The Government introduced Junior Individual Savings Accounts (ISA) in order to provide an incentive for parents and grandparents to make investments for the benefit of children.

The world seems an unsettled place. The outbreak of Swine Fever in China, followed by the Coronavirus pandemic, in conjunction with the plague of locusts currently afflicting Somalia, Ethiopia and Kenya, in addition to the forest fires in the Amazon and Australia, all sound familiar in historical terms.

Naysayers and doomsters have been predicting a drawback in markets for some time and, as usual, they failed to identify the cause.

The spread of the COVID-19 Coronavirus has put the media into an apoplexy and given politicians a ‘get out of gaol free’ card.

One could be forgiven for thinking that our political representatives are a useless lot; but, maybe, they have improved over the course of our nation’s history.

We all have a good understanding of the value of our income and our capital. Regrettably, our political masters worldwide do not have the same understanding of the value of taxpayer revenue and this is the central reason why government expenditure, certainly in the UK, seems to go hand in hand with poor value for money.

Cold Shouldered In 1815, following his defeat at Waterloo, Napoleon was exiled to the island of Saint Helena and destined never to return to disrupt peace again in Europe.

The Treaty of Paris was concluded on 20th November 1815 between the allies and the belligerent French; in the evening, a ball was held to herald a new era of peace in Europe.

Americans of voting age will shortly have a complicated choice to make between Donald Chump and Hillary Rodham Clinton.

We know about Mr Chump; he is. Hillary Clinton is altogether more complicated and, in her adult life, she has attracted attention in the Whitewater affair, as wife and first lady to Bill Clinton and as Secretary of State.

Taxation of Investments George Osborne’s emergency budget has created significant complications in the taxation of investments. In 2016-17 the personal allowance is £11,000. Following that, a further £5,000 of savings income (income from cash deposits and fixed interest investments) will be free of tax. Savings income, curiously, includes the profits from offshore bonds.

So, Greece is in a bit of a fix. The farming industry is not as competitive as its neighbours and is little more than subsistence agriculture, with the inevitable rounds of feast and famine. Olive growing is greatly encouraged, but olive trees do not bear fruit during the first six years, which poses its own problems. Black Athenian Pottery is a good selling line, but Stoke on Trent found out how difficult it is to put too many eggs in one basket.

Britain had sought to protect its Indian borders from the advances of the Russian Empire by creating regime change in Afghanistan. The king, Dost Mohammad, was replaced by a puppet ruler and all went well for a time until the new king’s excesses excited the local tribes to rebellion.

The Revolting French Charles Dickens’ captured the mood of the moment in the opening part of A Tale of Two Cities.

“It was the best of times it was the worst of times etc etc”