Daily Brief – Tunbridge Wells

Tunbridge Wells

Not so much angry as furious and demanding answers, Tunbridge Wells ground to a halt at the end of November when 24,000 householders were without water for 14 days due to South East Water’s Treatment plant in neighbouring Pembury operating in the mealy mouthed words of the company’s more than generously remunerated CEO, sub-optimally. Poor filter performance, inadequate coagulation management, reduced backwash capacity, reliance on manual interventions and lack of online performance visibility were the reasons given by the CEO to Parliament’s EFRA or Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Committee earlier this week. Given that list of failures, the CEO must have thanked his lucky stars that he was not defenestrated before even more appropriate punishment is meted out. The final and relatively unreported reason he gave for SEW switching off the water was that Working From Home post Lockdown was the prime reason for increased demand for water in the area. Huh? For the householders and businesses that were forced to shut down for those 14 days while the erroneously administered toxic chemicals were flushed out of the system, that must go down as the least convincing explanation and one for which they should surely be demanding that their MP, Liberal Democrat Mike Martin, pursues vigorously with EFRA.

EUR/USD 1.1678.

Zagreb Advent

Croatia, known for its attractions as a summer destination with its Adriatic coast is throwing its hat into the increasingly crowded Christmas Market ring with its capital, Zagreb setting out to compete with the Christmas Markets heavyweights, being Cologne (4 million visitors), Vienna (2.8 million visitors), and Strasbourg (2 million visitors). Tourism makes a 20% contribution to the overall Croatian economy and Croatia is determined to expand that base. Zagreb Advent is the collective name for the Zagreb Christmas offering, which goes far beyond wooden chalets, sausage sizzles, and mulled wine. Art installations, food markets, ice skating, music events, and craft fairs are all on offer in Zagreb, and Zagreb Advent has been going now for 11 years but still only manages to attract 250,000 Zagreb Advent visitors. That contrasts with Dresden where the Christmas Market started in 1434, Strasbourg in 1570, Vienna in 1764, and Cologne in 1830.

GBP/USD 1.3443.

CES 2026

This fest, to refresh your memory is the biggest tech event in the world that takes place in Las Vegas annually. Standout innovations this year are AI Powered Appliances which learn and adapt to user preferences; smart home robots or humanoids; thin film TVs e.g. the LG Micro RGB TV; AI enhanced glasses; exoskeletons that help disabled people to achieve mobility and enhance sporting performance for runners or jumpers. So, if you fancy your coffee machine serving you your 11’s flat white while watching through your AI glasses complete with heads up displays both your humanoid cleaner doing the dusting and your 130inch ultra thin LG TV, then you should get shopping at CES 2026. After that, you could strap on your exoskeleton and without breaking a sweat, beat the current 1500 meters men’s world track record of 3 minutes 26 secs.

GBP/EUR 1.1505.

European Defence Stocks

Belatedly and therefore disproportionately given the need to catch up, markets like the European leaders who made future small step pledges to increase their countries’ defence spending, woke up this week to the realisation that when POTUS said that Europe would have to go it alone rather than relying on the USA to defend itself, he meant it. Consequently, European STOXX aerospace and defence stocks index (.SXPARO) jumped up 2% yesterday which marked the 5^th consecutive day of gains and which has seen a rise of 13% so far this year.

EUR/JPY 182.99.

Gimme Shelter

Rolling Stones drummer Charlie Watts must qualify as one of the longest serving members of any rock band. On this day in 1963 Charlie Watts left Blues Incorporated, was interviewed for the Rolling Stones and joined the band all in the same day where he served loyally, continuously, imperturbably and elegantly for 58 years until he departed this world on August 24 2021.

Ooh, a storm is threatening
My very life today
If I don’t get some shelter
Oh yeah, I’m gonna fade away
War, children
It’s just a shot away
It’s just a shot away
War, children
It’s just a shot away
It’s just a shot away
Ooh, see the fire is sweepin’
Our very street today
Burns like a red coat carpet
Mad bull lost your way
War, children (yeah)
It’s just a shot away
It’s just a shot away
War, children
It’s just a shot away
It’s just a shot away

Discussion and Analysis by Humphrey Percy, Chairman and Founder

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