Down the tubes

by neil.cowan on August 31, 2010

Fifa’s inspectors arrived to assess our bid to stage the 2018 World Cup last week.

Had they turned up this weekend, getting about our travel disrupted capital and then the rest of the country might have scuppered the bid before it had even started.

Fresh from their inspection trip to Moscow where the Fifa officials were treated to a red-carpeted welcome by holiday-interrupted Vladimir Putin, who was at Downing Street to kick-start the England bid and impress Fifa at the crucial moment: Nick Clegg, a tennis and skiing fan. A posh substitute, basically. And one who declared our bid as ‘Unbeatable’ [click to continue…]

Tired and tested

27 August 2010

Three things are dead giveaways of an older person.

Their A-level results are mostly OK – but certainly not amazing and brilliant and fantastic and A-starred
Their written output is pretty good
They know where the apostrophes go.

These past two weeks has seen the usual favourite media topic resurface: “Exam results are getting easier”. If you’re a teacher [...]

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Where do I sign?

13 August 2010

If you believe the figures, seven million of us are paying up to £480 a pop on packaged banking accounts that we don’t want and rarely use.
Worse…banks are ‘pressurising’ customers to open these inappropriate accounts. We’re being sold ‘packaged accounts’ when all we simply want is a common or garden current account.
What follows next might [...]

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A Nudge in time

4 August 2010

Nudge: Improving Decisions About Health, Wealth, and Happiness

This book has been doing the rounds. Published mid-2008, it’s become the book for public service and care organisations to read and quote from – and act upon, no doubt – liberally. It’s was mentioned at COI, last year, as required reading. I [...]

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Do you speak PowerPoint?

29 July 2010

Foreign Office diplomats are to be retrained as salesmen. With immediate effect. Or if they can’t do the job, business leaders are to be appointed as ambassadors in their place.
David Cameron has said that’s it, end of, full-stop. No more Foreign and Colonial Office johnnies swanning around all over the place on exes. No more [...]

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Paywall Times

22 June 2010

Well…it’s finally gone and fulfilled its owner’s promise. From last Friday, if you want to look at The Times online, you have to pay. No more footie reports or business updates or a quick menu idea for tonight’s dinner for free. Congratulations Family Murdoch! Let’s see if other titles follow suit.
Free to fee isn’t new: [...]

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Awardsaware

27 May 2010

Working late, even weekends, can be the curse of our industry. But we make it up with fun times elsewhere. The occasional small drink, etc., etc. Anyone who doesn’t understand this really shouldn’t be in our business.
Presenteesim, that’s just hanging around in the hope of appearing to be ‘working late’. Absenteeism, well that’s just duvet [...]

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Radio ga ga

21 May 2010

Hmmm…I see there’s now to be a Radio Amnesty. Trade in your old analogue radio and get up to 20% discount off your new digital radio purchase.
Nice idea, but want to know where it first appeared…? Here. On this very blog exactly one year ago. Check it out: Scrap Age (20 May 2009). Says it [...]

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Old time favourites

5 May 2010

Old-fashioned dm evangelists used to rail at old-fashioned ‘above the line’ agencies. Just telly addicts — and maybe press, we said — who put brand and image before everything and couldn’t even spell repsponce.
And as new media has grown and the sheer numbers of social media activists has exploded, the cries of ‘we’re all online [...]

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Down to earth

21 April 2010

For anyone but an airline passenger, things have been a bit up in the air this last week. Billions of tons of ash for a start.
I-agree-with-you-Nick Clegg has turned the election upside-down — let’s see if he can keep the other parties at bay on Thursday night. Like British Airways, Greece may still go bust. [...]

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TeXt Factor

15 April 2010

Long, long ago, Microsoft’s dream was to have ‘a computer on every desk’.
IT strategists rubbished the notion. Until you write a one-page manual, they scoffed, you don’t stand a chance. They were right.
I remember some of those manuals, too. Sumo-wrestler thick and gym heavy, they were instantly shelved, if you could lift them that high, [...]

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