Hard to believe it’s 25 years since this film, reserved for times of national crisis, was first shown on The Day Today. Click on the link here to watch, 2 mins or so: The Day Today – Film Reserved For Times of National Crisis As the clock ticks down to 29th March, repeat to yourselfContinue reading “National Crisis: a rousing motivational film for all Britons”
Category Archives: Society
Tell me now how do I feel?
It’s ‘Blue Monday’ today but worry not – McDonald’s are giving away free burgers this week and the European VP of Twitter Bruce Daisley has taken the opportunity to tout his book The Joy of Work: https://www.standard.co.uk/business/bruce-daisley-blue-monday-is-rubbish-but-the-workplace-is-killing-us-a4044466.html I find the title probably the most depressing thing imaginable, but I’m sure it’s a good read. He triesContinue reading “Tell me now how do I feel?”
2019: sunlit lowlands
Christmas has been a welcome break from my addiction to Brexit podcasts. Perhaps for that reason I’m seeing things less feverishly than a few weeks ago. No new answers to it all have emerged of course – we’re in a genuine pickle in this country – but it’s not time to give up onContinue reading “2019: sunlit lowlands”
Long hot summer of Brexit may be about to get hotter
Never make predictions, they say, especially on blogs that people might read after the prediction has already died a death. But after England lose 17-16 to Colombia on penalties this evening, in a bizarre shoot-out in which Gloria from Modern Family races onto the pitch dressed in a Carlos Valderrama wig, bearing the skull ofContinue reading “Long hot summer of Brexit may be about to get hotter”
“From Sappho to Suffrage: Women Who Dared” – and the women standing up in 2018
No one likes an uxorious man – but as my wife Prof. Senia Paseta is the curator of a new (and not untopical) exhibition about pioneering women, a plug seems very much in order. The exhibition opened this week in Oxford and is called From Sappho to Suffrage: Women Who Dared (Bodleian Libraries events page: FromContinue reading ““From Sappho to Suffrage: Women Who Dared” – and the women standing up in 2018″
Happy new year from Shore
I’m going to do more on the blog this year, he promises again – but this time he means it. But just to put 2017 behind us, I hereby recycle the Christmas tree of The Onion’s inestimable review of the year. Do yourself a favour and take a gander at the big stories of theContinue reading “Happy new year from Shore”
How To Reform Capitalism
The School of Life essay How To Reform Capitalism, (available at The School of Life shop), is worth a read for anyone engaged in the commercial world but who wonders about its values. Most of us then. Here’s the blurb: It is normal to feel frustrated and sad about aspects of modern capitalism. At the sameContinue reading “How To Reform Capitalism”
Johnny behavioural science mnemonics: EAST and MINDSPACE
It’s too late to improve Keanu Reaves’ acting, but there’s still hope for using behavioural economics to improve other outcomes. Here are a couple of ‘what to remember about behavioural economics’ mnemonics I thought I’d share, from my recent reading of David Halpern’s Inside the Nudge Unit. According to Halpern, the man behind the BritishContinue reading “Johnny behavioural science mnemonics: EAST and MINDSPACE”
Eating the cabin boy: clues to Brexit from the mists of the Noughties
The period around a decade ago, at any given time, is often lost in a Bermuda Triangle of cultural amnesia. We remember very recent events; and we enjoy revisiting events further back, the tracks through which have been trodden down by enough historians to count as ‘history’. But go back only one decade and weContinue reading “Eating the cabin boy: clues to Brexit from the mists of the Noughties”
Riding the elephant towards empathy: an RSA Animate
In this RSA Animate short film, Matthew Taylor, chief executive of the RSA (whose blog is here: https://www.thersa.org/discover/publications-and-articles/matthew-taylor-blog) gives a really interesting overview of the currents of change in big thinkers’ ideas about society. The RSA itself is an organisation that follows, curates and influences these developments. He points forward to what we can expectContinue reading “Riding the elephant towards empathy: an RSA Animate”
Strangers on the Shore 