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...