Worldwide Financial Planning

This week has been dominated by elections. In the UK, we’re approaching the end of a thankfully short and relatively surprise-free election. Surprise free doesn’t mean uninteresting.

Fraudsters exploit our psychological vulnerabilities, operating without empathy or care. Remember, your bank or financial adviser might not give you a dopamine rush, but they care deeply about your financial well-being.

Meanwhile, the UK election has brought few surprises. Rishi Sunak’s campaign has failed to close the gap on Labour as stronger polling for Reform shows the Conservatives losing support.

Given that a manifesto is a plan for a party’s economic and social policy, it’s all you have outside of the emotional, high octane, divisive language used to coerce your vote.

While the headline figure looks promising, under the bonnet things are more complicated. Services inflation, which is seen as a better gauge of domestic inflationary pressures than the headline figure, remains far too high at 5.7%.

In France, President Emmanuel Macron called a snap election in a gamble that when it comes down to it voters will be less keen to put hard-liners in charge in Paris. With his party already a minority in the National Assembly, Macron is already facing problems passing new legislation and the final calculation is that even if RN win it could stop Le Pen winning the 2027 presidential election, as a few years in control of the French parliament may put the French public off RN for good.