Very interested to hear on the Today programme about the summit on Somalia being held in London today (the Somali Prime Minister was interviewed).

Stuart Emmrich writing in the New York Times

London Fashion Week - Stuart Emmrich writing in the New York Times:

http://runway.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/02/21/in-london-more-to-see-than-just-clothes/?hpw


"It was a beautiful, contemplative space, and for the next half hour, I sat there in blissful solitude..." - I plan to go to this place and experience this for myself.

In a decline?

Is the Guardian / Observer in a decline?

Above:  The Guardian last Saturday had a front page article about the scandal of migrant children held at adult detention centres.  It was only after you had turned the page and read the continuation that it became clear that the events referred to 2004 and were the responsibility of the previous (Labour) government.  To misrepresent the facts in such a way is not a good sign of editorial integrity.

Above:  The Observer last Sunday had a front page dominated by a non-story about how the Olympic games would interfere with ambulances taking sick people to hospital.  On Broadcasting House on Radio 4 Sunday morning they were openly laughing about this ridiculous front page (former Metropolitan Police Commissioner Sir Ian Blair was particularly scathing).  Does the Observer have such contempt for its readers that they think they can publish any old rubbish and have it accepted?

Above:  last week Marina Hyde wrote in The Guardian about Rupert Murdoch and his plans to launch The Sun on Sunday.  Marina Hyde is usually never knowingly nice about anyone, but her piece about Rupert Murdoch was of such gubernatorialy-focused unctuousness that I wondered whether she was covertly asking for a job at the new publication.  A good editor should have struck this piece out.

In any case, I think it is going to be difficult for The Sun on Sunday to replace the disgraced News of the World.   The brands are totally different, and Rupert Murdoch is essentially launching a "me too" product (and as we know, me-too products seldom do well).  The News of the World built up its brand over 163 years, representing a huge investment in terms of brand awareness.

Just as QD Stores is struggling to replace Woolworths so I think The Sun on Sunday will struggle to replace the News of the World (unless Murdoch spends a fortune on television advertising).

I managed to watch Daily Politics at lunchtime.  Another discussion about youth unemployment without a single mention of the impact of migration.  There are a million unemployed young people and a million (recently arrived) eastern Europeans in the United Kingdom.  Various "experts" will tell you that the two facts have no relation to each other, and that the Poles and other assorted Europeans are not directly taking jobs that would otherwise have gone to young people.  However this argument ignores the displacement effect - the migrants take jobs that would otherwise have gone to British job seekers and these jobseekers then take jobs that would otherwise have gone to young people.  The effect is the same.

The impact of migration is not mentioned in debates on youth unemployment because the politicians have no answers to the problem.  They prefer to hide behind weasel words that "prove" migration is not really a problem.  The British government needs to negotiate directly with the the Polish and Latvian governments and tell them to stop exporting their unemployment.

What will happen when the restrictions on the movement of Romanians are lifted?  Conditions in Romania are so bad we can expect a significant portion of the Romanian population to move West.  Are the politicans just going to wait until this happens?

Certainly Damian Green needs to go - he is not capable of controlling the situation.

"I feel a lot better about my targets" - the past week at work

Monday

Director Vijay Singh returned from holiday and called a meeting of the managers in which we had to update him on everything that had happened while he had been away - the meeting took up the whole day and finished late.

Tuesday

I was one of the first in. 

All of the morning I worked on the Communication Plan for Private Individuals.  I was pleased with the way it fell into shape.  In the late afternoon a meeting with Vijay Singh and Surveys Manager Abi Reed to discuss the plan.  We were in the meeting four hours, and all my suggestions were accepted.  "I feel a lot better about my targets now we have this plan" said Abi Reed.  7.29 by the time I got home.

Wednesday

A lot of the day spent consolidating notes made at various meetings and translating them into action points on my To Do list (which is vast).

In the afternoon admin assistant Denise Cavandish retired.  The send off performed by Vijay Singh with various presents.  Denise Cavandish cackled her mirthless laugh and made snide comments right to the last.

Thursday

Most of the morning talking to list brokers about various databases we may purchase - areas of the population the Institute wants to research.

Friday

Another of the presentations - this time not entailing an overnight stay.

Looking back over the week it seems so banal that it is hardly worth keeping up this work diary.

Tescos is advertising vacancies for no payment (other than JSA and expenses)

I was shocked beyond belief that Tescos is advertising vacancies for no payment (other than JSA and expenses).

This was reported on Newsnight yesterday, and when I switched over to Question Time the Tescos recruitment policy was being denounced by Owen Jones in his usual gobby style (with former Deputy Prime Minister John Prescott wading in).

However I hope that this scandal is not going to be blamed on the Coalition government (which rather seems the angle John Harris is taking http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2012/feb/16/work-free-tesco-job-advert ).

Tescos rose to a position of unassailable hegemony during the New Labour era and I recall that Gordon Brown chose to launch the 2010 Labour election campaign in a Tesco store.

I also recall that Left-wing think tank Demos once proposed a Tesco store on every council estate as a way of driving forward regeneration.

And as usual no acknowledgement that excess labour supply via migration is causing the problem (you get called a "bigot" if you even try to suggest this).

So perhaps we should remind John Harris, Owen Jones, John Prescott etc that it's "time to own your own history" (as Gary Younge is fond of saying).

Alex Salmond is shooting his mouth off about the viability of Celtic FC

Reports that Alex Salmond is shooting his mouth off about the viability of Celtic FC if Rangers FC goes under (not that there is a serious possibility of this happening).

Presumably Alex Salmond is afraid Celtic will apply to play in the English League.

Would he ban this?

Landon Thomas Jr must be some kind of idiot

Rubbishy article in the New York Times about youth unemployment in London.  The journalist, Landon Thomas Jr, manages to write 1,400 words without mentioning that ONE MILLION Poles have moved to the United Kingdom over the last few years and have taken all the starter jobs that would normally go to young people (the "NEETS" Landon Thomas Jr mentions).  Employers prefer to employ Poles because they are desperate to work however low the wage, do not complain and do not know their employment rights.

Effectively employers, with the connivance of politicians, have imported a class of Polish serfs.

This has happened without any democratic mandate from the United Kingdom population.

Presumably Landon Thomas Jr must be some kind of idiot not to notice this.

Also I am not happy about the generally hostile tone of the New York Times coverage of the United Kingdom - they always find a negative sneering angle, no matter how distorted this makes the article.


http://www.nytimes.com/2012/02/16/business/global/for-london-youth-down-and-out-is-way-of-life.html?pagewanted=2&_r=1&hp

Investment in agricultural research and innovation shapes the type of food we eat

Interesting article by Tom MacMillan in the latest issue of Living Earth (the magazine of the Soil Association).

He argues that investment in agricultural research and innovation shapes the type of food we eat.

The government should be investing more in organic solutions instead of always backing the big vested interests.

Today is St Valentine's Day

Above:  Vivienne Westwood has designed a box of chocolates for the special St Valentine's Day catalogue for London store Fortnum & Mason.

Today is St Valentine's Day.  This year the day seems to be used in marketing campaigns more than ever, including a full page ad for Liberty in today's Guardian.  Possibly this is the most commercial St Valentine's Day yet.

Is this just the relentless onward march of commercialism?

Or is there are more subtle trend at work?

Professor Ronald Hutton, in his great work The Ritual Year, noticed that there is a tendency for the great public celebrations of the past (Christmas, Easter etc) to become absorbed into household life and become private family events, celebrating specific sections of the family (in the case of St Valentine's Day young lovers are being celebrated).  As "Society" jettisons the religious observances of the past it seems that individuals and families are taking up responsibility to mark the ritual days of the year (assisted by commercial goods and services).  Are they doing this consciously and willingly or unconsciously and instinctively?

Moody's is worried about the lack of growth in the United Kingdom economy

Credit rating agency Moody's says there is a possibility that the United Kingdom might lose its triple A rating (apparently not a strong possibility, but it might happen).

Moody's is worried about the lack of growth in the United Kingdom economy.

I am not economist.  I listen to all those clever people appearing on the media talking about "kick starting", "pump priming" and all that stuff about Keynes versus Hayek and it all seems just noise.  But I do know about public moods and public sentiments and public opinions.

Therefore I can tell Moodys:

There will be little internal recovery and growth until the ordinary people "feel good".  They will feel good when they have paid off their private debts (mostly credit cards, but some mortgage reduction) and saved a modest amount (£3K?) in case of calamities such as losing their job.  When that happens they will "feel good" about the future and start spending money and sustained significant growth will happen.

The good news it that a lot of this is already happening.  My guess is that we are probably close to a tipping point already (but I am not an economist).  Small businesses are supposed to be expanding, which is always a good sign.

The pound has fallen against the Euro which should help exports (although I am not happy about the way the politicians have tied us into the EU economy with all its record of lying governments, political interference and economic incompetence).

Organised crime gang

Currently watching Newsnight discussing the arrests at The Sun newspaper.

On the whole, from my perspective as an ordinary member of the public, I think "organised crime gang" is a reasonably fair description of that publication.

When I looked at Marina Hyde's biography on Wikipedia I noticed that she was a former Sun journalist.  The reason I point this out is that her writing (now for The Guardian) has a spiteful vituperative tone that is consistent with the output of The Sun.  Is it unfair to ask whether Marina Hyde, when working at The Sun, had any place within the "organised crime gang" and the "swamp that needs to be drained"?.

Templar cross on a continental shield

I have been away for a couple of days and returned feeling exhausted.

Staying at a large country house hotel, I had some free time Friday afternoon and walked through the snow to look at the village.

The church was open and I had a look round and found this heraldic carving.

As you can see, it shows a Templar cross on a continental shield (although the carving was English and included English text) with the crescent device that indicates it was used by a second son.

The shield is between the wide-open legs of a naked woman, indicating the origin of the family's bloodline.

Below the shield is a chalice.

On the scrolls at the side are what appear to be numbers.

Very mysterious.

Currently watching a discussion on Newsnight about low wages in the retail sector.

No-one is mentioning the obvious factor - so long as there is unlimited supply of labour coming into the country evil employers like Tesco will continue to drive down wages and expect the state to subsdise employees they could EASILY afford to pay correctly.

Close the import of labour and supermarkets will have to compete to attract labour.

Marina Hyde only has about three articles which she endlessly recycles.

Her acticle in today's Guardian was so over-familiar that even skim-reading it was a bore.

Looking at her biography her background is comfortable family wealth, public school, Oxbridge - and as usual with such people she can't resist telling the working classes what to do.

Following the Capello resignation, if John Terry is found innocent the whole FA board will have to resign.

And Hugh Robertson MP should learn to keep his mouth shut (I thought the Tory party was going to get rid of people with his kind of grossly privileged life record? - public scool, army officer, high finance and now Tory MP and he still finds time to claim £23k in second home expenses despite being within commuting distance of Westminster).

What do "Planners" do all day?

When I first started work at a London ad agency as a trainee copywriter I had only a hazy idea of how all the departments fitted together. New Business and Accounts were fairly obvious, but "Traffic", "Account Handling" and "Studio" were more nebulous. Especially I did not understand "Planning".

What do "Planners" do all day? You might think they have a master strategic role planning all the work of the agency, but you would be wrong. Planners actually seem to have no real power, and no defined area of responsibility.

One day a very senior director explained to me why agencies (the good ones) have Planning departments.

In the old days, by which he meant the 1960s and early 1970s, most of the clients were Sales directors. They were people with lots of authority to take decisions, were usually risk-takers, and wanted big campaigns to stimulate sales.

Dealing with these clients was easy.

Then from about the mid-70s onwards clients developed marketing departments. As well as the Sales director there was also a Marketing manager sitting in on client meetings. Agencies began to meet resistance to the big simple campaign ideas and an increasing emphasis on customer research, customer attitudes, even customer complaints about the product.

Therefore agencies developed Planning departments. The role of the Planners was to match the marketing people for each client, try to understand how they looked at the world, and to overcome any objections they might have to the agency's pitches. This often meant doing the client's marketing work better than the Marketing manager concerned.

From the late 1980s onwards the position changed again. Human nature being what it is the Marketing managers got lazy and often expected the agencies to do most of the marketing work and come up with most of the marketing ideas (which they then claimed the credit for when internally reselling to their boards). The best use of Planners was to integrate them into the account handling process so that the clients became dependent on them and could not easily switch agencies without experiencing a significant loss of marketing expertise.

But this is just one agency. Every agency is different. Planning is no doubt a continuously evolving process.

Above:  from today's Huffington Post.

It is difficult to think of any PR stunt more ridiculous - does the Argentine football league want the world to laugh at them?

Labour is not coming back any time soon

What a bad-tempered bitter article by George Monbiot in the Guardian today!

He is basically saying that the British electorate is "too stupid" to vote for the right kind of representatives (ie ones that agree with George Monbiot).

The reason the electorate did not support the Labour party at the 2010 election and does not support it now is because of the record of the last Labour government.  Far from being too stupid to vote Labour, the electorate is too wise to trust a party that consistently, over thirteen years, betrayed our trust.  I cannot see Labour winning the next election in 2015, which is why Ed Miliband is right to plan for the long-term (the 2020 election).

Presumably George Monbiot's anger is because he also realises that Labour is not coming back any time soon.

All the tainted generation of Labour "big names" needs to pass away (in the Lords as well as the Commons) before the party will be re-electable.  And then it will depend on having innovative new policies.  Plus a positive outlook (negative campaigning will just backfire).

After one of Margaret Thatcher's election victories in the 1980s (I think it must have been 1987) Labour MP Tony Benn was so enraged he said the Left would "take to the streets".  Commentators responded to this revolutionary call with laughter.  For the good of democracy I think we need to laugh at George Monbiot now - for all his intelligence and public-school education (and comfy family wealth which allowed him the luxury of being a "writer") the man is a fool.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2012/feb/06/right-stupidity-spreads-enabled-polite-left

In a funny sort of way the recent snow has made the house warmer - think because all the small gaps that usually let in draughts have frozen up.