Golden Gongs and Going Global

1964: A Global Affair - Jack Arnold

Last night the Hollywood Foreign Press Association had their annual gong ceremony in LA. This saw "The Artist" and "The Descendants" both winning best film - in different categories. The British media picked up on "British" interests, which meant Idris Elba for his role in Luther; Kate Winslett for Mildred Pierce and Downton Abbey as best mini-series made for TV. The new film "The Iron Lady" about Margaret Thatcher also saw Meryl Streep pick up the award for best leading actress... to add to her stockpile! This does bring into question what is "British" and frankly, is it important? like most products and services, the nature of a now small world means that many people from different nations are involved. The Iron Lady was in part produced by Film4, Pathe, the UK Film Council as well as Canal+ and CineCinema to name just a few. A global film requires global distribution and it is pretty difficult to describe any film with a global reach truly "British".

This is to be in no way anti-British! It is always good to see people from Britain doing well in the film capital (in one category 4 of the 5 nominees were British). So congratulations to those that picked up awards - the long red carpet walk of award ceremonies for 2012 has now officially commenced.

Investing in "regular" investment products is also a multinational venture. A good investment portfolio will be globally diversified. Companies listed on the UK stock exchange invariably have a significant proportion of earnings generated from around the world, indeed as mentioned in recent blogs, some would be very difficult to describe as in any way "UK based". This new world order, makes protectionist policies rather daft despite all the political ranting by all parties. Certainly we should be using home-grown talent to its full advantage and providing products and services that are locally sourced where appropriate. This sometimes needs encouragement - which invariably translates as financial support. Anyone with enough money can, for example invest into films and support "British" film. If you would like to know more about this get in touch. Of course in practice, most of us are aware that we live in a global economy that requires all to benefit. Consider some of the items you are currently sitting near, most have travelled considerable distance to reach you. So thinking globally is probably rather easier than some would suggest.