ECONOMY WATCH..

  

Who knows where the UK economy is heading?

Public sector employment is falling.  That is, in the main, a good thing.  From where I sit - and it is an educated and informed position - the people I've seen losing jobs in the public sector in the past year or two have been well deserved recruits to the dole lines.  The really good ones, the committed individuals, are still there or left in frustration some years ago.

I wouldn't employ many of the recent redundancies let's put it that way.  These are the people who could never quite grasp that the rest of the world wasn't full of 'training days', extended leave periods for illness and the like.  Almost every email to one of these people would get an instant auto-response saying, "sorry I am out of the office until x and will not be receiving my emails...'

But private sector employment took a hit at the beginning of the recession.  And it hasn't picked itself up yet.  Not even to fill the drop in employment from two years ago let alone to create new jobs for all those useful public sector people now sat at home [at this point the reader should not get unduly concerned for their welfare as many of these people are sat on bundles of (our) cash from very attractive redundancy payments let alone the promise of their cosy public sector, final salary pensions kicking in].

So, here's what the graph looks like with some historical perspective...

Who knows where that line is going to turn - up or down?

In short, nobody.

 

WHAT A DIFFERENCE..

  

..a day makes?

I have set up my Google home page with a widget that tells me on this day plenty of events happened in history..

1791:     Bill of Rights adopted

1890:     Sitting Bull killed while being arrested

1891:     Canadian J. Naismith invents basketball

1892:     Oil magnate and author, J Paul Getty born in Minneapolis, Minnesota

1994:     Netscape Navigator 1.0 released

Anyone remember Netscape Navigator 1.0?  I do, it revolutionised my life at the time, massive improvement in graphics rendering for the few pictures that were out there on the web.  Great search box. Oh those days....

The other stuff is, as usual, very USA-centric.  If anybody knows of a good widget that reports 'on this day in history..' global info drop me a line.  There's also a lot of USA based ones for Android devices and, I am sure, for the Apple iPhone too.

I should, of course, go out and write the app!

15 minutes of fame and all that.

But I probably won't.

 

OH GROW UP..

  
Picture this. Big office building.  Lots of spaces.  Overgrown bushes hiding a reserved for Director of xyx sign.

So I park up and go inside to talk about ways of helping the area retain jobs and create more, etc. The usual thing I do.

Then I come out and this is placed under my windscreen wiper on a flourescent card.

How long did it take you peering out of your window to realise my car wasn't your bosses?  And I did use 'the car park'.  It's all a car park.  Maybe you meant to say would I please use a different space so your fat Director hasn't got so far to walk to the front door next time..

Jobs-worth.  You wanna hope I am able to create those jobs if you lose yours.
 

PRESENTATIONS..

  

As I sit here today working on a presentation for a client next week, I'm horribly reminded of the many, many dry presentations I've had to sit through in my life.

..and then something amazing happens.  And it only takes 5 minutes and 40 seconds (including adverts).

That something amazing is this..

And so less than 6 minutes later I am inspired to do something different and push the boundaries with my next presentation.  Which was never going to be dry and boring in the first place I might add..

Must crack on!

 

MR KIPLING BAKES EXCEEDINGLY SMALL CAKES..

 
Take a look at the picture below.

Nothing wrong with that you say?

Well there is actually.  This is a Kipling's Bakewell Slice.  Bought in the past few weeks and sitting there on the plate ready to eat.  The texture and taste were as good as ever.

However, I've been eating these same cakes since the mid-1980s and as soon as I got it out of the packet and put it on the plate I noticed just how small they've become.  Box in hand in the store you wouldn't suspect it.  But as soon as you place the cake relaitve to another object that you've had a while you get a reference point - and it becomes immediately obvious Mr Kipling is trying to take me for a ride.

This is not limited to Mr Kipling of course.

Have you seen the size of those Cafe Nerro cheesecake slices lately?  And they still want you to part with near enough the same money it would cost for a much more nutritious and filling main course in a reasonable restaurant for a slice and a mug full of coffee dressed up as something exotic and Italian.  Again, don't get me wrong I love a slice of cheesecake and a Mocha as much as the next person in the Costa queue but how much? and where did the cake go?

The same story goes for crisps and chocolate bars too!  Mr Walker (US readers substitute Mr Lays) and Mr Nestle are taking everybody for fools.  And the sad thing is we're falling for it.

As an example here's the same cake, Photoshop'd and made 124% thicker, broader and longer (my estimate - looks about right).  See how it sits on the plate like you used to remember it doing in the 80s?  Now that I don't mind paying for.

As someone who was here at the weekend noted these cakes have gone from Bakewell Slice to Bakewell Slither (thanks Laura).

I'll be baking my own from now on.
 

AS THE SNOW HEADS IN..

 

 

I LIKE TO EXCEL!

  
In a single transaction yesterday I downloaded 5,364,510 cells of data on what people do for a living and where they do it in the whole of England, Wales and Scotland.

That's a lot of cells. It breaks Microsoft Excel so you have to build it into an Access database, or preferably SQL, or whatever.

The official data agency that keeps this data for download and analysis couldn't cope with my demands (they place a 1m limit on the downloading of data) so I had to perform the request in 7 chunks. Why the limit? It doesn't take a brain surgeon to split the request and then re-build it at the other end, but it is mighty annoying to have to do so.

But now that I've got my hands on the data I can do amazing things with it when I blend it into my mapping software (there's the SQL bit) and output that to Crystal Reports!  Things that, to my knowledge, no other private sector economist in the country has yet done. Which is good. And keeps Polko a very busy boy.

The problem though is that this data is not good enough.

This is the problem with a lot of UK data to be honest. As one of the leading lights (?) of European economies we should have a great data collection, drilling down into all sorts of very specific areas and allowing a really deep analysis of what is happening at any one time.

The data I have is dated 2008.  The 'new' 2009 data is set to be released some time during December and I will again draw the whole of it into my web.  But, come on.  It shouldn't take 12 months after data is collected to collate it, check it, set it in the correct format for people to download, etc.  Not in the 21st Century.  I'd like to bet if the government were to outsource this data collection to a private company - and they are already out there - it would be 'on the shelves' and ready to use within half that time.  Maybe less.

In fact, in a conversation I had with the Office for National Statistics last week I was told 'there are issues' with the release data and they hinted at it being late..

The data I have details where people work, what type of business they work in, male or female and whether full or part time pretty well. But why can I not then get data that shows me how old they are? A simple addition but it might be useful?

Like I said, outsource this stuff. 

There are companies out there that colllect millions of credit card transactions and banking transactions on a daily basis and I can buy summaries for any area of how much people are spending, on what, where and their age and even type of house they live in.  This data is updated on a monthly basis and I can have it for September right now if I want it.

Think about it: This guy's salary is your tax.

 

A tired 12 month old dataset that a group of civil servants have been using for a pillow in a darkened basement room in Whitehall is just not good enough.

 

THE GREAT AMAZON ASSOCIATES SWINDLE

  

Today I received an email telling me that various parts of my agreement between Amazon and myself have changed.

I have a few links on websites to books that I have read and think others might like. Just makes for a slightly better, more interactive experience etc

For this I would receive a small (and it really is small) % of the selling price of the book. This works well. I've probably made about £50-£100 in total since 1998 when I first used this system. It's not a business empire!

But today's slight amendments to their operating agreement include this little gem hidden away in the legal speak and small type..

"If you have not earned any advertising fees in the 3 years prior to any given calendar month, then on the first day of that calendar month we may charge you an account maintenance fee that will be deducted from your unpaid accrued advertising fees. That account maintenance fee will be (i) £10 if your advertising fees were earned from Qualifying Purchases occurring on the Amazon UK Site or €10 if your advertising fees were earned from Qualifying Purchases occurring on each of the Amazon DE Site, Amazon FR Site or Amazon IT Site; and (ii) the amount of unpaid accrued advertising fees in your account. We may also in this case close your account and terminate this agreement."

What?!

So, if your account isn't used for a while and you decide to go back in and help Amazon make more sales you'd better make sure you have earned something from the referral system in the past 3 years.

If not, the way I read it, your referral income better be more than £25 in total (they hold fees until they reach this limit to pay direct your bank). If it falls under £25 and you have not earned any fees on your account for 3 years then they will charge you £10 off your fees earned (the text in green) PLUS take all your fees earned to date (the sky blue text).  Then they say they 'may' - presumably if they are feeling particularly miserly that day -close your account and terminate the agreement.

Nice one Amazon.

I've been sat here thinking I'm doing you a favour all the time and now you're about to kick me in the face and chuck me off the programme.

Not before I've terminated 'my' agreement with you you're not.

Suffice to say, my websites won't feature book recommendations with links to Amazon on them any longer. Amazon should remember one thing. There are other booksellers on the web. And some of the household web names of today didn't exist only a few years ago.

Good business strategy Amazon.

 

ONE GIANT LEAP?

  
Today has been a day of waiting.  Waiting for my hearing to come back - which it didn't.  Waiting for the postman - who decided to turn up at the completely inconvenient hour of 2:30 given he had a cheque I wanted to bank today.  Waiting for a new BIG announcement from facebook. Which they delivered at around 18:30 our time.

The latter is probably about as important as life today gets.. so I'll just re-gurgitate from a site I've just read it on.

----

Facebook announced a new e-mail service today called "Messages," though they're insisting that it's not e-mail.

We are also providing an @facebook.com email address to every person on Facebook who wants one. Now people can share with friends over email, whether they're on Facebook or not. To be clear, Messages is not email. There are no subject lines, no cc, no bcc, and you can send a message by hitting the Enter key. We modeled it more closely to chat and reduced the number of things you need to do to send a message. We wanted to make this more like a conversation.

The service will also be organized around your friends, putting their e-mail, or messages or whatever, into one inbox, and everything else into another. A different version of Google's "priority inbox" they introduced recently. Facebook is also saying they will store all your messages, forever, from whatever source, be it SMS, chat or e-mail.

I'm intensely jealous of the next generation who will have something like Facebook for their whole lives. They will have the conversational history with the people in their lives all the way back to the beginning: From "hey nice to meet you" to "do you want to get coffee sometime" to "our kids have soccer practice at 6 pm tonight."

They're going to be rolling out the service over the next few months, you have to wait for an invite, and then you'll be able to invite your friends. Now we get to see who Facebook thinks is important.

I'm waiting on my invite then. Come on FB!!

 

MC SHY D - GOTTA BE TOUGH

NOBODY'S BITCH...

David Droga is an ad executive who jumped out of his fat salary partner position in New York some time ago.  He now runs a very successful 120+ strong advertising agency in New York and has a client list that includes Puma, Unilever and Microsoft.

David's advice to anyone who seeks him out to ask such is, "not all the stars will line up at once, you don't need a wacky point of view, get yourself a strong business partner and don't pitch unless you get paid."

In other words, "You're nobody's bitch."

Times are harder than usual to come by work for anyone involved in the pressing of palms, listening to clients problems, dreaming up of creative solutions.  But I fully agree with this adage.  There's absolutely no reason to go and prostitute yourself on the streets at the lowest common denominator price.  You only end up working harder for less.

This is relevant. In the UK right now we are facing a veritable tsunami of ex-public sector employees deluging into the one-man band world of 'consultancy'. They are clutching a little black book of former colleagues and contacts at local authorities and regional agencies across the land.

The main culprits have probably resurrected their LinkedIn profile lately and addded a whole heap of similar concubines to make themselves feel warm and cosy (LinkedIn UK had 3m members in late 2009 and had added a further 1m by June 2010 for example).  A few are already taking the leap, taking the money (correction taking the taxpayers money) and setting up on their own.  Cheekier ones amongst them have secured three month handover contracts and are contracted back to the place that let them go - typically to train more junior staff how they did their job (because it was so difficult you know).

And so, just like the chart of public sector employment that runs sharply uphill between
1998 and 2008 (see my previous blog) one should expect a sharp increase in self employment in the next decade.  And if these people don't set up so called consultancy businesses they will probably start to bake cupcakes and sell them given what I've seen on facebook and elsewhere?

Thing is for most of these people, they were not very, how shall we put it, efficient at their job - we know that now - by 2008 it took 30% more public sector employees to keep the machine oiled as it did in 1997.  I know this from first hand and can show you examples of people taking a month-plus to write reports that would have taken me a matter of days - and they had whole departments of research support too!

Anyway.. To my opening point..  I had a meeting with a prominent property agent last week at which he was moaning about the fact that work is getting harder to find, contracts to secure etc etc.. The reaction of his company - one of the top four commercial agents in the world - is to start to drop day rates, commission fee percentages and fight it out with everyone else in the market.  Now I think this is false and promptly told him so.  There's nothing wrong with becoming more competitive - and any consultant's client should force this as much as possible - but I think by simply competing on price in such a naked way sends out (at least) three very unprofessional and poor signals:

• the first is a statement that we can do it for less but in the past
  ten years when times were good we were taking more money
  out of your pocket than we should have been.
  Not a great statement to make?

• the second is saying we are desperate enough now to undercut
  our rivals just to secure your business - hence you the client are the
  most important factor in the equation and wield all the power.  This
  of course should be something that a good consultant makes a client feel
  whilst very firmly retaining the control in the relationship.  I tend to try
  and make the client see the benefits of hiring our firm or buying our products
  and they then feel grateful for you pointing out their competitors are already
  doing this so they might just lose out if they don't etc etc - regain control.

• Lastly, by dropping fees in an all-out battle with competitors you say, "we are
  no different to anyone else." I firmly believe my business to be unique.  We do
  things others don't.  Our services stand above the crowd.  Why would I want
  to line up on the Mac-menu with everybody else? Conviction and stamina have
  got me to where I am today in my business.

One thing is for certain then, our day rates will not be dropping now times are a little harder.  Our product prices are now lower it must be said, but clients are being told how we have achieved this - economies of scale, knowledge of their geography, not quite as much background research going into the final product unless they pay the old, higher price.

I am nobody's bitch!

Interesting links:
Social networking stats for 2010 summary
10 surprising facts about LinkedIn membership in the uK

YEAH RIGHT!

  

Another in my long line of junk mail today...

Dear HSBC Customer,

We are currently updating our online banking services,
and due to this upgrade we sincerely call your attention
to follow below link and reconfirm your online account
details.

Click Here To Upgrade Your Account

Best Regards,
HSBC Bank plc
Head of Customer Communications.

Either the Global Head of HSBC plc has bad grammar or......
   

AND ON THE SMOOTH TIP..

  

Most of the people that read my blog will not have a clue what I'm talking about with this title.. but hey! you have to learn (at least) one new thing every day don't you? Read on.

I currently have two books in my live reading list pile - one hilarious and one very very enlightening and informative..

So to hilarity..

Touch Wood, Confessions of an Accidental Porn Director... I found this book by accident in a store in London.  Heading for lunch with a few hours to spare before my next meeting and on my own.  I read the back and it sounded brilliant - a fly on the wall, possibly spoof? docu-diary by an anonymous author.  An account of setting up a porn movie business and running around England making mistake after mistake in the process.  It was cheap enough to take a chance on so it was bought.  I opened it and couldn't stop reading and laughing - whizzing through most of the book by the time I stepped off the train home that evening.

It is hilarious, revelatory, I think probably written by someone in the business but maybe not a real porn business owner.

The thing is it seems to have hit a vein in the UK public and is selling like crazy.  I checked amazon to provide a link on this blog and they appear to have only 3 left in stock?!  For a cheap new release that is some going.  So - unashamedly - I recommend everyone who reads this to click the link and buy the book (new or second hand).  And, yes, I do get a referral fee! Not much, but it might add up to the price of my next book over time.

So, on to the much more enlightening (but also at times funny)Jeff Chang. This book is called Can't Stop Won't Stop: A History of the Hip-hop Generation. A proper account of the social/economic/political impacts of the hip hop generation.

In case you're already jumping to the all too wrong conclusion that I'm talking about rap music here. Think again! Hip hop is a culture, it is a culture that has roots way back and is far greater than the pop-rap world that most (very unfortunately) associate with the hip hop tag these days. Hip hop truly is a way of life - one that I and many of my white British friends follow in the way they live, view the world, etc as far apart as we are from the Bronx in the 80s or LA in the early 90s and certainly even further away from the diamond (diamante?) wearing bling rappers of today. Why do they wear stupid jewellery like that?

This book does concentrate on the hip hop phenomenon from a US perspective - and that's the only criticism I'd have of it - but it sets out the roots of the culture well; the interactions between the black inner city deprived neighbourhoods and Jewish middle class white boy world that is US hip hop, telling tales of some very strong minded people along the way.

Again, if you have an interest, click the link.

What was that about the smooth tip? Sorry, this does come from rap - an old phrase that people used to use instead of the more modern 'chillin' out'... (also the title of a favourite 12" vinyl of mine - a 1988 release by female rapper Sweet Tee - On The Smooth Tip) so, now you know.

I will resume my usual ranting broadcast of things that annoy me in my next blog.
  

CAN'T GET THE STAFF...

 
...and evidently a lot of local authorities really can't!


Thank you Mrs Polko for pointing this latest gaff out.
It doesn't surprise me in the least.

It would be a funny story, but this is the very authority I and around 160,000 other households give hard earned money to on a monthly basis for Council Tax...

Automatic spell check - my a*s#!

ANY NEWS IS GOOD NEWS?

  

I don't think..

A couple of clips from the news in the last few days..

Nuff said

 

UNITED STATES OF SLOW GROWTH..

   
I am in London at the moment, at a conference in the City of London about the fate and future of financial Services.  But, Polko's world is full of different sectors of economic activity that are creeping along slowly and have problems all their own.

I derive a lot of my work from public sector money spent to bring people into the UK and to specific towns and cities around the place.

There is no money on the table to do that at the moment - the government are undertaking a review of their spending or I shuold say the last government's spending and therefore, as it turns out, their own complete in-ability to spend for some time to come...

The other part of what I do is property.  And that tap switched off some time ago (but is showing small signs of dripping back into action)..

So, my world is impacted by these issues.

Surprise, surprise when I was reading around the BBC News site this morning and I came across what seems to be a hidden embedded message just for me then!

I love going to America, and went only this last year.

But, if this economic slow-down continues I'm not going to be going back for a long time yet.  So, the last line - which doesn't appear to be linked to anything above it - seems to have been placed there to bring me a divine message. or something.

In any case, a strange event, and makes me more energised to get out onto these streets and find some work from wherever it can be found.

Go to go now, meeting to attend!
   

RULE BRITTANIA?

   
So, here I sit after a night out with a few clients and ready to sleep in a hotel in the City of London - Financial Capital of the world (95% of all non-ferrous metal trades done in this city, 70% of all private equity fund managed from here...da da da)

And here is my hotel's internet speed rating...

What a complete joke?  260k download less than one mile from the UK Stock Exchange!!!

The stats I've quoted above were part of William Hague's speech tonight at the Honourable Artillery Company HQ in the Barbican, just north of all this so called action.  And I'm sat in my hotel, just round the corner.  So why is my internet connection so crap?

Because Britain ain't so great, that's why.  Because Britain ruled the waves a long long time ago.

We have a lot to wake up to....

..and very soon.

October 20th looms large.

I'll give you a hint.. but you can also look it up for yourself - or buy a paper on October 21st.  A good paper that is.  Not some sensationalist shite like most people will read and carry on their lives like nothing is changed.  Paying taxes, moaning about the price of things. Watching shite TV.

October 20th = UK government's Comprehensive (?) Spending Review day....

Watch this space... as in some way it WILL affect you...

BANG!

 

The picture says it all.

We had a free pie this weekend, courtesy of a bag full of Blackberries
from around and about these parts and a box of apples from a friends
tree at their stables.

And with pie must come custard!

But it got me to thinking about the explosive nature of custard.

Well, not the custard so much as the cornflour in it that thickens the custard
on heating.  Like any fine sifted flour it has ignitive properties.

If you have a flour mill anywhere near you try getting close enough to take a peek.
You'll find warning signs all over the place and a massive earthing strap around the
building to stop any build up of static electricity inside.  Contractors that get called to
work inside the buildings are specially vetted and have to use special tools that
won't spark (plastic or rubber covered spanners and hammers etc - same as in
an oil refinery).

Just imagine the bang from one of these 3Kg commercial custard bags emptied
into a large steel drum!? Now there's a thought for another weekend's experiments!

                          Weird but true!

 

HOKEY COKEY ON PS3

  

in out, in out,

shake it all about

do the hokey cokey and turn around..

No. You are not about to read about the latest game release for the Playstation 3.  Read on dear reader..

I have my PS3 in bits at the moment.  In fact, the main motherboard has been in and out five times in a wildly random process of trying to make it work again.  I am self-certified the fastest PS3 dis-assembler in the west.

I have what is known as the (adjust in your mind if you will to a gigantic echoey voice pattern when reading the next bit) 'Yellow Light of Death....'  death.... death...

You get the point.

Not funny though when you are as much of an addict on FarCry 2 as I.

It's been two and a bit weeks now.

The only final (fingers and toes crossed) solution is to re-flow the solder that holds in the two main processors - one for graphics, one for all other things.  Seems Sony used poor quality heat paste.  It eventually dries out and causes the chips to overheat and crack the solder fixings to the motherboard.  Yellow light.  Nothing else happening.

the culprits!

So, if anyone I know, or you know, has a good quality heatgun that can heat to 400 degrees C or more, please drop me a line.

 

SALE NOW ON!

   
Yesterday I blogged about strangers bearing gifts and the perils of letting them into your inner circle of trust.

Today it's the turn of another type of 'gift'.  The gifthorse in fact. Should you look it in the mouth, should you shy away?  Though this is NLP-based it is not about language but about absolute and relative perceptions and the way the mind works..

Day 3 - Observation 3: 50% off, Half Price! Must Be A Bargain?

Basically, your view of the world is interpreted in the order in which you see it.  You walk into a shop, you see a ticket on an item that states 'Half Original Price' or '50% off', you believe it.  Maybe you succumb and grab a bargain?


Only you then walk out and go somewhere else where you find the same item at a lower price than you just paid.  Not great.  But think about your emotions - the very few seconds before you see the second item you are still happy that you have found a bargain and bought something at half price.  You are comparing and contrasting the information you have.  Then, boom, all that elation disappears when you see the identical in all but cost item in a second shop.  You are again comparing and contrasting but with a new set of information.


[In the world of economics, this re-evaluation of something from good to bad can also happen in a relative sense.  You buy something for £200 that is half price and think it's great, only to see something that is not quite the same thing but is only £120.  Some people get disappointed - and feel deceived - by having had to pay slightly more for something that is almost the same but is lower cost.]



This works not only in commerce - and we all should be aware of it in that context given the money being spent on retail psychology in order to grab your money - but it also happens in your relationships with other people.  An example will suffice.

Somebody you find attractive and interesting to be around today can be replaced in your list of favourite friends or colleagues by others as you meet them.  Your information set is expanding.  People do this all the time, there is a constant flow of friends in my close-ish circle as people come and go and are selected and de-selected (makes me sound like a robot?) in my 'preference field'.  But, the better person will compare and contrast with all information and still not allow this to cause people to drop by the wayside.  You really can have more than a handful of friends!  Hard work, I know (but a little easier with facebook style social networking - assuming everybody has access).

But how to stop making bad judgements due to being unable to see all the facts?

The principle of shopping smart, living smart and judging friendships in a smart way and not being taken in is clear.

The key is to only consider each decision (or judgement about someone) you make by itself (but still of course with the benefit of all that information - we don't like knee jerk reactions here!).  This is best done by creating space - letting time pass between decisions.  This causes people to independently determine values - of objects and people.


Next time you see a bargain, sleep on it.


Next time you find yourself judging a person good or bad in your life, create some space and think about it.
  

CHARLIE SAYS...

  

Day 2 - Observation 2: Beware A Stranger Bearing Gifts...

An obvious one you may think.. but when someone gives us something we often feel indebted in some way to them (I'm not talking about close friends and relatives here.  We are, remember, talking of ways in which people manipulate people around them for their own ends).

This rule can take many forms.  It is not always about physical gifts that are being presented. Those who wish to deceive somewhere down the line are expert providers of 'information', often slow drip-feeds of information that bring the two people seemingly closer together (a workplace practice of experts in this field - drawing soldiers in to sacrifice them later - so called social harvesting). The same can be said of someone who appears to be spending a lot of time with you or on something you are working on with no apparent reason to be doing so. 
  
Short one today I'm afraid.. Busy working!
  

NEW-LINGUISTIC PROGRAMMING?

   
I've not blogged for a while - busy busy and all that.

So, today I'm going to kick off a run of daily blogs. To keep it nice and short I'm going to put down a rule a day from what I've been reading on Neuro-Linguistic Programming lately (wiki entry here for 'what is NLP?').

One rule per day from the secrets of the NLP trade.... otherwise known as factors that can affect your judgement and change your decision or mind when faced with everyday information.  Some are obvious, some less so.

Day 1 - Observation 1: Wow! You're just like me!

• Watch out when you're asked about your hobbies, interests, your home town,
  values, beliefs, favourite TV, music or foods etc. if this is followed by a
  'wow, me too' response from somebody.  If it happens a lot, then they are
  probably not being 100% truthful with you.

• Another aspect of this rule is that if someone is being nice and agreeing with
  everything we are saying we tend to like them more and - as a consequence - tend
  to automatically agree with them more even if it doesn't really make sense to do so.
  This response is automatic and very difficult to fight off.

• Rapport and chat create trust that might not be correct. Talking with someone in
  a certain way, that is similar to the way they talk (speed, tone, words used etc) allows
  a person to create a psychological or emotional bridge.  If this happens to you then
  you immediately feel more comfortable, less inclined to stop and think about what it
  is the person is saying - after all they are saying it how you would..  Take great care
  if your movements, speech pattern or tone are being echoed.

On a slightly less intense theme, Michael Heppell, he of 'Be Brilliant' fame(?) posted a link recently to a great site that carries pics of 3-D street art.  Click and wonder for yourself at the skills of Julian Beever

    

Just remember, If you don't take control of your mind, others will do it for you.

  

LEPers Day!

  
Tomorrow, 3rd September, is LEP day in the UK.

Let me explain. Since the change in government here during the Spring the coalition, led firmly by the Conservatives and with little real influence from the Liberal Democrat Party, have engaged on a de-construction exercise of the public sector.  This would have probably happened anyway given that the Labour Party had spent so much money - even they didn't realise exactly how much - on boosting public sector employment and influence over things economic in the past 10 years or so.

A little diagram will suffice - the expansion of public sector employment in total employment 1998 to 2008.  A jump that equates to 1.3 million more people employed by public sector organisations.  At some point during 2002 the public sector became the largest employer type in the UK economy, surpassing even 'distribution, hotels and restaurants' which has always been a big employing sector given the number of part time jobs that it provides.

'nuff said.

I will not be drawn into the debate on whether this was good, bad or indifferent.  But the key thing right now is that the country cannot afford to employ such a large scale public sector workforce as the tax take from other activities is not high enough and fewer people are now in work in non-public sector organisations.  Added to that, the government is finding it more difficult to borrow ever increasing amounts of money to fund such a public expansion in today's credit crunch climate.

So what about LEPers?

Local Economic Partnerships LEPs are the dynamic new buzzword on the block since the coalition government came into power.  The LEP movement (don't look for any real movement.. not yet.. they're still drawing up their plans and Word documents!) is essentially a nice way of combining some powers from local authorities and other public sector organisations into (hopefully) smaller organisations that cover a large area somewhere between local and regional - i.e. cost cutting in the main.

There are plenty of reasons why this is a good idea - joint buying power will help drive down costs where the same work is required across a wider than local authority geography for example.  The main and immediate casualties of the new LEPers will be the demise of the Regional Development Agencies, organisations that have had a massive allocation of money from the central government budget and who have been the focus of much criticism for the way in which they have operated / boosted staff numbers / become political / opened international offices / duplicated work of other organisations despite also ploughing (tens of) millions into each of the regions of England and Wales. It is unfortunately in vogue to give them a good kicking right now rather than assess the many things they did right in each region.  And they did. But don't quote me on that one.

But there are also many reasons to be suspicious about LEPs becoming just a re-branding exercise rather than a re-construction.  More of that in a later blog. Perhaps.

So why LEP Day?

3rd September is the first deadline set by government for the receipt of initial LEP plans.  There are so many flavours coming out of the various parts of the country that it is impossible to see the new shape of economic development as yet.  What is clear is that the government have been trying to make LEP authors work hard at defining what it is they want to do in future.

Some areas have found this very hard indeed, lacking clarity among groups of local bodies or simply lacking the intellect to put together anything but a document that contains all the buzzwords.  This is exactly what a lot of public sector management staff have been busy (possibly the wrong word?) doing for far too long to be honest.

Other areas have everything in place already.  Manchester, ever a pioneer in things economic development, were the first to announce a coalition of ten local authority areas and a Shadow Board to drive it forward within weeks of the call for LEP proposals.

One thing is for sure.

It's all change at Regeneration Grand Central...
 

A LITTLE FREAKONOMICS..

As I try my hardest to stay focused on something this week that really has to be finalised I am also looking for ways to kick-start my ambition.  A good few years ago I had bags of it, left home early(ish), trod the golden pavements of a big city, worked in a crazy Japanese securities house in the City, went on to study an economics degree and further, got a job, travelled and lectured, wrote a book, got another job, travelled more, advised some government departments and generally had a good time whilst doing it all (interviewing the Hungarian environment minister whilst sobering up from the night before wasn't my best move though!).

These days I find it harder to motivate myself to walk out the door let alone go and do anything like I used to. God knows why, but it's just the way it has been for a while.

But it has to change.

And so.. onto a little story about genetics, economics and games..

Recently experimental economists Lise Vesterlund (University of Pittsburgh) and Muriel Niederle (Stanford) conducted a study in which they assembled 40 men and 40 women, gave them five minutes to add up as many two-digit numbers as they could, and paid them 50 cents for each correct answer. The subjects were not competing against one another but simply playing against the house.

Then the game was changed to a tournament in which the subjects were divided into teams of two men or two women each. Winning teams got 2 dollars for every right answer, nothing for getting it wrong. Men and women performed equally in both tests.  In a third round, the participants were asked which of the two ways they wanted to play, tournament or simply against the house for the most money they could.  Only 35% of the women opted for the tournament format against 75% of the men.

So what was the conclusion? "Men and women just differ in their appetite for competition," says Vesterlund. "There seems to be a dislike for it among women and a preference among men."

Even though this research is the latest by Niederle since she began looking at gender issues and testing them in 2003 I'm not too sure this is true.  Or maybe I've just met some strange women?

I'll post some more on game theory later as it is useful in where a lot of economics is going at the moment - behavioural theory and biology to test out economic results.  Why wasn't this blend in vogue when I was studying economics? grr...

Here's a link to Muriel's web page - click

And Hal Varian also covers the research on men/women differences to
competitive environments - here
   

POLKO'S BOWL...

 

...is full of Galaxy Minstrel's

 

WHAT THE....?

   
I spotted this in a shop the other day!

Not your average corner shop or supermarket it must be said, but what the heck is this for?
I can only think it is used on horses (for it was a horsey shop) when they have foals that are
making their udders sore?

But, your guess is as good as mine...
  

POLKO'S BOWL...

  

...is currently empty?????

Q: Any ideas for a filling anyone?

 

TOTALLY USELESS RETURN..

  
It is perilously close to a month since my last entry so to kick things back off following a trip to America (more of which in the next few days)....


http://www.urban75.com/Mag/bubble.html


A totally useless waste of time bubblewrap flash page!
 

CITY FLICKERS..

 I noticed an interesting banner on a website today.. unlike my usual targeted approach to the web I clicked and meandered as the subject matter proved too tempting..

It may well be for you too (so I've retained the link through on the image).

A listing of films all set in one city.. now there's an idea.  I must say I've not seen many of the older Paris based films on the list and it made me want to find them (I was also sad to see that District 13 wasn't there but then again it was a love based theme too and that film is anything but a love film!)..

So to kick off this sometime random and untimed series on my Blog.. let's have London.  After all, you don't have to think too hard to come up with a long list of films based in and on the theme London?

My list would proceed as follows:

McVicar (1980) - OK, not all the movie is in London but the parts that don't involve jail
largely are. I love all the stuff in this movie, from the gunshot scene to the running out
of a suburban house from the arms of the rozzers.. great gritty 70s imagery (released in '80
but filmed a year earlier I think?) and with a soundtrack to die for. FREE ME!!!

Poor Cow (1967) - This is a great film on so many different levels.
It's an early Ken Loach so you know you're going to get the gritty again. It follows
an ordinary life of a woman caught up in drudge. Just the type of film I enjoy - and now
I sound a complete pessimist depressive! - just when you think it can't get worse for the main
character it goes from bad to badder.. Was Ken Loach taking the p*ss when he called her
Joy? Fantastic. Oh, and there's a Daimler Dart in scene for around 4 seconds when Joy
crosses a well-heeled part of London. I can spot one a mile off!

Layer Cake (2004) - Daniel Craig just before he got a head bigger than Jupiter and got
really really boring (did you see the Jonathan Ross interview??).  Great film, moody
scenes of London as the main character does his last few deals in cold calculated
focused businesman type of way. Great ending to a film that is a million miles away
from anything Hollywood could make.  Is this the only film ever made that we don't get
to know the main characters name in? Not once is it mentioned, or even on the credits????

South West 9 (2001) - one of those music-fuelled films that mash up a whole load of
characters in a single days events set in London's SW9 district (Stockwell/Angell Town). Great post-industrial locations found in the film include the Orphanage for Fatherless Girls (a famous Victorian institution near Coldharbour Lane), Electric Avenue (yes the same one as in the Eddie Grant song) and they use StockwellChurch (I think?) really
well for a rave scene towards the end.. just brilliant and very unknown/unappreciated
little brother to films like Human Traffic.. The main female character Amelia Curtis
never made much of a film career after this, but is often to be spotted in things
like Holby City!

Sorted (2000) - Another little known film with an impressive part played by Tim Curry
as a weirdo nightclub owner / drug kingpin. The main character finds himself in London
from Scunthorpe of all places! Brilliant music soundtrack and some really great sound
and special effects as he winds his way through London's underground club culture
in a whodunnit mystery for the rave generation.. Jason Donovan as a gay dj
character is unmissable!

(remember this is work in progress - I'll slowly complete this as my memory brings back films - don't wait up!).
  
 

FOOD GLORIOUS FOOD!

  
Mrs Polko and I are on a Big Cat hunt at the moment.  Originally it was going to extend to a 100 mile perimeter of our house, but seems to be extending itself into a national hunt..

..more on that later, but whilst on said hunt we stumbled across a great place yesterday.  We were in the North East, or at least on its border with North Yorkshire.  The Cleveland hills as a backdrop and lush green livestock farmlands mixed with a little arable as far as the eye could see.

We had just finished looking at a cat (not to our liking as it needed too much spending on its cosmetic appearance for our money) when we asked about local pubs for food.  We were 90 minutes away from home and it was 19:30 so thought it best to eat there.

The guy who had shown us around mentioned a place in Potto called the Dog and Gun Inn.  Sounded good so we drove the 3 miles and came to a rest outside a very well kept village (famous for being the home of Prestons of Potto, a large haulage firm you often spot on the motorways - another reason we wanted to go and see it!).

Walking in we were taken aback as we could just as easily have entered the Malmaison Bistro in Liverpool (where we enjoyed lunch a few weeks before). All modern lines, browns and greys on the wall and dark brown leather everywhere. Mid priced food but clearly with a nod in the direction of providing interesting combinations and unusual meats.  More city centre than North Yorkshire Moors!

I opted for Duck Two Ways.. a confit of leg and a fillet of breast with the sweetest red cabbage.  Not to be outdone Mrs Polko opted for Pork done Three Ways..  again a confit of shoulder pork which was soft and gorgeous, a nice crispy braised slice of Belly Pork and sauteed loin (which I thought would have been improved by being a pork roule with forest mushrooms or pesto etc - a Polko special recipe!).  The specials board was awash (ha ha!) with fish options and there was a good selection of vegetarian filo parcels or pasta based dishes.

I also had a blueberry and maple syrup cheesecake to end that was a very different taste to any cheesecake I've ever had before.  They even served my espresso with a separate shot glass of water too. 10 out of 10 for attention to detail.

It would have been reasonable if it hadn't been for Mrs Polko getting a taste for the house wine! so out of a £55 bill in total £40 was for the food.

They have bedrooms that again look more akin to Malmaison than the rural idyll it was located in, if not better than your average Mal room. Nice clean toilets with automatic lights and sensors galore. Very tasteful. No gimmicks.

Well recommended if you're passing and worth a slight detour off the A1(M) or the A19 if you find yourself in the vicinity.

Shame we didn't like the cat, but spotted another one in the car park as we left.  We'll be back some day I'm sure.