Blackrock Overtakes British Government as Major Shareholder at Lloyds Bank

In the Business section of The Observer in mid-January I read that Blackrock has overtaken the British Government as the major shareholder at Lloyds Bank

The major US investment firm Blackrock has become the biggest shareholder in Lloyds Banking Group usurping the government, which is selling down its stake.

Blackrock, which describes itself as the world's biggest fund manager, with $5.1 trillion of investments, owns the largest stake in the bailed-out bank as the Treasury’s holding has now fallen to 5.95%.

The Treasury makes a disclosure to the stock market every time its stake in Lloyds falls by one percentage point, and an update earlier last month showed its holding falling below 7%.

In a stock market announcement on Monday, the Treasury said it had sold a further 700,O00 shares to push its stake below 6%.

Mervyn King on Brexit

Mervyn King, the governor of the Bank of England prior to Mark Carney, is reported as saying in an interview with Sky News:

During the referendum campaign, someone said the real danger of Brexit is you'll end up with higher interest rates, lower house prices and a lower exchange rate, and I thought: dream on.

Because that's what we've been trying to achieve for the past three years and now we have a chance of getting it.

Juncker Wants A Bitter Brexit Divorce

Financial Times reports today:

Juncker tells EU leaders to be ‘intransigent’ with Britain and to refrain from secret negotiations with the UK

Corbyn Betrays His Attitude To The EU

The Guardian has reported that Jeremy Corbyn said in a speech today that the Brexit vote represented people’s rejection of an economic status quo that had failed them.

That statement shows that Corbyn did not support Remain even when he said he did.

Britain Announces Marine Reserves

Reported in The Times today, September 15, 2016:

Four vast marine reserves are to be created around remote British islands in the Atlantic and Pacific oceans, the Foreign Office will announce today.

Commercial fishing will be banned permanently in a million square kilometres of ocean teeming with sharks, turtles and whales.

Destructive methods of fishing will be banned in another million square kilometres.

The bans come into force immediately around Pitcairn in the south Pacific and St Helena in the south Atlantic.

Reserves will be created around Ascension island in the south Atlantic by 2019 and Tristan da Cunha, also in the South Atlantic, by 2020.

Britain will pledge £20 million over the next four years to manage and enforce the new reserves, which will be known as marine protected areas.

Enforcement is expected to include occasional visits by a patrol vessel but will largely be undertaken by a “virtual watch room” that merges satellite tracking and imaging with fishing vessel databases.

Agreements will be sought with other countries to blacklist any vessels caught fishing illegally, meaning that they could be impounded when entering a port.

Sir Alan Duncan, the Foreign Office minister, will announce the creation of the reserves at the Our Oceans conference in Washington hosted by John Kerry, the US secretary of state.

Before the conference, Sir Alan said that the new reserves would double the area of ocean under protection around the UK Overseas Territories to about four million sq km, an area greater than the landmass of India.

Obama and Marine Protection

President Obama will declare the first fully protected area in the U.S. Atlantic Ocean when he addresses the Our Ocean conference on Thursday.

He will designate 4,913 square miles off the New England coastline as a new marine national monument.

This follows President Obama's latest declaration to protect the Pacific.

Three weeks ago, Barack Obama created the world’s largest marine protected area by expanding an existing ocean reserve off Hawaii to cover 582,578 square miles.

It quadruples the size of the Papahānaumokuākea marine national monument, which was originally designated by George W Bush in 2006 and was declared a World Heritage site in 2010.

My Space, Your Space, Where Space

When I write in my blog I am in my space. When I talk in, for example, Facebook, I am in that space.

I have said for years that the next big thing will be when you and I can be each in our own spaces and yet converse.

So I read Tim Cook's observation with interest:

Augmented Reality gives the capability for both of us to sit and be very present, talking to each other, but also have other things — visually — for both of us to see. Maybe it's something we're talking about, maybe it's someone else here who's not here present but who can be made to appear to be present.