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Meanwhile lets just say that we are proud Luan de Burgh contributed a whooping 234 entries.
It is that time of year when the summer holiday mass migration begins as we seek an escape from the daily grind. Admittedly the initial euphoria of brushing down the trusty fedora and slipping into those ‘summer shoes’ is often dashed on the rocky reality of queues, crowds and a wallet that appears to be […]
Are you an office gossip? Do you like to swap titillating tales about your colleagues around the water cooler, at lunch or down the pub? If so you are not alone. In fact, a study by academics in Holland suggests that a whopping 90% of office conversation comprises of gossip in some form. That said, […]
You know you’re getting older when those expressions you heard from your grandparents start to ring true and “A new broom sweeps clean, but an old broom knows the corners,” is just such a phrase. It wasn’t so long ago that the new brooms were sweeping over the political stage, but the old brooms are […]
Alain de Botton examines our ideas of success and failure — and questions the assumptions underlying these two judgments. Is success always earned? Is failure? He makes an eloquent, witty case to move beyond snobbery to find true pleasure in our work. “The dominant kind of snobbery that exists nowadays is job snobbery. You encounter […]
You know how it is… You’re only just starting to get on top of things when out of the blue comes a message to say that an old colleague is in town and would like to get together. On most occasions you would say ‘great’ and life carries on as normal, but every now and […]
When is a car crash interview not a car crash interview? Well that, it would seem, depends on who you are. Boris Johnson’s calamitous interview on the Queen’s Speech with Eddie (‘the bear trap’) Mair last week had all the hall marks of a major horror show, but he appeared to get off lightly in […]
Just when you thought it was safe to go back to life as normal, the 2017 General Election delivered the final twist of what was one of the most intriguing campaigns in living memory. This week, it’s all about the deal; a deal for the Tories, a deal for the DUP, a deal for Theresa […]
Why do people feel so miserable and disengaged at work? Because today’s businesses are increasingly and dizzyingly complex — and traditional pillars of management are obsolete, says Yves Morieux. So, he says, it falls to individual employees to navigate the rabbit’s warren of interdependencies. In this energetic talk, Morieux offers six rules for “smart simplicity.” […]
Where was she? We missed her commanding presence, confident poise, eloquent replies coolness under fire and of course an ease with common people… but Nicola Sturgeon did not turn up for last night’s leaders’ debate. There was another notable absence too of course and Theresa May dropped points as a result. Jeremy Corbyn on the […]
The Labour Party’s biggest beast fell victim to awkward interview syndrome yesterday, as Jeremy Corbyn crashed and burned live on Radio 4’s Woman’s Hour. It’s been something of a Labour trait to slip up on air in this election – Diane Abbott and Dawn Butler take your bows – but Mr Corbyn was left red […]
May vs Corbyn. Blue vs Red. Strong and Stable vs For the Many… This was a fight that had all the hype but was, in the end, a night to not really remember. Nevertheless, Jeremy Corbyn and Theresa May did their very best to give Britain’s got Talent (on the other channel) a run for […]
The ‘weekend wobble’ is a new phrase to leap into our General Election top ten as we go into week 6 of the campaign. For the first time since the snap election was called, the Conservative Party found themselves on the back foot and suddenly that whopping majority everybody’s been forecasting doesn’t look so certain. […]
Panto season is officially here. After the past few weeks of party dress rehearsals, yesterday the theatre came to town and we saw the full cast on stage for the first time since this General Election began. After all the posturing, posing, sloganeering and prevaricating, it was a pivotal day in this campaign. As with […]
In 1977, Nottingham Magistrate’s Court was the scene of a well publicised indecency case revolving around the use of the word b****cks – or to be more specific, its use in the title of the debut album by the Sex Pistols (as in Never Mind The…). Richard Branson, the boss of Virgin Records, hired celebrated […]
For far too many politicians, election time is silly season. Perhaps this is the result of a desire to make a lasting impression on the electorate, or through some delusional belief that indulging in things that other (normal) people do, will endear them. Those who do it well, or at least naturally, probably do connect […]