search software in Apple’s Safari Browser. The legal judgement could save Apple even more money apparently for reasons I don’t quite understand. But if true it shows how such cash is involved in the business of search.

Apple’s other problem is that they are clearly reaching market saturation in some of their phone markets and are seeing increasing competition in China. Although they are bringing out new models – the latest being the iPhone 17 and iPhone Air, they do not seem to have much more in capabilities than the iPhone 13 Pro I am currently using. Despite being over 5 years old, the battery life on my current phone is still good. I can see little reason to upgrade my phone.

Apple really do need some revolutionary new products rather than just minor phone improvements.   

Roger Lawson (Twitter: https://x.com/RogerWLawson  )

You can obtain notifications of new posts in future by following me on Twitter (now “X”) – see https://x.com/RogerWLawson where new blog posts are usually mentioned.

Jaguar Mistakes and Cyber Disruption

I am a longstanding owner of Jaguar cars, having bought my first one in 1967 (albeit a second hand one). Since then I have owned various XJ models and latterly an XE which is very cheap to run.

I am on Jaguar’s and my local dealer’s mailing list. So I now get regular emails encouraging me to buy a Land Rover as there are no new Jaguars now on sale. There is only one problem – I don’t want to buy a brick shaped vehicle which is bulky and expensive to both buy and run! Their latest advertising also featured pink cars fronted by androgynous persons and I wouldn’t want to be associated with such a product. Management incompetence is destroying a previously strong brand.

The latest mistake by Jaguar Land Rover (now owned by Tata) is to suffer a cyber attack which has caused them to shut down their IT systems. New vehicle sales cannot be registered. They say there is no evidence yet of customer data being stolen but I’ll wait to see whether I believe that. See FT article for more info: https://www.ft.com/content/ba88baca-cd59-48d3-a982-e73c9401b85a

Jaguars became reliable of late (not necessarily Land Rovers) and local servicing has been good but I’ll need to look at alternatives if I ever buy a new vehicle in future.

Roger Lawson (Twitter: https://x.com/RogerWLawson  )

You can obtain notifications of new posts in future by following me on Twitter (now “X”) – see https://x.com/RogerWLawson where new blog posts are usually mentioned.

FTSE Strong Run?

The editorial in Investors Chronicle this week by Rosie Carr noted that the FTSE 100 has delivered a storming performance year to date. It’s risen by 12% beating both inflation and the S&P 500.

It appears investors are looking to avoid a possible crash in US tech stocks particularly those focussed on AI solutions. Also earnings expectations for large UK companies have been rising and buy-backs have also been prominent. Does that mean that we can all relax and buy UK large cap stocks without much thought?

I think that would be very dangerous. Such stock market trends are simply a symptom of how the markets move in emotional and irrational ways.

Small and mid-cap stocks seem to be more rationally priced of late but are still not exactly cheap. I continue to look for well managed companies with a good return on equity and with some barriers to entry. So in essence, and as usual, I won’t be following the herd.

Roger Lawson (Twitter: https://x.com/RogerWLawson  )

You can obtain notifications of new posts in future by following me on Twitter (now “X”) – see https://x.com/RogerWLawson where new blog posts are usually mentioned.

Supreme Court Decision on Car Finance Welcomed

The Supreme Court (the Highest UK Court) has issued a decision on some of the claims where it is alleged that car finance and insurance was mis-sold. The claims were mainly based on the fact that those who purchased cars from dealers were not advised of the amount of commission they were paying to arrange it. The car dealers were simply taking the opportunity to sell an additional service to the car purchaser (the buyer did not have to take it as they could have arranged finance and insurance elsewhere).

The claims were potentially going to amount to billions of pounds and would have been very damaging to major insurance companies. I welcome the Supreme Court decision and I actually said this in a previous blog post: “It is surely daft that customers who bought insurance with their eyes wide open should be able to claim anything. They presumably were happy with the costs and level of cover, so the fact there were undisclosed commissions is irrelevant”.

One commentator on that blog post suggested that the car dealer was acting as an agent for the car owner so had a fiduciary duty to advise the owner of the terms of the deal and the commission being paid. But the Supreme Court said no fiduciary duty was owed which hopefully kills off most of the dubious legal claims.

Unfortunately the Court decision is not quite as clear cut as it might appear and there might still be room for some claimants to pursue their cases. Claims management companies were actively pursuing the recruitment of millions of claimants and some appear to be still doing so.

It is surely time for the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) to kill off any suggestions of a “redress scheme” in this case and to clarify the legal position going forward – by new legislation if necessary.

In general the Courts should not be inventing new legal principles or protecting the ignorant against their own mistakes retrospectively.

Roger Lawson (Twitter: https://x.com/RogerWLawson  )

You can obtain notifications of new posts in future by following me on Twitter (now “X”) – see https://x.com/RogerWLawson where new blog posts are usually mentioned.

Blocking Porn and the Use of VPNs

The Online Safety Act now requires digital platforms to verify the ages of their customers. The intention is to block minors from accessing pornography. But the use of Virtual Private Networks (VPNs) is a simple way around the issue that can be used by anyone with some basic knowledge.

Now I do have a VPN product on my laptop which was installed years ago. This was a product supplied by Norton as a package with other software security products. This was obtained to protect me from security issues when using public internet networks in hotels or elsewhere. It enables me to pretend to be in another country for example and can hide my IP address.

Does that mean that age verification systems used by porn sites can be bypassed? Yes it does from my simple tests. That might explain why the number of downloads of VPNs has rocketed of late. But apparently there are potential risks with some VPNs.

To quote from a recent British Computer Society newsletter: “Daniel Card, a BCS member with significant expertise in cyber security, spoke to BBC News about the hidden risks: He said: Many of these free VPNs are riddled with issues. Some act as traffic brokers for data harvesting firms, others are so poorly built they expose users to attacks.”

I think the message is if you are going to use a VPN then acquire it from a reputable provider and expect to pay a small fee for it.

The OnLine Safety Act has been criticised for other reasons – see https://consoc.org.uk/the-online-safety-act-privacy-threats-and-free-speech-risks/. It will certainly not prove effective in blocking access to pornography and even Apple have complained that their security systems may have to be relaxed to meet Government requirements for access to encrypted data – see this BBC report: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cgj54eq4vejo

It appears the legislation may have been invented by lawyers with little knowledge of the technical environment.

Roger Lawson (Twitter: https://x.com/RogerWLawson  )

You can obtain notifications of new posts in future by following me on Twitter (now “X”) – see https://x.com/RogerWLawson where new blog posts are usually mentioned.

Maven Renovar VCT (MRV) – Requisition and Voting

As previously noted, the Maven Renovar VCT has received a requisition from Paul Jourdan, the former manager, to replace the board – see https://www.investegate.co.uk/announcement/rns/maven-renovar-vct-plc–mrv/receipt-of-requisition-request/8955955 .

It seems to have gone very quiet since that announcement. Is the result a foregone conclusion or is there going to be a proxy battle as usually happens in such circumstances?

Here are my comments in case you have not yet voted on the resolutions:

As a long-standing shareholder in the Amati AIM VCTs I welcomed the change of fund manager to Maven because the performance of the Amati AIM VCT has been dire in terms of total return. I hold a number of VCTs (including some Maven ones) and the Amati managed one has been one of the worst in terms of performance. I would have sold my holding long ago if I had not been hampered by originally claiming capital gains rollover relief.

The prospect of Paul Jourdan continuing to be involved in the management of the company does not bode well in my view. We need to support the new board and Maven and let them get on with the job without the distractions of fending off general meeting requisitions.

I and my wife have therefore voted as per the recommendations of the current board.

Roger Lawson (Twitter: https://x.com/RogerWLawson  )

You can obtain notifications of new posts in future by following me on Twitter (now “X”) – see https://x.com/RogerWLawson where new blog posts are usually mentioned.

Paul Scott Rants on Digital Currencies and Meme Stocks

I follow Paul Scott’s blog which generally covers small cap stocks but he also covers other stock market matters. Today he gave his views on Bitcoin, other digital currencies and “meme” stocks which are being ramped up again in the USA. He concludes that they are all simple speculations.

Today as it’s Friday his blog is free – see: https://paulypilot.substack.com/p/pauls-daily-podcast-free-friday-25

I agree totally with what he says.

His blog is usually both accurate and amusing and is highly recommended.

Roger Lawson (Twitter: https://x.com/RogerWLawson  )

You can obtain notifications of new posts in future by following me on Twitter (now “X”) – see https://x.com/RogerWLawson where new blog posts are usually mentioned.

Digitised Share Registers and surrounding myths

The Investors Chronicle have reported that the Government has announced its intention to accept the recommendation of the Digitisation Task Force to proceed to a staged transition to remove paper share certificates. To quote: “The first stage of this process will see existing paper share registers replaced with digitised versions, which should be completed by the end of 2027”.

It astonishes me that there are any paper share registers still in use. Are there companies really still using leather bound paper share ledgers to track their shareholders? Surely most are now at least using spreadsheets to record their shareholders.

For publicly listed companies (which is all we are concerned with) they are typically using a few professional registrars who all have digital systems. So setting an end-date for completion of this step of 2027 is surely quite ridiculous and shows how little knowledge there is of the work required to remove paper share certificates.   

P.S. Some people think that the fact you are holding a paper share certificate is indisputable evidence that you own the shares. This is mistaken. The ownership is confirmed by an entry in the company’s share register alone.                                                                           

Roger Lawson (Twitter: https://x.com/RogerWLawson  )

You can obtain notifications of new posts in future by following me on Twitter (now “X”) – see https://x.com/RogerWLawson where new blog posts are usually mentioned.

Damning ShareSoc Press Release on Digitisation Report

ShareSoc have issued a press release on the Final Digitisation Report issued by Sir Douglas Flint. It is highly critical of some aspects of the report and quite rightly so. See https://www.sharesoc.org/sharesoc-news/digitisation-taskforce-report/

Mark Northway, ShareSoc Policy Director, included these comments in the press release: “It fails to protect key shareholder rights and introduces dangerous financial incentives which will further erode investor engagement.

It is particularly disappointing that the taskforce has chosen to prevent investors from leveraging digital technology to communicate between themselves by email. Without the threat of shareholder activism, many of the corporate governance improvements of the past twenty years would not have happened.”

If the Flint report is adopted without major changes it will set back shareholder representation by many years.

Roger Lawson (Twitter: https://x.com/RogerWLawson  )

You can obtain notifications of new posts in future by following me on Twitter (now “X”) – see https://x.com/RogerWLawson where new blog posts are usually mentioned.