Focus on Funds Issue 3: Strong and stable

If you’re struggling to fill the long winter evenings now that Strictly has finished and Granny isn’t up to another game of Twister, how about the all new game of ‘spot the slogan’?

With pretty thin gruel of a manifesto and allegations of possessing a scant acquaintance with the truth, Boris’s landslide victory was widely credited to the political slogan that was rammed home at every possible opportunity – ‘Get Brexit Done’.

Tim Bale, Professor of Politics at Queen Mary’s London, said it worked ‘partly because it appealed to Leavers but also because it appealed to Remainers sick to the back teeth of Brexit’.

The ability to deliver a punchy message, often in three words, is a powerful communication tool; Tory ringmaster Dominic Cummings is credited for Leavers’ tub-thumping ‘Take Back Control’ in 2016, as well as Boris’s clincher – and possibly for muzzling the party’s insensitive ‘Vile Victorian’ or ‘Throwback from the 14^th Century’ according to your chosen commentator.

The key is to identify a galvanising force in your target audience and then hammer it home; make it credible – ‘Strong and Stable’ lacks for nothing as a slogan but it was delivered by someone entirely implausible in that context.

So, no prizes, but maybe celebrate any success with a handful of walnuts; can you link a party and a date to ‘Britain’s New Deal in Europe’¹ or maybe ‘Ambitions for Britain’²? How about ‘Vote for Change’³?

Markets responded favourably in the immediate aftermath of the election and that must be due in no small part to the prospect of an end to the stalemate that has so paralysed Parliament and hampered progress.

In the spirit of a clear message, clearly communicated, this edition of Focus on Funds has plenty of high quality content from industry professionals, commentators and investors alike to enable you make informed investment decisions – with Brexit perhaps now just six weeks away.

We welcome newly united Premier Miton Investors with ‘Diversifying for Good and Growing Income Opportunities’ and Aberdeen Standard Investments describes ‘Building a Long-term Real Estate Strategy’; Christian Leeming takes a look at ethical investing as ‘ESG Investments Deliver Strong Returns’ and our friends at Square Mile chronicle ‘The Evolution of Multi-asset’.

JP Morgan delivers ‘Investing in the Next Generation of Japanese Ideas’ and Fundscape ponders ‘Rule Britannia or Fool Britannia’; Kepler Trust Intelligence explains how investment trusts can reduce portfolio risk, Janus Henderson asks ‘Is the UK Doomed Without Big Tech Players?’ and Ediston Property Investment Company presents ‘EPIC for income’.

A cursory look at the list of political slogans since 1975 will confirm that we’ve been promised the known universe in the past and rarely left anything other than disappointed; the recent display of NHS/education/police/broadband/tree planting Top Trumps was particularly unedifying.

Temporarily eclipsed by the fool’s gold bandied around, the challenges that DIY Investor seeks to address are increasingly acute; just hours after the Tories’ victory, MP Damian Green suggested an ‘insurance system’ to fund social care.

However high the immediate ‘Boris Bounce’ the necessity for people to take personal control of their financial futures can only increase and DIY Investor and Focus on Funds will be there with education and information to assist you on your journey to financial independence.

Ideologically closer to UKIP’s 2010 General Election slogan of ‘Empowering the People’ than the Scots Nats’ ‘Yes we Can’ presumably stolen from Bob the Builder in 1997.

As ever we’d love to hear from you ask@diyinvestor.net

_{1 Conservative – 1975 EEC membership referendum}

_{2 Labour – 2001 General Election}

_{3 Conservatives – 2010 General Election}

Focus on Funds Magazine Issue 3

Click to view

• Strong and stable
• Diversification – investment trusts to reduce risk
• Building a long-term real estate strategy
• The evolution of multi-asset
• Ethical Investing: ESG funds deliver strong returns
• Technology funds – instinct is the nose of the mind
• Discounts and premiums
• Is the UK doomed without big tech players?
• Not just big in Japan
• Rule Britannia; or Fool Britannia?
• Investors in property funds take flight
• Let income funds do all the work
• The Nimble Trader
• EPIC for income