Month: December 2021

How on earth does Boris manage to do it? Every time he has a problem, whether it be holidays, wallpaper, Tory donors or illegal Christmas parties, he manages to make the problem very considerably worse by prevaricating, blustering and, on occasions, telling downright lies. You would have thought that he would have learned by now that his approach doesn’t work. It is truly the way of the fool to keep trying the same thing and over again in the hope that the same failing approach might work next time.

I read an article in the financial pages about M&S saying that their stores were doing well in out of town locations but not in city centres. I am not at all surprised. In recent weeks I have been to M&S high street stores in London, Winchester and Edinburgh. It was like walking back in time as the stores are cramped, with 1970s-style ceiling tiles and lights, and a general air of neglect. It is no doubt difficult to improve stores that are in old buildings, some of which have somewhat quirky layout, but unless major firms do something to improve their high street stores, they will just dwindle until they are closed. There are no doubt many other considerations such as rates and rents, but something needs to be done to imrprove the high street, instead of encouraging people to drive out of town to shopping centres.

Incidentally, the quirky layout of Edinburgh means that to get between the escalators to travel to the men’s department, you have to walk through the middle of ladies underwear. At least, I assume that the building layout is the reason, although it could be some sort of misplaced marketing idea to encourage men to buy lacy underwear for their other halves. I can’t imagine that any such purchases will result in anything other elevated expectations ending in disappointment.

The people arriving in the UK as refugees by whatever means, whether they are escaping from poverty or persecution, are hoping to find a better life for themselves and their families. We can hardly blame them as we all seek to do this in one way or another, the difference between us and them is that their situation is so dire that that they are are prepared to go through danger and deprivation. I don’t see any long term solution to the problem unless we can help people to get a better way of life in their own countries. It seems to me that cutting the foreign aid budget is very shortsighted, it is in our own interest to help people so that they don’t have the need to leave home.

Climate change and population growth are likely to make the problem worse as people seek to improve their lives and to obtain many of the basics that we take for granted. If the technologies that are used to provide things that we regard as essential, such as electricity, are the ones that are proven, lowest cost and have been used in the western world for many years, then the inevitable result is that their carbon emissions will increase. Finding solutions will take time and money. Restoring our foreign aid budget and targetting it more effectively would be a way that we could contribute. If we don’t we will reap the consequences in the future and it will be a bitter harvest.