Green Grow The Retailers Ho

The latest about Sir Philip Green, erstwhile premier retailer, goodbye BHS and pension fund, is that he feels hurt about comments made by Frank Field, the Labour MP who chairs the joint Parliamentary committee looking into the collapse of retailer BHS.  Sir Green cries bias and shan't attend, so there.

This might not be so much about Frank Field, it might be more to do with the questions that might be asked by the committee.  "Private Eye" this week, as well as a splendid cover on the England soccer team, has a long piece in the "In The City" section at the back about Sir Green that suggests what might be asked about which matters.

It makes grim reading and not just for those who have lost their jobs, their futures and possibly most of their pensions, never mind those who followed the Green dream and lost out.  Among them appear to be most of our current media experts on finance and business.  You name him, Peston of the BBC etc., and they are there.  Reputations and more are at stake.

Along with Blair and Cameron, their fellow politicians and other "experts", they all knelt starry eyed at the feet of the master of retailing, hoping for a cut of the deal as well as for pleasing the media and their friends.  Just who, we may ask, has benefited from a little help from Sir Green at key points in their careers?

One of the staples of disagreement about tax matters is the fine distinction between "avoidance", when you can cite a legal reason for moving money that way, and "evasion" where it is argued that there is no legal basis or at least a questionable one.  Go the web and read a few million words on the subject.

If you have real money, then hire a team of crack lawyers to make your case and take care of the detail.  Better still, much better, is to assist leading members of government and their immediate support echelons to arrange tax laws in such a way as to favour your preferred methods of operation.

This has been part of Sir Green's skill set.  The trouble is he seems to have lost sight of the detail and BHS went bust in a way that was bound to attraction attention.  The question then is, is this an extreme and rare case or is it more common than we think?

Worse is that it is not simply common, but as so many money men like their golf, par for the course and maybe typical?  It appears that as you look around the more recent arrivals in the House of Commons , then who are selected as candidates number many about whom there are questions on financial matters.

Given that both the Conservative and Labour Party have imposed increasingly central control over the listing and choice candidates financial and other probity seems to have slipped down, if not off, the list of required qualifications.

I think it was Mrs. Thatcher who sixty years ago struggled to get nomination for parliamentary candidacy who complained that unless you had a good MC (Military Cross) and the right other medals on your chest it was hopeless in the then days when constituency parties did the choosing.

Sir John Nott, formerly Royal Scots and Gurkhas who served in the Malayan Emergency with distinction and later in Mrs. Thatcher's government had stopped his subscription to the Conservative Party on the grounds that Cameron's utterings on the EU Referendum are specious and unwarranted, that is untrue and grossly misleading.

More to the point, after the Army he then went into banking and finance and did well.  He also points out that the national membership around the country of the Conservative Party has gone down from two and a half million to 250,000 or so.  So if the national party is not paying the piper any more, the Gurkhas have an excellent pipe band, who is and to what purpose?

The electorate may be becoming shy of the two major parties because it is now seen that they have been bought and it is becoming more widely known who are the people who did the buying and now expect the parties to pay the price, both in terms of tax easing and use of power.

It is not the UK alone that has been bought, it is integral across Europe and especially in the halls of mirrors in Brussels where so many have vastly profited with so little benefit for the rest of us.

The result is not simply an ongoing financial and taxation crisis, coupled with serious and increasing debt risks, it is a constitutional crisis that does not bode well for either sensible decision making or sound government.

Calamity Cameron Strikes Again

How does he do it?  Almost everything he touches turns to dross.

This article from FE News tells the sorry story in the West Midlands, in that the new system may cause a major reduction in apprenticeship opportunities.

The West Midlands was once part of one of the heartlands of British manufacturing industry, people in the area talked of carrying the UK on its back and were not far short of the truth.  Now it is very different.

The link comes from someone in the training provision field and his comment is:

Quote:

Not so long  ago there was a hoo haa about the apprenticeship system being abused by providers having people complete in very quick times.

A major supermarket chain was putting existing staff through apprenticeships very quickly, as well as colleges bucking the system with apprentices not even having an employer and attending classes full time.  Apprentice hair dressers who’d never actually cut hair etc.

So, the Govt response was put a minimum time condition of a year on apprenticeships. An approach not unlike fishing with explosives.

Now, In my humble opinion, what we’ll get is the big companies who have to pay the levy, spending it on upskilling or skill confirmation of existing employees and SME’s, who have to cough a substantial amount, reverting to how it was in the 90’s when everyone wanted trained staff but weren’t prepared to invest in training.

Unquote.

The longer history of all this is complicated and the upshot seems to be that the more the government fiddles and meddles, almost invariably on the basis of out of date information, the worse it becomes and still we have chronic skills shortages in key areas.

Just what are all those untrained youngsters going to be doing in the near future and who will take the jobs that are going?

Have You Got Time?

One advantage of the web nowadays is that instead of sweating over a hot typewriter or lurking in libraries you can write pick up information very easily.  Which is why link blogs are popular.

We all need sleep so we all have an interest, hat tip to one of the family.  This longish item from slumber wise may tell us why so many do not sleep well according to the conventional way of our times.  It claims that sleep patterns not so long ago were different.  Our modern practice may not be the best.

Most of us travel and this one from Simon Jenkins of The Guardian, under the heading of The Long Read, hat tip Orphans of Liberty, is about the history and politics of the HS2 project.  This blog has serious objections to the project as an occasional railwayman of the 1950's along with near eighty years moving by train.

What is striking is that it is not just an article dealing with the issues of transport and what may or may not be best.  It is a major example of how our politics and governments function these days and their preparedness to lavish money on high profile projects and activity at the cost of basic activities or less media friendly ones.

One aspect of such projects is that almost invariably the future running costs, maintenance, interest charges on debt are not considered.  The consequence is loss making activity that has to be met by debt, taxes, or pricing in the future.

There are risks unwanted in life and all those with a pensions interest either now or in the future do not like risk.  But Frances Coppola reminds us that life is not like that and that being risk averse is counter productive.  The present situation is getting worse.

What is the point of a Referendum is as the BBC suggests, hat tip The Slog, Parliament may decide to take no notice and indeed frustrate the wish to Leave the EU?  This blog on 27 May last under "Hanging Parliament" suggested it was possible for the Government to effectively block our exit because in Parliament most members at Remainers.

Now is it time for a kip, or a trip, or to check the bank account or to deal with the postal vote?

When The Boat Comes In

The recent debates which are causing tempers to be lost tell us much about our masters.  The former Prime Minister John Major emerged from his prime property investment to cry "Deceit, deceit, they've all got deceit for me!" (see the film "Carry On Cleo") about the Leave campaign.  This is rich coming from someone unable to give a straight answer about anything during his term of office.

One of the quibbles he has is about the migration issue.  For our politicians this is a game played by people who have trouble with any numbers, especially if there are complications or calculations with a need to be very careful about assumptions.  Truth might be found in numbers but only if they are the right ones.

My take on migration is to look at the long historical perspective as well as the numbers.  One of the advantages of the net is that out there is a great deal of information that is useful, if not for, certainty, then at least hinting at where to look and what questions to ask.  At a personal level there can be very many "what ifs".

One fascinating site is Norway Heritage dot com which deals with the large scale migration from there across the Atlantic in the past notably the late 19th Century.  A great deal of it was carried by British ships and the site has extensive records of these and their sailings.  If you have an interest in maritime history it is a treasure trove.

One example is this of the SS "City of Berlin" of the Inman Line, on the Liverpool run.  A great grandfather was in the boiler room for a long period of time and later might have been in charge.  A younger son, he migrated from Co.Wicklow to Liverpool.  It appears that other family connections were involved.

Some of them and their families went across to stay.  Why didn't he?  He lived in a place which was almost a transit camp of peoples at times.  He was crewing on a ship that evidently carried many migrants.  He had the opportunity etc. but he did not.  Perhaps he may have been particular about his beer.

As well as the Scandinavians, who in general were welcomed, during the late 19th Century there were many others.  In the 1870's the USA was adamant about its open doors policy for reasons much the same as we claim today.  Some of their early peoples disagreed but after the US Cavalry had done its job had to accept the economic changes.  Yes, I have marched to "The Garryowen".

The new peoples of later years, however, were not quite the same.  There was large scale movement from Italy, a nation created only by the 1860's, with confused politics, much poverty and economically weak, what changes?  Also, there were many of the Jewish faith driven out of the Russian Empire, which then encompassed Eastern Europe.

But then came others in numbers from the Far East.  This had the potential for large scale mass migration with the relevant demands.  Yes they brought their labour and what money they had, no they did not have the same belief systems or cultures. It was soon after their arrivals that the US began to introduce limitations and later legislation aimed at control.

This was all very recently.  I can recall talking to people born in the 1860's and 70's.  Yet we seem to have forgotten what was really involved and do not understand what is possible.  For large scale movements of the longer past we know and understand even less.

At present, there is small hope of any of our leaders having a grip on the implications or even understanding some of the basic numbers.

Back to the boiler room.

Short And Long Breaks

The Drama Channel on the satellite is running the 1990's "Cadfael" series about an old monk being the Sherlock Holmes of Shrewsbury Abbey back in the good old days of the 12th Century when men were men and women were domestically busy.

The original running time for each episode was 75 minutes in a slot of one and half hours programming; leaving 15 minutes for the ad's and beginning and end clips.  The present screening has divided each episode into two one hour slots meaning 120 minutes for the same story time and many more ads'.

The plots are complicated with a number of characters, sub plots and mysteries difficult to solve and predict even for the knowing viewer.  So the number of ad' breaks now not only disrupts the actual telling of the story, you begin to lose track of what is going on. If you find the 12th Century difficult you could find it impossible.

Crucially, what had been one programme is now split into two with a week's break.  We have avoided this by boxing both parts and watching them successively. This works up to a point because rather than being slumped back just watching it all happen, I am now clutching the remote to hit the buttons on the breaks to fast forward to get on with the viewing.  At least I "get" the story but not with the enjoyment I might have had.

Yes, I know, I should have bought the DVD's. But that is an added cost and having watched once, or say twice, they just go into the pile of discs never to be watched again.  Also, I know that without the ad's I might not have the TV since it is the marketing that provide the service as well as my sub's.

Those reading this will not need me to say much at all about ad's on the internet.  What I find intriguing is that when having done a search for something to buy I go onto a popular news site and in the content of that site appear ad's for those very things.  Spooky.  But again as the pop up's asking about my ad blocker say the ad's pay for the deal.

Then there is the attrition in the print and the "legacy" media which is happening.  I am sorry to lose them but have to confess that while at one time my local newsagent's bill was a big one now it is zero, so I am part of the problem.  Some of them are going down or online and the shop has closed to the ruin of the nice lady who ran it.

One key issue here in the media is that the marketing men have moved their spend drastically cutting the revenues for print and legacy sectors.  That together with the loss of circulation due to people going online has pushed the margins too tight.

What is strange that while the ad' men and women seem to be gaining control and access to a degree never imagined and are now impossible to avoid, other things are happening.  If incomes and consumer spending is now shrinking in many sectors it may explain why the ad's are becoming shriller, louder and more "in your face".

This post is prompted by A K Haart's one of Thursday, 2nd June on "Branded Dreams - The Future Of Advertising".  The deluges of ads have become tiresome and things to be avoided if possible but if not you just close down mentally and think, if not of Empire or spending, but of any distraction or fantasy that comes to mind.

The BBC in theory does not have ad's but the number, time and content of its own "in house" puffs are beginning to rival the ad's of the commercial channels, but at least at present not at the level or in the breakup of screening.

An effect is that we may now have a population, especially in the younger generations, with reduced attention spans and a brain functioning in a more detached mode most of the time.

On the other hand, perhaps I need to read more, but the bookshop in town means awkward parking, so I have to go online.

Defence, Deceit And Disgrace

With the Referendum on 23rd June about Europe and the Chilcot Report out a few days later, this post from Friday, 30 October 2009 under the heading "Defence - At The Going Down Of The Sun", near seven years ago, still has relevance. In the last but one paragraph, there is reference to Europe in the context of what had happened in Iraq.

Quote:

In 2003 when Bush and Blair launched the invasion of Iraq, I wrote a letter to a journal stating my doubts about the viability of the UK involvement.  It was printed.

The words I used have come back to haunt me, in that I wrote that “just in time” supply and management ideas applied to armed forces in action were a dangerous and damaging nonsense and liable to result in setbacks, risk defeat and lead to many unnecessary casualties.

My reason for writing was that I had looked at the figures, of men, material and support, and had concluded that not only were our troops in action overstretched, but that the supporting elements were far too few and too dependent on long distance logistics to maintain any campaign of substance or length.

Long ago I was one of a handful who had the job of keeping the log on the operational capability of the formation in which we served.  Our job was to know where every tank was, every tank transporter, and their capability, with other information, so that they could take the field at one hours notice with all the supporting elements.  In the field the situation had to be monitored continually.

It was clear that the UK Iraq project was being done without the necessary forces and support, and that everything depended on the Yanks being able to knock out the Iraqi’s within days rather than weeks.

It has been stated now that in the late 1990’s, notably under Brown’s control of spending, and Blair’s cut and shuffle politics of defence, applying concepts of business management based on the supply of frozen peas, detergents and DVD players to the waging of a bitter war was the reality.

Engaging in military operations is inherently unpredictable, subject to daily major uncertainties, means losses that are incalculable, and requires large scale storage of essentials and the ability to move them at any distance at any time.

It applied to the situation that created the recent disaster of the Nimrod Aircraft.  In relation to our ground troops in Iraq and Afghanistan, Armies, Air Forces, and Navies fighting in the East are not operated like supermarkets in Dunfermline or Sedgefield.

Fighting enemies are not campaigns to gain marketing share, however much the bonus rich bankers and commercial executives in comfy offices peddling poisonous products would like to think.  But these are the people that our politicians listen to.  Having wrecked our economy and our health, they have been allowed to wreck our military capability.

As the Forces have too often learned in the past, supply and provisioning is critical to success or failure.  In 1833, the government of the day, against Wellington’s advice, disposed of the supply Land Trains established in Napoleonic Wars.

One result was the fiasco in the Crimean War when soldiers starved, froze and died of dysentery and worse.  It does not apply only to the UK, Google “Napoleon-Moscow-1812” or “1941 Barbarossa”.

We have been very fortunate in Iraq and Afghanistan, the Yanks are there to plug the gaps and avoid the worst of the consequences without much in the way of complaint or sending the bills.  Little has been seen about this.

Left to Blair to organise, Brown to fund and the smarmy back scratching crew of hopeless inadequate political greasers at the Ministry of Defence to manage it would have been a great deal worse.

As it is too many good men have been sacrificed, we are now almost helpless to defend ourselves at home or abroad, and all the government can do is to run to Brussels and Europe to hand over the responsibility.

Blair, Brown, and their cabals may be War Criminals, but let us not forget that above all they are traitors.

Unquote.

It will be interesting to see what Sir John Chilcot has to say.

Looking For Money

The current debates on so many areas of policy now are becoming so intense, it is becoming difficult to be moderate.

In the Europe matter both sides claim to be the winners and the other the losers.  It might be a matter of chance.

The most rational illustration I can think of is this four and a half minute clip from the musical "Paint Your Wagon".  The song that begins it is as below.

The concept that striking gold can entail a funeral is very apt.

Gotta dream boy

Gotta song

Paint your wagon

And come along

Where am I goin'?

I don't know

Where am I headin'?

I ain't certain

All I know

Is I am on my way

When will I be there?

I don't know

When will I get there?

I ain't certain

All that I know

Is I am on my way