In what may be my most read post to date, DLA Disgrace, I discussed the shameful process that our Government inflicts on the disabled people in our community. It is outsourced to ATOS – ‘an international information technology services company’.
Do you know what this means?
It means the Government does not trust your doctor.
How so? Continue reading
What is it about the ‘national debt’ that I am not getting?
Please forgive me for not being an economist but, when you owe loads of money, you can’t keep up with the repayments and you plunge deeper and deeper into the doo-doo, there comes a time when you go to your creditors and say:
‘Hey guys, however hard I try, I can’t pay you this money and, if we go on like this, I ain’t never going to repay it so lets work it out.’
Please forgive me for not being an economist but, back in the day, I was pleased to learn that some Third World countries did this and the banks who held the debt recognised the reality of the situation and wrote the money off. It was called ‘unpayable debt‘.
So who owns our national debt today? And at what point is it ‘unpayable’?
Continue reading
Last week, I heard Jeffrey Archer promoting his latest book on the radio.
In the light of Chris Huhne’s jail sentence for perverting the course of justice, the presenter insisted on asking Archer about his own experiences in prison. Monosyllabic were the answers. Not quite the PR His Lordship was after.
Isn’t it odd how some people take for granted an outstanding talent they possess in sacrifice of a dream they are never going to achieve? Continue reading
Cynics might interpret the title of this post as a definition of marketing and, thus, the world we live in today. But, as marketing is my job, how could I agree?
One of the advantages of working in creative businesses is that, on the whole, decision-making is based on creative talent and strength of argument rather than rank or pay grade.
After all, you can’t expect people to write what they don’t think, draw what they can’t see or film what they can’t imagine. Continue reading
For how long will we say that our educational system is our country’s greatest failing?
It won’t surprise you when I say for as long as our inadequate career politicians are in charge: Continue reading
It was revealed last week that, following the introduction of tuition fees, there has been a 40% drop in university admissions.
What a surprise.
You don’t have to be the world’s most sophisticated marketing or behavioural expert to know that if you start charging money for something you used to provide for free, you are going to lose a large percentage of your ‘customers’.
After the anger of my last post, you may be expecting a tirade against another flawed UK Government initiative.
But no. Continue reading
So now we are here in another New Year and, in the UK, the savagery of social welfare cuts continues to slice through our society.
We have had:
06 January: ‘Soldiers, nurses and teachers hit by benefit curbs’
07 January: ‘Benefit cuts will see more children taken into care’
09 January: ‘Pensioners could face universal benefit cuts after election’
13 January: ‘Benefit cuts threaten women’s refuge services’
14 January: ‘Benefit cuts: reforms will leave disabled people ghettoised and excluded’
Happy New Year from the British Government! Continue reading
This post on kindness was going to be my Christmas message until the massacre in Newtown forced me, and many others, to rage against the inhumanity of the US gun laws.
Mind you, even at Sandy Hook, there was evidence of extraordinary human behaviour: ‘What we forget, too often, is the kindness and resilience of this nation.’ And, way beyond kindness, who will forget the heroic bravery of Victoria Soto and her colleagues?
On 18 November, the TV producer John Lloyd was on Desert Island Discs. He is behind such programmes as Spitting Image, Not The Nine o’Clock News, QI and, yippee, Blackadder. In a surprisingly introspective interview, this cultured and educated man said:
‘Intelligence is something you’re given. Kindness? That takes effort.’ Continue reading
What a world.
Twenty-six children have been slaughtered.
To protect them, teachers have thrown their bodies into hails of gunfire.
‘Carnage’, as President Obama said: Continue reading
Once, I was Managing Director of a London advertising agency. After a couple of years, I felt I had done a good job. I had secured all the important clients, recruited a new generation of staff and, in the face of severe financial difficulties which I had inherited, I had helped sell the company to a new owner and, thereby, secure its future.
By the time had come to move on. I was keen to make a different career move. Once the sale was complete, and I had made sure the clients and the staff were happy and in place, I resigned.
A couple of days later, I was sitting in my office when the door smashed open and in charged two very large hit men. They shouted at me not to move, grabbed my arms, pinned them behind my back and slammed me up against a wall. Continue reading
