Original Broadcast: The Financial Outlook for Personal Investors
Neil Shah of Edison Group returns to the topic of Games Workshop. The recent trading update of this small cap that has grown into a FTSE 100 share significantly beat expectations. It is growing so strongly that it has already beaten Edison's analysts' 2027 numbers. The company benefits from loyal consumer demand, is still expanding geographically and will benefit from the forthcoming linked Amazon drama. It is a business which is growing in a sensible way while paying decent dividends. Neil points out that it was only a fortnight earlier that he talked of the attractions of Easyjet, now the subject of a bid from US private equity. It may be opportunistic but there is strong underlying demand and valuation there. Stelios still owns 15% of the company and, given that the shares were £18, he may not be willing to sell. But it shows that there are some very attractive UK businesses out there.
Guests: Neil Shah
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Original Broadcast: Gadgets and Gizmos
Steve Caplin tells Simon Rose that scientists have extracted yeast from the 5,300-year-old Ozti the Iceman to make sourdough bread. Next, they plan to produce beer. Boeing 747-400s apparently update their maps with a dozen floppy discs. If you're wealthy, it will soon be possible to visit your greenhouse with a VR headset. Nvidia's new AI chip apparently "could replace the mouse and keyboard". The Helios robot might be used for manual tasks in space, having no legs but 2 pairs of arms. There's a crowd-funded desk-mounted robot arm, but nobody knows what it can be used for. If you're too warm, there's a solar-powered cap. Scientists say they've found a way to put solar cells in windows. And cosmetic surgeons are finding clients are asking the impossible – to be made to look like an AI-generated version of themselves.
Guests: Steve Caplin
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Original Broadcast: The Business Of Film
James Cameron-Wilson is rather mystified by the success of #1 Backrooms, with Chewitel Ejiofor. A horror film based on a web series, it baffled James, unaware of its precedents but people are loving it. James was much more taken with #9 Power Ballad with Paul Rudd. Written and directed by John Carney, it's even better than his earlier films such as Once and Sing Street. Peopled with interesting characters and with witty dialogue and great music, it reduced James to tears. Ladies First, on Netflix, is an English-language version of their first French-language film. Starring Sacha Baron Cohen and Rosamund Pike, it's about a womanising liar who wakes up in a parallel universe which is a matriarchy. With echoes of Mel Gibson's What Women Want, it's witty and well acted but is more farcical fantasy than satire.
Guests: James Cameron-Wilson
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Original Broadcast: The Bigger Picture
Professor Tim Evans of Middlesex University believes that the recent interventions by Alan Milburn and Tony Blair are being ignored within the Labour Party, which is also oblivious to news that as many union members support Reform as they do Labour. It is clear that the new leader, if there is one, will be incapable of learning what needs to be done to win back the public, which would also pose problems for the Tories and Reform. Instead, Labour struggles to know what it is about, much like the Tories. Tim also believes that the UK police force is another failed brand, no longer an arms-length neutral institution but a part of the state and a political football. It is hard to see how the police force can extricate itself and rebuild its reputation.
Guests: Professor Tim Evans
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Original Broadcast: The Financial Outlook for Personal Investors
For once, Russ Mould of A J Bell talks politics. With the prospect in the offing of the 8th mid-term Prime Minister since 1962, how much attention do markets pay to such things? Rather less than you might think, concludes Russ after crunching the numbers. Although the results vary, by and large the equity market doesn't seem to be particularly threatened, while gilt market yields on every occasion have gone down, though with a wide range of outcomes. Perhaps this is not surprising. Whatever their policies, the occupant of Number 10 is more likely to shape the P in P/E ratios than the E.
Guests: russ mould
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Original Broadcast: The Bigger Picture
Political commentator Mike Indian discusses the essay from the Ghost of Labour Past, Tony Blair, saying that Labour has lost its way. While he is right about some things, the essay has gone down like a lead balloon with many in the party, with Andy Burnham and Wes Streeting laying into him. Ahead of the Makerfield by-election, Labour is in a holding pattern. Whoever does succeed Keir Starmer will face a challenging landscape, to say the very least. Peter Murrell, who was at the heard of Scotland's governing party for 15 years or so, has admitted to embezzling £400,000. The estranged husband of Nicola Sturgeon, Murrell's case raises questions about her judgement and perhaps explains why she resigned so suddenly. Alan Milburn's "lost generation" report shows that today's young people face a perfect storm. Being detached from the labour market could harm them for the rest of their lives. But the report is not likely to find much sympathy within the Starmer government. Nor is there much in it to give young people hope.
Guests: Mike Indian
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Original Broadcast: Gadgets and Gizmos
Steve Caplin offers some solutions for keeping cool, including Sony's wearable air conditioner, a neck fan and an umbrella with a built-in fan and water misting facility. There's a humanoid robot at a supposedly affordable price. In Shanghai there's now a robot training school. LaGuardia has a life-size AI hologram offering help for travellers. The first Ferrari electric car has been universally condemned, except by the Pope, who launched it. There's a crowd-funded AR HUD system for bikes, though it's not without its drawbacks. A Chelsea Flower Show designer has made mushrooms sing. A statue forger was trapped through carelessness with a font. And there's advice on the best way to protect yourself from a bomb blast.
Guests: Steve Caplin
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Original Broadcast: The Business Of Film
After watching #1 Star Wars: The Mandalorian and Grogu, James Cameron-Wilson says he's exhausted by all these fantasy franchises. The effects are impressive but the plot seems redundant and he was extremely bored. Not so with #8 Finding Emily, the best romcom he has seen in quite some time. Produced by the team behind Love Actually and Bridget Jones, it's about a student trying to find a girl he clicked with, only for the search to go badly awry. Humming with great Curtis-esque lines, it has an engaging freshness and feels very real. After a brief mention of Hen, in which a hen observes Greek life, James discusses The Wizard of the Kremlin, starring Paul Dano and Alicia Vikander, about a filmmaker who becomes an adviser to Putin. On various platforms, it has an air of the Europudding.
Guests: James Cameron-Wilson
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Original Broadcast: The Business Of Film
James Cameron-Wilson urges us to see #7 The Christophers, Steven Soderbergh's virtual two-hander with Ian McKellan and Michaela Coel. About the children of a famous painter trying to get a forger to finish some of their father's canvasses, it benefits from superb acting and a magnificently witty script. Although a theatrical experience, it is a thing of beguiling beauty and is very funny. At #64 is Life Hack, another movie in which computer screens are depicted on the big screen. But this tale of an attempted heist by hackers set in the world of bitcoin carves out its own genre and deserves to be caught in cinemas. James continues his exploration of East German DEFA films with the 1966 banned movie Trace of Stones. Depicting life in the GDR in the 1960s, it seems uncontroversial now, though hardly flattering, and its home video premiere is accompanied by three documentaries.
Guests: James Cameron-Wilson
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Original Broadcast: The Bigger Picture
Professor Tim Evans of Middlesex University says that Labour, in office for less than two years, is at war with itself, with the party deeply divided into several factions. Labour is entering very choppy waters and may not be able to retain a level of trust with each other to keep the party together. It wouldn't be surprising if the public compared them with the Tories and think "same difference". Where are the big political beasts of yore? The unintended consequences of fully professionalised policians is that they are hugely ambitious, don't have the breadth and depth of experience of yesterday and feel separate from the ordinary public. The Greens and Reform are rediscovering the amateur tradition. Tim also discusses the battle between those who believe in the Laffer Curve and a smaller state and those who cleave to Wagner's Law, explaining why the state keeps growing.
Guests: Professor Tim Evans
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