It is a long held contention of Bob Semple, one of our resident Wise Men who provide us with economic and market insight over the course of the year, that the economic recovery from the depths of the downturn in 2009/10 is unique in UK post war history because of

Last Friday provided possibly one of the more incongruous sights we’re ever likely to see.  A slightly “day-glo”, septuagenarian billionaire (apparently) giving a Citizen Smith-style fist salute to the watching world as he assumed the mantle of leader of the world’s largest democracy and Commander-in-Chief of the world’s largest army. 

Our last newsletter of the year is being written in the aftermath of the annual attendance at my daughter’s carol service at the end of last week.  The theme of the sermon was again the Miracle of Christmas.  And yet again, I resisted the urge to collar the Minister after

Whatever else we might say about 2016, we have never been short of things to write about this year. And so that fact remains as we approach the last month of the year. The whys and wherefores of Donald Trump’s Presidential victory need no further discussion here. The consequences very

The Conservative Party conference last week was noticeable on a number of levels. Not least because of an overt push from our new Prime Minister to grab the political centre ground. Had we not already seen some astonishing political changes across the globe already this year, we might have been

To the casual observer, current weather patterns are mirroring the mood of the nation post Brexit. Or, maybe one is driving the other. Mid summer weather was pretty variable over the piece, but the last few weeks have been blessed by the makings of an Indian Summer. Similarly, the immediate

Last Thursday marked the summer edition of our periodic strategy meetings, where we invite our two resident “Wise Men” in for coffee, sticky buns and some insight into what is currently making the world tick. It was the first meeting since the Brexit shock, and the time that has elapsed

In some ways, the next two weeks will provide us with our first glimpse of clarity over the post Brexit landscape as the interim results reporting season gets into full swing. This week alone, almost one third of the FTSE100 Index’s constituents will report on trading. Whilst the sales and

The EU referendum result last week was certainly not what we wanted; and a cursory look at our portfolio will tell you that it is not what we expected. The potential exit of the United Kingdom from the European Union will damage the UK’s economic performance in the short and

A recent edition of The Economist noted a marked increase in European democracies using referendums to solve particularly tricky political quandaries. The editorial suggested that this was a symptom of the political establishment’s failure to cope with the rise of populist parties by offering a meaningful vision of future success

Following the turmoil of the early part of the year, the prevailing mood across the UK equity market specifically – and in risk markets in general – has recently been positively serene.  After 2016 kicking off with two months, where changes from peak to trough levels of the FTSE100 in

It is a hackneyed phrase that everything seems to move faster now than it did in the past (unless of course it is me on the Saturday morning Parkrun), but there is genuinely an argument for rolling it out now to describe the first few weeks of this year.  The