Recent Blogs.- ARE WE THERE YET? August 3, 2020No, this is our pause.First of all the good news.We are taking August off. Time to recharge. Learn to read copiously and properly. Walk a lot. Travel (close to home.) Sleep properly. And, sorry, a month free of blogs. ‘Thank God’ I hear you mutter.But before we go a few reflections.No, my dears, we are […]
- DRIVING TASTE July 27, 2020Drivers of taste… What is it that creates a craze? When I was in the toy trade I watched the overwhelming impact of licensed merchandise with agents selling the rights for Bond and Marvel and so on. Ordinary toys went to the back of the toy cupboard. In the late-1950s Connie Francis was no.1 pop singer with […]
- LIGHT AT THE END OF THE TUNNEL? July 20, 2020Sam Goldwyn said “it’s hard to predict especially when it comes to the future.” Forecasters are currently either catastrophists or Panglossian. On Friday one-time Father of the House, ex-MP and possibly the best Prime Minister we never had, Ken Clarke, said on the BBC Today programme we should probably expect the worst in terms of […]
- WHERE HAVE ALL THE FLOWERS GONE? July 13, 2020In the midst of this quirky summer the answer is they’re in our garden. What started as a way of consoling ourselves in lockdown became a thing of overplanting just to see what happened. The mallow, campion, scabious, cosmos, salvia, lavender and penstemon are all jostling for position in our flower beds and getting taller […]
- NUDGE, NUDGE..... July 6, 2020“Nudge Theory” popularised by Thalers, Sunstein and Halpern in 2008 became very popular. David Cameron, Barack Obama, the World Bank, UN and the EU were supporters. It showed how suggestions rather than instructions and positive reinforcement could change behaviour more effectively than more doctrinaire methods. In behavioural economics it was the go-to philosophy.I liked it. […]
- ARE WE THERE YET? August 3, 2020