Author: bruceandholly

Uncategorized

Share Tips from a Micro Investor (October 2025)

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When a share has been tipped, it is already too late. Everybody is piling in. So the skill for anyone with a share ISA is to use their own gut feelings to try to identify those shares which may be tipped in the future. For me, it is not so much following recommendations but that crucial zigzag line. Is it creeping upwards? Or is it beginning to plateau? One of the things I’ve noticed is that the best time to buy a share is about 8.45am on a weekday, when adjustments have factored in and the share price is at its lowest. I also think that it’s important to have an awareness of world events and how these are likely to affect share prices over the medium term. That’s not to say that I’ve never followed up share-tips.

As a fledgling investor in the years before covid crashed the markets, it was an Investors Chronicle tip which prompted me to buy some shares in Rolls-Royce. The value of which has since increased six fold. My only regret is that after they had doubled, I sold about 40% of the stock in the expectation that the rise could not continue. But it did. And more. That was followed by another Investors Chronicle share tip, which prompted me to invest in BAC Industries.

Then came Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. And America’s shakiness over its continued Nato commitment, which Britain had foolishly taken for granted, when its own military capability was hollowed out in the Cameron years. Things like an aircraft carrier without any aircraft because what had remained of Britain’s harrier fleet had their wings cut off. What was the sense in that? It was in response to that dangerous madness that I invested a few hundred pounds in Scotland based Babcock International Group, which I had discovered from my own research and whose share price has also risen

I am an ethical investor. I try to invest in companies which either manufacture in the UK or which source UK manufactured products. It is those companies which create our jobs. Something I don’t understand is why Ed Milband’s green energy revolution is so dependent on Chinese manufactured hardware. It is why, a couple of months back, I looked around for companies which manufactured energy renewable hardware in the UK. I came up with three companies in which I invested. Of those, my most successful investment has been Ceres, which has seen a significant rise in its share price. One of the things I’ve never understood, is why European economies impose ever increasing regulation on their own domestic industries whilst at the same time allowing those same domestic industries to be undercut by countries whose workforce do not enjoy the same employment protections. In some cases even with a suspicion that slave labour has been used in the manufacture of those outsourced products. What is the excuse for anyone importing anything made by slave labour? I’m reminded of the 18th century sugar boycotts. Maybe we should learn something from that. My ethics will also not allow me to invest in banks, finance companies, investment trusts or online gambling. Forget it!

But investing in UK manufacturing or companies which source UK manufactured products, is becoming ever harder to do. I noticed that since Trump’s tariffs came into effect, many UK pharmaceuticals are planning to up-sticks and move their operations across to the United States. I can also see that happening in the future with the UK film industry, which is now facing 100% tariffs from the United States. Only a week back, I invested in Pensana, one of the few companies outside China which specialises in the extraction and refining of rare earths, of which China currently has a 90% monopoly. It is those rare earths which are critical to the UK’s development of it’s own high-tech. Then a couple of days ago, I read that Pensana had cancelled its project to build a UK rare earth refinery because it is getting a much better deal if it relocates to America. I’m not sure how this is going to affect its share price. I might just hang in there and see what happens. At the moment it’s all a bit volatile.

Faced with tariffs not only from America but also from Europe, particularly as regards UK steel production, it would seem to me that the only way our government can protect British manufacturing from annihilation is to use its own buying power to increase the domestic market. By insisting that government departments and others in the public sector, source manufactured products only from UK companies where it is possible to do so in preference over cheaper products from elsewhere. Why not? That is what Trump is doing. And we are seeing it work for the American economy. Our public sector is also in a unique position to do that. Wake up! Ed Miliband!

mens health

The Hidden Costs of Weight Loss: Alternatives to Mounjaro

bruceandholly
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i am astonished to learn that upwards of half a million Britons are paying up to £330 for their monthly fix of Mounjaro. Isn’t there a cheaper way to lose weight? Like jogging? It’s more than you’d spend to finance a car loan. Back in the day, I asked my doctor what was the most effective way to lose weight. He suggested the Atkins diet. So I bought the book. And it was the opposite of everything I’d previously been told about diets. Stuff yourself on fats. But don’t go anywhere near sugar, bread or potatoes. I tried it. And it worked. I lost 14 lb in the first 6 weeks. And I kept it off.

But I’ve noticed that as I’ve been getting older the weight has been creeping back, even though i’m trying to keep the same diet. Metabolism? Or just lack of exercise? But sometimes it’s just difficult to eat healthy. Where’d you go to find a good salad bar these days? I might join a Ramblers club. Just to get that extra bit of exercise. So today I’ve been to Millets and bought a pair of walking boots.

Law, Uncategorized

2025/2026 Solicitors Practising Certificate Renewal

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I’ve just managed to renew my solicitor’s practising certificate for 2025/2926. For a non-techno like me, it was so much more difficult just to log on to the SRA website to make the application. In previous years I would just put in my log in details and password and then receive a one-time password, which I would then type in. Bingo! I’d only need another 10 minutes to complete the online application, make the payment, and my practising certificate would be on its way. Not this year.

Faced with the dreaded QR code, I spent many hours trying to suss out my cell phone to generate the six digits which would get me into the website. Up to then, my phone’s primary use had been – well – phoning! And perhaps the occasional text message. Whatsapp? Forget it! I watched the ‘ how to log on’ video on the SRA website. Then struggled again.

It’s pure luck that at the end of my road there is a small computer shop where I was able to get help to navigate through the technical barriers and complete my application. Well worth the £20 I paid the guy for his trouble. But it means that I won’t have to worry about that for another year.

Uncategorized

Essential Tips for Crime Scene Investigation (Updated October 2025)

bruceandholly

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  • A whiff of bleach always raises suspicion
  • Always carry a bottle of Luminol
  • If you see a plastic rubbish sack with something inside. Report it immediately!
  • Remember that your perpetrator will always overreact. As if screaming and shouting proves your innocence,
  • Selective amnesia. ‘I don’t remember anything about it, Guv.’
  • ‘It wasn’t murder Your Honour. It was a sex game gone wrong.’
  • Sometimes alibi witnesses lie. ‘We were at home watching Harry Potter.’
  • Sometimes you only have to look at the police mugshot.
  • Knock on every front door and ask for doorbell camera footage. See that van driving away? And there’s someone wearing a hoodie.
  • Look at the victim’s relationships. The pretty young science graduate shacked up with the tattooed cage fighter.
  • Remember that a defence attorney only has to cast doubt in three jurors to get a mis-trial.
  • Seize every cellphone to download its call/text history and track its last movements.
  • Has someone been digging the garden?
  • Collect every cigarette butt. So that you can test it for DNA.
  • If the cigarette butt does not yield an exact DNA match, look for familial DNA. Match it to a close relative and work through their family tree until you find the culprit.
Uncategorized

Stamp Duty Land Tax – When it all goes wrong

bruceandholly
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Since it replaced the centuries old Stamp Duty in 2003, Stamp Duty Land Tax has become one of the UK’s most complex taxes.

Within 14 days of completion of any significant property transaction, it is the responsibility of the buyer or leaseholder to file a stamp stamp duty land tax return and pay any applicable duty on the transaction. This is usually uploaded electronically by the conveyancer who completed the purchase, save that legal responsibility for ensuring that everything contained within the return is correct and that the correct duty is paid, is placed firmly on the client-purchaser, not the conveyancer who acted on the purchase.

In terms of complexity, a stamp duty land tax return can be compared with any complex self-assessment tax return. And it is the responsibility of the taxpayer to get it right as in most cases, HMRC take the information provided on trust unless there is something specific which raises query.

Most purchaser – clients are not tax experts and will rely on the advice given by their conveyancer as to how much stamp duty land tax they will be required to pay. However they must still make sure that the information they provide to the lawyer is correct, particularly as regards any second homes. Once the client has seen and approved the draft stamp duty land tax tax return, the conveyancer will upload it on the HMRC portal. Almost instantaneously, that conveyancer will receive back an electronic certificate in form SDLT5, confirming that the stamp duy tax return has been uploaded and received, even if the duty itself has not yet been paid. It is that SDLT5 which will then enable the conveyancer to register the transaction and pay the stamp duty from money held on account from the particular client. There are also some cases involving trusts, where the issues are so complex, that the conveyancer should advise their client to seek specialist tax advice before approving the stamp land tax return for upload.

Because of the complexity of some conveyancing transactions, there is always a risk of miscalculating the amount of duty chargeable on a particular transaction. The risk applies both ways. There’s firstly the risk that you may overpay stamp duty on a transaction because your conveyancer has not identified a legitimate relief to which you are entitled. Or you may accidentally fail to declare something which would otherwise have had the effect of increasing the tax liability which would otherwise be payable. Either way, the mistake is expensive.