Author: rogerwlawson

Assisted Dying Bill Passes Third Reading in Commons

The Assisted Dying Bill passed by a majority of 22 votes in the Commons today. I note my M.P. Clive Efford did not vote – a black mark against him as I have always been a strong supporter of such legislation. The Bill may not be perfect but it is certainly much better than the current legal position.

The Bill will now go to the Lords for further debate and another vote on possible amendments.

I am more concerned about the complexity of the paths now created to get approval for an assisted death than all the objections invoked against the Bill. If I want to leave this world, I will be very unhappy if people get in my way. I have had a terminal kidney disease for over 30 years and I may have some years left but I don’t want to hang around unnecessarily. Death from my kidney disease may not be painful but other people suffer a great deal and unnecessarily.

I first read a good book on the subject called Final Exit by Derek Humphrey in about 1990 and have supported UK legislation on the subject and the organisation that promotes it ever since – see Dignity Campaign: https://www.dignityindying.org.uk/

BBC Report: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cd78nvn2r1yo

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.

I’m Suffering from Shrinkflation

Dropped into my local petrol station this morning for a refill and as I often do at the same time, bought a Bounty Bar (coconut flakes in a chocolate coating made by Mars).

But it has definitely shrunk in size very considerably since two years ago. I haven’t checked the price changes (I don’t even look at the price of petrol), but I do object to them reducing the “sugar rush” I get from eating them. This is surely a big marketing mistake which should be reversed.

Maybe they’ll hope I’ll buy two instead of one? Or turn it into a bogof at a higher price?

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

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New Market for Private Shares – or an Opportunity for Exploiting the Gullible?

The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) have announced that PISCES, a new market for private (i.e. unlisted) shares will launch later this year. To quote from the announcement: “PISCES is a new type of platform where shares in private companies can be traded. It will open the door to more opportunities for investors, facilitating their access to growth companies. Private companies can tap into a broader range of investors and asset managers and PISCES offers exits for shareholders to sell up. As companies choose to stay private for longer, there is demand for investors to trade private company shares easily and efficiently in an organised marketplace. PISCES meets this demand by allowing secondary trading of these shares. Companies can set the floor and ceiling of share prices, and have a say over who can buy their shares”.

But will there be liquidity in the shares traded on this platform? And will investors get all the information required to make sound judgements about the merits of private companies?

There may just be big new opportunities to promote dubious companies by the wide boys who frequent financial markets.

See https://www.fca.org.uk/news/press-releases/fca-rings-bell-new-type-private-stock-market-growth-boost for more information.

The Investors Chronicle published an article last week entitled “The next 30 years of AIM”. In my view AIM has not been a success, particularly of late. Companies have been leaving AIM because of high listing costs and general reputational concerns (too many AIM companies have turned out to be run by dubious characters, with fraudulent accounts).

Although I personally have had some good successes investing in AIM companies, I have also had some failures which have offset the good ones. I now take great care about investing in AIM companies and never touch new IPOs.

How to fix AIM? Tougher listing rules are required such as longer track records.

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.

Winter Fuel Payments, Disability Changes, Garden Review and JGGI Webinar

The  Government has backtracked on scrapping Winter Fuel Payments except for poor folks like me (I’m joking). See BBC report here: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/c5yxvdl4d0pt . But it just adds one more needless complexity to the tax system.

The Government is also working on reforming disability benefits which are horribly complicated and where they wish to reduce the total expenditure. As a disabled person with minor problems I don’t qualify for PIP but I do get an “Attendance Allowance” which is not means tested.

If you want to get an impression of how complicated are disability benefits there is a good article in the latest Disabled Motoring UK magazine on the subject. The system needs simplifying!

The entitlement to a Free Car and associated costs under the Motability scheme is also clearly getting out of hand. See this for how to qualify: https://www.citizensadvice.org.uk/benefits/sick-or-disabled-people-and-carers/help-for-disabled-travellers1/motability-scheme/getting-a-motability-car/ . Needless to say, I don’t qualify and the only contact I have had with someone who did was when a new scheme member ran into my vehicle after picking up her new car a few years ago. Exited a side road without looking or stopping. Seemed to confuse the foot pedals. She was very apologetic.

Our garden is looking very well now we have had some rain. Photo below.

The yellow-flowered plant is a bunch of Phlomis which is a hardy perennial. There is a purple variety which seems much less tough. The roses are mainly from David Austin and are good hardy ones with few diseases. Plants need to be tough to survive in our garden.

Yesterday I attended a webinar presented by JPMorgan Global Growth and Income Trust (JGGI) which I hold. First purchased in July 2022 and with an annual total return since of 8.5%. They run a global unconstrained portfolio of 50 to 90 stocks giving a yield of 4.27% (some paid out of capital gains) and with an ongoing charge of 0.43%.

It seems to be well managed and they certainly have a large investment research team of analysts.

I was positively impressed so I will continue to hold.

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New FCA Investigation Scheme and Blasphemy Laws

The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) have published a new Enforcement Guide which may improve their performance. Too often investigating potential offences takes too long and progress is hidden from those affected.

The FCA says: “we recognised that our average investigation times were too long. We have focused our portfolio of enforcement cases in line with our strategic priorities and significantly accelerated our investigations. 

Our consultation included proposals for a new investigation publicity policy to provide a measured increase in transparency under a ‘public interest’ test. Following feedback to our consultation, we revised these proposals and limited the resulting policy changes”.

See https://www.fca.org.uk/publication/policy/ps25-5.pdf for details.

Another legal shortfall has been the recent conviction of Hamit Coskun who was found guilty of a religiously aggravated public order offence, namely, disorderly behaviour within the hearing or sight of a person likely to be caused harassment, alarm or distress by burning a Koran.

Mr Coskun said: “This decision is an assault on free speech and will deter others from exercising their democratic rights to peaceful protest and freedom of expression. As an activist, I will continue to campaign against the threat of Islam. Christian Blasphemy laws were repealed in this country more than 15 years ago and it cannot be right to prosecute someone for blaspheming against Islam. Would I have been prosecuted if I’d set fire to a copy of the bible outside Westminster Abbey? I doubt it.”

The Free Speech Union (FSU) has supported the legal opposition and subsequent appeal. See https://freespeechunion.org/

My opinion (being an atheist) is that the law should not interfere in religious matters or any attempts to limit free speech on the grounds that someone might be offended by religious opinions. Please support the FSU.

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

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Andrew Carnegie Biography

If you want some easy summer reading, here is a book I have been reading and can recommend. It’s the Autobiography of Andrew Carnegie. He was born in Scotland but emigrated to the USA at the age of 12. Starting at the bottom as a poor immigrant he became one of the richest men in the world – emulating John D. Rockefeller in the same era.  

He developed the US steel industry but effectively retired at a young age and devoted himself to philanthropic works. In particular the establishment of libraries of which there are several thousand in the USA and UK. He also endowed many educational institutions.

His management style is particularly interesting and he believed in giving way to the demands of workers for higher pay. Better to have well-paid and well-motivated employees than disgruntled ones he believed. By this approach he avoided union disputes and strikes that disrupted production – an essential aspect of running blast furnaces and steel rolling mills at the time.

The only negative episode that affected his reputation was the Homestead Strike where 10 men were killed after the State Militia were called out to break a strike at a Carnegie owned plant. Carnegie was out of the country at the critical time so can hardly be blamed for what happened.

The book is an easy read and very enlightening on how to manage employees.  

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

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M&S Cyber Attack – Disgraceful Incompetence

Marks and Spencer (MKS) have suffered a cyber attack that put some of its IT systems out of commission and exposed their customers to loss of personal information. Its on-line clothing business was shut down for several weeks causing very substantial financial losses.

According to an FT report this was caused by criminals breaching its systems using “social engineering tactics via a third-party supplier”. I presume they mean that identity impersonation was used to obtain access to M&S IT systems.

Apart from the fact that the heavy use of outside contractors will always make a company vulnerable, weak identity verification is always going to be a problem. Sensitive systems should be protected against identity theft by using better than simple password security. Companies such as Intercede (IGP) provide highly secure software products to secure identities – I hold shares in them.  

A company as large as M&S should know better. When your company relies on functioning IT systems to process orders, you really do need to take steps to forestall such cyber attacks.

FT article:  https://www.ft.com/content/19dcd993-877e-43c5-aab4-c727e574e3f2

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.

Interfering in Pension Funds

Whenever a socialist government gets elected, they think they can improve the economy by interfering in the decisions of capitalists. The current thinking seems to be that pension funds will be the next target with defined benefit pension schemes being encouraged to invest in big infrastructure projects covering transport, housing and energy.

This might be extended to target ISAs and SIPPs. ISAs hold as much as £750 billion but a lot of it is in Cash ISAs which don’t contribute much to the economy in terms of financing businesses. In total UK pension schemes, including SIPP pensions, hold a vast amount of assets, totalling over £3 trillion. This is a very attractive target for any Chancellor.

ISAs have been very successful in attracting savers because of their tax-free status and simple administration. SIPPs have also proved attractive in pension savers who want more control over their pension funds. It would be a shame if there was interference in these successful models. But the government apparently thinks that more of the money should be directed to financing UK companies. At present there are few explicit limits on what ISAs and SIPPs can invest in. And it is difficult to see how such limits can be imposed when investment trusts and funds which are listed or registered in the UK can pick from any listed companies worldwide.

The big issue for individual investors is whether the government should be interfering in the investment decisions of savers. The assets held in ISAs and SIPPs should not be diverted at the whim of civil servants or politicians who have proved to be incompetent investors if you look at history – British Leyland is a great example.

If investors wish to invest in the US economy instead of the UK’s – why should they not? This has proved a very successful investment strategy in the last few years mainly because US companies are better managed and operate in bigger markets.

Any wise investor does diversify investments geographically even if by doing so they expose themselves to currency exchange rate variance. Pensions in particular are long-term investments. The world economy might look very different in 30 or 50 years’ time so backing UK businesses may be perverse when Chinese companies might be dominant.

SIPPs are a particular issue because most SIPPs are written in trust. They are not owned by the investor in them but whoever is named as the beneficiaries. Government interference in where the money is invested breaches the fiduciary duties of the manager, whoever that is.

The key question is: “would diverting pension funds into infrastructure projects actually provide a good return?”. That is a very difficult question to answer and the answer might change over time. But if such projects do provide a good return then there are plenty of funds willing to invest in them and take any risks associated with doing so. They do not need the government to start interfering.

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.

Assisted Dying Bill Challenged

Despite the Scottish Parliament voting for an assisted dying bill this week, the Telegraph reported maliciously that the UK Bill promoted by Kim Leadbetter was at risk of collapse. The article suggested that some MPs were changing their minds based on anecdotal reports.

The Assisted Dying Bill returns to the Common on this Friday and a large number of amendments have been tabled. This seems to reflect some concerns (mainly imaginary ones in my view) about the protections against being coerced into volunteering for a painless death by those with some mental deficiencies. The large number of amendments might result in the Bill being “talked out” (a “filibuster” in essence by a few extremists opposed to any change).

All of this is hypothetical in my view and it would be most disappointing if this Bill was not progressed. Some MPs do like to sit on the fence when it comes to contentious political issues instead of providing leadership. No new Bill is perfect and there should be room for subsequent changes to tidy up matters after some experience of the practice. In other countries where such Bills are already in place the concerns have turned out to very few.

See the Telegraph article here: https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2025/05/14/assisted-dying-bill-risk-collapse-backers-change-minds/

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.

The Changing Faces of VCTs

I have received a document entitled “The Changing Faces of VCTs” – probably because I hold a number of them having invested some years ago. It’s a good summary of the successes of some Venture Capital Trusts and how they could be improved – the limits on funding and age of investee companies do inhibit the growth of successful businesses.

The rules for VCTs are now quite restrictive and they are no longer as attractive as they used to be. It is clear from this report that VCTs have been successful in stimulating investment in early-stage companies. What is not so clear is whether such investments have given good returns to investors in VCTs, even after the tax reliefs that investors obtain.

With high management charges and a high risk of failures in investee companies (which tend to drop out of the fund performance figures), I am not convinced that they are great investments at present. The main beneficiaries have been the VCT managers and the Government, not the retail investors in them.

You can read the VCTA report here: https://www.vcta.org.uk/news/vcta-launches-30th-anniversary-report%3A-the-changing-faces-of-vcts

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.