Assisted Dying Bill Welcomed 

 Kim Leadbeater MP has announced that she is introducing an Assisted Dying Bill to the House of Commons. If it passes, this Bill would legalise assisted dying for terminally ill, mentally competent adults. The Prime Minister has promised a free vote on the Bill and with the House of Commons now dominated by left-wing MPs it stands a good chance of passing there. The House of Lords may be more problematic, however.

As a long-standing supporter of the euthanasia campaign group Dignity in Dying (see https://www.dignityindying.org.uk/ ) I hope this Bill progresses.

Assisted dying may not need to be invoked in most medical situations but it is very important to some people suffering from excessive pain or disability near the end of life.

The objections to such a Bill are generally misconceived. Similar Bills in other countries who have introduced such legislation have worked well and there are very few abuses.

Please support it!

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

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Speeches of Tory Leadership Candidates 

 I just watched the speeches of the 4 remaining Tory leadership candidates given on the final day of the Party conference – which you can see here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=12eFckpBFTU&t=1530s  

Here are some very brief comments on them – in the order they presented:

  • Tom Tugendhat. Generally a rather negative speech.
  • James Cleverly. Apologised for letting the Party down. So also negative.
  • Robert Jenrick. Negative comments about UK history in the 1970s, but otherwise positive.
  • Kemi Badenoch. Noted the decline in steel making in the black country so more negativity.

When will politicians learn that they need to present a positive vision for the future under their leadership by spelling out what they will do to improve matters?

Although all 4 candidates are possible leaders, or they would not have got this far, I rate Robert Jenrick as the best from this performance

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

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BHP Annual Report and Climate Transition Action Plan

As a shareholder in BHP, the major Australian mining company, I have received their Annual Report today. It includes their Climate Transition Action Plan (CTAP) which we are asked to vote on.

Photo above is of an experimental electric truck from the Report which might assist in reducing their Scope 1 and 2 emissions. As one of the biggest copper producers in the world investing in BHP is somewhat of a bet on electrification to reduce carbon emissions. But it is also dependent on demand in China.

I abstained on the CTAP vote because I do not think I have enough information to judge the merit of that Plan or even whether such a Plan is necessary. I did vote against the Remuneration Report though as I consider the overall pay levels excessive at such large companies.

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

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Alliance Trust GM and Greggs Trading Statement

I was hoping to attend the General Meeting of Alliance Trust (ATST) this morning on-line to approve the merger with Witan but at the time of writing despite having registered for it no invitation has been received. I voted against it of course.

Another company I hold shares in is Greggs (GRG) who issued a Q3 trading statement this morning. It is good news with total sales up 10.6% and LFL sales up 5.0% in company managed shops. They opened 152 new shops and closed 66 with a number of relocations.

This company shows how effective a change of management can be in reviving the fortunes of a business which happened a few years ago. But the share price fell over 5% this morning on negative media comments about slowing sales growth. I will ignore this “noise” and continue to hold the shares.

Paul Scott on Stockopedia reported positively on sampling the products recently. He said “Revenue growth slowed in Q3, but is still good. Maybe that’s to be expected as inflation moderates? Profit expectations are in line for FY 12/2024. Is “in line” good enough when shares are on a punchy 21.6x forward earnings? Lovely company, but shares look fully priced”. See the Small Cap Value Report for more information.

Personally I don’t mind paying a high price for shares in businesses that are well managed and generally meet forecasts.

Yesterday I had a visit from T.M.Akers who repairs antique furniture in London. It’s more than 20 years since I last saw him. Isn’t it annoying when you meet someone who appears not to have aged after 20+ years while I have become quite decrepit!

We have the Conservative Party Conference running at present but it’s not a very exciting affair. This is what John O’Connell, chief executive of the Taxpayers Alliance, hit the nail on the head when he said: “Labour came in promising to step more lightly on people’s lives, but the change they are set to deliver looks likely to be yet another round of spending increases and tax hikes that only further damages household budgets while doing little to reform gravely underperforming public services.”

Where are the positive proposals from the Tory leadership candidates that will capture the public’s imagination?

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

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What Went Wrong at DG19?

There is a good presentation by Paul De Gruchy given at the recent Mello event on what went wrong at Digital 9 Infrastructure (DG19). This is an investment company which had a valuation of £1 billion at one point but is now worth only £152 million. You can see his presentation on YouTube at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nq2EWGfE3rg

This looks simply like a consistent over-valuation of the assets which were reported to the board. The estimates were based on forecasts of future business activities which turned out to be very optimistic. The managers collected 1% as a fund management fee on the optimistic estimates of asset values.

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

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Keir Starmer’s Speech

I watched most of Keir Starmer’s speech to the Labour Party Conference yesterday – generally a quite lacklustre affair with no jokes. It was desperately short of substance on how he was going to fix the UK’s problems such as the underperforming NHS, the shortage of housing, the excessive migration using up resources and other problems.

It gave the distinct impression of having been written by a professional speechwriter who included many feel-good soundbites but ultimately the speech lacked much substance. Home Secretary Yvette Cooper’s speech was very similar – perhaps they use the same speechwriter?

These two ministers are clearly playing the game of promising action but not any that might offend someone.

Meanwhile the Taxpayer’s Alliance have been highlighting the excessive and growing Government debt that we have in the UK – see their comments on Starmer’s speech here: https://www.taxpayersalliance.com/taxpayers_alliance_responds_to_keir_starmer_s_first_speech_at_labour_conference_as_prime_minister

The first sentence says: “Taxpayers will receive little joy from a speech that sounded more like a protracted shopping list for ever more public spending than a platform for genuine change and reform” which is a good summary.

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

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ShareSoc AGM Report

I attended the Annual General Meeting of ShareSoc (the UK Individual Shareholders Society) yesterday via Zoom. It was not an exciting meeting.

ShareSoc represents private investors and does a lot of good work responding to public consultations and supporting campaigns on problem companies and issues. However member growth is poor and last year’s financial results were not good. They have a new Chairman since May in Heather Benjamin. I was of course one of the founders and the initial Chairman. Let us hope she can improve matters but it is not clear how she might do so.

If you are an investor in shares you should definitely join as it costs very little to do so – see: https://www.sharesoc.org/ . ShareSoc needs to promote what it does for investors but it regularly misses opportunities to represent private shareholders by PR activity. For example I don’t recall it commenting on the merger of Alliance Trust and Witan, nor on the share split at Polar Capital Technology Trust, both of which I thought were negative events for a large number of shareholders.

Mark Northway gave a summary of current policy issues and campaigns in the meeting and Jema Arnold covered the activities of Signet which seems to be expanding – they run discussion groups. Mike Dennis covered events and the financial results. They clearly need more funds as they are burning cash to promote growth which is slow in coming through.

There were few questions from the audience but one was about what happened over the law suits attacking the fund raising at the Royal Bank of Scotland. Investors in the rights issue feel they were grossly misled and although some compensation was eventually obtained it was relatively small. The main winners seemed to be lawyers and litigation funders.

There were three or more legal groups involved and I can explain to people what happened and why as I was initially involved in one of them. Call me on 020-8295-0378 if you want more explanation.

Overall this was a useful if unexciting meeting. Combining proxy votes with Zoom voting and physical “show of hands” voting for members present is not easy. I suggest if meetings are electronic then voting should only be by proxy in advance.

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

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Alliance Trust and Witan Merger

 

Shareholders in Alliance Trust (ATST) and Witan Investment Trust (WTAN) should have received voting instructions for how to vote on the proposed merger of the two companies (I hold one of them). I commented on the relative performance of the two trusts earlier this year – see https://roliscon.blog/2024/03/25/alliance-trust-and-witan-why-is-one-doing-well-but-not-the-other/

Clearly shareholders in Witan might be unhappy and might welcome the merger but I can see little benefit for Alliance Trust shareholders. The combined trust will be larger and hence the ongoing charge for Alliance shareholders might improve slightly but it is already quite low at 62 bps. But the larger an investment trust becomes the worse the performance tends to be. There are only so many “good ideas” that a fund manager can have.

As a holder of only Alliance Trust I have therefore voted against the merger. This is one of the proposals that seems of more benefit to the fund managers than to the shareholders.

BUT DO MAKE SURE YOU VOTE!

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

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Roy Colbran Obituary

It has been reported that Roy Colbran has died at the age of 93. He was active in promoting the interests of private shareholders and was an active supporter of UKSA.  I met him a number of times at company AGMs. A more detailed biography can be found here: https://www.theactuary.com/2024/09/04/people-society-news-septemberoctober-2024

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

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Good Medical News

I developed Alopecia Totalis (total baldness) about 40 years ago. Until recently there has been no effective treatment for it. But now NICE have approved a treatment for it on the NHS – see https://www.nice.org.uk/news/articles/thousands-could-benefit-from-treatment-for-severe-alopecia

My eyebrows grew back after taking immunosuppressive drugs for my kidney transplant which I would not recommend for others as they are nephrotoxic so the drug Ritlecitinib looks to be a positive improvement.

Whether it’s worth my while taking it after so many years of accepting being bald is debatable but it could be a great benefit to younger people who are likely to be more concerned with their appearance. However there are some side effects from taking the drug so some care needs to be taken.

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

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