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Hedge Clippings | 12 July 2024 If there was one topic aside from inflation and interest rates that was set to dominate the news in 2024, it was going to be elections - or more importantly their outcome. 64 countries, plus the European Union, have held, or are due to hold elections this year, representing 49% of the world's population. You would expect therefore to say "Democracy Rules" - except it doesn't always apply. The potential for change in Russia (even though elections were held) was limited to say the least, as it was in Bangladesh, or Pakistan, where the most popular politician, Imran Khan, was in jail. Last week's UK election is another case in point: Democracy, of a sort, took place with an overwhelming vote of no confidence in the ruling Conservative government, although only 59% of the population thought it was worth the effort to vote on the day. Presumably a fair proportion of the 41% who didn't vote were still following the UK's WWll era slogan "Keep Calm and Carry On". Meanwhile, a fair proportion of the 61% who did vote will have to do the same for the next 4 years. However, the result was lopsided. While the winning Labour Party control 412 or 63% out of the total of 650 House of Commons seats, they received only 34% of the overall vote. Much of the skew can be blamed on the UK's system of first past the post voting - although if blame is to really be apportioned, Rishi Sunak and his 4 predecessors in 10 Downing Street should really shoulder it. This system saw 12.2% of the vote cast for the Liberal Democrats, who won 72 seats, while arch-spoiler Nigel Farage's Reform UK party out-polled the Lib Dems with 14.5% of the vote, but only won a paltry 5 seats for their efforts. As above, Democracy of a sort, but we have to admit better than that available - or not, depending on your view - in Putin's Russia, or for that matter Xi's China, where he was unanimously elected by almost 3,000 delegates of the National People's Congress last year. Australia's political system may not be perfect, but proportional representation, thanks to our preferential system, sure beats the heck out of the UK, let alone China and Russia! Which leads us to the looming election in the US, where earlier today Joe Biden was mumbling and bumbling his way through an hour-long news conference following the end of the NATO Summit commemorating its 75 years' existence (six years short of Joe's own age). In between slips of the tongue (mixing Putin with Zelensky, and for a moment naming Trump as his Vice President) Biden sounded more like he was at an election rally than a summary of the NATO deliberations. Meanwhile Trump, thanks to the US Supreme Court's ruling on presidential immunity, was busy filing an appeal against his conviction on criminal charges stemming from hush money paid to a porn star. Unless Biden has a change of heart, which it seems he's unwilling to do, one of them will end up as President of the free world come November. Whichever side of politics you're on in Australia, thank your lucky stars you're here! News & Insights Down-trading Megatrend | Insync Fund Managers Why invest in global equities | Magellan Asset Management June 2024 Performance News Bennelong Australian Equities Fund Glenmore Australian Equities Fund Bennelong Long Short Equity Fund |
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