Internet Psychologist
On Thursday morning, as I travelled to work, I have to admit that I was not paying full attention to the interviews on the radio. However, one suddenly caught my ear when the reporter told the interviewee, “That’s just crazy”. It turned out that the individual was a football fan …
This week I had a really special day. On Wednesday, I accompanied my wife, Cathy, to Buckingham Palace. She had been invited to a Royal Garden Party in recognition of her 21 years of continuous service as a school governor. It was a fabulous day and one that I will …
Today is “Grand National Day” in the UK. It is the time of year when millions of people with no experience in analysing horse racing place a bet. The Grand National Meeting in Aintree, Liverpool, is expected to receive £500m in bets this year. However, as Coral’s analysis of the …
The UK Prime Minister, Rishi Sunak, made a sudden and unusual statement to the nation yesterday evening. The trigger for this speech appeared to be the election of George Galloway as an MP by the people of Rochdale. The Prime Minister is obviously no fan of Mr Galloway and it …
The Speaker of the House of Commons got himself into a bit of bother this week. Parliament descended into chaos as politicians were angry that the Speaker, Sir Lindsay Hoyle, had changed procedures against tradition. Nobody actually mentioned the fact that these “traditions” were only set up in 1979 and …
There was much sadness in the UK this week when one of the nation’s most-loved radio presenters died suddenly. Steve Wright had been a fixture on the airwaves for over 40 years. He started on BBC Radio One, before moving to BBC Radio Two. Even though his show was in …
Much of this week in the UK has been dominated by the unedifying display of men talking about how big things are. Male politician, after male politician, was lining up on TV and radio to predict the size of the majority of votes their side was likely to get. They …
It’s been a dramatic week, hasn’t it? It all started with the shock announcement that after 27 years together, Tiger Woods was parting company with Nike. Then a Boeing 737 lost a fuselage panel mid-air, causing a rather obvious need for an emergency landing. I’m predicting that will become a …
There’s a good chance you are properly fed up with hearing “something unexpected in the bagging area” when you go shopping. Then you have to wait for an assistant so you can prove that you are over 25 just to buy alcohol-free beer. Self-checkouts save supermarkets loads of money on …
The political nerds who read this newsletter can’t have missed the fact that in the UK the governing Conservative party got a “bloody nose” this week. There were two by-elections for new members of parliament, both of which were lost in dramatic fashion by the Conservatives. Their voters either stayed at home, …
All the best guides to writing articles say “never start with an apology”. But I fear I need to do just that this week. That’s because after receiving my article last Saturday, several people got in touch saying they I had scared them. Last week I was talking about the …
British holidaymakers who had been to the Greek island of Rhodes came back to the UK last week full of tales of woe about their disturbed holidays. Almost 20% of the island had been ablaze and the “news” was that British people on their hols had to find alternative accommodation …
Every business has customers they do not want. Just ask the 331-year-old private bank in London’s Strand, Coutts and Co. They didn’t want to have Donald Trump’s friend, Nigel Farage as a customer any longer. So, they told him they were closing his account and that he would need to …
producing a vision for what you are going to do and why you will do it. Forget thinking about what other people will do. You can forecast your future if you create it.
If you are a “big change” business, then you are like my garden fence. Leaving it unpainted for so long has created much more work, at a higher cost, than if it had been tended to every year. Ignoring reviews of your online activity for long periods also means you make more work for yourself and raise your costs.