Ring out the Old

After 206 years my day job firm will on 1st October 2006 amalgamate with a similar
sized firm. I'll post more about this marriage of professionals in a while,
but today there was space and time enough for a glass of champagne for the partners together,
to celebrate what has I think been a very good innings for a very good
firm and to look forward to the next two centuries or so,
being as worthwhile as the last two.

At the turn of the 19th century, the firm was at the fore of opposing religious
discrimination against Catholics in Great Britain.
Some of the concerns for the UK at the commencement of the 21st century still
involve religion but not so much emancipation, as toleration, and live and let live.

Interesting but testing, times are ahead for us all.

The Future of Religious Life

It was a privilege to attend a meeting of some 100 religious
sisters brothers and priests on 21st September, held adjacent to
Heythrop a University College of London Uni. The keynote
speaker was Christopher Jamison, who is Abbot of Worth Abbey but for
lay people, perhaps better known for his principal role in BBC TV's
"The Monastery" programme.

He talked of the huge differences in the lifestyles of the current
teenage generation compared with those of their parents and
grandparents. (As a former headmaster he speaks from
experience) They watch less TV but
readily embrace new forms of electonic communication
and the internet, in ways which their parents may not appreciate
- MySpace; YourTube Blogging (even) make them more self
contained than earlier generations, which needs to be taken on
board when communicating with them. He considers that
that this selfcontainment results in their
being far less likely than their parents, to give to charities. This does
not mean that they are less generous than their parents but does
mean that the ways of communicating with them about giving
need to be adapted to their ways of life.
Charities report that an approach which
young people respond to, which in fact is one I loathe is,
that known as "chugging", when charity representatives
stop you on the street to canvass you to make donations. They respond
positively apparently - I don't and in it puts me off completely!

The meeting was not about encouraging young people to give
charities but how to encourage them to give thought to joining
them; the religious ones in particular.
The good will of so many religious men and women
of diverse ages, attending
the meeting was very encouraging and their enthusiasm
infectious. There were no instant answers
but the; "if you cannot beat them join them"; approach of setting up
websites and other forms of electronic communication, is proving successful.

I departed at teatime feeling both pessimistic and hopeful! Also very
glad and grateful that so many unsung heroes and heroines are
working amongst us for the Common Good.

Awayday by Train London (Waterloo) to Paris

mrs maytrees and I were sent by our 4 children (late joint birthday present) off to Paris for the day on 16th September 2006.
Wimbledon to Waterloo to Paris; travelling time about 2hrs 45 mins each way by train.Great cities need to be enjoyed in tranches imho; but which tranche?

We last travelled to Paris for a daytrip on Eurostar some 10 years ago. The train has had a makeover since1996 and the London to Paris train gives a far more enjoyable journey in 2006.
Cheapest seats out were fine but the restaurant car for the journey back was excellent. Indeed when I mentioned to the stewardess that it was good that the French influenced the Eurostar cuisine rather than the British, she was only to happy to come up with a 2nd
bottle of their finest wine at no extra charge.

We left Wimbledon at about 9:15 checked in for the 10:13 Eurostar from Waterloo and arrived in Paris in time for lunch.
Recalling Monmartre from student days and Eiffel Tower etc from1996, we decided instead to concentrate our few hours to looking at the Seine Islands and the Latin Quarter. The day in that tranche of Paris went something like this:

Muse National du Moyen-Age;snack (croque monsieur-type)lunchNotre Dame Cathedral; Berthilion ice cream(delicious!);Organ recital (JS Bach c.1hour at St Louis en Lile)
Flower market; Bateau-mouch trip on the Seine
walk via Sorbonne and student quarter to great rue Mouffetard shops/market/atmosphere
and cafe refreshment.
The Paris Metro + RER are cheap enough but their supposed quantum leap ahead of London Transport was more apparent than real. Huge walks at interchange stations; as hot as the Tube but far more odouriferous! The TfL Oystercard also appears to be streets ahead though I think Paris is upgrading its ticketing system.

We made it back to the Gare du Nord for the Eurostar back, with minutes to spare
and the delicious French food and drink on the trip back made a great end to a fantastic day. Arriving back at Wimbledon at 11:30pm

The switch by Eurostar from Waterloo to St Pancras scheduled for 2007, may
ironically, add a few minutes to the overall traveling time from South West London.

Common Philosophy or "Philosophy on the Common".

During our regular jog over Wimbledon Common this cool, misty Sunday morning,
my fellow jogger, who is Head Teacher of a local school, criticising this blog,
said that the posts seemed to him be 6 miles long and that he wondered
where the "delete" button was.

Thanks Chris; you are right of course; more pithy posts then.

Punctuation - "to ' or not to' ?"

Whether or not to include an apostrophe in the header slightly
vexed me when I started this blog in August. Initially I called the
blog "maytrees' musings"; but fretted a while about whether
its should be "maytree'es" or "maytree's" or "maytrees" musings.
The title was thus changed to drop the apostrophe entirely. A bit
of a cop-out.

I then decided to consult "Eats Shoots and Leaves", a small book on the use
of the English language, by
Lynne Truss. A difficulty is however that Eats Shoots and Leaves
is such a fascinating read, that after going through a few paragraphs
the reader is apt to forget why the book was consulted in the first place.
Apostrophes seem to be subject to many rules and customs, which
confusingly are applied to some words but not others.
Names from the ancient world are excepted from some, as is most definitely,
says Ms Truss, the holy name "Jesus".

In the end I have followed her advice not to lose too much sleep over
the apostrophe so reinstated the ' in the blog's title where it seems apt.

Are Politicians Ordinary Folk?

The Sharecrazy bulletin board has been buzzing of late with comment
about some of Tony Blair's colleagues resigning. Some posters
who may not be being too cynical, speculate to the effect that the
resignations are based not so much on honour but rather upon
currying favour with Gordon Brown (or other successor) and
parrying for position in the successor's post Blair administration.

Such public actions by politicians risk engendering cynicism
about the whole political process.

Yet the same politicians
in their private lives may be entirely different.
Out of the public eye they may be much more like "ordinary folk". Certainly that
resonates with my personal experiences of politicians. They can appear to be and
indeed may be, very decent in their private or personal
dealings with people yet can be or seem to
be so hideous in their public dealings.

I recall some years back at the height of the Ireland "troubles"
mrs maytrees, myself and our then new born baby, meeting Ian Paisely by chance on Lindisfarne Island.
He chatted and made all the right noises about the baby.
Despite our innate prejudices (cradle RCs) we found him far less hideous than his public personam had left us to believe. Subsequent research of Irish friends too confirmed that
privately his actions were often good;
eg he would take up housing difficulties for 'Nationalists'
'Catholics' 'Protestants'or whatever on housing merits
rather than the Unionist/political divide.
Yet his apparent intransigent, uncompromsing, stance in public is well known.
So perhaps imho it is in some respects with TBlair

Courtroom Dramas

Time spent in the High Courts of Justice in London's Strand can sometimes
be as dramatic as time spent at the National Theatre opposite on the South Bank.

During the long summer holiday season, which continues
until October, matters that come before judges for hearings, are usually urgent and can
involve much about the human condition that is extreme. Judges have
to decide such matters of deep concern, sometimes with only 60 minutes
of oral argument to guide them through a morass of papers.

A prospective immigrant whose escape to the UK led to
the murder of a family member at home, was one such case mentioned yesterday.
Sending her home might result in her suffering the same fate of her relative.
What should a good judge do? Society expects
much from its judges. Sometimes those expectations are realised but
not always though the outcome of yesterday's case, that the woman
lived to fight another day, seems right enough.

Ethics, Politics, Investing, Poverty and the Ordinary Citizen

The tragic events in Bangladesh following on from Asia Energy's (epic LSE: AEN)
deal with that government for massive open cast coal mining there, caught my
eye last week.

The poorest of people fighting for what little they possess not
being taken from them; the government and a UK AIM quoted company
stitching up a deal over their heads; rioting; death on the streets; AEN share price
plunge; Bangladeshi government (wisely imho) acceding to ordinary citizens; and AEN
shareholders (not I thankfully) facing total losses of their investments,
made for huge drama.

My musings about ethics and investment some while back still seem relevant:

"

... I am
sometimes asked: what shares
would I never buy? This begs the
question of why invest in shares in the first
place. Why not simply bet instead?
I remember a frank post on a bulletin board
by someone who said he used to bet on tennis
matches. He said – only half in jest, I think –
that tennis was a good bet because each game
was a two-horse race, whereas there are
usually more than two horses racing round
Lingfield Park.
Only having two players to consider meant
their form could be studied and the likely
outcomes for a punter who did his homework
were almost a certainty. He made such a
handsome profit from tennis betting that
eventually the bookmakers banned him and
he turned to the stock market instead.
If the sole function of investing in shares is
to make money, then bookie
betting might give a better
overall return. However, I
choose to invest rather than
bet because simply playing
with money serves no
apparent useful purpose
other than the mere chance –
like a spin of the roulette
wheel – that I might profit.
For me money is too
important, in a world
where many have so
little, to be spent and
perhaps entirely wasted in
large amounts on mere
whims. Ordinary individuals
putting relatively modest
sums on horse races and the
like represent no ethical problem for me, but
the expenditure of thousands of pounds on a
mere bet does seem ethically questionable.
The common good
Shares, on the other hand, represent a
financial means whereby products and
services can be developed by individuals and
companies for marketing within society,
potentially for the common good. Investing
in shares, at least in theory, can give added
value to the creation of products and services,
and leads to the creation of employment and
wealth.
I say ‘in theory’ because there are some
companies that are hopelessly or fraudulently
run, and others that hit bad luck and so
everything can be lost. The financial effect of
the loss on the shares investor would be the
same as if he or she had put it all on the
roulette wheel, but the entirely whim-based
factor affecting the big roulette wheel loser’s
losses would not apply to the same extent to
the poor old investor.
All the above then brings me back to the
question of whether there are any shares that
an investor should avoid. Obviously,
financially failing companies are near the top
of any list not to buy. However, a reason for
investing in the first place is that of
purchasing a stake in some underlying
procedure, which results in the creation of a
tangible service or product rather than a
whim. Therefore, some form
of personal ethical yardstick
against which to measure
the worth of the product or
service being bought into by
the investor is needed.
Subjective analysis
This is very personal
and subjective. Bulletin
board examples of
companies to avoid include
tobacco, arms, animal
experimenters, companies
without women on the
board and ‘shops which
buy stuff from child labour
merchants’. Having come
this far, I can only say that I
sympathise with many on that list but not
all. If the endocrine glands of a whale facing
extinction would save the life of a baby, I
would save the baby and not the whale.
Over the years I have been a private
investor, many of my own prejudices have had
to be rethought, as has some of my personal
ethical yardstick. I used to eschew anything to
do with hedging until I learned that the
...Trust,
which I help with, hedged sterling and francs
to keep the ...fares low. Now I have no
problems at all about investing in a company
like RAB Cap (RAB) – except of course when its
share price falls.
Another example giving rise to rethinking
of investment ethics was Pipex (PXC), which I
sold when the company announced a contract
win with a large chain of betting shops. Did
that mean selling off BT as well because
bookmakers or, worse still, people who fire
guns, might use the telephone?
But there is still a line I will not
cross: companies whose main aim is
armament production; human embryology
experimentation; tobacco, and companies that
maintain very poor employment practices even
after tribunal decisions and HR advice has been
given – making mistakes is one thing but not
learning from them is another. I also avoid
companies which heavily pollute and do not
clean up and those which evade taxes.
Some may dismiss the above as irrelevant,
too long-winded or preachy, but for me these
points are at the core of investing, along with
the fundamentals and finances of the
company in question. ■
"