Category: BUSINESS & FINANCE

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A New Era in American Politics

A New Era in American Politics

 

Here in London, we stayed up to 4am watching the excellent BBC US Presidential election results coverage. We saw  the incoming results from what has been such a diverse and as many found, a divisive U.S. campaign, which has now ushered in a new era for American politics and governance.

Normally those from other nations may not bother to stay up to the wee small hours  to watch such. However the the two candidates involved and the known baggage they brought with them to the campaign, did make this election race a fascinating spectacle for many around the globe.

clinton-2016-e1443548623177

Hilary Clinton the favourite, an experienced  party apparatchik,  who seems to have been around since her husband Bill was President over 15 years ago was the Democrats candidate. Her role as the powerful Secretary of State under President Obama, was regarded by many as a stepping stone to the White House but in the end this counted as nought.

mr-trump-yellow-tie

 

Donald Trump, a billionaire businessman who had  never held any political office and had  failed   badly in a Presidential bid in 2004, was the rank outsider.

He imposed his formidable personality on the election race, sweeping aside fellow Republican candidates and in effect bulldozing his way to be the only rival to Mrs Clinton and the Democratic Party.

The televised debates between Clinton & Trump were at times acrimonious with enough mud slung to make a decent sized football field!

They made compulsive viewing, more so than any other previous presidential  debates.

History was being made.

Mrs Clinton had policies planned that  she put to the people.  Mr Trump was rather vague on the same. He however  made some big bold  promises to fix the big issues, not heard of before by the people.

Mr Trump’s antics and comments during the campaign will become the stuff of  legend.

Any other candidate who acted his way, would have been bundled away, never to be seen again!

It was understandable that Mrs Clinton and the Democrats, initially thought that with the at times bellicose Mr Trump as her rival, election to the Presidency would be straightforward.

It became clear that Mr Trump in his rousing election speeches and promises during the debates, tapped into the visceral anti establishment mood felt by the majority of  US citizens.

These disaffected citizens turned out en masse to vote for someone whom they see as a ‘new broom’ to sweep away over 15 years of  distrust in the political system, the  stagnation of the economy, jobs and the continued involvement in foreign conflicts.

Mr Trump had no political baggage and to use a cowboy analogy ‘shoots from the hip’.

In computer parlance ‘WYSIWYG’ (What-You-See-Is-What-You-Get). This was so refreshing to many voters, fed up with dissembling anodyne politicians.

His various peccadilloes and outrageous statements did not matter to his voters.

As  with the quote attributed to  Oliver Cromwell nearly 400 years ago,  we get Trump ‘warts and all’, nothing is hidden.

Noting the similar feeling between many British and US people,  Mr Trump mentioned the momentous UK exit vote from the EU and said he would do a ‘Brexit’ 1000 times over if elected. He did!

Next Phase: Retirement

retirement

Next Phase: Retirement

Life begins at retirement.
– Anon

 

The phases of life are usually, from birth, getting an education, working for a living, retirement and then whatever comes next!  Of course this is not always the case as sometimes the grim reaper comes calling in before you even started to really live.

You also hear of cases now where the nanny state looks after the people in her very encompassing embrace and protection.  Just a few weeks ago I was talking to a man who was very proud of his disability.  He was only in his late 50s but he was half-boasting that he has not worked for more than 37 years and yet he and his family are comfortably housed, fed, and clothed.  (All he was worried about was how the new Universal Credit will apply to him and his family.  Again he is lucky as the Universal Credit is for the moment only affects those who are single claimants.)

I will not retire while I still have my legs and my make-up box.
– Bette Davis

At the other side of the spectrum, there are those who are only too happy to go on working as long as they can;  we have very dear friends who have worked all their lives, taking any kind of jobs along the way. They had just retired this year at the ages of 80 and mid-70.  They are both hale and hearty, probably because of their industrious ways and keeping busy all the time.

Peter and I attended a Retirement seminar a couple of weeks ago.  It was rather sobering to note that retirement is not all it’s cracked up to be.  Apparently, retirement is not really a time for that perceived and imagined comfortable life in the sun overlooking the seaside.  Retirement is just another obstacle course to navigate in one’s life.

I’m retired – goodbye tension, hello pension!
– Anon

If you don’t look after your money, your money won’t look after you.  The IFA conducting the seminar said that the number one foe of retirement is inflation. To start with, you might think that you have enough to live on, but can you still live comfortably in 10 years time when inflation has sunk its mighty claws into the basic necessities of everyday life?

Peter and I just hoped that the IFA gave us a frigthener to ensure that we invest the tax-free cash, which is 25 per cent of the pension pot.  But then again, he might have a point.  The salaries in the last 5 years have not really gone up but the prices of food, water, gas, electricity and fare have gone up exponentially.  These are basic necessities, things that we cannot do without.

It was only mentioned during the seminar that state pension is under consideration. It is being mulled about that it should be awarded at 70 of age for both men and women and that they needed to have both worked for a minimum of 35 years each (or to have previously claimed benefits for 35 years).

There are also the Inheritance Tax (IHT) to consider and most frighteningly, the dreaded Long Term Care.  If not thought out properly the home you paid for with crippling mortgage will not pass to your heirs.  Instead it could be forcibly taken out of your hands to pay for your long term care.

Another thing to really think about!!!

Saving for Retirement
And in the end, it’s not the years in your life that count. It’s the life in your years.
– Abraham Lincoln

Made in Manila

As many know, Filipinos work in most countries in the world.  Wherever they work and, certainly in the UK, Filipinos are regards as hard working, reliable,  law abiding, unobtrusive and friendly.
Many are overqualified (being university graduates) for the work they do mainly in domestic service.
To prepare these maids made in Manila can enrol in an academy, which would train them in anything housekeeping.
Many came to the UK as excellent trained  nurses and carers. Not so well known is  that the Philippines has excellent technical colleges & universities and  produced many computer technicians, programmers and coders who use their expertise around the world.
These workers, the carpenters, engineers, nurses, teachers and domestic helpers alike are known in the Philippines as  OFW (Overseas Filipino Workers).  They send millions of pounds to their families back home and contribute greatly to the national economy. Many international companies now outsource services to the Philippines too.

Trainee maids learning to cook

 Maids Made in Manila

Stephen Sackur, a BBC correspondent has recently posted an interesting article about these workers &  the growth in both the economy and population in the Philippines. Here is the article.

The Philippines has one of the fastest growing economies in Asia – but there aren’t enough jobs to go around. So every year the government teaches thousands of people the skills they need to get jobs abroad.

When I arrive at the state-run Housemaids Academy in Manila morning exercises are well under way. A squad of uniformed cleaners is poking feather dusters into all corners of the sitting room. In the kitchen trainee cooks are immersed in the finer points of salad preparation.

The academy has the feel of a soap-opera set – each room meticulously dressed to ape the reality of a grand residence. Below stairs is a classroom filled with old fashioned school desks. Here, I’m told, the trainee house servants take lessons in hygiene, respect and personal finance.

The Philippines government schools tens of thousands of maids, chauffeurs, mechanics and gardeners every year, with the express purpose of launching them into long-term service abroad.

For the state it’s a win-win. These economic exiles – there are are currently some 10 million of them – send back foreign currency which is the lifeblood of the Filipino economy. And the extraordinary exodus of labour acts as a safety valve in a country struggling to provide home-grown jobs for a population rising by more than two million every year.

“We are proud of what we are doing,” one of the trainee maids, Maria, tells me. “We are national heroes.” That was a phrase first coined in a government propaganda campaign, and it’s clear that the 20 young women now gathered around me – all immaculately uniformed and polite to a fault – desperately want it to be true.

“It can’t be easy leaving your families behind,” I suggest.

“We have no choice,” replies Evelyn, an elfin figure no more than 5ft tall. “I have a baby at home but no way to support him. The wages I earn in Kuwait will mean my mother can raise him.”

Many of the other trainees nod in sympathy – almost all, it seems, are facing the prospect of separation from their children for at least three years, possibly many more. Their reality will be prolonged servitude in an alien culture.

The mood in the academy has darkened. Half the young women before me are now weeping.

Trainee maids learning to clean
Trainee maids washing clothes

Alongside the remittances of overseas workers, there’s a new phenomenon keeping the Philippines economy afloat. It’s known as BPO, business process outsourcing – you could call it the rise of the call centre economy. More and more Western companies have moved their low-cost back-office operations to the Philippines.

“We’ve overtaken India,” Dyne Tubbs, a manager at Transcom call centres, boasts as we survey her army of Filipino telephonists handling calls on behalf of a UK parcels delivery company. It’s midnight in Manila, 4pm in London and the phones are red hot, as they will be until dawn.

Call centre

“British companies love us because our English is not accented. The brightest graduates from our universities fight to get a job here. We only take the smartest kids. And after we’ve finished training them they even get your British sarcasm,” says Tubbs.

One third of the Filipino population is under 15 years old. The country may have found a unique niche in the global economy but current rates of economic growth, though impressive, will not sustain a population projected to double from 100 to 200 million within 30 years. Which is why Jane Judilla may just hold the key to the Philippines economic future. Jane isn’t an entrepreneur or a politician, she’s a reproductive health worker who spends her days in some of Manila’s most squalid slums.

Manila

Thanks to a law pushed through by the government last year, she’s now permitted to offer the poorest Filipinos free access to condoms, the contraceptive pill, even sterilisation for women who want it. The Catholic Church, which commands the loyalty of 90% of Filipinos, fought the initiative tooth and nail but the clerics lost.

Judilla introduces me to Sheralyn Gonzales, a whey-faced woman of 30 with 10 children and another on the way. I ask Gonzales whether she’s happy. “I’ll be happy when I’ve had the baby and can get sterilised,” she says. “My eldest has dropped out of school, and we can barely afford to educate the others. I tell my children to have two kids, then use contraception.”

If the next generation of Gonzales’s heed her advice their country’s future is promising. If not, tens of millions of young Filipinos may find themselves stuck in a poverty trap, still dependent on overseas labour as a means of escape.

Retirement

download

Retirement is a phase in every working person’s life that comes sooner or later; many wish sooner rather than later.

But is retirement all what it is cracked up to be?

According to a British insurer, 1 in every 5 pensioners returns to work after retirement to alleviate boredom? Will you or are you one of the returnees?

Does life begins at retirement?

Is retirement an ending or a beginning?

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retirement

The UK’s Oldest Family Firms

It is amazing to see that England & Britain  have some  family owned and run businesses that from over 500 years ago are still trading today!

The UK’s Oldest Family Firms

Below is an interesting article By Lucy Wallis of BBC News.

Balson's butchers shop in the 1880sBalson’s butchers shop pictured in the 1880s

Some of the UK’s oldest family businesses have survived for almost 500 years. What have they been doing right to make them so enduring?

According to the Institute for Family Business (IFB), there are around three million family firms in the UK.

It says the 10 companies below are thought to be among the oldest. Each offers an example to other family firms hoping to keep going for generations.

RJ Balson & Son – Butcher – Established 1515

If Henry VIII and Catherine of Aragon had visited Bridport in Dorset, they could have eaten meat sold by Balson’s the butcher.

Records show Robert Balson rented a market stall in 1515 in the “Shambles” – an open-air meat market where animals were slaughtered and blood would drip into the gutter on the street. A messy scene, the word shambles later came to be associated with disorder.

Descendants of Robert continued to rent a stall there. The family survived the arrival of bubonic plague in the town during the 17th Century.

In the Victorian era tragedy struck the business. Owner Arthur Balson, started living with a married woman and her young son Tom. During a game, Tom pretended to shoot Arthur with a gun, but did not realise it was loaded and accidentally shot Arthur dead in 1859. The business was taken over by Arthur’s younger brother Richard.

Balson’s is now run by Richard’s great-great-grandson Richard Balson and uses recipes handed down through the generations.

On sale are ox cheeks and Bath chaps – a west country term for pig’s cheeks.

Offering personal and attentive customer service has kept shoppers coming back over the centuries. Balson says he helps sort out his customers’ problems from behind the counter.

“Usually if they’ve got a problem it’s because they are not eating enough meat,” he adds.

R Durtnell & Sons – Construction – Established 1591

Durtnell's Builder's yardRichard Durtnell managed to raise £360 in 1802 to buy his new builders’ yard

Since the financial crash of 2008 over 7,000 UK building firms have gone out of business, but Durtnell and Sons, based in Brasted, Kent, has remained in business since the reign of Elizabeth I. Spotting new ways of working has helped the company thrive and in the early 1800s, owner at the time, Richard Durtnell, made a crucial decision to bring together all the craftspeople he needed, such as glaziers and bricklayers, in one yard. As a result of this innovation, he became one of the first general builders.

“I remember as a child going to London, there was a lot of arm-waving out the window, ‘We built this and we built that,'” says Alex Durtnell, who recently took over the business from his father.

“Sadly there weren’t in-car TVs back then, so we actually had to listen to what dad was saying, and I thought: ‘How boring is that.’ Of course now I do the same thing with my children.”

C Hoare & Co – Bank – Established 1672

A painting of the Fleet Street banking house dated 1829A painting of the Fleet Street banking house dated 1829

With two branches in London, this independent bank can trace its origins back to the reign of Charles II when founder Sir Richard Hoare began trading as a goldsmith and banker. His clients included diarist Samuel Pepys and Charles II’s widow Catherine of Braganza.

The bank’s headquarters in Fleet Street was built in 1829, where they issued cheque books and “washing books” or early bank statements. Since then the company has changed with the times, introducing online banking in 2008.

During World War Two, the headquarters was caught in a Nazi bombing raid, and staff had to use water from the bank’s well to extinguish the flames of the fire.

The tenth and eleventh generations of the Hoare family run the bank today and the company says the secret to their longevity is adhering to their core values and ethos – “to treat others as we would wish to be treated”.

Mornflake – Miller – Established 1675

Brereton Mill in Cheshire was also owned by Mornflake (image circa 1885)Brereton Mill in Cheshire was also owned by Mornflake (image circa 1885)

William Lea started milling oats at Swettenham Mill in 1675 in Cheshire and 15 generations later the company is still trading.

“Obviously technology has moved on and we have new equipment, especially to keep up with the demand for our oats, but the general milling principle has stayed the same,” says current managing director John Lea.

Mr Lea says constant innovation, investment and commitment to consumers is the key to staying in business. Innovation became particularly vital during World War Two. With home-grown, sustainable food a necessity in the war, then-owner Philip Lea was ordered by the Ministry of Food to leave the RAF and return home to Britain to “feed the nation”.

As the family mills struggled to cope with the excess demand, a new mill and factory was built. It was one of the few construction projects not involving munitions to get the go-ahead during World War Two.

James Lock & Co – Hatters – Established 1676

Lock & Co's shop in the 19th CenturyLock & Co’s shop in the 19th Century

Following the great plague of 1665 and the great fire of 1666, wealthy residents from the City of London moved to the west of the city in search of clean air. Entrepreneurial shopkeepers spotted the exodus and opened up businesses in the emerging West End.

Choosing the right location was crucial to establishing James Lock & Co. With a shop close to St James Palace, the firm became milliners to the gentry and the military.

Over the years customers included Admiral Lord Nelson, Sir Winston Churchill and Charlie Chaplin, but its most famous product was the very first bowler hat in 1850.

While its mainstay is traditional headwear, such as fedoras and Trilbies, the shop also makes sure it keeps up to date with the latest trends. So as well as holding Royal warrants to supply hats to the Duke of Edinburgh and the Prince of Wales, Lock & Co says its hats have also been worn by Hollywood film stars and rappers.

Toye, Kenning & Spencer – Medals and regalia – Thought to have been established 1685

Toye & Co's metal work department in the 1930sThe metal work department of Toye, Kenning & Spencer in the 1930s

“It is an immense responsibility to take on a family firm like this. I think it’s very kin to a stately home, stately factory even,” says chief executive Fiona Toye.

Using traditional techniques, the company makes insignia and regalia, such as the ribbons and medals presented to awardees of OBEs and CBEs, and have even helped renovate state chairs for the Kremlin.

Starting out as artisan silk weavers in London’s East End, adapting to change and appealing to new markets has been the key to business survival.

In the 1850s, soldiers in the Crimean war wore bright red coats with detailed trimmings so they could be seen by their battalions amidst the smoke of the battlefield and Toye and Co were making this type of regalia by the late 1870s.

By the 1860s the company had already spotted opportunities for making silk trimming for working men’s groups like friendly societies, so when the military turned to khaki uniforms from the 1880s, the company spotted another gap in the market with other societies like the Freemasons.

The company also made epaulettes, a sash and a hat for leading suffragette Flora Drummond – nicknamed “The General” – in 1908, and embroidered four ornate banners for Queen Elizabeth’s coronation in 1953.

“Family firms are experts at evolving, ensuring they remain competitive over the generations and relevant in the modern world,” says Fiona Graham of the IFB.

With the high costs of manufacturing in the UK, the firm may have to adapt to change again by moving production of some of their lower value stock overseas.

Folkes Group – Property and manufacture – Established 1697

An image from the old forge

Specialising in commercial property development and investment, this West Midlands-based company is now run by Constantine Folkes, the ninth generation to run the business.

Folkes evidently feels that staying true to the family’s roots has been crucial to keeping the business going. He still lives in the area where the firm was first created.

Berry Bros & Rudd – Wine merchants – Established 1698

Berry brothers shop exterior

Established by widow Bourne as a grocer’s in the neighbourhood of St James’s, London, the business supplied the new and popular coffee houses in the area.

In the middle of the 18th Century the tradition of weighing distinguished customers on the company’s scales began. Among those weighed were Beau Brummell and Lord Byron.

Berry brothers shop interior

In 1838, owner George Berry, became a special constable along with the future Emperor Napoleon III. During his exile in Britain, Napoleon III used the company’s cellars to conduct secret meetings ahead of his return to France.

The day after the sinking of The Titanic in 1912, the business received a letter from the White Star Line shipping company saying 69 cases of their spirits and wine had been lost on the ship. However the letter did not make any reference to the loss of life.

While preserving tradition, the company has stayed relevant in modern times by spotting new international opportunities, such as introducing wines from China to the shop in 2013.

Salts Healthcare – Healthcare products – Established 1701

Soldiers being fitted with prosthetic limbs at the Cherry street clinic in Birmingham

Former locksmiths John and William Salt started the business in the early 1700s manufacturing surgical instruments, but the company seems to have been adept over the years at responding to gaps in the market and social change.

In World War One they made artificial limbs for injured soldiers and now specialise in ostomy and orthotic products.

Aspall Cyder – Cider makers – Established 1728

A document dated 1729 contains information on the purchase of applesA document dated 1729 contains information on the purchase of apples

Tracing their history back to the Crusades as associates of the Knights Templar, Aspall Cyder is now run by Barry and Henry, the eighth generation of Chevalliers. According to their family tree, King Henry I can be counted as their great-grandfather, 26 times removed.

The business began when Clement Benjamin Chevallier, from Jersey, inherited Aspall Hall in Suffolk, but started to miss his favourite alcoholic drink.

Apple trees from Jersey were planted in the grounds and the brewery is still located at Aspall today.

As well as their long heritage, the company is not afraid to pioneer new techniques, producing vinegar as well as cider and apple juice.