Yes, it’s almost Christmas with only 13 working days (if you include this one but not weekends) to go until a Fatherly Chap (FC) dressed almost exclusively in red tries to squeeze down your chimney – even if you don’t have one of those, because they can smell the mince pies and whisky (shout out to the Scottish Cats) and Rudolph is a bit peckish already but really shouldn’t eat any more carrots because…well, we all know what happened over the equator last year.
There, got that out of my system and so there’s no need to mention that thing that happens on and around 25th December which is really about a baby in a manger and not the mass consumerism that we all find ourselves dealing with.
No, no, that’s really it…apart from admitting that yes, I have been eating mince pies since October; and yes, people do scowl at me when I say it out loud; and yes, I will have custard with that; and also, I once came 2nd in an office mince pie competition with my home-made fancies, pipped to the post only by Aldi…I’m over it, honest.
Some may say my latest letting loose at the TCWU is third time lucky, but not me. My hand was practically bitten off when I offered, but I did have a couple of things in my festive sack I wanted to cover, so let’s crack on…once I’m back with another mince pie and maybe a large tawny port, as I don’t actually like whisky #sackableoffence
You can tell it’s almost Christmas as you cast your mind back to December 2022 when the CII and PFS were engaged in an ‘active debate’ which is oft referred to as The Christmas Coup – the history of which is covered in a nice long read from Lois at moneymarketing. I feel I should defend “external consultants” here, as they do good work across all industries, not just Financial Services; but I can understand why people will be concerned about the prospect of cash being spent unnecessarily and purely to fix a situation that probably shouldn’t have reared its head in the first place. Hopefully things will get sorted as soon as possible and no one will have to write about it again…until next Christmas at least.
Talking of Christmas Cheer, I’m not sure I agree that we’ll be seeing a big name platform go out of business anytime soon, in particular for the reason that they are considered a luddite when it comes to tech. This suggests that someone out there will be going into administration and simply disappearing, but the situation the platform industry is in when it comes to Private Equity money being invested and the sheer value that’s seen in the market should give us all a positive outlook. Maybe it’s the eggnog (yuck!) talking, but I think we’re in the midst of a hugely positive and exciting time when it comes to development and innovation – and yes, I include Intelliflo’s upgraded Wealthlink service in that stocking of positivity. Anyone who wants to try and prove me wrong can (with sometimes odd auto-subtitles) do a Scrooge!
Before we get into the links, Christmas has come early here at the lang cat: we have a new website! Get your fix here, which at the time of writing has a splendid picture of Tom McPhail front and centre. See what we’ve been up to lately, as well as what’s coming up in 2024; and if you don’t have time to do a full user test, here’s Nat to tell us all about it.
#EARLYXMASLINKS
Links below and it wouldn’t be a Christmas themed TCWU (cos that’s what we do at the start of every December, right??) without a few cheesy tunes and so here’s a medley of songs for you to feast (your eyes) on!
Right, I’m off to tackle some wrapping so wish me luck as I’ll shortly be needing another port and a 2-week long lie down…which I’m being told will have to wait until the 23rd ☹
Cheers!
