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Estella, the railways and 1967
The Basque railway closed in 1967, butchers everywhere in Europe it seems thought buses were the way forward.
All that's left is the station, which now doubles as a bus station, and the Greenway to Vitoria.
I remember getting politicians in during my Stocktrade days. I encountered 2 in as many days. I asked Alistair Darling to come in and see our operation while he was still in opposition and a few days later I would give Angela Knight's script writers a lambasting at the inauguration of CREST.
I tried to explain to Me Darling that we had been christened the Socialist republic of Stocktrade by our sister firms and it was a name we liked in the city. We reduced the cost for employees to sell their shares from over a £100 to £15 and we got them a better deal. The price like in any market depended on whether you wanted to try to harder. The whole concept of using a stockbroker was exactly that they would earn their money by getting you a price but too many regarded it as a closed shop control of access to the market. They regarded their tarriffs as access controls that prevented (aka protected) the public from sharp practice. It was of course very sharp practice and while the doyen of deregulation is held in high esteem it was also the death knell for many established brokers as the pound shops or execution only brokers entered the fray.
We wanted to target the workers who had been getting shafted by charlatans ripping them off. We were very lucky that we understood that someone working in a bottling plant would want their shares sold at the best price for the lowest commission. We were lucky because those companies had management who agreed, not all did and many preserved the status quo.
Working as staff is something we did together, and this is why I wanted to speak to Mr Darling and also Ms Knight.
We thought that workers should own their company and if they couldn't own it all, we wanted to increase their ownership. This wasn't for everyone and certainly not for Me Darling who was quite candid that version of Marxism wasn't part of new labour citing Maxwell's pension collapse. I argued a modest amount of eggs in basket education shouldn't prevent it. I was a tad disappointed as I never got to explain how SAYE and matching shares diluted companies in favour of their employees, whilst often representing less than 0.1% of the equity. What it did mean however was someone working in a bottling plant would get £12,000 after 5 years saving and if the shares underperformance meant they were valueless then it was effectively just an interest only saving scheme.
There was a real jarring moment about that meeting especially as we were in a fast growing period that saw our staff rise five fold from 50 to 250 over the subsequent 3 years. It was the only assistance we ever asked for and it was hitting that this party of the people were against it while seemingly proclaiming to be into Thatcher's version wider share ownership. My interpretation was that they couldn't understand that workers couldn't buy privatisations but they could save £30 a month towards an SAYE. If the government gave that SAYE greater security and privileges there genuinely would've been so e wealth trickle down, to this day I feel I let my generation down by not pushing harder for this.
Later that week at the Mansion house in London I attended the inauguration of CREST with industry peers as well as listening to keynote speeches from Eddie George who was excellent and Treasury Minister Angela Knight, whose script writers were well off message. The UK had far too many bungling mistakes made public by Barings, but far more prevalent than many would believe. If as many kegs went missing as share certificates and dividends breweries would be out of business, and we all know how much some brewery workers drank.
Counterparty Risk was a major headache for financial firms and the industry needed to move to real time settlement. CREST replaced the old system of paper handling through to talisman an electronic system run by the London stock exchange. Stock and cash would move as seamlessly as a bus ticket does now with a tap of a card.
It put London back ahead in the global security industry and was fantastic news for our large financial institutions. Our place in the world markets was assured and whilst initially we would not deal and settle immediately the infrastructure was there to do just that.
What it wasn't good for was the private investor, the very people the scriptwriters concentrated on. I spoke to Ms Knight afterwards and explained her speech was well delivered but her scriptwriters needed sacked. They were miles off the brief. She was somewhat astonished, asked my name and firm. I replied including my offer to discuss broadening SAYE which I said was superb and offered greater opportunity for widening share ownership which I knew was no longer a Marxist theory but a conservative one!
Oh how we laugh as we look back.
The rich most certainly got richer under Tony Blair and the gap between rich and poor grew after the Marxist Major and never looked back.
The film the Big Short for me is the best black comedy ofall time and it is 100% in line with my experience. I'd like to have seen a 24 hour including Alan Greenspan's exuberance.
If anything I feel the cutting room floor probably had so many stories left untold.
All the time these people have skimmed 1-5% along the way. We've sat by and let it happen and now the poor have kicked back will we have brexit.
I think not - I still believe we will join the Euro in 2022 and get welcomed back with tail between legs.
Markets have changed a lot since 1967 just like the railways!
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